Gary Vaynerchuck Tells You How To Rock SXSW

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Gary Vaynerchuck – entrepreneur, celebrated social media guru and public speaker – was one of the first panels to talk at SXSW Friday. As a long time SXSW attendee, Gary’s panel seemed to be a mix of solid, veteran SXSW advice, as well as adrenaline and fuel to get the crowd sparked for five days of intense panel attending, meeting new people and trying to to maximize the SXSW experience to its fullest.

Using a style that is almost Gary-unique, he used his platform to invite an audience member to the stage for to make a point that SXSW is about the one to many and the power of giving instead taking – a point that he struck on many times throughout his talk and is a staple of what he believes makes him so successful.

After a brief ten minute introduction, Gary went to a Q & A format to answer questions from the audience ranging from, “Does Gary curse during client pitches and business meetings?” to his thoughts on Bitcoin, which he admits to losing money on.

His best advice was simple and straightforward. The best way to take the most out of SXSW is to give instead of try and take.

John Zmikly, SXTXSTATE participant and professor at Texas State, had his answered by Gary during the session which was hosted using a twitter hashtag #askgaryvee.

Here is the original tweet here:

As the Q and A continued, Gary rolled from questions to tangents on everything from how to be successful at SXSW to the future of technology. At one point, after a strong tangent on how his hate for people railing on Google Glass, he asked the audience how many people would consider getting their cell phone surgically implanted in their arm.

A stunning amount of the audience stood up.

“We are all going to become robots,” Gary said.

Throughout his talk, he hit on the points that, even after having heard from his larger-than-life social media presence, never seem to get stale coming from Gary. Things like give and give some more, legacy is greater than currency, etc.

Some of the best advice he had was talking about trying new things:

“I spend all my time thinking about what you think you’re not going to do,” Gary said.

It would be almost impossible to leave the Gary Vaynerchuck talk and not be motivated – inspired to not only connect with the amazing people that come to SXSW but to give back and keep the community great. Gary’s talk was definitely a great way to start interactive to get the energy high and get inspired.

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