Crushing It! (2018) Book Summary & Insights
Book Title: Crushing It!
Subtitle: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence–And How You Can, Too
Publication Date: 2018
Author Name: Gary Vaynerchuk
About The Author
Gary Vaynerchuk is a Belarusian American investor, entrepreneur, author, speaker and internet personality who has always had an eye for business since he was a kid. As a kid he made far more money than his peers selling baseball cards, comic books and toys on the weekends.
Gary successfully built himself as an entrepreneur and a wizard in all things social and digital media. He is known for building his family’s wine business from about $3 million a year to over $60 million a year using Social Media platform such as YouTube and Google AdWords before advertisers widely adopted these platforms.
He’s a big advocate of self awareness, patience, being frugal and vlogging(which he refers to as documenting) the pursuit of building a business or brand in a social world. After over 10 years working for his family’s business and making a moderate salary, Gary branched into social and digital media with his own business; VaynerMedia. Other books from the author include The Thank You Economy and Crush It!
Book Summary
Surviving the tough world of business requires skills and Crushing It! illustrates the secrets to creating and sustaining a strong brand. Vaynerchuk explains social media management and the ways to build a lasting personal brand, plus how digital media contributes to success. The book is a follow up on his bestseller Crush It! with the author combining his own experiences and his readers’ to serve as further illustrations.
Who Is This Book For?
Established or aspiring entrepreneurs who understand the opportunities social and digital media present and, hope to learn more about success in business.
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Book Insights
Introduction
The dawn of the internet age and social media has come with its own negative effects but, the one thing we can’t deny is that the internet has allowed us progress more than we could have twenty years ago. By getting rid of the time, place and language barriers, the internet has successfully broken down the wall between you and professional growth. No matter what kind of business you are into, there is a way to use the internet to successfully grow your business.
There are even more opportunities for talents to be discovered and careers to kick off from social media. We pack social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube with acting, singing and other talents. For those that catch the eye of the right person, success usually follows.
And then, there are the tech moguls who build these social media platforms and grow their businesses to unforeseen heights. People like Facebook CEO,Mark Zuckerberg, who had the innovation with platforms like Facebook. They were innovative enough to foresee the impact social and digital media would have on our lives, and facilitated the growth of the platforms. Today, the CEO of Facebook is among the more prominent names in the world.
Building A Personal Brand Is The Key To Financial Success
When you have a strong, personal online brand, you have a clearer path to success whether you’re a business owner, unemployed, or employed.
We have more career opportunities available to us today, especially in the social media field. A child 30 years ago would have never said “I want to be a YouTuber when I grow up” but, kids today are more likely to respond like that. Maybe adults have not yet fully grasped the reality of making a living off of social media and, might try to steer their kids from the idea.
Maybe it’s time to get rid of the idea of social media being a waste of time and look at the numbers. Statistics have shown that you and I watch 1.25 billion hours of YouTube videos in a single day. 66,000 videos and photos get posted on Instagram every minute, and statistics have shown that when we are on our mobile, we spend 20% of our time on Facebook.
Social media platforms have truly changed the way the world operates. Anybody can now earn money as an entrepreneur. The key is finding the right way to milk the platforms.
Gary Vaynerchuk, the author of this book, made a staggering transformation on his family’s wine business, growing it from $3 million to $60 million. How did he do this? He built a brand by getting personal with his customers with a video blog. He invested his time in his brand, replying all his Facebook and Twitter messages. His approach was simple: build a relationship with his customers, and they liked him and bought from him.
Building a personal brand offers multiple routes to personal and financial success.
No matter who you are, you can build your personal brand to lead a successful life. You may wonder how people with no physical products can monetize their brands. Take Brittany Xavier for example. She started her Thrifts and Threads Instagram and blog posts as a hobby to display her family’s life. But, when she noticed that similar accounts tagged brands in their posts, she did the same. With her account grown to over 10,000 followers, she charged brands $100 for a mention in her posts and then increased her charges.
Can you improve your life with a personal brand? Yes; take Louie Blaka for example—a frustrated artist not ready to give up his job but looking for more success. He took a page out of Vaynerchuk’s book and advertised himself on Instagram. He has experienced a huge improvement in his painting sales, and charges more.
Whatever your motives are; building your brand to new levels or growing your side hustle, you can always make it happen with a well-build social media presence.
Creating And Sustaining Your Brand Through Social Media
If you do not build a brand with strong social media content, your business will likely fail.
There are seven rules you must follow to nail it;
1. Authenticity
Authenticity is a value that is somewhat rare today, with the filtering effects social platforms like Instagram offers. Snapchat was first launched with its short stories feature and was almost immediately recognized as great training for budding brands. The platform demands a realistic, unedited representation of our more human side. In 2015, DJ Khaled became one of the first celebrities to blow on Snapchat when he got lost on a jet ski trip. The music producer recorded his disoriented efforts to get himself rescued, and the unedited authenticity of his experience is what Snapchat is all about.
