Do you know how many companies have wanted me to do an energy drink for them because I named my book ‘Crush It!’? It might be fun one day, but right now I think it would undermine the personal brand I’ve built. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I went online with winelibrary.com in July of 1997; that was my first professional online play. – Gary Vaynerchuk
Nobody walks this earth thinking he’s better than I think I am – I think I’m great. At the same time, it’s so obvious to me that I’m nobody. – Gary Vaynerchuk
The Loire Valley is grossly underestimated. The prices are fair, and the wines are real. – Gary Vaynerchuk
If you talk about Cabernet and Merlot-based value between $10 and $25, I will tell you that Bordeaux is the best value in the world. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I do not believe that people want to work hard enough and they want to find the quick Twitter, SEO. Anybody who’s obsessed with SEO has lost already, period. I believe that firmly. – Gary Vaynerchuk
Storytelling is the game. It’s what we all do. It’s why Nike is Nike, it’s why Apple is Apple, it’s why Walt Disney built Disney World and it’s why Vince McMahon makes a billion dollars. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I don’t want anybody to not recognize how appreciative I am of the volume of e-mails I get. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I have no interest in going to Egypt and seeing the pyramids. I’m just not that kind of dude. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I know if I stopped hosting ‘Wine Library TV,’ we’d probably lose 75 percent of our audience, but the remaining 25 percent is still a big number. – Gary Vaynerchuk
People are more comfortable learning about wine because now they can just Google, you know, ‘Soave,’ and say, ‘Oh, O.K., cool.’ – Gary Vaynerchuk
I think the acquisition of consumers might be on the verge of being mapped. The battlefield is going to be retention and lifetime value. – Gary Vaynerchuk
Brands mature over time, like a marriage. The bond you feel with your spouse is different than when you first met each other. Excitement and discovery are replaced by comfort and depth. – Gary Vaynerchuk
Stop doing things that waste time. Don’t replace time with your family or things that you need to do. I needed to put together two fantasy teams this weekend because that’s something I enjoy, but I did stop playing Nintendo Wii for hours on end. – Gary Vaynerchuk
My store, Wine Library, outsells big national chains. How do you think we do it? It started with hustle. I always say that our success wasn’t due to my hundreds of online videos about wine that went viral, but to the hours I spent talking to people online afterward, making connections and building relationships. – Gary Vaynerchuk
As much as I love crisp, clean whites, there’s always a time for rich but balanced Chardonnays with oak, especially at Thanksgiving. – Gary Vaynerchuk
VaynerMedia filters the world how humans interact. This is how people are going to make buying decisions. – Gary Vaynerchuk
Winelibrary.tv was about building personal brand equity. It was a business move. Now, it was totally surrounded by a passion for wine, but I very much gave a lot of thought to doing a sports-video blog instead. – Gary Vaynerchuk
When I hear people debate the ROI of social media? It makes me remember why so many business fail. Most businesses are not playing the marathon. They’re playing the sprint. They’re not worried about lifetime value and retention. They’re worried about short-term goals. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I want to sit with 80- and 90-year-old people more than anyone. They have played this game before. Not one of them has told me, ‘I wish I had more money.’ – Gary Vaynerchuk
My natural inclination to be improv rather than an educated character serves me well. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I am surprised by how not-adopted the video reply has been. What keeps other people from doing it, I think, is that they think a video comes across as ‘I’m cool, look at how many e-mails I get.’ That perception doesn’t scare me, because I know who I am. – Gary Vaynerchuk
It’s insane to me to ask anybody to be what they’re not. Know what you know the best, love the most. That’s always going to be the answer to the thing that you have the best shot at winning at. – Gary Vaynerchuk
My dad is like a cactus – introverted and tough. I’m a people person, like my mom, but I got my competitiveness from my dad. He came to this country from Belarus with nothing and built a real business. He’s my hero for giving me that need to run a business and for having enormous confidence in me. – Gary Vaynerchuk
I hate recording all the shows for the week in one day, because I want to be able to mention current events and pop culture. If Madonna punches Britney in the face today, I want to reference that on ‘Wine Library TV’ tomorrow. Monday’s episode is always the best, because it’s hot off the press. – Gary Vaynerchuk
Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show. – Gary Vaynerchuk