Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the next generation people in profits podcast. I’m
your host, Dan Cotton and today we are talking about Gary Vaynerchuk top five business tips and why
you need to listen to them. Before we get into that though, if you have not gone to the NG cheer and
gymnastics owners Facebook group and joined that and you are an owner of your gym, you need to do
that right now before you do anything else. Also, make sure you’re subscribed to this podcast so you
don’t miss any amazing future episodes. And lastly, head over to nextgenowners.com to check out our
site, subscribe to get our emails where you’re gonna get business tips sent directly to you that are
going to help you grow your gym and turn your passion into your profits. All right, so Gary Vaynerchuk if
you don’t know who Gary Vaynerchuk is he is a very successful businessman. He is one of the most
inspiring and accomplished businessmen alive today. In my personal opinion, his business advice is
like completely rooted in his own experiences. And pulled directly from that building his business
empire and if you don’t know his story, he started out as a young man essentially with very little he
just grew up hustling that was his style. That was his life. He struggled in school. He started out
businesses when he was young, selling baseball cards and you know, upgrading and selling baseball
cards and sporting memorabilia and then he started I believe it was a full liquor store. He was working
out with his father who was you know, a self made immigrant. And he’s created a website called
winelibrary.com. And he grew that into kind of an empire and then he transitioned to creating a
Marketing Empire and now he is just incredibly inspiring, very successful as a businessman and we are
going to be talking about his top five business tips and breaking them down and discussing why they’re
important to you. So number one, for Gary is focused on the consumer, not the competition number
two, never stop working. Number three, age doesn’t matter. Number four, don’t be scared to fail. And
number five, be patient. So Gary was one of the first business minds I really started listening to as I
embarked on my journey to become more educated and become a better business owner and I was
inspired by his approach and his motivation, his work ethic and his mindset. And he’s just a really, really
inspiring person to listen to if you are ever looking for some just general inspiration and something
to help you get motivated. Now he has a little bit of a foul mouth, you could say he does curse. He’s
very, very direct, which is part of what makes him so entertaining and maybe why I identify with him a
little bit. But as I as I listened to him throughout my business ventures and found these tips not only to
help me personally, but also to really help my businesses and I think they’re just so valuable and there’s
something that I think on regularly and I use to inspire me regularly. You know, I have kind of my top
three of his top five we’re going to talk about each one of his top five and I’ll tell you which ones in my
personal opinion are the most important, and the ones that are going to make the biggest difference for
you. So number one, number one tip is focus on the consumer, not the competition. Now this one I thinkis really really relevant to us in the cheerleading and gymnastics industries. Our industries are all about,
like what are the big names or what are the Olympians doing? You know and cheer we’re looking at a
lot of the big dogs the big gyms that win Worlds and when summit and what are they doing and then we
start kind of trying to follow them and engaging in that rat race of having you know who has the more
blinged out uniform who has the cooler practice gear, who has the more blinging black backpack and all
these different things and we’re buying things from these companies with no profit margin for us as a
business because we’re chasing that and we see our parents see those programs on social media and
our kids see those programs on social media and they’re like, We want to be exactly like that. Well,
those programs are getting things at cost or comped.
They’re there. They have a lot of deals that they’ve worked out with those companies because there’s
companies know that people are going to see it and it’s easy marketing for them. And people are
getting them going to want to buy the thing. Well we just continually are focused on you know, what are
they doing and then how can I how can I change that? How can I do that here for me with no
consideration of the profit margins and whether or not that’s gonna put us in a bad way. And we
also do it in the cheer industry. I hear it all the time from clients that I work with is well I can’t charge
that much money because the gym down the street is charging this and they’re not looking at, they’re
not setting their prices based off of what is correct budgeting for them. They’re setting their prices
based off what the competition is doing. Well. Yeah, the competition may be undercutting your price a
little bit, but are they delivering the same quality of product? And additionally, are they just slowly
working themselves out of business? Because that can be the case I’ve seen numerous gyms who
continue to undercut price and undercut price and undercut price and then they’re closed. So you have
to set your budgeting based off of what you need in your business. So you need to be focused on not
the competition are really focused on your consumer we need to be focused solely on delivering the
best product for our consumers. And we need to be focused on what our consumers need, and want
but need is kind of the the number one thing especially in cheer and gymnastics, because sometimes
parents don’t know what they need. They don’t understand what their kids need. They may know what
they want, they may want the brainiest uniform, they may want their child to go to the Olympics, they
may want those things, but that doesn’t mean they need those things right now in this
moment. So you have to find a way to blend those two things together. But everything we do should be
focused on delivering a great product for our clients and for our consumers. And for the people who are
giving us their money, as opposed to being focused on what the competition down the street is doing.
