My SXSW14 Keynote (How to Rock SXSW)

media to make important one-on-one connections then Mr Gary ve who is

somewhere welcoming people into the room now let's give a big big South by Southwest hand to Jib Jab Gary ve there you are how are you thank you hello um so I mainly want to go into Q& A uh which I will uh Hugh your Q& A just now was riveting I enjoyed it backstage I plan on doing the same thing um I'm not sure if we're going to throw up my hashtag but I think it's Ask Gary V ve uh want to welcome everybody to South by I remember seven years ago when I came to my first one I went to this session you know when you're a noob or the first time you know you kind of want to figure out what to do I remember being enthralled with the people that were on stage I was paying attention very quickly um and it was a very good time it was exciting time I hope everybody has a great weekend let me get into the things that I think matter um and then I want to go into questions and I'm thrilled to answer any you know South by questions that I feel I can answer but I know a lot of people have been watching the Twitter stream are here and have context on me and my career overall so any questions I can answer about anything from social to selling wine what the Jets are going to do in the off season I'm thrilled to answer all those questions when I think about South by I think about it in the same way I actually think about everything else in the world which is there's a couple core things that everybody needs to do here I think to maximize their experience the truth is and let's call it what it is the reason most people don't get the most out of South by when they come is because the far majority of people in this conference room right now and building that have come and visited Austin are [ __ ] takers right and let's put that into context the amount of people here that will spend 98% of their time saying hey check out my app right you've got to check out my business or hey you know you've got to really come to my party or hey go do this or do this for me give me this give me your [ __ ] money for my piece of [ __ ] startup come to my party that's going to suck [ __ ] you know all the people are asking and it's really Maps just to what happens in the way we actually live and the people that actually break out are the ones that flip it I would ask you if you want to have success or you want to rock out [ __ ] South by let me give you one basic thought that if you can take the time for four simple two simple days and for once in your professional career have the patience to actually provide value up front and let the cards fall where they will afterwards I promise you the lifetime value or the long-term value of this event will be dramatically greater see was one person clapping for that I just I heard it over here it was that dude right we need to hug it the [ __ ] out after this talk actually come up right now let's [ __ ] provide value right the [ __ ] now get up here dude hurry up dick so let's think about what's happening right now in real [ __ ] time right I give my opening rant right you decide to clap which brought me value because it was the positive reinforcement that I'm looking for as a public speaker right I then counter you doing a good thing for me to bring you up here and now I'm going to give you 30 seconds to say hello and tell the world what you're about let's see how you do Kylie nice to meet you brother thank you um my name is Kylie dorton I a beatboxer from Atlanta Georgia this is getting better by the [ __ ] second do you see what I'm talking about [ __ ] give and good [ __ ] happens [ __ ] beatboxer thought you going to say you're a [ __ ] UI designer or something and I'm a UI designer and um no really I uh build startups in Atlanta are you a UI designer yes I am you know you're beatboxing right okay will you freestyle yes okay and Kylie's parents had a real good marriage yes thank you now we're going to show people how South by works now we're all going to collectively take out our smartphones which we already have do you have a Twitter handle yeah all right now Twitter sucks [ __ ] in explaining how their product works so do not start your Tweet with Kylie's Twitter handle say hey at Kylie O that's Kylie zero so k i l y the number zero so now I'm going to pause for 41 seconds while everybody takes out their smart devices and says hey k i l y the number zero you could say he has mad you know beatbox skills you could say his beard is [ __ ] epic you could say he's kind of cute you could say whatever the [ __ ] you want but let's give this man some love and let's clap it up for him listen there's going to be the cool parties to go to make sure you follow me on Twitter for my secret wine party I'm thinking about doing it tonight so definitely come to that there's going to be the great Keynotes there's going to be the things you want to get to but at the end of the day the reason I continue to come back to this event while all my douchebag Silicon Valley friends go oh it's [ __ ] sold out it's too busy for my [ __ ] dick [ __ ] you here's why it's good and here's why I come back the truth is there could be 9 million people that come to this event you as a human being have the ability to make this a very big event or very small event you have the ability the reason I come back is because so many of my friends who I think are the smartest people in this space and I will get together tonight at 1:00 in the morning in one of the hotel rooms and we'll do what we call a jam session where for two to four hours we'll literally debate is secret GNA make money what about Bitcoin D D D D D D all the topics that I'm passionate about being in business living in this world about my subject matter so I come to southp to have lots of people hou says it's not about one to many for me it is right now this is about one to many right it's about one to many it's also going to be one to one when I was standing out there on the way here I met a nice young gentleman from Kansas City he's got a fat ass Chief's hat I see it right now and I got to spend my two minutes with him know that he's run a digital Agency for eight years and I got to have my onetoone moment me and [ __ ] Kylie we're [ __ ] family by now right I got to have that moment so I'm just really [ __ ] tired of everybody saying oh this is too crowded or this is too long of a line or it's sold out or there's too many people or that you were 100 [ __ ] per in charge of your life stop [ __ ] bitching that's how I found value at South by I'll tell you a story My First Year here I came 2008 I was excited I wanted to meet all the people Tim Ferris and Kevin Rose I was in it I knew it I didn't you know I had the wine show I was surprised how many people knew my wine show cuz I didn't think it let into Tech yet I was I met ran into Jason freed you know and he said oh I love your wine show I was like holy [ __ ] Jason freed from [ __ ] 