What is a Sorcerer Scholarship!?

This past June, I submitted my application for Gary Vaynerchuk’s Sorcerer Scholarship Program.

5 applicants would be selected to receive mentorship from Gary himself, along with people in his network and executives on his team at Vayner companies. Let there be no confusion – this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I don’t think there will ever be another time to receive this much 1:1 time with an entrepreneur of Gary’s caliber.

Last September, right before I left my full-time job, I received an e-mail saying I advanced to the second round of applicants. Today (11/3) I found out that my second round submission was declined. It’s a gut punch, but there’s value in my story and I need to share it. I explain how I went from garage saleing to starting a business, getting Gary’s attention multiple times, earning a spot as a paid freelance for ONE37pm, and what I am going to do next now that I have been rejected.

How Did I Make it Into Round 2 of The Scholarship Program and How Can That Help You?

Thousands of applicants applied to win one of the five spots in the program. Specific numbers weren’t shared, but it was communicated that “a very small percent” of those applicants moved forward in the second round. While we weren’t told why we moved forward, below is my story in hopes that it inspires just 1 reader to take action. Action can change your life faster than you may think, and my story proves it.

2 1/2 years ago, just shy of my 30th birthday, I started to experience anxiety. It was intense, and at times, very debilitating. It was difficult for me to get into a car alone and drive myself somewhere without having panic attacks. It was strange, and while I later learned it was related to mold in my apartment (that is an article for another time), I also judged myself hard for lack of accomplishments as I approached 30. I felt trapped in a job I hated and just didn’t know where to go next.

I was familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk 10 years earlier because part of my assignments at a social media start-up (when Facebook advertising was new and unproven) was to consume his content, digest it and share with our team to provide insights into this developing field.

At the time, I was a consumer of his content but didn’t take action.

I wouldn’t come back to his content until 10 years later, but doing so changed my life. On a whim, I put on his podcast to help distract me from my anxiety while driving from Vermont to Connecticut to spend the weekend with my girlfriend.

Serendipitously, Gary was talking about how going to garage sales, buying items, and selling them (hopefully) for profit on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace was the best action someone could take right now to build business skills and earn money.

Throughout my twenties, I felt intense ambition but struggled to take consistent action. I had no problem working hard, but I didn’t know where to begin. There were too many options and I experienced paralysis by analysis. So many of you out there are like me. Many who follow Gary are in the same boat, so listen up 🙂

When Gary spoke about Garage Sales, I decided I would commit to it for the entire summer. It was the easiest way to start taking some action. I downloaded Yard Sale Treasure Map and started going to garage sales in Vermont and Connecticut. I went to at least 100 garage sales. Possibly double that.

My weekends were happier. I enjoyed doing this and the nagging feeling of not doing enough started to wane. I sold nearly 200 items that summer for a profit of $5,000. Not only that, but I started creating content that documented these actions and people loved it.

Around that time, I would watch the Ask Gary Vee show, hoping he or the team would see my question and reach out so I could get his advice. It was a solid 8 months of bugging before I got traction (more on that below).

Despite no direct interaction with Gary (if you don’t know him, he interacts frequently with his fans and is one of the best in the world at providing practical advice even from a question with minimal context), I continued to follow his advice.

This time, I started buying sports cards. I dove headfirst into learning the market and learned it so well that I wrote and published articles for a sports card investing website. I was having fun. I was happy. It was real work, but it paid off – I ended up earning about $40,000 in profits (don’t worry, I paid all my taxes) rediscovering a passion and connecting with some amazing people in the hobby.

To put that in perspective, the profits from both ventures gave me 10x the amount of money that I had ever saved in the first 8 years of my working career. It was life-changing money for me and I felt a whole lot less anxious knowing I hated my job and wanted to quit.

Additional Context: I have never received an offer letter outside of the companies that I have worked for. I interviewed at Facebook, CarGurus, HubSpot, IBM, and others, but could never get over that hurdle. I have zero demonstrated performance in this area, which left me feeling more trapped at my job. I also struggle with travel (flying) – I flew over 100 times in 9 months for work and it burned me out. Who would hire someone unwilling to travel? 

It took me two years before making $40,000, but the idea that I could generate income on my own was freeing. I also received a call from Gary in December of 2019, during the Ask Gary Vee Show, sports card edition. It made my year. We chopped it up over Kylian Mbappe’s “true” rookie card.

As I entered 2020, I looked at what was next, so I followed Gary’s advice and started a podcast. You can listen to that podcast here. I interviewed dozens of guests about how they got to where they are in their careers, but with details. Too much content is general – “I joined IBM and quickly rose to VP level by working hard.”

My competitive advantage was breaking down career growth in practical steps.

I started by interviewing alumni from the University of Vermont (it was easier social proof since I graduated from there in 2011) and I found plenty of people willing to talk about their careers in a public setting. They would refer other guests, and I ended up interviewing a former VaynerMedia employee and close friend of Gary (both things I didn’t know before taking the interview).

Shortly after the episode went live, I ended up on Tea With Gary V and he told me it brought him value that Alex (who I interviewed) texted him that doing the show brought back positive memories. I felt so inspired by the show that I wrote about how I was selected to join the show and Gary V retweeted the article. The story was viewed 1,700 times and that’s when I first realized I could make money writing articles on Medium.com.

