Crush It!

Publisher's Summary

Crush It! 2.0: The Audiobook: Read by Gary Vaynerchuk, this audiobook version contains additional material not found in the best-selling hardcover edition.

Do you have a hobby you wish you could indulge in all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take that passion and make a living doing what you love. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a video camera, and by using the secrets revealed here, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand.

By the end of this book, listeners will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, Crush It! is the ultimate driver's manual for modern business.

©2009 Gary Vaynerchuk (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Outdated and redundant

I'm a big fan of Gary V, but this book is now part of history of the Internet. 8 years have passed since this audiobook has been recorded, alot of the info, websites and apps he talks about are either updated, forgotten, don't exist anymore, irrelevant or replaced by other modern websites. Most of the things you learn in this book can easily be found anywhere with a simple Google search.

on top of that, Gary is extremely repetitive. he keeps repeating over and over again "follow your passion", "work hard". yes we get it, we understand. I know that for those who need that motivation, this is a good thing, but for those who already understand the concept of working hard for your passion, it just gets annoying to hear every few sentences the same thing over again.

Also, why does he tell us at the beginning of the book that "loving your family" is one of the 3 components to success? That's one of his own personal values, not a universal principle of success.

With all that being said, I think that if you are a noob, and have no idea how to get into branding and social media, this book is a great place to start, but then again you could just search the Gary V engine on his website and find all the info you need, or read one of his more recent books for up to date information.

In conclusion, I still think Gary is an awesome dude with so much value to offer, but this book is just a relic of ancient times.

72 of 75 people found this review helpful

It was an okay book, but I preferred "The E-Myth"

The author is obviously passionate about the topic, but I got tired of the high-school-teenager-style of writing. "Awesome!" "Crush it!" "Totally sick!" It wore on me.

But the reason for my low review isn't because of the author's verbage. It's because, like many business books, it just didn't leave me with any real insight as to how I can change my business to apply the ideas. The actual "how to do it" chapters were pretty old news to me. Get a blog, use this or that technology, what social media sites are best, etc. I'm looking for how to use those technologies better, with specific tips.... not what tools are best.

The one thing in the book that helped me and has stuck with me is the chapter on caring. Changed my perspective.

I don't think I would have bought this book if I could go back in time, but that's just my personal preference. I'm sure there are many thousands who find this book to be useful.

In my opinion, the best small business book ever written is "The E-Myth Revisited." I read that book and it completely changed my business.

137 of 150 people found this review helpful

Too self-promotional

There is some useful information in this book - but it is so entangled with the self-promotional material by the author that it actually loses all credibility in my view. I know the author has been successful and I have no doubt that he is very talented but this book becomes very irritating very quickly.

67 of 73 people found this review helpful

Difficult to get thru

I listened to this book twice in a row a couple of months ago, and now the only thing I remember from the book is that the author said multiple times in each chapter "let me go off script a minute..." And "I'm gonna go off script a minute..." It was frequent enough to be quite distracting.

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Awful...

Has Crush It! turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes. Be VERY selective with self help books. This has zero content. It's just a guy rambling about what social media is.
The entire message is:
Work hard
Create good content
Create Social media profiles
Share your content

So how do you create good content?
Google it
How do you get more people to come to your page?
Google it

Are you fucking kidding me? Don't waste your money, please. I feel stupid for having purchased this.
Do yourself a favor and get one of the following:
4 hour work week
$100 dollar startup
The Lean Startup

These books are written by SMART people who really put effort into them, not some jackass who just plugged a mic in and started rambling.

97 of 112 people found this review helpful

Yawn...

Not necessarily a bad book, but if you've done anything with marketing or web branding this will come off as very basic and obvious. It should have been called "Personal Branding for Idiots". I really got nothing new out of this book and it was quite painful to finish.

46 of 54 people found this review helpful

Death by obviousness.

I purchased this book because it had a 4 star in Amazon. One reviewer complained about how he got 76 "not helpful" votes on a single day for his 2 star review of this book. I still went ahed and bought it cause of all the 4 star reviews! I regret deeply the couple hours I spent with it, I did not fully finish the 3rd hour. The book contains no original thought or insights. Just keeps repeating that I should CRUSH IT!

29 of 35 people found this review helpful

Crush It?

It starts with promises of methods to start doing what you love, then goes on to become a redundant ramble about the benefits of having a personal website and the evils of corporate workplaces, which turned out to be difficult to swallow.

I've never heard of this guy before, and his repetitive plugging of his work at Wine Library TV (and he mentions that A LOT) becomes extremely irritating halfway through.