37 signals now I was getting excited and it was the first night I was getting pumped there's parties I'm like oh [ __ ] nerd parties cool so there was a party it was called a 16bit party right it was put on by like dig and a couple of other people and I was super pumped I ran over to where it was took one of these Petty cabs CU I'm lazy and I don't like to walk I got there and there's a [ __ ] line and it's long and I'm like [ __ ] this is long and we're waiting and then I finally got frustrated and I recalled that you know eating my own dog food about providing value upfront I did that before I came to southb in 2008 I shipped down 10 cases of wine from the Wine Library because I was in a wine business at the time and that's what I was doing and I brought it mainly to share with people you know I figured I'm going to learn about tech I might as well educate these UI designers on how to drink some [ __ ] P Noir so I shipped the wine down and I didn't know what I was really going to do with it sure enough I'm sitting in line everybody's getting frustrated it was the first year southp was probably took a big jump in like growth of people coming people were frustrated by line so Twitter was only about a year old I was doing pretty well on it I'm like told my friends and a couple other people let's leave this line let's go back to the hotel I've got wine right like free liquor everybody gets [ __ ] pumped right so we leave I tweet out with my 2,000 fans at the time like hey I'm at the lobby of the Marriott hotel and all these people started showing up and really very honestly for a lot of you that are curious that wine party now called The Secret wine party in 2008 early 2008 in a lot of ways was my breakout moment in the tech space it was the time when I got to meet a far majority of people a lot of people talked about it but when you think about the seed in which it came from I was obsessed with the notion of paying forward first I will promise you whether it's southby whether it's the growth of your business whether it's the way you live your life as a human being if every person in this room could actually figure out how it actually works which is the leverage of providing Value First always puts you in the right position for what you're personally trying to achieve you have a much bigger upside this is the event my friend Andrew Hyde wore a t-shirt in 2009 it said don't pitch me bro this is the event where every single person comes with an objective to close and the way to actually break out is to reverse it you know to me this is an event where a lot of introverts come that need to figure out how to become extroverted because it becomes an OP you know it's kind of you know it's easy to say like hey say hello to random strangers right it's easy to stand on stage for me and Hugh and say hello and do that but in real life a lot of people are uncomfortable with it you know I don't know what works for you know use Tinder I don't give a [ __ ] what you do there'll be a lot of used Tinder that by the way that's my third Point use Tinder that's my third you know bullet WI South by um you know it's very basic I think this is a great weekend I hope everybody enjoys it I think that you need to provide value I would stress patience if you could be the second person telling the person what you do and what you want to happen you've already won um I do think that Serendipity matters I'll go a little bit left field on you though I actually use South BU as a 25% farming or retention play instead of hunting and acquiring when somebody says to you meet new people say hello to the person you know the dumb [ __ ] that people do at conferences like say hello to the person to the left and right of you that you're [ __ ] sitting with I actually think that's a good idea right now but you know but I don't want to say it that way so I I'll think of a creative way to say it um that's fine and dandy and I would call that hunting acquiring new people creating that Serendipity do not underestimate what South by brings to the table at scale of actually connecting with old friends I promise you that at least for me one of the top value propositions that I get from southb is when I live in you know I live in New York when I'm in New York I'm [ __ ] working my face off and I'm spending time with my family it blows my head off that I spend more time with my friends in New York at South by than I do in New York right so one thing I would tell you is to kind of go through probably your contacts on your phone and think about people that maybe you don't see as much as you'd like back home they're probably here as well I would allocate at least a good 20% of your time trying to what I call Farm reinvest in the relationships that you already have instead of trying to find new ones with everybody so that's one that I don't think a lot of people talk about that I would highly recommend uh thinking about look you know I really am UNC most of you a lot of you have a feel for me I'm not super interested in telling you how to handle your business over the next four days I'd much rather provide you guys value while I've got you here in doing what I most believe in I don't get to spend as much time with a lot of you individually or even a in a collective group so can if you guys can throw up the ask uh Gary V hashtag and if you guys can bring up who ever asking me these questions that's coming up here I'd like you all to start asking me questions I'd like to provide value I have no idea yet I'm excited I'm not looking I'm not looking you coming what's up man what's your name I'm Sean are you on Sean I think so I don't think you're on I don't think so either can we put Sean's [ __ ] mic on Gary okay so he just reminded you but please tweet your questions to ask Gary ve and uh we'll filter through them with the help of our friends at Mass relevance and so the first question comes from Brian Williams and he asks can we ask the signer to teach us how to say [ __ ] in sign language it'll be a gift that keeps on giving sign interpreter I appreciate it can you show the crowd how we interpret the word [ __ ] f u c k and is that what you do you spell it out [ __ ] is not sign language it's a gesture just letting you know thank you so much there you go Brian all right our next question is from Lisa routel and she asks in your opinion what brands are doing digital well would love it if you name your top three picks so this is always a tough question for the people that don't know uh currently I'm running a 300 person digital social agency called Vayner media so we thank you uh so we have um we have 80 brands that we're working with um for some of you here oh I think I'm doing a book signing right after this a good time to plug it I'll be doing a book signing right after this so if you have your book or I think they have books I'd love to see you um so the book that's there and the book that I'm just referenced the reason I just brought it up is I just wrote a book called jab jab right hook which looked at the pieces of content that all the brands are putting out there and who's doing it best you know the truth is what's the name of the person I asked do you remember Lisa was it Lisa um Lisa the problem for me is I spend so this is a good opportunity for me to talk to you philosophically of how I think about my business the re one of the reasons I think I've had success in business in all my chapters of my career is I stay

