Online marketing trailblazer Gary Vaynerchuk (VAY NER CHUK) is a 33-year-old entrepreneur whose dual identity as both business guru and wine guy has made him known as the "Social Media Sommelier." A self-trained wine expert, he revolutionized the wine industry with his video blog, Wine Library TV (affectionately known as The Thunder Show), and grew his family wine business from $4 million to $60 million in five years. What raised Vaynerchuk's notoriety even more than his business acumen was his foresight combined with his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business. While his youthful following broke down barriers in the wine industry, the business world (and Web 2.0) admired him for creating a new generation of branding, focusing on the Internet and leveraging social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. As his viewership swelled to over 80,000 a day, and his family's wine business grew to over $60 million a year, he made television appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres, NBC's Today Show, CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, was featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and has become a consultant for Fortune 100 companies, and a keynote speaker around the world.
In CRUSH IT! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion (HarperStudio) he shares with business owners how they can boost sales using the internet. He shows audiences how to find their passion, then step by step how to turn it into a flourishing, monetized business. Vaynerchuk's speeches on personal branding, social media, and marketing at conferences such as FOWA, Strategic Profits, and South By Southwest have occasioned praise from established web denizens and earned him the admiration of countless bloggers and aspiring entrepreneurs. As the youngest winner of Marketwatch's Business Award at 27, as well as being named to "Silicon Alley 100" -Silicon Alley Insider - 2008 and "101 Most Influential People in New Jersey" - New Jersey Monthly - 2009, Vaynerchuk is an icon in his industry.
The star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, Vaynerchuk's roots in wine tasting come honestly - his Russian immigrant parents owned a liquor store when he was growing up. Bored at the cash register, he began reading Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate and realized collecting wine offered an allure similar to his previous hobby of collecting baseball cards. As a teenager, tasting wine was legally impossible, so he set out to train his palate "backwards." To study various flavors associated with wine, he tasted obscure fruits and vegetables, along with earthly influences, including grass, dirt, rocks, tobacco, and wood. "I probably consumed more New Jersey grass in my teens than any lawn mower." By familiarizing himself with the numerous tastes that contributed to a specific wine, Vaynerchuk was able to detect subtleties that an ordinary palate wouldn't recognize.
With a wealth of knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit, Vaynerchuk spent every weekend of his college years at his parents' store, rebranding the family business as Wine Library and establishing himself as a respected expert. As the store's only wine buyer, he sampled every wine that entered the store. Customers depended on Vaynerchuk for his advice and within a five year time period, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $60 million business. His first book, 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World, brought his unpretentious approach to wine appreciation to the page.
But Vaynerchuk's career took a new turn with the advent of Wine Library TV. His key goals are twofold: "First, I want people to try different wines. How can you have a favorite if you only know a few? Second, I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it's a good choice. Don't feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what 'brings the thunder' for you."
WLTV has blossomed into a full-fledged community. The viewers (self-named "Vayniacs") convene on an extremely active forum, and have organized numerous off-line gatherings. Vaynerchuk and the viewers have teamed up with Crushpad recently to create the first ever community wine, Vayniac Cabernet.
A sought after speaker, Vaynerchuk has given keynote speeches to a diverse group of organizations such as the Digital Marketing Mixer, Boston Wine Expo, Inman Real Estate Connect, Ramquest Users Group Conference, DeGustibus Cooking School, and the Disney Food and Wine Festival. He lives in New York City.
Praise for Gary Vaynerchuk:
"The smartest business man on the Internet gave the unofficial keynote at SxSW Interactive this year. He is the definition of authenticity, motivation, and inspiration."
-- ZDNet
"The speaker I was least excited to see, Gary Vaynerchuk, turned out to be the most entertaining and inspiring speaker at the conference."
-- Robert Palmer
"[Gary] admonishes and chides but offers encouragement and redemption. He is inspirational in a way that only believers (and good speakers) can be."
-- Wine Giques
"Attendees got out of the door while proclaiming '[insert appropriate expletive here.] Nothing should stop me from doing what I love for a living' inside their heads."
-- Link En Fuego
"His show and website encompass everything about community."
-- Adam Cohen
"An outside the box thinker who is constantly innovating."
-- Buzz Bishop