Gary Vaynerchuk Quotes

It scares the living crap out of me how good wine is at ten dollars.

Never ever waver. Be on record. Don't be on the wrong side of history.

Pinterest is like window shopping 3.0.

The Loire Valley is grossly underestimated. The prices are fair, and the wines are real.

I love people, and the hustle.

I'm a storyteller. I love to tell stories about brands. I love to tell stories, period. I like painting pictures through the words, and that's what I do.

I failed all my classes and that's why I'm winning. In hindsight, the fact that I was considered a failure for the first 18 years of my life has become the foundation of my success.

I'm an entrepreneur first and a wine critic second.

The thing that I'm most passionate about, I'm writing a book called 'Jab Jab Jab Jab Jab Right Hook,' and it really focuses on how to story-tell in a noisy, ADD world.

I always say that the real success of Wine Library wasn't due to the videos I posted, but to the hours I spent talking to people online afterward, making connections and building relationships.

Marketing just got hard.

Please think about your legacy, because you're writing it every day.

Even though I'm a hype man myself, I like the practicality of it all. People who understand how to turn a profit. At the end of the day, this is still business so I'm looking for real practical knowledge of how to actually make money, not necessarily raise it.

What makes a good client, to me, is one that signed on for the strategy as well as the execution, not just the end product.

Jabs are the lightweight pieces of content that benefit your customers by making them laugh, snicker, ponder, play a game, feel appreciated, or escape; right hooks are calls to action that benefit your businesses.

I spent all my time in the clouds or the dirt and that is why I think I'm successful

Care Immensely or Die: This is a bigger culture shift than you realize.

There is never a bad time to start a business - unless you want to start a mediocre one.

Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show.

Unless you are building a new company from the ground up and can install caring as your businesses' cornerstone, you have to be willing to embark on a completely cultural overhaul so that, like a local mom and pop shop, every employee is comfortable engaging in customer service, and does it authentically.

I am surprised by how not-adopted the video reply has been. What keeps other people from doing it, I think, is that they think a video comes across as 'I'm cool, look at how many e-mails I get.' That perception doesn't scare me, because I know who I am.

There's no such thing as perfect. Chasing 'Perfect' is the shortest road to not achieving it.

Many people who I respected were disappointed when I started 'Wine Library TV.' They thought I was dumbing down wine, but I always knew I was one of the biggest producers of new wine drinkers in the world, and people are realizing it now.

You didn't grow up driving ... you figured it out.

Live your passion. What does that mean, anyway? It means that when you get up for work every morning, every single morning, you are pumped because you get to talk about or work with or do the thing that interests you the most in the world. You don't live for vacations because you don't need a break from what you're doing - working, playing, and relaxing are one and the same. You don't even pay attention to how many hours you're working because to you, it's not really work. You're making money, but you'd do whatever it is you're doing for free.

From age 16, I lived and breathed wine. I read every magazine and book about wine.

People don't want to embrace culture shifts because it's not going to happen in the next 20 minutes.

We are living at the beginning of the humanization of business.

What's the ROI of your mum? You can't put a value on a relationship.

Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.

The person who can dominate during rough times is the person who can dominate, period.

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.

Saying hello doesn't have an ROI. It's about building relationships.

Winelibrary.tv was about building personal brand equity. It was a business move. Now, it was totally surrounded by a passion for wine, but I very much gave a lot of thought to doing a sports-video blog instead.

You may not have connections, or an education, or wealth, but with enough passion and sweat, you can make anything happen.

I am thinking about launching a wine website where there is a deal and the crowd can dictate how cheap it can get.

I genuinely believe that any business can create a competitive advantage through giving outstanding customer care.

What you do after you create your content is what truly counts.

Too many companies think they want to do a video blog to sell merchandise, but if you turn your site into QVC, you lose. I have an audience that trusts me. It's about building a global brand - not selling four more bottles of Pinot Grigio.

As much as I love crisp, clean whites, there's always a time for rich but balanced Chardonnays with oak, especially at Thanksgiving.

No matter what you do, your job is to tell your story.

If you're not putting out relevant content in relevant places, you don't exist.

Know the philosophy, know the details, and ignore everything in the middle.

Make every decision based on your last years of life instead of your next 10.

I am wired like a CEO and care a great deal about the bottom line, but I care about my customers even more than that. That's always been my competitive advantage.

One of the things that I'm really proud of is that I have really good timing. It's very easy for me to see what's coming up and it's no coincidence that I went headfirst into wine and then headfirst into new media - none at all.

Business is a marathon, and most of society thinks it's a sprint.

VaynerMedia filters the world how humans interact. This is how people are going to make buying decisions.

I measure my success by how happy I am, not how big the business is or how much money I've made.

It's very logical: There is proven ROI in doing whatever you can to turn your customers into advocates for your brand or business. The way to create advocates is to offer superior customer service.

The only differentiator in the game is your passion and your hustle.

Brands mature over time, like a marriage. The bond you feel with your spouse is different than when you first met each other. Excitement and discovery are replaced by comfort and depth.

I influence anybody who is able to get through the chaos of my first impression.

Being cool has nothing to do with age; it has to do with how solid your identity is.

Part of why you love your parents is because they loved you first. Brands need to do that.

When people are using their devices, it's probable that almost half are networking on social media.

You can't put out projects that you don't use yourself.

No matter who you are or what kind of company or organization you work for, your number-one job is to tell your story to the consumer wherever they are, and preferably at the moment they are deciding to make a purchase.