on the offense and this is something I'm completely fascinated by and so I want to give this answer because I think it's going to help a lot of people in the room no matter what you do I'm almost incapable of playing defense when it comes to business playing def based on this question would be me spending time looking at what brands are doing on Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest Instagram Vine that aren't my own or mine right because i' want to see what other people are doing there's a lot of reason to do that I respect why one wants have zero interest in that I spend absolutely all my time looking at what I think human beings are doing and trying to figure out how to bring them value no matter what the brand does or want it's all the same game at the end of the today we all know that we're getting bombarded with Brands businesses opportunities it's the whole South by thing in a nutshell isn't it the real answer is how do you provide value I don't need to see how Puma or Nissan are doing it for me to figure out how to do it best or and so the truth is I stay on offense I'd much rather test rinse and repeat try to learn authentically and organically with the community that has opted in to hear from me than thinking that there's any psychological connection between a sneaker brand and the serial brand that I'm working on right now so for me that is a very tough question that I hate when it gets asked because there's two ways for me to go one I can answer it not authentically and just headline read and pick a Taco Bell because I've seen people say they do it well the truth is I haven't done the work to answer it the reason I don't like the question is it sounds douchy by not giving an answer so I'm kind of [ __ ] stuck on this tough [ __ ] first question all right next question is from Jim Foreman he asked can you give your sign language interpreter a pat on the back I can't believe how well she's keeping up with you a pat on the back she she's killing it Absol oh now wait there's another person now she went that way let's give a for The Interpreter a round of applause please and a preemptive one over here more that was lame do it again awesome let's go Stephen and Conta ask Will Google+ ever be necessary so this is a conversation I'm completely I am St so I have been saving tweets and opt end pieces from my smartest friends who say that Google Glass is a terrible technology and this is dumb [ __ ] and it makes you look like a glass hole and it's stupid and only nerds will do it I am utterly stuck by the lack of chess moves and seeing where guys I have bad news we're all going to become [ __ ] robots and a lot of people are sitting here and saying no it's the same people that said they're not going to go on Twitter seven years ago or ever have a Facebook account or ever download Snapchat you [ __ ] Liars right so where I try to make all my money and why I think I will be able to buy the New York Jets one day is I spend all my time thinking about what you think you're not going to do that I know you're going to do now whether Google wins the game of glass or apple or Nike or [ __ ] schmu who's going to be started by two of you in here I have no idea but if you are confused at the notion that technology will be weav into our [ __ ] bodies you do not see what's happening you how many people here by show of hands and don't [ __ ] lie lying is the devil how many people here by show of hands and again I do not want your head nod I'm not interested in your half-ass fluttery hand full hands how many people here in every 24-hour cycle are always within Arms Reach of their cell phone raise it yeah bro guys it's happening already the glasses are just the next step in the equation and whether it's glass and listen if glass doesn't necessarily win whether it's going to be something else earpiece with a little screen here I mean how many people here are willing to admit that they would consider the notion of surgically putting their phone into their arm or hand raise it no raise it I want you to raise it and don't lie to me raise it actually do me a favor this is important to me I'm going to ask this don't lie because it [ __ ] up the whole thing how many people here are willing to admit that they're willing to put surgically try but to input their cell phone into their arm if you're one of those people please stand up please do that I just want to see the numbers at this point I would highly argue thank you guys I would let's clap it up for these freaks I would highly argue that number would be smaller 24 months ago and that number is going to be dramatically greater in 24 months and so I'm stunned by people's push back on glass when these are the people that pushed for mobile phones when they basically that same person 10 years earlier said phones were stupid and we didn't need them it's the same old game uh you know I think this is a foregone conclusion we're the robots are coming next Mark shefferman says very interesting to see you wearing an Airbnb top they are going to revolutionize the hotel industry your thoughts Mark I wear this hoodie to remind me that I was a douche and missed on investing in this phenomenal company uh so I wear this out of anger not happiness uh I don't think they're going to revolutionize the whail industry I ruin the hotel industry As We Know It uh I'm completely fascinated by Marketplace Dynamics I was lucky enough to not make the same mistake and invest in Uber some of you might know that I just launched a uh new $25 million fund called Vayner RSC much of the focus will be in Marketplace um I totally agree Mark I think they're an incredible company run by really great people it's going to be really interesting to watch them evolve over the next half decade I would tell you for all the Entre how many people here by show hands consider themselves entrepreneurs just curious amazing so for the for more than half of you in this room I would spend a lot of time thinking every night no matter what you do for a living of where is there inefficiency in our society and where will technology solve that problem because I blown Bown Away by people's lack of understanding that Uber and Airbnb and things like storefront they're just the beginning I mean we are there is going to be a lot of stuff coming in this space of creating efficiency and you're seeing it with like doctors and laundry cleanup services and there just there's a lot coming guys every