We all fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to other entrepreneurs. But without a behind-the-scenes look, we often lack critical information that would change the whole equation. Especially if all we have to go by is someone’s online presence.
Back in 2019, I got an inside look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s operation that was a total perspective shift. I was in his offices in New York and what I saw absolutely blew my mind!
This is a very powerful story that I shared in my Unstuck newsletter. It really hit the mark with many of our readers, so I knew I had to record a podcast episode about it. If you’re not on our email list, make sure to subscribe to get my short weekly updates on what’s working in business right now!
I’ve already had Gary on the show for episodes 089, 133, and 213. But it was visiting the VaynerMedia headquarters that helped me understand why I was never able to be as active as him on social media.
Join me to get the rest of the story and the takeaways that changed how I measure success!
SPI 652: I Am Not Gary.
Announcer: Welcome to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, where it’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, his favorite Pokemon, in order of favorites, are Houndoom, Pikachu, Umbreon, and Tinkaton. Pat Flynn.
Pat Flynn: Hey, welcome to the show. I’m gonna do something today that I don’t normally do, and that is read something that I’ve written to you.
And you may or may not have seen this already. But if you are subscribed to the Unstuck Newsletter, first of all, I just wanna thank you because it was your response to this email that I’m about to read that encouraged me to share this because I wanna spread the message far and wide. This particular email that I wrote seemed to have hit a real mark. And when you hit a mark with your audience it is your obligation to share it with as many people as possible because like, you know that this thing is helpful and it’s, it’s made an impact.
So the Unstuck newsletter, you can get it weekly. Check it out at SmartPassiveIncome.com/unstuck. And every week includes a story and a lesson, as well as some dad jokes and some other fun things, but most of all, just something to help you get unstuck. So here’s the story.
I went to New York in 2019 for an in-person interview. The exact location? The offices of Gary Vaynerchuk, aka. Vaynermedia.
Gary wasn’t there that day, but I did get to sit in his office and hang out with some of his team members. When I asked them who helps Gary with his social media presence, one of them pointed out the glass window and said:
“That entire section over there is dedicated to his social media.”
I asked for clarification, “Do you mean, that entire section over there helps manage all of the brands and clients that he has?”
To which he replied, “No, they’re all there for Gary’s personal social media accounts.”
I was floored.
I counted 15-20 cubicles, from video editors to social media managers, all there to help Gary stay very active and present across all the major platforms.
On one hand, I was impressed because scaling a personal brand can be hard, especially at that level, but on the other hand, I realized that all along, I was comparing the work that I was doing to someone who had a giant team behind him.
I had once wished that I could show up just like he did — dozens of times a day across multiple platforms — but every time I tried, I failed.
Maybe if I worked harder, or maybe if I hustled more I might be able to do it, but I never could, and because of that I believed that I wasn’t good enough.
When I saw his team and realized that he had all that help, I realized that I was on a different path than his, and I didn’t need to do the same things he was doing. I was attracted to his numbers and his reach, but Gary is Gary, and I am me, and you are you.
We’re all on our own unique paths.
This year, I hope to not just remain on track, but remain on my own track.
It’s easy, especially today, to be lured by the success of others, but we need to be careful because there’s a fine line between becoming motivated and inspired by others, and feeling like we need to do exactly what they’re doing.
Every one of these emails also has a section for a call to action, so I’m gonna share that with you here and then include some additional commentary. Your call to action: Short and sweet, you do you. You do you. And that’s it for this email.
This particular email was sponsored by ConvertKit, by the way. So shout out to them.
Thank you for enabling me to do this newsletter. And no, it’s not one of those newsletters that you have to pay to get access to. It’s absolutely free, SmartPassiveIncome.com/unstuck. That being said, there are many newsletters that actually some people charge for and are doing very well. It’s a great way to generate an income, and yes, you can use ConvertKit for that too.
SmartPassiveIncome.com/convertkit is our affiliate link. Oh, the dad joke, by the way, in this particular email is: What’s the difference between a cat and a comma? One has claws at the end of its paws, and the other is a pause at the end of a clause. Ba-dum-tss!
Anyway, so this was a relatively speaking, shorter email, but it’s not about the length of the emails, it’s about the impact that it can make and, and hopefully this story perhaps inspires you or gives you maybe a sense of relief.
It did for me for sure when I was there. I mean, initially it was like, Wow, I need 20 people to help me now to get to his level. Let me go find them. But of course that, maybe not is, is not impossible, but it’s like I don’t wanna deal with that. I don’t wanna do anything like that. So why am I comparing myself to somebody who’s on a completely different path?
Right? And this was one of the first emails to come out in the new year, which I felt especially, you know, it was just a perfect time to share that message, and I’m here today to share that with you here in episode 652. You know, we got a lot more episodes to come, so make sure you hit subscribe, but I just wanted this to be a short reminder and a quick story to, you know, keep you going, but on your own path.
I know there are people out there that you follow and that you get inspiration from, but sometimes they almost make us feel bad. I, I know that this was the case for me when I was a budding entrepreneur and I found other people who were doing things who were ahead of where I was at, who were on a, a much bigger trajectory, who had generated more income or had more followers, or had a bigger email list.
You name it, these vanity numbers just, I mean, we as humans like to know the story and we like to know where we are compared to others, but you have to fight that and know that you have to compare yourself to you. You last week, you last month, you last year, we’re all on different paths. So you know we’re here at SPI to be a guide to help you on your own path, and if you’d like to join a community of people just like you and hang out and chat and discover your pathways, head over to SmartPassiveIncome.com/allaccess. We look forward to seeing you there.
Gives you all access to all of our courses, plus and more importantly, the community behind them, the pathways through the courses that are right for you. And thank you to all the All Access Pass members who are in there today.
And thank you for inspiring us to continue to triple down and help you out in the way we know is best, which is course plus community, community-powered courses. You do you everybody, thank you so much and look out for the next Friday episode because we have a special guest coming in to teach you something.
Every once in a while, we’d love to hand the mic over to somebody in our SPI Pro community to share some of the wisdom and knowledge that they have that they can pass on to you, because this isn’t just about us at SPI, in fact, this is a community, and so we have to let our community have an opportunity to share.
If you are a member of SPI Pro and you have something that you’d potentially like to share on the podcast here as well, in front of hundreds of thousands of people, Let us know in the community cuz we’d love to spotlight you at some point. So look out for that next week. I appreciate you. Hope your year is off to a great start and I look forward to serving you in the next one.
Cheers everybody. Take care. And as always, Team Flynn for the win. Peace.
Thanks for listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is David Grabowski. Our series producer is Paul Grigoras, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media. We’ll catch you in the next session.
