Month: July 2010

How to Communicate That You’re Fully Committed, Part 1

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it really fall?”

Most people have heard this riddle before, although few know the origin of the phrase.

It comes from a book published in 1710 by George Berkeley called A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.

The existential question he poses throughout the text is: Can something exist without being perceived?

Berkeley says no.

His theory is that if you have a message to share – but never share it – you never really had it in the first place.

The tree never (really) fell.

I agree.

And I think for anyone in a leadership position – personally or professionally – the “tree in the forest theory” is especially relevant when it comes to the topic of commitment.

Look: I know that you know…

Commitment is hard.
Commitment is essential.
Commitment is worth money.
Commitment is the cornerstone of good character.
Commitment is the keynote of inspirational leadership.

BUT HERE’S WHAT MOST PEOPLE MISS: Commitment requires consistent, visual and emotional reinforcement.

Otherwise you’re just winking in the dark.

THEREFORE: The problem is not a fear of commitment; the problem is a failure to communicate that you’re fully committed in the hearts and minds of the people who matter.

Today we’re going to explore part 1 (read part two next!) a collection of practices to help you communicate that you are fully committed:1. Differentiate between commitment and its substitutes. Just because you’re interested doesn’t mean you’re committed. Just because you care doesn’t mean you’re committed. Just because you show up doesn’t mean you’re committed. Just because you join doesn’t mean you’re committed.

And just because you feel obligated doesn’t mean you’re committed. In fact, just because you worked your ass off doesn’t mean you’re committed. Bummer.

But, it’s helpful to know the difference between commitment and these varieties of replacements thereof. Think of it like a breakfast table: The chicken is involved – but the pig is committed. What evidence have you given to people – this week – to assure them that you cluck instead of oink?

2. Chose your vehicle wisely. Like one of those racecar video games where you get to pick from any number of high-performance European cars before starting the race. Best part of the game. And this isn’t even about automobiles – this is about the vehicle of your commitment.

Look: I know you’re hesitant about what – specifically – you need to commit to. But if you listen deeply enough when the path to true commitment falls into your range of vision, the decision will make itself.

For example, I got a tattoo of a nametag on my chest. It symbolizes my commitment to my truth, my name, my identity, my philosophy and my life purpose. Plus chicks dig it. Hey: When in doubt, desecrate your body, right?

Anyway, there’s something exceptionally inspiring about committing yourself to the point of no turning back. Interestingly, I got my tattoo in 2005, which was right around the time my company first starting making money.

Huh. That’s interesting. I guess once you choose to commit with both feet, the world says yes to you. Providence moves to orchestrate the ideal conditions for you to make a name for yourself.

Remember: When you only commit with one foot, the other foot searches for reasons to discontinue efforts. Are you prepared to push all your chips to the center of the table?

3. Employ a commitment rich vocabulary. Strengthen your language when you talk about your commitments. For example, instead of saying, “I’ll try to,” or “I’ll get around to,” say “I commit to.” Instead of writing, “Our promise is,” write, “Our commitment is.”

Also, any time you take action that’s in line with your commitment, reinforce it by saying, “As promised, here is my…” or “As per our agreement, enclosed is…” Language like this demonstrates self-reliance and caring; articulates the gravity of your commitment and sticks in people’s memories forever. How do the words of your mouth reinforce the covenants of your heart?

4. Take a tip from the terrorists. You’ve got to hand it to those suicide bombers: They sure are committed. Too bad their efforts can’t be redirected into something that doesn’t murder thousands innocent people. Oh well.

Lesson learned: Commitment is a neutral article. Like good tofu, commitment takes on the flavor of whatever sauce it’s immersed in. This is a helpful analogy to keep in mind as you communicate that you’re fully committed to the people who matter.

Because if the cause you’re committed to is rooted in dishonesty, disrespect or depravity (thanks to my friends @ UIA FED for the link), all the commitment in the world won’t be able to stop you from hurting people. Including yourself.

Commitment becomes a detriment when values it’s in direct alignment with are rooted in evil. How are you laying an ethical foundation that builds your commitment?

5. Avoid compromising situations. Mr. Miyagi once said, “The best way to block a punch, is to not be there.” If you want to increase the probability that your commitment is consistently communicated, remember that truth. Also, remember this: What people think when they hear your life speak determines your leadership legacy.

The challenge is keeping yourself accountable. Here. Try posting these two questions in a visible location at your office: Do I want to become known for what I’m about to do? Have I been anywhere this week that might be seen as a compromise?

The good news is: This exercise requires the least amount of work – because all you have to do is say no. The bad news is, this practice requires the most amount of self-control – because saying no becomes seductively easy when saying yes would go undetected by the masses.

I learned this from experience. You only have to walk into a strip club wearing a nametag once. Would the person you want your people to see you as, do what you’re about to do?

REMEMBER: Commitment is nothing other than persistence with a purpose.

But.

Commitment is useless if not consistently communicated.
Commitment is irrelevant when the thing you’re committed to hurts people.
Commitment is worthless without the effective capacity to invest in and implement it.

On the other hand, commitment is a lifestyle that, if executed daily, becomes an equitable reputation – a tree falling in the forest – that the people who matter, hear.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How will you communicate that you’re fully committed?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

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How to Trust Your Resources

“My life is my preparation.”

I’ll never forget the first time my mentor told me that.

“I’ve developed deep faith,” Mr. Jenkins said, “that everything I’ve experienced in my life – up until this very moment – will sufficiently support whatever I do in the next moment.”

That’s called trusting your resources.

Now, when I say “resources,” I’m referring to:

Your talents.
Your abilities.
Your finest faculties.

