Last Wednesday, I had the chance to see Gary Vaynerchuk live in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Gary Vee was one of the keynote speakers at a real estate conference I was attending. For an hour, he shared his thoughts and opinions about where he sees the industry going, and how real estate agents can leverage social media to increase their personal brand recognition locally.
Below are my top 3 takeaways from Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote speech
1) Facebook/Instagram ads are undervalued, but in 12 to 24 months, they'll be "the right price"
In the early 2000s, when Gary was in charge of marketing for his father's wine business, Wine Library, he began buying Google AdWords for very, very cheap. Eventually, he was able to grow Wine Library from a $3 million to a $60 million dollar company.
Upon hearing this, the audience began to clap.
"Don't clap for me," said Gary. "I should've grown it to a $200 million business."
He explained that along with Google AdWords, he was still putting a lot of money into traditional forms of advertising such as newspaper and billboards. In his gut, he knew that the success was coming from the Google AdWords spend, but he still balanced his approach, which he admits was a mistake.
He argued the same thing is happening when it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads. The big brands are playing in the space, but not to the level they should be, said Vaynerchuk. Twelve to 24 months from now, he believes a lot more money will be spent in that space. At that time, it won't be nearly as affordable to buy a Facebook or Instagram ad as it is now.
2) When you are most successful, you are most vulnerable
Gary suggested when the times are good, we are least likely to grow and develop because we're experiencing success.
He asked the members of the audience to raise their hand if they just experienced their best year of real estate sales yet. A lot of people raised their hands. "That scares the shit out of me," said Gary.
He went on to explain that downturns in markets force us to work harder and do better to maintain success. But by coasting through the good times, we're missing a huge opportunity to take our business to the next level.
3) Millennials haven't been punched in the mouth yet
Gary explained that a lot of people bash Millennials and their work ethic, but he said that this isn't a fair assessment. He suggested that we don't know how Millennials will deal with adversity because "they haven't been punched in the mouth yet." Essentially: Many Millennials haven't had to deal with too much market adversity yet, so it's tough to know how they'll react.
My opinion on the speech
There was a lot of value Gary shared during the hour he was on stage; however, I would've liked to have seen him speak more about the opportunities he sees coming in the future. The closest he got to that was explaining Facebook/Instagram ads will be "less of a deal," but I would've liked to have heard him talk about other opportunities. (For example, in the past he has touched on blockchain technology).
When it comes to Gary Vaynerchuk, most people either love him or hate him. Overall, I felt more love than hate when it came to this keynote speech.