This is the story of the first time I met Gary Vaynerchuk

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Today, Gary Vaynerchuk’s third book ‘The Thank You Economy‘ came out. And while I have not yet read the whole thing, I wanted to share a little story about Gary Vee that has a lot to do with the thank you economy and the kind of person that Gary is.

On May 12th, 2008, Gary appeared on the Late Show with Conan O’Brien. So he had a little party for the release of his book ’101 Wines that bring the Thunder’ and to watch the show.

Looking back on these photos I didn't even realize that AJ was there that night

When I first showed up to the small bar that the event was being held in I wasn’t sure I was in the right place. But my friend and I asked the hostess and she kindly informed us that there was a small group of people waiting for Gary in the front table.

Seeing as how we didn’t really know anyone else, we sat at another table and ordered a glass of wine. Soon more people began to show up but it wasn’t an overwhelming amount of people. After all, this was a very late event seeing as how the show aired at 12:30am.

Cheers!

Finally Gary arrived and he had brought with him cases of wine for everyone. This was still a very small event compared to other events of Gary’s that I’ve attended since but it was still very generous of him.

Before the show started Gary went around saying hello to everyone. When he came over to our table I introduced myself and Gary just looked at me and said “I know who you are”. I must have smiled from ear to ear because at the time I had only been video blogging for a few months but to think that Gary had seen my stuff was the biggest ego boost in the world (in a good way).  It really validated what I had started doing and encouraged me to keep doing it.

This is a horrible photo of me but just deal with it ok ;)

Over these last few years Gary has been a big supporter and a huge mentor to me. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be where I am in my career right now if it wasn’t for him. So in the spirit of his new book, I wanted to say Thank You Gary!

5 Apps to help you survive SXSW

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Every year people contemplate what will be the “killer app” at SXSW. While I’m not really concerned about which app will end up on top, I thought it would be nice to share with you all some of the apps I’ll be using at SXSW this year. (note: these are all iPhone apps, some of these apps have android versions, but I am not sure)

#1: GroupMe: I don’t normally use group texting in my everyday life, and the reason I know I’ll end up using GroupMe at SXSW is because I’ve already been added to 4 different SXSW related groups. One of the reasons I like GroupMe is because it’s more than just group text messaging. You can also share your location with your group (which is nice if you want to tell your friends where you are but don’t want everyone you know at SXSW showing up). GroupMe also allows you to share photos. Another app to note is Beluga (which was just acquired by facebook). Beluga has very similar features to GroupMe, but GroupMe seems to be more popular with my group of friends so it’s what I will be using at SXSW. Since GroupMe is a NYC based startup, I foresee a little east coast/west coast group messaging battle playing out at SXSW. Very similar to the Foursquare/Gowalla preferences last year.

#2 Plancast: While it is impossible to keep any kind of a schedule at SXSW, using Plancast helps me to at least know what I wanted to attend that day. The only way to plan anything for SXSW is to make “plans” is to make them before you go down to Austin. Plancast makes it easy for me to get a preliminary list of things I’d like to attend. I am using Plancast over the official SXSW schedule, or sched.org because I like the design better and I find it easier to use.

#3 Hashable: I have a love hate relationship with Hashable, but I will be using it at SXSW to keep track of people that I meet.

What made me decide to start using it again was the realization that I can keep all of my Hashable connections private if I want to.

#4 Foursquare/Gowalla: In my personal life I use Foursquare but I will be using both at this year’s SXSW for two reasons. Reason #1: I have friends on both platforms. If I really want to get a good idea of where everyone is, I need to look in both apps. Reason #2: There are more companies that have partnered with Gowalla this year, so I suspect you will need to check in on Gowalla to get access to different official events.

In general it’s just a great way to see where everyone is when you are in Austin. Things change pretty fast down there.

#5 picplz: Officially my photo sharing app of choice for SXSW. I like it because it doesn’t force me to make all my photos square, it will upload to facebook, twitter, tumblr, foursquare, posterous and even Dropbox! I want to make an effort to take more photos this year at SXSW, but I don’t want to be carrying around my DSLR. So my iPhone will have to do.