All your ideas may be solid or even good .. But you have to Actually EXECUTE on them for them to matter.

Effort is grossly underrated.

The reason we love our parents is because they loved us first. Every single company should take this advice.

I think what's happening for me, it's fun to see other things besides Facebook and Twitter take hold. The maturity of Tumblr as a real player is exciting. I think Pinterest has proved to be a major player. It's fun to see Instagram become a major player. It's fun to watch things like SnapChat, and Vine, try to vie to be the next thing.

Ignoring platforms that have gained critical mass is a great way to look slow and out-of-touch. Do not cling to nostalgia. Do not put your principles above the reality of the market. Do not be a snob.

I am aware of the talent I was gifted and had to execute against it. It is just being very self aware and betting on your best strength.

Publicly, they claim to be thrilled to have the opportunity to engage directly with their customers; privately, they suspect, maybe even fervently hope, that Facebook and its spawn are fads.

IQ is a commodity, data is a commodity. I'm far more interested in watching people interact at a restaurant with their smartphone. We can all read 'Tech Crunch,' 'Ad Age.' I would rather be living in the trenches. I would rather be going to Whole Foods in Columbus Circle to watch people shop with their smartphones.

I hate recording all the shows for the week in one day, because I want to be able to mention current events and pop culture. If Madonna punches Britney in the face today, I want to reference that on 'Wine Library TV' tomorrow. Monday's episode is always the best, because it's hot off the press.

A lot of people can play the piano, but not everyone can be Billy Joel.

Anyone working for a big company might be skeptical that a large business, or even a strictly online business, can form the same kind of friendly, loyal relationship with customers as a local retailer. I'm saying it's already been done because I lived it.

I'm a big fan of Mashable and TechCrunch and other outlets like that, but TechMeme obviously does an amazing job of aggregating.

Really, truly, try to figure out what your palate is all about. If you've determined that you don't like dirty old stinky wine - old-world flavors - you probably like new-world fruit bombs. Stick to Shirazes and California Cabernets or Zinfandels.

The best marketing strategy ever: CARE

Social media is not a fad because it's human.

When it call comes down to it, nothing trumps execution.

We love displays and symbols and stuff that quickly and silently tells the world who we are. Better yet, we love visual reminders of who we want to be.

Time - the one asset none of us are ever gonna get more of.

We're not really good at knowing what we want, and we are quick to say 'this sucks'. That's where the opportunity lies.

My dad is like a cactus - introverted and tough. I'm a people person, like my mom, but I got my competitiveness from my dad. He came to this country from Belarus with nothing and built a real business. He's my hero for giving me that need to run a business and for having enormous confidence in me.

Okay, let's talk about cartoon labels for half a second - some people think anything with a dog or a car or a colorful alien is garbage, which is not true. Look at Big Moose Red. It's, like, a $6 wine with a cheesy label, and it's actually a solid wine.

You can't just repurpose old material created for one platform, throw it up on another one, and then be surprised when everyone yawns in your face. No one would ever think it was a good idea to use a print ad for a television commercial, or confuse a banner ad for a radio spot. Like their traditional media platform cousins, every social media platform has its own language.

Great marketing is all about telling your story in such a way that it compels people to buy what you are selling.

When I was 17 or 18 I wanted to become a wine expert, and my parents wouldn't let me drink. So I was devastated. All I could do was read, and I read and I read. And I'd read something like, you know, 'Subtle hints of cassis.'

True success - financial, personal, and professional - lies above all in loving your family, working hard, and living your passion. In telling your story. In authenticity, hustle, and patience. In caring fiercely about the big and the small stuff. In valuing legacy over currency.

Pour your heart and soul into your business. People will notice.

Bet on your strengths. It's an underrated business strategy in a world where so many people are obsessed with fixing their weaknesses they give short shrift to the skills they were born with.

I have as big of an ego as it gets, but I have, stunningly, a lot of humility considering some of the accomplishments I've had.

I definitely think there's some way to understand how people emotionally feel about somebody, but I don't think data collects it. They're not going to click your bit.ly link or click your TweetMeme retweet every time.

99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns. We are going to live through a devastating social media bubble.

I'm concerned a little bit with the culture of celebrating the fundraise. My dad taught me that when you borrow money it's the worst day of your life.

On Facebook, the definition of great content is not the content that makes the most sales, but the content that people most want to share with others.

If content is King, context is God.

I want people to know their palate is a snowflake. We all like different things. Why should we all have the same taste in wines?

I hate how many people think "glass half-empty" when their glass is really four-fifths full. I'm grateful when I have one drop in the glass because I know exactly what to do with it.

Remember the guy in the 80s walking around with a boombox on his shoulder? Why'd he do that? Because it told a story about who he was. Expressing yourself is big business.

People are more comfortable learning about wine because now they can just Google, you know, 'Soave,' and say, 'Oh, O.K., cool.'

I'm just always looking forwards. I spend very little time, looking backwards.

We're living in what I like to call the 'Thank You Economy,' because only the companies that can figure out how to mind their manners in a very old-fashioned way - and do it authentically - are going to have a prayer of competing.

You cannot underestimate the sharpness of people's BS radar. They can spot a soulless, bureaucratic tactic a million miles away.

It's important to build a personal brand because it's the only thing you're going to have. Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you've got to be a good person. You can't hide anything, and more importantly, you've got to be out there at some level.

People are chasing cash, not happiness. When you chase money, you're going to lose. You're just going to. Even if you get the money, you're not going to be happy.