Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 51

What to do After You Graduate College

I’m scared. I’m scared because I know exactly what happens around this month every year. There are so many of you who have graduated (or will be graduating) and still have no idea what you want to do with your life. And you know what? That’s ok! Most people don’t. You shouldn’t be stressed about that. What I’m scared about is that you don’t realize that you are entering the greatest 5-year window of your life.

If you are 22 years old, regardless if you’re graduating from college or not, there are two things you should keep in mind. The first is to acknowledge that you are entering some of the greatest years of your life. The second is that this is the moment when you don’t go practical—don’t take the “safe” route. This is NOT the time to get the job Mom always wanted you to get. This is NOT the time to try to maximize as much money as you can make so you can save up to buy a sick ride. This IS the time, however, to realize that you have a five-year window (three for some, eight for others) for you to attack the life that you want to win.

Something else that scares me is the naïveté of what the world is like after graduation. I am by no means saying that “winning” is going to be easy. It’s not. What you’ve been doing for the last 16 years is easy. Classes and school are easy because they’re structured. The world? It’s hard. It changes every day.

The fact is that the world is going to be exactly the way it is going to be without regard to the way you thought it would be, think it should be, or whatever big plans you’ve already made for yourself. Your parents might have already told you it’ll be one way, but they don’t really know. They just want you to do what they think is best, which usually means avoiding big risks. But, what you need to recognize is that now is the time when you can afford to take those risks.

If you recently graduated, you are entering the greatest 5-year window of your life.

What I wrote above is going to contradict what I’m about to tell you now. Even though the real world is hard, the next five years of your life will be the opposite. These will be the best and easiest years of your life because it’s your chance to attack what you love and try out what you want to do. Why? Because you don’t have all the baggage.

Look, I understand you might have college loans. I respect that financial debt is a real hardship. You may have to live up to the expectations of your parents. That’s mentally hard—fake hard. You may have many other obligations, but this time is exactly when you can live with 4 roommates in a basement and eat fast food.

Most of you don’t have children yet. Most of you are not married and have not yet promised your life to someone else. So, this is the time before the world has sucked out all your hopes and dreams. You still have this window—the next five years to help you achieve your goals.

Time is the number one asset and now is when you have the most flexibility to use it.

I’m sure some people will leave comments about their loans or whatever other financial obligations they might have. Again, I respect that. But one way or the other, that loan is going to be there whether you build something for yourself or not in these five years. I truly believe that you can wake up on your 26th or 27th birthday, start being practical, and still pay off your loans and any other debts. While I’m sure those obligations might have compounded interest, leaving the opportunity of “going for it” in those five years (especially if you have entrepreneurial DNA) is a mistake and actually lacks practicality.

Yet, so many of you are so hungry for short term gains right after college. For example, you would rather take the job that maximizes your pay at $3,000 more a year, despite the fact that you would have enjoyed a lower paying job more suited for you. For what? For a new iPhone? A slightly nicer apartment? You get to live life one time.

(By the way, you can work at night! This is when you put in your 18 hours a day to make the life that you want happen. That’s practicality.)

Promise me, all you youngsters who are reading this, that you understand that the land grab for happiness starts right now. You don’t have to worry about getting “that job.” What you should do is go and travel and learn. Go and start that business you always wanted. Travel with those three friends and start that band. This is the time to be massively risk oriented. There will be plenty of time to be risk averse later. Now is the time to understand what’s actually happening and map your behavior to something that will impact you for the next 80 years of your life.

Promise me, youngsters reading this, that you understand that the land grab for happiness starts right now.

When you are in your early 20s, this is when you can grind at your highest level because you don’t have the baggage that comes later in life. It’s harder for the 42 years olds to listen to this advice. At that point, you can’t just wake up tomorrow and say “let’s go” because little Sally has soccer practice and you have a million other things that are holding you down.

If you are lucky enough to be graduating today without any clue what about what you want to do with your future, no one’s ever been luckier than you. Please recognize that.

The post What to do After You Graduate College appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

How Important is a Logo to Your Business?

I always get bombarded with questions whenever a big company changes its logo, especially in the tech space. I’ve gotten questions about Medium, Uber, and now it’s about Instagram. I usually don’t even respond because I don’t have a lot of emotion for the question.

