Product Description

Do you have a hobby you wish you could indulge in all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take that passion and make a living doing what you love. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a video camera, and by using the secrets revealed here, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand. By the end of this book, readers will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, Crush It! is the ultimate driver's manual for modern business.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #334 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Released on: 2009-10-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061914171
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review

The Story Behind Crush it!

Everything has changed. The social media revolution has irreversibly changed the way we live our lives and conduct our business. There are billions of dollars in advertising moving online, waiting to be claimed by whoever can build the best content and communities. Despite this change, most people keep working at jobs that don’t make them happy and businesses continue to ignore the major marketing and public relations benefits that can be found online.

Myth #1: I’m not passionate about something sexy or popular like wine so these lessons don’t apply to me.

The internet has drastically decreased the costs of building communities around niche subjects, allowing for even the most obscure subjects to draw enough eyeballs to command advertising attention. Starting a video blog about tortilla chips may seem farfetched until Doritos gives you a call and offers 40,000 a year to sponsor and advertise on your blog.

Myth #2: My business already has a Twitter account and a Facebook page, we’re set in the social media department.

This is the equivalent of claiming twenty years ago that just because your business bought a TV spot and a few ads in the newspaper, you didn’t need to pay attention to your advertising department. Social media isn’t about joining in, it’s about being involved.

Myth #3: I’m happy at my job so this book is irrelevant to me.

First of all, congratulations on finding work that makes you happy! However, the lessons in this book are valuable to anyone, regardless of their employment status. Crush It will show you how to utilize high level and platform specific social media and marketing strategies that will improve your work. It will also show you how to build a personal brand so that even if you’re forced to leave your job, a situation that’s especially relevant today, you’ll be able to easily find employment elsewhere in a field you’re passionate about.

Myth #4: I need to quit my job to take advantage of this book’s entrepreneurial lessons.

While the entrepreneurial strategies in this book do take time, it’s completely reasonable to start the effort as an after-work project to build up until you’re able to replace your current income with the income from your online presence. While you may have to fall behind on the current season of Lost or let your Madden 2010 game suffer, because you’ll be doing something you love you won’t mind putting in the extra effort.

In Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk shows how anyone can build a career around what they’re passionate about. He also delivers both high-level and platform specific strategy and analysis, allowing you to take advantage of the current business environment while preparing you to succeed as it changes and evolves.

This book isn’t interested in making unrealistic promises while glossing over the work involved. Making a living by building content around your passion isn’t simple and it doesn’t happen overnight. What it is, however, is fulfilling and in most cases just as profitable, if not more so, than your previous job.

Furthermore, a business can’t just pay lip service to social media and expect it to return results. The transparency and accountability inherent in its structure necessitates a comprehensive and dedicated strategy in order to reap its tremendous benefits.

By combining practical analysis and strategy with the same passion and humor that’s made Gary one of the most in demand keynote speakers in the U.S. as well as network television’s go to wine expert, Crush It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand and harness the future of business and work.

Learn: Why social media has evened the playing field, destroying the “gate-keepers” who had previously dictated the distribution of content.

Learn: How to beat unemployment and create wealth-building opportunities by building and maintaining a personal brand.

Learn: Why storytelling is the most important business concept in the current marketplace.

Learn: How you can build an online business around your passion without quitting your day job.

Learn: Why Twitter and Facebook are just tools and not a social media strategy.

Learn: How to take advantage of the half-billion dollars in advertising that are moving to the internet.

Learn: Why transparency and being true to yourself are now winning marketing formulas.

Learn: How to build and maintain an online community around your passion and brand.

Learn: Strategies for turning attention into money.

Learn: Why the legacy element of the internet era is so underrated.

From Publishers Weekly
Yet another rallying cry to the banner of turning your passion into a career, from braggadocio-ridden entrepreneur Vaynerchuk. After taking over his father's local liquor store, Shopper's Discount Liquors, and building it from a $4 million business to a $50 million one, he created the wine-tasting blog Wine Library TV and discovered the power of the Internet for driving sales. This book shares his experience and step-by-step advice for using Twitter, Facebook, etc., and suggestions for monetizing an online persona, reiterating that the Internet makes it possible for anyone to make serious cash by turning what they love most into their personal brand. His enthusiasm is admirable and his advice solid, but there's nothing new here, and his unappealing swagger—repeated stories of how he crushed it and dominated grate particularly—gives his story more the tone of adolescent peacocking than of worthwhile and sober business advice. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Gary is a force of nature. His authentic, raw passion and caring touches everyone. His insights into social media & his message of opportunity could not be more timely." (Tony Robbins )

"Gary was the first person to push me on the importance of personalbrand and transparency - this was months before anyone was talkingabout it, he's always two steps ahead of anyone else." (Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg.com )

