Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
by Gary Vaynerchuk
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Lowest price: $11.42
Binding: Hardcover
Released: 2009-10-13
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The Story Behind Crush it!
Everything has changed. The social media revolution has irreversibly changed the way we live our lives and conduct our business. There are billions of dollars in advertising moving online, waiting to be claimed by whoever can build the best content and communities. Despite this change, most people keep working at jobs that don’t make them happy and businesses continue to ignore the major marketing and public relations benefits that can be found online.
Myth #1: I’m not passionate about something sexy or popular like wine so these lessons don’t apply to me.
The internet has drastically decreased the costs of building communities around niche subjects, allowing for even the most obscure subjects to draw enough eyeballs to command advertising attention. Starting a video blog about tortilla chips may seem farfetched until Doritos gives you a call and offers 40,000 a year to sponsor and advertise on your blog.
Myth #2: My business already has a Twitter account and a Facebook page, we’re set in the social media department.
This is the equivalent of claiming twenty years ago that just because your business bought a TV spot and a few ads in the newspaper, you didn’t need to pay attention to your advertising department. Social media isn’t about joining in, it’s about being involved.
Myth #3: I’m happy at my job so this book is irrelevant to me.
First of all, congratulations on finding work that makes you happy! However, the lessons in this book are valuable to anyone, regardless of their employment status. Crush It will show you how to utilize high level and platform specific social media and marketing strategies that will improve your work. It will also show you how to build a personal brand so that even if you’re forced to leave your job, a situation that’s especially relevant today, you’ll be able to easily find employment elsewhere in a field you’re passionate about.
Myth #4: I need to quit my job to take advantage of this book’s entrepreneurial lessons.
While the entrepreneurial strategies in this book do take time, it’s completely reasonable to start the effort as an after-work project to build up until you’re able to replace your current income with the income from your online presence. While you may have to fall behind on the current season of Lost or let your Madden 2010 game suffer, because you’ll be doing something you love you won’t mind putting in the extra effort.
In Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk shows how anyone can build a career around what they’re passionate about. He also delivers both high-level and platform specific strategy and analysis, allowing you to take advantage of the current business environment while preparing you to succeed as it changes and evolves.
This book isn’t interested in making unrealistic promises while glossing over the work involved. Making a living by building content around your passion isn’t simple and it doesn’t happen overnight. What it is, however, is fulfilling and in most cases just as profitable, if not more so, than your previous job.
Furthermore, a business can’t just pay lip service to social media and expect it to return results. The transparency and accountability inherent in its structure necessitates a comprehensive and dedicated strategy in order to reap its tremendous benefits.
By combining practical analysis and strategy with the same passion and humor that’s made Gary one of the most in demand keynote speakers in the U.S. as well as network television’s go to wine expert, Crush It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand and harness the future of business and work.
Learn: Why social media has evened the playing field, destroying the “gate-keepers” who had previously dictated the distribution of content.
Learn: How to beat unemployment and create wealth-building opportunities by building and maintaining a personal brand.
Learn: Why storytelling is the most important business concept in the current marketplace.
Learn: How you can build an online business around your passion without quitting your day job.
Learn: Why Twitter and Facebook are just tools and not a social media strategy.
Learn: How to take advantage of the half-billion dollars in advertising that are moving to the internet.
Learn: Why transparency and being true to yourself are now winning marketing formulas.
Learn: How to build and maintain an online community around your passion and brand.
Learn: Strategies for turning attention into money.
Learn: Why the legacy element of the internet era is so underrated.
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Average Customer Review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
98 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
Are you living, or just earning a living?, October 13, 2009
by Jason Baer
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 [...] 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.
80 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
A Shot of Adrenaline for Your Brain, October 13, 2009
by N. Hangen
Crush It is no different than hearing Gary speak, as the energy moves straight from the voice recorder to the page. Although the book is shorter than most, I appreciate that there isn't any fluff and that there is something worth reading in every single chapter. Although I'm familiar with most of the topics in the book, I couldn't help but to stop reading and take notes every 5-10 minutes...there's that much to take in.
Crush It will inspire you to do amazing things in your own life as long as you are strong enough to take the steps necessary to pull them off. There is also loads of step by step and "how-to" info in this book, which is something that many in the category lack. If there's one shortfall of this book, it's that Gary's energy can be difficult to keep up with, and you might feel like you can't follow in his steps without having the same inner fireball. Although I believe anyone can follow the steps in this book, only you can make it happen.
I finished the book at 10pm on a Tuesday, and I was up until 4AM writing down ideas. You can't go wrong with Crush It.
66 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
Start living your passion, October 14, 2009
by Sean Ryan
486 of 619 people found the following review helpful:
I Wanted To Like It, But....., October 17, 2009
by Julie S.C.Y,
I looked forward to this book. I share Gary's idea that the internet + its social media has created amazing new opportunities for entrepreneurs with the know-how to fully utilize it. I agree with his vision of relentless and disciplined branding in every way that this new media offers.
The problems? First, as others have mentioned, Vaynerchuk started out in his father's already-successful wine merchant business. Vaynerchuk expanded his father's business innovatively via social media branding (taking it from $4 million to, he says, $50 million), but that does not make his experience easily replicable for the people he's exhorting to "crush it" like he did. Nor does it seem wise for him to urge others, including many who don't have his financial family "safety net", to quit their jobs and "follow your passion". He hasn't "been there" (struggling, like most people do, without a lucrative family business to fall back on). His advice to give it all up to work 24/7 and follow your passion could be very irresponsible, especially in this unforgiving economy.