I can understand why people like to talk about it. It’s fun. Whether you like the changes or you don’t, it’s entertaining to argue and debate. It’s like when the logo of your favorite sports team changes. But here’s the thing: If anyone actually cares about Instagram’s design changes, then they don’t realize that Instagram is a business and not a museum.

In the context that I come from, if you want a piece of art that will debated for the rest of time, then a design really matters. But, from a business standpoint, the change has zero impact on Instagram’s bottom line. Of course, certain changes can have a huge impact on business. For example, it would be majorly impactful if the design of the UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) was altered to try and make people stay on the app longer and engage more frequently.

The logo and changing colors in the app don’t have as much impact.

I’m not poo-pooing design. I am not saying that design changes should never be addressed. Sometimes, it can actually affect the publicity, perception, and the stock prices of the brand. But most of the time, the discussion is just the press over-engaging with it. While a logo is an important part to a brand’s identity, it’s not everything.

People don’t realize that Instagram is a business and not a museum.

Personally, I don’t love Instagram’s new logo and I didn’t love Uber’s or Medium’s new logos either. That’s one man’s subjective opinion. For the first week since Instagram’s swap, I’ve noticed I have been using the app less. This is likely due to the fact that I got used to the original logo and I’m not used to looking for this new one on my phone. Please keep in mind that I am just a focus group of one and my experience may be the opposite case for others. Net net, after about 7-8 days I was back to my normal Instagram usage.

What’s important to remember is that a logo (and even a company’s ) will always be trumped by the quality of the product. For example, I have friends who say, “I feel bad about Uber’s choices in doing x,y,z” as they are currently riding in an Uber.

I’m a big fan of actions over words. People can hate the logo but use the product even more today than they did before the change. It’s like all those people who say they are going to move to Canada if they don’t like the next President. I have yet to meet one person who actually moved when they said they would because Bush or Obama was elected. A lot of people like to say things like this on social media, but I care what people actually do versus what they say. As a matter of fact, this is one the arbitrages I like to play the most.

Here’s the thing, whether you’re a startup or a PepsiCo of the world, it doesn’t matter what I think of your logo or the name of your company. Maybe I was being Old Man McGee over Instagram’s change because I was just used to the other one. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. If a company executes on the product, the service, the narrative, the user experience, and the many other things that go into a successful business, the easiest thing to get over is a logo. If your product sucks, your logo design means nothing. Execution is the end result.

If you liked my answer to this question, check out this episode of The #AskGaryVee Show:

The post How Important is a Logo to Your Business? appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Negotiation Strategies, Logo Changes & the Apparel Business | #AskGaryVee Episode 205

On this episode, I talk about design changes, what I would do with $3,000 to build a business, and… do I like being challenged?

Questions Answered on This Episode

2:44 – I want to snap & vlog my work, but I’m mostly sitting at a desk on my phone & email. How can I add variety in content?
5:51 – What are some of your best tips for getting the deal done and making sure what it is mutually beneficial for both parties?
8:30 – How do design changes to apps that cause a negative stir affect brand image or usage? Or does it even?
11:48 – You challenge old every day, how do you feel when challenged from younger – professionally?
14:54 – If you were to build a company today from scratch, at the beginning stages of your company, what would your top three first moves be? Keep in mind you only have $3000.

Resources from this Episode

Let’s Get Into The Shoooooow Montage

Question of the Day

What have you been up to?

The post Negotiation Strategies, Logo Changes & the Apparel Business | #AskGaryVee Episode 205 appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

One of the Few Things I Complain About: Complaining

I hate complaining. This advice is for the complainers. I’m not upset with you if you play video games all day or watch Netflix all night. I’m mad at you if you’re doing that and you’re baffled by why you’re not making more money and living your dream. If you’re happy and content, you’ve won. But if you’re complaining, it means you haven’t won yet and you should stop complaining and do something about it instead.

Someone I look up to most in the world (tied with you, Dad) is my mother. Hands down, one of the most intriguing thing about my mother is her inability to complain. It’s probably one of my favorite traits that she’s passed down to me. I find it incredibly attractive and it’s a quality I adore in my wife as well. It’s even something I try to instill in my children because I think complaining is ugly.