Your resources. Got it?

Here’s how to trust them:1. Recognize when the hay is in the barn. Remember cramming for college exams? You put in hours and hours of studying. And by the end of the night, you reach a point where you think, “Well, I guess if I don’t know the material now, I never will.”

That’s when the hay is in the barn. When there’s nothing else you can do to increase the probability of success except to call it a night. As my Virginia Tech friend Jim Flowers says, “Amateurs practice until they get it right – masters practice until they can’t get it wrong.”

That’s your barometer. Whatever you’re preparing yourself for, you’ll know when the hay is in the barn. That’s when you have to let everything go and trust your resources. Are you willing to call it a night?

2. Practice tapping your reservoir at a moment’s notice. First, you’ve got to grow your reservoir with constant water (inflow of inspiration and ideas) into your life. How many books did you read last month?

Second, this requires the confidence and vulnerability to trust your inner resources. Do you believe with all your heart that you can respond intelligently and immediately to whatever is said?

Finally, this takes practice and practice and practice. How often are you making yourself available for questions?

Just imagine: If you focus on living a beautiful, admirable and character-rich life – that you’ve consistently reflected upon – you won’t to have to steal the show because it will already be in your possession. What’s your preparation process?

3. Small victories first. To trust your resources is to have confidence in your abilities. To have confidence in your abilities is to celebrate past instances of those abilities bearing fruit.

Try this: Every morning during your daily appointment with yourself, make five entries into your victory log. Think back to yesterday: What did you conquer, beat, overcome or subside? Did you book a gig? Beat your personal best in the gym? Say no to that eighth piece of pizza?

Write it down. Do this every morning and your confidence (along with your trust) will soar. How often do you celebrate your victories?

4. Consciously quiet your mind and body. This allows your resources to come to the surface gloriously unimpeded, ready to explode. Without this stillness, it’s awfully hard to dig down deep and excavate your best stuff.

The secret is to develop a centering practice. “Being centered is a state, not a trait,” says author and psychotherapist Eric Maisel.

Your challenge is to create enough muscle memory that you can snap into stillness at a moment’s notice. It’s amazing what a little breathing can do to your ability to trust yourself. What’s your light switch of calm?

5. Summon massive, instant strength. Announce to yourself that you are well equipped with sufficient internal assets to be successful. Try phrases like, “I trust my resources,” “I am richly supported,” “I am equal to this challenge.”

To quote the aforementioned Eric Maisel, “The resources that you’re trusting are internal (brainpower, heartpower, accumulated experience), external (people), even cosmic (mysterious forces). And they guarantee nothing, but they allow for the possibility that you can perform in a creative, centered way.” How do you tap into your wellspring of inner strength?

6. I am the person who can do this. This sentence changed my life. Once I started affirming it to myself daily, I found trusting my resources to be substantially easier.

Keep in mind, however, that this practice isn’t without its efforts. Note well that I didn’t start reciting that sentence to myself until I was thirty years old. And that’s what made the technique so successful for trusting my resources: I superimposed the affirmation over ten thousand hours of practice.

As a result, I conquered anxious thoughts, reminded myself that I truly was prepared – then began to believe that the time had come to trust my skills, training and experiences and proceed with confidence. How will you remind yourself that you have what it takes to succeed?

7. Distill inner water. During a recent executive leadership retreat, one of my participants told me that by spending fifteen minutes writing her thoughts first thing in the morning, she found it exponentially easier to tap her reservoir of wisdom, experience and insight.

Almost like she was a performer and could be “on” right away, thus showing up with a stronger and more efficacious presence for her two hundred employees.

“I no longer to worry about responding ineffectively or incompletely to my staff because I’ve already clarified my thoughts on paper,” Sheila explained.

The answer is writing Morning Pages, every day. Do it for a week and you’ll experience noticeable, profitable changes almost immediately. After all, tickets to the What I Should Have Said Theater are extremely expensive. Have you been writing your morning pages?

REMEMBER: Don’t underestimate your resources.

They’re stronger than you remember.

All you have to do is trust them.

After all, your life is your preparation.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are your resources trustworthy?

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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

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How to be a Heretic Without Hurting People

And now for a few words from some dead white guys:

“Modest doubt is the beacon of the wise.”

William Shakespeare, English playwright.

“A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.”

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher.

“Heretics are the only bitter remedy against the entropy of human thought.”

Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian author.

LESSON LEARNED: If you want to make a name for yourself, you have to think for yourself first.

Otherwise accepting unfound conclusions without evidence, explanation or personal consideration becomes a betrayal of the self.

Today we’re going to talk about being a heretic without hurting people.1. Be constructively challenging. I’m not suggesting you throw a monkey wrench just to watch the gears grind. Instead, maintain a meaningful purpose.

Like my mentor Bill Jenkins. He constantly reminds me that his purpose as a writer, educator and minister is to challenge people to see if all the thoughts in their head get along with each other. Always loved that about his approach.

And of course, he still nails me regularly, for which I’m forever grateful. What’s more, through Bill’s willingness to expose inconsistency through the bright light of courageous questioning, I’ve learned how to practice the same.

I prefer to use challenging questions like, “Why?” “Why not?” “According to who?” “Since when?” “What evidence do you have to support that belief?” Give those a shot. How challenging is your language?

2. Own your thinking. The definition of the word heretic is, “Anyone who does not conform to an established attitude, doctrine or principle.” Not bad, although I prefer the Latin origin approach. The word “heretic” comes from the Latin hereticus, which means, “able to choose.”

Here’s what that means: Consciously (and consistently) decide for yourself what to think, when to think it, why it matters to think it and who you’re going to share that thinking with. That’s what a heretic does on a daily basis.