Also, the author/narrator is talking as if he's the obnoxious guy hanging out with the gang. If I had a penny for every time he said "Are you ready for this?" I'd easily have more than I paid for this purchase. I wanted an audiobook to listen to, not a guy who thinks he's cool telling the rest of us how we got it all wrong and he didn't.

107 of 133 people found this review helpful

A waste of a credit

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the author provided any substance at all it might have been worthwhile.

Would you ever listen to anything by Gary Vaynerchuk again?

Never

What didn’t you like about Gary Vaynerchuk’s performance?

self-serving worthless information

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Total disappointment - this guy must love to hear himself talk

45 of 56 people found this review helpful

Bad presentation, but with some useful content

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The author/reader is a deeply unagaging character, as filled with a sense of his own

How could the performance have been better?

Almost anyone would have been a better presenter than the gentleman chosen. His manic manner of speech was truly annoying and distracting in extremis. Whatever his day-to-day presentational style, when speaking to his regular listeners, I found him absurd, bording on offensive. He delivered every word - from pithy insight to chapter number (yes, literally) - with equal urgency of tone and insistence of volume: all as if denying paedophilia or confronting a war criminal.

What did you take away from Crush It! that you can apply to your work?

This book is not the declarative work of genius the author might appear to think. That said, more than six years into running my own business, I did find a couple of interesting ideas at which I shall be looking.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

An Amazing Book by Gary Vee!

Gary maps out how to create your own online business and brand. He breaks it down in a way that only utter morons couldn't follow. This audio book is stuffed with top class info. You will not be disappointed.

And the icing on the cske is that Gary Vee's passion filled performance is riveting!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Pumped

Cheers Gary,
You've done a superb job.
The 3rd time round, you've given me a good kick back in the direction I had been going.
It motivates and moves me to be more vocal about what I'm passionate about and know a lot about.
This is the 2nd time I've listened to the audio book. I first read the paper version on my honeymoon (sorry Lindsey).
Had the video guy over for 3 hours yesterday filming in my Kung Fu School and about to watch the edits.
More action less research - Hustle - must remind myself that doing is the hustle.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Engaging and passionate but not really new.

Would you try another book written by Gary Vaynerchuk or narrated by Gary Vaynerchuk?

Gary makes a full engaging and passionate narrator of his audiobook, but most of the content is pretty basic and feels more suitable for a podcast than a packaged audiobook.

Still, it's worth a listen if you've got a spare credit or if the topics it mentions are new to you then it'll give you a great step up on the subjects.

What about Gary Vaynerchuk’s performance did you like?

Believes in what he's talking about and is obviously passionate about his subject.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Loved it

Even 8 years on and it's so good. Now onto Crushing It for my next book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Inspiring book.

Great book but little outdated. Strategies still valid though. Passion implementation rinse repeat again again

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I pledge to crush it!

Crush it! is about the ongoing social media revolution and how best to utilise it for business and life (in the Author's case, the two are very much entwined)...

Gary Vaynerchuck, it?s fair to say, is an acquired taste, especially for the British audience. Exploding with new yorican spirit and enthusiasm I can see why some people might find him irritating. For me, his enthusiasm was infectious. It was great that he himself was reading the audiobook. He reads it with real passion and also kept veering off script, giving you updates and further insights into what was originally written.

He?s obviously a bit of a geek (understatement!) and I don?t think I?ll ever be fully sold on the benefits of using social media as a career tool in the same way he uses it (which seems to be 24/7!) simply because I?d rather be doing other things than look at a screen all day and night.

I?m one of those people who avoid something just because everyone else is doing it. Gary Vaynerchuk has made me see the error of my ways and I now endeavour to embrace all things social media. I found this book a great source of knowledge and inspiration and it has made me feel more decisive about how I?m going to commit to using social media as a tool to help my career and self development

So to sum it up? A great audiobook, especially the off script stuff. Full of passion, full of enthusiasm which I found impossible not to be caught up in, so much so that from this point on? I pledge to crush it!

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Motivational and insightful

I have watched a lot of videos on Gary and he is an exceptional person. Viewing yourself as a brand is a very interesting concept I never thought of. However, if it wasn't for Gary reading the book I'd probably find it difficult to follow/read by myself.

A must read for anyone wanting to start a business

This book is exploding with great business advise and is perfect for wanting to start a new business or wants to sharpen their edge on social media. Super pumped after this book. Massive thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk and team!

Narrow minded

The real title is "Quit your job and start a blog! Why? Because I love blogging!" Cheap talk.

Super Inspirational

Loved this book, very inspirational and love that there is a check list at the end. Also enjoyed that this book was narrated by the author, it gives it a much more authentic feel.