Personally, I don’t complain. (Except about the New York Jets—I complain about them a lot.) If you look at my tweets historically, maybe there’s two or three complaints. You’ll never catch me complaining about not seeing my kids enough or about not having enough leisure time because if I had an issue with those things, I would either do something about it or at least recognize that I have the ability to do something about it.

There’s no shifting into the complain zone when I encounter an issue I’m not happy with. I’m very “put your head down” when it comes to problem solving. It’s about assessing the problem, figuring it out, and then going directly back on the offense. Complaining is defense.

To me, the only thing you that is acceptable to complain about are the things that you can’t control like the unfortunate health of yourself or your loved ones or some other unforeseen tragedies.

I want to clarify, just to set the record straight: If you’re complaining, about anything, then you need to audit yourself. You can’t just go watch House of Cards. You can’t play ball all day. You can’t go to ballet shows. You can’t sit there and ponder the what-ifs like: “What if I had rich parents” or “what if I grew up in a better neighborhood” or “what if I made that investment” or “what if I want to that school.” You gotta work to fix it.

There are so many people reading this right now who are complaining. People love to complain because it’s easy. Executing to fix those problems, on the other hand, is hard.

Look, I understand that many of you have student loans and mortgages and a rough time working two jobs while trying to spend time with your family. But, are you happy? If you are, then you’ve won because you don’t actually have anything to complain about. The real problem is that there are so many millions of people who are unhappy and are just sitting around complaining and then just playing Madden for hours or having their 18th dinner with their other “complaining friend” and just complaining back and forth together. They’re not actually trying to solve the very things they’re complaining about.

Complaining is easy. Executing is hard.

In today’s world, we’re so ingrained to expect instant gratification and that our problems can be solved with minimal effort. Patience is real and so is hard work. Sometimes, that hard work might not even be as terrible as you think. Need more money? We live in a 24-7 world where you can make money in your underwear. Think about it.

If there’s one thing I want you to learn from reading this, it’s that complaining has zero value. Looking at the negative, seeing the glass as half empty, and complaining are some of the biggest wastes of time a human being can engage in. Instead, tackle the problem head on. Assess it, see what you can do about it, and then do just that. “Woe is me” is truly one of the biggest things that can stand in the way of success both professionally and personally.

The post One of the Few Things I Complain About: Complaining appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Fiverr & How to Become a Successful Freelancer | #AskGaryVee Episode 204

On this episode, we bring Fiverr to the house!

Questions Answered on This Episode

7:19 – How can I charge more than other sellers in my market without losing revenue?
9:43 – I have a really hard time letting go of my job. I don’t like it, but I’ve been there for so long. I have loans, 2 kids to support, a deep fear or leaving the security, and I’m not sure what it takes to make it as a solopreneur. Any tips on how to release the fear and decide whether to take the risk?
12:41 – I understand both are important, but if I only had to pick one, should I focus on content marketing or paid ads?
14:23 – As a copywriter/fiction writer, a lot of work goes uncredited or remains private to buyers. What’s the best way for me to showcase my business without practical examples of my work?
18:08 – What would have been your first gig if you were a seller on Fiverr and why?

Guests on this Episode

David Manela, Chief Revenue Officer at Fiverr
Adam Swart, Sr. Director of Marketing at Fiverr: @swartretort on Twitter

Resources from this Episode

Fiverr’s Small Business Makeover for NY, SF, and Chicago businesses: Fiverr.com/SmallBizMakeover

Question of the Day

For those of you not big online and e-commerce, what is your number one pain entering the online world? How can Fiverr help you? If you are online, what other services can Fiverr provide you?

The post Fiverr & How to Become a Successful Freelancer | #AskGaryVee Episode 204 appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

My Thesis on How to Handle Feedback

Haters are a fact of life. Not everyone is going to be a fan of you or the content you put out. This issue can be really tough to handle, especially for the 12-22 year olds out there, as you are building your confidence and self-esteem. But, even if you’re 45 or 62, there are so many people not doing what they love because they’re worried about what other people are thinking, saying, or will say (particularly close family and friends).