Otherwise, if your thoughts aren’t your own, that makes you an automaton. Not very inspiring. Where are you (not) at full choice in your life right now?

3. Create your own religion. It’s easy: Choose a God. Pick a prophet. Perform a miracle. Settle on a name. Adopt a symbol. Agree on a sacrifice. Formulate the rituals. Determine your enemies. Outline the dogma. Write a bible. Start a website. Construct a building. Select a funny hat. Recruit a following. Spread the gospel. Hold a conference in Orlando. Convert anyone with a pulse. And see ya in the afterlife!

Done and done. It’s cakewalk, right?

Wrong. The word “religion” comes from the Latin religio, which means, “to link back to.” Therefore: Your religion is the one thing in your life that every other thing in your life links back to.

Figure out what that one thing is, and you’re all set, Reverend. Man, that was easy. You didn’t even have to kill anybody. What church are you the founding member of?

4. Don’t keep your doubts to yourself. During his 2010 Spoken Word Tour, Henry Rollins came through St. Louis. And during his three-hour talk – through which he didn’t take a single break or a single sip of water – Rollins said, “People frequently say I’m opinionated – to which I reply, ‘Well, that’s just your opinion.”

What about you? How opinionated are you willing to be? And how do you respond to people who dislike to your heretical thoughts? Don’t be shy about making your positions known. After all, conclusions weren’t meant to be kept quiet.

You don’t need to scream and yell at the establishment to be a heretic – but you do need to publicly and respectfully dissent. Tattoos optional. Are you offering propositions in addition to making protests?

5. Amplify your work with a platform. It’s hard to be heretic if you don’t have a way to reach the people who matter. Even if your following only consists a handful of hopefuls. You can’t assemble a movement to overturn stale thinking if you’re winking in the dark. People have to see and hear and touch you, your message and the voice that delivers it.

Fortunately, the number of available platforms is endless, both online and offline. The secret is five fold: Deliver content consistently, solicit dialogue constantly, respond to communications quickly, engage with people honestly and reinforce your philosophy daily.

Doing that is akin to plugging your message into a Marshall Half-Stack and letting that E chord rip until your neighbors bang down your door with shotguns. Whatever. If it’s too loud, you’re too old. What’s your mechanism for reaching your people?

6. Be aggressively skeptical. But not annoyingly cynical. Huge difference. Cynical people are sneering and peevish, while skeptical people are inquiring and reflective. Cynical people are maimed by negativity, while skeptical people are marked by doubt. And cynical people do it all for show, whereas skeptical people do it all for truth.

Got it? Remember: Heretics are the people with clear minds, strong hearts, curious eyes, furloughed brows, intrepid tongues and persistent fingers. Question first; believe second. That’s the heretic’s code. Do you refuse to swallow anything before examining it?

7. Reject rigid discipleship. Yes, your goal is to build a platform and enlist a following around your vision. But asking the people who jive with your message to immediately become traveling mini-versions of you is antithetical to the entire heretical philosophy.

If your plan is to wage a ruthless and continuous battle against the status quo, you have to extend that same latitude to the people you serve. Think of it this way: The word “disciple” means “pupil who grasps intellectually and analyzes thoroughly.”

Let your people do that. Let them be as free as you are, and they’ll help carry your vision to the ends of the Earth. Or at least all way to Effingham. Whom are you trying to make just like you?

ULTIMATELY: Being a heretic isn’t about (not) believing.

It’s about believing because you went and found out for yourself fist.

It’s about believing because you explored the naked truth before mindlessly ingesting it.

It’s about believing because you dedicated yourself to a conscious, consistent posture of inquiry.

It’s about believing because you chose to believe – not because you were told to believe and blindly followed.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems smarter – and safer – to keep a heavy finger on the pause button before announcing to the world, “This, I believe!”

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you willing to be a heretic without hurting people?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “61 Things to Stop Doing Before It’s Too Late,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

12 Ways to Defy Gravity Without Defaming Your Good Name

I saw Wicked for the first time last week.

One of the most moving performances I’ve ever seen.

Especially “Defying Gravity,” which, as most people suggested, brought me to tears. I’m such a sap.

Just listen to these lyrics:

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I’m through with playing by the rules
Of someone else’s game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap!

It’s time to try
Defying gravity
I think I’ll try
Defying gravity
And you can’t pull me down!

I’m through accepting limits
Because someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I’ll never know!

So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
“Everyone deserves the chance to fly!”
And if I’m flying solo
At least I’m flying free
To those who’d ground me
Take a message back from me.

Tell them how I am
Defying gravity
I’m flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I’ll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!

What about you?

Ever wanted to defy gravity, but didn’t know where to start?

Here’s how:

1. Accept and applaud your uniqueness. In the first act of Wicked, Ephelba first arrives at Shiz University. Her instructor, Madame Morrible, reminds her, “Never apologize for talent – it’s a gift!”

This is a helpful lesson for each of us: Unconditional self-acceptance is the prerequisite to defying gravity. Because if you don’t honor what is chieftest and most powerful in your heart, gravity will get the best of you.

And if you don’t stay true to the light that’s been given to you, every day it will become increasingly hard to shine. Are you open to all that you are?

2. Architect, embody and constantly rekindle your vision. Vision motivates us. Vision drives action. Vision defies gravity. And in case you’re wondering, vision is defined as, “telling a story about the future you want to see.”

Have you done that yet? If not, spend some time writing your answers to the following question: “If everybody did exactly what I said, what would the world look like?” Simply by asking, you accomplish a few things.

