Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 54

There’s No Right Time to Hustle

As someone who works 18-hour days, a bunch of you ask if I’m a morning person or look for advice on how to make your mornings more productive. Here’s the thing: I think being a “morning person” is such an overrated phrase. Just because you’re up early doesn’t make you more productive than anybody else. Even the idea that the morning is valued more than any other part of the day is insane. Yeah, you might do your best work in the morning, that’s great. But guess what? Some people work best at 3am, 5pm, 11:58pm. It’s just another one of those things you need to be self-aware about.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a morning person. I sleep like a brick and it takes a lot to get me up. And I mean a lot. So, it’s hard for me to wake up from a deep, deep sleep. It sucks and I get why many of you find it hard to become a “morning person.”

Recently though, I have been waking up a lot better because I’ve been working out and eating better (thank you, Mike). I usually wake up around 5-6am to work out for an hour. But even then, it’s hard because it doesn’t always happen—I travel a lot and my calendar gets chaotic and sometimes I just have to get sleep. Outside of taking my phone into the bathroom to poop every morning, there’s no regular routine to my morning schedule.

But, there are two consistent things that help motivate me to get out of bed in the morning. One is very noble and one is very selfish. The noble one is that I’m very aware that people—my loved ones, my business partners, my employees—depend on me to get up and do what I do. For example, I love that I get to create content that serves as your blueprint to your success. The selfish one is that I want to accomplish things. I want to build the biggest agency of all time. I want to buy the New York Jets. I want to hustle. I want to win.

“Hustling” doesn’t mean waking up at the crack of dawn and exhausting yourself until you collapse. The truth is, it’s not about how much you sleep or don’t sleep. It’s what you do while you’re awake that matters. If you work hard and smart while you’re awake and give it all you’ve got in those hours, then you’re hustling. If I am working on a project or in a meeting or on a phone call in the car, I’m 100% full-throttle on. And don’t get me wrong: I’m the same way when it comes to my downtime. Rest time is for rest.

It’s not about how much you sleep, it’s what you do while you’re awake.

The reality is that there’s no benefit to being a “morning person” and there’s no right or wrong time to deploy your energy against the things that matter the most. Far too many people focus and waste tons of time and energy on the things that don’t map to what they (or their business) want to accomplish. I implore my community to stop worrying about the small things—the minutia that aren’t part of your clouds and dirt. You can hack your morning routine every damn day till you get it right, but in the end, it’s all about how much you can get done while you have the right energy to do it. Morning or night, hustle is putting it all on the line, and that my friends is available to all of us at any damn time of day.

Has Facebook Achieved What AOL Could Have a Generation Ago?

Today, Facebook opens up Instant Articles to all publishers. If you don’t know, Instant Articles are Facebook’s new way to natively load articles within the app using an adapted RSS feed. These native articles, which have a lightning bolt in the top right corner, load in half a second—10x faster than if user was to click out to a website. From what I’ve seen so far, they really do load instantaneously and have a great layout and user experience. And if you’re paying attention, you’ll understand that this is their third push for native media consumption: first photos, then videos, and now written content.

Mark Zuckerberg announced native Instant Articles as a feature update about a year ago and Facebook has been slowly rolling out and improving the product ever since. Facebook started with the biggest publishers in the game: BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, New York Times, Washington Post. BuzzFeed has seen their Instant Articles engage more people than any of their standard link posts and Gawker’s founder tweeted that instant articles boosted daily uniques to their website.

Stats… After Gawker properties live on Facebook Instant Articles, US UVs up to 4.7m, from earlier norm of 4m. pic.twitter.com/TB1GTGt9ss

— Nick Denton (@nicknotned) March 1, 2016

However, as of today, Instant Articles become available to anybody with a Facebook page and a blog. This is a key opportunity for small blogs and publications to get ahead of the game and really understand how best to use the new product. For example, not only can publishers create and distribute mobile-friendly content, but it also allows the ability for publishers to monetize the ad space within each article. Publishers will be able to directly sell their own display ads and keep 100% of the revenue and utilize Facebook’s Audience Network, their programmatic ad network (which considering the user-data Facebook has, is killer). Of course, just like any other update, there will be winners and losers depending on how you play the game. It’s up to you to test and figure out what works best for you.

