LinkedIn is a powerful social networking site, especially for people involved in B2B (Business to Business…but you knew that, right?)

Here are three things you can do to increase your LinkedIn profile and your network.

Stop Sending Generic Invitations

When you reach out to connect with someone on LI, you can send a personal message, which LI pre-fills in for you. Well, it’s not very personal if you go with the generic message LI generates, is it?

Instead, let her know why you’re reaching out, how you admire her work, how you miss being her cubicle mate, whatever is appropriate. Your chances of getting networked, especially if the connection is tenuous or a little dated, will greatly improve.

Add a photo.

A few years it was fine not to add your photo to your LI profile; they were few and far between. But we now live in a Facebook world, people, and it’s time to get with the program. People want to see who they’re networking with. And, unlike Facebook, a photo of your dog, your kid, or that shot of you doing a 10-second upside down keg stand isn’t appropriate. (Although that last one is impressive.)

Also, use a photo that was taken in the past couple of years. If you’re sporting a handlebar moustache or beehive hairdo you’re not fooling anyone.

Get Current.

It amazes me how people leave off the last five years of their business life. Take some time right now and read your LI profile, including the summary and previous history. Do you need to get rid of some dust bunnies and add some recent accomplishments or accolades? Then get to it.

Recommend, and Get Recommended.

The number of recommendations show right near the top of your profile, so maybe it’s time to reach out to some satisfied clients and ask them to write a recommendation for you.

On the flip side, don’t wait to be asked to write a recommendation for someone else. Plan on reaching out once a week–unsolicited–and create a well-deserved recommendation for a co-worker, vendor or even a client who’s doing especially good work. It won’t go unnoticed.

Stop linking to “My Company.”

As with all social media sites, the more “lived in” your profile appears, the more legitimate it looks. So move away from the generic labels and make them your own.

Here’s the typical LinkedIn profile with the offending “My Website” and “My Company” links in the Websites section. Your first step will be to click on the Edit My Profile button (under the Profile button in the navigation bar at the time of this writing.) This will allow you to make changes to your profile.

Click on the “Edit” link next to “My Website.”

That will change the look to what you see above. Click on “My Website” and choose “Other.”

Once you’ve chosen “Other” you’ll be able to type in the label of your choice, whether it’s your Web site, e-commerce store, blog, Facebook fan page, or whatever.

Save, and when people next check out your profile they’ll see the personalized links in the Website section and be so impressed they’ll be unable to resist joining your network.

What else?

What else do you do to make your LinkedIn profile all it can be?

Rich Brooks
I’d Like to Add You to My Personal Network on LinkedIn

I just finished Daniel Pink’s great new book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. It’s the perfect companion to Freakonomics, Superfreakonomics and just about anything Malcolm Gladwell ever wrote.

It’s a must read for anyone who has a supervisory or managerial role in their business, or anyone who has a kid. (More on that later.)

A main theme of the book is what science knows about motivation, business isn’t putting into practice. Through several surprising experiments, we see that some traditional forms of motivation are, well, demotivating.

For example, when school children who loved to draw were paid (in ribbons) for their art, it actually got them to create less art after the rewards were discontinued. Another experiment showed that when a reward was dangled in front of test subjects they actually performed worse than the control group that was offered no reward for solving the same problem.

The takeaway here is to not reward behavior for work that already provides people intrinsic satisfaction, as it will likely have a detrimental effect.

The book also talks about the importance of autonomy in motivation, and how most people will perform better with increased autonomy. That means they can have say over their tasks, their time, and even their team–the people they work with on a project.

As we look at our own companies, we have to see what type and level of autonomy we feel comfortable giving our employees…and then maybe going a bit outside of our comfort zone. Pink suggests setting up a trial run to see if it will work in your company, maybe like a six month experiment, or allowing employees 10% of their time to work on any project they like.

We also learn about Motivation 2.0, more commonly known as the carrot and stick method. Do things right, you get the carrot. Do things wrong and get the stick. It was a very effective motivator for years when everyone’s job description read “cog.” However, in today’s economy, Motivation 2.0 is a relic that’s holding us back.

The carrot/stick can be a powerful motivator, and studies show that it can work more quickly than intrinsic motivators. (People lose more weight when with bikini season upon them, as opposed to wanting to be in better health.) However, the results can fade fast. (People put back on the weight after bikini season is over.)

