- The book explains how to create a powerful personal brand by using social media platforms and tells the stories of successful entrepreneurs who have done so.
- The book provides practical and specific advice on how to optimize each platform and create engaging content that attracts and retains the audience.
- The book shows the benefits of personal branding on various aspects of life, such as happiness, health, relationships, and philanthropy.
Gary Vaynerchuk knows a thing or two about crushing it. He’s a pioneer in seeing the value of social media platforms in business growth by using customer relationships to create and maintain brand loyalty. Personal branding, the focal point of this book summary, is about more about enhancing a business — it’s about being a business. Vaynerchuk shares lessons learned by other entrepreneurs who have successfully incorporated his insights into their branding practice.
A personal branding expert shares his tips for entrepreneurial success.
READ THIS BOOK SUMMARY IF YOU:
- Want to gain deeper knowledge of the entrepreneurial mindset
- Lack confidence when it comes to realizing your ideas
- Have a deep-seated desire to do something more with your life
Table of Contents
Introduction
Crushing it is defined as doing what you love and earning enough to live how you want to live. More people than ever are realizing this dream, made possible through such platforms as YouTube and Instagram. The key to personal success, however, lies in the “personal” rather than the “success.” Without self-awareness, you’re doing nothing more than following others’ prescriptions. And while it might seem like an uphill battle to feel important in a saturated marketplace, we already have everything we need to do just that.
That said, this summary isn’t a secret formula. It’s a guide to finding your own. And the only thing standing in the way of that dream is you.
Get Pumped
Social media stars don’t necessarily get rich through brand endorsements, but by being a brand unto themselves. This requires them to move beyond whatever success they’re now enjoying toward something more than a product, platform, or passion. One look at successful personalities is enough to know their branding transcends baseline careers. The Rock is more than a wrestler; Oprah more than a talk show host; Julie Andrews more than a singer.
No such successes would have been possible without a solid foundation. Such a foundation consists of:
- Intent. If you’re in it for the money, failure is inevitable. Instead, you should be committed to service, value, and teaching. If you really want to better the world (and most don’t), then mean it with every fiber of your being. If you don’t care, neither will they.
- Passion. Following what you love means loving what you follow. Let this be your constant source of fuel when all other inspirations run dry.
- Authenticity. Faking it isn’t making it. Find the best platform to convey yourself and your message. This entails not just having a passion, but manifesting it loudly and clearly.
- Patience. Following your passion leads to slow progress. Building a new business is likely to put you in the red for a while. The payoff is worth it.
- Speed. In tandem with patience (long-term aspiration), speed (short-term optimization) is essential for the road ahead.
- Work. In the beginning stages of any entrepreneurial endeavor, leisure is your enemy. It’s a daily grind.
- Attention. Master every platform you can. You never know which will serve you best until you try.
- Content. The trick with content is to be constant yet diversified. It must be genuine, your own, and engaging.
None of these steps, however, means anything without your personal spin. Only you know how selfless you can be. Only you know how much you’re willing to sacrifice for free. Only you know how resolutely you can continue on. Neither do your ambitions need to be grandiose to yield results. Own up to what you can’t do while focusing on what you can. Tell a story. Deepen your brand, don’t broaden it. As long as you don’t fear failures, you free up precious mental energy and time for triumphs.
Never brand yourself as an expert; that’s for the market to decide. Rather, present yourself as someone who cares, and people will obsess over your creative development. One of Vaynerchuk’s most salient pieces of advice in this regard is to document every step of your creative process along the way. By the time you attract a following, your fans will clamor to know how it all began. Imagine if we had video footage of Michael Jackson as he came up with his signature moonwalk. Or if we could peer over George R. R. Martin’s shoulder as he labored over his first draft of A Game of Thrones. It’s about being purposeful, not serving a purpose.
You can make all the excuses you want, but the common denominator in any case is that you are the one making them. If you’re at all afraid, it’s likely for three main reasons:
- You’re afraid of failing. What you’re really afraid of, however, is being perceived as a failure. The moment you let go of this, you’ll be surprised by how much work you can get done.
- You’re afraid of wasting your time. Be careful about how you define your time. If the only thing you’re sacrificing is that Walking Dead binge you had planned for the weekend, then there’s really no time to waste.
- You’re afraid of being self-centered. Realize that everyone starts out looking like a fool before becoming an expert.
Create Your Pillar
The first and most important step in your self-branding journey is to set up a Facebook page for your business. After that, you need to get your name out there. You can do this through creative hashtagging or by messaging people directly. In the latter case, however, make sure you’re offering a valuable exchange for their time. This process will takes months, if not years, to bear fruit. If that seems too long for you, then don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Snapchat is another powerful cog in the self-branding machine. It provides a more private space (unlike Facebook) that evolves with you (and vice versa). DJ Khaled was one of the first to use Snapchat as a viable self-branding outlet. He did this by treating it organically. By simply being himself, #unfiltered, he was able to cultivate an exponential following.
Others like him who treat Snapchat as a casual space for sharing their passions have grown the platform into a viable tool of influence. Due to its lack of hashtags, Snapchat is a bare, challenging forum in which to build your brand. You must therefore be as genuine as possible, or people will catch you in the act right away. It should by no means be your only platform, but it might just be a vital one. It’s a chance to build a social and collaborative spirit under your creative umbrella.