But when I really look at Instant Articles, and the other new updates I’m sure that they’ll announce today at their F8 conference, I’m asking myself one question: Has Facebook been able to achieve what AOL could have a generation ago? By that I mean:

Has Facebook become a layer on top of the Internet itself?

Let me explain. If you think about our behavior on AOL in the early to mid 90’s, people never really left AOL to go on the world-wide-web. After they logged in with dial-up, not only did they have email and instant messaging, but they were also on a page that provided them with (slightly curated) news, weather, videos, images, games, and articles. Users had no reason to leave the AOL hub to explore the Internet on their own. Sound familiar?

If Facebook is able to pull off this move from a media standpoint, they will be the layer of medium consumption above the Internet itself. Think about it: now instead of going to Time, Inc., or Sports Illustrated, you’re consuming through and in Facebook’s native environment. There’s no reason to leave Facebook’s app at all.

Having an all-native interface that’s overlaid on top of the world-wide-web is the ultimate ambition for an internet company. It’s an ambition that nobody thought was going to be possible after AOL lost its foothold in the last decade. Facebook is dangerously close to being able to pull it off. If Zucks was able to acquire Snapchat 18 months ago like he wanted to, and if they were to developed an OTT (over-the-top) network that competed with Netflix, Facebook would basically be the anointed winner of the entire Internet.

Build a Business, Not a Financial Machine

Today, there’s a complete disrespect for what it takes to build a business. Too many people think they can become an entrepreneur overnight and establish a real business in a 1-2 year window, but it’s just not realistic.

And I get it, because that’s what’s portrayed in the media we see every day. With Shark Tank, The Social Network, and all of these “unicorns” with quick exits and huge payouts, I can understand why the sentiment is skewed. There’s a misconception that just because a VC or “angel” throws cash your way, hoping that you’re the next Zucks, that your startup is going to be successful. But that’s not how it works. It’s the market that decides what works and what doesn’t.

And what about the tens of thousands of other “businesses” we don’t hear about: Those that fell face-flat because they focused on building a toy on top of VC money rather than building an actual revenue-generating business? Where’s that discussion?

Too many “entrepreneurs” these days are focusing their day-to-day trying to raise their next round, siphoning their own equity out of the business to artificially inflate their company’s valuation rather than focusing on what’s actually important: Building a sustainable business.

They’re acting as financial arbitrage machines, not actual businesses. And that’s a problem.

I get hit up constantly—day in and day out—from people looking to raise money for the “earth shattering” and “disruptive” idea they have. You know what’s a disruptive idea? Building an actual business that has investors coming to you, not you chasing them.

You know what’s a disruptive idea? Building an actual business that has investors coming to you, not you chasing them.

When I started VaynerMedia I didn’t take any outside investment and, to this day, I continue to run on thin margins. Why? Because I’ve built, and continue to build an actual business. All of the money we brought in and continue to bring in is thrown back into the company and deployed against growth to accomplish the things that will get us to where we want to be. I have a north star and I’m working against it.

Why can I do that? Because I’m patient. Because I understand what it means to build a business. I’m not in it for the glory—for the watches, the nice house, the boats, the shit you see plastered on Instagram. I’m in it because I love the grind. And if you’re a true bred entrepreneur, that’s what should drive you too.

So, if you have the audacity to want to build something that’s going to set you up for the rest of your life, to provide you with the freedom of someone else not signing your paycheck, don’t disrespect what it takes to get there.

And to be fair, that disrespect isn’t necessarily your fault either. Mainstream media is painting a too-good-to-be-true picture of what entrepreneurship looks like and that needs to stop. With all of these hyperbolized headlines and “million dollar exits,” it’s imperative we redefine what it means to be a successful founder. Everyone wants to sell their business for millions because that’s the story that’s been told to us but it’s just not reality. The overselling of what it ‘means’ to be successful is what’s going to hurt most of you in the end and I’m going to do what I can to change that conversation.

So all I ask is that we reframe the discussion being had around entrepreneurship.There’s no short cuts. No magic formula that will make a successful business. No promise that VC funding will make your “earth-shattering” idea successful. There’s just the truth. And that’s hard work.