"Anyone looking to supercharge their career should beg, borrow, and steal to learn Gary Vee's techniques. He reinvented the rules to build a $60-million business from scratch-on his own terms." (Tim Ferriss, #1 NY Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek )

"Gary Vaynerchuk has become a walking, talking (and oh, such talking!), webbing and Tweeting example of how believing in what you do and keeping it fun can step up your life in all ways. There is nobody I would rather talk sports with-or wine or life." (Scott Simon, host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR )

"Gary Vaynerchuk is one of those entrepreneurs who has discovered the secret to combining passion with business. He is always an inspiration and always entertaining. You owe it to yourself to read this book!" (Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com )

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Customer Reviews

Are you living, or just earning a living?
Are you living, or just earning a living? So asks wine critic, social media star and business consultant Gary Vaynerchuk in his new book, Crush It!

The premise of Crush It! is that technology has disrupted the historical boundaries of business, making it possible for anyone with knowledge and passion to build a business that capitalizes on that expertise.

Generally, he's right. I've built a community and a business at [...] by adhering to many of the principles in this book. However, I've started five companies previously, and prefer working for myself. Your results may vary.

Certainly, like Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, Crush It! is targeted at entrepreneurs and would-be solo acts that are itching to strike out on their own, and need the nudge to do so. This is not a book for corporate marketers.

The success path painted by Vaynerchuk is paved with content. Audio, video, written. It doesn't matter, so long as you make a lot of it. And that really strikes at the core of the Gary Vee vision, which is that the future of business is in hyper-targeting. Finding the cracks and crevices and building content-driven enterprises that can fill the needs of those small but passionate audiences. In many ways, this notion dovetails with Chris Anderson's The Long Tail.

To some degree, however, this advice is self-limiting. Most often, hyper-targeted niches can be capitalized upon, but by definition the size of that opportunity is narrow. That doesn't mean it isn't viable, and to his credit Gary frequently balances millionaire dreams with "make a living" reality in the book.

Expertise combined with differentiation. Although he doesn't describe it that way, that's the Vaynerchuk content success equation.
I certainly agree with the differentiation component. It's one of the things I struggle with personally. How do I stand apart from the other social media consultants? It's important, and the book provides a few interesting examples.

The expertise side, however, is trickier. The book presumes that anyone can Crush It! Of course, anyone can start a blog, and market it well. But, do they have the expertise to transform a category? To me, it seems like you need to have a very solid knowledge base before heading down this road. Perfect for prosumers. For others without existing expertise, it will be tough to break through.

There are many parallels between Crush It! and Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek book. Similar size, approach, and subject matter, especially the concept of monetizing your passion. Ferriss even blurbs the cover of Crush It!.

I find it extremely interesting that Vaynerchuk unabashedly describes the extremely long hours required to successfully implement his methods, at one point encouraging parents to work from 9pm to 3am daily. Alternatively, Ferriss' premise is to work less, not more, using automated business and shortcuts to save time and enjoy life.

(I would love to see a Vaynerchuk vs. Ferriss debate on this issue, as they propose contradictory ways to achieve the same outcome)

Although a bit repetitive at times, and not particularly detailed, Crush It! is a motivating, entertaining book that I believe you'll find yourself returning to over and over for a shot in the arm.

Everyone self-employed, or desiring to be self-employed, should pick up a copy of the book.

It reads like a 90-minute conversation with Gary, and that's time well-spent.

Start living your passion
Gary Vaynerhuk is one of the most inspiring people anyone will ever cross. Definitely attend a signing if you can, and make sure you read this entire book. This book helps anyone who might find themselves even 1% unhappy with their work life. They are sure to be inspired to jump into, and be a part of the Web 2.0 movement. Learn how to harness the power of the internet with this book, and realize how to work based off of your passion from Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the most successful entrepreneurs ever.

A Shot of Adrenaline for Your Brain
If you've ever watched Gary speak, then you are aware of the intensity, energy, and passion that this man has. Gary is a machine, and as evidenced by his rise to the top of our blogging world and soon the mainstream media world, it is obvious that he has what it takes to not only create a successful business, but to inspire others to do the same.

Crush It is no different than hearing Gary speak, as the energy moves straight from the voice recorder to the page. Although the book is shorter than most, I appreciate that there isn't any fluff and that there is something worth reading in every single chapter. Although I'm familiar with most of the topics in the book, I couldn't help but to stop reading and take notes every 5-10 minutes...there's that much to take in.

Crush It will inspire you to do amazing things in your own life as long as you are strong enough to take the steps necessary to pull them off. There is also loads of step by step and "how-to" info in this book, which is something that many in the category lack. If there's one shortfall of this book, it's that Gary's energy can be difficult to keep up with, and you might feel like you can't follow in his steps without having the same inner fireball. Although I believe anyone can follow the steps in this book, only you can make it happen.

I finished the book at 10pm on a Tuesday, and I was up until 4AM writing down ideas. You can't go wrong with Crush It.