Gary Vay-ner-chuk is one bad ass motherfucker.

You know, I was lucky enough to attend a conference about a year ago in Scottsdale where Gary Vaynerchuk  was the keynote speaker. I think it was the DMM or some shit, I dunno. I just went because the company I was working for at the time offered and I wanted to go hang out and drink. It was pretty much as I expected. Track after track of sessions where people were buzzing about “best practices” and milling around like the good little workers that they were, gathering as many “terms” and “shortcuts” to take back to and dazzle the boss man with. There were also a few very cool people there that I met throughout the few days, but as anyone who knows me will tell you, I made no attempts to hide the fact that I was not impressed with the conference and its overall tone, but I digress. Anyway, so it’s the last day of the conference and we are walking to go see the keynote speaker. Now I had never heard of this dude, much less every heard him speak but let me tell you, it changed something in me.

After a mediocre lunch in which the “team” of people I was working with conveniently  forgot to save me a seat, I found myself at a table of strangers about 9 feet from the stage. Gary Vaynerchuk  took the stage and proceeded to stand in front of a room full of marketers, hundreds of them (all waiting eagerly to hear the latest “buzz words” and be praised for their marketing genius) and tell them right to their faces that they were ALL doing it wrong. He stood up there and told them to fundamentally change the way they run their businesses, to really and truly be transparent and honest and then he gave examples how he does those things to back up his claims. He did this with such passion and such unrelenting vigor that I ended up yelling out something stupid like “I agree” or ‘Fuck Yeah” I don’t remember which, during his speech like someone “testifying” in church, actually if you find the full keynote online you should be able to hear me yelling towards the end. Anyway, the point is this; that son of a bitch Gary Vaynerchuk  gave me hope. He essentially said on stage to this room of people what I had been screaming for years. He had felt the same way I felt about business and running a business and he turned it in to something successful and this gave me the hope that it really could be done.

I have since been following Gary in all his craziness and awesome ideas on Twitter. He seems to be one step ahead of the crowd at all times and while it’s frustrating as hell at times to watch him be so successful, it gives me hope that business does not have to suck the life out of you and everyone around you.

So, Gary is you are reading this (and you should be because I know you pay attention), I had a blast playing poker with ya, even though I lost my ass, and to this day, your Keynote still resonates with me almost every single day.