In this book review, we will be reviewing a book from Gary Vaynerchuk who is an American entrepreneur and a very influential Internet personality known as Gary Vaynerchuk So here we go… it’s time to CRUSH IT!…
Crush it came out in 2009 which is nearly a decade ago and due to a lot of the specific tech advice that is given within the book such as platforms and other things it is a little outdated in today’s world.
I purchased and read the book shortly after it was released back in 2009 and at the time it was a book that helped me a lot with basically putting myself out there and building an online presence.
I still feel this book will be super helpful and insightful If you skip over the age of the book and try and substitute what is the current thing in there, I feel this book is still highly relevant
I’ve always shied away from people who I believe to be “Internet marketers” and by that I mean those internet marketers who sell courses on the Internet about how to make money on the Internet as a way for themselves to make money on the Internet by selling courses to people who want to make money on the Internet those kinds of kinds of Internet marketers… Wow, that was a mouth full!
I was fully aware of who Gary V is having watched his videos on youtube which are always entertaining and Gary has a real likeability about him and you can’t help but listen to him. I would also highly recommend checking him out on youtube.
Ok, let’s get into the book!
The first thing I noticed about the cover design is the awesome green on black which really makes the wording stand out, speaking of the wording it’s big, it’s bold and readable straight to the point. Another little thing I noticed is how the word “Now” is highlighted in green showing the time is now to follow your passion! It may just be me and my attention to detail when observing design but the only thing I did not like was how the exclamation mark was half cut off on the cover, it makes it look like the bleed marks were not set when designing, maybe it was meant to be that way anyway i cant understand why but that not a big deal the cover is pretty good as i mentioned earlier, and we never judge a book by its cover whats inside is the golden nugget!
Moving on to the actual content and the thing I like about this book content is that it’s not theory, It’s basically an instruction manual on building a brand either your personal brand or business brand online.
The reason a lot of people won’t like it I think Is because crush it has a mantra which is “do it well, do it long.”
And this idea of quality, patience, and persistence really is at the core of crush it. let’s go through the process and maybe at the end of the book you will have the tools to build yourself up online. But I don’t know if you’ll have the will to do so!
At its core crush, it is really kind of very subversive. Its message is “quit your job, do what you love” this message doing what you love is repeated over and over again.
The question is are you listening? but doing what you love that’s kind of a scary topic and I can totally relate to that. One of the things I think that’s underneath there is that if you do what you love and then fail at it then you don’t know what you are left with? …because you failed at the thing you love, so people do the things they hate because it scares them the death because they may actually fail at it.
The point is, is that what you want to do? a lot of us sit and think about leaving our job right now it’s a very very popular thing to think about but they don’t really understand that starting up a website. that sells affiliate products is not something that’s going to keep you interested and you’re not going to keep at it do something that floats your boat and think about it in a unique way because you are unique such as your background your personality, location, situation all of these things combine into a unique perspective, follow that and apply it to the thing that you love.
Really I can sum up this book quite simply – find something you love to create great content using whatever medium video, words, photos, drawings whatever medium works best for you and always produce great content and keep doing it regardless of the initial lack of response.
Listen to your audience, respond to your audience, pivot if you have to but always keep doing it about something you love.
Find the best outlet for your voice maybe it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram maybe it’s snapchat or Youtube but find it and own it, After you have an audience then think about monetization but above everything else work hard at it!.
Basically, that’s it that’s the secret of Crush it really, one thing I want to focus on that’s kind of interesting and maybe hammered a little bit more in this book than others is this idea of audience interaction responding to your audience.
I think it’s something that’s often overlooked and it’s really a big differentiator Gary has a great quote in the book
“You know how to solidify your fan base pay attention to the little gestures that say hey I see you, and I appreciate it goes a long way that means answering and interacting with the people who get in touch with you even if they’re nutcases well maybe they are complete nutcases but you get the point just answer people!”
At the end of the book, there is a twenty-one step summary of the things to do to build yourself up I’ve done a little bit of a condensed version for you below
- Of course, identify your passion!
- Make sure you can think of at least fifty posts about it
- Answer the following questions “Am I sure I know what I’m passionate about.” And two “Can I speak about it in a way that’s better than anyone else?”
- Name your personal brand it doesn’t matter if you constantly are pumping out your name but you should know what’s your brand such as am i the cooking person who everyone loves to watch cooking in the kitchen or you know the queen of makeup? these kinds of things… name it!
- buy your name as a domain, preferably.com
- Choose your medium video, audio, word, photo, drawing.
- Start a blog
- Hire a designer and don’t forget this one!
- Create a Facebook fan page
- Finally, post your great content
- Start creating a community by leaving comments on other people’s blogs and answering comments to your comments and don’t sell to people!.
- Find as many people as possible who are talking about your topic and communicate with them
- Join as many active Facebook fan pages as possible about your topic
- Repeat over and over and over and over again!
- Do it again!.
- Do it again!
- When you feel your personal brand has gained sufficient traction and attention then reach out to advertisers and start doing other forms of monetization
I left a few steps out but you really should buy the book as I highly recommend it if you have not already read it.
I know I mentioned this earlier on in this book review but I will mention it again and that is despite its age despite. The problems with outdated technology it is the best book I’ve read about how to build an online brand or personal brand.
And I think that’s what a lot of people who are reading this want to do! So that’s all I’m going to say go out and buy it and enjoy reading it and learning from it, trust me you will not regret it!
