Meeting people you admire, like Gary Vaynerchuk!

Today, ended up freaking awesome!!!

First, I got to go do one of my favorite things in the world, go karting at Gokartracer.com in Burlingame Ca. Reason enough to gush with happiness for me.

Then,, joy of joys, we went to In-N-Out (a California burger joint that has specialized grates at the door so that your drool is siphoned away (I am very likely making this up)).

To top it off the San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Jets, who’s favorite fan, and someone I’m a HUUGE fan of, Gary Vaynerchuk (and I think his brother AJ too) cruised into the In-N-out postgame for a bite before heading back across the continent.

Like a crazy teen fan I jumped up, went over and shook his hand, introduced myself, and then scampered back to my seat immediately. Why? Well, let’s face it,, the guy’s favorite team in the world just got beat by a team, that, until 2 weeks ago had been on the mediocre to crap list for a few years. Unfortunately, his team had been to the west coast 3 times this year, AND he follows them for each and every game (That is called being a great fan!) and lost every time. That’s just frustrating. Trust me, there’s no greater feeling than going into an opposing stadium wearing your team’s colors, and being able to walk out with your head held high with a win.

Anyway,, Gary was understandably dejected, so here’s the thing. Leaving there a while later (and knowing they’d only be there another 10 minutes, thus ensuring there wasn’t a flash mob of women, a la Casey Khane didn’t show up to bother him, I tweeted that we’d met).

Well, I got home not 40 minutes later, and there was a direct tweet from Gary.

THAT’S REPUTATION MANAGEMENT!! He was worried that he hadn’t provided the best front, and made sure to leave a positive impression.  He needn’t worry, and as a matter of fact, I was shocked that he had. I have previously recieved emails back from Gary, and knew the quality of his word, (plus he gives away the best content on the planet,, thanks again for the google blog tip!) but he STILL bothered to check in and apologize for his mood.

Think about what you do next people,, just people you meet every day, do you go out of your way to treat them right?  You’re not famous like Gary,, but even he works hard to monitor his image,,, so why aren’t you?!

note: this happened a while ago, and I’m only now posting it. (November 2008)