Personally, I’m so grateful that I don’t give a crap what anyone thinks about me while equally caring what they have to say at the same time. It’s incredibly important to me what my employees and inner circle think of me—it helps me gain self-awareness. However, it’s stunning how much I’ll push back if any of them try to impose their will on me. That’s an important distinction. I’m very open, empathetic, and quite self-aware of what people think of me and pander to it, react to it, and adjust to it. Most importantly, I understand it (both pro and con). But, there’s a difference between someone’s opinion of you and someone imposing their opinion on how you should operate.

This outlook allowed me to navigate junior high and high school without submitting to peer pressure. I honestly thought, on some level, that I was better than everybody. I didn’t act that way. If you ask my classmates today, I don’t think any of them would say that I walked around like I was cooler than them. (That would have been hard as a 4’11” freshman, who was being made fun of for not being 5 feet tall yet.) It was all about how I felt internally. I felt, inside, that I was better than them, and it gave me the confidence to do what I thought was important to me.

If you’re 15 now, you’ll be stunned how little you care when you’re 51 or 91. You’ll be shocked how little you care about other people’s opinions—this includes your parents, siblings, and even your children. If I could wish anything besides health on people, it would be the unbelievable happiness that comes along with self-belief and recognizing how it plays out. I’ve made my living by being confident in myself and my decisions (both in life and business, even when they are unpopular). Being confident can really pay off.

I like when people put me down. I get off on it. Nothing is more interesting to me than having to prove all of you wrong. I love the people that think I’m a “huckster” or that I have some “hidden agenda” or that I “won’t be that great” or that “I think too highly of myself” or that “my dad had a liquor store and that’s the only reason I’m successful” or that “I got lucky”… the list goes on.

Nothing is more interesting to me than having to prove all of you wrong.

I see negative comments all the time. I’ll be honest, as confident as I am, they always feel bad. No matter how many times I can answer your questions, snaps, and emails, there are always people who come back at me with so much venom after one less than perfect piece of content. Do you know how much it affects me when people emphatically drill me for an episode of DailyVee or #AskGaryVee that they don’t think is up to par?

As I like to say: You are only as good as your last at bat. I just always pick the bat up again and keep swinging.

A negative reaction might sting at first, but I recognize that I’m never going to get 100% positive comments on any piece of content I post. You can’t please everyone.

If anything, I encourage my haters to judge and underestimate me because that’s the greatest driver I have. It’s how I’m wired and it makes me want to push back even more. I know most people are not wired like I am, but I only hope that through my energy, I can motivate some of you to at least start thinking this way.

Feedback works both ways. For me, reading your comments is my oxygen. It makes me incredibly happy when I see comments about your success because of the the content that I put out. I love it when you can care a little bit less about what your coworker, older brother, or naysayer has to say. Confidence is infectious.

Bottom line (and it’s tough to hear): there’s always someone who won’t like you. But, at the end of the day, it’s not going to matter. If you learn something from this article, know that you have to believe in yourself first. And you do that by ignoring the opinions that your parents, teachers, friends, coworkers, etc. have. But, you have to respect those opinions at the same time because it allows you to gain self-awareness and perspective. Just don’t let anyone impose their way on you. This mental framework will allow you to become the best possible version of yourself.

If you need some more advice, check out my one hack to increase self-awareness below:

The post My Thesis on How to Handle Feedback appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Uber and Airbnb Never Should Have Happened the Way They Did

Uber and Airbnb are two companies that, I believe, should not have been started the way that they did. No, this isn’t a rant about their venture capital funding or their CEOs’ business decisions. This is a post about understanding and innovating in the market space so you don’t go out of business.

For example, in the last half-decade, we, as a society, have gone through an enormous cultural shift with the onset of the Internet, social media, and mobile devices. Everything from calculating your tip to ordering on-demand cars is now at scale—at our fingertips— and the market has taken hold of that notion. When these technological shifts happen, too many business get left in the dust because they’re too comfortable with their current successes. By this, I mean they’re not reacting to the market and looking for ways to innovate in their current industry. They become complacent with what they already have.

