Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 27

How to Fire Employees With Empathy and Kindness

There’s nothing worse in business than firing someone.

I’m not usually the one who does it at VaynerMedia anymore since we’ve grown to so many employees, but when I did I would spend a month figuring out how to make myself feel better about it.

We’re not in the one-, two- or three-strike policy here at VaynerMedia. We actually have enormous continuity, and I think part of that is thanks to the firing policy.

People see that we try to handle things with empathy and grace.

1. Try not to let the firing come as a surprise.

At VaynerMedia, we do our best to give employees as much feedback and help when they need it.

We work hard with people to try to help them achieve what they wanted to do when they came on board, or to help them find a better fit within the company. I think word of that effort gets around, and it makes people feel good about working here.

Here’s how to manage underperforming employees:

1. Take the blame.

2. Start to communicate better.

3. Ask them, “what can I do to help?”

4. And then actually start helping.

If you’re the founder or CEO of your company, everything that happens in your company is on you. If an employee is not performing, it’s super important to take a look at yourself and your processes first before blaming them.  

2. Help them get another job somewhere else (where they might make more money).

Just because you had to fire someone doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not good at their craft, or that they can’t succeed at a different company.

If someone gets let go at VaynerMedia, it could be for a variety of reasons. It could be that they’re not able to keep up with the pace of our execution. They might not be good managers, but they might be great at executing.

It could just be that we made a mistake and put them in the wrong position. They might have performed poorly because they didn’t click with their boss.

I’m super willing to help my employees transition out of my company into another role where they could be successful for one main reason:

I’m more interested in how I feel about myself and what those who know me say about me as a man than the profitability of my company.

It’s why I try really hard to keep strong relationships with my employees, even after they leave or get let go. It’s why I aim to deliver 51% of the value of that relationship.

People always talk about why employees shouldn’t burn bridges with employers, but not many people talk about the reverse of that. Not many people talk about employers keeping relationships with employees even when they let them go.

It’s also just practical.

I don’t want to name names or put people on blast, but there have been situations where an employee left or got let go from VaynerMedia, ended up going to work in-house at another brand and recommended working with VaynerMedia to that company.

Keeping those relationships has led to actual business. It’s something that most companies don’t think about.

3. Be willing to work with them on the narrative in the office (so they’re not embarrassed with friends).

A lot of companies struggle with this because they care more about the short-term money instead of building a long-term relationship with the person they’re firing.

I care about my employees. I care what they say about me. And when you care about something in perpetuity, you care how it ends in the short term.

That’s why I don’t think of my relationships with employees as transactional.

I think of it as the opposite.

I actually feel a sense of responsibility for people who worked for me, which is a big reason why I’m willing to give them value even after they leave.

When someone is let go, part of what they might struggle with is the narrative that’s being told in the office. Many would still have friends at work, so it’s important to be willing to work with them on the narrative you’re telling employees within the company.

At the end of the day, I don’t think people leaving my company or getting let go is the end of our relationship.

I think it’s the beginning of a new chapter.

The post How to Fire Employees With Empathy and Kindness appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

A Huge Thank You To All My International Volunteers

Hey guys!

Over two years or so, I’ve been working with a lot of great contributors who have been working hard at translating my content to different languages.

I wanted to write this article to bring them some exposure because a) I would love for you guys to do some work with them, and b) I’m eternally grateful to them for helping me expand my reach.

Now, let me introduce May who runs my international strategy

Post 4Ds: How 4Ds Helped a Solopreneur Build a Content Machine

As the CEO of VaynerMedia, it has been an enormous goal of mine to share our expertise and the stories of companies and entrepreneurs we have helped – from seasoned veterans to those just starting up.

It’s part of the reason we created VaynerMedia’s Daily Digital Deep Dive (4Ds).

In 4Ds, we take attendees under the hood of VaynerMedia — both analyzing the work we do for some of the biggest brands in the world and showing how those tactics can help small to medium businesses.

Today’s interview is with Dr. Ryan Gray from MedicalSchoolHQ.net. He’s a doctor helping college students navigate the path to medical school.  

After 4Ds, he built a more effective content machine that helped him land brand partnership opportunities, speaking gigs and more.

[image error]

Here’s his story:

What did you expect from 4Ds coming in?

Personally, I had already been creating content before 4Ds. I had my podcast, books I had written and more.

I was trying to figure out the most efficient and effective way to create more content without adding more work to everything I’m currently doing. I just didn’t have time to spend creating content. But after listening to all of Gary’s material online, I knew how valuable it would be to put out more and build a content machine.

For me, 4Ds was about learning from Gary’s team about how to take one piece of content and turn it into multiple pieces of content in the best way possible. The questions I asked during the day mostly centered around that.

I wasn’t starting from scratch, I was already creating content for years, but I wanted to be able to do more of it.

What was the most impactful thing you learned?

What I’ve been able to do since 4Ds is build my team out more.

Since 4Ds I had a much better direction on who I was looking for and what pieces of the puzzle I was missing.

For example, my podcast production workflow completely changed afterwards. Now, when I put out an episode, it gets sent for transcriptions. Then my transcriptionist flags parts of the content I could use on other platforms like Instagram or Twitter.

It took a few months to get the system down, but 4Ds helped get me there faster and create more content than ever before.

Before 4Ds, I didn’t have the tools in place to build out the system. I was doing a podcast, but it was a miracle if anything happened on the back end of that. Now, we’re putting out 6 podcast episodes per week, two images going out daily with in-depth captions, and repurposing everything between Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Learning from VaynerTalent was also really valuable for me. I asked them questions about how they build scalable content systems for other influencers.

Were there any “non-quantifiable” results that came from building your brand?

Absolutely.

From a branding standpoint, I’ve been able to leverage my brand into a partnership with other companies. They wanted to team up with me to develop other products and services for them when they’re licensing my brand and name.

I’ve been able to build up a name for myself and they wanted to leverage that.

I’ve also been getting a lot of outreach for speaking opportunities and offers to give keynote talks. I gave my second keynote a couple of months ago, and I’m giving my first international talk soon.

A lot of opportunities seem to be opening up after I started putting out more content, both monetarily and non-monetarily.

Was there anything that surprised you about the program?

It was mainly how welcoming the team was and how much of a “family” it felt like.

From the moment I walked in, I felt like I was part of that family. People asked me to reach out if I ever need anything, had any questions, or anything else. There’s such a strong support community around 4Ds alumni. It’s incredibly supportive.

Whenever we happen to be in the same city, there’s always an open invitation to hang out and talk business.

What did you think of the team?

Everybody at Vayner seemed to be at the top of their field in terms of what they know and their expertise. It was amazing to learn from them and uncover the insights of what goes on under the hood at VaynerMedia.

Claude Silver (Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia) was phenomenal with her talk as well as DRock. It was motivating to hear everyone’s mission.

They also helped me understand the importance of culture. It was really valuable to get a sense for how Gary and the Vayner team audit their employees and learn what matters to them.

Before 4Ds, I was very much a solopreneur. After leaving 4Ds, I have two employees and other contractors, so understanding Vayner’s culture was very helpful. It helped inform how I should build my own team and content machine.

The post Post 4Ds: How 4Ds Helped a Solopreneur Build a Content Machine appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

How Much Would You Pay to Sit In a Meeting With Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? | Veecap

There’s an interesting theme in my vlog about how I consider forecasting future trends.

If you’ve followed my content, you know how I tend to call things earlier than most in business.

I talked about how Facebook would acquire Instagram before most people saw it. I said it was underpriced when Facebook bought it at $1 billion. Most people thought it was overpriced.

I made a video on how Amazon stock would explode back in 2011. Now, the stock is up 8x from 2011.

I’ve talked about how the brand of colleges would collapse when the next recession hits. And right now I’m going around the world speaking on why Facebook and Instagram ads are so underpriced.

Last August (in 2018), I started getting more and more involved with trading sports cards. Today, Forbes is writing about them as an investment opportunity.

In the far future, one of my hypotheses is that virtual reality will get so advanced that people will be able to “sit” with me in meetings I have in my vlog. It’s a fascinating concept to think about how much you’d pay to sit in on historic meetings. Imagine the meeting when someone decided to sell bottled water or the first meeting between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

People always ask me how I come up with these hot takes on trends and what’s going to happen in business. Truth is, I don’t fully know, but a big part of it comes down to understanding human behavior.    

Here are some insights on what drives consumer behavior:    




1. Nostalgia  

My ultimate strategy for buying the New York Jets is acquiring nostalgic brands, growing them, and “flipping” them.

