Gary Vaynerchuk

It was Gary Vaynerchuk’s character and speaking style which allowed his video blog to achieve the following that it did. He is a warm person whose talks can inspire and educate in equal measure.

Vaynerchuk is a self-taught wine expert who has been highly successful due to his social media strategy and his novel take on wine review video blogs. He has authored three successful books and co-founded a social media brand consulting agency.

Gary ranked #14 motivational speaker around the world according to Global Gurus 2021 list. He was also named to both Fortune and Crain’s 40 under 40 lists in consecutive years, and has been profiled in the New York Times, Fortune, and Inc.

Early Potential

Vaynerchuk was born in Baruysk (formerly part of the Soviet Union) on November the fourteenth 1975. When he was just a young child, his family moved to the U.S.A, where he was brought up and educated. He was interested in business and entrepreneuship from a young age, selling lemonade at the age of seven and baseball cards at ten. When Vaynerchuk was a child, his parents ran a wine and liquor shop, and he took great interest in the wines that they stocked, teaching himself as much about the products as possible. The academically capable student eventually attended Mount Ida College in Massachusetts. During this time, he still spent his weekends at the family wine and liquor shop, learning as much as possible about wine and business.

Online Entrepreneur

Vaynerchuk’s business sense allowed him to recognise how vital ecommerce was to become. Deciding to combine his love of all things wine with his business nous, he founded Winelibrary.com, an online wine retailer, in 1997. By 2005, he had enabled the family business to grow significantly; by 2005, it had grown from $3 million to $45 million.

In order to help Winelibrary.com to continue to grow in an increasingly competitive market, Vaynerchuk began an online video podcast called Wine Library TV in 2006. New videos were added each week day and topics included reviews, wine tasting methods and wine facts and myths. It was Vaynerchuks uniquely engaging and humorous take on his topics which caused an internet sensation. Some people viewed his videos daily and at the peak of his success, the videos were viewed 100,000 times per day. Despite the success of Wine Library TV, Vaynerchuk ended his daily videos in 2011 to concentrate on other projects.

Vaynerchuk created Cinderella Wine as a sister business and website to Winelibrary.com. This site sells a selected wine at a heavily reduced price for 24 hours, with the wine offered being changed each day.

VaynerMedia

Aware that no one can rest on their laurels in todays online markets, Vaynerchuk has taken to social networking in a big way. In 2009, Vaynerchuk co-founded a social media brand consulting agency called VaynerMedia with his brother AJ. The purpose of the agency is to assist companies to achieve the necessary online presence required in todays market. How to use and make the best of social media is one of the fundamental aspects of this.

Vaynerchuk himself has over one million Twitter followers and so is in a great position to advise others. VaynerMedia works with high profile businesses such as Pepsico, the NY Jets and the Campbell Soup Company, helping them to build up an appropriate online presence.

Recognition

Vaynerchuks success has seen him receive some sought after accolades:

• 2006 – Cooking and Instructional/Educational Vloggie, People’s Choice
• 2009 – On the 49 Most Influential Men of list, Askmen.com
• 2009 – On the Power List of the 50 most influential people in wine, Decanter Magazine
• 2009 – Innovator of the Year in the Wine Star Awards, Wine Enthusiast
• One of the top 20 people every entrepreneur should follow on Twitter, BusinessWeek
• His 2009 book, Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion entered the bestseller lists of the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times
• He has appeared on several high profile U.S. TV shows
• 2011 – Twitter’s Small Business Big Shots, The Wall Street Journal

Speaking Style

• Amusing, educational, enthusiastic and story-telling.