First, the question helps you imagine what you need to become in order for your goals to manifest. Second, it empowers you to speak from the future, then look back to identify the steps that led there.

And finally, it inspires you to paint a compelling, detailed picture of the desired future and make meaningful strides toward it. What three things are you doing repeatedly that don’t serve or support your vision?

3. Stimulate a gradual reduction of dependency. An addiction is anything that blocks your life force. And if you’ve ever dealt with a serious one before, you know that telling the truth of an addiction requires heaps (mountains!) of courage. The cool part is, once you’re willing to confront it, everything changes.

For example, I’ve historically been addicted to attention. I admit it. Which isn’t always a bad thing, especially in my line of work as an entrepreneur, where anonymity is bankruptcy.

But, attention is a seductive mistress. And when it (finally) occurred to me that I was using unhealthy tools to attract attention – some of which cost me money, relationships, even my health – I made a conscious choice to reduce that dependency.

Now, will my addiction to attention eventually disappear completely? Probably not. And whatever is currently blocking your life force is probably the same way. The secret lies in the ability to be aware of it while simultaneously keeping it at bay.

This reminds me of an (unexpectedly) inspiring line from the hilarious movie, Get Him to the Greek: “There isn’t a thing in this world you can’t turn into heroin.” What are you currently addicted to that’s weighing you and the people you love down?

4. Transcend orthodoxy. In the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman suggests the following:

“Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men. Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

Lesson learned: Most of society’s “rules” aren’t even rules – they’re self imposed limitations squelching the life out of your dream. Even The Wonderful Wizard of Oz admitted, “The truth is not fact or reason. The truth is simply what everyone agrees on.”

Your challenge is to agree on the truth that matters – your truth. The truth that you taste. Otherwise you’ll find yourself at the mercy of whoever wields authority over the things you desire. Are you doing what has the highest value or the strongest expectation?

5. Defer to yourself. Accept not the prescriptions of the world. Otherwise you allow your life get eaten up by the incompatible expectations of people who don’t matter. My suggestion: Flout the rules that govern everybody else’s business by permanently deleting the following two words from your gravity defying vocabulary:

“They say.”

There is no “they.” “They” is a surrogate for owning your own mind. “They” is just another way of saying, “Baaaahhh!” And “they” is what people say when they’re too lazy to find out for themselves.

Stop asking the waitress which steak she likes the best – just order.

Stop reading every cynical review of the movie – just go to the theater.

Stop mindlessly swallowing the dogma that’s been indoctrinated into the fibers of your being – go write your own bible.

Because the safest place to seek security is in the shelter of your own resources. Believe that you are enough – and have enough – to make the decision on your own accord. Are you your own authority figure?

6. Probe your musts. Albert Ellis, author and founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, coined a term called “musterbation.” He used it to describe someone who tells himself obsessively that he must do things or things must be a certain way, even though they’re not.

“The three main musts are: ‘I must do well or I’m no good,’ ‘You must treat me well or you’re worthless and deserve to roast in hell,’ and ‘The world must give me exactly what I want, precisely what I want, or it’s a horrible, awful place.’”

To avoid falling into this trap, regularly subject yourself to honest introspection. Take an objective inventory of yourself and ask, “What is the history behind the assumption about myself?” and “How could I test those assumptions?”

This inner work is crucial. Because if you don’t learn to love self-confrontation, you may never pinpoint the musts that are clipping your wings. The Wicked Witch was right: Everybody deserves a chance to fly. Don’t disable that chance by musterbating all over yourself. What are you convinced you must do, think and feel?

7. Reintroduce the power of choice. I just finished Discourses and Selected Writings by stoic philosopher Epictetus. Here’s my favorite passage:

“If, from the moment you get up in the morning you adhere to your ideals, that is where you will see true progress embodied and find someone who has not wasted her time making the journey.”

Does that describe you? If not, there’s still hope. Try introducing this practice into your daily life: Next time someone sits you down to tell you how crazy you are for doing what you’re doing (and they will!) don’t react – respond.

Manage the resistance as soon as it arises. Ask yourself: “Does this feedback truly reflect who I am?” If it doesn’t, ignore it. Instead, clothe your daily movements with individuality. And fashion your unique future like the artist that you are.

Otherwise you enable the resistance to deepen. And that only makes gravity harder to defy. Are handicapping your success by listening to people who don’t matter?

8. Plan for an aggressive growth campaign. That means two things. First, paying the price in the off-season. Gladly submitting yourself to being whipped. And remembering that it’s never a waste of time to take the time to learn. Especially when the stakes are lower.

The second component is staying committed to growth – even when you’ve achieved excellence. And sending yourself on an open-ended quest for progress, improving until the bitter end.

Remember: The onus is on you to renew your contract with yourself. How are you regularly renewing your commitment to your desire?

9. Shout your wares at the top of your voice. Jump at every opportunity to show the world what you can do. Even if the money is shit. Even if it’s a freebie. Even if you have to pay to play. Doesn’t matter. Sometimes you have invite yourself to the table; otherwise you may never get a seat – much less a chance to eat.

What’s more, small victories harvest big successes. And the more you demonstrate to yourself that you have accomplished difficult and impossible things before, the easier it is to win in the future.

Just remember: There’s nothing like a moment of private triumph to fuel your efforts. Especially in those moments of immobility when you can’t get past the paralyzing uncertainty of following your dreams. What audience did you get in front of today?

10. Beware the cost of commitment. If you notice your foundation beginning to crumble, don’t build anything else on top of it. The bigger and grander you make it, the sooner it will collapse. For the love of God, stop adding more bricks.