Also, as seen in the Freakonomics series, people respond to incentives, but not always in the planned or desired way. In the series premier of Undercover Boss we see some examples of incentives gone awry. In trying to increase efficiency in Waste Management, president and COO Larry O’Donnell sees that he’s (indirectly?) responsible for a woman driver having to pee into a coffee can stored in her truck and another woman sprinting down the hallway so she’s not docked at double her pay rate. His goal was to provide more value to stock holders, but is this a sustainable business model? Judging by his own reactions in this heavily scripted reality show, probably not.

If we reward employees for certain behavior, we need to be aware that the outcomes may not be what we expected or desired. By rewarding sales we may be incentivizing our sales team to take on the wrong types of jobs to make their quotas. By rewarding efficiency we may be causing our employees to cut corners and not do their best work because they know they won’t get a bonus for quality work or happy customers, but rather by having a higher hourly billing rate.

This got me thinking about our own billing style at flyte, which is mostly based on how many hours we expect a project to take. But does this inadvertently tell my team that we value efficiency over quality?

Should we change the way we bill for projects and pay less attention to how many hours it takes us to complete the task? Is the billable hour an artifact of the soon-to-be past? And if so, what does a company that has traditionally billed by the hour do instead? Would getting rid of the billable hour get our employees to enjoy their work more and create a better end product? At the same time, how do you defend against the client who is very particular about what they want to see, or gives vague feedback like “I’ll know it when I see it.”?

I don’t have the answers, but Drive definitely got me asking the questions.

Other sections of the book demonstrate that intrinsically motivated people succeed more than extrinsically motivated people; they outlast and outperform extrinsically motivated people.

This may make you ask different questions during the hiring process, since the studies show us that the best teams are built of people who are self-motivated and get enjoyment from their work, rather than those who need awards or perform best in a bonus-driven company.

Drive recognizes that no amount of intrinsic motivation can overcome a salary that doesn’t pay a living wage, but does show that just throwing more money at people may have a detrimental long-term effect.

One of the later sections was on what this research tells us about raising our own children–which is fascinating–but I’ll save that for part II of this review.

In the meantime, be sure to pick up Drive, a fascinating look at what really motivates us.

Rich Brooks
Intrinsically Driven

Some things to keep in mind:

• Incoming links (links from other Web sites to yours) have search engine benefits.
• You can create links from someone else’s blog to your site by leaving a comment.
• People respond to incentives.

Thus, it’s no surprise that unscrupulous marketers (and even some with scruples) leave a lot of comments on other blogs for the sole purpose of increasing the search engine visibility of their own site or blog.

Never mind that almost every blog in the world uses a no-follow ref tag in the comments section, basically neutering the SEO benefits of a comment.

That being said, not everyone seems to have gotten the memo. There’s still benefits to leaving a comment, however:

• Adding to the conversation the blogger started
• Getting the attention of the blogger and perhaps beginning a mutually-beneficial relationship
• Having people admire how intelligent, insightful and on message  your comment is, and possibly following the link back to your Web site or blog.

That last bullet point needs to be repeated, this time with some emphasis:

• Having people admire how intelligent, insightful and on message  your comment is, and possibly following the link back to your Web site or blog.

And that’s the trick. You need to be intelligent, insightful and on message. Although every blogger has his or her own rules for when to leave a comment up there, I’ve always been open to destroying a comment with extreme prejudice if they seemed more interested in promoting their own work than continuing the conversation I started.

For example, I recently received this comment on a post on How to Add Photos and Videos to Your Tweets:

Besides the atrocious grammar, it’s hard to take someone serious who:

1. Recommends a product which also appears to be his URL
2. Has a generic sounding gmail address
3. Was named “Mass Email” by his parents

Not to mention it has nothing to do with the post at hand. If this were a post on email marketing, or bulk email marketing tools, this would be perfectly appropriate.

If you are going to leave comments on other blogs, please add something of value. It helps the blogger, his/her audience, and may actually do some good for you as well.

Rich Brooks
Small Business Blogger

The other day as I left yet another voicemail for a prospect who hadn’t returned my previous few calls or emails, I wondered how many unreturned “touches” most people leave before giving up, so I quickly tweeted my question.

I was surprised that the answers that came back were almost invariably one or two, although Marty Hamre’s magic number was 7 and VirtualGalt invoked Brian Tracy’s name in suggesting that 5 was the right answer. It was actually listening to Brian Tracy sales tapes back in my previous life that convinced me to make more attempts than the competition.

