My latest book is Crush It! by the ever effervescent Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is the creator and host of Wine Library TV and one of the most intense people I’ve ever met. He came on the scene a few years ago completely out of nowhere with his video blog and hasn’t slowed down one bit. My first exposure to Gary was on Geek Entertainment TV when he did a show literally, where I used to sit when I worked at Technorati. He’s the poster boy of how to make it big in new media and Crush It! is in a sorts a manual on how to replicate his success.
The book itself isn’t very long and it’s surprisingly short on actual technical details which I find completely refreshing. Most books of this type have chapters of links and resources that are utterly out of date and useless by the time it hits the shelves. Crush It! on the other hand talks more about passion, motivation and the spirit required to succeed in new media. There are some technical details but they’re thankfully light and cover only the big dogs who are still going to be around for a while. I’ve been in this thing for over 15 years and I found the book quite delightful to read and breezed through it in a couple days. His tone is very conversational and feels very much like he’s in the room talking to you. Not surprising since the book was dictated to a writer who polished it for print. The information in the book isn’t anything I haven’t seen or read elsewhere and the ideas section at the end of the book reminded me of old Napoleon Hill books where he gave out ideas for people to go forth and create, but it’s Gary’s spirit and style that makes this book enjoyable and worth picking up. If you’re new to the space and want to become the next Gary Vaynerchuk or have been here a while and want a good kick in the pants or refresher I definitely recommend snagging a copy of Crush It! today.
( The photo above is from a private wine tasting and show taping. More photos from that night. )