Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 29

Be Accountable, But Don’t Judge Yourself

I really believe that being accountable is one of the biggest keys to happiness.

When you’re accountable… when you take responsibility for things that go wrong (regardless of whether or not it’s actually your fault) … you’ll feel in control. You won’t feel helpless or feel like other people are controlling your life.

But here’s issue:

A lot of people are scared to be accountable because they don’t understand how being accountable is different from beating yourself up for your mistakes.  

So they default into blaming other people.

I think people should blame themselves, but I don’t think they should judge themselves. I believe everyone should be their own “biggest fan” – beating yourself is super counterproductive, and something I don’t think anyone should do. I also think people should take responsibility for everything that happens in their lives.

Here are some mindset shifts on how you can use accountability as an “unlock” for more happiness: 

Owning your faults and weaknesses takes away their leverage

We all suck at so many things.

I have tons of “weaknesses.”

I have virtually no writing skills. I was a D and F student. I curse on stage in my keynotes and it leaves a lot of opportunity on the table in terms of speaking gigs. I don’t feel comfortable reading out loud. I don’t consume information well through books. I don’t listen to “mentors.”

I’ve make a ton of mistakes, too. I make mistakes everyday at VaynerMedia.

I passed on investing in Uber in the early days because at the time, I had bought a new apartment. If I had invested, I would’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars.

You could make an argument saying that singular “loss” is greater than all of my “wins” in business.

But when you own your faults and weaknesses, it takes away the leverage they have over you – and they can almost become “strengths.”

I proudly talk about how I did terrible in school. I proudly talk about how I don’t listen to my mentors because I’m so “tuned in” to myself and my own voice. When you “own” what you’re bad at and what you messed up on, you become more comfortable with yourself.

Take Eminem in 8-Mile, for example.

One of my favorite scenes ever is the last rap battle of 8 mile where Eminem disses himself before the other guy can.

He owns all his weaknesses, and it leaves the other person with nothing to say.

The more you own (and share) your insecurities, failures, and mistakes with the world, the more comfortable you’ll get with yourself.

Own the fact that you’re a 20-something still trying to “figure out” life. Own the fact that you’re in your 60s and you’re starting a business from zero and you’re scared it’s “too late” because you didn’t start earlier. Because the truth is, there’s nothing wrong with any of those things – and once get comfortable with them, you’ll find that they can actually be your greatest strengths.

It’s okay to feel disappointed, but don’t dwell on it

When I say I don’t “beat myself up”, I don’t mean that I’m always incredibly proud of every decision I make.

I carefully analyze my behavior in an honest way. Sometimes, I’ll even be disappointed.

But I’ll never dwell or beat myself up.

That’s where the difference lies — people can have negative feelings or thoughts about failures and mistakes, but the minute you start dwelling on it, you’re making it more likely that your next thing won’t work.

And worse… you’re tearing yourself down even further instead of being your own biggest fan and supporting yourself..

Don’t wrap your self-esteem up in your “success”

This is a big reason why so many people default to blaming others.

They wrap up their self-esteem up in their successes.  

Even though I identify so much as a businessman and entrepreneur, I’m proud that I don’t wrap my self-esteem up in my accomplishments. Even when I lose in business, I never lose my self-worth over it.

If I lost, I’m happy to deal with the ramifications of it – but I never allow myself to feel bad about who I am because of that loss.

I think a lot of this goes back to parenting.

Like I said… I was a D and F student in school. Everytime grades would come out, my mom would punish me for not doing well. She made me deal with the ramifications of getting bad grades, but she never made me feel like I was stupid or that I was not going to be successful.

It was accountability without judgement.

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4 Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Agents

If you’re a real estate agent or broker, you can significantly grow your leads, sales, and overall business by implementing one key marketing strategy:

Building a personal brand.

At January’s Agent2021 conference, I gave a lot of tactical advice to agents in the real estate, auto, mortgage, and insurance industries on building their personal brand and leveraging it in their respective industries.

Here are four personal branding strategies you can use to get ahead as a real estate agent:

1. Build your personal brand instead of just paying for referrals

In the real estate industry, most agents funnel money into lead gen sources like Trulia or Zillow to advertise homes.

That’s a sales tactic. You’re essentially paying a referral fee and capturing customers when they’re near the point of purchase. You’re paying an dollar amount to get a lead.

And that’s perfectly fine. I’m not saying real estate agents should avoid doing that. It can work well.

But the truth is, it’s FAR more valuable to build a brand so people come to you.

