25 years from today, people will acknowledge that Gary V is the Walt Disney/Steve Jobs/Jeff Bezos of community brand equity creation. I was in the commercial radio broadcasting biz for 30 years, jumped into digital marketing in 1996, and have been watching Gary’s career arc since Wine Library became a thing. At first I thought Gary was an infomercial pitchman, (no dis - I have mad respect for Billy Mays and Ron Popeil) but as I have followed the long tail on his career, I see the truth. He has done nothing but build goodwill, as he tirelessly gave away for LESS THAN FREE (meaning it COST HIM in the short run) the knowledge, wisdom, and experience he has amassed. He constantly ignored the many oportunities to do “quick cash grabs” from his community. And as his personal brand equity soars today, he’s only just now entering what I believe will be his “Golden Era” - in the blockchain/digital currency space. He’s finanlly found a way to PAY HIS AUDIENCE for listening to him and learning from him. I’m excited to see where this is all going, as he builds out his NFT’s and drags us all into the future - and the tokenization of culture.
