You've Just Been "Gary'd"!

I have a few idols out there in the world of Social Media who I'll often refer to when I'm writing or giving a presentation.  If you follow me then you'll probably recognize a few of these names: Chris Brogan and Julien Smith who wrote Trust Agents; Scott Stratten author of Unmarketing; Jay Baer and Amber Naslund co-authors of Now Revolution; Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger who wrote Sociable Book to name a few.

Pretty sure all of them would say that Gary Vaynerchuk is someone they all respect.  We all stop and listen when Gary speaks ~ this guy just gets it...and as Gary says its just in his DNA. (For full background on Gary - check out his Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Vaynerchuk ) 

It was a great thrill for me to finally meet Gary in person and get both my books signed by THE man himself!

When I heard Gary would be in Bellingham on his new book tour The Thank You Economy, I knew I had to be there! Originally I thought it was going to be just a book signing but it evolved into a whole presentation! I managed to get a ton of video ~ my iPhone died!! So I'll give you some highlights, but before I do you may want to watch Gary's TED talk here from 2008 back when I was just getting into Social Media - Gary had been doing it for quite some time! *Disclaimer - Gary uses 'colorful' language ;)*



So that was back when Gary wrote his first book Crush It  all about following your passion and working HARD to make it happen!
Now cut to today ~ Gary has come a long way...he and his brother have started their own agency called Vayner Media and they consult with clients like PepsiCo and New York Jets and NHL!


Gary spoke about The Thank You Economy and how customer service and "Out-Humanize" your competitor you can 'Land-grab'...in other words there's still opportunity for business to win! What I loved was at one point he mentions going and shoveling your customer's walk because its a nice thing to do and a friend of mine, Michael Jagger of Provident One Security  has done JUST THAT! He gets Customer Service!! (and he was way ahead of the curve!)



Check out Gary speaking live in Bellingham:


(Side note: Gary mentions Jeff Bezos Founder and President of Amazon as the GREATEST entrepreneur of all time!)