The Man Behind the Brand WineLibraryTV host Gary Vaynerchuk
Daedalus Howell
Both the face and brains of the wildly popular online video blog, WineLibraryTV.com, Gary Vaynerchuk has all the trappings of a self-made media mogul. He’s appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on Ellen and has been featured in GQ and the New York Times among other media pit stops, while proffering his show and more recently his new book Gary Vaynerchuck’s 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. The 33-year-old marketing guru talked with editor Daedalus Howell about the New York Jets, hula-hooping lawyers, modern marketing and, of course, wine.
Daedalus Howell: I just want to begin by saying congrats on your 500th broadcast on WineLibraryTV, that’s quite a big deal.
Gary Vaynerchuk: I appreciate it, it’s a nice milestone and it was a lot of fun.
DH: If you did a daily video blog, number 500 would mean you’ve been in business for two years now.
GV: Yes and it’s on five days a week so it’s about two-and-a-half years. I started in February 2006.
DH: You’ve grown this into an international online media presence—you’ve been on Conan O’Brien …
GV: Mad Money, Night Line, Ellen Degeneres, Cramer, The Big Idea with Donny Deutch. It’s been pretty crazy.
DH: Now, when you began this, did you realize you would be an international wine celebrity?
GV: Yes.
DH: That was the ambition?
GV: I mean I don’t want to lie. I definitely felt confident. I was good in front of a camera. I knew I had good wine knowledge and I knew that I could work my face off doing the business development on the back end. I feel proud of my business savvy. You know, I am the lemonade-stand kid, the baseball card business guy. I get a lot of joy out of the fact that I built this brand. I also happen to be the front-end guy, which was an added bonus. That part I didn’t know, going into it. I didn’t know how good I would be on camera, whether I am good or not is debatable, but what I definitely knew was that I could build, find audiences and then do the right thing by my community.
DH: And keep them enthusiastic. I think you’re a natural in front of the camera and I think your energy is great. The way you energize the appreciation of wine is amazing. Did you know that wine was going to be your ticket? That you would have enough passion that you could carry an entire business venture predicated on wine?
GV: Yeah, pretty early on—it was when I was working for my dad’s liquor store that I started seeing wine grow. I’ve always been pretty good about spin, that’s probably why I got into social media and did a Web site in 1997 and why I launched a video blog in 2006 — both fairly good timing in the scheme of things. You know, I think it’s about understanding opportunity and I did even at a very young age—17, 18 years old—that wine was growing in America. The interest was there and I was passionate about it. I definitely felt like that was always at play and obviously, once I saw things like you see them and everything else online, I felt that media online was growing, and things just added up and made a lot of sense to me.
DH: Would you characterize yourself as an entrepreneur first? Or a wine enthusiast?
GV: I am a family-man first—I love my family with every bit of my soul. Followed by a die-hard Jets fan, then probably an entrepreneur, then probably a personality and then a wine enthusiast. If I have to break myself down that would probably be it.
DH: That seems to be a healthy hierarchy and clearly it’s worked out.
GV: Yeah, and at the end of the day I am very fortunate, and I know it and I execute my living that way. I was born in Belarus in the former Soviet Union. I lived in a world where we were not religious, didn’t know how to speak English. So, we struggled when we came to America. And I got that taste in my mouth, and you can never get rid of that.
DH: Not even with wine, apparently.
GV: Not even with wine, not even with yelling at every Jets player from 1982 to 2008.
DH: Now initially, when we booked this interview, I wanted to talk about wine, but I am really fascinated by the trajectory of your career as an entrepreneur and personality. Do you mind if we talk a little bit more about that?
GV: I think that’s even a little bit more of what I am about, so I have no issue with that.
DH: So when was it, or rather how was it that you became the host of this venture?
GV: I’ve always had a lot of charisma, I’ve always been liked, I was always the class clown that teachers adored, because I always understood boundaries and I just like I had this… You know ever since I saw Emeril Lagasse when I was 15, 16, 17—whatever it was—I was like, “You know, I could probably be the wine version of that.” So, it’s always been in the dark dungeon at the back of my brain, and then I started seeing Ze Frank and Amanda Congdon both have successful shows on the Internet.
DH: That’s right.
GV: I kind of said to myself, “You know, I can do this.” They’re talented, but so am I. And on the flipside, I can bring a massive amount of information about wine, because wine is broke in America and I can fix it. I never wavered or thought anything of being the host.
DH: You were smart enough to ride the wine wave because the interest, especially of your demographic, has been skyrocketing and you have just been able to handhold an entire generation into an appreciation of wine, online, using the media that they use most.
