Gary Vee’s Personal Branding: Brutal Truths About Building Your Brand in 2025
So I just watched this Gary Vee personal branding interview and honestly, some of this stuff is kind of
So I just watched this Gary Vee personal branding interview and honestly, some of this stuff is kind of depressing if you’ve been trying to build a personal brand the old way. But also exciting? It’s complicated.
Anyway, Gary basically said we’re all doing this wrong and the whole game changed without most people noticing. His personal branding tips are pretty harsh, but they make sense.
The Follower Count Thing is Dead
This was the part that made me pause the video. Gary said “We are now in the era of not social media but interest media.”
Basically, your follower count means nothing now for Gary Vee personal branding success. Like, actually nothing. You could start posting today with zero followers and if your content’s good, you’ll get more views than someone who’s been grinding for years with millions of followers.
“If your stuff is good and I just did a mundane kind of C-minus piece of execution, your video is going to get more views than me. That’s a level of merit of thought and creative that has never existed.”
I mean, that’s wild when you think about it. Remember when you had to spend years building up followers just to get anyone to see your stuff? Now the algorithm just… decides if your content’s good and shows it to millions of people.
Gary mentioned he could post something on LinkedIn right now and get four million views if it’s actually creative. Not because he’s Gary Vee, but because the content wins on merit. That’s one of his biggest personal branding tips – focus on quality over follower count.
Makes me feel dumb for obsessing over follower numbers for so long.
Where You Actually Need to Be
Okay so Gary got really specific about platforms and didn’t mess around here. These Gary Vee personal branding insights are crucial if you’re selling anything direct to consumer, you HAVE to be on:
- Facebook and Instagram
- TikTok
- YouTube Shorts
He literally said “I couldn’t comprehend if you’re trying to sell something direct to consumer not being on those channels.”
The second tier is Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Snapchat Spotlight. But those first four aren’t optional anymore.
Even if you’re some boring B2B company, Gary says figure out how to make a hoodie or something and sell it live just for the brand awareness. Which sounds crazy but… maybe not? These personal branding tips apply to everyone.
Live Shopping is Going to Be Huge (Apparently)
This is where Gary got really intense with his personal branding tips. He said:
“Literally anyone reading this article – if you sell something, you must stop reading this article and immediately go spend 25 hours researching the current state of live social shopping.”
Twenty-five hours! He’s talking about TikTok Shop, some startup called Whatnot, and how Amazon, Walmart, eBay already have live shopping platforms.
His theory is that people just naturally love buying stuff in live environments. Like QVC still makes insane money and most young people don’t even know it exists.
Now imagine that same psychology but on social media where people spend hours every day. Gary thinks this could literally knock Amazon down if they mess it up.
Even mentioned small Main Street stores could turn part of their shop into a live streaming studio and blow up their business. Sounds far-fetched but Gary Vee personal branding predictions have been right about this stuff before.
The Attention Thing Makes Sense
Gary’s obsessed with “day trading attention” and after hearing him explain it, I get why. This is core to Gary Vee personal branding philosophy.
“Attention, I believe, is the ultimate asset in the world. Nothing can happen unless someone’s listening to it.”
True though, right? You can’t become president if you’re talking to yourself in a cave. You can’t help your kids if they’re not listening to you. Everything needs attention first.
The difference now is speed. Old marketing was like buying stocks and holding them forever. Social media marketing is like day trading – constant action, constant adjustment.
“The more you understand it’s day trading attention now, the better you will succeed.”
Makes my head hurt thinking about keeping up with that pace, but I guess that’s the game now. These personal branding tips require serious commitment.
The AI Algorithm Thing is Scary Good
This part was actually mind-blowing in terms of personal branding tips. The AI running these feeds is getting better every hour at understanding what your content is about and who should see it.
So if you’re targeting “conscious business owners” and you use words like “conscious” and “for good” in your content, the algorithm picks that up and shows your stuff to people who care about that.
That’s why Gary pushes YouTube Shorts and LinkedIn for B2B people. LinkedIn knows the business crowd, YouTube is basically a search engine.
Kind of creepy but also useful I guess? Gary Vee personal branding strategy relies heavily on understanding these algorithms.
Personal vs Company Pages: Just Do Both
Everyone asks Gary about personal brand vs company social media. His answer is simple – do both. This is one of his most practical personal branding tips.
“Humans will tend to over-index brands and companies – it’s just the nature of the medium. But by doing both, you’re able to take the human audience and push them to your business and work with them back and forth.”
He runs his personal stuff plus VaynerMedia, Wine Library, VeeFriends, everything gets its own pages. Says if you’re overwhelmed, either one works but both is obviously better.
Seems like more work but makes sense. Gary Vee personal branding approach proves you can manage multiple brand identities successfully.
Brand Guidelines Are Actually Bad Now?
This one’s going to make corporate marketing people mad. Gary thinks brand guidelines hurt more than they help now. These personal branding tips go against traditional marketing wisdom.
“Brand guidelines – a lot of this stuff is hurting people in the new world. It was good for television, it’s not good for social media.”
Instead of worrying about keeping your fonts and colors perfect, he wants brands to focus on being relevant to different types of people.
Social media moves too fast for rigid brand rules, I guess.
The Money and Happiness Speech
Gary still believes “how you make money is more important than how much you make.” He’s seen too many startups pretend to care about helping people just to charge double for their products.
“I just don’t think the dollars in your bank account actually drive a level of happiness that unfortunately I think a lot of people are confused by.”
He talks about what happens between age 40 and 90. Says you’ll be happier if you actually believe in what you’re doing because you’ll have better relationships and feel better about yourself.
Heavy stuff but probably true. Gary Vee personal branding philosophy always comes back to authenticity and purpose.
So What Now?
Look, Gary’s basically saying everything changed and most of us missed it. We’re not in “social media” anymore, we’re in “interest media” where good content wins no matter who made it.
If you’re not learning about live shopping, creating content constantly, and thinking about attention like a day trader, you’re already behind.
But the weird good news is that even if you’re starting from zero, your next post could be the one that changes everything. The playing field is more fair than it’s ever been.
Still feels overwhelming though. Gary makes it sound easy but keeping up with all this stuff while running a business? That’s the real challenge.
These Gary Vee personal branding insights are game-changing, but implementing all these personal branding tips while staying sane? That’s another story.
Anyway, that’s what I got from watching this and now it’s time for ime to go research live shopping for 25 hours I guess.
Source: Based on Gary Vaynerchuk’s insights from Real Leaders interview
