“Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk

If you've liked any of the posts I've put up in the past week and a half I must confess that they're mostly a result of me reading this book.  In "Crush It!" Gary Vaynerchuk explains how he became an all-star on the web and catapulted his wine business at the same time.  The point of the book truly is to explain how important your personal brand is in the age of the web, and more importantly, why now is the best time to work on pursuing a career you love by solidifying your brand with all of the great (and free) communication tools the internet provides.

Vay • Ner • Chuk

It's true, I was a Gary Vee fan well before I read his book.  It probably all goes back to some appearances he had on the Diggnation or TWiT podcasts, but since then I have followed his video podcast WineLibrary.tv. Gary's one of those guys with enough raw passion that no matter what he's talking about you want to shut up and listen, so don't be surprised if, even though you could care less about wine, you end up watching multiple episodes of WineLibrary.

More importantly though, Gary isn't a traditional geek.  Instead, he's a really smart businessman that recognized the huge amount of potential the web provided and in turn used it to introduce a whole new generation of people to wine.  What is the first thing you picture when you think of a wine connoisseur?  For me it was always a stuffy monopoly-man looking old dude with a condescending accent sipping $1,000 bottles of something that I probably thought tasted terrible.  Gary's the exact opposite of that.  He likes football, listens to hip hop and rocks Thundercats action figures.  More importantly he'll tell you when a $10 bottle of wine will rock your world, and when a $100 bottle sucks.  By sharing his passionate and refreshing take on the world of wine Gary's business has "crushed it," and that's exactly what the book is all about.

The Death of the Resumé

The most important thing I learned while reading "Crush It!" was how important a person's own personal brand is in the era of Facebook, Twitter, handheld HD camcorders and podcasting.  Everyone has such a huge opportunity now with all of the free tools available to share your thoughts and ideas, and very soon (if this hasn't happened already) your creative pursuits on the web will hold precedence over even the most killer resumé.

Not only that but if you truly work your tail off to establish your brand in whatever field you're most-passionate about, you can earn a considerable living doing something you love.  When it comes to this blog I'm certainly not trying to quit my day job, but I've used it to potentially boost awareness about my true passions (you only have to look as far as the main navigation of this site to see what those are).  "Crush It!" inspired me to work towards some new promotional initiatives that I'm not quite ready to talk about here, and overall it gave me a lot of great ideas about how to innovate during this crappy economy.

"Crush It!" is a pretty quick read (I knocked it out in a couple of nights, a triumph as I'm usually a slow reader) and there's an enhanced edition available that contains video segments that are pretty awesome.  I read it in the iPad and I wish more books would take cues from the "vook" approach.  Gary also has a new book coming soon called "The Thank You Economy" that you might want to take a look at, I know I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy!