Build your business and your influence

Gary V is a tour de force. I’ve watched many of his online lectures but had never read any of his books and I was really impressed with this follow to his 2009 hit, Crush It!. In a world of people afraid to offend, Gary V is a breath of fresh air as he cuts through the BS and provides a unique and energy filled, at times rant, but always interesting and very insightful. 

This book was published in 2018 and he provides his thoughts on some new social media platforms, such as Musical.ly, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Podcasts and Voice Search. While I disagree with Gary on various things, especially his predictions on Voice Search, he is certainly ahead of this time and I feel that he is someone with the ability to pick tech trends.

Gary V provides his insight on how to build a successful personal brand based business and Gary has the authority here as he has one of the strongest personal brands in the online entrepreneurship space. 

Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence—and How You Can, Too By Gary Vaynerchuk

Crushing it! mixes inspirational stories with more practical and implementable tips on how to use major social media platforms. Gary begins by asking “Why”? What is your intent? What are you trying to achieve? One needs to have a purpose and the purpose should not just be to make money. 

Be passionate, be yourself and other words of wisdom for the man, Gary V.

Gary speaks about the importance of the spoken word. One insight of his that I have implemented in my personal projects is to document the process. Using the process of creating client sites in order to create new content. 

The parts around hashtags and direct messages were very insightful and explained the process with real life examples of how people made these online personal brand businesses. 

In the book Gary highlights certain unique characteristics on the major social platforms:

  • Facebook: Massive. Sophisticated targeting features make it attractive to advertisers.
  • YouTube: Web’s second largest search engine. Every niche is present there. 
  • Instagram: Good mix from curated content to Insta Stories that are more of the now.
  • Twitter: Great way to interact with thought leaders.

Quote

“When it comes to professional opportunities, this is the best time to be alive in the history of humankind.” Gary Vaynerchuk;