And I can go into all the stories of how people do this interior to focus on the competition and look at
what the other teams are doing and oh my gosh damn this stunt to know they went to that competition
and they got that trophy and well then we need to go to that thing and just focus on what your parents
need and delivering an amazing product for your clients, your athletes. That is needs to be your number
one focus focus on the consumer. Ignore the competition. Number two, never stop working. Now this
one is very easy to take to a not healthy point.
I am not a full endorser of you just gotta grind harder. You just got to get up earlier. You just got to stay
up later. I don’t always think that that is the best approach now. There may be some times where that’s
necessary. And where it does make sense and it is not necessarily unhealthy to to grind and work
harder. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. So if you are you know really pushing and really
grinding it, it’s not always bad in spurts or in moments. To be fully honest, I’ve done this to an unhealthy point where I’ve worked way too much. And it can go to a negative point really, really quickly. I think it’s important to note that never stopped working doesn’t mean that you don’t take breaks. It really means you need to be working harder than the person on the street. You need to be working harder than other people and pushing to grow your business and really work smarter, right, hustle and push. But just like a athlete, you wouldn't tell someone who was trying to get in shape.
You need to work out all day every single day. Because it’s actually not going to be good for their body.
They’re not going to recover. They’re not going to like you have to take breaks in everything so taking
breaks is not necessarily a bad thing. I also never stopped working as I’ve grown as a business
owner is my mind never stopped working right. I may not be at my desk you know creating marketing
content or I may not be in the gym coaching class, which is really not my main focus as a business
owner. And you know, I may not be doing those things directly, but in my mind is working. I’m reading
a book. I’m growing personally. I’m taking care of myself in some ways that is working, taking a break
and recharging my battery and making it so much more productive when I actually get back to the the
nitty gritty of work is still kind of working in a sense I’m taking care of myself. So you’ve got to strike
that balance. And I also look at it from the perspective of never stop working is I never get comfortable.
I don’t sit back and go I’ve got it figured out. I’m done. I don’t need to grow anymore. That is where the
never stop working comes in. Right? You never stop working on improving your business. You never
stopped selling, you never stopped growing. You always need to be looking at okay now what’s next as
opposed to getting comfy.
