Part 4: Hey GaryVee, I’d Like To Work For You For Free!

If you’re more of an audio person, check out the YouTube video linked below. If you’d prefer to read along at your leisure, skip the video and read through the slides :)

Gary, this is my story and why I want to work for your for free

To understand why I want to work for GaryVee for free, you must know that I’m a Charity Water advocate and supporter

And one of my lifelong goals is to help solve our global water crisis by providing everyone in the world with clean water in our lifetime

Gary also supports Charity Water and his friend Scott Harrison who founded Charity Water

Gary’s one of the dedicated Well Members who have helped make Charity Water’s 100% model possible

For those viewing this video that didn’t know, 785 million people in the world live without clean drinking water. That’s 1 in 10 people worldwide, or roughly twice the population of the United States

Charity Water has a simple mission. To bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries

Now in December 2019, I had the opportunity to meet Gary’s friend Scott out in New York at breakfast

Scott founded Charity Water on his 31st birthday back in 2006 by using his birthday to raise money for clean water

Since 2006, Charity Water has inspired over 100,000 people to donate their birthdays to raise money for Charity Water

Which include London on her 5th birthday and Harry on his 78 birthday. London raised over $2,000 on her birthday while Harry almost raised $4,000 on his

But more importantly tens of thousands of other charities like the Make A Wish Foundation,

Save the Children

and Pencils of Promise, have followed Charity Water’s lead and have made it possible for donors to donate their birthdays directly to their charities straight through their websites too

And towards the end of 2017, Facebook even made it possible for its users to choose a charity to support on their birthdays too. On January 17th, 2019 for my 28th birthday, I raised $505 for Charity Water through my first ever Facebook Birthday Fundraiser

Ashton Kutcher also joined this movement. He raised over $40,000 for Thorn to help get kids out of bad situations. Thorn helps defend and protect children from sexual abuse online

And so did Will Smith by raising $746,000 through Omaze for Global Citizen to help end extreme poverty by 2030

And finally for my last example, Madonna raised over $1 million dollars for vulnerable children and orphans in Malawi. Each of them joined this movement and shared their missions too, along with millions of other people around the world

But what’s been missing from this incredible movement is the support, recognition, involvement and contributions from our employers and the companies we all work at. My question to Gary is, ‘When do you think our business leaders and the corporations that we all work for will join this movement that employees everywhere care so deeply about?

A simple way for every person, employee and donor to quantify the impact they’ve contributed to causes and charities they’ve cared about throughout their lives is by leaving a legacy, just like I did with Charity Water, Ashton has done for Thorn, Will for Global Citizen and Madonna for Raising Malawi. Speaking of legacy, I know it’s something that is near and dear to Gary’s heart.

Now, I want to acknowledge that corporate matching programs exist in our world today, but they’re incredibly uninspiring and they typically have extremely low engagement. According to ‘Double the Donation’ 78% of employees have no idea their company offers a company matching program while just 7% of employees at these companies actually submit a request to have their employer match a contribution

People are NOT looking for an uninspiring tax write off. People are looking to make an impact, share their story, leave a legacy and to be a part of something bigger than themselves

And that’s because we are all storytelling, mission-oriented, purpose-driven and legacy leaving human beings and I believe it’s time that our business leaders and the companies we all work at realize this. And I know you already do Gary, but in my opinion, you’re still an anomaly in society. Despite all the progress that’s been made, business leaders in general still have a long way to go

Scott says, ‘People are looking for stories that really mean something, stories that are redemptive, inspiring and bigger than an individual’

After my conversation with Scott in December 2019, he told me three things

First Scott said, ‘The world needs your vision. There is a huge disconnect between Corporate Social Responsibility Programs and what employees actually care about and want’

Again, here’s proof to support Scott’s statement

Then he said, ‘What you’re trying to do is going to be incredibly hard, but it’ll be impactful and you’ll make a difference in people’s lives if you stay the course’

Finally Scott ended with, ‘To reinvent corporate philanthropy, start with one company. Others will eventually follow’

So, I decided to start with VaynerMedia

And 18 incredible members of Team GaryVee

VaynerMissions had 95% engagement amongst the employees involved in the pilot, which is up 88% from donors at companies who offer corporate matching programs

And that’s because I empowered each employee to share their story and even more importantly to support one another in the process.

Now instead of each employee donating their birthday, VaynerMedia employees were empowered to donate their Vaynerversaries

And together we collectively created VaynerMissions and VaynerMedia’s giving portfolio. Together we raised $18,600 for 11 different charities on behalf of the employees involved for causes that they each deeply care about

For Zain’s VaynerMission, he chose to direct funds to the American Cancer Society. As you can read, he said, ‘Almost everyone knows someone who has battled against this vicious disease. The fight isn’t over until the cure is found’.