Companies like Zillow knew that Google search was going to be huge in the early days, and they ranked at the top of search for many of the high-intent keywords. They siphoned all the attention from people who were looking to buy homes, and now, they’re selling that attention back to real estate agents for a price. 

But here’s the problem if you’re building your business off of sites like Zillow:

There are a LOT of people competing in the real estate game. And if you’re an individual agent, chances are there are a lot of bigger companies trying to sell homes in your area that have more money than you do.

They’d be competing for that same attention too.

If and when you go head to head with them, chances are you’ll lose because they’d be able to pay more for that attention than you can.

The best way to combat that?

Build your brand.  

Focus on building your personal and distributing your content across social platforms. That way, when people think about buying a home in a certain area, they think of you.

That’s how you differentiate.

Paying for leads on Zillow or Trulia isn’t a bad thing. If that’s working well for you, then you should keep doing it. But it’s not a good strategy over the long term because it leaves you vulnerable to the price of that attention and others competing for it.

You can build brand by putting out content and engaging with your community. 

For example… go to Instagram, and navigate over to the “Places” tab.

Type in the city where you’re looking to sell homes.

Comment and engage with those posting in that area. Add your two cents to what they’re posting (without directly promoting yourself). Show that you’re a part of the community.

It’s what I did when I was building the “GaryVee” brand. I spent years replying to people on Twitter for 4 – 8 hours a day before people knew who I was..

Brand is how you differentiate yourself and win customers when you’re in a “commodity” business.

2. Figure out your value proposition and own your truth

A lot of real estate agents struggle with coming up with their “unique” value that separates themselves from other agents.

Your “value” is who you are. Based on your personality, you’ll appeal to different people.

Some buyers won’t buy from you because they don’t like the way you say “hello.” Literally. Other buyers are more technical. They might want to know all the specifics of the past homes you’ve sold in the past and make their decision based on that.

My advice is to first figure out what your value propositions are (i.e. if you can leverage your past experience, your charismatic personality, your detail oriented nature, etc), and then sell on offense, not defense.

In other words, too many real estate agents try to win deals by scaring customers away from the alternatives. They’re playing “defense.”

I think people should go on offense and sell according their personal strengths.

For example, I just really like good people. I like being friends with them and doing business with them. If I met a real estate agent who just struck me as an empathetic, kind, good person, I would be much more likely to buy an expensive home from them.

People make decisions based on humans. Not just in real estate, but in every business. That’s why owning your truth is so important.

Ask yourself… what are you about? Who are you? Are you caring? Are you driven by money and competition? Do you love the New York Knicks? Did you get bit by a spider at 7 years old?

Yes, your real estate experience is important. But people make decisions on who you are first – that’s where your unique value stems from.

3. Deliver content to your audience in the most effective way possible.

Delivering content about your day-to-day as a real estate agent is an incredibly powerful way to build your brand.

In other words, document your life — as much as you’re comfortable with.

A lot of people tell me that their lives are not “interesting enough” or that people won’t want to watch a “show” based around them. But the truth is, everyone is interesting. Everyone is relatable. It’s just that we tend to take the things that happen in our lives for granted.

I guarantee you there are things that happen in your office everyday that would be hilarious to other people, but you might take it for granted because it happens everyday. If you document your day, those things will come to the surface.

If you’re really not comfortable with that, you might also do a Q&A show where you answer questions people have about buying homes, so that when people type in the question in Google, your video pops up.

If you’re good on audio, you might do a podcast where you interview different people in your town about what they think about buying homes and real estate in your area.

You can distribute that content through Facebook or Instagram advertising by targeting people in your town (or the town where you’re selling homes).

4. Become the “mayor” of your town

If I were an agent, my main marketing strategy would be reviewing the areas around the places where I’m selling homes.

Become the “popular person” in your town.

I would interview the teachers and talk to them about the school system. I would review the subway system, the other local businesses, or the wine shop. I would interview people who have lived in the town for 50+ years.

There are a lot of different reasons people buy homes.

Sure, they might do it because it’s close to their work. But they also pick homes based on the things to do and the “amenities” in that area — the school systems, the playground, crime, the stores, attractions, and other things.

If you create content reviewing the establishments in a 10-20 mile radius where you sell homes, you’ll create emotional appeal around your area that would persuade people to buy in your area.

And because you were their source of information, they’d be more likely to buy from you.

Why Modern Real Estate Marketing is So Hard

Real estate has traditionally been a sales-driven industry.

That’s why most agents aren’t doing these marketing strategies — they’re more focused on short term sales than they are on brand.

