I got a lot of motivational entries to my giveaway of 10 copies of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book. So many, in fact, that it took me over 2 hours to read every single one and decide on 10.

It was very difficult coming up with 10 “winners” of the book because I had well over 10 entries that really caught my eye. 22 in fact that stood out to me for various reasons, plus yet more others that were very moving. I had everything from stay-at-home mothers to people trying to rise out of the poverty of Nigeria.

Very touching and humbling and I want to thank everybody. Now, let’s get started….

My Personal Criteria

I was open about the fact that the selection of winners is going to be subjective. It has to be.

That said, I did my best to find people who were demonstrating real, concrete ACTION. The entire spirit of “Crush It!” is just that – take action. Don’t think about it, just do it and get better over time.

I had one guy comment and tell me that the contest seemed like the people who least need this book are more likely to win. I found that comment to be pretty, well, stupid. I don’t like to reward apathy. I want to surround myself with active, self-motivating people who will kick ass and take names. If people need a book to motivate them, they’ve already lost. So, I specifically wanted to reward people for kicking ass.

Besides, this book isn’t about motivation primarily. It has a lot of really actionable stuff in it.

So, as I said, it was very difficult coming up with only 10 people here. But, alas, I had 10 books to give. And, mind you, I personally bought every one of these books. This was no freebie from Gary.

So, let me tell you about the 10 “finalists”, then I want to introduce you to my runners up.

Kelly Diels

Kelly is the embodiment of crushing it. Part of her comment:

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of my blog.

At month 7, I had my blog professionally designed and relaunched it as “Cleavage”. 26 days later I made my first online dollar. Then, in December, Darren Rowse offered me a weekly gig at ProBlogger and Danielle LaPorte asked me to co-author a book with her. In January, I had my first 5-figure month. Ten months after starting my blog, I had enough clients and revenue to quit my job, which I did in February.

I first became aware of Kelly when she started guest posting on ProBlogger. But, she has grown tremendously and she’s entertaining as hell to boot. I simply couldn’t NOT have her on this list. You can follow her blog, Cleavage. Gotta love that name.

Dave Doolin

Dave’s submission to the contest made me feel as if I wasn’t doing enough myself! He listed too much stuff to even quote here, but needless to say the dude is crushing it big-time.

He has doubled his readership in a span of about 3 months. He’s written an e-book, 6 white papers, done a bunch of development work. He’s working on 2 membership sites right now.

Dave is blogging at Websites In A Weekend.

Andrew Price

Andrew is a brand new blogger, but has already shown tremendous growth as a guru in the use of Blender, an open source 3D modeling program.

Andrew has 4X’d his traffic in the first quarter, put 4,500 people on his list, gotten 2,000 comments, 1,000 fans on Facebook.

Andrew is also a student of the Blog Masters Club, so I’ve seen him inside the Club forums really busting ass. His first product launch is right around the corner. So, well done Andrew.

Andrew can be found over on Blender Guru.

Mars Dorian

Another brand new blogger, Mars has already built up a community on his blog. His specialty is online branding and he appears to be well on his way to creating a unique, recognizable personal brand.

Where Mars really stands out is his aggressive work schedule and his forward-leaning approach to networking online. In my view, it is his aggressive networking which has led to his fast growth.

You can follow Mars at Mars Dorian.

James Richmond

Aka “The Infopreneur”, James has been on my radar for several months now. The thing about James is that I see a guy who is evolving and arriving into his own voice and approach. He and I haven’t agreed on some marketing strategies in the past, but I continue to keep an eye on James for one reason: The dude’s work-ethic is intense. In other words, James crushes it each and every day.

He’s grown his blog audience substantially. He’s written and launched an ebook. He’s working on a few other products. He’s writing two novels (both fiction, I’m understanding). And he holds down a full-time job. And he has kids.

The dude is crushing it, which is why it’d be crazy not to send him a book. You can follow James over at TheInfoPreneur.

Keith Bloemendaal

When I think of Keith, I think of transformation. When this guy first came across my radar, I’ll be honest. He struck me as a guy who just complained about marketers.

Next thing I know, I’m seeing him all over Twitter. I see his stuff being retweeted. The guy is “out there” and he’s crushing it. And as part of this transformation, as he says himself,

Rid myself of worthless fakes that I was networking with…

When you want to reach a goal, you surround yourself with forward-leaning people who have those same goals or who have achieved them.

Keith is taking action. He guests posts 2-3 times per month. He’s starting to tackle different kinds of media. And he’s actively growing a blog which he essentially revived from the blog graveyard and he’s making it relevant again.

Keith is blogging over at Hot Blog Tips.

Erica Mueller

Erica is certainly making 2010 a year of crushing it. By Jan 30th, she brought in more income from her blog than she did the entire previous year. She re-designed the site and started her list. All this because she decided to start treating it like a business.

In February, she began an e-book. My March, she attended two blogging conferences. But, on top of all this, she’s a stay-at-home mother with a 3-year old. As the parent of a daughter approaching 3, I can relate to what a toughie that is.

