Gary Vaynerchuk is a Belarusian American entrepreneur, investor, author, speaker and social media influencer.
Gary has amassed a huge following on social media thanks to his success in various ventures.
Also known as Gary Vee, Gary’s story is an inspirational one and it is no wonder that he has gained a large following online.
He regularly posts on social media and has helped to inspire the new young generation of entrepreneurs.
But where did Gary’s story start and what can we learn from his success?
This in-depth Gary Vaynerchuk biography is going to bring you everything you need to know about Gary and his journey.
So, let’s get started and begin taking a closer look at Gary and his story.
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Gary Vaynerchuk Information
• Full name: Gary Vaynerchuk
• Date of Birth: 14 November 1975
• Age: 47 years old
• Net Worth: $160m (approx)
• Instagram: @garyvee
Who is Gary Vaynerchuk?
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship or running your own business, you’ve probably already heard of Gary Vaynerchuk.
He has attracted a huge following on social media thanks to his energetic and positive posts about his own journey building various businesses.
More than just an entrepreneur, Gary is also considered to be a social media expert, and he regularly gives talks around the world on the subject.
(Photo: @garyvee / Instagram)
Gary is not afraid to talk about the difficulties he has experienced in the past and his authentic message seems to resonate with millions of people worldwide.
So, where did Gary’s journey start? If you follow Gary on Instagram or elsewhere, you’ve probably already heard him talk about the early years of his life.
Gary was born on 14 November 1975 in Babruysk in the Soviet Union (which today is part of Belarus). He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1978, when he was just three years old.
He lived in a studio-apartment in Queens, New York, with eight other family members, before moving to Edison, New Jersey.
Gary showed a knack for entrepreneurship from an early age. He ran a lemonade-stand franchise and earned extra money on weekends trading baseball cards.
After graduating from Mount Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts in 1998, Vaynerchuk took day-to-day control one of his father’s Liquor stores. It was in Springfield, New Jersey, and then called Shopper’s Discount Liquors.
(Photo: Gary Vaynerchuk / Handout)
Gary renamed the store to Wine Library, launched sales online and in 2006 started Wine Library TV, a daily webcast on YouTube covering wine.
Through implementing eCommerce and other strategies, Gary managed to grow Wine Library from $3m to $60m a year in revenue by 2003.
It was quite some impressive growth that Gary managed to implement during his time building Wine Library.
And in 2011, he announced that he would be stepping away from the business to build VaynerMedia.
Gary co-founded VaynerMedia with his brother back in 2009. It provides social media and strategy services to some of the world’s leading brands, such as General Electric, Anheuser-Busch, Mondelez, and PepsiCo.
VaynerMedia turned over $100m in revenue in 2016, and had more than 600 employees at that time.
In 2017, Gary co-founded a new media company called The Gallery, to house PureWow – the women’s lifestyle website – which he had previously acquired.
In 2018, Gary launched a new website called ONE37PM. The website’s tagline is “where entrepreneurship meets culture, style and sports”.
Gary is also the CEO of VaynerSports, a management agency for “modern day athletes”. VaynerSports represents a number of NFL players, including Kyle Allen, Geronimo Allison and Dwayne Harris.
As well as his clear talent as an entrepreneur, Gary has also shown impressive ability as an investor.
(Photo: @garyvee / Instagram)
His Instagram bio proudly declares that he has been an investor in Facebook, Snapchat, Venmo and Uber. He has made reference to some of these investments on social media in the past.
Gary also presents the #AskGaryVee show on YouTube, which he launched in 2014. As well as answering questions from social media users, the show has hosted a number of guests including Tony Robbins and Tim Ferris.
Quite clearly, Gary can be seen as a role model for entrepreneurs young and old.
His track record in business is extremely impressive, but it is his no-nonsense approach to a variety of topics on social media that also appeals to the masses.
Gary regularly talks about the many opportunities that are available to digital entrepreneurs these days.
Among the values he talks about is the ability to deploy patience in all areas of your life. He regularly talks about the “long game” and the reality that it takes time to build something great.