When you’re interviewing teachers and business owners and promoting those interviews by running ads in your area, you might not see results for the first couple of months. You might spend a few hundred or a few thousand dollars without seeing anything come from  it.

And that’s where people give up.

In sales-driven industries like real estate, people don’t like investing money in things where they don’t see immediate ROI — and brand takes time to build up.

But real estate agents who invest in their brand will significantly outsell their competition.

Listen to the full podcast episode where I talk more about this on Spotify:

 

I Love Selling. Here’s Why.

I love sales. It’s in my DNA.

It’s what I did as a kid. I was a salesman since I was five years old.

Here’s a little backstory…

My neighbors on Teaberry Drive were amazing people. They were retired. They had no kids. They lived in a ranch right next to our townhouse, and had beautiful flowers in the yard. I remember going up to their yard, and ripping a few of those flowers out of the ground, putting a few of them together in a bunch, and cleaning them off.

I walked up to the door, rang the doorbell, and I said: “Would you like to buy some of these flowers?”

My neighbors offered to buy her own flowers back from me for 5 cents (by the way, those 5 cents felt like all the money in the world to me back then). I was so pumped.

For the rest of the summer, I’d be running around the neighborhood ripping flowers out of people’s yards and trying to sell them back to the owners.

Later, I sold baseball cards at trade shows every weekend. I would watch people’s eyes as they walked by, and tried to figure out how I could stand out from my competition. I was making thousands of dollars every weekend at 13 – 14 years old.

Even today, as the CEO of a company that does $150 million+ / year, I hit up garage sales on the weekends when I have time to buy random stuff and flip them on eBay.

I do it because I love it.

Sales has been the foundation of my career. It’s what helped me grow my family’s liquor store. It’s what helped me grow my agency, VaynerMedia.

Knowing how to sell is the bedrock of all business.

Here’s why I love it, and some mindset shifts to help you sell more effectively over the long term:

Sales is fun when you sell something you believe in

Selling isn’t scary.

Selling something you don’t believe in is.

To me, it’s fun. I sell Vayner4Ds tickets, books, conference tickets, VaynerMedia’s services to big clients, sneakers, and more.

When you’re selling something you don’t believe in, it gets a lot harder. I’ve been in many meetings where I can tell the person on the other end isn’t bought into what they’re selling — and it shows. Those people hedge so much in their own pitch without even knowing it, and it kills their chances of actually winning customers.

I spent a long time learning about wine before talking about wine or starting WineLibraryTV. I needed to believe in what we were doing.

At Wine Library, it was that we made great wine for lower cost than everyone else. We were giving people a better deal. It’s part of what helped me aggressively sell our products through Google AdWords back when it was underpriced.

Recently, I started another wine company called Empathy Wines.

I did a live stream on my birthday where I did a QVC-style call-in show answering people’s questions, and selling Empathy Wines packages. I really believe in this because we’re producing $40 wine for $20 — and making great wine more accessible to people without big budgets.

It makes it easier (and more fun) to sell when you believe in what you’re doing.

The best sales strategy is branding  

Some people think I’m against selling because I talk about giving all content away for free – but the truth is, building brand is the best sales strategy.

That’s why even though I do sell people “directly” sometimes, I try as much as possible to avoid it.

I’m building a relationship for the long term. Everyone can have their 15 minutes of fame, or better yet their 15K instagram followers and their one great sale. Not many people can build a brand and a relationship with their audience for years to come.

Whether you’re a small business or a massive corporation, you need to start thinking about business as a long term relationship, not a single transaction.

When you’re a small business with limited resources, you do have to pander to short term sales metrics in a lot of cases. There’s not as much cash to throw around in a small business, so short term revenue matters. I have empathy for that.

But here’s the funny thing about brand: If you actually build a strong brand, you outsell any salesman any day of the week.

Ask, but have zero expectations

Selling isn’t about being pushy or turning a “no” into a “yes” – it’s about asking, but having zero  expectations about how the results will play out.

Even though I’m pushing wine, sneakers, and books, I have no interest in people buying if they’re not interested in those things.

I’m comfortable with asking but I don’t expect anything. It’s an important part of selling.  

One of the most fascinating aspects of all this that most people don’t understand, is that you can’t sell the unsellable. When I try to understand the ecosystem and analyze why people aren’t winning, it’s because they have built enormous mental barriers around partnering with the “right” brand, or selling to a specific CEO.

The truth is, the real world doesn’t work like that, and you can’t be romantic about who gives you the opportunity. There are a million and one reasons why a certain company or executive won’t work with you. Even if your product is 10X better than the competition.

