Rusty Shelton

Rusty Shelton first spoke at Harvard on the changing world of marketing and PR at the age of 23. He is Founder & Chairman of Zilker Media, an award-winning agency based in Austin, TX that builds people-driven brands and Senior Marketing Strategist at Forbes Books. He is a bestselling author, dynamic keynote speaker and successful entrepreneur who has focused his career on helping leaders build thought leadership focused on impact, not ego, writing three acclaimed books and speaking around the world to a variety of audiences, from YPO to SXSW Interactive to Forbes. Rusty’s keynotes blend humor and targeted examples to challenge assumptions about personal branding, showing audiences how to build authentic thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. He’s known for a mix of story-telling, candor and practical, put-it-into-action-next-week guidance – showing leaders how to make an impact and build trust in an increasingly skeptical world – and have a lot of fun along the way. He has shared the stage with Steve Forbes and Alan Mulally, spoken for YPO, EO, SXSW Interactive, the University of Texas, numerous Fortune 1000 companies and served on the faculty at more than 20 Harvard Medical School CME courses. He is the co-author (alongside Adam Witty) of The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego (ForbesBooks, 2023), which features a foreword from David Meerman Scott, Authority Marketing: How to Leverage 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant (ForbesBooks, 2018), which features a foreword from Steve Forbes, and co-author (alongside Barbara Cave Henricks) of Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset (Berrett-Koehler, 2016). An avid Texas Longhorns fan, he sits on the University of Texas Texas Exes PR Committee and is a proud member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in Austin, where he serves on the board. He lives just west of Austin in Spicewood with his wife, Paige and three children (Luke, Brady & Sadie) and their very rowdy black lab, Charlie. Rusty loves to play golf, fish, coach his sons’ sports teams and is the QB for Lake Travis’ top “old man” flag football team.