“We're living in what I like to call the 'Thank You Economy,' because only the companies that can figure out how to mind their manners in a very old-fashioned way - and do it authentically - are going to have a prayer of competing.”
“If people say you shouldn't pursue business around your passion they are haters. Don't believe them.”
“Relationships are leverage. If you give value to someone else first, you have leverage.”
“I am wired like a CEO and care a great deal about the bottom line, but I care about my customers even more than that. That's always been my competitive advantage.”
“Market like the year you are in.”
“It's insane to me to ask anybody to be what they're not. Know what you know the best, love the most. That's always going to be the answer to the thing that you have the best shot at winning at.”
“No relationships should be taken for granted. They are what life is all about, the whole point. How we cultivate our relationships is often the greatest determinant of the type of life we get to live.”
“One of the things that I'm really proud of is that I have really good timing. It's very easy for me to see what's coming up and it's no coincidence that I went headfirst into wine and then headfirst into new media - none at all.”
“Hustle is waking up the day before you die and realising you gave it your all.”
“Do what makes you happy. Keep it simple. Do the research. Work hard. Look ahead.”
“The problem is, we’re all using social networks as distribution instead of native platforms to actually tell stories.”
“Storytelling is the game. It's what we all do.”
“Even though I'm a hype man myself, I like the practicality of it all. People who understand how to turn a profit. At the end of the day, this is still business so I'm looking for real practical knowledge of how to actually make money, not necessarily raise it.”
“You can't read about push ups. You gotta do them.”
“Remember the guy in the 80s walking around with a boombox on his shoulder? Why'd he do that? Because it told a story about who he was. Expressing yourself is big business.”
“You need to spend all of your time and energy on creating something that actually brings value to the people you're asking for money!”
“Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show.”
“It's lonely at the top - if you don't like that, then you don't start a company.”
“Innovation doesn't care about anyone.”
“The reason I was able to grow my business was that every day, after producing 30 minutes of wine television, I spent 15 hours a day replying to every single person's e-mail and every single person's Twitter @ reply.”
“A penguin cannot become a giraffe, so just be the best penguin you can be.”
“If your organization’s intentions transcend the mere act of selling a product or service, and it is brave enough to expose its heart and soul, people will respond. They will connect. They will like you. They will talk. They will buy.”
“People don't want to embrace culture shifts because it's not going to happen in the next 20 minutes.”
“One out of every five page views in the United States is on Facebook!”
“I pride myself in listening. When you have people paying attention to you, your biggest job is to listen what they want. Deliver what your community wants.”