With SXSW quickly approaching I have more an more things on my to-do list. Hopefully these apps will help me keep it all together in Austin. And if you are going to SXSW, please say hi!

SXSWi – What you probably already know

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Every year around this time, approximately  14,000 geeks venture down to Austin, TX for South by Southwest Interactive. And every year, a good handful of those people write snarky blog posts about ‘what you need to know before you get to SXSW’. In fact, I myself wrote one just last year.

So at the risk of being redundant, here are some tips that you may or may not have heard already.

  1. I usually to say forget about the schedule. What I mean by that is don’t worry about making it to all the panels or all the parties. Just go with the flow, you’ll have more fun that way.
  2. But a certain amount of scheduling can be good. For example: If you really want to spend some quality time with people, put a meal on the books. Schedule time to meet up, sit down, and eat something.  This way you will actually get to spend time with the people you want to see. I will be holding Ohours at SXSW for this very reason!
  3. If this is your first time going to SXSW If you are going to SXSW, you should fully expect to be worn out when it’s over. Make sure to drink lots of water and take extra vitamin C, to prevent getting really sick when you return home.
  4. You will walk….a lot! Everything is usually close to the convention center, but that’s going to mean a lot of walking for you. Be sure you are comfortable with what you are wearing.
  5. Enjoy the serendipity. South by can be a very serendipitous place. Crazy things happen, you end up in awesome conversations with amazing people, and when this happens just enjoy it and stay in the moment. You don’t need to take pictures and tweet while this is happening (let’s be serious, you can tweet about it later)
  6. Don’t forget to eat! It sounds silly, but with everything going on it can be very easy to forget to eat. My advice, schedule meetings around meals. This insures that you give yourself a brake, and get a chance to eat.

A little tip on what to eat at SXSW from your friendly vegan friend, Sarah Cooley (hey, that’s me!).

Remember to eat your veggies! At SXSW, there will be tons of free BBQ to partake of (in fact MapQuest will have a bus trip to Salt Lick BBQ) So I understand that it might be more difficult to fit veggies into your meals. But do your best to try and eat some greens at least once during the day. Trust me, you will feel better because of it!

I’m thinking of putting together a small casual vegan meetup at SXSW (vegans and non vegans welcome). If you would be interested, leave me a comment below. If there is enough interest we can figure out a time and day in Austin that works for everyone.

If you want to meet up in Austin, feel free to sign up for one of my Ohours slots. Or you can try more traditional methods of tracking people down at SXSW, but that usually doesn’t work.

Great Use of Social Media: February 11

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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In an effort to blog more I’ve decided to start a new feature on RandomSarah.com called Great Use of Social Media of the Day. I see companies and startups doing awesome things with social media all the time, but I don’t always mention it. This is my way to sharing great use cases for social media!

Today’s great use of social media example comes from Rent the Runway. Today Rent the Runway launched a tumblr account. (which I thought was nice since I do like their regular blog. +1) but the bigger news was after I followed them on tumblr I saw this post.

While backstage at the Christian Siriano show at NY Fashion Week they posted a picture to their tumblr. (+1) Then they prompted readers to go vote on which pieces they should buy from the collection. (+1) If you don’t know anything about Rent the Runway, they allow users to rent dresses (and other accessories). The reason this is awesome is because they are involving the user directly in the decision making process. And this will effect the user directly because if RTR buys the dress they liked, then they can rent it!

The way they are allowing users to vote it via Facebook. (+2) The reason this is so brilliant is that it’s growing their Facebook community (you have to like their Facebook page in order to like the photos of the dresses, so they are gaining Facebook likes and interactions are the same time!)

They put all the photos in an album on their Facebook page, and users are liking and commenting on the dresses.

So hat tip to you, Rent the Runway, you are my Great Use of Social Media of the day. Your total, +5!