I wake up every morning and think about how I can put myself out of business. By that, I mean I think about every way another business can disrupt my profit margins and my current successes. By thinking about what they could do, I can do it myself and innovate my own business. Whether it’s my agency VaynerMedia, Wine Library, or a business I’m just thinking about starting, being on the right side of the market is always going to be at the top of my mind. Why? Because as an entrepreneur, I’m in the business of being historically correct and putting myself out of business is better than letting someone else do it for me.

Why were Garret Camp (the founder of StumbleUpon) and Travis Kalanick (founder of Red Swoosh), two people outside of the transportation business, able to create such a successful company that’s putting taxi cabs out of business? How did two broke roommates (Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia) figure out they could rent out their San Francisco loft and start competing with Hilton? The answer was simple: they innovated where their traditional rivals didn’t. They were innovators that saw the white space in the evolving internet marketplace.

What really should have happened was that the owner of a taxi company should have seen the opportunities that Uber saw. Hilton should have started AirBnB way before a startup realized there was an opening in the market.

Too many business get left in the dust because they’re too comfortable with their current successes.

And if you think about it, Uber and Airbnb aren’t just two “unicorns” that took away opportunities from the industry veterans. The faster your realize how fluid and quick the market is, the faster you can put yourself in a position for upside. AAA did it when they started offering roadside assistance to drivers. On-demand, same-day courier services like UberRush and Amazon Prime Now took opportunities away from FedEx. Gmail took away game-changing, global communication from the U.S. Postal Service. It’s been always been happening.

Whether you’re looking to start a new business or you’re in an industry you think will never go stale, you have to be a innovator in your market. Why? Because that’s the only way to get ahead of the curve.

I’m going to end this article with two ideas where I think there’s plenty of room for innovation. I don’t know what the exact execution for each one would be as these are “just for fun,” but you can’t deny the potential they present.

1. Fast Food for Self-driving Cars

Right now, I think fast food restaurants like Sonic and Burger King should start joint-venturing with a motor company, like Toyota, or Google to start the process of being the food provider for self-driving cars. Think about it: when someone takes a 45-minute commute to work, they’re going to want to eat breakfast. They’d have their breakfast right there, ready to go.

I think in the next ten to twenty years, self-driving cars are going to be more popular and this would be a great way to jump on the bandwagon early. Moving restaurants—literally eating on the go. It would be a lot nicer to see one of these fast food companies get that business instead of being put out of business by an upstart who realized the potential right now.

2. Smart Pants

You’ve probably already heard me rant about smart, wearable technology before, but it’s still something I’m hot on. I think clothing lines, like Levi’s, should start putting in the research and development to own the smart-pants market.

These pants would help you keep track of weight loss or monitor your walking behavior. For example, let’s say you sprained your ankle and your pants notice that you’re walking funny. Your pants text you to let you know that the way you’re walking is actually hurting your back and help you correct it before it turns into something more serious. In a world where everything is becoming smart, a company like Levi’s, should be looking at innovations in the marketplace like this versus another upstart taking the market fifteen years from now.

Put yourself out of business because it’s way better than letting someone else do it for you.

I’d really like for all of you to think about your business right now and imagine how you can put yourself out of business. It may lead to your biggest innovation.

The post Uber and Airbnb Never Should Have Happened the Way They Did appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

For Tamara and All The Other Amazing Mothers Out There

Talking about my mother, Tamara, is always a very emotional topic for me. There is not one person who knows me, even just a little bit, who is confused about where my mom sits in my life. I care for my mother in such an incredible way. In fact, I’ve been thinking about writing a book called Perfectly Parented just because I feel like she raised me in the most amazing way possible.

Mom, you are literally the most amazing person I know.

Let me tell you about my mom. She grew up in the Soviet Union in the late 50s, 60s, and 70s. For those who are unaware, the Soviet Union was an extremely unhappy place back then as it was facing enormous cultural and political issues. A lot of our family members were killed and I couldn’t imagine the hardships and heartbreak they faced. She lost her own mother at 5 years old.The struggles that she and my grandfather had to endure were incredibly intense and I can’t imagine how strong they had to be.

She got married at a young age, having me by 20 years old, and then picked up and moved to America with her amazingly courageous husband and his family. Her brother went to Israel and my grandfather, unfortunately, passed away before he could move.