GV: I think so, I think there’s definitely that. What I am most proud about, and this is anyone who watches WineLibraryTV, that it’s more than just about wine. It’s a lot about the New York Jets and my personality. I talk about family and sharing and trying to create a new culture. If you want to demo the wine guy or the wine gal in 1995, it’s a kind of snooty thing. What I am trying to create is not an average Joe or Jane thing but a very open-minded, artistic person, who wants to try different things and doesn’t look down on people who aren’t as educated about wine. I want to kind of mold this society after what I believe.
DH: And it seems to be working. You’re definitely cultivating a community around the wine premise and yourself, as well.
GV: No question. 80,000 people watch WineLibraryTV everyday, and that’s a big deal on the Internet. And it’s a five-day-a-week show that runs 20 minutes long except for when Jim Cramer was on and that was a 42-minute episode.
DH: Given the fact that it is online and you’re in charge—it’s malleable, you can have a
42-minute show. Do you ever feel like you’re over-reaching or under-reaching with the way you produce the content itself?
GV: No. I feel like it’s extremely authentic and I think authenticity is the name of the game. It’s why I have had several offers from TV—most of it’s going to be a lot more perfect and it’s going to be a lot more controllable, which I don’t think the television world is used to or ready for yet. I don’t see me making that jump. I don’t think that real and transparent is ever wrong. I don’t even think about it because that’s what I would be putting out.
DH: That’s a really great observation and the fact that the content is what it is—as it is—instead of cutting it up into evenly sliced segments. That’s a really great point.
GV: I mean if I came to a Hollywood producer and went, “I got a show”—and believe me there are a lot of producers chasing me right now—and I said, “Here’s my show, I am going to sit in front of a camera and I am going to taste wine, four of them for 25 minutes straight, never stopping, complete improv and I’m gonna talk about the New York Jets and have wrestling figures on my desk and talk about Thundercats and Transformers and I’m gonna break down wine and a crap-load of people are going to be into it … You know it wouldn’t be an easy sell.
DH: Right, it doesn’t break into a TV half-hour easily. There’s no room for sponsors. But given that, what is the future for this endeavor? Because I know, clearly, that you have people chasing you—how do you wrap it up further? Or are you projecting into that sphere right now?
GV: I want to buy the New York Jets. That’s the only thing I really want to do.
DH: [laughing] Sure, why not, man?
GV: I’ll be honest with you, I am a really basic guy. I call it “see-saw.” On one end it’s all about the health of my family, on the other end I want to buy the New York Jets, and everything in-between on the see-saw means nothing to me.
DH: It’s the means to getting there.
GV: Exactly, and so you know, if I have to play the “Oprah Ticket” because she seems like the brand that could most likely afford to buy the New York Jets today, then that’s a blueprint that I see as being very feasible.
DH: Now are you really tuned in to your own brand architecture? Can you give me a breakdown of how you have synthesized your brand?
GV: I kind of see my brand as the future of what brands are going to be. I think it’s a bit of a renaissance-brand thing. I mean I am a lot of things. I’ll be honest, I think I can market with anyone in America. Let me rephrase that, anyone in the world. I feel that I am a marketing guru and that I could go on that circuit—and I do. I have sat on advisory boards and consult for people on how to build their personal brands. I view myself as a fundamentally major wine guy. Now I don’t want to say expert, but I’m articulate, can talk about and review wine, get across my feelings and hopefully induce a new culture. I look at myself as a sports guy and a little philosophical in the way that I live my life, that I am a big family guy and I think about that. I’m not pigeonholed. I’m not one thing. I am a multi-dimensional thing and I think that with the Web, where there aren’t sponsors and where people aren’t trying to tell you I’ve got to be more zoned into a demo. I think you’re going to be able to pull off being you. And that’s what I am. Ultimately, what I have been extremely good at, and what I think is a scalable business in 2008 and beyond, is executing on your DNA. I am me.
DH: That is probably one of the coolest phrases I have heard in a long time. “Executing on your DNA”—that’s brilliant.
GV: I appreciate it. [laughing] I’m also very quotable, which makes me pretty cool.
DH: Given your take on personality-branding and all that, you’re saying that by being multi-dimensional, that by being whole people, we benefit from the natural authenticity that comes from that and there’s no reason to try and target one’s self and do one thing— just be who you are, and that thing will find its audience.
GV: You become your differentiator, right? Every one of us is a snowflake, a thumbprint, a retina, and that’s cool. That’s what makes me not Wine Spectator or Robert Parker, right?
DH: Yeah, absolutely.
GV: That’s what makes me not Seth Godin or any other marketing director. I mean, I am me all the way, and there is no one like me. And I think a lot of people are like that. Too many people are like, “Okay, I am a lawyer, let me be the lawyer.” Nooo! You should let people know about your hula-hoop skills and that you love dark chocolate more than anyone else on this earth, and that you can pick out the colors of the rainbow in three seconds. Be you!
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