Come on. You’re too smart to be that stupid. Defying gravity is one thing – but destroying your health is another. I learned this lesson the hard way a few years back when my respiratory foundation (literally) collapsed. It’s called a pneumothorax, or collapsed lung, which is a fairly common incident among young, tall men in their late twenties.

That’s what happens when you don’t have a healthy relationship with your breath.

That’s what happens when you’re working so hard to defy gravity that you completely forget to check to see if there’s any oxygen left in your lungs.

Please be careful. Don’t become the victim of your own conviction. Be smarter than I was. Otherwise the only gravity you’ll be defying is the air coming through your chest tube. Will your commitment become a detriment?

11. Momentary cracks in your resolve are inevitable. You can’t build immunity against life’s sorrows and you can’t outsmart getting hurt. My suggestion is that you expand your sense of humor proportionate to the situation.

That’s what my friend Rusty does. As a lifelong native of Biloxi, his philosophy toward the hurricane and oil disasters always remains the same: “Attitude is the difference between an experience and an ordeal.”

After all, crying a river never takes you to the other side of the river, it just makes your shirt wet and annoys the people around you. Instead: Be persistence personified. Like Henry Rollins wrote in A Dull Roar, pain is nothing but an invitation to excel. My question is: Will you meet misfortune with groans and tears or with nods and inhales?

12. Patience isn’t idleness. Nothing important comes into being overnight. Except maybe quarters from the tooth fairy. But even she’s been kind of spotty lately. Stupid Fairy Unions.

That’s the other challenge of defying gravity: How unspectacular the process is. Plus, how few people see the gallons the sweat you pour into the process.

For example: Nobody sees you dragging your tired ass up at 5AM every morning, pounding away on your laptop until lunch. Nobody hears you working until midnight, rehearsing away in your hotel room until housekeeping tells you to keep it down. And nobody notices you sitting in the back of the restaurant, sneaking in a quiet hour of reading before you get back to the grind.

Hell, sometimes you have to wait ten years before the right people even see you at all. I just hope you’ve got something (that matters!) to keep you constructive in the meantime. Otherwise the wait is going to wear down on you like a junkyard car crusher. How patient are you willing to be, and how productively are you willing to work in the meantime?

ULTIMATELY: Gravity is a powerful force. Sometimes brutal.

And the reality is, it doesn’t care about you.

It’s not interested in your dreams.

It’s been around the block a few times and it has no intention of slowing down.

But therein lay the weakness of gravity: It also has no intention of speeding up.

And because of that, casual effort isn’t sufficient.

Whether you’re building a business, moving across the country, starting a family or interning for peanuts at the company of your dreams, the five words that matter are:

Go full time or go home.

Run headlong into the future with sprinting shoes on, relentlessly refusing to settle for a pale version of what’s possible.

Yes, you will get hurt. You will lose money. You will alienate people. And you most certainly will think about quitting at least once a week.

But I believe in you.

Enough assuming innate inadequacy. You are the person who can do this. And if you stand there with stern and uncompromising feet, stark naked to the world, trembling at the possibility of abject failure, and remind people that they will not dull the edges of your enthusiasm…

You will defy gravity.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you ready to fly?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called,”11 Ways to Out Market the Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Watch Scott Ginsberg’s Closing Keynote (LIVE!) at The Optimists International Convention

Six hours from now, I’ll be taking center stage here in Denver for the Optimist International Convention.

They’re streaming all of the sessions live!

My program this afternoon is about how to make your organization more joinable.

I’d love to have you tune in at 3:00pm (Denver time), go here!

See you then.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How joinable are you?

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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

The world’s FIRST two-in-one, flip-flop book!

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The Approachable Leader’s Handbook of Being Heard, Vol. 2

For those of you human beings out there (and I think you know who you are) here’s a quick list of assumptions.

You want to be:

Valued. Needed. Wanted.
Affirmed. Appreciated. Accepted.
Respected. Recognized. Remembered.
Taken seriously. Given a chance. Part of something that matters.

IN SHORT: You want to be heard.

Because if you’re not – if people can’t hear you – they can’t follow you.

And if they can’t follow you, you lose.

Today we’re going to explore another selection of practices (read part one here!) to help you be heard by the people who matter most: Employees, staff, customers, kids, volunteers – whomever you serve.

CAUTION: If you’re hoping to read a bunch of vague platitudes like “just hear people first” or “have integrity” – look elsewhere. This list contains only practical, actionable and specific ideas to help you be heard.

And whether you’re a leader, writer, manager, parent, director, marketer, or fourth grade teacher, you’ll be able to plug these practices into your daily life today:

1. Start with a firmer step. A few sad realities: The world is not waiting breathlessly to hear what you have to say. The blogosphere is not standing on the edge of their seats eagerly anticipating your next post. And your followers on Twitter – who, by the way, don’t care about your tweets as much as they care about their stats – are not waking up an hour earlier just to read the hilarious update about your Rottweiler’s latest genital licking adventure.

Instead, consider these firmer-step suggestions:

FIRST: Align your petitions with the self-interest of your audience. Find out what their success seeds are.

SECOND: Give clear direction of what you want people to follow. Make the audience your accomplice.

THIRD: Build a listening platform. Demonstrate to the people you want to hear that they have been heard first.

FOURTH: Create a dialogue that draws people into the cause. Say things you haven’t said elsewhere.

FINALLY: Invite layers of interpretation around your message. Allow people to add multiple dimensions to your ideas.

Follow this process, and your voice will be heard. Maybe even by your dog. Do you hit the ground running or hit the ground stroking?

2. Be music, not noise. The panhandlers who earn the most money aren’t the ones who ask for change; they’re the ones who play drum kits made out of paint buckets. The difference maker? One plays music – the other makes noise. One is heard – the other is ignored.

