Gary Vaynerchuk - Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too

This is dedicated to all the people who are visionary enough to recognize the enormous opportunities weve been given in this new digital age, and who are brave enough to demand and seek out happiness not only in their life but also in their work.

All e-mail excerpts and interviews have been edited for length, content, and clarity.

My eight-year old daughter, Misha, wants to be a YouTuber when she grows up. That probably comes as no surprisemany young kids find out what their parents do and decide thats their ambition, too (in addition to becoming a firefighter and zoo keeper). My daughter sees me using online platforms to talk to people and build businesses, and she knows how much I love it. Of course she thinks she wants to do what I do.

What might be more surprising is that if you ask other school-age children what they want to be when they grow up, many will reply that they, too, want to be YouTubers.

Personal branding may not be an elementary school Career Day staple yet, but kids today know that making videos on YouTube, posting on Instagram, tweeting 280 characters, and snapping on Snapchat is a valid career path and that for some it can even bring fame and fortune. They dream of creating a popular online presence the way kids used to dream of becoming Hollywood stars. Unfortunately, unless theyre entrepreneurs themselves or deeply in the know, most parents will respond to this career aspiration with, Huh? or worse, narrow-minded cynicism: Thats not a real job. Even the few who smile uncomprehendingly and offer a mild, Great, honey! Go for it! will likely secretly shake their heads at the sweet navet of youth.

Its so frustrating to me.

Obviously the first answers suck any way you look at them, but all of these responses reveal a total lack of understanding about what kind of world we live in. Its the kind where an eleven-year-old kid and his dad can become millionaires by creating a YouTube channel where they share online videos of themselves cutting things in half.

I knew this was the way things were going to go. For someone like me with a tendency to make over-the-top pronouncements, its ironic that one of the most prescient things Ive ever uttered may also have been the biggest understatement of my life:

My story is about to become a lot less unusual.

I first made it when Misha was just a newborn, in the introduction to my first business book, Crush It! I was recounting how I had used the Internet to develop a personal brand and grow my $4 million family business, Shoppers Discount Liquors, into a $60 million business. My strategy was simple and outrageous for the time: I spoke directly to potential customers through a bare-bones video blog and developed relationships with them on Twitter and Facebook, inviting a direct one-on-one engagement that had previously existed only between merchants and customers in the tight-knit small communities and neighborhoods of the last century. By the time I wrote the book in 2009, I had branched out from my first passionwine and salesto my all-encompassing onebuilding businesses. I was traveling the world spreading the word to anyone who would listen that the platforms most companies and business leaders were still labeling as pointless time wastersFacebook, Twitter, and YouTubewere actually the future of all business. It seems impossible now, but the digital revolution was so young I actually had to define the platforms. Back then, I had to devote considerable time to explaining that Facebook was this online site where you could share articles and photographs and your feelings and thoughts, and Twitter was something like it except always public and limited to, at the time, 140 characters. Personal branding? No one knew what the hell I was talking about. Its hard to believe it now, but not even a decade ago, the idea that more than a select few people could realistically build a business by using social media was considered far-fetched.

I now run a massive digital media company with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chattanooga, and London. Im still engaging people on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and any other platform that catches peoples attention. Im still invited to speak all over the world, but I also reach millions of people through my business Q&A YouTube show, #AskGaryVee; my daily video documentary, DailyVee; my role on Planet of the Appsan Apple reality-TV show about app developmentand books like the one youre holding in your hand. Im working more than ever. Im having more of an impact than ever. Im happier than ever.

And I am anything but unusual.

Today there are millions of people just like me who have used the Internet to build personal brands, thriving businesses, and a life on their own terms. Those who are truly crushing it have grasped the brass ring of grown-up-hoodbuilding a lucrative business around something they love that enables them to do what they want every day. But while in 2009 that something might have been homemade preserves or custom tree houses, today it could also include being a mom, being stylish, or having an unorthodox world view. In other words, you can use your personal brandwho you areto market your business, or your personal brand can actually be the business. Socialites, celebrity progeny, and reality-TV stars have been doing it for years. Now its everyone elses turn to learn how to get paid to do something they were going to do for free anyway.

A lot has changed since I wrote Crush It!, but surprisingly, a lot hasnt. Anyone who follows me regularly knows she can fast-forward through the first ten minutes of my keynote speeches, because Im just going to repeat the facts of my life and my opinion of the world in pretty much the exact same way that I have been for almost a decade. Once those ten minutes are up, though, you never know. And thats what Im going to share in this bookthe part of the keynote that changes every six to nine months because thats how frequently the platforms evolve. I want you to learn the most up-to-date information on how to best leverage Internet platforms to create a powerful, lasting personal brand.

The biggest difference between my first book and the one youre reading now is this: mine isnt the only voice in this one. I want to introduce you to other entrepreneurs who have met with unbelievable success by following Crush It! principles to build their personal brands. Some are internationally well known, some are still climbing their way up. All of them are absolutely loving life. Though each is unique, I suspect youll be relieved and thrilled to see that they are not that different from you. How can I say that when I dont know you? Because the secret to their success (and mine) had nothing to do with where they came from, whom they knew, where they went to school, or what field they were in. Rather, it had everything to do with their appreciation for the platforms at their disposal and their willingness to do whatever it took to make these social-media tools work to their utmost potential. And that, my friends, is something I can teach you to do, too.

What worked for me wont work for you, however, and vice versa. Thats why self-awareness is so vitalyou have to be true to yourself at all times. What I can offer you SoundCloud, and iTunes; and newcomer Alexa Skills. Those who have been at this for a while will find useful the little-known nuances, innovative tips, and clever tweaks that have been proven to enhance more common tried-and-true strategies.

If youve been watching me closely for years and you think you know it all, please reconsider. I talk to thousands of people every year, and I hear the same questions over and over again. If so many still havent perfected their game, theres a good chance you havent either. Today could be the day that you finally get that little nugget of info thats going to help you pulverize whatever has been holding you back. Several of the people interviewed for this book said they read