Tag: Gary Vaynerchuk

I was wrong about Gary V and does he give a shit?

Posted on by philipdodson

I have always been a bit perverse and when every woman and her cat started to love Gary Vaynerchuk and worship the ground he walked on, I started to get put off. I also didn’t like his hustle shit and his American shouty voice.

I ordered Jab, Jab, Jab whatever, and could only listen to about 10 minutes of it and never listened to anymore.

People often listen to Garys or Tonys or Seths and think they can magically solve their challenges and they can become like them. We can’t we are unique. We have to be ourselves.

It had got so bad, that I almost wanted to vomit whenever I heard him or people talk about him. OK, perhaps a slight exaggeration.

However, I am on this quest to go to people I do not like and open my mind, to get out of my echo chamber and see what others have to say. If you always block out the other view, then you are missing so much.

I am on a mission to drop the ‘I’m always right’ mentality that was stamped on me from my childhood. It was like a badge of honour to be right in the Dodson household growing up, sadly, whatever the cost.

Increasingly, I have become a fan of the slightly mad, but in my opinion, different and brilliant James Altucher, I am finding more and more of his stuff enjoyable. He doesn’t advise, he simply tells his story and he has an interesting story and way of telling it.

OK, I get James’s email blasted into my inbox every day and I often read his blog or listen to his podcast. So, just a few days ago up pops ‘what I learnt from Gary Vaynerchuk’, shit I thought I had that spam filter set to cut out anything with ‘Gary’ or ‘V’ or ‘Chuk’ in it.

I decided to remind myself of my new missions, so I clicked on it today, it’s taken me several days to build up to it.

I listened with an open mind, and it took the first 5 minutes of the 1-hour long episode to quell my annoyance, Gary you probably would find my accent and way of speaking annoying, but I persisted and I opened the mind and listened without evaluation.

Wow! He actually has some good things to say, this is no surprise when you think about what he’s achieved. Well, some actually really great things that resonate with me and make a lot of sense.

Am I a convert? NO

Will I listen or read more of his stuff? Not likely, but probably occasionally now. He’s just not for me and I am not looking to have dreams like raising $Billions to buy the NY Jets.

So Gary, here it is, the public apology, I was wrong about you Gary.

Does he give a shit what I think? NO

That’s the thing he is being true to himself, brave, vulnerable and he is being the real thing. He does not care what the critic thinks and rightly so.

We will not all like the same things and that’s ok, but better to be absolutely loved by the people who do like what you have to say and that is the case with Gary than to be wishy-washy and try to fit in.

Don’t be hooked up on being right, no one is all good or all bad, nothing is black or white and we do not have to be with someone or against them.

Mainly we do not listen to others outside our bubbles as we are scared of being wrong.

Jabs and right hooks

Posted on by philipdodson

OK, I’ll get it straight out now, I am not a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, I am more James Altucher, Cal Newport, Seth Godin, Brene Brown, Simon Sinek, Brain Clark, and a few more.

That’s the thing we are not here for everyone, not everyone is going to like us and we don’t have to like all the same things. There is, after all, no right or wrong in any of this.

My mate Doug, if you sat him next to Seth Godin on a long flight, he’d be met by law enforcement officials at the destination! The same would happen if you put me next to Gary.

I just used the ‘Jabs and right hooks’ as a title based on Gary V’s ‘Jab, Jab, right hook’ book. His book is based on give, give, give and then ‘boom’ ‘bash’ wallop’ you ‘sock it’ to ’em, or something like that.

For me, that feels like an intentional strategy, whereby you’re giving with the sole purpose of expecting something in return. That is not generosity that is manipulation and a revamped take on the kind of selling you’d see and laugh at, well I did, in classic films like ‘Tin Men’ and ‘Glengarry, Glen Ross’.

Being generous is something you do without any expectation, you do simply because it makes you feel good, that is OK by the way.

The moment you start to envision future invoices that you can send that person, then it turns from being a generous act to a manipulation.

There is a huge difference though from giving someone that ‘right hook’ after giving and asking for help or now and again putting your message out in a direct way.

The problem with all this expectant giving is it leads to disappointment when nothing comes back in return. Give because you want to, give because it makes you happy and lessens disappointment, manipulation and stress in your life.

Being authentic is exactly what it means, not latching on to a fashionable strategy to get more business.

When you do need help or you need to push something you are doing, then you will never have an issue. But don’t give to ‘bank it’ for the future, just give.