The #AskGaryVee Book Review I Wasn’t Planning On Doing!

As many of you know who follow me, when I pivoted my career many years ago, I knew I was walking into a marketing space that I wasn’t experienced in and didn’t go to college for. But I also became super successful in Cyber Security & Cloud Computing industries in my first 10 years out of college and I didn’t go to college or have jobs in those fields before either.

So when I pivoted my career I focused on telling my story, investing in my community and learning & listening to the best of the best in this space. That led me to read two books in the same month that to this day I still believe fast tracked my career years upon years! (This might sound like I’m full of crap, see the date on the tweet below) Those books were YouTility by Jay Baer & Jab Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk

So as you can imagine since discovering Gary I’ve followed, listened and attended everything he has done since 2014 and although I’m a fan, I’d also say I disagree with him on many things. Not to mention he is a JETS fan and as a Steelers fan there is no way I could profess 100% love for the guy for that reason alone.

So when I heard he was releasing a book inspired by his #AskGaryVee Video blog series, I thought to myself…

“This is genius, all those who missed all this awesome content on video or his podcast can now find it in writen form, this is up-cylcing at it’s best!” (Up-Cycling is a term I coined that mean’s creating great content & reformatting/restructuring it for other mediums and networks)

But as excited as I was for him, I was disappointed cause for those of us fans who consume and watch his content daily, this wasn’t going to be the book I had hoped for after Jab Jab Jab Right Hook!

BOY WAS I WRONG!

So when my amazing friend Chef Lizette invited me to be part of “The Official #AskGaryVee Book Squad” I of course said Yes, first off because Chef Lizette is amazing and secondly because I found so much value in the #AskGaryVee video blog that it only made sense for me to promote the content. But to the surprise of many I wasn’t going over the top or amplifying the book like many might have expected not because I didn’t like the book but because I was looking for the next Gary Vaynerchuk book to teach me & inspire me!

Well after receiving my signed copy of the book (Thanks Chef Lizette) I read the book on a trip to Ireland last week and it was about page 2 of chapter 2 that I realized….

This book has more nuggets & insights that weren’t part of the video blog or that needed extra context to be valuable!

So not only was I captivated and blown away by the content but the organization of the chapters and the flow of each question made it such an easy read yet also layered in tons of valuable insights and grand thoughts about topics that are near and dear to me as an entrepreneur!

I don’t care who you are, you can find some amazing value in this book and because of its awesome layout, it will be a resource for you to use for months & years to come!

A couple of my favorite quotes:

The Audio Book: Gary Passion w/Guest Readers = Gold

After reading the book and being blown away at how much I found valuable even after watching so many of the #AskGaryVee shows I knew I had to do a book review to share these thought. But as I’m writing my book “A Millennial Mindset” I also wanted to check out the audiobook to see how Gary convey’s his passion a trait I’m lucky enough to share with Gary.

Audiobooks in the past have always come across boring or slow to me and that's even when listening to them at 2X speed. (I listened to #AskGaryVee in 1.5X speed & even for someone that talks fast it was almost too fast)

Why did I love the audiobook?

• Gary’s passion shine through!
• The introduction for each chapter will allow for quick referencing when I want to go back to the book to consume something I might have forgot.
• The guest readers add flavor and a fresh spin to the audiobook not to mention it’s another great example of Gary rewarding and including those close to him.
• There is something about PASSION in your ear that makes you want to run through a wall or in this case… jump on periscope and scream to the world that this book is a must read!

So YES… I’m a Gary Vee Fan…. But No I didn’t plan on writing a book review… Yes I was wrong as Gary surprised me again and the only way I could think of to say thanks was sharing this review with you my community hopefully inspiring you to get your own copy!

I decided to jump on Facebook Live & Periscope Live Streams and share a very detailed review of both the book and audiobook while also giving away 3 copies to my community.

I hope you guys enjoy the videos and share those with your community…. Gary THANK YOU for continuing the provide value to your community daily as you exemplify what I believe:

Teach Don’t Preach!

Other books I’ve read recently that I recommend checking out:

• Jay Baer Hug Your Haters
• Brian Solis X: The Experience When Business Meets Design
• Jim Keenan Not Taught
• Daniel Newman The New Rules of Customer Engagement
• Bryan Kramer Shareology