I’ve been remiss not blogging about the amazing Gary Vaynerchuk, wine vlogger. I’ve been dining out on him for a year. Every time I discuss online people’s video with Big Media Companies, including Big Networks, I show them Gary’s show. It’s a Memorex moment. From the first second, he blasts them back with personality. And then he blasts them with information and excitement about wine. Now this is what TV should be.
Gary’s on a panel on making money from this vlogging thing at SXSW with Omid Astari from CAA, Nicole Lapin from CNN iReporter, Damon Berger from Revision3, and Brad King of TheDudeMan.net.
He is filled with enthusiastic advice. He says life is a DNA game: You know whether you’re meant to be a star or not. After building up his family’s wine store — where I shop all too often; it’s my store — he was bored and wanted to make online video. He thought of making sports but decided he wouldn’t be taking over ESPN, so he did what he knows and loves and that helps because he has to work damned hard at it.
He’s fascinating because he understands the internet and lives it. The other night, he used it — and 17 cases of shipped-in wine — to create his own flash party, which became the talk of Twitter. He says that even if he is bought up by agents and media (the man from CAA is booking Gary for festivals and he has a book coming out and there are more secrets), he’ll always make WineLibrary.tv. He says he spends 4-5 hours a day socializing and understanding the social web. He even understands platform thing: “My goal is to make everyone around me make trillions of dollars.”
Asked whether he wants a TV show he said yes but he wants it his way, he wants to be on after Entourage and be obnoxious. He says that after being on Conan, Ellen, local news, big print, the biggest impact he has seen is from being in the back of cabs. He wants to be the biggest show over urinals.
The panel as a whole gives great advice to the room about how to make their own stuff and lives. But Gary’s the model. Great panel.
