Why Gary Vee's Advice is not Helpful in Becoming a Successful Freelancer

[eoinfinnegan]

If you are regularly on the forum you may have noticed that I (as well as others) have been particularly cynical before and critical afterwards about Fiverr bringing in Gary Vee, the expert in online success.

The reason for this is that people like this are exceptionally generic in their messages and very rarely provide the type of advice that is useful to the average person. Why? Well it’s simple, to him and his ilk, success is measured by as he put it "being able to charge 6 figures for his talks* ". To the average freelancer, this is not realistic and also in many cases, not actually what success means.

You see, being successful is different to different people. Success for some people is having a job that means they can spend more time with their kids (as opposed to spending more ON their kids). It could be the ability to live in a country with great weather, culture or food. Some people want to have a job that means they can also work with a charity or care for an elderly relative. Achieving any of these goals makes you successful. The underlying assumption with these experts is that you want to make money, lots and lots of money…
Making lots of money at the expense of achieving what you actually want actually means you are unsuccessful!

I have worked with small business owners and one thing I would never say to a person (man or woman) with two kids is that they should survive on 6 hours sleep and limit their time with their kids to 2 hours/day to prove they are a family man/woman. I certainly could never say it with the kind of sneer that makes my stomach turn; people like Gary apparently see spending time with kids as a distraction from success and don’t see that a busy parent working full time and struggling with everyday life managing to spend real time with their kids as the success it is. “What are you prepared to give up to be successful?” asked Gary*. Put another way, are you prepared to give up your kids to be as successful as me? It actually disgusts me the more I think about it.
I have no problem with people working long hours for a certain period of time to achieve a certain goal but it should be seen as a necessary evil that needs to be kept to a minimum not as a gateway to success.

I would love Fiverr to focus on people who work as freelancing as a way to be successful -
ie. it gives me the freedom to do x, y, z…
Some of the great contributors on the Forum like @writer99025 @fastcopywriter @jamesbulls have spoken about how their freelance work enables them to live differently to how they would otherwise, and that it’s not all about the money they earn. Not having to deal with a boss, a way to keep the mind active etc are for me, much better reasons to be a freelancer than the (false) promise of riches beyond my wildest dreams.

If making money and getting rich is your goal then fine go for that,I am not criticizing, but don’t assume that everyone else is the same and certainly don’t suggest they sacrifice their kids well-being to get there!

What is success for you? Do you know? Have you ever thought about it?
The CRO in the video actually began making a really good point (unfortunately Big Daddy VEE interrupted him, again) when he was saying that Fiverr was made for people like the woman with 2 kids. It gives the opportunity to try out freelancing, to see if it is something you can and want to do, to get a feel for and an understanding of the market, and to make a few quid doing it.

If you are waiting to make enough money so you can THEN think about doing the things you want then you will probably never get there. I’d love to hear other’s opinions on this topic and especially what success looks like for you and if you are achieving it!

• Please note that I paraphrased these words from Gary as I couldn’t listen to his voice again to search through for his exact words.

[emmaki]

Nicely said. Success is really what you make it, not your bank account. We all have different goals and they are all respectable. Don’t listen to what Gary tells you unless it resonates with you as someone who wants to get rich quick. And even then, eh, this video ain’t that.

Here’s the video for anyone who didn’t catch it so you can see what Eoin is reacting to (click on title to enjoy):

My own idea of success is living life on my own terms. What are yours? How can Fiverr help you with that? Those are the only questions you need answers to. The rest? Should be gravy (= easy).

[writer99025]

Yeah, if making money and getting rich is the goal become an investment banker or something. Freelancing will pay the bills and allows you to live reasonably comfortably…but it’s not going to make you a multimillionaire.

[fitrigwrites4u]

Honestly, I haven´t even watched the video, not because who talks in the video. I was just not that curious, as I don´t actually care if I make money or not here. If I make some money here, even a little, then it´s good. But if not, no problem as I am semi-retired. And if I make money it will go to charity anyway as I don´t have to support myself. Who and what support my life? I have got that covered (I have my own savings and my husband supports me). So any extra money that I make (by doing little things here and there: by selling my gig on Fiverr if it will sell at all, by baby sitting people´s dogs in our property and socialize them with our dogs, or whatever that will keep me occupied), will go to dog charities anyway in my country and some other countries. But I DID read your article and you made a very good point : ˝Being successful is different to different people˝.

[zeus777]

Actually I’ve been avoiding the video, but now as I am sitting in my office reading this, I think I’ll take a look at the video tonight when I get home…

I think it would be MUCH better if several different types of “successful” people made their own videos giving their own advice based on their own experience using specific examples…I’d pay to see Emma’s video, that’s for sure!

[emmaki]

<takes notes>

[Anna]

Emma, Emma, Emma (chearing with pompoms ).
@Eoinfinegan I totally agree with you. And @zeus777 I think that a lot of people could relate more to videos made by other sellers. The only time I saw seller videos were when they interviewed some of the Admins at the Fiverr meet up. And there is also a video with 2 very successful voice over artists but it’s more like a fiverr promotion.

