The CEO of a multimillion-dollar company explains how he can stay in top shape while running a media empire

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May 8, 2017 3:32 PM

In an episode of "Success! How I Did It!" Gary Vaynerchuk tells Business Insider why he doesn't eat during the day — and that he doesn't get hungry.

"It's extremism on my work-life balance" says VaynerMedia founder and CEO Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary Vaynerchuk doesn't eat during the day.

In an episode of Business Insider's podcast "Success! How I Did It," the CEO of VaynerMedia told Alyson Shontell, Business Insider US editor-in-chief, that he doesn't get hungry.

"I eat at night," he said.

Vaynerchuk has figured out a system — for eating, exercising, and sleeping — that works congruently with the demands of running a $125 million company, raising a family, and maintaining a high quality of life.

It wasn't always this way — and it didn't come easily.

"A year and a half ago, I was eating like crap, not working out, and generally feeling awful," he wrote on his website in 2016. "It was a tough life, and I realized quickly that I couldn't sustain a life like that. It was impossible. So I hired a trainer to force me to be better. I made an enormous lifestyle shift, and I am so happy I did."

That trainer was Mike Vacanti, who has posted the custom workout plan he used with Vaynerchuk online.

Being an entrepreneur had always been second nature to Vaynerchuk, but being healthy was a far greater challenge.

"Health was the first thing I encountered in my life that didn't come naturally to me," he wrote for Greatist. "And that was a very hard pill to swallow."

He's able to fit it all in without compromising on shut-eye — he isn't one of the fabled four-hours-a-night sleepers.

"Give me six or seven hours," he told Shontell. "Give me 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. every day, then I work out, and then I work. I also take seven weeks of vacation with my family. It's extremism on my work-life balance. But I'm getting a lot done."

"That's something to aspire to," Shontell said.

"It's something to aspire to if it makes you happy," Vaynerchuk replied. "It's not to aspire to make money. I can tell you that right now. You can make ungodly amounts of money working 9 to 5 or 8 to 2 on Wall Street. It's not about the money. The thing to aspire to that I think I'm a blueprint of is, forget about people knowing who I am or how much or little I make in my life. I'm happy every day."

Listen to the full podcast interview:

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