Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion [NOOK Book]

A Good Fast Read

I saw this book profiled on somebody's blog. I got in the mail today and read it in about two hours. I read a lot and must say that I would put this in the category of "fun read". If you have any interest at all in making a living online, this is one of the books you should read. I suspect this book will be popular with his followers, but I have never heard of this guy and still enjoyed it. The price and length are just right. I highly recommend it.
RapidVisa

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

BEWARE - Enhanced eBook file type only compatible with Nook Color

Heads-up, this might spar a, "No duh," from some of you (even myself to myself), but it's worth mentioning that the Enhanced eBook file type is only compatible with the Nook Color (and not PC reader, not iPad, not iPhone, not Android...). Customer service was super nice in rectifying this issue for me only moments after realizing the mistake so I could re-purchase the non-enhanced version of the eBook. The non-enhanced version is also a couple of bucks more.

Oh yeah, the book itself is pretty good, too.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awful and waste of time

This is nothing but a big waste of time. Gary Vaynerchuk has not captured attention with his supposed pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business?? Are you kidding me? There is nothing about this book that is pioneering.

He simply worked at his Dad's wine shop and his Dad poured a lot of money into it to expand. They spent a lot of money promoting the business... simply put... they spent money to make money.

Gary specializes in self promotion. He believes the old adage of... if he says something to enough people over and over again eventually they may start beleiving it. He is nothing more than a salesman and not a good one at that.

He has since left that business because he didn't have the passion for it. A lot of people in the wine business were calling for his head tdue to the conflcit of interest of he rating wine that he sells.

He is now trying to act as a social media expert to try and teach the fundamentals to businesses. He'll be back to the wine trade because I can't imagine anyone paying him to teach such elementary concepts. But heck, they say a fool is born every minute so maybe he can fool them. We'll see.

This book is something to be missed... don't waste your time.

Crush It Rocks!

We love this book. We have read this book several times and have referred the book to hundreds of others. Gary is right on with this vision on social media, what it can do, what it has done for others and is a must read for every human being that wants to engage in social media.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Passionate and Clear

Thanks to Gary for his insights. His approach is in your face, to the point and timely. As with all the teachers, books, videos, etc promoting the use of the "Law of Attraction", Gary hits the spot by saying, "...follow your passion..., ...never give up..., ...do what you like to do...".

I really like his ideas about leveraging social media. It is free and just takes some time! His feedback on the method for writing blog posts is also informative. Follow your heart and be inspired!

Again I am grateful that Gary wrote this book. This book can be read in a night or two.

Crush It Delivers

Gary V does a great job of providing an outline for creating a passionate business through blogging. He shows that it is possible to live your passion and make a career of it at the same time.

My favorite parts of the book are the outline of actions to take and the excitement he shows for living and running his business.

This is a short read and can be done in a day or two easily. Be sure to take good notes as he offers some incredible advice of how to expand a business exponentially with platforms available.

Inspiring!

Having heard of Gary Vaynerchuk first time on Jason Calacanis's "This Week in Startups" podcast, I just had to get the book because I have been wondering how on earth I was going to get started in business in these highly social-networking times.

The book is well worth the read! If you like audiobooks, I suggest you get both the print and the audio edition, because you're going to want to hear Gary read his own book to you, and the print edition is excellent for looking up what he has to say.

Gary has given me the necessary inspiration and information to get me off the dime, and I will shortly be starting my own podcast, and blog, and I'm already Tweeting! I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in building business in this day and age.

What A Refreshing Read!!!

This was a comprehensive yet completely understandable look at internet resources for marketing. I was particularly struck by the author's perspective on making one's passion the focus of work. All too often, we put our passions aside in the service of practicality.

Even those who have not had experience with the internet can move forward with their projects with this book in hand. The summary list of activities and resources outlined throughout the book was exceptionally useful. I read the book quickly, taking notes, thinking I would not purchase it. In the end I was so impressed, I bought it and have recommended it to several other people.

Thank-you to Mr. Vaynerchuk for deciphering the complexities of internet and related marketing!

Pamela D. Straker

If social media is your goal...

Novel concepts and a good grasp on social media. The book could have done without the language to emphasize the points. Read for the information, not for a literary work of art.

awful

I read this right after finishing The Four-Hour Work Week. Bad move. It's a tough act to follow.

