Anyone that knows me knows that when it comes to the latest business and marketing books, I’m all over them. Over the holidays I had the opportunity to read the latest book by Gary Vaynerchuk, Crush It! Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with who Gary is, I’ll fill you in. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader that does over $50 million a year in sales. Then one day he turned on a video camera and began the internet’s first wine video blog, Wine Library TV. If you haven’t seen this before, you have to check it out. It’s very entertaining.

In Gary’s book, he reveals the secrets that he used to transform his life and earning potential and build his personal brand using the internet. Gary makes the statement inside “Social Media = Business. Period.” It’s certainly a bold statement, but in my opinion, Gary has enough information and examples in his book to back it up.

Gary shares his step-by-step techniques of how to harness your passion, build a blog, leverage social media, create a following or a community, and the monetize your blog. I found his steps to be really quite simple. I can always appreciate someone who cuts to the chase and gets to the point.

So if you want to learn how you can cash in on your passion, then I recommend you go and pick up a copy of Crush It! and begin to build your personal brand. I give Gary’s book 4 out of 5 stars.