I'm in the middle of two trips out of town, and while I didn't get to blog much during my time in NYC at Inman Connect I wanted to make sure I reposted this video from Jay Thompson and Kelly Olexa of Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote address at the conference.

Now, I didn't know much about Gary prior to the conference.  I knew he did Wine Library, and had made some appearances on late night TV, but beyond that I was pretty clueless.  I had a lot to learn. 

Dynamic?  Check.

Loud?  Check.

Full of it?  Maybe a little, but who isn't from time to time?

Worth the price of admission?  Absolutely.

If you've got 32 minutes to spare, I highly recommend watching this video.  It's a little choppy at first, but stick with it.  You don't have to be in real estate to get something from this – you are your own company.  You are YOU.  How will you spread your message?  How will you stand out and be different?

I think there are pieces here that are important for all of us.  I sat in the back of the room – the absolute back – during this keynote and watched the number of heads doing the "Blackberry Prayer" (head down, thumbs furiously pounding away), as well as the folks who just got up and left, during his talk.  On the one hand it's disappointing to see such a dismissal of the topic, but on the other hand that's fine … it's less competition for me and NRVLiving Real Estate.  Gary's point about the horrible Return on Investment of traditional advertising is something that Steve, Aaron and I have struggled with for years, and I know there are many other industries that read this blog who have as well.

In your industry, how can you stand out?  Even if you work for someone else, how can you brand yourself?  Interesting thoughts, enjoy the video.