The lesson you keep learning

In 2012, I watched a TED talk called “Do what you love, no excuses.”

A shouty New Yorker stood on stage and delivered one message to the audience at full volume. Create content.

In 2013, I was two years into running my social media agency, and I met the shouty New Yorker in person. His message to the audience was exactly the same. Create content.

This week in New York, I watched Gary Vaynerchuk speak again. Same message. More substance this time. And numbers.

He told the room that his team produces 900 pieces of content every single day across 100 handles. His business runs 15 international offices and has passed $100 million in annual revenue. He employs 4,000 people. In 2013, that number was 400.

This time, the message came with a warning.

Social media is free right now, and it holds the attention of your buyers. In 20 years, he said, we’ll all be sitting around wishing we had taken advantage of that opportunity.

You might be thinking, “But I am taking advantage!”

Are you producing 900 pieces a day?

Sixteen years, one message

Gary has told the same story since before I started my first business. The volume has grown. The headcount has grown. He just kept doing the thing he told everyone else to do.

How many times do you need to hear a lesson before you act on it?

You met someone too

You might not have met Gary Vaynerchuk in 2012. You met someone.

You met someone who felt the fear and shared their story anyway. Someone who started showing up online, one post at a time, and built a brand. Today their life is unrecognisable from where they started.

You watched it happen. Maybe you liked their posts. Maybe you thought, “I could do that.” That was the lesson again.

Yes, it’s noisy

The world is a louder place than it was in 2010. We are more disconnected than ever, and social media plays a part in that.

But social media is also where your future clients spend their attention. It is the arena. If you want to change how people work, think or live, you need to be where they are looking.

The people who need you are scrolling

You know you can help people. You have seen your work make a difference in someone’s business or someone’s life.

The next person who needs exactly what you know is online today. Visibility is how they find you. Staying quiet does you both a disservice.

The tiny fraction

Gary said he speaks to thousands of people every week. A tiny fraction of them actually do anything with what they hear.

Your message is free. The platforms are free. Everything that follows depends on who acts.

So I'm asking you:

• Whose judgement are you so afraid of?
• What could you commit to doing every day?
• How many more times do you need to hear this?

Your move.

Do what you love (no excuses!)