Wine entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and his beloved New York Jets were both in Toronto yesterday – two high-profile U.S. entities looking to spread the word: Vaynerchuk about wine and entrepreneurial-ism, and the Jets as part of the world’s most lucrative sports league, the NFL. Vaynerchuk lived up to the hype with an insightful and entertaining presentation at DemoCamp 24, while the Jets and Buffalo Bills put on a lackluster game before a less-than-packed Rogers Centre.
Vaynerchuk, who’s in the midst of a 40-city tour to promote his book “Crush It”, clearly has the gift for the gab, and has been speaking enough over the past couple of years to make it look fairly effortless. His rough around the edges style makes helps him come across as sincere, forthright and someone who most entrepreneurs can probably relate to. Keep in mind, Gary V. is also a consummate salesman, who’s always selling something – be it his new book, social media consulting services, online wine store, and, of course, his personal brand.
While Vaynerchuk has emerged as a social media “superstar” in the past couple of years, he’s far from an overnight success story. He’s been doing business on the Internet since 1997, and grown his family’s wine business, WineLibrary.com, by 20-fold into a $60-million entity.
One thing that Vaynerchuk has going for him in spades is confidence. The guy believes he’s not only the best but that he will not be outworked. “I’m very comfortable in my skin and massively comfortable in my effort,” he said, adding that “I honestly believe no one is better than me, although I don’t try to be a dick about it”. It’s an approach that Vaynerchuk gets away with, although you do have to wonder if more fame will overshadow his everyman persona that seems to keep his cockiness in check.
A particularly interesting comment was that Vaynerchuk’s emergence as a social media star didn’t materialize until online video emerged as a platform that anyone could capitalize on. This let Vaynerchuk launch his video wine reviews, which took the market like a storm. “You have to find your platform to tell your story. I had to let blogging go, which was very frustrating,” he said.
In addition to a 10-book deal with HarperCollins and his daily wine reviews, Vaynerchuk has become a social media consultant whose clients include the National Hockey League. As for what’s next, Vaynerchuk’s dream is buying the New York Jets – a lofty goal but one you wouldn’t want to dismiss as a pipe-dream given Vaynerchuk’s drive.
