Neon Bristol
Creators and business owners should document their journey with TapeReal. It gains the trust of your audience, provides a timeline for self improvement, (which aides in mindset work) and humanizes our experience.
In the world of entrepreneurship and the creator economy, a few big names take the (literal) stage more often than others.
These are self-made millionaires with charisma, strong work ethic, and — most importantly for budding business owners— good advice.
One such entrepreneur is Gary Vaynerchuk (also known as Gary Vee).
Gary Vaynerchuk's Best Business Advice for Creators: Document, Don't Create
Gary Vee knows exactly how to draw in audiences.
He keeps people on the edge of their seats as he delivers real world practical application strategies for success.
In fact, he is so well known that most of the folks who clicked on this blog did so simply because his photo was on the thumbnail (and rightfully so).
At times a controversial figure, he has used his voice to inspire fellow entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners of all ages.
Over the years, his audience has stayed rapt with attention as he explains how to succeed in our ever changing digital landscape, and one such piece of helpful advice boils down to this:
In this video, Gary drops helpful tips for entrepreneurs rooted in his intimate understanding of content production requirements.
After all, not only is there an insane expectation to have and use ALL major social media platforms, but there’s also additional pressure to post several times per day.
Add to that the need to strategize one’s content production based around which platform that message appears on and you’ve collected more than enough ingredients for constant stress.
However, one way to alleviate a bit of that stress is simply to film and post records of the things that were going to happen anyway.
That’s the essence of documenting rather than creating.
It’s an alternative to scraping together content and then continuing to stress over whether or not that cobbled together content is meaningful enough.
Documenting your journey means recording a play by play of the day to day… and that’s meaningful by default.
In Gary’s view, it makes sense to film everything, chronicling the entire journey.
Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) did the same thing by documenting his journey as a musician.
Twenty-one years ago, Clarence 'Coodie' Simmons met Ye (Kanye West) and saw something so special that he moved from Chicago to New York City to document Ye's journey to become the next great rapper.
Neither of them had any idea where just how far that journey would take them.
Turns out, it took them to a documentary trilogy released exclusively on Netflix.
You might not have a good friend like Coodie in your life, but you do have a smartphone in your pocket, and TapeReal makes it easy for you document your journey towards greatness.
Ignore the desire for perfection and just show up consistently.
Doing that will all pay off in the long run, as long as one’s traits include high work ethic alongside patience.
Basically, catalog your journey and... Get. That. Growth. On. Tape.
As wild as this advice seems at first, it’s actually brilliant and here are three reasons why:
1. DAILY DOCUMENTING FORCES CONSISTENCY
Consistency is one of the most important factors in gaining the trust of future clients or customers.
People who may buy from you in the future want to know that you are going to do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it.
Developing the skill of being predictable (in terms of output) is essential for success in this digital information age.
The chance for exhibiting that skill presents itself in chronicling one’s journey as a creator or through entrepreneurship, because doing so is a daily task.
Sure, business owners in startup stage and creators probably can’t afford to hire a full time production team, but there’s no need to start big.
Filming a few minutes of daily vlog footage on a smartphone will do the trick.
In fact, Gary Vee even cites his own beginnings as proof that production value doesn’t have to be a high priority just to get started.
2. DAILY DOCUMENTING PROVIDES A TIMELINE FOR SELF IMPROVEMENT
Often, when we think about where we are in a journey (whether it’s business, physical fitness, or personal growth) we find everything wrong there is to find with where we are now.
We don’t realize that a year ago or six months ago (or sometimes even last week) we would have loved to be standing in the shoes of “present day us.”
Unfortunately, we don’t give ourselves enough credit for how far we’ve come because we dwell on the past (beating ourselves up over previous failures) or obsessing over the future (fantasizing about what we hope will happen next).
However, when we catalog our whole experience, it helps us trust the process.
We will be able to look back at all the setbacks and trace the trail of breadcrumbs up to now.
We can say, “Oh yeah. If that setback hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have been forced to try this new idea which wouldn’t have contributed toward the discovery of a breakthrough!”
Cataloging the process means there will be chronological proof of how far we've come and that will make us less likely to give up when things get difficult.
3. DAILY DOCUMENTING HUMANIZES OUR EXPERIENCE
This does feel silly at first, put it has a long term purpose.
When a business is in its beginning stages, there’s doesn’t seem to be any need to “humanize” the CEO.
Chances are, that new business owner is still working a 9-5 day job and grinding away at their true passion while burning the midnight oil.
However, in business it’s important to think ahead, and an incredibly valuable strategy for growth over time is sharing the “self” in “self-made.”
In the video linked above, Gary mentions Vera Wang and how great it would have been if we had a play by play of her showing us her personal journey in design.
We could have seen her mistakes, her small wins, and her overall personal growth as a business owner.
If people could show their entrepreneurship journey in a social space, that would increase relate-ability for both future clients/customers and next generation entrepreneurs looking for inspiration.
Use TapeReal to Document Your Creator Journey
In the video, Gary gives examples of several different social media platforms one can use to do the daily documenting he suggests.
However, none of the platforms he mentions is designed for the type of social journaling discussed.
A big reason for that was because TapeReal didn’t exist at the time.
By using TapeReal, creators and business owners can easily document their journey.
And not only that, but the social aspect of TapeReal allows for an element of accountability that doesn’t exist in quite the same way on other platforms.
Here, one can engage with others who are on their own journey.
TapeReal takes Gary’s advice to a whole new level, because it’s a community of humans telling their authentic stories.
With social journaling, there’s no pressure, no editing, and no filters.
However there is an opportunity to show up for your audience, documenting a play by play of your day to day life experience.