It could be that they’re under a long term contract with someone else.

It could be that they have a very close relationship with a vendor, or that the company’s investors have an agenda for what they want to accomplish.

Of course I want VaynerMedia to work with every Fortune 100 brand, but because of the market dynamics, and complicated politics that are in play, it’s easier said than done. You have to be practical when it comes to sales, and you have to be willing to take the opportunities right in front of you.

I come into every business meeting feeling massively optimistic that the person on the other end is going to buy from me. And when I realize that they’re not going to, I immediately “check out.” I’m not romantic about it.

I talk about giving away all my content for free, but don’t be confused — I’m a salesman at heart. It’s actually the reason I try to encourage businesses to start focusing on brand as soon as possible.

It’s the best way to sell over the long term.

 

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Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses

Sasha Group — a digital marketing agency for small businesses — is a new company we launched at VaynerX that sits really close to my heart.

My dad came to this country with virtually nothing. He didn’t speak English and didn’t have any money. We lived in a studio apartment the size of a small office with nine family members.

He got a job as a “stock boy” at a liquor store for two dollars an hour in New Jersey. For years, he saved his money and eventually bought a small liquor store himself.

Once I started working at his liquor store at 22 years old, I blew up the company to $60 million from $3 million in a short period of time.

In early 2019, I launched The Sasha Group, a small business agency named after my dad. 

We assembled a team of people who have been helping small businesses grow for years. We have team members who helped a furniture company grow sales through branding, a beauty company add another $100,000 / month in revenue, a supplement company unlock real growth and scalability in business, and more.

In this article, I wanted to talk about my points of view on some big mistakes that small businesses make when they choose a digital marketing agency, and some things to think about if and when you’re planning on hiring one:

1. Find a marketing agency that has grown small businesses before

I’ve always been fascinated by people’s tendencies to listen to information and advice from people who have never actually done the thing they claim to be an “expert” at.

A lot of small businesses hire agencies that are “fancy” — agencies that might have a nice website or advertise at events, but haven’t actually done the things they claim to be able to do.

The truth is, small businesses just don’t have that kind of money to risk.

When I was growing my family’s liquor store, we had a tiny marketing budget. We were doing $300,000 in gross profit – before expenses. After all the expenses were paid, we had almost no money. We didn’t have extra cash to throw around. We had to really focus on sales.

A lot of small businesses are in a similar boat.



Try to find an someone that has actually had a small business, grew it significantly, and is now starting an agency — or at least has a huge resume of other clients who have been satisfied by their work.

When you’re growing a small business, you need a different mindset than the one you’d have when growing a big brand. With a small business, you just don’t have the same margin or room for error. The way I built Wine Library to a $60 million business with a tiny budget was by focusing my time and energy on underpriced attention. At the time, that meant buying up broad keywords on Google AdWords for really low cost. Today, it might mean running Facebook ads or Instagram story ads.  

That kind of thinking makes a big difference when growing a small business.  

2. Go for the right balance of quality and quantity

A lot of small business owners struggle with finding the balance between “quality” and “quantity” when hiring marketing agencies.  

They assume that it’s always good to go for an agency that produces higher quantity of content for a cheaper cost.

For example, a lot of businesses would rather go with an agency that produces 800 tweets for a $12k cost instead of another agency that produces 500 for the same fee. They might feel like they’re getting more for their money because they’re getting more content for the exact same price.

It makes sense on the surface, but it’s actually a huge mistake.

The truth is, quality and experience are important variables too. I could have someone make me a painting for $5 and another person make me a painting for $5 million. The biggest variable in price would be who the person is, and how much experience they really have in their craft.

An agency that produces 800 pieces of content for $12k might actually be a “worse deal” than hiring an agency that produces 500 pieces of content for the same price if the agency that produces 500 pieces of content has more overall experience.

For example, one strategy I really believe in for small businesses is to create a “Super Bowl Commercial.” What I mean by that is, creating an “iconic”, “hero” video like Dollar Shave Club or Purple Mattress did. Videos like that shape public perception of your brand.

Producing a quality iconic video like that would take a sizable investment for a small business, and you’d want an agency that has a lot of experience in executing similar strategies.

3. The best marketing agencies are in it for the long term

A lot of agencies are motivated entirely by short term economics. They’re in it to make money right now.  

As a small business owner, it’s your job to sniff out whether the agency you’re looking at working with is incentivized by quick money. They might be raising capital and need a strong “bottom line” for investors, or they might be part of a holding company that evaluates them on short term performance.

