I received a free copy of the book during Gary’s wine tasting at the Boston Wine Expo 2010 a few months ago. It was a great surprise as I was shopping around online to pickup the book anyway. Crush It is a great inspirational read for those looking to start their own “brand” now, using new media technologies and social networking. I quoted the word “brand” because this book isn’t a simple business book about starting a company, it’s more about building a reputation for yourself or your company.

I’ve given lectures myself at Keene State College about this very topic and I think it helps guide people to something more than a simple nine-to-five grunt job. However, this book isn’t going to equip you with the knowledge to quit your job tomorrow and start your own little venture into the world-wide-web, it’s going to motivate you and give you some guides to eventually getting to such a goal.

The book is much more valuable when you understand Gary’s perspective. He is teaching us his personal techniques to how he went from zero to one-hundred miles an hour using social media tools and new media in the video format. If you’re looking to start a blog that will someday make you money, this book will not get you any technical information. As a matter of fact, I’d start by learning more about blogging techniques, SEO and gathering an audience using other books or free online resources. Crush It, in this capacity, will mainly teach you how to react and understand your audience and encourage you to reach out and treat them as humans rather than just a statistics; this is still good information worth the USD $19 for serious bloggers looking to interact with their people.

The message within this book is simple: work hard and bust your ass. If you’re not ready to do that, seriously not mentally or physically prepared to work 14+ hours a day, then you’ll have a tough time putting his concepts to work for you. While it is mentioned a few times in this book, Gary doesn’t really care if you’ve got a typical 9-5 job, he wants you to come home and work on your own brand from 6PM to 2AM and bust your rump.

Crush It does not really talk to the technical aspects of building a brand outside of getting a content management system like WordPress or Tumblr and using social media tools like twitter and facebook. He does explain a bit about the theory behind buying/hiring a theme designer for your site but Gary is not a big technical guy, he’s really all about business and adapting to circumstances as they arrive. There are thousands of technical resources you can seek out if you’re looking to build up a website with all the tools needed to maximize your search results and track statistics and is beyond the scope of the book.

The premise of Crush It can be summed up by the word “people.” Gary Vaynerchuck documents ways to handle viewers and how to reach out and understand them. From big business to small startups, learning how to put yourself out there and act like a human with other humans can change a single statistic into a dedicated fan. You’ll learn to turn your passion for a topic into a conversation with like minded individuals (the audience/viewers) and build trust.

For Gary Vaynerchuck fans that follow his personal blog about building brands, you’ll find little new information within the Crush It pages. The book expands upon some of the information/rants he’s talked about in his video’s and can be used to re-enforce what you believe you took away from his 3-minute acts of brilliance. Should you still purchase the book? Of course fans should support his efforts, that’s a no brainer. I’m both a fan and a follower in his beliefs and I’d buy the book again (for real) because I’m seeking to learn all knowledge on the topic; even three pages of useful information is better than going without.

The only downside to Crush It is the fantasy world that I believe Gary sometimes lives in. He tells us to work until 2AM for the no-kids family or 3AM if you’ve got kids (since you’ve got to put family first). Unfortunately, this is not a realistic goal if you’ve got a job which requires you to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning because of a long commute. Many of his ideas work great if you’re working the program as a full-time job and speaks to the fact that almost all passions/topics can build your brand to a USD $40,000+/year job.

In today’s times, a  $40,000 a year job might as well be poverty. I know in my world, 40k was barely enough to cover child care during the day. How long must I struggle at 40-50k a year before I can feed my family and continue the life I lived before following my passion? One reason many of us work the “grind” of a boring day-to-day job is because it pays well and allows us the comfort of living life without financial strife. The reality is, if you cannot make at least what you’re making in your day job then your “passion” is going to require some angel investors or other funding to get you to the next level (and help pay for health insurance). Kids, health insurance, mortgage and all these expenses are not really brought up in Crush It–Gary assumes you’ll just figure all that out on your own.

While the concepts in this book are solid ways to build inspiration, the reality of the situation is often left on the cutting room floor. Gary built his video show while also working at Wine Library (the store). Where does he buy all the wine from his show? Does he “borrow” it from the store or does he buy 10+ bottles a week out of pocket? The reality of the situation is this: if you’re looking to do something similar where are you getting the product you’re using on your own shows? Probably out of pocket as an expense, not for free until you get the traffic to start receiving “review copies” from those in the industry.

Overall, while many of the theories seem to forget the reality of the situation, the inspiration and knowledge about how to handle people and build your personal brands is solid information. For myself, this is a nice boost of self-confidence as it re-enforces what I’m already doing each night. The biggest issue many casual readers are going to have is getting your ass off the couch and implementing even 30% of the ideas within the confines of this text.

If you live near a big city, it’s usually easier to find some folks in the industry you’re trying to dominate with video and audio content. For instance, I’m working to build a cocktail show from the ground up and I’ve build a good roll of PR folks, industry leaders and distributors who are ready and willing to send me content in the form of spirit samples. They’re dedicated to your cause because they’re hoping you can show their products off in your content. This is a good give-and-take relationship but that’s about where the line is drawn and you’re still only a name.