Intrigued, I asked “What’s the max number of unreturned calls/emails/touches you would give a prospect before giving up?” on LinkedIn. There were 24 answers (and counting) to the question, and the people on LinkedIn (or at least those who answered the question) seemed to have a lot more tenacity than my tweeps.

Some of my favorite quotes…

If the prospect was important, unique, not just another prospect who could be supplanted by another…I would not give up. I’d continue until I reached the person intended, either leading to a “no” or a new business relationship.

Persistence is the only way to make great things happen, and to reach those special people who others give up pursuing.

Dave Cynkin

I have been selling for years. I tend to not give up till I am told to get lost….Also in your emails and voices Tell them it’s OK to say NO. Chances are you will get a NO back in an email rather than a return phone call to answer back with a NO!

Merrit von Seggern

For each marketing tool: Choose a guideline for how often you will reach out. e.g. how often you’ll call prospects.

For each calling, in particular: Also choose a guideline for how many voicemails you’ll leave before you put the prospect on a back burner.

Most people find a guideline of 3 to 5 tries works best.

After choosing your guidelines, apply them to all prospects. This helps avoid placing judgment too soon, which helps prevent frustration.

In general, it’s best to continue to reach out to prospects forever. When you put prospects on a back burner, I just mean reach out less often. Or start using marketing tools for them that can happen more automatically; ie. enewletters.

Shawn Greene

Let me quote the speech Churchill once delivered, when asked to give his view on how to become succesfull.

He got up, walked to the microphone, and said:

Never, Never, Never, Never give up.

And then he sat down again.

The barrier you experience is just as high for your competition. So once you’re in, they’ll have a very difficult time to get you out!

Mark Wiertsema

There were a number of great (and conflicting) answers, so I recommend you check them out.

My own .02? While things like how busy I am, my interest in the project, the size of the project, whether we’ve already send a proposal, and the current economy all impact my answer, my real answer is at least 8 – 10 touches.

Most people give up after just one or two attempts. Personally, when a sales person calls me, I often don’t return the first or second call (especially on a cold call.) I need to see that the sales person is really interested in working with me before they get my full attention.

I assume that my prospects are busy running their own business and they have fires to put out. After 5 or 6 calls/emails/touches I’ll often leave messages along the lines of:

Still haven’t received the cease and desist letter from your lawyer, so I assume it’s safe to keep calling…

Hi, this is the tenacious Rich Brooks calling again. Just imagine how hard I’ll work for you when you’re paying me….

Or something along those lines.

What’s your .02? How often would you contact a prospect before giving up?

Rich Brooks
Tenacious D

Photo credit: Duchamp

Although LinkedIn is the social media site for businesses and professionals, a lot of people still struggle with how to use LinkedIn to build their business.

One powerful area of LinkedIn is Answers. Within Answers you can find questions from other business people, either in your extended network or by drilling down into categories such as Business Travel, Product Management, and Sustainability. You can even subscribe (via RSS) to your favorite categories to get regular updates of new questions.

By answering questions you can connect with prospects, establish your expertise and build your business. To help you out, I’ve created this video, How to Build Your Business with LinkedIn Answers.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn at my new public profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/therichbrooks.

Rich Brooks
Are We LinkedIn?

I’ve often said that the best book on social media marketing is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Although Carnegie never updated his Facebook status, tweeted or even commented on someone else’s blog, the lessons one can learn from that book can be used to win Facebook friends and Influence people on the social webs.

Well, now that book has some real competition. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith is a must read for anyone looking to understand how businesses and non-profits can use the Web and social media.

This book is not about how to get more followers on Twitter, or to get the most connections on LinkedIn. Rather, it’s about understanding how the Web–and specifically social media–is changing the rules of engagement and networking.

The book takes a step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter approach of how to become a trusted member of this new society, and how to leverage that power. (But always for good; the book does address the possibly slippery slope of questionable activity, or taking advantage of one’s community. However, no doubt that some people will put the lessons learned towards hacking the trust equation.)

There’s a lot of great examples in the book, both from Chris & Julien’s lives, as well as Gary Vaynerchuk and dozens of others who have learned the lessons in this book firsthand. I found myself folding down a lot of the page corners, and recommending the book to several friends and clients.

The book was also good at reinforcing what I already believed to be true, just with more concrete examples. Chris and Julien say a lot of the same things I say–except when they say it, it comes across as much more intelligent and insightful–I’ll have to work on that.

You won’t find get rich quick ideas here, and there’s no promises of
untold riches. If you’re looking for how to set up a Facebook fan page
or create a custom background for YouTube, better to Google it than
read this book. But when you’re ready to think about strategy and how
this fits in with the bigger picture of your business, your career,
your causes, this book will help you get there.

Rich Brooks
Getting There

One of the common refrains I hear from people is that "I don't have time to blog."

On the surface, this seems believable. What small business owner isn't over-worked, whether it's with marketing, sales, bookkeeping, managing people, making the coffee, buying the computers, sending out proposals, answering the phones, taking out the garbage, and every other task that fills our days from the moment we hit the office (whether in or out of our house) to the moment we shut down the computer for the day?

And still, I call "B.S."

Because if you're a small business owner like I am, then blogging is something you can always fit into your day. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not octomom (dignity in check, thanks), but my wife and I do have kids, and a work/life balance is important to us.

You see, blogging isn't some self-indulgent activity; it's investing in the future of your business. Blogging increases your search engine visibility, establishes your credibility, and generates inbound leads. In my opinion, it's probably the best marketing tool you have at your disposal, and once you get it set up it's nearly free.

Unlike other required tasks (phone calls, meetings and making the coffee, for example), you can blog any time. In fact, I recommend doing it in the off hours so you can follow up on all the leads active blogging will deliver to you during your normal business day.

Here's how to get it done:

• Write a blog post before the kids get up, or after you've put them to bed. (No kids? Then no excuse. Seriously, this is the time to be blogging like there's no tomorrow because feedings in the middle of the night can kill your creativity.) 
• Give up one night of TV a week and pump out two or three blog posts, and deliver them Monday, Wednesday and Friday the following week. 
• Review your Google alerts for your targeted keywords and write brief posts while eating at your desk two days a week.
• Use a voice-to-text tool while on the treadmill and speak your next blog post (85% less weird if you have a home gym.)

Listen, this is your business. You're an entrepreneur. No one said this was going to be easy. A blog isn't some toy, it's a business tool that's going to deliver qualified leads to your Web site. If you'd rather watch American Idol that's fine; just hope your competition feels the same way you do.

Rich Brooks
Blogging Past Midnight

You may have heard that Gourmet magazine will stop publication after the November issue. 

In a world where "gourmet" has been replaced with the more egalitarian "foodie", over-scheduled families prefer 30 minute meals, and search engines serve up (no pun intended) more than one million different recipes, it may have just been Gourmet's time. How can a print magazine compete against a search engine that will provide recipes based on what you have in your cupboard?

Gourmet is just one business that has been upended by the Internet. Travel agencies, newspapers, independent bookstores, realtors, the local video rental store…the list goes on. 

And yet, within each of these groups certain people and businesses survive. Instead of seeing the Internet as a threat, they adopt their business plans and leverage the new tools available.

Some newspapers have abandoned print entirely, others have leveraged local bloggers and added community elements to their online editions. Some realtors have created video walkthroughs of homes and posted them to YouTube. Some local bookstores have partnered with Amazon, or formed a co-operative to compete.

Unfortunately, for each of these nimble businesses, there's 10 or 50 or 100 other businesses that do everything they can to hold onto their outdated business models, squeezing out every last penny from the buggy whip business.

Many business block their employees from using social media while at work. They often do this in the name of security or productivity, although I feel there are holes in both these arguments.

Tweets and Facebook updates aren't the only ways to share proprietary information; it's easier to put something a thumb drive. Likewise, the very tools that employees often need to do their job better are the ones being blocked.

The bottom line is that the Web and social media are changing the way we communicate and how we work; no one's going to argue that anymore. If your customers are on social media, then you have to let down the castle gates and talk with them.

You must learn to engage with them the way they want, be it through blogs, podcasts, YouTube or social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're not willing to meet with them half-way, they'll find someone who is.

If your customers suddenly start communicating through smoke signals, then you better light a fire.

The Web takes no prisoners; if you don't adopt, if you don't take risks, your next issue may be your last.

You can follow, engage and argue with Rich Brooks on Twitter.

I bought Gary Vaynerchuk’s first book, Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion, on the way to the airport today. Cracked it as we were pulling away from the gate at the Portland Jetport. Finished it somewhere over Ohio. (South of Columbus is what the captain told the flight attendant I asked—I know you demand accuracy.)

That’s no complaint against the length of the book. It may top out at 142 pages but it’s got more ideas than books three times its length.

