Do you have a personal brand? Pretty much everyone does, whether you realize it or not. What is your passion in life? When people think of you, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Odds are that the answer is your personal brand.

I am a Christ follower, a husband, a father, a brother, and a friend. I’m a webhead, a gadget junkie, an aspiring author, a social media strategist, and other things. So what is my personal brand? Which of these things am I most passionate about? That’s honestly hard for me to narrow down, and that’s why this blog continues to be a wide array of topics.

In this book, Gary shares his own stories of working in the family business, and how he was able to capitalize on that experience and launch Wine Library TV. The child of Soviet Union immigrants, Gary’s parents and he lived out the American dream! He worked in the family business (a local liquor store), and he was able to expand that business, and then later launch other ventures. Today, he has a pretty comfortable lifestyle that many would be very happy with. But Gary keeps searching and working for more on way to his passion – owning the New York Jets.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone that would like to establish a personal brand and make money online. The door is open for all of us, and I’m going to make some changes with my personal brand in the weeks and months ahead. I would encourage anyone who’s interested to get a copy of Gary’s book and read the whole thing. But here’s a quick summary of how you can begin to Crush It! in 21 easy steps.

    1. Identify your passion.
    2. Make sure you can think of at least fifty awesome blog topics to ensure stickiness.
    3. Answer the following questions:
      • Am I sure my passion is what I think it is?
      • Can I talk about it better than anyone else?
    4. Name your personal brand. You don’t have to refer to it anywhere in your content, but you should have a clear idea of what it is. For example, “The no-bs real-estate agent,” “The connoisseur of cookware,” “The cool guide to young-adult books boys will love to read.”
    5. Buy your user name—.com and .tv, if possible—at GoDaddy.com.
    6. Choose your medium: video, audio, written word.
    7. Start a WordPress or Tumblr account.
    8. Hire a designer.
    9. Include a Facebook Connect link, Call-to-Action buttons, Share Functions, and a button that invites people to do business with you in a prominent place on your blog.
    10. Create a Facebook fan page.
    11. Sign up for Ping.fm or TubeMogul and select all of the platforms to which you want to distribute your content. Choosing Twitter and Facebook is imperative; the others you can select according
    12. Post your content.
    13. Start creating community by leaving comments on other people’s blogs and forums and replying to comments to your own comment.
    14. Use Twitter Search (or Search.Twitter) to find as many people as possible talking about your topic, and communicate with them.
    15. Use Blogsearch.Google.com to find more blogs that are relevant to your subject.
    16. Join as many active Facebook fan pages and groups relating to your blog topic as possible.
    17. Repeat steps 12 through 16 over and over and over and over and over.
    18. Do it again.
    19. And again.
    20. When you feel your personal brand has gained sufficient attention and stickiness, start reaching out to advertisers and begin monetizing.
    21. Enjoy the ride.

I have compiled a list of my personal highlights and notes as I was reading this book. Check it out: http://bit.ly/shaunwo-crushit. So… is now YOUR time to Crush It!? I think it is.