By the age of 25, she was left without either of her parents. She had just moved to a country where she couldn’t speak the language and now had two young children to care for (my sister, Liz, was born when we first came to the U.S.). All the while, my father Sasha, was trying to “make it” for our family by working 15-hours a days.

In those 25 years, my mother dealt with so much adversity–more than I have ever dealt with in my own life. It’s not even close and I’m embarrassed to even try to compare. And you know what the most attractive part of it is? She faces it all without a complaint. That’s how incredible she is.

Ever since I was born, my mother has executed on some of the greatest parenting work of all time. I believe she parents at a level that every single mother in the world should aspire to. At that young of an age, she navigated her family in their transition to America, supported her hardworking husband, and became the emotional bedrock for her children and extended family.

She was (and still is) the perfect mother to me, Liz, and AJ. She so skillfully employed empathy, self-awareness, and gratitude at the highest level (all the things I try to encourage others to do). She was able to map and reverse engineer all of her children. Even though each of us had very different personalities and needs, she was able to figure out the best for each of us.

It’s so easy for me not to get a big head because of how much I recognize that my success is 100% attributable to how I was raised. It’s not hard for me to stay grounded. My mother taught me how to believe in myself the most, while still allowing me to recognize the value in others. She always supported and cheered me on for the right things, but never felt the need to award me with “8th place trophies.” She downplayed the things that she knew didn’t matter as much for me (like school) while also teaching me to respect them at the same time (i.e., I couldn’t run wild in school or curse my teachers). And when I did do something wrong, she gave the appropriate repercussions. She gave me the perfect mix of freedom, support, acknowledgement and, most importantly, was able to see my strengths and encouraged me to play to them.

I cherish you so much, Mom.

My ability and desire to bring value to people–to my audience, my employees, my family, the world–comes from my mom.

She is an incredible woman who continues to inspire me every single day. I wish she wasn’t so shy (because of her accent and her DNA) because she would provide enormous amounts of value to all of you like she did for me, Liz, and AJ. If you think I provide any value, imagine what the person who built me is like.

I just really love you so, so, so much, Mom. I just want everyone to know.

The post For Tamara and All The Other Amazing Mothers Out There appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

The Customer is Always Right as Long as You Want Their Money

For some context, I grew up in a retail store where we would have 100s, and eventually 1000s, of people come through the store every day and buy product. Transaction after transaction, I heard the phrase “the customer is always right.” I also heard it on the news and television and who the heck knows where else. Oddly, it’s a motto that my dad never imposed on me, but I slowly understood what it meant and it’s something that I’ve always believed in. It was a mantra that became the backbone for Wine Library’s growth.

Even when I had a customer who was irrational, unprofitable, or downright emotionally difficult, there was something that was inside of my gut, my DNA, that never allowed me to waiver from “the customer is always right.” It’s an attitude that I practiced and it’s a belief that I thought was pretty commonplace in the sales world.

Over the last few years growing Vaynermedia, I have observed a behavior that has really taken me aback. I have seen it with some of my employees (luckily only a few), many of our other agency partners, platform partners, representatives from the Facebooks and Twitters of the world, television media buyers, and really the entire ecosystem of the agencies that service the biggest brands; there is an enormous amount of complaining about the customer. These complaints about the client range from “unfair deadlines,” to “too many requests,” to “emotional swings,” to “always changing their minds.” And those are just a few.

I find this fascinating because as a client service provider, whether you’re the 600+ digital agency with Fortune 500 clients or selling a bottle of wine to a local customer, you are more than welcome and more than capable of firing your customer. Yes, firing.

What I mean by this is that the customer is always right as long as you expect and want their money. If you don’t care about their money or their business, then the customer can absolutely be wrong. For example, I’ve fired clients when it’s negatively affected the people who are my “family” (my company) that I value more than the client itself.

But, if you’re asking someone to pay you money that you want, they have the right to put demands on your time and resources and have you pander to them. On the other hand, you’re more than welcome to not accept those terms. But, accepting those terms and then crying about it has become a massive vulnerability in the B2B space.

The customer is always right as long as you expect and want their money.

