#MOOD: OVERWHELMED WITH HAPPINESS AND MOTIVATION

Why “Crushing It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk is different.

Why “Crushing It” Is Not “The Same Old Shit”

For a few short hours, I was constantly overwhelmed with the contradictory feeling…

This book is so good that I can’t wait to put it down.

If you’re like me you get it. Every single freaking word makes so much sense that you just want to shut it and get back to work.

In short, Crushing It! is the only business book you need…dare I say…EVER.

Ask any of my friends and family and they’ll tell you – I don’t read – I do. I write, build, record and have to be ripped away from my computer or phone. It’s a blessing and a curse.

My wife looked at me and said – “isn’t it the same shit he always talks about?” LOL. NOPE.

Taking some time to read Crushing It! has completely reinvigorated me. The January 2018 release is a fresh, updated take on Crush It!

Here are the main reasons why:

1. FTIMO (Fear That I Missed Out) I read Crush It! In 2017, eight years after it’s release and almost 10 years since he wrote it. It focuses on several tried and true entrepreneurial business concepts and practices, and not the flashy kind. The kind that I resonate with. The grind, hustle and really hard work kind. The kind where you build up web traffic from zero to 1k+ users per month with no marketing budget. This meant the book was validation for how many hours I put into my full-time side hustle (NoOffseason.com Fantasy Football) from 2006-2011. But it was a bitter sweet read for me, because it also validated the other thing I suspected was true – I totally blew several opportunities by not putting any effort at all into Social Media, especially Facebook and Twitter – and I didn’t do a Podcast, which I should have – straight up with my friends – talking fantasy football all the time. There were so many hours of phenomenal content gems gone unrecorded. Lastly, it confirmed I wasn’t patient enough. I became about the money. I wanted to leave my full time job too fast, but couldn’t because of the money. I wasn’t willing to keep putting in the work. I don’t regret folding the site and selling the assets to RotoExperts in 2011, and never have. The skills I developed, the pride I still have in my accomplishments from those days, and the amounts of time I was able to spend with my family, especially Kate, Max and and Samantha, are all the best reasons why I did what I did. But reading Crush It! In 2017 left me with an even deeper hunger for the content game.

When I heard Gary Vee was writing a fifth business book scheduled for release in January 2018 that was the sequel to Crush It! I about creamed ‘em.

ANOTHER CHANCE? NEW CONCEPTS? NEW PLATFORMS?

Yep.

2. Crushing It! Is more than just a list of success stories from those who read Crush It! 

It eloquently weaves in success stories among narratives from Gary Vee where he says

“Imagine this… you’re a dentist… you grow your business on Snapchat…”

“Imagine this… you’re a landscaper who grows your business through a podcast.”

“Imagine this… you’re a retail store manager that builds a personal brand on Instagram.”

All scenarios walk through the strategies and tactics that any business – YES, ANY BUSINESS (medical device sales, big Pharma, Primary Care Physicians Offices, Restaurants, even Financial Planners, Brick and Mortar Retailers, eCommerce Brands – needs to (not should, or can) leverage platforms like Musical.ly, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Podcasts and Voice-First. Notice, I didn’t mention LinkedIn or Medium.com – they’re not singled out in the book, which I thought they would be – which is now very intriguing to me in hindsight – perhaps I’ll blog on that later.

I digress – It’s the most practical book I’ve ever read. Even more so than Crush It!

I’m especially in love with the example of Chithra Durgam @drdurgam – a Dentist using Musical.ly to make 11 year old girls beg their parents to make appointments with them over other dentists.

Freaking awesome.

Another one is an Oil Change owner who explodes his business by posting pics of people’s cars on Instagram and engaging with them.

This is all not only further validation for my business, but for all of my clients and prospective clients that if you want to grow, you’ve gotta get your content game right for each of these platforms.

GV even goes into extreme detail about how to optimize your YouTube Channel’s Home page and trailer.

3. Data Points. Of course, I love the data. Especially when it overwhelmingly validates the fact that all businesses that claim they want to grow need to be on these platforms. Here are my favorite data points from Crushing It!

• Musical.ly has 200 million users, 30% of whom spend more than 30 minutes there per day.
• 65% of new TV shows are canceled after one season (context: TV media buys are riskier than investing time in new / niche social media platforms like Musical.ly).
• Snapchat has 173 daily active users (DAU) that use the app an average of 18 times per day, 10 billion daily video views, 2.5 billion daily snaps
• As of 2014, the 139 million total commuters in the US spent 29.6 billion hours traveling to and from their workplaces (UGH. Another blog post for another time)…Context: Why Podcasting is a great way to reach your target audience. Drivers are listening to audio and not reading or watching video during these commute times (for our safety, we hope so).

4. Page 184. Validation of my lifestyle. Recently I stumbled across this Medium post by a dude that clearly wants to shock people into reading his shit via headlines. He says “Gary Vaynerchuck is trying to kill you,” elaborating that working from 7 p.m. – 2 a.m. on a side hustle that keeps you happy while working towards something better than your miserable 40 hour a week full time job for “the Man” is unhealthy and going to kill you.

REALLY DUDE?

But instead of going un-classy, I’ll just point him to this paragraph on page 184 of Crushing It! for my real response….

“I don’t actually recommend unhealthy lifestyles, like getting too little sleep or isolating yourself from your family, but to all the critics who say entrepreneurs like you and me don’t have work-life balance or are shortchanging our health , I ask you this: has it ever occurred to you that the people you’re insisting should get eight hours of sleep are so unhappy with the sixteen hours they’re awake that they’re willing to invest this many hours to change their lives for the better? Which would you rather have, a long night’s sleep and sixteen hours of misery every day or a little less sleep but twenty hours of wide-awake joy? I’ll pick joy every time, and so will most people who are crushing it.”

Boom. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve thought that over the last 18 years of my career, I’d be…well you know…more wealthy than Gary Vee, I think.

All said, this book is not only his best yet, but far different from anything he’s ever written, and it goes DEEP into many things he talks about at the surface level on his podcast.

If you think his previous four books were good, or have ever smiled and nodded while listening to or watching #AskGaryVee, you’ll agree that Crushing It! is in GV’s words….

ALL TIME.

I’ve got one more copy that I’d love to send to someone who really wants it. Follow me on Twitter @nooffseason and tweet at me about this blog post and tell me you want the copy and I’ll send it to you, if you promise to pass it along to someone else when you’re done.

Let’s use the hashtag #CrushingItTogether

Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.