The name of the book we will learn from today is “Crush It” written by Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur. He has written 4 amazingly successful best seller books, as well as being the co-founder and CEO of Vaynermedia. He also runs a podcast and there is a lot of demand for his public speaking. With a history in e-commerce and online marketing, their focus is on the internet, social media and the ever-changing digital world (Crush It).
Do you have a hobby that you wish you could do all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night. So now is the perfect time to take that passion and earn money doing what you love. This is the perfect time to cash in on your passion, this book will tell you how to turn your real hobby into a real business using the internet (Crush It).
This book is a great book for all those who have a passion and want to make their passion their work. This book talks about making your dreams come true, and making it possible to wake up in the morning and do what you love. This book can be of great help to those who want to take full advantage of the internet as a platform, to build a business and follow their passion (Crush It).
With the help of this short step by step guide, you will learn how to build your personal brand and make your passion your career.
Passion and Success
Here are the 3 'golden rules':
- Love your family.
- Work very hard
- Live your passion.
It is not just about money and size of business, true success comes from happiness. If you do not love what you do, then you are also just a follower, worker, or common man in the business world. You have to find something that you are passionate about, something that you want to live and breathe, something that makes you jump out of bed in the morning, something that sets you apart from the rest and guarantees you security (Crush It).
The Internet has made it possible for everyone to be 100% true to themselves and make good money building a personal brand for what they love (Crush It).
Personal Brand
Your personal brand is your starting point. Without a creative and engaging personal brand, you won't be able to start making money from your passion.
You want your followers to know you. You want to create something that sets you apart from the crowd, even those selling the same product/service/content. You have to use your personal brand, for which your customers keep coming back for more (Crush It).
You have to find out how you are going to market yourself, you have to think about yourself. Those who are shy and limited, they may not be able to come on video and podcast, but they can write good blogs. Find out what suits you best.
Create Great Content
Those people who are intimidated by all the noise and distraction of the internet can relax. Quality is a huge filter. No matter how many cups of coffee you pour, the cream always comes on top.
It is very important to talk about the things you love. No matter what the platform, if you talk about your passion, you will be relatable and people will feel a connection with you.
There are two essential things that build a business in the world of social marketing using your personal brand: product and content. One won't do without the other (Crush It).
Content
Content is what you give to the world with the help of social media. You should talk about your passion on social media and connect with people who have the same passion as you (Crush It).
Stories are a better way to identify your content. Tell relatable and funny stories. Ask yourself what is my biggest passion – marketing/technology/hockey, or whatever? And can I become the best blogger of this topic? The answer to both should be 'yes' (Crush It).
The scale at which you can start earning from your passion is affected by many things: your market, the size of your niche, most importantly, what makes you different from other people. Know yourself, choose the right medium, choose the right subject. Create awesome content and you can be happy and make lots of money (Crush It).
Choose your platform
Actually the author has a special passion for twitter. If someone retweets you, they are sending a message to the world that they think you are worth attention.
Best business tweet ever - What can I do for you? You will be surprised to see the reaction. You are in the business of serving your community. Never forget this (Crush It).
Be real
There are three core values needed to represent yourself online.
Authenticity – This means that whatever decision you take, or whatever you post on social media, it should reflect your business.
Hustle – If you work harder than others over a long period of time, you will come out on top (Crush It).
Patience – It will take time, be patient, it will not happen overnight (Crush It).
You have to live your passion. Think of making a business like a marathon, not like a script. Love what you do, that's the way you'll go about doing it. And even if you fail, you will not regret it, because you are doing what you love (Crush It).
Create community
Part of being authentic is building a community that supports you. It takes a lot of hard work to build a community, it will take the most of your time and effort and it will lead to the most of your success.
Some ways to build your community:
Comment on other people's blog.
Comment back to those who reply to you.
Let the conversation happen.
Connect whenever you can link back to your content.
Talk full of quality.
Have relevant and quality content.
It is the quality of conversation and community that matters, not the numbers.
More than just money
You should follow your passion and not money. These are the people who get defeated again and again. Make sure you love what you do, then ask yourself, will it make you money and most importantly, will you be proud of the way you make it (Crush It).
It is also important to understand that internet does not forgive, whatever you post on social media or internet, in a way it will go directly to the public. Check yourself, whenever you interact with people, always take care. You don't know how they will react. You may have good intentions, but it's easy to take the wrong word (Crush It).
When taking big business decisions, always think it through. Never take decisions in haste, which you will regret. Always look at the big picture. Gary says, if there's one message you want to take away from this, it's that real, financial, personal and professional success, and above all, love your family, work hard, and live your passion (Crush It).
Gary's steps to build your personal brand
, Find out what your passion is.
, Keep a good amount of blog / video / podcast content ready, keep about 50 topics ready.
, Keep in mind that you can better talk about your passion with everyone.
, You need to name your personal brand, whether you broadcast that name or not.
, Decide which platform is best for you, video, audio or written word.
, Take someone's help in design.
, Have a place where people can contact you and invite you to do business with them.
, Choose on which platforms you will broadcast your content, always choose twitter and facebook, the rest is your choice.
, Work on building community, comment on blogs, participate in forums.
, Find users talking about your topic on Twitter, reach out to them, and start conversations.
, Similarly, find blogs like your topic and build a community.
, Find all the relevant facebook pages and groups and join them all.
, Once your community is built and your personal brand is reaching people, reach out to advertisers to start making money.
Key takeaways
You have to be really passionate about something to turn it into a business (Crush It).
Decide what your content will be.
Decide which platform suits you the most.
Build your community by reaching out to people who have the same passion as you, create quality conversations and relevant topics.
Keep at it until you reach enough people.
Then you can try to convert your content into money.
For your passion to be a living and breathing desire, you will need to put in a lot of time and hard work to turn it into a business.