Episode 39: The Gary Vee Factor to Home Services Growth

Gary Vaynerchuk is a household name for many, and likely doesn’t need introduction for lots of our loyal listeners. Chairman of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerMedia, Gary Vee is a 5-time best-selling author, CEO of a full-service Fortune-500 advertising agency that works with clients like PepsiCo, GE, Chase, and other major players from multiple industries, and a proud member of the RYNO family.

We partnered with Gary and The Sasha Group in 2018, and they have been amazing for us in pushing us forward as a company. In fact, the main reason behind us starting To The Point was through their encouragement! Gary has a special gift for using his kindness and humility to grow both his own ventures as well as the companies he works with, and we continue to pick his brain for ways to make both RYNO and your business the best they can be.

You Aren’t Special…But Humility Is!

Gary is the first person to tell you he isn’t special. It’s hard to believe, given his incredible list of achievements and success, not to mention his loyal following across multiple social media platforms. If Gary Vee isn’t special, then who is? Gary explains by saying that when you’re in a group of individuals who have success and notoriety like himself, and you also have humility, you realize a few things. First, you don’t mean shit. Secondly, you become curious how it all happened. After all, if you conclude that you aren’t special, how do you explain success?

Gary recognizes his talents, and understands that his gifts for gab, memory, and pattern recognition are certainly valuable. He quickly points out that it’s much like being tall—sure, it’s a desirable trait, but no tall person achieved their height on their own! It’s simply a byproduct of genetics and circumstances. Of course, putting in the time and effort to develop your gifts and the right mindset is vital to success, but you have to understand that you are one of many thousands that have the same gifts as you. If height was all it took, Tall Paul would be a starting forward in the NBA as the next Detlef Schrempf!

Gary truly believes he can be one of the most significant people on earth for the next 40 years, and someday, when he dies, he imagines the Twitter platform of the future having 24 hours of lamenting and people remembering his life. After that, it’s all over. Eddie Van Halen, a pop icon and one of the greatest guitarists to ever live is being celebrated now and in a week, it will be over. We’ll all move on. Recognizing the inevitability of our finality is the key to humility. No matter what you do and how successful you are, it will all be over someday, and only those closest to you are going to really remember you afterwards. The majority of the world is going to move on as normal.

Knowing and Growing Yourself

The best direction of your business is circumstantial, and depends on what part of the journey you’re on and what you want to achieve. But you always, always, always need to be working on yourself. That’s how you put yourself in a position to succeed! You can’t be Gary Vee, you can’t be James Orsini; you need to be you. What are you about?

Your ambition and the words out of your mouth need to match your actions, or nothing’s ever going to come of it. You can’t expect to reap the benefits of being a mogul if you aren’t ready to put the work in. You’ll never be successful simply out of dumb luck! You have to put in the time. Gary always hears from people “I don’t have time for that”. How long is your lunch break? You want to rule the world and grow your business but you don’t have the time for it? If you really want something, get ready to sacrifice and put in the time to make your moves.

“Don’t be an asshole, be authentic”

You also have to combine your ambition and drive with humility, kindness, softness, and patience. Being pulled in those two directions creates the unusual circumstances that lead to success. Gary is so happy and grateful to have his gifts and to have had the circumstances that allowed for success, which leads to his kindness. His success doesn’t mean he has permission to be rude to anybody. It’s not about some zen master way of living, it’s just how he feels. Being kind is a mindset, and the only way to ever be admired is by doing something truly nice. Kindness also ties into leadership, and will make you an ever greater leader for your team. No one wants to follow an asshole…it stinks!

Knowing and Growing Your Team

An important lesson to learn for every business owner, not just those in the HVAC/plumbing/electrical and home services industry, is that having a bigger team doesn’t correlate with success. Gary relates this by using a sports analogy. If he, Chris, and Taul Paul played 3-on-1 basketball against Lebron James, they’d still lose! It’s not about having more players, it’s about having better players than the other team. So, how do we go about making a team of superstars?

The most important thing about your crew isn’t the skills. If your top salesperson isn’t a great person, it doesn’t matter how much revenue they bring in. If your seasoned technician that can fix everything is rude, grumpy, and a pain to deal with, they aren’t worth their skills. The only way to win is to be fast, the only way to be fast is to eliminate politics, and the only way to accomplish that is with kindness. If the best “players” on your team are causing friction with the rest, they simply aren’t worth keeping, even on the bench. A+ humans who are B executors will dominate. It’s a painful process, and most owners aren’t going to want to do it, but you have to identify what is holding you back from growth. If that means cutting your top tech or salesperson, so be it.

Vee for Victory

You’re always going to have competition. The good news is, if you’re talented, humble, and kind, you’re never going to run out of growth. Be humble enough to ask for help, get over your ego, and figure out what roadblocks are keeping you from catapulting ahead. If someone as successful and influential as Gary Vayerchuk is telling you that humility and kindness are imperative to growth, take it to heart! Look for ways to improve yourself, improve your team, and go out and build an empire based on kindness to make the world better for you and everyone else.