[misscrystal]

A video by Emma would be an entertaining thing but she has a big advantage of being a genius at writing so take that into account.

[emmaki]

Just wait until I eventually get around to making the 200% revenue boosting videos. I’ll start with my cheapest, most insulting gig and work up from there.

NB: may take years to make like most of my ideas

[emmaki]

Oddly enough–MARKET RESEARCH TIME–that gig (the one with the MS paint smily face that took me 3 minutes to create) is the only one that has been promoted by random person on Facebook.

Suc k on that, mek sells people. The last one I did was full of t**twaffles and they paid me for it. No review, but I got paid so who cares?

[eoinfinnegan]

You could call yourself Emma Kee!
#AskEmmaKee

[idostuff4u]

Really good post. I practice living comfortably on very little $$$ on a monthly basis, and I am getting better and better at it.

I’m successful! 😃

[idostuff4u]

Now I’m off to watch that video 🙂 … thanks for the link @emmaki

[emmaki]

The advice is crap–but enjoy the body language! Be sure to watch out for the sly wink and the watch tap and the increasingly nervous CRO!

[idostuff4u]

I’ve been reading the comments. @eoinfinnegan is doing a better job than Gary in giving people an idea of what fiverr is actually about and letting them know that it’s an opportunity to work at what they love doing.

Also, thanks again @eoinfinnegan for pointing out not all Gigs are $5. As most people seem to think.

@emmaki, looking at it again to see that ‘sly wink’ …lol

[esthernyambura]

Thanks @eoinfinnegan For making it clear. Yea, you are right Emma, i have only enjoyed the body language on that video. We didn’t expect such from him.

[eoinfinnegan]

The comments are exceptionally negative. If, as I suspected initially, the idea of teaming up with Gaz was to gain exposure to his fans then I don’t think it has worked as hoped.
Almost 30,000 views overnight and I have seen one positive comment about Fiverr.

[misscrystal]

Those negative comments about fiverr are coming from people who haven’t used the site as sellers from what I can tell. The talk was about freelancing. I doubt any of them earn a living at freelancing, just dream about it.

[misscrystal]

The CRO took it well in spite of being interrupted when he tried to speak the first time, and having Gary say they need to speed it up because he has someplace else to be when he again started talking. Gary was rude.

[eoinfinnegan]

Yeah, probably. Just shows how Fiverr is viewed by some, although youtube comments are not known for their wisdom either I suppose.

[eoinfinnegan]

I actually liked the CRO, what he was allowed to contribute by His MajesVee was actually reasonably good, I would have liked to hear more from him tbh. Gary’s attitude was rubbish although it does probably mean that he wasn’t getting his “usual 6 figures” from Fiverr which is a big plus in my mind.

[misscrystal]

I liked him too. I would have liked to hear him speak a lot more. He seemed as if he would have had more things of substance related to fiverr to say.

[sue_mcl]

As a single parent with two kids, the bit where Gary was bashing the poor chick for “wasting” her day made me want to punch the screen! I’d be willing to be most working parents with kids would be doing well to be getting 6 hours sleep as it is 😉 The question was about her fear, wanting help and encouragement to make the leap, but Gary was acting as if she was just lazy and unmotivated, which was a bit sad.

Doing freelance work is the thing that has enabled me to spend MORE time with my kids - which is a huge success for me! Fiverr is a big part of what enables me to do that as I get the flexibility to work around my family (the CRO was trying to explain how good it is for people like me and the questioner before Gary rudely interrupted him).

Say I want to freelance because I want to be able to work AND spend time with my family, does that mean I am failing at life and unsuccessful because I don’t want to give up (more) sleep to be in the illustrious 1%?

It was a shame they didn’t get more questions that actually related to freelancers, but I got the feeling they were aiming it more at businesses that might need to get help with stuff, rather than us who are working on fiverr.

The body language - especially at the beginning was really uncomfortable to watch!

[david_ff]

To be perfectly frank, I couldn’t agree with you more. I couldn’t even finish the video. I don’t even know who this guy is, but his attitude, voice, and basically everything about him annoyed me from the very beginning. Even his intro was insidious. If you’re looking for advice on how to be successful in life and on Fiverr, this guy isn’t the one to be asking. (Just the opinion of someone that made it about a third of the way through the video before I just couldn’t take anymore.)

[eoinfinnegan]

@emmaki pointed out that Gary was talking to that woman thinking she was male which is interesting. His point about “wanting to be a family man” really annoyed me and I wonder if his advice would be different had he realized it was a female who asked. Not trying to make something out of nothing but I have never heard a mother “accused” of wanting to be a family woman.
I’m glad to hear that you are successful and that Fiverr/freelancing enables you to spend more time with your family - it’s exactly the point I was making, if you doubled your income but halved your family time that would not be a success!