person in this room values the following things in this order I hope family and health money and the one that most people don't talk about time is what we all give a [ __ ] how many people here remember the last time their internet in their office or home that they've got accustomed to was a hundredth of a second slower than it normally is you remember how [ __ ] pissed you were time people use Uber they're buying time not the service and so we value time tremendously uh and convenience and all these other things and so um keep an eye on that Alexander T ask how do you meet relevant people at by Southwest you know Alexander I think the first opening move is to get out of the mentality of douchery that justifies and categorizes people that did he say relevant I believe so did he I want to make sure I'm using the right word it was relevant Al Alex honestly that I don't know like if I could execute what was happening in my stomach right now when I hear people categorize other human beings as relevant it makes me want to vomit on myself um but I don't think you're a bad guy Alexander I I think you're asking a proper question I would say first of all relevancy is massively subjective right like there's people that have a lot of followers that have influence that are VCS that are whatever you're looking for I would tell you I promise you that if it again I think you're seeing a theme in my talk guys I'm a very big fan of the second chess move in love life if you're just trying to get to this person everybody's relevant [ __ ] person and so what happens is it becomes a supply and demand issue where you're getting pounded on you're not breaking through because they're defending against the supply but when Alex when you open yourself up to meeting somebody who might not be a relevant person by your definition there are a shitload of people running around at South by Southwest that if you have a drink with and say hello are the exact person that's the gateway to 30 minutes of my time at South by Southwest but on paper with their 306 Twitter followers it's not going to seem so obvious I promise when you stopped strategizing people's [ __ ] clout and you start acting like a human being you will win give me some for that one you liked it right give me a little second Kylie dorton your energy though how do you sustain it where's your work your energy though go ahead how do you sustain it where does your work stamina come from is that Kylie you're such a dick you already had your [ __ ] five minutes of fame guys let's collectively boo Kylie now boo you [ __ ] sixc you're like a Vine you're like a sixc you got your 5 Seconds all right I'll answer it it's a good question um you know it's the reason I want to answer it is because I think it's going to come from a good direction that I want people to cap I think actually jump on this bandwagon my energy all of it comes from one place gratitude I am so grateful for the fact that I was born in bellarus in the former Soviet Union which is the least capitalistic place and had the Serendipity of luck to be able to immigrate out of that country when I was 3 years old and come to this remarkable country for entrepreneurship you know I hate when people hate on this country I wish my dad was here right now when people hate on this country my dad's Russian accent hits like 11 on the RoR scale he's like these [ __ ] stupid Americans don't understand and it's because there's just so much good sure there's bad there's tons of bad in everything but it's all about weighing the options and so I'm driven by gratitude that I was lucky enough to come to this country and where you know being an entrepreneur is a celebrated thing my kind of personality I'm grateful because of the health and wellbeing of my family unfortunately for me I lost three of my four grandparents before I knew them so I've had a long run of living a life without a lot of that ultimate pain um I'm grateful for the fact that my mother and father though very different are an incredible pair of parents that really you know reverse engineered who I was about you know I'm an immigrant and the way immigrants get out of their situation which was we were poor is through education at least on paper and the fact that I was a dnf student and my mom and then later my dad let me be the entrepreneur that I was let me sell $33,000 worth of baseball cards a weekend even though I was getting FS enabled me to become who I was and so I'm thankful for that they were big thinking and didn't get caught up in the conversation of all their contemporaries so I'm driven by gratitude I'm just so thankful I'm do you know how grateful I am thank you that this many people want to come and hear what the hell I have to say it's an incredibly ridiculous feeling I was grateful when I had nine Twitter followers let alone a million like nine [ __ ] people want to hear your two cents I'm just very very grateful I will never take it for granted I understand the perspective of it all and I hate watching so many people look at half glass full when their glass is four fifths full I'm grateful when I have one drop in the glass cuz I'm like I know what to do with that [ __ ] drop thank you Matthew says you mentioned on help me pronounce that James alure show that you work 24 hours a day Monday through Friday and unplug on the weekends how do you manage to unplug yeah uh I managed to implo only because of perspective um about a year and a half ago I was coming home and I got excited cuz Lizzy and I my wife planned a trip to Turks and caos for four days and I was so pumped I couldn't wait to go with her and I was so happy and then I got really sad because I realized it was so tough why was I happy I was happy because we had two young kids and it's tough to get away with you know just the two of us for 4 days and spend some quality time together and I got really sad mat because I realized holy [ __ ] those last seven you know those last five six years before we had kids when I was building Wine Library and Wine Library TV and I went 247 Monday through Monday and I just kind of sat in the cab it was a very short ride and I was like you know I [ __ ] blew it like I could have went on two more onewe vacations with the woman that I loved and that would have been 10 amazing trips of great memories and time together that there's nothing I can do to get that back and so you know I don't think I'm super smart or really know any more than anybody or I'm so goddamn great what I think I do well is I adjust I'm a good halftime adjustments I'm always auditing my life myself my businesses the marketplace the opportunities and so I took that moment to say I'm not going to wake up in seven years and be like my kids are seven now and they're always at soccer games every weekend and this and that and so I unplugged very easily once I made the mental decision I always tell my Brands my startups guys this isn't tactical this is a mentality you have to decide