Here’s why Erica’s story struck me: No excuses. She’s leaning WAY forward with her business and not letting parenthood act as an excuse not to. Children are a gift, but they’re time consuming. However they aren’t a reason why you can’t pursue your goals. And Erica is pursuing like crazy.

You can keep track of Erica at Erica Says.

Ricardo Silva

Here’s a niche for you – a humor blog written in Portuguese. Working with a friend, Ricardo started Para Rir 9 months ago. In that time, they’ve gotten over 5,000 RSS subscribers, 5,000 fans on Facebook, 3,000 page views per day. They’re expanding their brand through the use of video.

Here’s something that really interested me. He realized that the culture he was targeting weren’t likely to yank out a credit card. However, they are HUGE on cell phone usage. So, what did they do? They started selling products via SMS text messaging. I assume customers can pay using their cell phone bills.

That kind of “out of the box” thinking is awesome. The blog is Para Rir, although it is in Portuguese so you may not be able to read it.

Rebecca Parsons

Rebecca stood out to me as a person who just decided to make sh*t happen. So, she just decided to do her first teleseminar call. Pulled in 30 listeners. Made 5 sales of her first product.

With the help of Blog Masters Club, she made some pretty drastic shifts in her blogging strategy. She’s out there networking and making things happen.

For those bloggers who tell me they are too nervous to do a teleseminar or a webinar, I present Rebecca as an example of “crushing it”. She just did it and made 5 sales. She’s well on her way to being a pro blogger.

Rebecca shows artists how to make a living, and you can follow her at Cre8tive Compass.

Jason Schappert

Jason is almost a local to me. In fact, we’ve met a couple of times and he’s come to a few of my Meetup groups here in Tampa for online entrepreneurs. That’s an example of taking action right there. But, he does more than come to my meetups…

Jason is an instructor for budding private pilots and he is using his blog as a way to crush it in the aviation niche. He has released 2 self-published books for aspiring private pilots, grown his email list, is a regular personal networker. He just had his first speaking gig at the Sun-n-Fun fly-in, a huge air show which happens annually in Lakeland, FL.

I love to see people putting these online tools (stuff we usually think of as internet marketing tools) and use them to efficiently grow an offline brand. And that’s what Jason is doing. And doing well. You can follow Jason over at MZeroA.com.

The Runner’s Up

It was tough picking only 10 people, so I wanted to also recognize the others who caught my eye.

• Heather from The 3D Student
• Mike Robertson, a personal trainer from Robertson Training Systems. Really crushing it with content and videos, plus with a new product about to launch.
• Kari Wolfe from Imperfect Clarity. I admired her story about approaching Seth Godin for an interview. Don’t be scared of “gurus”. They’re just people. Approach them, and Kari did. Well done.
• Lisa Duncan from Living Frugal Tips. Steadily taking action to grow her blog.
• Constantin Gabor from Highball Blog. Great stories about approaching big brands and making deals.
• Nunzio Bruno from Financially Digital. I admire his passion for his niche, plus how he wanted to use his blog in order to raise awareness for children’s literacy. Very motivational.
• Curtis Chappell from Reading Between The Lines for the active blog growth and growing his traffic by 35%. Well done.
• Desiree Peeples, aka “Mommy Reporter”. In 4 months, she got 200 subscribers on Youtube, spoke on a panel, did 9 giveaways on her blog, and then some.
• Lorne Craig, from Green Briefs. Clearly pushing a unique brand forward. Like this concept.
• Keisha from WeblogBetter. Went from a guest post on Darren’s TwiTip site and ended up taking over WeBlogBetter.com. Now a member of InfoPreneur’s T.I.P. team.
• Rich Wallace from TheBiPolarSpouse.com. Released his first ebook and raised his opt-in rate from 3 per week to 15 per day. Currently working on an e-course. Definitely taking action.

Final Thoughts

My aim with this contest wasn’t just to get traffic. And it wasn’t about the books. It was about fostering a community of ACTION TAKERS.

I was really moved to see so many people decide to take part in this.

Remember, even if I didn’t mention you above, trust me, I read your comment. I read each and every one of them. So much so that the entire process of reading them, selecting people and writing this post took up over 4 hours of my work day.

I really want everybody to follow through with what they said.

As I wrap this up, remember this: Taking Action is really the ONLY way you’re going to find any success. I see too many people get paralyzed by analysis, or paralyzed by education. They’re stuck waiting for the right moment to launch something. They’re busy preparing for something, but never actually start the thing they’re preparing for.

My advice? If you have a launch date for a project or blog which is several months away, stop trying to avoid it. You know as well as I do that’s what you’re doing. Push that date up and GO! Take action! You can improve things as you go. But, trust me, there is no “right time” to launch a blog.

Launching a blog is like having kids. “Later” is never a good time.

So, on your mark. Get set. Go! Go! Go!

NOTE To Winners: We’re going to be in touch via email on your shipping address. If we haven’t yet contacted you, please get in touch via the contact form. Thanks!