Nostalgia is a big emotional driver for people. It’s why toys like GI Joe tend to recirculate in culture over and over again every 30-or-so years. It’s because the kids who played with those toys become parents, and the entire cycle starts again.

Nostalgia is a big reason why sports cards are exploding in culture today. Parents in my generation used to trade baseball cards as kids, and now the cycle is starting again. Many kids who cut their teeth flipping sneakers are going to really win big with sports cards.

2. Convenience

People love to save time.

Even fractions of a second matter. For example, people get upset on a plane when the WiFi is a tenth of a second slower or when a website loads slowly. We just value time so much.

The biggest companies in the world today are really good at saving us time. Uber saves us time by letting us order rides from our phones. As voice devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home gain more and more adoption, they’ll save us time by letting us order products and navigate apps without having to press any buttons.

Watch DailyVee 548 for more on my thoughts about future trends in business and investing:

The post How Much Would You Pay to Sit In a Meeting With Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? | Veecap appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Is College Really Worth It?

I remember sitting in Mr. Mulnar’s 4th grade science class when I started to figure out if college was really worth it.

That day I got an F on a science test.

A straight up F, it was really terrible. To make things worse, I had to get it signed by my mom.

I was definitely not interested in being punished, so I hid it under my bed. It sat there for two days, but my conscience still had too much power. I got scared and told my mom about it.

Three years later I was flushing every test and report card directly down the toilet.

But no joke. I distinctly remember sitting down in my small bedroom, crying and debating in my own head trying to make sense of why I was having such an intense reaction to this test.

And then it hit me. The thought that changed everything:

“Screw school. I’m a businessman.”

From then on I decided to just punt school and take punishments four times a year when report cards came out. I decided to fail almost daily at school for years.

I went to Mount Ida College (which closed down in 2018). It wasn’t the greatest school out there, to say the least. I was viewed as a loser by my friends’ parents — a kid who didn’t have a shot at anything.

But I knew what I was meant to do. I saw something different in myself, and I had enough self-awareness to recognize it.

It’s not that I didn’t care. It was actually the opposite. I honed in on my skills, to concentrate on what made me happy and what fulfilled me. I learned more about selling baseball cards and then wine. It led to me building Wine Library, VaynerMedia and everything else that I’m so proud of today.

I decided to fight what society expected of me and deliver on what made me happy.

And that’s ultimately what I wish for all of you — to do what makes you happy.

My intent is not to stop everyone from going to college or tell everyone that they can fail school and do what I did. That’s just not true and it’s not what I’m saying at all.

I’m saying kids need to be self-aware and have a difficult conversation with themselves about whether a college degree would really put them in the best position to succeed.

Here are some of my thoughts and POVs on how to decide if college is worth it:

1. If you’re collecting college debt to be an entrepreneur, that’s probably a bad idea

If you live, breathe and sleep entrepreneurship, and you have shown that ability before the age of 18, you should really consider whether or not it makes sense to go to college.

Entrepreneurship takes execution. You get good at it by “doing.”

It’s like tennis. You can read all you want about how to hit the ball, but until you actually start practicing, you’re not going to get any good. You’re not going to find out whether you truly have the talent to be great.

On top of that, there are many new ways to get the information you might need to know about business at a fraction of the cost. The information is out there and likely free.

The problem is getting society to accept and validate that truth. This might be a reason why it could be valuable to get a degree – it could be useful in getting a job somewhere. Especially at more old school companies and institutions. But when you’re an entrepreneur, the market doesn’t care where you got your degree from.

(And even if you’re going for a job, there are many companies that don’t care if you have a degree. Google doesn’t require a degree. Apple doesn’t require a degree. VaynerMedia doesn’t require a degree).

So many people think they want to be entrepreneurs. Then they go to college, collect $100,000 in debt, then start over at 25 once they realize how hard it really is.

That’s why I push so many entrepreneurs to “do.”

If they want to consume information and learn about business, I push them to do it through resources online that are free or much, much cheaper than a college education. Or better yet, go work for free for an entrepreneur they admire and learn by getting close to him or her.  

I understand how college can be beneficial for those in certain fields and how it can provide ROI, but I just don’t see that for entrepreneurs.

2. Pressure from parents is not a good enough reason to collect enormous debt

This is the one that really bothers me.

Parents are out here forcing their kids to collect debt just so they can feel good about their kids going to a “brand name” university.   

