Breaking Down My 5-Minute FaceTime With Gary Vaynerchuk

👋 Hey, Jon here! As promised this is the follow-up newsletter to I Paid $2,700 for a 5 Minute FaceTime with Gary V that documents my experience on the call, the question I asked, and the outcome of that question.

Note: I will add the recording of the call with Gary here once I receive it on Friday.

If you hadn’t read part 1 of this story, I recommend starting there but I’ll provide short context below.

As part of Gary V’s NFT project VeeFriends, he launched something called Access Tokens.

These particular NFTs grant you access to Gary in different ways - group events like bowling and dinner, courtside seats to watch a basketball game with him, and 5-minute FaceTime calls.

After 3 1/2 years of consistently executing Gary’s advice that resonated with me, it changed my success and happiness completely, so I purchased a 5-minute slot from an NFT token holder for $2,700.

The call was scheduled for today, 11/10 and lasted about 3 minutes, but was one of the best calls I’ve had in my career.

Let’s dive into it.

How I Prepared for the Call With Gary

After paying $2,700 for 5 minutes of Gary’s time, I knew it was important to make it count.

This meant preparation.

So far in my career, I’ve learned how important it is to prepare for important calls and don’t want to understate that.

There’s a direct correlation to the outcome of this call to how well prepared I was for it.

In this case, I had been following and consuming Gary V’s content for 3.5 years so I had a pretty good feel for his style and what resonates with him.

Because I had executed his advice, I was also prepared in the sense that I had a good story:

In 2019, I hated my job as a product manager and wanted to do more, but didn’t know what. I heard Gary V talk about garage saling on one of his podcasts, so I started doing it and earned $4,500 in a summer. I LOVED it.

I took that money and started to buy/sell trading cards, earning over $55,000 in profit. I launched a podcast, and joined Tea With Gary V to ask him how to grow it.

He retweeted a Medium article I wrote about the experience and I earned my first dollar on the platform. I wrote 70 articles over the next 9 months earning over $1,700 but more importantly, learning how to communicate through writing.

Then I cold DM-d the GM of ONE37pm to submit articles I wrote about sports cards and became a freelancer.

In the summer of 2021, Gary asked a listener on his show Props and Drops to write an article, and because of my experience, I did it in a weekend and he shared it on all his socials.

That led to me launching a blog and growing it to $1,000 profit per month, and I’m currently selling it with an expected outcome of $15,000 profit.

I’d also co-founded a business in early 2020 (someone who saw my content reached out to me to join him) and we’ve now grown to 7 figures.

Each action compounded over time, which was part of the preparation for the success of my ask.

I also practiced telling my story quickly and effectively (on video with the set-up I would use on the call and timed it) about two-dozen times.

I consumed his latest content to see what was on his mind and the things he was talking about to truly empathize with and understand his perspective to give the right context to my question.

With the assistance of some mentors, I formulated the question I wanted to ask in 5 minutes.

What I asked Gary V and Why

“I’ve seen you tweet that your biggest challenge is that people who consume your content and want to be like you don’t apply the advice that resonates in their own lives. I’ve also heard you say that what brings you value is case studies of people who do. Would you agree to have me on your podcast to talk about my experience?”

This was my exact question.

It’s a big one.

Gary V has interviewed guests like Tim Ferriss, Damon John, Ray Dalio and countless other influential people.

It also wasn’t the original question I thought to ask.

Originally, I thought about asking him if there were side projects I could work on for him or his team to help me get reps in business. I also thought of asking if there were someone on his team that would be willing to mentor me.

But after a call with one of my mentors, he asked me what I really wanted.

The honest answer?

To join Gary V’s podcast.

The mentor asked if I felt comfortable asking Gary for that, to which I replied “yes” because I had conviction in my story and that it would bring value to his listeners.

So, I studied some tweets and clips, and found the right angle - a Tweet from Gary V from July 22nd, 2021:

It seems cliché but I again followed Gary’s advice - I pinned that Tweet and have always remembered it. He’s shared stories of winning big clients by learning about who they are through social media, and this tweet with just 6 likes ended up being pivotal in the outcome of my question.

I was that story of someone who applied the advice and changed my life, and could be a good guest to bring value from that angle.

The preparation was in the details and the reason I asked for the call, was that it would be great exposure for my own brand, but also a practical story for his audience that might inspire more action.

The Outcome of the Call

“I’m in.” - Gary V

Without hesitation, Gary V said he was in.

I practiced asking the question and shutting up after I asked to avoid talking myself out of it but he answered before I could finish.

I was stunned he replied yes so quickly - he told me to send him an e-mail as the case study guy (again, that resonated with him) and we are going to do 30 minutes in April 2023.

There will be much more to come on this, but I hope this inspires at least one of you to execute the advice of a mentor or someone you admire, you never know where it might lead you.

Until next time…

-Jon