On Tuesdays through Fridays, I focus on VaynerMedia, which I started with my brother, AJ. We teach businesses how to use social media to grow their brands. I usually schedule a meeting in the morning—with my agent, my lawyer, or potential clients—and then head to our office downtown.
AJ and I started the company together in 2009, and now we have 20 employees. He's 24 years old, but we've been working together since he was 13. We used to spend Saturdays together, going to garage sales and buying stuff to sell on eBay for extra money. He knows me better than anyone, and I trust him 100 percent.
At VaynerMedia, I'm the hunter—I get new business—and AJ's the farmer who oversees each project and makes sure it gets done well. He's been teaching me to be a farmer, too. I usually spend about half of my time in the office. The rest of the time, I'm going to meetings with clients or prospective clients.
Our first client was the New York Jets. I'm a huge Jets fan, so landing the team as a client was one of the happier days of my life. In fact, every business decision I make gets me one step closer to my ultimate goal: to own the Jets.
I asked for a meeting with Jets vice president Matt Higgins, and we started talking about my success with social media. I said, "Let me show you what I can do."
We started working with Kerry Rhodes—a safety who now plays for the Cardinals—on spec. People are scared of doing spec work, but I believe it shows your willingness to hustle. We taught Kerry how to use Twitter and Facebook strategically to build his personal brand. Soon the Jets signed on as a paying client. We got the team on every possible social media platform. The Jets went from under 1,000 to 300,000 fans on Twitter and Facebook.
After our success with the Jets, we were able to land the National Hockey League as another paying client. We worked with the NHL on strategy and execution. It went from 500 Facebook and Twitter fans to half a million, just by caring. We're humanizing the NHL. For instance, every time somebody says, "Can't wait for the Rangers game tonight" on Twitter, the NHL will now respond with something like, "Have a great time!" Those fans feel different about the NHL.
Too many people think this one-on-one stuff doesn't scale, but giving a shit has an enormous return yield. For example, if a florist is nice to you, you'll buy flowers there, even if 1-800-FLOWERS is cheaper. Yes, it's hard work, but once everybody understands the value of engagement, everybody will do it.
Even if someone says something negative about your brand, that's a big opportunity. I go on Amazon.com and respond to every review people leave of my book, Crush It!, whether the review is positive or negative. When I get one-star reviews, I apologize for letting them down. Then we have a dialogue. Even if that person did not like my book, he respects that.
A lot of times, I get new business as a result of speaking engagements. I speak two or three times a month, which adds up to more than $100,000 a month. That's real money, so I have to be careful to not just become a speaker. I don't want to become just a talking head, the type of person I make fun of.
I have a 10-book deal with HarperCollins, so that takes up some of my time, too. My next book, The Thank You Economy, comes out in March. Last spring and summer, I spent a lot of hours with my ghostwriter, just riffing. She'd tape me, transcribe, edit, and send it to me. Then I'd stay up late nights, working on revisions. Now that it's done, I'm gearing up for the book promotion.
Every Thursday night, I do my Sirius radio show about wine and social media from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. It used to be on even later. I wanted to stay up late every Thursday night about as much as I wanted a punch in the face, but I was willing to pay my dues. This is about personal branding, and I want to be on every platform—the Web, books, radio, and eventually TV.
Dinner is usually my first meal of the day. I know it sounds crazy, but I rarely eat breakfast or lunch. A few times a month, I might have dinner with my lawyer or grab drinks with other entrepreneurs who are good friends of mine. But more and more, I try to go home after work and see my wife. We order dinner in—I like sushi. I usually stay away from red wine at night, because it makes me sleepy. I want to get another hour or two of work done. Usually, I'm catching up on e-mails.
Sundays are my day with family—and the New York Jets, which are like family. I don't care if Oprah and Obama called and said, "We need you"; if the New York Jets were playing, I wouldn't return the call.
As much as I love work, family's the most important thing to me. But I don't want to be the alcoholic who says he doesn't have a drinking problem. I wish I spent more time with my wife and daughter. It's something I struggle with. I'm scared to play the I'll-get-to-it card. These days, I spend about 90 percent of weekends with my family, which is a big accomplishment for me. Last year, it was 40 percent. At least I'm heading in the right direction.
Gary Vaynerchuk will be speaking at the 2011 Inc. 500 | 5000 Conference. To attend, click here.
