Why do you need to know Gary Vaynerchuk?

Every time it happens I am completely surprised - there are people out there who still don't know Gary or did not hear about his Wine Library. Since he is promoting his 2^nd book and his Wine Library celebrated its fifth anniversary earlier this year, it is a great moment to write about him.

Who is Gary?

Gary is a young entrepreneur from New York who successfully grew his father’s business almost entirely using video (Wine Library) and social media to spread his message. It helped that the business was already established - his father's liquor store was bringing in $2 million in annual revenue. But Gary's contribution was impressive nevertheless - he has grown the business to $60 million in an astonishingly short time.

Why is he important?

I have not read Gary’s latest Thank You Economy yet, but I found Crush It!, his first book, really interesting. For me, it nicely complemented Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation and after reading it I felt that I had a much broader and clearer picture of the social media phenomenon, as well as the process of building a personal brand via this medium. Gary is really good at nurturing his brand and he is a patient teacher. He also embodies the idea of thinking big, which is inspiring.

Additionally, Gary is very intentional about not selling wine via his Wine Library video episodes, which is a novel idea to some. He educates his audience on wine and that’s all there is to it. He builds his brand as an expert and engages his tribe of followers in a passionate and authentic way.  As the result of that, sales have soared.

If you are Gary’s fan already or just interested in getting to know him more, here is an interesting article and a recent interview.

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