All Things Startup: 43North, Pitching, Investing & Scaling Your Company | #AskGaryVee Episode 197

On this episode, India is not here and I talk startup life! I answer a few questions about how to grow and scale a company and what the emerging market is like.

Questions Answered on This Episode

5:15 – How does a startup know when to add staff? What positions are most critical to line up first?
8:03 – what are 2 or 3 things that makes one pitch stand out from all the others?
11:25 – Ideas alone can only get you so far, but once you’ve gotten off the ground, what does an investor need to see to invest in a startup?
13:19 – For an early stage startup that just received $500k, $600k, or $1MM in capital, what are the critical things they should be looking to address?
16:19 – When assessing the scalability of a company, what are the things you look for?
19:43 – It seems like emerging startup markets are becoming increasingly viable. What are cities like Buffalo doing right now?

Guest List

Sam Blatz (my India replacement for this episode!)

Resources from This Episode

43North Competition Info
Painless1099
Plum.io
Energy Intelligence

The 50/50 of Snapchat Collaborations

If you follow me on Snapchat, you’ve probably noticed me asking you if I can take over your Snapchat stories. I’ve only done about 20 (although there’s been 500+ requests), but I wanted to take a second to talk about how they can be a great opportunity for your brand.

If you don’t know what I mean by a takeover, it’s basically a collaboration where you give me your Snapchat login, I jump into your account and snap myself saying “hey” or a giving a shout-out to your pals, and then I go ahead and push it out on your stories for all of your followers to see. It’s a ton of fun and gives great results on both ends.

Very rarely in life do you find true 50/50 value exchanges. Let me explain: In my world, I always try to go 51/49 (where I take 49% of the value and give you 51%). Most marketers try to grab a full 100%. It’s rare in the current landscape to have an even transfer of value, but that’s exactly what I’m seeing with these Snapchat takeovers. Both parties win big.

Snapchat story takeovers are an even transfer of value—both parties win big.

Because it’s 50/50, I’m truly grateful for those of you who have let me collaborate with you. It’s super valuable to me because I get exposure and face time with your followers. Whether your community is 8 or 8,000, I get to be right in front of them. At that moment when I show up in your story, something that has been primarily just you, I have their attention. Just like a custom geofilter, you’re putting your face in a place you know viewers are looking.

The other 50% of the value exchange, your 50%, is that it’s fun and, as a host, you get some great content out of it. A lot of you have been emailing me to do it because it’s a great inside joke for your friends or you want to me surprise someone with a shout-out. I totally get it. I’d love it if a Jets player took over mine (hint hint) because my buddies would love it.

I’m really excited to be doing more of these and I can really see these Snapchat takeovers taking off. Reach out to someone you think would be a cool guest on your story and who would bring value to your viewers.

Even if these don’t work for you or your brand, the opportunity for these takeovers is a valuable lesson. When you see an opportunity where both parties get great results, when a “1+1=3,” you need to go all in. These Snapchat collaborated takeovers are truly a “win + win = super win” for both parties and I highly suggest you try them out.

When a 1+1=3, you need to go all in.

Nonprofit Marketing: The Same Rules Apply

I want to set the record straight: Nonprofit marketing is not different from for-profit marketing. Plain and simple. The same rules you use for making a sale in any profit-seeking businesses apply in the nonprofit, fundraising, and awareness arenas. When it comes to communicating to an audience, whether it’s drawing on a Snapchat photo or captioning an Instagram video, the philosophy is the same for gaining the most attention for your brand. Whether you are running a nonprofit, a for-profit, or running to be the President of the United States, you need to understand where people’s attention is and storytell contextually to get the best results.

Full disclosure: I am on the board of Pencils of Promise and a Well Member for Charity Water, which has allowed me to see deep into the details of storytelling and conversion on the nonprofit side. In my opinion, both of these organizations are great examples of storytelling before the sale. It’s about putting out good content and engaging with people around these issues. They use social media to find both people who might already be interested, as well as those who are not familiar with their cause. There are several other not-for-profit organizations that I’m close to that do a great job, but I have also seen an enormous number of groups that do it wrong.

Just because you’re a nonprofit, doesn’t mean you only throw right hooks

In the nonprofit world, you probably have a little more permission to throw more right hooks more frequently than a regular business does. However, I am reluctant to even say that statement because the biggest problem in this world is that many nonprofits are only in the right hooking business. Too many of you in the nonprofit world feel that, because you represent a good cause, you’re entitled to throw those right hooks without recognizing the supply and demand of people’s attention.

A lot of people in the NGO world have the audacity to think there’s an obligation to right hook the wealthy or their dedicated supporters. I get 1000s of tweets a year from nonprofits asking me to donate without creating any level of relationship or context with me purely based on the assumption that, because they are doing good, they are entitled to my money or time. And then, when I don’t respond or don’t do anything about it, I get looked down upon and pinned as a “bad person.”

Respect your target audience.

The problem is that it’s noisy—there are so many organizations “doing good” and asking for donations, that each nonprofit needs to be far more respectful of their audience’s time and resources. It’s about a value exchange—you can’t just expect someone to donate to your cause without bringing value to them first. It’s not guilt tripping or relying on people feeling like they have to give. It’s an open, transparent conversation and dialogue. You need to respect your target audience.

How to bring value with jabs

Remember that you still need to jab in order to bring value and leverage your audience. That will give you the audacity to go in for your asks. When it comes to jabs, nonprofits have emotional advantages that for-profits do not. When you’re coming from a place of doing good in the world, nonprofits have an easier time approaching and connecting with their audience. However, just like a for-profit business, content has to be created in a thoughtful way. It has to be contextual, particularly if these are heavy topics. A lot of you then spend time thinking: How do we make this issue social and fun? You don’t.

What the content needs to be is educational while not being too complicated. If it is depressing, you don’t sugarcoat it, but instead focus on the true nature of the issue. Focus on storytelling and creating narratives in a meaningful and smart way. For example, a 45 second video needs to have the right tone of music behind it and the right visuals to fit the topic. When it comes to nonprofits, respecting your subject matter and making it contextual for the platform you choose are way more important than trying to make your content “dynamic” or “fun.”

There are a lot of mediums you can use to tell your story. For example, you can write white papers, create infographics, Slideshares, pictures, and quote cards to educate the market. You can also use Twitter, just like for-profits, as a listening tool to insert yourself into relevant conversations and bring value. The emergence and explosion of video on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram is an important development over the last 12 months that has given nonprofits far more opportunities to storytell.

Influencer marketing on Instagram and Snapchat is another tool nonprofits could be using to their advantage. I am not talking about reaching out to your donors, partners, and good friends to “Please tweet this out.” The ask should be smartly integrated into the content organically. What I mean is this: take into account how the influencer would normally put out content so that it feels native to that person’s audience. For example, an endorsement would resonate better with my audience if I talked about it in #DailyVee instead of just giving a re-tweet.

Ultimately, life is about value exchange. Give value to get value.

Whether you decide to write about your topic on Medium, or make a video on Snapchat or YouTube, your content needs to be truthful and contextual to the platform. Your right hooks need to be timed precisely and be respectful to your target’s time and resources. It’s a value exchange: you should always give value to get value. Whether you are selling a product, service, or asking for charitable donations, remember that the same marketing rules apply. Use social media to your advantage to tell a compelling story that will help spark the right conversations.

How to Sell Newspapers, Adopting Children & What Makes a Great Teacher | #AskGaryVee Episode 194

On this episode, we get back to the cozy confines of the Fishbowl at VaynerMedia.

Questions Answered on This Episode

3:50 – As a huge fan and student teacher, I’d like to know what do you feel makes a great teacher?
6:48 – Would you consider adopting children?
9:46 – If you owned a small newspaper, what would you do with it? How would you change how it delivers news/earns revenue?
12:41 – With so many employees, how do you ensure the rest of the team is speaking the same language and saying the same things to clients that you would say?
16:11 – What’s one question nobody has ever asked you that you really wish they would?

Resources from This Episode

Read AJ’s Medium article about why he’s leaving VaynerMedia.
Make sure you follow me on the Snaps.
Just a reminder that you can find my books here.

