Crush It: Gary Vaynerchuk

Recently, I finished reading the book "Crush It" by Gary Vaynerchuk. You may know this guy from the popular video blog/show called Wine Library Tv. I've always been curious about how people who are considered internet celebrities - how the make it - how they become successful.

This book (which I do recommend) outlines steps that Gary did to grow his family's wine business to a multi-million dollar operation. He also emphasizes that all of us are an online brand onto ourselves. If you have a facebook, twitter, or any other social media account somewhere, you are a brand and you have to cultivate and manage that brand. I definitely agree with this. Every so often, I have considered giving up the "Doctor Anonymous" moniker and just branding myself with my "real" name.

But, as I found out going to BlogWorld Expo last fall, and meeting up with a lot of other people in the medical/health social sphere, they told me, "We would continue to call you Dr. A anyway." - That I'll just stick to this "brand" and continue to go with the flow.

So, as a business book, this is interesting. Now, definitely this is NOT a prescription or blueprint on how to become an internet celebrity. This is just one guy's story. There are some things I will try to use in this book for me, but many more things that I will not use - because, as Gary says, "it's not in my DNA."

One thing I do recommend is to listen to the audiobook, since there is information in there that is NOT in the original print edition. At many parts of the audio book, Gary says, "I know I'm going off script here, but this is important." Or, he would say, "Since the print edition has been published, the is new info out there..." I guess that's the challenge/fun of having an audiobook released after the print edition comes out....

Update: Greeting to those of you who clicked over from the wonderful Musings of a Dinosaur blog. If you like what you read on this post, I invite you to check out my other writings. Thanks for stopping by!