I love Gary Vaynerchuk. He is possibly my favorite person in social media. It could be his New York style, or his common sense, practical content.

Gary gets it. He gets it in a way that very few other people, even in social media get it. I believe this stems from a lack of pretentiousness that drives him. He is who he is, and he’s focused solely on “the hustle” – the drive to build his brand and make money.

When Gary puts out a video, people listen. Because he knows what he is talking about.

We’ve talked a lot about brands and marketing here. I’ve talked about the trust and transparency factor. How if your customers can relate to you, because you’re transparent, they are going to do more business with you. How if your customers don’t trust you, your brand is worthless because you don’t control the value of your brand – they do!

Gary points out in one of his recent videos that brands of the past succeeded on “presentations” – that is ads, and marketing. They went where the eyeballs were. No one ever got to engage with the brand other than to buy the product. But, he argues, brands of tomorrow will succeed by “working the room” and talking to their customers because social media has changed the game.

Enjoy some Garyvee!