Proof that I was on-point back in 2008

the guy I could have been was you know complacent or happy that he got something right but I wanted to take it

by the neck and take it to the next level I'm Gary Vander chuk and uh I'm director of operations and co-owner of wine library and host of Wine Library TV we're an over $50 million a year business we have over a 100 employees we're one of the most visited wine websites on the internet we are a kicking butt a little bit I've always dreamed crazy big I fundamentally knew that the competition out there was not ready for what I was going to bring to the table all right buddy tonight we're talking about going big time somebody says I want to be big but there are certain things you got to do that you did some very specific steps that we're going to share tonight and the first one to go from in your case 2 to 50 million because people say 2 million it's okay is you got to find the hoopla Factor you say talk to me about know you have to be excited about what you're doing and so if you have the hoopla factor it's because you love what you do and so for me it's be who you are be as transparent and as real as possible and that's going to make you different cuz everybody's different and so whether it's in a personal brand or within your store or whatever you're doing what you do okay here's the difference between staying small and going big what was your hoopla factor that got you big the first small hoopla Factor was launching a website in 1997 wine library. com was launched nobody was doing that in the wine retail business the second thing was I was a little bit of a freak Show I was a 17 you know I was a 20-year-old kid that looked 13 and knew a lot about burgundy you know people came just to see that um but more importantly I invested very heavily in a different product mix that everybody was really worried about bordeau in California and I saw Spain and Australia coming on and so I would pump that and get people excited about that so you got to do it differently there's got to be some if you want to go big in anything you're doing in life you got to say I want to do a little there got to be some hoop line there the other thing next thing you talk about is you got to get ahead the pulse yeah I mean reading Trends is death City USA say that again you need to be aware of Trends and find them and the way you do that is you get in the pulse you get into the trenches I would conversate with every customer that walked through the store I answer and read every email I get every day and it's a thousand plus a day but what that gives me is a crazy R& D I'm an re research and development guy in my own guts I know what's going on I know what's coming next I know Portugal's coming on the scene I know Greek wines are going to mean something and the way I do that is by working my face off and not reading what's coming but along those lines also go in the opposite direction your case everybody was on to California you said I'm going to do Australian Wars because I saw that people were liking California wine because they were fruer and bigger than Bordeaux well where was the next fruity bigger version of California it was Australia and Spain and so it became a very obvious segue in pallets um and I just knew that once they got exposure you know the wine industry you know ratings are very important and to me it's once you get rated and reviewed and people read about you you're in the game and I knew it was just a matter of time that once those wines got that kind of press that they would be on the tip of every tongue and so I embraced and learned everything I could about them speaking of learning the third thing you're saying I think this is 101 put your chips on Talent you want to make it big how do you mean I grew my family business from 4 million to 15 million in a quick second 24 36 months and I was paying myself $27,000 a year I had employees making more money than me and you the normal demo of a 26-year-old that maybe did something like that is he's going to want to have the car and the place and I didn't I wanted to reinvest you know too many people don't understand sometimes you know people are talking about what are you doing now to me it's not about what you're doing now it's about where you're going you know I was a young guy I'm still a young guy I want to accomplish crazy things and there's no way I'm going to cash in I'm going to reinvest with the people around me absolutely it's hardore you can't go wrong betting on Talent no it's number one difference between staying small and getting big and whatever you do in life I just want to put this out there in neon again is it's the people stupid you invest in people will always come back and you know what I'm gonna add one little thing to that I think you need to invest in people that have a certain DNA you have to know their DNA I always like you know you always hear people say smarter than you and all that and that makes a lot of sense but you are the core right you're at the top there and you need to be able to interact and more importantly love the people you're working with to some sort of level because once you start creating that family atmosphere that's whyne library's biggest secret that everybody loves each other in my building and the person that's causing trouble the one that doesn't understand how to play with the other boys and girls they're out I love it they're out you talk about spreading your bets around also another key thing to making it big I'm a very big fan of not playing in the playground that you're supposed to I'm a wine guy and I don't go to Wine events I speak at technology conferences um I spoke at Facebook the other day Google I want to be in different six apart places um that you know people are curious about wine I mean the people that are into wine that wine scene I've got that I've lived that that's been my world I think it's imperative to be involved in the social networks on the internet real world all these internet guys love to live just in the internet sometimes you need to go out there and shake some hand kiss some babies live interact that's how you can spread it dramatically more okay and the final one is social Equity Trump's private Equity this is my favorite I honestly can tell you in 2008 not in 2000 maybe not even in 2005 but in 2008 and Beyond I would much rather have a million friends then I used to say a million dollars I've now changed it to a million friends than $10 million the social Equity the Friendship what you know this word of mouth how powerful is that more most powerful piece of we are now living in a world where every person's Word of Mouth reaches so many more people and that to me that is the Home Run of where we are today