We saw this in 2019 with the college admissions scandal. Parents were buying their kids’ way into colleges because they wanted to use it as a way to fix their own insecurities. Many other parents come with a similar mindset, pressuring their kids to go to school and collect debt just so they can brag to their friends at the country club.

If parents are paying for their kids to go to college, I get it. But pushing kids to take on crippling debt that they can’t even declare bankruptcy to get out of is just not something I believe in.

This leads to a much, much bigger conversation that needs to be had around parenting.

3. The brand of college will collapse in the next recession

I genuinely believe that student loan debt will tear down this economy.

There are so many kids out there in tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt on insane interest… making $34,000 / year… and still getting big loans to buy cars and apartments.

The math just doesn’t add up. I really think it’s just a matter of time until everything collapses.

When it hits, it’s going to hit hard.

And just like the 2008 recession when everyone blamed the banks for tearing down the economy, next time people are going to blame colleges.

I believe that my generation’s kids will be the first generation of parents that doesn’t blindly believe in college as a whole.

Ultimately, it’s not a conversation about whether college is “bad” or not worth it. It’s about collecting enormous debt if you want to become an entrepreneur. If you’re taking on college debt to eventually start your own business, you are not in a good place.

The post Is College Really Worth It? appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

3 Marketing Opportunities to Take Advantage of in 2019

The biggest issue for most Fortune 500 companies today is that the majority of their marketing opportunity and dollars are going directly down the drain.

Many still hold on to the idea that Facebook advertising won’t work for their business, or that “only kids” are on Instagram. They don’t recognize how big the marketing opportunity it is.

The truth is we’re living through the single greatest attention shift of our time. Attention is shifting from the television to an increasingly mobile world.

And the problem is most businesses don’t actually know how to adapt their advertising to social platforms.

It’s similar to what happened when attention shifted from radio to television.

What happened was, businesses started running TV commercials like they ran radio ads.

There would be an image on the screen with a narrator in the background narrating the image. The ads weren’t native to a television environment. People didn’t understand what a good television commercial looked like until much later. They were trying to market in the “new world” as they did in the old world.

Same thing is going on today as we’re transitioning from a TV commercial world to a mobile world.

Companies have some understanding that you can’t just copy and paste a commercial on Facebook and Instagram.

But people still don’t fully understand what’s going on, or how to actually take advantage of the incredible opportunity that’s sitting on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Here are some ideas and strategies on how you can:

1. Leverage LinkedIn’s organic reach

LinkedIn’s organic reach is really high – similar to where Facebook’s organic reach was many years ago.

Linkedin has a pricing floor, which means the ad product isn’t as cheap as it is on Facebook or Instagram. But the organic reach is so high that you really should start thinking about how to create and distribute content there.  

Here are a couple of things you can do:

Add your profile link to your email signature

If you’re someone who sends a lot of email from your personal or business account, add your LinkedIn profile to your email signature.

It’s a quick way to get more exposure for your LinkedIn profile and get more followers. As you acquire more and more connections, it could be the match that starts the process of your content getting higher reach.

Use the $1.80 strategy

The $1.80 strategy is a concept that works really well for building an audience.

Search LinkedIn relevant hashtags to find “top posts” in your niche, and then add your “two cents” in the comments. Do it 90 times a day, and you’ll start the process of building a community and a brand.

I talk about it more in detail in this article.

2. Create contextual creative on Facebook and Instagram  

I’m creating 100 pieces of content around my personal brand per day, and I’m still probably 4,000 short of what I should be doing.

At the same time, there are big businesses out there creating three or four pieces of content for the year and putting a ridiculous amount of budget behind those pieces.

The problem is, the broader you go, the more diluted your message has to be.

It’s a lot more effective to break down your customer base in, say, 200 audience segments and create content specifically for each one of those segments.

For example, if someone tried to sell me peanut butter with a piece of content related to the New York Jets, I’d be interested. Same thing applies to consumers in general – you’d be much more likely to get a reaction if you create content specific to the interests of your market segments.

The reason businesses are afraid to go narrow on targeting is because it increases CPMs.

But the broader you go the more vanilla your messaging needs to be.

It’s why brands like Coca-Cola and Skittles have used slogans like “Open Happiness” or “Taste the Rainbow.” In the old world of marketing, it wasn’t possible to go narrow. You only had a few pieces of content that millions of people would see – so your slogan had to be vanilla.