If they’re incentivized by short term gains, it won’t be as likely that they’ll care about you when you’re a customer. They’ll be more interested in acquiring you as a customer than doing good work once you actually start working with them.

With VaynerX and the Sasha Group, I’m only playing for the long term. My intention is only to be historically correct and win your trust forever. 

For years, we only served big brands like Pepsi, GE, or Mondelez. We had so many small businesses asking us for help, but I didn’t want to take their money because we didn’t have a service offering ready for them. And I have no interest in taking people’s money if I can’t deliver.

That’s why it took us so long to produce an offering for small businesses.

If you have any other questions about hiring a small business marketing agency, hit up @TheSashaGroup on Twitter!

 

Dealing with anxiety

After receiving feedback from the community, I decided to take this article down because I did a poor job conveying my thoughts on anxiety and I apologize and take full responsibility for that. I’m sorry.

If you’re struggling with anxiety, consider getting help from a 24- hour anxiety disorder helpline.

 

Why Every Small Business Should Have a “Super Bowl Commercial”

Super bowl commercials are the most underpriced ad buy in all of advertising.

Even though it costs over $5 million, everyone’s attention is on it.

Here’s the cost graph for the price of a 30-second Super Bowl spot over the last decade: 

This is why you see so many brands come up with creative, funny, iconic commercials for the Super Bowl — because they know virtually all of America is watching, and that their ad would play a huge role in defining how people view their brand.

But what a lot of people don’t realize is, the same concept applies for small businesses.

Small businesses won’t have budget to run an actual Super Bowl commercial, but they can create an iconic, hero, or “anchor” video around their company, and distribute it across social media for virality.

An “anchor” video is a signature video that’ll play a key role in defining what people think of your company. And if done right, it could change the trajectory of a business.

Dollar Shave Club is one of the best examples. Their “anchor” video went viral on social media, and resulted in 12,000 new signups in the first 48 hours after the debut.



Purple mattress did something similar too with their video.



Here are a few things to think about as you’re creating an anchor video for your small business:

Decide whether you want an emotional or literal viral video

There are a couple of different ways to create an anchor video:

One:

Create a “day in the life” video based around you, the founder.

Or two:

Create a funny, creative, “hero” video similar to Dollar Shave Club or Purple Mattress.

If you’re a small businesses owner, my intuition is that you’re so deeply in-tune with your customers and what they want that you’d know where to go with the direction of video and the creative messaging. Most small business owners would know the kind of message that would resonate with their audience.

But if you don’t, the best option would be to spend $20k – $30k in creative and media spend to test what works. That way, you’ll have a much better shot at hitting the mark when you produce a “Dollar Shave Club” video.

End your video with a “direct response” call-to-action 

I talk a lot about building brand and why it can be so valuable to sacrifice short term sales for a long term relationship.

But I’m also empathetic to the fact that small businesses need to pander more to short term sales because of issues like cashflow. An anchor video could have tremendous impact on sales if you use it to drive back to a website or a landing page — look at how Dollar Shave Club did it in the last few seconds of their video: 

Promote the video through YouTube pre-roll ads

YouTube has one of the great ad products out today: Pre-roll ads based on Google Search queries.

That means you can run your video as an ad to people who were searching for your exact product or service on Google. For example, let’s say some guy or girl searches for plumbers in Boise, Idaho. If you’re a plumber, you could literally run your video ad on YouTube to everyone who searches that term in Google – so anyone looking for plumbers in Boise will see your video while they’re watching, say, Boise State highlights on YouTube.

The reason I love this ad product so much (especially for small businesses) is that it’s intent-based. That means it’s really effective at driving sales, which is what a lot of smaller companies need.

I’m a big believer in Facebook advertising and LinkedIn, too.

If you really understand who your consumer is, Facebook and Instagram will destroy. If you’re B2B, LinkedIn will destroy.

LinkedIn’s organic reach today is where Facebook was at many years ago, and presents a tremendous opportunity for people, especially if you’re selling to other businesses.

Why most businesses won’t create viral, iconic videos 

I genuinely believe that creating a “hero” or “anchor” video is one of the best investments a small business could make.

Problem is, a lot of businesses would rather continue paying $5 to $10 per click on Google AdWords because it’s lower risk. It’s easier to keep doing that instead of “risking” $30k – $50k on an anchor video. Especially when you’re producing several to see which one will “hit.”

But the ones who do will win.

