Who is Gary Vaynerchuk?

From my previous post you know I am working with others in the Des Moines area to bring Gary Vaynerchuk to Iowa as part of his book signing tour but to make this a truly epic event we are going to have to introduce others, including close friends and family, to the Thunder Show for the first time. So here are a few links and events you may want to share while out spreading the word and generating interests.

Wine Library TV, episode #459. This is just a great show. Gary continues to bring the thunder but it also shows how his fans have contributed to show and how he brings the wine tasting experience to their homes. Gary also expresses his excitement about coming to Des Moines so you have to love that! Link

Gary’s announcement page for his book. This is the page that started it all and also lists the special buy two books offer. The official video announcement is also available on this page along with a list of other cities already confirmed for the book tour. Link

Upcoming TV appearances. Over the next week Gary is going to be on a number of TV shows; pass it along so others can watch and learn more about Gary. Upcoming appearances include:

• Wed, May 7th, The Big Idea w/Donny Deutsch which airs on CNBC at 10pm EST.
• Mon, May 12th, The Late Night Show w/Conan O’Brien which airs on NBC at 12:30am EST (technically Tues. 5/13).
• Tues, May 13th, Mad Money w/Jim Cramer which airs on CNBC at 6pm and 11pm EST.

Upcoming.org event page. And lastly, don’t let anyone get away without directing them to our Upcoming event page. Have them register and show their interest in coming to the book signing. Link

Thank you again, all for the support in making this event happen! We are so close to locking down the event so please continue to spread the word and I promise this will truly be an epic event!

Personal Mission Statement - Follow up

The Outstanding Club’s writing contest has ended and the entries have been posted to their site. As follow up to the contest those who have entered including myself have been asked to vote for their favorite two.

After reading the posts, my two votes go to:

• Jake Dahn’s Personal Mission Statement published at jakedahn.com by Jake Dahn
• Rob Jensen’s Personal Mission Statement published at jensenrf.wordpress.com by Rob Jensen

Jake’s post is my favorite and I feel is most deserving of the $25 Amazon gift card. In fact, my post was modeled/inspired by his format and I am sure if you compared the two you can see the similarities in how the post was broken out. I appreciate how he outlined his conclusions and let that shape his mission statement. I sense the self discovery that must have been involved to come to statement and greatly appreciate him sharing this with the internets.

I do want to give credit to Chris Brown. The mission statement is perfect in simplicity and it is key to note all of the words are actions which I believe is truly important because your mission statement should resonate through your actions, and I am sure Chris walks the talk. The only reason I wasn’t able to throw a vote to this post is because I felt it lacked the sharing of the personal discovery of Jake’s post. Once again I can identify with Jake but I don’t have enough meat in the post to know Chris and what drives the mission statement.

Iowa, help us bring Gary V to Des Moines

*Last update on this post - We have a tentative date and it looks like we are in the home stretch. Mark June 21st at 5:30pm on your calendars and sign up at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/594746/ so we, including Gary, have an idea of how many are going to show up!*

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Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV recently completed his first book, 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World . To get the word out he is kicking off a book signing tour and has asked his fan base to provide suggestions for where to go.

This weekend I was able to exchange some emails with Gary and we ended with a little deal. So here it is, Gary is seriously considering a stop in Des Moines but he needs to see the demand. If we can get 50 peeps to confirm their interest he will make it happen and schedule a stop sometime during the 3rd week of June.

This is huge and I am determined to make this happen! The great people of East Village Books have already stepped up host the event and we are kicking around ideas and spreading the word but we can use your help. So here is what we need:

1. Comment here if you are interested. We need 50 to confirm and we are looking to create a sign up list but I wanted to get this ball rolling and generating buzz now.

2. Spread the word to friends, families and everyone else. If you have any connections to radio stations, newspapers or anyone else who can help get this event exposure let us know.

3. Share your ideas. I am looking to create some flyers to post at wine shops, libraries and other free bulletin boards but the more creative ideas the better so share them here!

4. Pre-order the book. It’s a book signing tour so make sure you have your copy in advance. Gary is also offering a special deal if you order two or more books so now is a great time to capitalize.

5. Post the event on your blog, facebook page or on any other social network your are a part of!

Let’s make this happen Des Moines!

*Update: Check out the latest episode of Wine Library TV. A small comment about the event and Gary calls out 150 peeps are needed. Either way, we want something epic so I stress we need your help!

*Second Update: You can also order your book through East Village Books. For store information or to order it online check out this link.

Personal mission statement

I have been reading some of the follow up posts on the Outstanding Club and have decided it was time to take a crack at my own personal mission statement. I am hoping by doing so it will help reshape my own blog and get me back on track with my career development.

I started creating my personal mission statement by looking at the activities in my life the gave me joy and energy in my life. Not the short term burst of happiness but the true fulfilling moments in my life that still make me smile when I look back at them. The events that stick out are:

• The day I said “I do” to my wife
• The day my first child was born and I became a father for the first time
• The day I became a father for a second time
• Meeting with other innovators at work to discuss new ideas
• Working in a close team and learning through sharing experiences with each other
• Reflecting with friends and having discussing where we are and where we are going

I also started to look at what I am passionate about. Those things that I can talk about for hours with friends, family or someone I just met. Some of my favorite topics include

• Use and need of technology
• Social media and currently twitter
• Process tools and methodologies
• Setting goals and continuous self-improvement

After some reflection I have decided that what drives me really boils down to:

Working with people to create trusting relationship to understand their needs and help discover and apply the right tools to help them be successful on their own goals.  

I would say that is me in a nutshell. I love working with people and listening to their stories. There is so much self-discovery in just talking to someone else openly and when you create that relationship I just can’t help but want to work with them and help them be successful. 

Tumblelog app for Facebook

Tumblr for a long time has been my microblogging service of choice, and recently I have discovered a great little facebook application to further promote ElephantsCrossing.com. Appropriately named, Tumblelog, the application is easy to setup and cleanly sits in your facebook profile.  

The screen grab demonstrates the customization options and it is great to see that users have the ability to filter out content based on type and even further promote their tumblelog via News Feed. Because I like to keep a minimalist profile I was also relieved to find I can set the number of posts to be displayed in my profile and videos I have posted on my tumblelog first show as a play button versus the video screen.  It should be noted however you can play the video from your facebook page and images are shown without requiring any additional clicks.

Overall this is a great facebook app and way to promote your tumblelog. I will surely keep this one around for a while and add one more reason for keeping a facebook profile to my list.