It’s been so long since I have picked up a book that hasn’t first started in .PDF format, that’s why after a recent trip to Borders I was pretty excited to find Gary Vaynerchuk’s shortie, “Crush It” in my bag when I left that day with my family.

This was hands down the best $19.95 I have spent in a very long while. In Crush It, Gary talks about how he managed to monitize his passion for Wine and how he did that by building out his video blogging site, Wine Library TV. Gary calls his video’s “The Thunder Show, the most passionate wine program on the internet”.

First off Gary is nuts when you see his videos. Considering how insanely snobby this crowd can be with their big ass noses jammed deep in giant wine glasses, he has a big set to come at his audience yelling and screaming, comparing wine tastes with California sunshine and dirty gym socks.

What this book did for me was make me realize that it’s high time for me to Crush It and drop anything I’m working on that even resembles a security blanket and dive in full force with what makes me jump out of bed at 4am ready to start my day. Those things are my passion for Affiliate Marketing, my membership base at AffPortal / PPV Playbook forum and programming the things that I LIKE to program.

Gary talks a lot about what it takes to build your personal brand and exactly how powerful that brand can be to help get you away from 40 hrs for someone else. There is a good blueprint in here that will walk you through using free social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and a few others, to explode your brand, your name.

When you consider that 1/4 of your adult life is spent working, 1/3 of it is spent sleeping and whatever measly fraction that is left is the time you get to use to do what you ACTUALLY  WANT TO DO, it’s time to find a way to blur those lines between work and fun. When your work is enjoyable AND profitable, that is when you have found your personal recipe for success.

The problem is getting there. How do we get to the point where we can leave the security of a full time job and still be able to support ourselves (and our families). Here’s a hint, it starts with identifying what you are passionate about then building a brand around your name (personal brand) that identifies you as the expert. Once you are labeled the expert in that subject you then can slowly start to monotize that passion.

Expert is a strong word that can be intimidating to a lot of people. If you have heard someone say that you are an expert in something, it comes with an innate pressure to perform. If you feel that pressure like I do, it helps to realize that all it really takes to be an “Expert” at something is to know at least 10% more about a specific topic than the rest of the people in the room and know how to FIND ANSWERS to the rest.

If your knowledge falls in that extra 10% percent, it’s time for you to read Crush It and start building out your personal brand.

I’ll leave you with this. The thing that got me was how Gary described my daily schedule to a T when I was still working a full time job.

8 am to 4:30 pm working at ________________ for much less than you are worth

5pm to 7pm – spend time with my wife and two daughters

7pm to 2am – building my own business in my home office

2am to 7am – sleep and dream about working for myself then getting up and doing it all over again.

If you can relate to this crazy ass weekday schedule and a lot of the time your “work week” starts on Sunday night, building out your personal business, it’s time for you to read Crush It. This book will show you how to get to the next level.

So have you read Crush It and if you have, what did you think about it?