that you give a [ __ ] about your customer not say it with some [ __ ] mission statement on your about section right so I would say things but I wasn't executing against it I wasn't all the way there I was still not there at that moment I made that decision which then made not checking my email or engaging with you guys on the weekends super simple because I knew what my mission statement was I knew what I cared about here and when these two things connect game over so it's been super simple but I needed to remember that I was a workaholic an entrepreneur I'm ambitious as [ __ ] so I created a system that worked for me right now and it will change but right now my life going all in Monday through Friday which is 7:00 a. m. to 11:00 p. m working and then checked out on the weekends and then going from two weeks vacation to seven weeks vacation is working for me and I've got another year or two of it but then I know Misha is GNA start stuff and I'm gonna want to go to that game or that recital or things like that so I'll adjust but how do I unplug because I [ __ ] love my kids thank you Monica ask where is there inefficiency in our society and how can we improve Monica [ __ ] kind of question is that I mean there's Unlimited inefficiency Monica here's the way to actually answer it and this is what I'm trying to do I love this by the way here's what I'm trying to do in figuring out how to answer this question anytime I am frustrated because something isn't happening as fast or as proper as I'd like I find it to be inefficient so for example I actively stand in front of you right now with a grooming cavity in my mouth there's a cavity forming in my mouth and it's pissing me off because I really need to go to the death I'm not joking I know everybody's like what the [ __ ] is he talking about I right now know in the top left corner of my mouth that a cavity is forming I'm starting to fundamentally slightly feel it it's going to [ __ ] hurt in a couple of weeks when it fully goes to rot Canal phase right the reason there's an inefficiency is I'm so [ __ ] busy that I can't get to my [ __ ] dentist right and I haven't prioritized it mentally enough that the pain for a day is worth the time right now and I'm really upset about it if there was an app like uber that let me hit a button and a dentist could come to my office I would do it right now Monica let's start that service together we'll call it tooth but the joke of that all is I went into that rant is it's true we prioritize other things over other things and if we can figure out where there's inefficiencies there's a lot the next time you're frustrated about being late or something's taking up too much time realize unlike 10 years ago and 15 years ago when the internet started hitting its Groove when entrepreneurs like ourselves started to figure out how to fix this business the infrastructure and scale wasn't there every business that failed in '94 to 99 is actually going to succeed over the next 30 to 40 years once the infrastructure meets the mission and so it was too early for Uber couldn't have worked when we didn't have cell phones at scale and app culture and all these other variables but it can today so think about what the current technology can solve that has already been accepted as a nonsolvable issue because it failed five to seven years ago all right Stefan asks do you swear as much when you pitch clients or Partners you know Stefan this is a tough subject for me I used to have a lot of Pride five years ago in the fact that I would really only curse on stage mainly because I grew up obsessed with Richard prior right and I've been I've psychoanalyzed this cuz you know I curse a lot on stage and it's kind of weird and there's people in this room who have no idea who I am who've been turned off by my language and can't hear all the other good stuff so I've always psychoanalyzed it and I convinced myself that well at least I only curse on stage and I don't curse in real life and that was true in 2007 89 the problem is and you can see where I'm going you start getting into practice on stage and starts slowly sweeping into your regular life I don't curse anywhere close to by percentage as I do by stage but I've cursed that a client here or there and in pitches I'm very comfortable in who I am I know what my objectives are I know they're pure as a matter of fact I sometimes use my cursing as a filter to filter out people who are only willing to look at surface level who are not usually the kind of people I want to do business with in the first place Scott Rodriguez says you're really

big about your word what's the biggest personal sacrifice you had to make to keep your word my selfishness the worst thing about keeping your word is your short-term selfishness right like keeping your word costs you I'm so [ __ ] piss Scott at all the schedule things that I have at South by over the next two days you cannot imagine I literally woke up this morning went to go take a poop took my phone looked at my schedule and I said holy [ __ ] literally 80% of these meetings I do not want to take there's too much going on why did I do this and every part of my body was like okay I'm sick okay wait there's a big business emergency like think about what I'm going to tell my assistant to say to these meetings that I want to cancel right and I'm like I can't do that because I'm petrified the only thing I care about is my legacy I like money but I've always been able to make money right I'm obsessed with my legacy I'm obsessed that young man with the Kansas City Chief's hat that I met when he goes back home and my name gets brought up he's like no no he's actually if it comes up like oh he thinks he's the [ __ ] greatest actually you know he's a nice guy like I walked with him to his talk he was good like I think about that on a onetoone level every day of my life so what I'm sacrificing is the shortterm selfishness that I want to do instead of what I'm doing or use that money in a different way or all these things longterm though my biggest objective in life my complete North Star is to have as many people show up to my funeral as possible I don't I'm sorry that's what it is Rebecca Donahue says loved your newest book love you Rebecca she didn't love you she loved your book that's me bro okay you clearly have never written a book dick but does one bad tweet break a brand or is it more about the overall quality of content yeah Rebecca I think this is the most uh interesting thing I am dumbfounded by the lack of knowledge that no one tweet no guys BP oil spilled all of the [ __ ] oil in the world into the Gulf of Mexico and you [ __ ] still fill up your car with it and so do I there is a complete lack of understanding of what cripples an actual business the fact that billion dooll [ __ ] Brands sit in a room scared that one tweet that wasn't so good like woe is me we're going to you're not going out of business idiot so you can see I'm