5 Common Company Problems and Solutions That Demand Attention

As we go into this New Year, I wanted to round up four problems you may face as a company leader in 2016 and offer my solutions to those problems. Whether you’re a small start up or a Fortune 500, these four pieces of advice have always helped me in growing and maintaining my businesses.

1. How To Motivate Employees When They Don’t Want to Put in the Work

Everybody is motivated by different things. We all have our own dreams, aspirations and beliefs that drive us. Never think for a second that money drives all motivation. It’s simply not true.

People are in the game for multiple reasons and the only way for you to understand that is to listen. Once you understand then you can set them up to be in a place for them to deliver on it. And that gives them incentive to always work their hardest for you, because you did it for them. Get it?

So you need to use your ears and listen to your employees. You need to sit down with them and understand where they want to take their careers. What’s their ambition? What do they want to do with their life? By sitting down with people and actually listening, you’ll be able to set up your employees for success while also motivating them to work hard and fast.

Also, it makes you a good boss. So there’s that.

2. Is the customer really always right?

When I have an angry customer, the very first thing I want to know is if they are right. I talk to the parties involved, and I get all the information possible that I can. In the end, someone has to make a call, and as the boss, that is probably going to have to be you.

Nobody likes a boss who passes the buck.

If the customer is 100% right, you apply something that everyone in sales or customer service needs: empathy. You come in with nothing but empathy. I ask questions and I listen before trying to fix it. I’ve talked in the past about how great leaders are listeners. This applies just as much to this situation as well.

3. Meeting Client Demands and Agency Capabilities

As I’ve been building my agency VaynerMedia over the last six years, there is something I often hear from clients, which is this: “Well, you do social, not digital. So we are going to go with _____.”

I believe that the top seven people are what make any company tick. Now if those top people picked up and went to a new company, that new company would start to like the place they all came from. Think about it. What about sports teams? There is no “The Lakers are great.” It’s Kobe and Jack playing on a team, so the Lakers become good. It’s not the Knicks winning when the Knicks have Willis Reed and Clyde Frasier. It’s the people who make up the team.

Get where I am going with this?

If you’re a decision maker at an agency, or running a company yourself, and you’re disappointed because you’re not as good as some other company, or you’re jealous that they are doing something you’re not…stop it. Stop being jealous of their capabilities and go out and hire for your client’s needs. Find the people that are doing it and make them part of your team.

4. Culture Comes From the Top, Including Bad Culture

I’ve talked a lot about how everything stems from the top when it comes to company culture. The way you act and behave in your company dictates a huge amount of how the culture will be.

Don’t like how some of your leadership is acting? It’s on you. Talk to them. Set an example.

Want to establish a casual dress code? It starts with you.

Think the company needs to have less meetings? Once again, you need to start having less meetings.

Everyone will be looking to you to dictate the situation. Don’t forget that in your day to day around the office.

5. Create speed by giving trust

The reason that so many companies and teams go slow is because first time managers struggle to trust their employees.

So many people talk about how “trust is earned.” I think that’s slow and egotistical. There comes a time when you have to let your kid “swing the bat.” There comes a time when you have to throw them in the water and let them swim.

That’s what I do from the start.

A lot of managers withhold trust because they fear the ramifications. They fear the anxiety that comes with losing. They’re afraid of what will happen when an employee messes up, or when mistakes happen.

When you’re afraid of losing in the short-term, you make people earn your trust. Ultimately, that makes you go slower in the long term and it hurts your chances of success.

I do the opposite — instead of putting restrictions around my employees to start, I give them free reign. If and when they do something to lose my trust, I’ll put restrictions around them.

Most managers do the reverse — they’ll put restrictions and barriers around employees from the start, and remove them as they “prove” themselves.

This is why so many managers tend to “micro-manage” up front. This is especially the case when a manager is new to the role — because they’d still be in that “execution” mindset that they had before they got to their role and they’d find it difficult to hand everything over to someone else.

 



Giving trust easily is crucial to my success as a CEO and entrepreneur.

Post 4Ds: How a Recruiting Firm Grew Sales By Building Brand

Over the past 8 years, VaynerMedia has worked with companies large and small from AB InBev, Chase and GE to small 1-100M dollar SMB’s.

As the CEO of VaynerMedia, it has been an enormous goal of mine to be able to share this expertise and share the stories of other 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.

In these “Post 4Ds” articles, we’ll feature in-depth testimonials and interviews with attendees of program. It’s an article series I want to do much more of in 2019.

