About a year go I stumbled across entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk’s YouTube channel. A couple of his videos were "recommendations" in the YouTube app on my Apple TV.
I started watching/listening to his videos while I worked, and found the voluminous amount of content he offers to be helpful and inspiring.
Bridget had mentioned Gary Vaynerchuk over the years as an example of a boot-strapping entrepreneur who used an aggressive digital media strategy to his advantage. She told me how he had developed a series of online videos to help build and rebrand his father’s wine business — Shopper’s Discount Liquors — into the highly successful Wine Library.
Vaynerchuk has gone on to build a global digital agency (focused on social media) called VaynerMedia.
“Gary Vee” (as he’s known) offers brash and bold branding advice, and travels the world like a whirling dervish — ready to dispense useful tips and strategies to entrepreneurs eager to learn his formula for success.
It’s funny how serendipitous life can be sometimes.
At the end of 2017, I was feeling somewhat listless in life as it regarded our business and the weekly grind of making an impression in the digital realm.
Far too often, businesses and organizations use social platforms the same way they use print, radio, or TV advertising. In essence, they push out lackluster, one-way forms of communication that aren’t designed to engage, enlighten, or delight an audience.
Bridget and I were getting ready to go on a road trip to see the UNO Hockey team play in St. Cloud when I picked up Vaynerchuk’s latest book “Crushing It!” I like to have something light to read when I travel, and thought the book might offer some useful advice.
“Crushing It!” has proven to be more influential the past year than I would have imagined when I bought it on a whim at a local Target store.
Gary Vee’s energetic style comes across on the pages of “Crushing It!” as he profiles entrepreneurs who have built thriving businesses using the tools available in our digital age — platforms and technologies readily available to anyone in the world willing to use them.
In large part, the book focuses on building your brand through the creation of what Vaynerchuk calls “pillar content” — online content you can share across digital platforms to “cross-pollinate” your message, product information, services, and personal brand to maximize your influence.
The book focuses on practical advice (as does Vaynerchuk’s online content), and talks about the importance of mastering online platforms (even if they are outside your comfort zone).
Gary Vee often emphasizes that the crucial commodity entrepreneurs are trading in today is “attention.”
I listen to Vaynerchuk’s talks and podcasts when I walk each day. While his content has a great amount of appeal to aspiring YouTubers and would-be millennial entrepreneurs, he also spends a great deal of his time at VaynerMedia working with decades-old businesses and entrepreneurs with more than a little grey in their hair.
“Today there are millions of people just like me who have used the Internet to build personal brands, thriving businesses, and life on their own terms,” Vaynerchuk says. “Those who are truly crushing it have grasped the brass ring of grown-up-hood — building a lucrative business around something they love that enables them to do what they want every day.”
He is realistic in his message, saying that “most of you reading this book will not become millionaires.” Instead, the book is focused on finding value in working hard, mastering skills to further your entrepreneurial goals, and using today’s digital opportunities to enhance your brand.
“Crushing It!” is organized into sections focused on various digital platforms. You’ll find strategies and testimonials about familiar platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and Twitter, along with less-known platforms like musical.ly and voice-first technologies (like Amazon’s Alexa). He also goes into the value of having a podcast, and the importance of having an Instagram strategy.
As 2018 progressed, I started to find myself working to create more content online. Vaynerchuk preaches the value of creating as much content as possible in order to increase engagement.
My goal wasn’t money. The goal was to make myself create more content — the sort of pillar content Vaynerchuk talks about in “Crushing It!” — and re-orient my brain in that direction.
I felt if I could develop that habit, it would help me serve our clients — and the marketing-communications business Bridget and I own — in a positive manner moving forward.
Since Jan. 2018, I’ve populated this blog with 114 posts. That experience has helped me make contacts within the publishing industry (via book reviews I’ve written), and our local film industry here in Nebraska (via reviews and profiles of I’ve written about talented filmmakers and their projects).
The experience has also forced me to find creative ways to drum up something to write about (even when I don’t think I have anything to write about).
In Oct. 2018, my friend Jason and I started a weekly podcast focusing on the University of Nebraska at Omaha Hockey program.
It all started with a simple conversation in the lobby at Baxter Arena (after a game last season) when our wives were browsing UNO’s merchandise shop.
When Jason and I talked over the summer about the potential podcast, I knew I’d need to revamp my UNO Hockey fansite — MavPuck.com — to serve as an “easy-to-find” location where we could house the episodes.
The rebooted MavPuck site contains each podcast, features a new message board, and has links to our social channels. It also houses a “News” section that I (along with the help of others) work diligently to fill with content each week — meaning there is more “pillar content” for fans to consume.
The entire process has been an opportunity to experience new things, learn new skills, make connections, develop friendships, and live a more purposeful life.
While “Crushing It!” isn’t responsible for these “life-improving” activities, the strategies and stories presented in Vaynerchuk’s book served as an inspiration for me.
I needed that inspiration — and I needed to be in a better frame of mind.
“Talent has little value without patience and persistence,” says Vaynerchuk. “Success takes a sh!tload of work, and the people who ultimately break through and crush it are those who get all that and go for their dreams anyway.”
I think “Crushing It!” could serve as inspiration for you, too — if you are an entrepreneur, work in marketing/communications, or are interested in building a personal brand.
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