Nobody Can Define Who You Are

Back in the day when I was doing Wine Library TV, I got a lot of flack for commenting about sports or cultural events on social media or my video blog. A lot of people commented to “stick to wine” or that I’m just a “a wine guy.” They thought that talking about sports and world news was off-brand. Yeah, I know a crap-load about wine, but guess what? I knew a lot about business too. I was and still am a businessman! I am a business guy and a wine guy and the #1 fan of the New York Jets.

Instead, I defined who I was for myself. And listen, anybody who knows me knows that I care a lot about what everybody else thinks. But, ultimately, their opinions know nothing about how to execute against my wants and needs. I wasn’t going to let anybody in the world—not the media, not my friends, not my detractors, nobody—define who I was.

So, please, if there’s one thing you ever do from any of the content I ever put out, never ever allow somebody to define who you are. If you’re a graphic designer, but you really want to be a chef, go do that. If you’re a hockey player that wants to be an opera singer, then start warming up those vocal chords. Never be half-pregnant on what you want to be because of how someone else tells you how to operate your life. Be all in on what you want. Don’t feel pigeonholed by what others have defined your interests as. Execute against you.

Never be half-pregnant on what you want to be because of how someone else tells you how to operate your life.

The only person who can define who you are and what you want to achieve is you. How do you do that? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Be self-aware. Play to your strengths and respect your weaknesses. If you’re a mechanic and have the talent to become a podcast host of the #1 show on flower arrangements, and it’s something you want to have happen for yourself, then do it.

The bottom line is this: stick to doing what makes you happy and the goals that you want to execute because, in the end, happiness drives everything. Never limit yourself to what other people think you should be. Have the self-awareness to know what you should be. You have to do it like you.

Meditation… The Next Big Business Wave

There’s a big up-and-coming space in business in the next 5 years. Much like what happened in NYC with fitness gyms like SoulCycle and Bikram Yoga, there will be an emerging counterpart in meditation. It’s clear that people are spending too much time “on” and the business of meditation will be the counterculture movement to help people switch “off.” And, I can’t wait till it happens and I get to hear about the benefits I know it will have on people close to me. But, I can tell you right now that I don’t see myself being a part of it. I’ve never meditated and don’t see myself doing it anytime soon.

@garyvee just read this on Amazon reviews “He thrives as a Hustler, speaker, humor, authenticity, and charisma. Needs meditation.” LOL

— Deborah (@Procrastinaholi) March 12, 2016

When you’re a full-time entrepreneur like me, always hacking productivity and efficiency levels, working 18 hours a day and then talking about it with the world, mental health and efficiency are common questions that I get asked. “What’s your morning routine?” “What do you do to stay focused?” “Do you meditate?” “Do you take any performance enhancing supplements?”  The answer to all of these things is always “No, never.”

Despite whatever your predisposition is on what a person needs to do to have insane levels of energy and work-ethic like me, I can tell you I don’t do any of them. Despite the comments I get on my YouTube videos asking how much cocaine I’m on, I’ve never even tried a cigarette. Despite all the questions on how many energy drinks I consume in a day, I only maybe have a cup of coffee in the morning (and even then, more as a comfort food instead of an energy boost).

I’m not chugging Red Bulls, taking drugs, or meditating. I don’t take time to meditate and have no interest in doing so. It’s just how I’m wired. My team was laughing at me when I live-streamed for 8 hours straight for my book launch: I sat down in my chair and didn’t leave the room once for 8 hours. No bathroom breaks, no lunch, just straight business. My brother AJ even called me a robot for a similar episode when I worked basically over 24 hours straight.  

Over the last two years, I’ve changed my diet and I work out everyday and the physical changes have been amazing to see. But, it never improved or changed my energy levels or the clarity of focus I have on my goals (yet, I assume there will be benefits down the line). The truth is, I’m just so damn happy and focused that I don’t need the time “off” or away that meditation offers. My mental health is at an all-time level for me. I don’t meditate because I don’t want to mess with what I have going. I just don’t. Why would I play with my brain if I’m incredibly happy and satisfied with it? It’s uninteresting to me. And again, it’s uninteresting to me. I’m grateful to be wired the way I am, and it works for me. There are a lot of amazing things that I don’t do that many of you might partake in. Meditation is one of them. If meditation works for you, good. If it’s valuable to you, that’s a great use of your time. My “meditation” is being“me.” Because, to me, I meditate 24/7 in parallel with my life.