When you go narrow you might pay higher CPMs, but your creative has a much better shot at converting because you can tailor your message to your segment.

Too many companies are thrilled to pay lower cost for higher reach, then get confused when their creative doesn’t get anyone to do anything.

3. Run YouTube pre-roll ads based on Google Search queries

This is an advertising capability that most companies don’t even know about.

When it comes to sales, Google AdWords is an incredible ad product. The problem is, it’s largely overpriced today. In the early days, I was buying broad search terms related to wine for rock bottom prices and building Wine Library on the back of that.

Today YouTube pre-roll ads are a great way to get similar results.

YouTube has an ad product that allows you to target people based on their Google search queries.

For example, if you’re a plumber, you can produce a video ad starting with “Hey, are you looking for a plumber in Boise, Idaho?” And you can literally run it against people in Boise, Idaho who searched for a plumber on Google.

It’s a great intent-based ad platform that a lot of companies aren’t leveraging.

Please let me know what you thought about this article on Twitter

5 Principles for Landing Your Dream Job (Without Experience)

When it comes to landing your dream job, I have some advice and POVs that go slightly against what most people talk about.

But I really believe in it. If you read and execute on these five steps, you’ll put yourself at an advantage to level up your career and land your dream job over time.

1. Give value for free

This is something that some people push against, especially in the freelance world. But when it comes to landing your dream job, I think it’s a very effective strategy.

The best way to start when you’re building a side hustle, business or career is by giving value for free.

Even to this day, I get an enormous amount of compensation for my time and effort, and I’ll still do things for free for people. I’m still going on podcasts that have a handful of followers. I’m still taking meetings and giving free advice to people who don’t pay me anything.

Why?

I’m building value and leverage. I’m also building my reputation – so you’re more likely to say good things about me behind my back.

Same thing applies when you’re trying to build your career or your side hustle.

When you do free work for people, you build relationships that could lead to other opportunities. You never want to give with expectation, but it’s okay to ask. And those asks could lead to bigger and bigger opportunities that let you eventually charge a lot for your work.

It’s not an easy process. But nothing great should be easy.

"Nothing great should be easy" – @GaryVee
Click To Tweet



2. When you do free work, do it strategically

It’s one thing to do free work for anyone.

It’s another thing to do strategic free work that brings you opportunities.

If someone asked me to speak in front of a million people for free, I’d say “yes” because it’s an opportunity to build my brand in front of so many people. A big reason I take so many meetings with rappers and hip hop artists and bring them value now is that I want those relationships.

I want that exposure.

Getting exposure can give you leverage

So many people push back hard against getting exposure. People say that you need to “pay the people” and “pay for the quality of the work.” I agree.

But the truth is, money is not the only way to pay people for their efforts. Short term money is not always the most valuable thing for someone, depending on where they are in their career and what they are looking for.

Simply giving someone an at-bat to prove themselves or exposure for their work on a grand scale can be a great way to compensate them. That exposure can be leveraged to land their dream job later.  

For example, there are a lot of people on Team GaryVee who work for me as creatives or videographers who get hit up for other opportunities after they start working with me. If they want to go work for another celebrity, influencer or even start their own business, the brand association of working with me could be incredibly valuable to them.

Be smart about choosing who you work for

Like I said, you never want to give with expectation. But at the same time, it’s okay to ask.

In this live stream call, Aubrey Marcus and I took a call from a guy who wants to build a side hustle sharpening knives for restaurants. I told him to start by sharpening knives for free for five of the biggest restaurants within a 30-mile radius to gain some experience and results.

And if the vibes are feeling good, he could ask a restaurant owner to shout him out on Instagram, give him a testimonial or send other referrals.

My only reservation with choosing who you work for and hitting people up is that many of you are going to turn into spam bots.

That is, you’re literally going to press “copy”, go into your DMs, and just start spamming random people.

So I’m going to quickly talk about how you can bring them value:  

For many people trying to sell their services or work for someone, their entire strategy is predicated on, “what can I get out of this?”

Of course you could DM The Rock, Tyra Banks, or some startup founder you love, but if you don’t consider what that person actually wants, you’ll never get through.

Here’s a better way to do it:

Step 1: Open up Instagram Direct Messages.

Step 2: Find someone you’d be interested in doing free work for.

The key is to find someone who has a solid following or presence that can give you the exposure you’re looking for. For example, if you’re sharpening knives, it would be smart to hit up some of the biggest restaurants in your area. It would be smart to hit up some of the kindest restaurant owners you know who might reciprocate and give something back.