And, as a result, one eats – the other starves. Lesson learned: You can’t shout your way to being heard. Amidst the buzz of competing voices, nobody notices normal, nobody buys boring and nobody pays for average. Construct your unfair advantage or risk being skipped like a commercial on Tivo. Are singing songs or vomiting sound effects?

3. Show them that you can bend. Mental flexibility is a rare thing – which is exactly why it gets through to people. As I learned from the book Flow, “A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles her repertoire of responses and can interact with the world in terms of a much richer and varied spectrum.”

Essentially, it’s about striking a balance between resolute persistence and commitment, yet remaining flexible enough to bend without compromising foundation or sacrificing respect. Keeping yourself amenable to change of mind instead of allowing the arrogance clamp of terminal certainty to suffocate your brain’s elasticity.

Leaders who do this, get heard. Do you retain ongoing openness to your misguided perceptions?

4. Have a message that’s worthy of being heard. Fascination trumps relevance. Moment to moment, you want your audience to be curious about what will happen next. Here’s how: Creating a message (and a messenger) worth looking at. Make sure you have to have enough going on in your life to be interesting to talk with, listen to and be heard by.

Do not underestimate the importance of this. Everything you’ve learned on this list so far accomplishes nothing without a baseline level of interestingness. How much time are you spending – each day – becoming more fascinating?

5. Create emotional disturbance. Dylan once wrote, “The purpose of art is to stop time.” If you want to accomplish that, you have to disappear from the page. To hide the memory of your hand. To democratize your message in a way that meets your audience where they are. And to reward people from any angle.

These are the things that engage immediately. These are the things that get heard. Do you get people’s full attention as soon as they taste you?

6. Build a truth bridge. First, jolt people into something completely unexpected. Let your words bring things out of them they didn’t know were there. Functioning as a verbal mirror, you help people revise the way they look at themselves. Kind of hard to ignore someone who does that.

Secondly, help people funnel down their world. Help people know what they know. Even if it’s as simple as sending your notes to them after listening to their problems. By reflecting their reality – on paper – you help them see truth in the round.

Ultimately, it’s about standing at the door and knocking patiently until people open it – not breaking into their lives. That’s how you get heard. How are you helping people fall in love with themselves all over again?

REMEMBER: If they can’t hear you, they can’t follow you.

And if they can’t follow you, you lose.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s the cost of being unheard?

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For the list called, “22 Unexpected Ways to Help People,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Who’s quoting YOU?

Check out Scott’s Online Quotation Database for a bite-sized education on branding success!

www.stuffscottsaid.com.

How to be a Monument of Non-Conformity

I’m aware of the irony of publishing a list of instructions on how not to conform.

And I confess to the glaring paradox of a non-conformist like myself publishing a blog post that teaches people how to conform to a standard of non-conformity.

BUT TWAIN WAS RIGHT: Don’t assume you’re on the right road just because it’s a well-beaten path.

AS WAS EINSTEIN: Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.

AND SO WAS EMERSON: A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.

Here’s how to be a monument to non-conformity:

1. Discover what drummed the magic out of you. Indoctrination starts early. Very early. Usually long before you’re old enough to realize there’s a shiny watch swinging above your head. The trick is to travel back in time and pinpoint the person, institution or dogma that first hypnotized you.

Then, to honestly admit how that conditioning affected your choices as you grew up. My friend Richard, a therapist and life coach, asks his clients: “Name the first person that told you that who you were wasn’t okay.” Oof. Not a smooth path to walk down. Crappy self-confrontation.

Still, this kind of exercise yields tremendous insight into your (subconscious) conformist beginnings. And without such reflection, you run the risk of compromising your truth. “Becoming vacant in the eyes as you conform,” as Chris Whitley sang in Din of Ecstasy. Are you willing to look in the mirror and ask yourself when you stopped thinking for yourself?

2. Avoid fitting in. “What could I do – in this moment – that would be the exact opposite of everyone else?” This is the guiding question of my decision-making process. Has been since I was a kid. But now that I’m thirty, I don’t even think about it anymore. It just happens.

The question is forever engraved upon my bones like a cosmic serial number. And that’s my argument: Simply standing out is only half the equation. You have to actively avoid fitting in, too. How are you converting yourself into a square peg?

3. Work outside mainstream thinking. Is fitting in such a high virtue? No way. Don’t refuse to become anything other than what to group tells you to be. Make a conscious choice not to be a ditto. An echo. A copy of a copy.

Ask yourself (and your organization) to complete the following sentence: “The way we challenge the status quo is ____________.”

Then, post your answers on your website. After all, the answers to that question are the building blocks of your monument of non-conformity. Have you publicly refused to occupy the middle?

4. Practice positive deviance. That means believe what you believe because you (actually) believe it – not because somebody told you to believe and you mindlessly followed.

That means free yourself from the constraints of heartless orthodoxy.
That means make yourself the exception to as many rules as possible.
That means approach everything with a healthy dose of curiosity and aggressive skepticism.

However: Don’t deviate just for the sake of deviating. Mindless contrarianism isn’t much better than mindless conformity. I urge you to bleed for what you want, but not for the sole purpose of staining the rug. Do you know when to break the rules?

5. Hack a new path. My friend Genuine Chris wrote a brilliant blog post related to today’s topic. Here’s an excerpt that made my stomach drop:

“The difference makers are the people who are indifferent to what the crowd does or thinks. They create the world and mold it regardless of resistance. They ignore the persistent tether of the mediocre and don’t brag about seventy hour weeks, but brag about how much of their mind, soul and spirit they engaged to solve a problem.”