The book now has a few dozen dog-eared pages, is filled with black underlines, and is littered w/a number of client’s names followed by exclamation points next to passages that inspired me to think about building there businesses using social media tools. (Chantal, Harbor Fish, and new person who knows she should be working with us, we have to talk.)

The book is part inspirational, part instructive, all Gary. He talks about how passion, hard work and social media tools can be used together to create an unstoppable force. He’s a walking poster boy for his line of thinking, the quintessential coming-to-America story. You can’t look at his history and think he had any advantage over you.

Through 13 chapters he walks you through how to brand yourself no matter where your passion lies. He has real life and hypothetical stories about gardeners, accountants, wine merchants and soccer players. There are chapters about how to create great content, which medium is best for you (blogging, video or audio), how to build a community, and a very short chapter—one word in fact—entitled “The Best Marketing Strategy Ever.”

In Gary’s world it’s not the size of your niche, it’s the depth of your passion.And you know what? I’m drinking the Kool-Aid. (Or maybe the Merlot.)

This book isn’t for everyone. If you’re not willing to take risks, if you’re not willing to share your passion, if you’re not willing to work hard—really, really hard—this book isn’t for you.

But if you’re entrepreneurial in spirit, I strongly recommend you run to your local bookstore or buy it here at Amazon, and soon you too will be able to Crush It!

Rich Brooks
Ready to Crush It!

Just in case this is the first time you you've used the Interwebs, let me introduce my guest.

Gary Vaynerchuk 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.” He's a dynamic speaker and passionate about everything he does. It's almost enough to forgive the fact he's a Jets fan.

********************************

Rich: I'm very excited you’ve got your first book coming out – Crush It! – on October 13. It’s about how to create a career around what you’re passionate about.

Obviously, the economy is not great. Some people might think this is a pipe dream. What are your thoughts on that?

Gary: I’m not really interested in convincing. I think my arguments and my thoughts are compelling. I know what it’s about. I’m not looking to do something that’s not real.

Anybody I know that’s in the internet space or social media space that really knows what they’re doing is up 35%, 50% or 80% in ad revenue, things like that.

The economy is bad for traditional places. It’s never a bad time to build a great business, right?

I love this time. I think that this is where the real players step up and win. I feel that if you come from a place of passion, you’re going to love the process. The results become almost secondary.

Clearly you need to pay rent, take care of your family and things of that nature, but I think people need to start wrapping their head around how much opportunity there is right now.

Rich: You talk a lot about passion. Do you think that passion is something that you can develop over time or is it just something that’s innate in that some people have it and some people don’t?

Gary: I think everybody has it. I think the innate thing is that some people see it and others don’t. What I’m good at is communicating and trying to force people to see it and understand it. That’s what I’m passionate about.

Rich: What happens if you’re passionate about something that’s kind of unlikely or odd or just a very narrow niche? How do you turn that into a business that’s going to help you make a living?

Gary: Mixed martial arts was a small niche seven years ago. If you came out and owned that space, you’d probably be sitting as a content provider and be in the half million or million dollar a year business right now.

My thing is to stick to your passion. I don’t understand how you can do something you don’t love. If you love it and you’re only making $40K and you were making $75K before, figure out how to subsidize the other $35K. Get a second job, a lightweight $35,000 a year job that may be at McDonalds.

Give as much time to what you love the most. You can grow with it. You will be bigger than you could ever imagine if you do the thing you love the most. It’s just the way it is. It’s so frigging obvious.

Rich: I had actually never heard you speak until I heard you do one of the opening presentations for the Social Media Success Summit and I was just really blown away.

You obviously have a very natural innate ability to attract people to your passion. But I know a lot of people who just don’t seem to be able to do something like that. What tips can you give people who might have a hard time attracting a crowd?

Gary: I attract a crowd, not because I’m an extrovert or I’m over the top or I’m oozing with charisma. It’s because I care.

I promise you that if you break down the people that you know that are in the content game right now and they aren’t building an audience, they’re spending more time reading about how to do it, trying to figure out how to do it, working on the content and are not putting in the 15 hours a day into the community. I promise you. I’ve never seen anybody put in a crap load of effort and time into their community and not grow. Never.

Rich: That actually brings up another question because I see a lot of people, especially lately on Twitter it seems, and I’m not sure if they’re people or bots some of the times, but they seem to be jumping into social media with the idea that it’s some sort of get rich-quick-scheme, that it's easy money and it doesn’t take a whole lot of work.

I know you have a strong opinion on this. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Gary: Yes, there’s a bunch of bull crap everywhere. People don’t want to work. That’s it. There’s nothing else to say.