But at the same time, it won’t always be practical to target the biggest.

If you’re a fashion designer, you might not be able to get the attention of Gucci or Armani, but you could hit up early to mid-tier companies and influencers to get your foot in the door.

Step 3: Direct message them.

Send them a message like:

Hey Gary – I love your work. I do social media and marketing. I would love to make 5 – 10 videos for you for free? Look at my account and lmk. Much love

— [your name]

The message would be tweaked based on what you’re trying to accomplish, but you get the idea.

Step 4: Do it consistently

You’re not going to get a “yes” on every DM. But the best part is, you really only need one “yes” to build your foundation.

Do this 100 to 500 times a day.

Step 5: Deliver

Once you get an opportunity, you have to deliver.

These DMs and offers for free work are just to get your foot in the door. At the end of the day, skill and execution are everything.

3. Make the most of every opportunity you get  

When you get an opportunity, it’s super important to really, really crush it.

If you’re working for free, the benefits you’re getting are mainly coming from the results of your work.

Take the time to perfect your craft so you can deliver.

4. Don’t underestimate the value of long-term connections

People always get caught up in this idea, “what if I do free work, and I get nothing back?”

I get it.

Let’s go back to the “knife sharpener” example. If you’re hitting up restaurants and sharpening knives for free, there might be a time when you don’t get anything in return. You might work for someone who’s just happy to get the work done for free and move on.

But here’s the thing:

Someone is always watching.

Even if the restaurant owner doesn’t give you exposure or referrals that lead to your dream job, the chef might have seen how hard you worked. And when he or she opens up the number one restaurant in town in three years, they’ll remember you.

Think in terms of years and decades, not months or weeks

Why You Might Need to Fire Your Most Talented Employee

Most businesses really need to adjust their mindset when it comes to hiring and firing employees.

So many are obsessed with short-term performance, “numbers” and quarterly targets. But to build a real long-term business, it takes much higher level thinking.

It’s about focusing on overall culture and continuity over short-term financial performance.  

Why good performance doesn’t make up for bad behavior

What a lot of people don’t understand is, speed in business comes from great internal culture. The biggest things that will make your company go fast is 1) continuity and 2) lack of politics.

That’s why it doesn’t matter how “great” an employee’s numbers are if he or she makes all the other employees miserable. If they constantly spread negativity or drag other employees down, it doesn’t matter to me how good they are on paper.

If you’re the CEO of a company, it’s imperative that you go audit every single employee in your company, and figure out which ones make the other employees miserable.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your number one salesperson, your best developer, or even your co-founder.

Cancer spreads.

And if you have people in your company that are cancerous, you have to get rid of them no matter how much revenue they bring in.

It comes down to a couple of reasons:

1. If you don’t fire employees who are toxic, they will slow your company down

In a world where competitors are so quick to copy product features, the speed of product output matters over everything else.

And if you have toxic employees within your organization, you’ll have other employees who are scared to have meetings with them. You’ll have people who are spending time navigating discussions with those employees than actually executing.

Your people will be spending time on politics. Not on execution.

When you build a culture where people feel safe and excited to come to work, they won’t worry about dealing with other employees as much.

When they’re not spending any time worrying, they’re spending time executing. If they don’t have to spend 15 minutes a day bickering or figuring out who’s trying to “ruin” them, they’re free to come up with new ideas and actually do the job they were hired to do.

2. Emotional intelligence is way more important than technical skills

We are at the dawn of an era where emotional intelligence will become a very, very important trade.

Technical skills are being commoditized more and more every day. To me, the differentiator between employees in the future will be how they’re able to work with other people, and their level of EQ.

EQ is hard to measure and quantify, but it can be a disproportionate advantage in business. For me, it has helped build leverage with my customers – whether they’re buying a bottle of Wine at Wine Library, or whether they’re clients at VaynerMedia.

EQ can be the differentiator that leads to continuity within an organization. For example, if someone’s performance is constantly bad on paper and they have a high salary, most managers and leaders might think about letting them go.

But what if that person is the emotional support for three other people in the organization who are driving most of the sales? What if that person is someone who other employees can come to when they have personal issues or problems?

These are the types of employees that make the entire engine run, and most business just don’t recognize it.