Number three age doesn’t matter if you’re older but you’re starting your journey you have the
advantage of life experience and wisdom that someone much younger doesn’t have. You also have the
disadvantage of you have less time most likely and you also may have really bad habits so with life
experience sometimes comes experiences that will lead you to bad habits or things that are not
necessarily good for running your business because you had a bad experience or you just learned
something in a way that wasn’t really the best approach. If you’re young you have time and you have
time to live in your parents basement and and start your business you have time to live check to check
and not have you don’t have kids and you don’t have a house and you don’t have all these other
payments that you need to make so you can live on less you have time to kind of push through those
financially difficult moments. As you grow your business that someone who is a little bit older
who has all of those payments, they have a car payment, they have a mortgage which you shouldn’t
have a car payment for those different episodes. You have a mortgage you have a family you have
insurance that you need to pay for you all of those things, right. You have less time to have your
business be profitable because you got to make sure all those things are taken care of as well. So you
have pros and cons of both. At the end of the day. It doesn’t matter they both have their advantages
and disadvantages. And just because you are 50 years old doesn’t mean you can’t start building a
business of your dreams right now. And just because you are 19 years old, doesn’t mean you can’t start
building a business of your dreams right now. I know gym owners who have started their gyms at in
their 40s I know gym owners have started the gyms in their 50s I know gym owners have started their
gyms when they’re 19. They both have their challenges. It doesn’t matter. Age is just ah understand
what the pros and cons of each are and what you’re going to need to do to augment those issues and
make sure that you avoid the pitfalls and go out there and crush it. So don’t worry about the age. Don’t
be scared to fail. And so it’s really simple. I don’t think I need to break it down a lot but it’s one of my
more favorite ones of his advice and we’re gonna fail. Failure is an inevitability, not a possibility. So being afraid of failure is a little bit unnecessary. In my opinion. Now we want to avoid major failures if
we can. When I’ve talked about this in other episodes, we want to fail forward quickly. We want to find
those failures we want to learn from them and then we want to make improvements and grow. I have
failures in my businesses every year now when I say failures, I mean you know marketing, things that
just didn’t quite work as well as I thought they would, or things that I didn’t plan for correctly and then I
have to scramble and make adjustments. Heck, I’m sitting here at Camp right now and I have a
housing challenge to figure out because I’ve got more teams than I have cabins and I’ve got to figure
I’ve got enough beds but I don’t have enough space to have everyone feel like they have their own
space. And so I’m kind of scrambling and that was a failure on my part and a little bit of a failure on
some of the things we were told we would have and it did but you know, I’m having to make those
adjustments. So that was a failure. But that’s something I can learn from moving forward and I
can have a better plan for in the future as my company has continued to grow. And, you know, I’m sure
you’ve all done this with sales you sell and sell and sell and you’re like yes, I can accommodate that I
can do that. And and you think through 80% of it and you forget that last 10 So, failures happen you
have to learn from them and can’t be scared of them if you I talked about this in the why you have must
do what you are terrified to do. I think that’s one of my top three favorite episodes I’ve done and so go
listen to that if you haven’t. But you can get into kind of a analysis paralysis moment if you’re really
focused on the fear of the failure. It can set you up to not make decisions and be frozen so you can’t be
scared to fail. You just got to accept that it’s a possibility. And be excited to learn from those failures. Be
excited to try new things and figure out what’s going to work and grow your business. Lastly is be
patient. And I think this is a really important one as well. So that those are my kind of top three. If you if
you are tracking, I’ll go over them again. So be patient.
It’s really easy to get on social media, and look at what other people are claiming they’re doing, you
know, look at what their teams are looking like and you know see people posting about how successful
their businesses are. Talk to people you know, that are like, Oh my gosh, I’m making so much money.
My life is so great. And feel like you’re behind the curve. And it’s never gonna happen for you and
you’re not going to be able to do it. Be patient. Be patient. That doesn’t mean don’t work that doesn’t
mean don’t strive for better but be patient. It it takes time. It takes time to grow a business. It is very
very rare to just open the doors of your gym and have 700 kids walk in the door and you know be taking
$100,000 a year in net owner benefits or more. Right that doesn’t just happen on day one. You’ve got to
take your time you got to be patient and know that building a great quality successful in the long term
business takes time. It’s not going to happen overnight. And celebrate those wins. celebrate your
successes, you know, be proud of what you’re building and enjoy the journey. Because being a
business owner is a really really awesome thing. And you are in control it’s so cool to be an
entrepreneur. Enjoy the journey. Don’t just be focused on the end goal of make money, make money,
make money, like you get to do something really cool. And enjoy that process and be patient and also
know that people on social media you know we all know this but we forget it sometimes, a lot of times
they’re lying. Or they’re exaggerating or making use of framing things in the best possible way. I have
watched cheer teams that look like they’re going to be the best of the best of the best and then I see
them in competition and I go I guess I’m not shooting them in worry. They posted the best sequence
they’ve ever done in their life at practice. And it was just that sequence. It wasn’t their whole routine. Or
I’ve seen business owners who claimed gym owners who claimed that they were you know, having 700
kids come to trials. I mean, I’m making this up a little bit. They’ve had all these kids so many kids, it’s going to be so great. They’re going to have all these teams, they’re going to have 12 worlds teams, and
they’re going to do all these things and then they do none of them. But if I just went off their initial post
and I was stressed out about what they were saying and what they were putting out there I would be
then questioning my choices and questioning where I was going and really not setting myself up for
success. So be patient. It really took me a long time to find Gary’s advice. I would say I didn’t start
listening to him until my fourth year really as a business owner maybe like maybe even my fifth and I
really wish I had heard this stuff when I was brand new. It would have made a big difference in my life.
