Tag Archives: Gary Vaynerchuk

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

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
2

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!

SXSW – the aftermath

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
Reply

Trying to process what goes on at SXSW can be difficult. When you first get come you are on such an adrenaline high that you don’t know what to do first, what to blog first, you are just excited. I think I captured some of that excitement in the video I made the day I got back from SXSW.

So much happens during the conference that it can be hard to remember it all. One new thing that helped me this year was the SXSW community on Lunch. (client) Because I was reviewing panels as I was sitting in them, I had good notes that I could go back to and see what I really got from different sessions.

But of course, SXSW isn’t just about the sessions, it’s really about the people that you meet. This being my second year, I really felt like I got a chance to meet some great people, and to even get closer to friends I had met last year. Last year I was taping a video podcast at SXSW, and I met some amazing people. But I didn’t really take the time to get to know everyone lat year, the way I did this year.

Chances are if we met or had a conversation this year at SXSW I was probably crying. But it was being honest about what I was going through that brought me real friends. Changing your diet can often times product a detox affect. And a lot of times, one of the symptoms of a detox can be emotional moments. South by was no exception. But once I got home I didn’t feel alone, I realized that I have this amazing group of friends, who live all over the world, who will always be there for me.

So, with that in mind, here are my top 5 things from SXSWi 2010:

  1. Twittering Through Chemo – Survivors Unite: It was hard to pick a #1 between Gary’s Keynote and this panel. They were drastically different ends of the spectrum. In the end this is my number one for making me realize a lot about myself. My biggest takeaway from this session was that everyone needs support. It’s not just the person going through chemo, but everyone around them needs support as well.
  2. Gary Vaynerchuk Presentation: This talk was amazing, not just because of what Gary said, but because of the amazing audience that gave Gary a run for his money. I also realized in this session that I didn’t really want the kind of job I thought I wanted.
  3. Speakeasy: This is a great venue and I went here a few times this week (this was where the TechSet party was), but this #3 is for the night of the Sunday, March 14th. All my friends ended up here, just hanging out on the couches. Great friends, great laughs, and a night I will never forget! Thank you all!
  4. Community Management: Future Skills You’ll Need to Know: This panel really opened my eyes. For the longest time I thought that what I wanted to do in Social Media was really called marketing. Now I realized it’s Community! This will probably be the biggest eye opener for me at SXSW. Stay tuned…
  5. The Driskill: There were so many nights where I had an awesome time hanging at the Driskill. But my top night has to be the last night of SXSWi. I really got a chance to spend time with my close friends, and have conversations that I will never forget.

There is still so much more I want to mind dump from SXSW, but that’s all I could get out for now. To my SXSW family, I miss you all! And if you couldn’t make it this year, I hope we see each other next year in Austin!

Best of Tumblr Fridays

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
Reply

Today I saw a post from Mike Arauz, he is putting up his favorite links, photos, and videos from his Tumblr blog. Many of you know that tumblr is an obsession of mine, and it has taken away a lot of the random content that used to be on random sarah. So I decided to adopt his idea so that those of you who read random sarah, but may not keep up with my tumblog can still get a taste of the content that I put up there.

So here are my favorite links, photos, and videos from my Tumblr blog this week:

The Cult of Done Manifesto

  1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
  2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
  3. There is no editing stage.
  4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
  5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
  6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
  7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
  8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
  9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
  10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
  11. Destruction is a variant of done.
  12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
  13. Done is the engine of more.

Preparing for Chaos – the Life of a Startup

“Startups are inherently chaos. As a founder you need to prepare yourself to think creatively and independently, because more often than not, conditions on the ground will change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant. If you can’t manage chaos and uncertainty, if you can’t bias yourself for action and if you wait around for someone else to tell you what to do, then your investors and competitors will make your decisions for you and you will run out of money and your company will die. Therefore the best way to keep your company alive is to instill in every employee a decisive mindset that can quickly separate the crucial from the irrelevant, synthesize the output, and use this intelligence to create islands of order in the all-out chaos of a startup.”

Real Life Twitter

Screen-shot from the NFL Draft (this was done by me)

@garyvee and @ajv are not happy about that pick #nfldraft
Photos from the Thunder Cruise

Well I hope you enjoyed my first Tumblr Friday’s post. Let me know what you think and what you would like to see more of here.

Good People Day 2009

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
5

Last year Gary Vaynerchuk declared April 3rd Good People Day! This year he said that you had to write a blog post or make a video to talk about Good People. Seeing that today is my 1 year anniversary of randomsarah.com, and that I started this blog with a Good People Day video last year, I thought it was only fitting to do a post this year to talk about all the GREAT people that I have met over the past year.

Gary Vaynerchuk, I would not be writing this post if it wasn’t for you. You were the first person who told me to trust in my community when you pushed me to raise money for the Thunder Cruise and you have been very supportive ever since. So thank you for starting good people day, and for being a great person yourself.

I wanted to focus on people that have really helped me feel more comfortable in this space, and who have given me a great chance to grow.

Matt Knell. You were the first person to ever come up to me, already knowing who I was, at a Mashable event back last summer. It was one of the most flattering moments EVER. Since then you have become a great friend and provided me with some great advice over the past year. You have never stopped believing in me and pushing me to be the best person I can be.

Rob Blatt. You have always believed in What’s it all About from the very beginning. Thank you for taking a chance on me and helping me produce and edit the show. You have been a lifesaver. And Amber (I know you don’t want me to use your last name) you have been wonderful over these last few months, you are a great writer and you inspire me to be a better blogger every day.

Tim Kress-Spatz you believed in What’s it all About, and decided to help me with the show by bringing the show into the Ambush TV family and I could not be more thankful to you. You are a great entrprenuer and you inspire me.

Jonathan Dingman, simply @dingman to most people. Jonathan you have taught me so many things, from how to love Google, to understanding SEO, and the art of kicking a** and taking names with WordPress. You are a great friend and an even better WordPress developer!

Who can describe Brett Petersel, Oz Sultan, Micheal Gruen, and Nater Kane. You four have made this entry into the New York Tech Community one of the best experiences of my life. It’s been a crazy ride, but I am ready for another year.

Chris Brogan… there are no words for how awesome you are. I can only aspire to be a fraction of your awesomeness, but it’s something I work toward every day! Thank you for your words of encouragement every time we see each other.

Jeff Pulver, I have to thank you for always believing in me, and for giving me all the opportunities that you have to succeed. Thank you for believing that I am a rock star, and lifting my spirits every time I see you.

Whitney Hess, you are an amazing woman. People just couldn’t wait for us to meet each other and we clicked the second that we did. I am proud to call you my friend and I am thankful for all the great advice you have given me.

Walt Ribeiro, YOU ARE AWESOME! When you first met me, you came up to me and said “oh my god, it’s Random Sarah!” Like I was the best person on earth!  You are a great musician and a wonderful friend. You are a true rock star!

Finally Cali Lewis, you were my person for Good People Day last year, but you need to be on this list again. I wanted to thank you for all the great help, advice and feedback you have given me over this past year. Thank you for inspiring me to start doing online video and for continuing to be a great mentor.

And to all of my friends and family who knew me before I was blogging, and before I was on twitter, and who were reading my blog daily when no one else was…you guys are what keeps me going every day! Thank you for being so supportive.