For those of who have not seen Wine Library TV, Gary Vaynerchuk is the high energy personality that powers the “thunder show”. His likability, success, and chutzpah stem from his motto:
Be a RAT.
There is a nice writeup on Gary doing a book signing in Austin over at hooversbiz.com. The post has a much better rundown of the RAT philosophy:
His deepest message, though, was about the necessity of being “RAT” — Real, Authentic, and Transparent — which he sees as an absolute necessity in the era of pervasive social media, when secrets are much harder to hide.
Before the event, someone on the Grape Vine Market staff had asked him if he would be disappointed with a thin turnout; he answered that he would have been grateful to have one person show up to talk to him. He calls his approach “Expectation Zero,” and said, “This Expectation Zero game is amazing — you’ll love it” because it removes the likelihood you’ll be disappointed.
That is the essence of social media and crowdsourcing today. People want the real story, from real people, and told in an honest fashion. Essentially this means you will not succeed unless you can operate in this space. The Diggnation video podcasts are a good example of this (Kevin Rose is also a friend of Gary’s) where the owner of Digg runs a show in a totally RAT manner and thus gains a dedicated following, digg.com customers, and a whole lot of social capital as well.
Follow Gary on Twitter: @garyvee
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