More than 100 people came to on Monday to hear Gary Vaynerchuk speak about his new book The Thank You Economy.
Vaynerchuk spoke to the crowd of small businesses CEO’s, entrepreneurs, and fans about the changes to marketing, purchasing and consumer behavior brought on by the rise of social media. He pulled from his own experiences to write the book, which mostly discusses how businesses should change to suit the needs of their customers who are now online a lot.
This foray into book writing is a deviation from what he is mostly widely renowned for doing -- hosting the Wine Library TV video series, which he founded in 2006 as a video blog. More than 1,000 videos later, Gary V, as he is known to his fans, has a club of people subscribe to who taste wines virtually with him. They watch the videos of him tasting it and drink the wine that he's mailed to them at the same time. Why watch wine talk with Gary V? His demeanor. Instead of dryly describing why one one is better than the other, he rants about them with the zest of a commentator on ESPN.
Vaynerchuk spoke for about 30 minutes at Kepler's, after which he answered questions from an engaged and enthusiastic audience. He later signed books and posed for pictures, while some audience members networked and sipped wine donated from local merchants, , and .
You can find Gary V on Twitter, with a bottle of wine in each hand, engaging his followers in conversations.
How has writing and publishing changed your life, and do you think you would be as prominent now if you hadn't written your 2 books? Also, any ideas for your next one?