An Interview with a Dublin Journalist

As a teacher and any professional looking to expand their personal brand, my advice remains the same -- Cut out the crap, stop wasting time on non-important things, and hustle to build your brand.  If you want to build a more scalable brand you need to put out content. Utilize the technology around you like SlideShare, Spreecast, and Google Hangouts which allow you to further establish your credibility, and where you can also charge people for participating if they're willing to do so.  Use your content as a gateway to drug to allow you to further establish yourself and your brand. What I really see here is that people are just loaded with excuses. Do you really want to build your brand or do you want to watch 'Homeland?' Do you really need to take that hour long lunch? LUNCH? C'mon!! There's better ways to use our time. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat, but do you really need that much time for lunch?!? As with anything in life, you just need to figure out your cadence. What do you really want? Are you wasting your time by doing things that aren't allowing you to achieve the levels you want? If you really want to expand your brand, start putting out content, engage with people that may be interested in what you have to offer, cold call, and do whatever else it takes, even if that means having two hours less of sleep.

11 Nov 20148min

#QOTD: How long have you been following my work?Wanting to be an entrepreneur and being an entrepreneur are two very different things. If I were a young and aspiring entrepreneur I would go out an hustle my face off in any which way possible. The best way to become something is to first act like something. Sell, sell, sell. Understand what it takes to provide value to somebody. Learn how to communicate your value proposition enough so that it registers with your 'customer' allowing for you to accomplish what you've set out to do. Go out and find mentors. Go work for free and under people that can show you the ropes and serve as that point of contact when you need it. Learn the hustle and taste the game. Put yourself in the position to win. You can read as many books as you'd like, but they're not going to make you an entrepreneur. The only way to become something is through doing. And so, start hustling. Start doing whatever it takes. Even if that means selling the very shirt off your back.

10 Nov 201416min

#QOTD: Want to win a dinner with me? I need you to predict how many episodes of the #AGV show we'll wind up producing once this is all said and done. Those that guess right will be selected to have dinner with me. Deal?   They way I prioritize my time is by making the best judgment call possible in that particular moment in time. I frame my process by selecting two sides of the spectrum: What's the most on fire and needs to be tended to immediately, and what are the more high-level ideas that I can work on and flesh out? I'll take care of things like employee issues or client concerns (the biggest and most time-sensitive problems) and balance it by going on the offense on the things with the biggest upside, like company culture, visions for the future, buying the Jets ;), etc.  I never focus on anything in the middle. VaynerNation, I warn you, the MIDDLE is DANGEROUS. Stay away.

6 Nov 20147min

#QOTD: How bad you want to work at VaynerMedia?The transition from being a "doer" to becoming a leader can be very difficult. Quite frankly, it scares the crap out of me. It's hard to go from "execution-mode" to then becoming a manager of a team. These are two very different things that can cause some issues if not handled properly. When you're a leader, you have to be the bigger man/woman in any given situation. You can't simply impose your will because you're now the "boss." A leader listens. They swallow their pride and work to make sure the team is executing as needed. A leader needs to empower those around them to do their jobs but they also need to be able to take the hit, and eat crap, because things won't always be easy, and at the end of the day, they're the ones leading the charge.I firmly believe that the transition from doer to leader is the same as the transition from leveraging your EQ rather than your IQ. Leaders need to listen and empower their team to become leaders themselves and take ownership of the work they're given. Leaders need to understand who they are as a person and relay that emotional understanding to those around them. As I've said many times before, it all boils down to self-esteem and self-awareness. If you can understand who you truly are as a person, and as a leader, then you'll be able to instill the same understanding in the team around you.