excited about this issue I believe intent trumps all we're all going to make a mistake I actually believe that saying you're sorry in today's society when none of us actually want to say it is so powerful that sometimes I think about doing things wrong just so I could come out and say I'm sorry because I think it's an actual net positive win for me and so yeah I mean I think this is a ludicrous conversation of course you're going to make mistakes that's what happens when 22-year-old interns are managing your social media and you know and that's what's going to happen and that's okay and you have to go out and own it and say you're sorry I promise you all the brands that are worried about their tweets they need to worry about their product they've got bigger issues at hand than some random tweet when they got a piece of [ __ ] product you guys like that one huh all right I'm paying attention all right Molly asked which Bitcoin panel are you most pumped about you know what kills me about Bitcoin is I wish that I was smart if I was intellectually smart not just emotionally smart I would have made a fortune on bitcoin I just don't understand it whatsoever all my friends all my contempories like you know Gary they always start with like all right you know Central Banking right I'm like [ __ ] because then they're talking for 20 minutes and I'm like thinking about the Jets defensive line cuz I don't know what the [ __ ] I know [ __ ] about Central Banking and then of course I try to educate myself and I Google it and then I get bored by the second line so no I don't know anything about Bitcoin I don't give a [ __ ] about a Bitcoin panel I bought some Bitcoin at the height of the market I lost I deserve it because I didn't know what the [ __ ] I was doing the daily Pursuit wants to know what is one sentence that inspires you every day Legacy is greater than currency I'm done I went long pause for effect Daniel Ortiz asks what is your

prediction for the next big thing to come out of South by Southwest this year so I think a lot of people think that I've predicted things I've never predicted anything right here's what I do Vine came out June 30th last year it came out I knew it was already owned by Twitter I knew that Jack who has predicted things that made things that became the future bought it thus giving me context to pay attention to it so for the first two weeks of February from 11:00 p. m. at night when I got home till 2:30 in the morning because I was executing on being a good operator as a social media thinker I used that product every day and tried to understand it after actually using it I figured out okay this platform has a shot as somebody as you guys know broke out in the early days of YouTube I saw some parallels I understood it and I went all in then I started talking about it fast and furious I didn't predict Vine I just fast followed I have no [ __ ] idea what's going to break out of South by if anything's what's the next big platform here's what I do know the amount of people that talk [ __ ] about platforms that they don't use blows my mind the amount of people that are like Snapchat's [ __ ] stupid I'm like do you use it they're like no then I'm like shut your [ __ ] mouth right because if you don't use a product how are you supposed to judge it you may also not be the target audience even if you do use it so I don't predict what's coming what I pride myself in is if 5 million people use a product a week after it comes out it's worth paying attention to like I spent my time on jelly Vine I spent my time on secret you know I uh you know I'm spending my time on this stuff trying to use my filter to see if there's upside I'm not predicting I'm executing yeah Wells bomb asked if there was one feature you could add to Snapchat what would it be I would like to do one to many not in story form you know to like I actually send when I send snaps to all my followers I feel like a far bigger percentage doesn't go into the stories UI and just goes in their normal UI that they consume the snaps so I literally take a picture sometimes and it takes me 60 to 90 minutes to hit all your [ __ ] names one by one and it's really inefficient one to many non stor Cameron has asks hey Ask Gary V how has family life changed your business life you know cam you know I grew up in an immigrant family where family is like so everything and then I came into my family liquor store business so I was all in on that you know my own personal family life has changed because you know it's weird I was in provider mode from like 17 so it's not like oh now I have this respons responsibility I felt that responsibility even when I came in I felt like I had to pay my dad back for what him and my mom did for me so I guess the biggest thing is that you know it's time allocation it's work life balance it's figuring out what works I'm sure the far majority of people in this room to some level even if it's a new boyfriend or girlfriend relationship best friend even it's to a parent we all struggle with time allocation of what we're putting into what we're trying to build business-wise and our careers and what we're trying to do familywise the only thing I would ask all of you I hate when people give advice on this issue because it is so onetoone you know my wife is the most independent woman I know that's the foundation to why I can hustle as much as I can because she's just she loves me for what that is and she's very happy doing her jam and doesn't need me to provide the time the emotions and all that of course but so everybody's got different situations right and so what I would tell is the only thing I would give you advice is try to hack whatever you're doing now next year just try some sort of other variable in it if you keep evolving year after year you've got a chance to coming up with a good formula Eric Hubble ask how'd you get wine library off the ground going and scaling well I mean Eric Wine Library was first my dad's liquor store business called Shoppers Discount Liquors it was a $3 million year business that had 4% gross profits so it wasn't making a net profit which wasn't making a lot of money what I did with Wine Library was pretty interesting it's the thing I still recommend a lot of people here we didn't have a lot of money wine library. com launched in 20 in 1997 a lot of people were not really buying online at that point and so what I did was I just got myself involved in the community the same thing I did with Twitter and what I've later done with any Community what I did was I went to forums and I just became active in every single wine Forum on the internet the way to build a business when you have no money and get a user base is by becoming one of the users but acting like instead of somebody who's pitching to one of the users so I just had ultimate patience I knew that 1997 8910 010203 was a prerequisite to what I was trying to build so when I was in the forums I wasn't trying to Stell all these people more chardonay or Bordeaux I was trying to become one of them and by virtue that set me up and the awareness of the brand

broken records what is one thing you wish you knew when you started nothing I'm fundamentally obsessed with the climb I love climbing I actually do not love the achievement if I knew something before I started it would have given me a quicker race to the achievement of the goal I'm obsessed with I love losing guys I love being a Jets fan it's easy I love the pain everyone's like sorry Gary V I'm like I'm sorry for you bandwagon Lakers fan [ __ ] you um I love the journey I love the climb so for me that question's funny because I wouldn't want to know I like the pain I like the mistakes I like the grind I like it Sterling do wants to know what do you

think about retirement not like today but the concept retirement um yeah you know I think for me I think we're all seeing this right now I think work life balance is a big conversation I'm a workaholic I'm a hustler but I love the fact that people are finding balances that make them happy I think everybody should do what makes them happy there's plenty listen I have friends that are going to sell a startup I have a friend who sold a startup for like a million dollars and after taxes not a lot of money in the scheme of things incredible I'm not undermining that but he was a young guy not necessarily in your at$ 32 a million doll exit with post taxes not necessarily something you can retire on for the rest of your life unless you're my friend who decides to go to some crazy South Asian country I never heard of and smoke weed for the rest of his [ __ ] life so you know I think retirement is different for everybody the only thing I see in my future that doesn't look like building businesses until the day I die is spending an un ungodly amount of time at the racetrack so I will spend a good portion of my time at the ponies and betting on horses in my 90s but other than that I'm working Marcus wants to know beyond Angry Birds and Candy Crush what's your take on the state of gaming apps and what's next gaming and gaming is the hits business games are in the same exact business as movies and songs it's a great business if you know how to make hits if you're Steven Spielberg you're going to win and if you're not you're going to lose so I think Gaming's here to stay it's growing it's a foundation of how we live Gaming's always been there you know Hasbro and Mattel build big companies we like games we do it forever people grew up playing video games their whole lives now so in their 30s and 40s are still Gamers it's a great business you just have to be great at it is completely predicated on being in the hits business so if you're one of the best storytellers in that genre you can win but it is dramatically more competitive it blows me away how many of my friends sit around brainstorming business ideas and they're like let's just build a game that weird guy just had that [ __ ] bird game let's just [ __ ] do that are you out of your [ __ ] mind like you have no idea about gaming you don't you've never even hired an iOS Developer you have no idea about the psychology of Gamers you have no understanding of the current state of the union we are living through the greatest generation of fake entrepreneurs in the history of our time right now and that just means a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money and that's fine because that's how it should be because I was a fake digital currency buyer and I deserved to lose so I think it's a great space I think there'll be lots of winners I think a lot of people will make money and are going to lose money because it's a little bit of a Gold Rush right now Nicholas alter ask what shirt are you wearing right now under the Airbnb jacket a plain gray t-shirt I'm waiting Alex Cruz wants to know what do you struggle with most when dealing with your employees and keeping them productive I'm gonna give a weird ass answer um the only thing I struggle with my employees is to get them to believe me when I tell them it is in their best interest to play out their professional careers with me um I have such disproportionate love for my employees um out of not being such a great guy out of selfishness I love continuity I love team I love family I am so ridiculously heartbroken when we have to let somebody go or somebody leaves that I still laugh at my it's so it's awesome and I understand how good it is for me but it's insane how much it still affects me after all these years um I don't think they believe me yet we're a new company I've only been running Vayner media day in and day out for two and a half years you know and I'm always scared that they think I'm building a cult or that I'm full of [ __ ] or they're cynical and so every day all I'm trying to do is figure out what actions can I take one by one with them to get them to buy in so that they do feel jamming with me for the next two three four decades is a good thing for both of us and so if I can convince them that I genuinely want 49% of the relationship and I'm willing to give them 51 of whatever the pure sense of the relationship is and I just don't have the Buy in I have a lot more in 2014 I would say out of the 300 employees of Vayner media I think I've got 40 of them all in which is insane because last year was probably 11 so I'm happy I'm making strides um but it's fun for me as one keeps coming over to the side and so I'm just trying I'm struggling with the notion of how do I authentically break through their filter to make them realize how incredible this journey is about to be waywire buzz says Lady Gaga or Madonna we being very serious so first off everybody should know I suck when it comes to music like my skills are awful like I don't know [ __ ] about music so I'm trying to think about this I would go with Madonna because she has a longer tracker though the current Madonna freaks me the [ __ ] out um but I respect the long-term career and her Evolution you know I talked about myself as somebody who likes to adjust she [ __ ] adjusts right like um so that's where I'd go with at this point we do have over eight minutes left so keep tweeting Pete durksen asks favorite

