SXSW Interactive: Turning Wine Into Gold [Gary Vaynerchuk]

Welcome to the start of an exciting new work week cubefarmers! Right now, we bet you are sitting in your beige-fabric-covered cube wondering just how you ended up in that florescent-tinged, soul-draining predicament. Sure, you can spend some of The Man's dime reading all the SXSW posts on Austinist, but inside you know something in your life is missing.

In walks Gary Vaynerchuk and suddenly, life doesn't seem so bad.

Vaynerchuk, creator of Wine Library TV and the tech geek's Tony Robbins, spoke yesterday on a return visit to SXSW Interactive to discuss what was supposed to be a panel on video blogging. What evolved Sunday (just as the sun was finally breaking through our seven days of grey rain clouds) was a mashup of comedy, brand insight and entrepreneurial inspiration. Coincidence?

The story of Gary "Vay-Ner-Chuk" is one to which we can relate. At 30 years of age, he freaked out and realized that though he enjoyed being a wine retailer, he was only 99.9% happy and he wanted more. Taking inspiration from Ze Frank and Rocketboom, he allocated money from what would've traditionally been spent growing the family wine business and created a blog about wine in 2006. The result is a phenomenon all its own. Critics of Vaynerchuk say he is loud and obnoxious. To quote Mr. V himself: "I'd be more appealing if I toned it down 10%. F*ck that." He is transparent and authentic, and his passion for interactive and social media shines through in everything he does. That energy is the reason his site receives more than 80,000 views per day.

With that being said, we thought that those of you starting out your day in cube hell could use a little sunshine and inspiration courtesy of Gary V. Warning: video is NSFW due to language.

Oh, and one more thing - one day, this man will own the New York Jets.