“But shouldn’t bosses think about WHY toxic employees behave the way they do? What if their personality is just a reaction to the overall company culture, which is also toxic?”

If you’re an employee in a company where the overall culture is toxic, then the best option is to leave.

There’s sadly not much you can do to change the culture of an organization when you’re an employee. Culture is something that’s dictated from the top down.

If the CEO and upper management aren’t building the right culture, there’s unfortunately not much you can change.

“If an employee is toxic, shouldn’t you spend time trying to correct that behavior first? Why would you fire them outright?”

Sure, I’m a huge fan of giving people more than one chance.

We’re not in the one, two, or three strike policy at VaynerMedia. I always try to sit down with people, give feedback on their performance, and break through to them and penetrate any lack of self-esteem or negative upbringing. I try to get them to a place where they can perform well and get along with the other employees they work with.

But my biggest concern is, what happens if the employee fails again? What if they fail a second, third, or fourth time? What if they continue to make the other employees they work with miserable?

Do you “look the other way” because they’re bringing in revenue or because they’re a key part of your organization?

If you’re a CEO who does, then you can’t say that you value good culture.

Because you don’t.

If you liked this article, please please share it on Twitter! Really want more CEOs and leaders to read this.

The post Why You Might Need to Fire Your Most Talented Employee appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Why the TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) App is So Important

I’ve been watching the TikTok app (formerly Musical.ly) closely for a few years now and I’ve seen its progression. 

TikTok is an app that allows you to create and share short videos, usually featuring music in the background. At the time of this writing, it’s a top-15 free app on the App Store with massive adoption worldwide (especially India and Asia).

In the recent months, I’ve started to get more and more active on TikTok because really I believe in its potential. 

I see it as much, much more than just little kids dancing and lip syncing on their phone. 

1. TikTok’s app is “training wheels” for future influencers and content creators

TikTok provides a framework that makes it easier for people to create — especially if they don’t know where to start.

And these creators are starting younger than ever before.

When TikTok was still Musical.ly, it was the first real social network that reached an audience of first graders. It makes sense, since devices like iPhones and iPads have started reaching younger and younger people.

But the fascinating part is, TikTok is making it easier for them to become content creators. It 1) allows them to create content that they would not otherwise be able to make as easily on their own, and 2) gives them a framework they can play or create within.

For example, the TikTok app gives people tools like filters, control over video speed, access to professional audio and more. Even if you’re not the best lip-syncer, you can still create something fun on TikTok with a music background.

It’s similar to what Instagram did for photography — through filters and other photo editing settings, Instagram made it easier for people to create and distribute photos.

2. They’ve captured a new demographic

TikTok’s success with younger audiences reminds me a lot of Facebook and Snapchat. Facebook first started as a college-only platform and later gained popularity in other age groups. Snapchat did something similar by capturing a younger demographic first, then aging up.

Snapchat captured the “tween” and teenage audience because it understood two factors that are very important when it comes to teens: (1) it’s not cool to hang out at the same place as your mom and (2) you want to lock your room.

Like Facebook, Snapchat’s app and strategies eventually started to skew older and become more appealing to a much larger demo. Like every platform, TikTok will eventually do the same.

Think about when Facebook turned into “your mom’s” app. In many ways, TikTok is making Snapchat “someone’s older brother’s app” and owning an even younger gateway.

But even though it skews younger, it wouldn’t be smart to ignore it. Because eventually, it will age up.

3. It could pave the way for other platforms that give creators a framework to “create”

I’m fascinated by apps that act as “tools.”

A big part of Instagram’s value came from the fact that it made it “easier” for people to become photographers. It gave people the option to take pictures from their mobile device, edit it, and share it with friends. Instagram started by building something that was a utility, and then became a social network after building that initial audience. They started by building an app that people could us to express themselves first.

TikTok could be an interesting preview of other platforms that could provide people with a framework to create.

For example, what about a platform that makes it easy to express yourself through written content, or other types of content that haven’t been touched by Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok?

I’m fascinated by other apps that could act as utilities first, and then build a social network on top of it.

I’m testing, learning, and becoming a practitioner. Ultimately, if you want to reach teenagers (or younger demos) in America or Asia, TikTok could be a really interesting way to do it.

If you found this article interesting, it’d mean a lot to me if you could share it on Twitter! Let me know what you thought.

The post Why the TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) App is So Important appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

3 Ways to Overcome Fear of Failure

I want to change the conversation around fear of failure and adversity.

You might not want to hear it, but I genuinely believe that your adversity and your “losses” are your biggest strengths in today’s environment.

The internet is creating a more “even” playing field in every industry — so if you’re not entitled or soft, you’re going to have a massive advantage over everyone else in the coming years and decades.  

Why your adversity can be your biggest strength

A few decades ago, things were different. Adversity really wasn’t as big of an advantage because of one main thing:

Gatekeepers.

You’d have a handful of old dudes in the media who controlled what everybody heard and thought. In the music industry, you had a handful of executives who decided who got signed and what songs they could have on their album. If you wanted to start a business, there were a lot of costs involved in building one or growing one. Rich kids had a real advantage over people who didn’t come from privileged backgrounds.

Think about it … when I was in my 20s, it was so much harder to break into an industry like music. You had to go on the street corner, hand out CDs, and pray that Run DMC or another huge artist heard your tracks.

Today, the internet puts everyone on a more “level” playing field.

There are still a ton of problems in the world, no doubt. But I really think that people coming from struggle and adversity have an advantage in this era with the internet.

Here are my thoughts and POVs on how to understand that and make that mental shift:

1. Stop worrying about other people’s opinions

This is really what it comes down to 99% of the time.

People are scared of other people’s judgement. People say they’re scared of losing money or failing in business, but if you dig to the core of it, they’re worried about what other people would think about their loss.

They’re worried that their mom or brother would tell them they should’ve “stayed in school” or taken a safer path.

Personally, I make a bunch of mistakes every single day. I deal with adversity constantly, and I’m always under pressure.

But I love losing.

I love losing because I don’t care about what you think about my loss. That’s why navigating the business world is so easy for me.

The truth is, no one has 100 percent context on your life outside of you. That’s the reason I don’t value other people’s opinions over my own – not even my own wife’s or mom’s. It’s because they don’t have full context on my intent.

It’s why I don’t fear failing in front of them.

I have empathy for their opinions because I understand how they could come to their conclusions with limited context. But I never take those opinions to heart.

2. Give the future more credit than the past

The thing that fascinates me the most about people is that they put the past on a pedestal, and underestimate the current and the future.

It’s like they’re looking dead in the face of getting results, yet the fear of the replication of something that happened in the past is stopping them from “going.”

When you look forward to the future instead of dwelling on the past, you get faster at making decisions.

To me, the past is over. It doesn’t exist anymore. I’m only living in the current and the future.

I don’t know how to be anything other than grateful and optimistic in a world where the odds of becoming a human being are 400 trillion to 1.

The only time I look to the past is when I’m using my story to my advantage.

3. Redefine what it means to “win”  

People get envious of others and fear failure because they define the “game” in the same way the world tells them to define the game.

The reason I have no fear of failure is because I don’t have the same “indicators” of success as other people do.

For example… when people ask me which entrepreneurs I look up to, my answer usually surprises them. I don’t answer with the cliche “Steve Jobs”, “Elon Musk”, or other billionaires.

I’m inspired by people in the dirt – normal people in average jobs who decide that they want to build something for themselves, people who don’t “get” Facebook or Instagram, but are determined to figure it out or people who have humility to put in work in the face of judgement.

I don’t care if you have a Rolex. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a fancy house. I don’t care if you’re on vacation in Ibiza.

That’s why it’s easy for me to not get jealous of people.

Let’s take LeBron James and Michael Jordan, for example. People love to debate who’s the “better” player. If you take it at face value, LeBron James has 3 NBA championships, but MJ has 6.

But what if you changed it up? What if you asked who’s the better human? Or who’s done more for people? What if you asked who’s a kinder person?

LeBron could probably win those debates real fast.

The reason it’s easy for me to stay in my own head is because I’m able to contextualize. For me, success isn’t about having the most money or taking the most vacations. I’m playing a different game.

Contextualizing is really important when it comes to focusing on what actually matters.

For example, a lot of parents feel like they have to be financially successful to set their kids up for a strong future, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I’d much rather have parents who were homeless but instilled the right values in me than parents who were “successful” on paper

You don’t have to play by the rules that other people set.

And when you create the game in your own head, you can rig it in your favor every time.

If you want to know more, see my video ‘What Are People Going To Think If You Lose?’ where I expand on these topics more:

The post 3 Ways to Overcome Fear of Failure appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.