I’m writing this article very simply for two sets of people: (1) for the 7-8 employees at VaynerMedia who I think cry too much about customer requests and don’t realize there are 50 betters ways of handling the situation other than crying about it. You’re more resourceful than that.

(2) For the rest of you who consume this article, you are more than welcome to not do business with anyone you don’t want to, especially if their demands are not worth the time and effort. But, realize that you’ll have to deal with the ramifications of what they’ll say or what will happen in return.

You have to think hard about it. Sometimes there’s value in retaining a client or customer and you just have to overlook that one difficult project or sale.

Before you complain, remember that the one who pays has the leverage.

The post The Customer is Always Right as Long as You Want Their Money appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Why Playing in the Dirt Matters in Building Your Business Empire

Most people suck at marketing. Why? Because they’re too focused on the big picture and their end game (what I call the “clouds”). And I get it—the dream is what drives you. It’s fun to be romantic about the clouds. The clouds are something I massively believe in. I love to think about the day I’ll own the New York Jets. But, the problem arises when marketers forget about the other half of the equation: the dirt—the skills, the talent, and the grind that gets you there.

You see this all the time with marketers who want to sell using the tactics that have traditionally worked for them. They get too lazy and complacent and don’t take the time to learn how a new app works or where the market is going. They think that just because they have honed their craft once, they’re entitled to their clouds.

What people don’t understand is that the dirt is important because, unless you actually have the skills, neither your reputation nor what you did the day before is going to keep a business successful. You’re only as good as your last at bat. Your success is going to be predicated on the dirt, which comes from two things: (1) the work ethic to get your hands dirty and (2) the experience you get from doing it.

Here’s the thing: if you’re not constantly working on your craft—if you get too romantic about doing things how they’ve “always been done”—you’re going to lose. You need to be a practitioner.

Your success is going to be predicated on the dirt.

Think about what happened when Snapchat came out in 2011. Most marketers and business professionals were either afraid of it or saw zero potential for it to be a marketing platform. Why? Because so many headlines read about how it was the “sexting app” and how “disappearing photos” couldn’t be used to market anything. How would a video that’s only visible once for 10 second compare to anything on television or an ad in a magazine? (If you’ve read my thoughts on Snapchat, you know the answer.)

It amazes me how television commercials act the same way (shows up and then disappears), yet marketers would rather pay millions in television ad spend over Snapchat videos. They were so digitally entrenched and hung up on “everything lasting forever” that they forgot how branding works. They took the time to read the headlines, but didn’t put in the time to use the app and understand the new platform themselves.

So if you want to learn how to use Snapchat, or any skill for that matter, it’s going to take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 years to actually get it. Most marketers aren’t even applying one minute of dedicated practitionership.

It blows my mind how many of you think you can become successful without being a practitioner. I wouldn’t have the audacity to think I could walk into an unfamiliar industry and immediately be successful. Fashion, selling cars, whatever it may be, I’d probably suck at it at the start. But, over a five-year period, I know I could be successful because I put in the five years to really learn it by doing it. You can’t be successful by just saying it—you have to have the talent to learn and also be willing to put in the work.

Personally, I love working in the dirt. I believe I love dirt more than most people. (I was even in .) I love working on my craft because you can’t cheat the work ethic required and there’s no substitution for it.

Practitionership and taking the time to hone your craft is why I respect comedians who go to small venues even during their prime. Take Seinfeld or Chris Rock, for example. Even after all their success, they continue to test out material in small clubs in middle America. No glory, just craft. That’s real dirt—never getting too fancy to forget what got you there in the first place.

The dirt is never getting too fancy to forget what got you there in the first place.

The bottom line is that if you want to be a better marketer, you need to put in the work or you’re going to get left in the dust by those who do. It means putting in the effort to really learn and understand the up-and-coming “fads” and trends. It means downloading whatever new app is exploding the market and taking the time to really understand it. Sometimes, it even means dedicating a few years to learn a new skill. You become successful by being willing to put in the work and then actually executing on it. By living in the dirt, you can get to the clouds.

If you want to hear more about the dirt, check out Episode 033 of #DailyVee below.

The post Why Playing in the Dirt Matters in Building Your Business Empire appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.