The Cream Rises To The Top in Coffee and in Personal Branding | Veecap

The reality of what you see in DailyVee as a vlog documenting my life is only 15 minutes of my 15 hour day. So a lot of the nuances and complexity of these meetings never actually get seen. After seeing a few comments on YouTube about my meeting with an employee bubbling up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for this #VeeCap to highlight the unseen interactions that happen every single day as an entrepreneur.

I asked TeamGary to follow up with a VaynerMedia employee Andrea to gather more context on what was going on in order provide more value as a secondary piece of content.

Andrea has spent 3 years at VaynerMedia working as an Account Supervisor with clients like Mondelez, PepsiCo and GE.

But right now, and what you don’t know, is that she’s preparing to make the single biggest decision of her life. Andrea is leaving New York next week and her entire career in advertising. At 27, she has decided to sell everything she owns and travel the world!

It’s sounds like a crazy decision but one that is more common than you might think. As the CEO of an 800+ person digital agency, I have seen hundreds of people come and go. Some spin out to other agencies, others start their own business, and some even do the unexpected, like pack up and travel the world in pursuit of a new career.

Andrea is passionate about health and wellness with a specific interest in how to use our environment (i.e, natural foods) to heal our bodies.

After some traveling, she would love to work with people that are sick and help them make food choices that can reverse symptoms or, work with someone on the side of policy to change what kids are eating in schools.

If anyone in the VaynerNation thinks they can help, please hit her up on Insta and say hello.

She’s embarking on a new adventure and gathering inspiration for what’s next. The three minutes of the meeting you see in the episode, and the extended section below was a moment for us to say “goodbye” (although if things don’t work out I told her she will always have her position here) where she asked for some input and advice.

Where does she go? What does she do? How does she break through in such a complicated industry such as health and wellness?

I love this topic because it is so central to my core thesis on self-awareness, doubling down on your strengths and paying attention to what makes you pop. This may not be fully clear in the episode which is why I’m trying to expand through these articles but as a general piece of advice,  no matter who you are or what you want, you need to “do you” and go all-fucking-in on the 1-2 things you are good at and can make money with and provide value through. As long as the intent is pure, you will win. I love that Andrea is investigating wellness, which is a massive industry, but when we spoke about what she should “do” and where to find the white-space, I reminded her to forget about the white spaces and forget about the margins where so many people spend too much time trying to be something they’re not.

Every world and every industry is going to be equally complex and I promise you the one area that you are going to excel is going to be predicated on where you have the most natural strengths.

This is what it means to let the cream rise to the top and a message I think is enormously valuable to those in business or trying to build a personal brand. The very first episode of WineLibraryTV I ever did, I dressed up in fancy clothes and spoke like I was at a country-club. 7 minutes later, I realized that this was going to be on the internet forever and if I wasn’t true to myself, I would have lived my life in regret. I knew for myself, that I had to be authentic and do what was right for me, by doubling down on what I believe in and utilizing my natural strengths as a communicator, even if that means going outside of the norm and talking about wine tasting like rocks and dirt. I felt infinitely more confident and happy because I was able to “do me” which made producing the show genuine and fun.

The other day when my videographer Babin asked me if I was worried about being “pigeon-holed” into just 1 thing, I responded with the simple truth that “you are what you are” and if you’re good enough, you will win.

I’m an entrepreneur who loves building businesses. I never limit myself because I just do what I am going to do. It doesn’t matter if I used to be the “wine guy.” The results are irrefutable and the cream rises to the top.

So I’m fascinated by the notion of being in a business where the cream rises to the top instead of the made up white-space that you aren’t really passionate about. You need to embrace your north star and go all in on the things that matter to you. There is plenty of white space in that to succeed and most importantly you are going to be happy with yourself because you are being authentic and staying in your lane.

When my team interviewed Andrea, this was her take away from the conversation:

“No one’s goal should ever be, “Let me identify the white space and fill that.” Your goal should be, “What do I wanna do? What am I passionate about? What am I good at?”, because you will inadvertently create your own white space if you do. I think what Gary was getting at is people can tell when you are truly authentic. If you’re really good, and if you’re better at X, Y, Z than someone else … You’ll shine. There could be 50 yoga studios or health and wellness practices in New York, but if you provide more value, and you live and breathe what you are doing, somehow the cream rises to the top.

Never base your ambitions off of what other people are doing. Don’t worry about how to catch them, or how to compete with them. And just be open to letting things naturally unfold.”

When we discussed whether or not Andrea thought this was a risk, this is what she had to say:

I’m 27, so you have to think about, how will this impact my career? I won’t have a 401K, I lose my health insurance. I know the advertising industry and it’s very secure and I can basically get a job anywhere I want. Working at VaynerMedia opens doors. My family and friends are here. It took me a long time to make the decision.

But what’s interesting and I think what ties back to Gary’s ideas is that I actually think it’s more risky to not do it, because then you will never know.  When things are good, it makes it even harder to leave because it’s so easy to become complacent. It’s easy to not rock the boat. But if you don’t ever rock the boat, then you’re doing yourself a disservice, and you don’t learn and grow and evolve and change, and gain new perspective.

I’ve done a lot of that in New York, but I’ve plateaued here. I have to take that risk.  I’m actually not scared. I feel like what scares me is being stagnant.

And maybe that’s the truth for you and maybe it’s not. Whatever the case may be, you also need to be empathetic to the individuals who want more security and structure and safety around what they are doing. But the reason why it’s important to me is that I always want to empower others to get “theirs.” Of course I support Andrea and think her version of happiness, which is predicated on taking “risk,” is great. That’s what she wants and that’s what I want for her. The biggest thing is to be self-aware. To love what you do and chase after what you really want. She’s the perfect example of it, and one story I’m glad myself and the team were able to expand on for all of you.

I hope you enjoy the episode and the clip of the full meeting below.

Location

VaynerMedia, New York City

Guest List

Ryan Serhant – The Million Dollar Listing

Gunna and his management crew

Andrea Horowitz – VM Employee

TeamGaryVee

DailyVee 404

Full Meeting

Thanks for reading ❤️

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