Chatting with Gary Vaynerchuk: "I want my brand to be my DNA"

GaryVee says: "It's just a matter of time." (Photo by David Sarno)

Gary Vaynerchuk, star of the popular online tasting show Wine Library TV, and a self-styled internet businessman, blogger and web celebrity, sat down with me in Westwood last week to talk about how you get big on the Internet, and where it's all going to lead.

Why does personal branding seem to be so well-suited to the Internet, whereas it may not have been in the era of big media?

It's become a democracy. Me, Gary Vaynerchuck--80,000 viewers a day--I would've had to come to L.A., work at a bar and be a wine guy, get lucky, bump into somebody, and go audition. But now the cost of entry to build your personal brand is zero. That's what's changed. I don't think the fundamentals of what gets you to watch this or me to watch that has changed.

I always tell people: it's the Conan O' Brien rule. I've been on Conan. Had I been on Johnny Carson 20 years ago, I'd probably be a bigger brand. Had I been on Ed Sullivan 30 years earlier than that, I'd be a phenomenon. Because back then there were less places for the eyeballs to go. 

But getting 500,000 or a million views on an Internet show--that's going to be there. And those are going to be the players.

You use a lot of social technologies to advertise your content and yourself. Can you win a mainstream audience with that stuff?

99% of the people on the earth have no idea what Twitter is. You start getting even more nerdy than that, getting into places like Seesmic--places to build your brand--I know I'm sitting on a huge knowledge base that most people don't understand.  I'm going to ride that. That's why everybody's interested in what I'm doing. 

But most mainstreamers don't understand this technology...

I don't care. Because it's not about today.  I'm in a different place.  I've built a successful multimillion dollar business.  I don't have to make $40,000 a year right now, or $200,000.  To me, it's this:  [he taps his watch and smiles].  I just keep hitting my watch.  That's all I do.  I spend hours a day just tapping my watch--it's my move.  It's just a matter of time. Period, end of story, game over.

You've said you want to own the New York Jets eventually -- but what does that have to do with wine?

Wine's a vehicle.  But it's a massive passion--I love it, and it'll never go away.  I want to create a world where you're not branded one way.  I want to be a social media expert, and a marketing guru, and a big time wine guy, and a jets fan, and a family guy, and a sensitive guy, and a wrestling maniac.  That's who I am.  I want to create a new package that hasn't been seen before.  America has always wanted to pigeonhole people.  Your network and your managers and your producers have wanted you to stay focused 'on brand.'  I want my brand to be my DNA.

You taught yourself to be a wine taster starting before you were old enough to drink--by eating dirt and cigars and other strange stuff.  But really, all that enthusiasm and you never tried the real thing?

I didn't. You'd meet my mom and you'd understand.  Never. 

I'd love to say I did. It's sexier. It'd be a great marketing thing, right?  Like the 16-year-old drinking wine? I didn't.  I wasn't a curious kid.  I've never done a single drug.  I've only been drunk three times in my life. And I'm in the wine profession. 

I like being in control. It's probably the whole content and business thing--it all ties into the same genetics.  Plus I come from a heritage of a lot of people being drunk all the time.  Russians and stuff, so I'm turned off by that kind of thing.

Comments

[Anna Sabino]

Great job, Garry.
You're a mega star with a book, great show and press appearances.
Congrats!!!

[Adam Root]

Any company wanting to do business in 2008 needs to engage in social media. As Gary says it is "Word-of-Mouth 2.0."

Cheers,

Adam Root
http://www.twitter.com/adamroot