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.

I just think that people need to think about big pictures. It’s a race.

I’m sitting here and I’m thinking about this. People are not running marathons, they’re running sprints. They’re looking for quick cash. They’re obsessed with things like buying AdWords and then converting on an affiliate program quicker and making cash. They’re looking for easy outs.

There’s only one true way to build a big business and its hard work, differentiating products and really giving a rat’s ass about your community.

Rich: I once called Twitter the 'Swiss army knife' of business communications. You had a great quote where you called it a 'caveman’s club'.

What do you think social media tools are going to look like in the future and how are they going to evolve?

Gary: I have no idea because that’s not what I do. But what I do is when I see them, I use them.

I don’t really want to invent a fork. I don’t want to invent a baseball bat, but I want to swing that bat better than anybody did. I didn’t want to be Louisville Slugger. I want to be Ted Williams and that’s what I’m good at. I recognize that. I’m not an inventor. I’m somebody that understands how to use products and tools to accomplish what I want. I know that there are going to be more and more connections and I find that fascinating.

I like that transparency is at an all time high because good people win and that’s a game I know I can win.

Rich: It’s interesting that you mentioned Ted Williams because I believe you’re actually a New York sports fan, aren’t you?

Gary: I am, but you’ve got to respect the sweetest swing. The best hitter, the person that saw it the clearest from all accounts is Ted Williams. It’s funny I didn’t pick a home run hitter, which I’m going to think about all day now. It's interesting that I didn’t pick Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron or what have you.

I’m just a slow-and-steady, singles-and-doubles kind of guy. I just don’t want to strike out. It’s a step back. I want to get on base. I’m an OBP kind of guy.

Rich: Exactly, small ball.

Gary: That’s right.

Rich: You’ve got a very interesting story to tell, your parents being Russian immigrants and working in liquor store. You also talk about the importance of storytelling. Can you talk to us just for a few minutes about why storytelling is so important?

Gary: 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.

Storytelling is the game. If you’re unable to convey your story, consumers will not consume your product whatever that may be, whether it’s content or entertainment or food. Whatever it may be, if you’re not capable of telling a story, you are not in the game with human beings because that’s what they want, that’s what they do, that’s how they roll and it’s the main principle of marketing in our society.

Rich: I also know that you’ve talked about authenticity. How far can one go to tell their story and still be true to what actually happened? In other words, you’re not suggesting that people make up a story, like make up something out of thin air. You’re saying you need to be able to tell your own story in a compelling way, right?

Gary: Yes, we’re not talking about fiction here. Absolutely, you need to create and invoke emotion around the reality of your product. I’m not looking for people to scam. You’ve got to tell a story. You’ve got to connect with people, but around authenticity and transparency, of course, because it’s the only game left now in the way that this has all been built.

Rich: Excellent. In the last couple of minutes we have, do you want to tell us a little bit more about Crush It?

Gary: I find it fascinating that a lot of business books that do well are from people who’ve never made any money in business. It's not that that’s wrong because I’m sure that they're intellectually smart and they get it and that’s phenomenal.

I just find that I’m excited that I’ve used these tools and I’ve made it happen. It’s real. It’s a very authentic story and I’m excited about that. I just feel like I pulled off a good book and I didn’t think I was going to. I’m not kidding. I feel like I was able to articulate what I wanted and I just want people to be happy because it’s so damn easy in today’s world.

Three years ago, no. Everything I believe in, three years ago, no. That’s powerful. That’s interesting to me.

I find it completely fascinating, Rich, that everything I believe in, every core principle, was not executable 36 months ago.

Rich: It sounds like you were just born at the right time or you just entered the scene at the right time and that could be part of it.

Gary: It could be. I’d like to think that I’m an explorer and I have my eyes wide open and I would have used different platforms. But the fact that this game is not predicated on cash but on sweat is very attractive to anybody listening to this.

Rich: Where would you suggest people go and check you out and learn a little bit more about what’s going on and learn a little bit more about Crush It?

Gary: I’d love for anybody who’s listening to this to go to Facebook.com/Gary and say, "What’s up?’" and definitely Crushitbook.com.

Rich: Gary, thank you very much for your time today. I really appreciate it. I look forward to reading the book when it comes out on October 13.

Gary: I appreciate it, my man. Thanks for your interest.

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You can follow Gary Vaynerchuk on Twitter here.

You can follow Rich Brooks on Twitter here.