I recently listened to Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Crushing It, and I’m telling you, it’s good. It’s real good. Life changing good? Yea, maybe! Mostly if you have a thing you’re doing. A blog. A side hustle. Some business that you’re building.
Let’s Talk About Rich Roll
First of all, Rich Roll is a contributor. Not only does he read stories of others’ struggles and successes, he reads his own story. And to tell you the truth, his story is what made me feel the need to write out this post.
Rich Roll is a personal hero of mine. I used to hate running. Hate it. Then I stumbled on Rich’s podcast one day many moons ago. And he and a guest were talking about running an ultramarathon. At this point, I couldn’t even wrap my head around running 10 miles. And these guys were talking about running over 100 miles. 100. Freaking. Miles.
You know what that did? It opened my mind. What I once thought was impossible, I now thought was possible. Rich Roll got me running. Something that I hated.
And I ended up loving it.
I don’t have any sort of desire to run 100 miles, but after listening to that, I knew I could do 26. I haven’t gotten there yet. But I did run the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. Thanks to Rich Roll. Here I am after the race.
That marathon will happen too. Eventually!
The icing on the cake is that Rich is a vegan. As am I. (See my other site PickPlants.com about that.)
*My hero!*
Back to Rich’s Story in the Book.
I knew about Rich’s struggles with alcoholism and with his health. But what I learned from Gary’s book is that he also struggled financially while he was getting his podcast off the ground. He had a law degree from a prestigious school, yet he knew he had to keep following the path that he was on instead of giving in and getting a “regular” job. He was all in.
That’s where I’m at right now. And it makes me feel better when I hear a story like that. I am all in with my websites. I know it’s the right path. I know all my past failures are lessons that have helped me get to this point. And I know that if I just keep going, everything will work out. Just like it did for Rich.
Of Course, Gary is Helping Too!
Gary is changing the way I think about everything. Everything. Here are the things he’s taught me so far.
1. He makes me feel so confident that I let my kids have YouTube channels.
Other parents worry that their kids are going to get kidnapped or something if they’re on YouTube. I get that. But I worry more that my kids are going to be strapped down to a 9-5 that they hate when they’re older. So I let them do their thing and be creative. I want them to have their own side hustles.
2. He reminds me that there is so. much. opportunity. out there.
So much. Which gets my wheels turning. Where can I place myself? How can I get in front of more people? What am I missing? What’s new that I can hop on? How can I engage better? How can I let people into my life more? How can I be more meaningful?
3. He and Rich both remind me to have good content.
Don’t just spew stuff out that’s not helpful. I do try to be helpful, but I know I can be better at this. I truly want to help others. I want everyone to be successful whether it’s with plant-based eating, finding meditation, running a home-based business, or all three! If there’s a way I can help with that, I want to. That’s my goal.
4. Gary reminds me that I’m not perfect, and I’m not an expert.
I am 100% OK with this. In fact, I like it. I don’t want to be perfect. I realized recently that I love writing about my failures. I love telling people about when I mess up. (Like today when I dropped and broke an entire bottle of wine at Wegmans. You know what I thought to myself in that moment? I wish I had gotten that on video, because that was pretty hilarious!)
And I’m not an expert. On anything. I’m learning though. And I’m hoping that someday people will benefit from the learning journey that I’m on now. They’ll read through all the things I’ve messed up on (or that I’ve done right) and take something from it.
I don’t think I’ll ever consider myself an expert though because I love learning and expanding and I don’t want to box myself in to “expert” status and then not be motivated to learn.
5. Gary says to document the journey.
Well, I’m kind of doing that with this blog and my other one. I’m documenting what’s happening. But not enough. Gary says to basically document everything in your life. With video. That freaks me out a bit. But I’m considering doing more of that. Er, I’m considering starting to do that. It might even be fun. I can show more of my slips, falls and wine spills.
These are the five things that Gary and Rich taught me from Crushing It. I think I’ll take another listen (using Audible, of course!) and see what other gems I’ve missed. You know how they say to read or listen to something more than once? Because you learn so much more from it the following times? Yea. I’ve discovered that’s actually true.
But please. Don’t take my word for it. In fact, take my word, but also get your own perspective on it by grabbing a copy of Crushing It and see what YOU learn from it. Then, comment below and let’s discuss. I’d love to hear what you think of this book.
Also, I want to know if you have a side hustle? Why or why not? And if you do have a side hustle, is it something you plan to make your full-tim hustle some day? I’d love to hear about it. Let me know below what you’re up to!
Click Here to Start Crushing It In Your Own Life!
I’ve read this book. To be honest, I skipped through certain chapters because some of them took on such an arrogant tone that I just couldn’t finish. I did learn a few things from it though, and I’m really glad someone got more out of it than I did, lol!
That’s good to hear another side of it. I definitely have had a few experiences like that with other books. For some reason, even though Gary definitely comes off as arrogant-sounding sometimes, it just doesn’t rub me the wrong way. Also, I listened to the audio book, and maybe that’s the difference? I really do enjoy listening to him!
Absolutely Recommend Crushing It by Gary Vee and I got all the same take aways from this Book as you did Chrisitina. Thanks for sharing!
Great, thanks Marvin! I’m glad you enjoyed the book as much as I did.
Great read! I love that you put your own life into perspective through the authors writing. How Gary has given you aspirations and goals in your own writing, etc.. which was probably a very big objective that the author had in mind. I’ll have to check out “Crushing It” and read it for myself.
Yes, definitely give it a read / listen and see for yourself if you find the same inspiration in it. I would love for you to come back and share your thoughts!
Hi Christina,
Excellent post! I love Rich and Gary V too. Crushing it! I have on audible also. Gary has inspired me to document what I do and I post lots of videos on Facebook and Youtube. The good part about that is in a strange way is most people are too shy to post video’s and yet video is where its at so I feel like I am ahead of the pack in some ways. At least its a way to beat my fear of doing videos haha! I love it now. It was nerve wracking at first.
Love your website and your attitude. I ran a half marathon recently too and looking at doing the Gold Coast marathon in 2019 here on the Gold Coast. keep up the great work, Kev
Hey Kevin! So you actually did jump in and start doing videos? I don’t know why, but videos make me completely nervous! But I think it’s just what you said. Just gotta jump in there and get started. Good for you for doing that!
And good for you for running a half marathon! How was the experience for you? Some days I’m out running and I love it. And other days I think “Why am I torturing myself like this?” lol But runner’s high is a real thing, so I keep doing it!