I don't need a book about success to tell me to love my family. Plenty of successful people don't love their families.

I don't need a book about success to tell me that if I don't love what I do, I'll fail. There are legions of successful lawyers, business folk, etc who prove this wrong. I don't love what I do, and I make a great living.

And I don't care for his virtuizing of hard work either. Work smarter, work less, play more.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Savvy guide to developing a moneymaking, personal brand online

Although many people advise against turning your hobby into your day job, Gary Vaynerchuk, an Internet and business phenomenon, vehemently disagrees. He boldly promotes quitting your job to pursue a profession that is your passion. An immigrant from Belarus, Vaynerchuk rose to fame in his mid-30s because of Wine Library TV, the popular, highly publicized video blog he started in 2006. Through his imaginative Internet Webcasts, Vaynerchuk has made himself a leading authority on wines and a respected expert on online brand development and marketing. His style is unpretentious, a welcome change from the reserved mien of tuxedoed wine critics. Vaynerchuk provides step-by-step explanations on how to create a personal brand and promote it using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Although the advice is overly simplistic - Vaynerchuk somewhat naively assumes anyone can emulate his success - and the topic is well-worn, getAbstract appreciates Vaynerchuk's sincere advice and recommends his clear, lively book to new entrepreneurs and others who want an introduction to the world of social media.

Crush it is Changing the Game.

The internet has changed the way we do business and Gary Vaynerchuk's book will change the way you live your life. Gary explains the power of the internet, the power of yourself, and the power of passion.

Crush It! will inspire you to do what you love and will teach you how to be successful doing it.

Wow! Thaanks for the great info Gary!

Excellent for the soon to be 50 new entrepreneur and others!

Inspirational and Passionate

I read this book after having watched appoximately 700 or so episodes of Gary Vaynerchuk's video blog on Winelibrarytv.com. In every written word I can hear Gary's passionate voice I know so well from his blog. The book is motivational and instructional and shows how caring, hard work and passion can net you a fulfilling life in every way, not just monetarily. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone, not just people interested in wine or marketing a brand.

garyvee CRUSHED IT! With his Book!!!!

garyvee,

I finished reading your book. Quick read, easy to understand and apply. Great job!!!
I recommend this book to all people in business or going into business. I also think its an essential book that should be used in a College Marketing Course on the "must read list".

Thanks Gary for sharing your expertise and your enthusiasm! :)

Crushed It!

It was late last year when I first heard about Crush It! (Harper Studio, 2009) I was interviewing author, Gary Vaynerchuk for my book. The Crush It! may not have had its title at that point but he spoke with passion and enthusiasm about the value of authenticity, hustle, and following your DNA. He really believes that someone can follow their passion and live the life of their dreams. I am happy to say that the sharp wit, business savvy, and zeal that I experienced in my conversations with Gary come across in Crush It!
The book is both a motivational speech and a how-to manual for budding Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, and really anyone who wants to take charge of their lives by doing what they love. Despite being a brief 142 pages, he makes his point strongly without wasting a lot of ink. He discusses indentifying a personal passion, and using social media to build a personal brand that will, through hustle and patience, reward the entrepreneur with happiness and cash. (He stresses the former as the primary goal.) Clearly, anyone new to the world of social media will find this book informative, instructive, and easy to read. Those with more experience in the world of Web 2.0 will also find Crush It! worth a look. I suppose I am a great example of the latter, I live the subject and have written a book, keep a successful blog, teach it at the college level, regularly speak to business and professional groups, and use these techniques every day and I have a page of notes that I made while reading this book.
If I have any criticism it is that Gary does not give much time to using traditional media ( I am talking about PR stuff, not advertising) to create the personal brand that stems from the entrepreneur's DNA. He mentions it briefly in Chapter 11, "Start Monetizing," but doesn't give us the depth he could have. He is a master of the traditional media too. He has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, on the Today Show, and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, just to mention a few of his traditional media appearances.
So, whether you're just getting started or have already made a mark for yourself I will say that you will find a pretty strong return on investment for the $19.99 you spend on Crush It!
Gaetan Giannini, author of Marketing Public Relations: A Marketer's Approach to Public Relations and Social Media. (www.twitter.com/gaetang )

Good One

I like the book very much, unfortunately I only had e-book but looking for hard cover.