4 Nov 201420min

#QOTD: Let me know what the next 3-5 years look like for your business. What do you have planned? What are you looking to accomplish?   Micro-Content is the idea of making content specific to the context of a platform. It's the idea of utilizing videos and pictures, quotes, and written words that work specifically for the multitude of platforms that exist (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc) -- which if I might add, was the context behind my latest book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook ;) So, how do you make good micro-content? First of all, content is subjective. It depends on the viewer and why they're in particular place at a particular point in time. I understand that a 40 year old woman will have a different mindset when she's on Pinterest vs. Facebook. Does she have intent to shop (Pinterest) or is she just catching up with her world (Facebook)? That's how you need to focus on your story-telling strategy. You need to be mindful of the psychology behind the user's intent and the nuances of the platform.  When creating micro-content, or content in general, you also need to respect the user and their tendencies. Of course you want to sell your products, but you need to portray them in way that's more compelling to the viewer. You need to shape it their interests and lifestyle. There are plenty of targeting strategies out there, and there's no one way to execute. The only things you can hone in on while forming your strategy are:  1. Respecting the audience   2. Respecting the platform   3. Making your agenda fall third to #1 & #2

3 Nov 201422min

#QOTD: No question for this one! I need more banter!! I'm looking at you, VaynerNation ;) I absolutely hate when people send auto-messages after they've gained a new follower. I have actively un-followed most of you when you do this because it speaks to your intent on the platform. You're looking to scale social media on a platform like Twitter that's simply not scalable.  Twitter is the only true social network because it functions like a town square. A place where you can jump into conversations without sounding/looking creepy. The other networks are pushing content where Twitter is still the place for actual conversation.  When you go and auto-reply in a "town square," you're the same as the guy walking around just dishing out their business card at a conference or networking event. YOU'RE THE GUY THAT PEOPLE HATE. It's the wrong move. You're not putting any effort into engaging with people. You're auto-replying in the town square and providing no depth, no value. What do you honestly think is going to happen when I receive that message? I'll tell you what's going to happen. I may sign up for your newsletter and you're going to email me and it's going to go to spam and I'm not going to engage. Why? Because there's no context established. That first taste, that first impression, all of a sudden is sh*t, and you've lost.

31 Okt 201416min

#QOTD - Are you a chugger, or did you have a turning-point moment, and if so, what was it? If I were a realtor, the thing I would do more than anything else would be to review the establishments in my area. If I'm selling homes in Millburn, NJ, I'm putting out a daily piece of content featuring the the school, then I'm interviewing the individual teachers. I'm reviewing every single local shop: The wine store, the sandwich shop. I'm interviewing people who have lived in the neighborhood for 50 years. I'm putting out content to make you romantic about the area.  People pick where they want to buy a home for a lot of reasons. Some of them are practical: Public transportation, distance to schools. But how about making it a little warmer and interviewing Mrs. Robinson the 3rd grade teacher? I remember a realtor telling me that someone moved to Short Hills because of Wine Library (That was such a cool feeling, by the way). So I'm doing daily content about the 20-mile radius around the area where you're selling homes. I'm finding the stories tucked away around the neighborhood, and all the iconic things that make your area what it is. Those stories are what will create the emotion that could be the tipping point in selling someone their next home.

28 Okt 201410min

#QOTD: What do you think of GaryVaynerchuk.com? Questions, comments, concerns? What’s your $.02? Email is definitely not dead. As most you may know by now, I’m a big fan of marketing in the year that we live in. And so, email remains to be a very killer opportunity.  Email is a channel that you can control without being at the mercy of all these other platforms that are out there. But, we also can’t be naive to the changes have been made, such as the promotions tabs that GMail implemented recently. Sure, email is falling off and these changes have caused us to lose touch with some email lists that we may have been paying attention to prior, but it’s still very much in play so long as we leverage it wisely. Are open rates at 90% like I had in 1997? Absolutely not. But, I still believe email is very much something to be considered. There’s no question that email will certainly be less valuable in 3-5 years. Heard me say marketers ruin everything? That’s where this fits in perfectly. That’s what this is all about. Platforms come along. They present value. And marketings pounce on the opportunity to arbitrage against their audiences.  But, while us marketers are working to exploit and potentially ruin email marketing, we’re still in a time where it should most definitely be considered as part of any business’s strategy.

27 Okt 201414min