I published 68 articles on Medium in total – you can read them here – earned over $1,000 and honed my writing skills. I became a top writer in a few categories and it gave me a platform to exercise a passion.

During this time (and I have never shared this before), I was asked to join a small team building a side business offering digital marketing services. I knew I wanted to leave my full-time job, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to work remotely forever, and I knew I wanted to take a risk.

The skills I learned from garage saleing, sports card investing, hosting a podcast, and writing on Medium exploded into my excelling at turning this side hustle into a legitimate business. We started by offering a service but then built software to automate value-driving data measurement. 3 weeks ago, I left my full-time job to join this company full-time. We doubled in growth this year and are projected to do at least the same next year. I’ve hired interns, a full-time employee, and most of all, I’m so much happier.

I legitimately went from selling garage sale items on eBay, to establishing a company (fully bootstrapped) that is profitable and has serious growth potential.

Earlier this year, I applied to write sports card articles for ONE37pm. I didn’t receive anything back, so I wrote a few articles, submitted them, and now write about both sports cards and NFTs. So far, I’ve written 31 articles for ONE37pm, multiple have been shared by Gary and I started my own blog, StartWithNFTs.com, which organically gets 3,000 views per month (Gary shared two of my articles from that website as well).

I also wrote an article he shared across multiple platforms, 55 Failed Card Games because he asked a listener to do so on one of his podcasts.

In short, I went from trapped, unhappy, and desperate to get Gary’s attention about what to do, to quiet execution that led to real-life change and multiple interactions with Gary.

It’s still unbelievable to me that I built a business that was my safety net after I was asked to resign because I no longer lived in Vermont. It really happened, my direction has changed, and your direction can change, too.

In my essay submission, I wrote about this journey. Given the volume of applicants, I wasn’t sure if it was enough to make it to the second round, but it was. Elated, I then completed round 2 by answering what I would do with the money if I sold the Sorcerer Scholarship token after the process ended.

I was honest – I would buy a VeeFriend and use the rest of the money to seed people who wanted to start their podcast, their garage sale journey, etc., and document it with podcast, video, and written content to be put into a content hub for practical, inspirational stories. It was based on a Twitter response from Gary, when he said his biggest challenge is that people consume his content, but they don’t execute the advice. I’ve thought about this idea quite a bit and it felt genuine to me. I wouldn’t change my response, even knowing that it resulted in my round 3 decline.

How Do I Feel After Being Rejected, and What Will I Do Next?

I love that Gary speaks about kindness, compassion, and empathy. I love all of it, but now is not the time to suppress my emotions. I feel sad. I feel confused. I feel a burning need to prove myself and make Gary and the team regret not picking me (in a healthy way).

If you’ve made it this far, I’m humbled, because this is where it gets good.

During my entire career, I did “all the right things”. I networked. I got great reviews at work. I had great mentors. I went above and beyond both personally and professionally. I built skills, becoming a good public speaker (which led to officiating two weddings this past summer), and would travel the country presenting to automotive executives. But still, I was in the same role for 5 years with no promotion. I couldn’t land another job. No one ever reached out to offer me a life-changing job. I did well with sports cards but missed significant opportunities. I entered NFTs late (I couldn’t spend additional money from April – July because I knew I’d need it as savings when leaving my full-time role).

It was frustrating to know that I could do more, but couldn’t quite get an opportunity.

Thankfully, I created one. I was patient enough to follow through on garage saleing and sports cards that it gave me skills and savings to take a risk on a young business.

Truthfully, I had confidence I would make it to round 3 of the program. I know very few other people who executed Gary’s advice (the parts that resonated) so well and turned it into an entirely new career path. I am competitive and want to prove they made the wrong choice (much like Gary wants to prove people who didn’t buy a VeeFriend or sold too early, were wrong).

Here’s the biggest and hardest shift moving forward: I have to take Gary off the pedestal now. To me, winning the Sorcerer Scholarship was a chance to get coached by Gary, but subconsciously, it was to outsource my decision-making because I don’t fully trust or believe in myself. Sometimes, mentors aren’t the best thing. Most times, you and you alone have the answers and need to act on them without getting clouded by someone who “should know more than you.”

This doesn’t mean I’m shunning Gary, or wouldn’t say yes if they changed their minds. I will continue to execute his advice, but I now need to lead with “What would Jon do?” not with “What would Gary [insert other mentors here] do.” Yes, Gary is one of the best in the world at providing the right advice, but I have to believe internally that without it, I can still grow my business and make choices that result in actions driving the outcomes best for me.

It’s such a hard thing to do, but this is my parting advice: Only you have the trillions of memories and experiences of your own life, and ultimately self-awareness will help drive action that generates the best outcome for you.

My goal now is to relentlessly execute my business and create content about my journey to help inspire others who were in the same position I was. As long as I am happy and enjoy the process, that is what I will keep doing.

One day, I hope to be invited to Gary V’s podcast to speak about this journey, and how quietly executing his advice for years changed my trajectory. A pivotal moment in that story will be this rejection and my shift toward trusting my instincts, knowing that the outcome will be the same and that I just didn’t get the chance to share my journey more closely with GV, which yes, I am very sad about.

To those who are selected – make this count. Many of us watching wanted your spot. Document what you can and give back in the form of sharing your story and how you applied Gary’s advice so that others can benefit.

With love,

Jon

PS – you can reach out to torrey.jonathan@gmail.com if you want to learn more about my story, business or talk through how to take action to change your life.