Marketers have the opportunity to show customers a more relatable, quirky side, and reveal some personality behind the brand.
2. Passion
Very few people make it far in their business if they lack passion for what they do. Passion is not just what drives you to go to work each day, it inspires you to break new grounds. Without passion for what you do, your business might suffer, and your customers along with it.
3. Patience
If you hope to build your business with social and digital media, a boat-load of patience is a must. The first thing you must understand is that it takes time to get it right.
4. Hard work
Being a hit on social media platforms takes a lot of hard work. But keep going no matter how many ignored messages you send out. One day, your carefully constructed tweets with the right hashtags will get noticed. Keep creating content relevant to your business, forget the TV marathon you had planned, get to work!
5. Pay attention
Social media trends change fast. You must keep up with all the new happenings. Pay attention to every new twitter trend, Instagram hashtag and social media platform you should be on.
6. Move fast
Move fast and take advantage of whatever new opportunities presents itself. Nobody is going to wait for you. Be that first business offering customers something different.
7. Altruism
The best influencers and entrepreneurs are not all in it for the money. They will tell you that the greatest reward is providing their true service to help others, not the monetary gains.
Customers can mostly tell when your intent is fully monetary and they are likely to not come back. Centre your business around altruistic principles to increase the chances of it having a long-term success.
Don’t stress yourself with the misgivings that your content will never be of interest or engaging enough. Your options are almost endless; you can document anything. It could even lead to a more profitable business than you could have ever imagined, and multiple deals.
Existing Social Media Platforms And A Budding Innovation
Snapchat is the social media platform that allows for a more genuine broadcast of your life even if advertisement is more limited there.
It is much easier for us to use Twitter to grow our brand because; the platform allows for more discoverability, filters and generating awareness. Take, for example, if you have created a video targeted at popular rapper, Drake. Even with a mention in your tweet, the rap artist is very unlikely to see it but, if your tweet can generate enough retweets and likes, it could get his attention. Same thing goes when you are trying to popularise yourself or brand. What you need to do is find the ideal hashtags and follow them, leaving comments and replies in tweets.
YouTube garners more views from young adults than any TV network today. It is time to take complete advantage of the doors YouTube could open for you. Forget the thoughts you are probably not interesting enough to attract viewers or grow your channel; first find a niche that interests you and then create interesting content. Make compelling videos, and soon enough you would get enough viewers to generate ad revenue. But, if you never attract enough viewers, at least you can cross that off your career checklist.
The thing about Facebook is that it offers such versatility, none of the other social media platforms can really compare. You can upload a ten second video or a twenty-minute video of you ranting, or even a really long letter open letter. Another plus side? Facebook offers the most in the target market; boasting of users from every age bracket, social status, nationality, and interest.
Instagram initially had critics complaining about its over filtered content until the app launched their stories function. Now, we can post spontaneous shots on our Instagram stories and leave the polished content for our page.
Entrepreneurs can take more advantage of the opportunities the balance now offers. Using the right hashtags is not just enough to get your brand discovered in the Instagram-verse. With the more personal touch the stories offer, brands can create a more intimate connection with their audience.
New Innovations In The Social Media Landscape
A person might argue that social media and technology has made this generation lazier and, there could be truth in that. Everything is easier for us now and spoken word media ensures that you can clean out your bathroom while listening to your favourite podcast.
The podcast market has taken off fast and is bursting with content today, but there is a new platform coming hot on its tails- content delivered in short, spoken flash briefings by digital assistants. Digital assistants such as Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa are right on hand to deliver whatever news/content you need as soon as you wake.
Take advantage of this budding platform now. There are still few influencers involved, and opportunities to grab quick.
Key Quotes
Here’re some key quotes from the book:
“When it comes to professional opportunities, this is the best time to be alive in the history of humankind.”
“You’re going to go through a time where you’re not going to make any money. It’s not going to be a week, it’s not going to be a month, it’s not going to be one year. It’s going to be years. And during that time, if you don’t love what you do, it’s going to be very hard to stick it out. That is something that people don’t understand when they hear, “Follow your passion.” They hear rainbows, unicorns, bullshit. But the truth of it is that it’s important, because if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’re going to be that much more likely to quit when shit’s hard.”
“If you’re not 100 percent happy with your life today, it is never a waste of time to try something that could get you there.”
“You just have to make the choice to actually do it. I am so tired of excuses. Why not try something new? Be optimistic, exhibit patience, shut your mouth, and execute.”
Conclusion
Whatever you do that does not yield you the happiness or finances you desire, change something. You should start a business based on your own passion, with the courage to take chances. Use the opportunities that Facebook presents and reach out to millions of users. Document your life on YouTube, and use Twitter to connect with like-minded individuals and expose yourself to greater chances of discovery.
Don’t be shy to send those direct messages to whatever influencers are in your line of business and offer them something valuable to make yourself stand out.
If you can persevere even after multiple shunned and ignored messages, you are already winning at it. And with these values, your hard work will definitely pay off one day.
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Content Creator: Tracy
