I’ve always been a huge advocate about education and always learning everything you can about the topic. So after Brian Urlage @Source1Auto pitched to me Gary Vaynerchuk’s event in Florida coming up, I decided I should probably finally get around to reading “Crush It”. It made it onto this week’s to do list, and I wrapped it up.
I’m honestly torn on whether or not I want to recommend the book, so I’m giving it the “OK” designation. Gary does self-promote, but not as offensively as many of his counterparts. He offers genuine thoughts and perspectives, but the entire book wraps up to what you probably already know.
It may seem small, but one thing I get stuck on is his reference to eventually succeeding enough to make 50k/year. I have to anticipate he’s trying to tone down crazy expectations some people have of being overnight millionaires. I love his quote that the only place that happens is the lottery. On the same note, it’s a lot of work for just 50 grand a year… so it better be your core passion. As long as you truly live it and breathe it, its free money, right?
I can summarize the book in a few phrases for those who haven’t read it:
- Work your rear end off. Work every day, all the time, and live your brand/site/product
- Be patient. You may not be successful in 2 years or 5 years, but stick to it.
- Having great content is important, which is pretty much the marketing concept of “Product”. Be the expert in whatever you are passionate about
- Great content needs to be everywhere, which is essentially the marketing concept of “Placement”
- Having great content isn’t enough, and you need to spent most of your time engaging others, which is essentially “promotion”
- Be authentic, and true to you. It’s the only way to maintain passion and come off as real to your users.
I firmly doubt the effectiveness of personal branding quite to the effect suggested in the book. Trust me, I think personal branding is important- I’ve hired professional designers to make my custom web page and I am all about building a brand, but the concept that resumes are useless and your followers will offer you a job when you lose yours? Not so much. If you have enough followers to do that, then odds are you have enough followers that you don’t need to work at all!
It is a great book to get jazzed up about. He’s pretty motivational from that regard. I would never suggest people avoid the book, but take it with a grain of salt. Branding is a piece of the puzzle, but its not the whole story, and thinking that a personal brand is all you need in life works for very few people.
On the contrary, it compliments products and services quite well!
Gary Vaynerchuck’s “Crush It” is available on amazon here: