My Takeaways from Gary Vee in The Startup Community

The crowd stood up, clapping and cheering, the guest of honor grinned with a smirk that could have straightened a poodles’ curls.  “You have to enjoy the process more than you enjoy what the process gets you,” he said with a hint of a Jersey accent. As he spoke, he stood up out of his chair, becoming more animated to add punctuation to his expression.

Overlooking the third street promenade, on an unassuming Tuesday afternoon, Gary Vaynerchuck, one of the most influential people in social media, flew from New York, to speak at Expert Dojo as part of a Start Up Grind.

If you have not heard of Gary Vaynerchuk (or Gary Vee, as he is known by his handle @garyvee), he is definitely worth having on your radar. A brutally honest, entrepreneur-turned-investor; he will reinvigorate your thinking about starting your own business.

Self-identified as having the ‘Opps Chopps’ (Operational Expertise) he is a company builder, a best selling author, an in-demand keynote speaker, and a dynamic investor in startups. He has been on the aggressive front end of the social media boom since its inception in the mid 2000s.

You should pay attention to him because he is growing exponentially, has a loyal fan base of 1 Million plus followers on twitter, as well as widespread influence on every other platform. He shares his wisdom and experience with entrepreneurs excited about the hustle. He shares openly what he has learned, and what he sees in the future of high tech (Virtual Reality, according to him).

So where did Mr Vaynerchuck get his start?

Believe it or not, in the basement of his father’s liquor store.

Yes, that’s right. His family wine business is where it all started. Starting at age 19, Gary took it upon himself to grow his parents brick and mortar wine store.  He was an early adopter of YouTube and email marketing to grow a loyal following that led to stellar revenue growth. Within 10 years, Wine Library grew from $3 million a year revenues up to a $60 million a year.

His grit, grind, and ‘can do’ attitude, makes him a one of a kind; and a true grass roots influencer in today’s high tech era.

At Start Up Grind, there was standing room only, and the energy in the crowd was electric. Everyone was there to see, learn from, and respect Gary Vee.

Gary delivered a ton of rapid-fire wisdom nuggets, but to keep it simple, here are the top three takeaways:

1. Be authentic, because it’s real.

What you see is what you get. The audience was getting to see Gary Vee, the same person he is behind his social media. He preaches to practice what you preach, and he practices what he preaches. He is living his own truth, comprised of hustle and honesty which makes it authentic. He is family oriented, and comes across rooted deep in hard work and vision. He kept coming back to being genuine and authentic as key parts of his success. He said very simply and profoundly, “Be authentic, because it’s real.”

2. If your product is bad, no marketing can solve that.

When talking questions from the audience about competitive advantage and product marketing, Gary said something that made me laugh and think. He said, “If your burger is delicious, that is a good place to start.” And if you think about this one core nugget, it really is profound. The takeaway is to make sure your product really is worth selling before you start. This speaks to so many processes before your final product, i.e. market validation, prototyping, testing, etc. Make sure that you have a good hamburger to start with. Brilliant.

3. The correct way to pitch someone like Gary Vee

Someone asked, “Gary, if I am lucky enough to bump into you, what is the best way to pitch you?” The answer to this question, delivered quickly was, “you are not going to like my answer, but the best way to pitch me is to not pitch me. The best way to pitch me is for me to call you.”

Simple, straight forward, somewhat sassy, but authentic. While this may not be the answer you want to hear, it is pretty sound advice. Focus on what you are doing, and then create so much traction in the marketplace that people like Gary Vee will track you down. According to him, that is the perfect “pitch.”