If you followed me for any link the time you know that I’m a huge Gary Vaynerchuk fan. I followed him from the time that he wrote his first book, “Crush It” and his keynote speech from the Web 2.0 Conference.
While Gary Vaynerchuk is an incredible entrepreneur, I think there are a lot of great lessons that we can all learn from him even if you don’t have that entrepreneur mindset. His books and keynote addresses are fascinating. His podcast and YouTube videos are inspiring whether you’re in entrepreneur or not.
The “#AskGaryVee” book is the fourth book from Gary Vaynerchuk. He also wrote a wine book before the last four, which are all social media, marketing, and entrepreneurship based. AskGaryVee is an outcrop from his popular YouTube show and podcast where members of his audience and fan base ask questions about social media, marketing, entrepreneurship, and life that he answers on the show.
The #AskGaryVee book is the direct culmination of the show and his YouTube channel. It pulls together some of the best and most thought-provoking answers and his philosophy that Gary answers for his audience on the show.
But, the book is more than just a compilation of the show. It’s chock-full of amazing insight into the world of social media, marketing, entrepreneurship, and a host of other topics.
Whether you’re a blogger, a YouTube sensation, a podcaster, an entrepreneur, or even a stay at home mom, you’ll find an incredible amount of interesting commentary on our daily lives and how social media, marketing, and life inter-plays with them in this book.
I thought that it would be fun to look at some great take aways that I personally got from Gary’s new book. Here are three of my favorites.
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Lessons From AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk
1. We are all making too many excuses.
The book is chock full of questions that seem to get at the heart of the matter of making excuses. People always want to know how to get ahead, how to take the shortcut, why their newest venture or Blog or business isn’t succeeding. You could see that in many of the questions asked to Gary Vaynerchuk throughout the book and the course of his show.
It all comes down to excuses. We make a lot of them in our lives. Many times we make them as a way to placate ourselves for not having accomplished the dreams that we set for ourselves.
Gary Vaynerchuk is an incredible hustler. If you only listen to him speak one time you see is incredible passion and energy. It’s contagious.
In his book, he talks about the hustle. It’s what we all need is the long days and nights that it takes to really be successful. There are no shortcuts. We all know this.
And it’s evident in many of the answers that Gary gives in the book. It takes hard work. Takes long hours.
Far too many of us don’t want to put in the long hours that it takes to be successful and accomplished the dreams that we set for ourselves. Gary’s often talked about the unproductive time that we spend.
We complain that there isn’t enough hours in the day and we don’t know where the days and the hours go.
But, if you look at what you value, it shows directly in where you spend your time. When you look at where you are spending your time day in and day out, you start to understand where the time goes.
How many of us have binge watch the latest season of House of Cards on Netflix? How many of us play a huge amount of hours of video games after we get home from work? That’s where our time is going every day. It’s being chipped away little by little without us even realizing it.
In the Web 2.0 Conference keynote, Gary famously told everyone to stop watching the television show, “Lost”. It was a really popular television show at the time of his speech. He even put out a picture on Facebook with that caption underneath it from the keynote speech.
I blew up that very picture into a poster, and it is tacked up on my wall across from my desk, right in my eye level, so that I see every day. Well I don’t watch Lost, but I do find myself wasting time day in and day out, and then wondering where my day went.
The poster on the wall is a stark reminder that we all have the same 24 hours a day to use and be productive. But, how are we using those hours? Are we making the most of our day? For many of us, we are not.
2. You do you and ignore everyone else.
I’m a huge fan of Jon Acuff. And, he has said in the past, “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”
I love that quote. We’re all in different places in our lives. I’m constantly reminded that as a blogger. I see a lot of friends that I know through blogging who are much further down the path than I am. There are also newer personal finance bloggers who aren’t as far along as the rest of us.
It’s hard not to compare yourself with others. But, we definitely shouldn’t do it. It’s not healthy. It’s been hard to remind myself that at times.
You’ve got to do what is best for you. You’ve got to do what is best for your business and your marketing campaign. That’s another key take away from Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book, “#AskGaryVee“.
He’s asked a lot of questions about doing one thing or another. And, at the end of the day, you should do what is best for you and your business and your life. You do you! Don’t worry about what all the other people are doing with their lives and businesses.
If you’re not familiar with Jon Acuff, you should drop what you’re doing and check him out. He’s an amazing writer and thinker. If you’ve just been laid off from your job or looking for a new start in life, his books are amazing! Be sure to check out his books, “Do Over“, “Quitter“, and “Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters“.
3. Self-awareness is huge.
A couple of years ago, my day job required us to take the Myers-Briggs test. This, of course, is a personality test that identifies 16 key attributes about yourself. It’s a self-assessment test that can tell if your extroverted or more introverted, a thinking – feeling – sensing person – among many other attributes.
My job also conducts anonymous 360° evaluations of employees. These evaluations are another unique way to help you understand yourself and become more self-aware.
While having your subordinates peers and bosses rate you want to scale 1 to 10 for certain attributes is helpful, I found that the open-ended questions with fill in the blank comments to be the most poignant. It’s definitely where I learned what people think of my leadership style and my managerial execution.
It was an eye-opening experience in self-awareness and one of the key attributes – self-awareness – that Gary Vaynerchuk talks about in his book, AskGaryVee. He doesn’t talk about taking specific tests but more so the need of understanding and having a sense of complete self-awareness and understanding of what makes you tick.
What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Is it more beneficial to outsource things that you’re not good at?
For example, I have an IT specialist on call at the touch of a button for when I managed to crash Money Q&A. And, that actually happens quite a bit I’m sad to say.
Also, I love personal finance. That’s what my educational background is in, and I love to write. But, I have to admit that I’m not a very good computer science person. I’m not very good search engine optimization in the backend that keeps the site going.
Updating WordPress plug-ins that run Money Q&A makes me break out into a cold sweat. I always seem to crash the site just at the wrong time.
But, I know this about myself. It’s taken years of understanding and learning as a blogger know what I’m good at and what I’m not. And, it is that self-assessment and self-awareness that tells me exactly what I need to outsource on the blog.
These are three of the key lessons that I took away from Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book, #AskGaryVee. Of course, there are many more. The book is chocked full of great insight and take aways that everyone can use.
What about you? Have you read this book or one of the other three about social media? Which Gary Vaynerchuk book is your favorite? Mine is still “Crush It”!
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