What His Mom Did to Get Their Family Out of the Soviet Union | Gary Vaynerchuk

Before Gary Vaynerchuk became a digital media mogul, CEO of a 2,000-person marketing empire, and one of the loudest voices on the internet, he was a three-year-old Soviet refugee living in a studio apartment in Queens with eight family members in rotation. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the entrepreneur behind VaynerMedia sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the woman who believed in him when no one else could, and how that belief came wrapped in unconditional warmth and a refusal to let bad grades touch his self-esteem. Gary opens up about escaping the Soviet Union at three years old, a place he describes as being like North Korea today, where his parents had to give up everything just to leave and his mother hid a piece of jewelry in his stockings like a cocaine mule. He talks about arriving in America with a couple hundred bucks, living in Edison, New Jersey, and watching his father Sasha work as a stock boy in a liquor store before building Shopper's Discount Liquors from $3 million to $60 million. He shares what it was like to be the lemonade stand kid at seven, the baseball card dealer at 14 who could outsell grown men, and the high school student who got grounded every single report card yet somehow never let it hurt his self-esteem because his mother Tamara celebrated kindness over achievement. Gary also shares why the knitted Jets jersey his mom made him when he couldn't afford a real one will hang in the stadium when he buys the New York Jets. Alongside it, a plaque will say from a boy that couldn't afford a jersey to buying the whole damn team. Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com Chapters ☀️ Chapters 00:00:00 Intro: The Mother Who Believed When No One Else Did 00:06:46 Escaping the Soviet Union: The Refugee Story 00:10:55 Building Wine Library: From $3M to $60M 00:18:31 The D and F Student Who Built an Empire 00:42:17 The Lemonade Stand and Baseball Cards: Early Entrepreneurship 00:55:58 Mrs. Kennedy: The One Teacher Who Saw Potential 01:00:25 Success, Wealth, and What Really Matters 01:03:19 The Message: You Can Help Yourself 01:07:50 Gen Z Report Card: Real Talk on Work Ethic and Entrepreneurship 01:23:44 The Knitted Jets Jersey: A Mother's Love ABOUT THIS PODCAST: The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question. David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning. Host: David Begnaud Guest: Gary Vaynerchuk Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick Booker: Sully Bloch Director of Photography: Foster Parks Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative) Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul Theme Music: Slipstream Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co. CONNECT WITH US: The Person Who Believed In Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast