I’ve had this topic on my content calendar for awhile, but when I heard it was Gary’s birthday today, I decided to push it up a bit. I’ve been following Gary for a few years now and even if you’re not an entrepreneur, his thoughts on life are incredibly insightful. If you don’t know who Gary Vaynerchuk is, he’s an amazing entrepreneur that started out by growing his family’s wine business from $3 million to $60 million. His advice, motivation and overall mindset are infectious and you really can’t help but feel motivated after watching a video, listening to his podcast or even scrolling through his social media feed!

He’s also going Live today with a big announcement that I’m pretty excited about- his secret wine project! If you don’t know how much I love wine, check out my last blog 🙂

I’ve learned a lot of things from Gary and I’m sure that I’ll learn many more, but here are the points that stick out to me the most right now:

Stay Hungry

I caught Gary on Instagram Live last week and he talked about how he loved every aspect of building his business- even losing a huge deal that his team had recently pitched. They should have gotten it (who would turn down VaynerMedia?) and he said it made him hungry. He wanted to figure out what went wrong- starting with him- did he have the best people doing the pitch? How could he have helped his team more in this situation?

In business it can be easy to get stuck on autopilot and keep doing the things you’ve always done, but to get to the top (and stay there), you’ve got to be hungry. Hungry to learn new tools, try new things and stay ahead of your competition. I know it’s hard- I mean you’re running a business, there are a million things going on each day- but you’ve got to keep this mindset and learn from every aspect of building your business. 

Just Start

Don’t over-analyze.

I think the majority of entrepreneurs face this at some point in their journey. It’s so hard not to over-analyze and ultimately, not start something, because of our own limiting thoughts. Putting yourself out there (in any way) is hard and uncomfortable.

For example, I have had this idea about creating a DIY Digital Marketing guide for small business owners for over 2 years. Two years!! I recently finished it and honestly, it was a post from Gary that finally pushed me over the edge (in a good way, ha) to stop worrying about people would think and just go for it.

Side note- I also won his #60secclub contest where I replied to his post- the picture in my post is the shirt I won 🙂

Things don’t have to be perfect- honestly, they never will be. If you wait for that, you’ll never start. So just start where you are and improve along the way. Nobody’s perfect and people will actually enjoy seeing the real you- flaws, fumbles and all along the way!

Don’t Worry About What Others Think

Everyone is busy living their own lives- worry about yours. There is so much freedom when you stop worrying about what others think and/or compare yourself to others. Are you proud of what you’re doing? Do you love what you’re doing? Are you helping your customers fix a problem? If not, how can you improve these things? What can you do to start today? These are the questions you should be asking yourself every day.

Be Patient

Ha. This is perhaps the hardest lesson that I have had to learn…I do not have patience. Especially in business. I want to grow at an exponential rate because I enjoy it so much…but it doesn’t work that way.

Another personal example, is my side business. I love clothes and business so when an opportunity to open an online boutique presented itself- I jumped at it!

But…building an audience from scratch isn’t easy or quick. And learning the in’s and out’s of working with suppliers is definitely a trial and error process. There are returns. There are product glitches. There are shipping issues. And the list goes on…

I’ve been doing it since May and have just recently started to have consistent sales that at least pay for my monthly overhead, which I consider a win. I enjoy the challenges and helping women feel good about themselves, so I keep going even when it feels like I’m posting, sharing and engaging with no one.

Stick with it. It will take time. Keep the big picture in mind.

What can you do today that will benefit your business tomorrow, next week and 2 years from now?

You Are in Control

You have so much more power than you realize. Your thoughts, feelings, goals are entirely up to you. We’ve all had people or events in our lives that have created negative emotions and/or actions, but we can change them. You get to decide how you want to live your life. Start working on it daily- even if it’s little changes. Or go all in. Figure out what works for you and stick with it. It’s extremely hard to break habits, but I can promise you that once you start working on them, you will see changes quickly!

As always- feel free to reach out with any questions or comments that you have- I honestly love talking about business and helping other entrepreneurs grow! And if you haven’t checked Gary out yet, go do it!!