Well... let's put the notes in here as well then:
Summary of Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
It is easy to see that Gary is intensely passionate. The words almost jump off the page to push you to crush it. I’ll start off with a quote.
Learn to live your passion, and you’ll have all the money you need plus total control over your own destiny.
It’s an interesting thought about following your passion to make money and Gary evidently has an ample amount of both. The book starts with Gary’s 3 rules of success:
- Love your family
- Work super hard
- Live your passion
The challenge is to harness the power of the Internet especially social media tools to create a life that serves your passion because any passion can be monetized. The rest of the book lays down the steps to monetize your passion while building your personal brand.
Success is in your DNA
Gary talks about how everyone’s DNA is unique but it is within everyone to succeed though the definition of success may vary from individual-to-individual. The key is to find out your uniqueness. Early on in the book, Gary tells his rags-to-riches story from being born in Belarus to migrating to the US as penniless immigrants to his entrepreneurial childhood and ends with the success that is Wine Library TV.
Using Social Media to build your Personal Brand
The emphasis here is the importance of a personal brand and how social media is the perfect platform as older mediums like TV and print are slowly being overtaken by the online world. Furthermore, it is much cheaper and faster to build a personal brand online than it is offline. According to Gary, building a personal brand is the first step to launching a business and following your passion.
The main building block of a great personal brand is great content. In order to produce great content, you must be an expert in your field as well as unique in your approach. Storytelling is a great skill that’s often overlooked. Choose your medium of content wisely and use it to lure visitors into your blog.
Essentials elements of Social Media
There are so many social media tools so it is vital to choose a select few that fit your needs. A blog is the main element and it needs to have call-to-action buttons like subscribing to the email list, becoming a fan on Facebook and following on Twitter. Additionally, the blog must also have tools that allow users to easily share the content with friends.
The other elements of a successful social media presence are:
- Twitter
- Facebook fan page
- Flickr
- YouTube/Viddler
- UStream
- tools like TubeMogul for videos and ping.fm for links to spread content over several networks
- Facebook Connect
The last piece of advice is not to overly obsess over analytics.
Core Elements for Personal Branding
- Be Authentic: Keep it real all the times. Don’t sweat the little stuff and invest your time producing great content and focusing only on the necessary.
- Hustle: Work really hard and make sacrifices. Ditch TV, games and other activities that don’t contribute to brand building.
- Have Patience: Don’t complain. Give it time. Keep working. Keep learning. Keep creating great content. Keep branding.
- Create Community: Start conversations. Visit blogs and forums, leave thoughtful comments and lure visitors back to your blog. Once they are on your blog, get them to take action and get them involved in conversation.
- CARE
Monetize, Adapt and Build a Legacy
When your blog reaches a certain scale, start to monetize it. But first be patient and grow your community. Several ways to monetize:
- Advertising
- Speaking engagements
- Affiliate programs
- Retail
- Articles
- Seminars
- Books & TV
- Consulting
Parting words(chapters) of wisdom adapt to changes. Be reactionary. Leave a legacy and do things your grandkids can be proud of.
