Its not what you do, it's what you do after that [5/29/09]

Our reading notes on Gary Vaynerchuk

• Alternative Sports’ Future Rise and What It Means to Everyone

  Vaynerchuk connects the growth of emerging sports to the experience of their earliest fans. The notes name two ways into a league, an individual athlete’s personality and attachment to a team. Those entry points call for different introductions even when they lead to the same match.

• Document, Don’t Create: Creating Content That Builds Your Personal Brand

  Vaynerchuk proposes documenting work in progress as an alternative starting point for someone stuck trying to invent a polished persona. The useful material is a decision or lesson that really occurred. An ordinary workday also contains private details and unfinished judgments that an editor should leave out.

• Why You Need to Forget Your “Mistakes” and Focus on Your Next Thing

  The episode listing describes Vaynerchuk’s conversation with CRWD founder Ryan Chen about paying people to try products, visit a store and give feedback. For someone planning a sampling day, that raises two separate questions. Did someone take the free sample, and did the experience give them a reason to look for the product again?