1/1/11 It’s a new year, new decade. Part of me says it’s just another day but another part of me is Raymond K. Hessel. We’ve all seen Fight Club and remember the scene… Let’s watch it again… in HD-ish!:
Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day in Raymond K. Hessel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.
4 years ago I used to watch a daily podcast called Winelibrary TV and became accustomed to Gary Vaynerchuk’s wine tasting reviews (and his high intensity personality). Since this time he has turned his family business from a $3million dollar business to $60million giant harnessing the power of the internet. While a good majority would turn off the channel on Gary and never wish to be stuck in the same elevator with him (dismissed as a Billy Mays type-A personality from New Jersey), he actually offers some sage advice on today’s opportunity (if you buckle down and listen to him). And once you listen long enough (long enough to crack this nut and understand where he’s coming from with his personality) you can listen to all things on his website, as a youtube comment remarks:
“I would listen to Gary read the phonebook!”
Here are 3 videos he did at conferences that I think are worth your time (each will play after the next in a playlist, or you can click the left-and-right arrow on to skip to the next video):
httpvp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=70622497CC650F81
1st video (this was featured on TED and is from 2008)
[first 4 min]
There is no reason in 2008 to do sh*t you hate. None. Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “What do you want to do everyday for the rest of your life?” Do that. I promise you can monetize that sh*t. If you love Alf do an Alf blog. If you like smurfs… SMURF IT UP.[11 min in, the last 4 min]
I don’t want to hear about this 2 job thing: this 9-5 bullsh*t. If you want this, if you are miserable: Work 9-5, spend a couple hours with your family: 7-2am in the morning is plenty of time to do damage. If you are doing something else and want to do this thing you love: You work 9-6, you kiss the dog, and you go to town. Everyone has time: stop watching f*cking LOST!
–
2nd video from 2010
[26min in]
People are trying to be better at what they are not [don't do this]. Do what’s in your DNA and execute on that. Execute on who you are. There’s about 4-6 things that I do well and I focus on that. Lebron and Tiger Woods do what they are naturally good at. You need to truly believe in what you’re selling.–
3rd video from 2010:
[35min in]
We just lived through the big box area of retail. It’s gonna push back to mom and pop mentality. I believe your grandparents are more properly positioned right now to be more successful in 2012 because they way they built their businesses: they gave a f*ck. That’s how we have a baker’s dozen. Go to whole foods and buy 13 donuts and see if they charge you for 12. We are going back to small town rules. Word of mouth is on steroids. The authentic people are going to win.[50min in - On talking to 80-90 year old strangers on planes]
They played the game and not one of them gave a f*ck about how much money they made. Whether they were rich or poor, they said “I wish I spent more time with my family and I wish I did something I loved.”
What he is basically saying is nowadays you can make a living building up a dedicated subscriber base by selling or talking about what you love doing (in an honest, and hopefully either entertaining/interesting/informative way — you will eventually figure out what works and what does not on camera by jumping in an experimenting) and this matters in many ways. The playing field has been leveled now thanks to youtube (you actually have the advantage of being a real genuine person on camera vs. television and its celebrities), low website costs (and low learning curves — you don’t have to know how to code a website anymore), and low cost of an HD camera (drag and drop editing and free video uploading websites). Someone in the 1970s, as Gary says (or I say just consider a decade ago when few people had broadband), could never be in the position we are in right now. And you can execute on this opportunity. This is your Raymond K. Hessel moment. He wrote a book called Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion and while he’s not the best writer (he admits he is not good at writing/blogging/reading books), his speeches are moving and full of home-run ideas and I still look forward to reading his new book The Thank You Economy come March 2011.
Things start off relatively small (and is actually the most important time to “hustle”/work hard and clock-in daily like Gary says) until you reach a certain point (~1,000+ dedicated fans/followers being “critical mass”) and you can literally pay your monthly living expenses doing something you love, because it’s going to grow exponentially after that (through word of mouth from your subscribers and youtube’s ‘recommended for you’ video section which makes videos relevant to the user and is youtube’s inherently viral feature — plus more vids you have the more likely they are to end up in future fans ‘recommended for you’ section — subscribers pop up out of nowhere as no vid goes to waist!). It’s best to find a way to make money along the journey to 1,000 (and get that instantly gratifying feeling unless communicating and receiving direct feedback from your humble-beginnings audience is gratifying enough — btw youtube has an excellent notification system letting you know when people comment on a vid). There is nothing more gratifying to me than knowing a video (something you created) can reach thousands of people and when it actually does, it’s all 
. Plus you get to archive footage of yourself at a younger age that you can view years from now and treasure, and if you can figure out how to make passive income from it you’re infinitely set. Personally I’m looking forward to this new year doing a lil’ something with video games, internet memes, and a green screen. Not as high production as Totally Rad Show (you should know as my favorite podcast) who now offers bite-size daily episodes to cater to a larger audience — loving the new daily format btw. TRS has been a huge inspiration (something I’ve wanted to do) the past 4 years with their honest personalities and open discussion on all things rad (and A+ effort green screen visuals — $30 cheap todo nowadays btw). All 3 guys, including Mikey the editor of TRS (who helped me with some green screen tips on facebook) make a living off the show: they are sponsored and are also apart of the Revision3 network platform. Another inspiration to me is DarkSydePhil: he does “video game walkthroughs” (playing a video game beginning to end with his color commentary added) and he made money on Youtube’s partner program with Google Adsense (making 5 months worth of living expenses in 1 month’s time) but now makes a living on blip.tv’s pay-per-watch program. People are so attached to his personality they are willing to watch him eat BK (something he frickin’ picked up at Burger King and simply ate on camera (effortlessly)! and it got 65,000+ views).
Because these podcasters are so genuine (like real people) I love watching them daily to see what’s new. I’ve watched them for 4 years and I feel like I know these people in real life (like they were in the room with me everytime they recorded a show). If any of them were looking for a place to stay, and asked one of their dedicated fans (including myself) I know they would be welcomed with open open arms to couchsurf for a few days and be treated like a special guest. So as far as I’m concerned it’s basically like winning the lottery if you get that kind of dedication from fans (reaching critical mass and having people watch you eat BK effortlessly and recording something you would just do anyway in your spare time).