Twitter can be as effective as it is ubiquitous, so don’t underestimate its value. Do, however, realize that it’s best used as a forum for listening and reacting. Tempting as it is to tweet anything and everything that comes to mind, Twitter is about quality over quantity, making it optimal for business development. Its authoritativeness is an advantage (unlike Instagram, where identity may not always be verifiable). It offers a unique retweet feature for maximum viral potential, thus creating robust word-of-mouth opportunities. It’s also an easier platform on which to interact with influencers.
YouTube is, not surprisingly, the most dynamic of all platforms. But just because you don’t see yourself as an on-screen personality doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Telegenic features mean nothing if your content is solid. Barring any aspirations to be the next Michelle Phan, looks will never count anyway.
Vlogging is an ideal documentarian platform, which means you don’t need (and shouldn’t try) to project an air of expertise but simply a genuine passion for your content. By exposing your learning process for all to see, your viewers feel like they’re with you for the ride. Quality, style, and presentation will change over time. Those who’ve been with you from the beginning will enjoy watching you evolve (and feel they have a part in that growth, as indeed they do), while newcomers will enjoy looking through your backlog to see how you got to where you are today.
Seeking perfection in YouTube is counterproductive. In any YouTube enterprise, it’s important to be attentive to video titles, descriptions, and tags. Make sure your thumbnails are representative, easily viewable across devices (especially if they contain text), and engaging.
Instagram is second only to YouTube for creating influencers. The best way to enter its ever-growing realm is to locate influencers in your area of interest, message them with personalized content, and ask what you can do for them (send them merch, offer a free service, etc.). This takes many hours of initial investment, but you should never skimp on the time you put into this. Not many will respond, but the ones who do could very well change your life.
If you still insist on avoiding the camera’s gaze, then audio-only options such as podcasts are your solution. The distinct advantage of podcasts is that they can be consumed while your listeners are involved in other tasks like jogging, housecleaning, and cooking. The tradeoff, of course, is that you will need to promote your podcast across other social media platforms.
And then there’s Facebook: a necessary precondition for all of the above. What makes Facebook so indispensable is its flexibility. It’s a platform aggregator, and transcends the limits of other sources. You can, for example, post a screenshot of a tweet and riff on it for 2,800 characters instead of 280. You can post a three-hour livestream instead of a three3-minute YouTube clip. Facebook has indeed become a comparable player in the video market. But don’t get into the habit of crossposting regularly. Native content is always more powerful.
In any of the above platforms, persistence is key.
Testimonies
Crushing It! is filled with testimonies from entrepreneurs who have taken Vaynerchuk’s advice to the next level. The following are a few shining examples.
At the time Lewis Howes founded his so-called School of Greatness, he was just beginning his career as a professional athlete. When a permanent injury changed all that, he started making connections on LinkedIn as a way of networking from home while in recovery mode. After doing this for a while, he organized a few informal LinkedIn meetups, began charging for them, and brought in an income. This led him to teach others in business sectors the secrets of creating the perfect LinkedIn profile. After reading Crush It! he knew he needed to care more, to not merely invite influencers but learn from them as well. He was bored from doing the same thing over and over, and so the School of Greatness was born, a podcast featuring major influencers sharing their advice for the next generation.
By age 40, Sean O’Shea of The Good Dog had been working for 11 years as a valet while pursuing a side career as an in-demand session musician. Yet despite playing on tracks with Alicia Keys, Ghostface Killah, and Jennifer Hudson, parking cars for wealthier individuals was his main source of income. When he adopted two puppies from a local pound, the dogs created quite a stir in his neighborhood. He was self-aware enough to put the blame on himself for not training them better. So, he developed his own dog-training technique and opened a dog-walking business. Crush It! showed him exactly what he needed to do to run it. He broke into YouTube, making teaching videos and other content, and his passion became infectious. He has since built an internationally visible brand that has expanded into publishing, DVDs, and a podcast.
Mimi Goodwin, best known under the handle Mimi G Style, came out of a very difficult childhood with a passion for designing clothes, but gave up that dream when life at home became too much for her to handle. After ending up homeless in Pomona, California, with two children and a string of failed relationships, she moved in with friends, found a job as a receptionist, and earned enough to get a one-bedroom apartment of her own. After remarrying and having two more children, she returned to sewing — a dream that had never left her. After seeing her handmade clothing in action on a daily basis, her boss wrote her a check for $30,000 to grow her brand. What began as a humble fashion blog, on which she provided DIY instructions for designer-quality garments, grew into a Mimi G Style Fashion Sewing & Style Conference and an invitation to be on the TV show Project Runway. She hasn’t looked back since.
When Dr. Chithra Durgam of Aesthetic Dental wanted to communicate with her patients in a fun and educational way, she happened upon Musical.ly, a site that allowed her to post fun lip-sync videos about dental procedures and related topics. After gaining a young following, kids actually wanted to see her as their dentist. She then tapped Snapchat to promote her services for adults. Having taken full advantage of both platforms, she has earned her reputation as a branding and promotional expert. Despite resistance from her colleagues, who criticize her for demeaning their craft, she persists in using her model as a way of staying true to herself. The time she puts into her online presence is directly proportional to the seriousness of work.
