Meeting Gary Vee · On Personal Brand

I had the chance to have a heartfelt exchange with Gary Vaynerchuk during Super Bowl LIX week. I'd just finished Crush It! the month prior and had read the rest of his books before that, so getting to actually talk with him in person was a real moment.

The biggest thing I've learned from Gary is that in this era, your personal brand is your single greatest piece of leverage. It compounds across every role, every partnership, every venture. Companies that don't let their best people build in public are holding them back from where the business world is actually going, and the operators who do build a public voice end up with a structural advantage the competition can't catch.

That belief shapes how I work. Whether it's leading a partnership at Datavault, founding VerifyU, presenting on-stage at Super Bowl LIX for the DEA campaign, or going back to teach Ms. Heck's Econ class, I treat each one as a chance to build a public, durable body of work. This site is part of that.