Posts Tagged ‘Branding’

Book Review – Crush It! By Gary Vaynerchuk

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. The first of a multi-book deal for Gary Vee, as he is known within internet and marketing circles, has been well-received by novice internet folks and big business owners alike. Fortune 500 companies are now fighting for Gary’s time to help them build their brands by utilizing the same tools that propelled him to success.

Gary Vee makes it loud and clear that if you are not cashing in on your interests, passions, hobbies, or any expertise that you may have – than you are being left behind! He tells the story on how he took his passion for wine and grew his father’s wine business from $3 to $70 million in a few years. After this success, he built his name brand – Gary Vaynerchuk – with a limited budget into an even bigger profit by using the free social tools that are available on the internet.

Reading this book will get you pumped up and get your mind churning with ideas that you can take to the web. Fishing, drawing, shopping, your network marketing opportunity, ice sculptures – whatever your interest, you can do it! Gary Vee explains the ways he went about building his brand that eventually took him to CNN, Fox, Good Morning America, and Conan O’Brien.

Gary is obviously, and admittedly, blessed with the ability to talk his tail off. But he also teaches that you can build your passion from more than just videos. You can go the route of blogs or audio as well. Building great content is key. But then following it with marketing is the most critical aspect. Utilizing free social media to create a following of your content will bring in the money, Gary points out.

Gary Vaynerchuk “got it” before most and Crush It will help the reader understand why they too should be in the game of cashing in on their passion. Gary is transparent in the idea that it will not happen over night. His success was not built that way nor will yours. Building an online business around your passion, like any business, takes time, effort, and sweat – lots of it. But you can do it.

To continue with a video review of Crush It! click here and Matt Javit, owner of Joebots.com, will explain further why it is highly recommended. You too can receive the free 3-part training course to get you started on cashing in on your passion.

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How to Be a Rainmaker…

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

Rain- That’s been the weather here in New York for it seems like the last couple months or so! Since when did Seattle and New York have a swap that I wasn’t made aware of ? As rain was the main topic of discussion for most of us Northeasterners the beginning of the Summer, it brings to mind a lesson in Branding I learned from Dr. Benjamin Mack which co-incidentally he entitled “How to Be a Rainmaker”. Over the next few articles or so I will tempt to cover some of the major points of this presentation which was composed of three main sections: 1) How to make lightening Strike, 2) How to keep the lightening striking and 3) How to Bottle your Lightening.

 For those of you not familiar with Dr. Ben Mack, he is one of the foremost authorities on Branding today in the USA. He has worked at over 14 different Ad agencies over his illustrious career and was a Vice President for Brand strategy for a major corporation. Basically what that meant was he was a lead strategist in charge of a ½ Billion dollar budget (yes, I said ½ BILLION or 500 Million dollar budget!). Do you think he knows what he is talking about? I certainly do, and not only has he performed “magic” for the companies he worked for, he is also a Professional Magician who was the youngest recipient at age 19 of the Award of Merit given by the Academy of Magical Arts.

 So, what is a “Rainmaker” and why do we want to become one? A Rainmaker, aside from the obvious connotation of an Indian Medicine man who uses his magic to cause rain, is a person with exceptional ability to attract clients, use political connections, and increase profits and so on and so forth. However, with the rain also comes the Lightening! More on this a little later. As a marketer your most important duty is to “up sell” people on their experience of reality. In Ben’s book “Think Two Products Ahead” he talks about how effective branding really only happens when companies and small businesses think two products ahead rather than just thinking here and now and to build a successful relationship with your clients or customers through your “Brand”. The section where Ben teaches how to construct your “Legend Platform” is worth boat loads more than the price of the book!

 A Brand (your brand, a Brand called YOU) is built through the use of “Legends” or communication that is told over and over again. These stories can and should be allowed to contradict each other and absolutely will grow with age. So, if you’re going  to pick a story that you create for your business to help grow your business (after all you are reading articles like this to help you become more profitable in your business aren’t you?) why not pick the type that grows stronger with age and you will indeed become “Legendary”.

 Stay tuned for the next part in the series of articles covering Dr. Ben’s
“How to Become a Rainmaker”.