Crush It – Part 1
I’ve been wanting to get and read this book by Gary Vaynerchuk for a while now and tonight I got it and I sat at a Starbucks on San Fernando Blvd with a Soy Strawberries and Cream Frappucino no whip and started reading it. It was a nice break for me. San Fernando on a Friday night in Downtown Burbank is chock full of young kids to young adults and all the way up in age people walking around. Couples dating, families eating out together. There is a huge movie Theatre, a ton of restaurants and many other shops. It’s a pretty happening place to be and as you might imagine, noisy. It didn’t matter to me. Once I got into Barnes and Noble and got this and a few other books I was very content to be sitting in the midst of all of the activity and I was very quickly able to dive very deep into this book. Like I said I’ve been wanting to read it for a while and quarrels with my wife had me desperately wanting to get out of my head and into something else. This book, Crush It was the perfect solution.
If there is anything I have learned in this life it is that as much as I may think I’ve learned there is always so much more to learn. I can create a lot of content on the web and I can write material that people will want to read and they tell me they get a lot out of it. But the one thing for sure that I have not yet learned to do is to harness the power of the words to compile them in such a way as to engage people to want to respond and take action. For the most part people just read. I need to learn more about marketing on the internet. I need to learn how to target the right audience, create the right content and motivate people to want to get involved in my community. The marketing model is pretty clear and I am learning that it’s true from what I’ve read so far in this book that you find your passion(s), create a blog about the things you love and look for the advertisers to come. In order to attract the advertisers you have to be able to show and active and thriving community. Sometimes I look at what I am doing and realize I am still all over the place. I’ve gotten more channeled, but I still need improvement.
So I sat there reading and people were coming in and out getting their drinks and I was sitting at my little round table sipping on my cold Frapuccino and really enjoying slowing down for a change while I got into this book. I wasn’t paying attention at first to my drink, drank it too fast and gave myself a case of Brain Freeze. The first few sections of the book so far are reinforcing a lot of the things I am always talking about myself. The whole entire key to success is summed up in one simple word. Passion. As Gary puts it, you have to live your passion and sure enough his first chapter is called, “Passion is everything”. I’ve read so many posts on LinkedIn from people talking about all of these sophisticated ideas about what makes a person successful. They talk about degrees and MBA’s and experience and I shake my head. They talk about having the right Mentors and I heard one well known internet guy once say something that in my opinion was just idiotic – he suggested that most entrepreneurs have parents who were entrepreneurs. The way he said it almost suggested that if your parents weren’t entrepreneurs you had at best a small chance of becoming successful. My parents were anything but entrepreneurs and by most people’s standards (except my own of course because we are all our own worst critics) I have become very successful in my career. I continue to shake my head because all of these answers with the exception of the last one have a lot of truth to them but they all overlook the one thing that by itself will actually serve to bring all of those things about. Passion.
Earlier when I was roaming around Burbank, looking for Barnes and Noble, calling it Borders and on the phone arguing with my wife all at once I did manage to scratch off a note on Facebook to my good friend Scott who lives right in downtown Burbank that I was in fact roaming the streets of Burbank. As I was finishing the 26th page he called and said he would pop in and visit me there in Starbucks. Sure enough within a few minutes I look up and there is Scott standing in the doorway with his dog “Cash” in leash. He couldn’t some in (Cash is a big dog) so I gathered my things and we walked down to Coffee Bean where there were some tables available outside.
Thank G-d for good friends. I really didn’t want to talk to anyone and at the same time I knew that was really what I needed to do in order to clear my head. The book only gets me out temporarily. Ultimately I have to get out what’s inside of me. Scott was kind enough to let me do that in between digressions and side talks. That’s what I love about Scott. He’s one of those rare sort of friends for me that I can talk to for hours – like I’ve known him my whole life even thought I have only known him a short time, really.
I called this post “Part 1″ because my plan is to share about my journey as I read this book. If you’v read my $2 Paper on Social Media then you’ve read me talking about Marc Levin. The first thing Marc told me before I hired him was to start getting videos on YouTube and the second thing he told me and he sent me a link, was to watch Gary Vaynerchuk’s videos. While watching his videos I stumbled onto Chris Pirillo. So for over a year know I have been watching what these guys do and learning a tremendous amount from them. Now I am reading Gary’s book and I am excited. I bought a few others as well. I am basically going to put myself into Marketing school now to get my skillset here real focused. In the end I know it is about building community, but the bigger questions I need answered is how to build the “right” community that really represents people who share my passions for QuickBooks, Excel, Cash Flow, and Technology and of course the passion I share with Gary himself.. Business Development.
It’s 1:35am and it’s been a long day. Time for me to go to bed.
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