Today’s interview is with Joe Mullings, founder of Mullings Group, a recruiting firm focused on the medical technology industry. They’ve placed over 7,000 candidates in jobs with 500+ companies all over the world.

I’m so proud of the results Joe got from the program after attending 4Ds.

I asked my team to interview him so I could share his story with you all:

“Why did you sign up for 4Ds?”

Being a follower of Gary’s, I wanted to take a look “behind the curtain.”

I followed all his shows and all the content he puts out on a consistent basis — the podcasts, DailyVee, and more. I wanted to know what machine he had in place to put out content on a daily basis like that. It’s very similar to the model that I wanted to implement.

So I bought 2 seats to 4Ds – one for my camera man, and one for myself.

I already had a decent brand at the time in the business I’m in, primarily focused on LinkedIn because my company’s in the recruiting space. I wanted to figure out a “Gary-esque” approach for LinkedIn content.

“What was the most impactful part of the program?”

Personally, I wanted confirmation that I was on the right track. I wanted to get a more specific sense for what Gary was doing to build his brand.

For me, the most impactful part was the patience and sincere interest that Gary had as he went around the table and listened intently to each person’s business model. I followed Gary’s content online for a while and loved what he had to say, but it really drove it home when I saw his authenticity in person.

I walked away from 4Ds with a great appreciation for the fact that Gary actually walks the walk. I could tell that he genuinely believes in the stuff he talks about. Feeling that authenticity and legitimacy made it easier for me to double down on building brand because you know he’s not just selling a BS “master course” or selling a false dream.

“How did 4Ds impact your business?”

I was already a successful business owner before 4Ds. I was already investing money in my team and my personal brand — over $700,000 in total by the time I had signed up for 4Ds.

But there was one main thing that helped me grow my brand (and my sales) even faster:

The concept of the booms, the beats, and the sawdust.

It was a strategy we learned to squeeze the most out of every piece of content that we put out. When we record a 15-minute video, for example, we really take a look at what all we can do with it, how we can repurpose it, and everything we have to be mindful of. For example, what kind of guidance to I have to give to my camera man? What do I have to tell editorial?

4Ds helped us look at our content production strategically and tactically.

Before 4Ds, I was taking home about $2 million / year. After executing on what I learned at 4Ds, I started taking home $3 million to $3.5 million.

I attribute that to Gary’s “handbook”, as well as my team for going out and executing.

“Were there any non-monetary benefits you noticed in building brand?”

When I first started out in business, I didn’t completely understand the value of brand. It kind of made sense, but I didn’t fully grasp it.

Now, I don’t know how anybody could open a business and not have brand as one of the core pillars and drivers.

I have people coming to me now and saying, “Joe, you’re spending all this money and investing it into your brand. Aren’t you worried about the recession?”

I tell them, “No. It’s actually all the more reason to do it.”

If you look at the companies that thrived in recessions, it’s always the ones that have the strongest brands.

When I walked out of 4Ds and sat in execution mode for the following six months, I realized that even though you can’t put a clear value on brand, you also can’t live without it. That’s something I didn’t fully understand before 4Ds.

Now, I see how branding applies to everything.

For example, I’m building my 13-year old’s brand right now because he knows he’s going to apply to MIT. So I took videos and pictures of him at Google Labs so that when he applies to MIT at 17, I would have “branded” that 13-year-old for years around science and STEM programs.

My other kid is a high end soccer player. So we’re putting together an entire branding package around him because it’s going to allow him to get into a different college to accomplish his goals.

Once you start to look at the world through branding, everything changes.

“Was there anything you got that you didn’t expect to get?”

Claude.

Claude Silver’s session (Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia) was incredible. She talked about building culture, and the way she talked about it was very impactful — you could see that she was the “other end” the stick when compared with Gary.

Gary is very high energy, but Claude brought a very peaceful intensity to the room. She had a very intense, passionate message on how to treat other human beings in your organization. Gary says the same thing, but with a very different energy.

I was able to see how they play on the team together.

“What did you think of the VaynerMedia team?”

The entire team was very generous, and was sincerely interested in everyone’s goals coming in.

The level of service was very high, and there were a lot of nice touches along the way. The follow-up was classy, yet not overdone or overreaching.

Interacting with other members at 4Ds was also a huge value-add. The ability to “corner” someone during a break and ask them deep, insightful questions was really helpful.

All in all, I could tell I was dealing with a first class team. 4Ds was easily worth over double the price I paid.

“Who do you think 4Ds is for?”

You’ll learn a lot of things that you didn’t know before about brand, and you won’t be able to “unsee” what you saw.