Lesson learned: Don’t live with the results of other people’s thinking. Push beyond group norm constraints. Are you following an existing path of safety or going where there is no path and leaving a trail of blood?

6. Be unafraid to court controversy. Again, not because you want to make noise – but because you want to keep rein on your individual. To show the world that you refuse to stand mute. And to “throw off the shackles of non-conformity and shout a throaty no to anything non-wow,” as Tom Peters wrote.

My suggestion: Take contrarian positions on more issues. Hell, on all issues. Make yourself a model of courageous living and thinking by constantly asking yourself: What do I risk in presenting this message? Because if the answer is, “not much,” you lose. Your monument to non-conformity crumbles under the weight of gutlessness.

Remember: Going against the grain welcomes splinters. Have your tweezers ready. What risk are you going to have to learn to live with?

7. Big isn’t necessarily beautiful. The bigger you get, the fewer risks you take. There’s just too much pressure to be predictable. That’s why smaller organizations, freelancers and one-man shows – who choose not to conform – win.

They’re not prisoners of their own bigness.And they’re the sole shot-callers. Thank God. After all: Who says monuments have to stand five hundred feet tall? Small is an acceptable destination. As Seth Godin wrote in Small is the New Big:

“Changes in the way that things are made and talked about mean that big is no longer an advantage. Big used to matter – and then small happened. And small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them quickly. As such, small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.”

Remember: If size mattered, dinosaurs would still be alive. How can you be a monumental without being monstrous?

8. Shields up. When you do decide to stand out, prepare yourself for inevitable slings and arrows from the people around you. It comes with the territory of occupying the margins. You’ll find that many of them will become uncomfortable. Or feel threatened by your distinctiveness. They’d much rather you fit in – that way they could ignore you.

Unfortunately, because you’ve sculpted yourself into a monument of non-conformity, people are (now) confronted with just how boring they really are. Good. Maybe that will disturb them into action. Maybe Steven Pressfield was right: “When we see others living their authentic lives, it drives us crazy because we know we’re not living our own.” Are you prepared to be hated?

ULTIMATELY: Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

That’s what John F. Kennedy said in his address to the UN General Assembly on September 25th, 1961 – and it still holds true today.

I challenge you to contest the conventional.
I challenge you to drum up a delightful disturbance.
I challenge you to make yourself into monument to non-conformity.

Your voice will be heard by the people who matter.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What do you do to go against the grain?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “99 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

8 Ways to Establish a Credible Artistic Identity in a Crowded Marketplace

“Nobody’s reading your blog because of your art. They’re reading your blog because the person you are inspires them. They’re not reading your blog because they’re thinking of buying your paintings, they’re reading your blog because the way you approach your work inspires them. It sets an example for them. It stands for something that resonates with them. It leads them to somewhere that they also want to go.”

Cartoonist Hugh McLeod of Gaping Void wrote that in a recent blog post.

And after reading it a few times, his philosophy got me thinking about what we, as artists, are all about.

Because it’s not just the art – it’s the identity of the person who creates the art.

The challenge is establishing a credible artistic identity in a crowded marketplace.

Here’s how:

1. Build a public timeline of credibility. More content earns more credibility and equalizes the core of your identity. For example: If you’re a photographer, upload your photo shoots regularly. If you’re a cartoonist, post a new strip daily. If you’re a writer, update your blog daily. If you’re an actor, share video clips regularly. If you’re a comedian, upload audio clips from every live show you do.

Also, consider posting your travel schedule, tour dates, public events or community appearances in a prominent location on your website. This not only proves your legitimacy, but also invites fans and audience members to come out and see you live. Are you creating an art project or contribute daily to your ongoing body of work?

2. Build a strategy to leverage free. The greatest barrier to success as a creative professional isn’t incompetence – it’s anonymity. It doesn’t matter how amazing your art is. If people aren’t exposed to it regularly, it doesn’t exist. And your artistic identity – credible as it may be – may as well not exist.

Lesson learned: If you’re not giving away (some part of) your art, for free, every single day, you’re either stupid or high on paint fumes. The more you give away for free, the wealthier you will be. If you haven’t already, spend a Saturday afternoon building your strategy to leverage free.

Personally, I’ve adhered to my own free strategy for eight years. And it’s the single smartest marketing move I ever made an artist. Ever. Seth Godin, bestselling author of Linchpin, was right: Artists say, “Here.” What did you give away for free today?

3. Create your own interpretation. Pablo Neruda wrote a poem called, “You are the result of yourself.” When I first read it, the architecture of my heart changed forever. Seriously. I’ve been more moved by a piece of poetry in my life. In fact, I was so inspired by Neruda’s poem, that I decided to write my own interpretation of the same philosophy. My piece was called, What Every Leader Needs to Know about Making a Name for Herself.

What I discovered was that by offering my own version of another artists’ work, I earned credibility. First, because I honored my influences instead of plagiarizing them. And secondly, because I took something that was already famous and created my own unique version of it.

Remember: Reacting against other artists is part of what leads you to find your own creative voice. What famous work of art could you revisit, reimagine or rework?

4. Everyday is the answer. In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron reminds us that the creative life is grounded on many, many small steps and very, very few large leaps. Her suggestion: Commit to laying a certain amount of track, every single day. Personally, my quota is four hours of writing a day. Minimum. Usually, I double that.

Whether you commit to hours or words or notes or pages, stick to it daily. After all, creativity isn’t just something you do on weekends. Do it daily or risk sucking. Remember: Everyday you don’t practice; you’re one day away from being amazing. What did you create today?