Personal finance guru Brittney Castro, creator of Financially Wise Women, worked a corporate job for five years, logging up to 70 hours a week. When it became clear that this lifestyle didn’t suit her, she set out to be the next Suze Orman, but for a younger, hipper crowd. YouTube was her ideal platform. Like Durgam, she found a way to say “yes” when all others said “no.” The naysayers only proved she was doing exactly what she needed to be doing. Meanwhile, her target audience was eating up her content and wanting more. In addition to her YouTube presence, Facebook Live continues to offer her an especially fulfilling opportunity to interact with fans and has cinched her reputation as a top-tier financial consultant.
Conclusion
In order to crush it, you must rid yourself of any notions of quick fixes. The entrepreneurial mindset is its own way of being. At this point, then, it’s useful to review Vaynerchuk’s cardinal rules:
- Intent. If you’re in it for the money, failure is inevitable. Instead, you should be committed to service, value, and teaching. If you really want to better the world (and most don’t), then mean it with every fiber of your being. If you don’t care, neither will they.
- Passion. Following what you love means loving what you follow. Let this be your constant source of fuel when all other inspirations run dry.
- Authenticity. Faking it isn’t making it. Find the best platform to convey yourself and your message. This entails not just having a passion, but manifesting it loudly and clearly.
- Patience. Following your passion leads to slow progress. Building a new business is likely to put you in the red for a while. The payoff is worth it.
- Speed. In tandem with patience (long-term aspiration), speed (short-term optimization) is essential for the road ahead.
- Work. In the beginning stages of any entrepreneurial endeavor, leisure is your enemy. It’s a daily grind.
- Attention. Master every platform you can. You never know which will serve you best until you try.
- Content. The trick with content is to be constant yet diversified. It must be genuine, your own, and engaging.
In light of the time and effort required to pull off any of these steps, you can be sure your success won’t happen overnight. But it does mean you can start on that path tomorrow.
Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the most influential entrepreneurs alive today. Since building his wine business from a $3 million company to a $60 million company, he has consistently demonstrated his marketing genius and is committed to nurturing like-minded potential in others. As chairman and CEO of VaynerX and VaynerMedia, he’s at the cutting edge of digital marketing, and in that capacity continues to build a portfolio of satisfied Fortune 500 companies.
Genres
Small Business and Entrepreneurs, Nonfiction, Self Help, Personal Development, Social Media, Leadership, Finance, Web Marketing, E-commerce Professional
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I Get Pumped
1 The Path Is All Yours 13
2 What (Still) Matters 29
3 The Eighth Essential-Content 77
4 What’s Stopping You? 97
5 The Only Thing You Need to Give Yourself to Crush It 120
Part II Create Your Pillar
6 First, Do This 135
7 Get Discovered 139
8 Musically 143
9 Snapchat 157
10 Twitter 177
11 YouTube 191
12 Facebook 209
13 Instagram 223
14 Podcasts 235
15 Voice-First 245
Conclusion 261
Acknowledgments 265
Notes 267
Review
The book is a sequel to Vaynerchuk’s previous bestseller, Crush It!, which was published in 2009. In Crush It!, Vaynerchuk argued that anyone can turn their passion into a profitable personal brand by using the power of social media. In Crushing It!, he updates his advice for the current digital landscape and shares new stories and insights from dozens of successful entrepreneurs who have followed his principles.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part explains why personal branding is essential for anyone who wants to achieve their dreams and how to create a compelling story that attracts attention and loyalty. The second part covers the best practices and strategies for each major social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, Musical.ly, and podcasting. The third part features case studies of people from different backgrounds and industries who have built thriving businesses and extraordinary personal brands by applying Vaynerchuk’s methods.
Crushing It! is a motivational and practical guide for anyone who wants to leverage the power of social media to grow their business and influence. Vaynerchuk writes in a conversational and energetic tone that engages the reader and inspires them to take action. He also provides valuable tips and tricks on how to optimize each platform and create engaging content that resonates with the audience.
The book is not only informative but also entertaining, as Vaynerchuk shares his own experiences and anecdotes as well as those of other entrepreneurs who have achieved remarkable results by following his advice. The case studies are diverse and relatable, showing that anyone can succeed regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, education, or background. The book also showcases the impact of personal branding on various aspects of life, such as happiness, health, relationships, and philanthropy.
The book is suitable for both beginners and experienced users of social media, as it covers the basics as well as the nuances of each platform. However, some readers may find the book repetitive or too optimistic, as Vaynerchuk tends to emphasize the same points over and over again and glosses over the challenges and risks involved in building a personal brand. Moreover, some of the information may become outdated quickly, as social media platforms are constantly evolving and changing.
Overall, Crushing It! is a useful and inspiring resource for anyone who wants to learn how to use social media effectively to achieve their personal and professional goals. It is a testament to Vaynerchuk’s passion and expertise in the field of digital marketing and entrepreneurship.