Collaboration Chronicles

Let me preface by saying that I promise that the links in this post will lead you to information that will be relevant to collaboration through either Collab21, Collaboration Chronicles or Fog City Gardens in the future.

This morning, I opened my feed reader (I use Google reader) and read a post on Get Rich Slowly about Gary Vaynerchuk.  This is a name I had not heard before.  However, one of his sites (http://winelibrary.com) I had.  Last March, I was searching for software that I could keep a log of what I was spending on wine, which wines I owned, which I had consumed, notes on wines and other information about a blossoming interest I have.

I followed a link to Wine Library TV to see what it was all about.  After watching the current episode, I was hooked.  Not just because I have an insatiable love for wine, but because here was a guy who was totally unpretentious about what he was drinking, sitting next to a master sommelier, telling him things that he could smell and taste that the sommelier could not.  He was full of energy and it was all directed to giving a good show for the 40 odd minutes that the video took up.

I had to research this guy.  What did he have that we are all lacking in our Wednesday meetings (except David when he shows up)?  His blog has a couple of really great video posts, too!  Damn!  I went back to the original blog I was actually reading and realized that Gary had given a keynote at the Affiliate Summit West conference.  I had to watch this, and I shared it with anyone I thought would care, including my girlfriend.

Watching all of these videos really inspired me.  I had plenty of ideas.  I now know I need to concentrate on being creative, because that’s what I’m good at.  I can direct that creative energy to business, but getting into the marketing side is going to be impossible for me.  I need some help.  This is what collaboration is all about.

I signed back up to Twitter after a 2 year hiatus.  The purpose of using Twitter is for holding reminders on good ideas, as well as charting personal growth progress.  Eventually, it will be used for marketing whatever it is I’m slinging.  For now, I have to dig deep to figure that slinging part out.  So, for the time being, I’m exploring what I can claim I am a relative expert in.  The first three were easy…it doesn’t take much to push myself into the range of expert:  just paying attention and more experience, both of which are easy to get.  I’ll figure out what it is I’m going to be doing with an online presence and with these collaboration sites soon enough.

The best part of my day is that Gary Vee added me back on Twitter.  He really does pay attention.