That said I fully expect to invest and watch this space emerge and become a dominate force in the American and global business world over the next 3, 5, 7 years. This is a ripe space based on what I am observing and I implore many of you that have interest in this space to go “all in” and let the market come to you.

Instagram Change Sends Everyone Into a Frenzy (But It’s Not That Serious)

Instagram has been all over the internet lately with headlines talking about its new algorithm. And you’ve probably seen a bunch of opportunists in your Instagram feed over the last two days trying to get their followers to adjust with notifications. I’ve been getting tweets about how this new update is going to be “taking away content” like Facebook’s news feed or how Instagram is going to “ruin itself.”

You’ve probably seen tweets like this over the past few weeks:

.@garyvee get ready to be sad. The days of full organic reach on #Instagram are coming to an end https://t.co/7kE9ZRl6lP

— Stefan Lubinski (@stefanlubinski) March 21, 2016

The notion that Instagram is taking away content from your feed couldn’t be more untrue. What’s actually happening is that Instagram is showing you more of what you want, based on your actions, at the top.

Yes, that means that that content at the top won’t be chronological order, but then when you scroll down after 2, 4, or 6 pieces of content, you’ll get back to the stream and everything goes back to normal. Let me be clear: nothing’s disappearing—they’re not taking anything away. What’s actually happening is that they’re making it better.

To get why it’s going to be better, you have to understand why Facebook was able to win or why there’s a priority tab in Gmail or why Twitter is currently struggling. There’s a reason why you don’t go through all 800 pieces of your direct mail. It’s a waste of time and energy and there’s no good way to prioritize what you should be looking at. The bottom line is this: if there’s too much noise, people stop paying attention.

It all hinges on the supply and demand of attention. For example, right now I’m hyped about On-demand Snapchat Geofilters. But, 6-9 months from now when everybody is using them and everybody is used to seeing them, they will start the process of not being as valuable. What these new updates are is the great cleansing of Instagram.

For example, if you’re bothered by somebody asking you to turn on their notifications, you’re probably not valuing that content as much as you thought or as much as you once did. As a user, this is your opportunity to either unfollow or prioritize what you want to see at the top.

When there’s too much noise, you don’t get to see what you want to see. I want to be able to see the Instagrams from my Jets players—that’s what makes me happy. What I don’t want to see is “influencer Andy” promoting the Redskins or whatever right hooks he wants to throw.

If there’s too much noise, people stop paying attention.

I think Instagram is making a tremendous move in terms of a business, and even more importantly, it’s a move for the end user. It’s better for you. The people who are upset are the people who don’t bring value to their community. These might be influencers who may have “bought their followers” or people with fake accounts. Now, when they post something, and only 4 people actually care about it, their content won’t show up in your feed. This Instagram algorithm is going to be an amazing thing for those who put out content over the last few years that their community actually enjoyed.

There are two takeaways from this: (1) that algorithms like these, showing you what you care about most, is what Facebook and Instagram have done better than anybody else this generation and I give Instagram a triple thumbs up for what they’re doing. It’s a triple thumbs up not because it’s better for ad dollars, but because it’s better for the end user and anything that is better for the end user is the winning formula.

(2) You all need to understand the difference between being a headline reader and practitioner. Every time a big update for any platform comes out, everybody gets emotional real fast. Once again, I’ve been pissed off about how everybody’s crying and moaning because of all these headlines talking about how “Instagram’s decision to include an algorithm to their feed is going to ruin them.” It’s not. So instead of freaking out when you read headlines like this, form your own opinion. Think about it for yourself. Do the homework. Be a practitioner.

Listen and take what I’m saying seriously: this is the exact moment to go “all in” on Instagram, while current conversation is all about Snapchat. Instead of complaining about the situation, adjust the to the reality of the updates and use it as an opportunity to be a first-mover and get ahead of the game.