The Market is Always Right!
Last Thursday, we were lucky to be present at the What's Next?! Conference in Antwerp, organized by Snackbytes. Keynote speakers were trendwatchers Peter Hinssen, Steven Van Belleghem ... and the legendary entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk!
We couldn't resist to share our most striking take-aways from Gary Vee. We truly hope they will inspire you as much as they did to us!
The Market is Always Right
"Don't make decisions based on what you want the world to be like. Make decisions based on what the world is like. Today. Not yesterday. I'm not mad at marketers who paid large budgets in TV commercials back in 1984; I'm mad at the ones who still pretend it's 1984."
You Can't Have an Opinion on Snapchat if you've Never Used It
"Compared to their return, the channels most disproportionately invested in are Facebook Ads, Video Marketing and Influencer Marketing. They are heavily underpriced. Others are heavily overpriced. Have you ever surfed to a website, scrolled down immediately to the bottom, to quickly click the banner ad? The budgets being spent in online bannering make me even more scared than the ones being spent in TV commercials. Test new channels and measure their return, only then you can draw valid conclusions!"
The Creative is the Variable of Success
The key challenge for today's marketers is to adapt the creative to the channel. It's about context together with content. And by the way, content is content! Why would you make videos of maximum 30 or 60 seconds? Don't stick to habits from the era of TV commercials. People really don't care about the length of your video. As long as the message is relevant to them, they will engage. My videos are watched for the full 25 minutes."
Humans will be Fine, until the Robots Kill Us
"We're just starting on AR and VR. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be enormous! We still do too many things we shouldn't be doing. You could compare it with walking to the counter & ordering a beer: it's like AI .. AI .. AI .. AI .. AI .. until that point you bring it to your mouth to taste it: that tiny bit of experience may remain human." Nevertheless there is a danger connected to that. Humans will be fine, until the robots kill us. I would be really pissed if I would just miss immortality."
Focus More on Firing than on Hiring
"If you don't fire losing players, your winning players will leave. You can spend hours, days, weeks and even months to hire the perfect candidate. You have to taste how it feels like to fire someone. If things don't work out, be prepared to do so."
Be Willing to Lose a Client
"I see too many young guys, after some successful projects as entrepreneur, buy the typical young guy stuff. If you're really serious about your business, invest every penny of it. Don't keep it to yourself. Don't be too greedy on new projects if they don't fit your ambition: be prepared to not take the money when they don't do it your way!"
People Don't Work for Me, I Work for Them
"Be obsessed with your people. I've grown quite some companies, and I strongly believe my people should work for me for the rest of my life. To motivate them in the right way, I want to understand their North Star. I want to help them in realizing it. I don't care what my people want to realize in life, I just want to know what it is."
Macro Patience & Micro Speed
"When building a business, stick to your firm beliefs. Be very patient on your vision until the market is ready for it. At that point in time, you can thrive. On the other hand, keep the pace in your daily operations, and take opportunities as they come along."