A launch event last week in Boston gave me the opportunity to shake a few hands. I’m 45-minutes out of Boston but making the trip was well worth the time and effort. I met up with some folks I’ve talked with in the industry and build some new relationships with folks that I didn’t know existed before the event.

Meeting folks in person allows you to establish a stronger relationship. Hitting parties and industry gatherings will give you new exposure to journalists and bloggers to which you can swap “business cards.” Saying, “hi I’m Derrick from everydaydrinkers.tv” isn’t good enough; do you want them to remember you among all the other party gatherers? If so, you’ll want to toss them your card with contact information on it. After the event they’ll head home and toss all the business cards they gathered on the coffee table for later viewing. You want to be part of that list otherwise they’re not going to remember “that guy” they met at the show.

A week after the event the e-mails will start to come in saying, “nice meeting you last week, love your website.” Some folks may have never heard of you before while others could have seen you in passing while working in the industry. Of course, you’ll know a few people from “chatting” over e-mail or Twitter direct-messages but now there is a greater connection: you’re a real person. The experience of a five minute chat at an event is all that is needed to begin to grow a new contact. Next time you hit an event you may see them again and can shake with a familiar grasp.

During the event you may pickup a few new folks that have never heard of your show. This goes back to my preaching about building your relationships one person at a time. If you give away one business card at an event and they take a look at your website, you’ve established a new potential fan. Even public relations folks in the industry can become fans of your content for more than just pimping their products. I’ve got many PR agencies that watch every show I produce because they like the content, quality and it’s relevant to their industry. PR agents are typically passionate about the industry they’re in, this is what keeps them going to work each day and your content brings them closer to their own world.

Many folks may live far away from the big city and find it much more challenging to get out to launch parties, meet up and all the good human gathering that occurs in our social circles. For those folks (much like myself) plan to hit two events a year that have large gatherings where you can do a full year of meetings in a single day. Make yourself known, stand out, print up some business cards and spread the love with as many people as you can shake hands.

It may cost you $30 to head to staples to print out a few hundred basic business cards. If it has your domain, name and contact information on the card then you’ve done your job right for very little cash out of pocket. It is important to make those connections and let a small group of folks in your industry know you’re a human and not just a voice. Who knows, you may establish some great relationships beyond a simple ‘tweet’.

Don’t be surprised when Joe Average gets a million hits for taking a rocket in the pants while you struggle for 40 views. Keep your head up and produce quality content because Joe Average will eventually die out as an internet meem or viral video. While making a viral video is unpredictable and will receive millions of views, it’s rarely going to be a career or hobby; luck isn’t going to win out in the end.

You want to be talked about and be seen by people in your “circle” of interest. In many cases, it’s not about making your viewers happy but making the people in your industry see you standing out and making a name for yourself. If you’re going to make a video show about dirt bikes than make sure dirt bike manufacturers see the show. If you’re creating a political podcast, get some politicians involved.

While it’s important to cater to your viewers it’s also dire to show your production to those that work in the field. This will build you more “street cred” with the industry and allow your contacts to grow. Perhaps, six months ago you’d like to do a special episode dealing with a specific brand; it would be great to have a list of people you can call to get more information or samples of the brand to create the content for your show.

Many industries have “circles” of folks that talk to each other. It’s a small world and the Internet keeps people together, you’ll want to take advantage of it. Making friends with manufactureres, press folks, industry leaders and industry startups gives you an edge because they talk to each other, don’t you want them talking about you?

Industry folks talk to each other because, in many cases, they’ve once worked together. In todays market people don’t commit to the same job for fourty years, they move on to new opportunites across their industry. Often times they’ll find old friends are now new competitors but, on a personal level, they’re still friends and will keep in contact. You’ll want some of their “small talk” to be about you and your content and it’s possible to make this occur.

One great way is to “name drop” on ocassion with those you’ve met in the industry. “Hey, do you know Bob from Company-A, really nice guy you should meet him sometime.” Turns out they worked with Bob at Company-Z five years ago and haven’t kept in touch, perhaps you can link them back together and pass over an e-mail address or phone number? What better way to be seen than bring two old buddies back together.

I keep everybody’s contact information, in the cocktail industry, in an big excel spreadsheet. I keep notes about them (are they married, do they know others in the industry, what’s their dogs name?) so that I can use this information in the future with a “hows Chubby your little pug doing?” I make sure to write down their title, phone number, address and what brands they represent so I have a go-to spot when I need information or product samplings.

My list of contacts grows large and I can trade them with other folks that do the same thing to build a larger list of contacts. I try to fire off an email every few months to each of them to say hi and pass off any of my latests works. I’ll also use people’s products within my shows and then send them a note saying “we used your product here” and link them off to our websites so they can see it. This is a great way to re-established stale relationships and get them talking about you again.

Viewers and community are extremely important, but being talked about by others in the industry and being seen as someone of usefulness and value is also an important key to growing a successful audio or video show.

Just something to think about.