The blog title says it perfectly. I am not Gary Vee. Before I begin this post, I need to state how much I admire, follow, and yes…Fanboy Gary Vee. Those who are not familiar, check this link: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/. Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee) is as intense of an entrepreneur as they come. Blunt, direct, and full of energy. His content is motivating and inspiring. His books should be part of most MBA programs. Here is the problem. I just don’t have that top gear he has. When I started to pivot from Soul Performance Academy to using my name and marketing “me” as my main social media content, I was hell-bent on doing what I call the “Gary Grind”. If you watch his social media, you will swear the guy never sleeps or has a life outside of the business. It is go go go all the time. Now, admittedly, that may be how it is presented and editing, etc. I was blown away by it all. That is why I failed Gary.
I was so caught up with “how” he was doing it, I missed the “why”. I missed the main lesson that Gary is teaching us. That message, in my opinion, is “Find your passion and do it”. There is not a message of how hard or a secret formula. The message is pretty simple. You will work harder for something you truly love and believe in. How hard is up to you and how much you value it? I lost sight of the main message and also what I teach a lot of my clients. We need to stop at some point and see where we are at. A roadmap check-in. I want to share a story (with permission) from a coaching client I recently worked with. We will call him Jack.
Jack is a college basketball coach. He came to me because he felt like he was headed for a crash and maybe burnout as a coach. The very first question I asked him was “why are you a college coach”. His response told me everything I needed to know. Jack said, “I like being a coach.” I was not shocked that the word college was not in there. When I mentioned that he did not really have a response. So, I dug a little deeper. I said, “why are you a college coach”? His response continued down the path I expected. “It was the next step, why wouldn’t I become a college coach. I started with AAU 12u and just kept honing my skills. I worked my way up to middle school, then high school. Finally, I got a job at a JUCO then landed this gig (NCAA D2)”. My response was rather simple: “So you always wanted to be a college coach”? I was totally baiting him. He said “Well, I guess. That’s what is next on the ladder right?”
That was what I was looking for. He is a college coach because that is “what is next” in the ladder. I see it with coaches, players, managers, and executives. It is not unique to sports. An amazing salesperson gets promoted to manager and flames out in 5 years. A great engineer becomes a CEO and crumbles. A great player becomes a captain and their production goes down. The brass ring that we are told to go after is actually our Kryptonite. Everything we have worked so hard for is gone in a minute. We end up muddling through, faking it, or worse; further back in line than when we started.
This brings me back to Gary Vee and how I missed the point. Gary grinds like he does because he LOVES what he is doing. He loves what he is doing and is very passionate about it. The thing is, that only is sustainable with something you truly love and care about. Too many times we think things are what we want, but more often than not they are things that are just expected or in the typical progression and not what we truly want. We need to step back and look at things a little more and decide what is important.
So how do we do that? It is pretty simple.
- Grab a piece of paper and make a list of the 20 things that take up your time in life. For example: coaching, blogging, podcasting, streaming, marketing, writing, collecting music, playing baseball, singing, playing an instrument.
- Brainstorm on what you goal is. This can be a simple career goal, or life balance goal, etc. It just needs to be what you are working towards.
- Rank the items above in order of most important to your goal to least important
It is those top items on your list that should be your grind. I am not suggesting that the other items don’t matter, but they should not be your focus. Here is the kicker. Some of those items at the bottom of the list, end up being what we spend a lot of time on. That is what can lead us toward feeling unfulfilled. My analogy is that we end up putting more time on the side dishes and not enough time in the main course. That could be a rather drastic change in life.
That D2 coach I worked with? Resigned as the head coach. Took a job running a youth center and now is an assistant coach at the D3 level. He is happy with the change and now grinds like crazy working on the youth center because that is/was his passion. He lost sight of that. I am certainly not suggesting that everyone quit their job. In fact, your current job could be exactly what you to find your grind. Maybe stop worrying about climbing that ladder because that is what is expected and maintain your current status and grind on your side passion. You need to ask yourself “am I making this move because it is what I want and gets me closer to my goal, or am I making the change because that is what is expected?”
I guess I am more like Gary Vee than I thought. The late nights working on my personal “brand” is really a passion. I am not doing it because I expect to become famous or wealthy from it. I do it because I think it may help some people, but most importantly it helps me. It gives me purpose and drive. I am ok getting by on the other things that I thought were important, as long as it helps me grind. Sorry, it took this long to figure out Gary!
Until next time my friends; remember that you can’t smell the roses if you are running with them. Be a verb and of course… #DontSuck
(photo credit: mumbrella.asia)