restaurants in Austin Pete this is going to really make you sad in the eight years that I've been here I don't even think I know the name of One Restaurant I've been to it is insane of how little I pay attention to where and what I'm consuming when I'm at South by echoing the theme that I've been giving you the whole time I can remember who I had the dinner with and what we talked about but I don't know what we were eating and so I know a lot of people like to talk about barbecue I don't know if I give a [ __ ] about barbecue as a matter of fact I do I don't give a [ __ ] about barbecue um so sorry man AJ Smith wants to know what is your best advice or tangible advice to a young 33 hungry financial adviser using your principles you know AJ I would tell you that the tangible advice is like let me give you theoretical advice and then tangible is you know if you're financial adviser if you know exactly who you're here's something everybody should really think about if you know exact L what you want to be you need to spend as much time with people that are actually that already I have this insane concept of what mbas should really be doing like the thought like I've been thinking a lot about like [ __ ] man like these business schools are getting $100,000 $200,000 putting these kids in debt and giving them nothing that's real in the actual business World versus The Leverage of the last 40 conversations I've had with a business school person is yeah you know the content isn't really what I'm paying for it's the relationships I'm like you could buy those relationships for less than 150 you're a bad [ __ ] business person the the advice I'd give you is if there's a financial adviser that you want to be like literally stop making money right now and go spend a year with her or him and figure out everything that person does take one step back to go 10 steps forward that's what I would do seriously by the way with every single person here if you're a solid UI ux designer that happens to also be a really good beatboxer and you think that there's another great uiux designer that you want to be like I would really debate taking one step back and literally going to work for her for a year for half of what you make now to because the IP and the nuances guys all the basic [ __ ] has been figured out information is a commodity like Mo it's never been worse to be information smart than it is today like remember 10 15 20 40 50 years ago when being smart about something mattered what do you want to know everything is in your [ __ ] hand on your phone informationally I'm so pissed that my daughter is going to go through a school system where they're going to teach her information that she has to memorize for a few minutes for a test and then move on when that thing is in her [ __ ] hand so we're living in a world where all the IQ value is shrinking by the second and all the EQ value is exponentially exploding as our reputations become more and more of what matters and so I would tell you to go and spend time with the person you want to be like two things are going to happen one you might find out that you actually don't like that person very much and you're when you dig under the hood and figure out the nuances and that will help you figure out who you want to be as a person and two you may find out that that's awesome and you want to replicate those actions to get there John ask what digital media skills do you think students need to be learning in schools today taking action you know like a class in schools today they should be handling Twitter accounts for fake businesses they should be producing content and making infographics for Pinterest they should be buying ads on the out breing exchange they should be doing [ __ ] instead of memorizing [ __ ] it's so I'm actually so pissed at this [ __ ] crowd for not clapping more on that issue because it's so ridiculous and by the way that's what's going on in our organization I think Vayner media has exploded really quickly because most of our 22 to 23 to 24 year olds come in and are given the keys to the cat they have to do a ton of [ __ ] there's no get me a coffee in our world they're like [ __ ] like go win like we need far more openness and much more entrepreneurial efforts in everything we need to stop boxing people in it blows my mind that this is America and most corporate companies treat their businesses like communism they don't trust their employees they don't let them do this that there's [ __ ] 8,000 levels of process to eliminate s doing [ __ ] anything so Roy lman wants to know how do you find great talent in terms of employees Roy higher at scale see this is where people are confused I've seen every program every thesis every great HR person every process every test to find great employees and lots of them don't work out because once human dynamics happen the game guys isn't if you're thinking about hiring the game isn't about hiring smarter it's about firing faster I'm being dead serious don't [ __ ] laugh you know like if there's not if it's not working out you need to figure out how to take that person out of the equation you need to do right by that person one of the things I do because this is my thesis is I mentally think you're going to get paid for six months even though you may get fired for two months do you know what it looks like when you fire somebody in two months and give them a four Monon exit package that's what makes me feel good about firing fast it's still more valuable it's about firing fast you just don't know you do sometimes it feels right sometimes you have an interview and you're like yes I mean I remember interviewing somebody and I was like this woman is going to change my business meant to be a very positive thing that woman changed my [ __ ] business in a very negative way and took me like six weeks to figure out how to get her out of there and so you just sometimes never know and I feel like I have great EQ great Judgment of character and I miss all the time too it's not about how you hire it's about how you fire all right and Amanda Davis we'll have our last question with do you have any employees that work from home why or why not I don't and this is a controversial one I hope Jason Freed's not here um I don't because I'm selfish and I like team and I want to see them hug see that they change their hair color from pink to blue and I want to see their [ __ ] face and so I respect the value of why people think working from home's awesome uh I don't think anything should be definitive I understand why some people might want to go four days in one day three and two for me in the way that I think I can be successful not only for myself but for that employee I need to be in the same places as them I need to see feel it I need to taste the energy in the room I need to look them in their eye look in their [ __ ] ear I need to look at them and so I can't have that if they're at home and that's it so for me it doesn't work in my businesses I get to be a dictator you can be a dictator in yours if you don't like my [ __ ] idea we'll see what works for who and how but for me no all right let's all give a thank you to Gary ve hold on no first I want to give you a thank you for giving me your attention you had plenty of things you could have done second i' I'd love to meet some of you oneon-one the best Chance is going to be in the book signing you don't have to buy a [ __ ] book I'm playing the long game come and say hello picture third I know a lot of you have been to South by before I'm definitely doing my secret wine party the Wine's here I think I'm going to do it tonight follow it on Twitter and fourth I love you thank you