Book is very much what most people can relate to. I have lots of passion for entrepreneurship but most time I just don't go for it. After reading this book it gave me few ideas that will work. If you are looking for self motivation in business or just to do something you always wanted to do. This is the book to read.

Way to go @garyvee from @joehob....

Great inspiration to find or create a career you love

Crush It!

This book is VERY inspiring, meaty, challenging, and full of HOPE!

This book is so inspiring you may want to read it standing up.

Gary Vaynerchuk's own story will fascinate you as you see how he became who he is.

Crush it! has simple lessons and simple rules to success in life, but he shoots ideas and inspiration and logic and honesty like a professor on overdrive. Vaynerchuk's tone feels like a mentor, teammate, cheerleader, boss, parent, best friend, life coach, and guru.

If you've forgotten or left your dreams and passions behind, those thoughts will come flying back to you as you read. He shows you how you can live and work at your PASSION and not just a job. He tells you how to be flexible and change with the times, not just be rigid in your expectations. He shows you how he does it and how you can see the big picture and the end goal and how to get there, even with setbacks, detours, or roadblocks.

You can read this in one quick sitting, but you'll likely go back to reread it and keep jotting down your ideas. This is an energizing book of HOPE, direction, inspiration, instruction, and even a kick in the rear.

Crush It! is a great gift for yourself and others. You can loan it out, but you'd better buy an extra one. It's a keeper.

Are you living, or just earning a living?

Are you living, or just earning a living? So asks wine critic, social media star and business consultant Gary Vaynerchuk in his new book, Crush It!

The premise of Crush It! is that technology has disrupted the historical boundaries of business, making it possible for anyone with knowledge and passion to build a business that capitalizes on that expertise.

Generally, he's right. I've built a community and a business at www.convinceandconvert.com by adhering to many of the principles in this book. However, I've started five companies previously, and prefer working for myself. Your results may vary.

Certainly, like Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, Crush It! is targeted at entrepreneurs and would-be solo acts that are itching to strike out on their own, and need the nudge to do so. This is not a book for corporate marketers.

The success path painted by Vaynerchuk is paved with content. Audio, video, written. It doesn't matter, so long as you make a lot of it. And that really strikes at the core of the Gary Vee vision, which is that the future of business is in hyper-targeting. Finding the cracks and crevices and building content-driven enterprises that can fill the needs of those small but passionate audiences. In many ways, this notion dovetails with Chris Anderson's The Long Tail.

To some degree, however, this advice is self-limiting. Most often, hyper-targeted niches can be capitalized upon, but by definition the size of that opportunity is narrow. That doesn't mean it isn't viable, and to his credit Gary frequently balances millionaire dreams with "make a living" reality in the book.

Expertise combined with differentiation. Although he doesn't describe it that way, that's the Vaynerchuk content success equation.
I certainly agree with the differentiation component. It's one of the things I struggle with personally. How do I stand apart from the other social media consultants? It's important, and the book provides a few interesting examples.

The expertise side, however, is trickier. The book presumes that anyone can Crush It! Of course, anyone can start a blog, and market it well. But, do they have the expertise to transform a category? To me, it seems like you need to have a very solid knowledge base before heading down this road. Perfect for prosumers. For others without existing expertise, it will be tough to break through.

There are many parallels between Crush It! and Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek book. Similar size, approach, and subject matter, especially the concept of monetizing your passion. Ferriss even blurbs the cover of Crush It!.

I find it extremely interesting that Vaynerchuk unabashedly describes the extremely long hours required to successfully implement his methods, at one point encouraging parents to work from 9pm to 3am daily. Alternatively, Ferriss' premise is to work less, not more, using automated business and shortcuts to save time and enjoy life.

(I would love to see a Vaynerchuk vs. Ferriss debate on this issue, as they propose contradictory ways to achieve the same outcome)

Although a bit repetitive at times, and not particularly detailed, Crush It! is a motivating, entertaining book that I believe you'll find yourself returning to over and over for a shot in the arm.

Everyone self-employed, or desiring to be self-employed, should pick up a copy of the book.

It reads like a 90-minute conversation with Gary, and that's time well-spent.

It's time to Crush It!

Gary Vaynerchuk's new book, Crush It! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion delivers! It is a great story...a how to...and a why to... Gary poured a million dollars of his sweat and experience into this book. Read it and cash in on your passion!

Randy Webster
www.BookBlade.com
http://bit.ly/DVsN