Gary Vaynerchuk is a forward-thinking entrepreneur who has mastered the art of commanding attention. He’s currently the CEO of Vayner Media, a full-service advertising agency that helps fortune 1000 companies leverage consumer attention.
On top of this, he’s also the Chairman of Vayner X, a modern-day communications holding company, a five-time New York Times best-selling author, a highly sought-after public speaker, and a prolific angel investor.
Needless to say, Gary knows a thing or two about success, as such, we aim to unpack some of his success secrets in this Gary Vaynerchuk Success Story special. “Work Hard. Work Smart. Be Patient.” – GARY VEE
Gary Vee, as he’s come to be known, is a successful businessman, and his inspiring success story can both teach and guide us in a variety of ways. So, with that being said, let’s dive into the makings of the successful entrepreneur.
Early Life | Gary Vaynerchuk Success Story:—
In 1978, when Gary Vaynerchuk was just three years old, he and his family immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus, a country that at the time was part of the former Soviet Union. His family first lived in Queens New York with relatives, but they would eventually move to Edison, New Jersey.
His father initially worked as a stock boy in a liquor store. And as most immigrants do, he worked his tail off and was smart with every penny he earned for many years. Eventually, this allowed Gary’s father to slowly but surely gain full ownership of his own liquor store.
Gary would learn much from his father about hard work and hustle and would get introduced to entrepreneurship at the young age of six. His first taste of entrepreneurship actually came from his experimenting with selling flowers. Legend has is, that Gary would take flowers from his neighbor’s yard and then ring the doorbell of that neighbor and with charisma and wit, successfully sell the neighbors’ own flowers back to them.
Gary’s taste for entrepreneurship would grow, and by the age of 7, he was already running a successful lemonade franchise throughout New Jersey, where he had managed to set up 8 different lemonade stands, using his friends to run each location. However, it was at the age of 13 when Gary Vee would really get his first taste of entrepreneurial success. His breakthrough would come from his ability to generate thousands of dollars every weekend through the selling of baseball cards. Gary learned much about the concept of supply and demand in these formative years.
###The Grind:—
Gary would eventually get pulled into his father’s business; where he was initially put to work bagging ice for $2 an hour. Gary would go on to work for his father for a handful of years in various roles within the family business.
However, after Gary learned about the power of the internet, he would go all in to improve his father’s business. And shortly after graduating from college, Gary would begin leveraging social media and strategic content creation in a way that would take his father’s business from $3 million in annual revenue to $60 million in just a few short years. How did he do it? Gary set his father’s business up on the internet, renamed the liquor store business to Wine Library. Then, in 2006, he went on to create an extremely entertaining and educational show (called Wine Library TV) that showcased his analyses of various wines and liquors.
Gary leveraged his keen knowledge of wines, his energetic personality, and his consistent daily hustle to create over 1000 episodes to grow the viewership of the show over a five year period. On top of this, Gary paid special attention to what his audience was interested in, wanted more of, and then effectively executed on providing them the engagement and answers they wanted to see. The result? An explosion in revenue growth for his father’s liquor store! In his own words, this is what Gary has had to say about his initial success with Wine Library:
“I’ve always credited the success of that venture to my hustle and single-minded dedication to engaging with my fans and customers by answering every email or blog comment I received and going overboard to show my appreciation for their business.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
###The Next Chapter:—
After dramatically growing his father’s business, Gary would start the next chapter of his entrepreneurial career. Taking what he learned from his success with Wine Libary TV, Gary would then leverage his seasoned social media expertise to create his own full-service advertising agency. He would name this new endeavor Vayner Media.
Gary started small with Vayner Media. In fact, in his early days, he had to use another company’s conference room, because he didn’t have the capital to rent the office space that would allow him to have his own. But, he persisted, and did what he does best. He hustled to get attention, and that attention translated into business. And, after giving a successful public speech in New York, Gary’s media agency would take off.
Shortly there after, Gary would also ink his first million dollar 10-book deal with HarperCollins. Since then, he’s published multiple books with five of them landing on the New York Time’s Best Seller list. Now, Gary runs Vayner Media as the CEO, is the chairman of Vayner X, and has since become synonymous with hustle, execution, and digital advertising. And when he’s not helping his client’s build their businesses, he is jet setting across the globe inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs with his charismatic and thought-provoking public speeches.
###Gary Vee’s Enduring Success:—-
Gary Vee’s success continues to grow as he currently employs over 800 people at his media companies. He currently has over 12 million social media followers and growing, and is continually increasing his influence and fortifying his brand with his popular YouTube Show, The Gary Vee Video Experience, and his hit podcast The Gary Vee Audio Experience.
So, what’s the success secret to Gary Vee’s enduring success? Well, it must be said, that Gary Vaynerchuk does have a magical charisma about him, which has undoubtedly played a significant role in his ability to captivate his audience. However, what has led to much of Gary’s success, and what will continue to help him continually be successful, is his uncanny ability to spot trends and zero in on what people are interested in. He says it best with this quote:
“Pay attention to what people care about, and reverse engineer it.” – Gary Vaynerchuk. Equally as important, and what likely helps him be so effective and observing what works and doesn’t work in terms of building businesses and spotting trends is his penchant for relentless effort. Again, he has in the past summed it up for us well in his own words…. “While everybody is hoping and dreaming, I am going to be executing.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary has also demonstrated a knack for effectively leveraging technology, the people around him, and media to scale his reach. This knack has given him the ability to grab more and more attention for himself and his clients. In short, he is great at getting the most out of his resources, be they his team, the technology he’s using, or his media channels. In his own words…
“You always squeeze the f*ck out of an orange that’s full. And when it’s empty, you find a pear, which is harder to squeeze but you hope a grapefruit comes along. Email used to be 90% opening rates from for me. It’s not anymore. Google adwords used to be 5 cents a click. It’s not anymore” – Gary Vaynerchuk
###Peer Into The Mind of a Master:— He’s not P.T. Barnum, but Gary has indeed mastered the art of leveraging attention to get results. So, to give you a better look into the mind of this master, and a bit more insight on how Gary Vaynerchuk got to where he is today.
###Key Takeaways:— Gary Vaynerchuk’s success story has a lot to teach us. It shows us how an immigrant from Belarus worked his a** off, made the most of his situation, and leveraged the technology of the day to scale his brand and businesses to staggering heights. His story also shows us that the American Dream is alive and well for those who choose execution over excuses.
We hope his story also helps you realize that with massive hustle, a healthy dose of obsession with your customer’s wants and needs, and a little leverage, anything is possible. So, put these takeaways to work for you, and get on with creating your own inspiring story of success.
Courtesy: The Strive