But even though I found it for four years I’m so glad I did. I’m glad I found it at four versus five or six or
even later. But it took me a little while to find him and start listening to him and getting some of his
advice. If you feel like you could benefit from this kind of advice that my number one recommendation is
you’ve got to get our blogs and they some of them are on Facebook. They’re emailed out there but
you’ve got to get them and Danielle does most of our blogs and she puts out some amazing information
in those that’s going to continue to grow your knowledge and it’s going to give you advice like this but
better even more directed advice directly to you. I get them emailed to me. I read all of them and even
though we’re partners, you know we both run our gyms a little bit differently and the timeliness of the
advice you get in those blogs is just like it’s phenomenal. Like there’s the most there was a recent one
on like three marketing tips for back to school marketing, and how this is such a critical time for growing
your business and it was just awesome. Like I literally, I’m taking it and I’m sending it to my kind of marketing manager, my marketing director within my gym, and who runs all of our class stuff for us and I was like, we got to do this like look at read this get inspired. Let’s go back to school time we need to let’s grow numbers. So make sure you’re getting those. They’re amazing. If you’re not already. If you are already getting those and you’re in the NG change and asset owners group, ask questions, right, ask questions in that group engaged in that group. There are a lot of really smart people in there who can give you great advice as well. So make sure you’re doing that as well.
I would say that Gary’s advice is really solid. In fact it is quite amazing. But for me, the top three are
focused on the consumer, not the competition. Don’t be scared to fail and be patient. If there are three
things that you can take from his advice, those are the top three in my opinion. They are just so
solid in every business owner will no matter what stage of business they’re in, can take something from
that and remember that every single day and it will help frame put you in a better frame for being a
business owner and delivering a great product for your clients and growing your business. So the
number one thing leaving this mike mike, my call to action for you is if you haven’t already joined the
NG change and asset owners group you need to do that I mentioned it at the beginning and go on there
and if you’re inspired by this podcast, I want you to go in there and post the number one thing about
Gary’s advice or this podcast that spoke to you like to help spark the conversation. One of the
most fun things about that group is engaging with other business owners. The really cool thing about
Gary is he gives all of his advice out for free on platforms all the time. Like he is I found all this on
YouTube. He has his he has a podcast he like just gives all of this advice away at all the time and I
talked about this on the the failure episode. He or actually I may have talked about it on the the
knowledge versus execution episode, but he he always says look, I give this away because I know that
90% of you aren’t going to do it and it really comes down to are you going to execute that so he gives
us stuff out all the time. He never hesitates to share his knowledge. And I find that really inspiring as a
business owner and a business coach, you know, sharing that knowledge and helping people and yes,
He says that he thinks 90% of people aren’t going to act on it. I’ll tell you what. gym owners are their actors like I know that way more than 90% of you listening to this are way, way more than 10% of you
listening to this episode are going to act on some of this advice I’m going to bring this in to your
business mindset so I don't think that that cheer gym owners hat and gymnastics gym owners have that
same lack of action. I think you guys are gonna go out there and execute and and do these things. And
apply this to your mindset right away. So I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. Make sure you are
subscribed. Again. I’ve said it now like four times, head over to our Facebook group. Like or get in that
Facebook group. If you’re a gym owner, get subscribed to our blogs, get it take advantage of all of that
free knowledge and information that is going out to you to help you grow your business help you
become more successful help you take your passion, turn it into your profits. Thank you for listening to
this episode. And we will catch you on the next one.