Sadly, "Crush It" falls into the category of "book written because someone has gotten rich at doing something". It seems based on the premise that real world finanacial success (especially with a technological flair) = valuable insights and practical knowledge and skills to teach others.
Unfortunately, that isn't always true. Great salesmen (and Gary -does- seem to be a great salesman) do not necessarily make great writers...thinkers...teachers. Mid-way through this small book, the focus is still basically on one subject: Gary Vaynerchuk, and how he got to be the business success that he is today, primarily using social media to its fullest to promote himself and his business--that all-encompassing "brand".
Of course, personal success stories--told briefly--can be very inspirational and motivational. Told at length, accompanied by lots of personal hype....well, it just seems that "writing a book" is being seen as one more extension of "sharing my brand with the world".
I hoped this book would be a focused "how to", not a personal sales pitch. Definitely disappointing. I really don't understand all the raves, unless its a new form of "applied networking".
UPDATE: A week after I reviewed this book, I wanted to make one more observation. Most reviews, including those written before mine (all overwhelmingly positive) have 1 or 2...maybe as many as 7 in a few cases..."helpful/not helpful" comments. My lone "2 star" review, by contrast, has 50 comments. The "1 star" review has 60. It's the kind of spread you get when reviewing a hot-topic political book. With "Crush It", there's something very odd about this pattern of commenting, and imo very wrong...
1.27.10. This thread is so odd that, as someone who writes a fair amount of Amazon reviews, I keep an eye on it. It's pretty weird. First, disclosure: I don't know -any- of the people who have commented on whether my review was helpful to them or not. But for the last week or so responses have kept this 2 star review listed as "most helpful" which must be annoying to the author who also watches this thread--responding to EVERYTHING (although his book remains at 1, 1 and 2 in his Amazon categories).
Today, in one day, a barrage of negatives (70 or so 'not helpful' votes--an unheard of number in one day!) dropped this 2 star review off to oblivion, now replaced by 5 star reviews with 1 or 2 people agreeing they are "helpful". And, too, today alone there are 8 new comments in this thread (posted last October), including 3 today alone from Gary, the author.
Weird, weird pattern here. And, more than ever, I think this is some kind of "promoted" response to a negative review. So, just to add in conclusion....I wouldn't buy a book from anyone who encouraged (directly or indirectly encouraged) his fans to distort an honest response to his book. 70 "not helpful" responses to a 4 month old review? In one day???? Never, ever happen "naturally" at Amazon. Then again, maybe "Crush It!" has different meaning than I originally thought....
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
Social Media Guru Gary Vaynerchuk Cashes In On His Passion - At Your Expense, January 4, 2010
by Zachary S. Clayton
Crush It is appalling. Yes, the clichés are overwhelming. Yes, the triteness is underwhelming. Yes, the repetition is mind-numbing. But it's the lack of substance in Crush It that really turns me off.
This book screams "be passionate" so loudly, so frequently, and so sweetly that it becomes a siren song focused on luring the audience from their jobs into the role of fulltime blogger. Lost in Gary's shouting is the unquestionable truth that success has as much to do with the strategy, the team, and preparation as it does the desire to "crush it."
Gary preaches a "shoot first, aim later" strategy (consistent with many of the so-called social media experts in emerging media). This gospel is actually a dangerous blend of motivational speaking and business ignorance based solely upon an extrapolation of Gary's own personal experience.
Gary is one of the most talented self-promoters in the United States. Unfortunately, he missed a golden opportunity to tell his story and share some broad principles. This is the classic trap of the narcissist. By turning his own experience into a "How To" guide that promises a path to replicating his own success, he grossly disserves the reader.
As a result, instead of learning from a genius marketer's experience, we listen to an over-the-top tirade against the typical business world ("traditional resumes are... irrelevant"; "Social Media = Business. Period"; "If you want it badly enough, the money is there"). And we hear him tout his own formula for crushing it. It's something to the effect of: quit your job, blog all day until 3am, start taking steps to get on the lecture circuit, and then P&G will offer you a job as their spokesperson.
I emailed Gary to push him on some elements of his logic:
On Dec 1, 2009, at 9:52 PM, Zach wrote:
Love the book, but surprised at how much you mention your email address. You can't scale talking to everyone. I mean Oprah cannot physically talk to all her fans. So what's your plan?
On Dec 1, 2009, at 10:30 PM, Gary wrote:
to TRY!
On Dec 1, 2009, at 8:55 AM, Zach wrote:
I could read 1000 short AP [Associated Press] articles on business every day, but if I never read a book by Peter Drucker, I would lack a certain depth about business. So do you think having so many superficial relationships makes it difficult to be thoughtful about understanding the customers' needs?
On Dec 1, 2009, at 8:55 AM, Gary wrote:
[Auto response] My book Crush It! just came out and I am getting pounded with email while I'm on tour. To try and help you better I taped this new video:
[...] [Video tells me to "Crush It"]
Gary as a marketer is candid, intense, and funny. I could watch him talk about wine all day long. But Gary as a social media consultant is too raw, too haphazard, and too scattered. The uninitiated should stay away from Crush It.
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