Borrowed His Anonymous Strategy from Strip Mall Guy
The Story
Yossi didn’t invent the “anonymous industry insider” format. He copied it.
“Yossi had seen Strip Mall Guy on Twitter, and loved how he was able to share insights he wouldn’t have otherwise if his name were attached. It probably helped that he saw this guy had grown to 35k followers just 3 months after starting that account.” (Source 1).
The reason the format mattered to him: “Yossi loved the idea of an anonymous account because what he wanted to share with people were insights that other dealers and manufacturers would be angry at him for sharing.” (Source 1).
Anonymity wasn’t a personality trait, it was a tactical choice. “I started this anonymous account, Car Dealership Guy. It was totally for fun. I just said, Hey, I’m just going to build an anonymous account. I’d actually seen another account doing this, Strip Mall Guy on Twitter, and I said, I’ve done a couple of things in automotive, right? I’ve built a pretty big company. I’ve run a small family dealership. I know a thing or two.” (Source 2).
The protection it gave him was real. He was still running Gettacar at the time. “I had stakeholders, I had employees, executives. I was like, they’re going to see me saying something dumb. I didn’t want to take that brand risk.” (Source 2).
Lesson for Creators
The first decision in building a content franchise is rarely “what’s my unique angle.” It’s “what existing format proves a structure works, and which of my circumstances let me do that format better than the original?” Yossi saw an anonymous real-estate insider win on Twitter. He had a non-public side of automotive that no one else was sharing. He copied the format and supplied it with content the original couldn’t produce. The lesson is not “go be anonymous.” It’s “find a proven format and supply it with material no one else can.”
Related
- None of My Ideas Are Original - The Curation Method — the pattern of borrowing a format and supplying new material to it
- Yeezy Dating - Viral With No Plan — viral attention but without the format-borrowing strategy underneath
- The 13-Minute Documentary That Doxxed Him on His Own Terms — the eventual exit from the anonymous format