He is also not afraid to give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the hard work that goes into all of his work.
(Photo: Gary Vaynerchuk / Handout)
Gary’s enthusiasm and energy comes across in all of his online content, and there is no doubt that his positive demeanour has won him plenty of followers over the years.
In fact, it is perhaps his raw, unedited style that is so appealing to so many people.
Age and Net Worth
Gary Vaynerchuk was born on 14 November 1975 in the Soviet Union.
He is currently 47 years old.
There is no totally accurate figure of Gary Vaynerchuk’s net worth.
However, an article in Entrepreneur magazine estimated that his net worth was around $160m back in 2016.
(Photo: @garyvee / Instagram)
Personal Life
Gary married his wife Lizzie Vaynerchuk in 2004.
He keeps his personal life fairly private and does not speak a great deal about his family on his social media channels.
However, in an interview on his personal YouTube channel back in January 2015, Gary spoke about how Lizzie had helped him to build his empire.
“Lizzie’s impact on my career is much more than I expected,” said Gary. “You start growing, you mature, and you become a man.
“The truth is that I have been flabbergasted by the level of Lizzie’s impact on my career. Her 100,000 per cent support is like a major factor. It gives me the headspace to be all in here at VaynerMedia and doing my thing.
“It’s incredibly important to give you the headspace to execute on your vision professionally. But the truth is, when you fall in love with somebody, that person has to take precedent over everything else.
“If you don’t have that, that just comes with the consequences of love, and that’s OK too.”
Clearly, Lizzie has been a significant positive factor in helping Gary to build his successful business empire.
Instagram and Social Media
As you’ve probably already gathered, Gary has a huge following on social media.
At the time of writing, he had more than 5.3m followers on Instagram.
He also has a significant number of subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he has more than 1.9m followers.
(Photo: @garyvee / Instagram)
On Twitter, Gary has more than 1.9m followers.
Taking these three main platforms into account, that gives Gary a total following of more than nine million!
Quotes
Gary regularly posts motivational quotes and videos on his social media channels.
Here are a selection of some of our favorite Gary Vee quotes:
“Everything takes longer than you think – and that’s OK! In fact, it’s appropriate. Have you even quantified the audacity of your ambition?”
“Your legacy is being written by yourself. Make the right decisions.”
“If you live for the weekends and vacations, your sh*t is broken.”
“Patience must be your foundation. It’s so hard but it’s so worth it.”
“When you chase money, you’re going to lose. You’re just going to. Even if you get the money, you’re not going to be happy.”
“The game is long! Patience matters more than we give it credit.”
“Micro-Speed, Macro Patience. You have to play the long-game but move insanely fast each day.”
“If you know what you ‘want’ then you are good to go. Reverse engineer your goals and don’t waiver. Anything great takes time. Develop the work ethic, mindset and stamina to succeed. If you really understand what you want, then all you have to do is deploy patience.”
Books
At the time of writing, Gary Vaynerchuk has published six books. They are:
• Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World (2008)
• The Thank You Economy (2011)
• Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook (2013)
• Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (2009)
• #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness Hardcover (2016)
• Crushing It! How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence – and How You Can, Too (2018)
What Can We Learn from Gary Vaynerchuk?
Gary Vaynerchuk is clearly one of the most inspirational entrepreneurs of his generation.
He has successfully built a number of different business from scratch and has shown an impressive ability to adapt with the times.
His use of social media is a perfect example of how he has managed to expertly move his way through this digital world.
He serves to inspire millions of people worldwide, and his stance on important factors such as work ethic and patience in entrepreneurship are important messages.
We could do a lot worse than try to adopt Gary’s clear passion for what he does, and the work ethic that comes with that.
(Photo: @garyvee / Instagram)
In Conclusion
Gary Vaynerchuk is an inspirational figure.
He is a successful entrepreneur that has smartly used social media to his advantage to build a huge following.
He has enjoyed plenty of success on his journey, but he has not been afraid to talk about his failures on his various social media channels either.
If you’re not following Gary on social media, what are you waiting for?
