This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Crush It!" by Gary Vaynerchuk. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What are Gary Vaynerchuk’s top quotes from Crush It!? Why does Gary Vaynerchuk say it’s so important to develop a personal brand?
In his book Crush It!, social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk teaches readers how and why they should create a personal brand online. Further, he teaches you how to grow that brand so you can eventually monetize it.
Continue reading for Gary Vaynerchuk’s quotes from Crush It! with explanations and analysis.
Crush It! Quotes
As social media becomes increasingly central to how we share information, socialize, and do business, a personal brand—your digital presence and reputation—is now an essential career tool. In Crush It!, Gary Vaynerchuk explains how to develop and leverage your personal brand to get a better job or—better yet— to quit your job altogether and earn a living monetizing that brand.
Here are some of the top Gary Vaynerchuk quotes from his book Crush It!.
“Developing your personal brand is the same thing as living and breathing your résumé”
If you’re an employee, your personal brand is like your living resume and an ongoing job interview. Everything you post online reflects your knowledge, experience, and personality—the same traits that hiring managers try to glean from job applications and interviews.
“Developing your personal brand is key to monetizing your passion online.”
Vaynerchuk repeatedly argues that your personal brand must be true to who you are—and that starts with your niche. While it’s tempting to choose a topic based on its marketability, he insists that you must let your passion guide you because that will not only resonate with your audience but also keep you motivated and interested in this work during the inevitable long hours and late nights.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, use your brand to turn your passion into a flourishing business. If your brand develops a lively following, you’ll have opportunities to monetize.
“Building and sustaining community is a never-ending part of doing business.”
With good content, you can build the audience you need to be able to monetize your brand. Vaynerchuk notes that, when it comes to creating community, quality beats quantity: A few loyal, engaged fans are likely to draw more followers than a large crowd of passive subscribers.
“Even the dullest introvert has pizzazz when talking about something he is passionate about,”
Vaynerchuk writes that any interest can be fodder for a personal brand—from accounting to carpentry. It may be an extension of your professional expertise, or it may be a hobby, but as long as you’re enthusiastic about it and creative about how you present the information, you will be able to gain digital traction.
For example, Vaynerchuk took an unorthodox approach to tasting and reviewing wines on Wine Library TV: He wanted to make the world of wine accessible to everyone, so he used casual language and made familiar references. Instead of saying that he was “nosing” the wine when taking a whiff before the first sip, he called it a “sniffy-sniff”—and when describing wines’ flavor notes, Vaynerchuk sometimes detected hints of Cap’n Crunch.
“The Internet is as powerful as oxygen, but we have not seen its full capabilities. It’s got a long way to go, and it’s going to morph and change and reveal all kinds of surprises. You’ve got to be prepared to evolve and adapt along with it
The dominance of social media has brought the rise of the “personal brand,” your online presence and personality. In the early 2000s, Gary Vaynerchuk launched a personal brand that helped him grow his family’s wine business and turned him into one of the first social media influencers. In Crush It!, Vaynerchuk argues that everyone needs an engaging digital presence to stay relevant in their career or to launch a new career by monetizing their personal brand.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Gary Vaynerchuk's "Crush It!" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full Crush It! summary :
- Step-by-step instructions for building and monetizing a personal brand
- How to quit your day job and earn a living off your brand
- Why a few loyal followers are better than a crowd of passive subscribers
