I have been a fan of Gary Vaynerchuk for many years, enjoying his in-your-face enthusiasm and style on Wine Library TV and his own blog GaryVaynerchuk.com.
Gary used social media, crazy hard work and heart to grow his Dad’s (successful) brick-and-mortar wine business from $4 million to $60 million in five years. He has been featured on major media shows such as Ellen, The Today Show and Conan O’Brien (and about 12 others, the guy has got mainstream press mastered).
He just wrote a new book, out next week, called Why Now is the time to Crush It! – Cash in on Your Passion which explains the tactics he used to grow his business, and those of many others he consults with.
While not many people have the endurance and enthusiasm of Gary, we can all learn about working hard, choosing something we are truly passionate about and, in Gary’s words, “working our faces off” to get the word out using social media.
My favorite parts of the interview:
- Gary’s passionate view that if you don’t have a great product or service, all the marketing in the world won’t help
- “If you are worried about credibility, you don’t have it.”
- People in the 1930’s and 40’s would have “thrown up” in excitement over the power of free tools we have today to conduct business. So if you are not using social media yet, do it!
- “You can’t just read Chris Brogan’s blog and go to South by Southwest then call yourself a social media expert.”
I conducted the interview at my favorite local co-working site Gangplank. Thanks everyone for your support, and I sure am proud to be a member of the Phoenix entrepreneur community!
Enjoy the 20 minute interview, and pick up the book here, or from an independent bookstore.
Interview with Gary Vaynerchuck, author of Crush It! from Pamela Slim on Vimeo.
Phoenix residents: Gary will be here in the valley LIVE on Monday, October 26 at 7pm at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. Details here. Please come down and hear him live, he is a great speaker and will fire you up! I will see you there!
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(Technical note: I conducted this interview over Skype, and you may note that after the first minute of the interview my video box drops out of sight. I resized my Skype window so my friends at Gangplank could see the screen while I was doing the interview, and in doing so, it lowered the position of my dialogue box on the video. Oh well, you know me, you want to see Gary anyway! 🙂 )
Hey Pam,
Thanks for allowing us to sit in on such an amazing conversation.
It’s always a privilege to get the latest insight from great minds. I’m new to your blog, but I’ve already made it a part of my daily blog reads. I love your perspective. And Gary Vee is definitely a leader and spokesman for where business is headed in the years to come.
Thanks again! 🙂
[…] How are you going to Crush It in 2010? […]
hey pam
really solid power undiluted magic interview.
amazing to see the way that this guy thinks.
second interview i’ve seen on his new book. supr excited to get it.
really loving your site all-round. my good friend glen of pluginid attended a workshop you held in london recently – gave some solid feedback.
keep well and in touch pam
alex – unleash reality
Great interview! I enjoyed it plenty.
It’s good to “hear it from the horse’s mouth.” It is just stunning to see somebody with that much passion for his work. No wonder he’s got so much success going his way.
Thanks for sharing!
.-= Job Self @ Goal Setting´s last blog ..Basic Goal Setting Worksheet =-.
[…] final night in London and I’m going to miss this place. I came here to attend a workshop with Pam Slim, catch up with some friends, and attend a location independent meet-up hosted by Lea Woodward. […]
Pam, great interview. I LOVE Gary V, especially his passion. He is by far one of the most childlike entrepreneurs out there. No wonder he’s so successful.
Thanks for this – just saw an interview on Fast Company quote “It’s never a bad time to build a great business, right?” With more of these attitudes, we’d be out of this economic mess in no time.
.-= Jessica´s last blog ..Starting a Business in a Recession =-.
I enjoyed the video too. However, I was a bit taken aback by Gary’s statement that “if you think you have a credibility problem, you have one…” I’m paraphrasing here. Essentially his statement that if you haven’t done it before you shouldn’t be marketing it. I agree with him, to an extent. What if you’ve always done technology sales, and then all of a sudden you noticed a change in your market, where the traditional cold-calling, tradeshow, follow-up routine didn’t work? You started a blog as an independent sales person, found success with it, and then decided to go off on your own and offer these services to technology companies from another country where you speak the language and you can help them enter the U.S. market because you know the U.S. technology market and you know how to write in English?
What I’m trying to say is, maybe you aren’t a social media or content marketing veteran of many years, but you know your stuff, you’re a good writer, and more importantly you know the market and speak the language of your customers?
.-= Fernando Labastida´s last blog ..Los 10 Mejores Sitios de Contenido: Desarrolladores A La Medida =-.
Fernando,
What I got out of that part of the interview was that to call yourself a social media expert you should have used SM to build a “real” business. In other words not a business where your trying to sell yourself as a social media guru.
And there are a lot of people out there that know how to tweet and update facebook that are trying (and sometimes succeeding) to get people to pay them for their social media knowledge.
[…] How are you going to Crush It in 2010? | Escape From Cubicle Nation […]
Gary makes some good points, but they’re a variation of what many others espouse (eg, building brand and charing for your content). I do agree with his comment about people working in the service area who really shouldn’t be there. From my perspective, these are people who aren’t following their passion but rather what they perceive as the money trail. And even if you’re raking in the dough, are you really happy what you’re doing?
I’ll also give Gary credit for acknowledging that he has a lot to learn about life, something that many don’t admit.
One note re: the video: Your voice Pam came through clear but subdued; Gary’s voice was frequently garbled but at a higher volume. So I ended up constantly adjusting the volume so that I could hear both of you. Hopefully this quirk will be fixed for your next video.
.-= Jim Taggart´s last blog ..Whither Obama: Transformation Man or Temporary Groundskeeper? =-.
Thanks for the feedback on the recording Jim. I noticed the same thing, and I think Gary was in a location that had challenging sound dynamics.
In a perfect world, I would edit it all before publishing, but I am dashing around these days and wanted to get it out there before the book hit. I will see if I can edit it soon, and get a better-balanced version uploaded.
All the best,
-Pam
I think we should sit and do something rather than just dreaming, 1,2,3……GO!
.-= fas´s last blog ..BMW To Launch Z4 Next Week =-.
Such a meek and mild mannered guy (obviously not) but if Passion is Profit – Gary is a GaZillionaire. Great, real stuff – thanks for the interview.
Kevin –
I agree 100% with your above comment. Finding passion is huge. Doing work that doesn’t seem like ‘work’ is the key. Yeah, yeah, I know there are always days and situations that are tough, but if we love what we do – if we have passion for what we do, it will allow us to keep the energy alive.
This dude is EXCITED. He just emanates a PASSION for what he does. That’s what I want. That is what we all need to strive for.
Great interview.
.-= Nate´s last blog ..A Time Management Lesson: Don’t Search for the Perfect Answer =-.
Pam,
Great interview!
Gary is always fun to watch.
The big message for me is about finding something you are passionate about. You have to find something that makes you want to work at for 15 hours a day. Find the thing that makes you forget to eat.
I still haven’t found mine, but I know it’s out there, and I’m starting to feel around it’s edges.
Anyway, thanks for doing the great interview. I will be adding Gary’s book to the pile I’m working through. (Currently I’m partially through 7 different books. 🙂 )
.-= Kevin E Blake´s last blog ..Reading out of character =-.