And colleagues like Drock, Claude, May, Andy, Dkirk, Sinan and Katie were also empowered to support the American Cancer Society on behalf of Zain and his mission

What gives people feelings of power isn’t money or status. It’s having colleagues that support you

Ultimately, for Zain’s VaynerMission, he and 15 other colleagues at VaynerMedia raised $1,465 for the American Cancer Society

But that’s only half of Zain’s giving story at VaynerMedia. Zain’s Vayner Legacy is how he supported other colleagues and the causes and charities that mattered to them as well. Zain donated $475 by supporting 8 different colleagues missions and 7 different charities that his colleagues deeply care about

And together, Zain’s VaynerMission and VaynerLegacy created his 401K for his Soul

Here’s what Zain had to say about his experience participating in the pilot that I created and ran to showcase the vision of VaynerMissions and how simple and impactful of an idea it really is (Feel free to read testimonial)

Now just like Zain, each member from Team GaryVee in the pilot had the opportunity to share their story by choosing a cause or charity that was close to their hearts for their mission on their Vaynerversary. But to emphasize it one more time, most importantly, they were all empowered to support one another too.

And that was the TLDR version. There’s another short 6 minute video on the VaynerMissions website and on the VaynerMissions YouTube channel titled VaynerMissions Pilot: Team GaryVee Case Study that goes into even more detail about the pilot we ran together to showcase this wholesome, impactful and very simple idea

As Simon says, simple ideas are easier to understand. Ideas that are easier to understand are repeated. Ideas that are repeated change the world.

Now, after VaynerMissions is successful at VaynerMedia throughout 2021 and 2022, than other Gary Vaynerchuk companies will join this movement and follow VaynerMedia’s lead

Soon followed by other companies that Gary has invested in

Eventually followed by other early adopter type startups and progressive and innovative companies like Y Combinator and the startups YC has invested in

Finally followed by big corporations and clients of VaynerMedia

Before even more corporations and clients of VaynerMedia want to support their employees just like VaynerMedia has

And in due time, global brands and companies everywhere in the United States and around the world will follow VaynerMedia’s lead as it becomes the new normal throughout society over the next decade and beyond

As VaynerMedia continues to respect the internet’s impact on culture in a consumer-centric way

And as VaynerMedia continues to evolve and partner with the right people, influencers and organizations

And as VaynerMedia continues to create ideas consumer up by forever inventing new crafts

And as VaynerMedia continues to value real consumer signals because of VaynerMedia’s obsession with business results

VaynerMedia will continue to drive contextual relevance at scale by finding right through curiosity and humility

Because VaynerMedia believes it’s their responsibility to drive business results by doing the work and by being practitioners

And over time VaynerMedia will continue to scale the unscalable by embracing ideas that make society and business better like VaynerMissions internally first

Before scaling this wholesome and impactful vision across society. By 2030, sharing your 401K For Your Soul will be common practice in the workplace and in society because that’s what employees and people care about and want

In closing, back in November 2018 I had dinner with you in Phoenix Arizona the night before you spoke at the Success Resources Summitt with Tony Robbins and Robert Herjavec

I had no idea what to expect from the dinner but I got insanely lucky because you sat right next to me. Naturally, Drock recorded the dinner, our conversation and the event just like he films and records most things in your life and as you can see I’m highlighted and on camera with you in Drock’s Instagram story and throughout most of DailyVee’s Episode 514 too. For what it’s worth, some of the things we talked about and discussed at dinner were some of the things I’ve experienced in my life since I met you. I know there will be opportunities to elaborate more and share some of these stories in the future.

Naturally, I wore my Charity Water ‘Water Changes Everything’ shirt, but I’m also wearing my Gary Vee 03 Dark Cloud sneakers even though you can’t see them here. I knew in my heart that in some way I’d be able to refer back to our dinner and that experience at some point in my life. At the time I just didn’t know when or how, but now I obviously do.

When you were in the airport at LAX on your way to Phoenix befor our dinner, you posted that picture of that random guy on your Instagram story saying ‘No idea who this dude is’.

Now when you swipe right…

You’ll see the picture I shared on my Instagram to document my vision and my deep desire to work with you one day. More importantly, I shared this picture directly with you in person after our dinner as Drock took our picture together before we all left for the night in my attempt to leave a memorable and lasting first impression on you Gary. It reads, ‘No idea who this dude is…. Yet. But I will soon.’ and obviously has my face over the random dudes face. I think it’s pretty cool and nostalgic to include this witty post from my journey almost 2 and a half years ago in my story today for my continued and resilient attempt to make positivity louder in our world and to inspire you to want to build something amazing at VaynerMedia and eventually throughout society too.

So Gary, I know you’re inspired. This is the type of storytelling, hustle, persistence, patience, resilience, motive and value that you preach about and live for. So, when can I start working for you for free? I want to help bring VaynerMissions to life

For those that are interested, below is the YouTube link from Gary’s channel when we had dinner together back in 2018

Jump to the other stories in this 4 Part Series

Part 1: VaynerMissions Explained In 2 Minutes

Part 2: Scott Harrison’s Advice To Me In December 2019

Part 3: VaynerMissions Pilot & Team GaryVee Case Study