But you should only go to 4Ds if you’re willing to work and execute afterwards with a large amount of time and money.

If you can do that, the program will be the best ROI you can get.

One Man’s Point of View: Buying a House in Your 20s – 40s

I wanted to create some context and clarity on my point of view on buying a home.

Context is what I believe in most, and sometimes it can get lost in the Instagram clips I post or my showmanship on stage.

Here’s what I think about the American dream, and buying a home in your 20s – 40s.

Why the American dream is vulnerable

Buying a home might have been a great idea for most people many decades ago. Maybe it worked in the 50s and 60s (like college) — the problem is, it’s 2019 now. Things aren’t the same as they used to be anymore.

To clarify, I don’t think that these are reasons why people should rent or why they shouldn’t buy homes. These are just my observations as to why I think the American dream is vulnerable.

Here’s why the old American dream of buying a home is vulnerable:

You can’t prove home ownership to others

Industries like fashion will never fall because they’re predicated on expression and showing off to other people. Same thing with luxury cars. If you’re driving a Lamborghini, you’re signaling a lot of things about yourself to other people, and people love doing that for a variety of reasons.

With a home, other people have no idea whether you rent or own the home. People don’t know if you have a mortgage on that property or if you’re just paying rent. Your “status” is just predicated on whether or not you’re “in” the home.

People can live in fancier places if they rent

If people rent instead of buy, they’ll be able live in nicer places.

Instead of using that capital on a downpayment, they can use that money to pay higher rent for a better place.

Even if it is a better investment to own a home over the long term, it’s just human nature to “keep up with the Jonses.” It’s human nature to want to “peacock” and prove their worth to other people, and staying in a fancy place is one way to do that.

Student loans are going to tear down the economy

There are so many kids all over America who are in a ton of student loan debt. They’re not getting the kind of salaries they need to pay off that debt, and on top of that, they’re borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a home.

The banks are lending money to people like that all across the country.

It’s just math – that kind of lending is not sustainable.

What many 20-40 year olds get wrong

If you’re in your 20s, 30s, or 40s and you’re entrepreneurially minded like I am, I don’t think the best strategy for you is to buy a home.

We live in a culture now where it’s almost normal to liquidate most or all of your net worth to put a down payment on a home. Instead of that, I believe more entrepreneurs should continue renting for longer, and use all that up front capital to go on the offense in their business. There are just much better ways to use that capital.

If you rent instead of buy, you could take that $20,000 – $200,000 down payment and put it to work in ads or your business. You could use that capital to grow more aggressively.

With the way Instagram ads are underpriced right now, I almost wish I didn’t own a home so could spend more money on ads.

Once you go on the offense using that capital, you could buy your home later at 39, 42, or 52 years old. I have a funny feeling that home would be a lot nicer, and also wouldn’t take them away from the opportunities that they want to pursue.

Too many entrepreneurial people in their 20s – 40s are taking cash out of their business to put towards buying a home, and it’s limiting the amount of success they could have.

I’m not saying that “no one should buy a home” or that buying a home is a “bad investment.” It could very well be a great investment. I also don’t think that my opinion on what a small percentage of Americans should do with their money would impact the value I always try to bring to realtors and agents in the real estate industry.

I just think that people who want to go on the offense should use their capital to do that.

Over time,  I think more and more people will do it.

7 Tips for Dealing With Anxiety

Mental health and dealing with anxiety are topics I’m incredibly passionate about.

Even though we have it so good in 2019, suicide rates are up. And a lot of people feel anxious and unhappy in their day-to-day lives.

Sometimes, the answer is really just to see a professional. But if you’re feeling anxiety that’s not a result of an actual medical illness, here are some mental shifts you can use to get past it:

1. Spend 24 hours looking for the “good”

I really believe that you find what you’re looking for.

If you’re looking for negativity in the world — people to disagree with, people to blame, people doing wrong to one another — you’ll find it. I see so many people in this position on social media and in real life. If you’re looking for negativity, the world will start to look “glass half empty” real quick.  

But if you look for positivity and kindness, you’ll find that too. There are thousands of random acts of kindness people do every single day. There are tons of people who see the “opportunities” instead of the losses.

Just go to Twitter search. There’s literally so much of it.

There are plenty of things going wrong in the world, but there are plenty of things going right too and how you look at it makes a massive difference. I feel that many of you look for negativity and the “bad” – that’s why you see so many problems in your day-to-day.

If you’re reading this article, I challenge you to spend the next 24 hours looking for the good.

Watch what it does to your outlook on life