Just finished Gary Vee’s book. For those of you who don’t know, Gary is famous for starting Wine Library TV and bringing excitement, enthusiasm, and borderline insanity to the world of wine.
He has an inspiring success story, he loves “hustle” (i.e. hard work), and he decided to distill his philosophy on business into his 160 page book called Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion.
Crush It! is pretty much a blue print for how he started Wine Library TV and is filled with useful advice for people who are looking to take their own talents and transform them into cash on the Internet. It goes over the process of selecting your topic, building your online presence, and cultivating the grit necessary to succeed.
Let me tell you my favorite thing about this book: it emphasizes work and is geared towards people who are new to Internet marketing. That makes it the perfect book to hand out to friends, family, and the odd stranger when they ask you how to make money on the Internet.
Beyond that, I’d say the book is great for beginners, but is a little elementary for those with a decent amount of experience in online marketing, especially social media. The material is, in general, very basic.
That said, I believe Gary’s overall vision of where business is going on the Internet is right on. He preaches “conversational marketing” (my term), as opposed to purely transactional marketing. Nothing is one way–you engage your audience in a conversation instead of simply directly marketing to them. Why? Because genuine dialogue builds insane amounts of trust, loyalty, and credibility.
The Internet has introduced unparalleled levels of transparency in commerce. Companies use to get away with treating customers poorly because consumers essentially had no recourse; if they were really upset they might tell all of their friends about their bad experience, but little could be done beyond that.
Now, stories of relatively insignificant slights turning into global PR disasters are the norm. Consumers are connected on the Internet, and as technology advances, our ability to act as a group will continue to empower us.
Consumers will also increasingly look to one another to make purchasing decisions instead of relying solely on traditional forms of advertising. This is already happening in a very real way (I pretty much never buy a book, eat at restaurant, or try a recipe until I’ve read reviews). The very best way to cultivate a loyal customer base, then, is to engage them in a transparent and open manner–to leverage their voices into passion for your products.
Unfortunately Gary doesn’t go much into this, but I understand why. The purpose of the book is to serve as practical guide to those wanting to “cash in” on their passion, and, for the right person, I think it’s a pretty good start.
My pile of books remaining to be read:
- The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
- Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey Moore
- Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
- Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
- Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur by Dermot Berkery
- Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts and Mergers & Acquisitions by Joshua Rosenbaum
- The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk- Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
- Spin Selling by Neil Rackham
- Solution Selling by Michael T. Bosworth
- It’s Ok to Be The Boss by Bruce Tulgan
- Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A. Freese