How I'm Building a Gary Vaynerchuk Inspired Media Machine

I first discovered Gary Vee in 2014. I found his website and clicked on a video he made called "The Most Important Word Ever." I vividly remember watching that video. It inspired me so much.

At the time, I was hard at work building Sober Nation and I was having a ton of success on Facebook. I wanted to learn how to expand onto other social platforms, and so I would go to the gym and watch The Daily Vee each night while doing my cardio on the stair machine.

I've always dreamed of building a high level social media department, but it's never been an investment that made sense for me. Almost all of my success has come from SEO and email marketing. That's what I love to do and where I have focused all my attention.

However, I am ready and able to expand my content production into social media. Years later, I continue to think of that first Gary Vee video I watched and I've dreamed about one day being able to create video content that can move people in the way this video moved me.

In this article, I will explain how I am going to use Vaynerchuk's exact content production method, and apply it to my own brand.

Let's get started.

How does Gary Vee create so much content while managing his company?

How is it possible for Gary Vee to run Vayner Media, Vee Friends, his speaking career and all of his other projects while also building a social media brand with millions of followers?

The answer is simple. Gary Vee has developed a system of content production.

Production is the step that keeps most people from having high level success in any content creation endeavor, because there is only so much content one person can create.

Sure, there are examples of fitness models or TikTok stars growing huge accounts on their own, but you'll be surprised to learn about how many people are working behind the scenes on those accounts.

To do this right, I need to build a team and create a production line for video content in the same way I've created a production line for my written content. My content production system is the single most important aspect of what I do. It's the reason I'm able to juggle more than one business at a time.

The good news is, I already know how to develop a system. The bad news is that I have very little experience creating video and graphic design content.

So here's my plan ...

Documenting instead of creating

When it comes to his own social media content, Gary Vee doesn't actually "create" a lot of content. For the most part, all Gary Vee does is record his life, and then he has a production team that takes those recordings and chops them into bite sized pieces.

After that, his team edits the "micro content" to increase the production value, then they distribute the content onto different social platforms.

When you understand the difference between documenting and creating, you realize that the media itself doesn't require a lot of production value, set up, creative design or even planning. Gary Vee simply let's life happen, and then shares it with the world.

Austin Kleon calls this "showing your work".

The idea is simple, show people what you're working on. This could be ...

• outlines of ideas

• recorded conversations you had with teammates

• a video of a brainstorm session

• you traveling and spitting ideas into a camera on the way to a meeting

• doodles

• a book you're reading

The easiest way to generate large amounts of social media content is to simply document the journey and show your work to other people who want behind the scenes access to your process.

That's my method. That's how I will build a huge following.

How I will chop content up and distribute it

Let's make something clear, I have absolutely no time to be editing videos, doing transcriptions, and posting content to social media every day.

Managing this would be a huge waste of my time and would completely eat into my profits. This is the case for Gary as well. Although I'm sure Gary is personally involved in his social media content, I know he has an entire team of people who help manage the content for him.

This is what I am building. I'm repeating the same process I created with my written content, except I am replicating it to create social media content.

Here's how it will look.

My production is split into three parts ...

1. Record Long Form Video - This is the base of my content. These are the long video recording sessions that provide my team with enough raw material to create pieces of "micro content." This includes ...

• my weekly podcast

• recordings of guest appearances on other shows

• YouTube videos I record on my own

• vlogs I make when I have the time

2. Chopping - This is where my team surfs through the content to find the 15 second to 3 minute clips that will perform well on social media. They will create content for ...

• TikTok

• YouTube shorts

• Instagram

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

3. Polishing - This is the step that makes the content shine. The content needs to be transcribed, polished, and made appropriate for the context of the platform it will be posted on. Content posted on Twitter needs to have a different feel than content posted on TikTok.

The function of creating the content is something I am stealing directly from Gary Vee.

https://www.slideshare.net/vaynerchuk/how-to-make-64-pieces-of-content-in-a-day-193602077

Although I don't personally plan to create 64 pieces of content a day, I certainly do plan on using his method of chopping up and repurposing content so that the social media machine keeps on rumming.

What is the end goal of all my content?

It's always been easy for me to understand SEO because I can measure it. I know which keywords are driving which action and I can use dynamic tracking to get an accurate understanding of how much money I am making as a direct result of my SEO efforts.

I've been living in SEO world for so long, and it's time for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and invest in a new department.

I have been slowly turning a corner with my personal brand. I've stopped worrying about my "return on investment", and instead I have been focusing more on creating content that I love and doing it for the sake of generally spreading awareness around my ideas.

I want to help people, because helping people reminds me where I come from.

12 years ago, I was withdrawing from OxyContin, sweating through my sheets and vomiting into a bucket in some dingy cabin in Newtown PA. Ever since that turning point in my life, I've worked my butt off to live a healthy lifestyle, spread positivity, and build my businesses.

One of the ways I've been able to stay motivated is by watching Gary Vaynerhuk. Although there are a lot of things he says that I don't personally agree with, the reality is that he's been out there doing the work. The work is what keeps me focused on my progress, keeps me grateful, and helps me remember how far I've come.

Watching him reminds me that it's possible. I hope to be able to give that same motivation to others, simply by showing up on a consistent basis and being available to those who need a helping hand.

So, let's ask this question again. What is my end goal?

From a technical standpoint, the end goal is the same as it always is. I want to use social media to funnel traffic to my website and continue growing my email list.

Outside of that, my goal is to simply show up every day with positivity, love, and appreciation for anyone out there trying to make a better life for themselves.

If I can do it, then so can you ... and that's what this is about.