Leanne's Life

December 2, 2009 by Leanne

Someone needs to ban me from purchasing any more books until I catch up reading the ones I already have.

Books

Two more books just arrived on my doorstep this week from Amazon.com. I’ve been very fortunate to meet some wonderful people recently who just happen to be authors as well and I can’t wait to read their books. I met Gary Vaynerchuk in September at Disney and found him very engaging and interesting. His new book, Crush It, was just about to hit the shelves. Gary is nicknamed the “social media sommelier” for building his empire on wine tasting and his wine library by using social media skills and platforms.

And then in October I was speaking at BlogWorld Expo where I happened upon Guy Kawasaki. I had been following Guy for a while (as in following on Twitter and alltop.com) and couldn’t believe that I was actually sitting a table with him having breakfast. He is an amazing wealth of knowledge and so down to earth. He’s also authored numerous books with the most recent “Reality Check“. So I had to buy that, too.

Then there are the Carl Hiaasen books my friend Mike has loaned me. I’ve read two of those and love Carl’s writing! I’ve got about 4 more to read.

And then I read on someone’s blog – can’t remember who – about how wonderful the book is about Steve Job’s presentation style. Had to get that, too.

Bottom line is – I’ve got so many books to read and so little time to read them all. I must be banned from buying any more books until I catch up with these. The great thing is, I am so excited about what I can learn from all of them!

I’ve got a 5-hour flight to LA coming up soon, maybe I can use that time to get going.

@GaryVee

September 25, 2009 by Leanne

Unless you swim in social media circles, you probably aren’t too familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk. But that is soon going to change. Gary is a rising star. In fact, in early September he was featured prominently in the New York Times. He is closing in on a million followers on Twitter - @garyvee. And he’s got 32-thousand fans on his Facebook page. What is he famous for? Wine.

Gary Vaynerchuk makes his living as a wine reviewer. He bucks the traditional wine lingo and puts his tastings in very common everyday language. But he’s also known for his social media marketing skills. It his dedication to social media that turned his life around and made him what he is today. He just signed a book deal (said to be 7-figures) to write 10-books! His first one comes out in mid-October entitled “Crush It”. And in true social media style, he uses Facebook to promote it.

Gary was at Walt Disney World Resort for the opening of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. I was fortunate to be able to hear Gary speak on social media. I felt so inspired by his enthusiasm, his humor, his passion for social media. He gets it and sincerely wants to see the rest of the world “get it”. And to put icing on the cake – he’s a super nice guy in person. What you see is what you get with him. He’s awesome.

An enlightening moment was when Gary made the observation that the internet is only 14-years old – “it hasn’t even had sex yet.” Now that’s funny!

Gary also believes that one day Facebook will be your identity, if not already. Facebook has nearly 400 million users and the day is soon coming when everyone will have a Facebook page. He thinks FB will become your new digital wallet.

Social media is all about engaging in conversation with those that are talking about you or with those people whom you have similar interests. The media world is changing rapidly and we’re probably seeing right now the biggest evolution in the media world than ever before. With technology constantly changing and getting better and better, we’re going to soon be a very digital society with applications that can think better for us and think ahead of us.

I learned so much from hearing Gary Vaynerchuk speak. He’s inspiring – he’s contagious. And – he’s funny.

GaryV2

Posts Tagged ‘Gary Vaynerchuk’

Book Ban

@GaryVee