5. Find your audience and engage with them daily. Credibility is earned though human contact. Fortunately, social media and other web-based applications have made this easier than ever. Now you can solicit instant feedback from your readers, viewers, buyers and audience members within minutes, even seconds.

My suggestion: Ask them questions. Find out what their struggles are. Speak straight to the heart of human experience. Then let your art reflect what you’ve learned about your audience. You’ll connect on a deeper level with the people who pay your bills. Personally, I just listen to what people say they suck at, then write about it.

But only if you’re willing to make yourself e-pproachable. Only if you respond to emails, tweets and other online messages quickly and sincerely. How easy are you to reach?

6. Go pro or go back to waiting tables. Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is the single most important book on creativity ever written. I read it every August. I buy copies for my creative colleagues. I recommend it to everybody. And the highlight of the book is when he defines what it means to go pro:

The professional respects his craft.

The professional understands delayed gratification.

The professional’s work has style; it is distinctively his own.

The professional doesn’t let the actions of others define his reality.

The professional shuts up. She doesn’t talk about it. She just does her work.

The professional eliminates chaos from his world so he can banish it from his mind so the muse can enter and not soil her gown.

The professional is acutely aware of all the intangibles that go into inspiration, and out of respect for them, he lets them work.

The professional shows up every day, shows up no matter what, masters his technique and exposes himself to the judgment of the real world.

The professional doesn’t let his signature grandstand for him. His style serves the material. He does not impose it as a means to drawing attention to himself.

The professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come.

Lesson learned: A credible artistic identity is the mark of a true professional. Are you still an amateur?

7. Memorialize your method. Creativity isn’t just about what you make – it’s about how you make it. As such: Credibility is a function of process, not just product. Your challenge is to communicate your unique method of creation in a three-dimensional way.

For example, you could hire a film crew to follow you around for a day. With the footage, you could compile a series of two-minute mini-documentaries. Then post them on the “About me” page of your website. Or, what if you shot time-lapse photography of your current painting project? You could share the photos on Flickr or create a slide show for your clients.

The point is: People pay for how. Show them. How are you publicizing your unique artistic how?

8. Visually substantiate your grunt work. In 2010, I started posting a series of time-lapse writing videos, pared down from four hours down to seven minutes. This depicts the naked truth of my creative process. And it helps my audience appreciate the true value of what my unique brain brings to the table.

Your challenge is to take the intangible effort behind your art and make it as inescapable as possible – while still remaining delightfully ambiguous. After all, you work tirelessly and privately on the process. May as well capture it and share it with the people who pay for the product.

Remember: If your fans love your work, they’ll love the grunt work behind the work too. How can you make the invisible inescapable?

ULTIMATELY: Being an artist isn’t (just) about the art.

It’s about the unique life you choose to lead that informs and inspires the art.

That’s how you compete in a crowded marketplace.

Either that, or you could just walk around Times Square half-naked playing a guitar.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Have you established a credible artistic identity?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “13 Things Losers Do,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

The world’s FIRST two-in-one, flip-flop book!

Buy Scott’s comprehensive marketing guidebook on Amazon.com and learn how to GET noticed, GET remembered and GET business!

How to be Your Own Biggest Fan Without Resorting to Face Painting, Binge Drinking or Crowd Surfing

It’s great to have people cheering for you.

But the number of fans you accumulate is valueless if you’re not the first one standing in line.

LESSON LEARNED: You need to be your own biggest fan.

Aka:

Your own best friend.
Your own ideal reader.
Your own top customer.
Your own perfect audience.
Your own greatest supporter.

From that space of self-belief, anything is possible.

Because whatever your currency is – making a statement, making difference, making a mint – you can’t earn that unless you have people cheering for you.

You may as well start with yourself.

Here’s a list of six ways to be your own biggest fan without resorting to face painting, binge drinking or crowd surfing:

1. Steel yourself against the thundering noise around you. Don’t let the validity of your talent hang in the balance of some wanker critic’s opinion. Instead, give up your obsessive need for approval from anyone other than yourself.

Develop personal standards for judging your own artistic talents. Visualize at the onset what a win looks like. That way, when the bedlam persists from the haters around you, the commotion dissolves from the groupie inside you.

Remember: As long as you’re your own biggest fan, you win every time. Unless you’re a serial killer. That’s totally different. I don’t care how skilled you are at decapitating people. How much of what you believe about yourself comes from what others believe about you?

2. Extend unrestricted mental hospitality to every achievement. Self-confidence comes from self-evidence. Here’s my suggestion: With every victory – regardless of size – constantly remind yourself: This is not a trivial accomplishment.

Personally, I keep a Victory Log. Been making entries every morning since 2002. From profitable business achievements like, “Landed a huge consulting contract!” to smaller personal triumphs like, “Didn’t pass out from massive dehydration in yoga class today.”

Hey man, a win is a win. I’m reminded of what Seneca wrote in Letters to a Stoic: “Call to mind things that you have done that have been upright or courageous; run over in your mind the finest parts that you have played.”

This provides you with a secure base – a context of sufficiency coupled with an attitude of self-confidence – from which to operate. That’s how you win, and keep winning. What victories did you memorialize today?

3. Regularly audit your self-belief. It is possible to be your own fan without believing your own in house press. As long as you digest proper doses of self-awareness and humility.

To become (not only) your biggest fan – but also your sharpest fan – consider asking yourself a few questions:

*What obsolete self-beliefs are trapping you? Because certain values you’ve held close to your heart will eventually outlive their usefulness.

*What would it take for you to believe in yourself down to your toes? Because the more you belittle your true self, the more your inner gifts atrophy.

*Which beliefs should you abort? Because some of those ideals may not be serving your goals any longer.

Remember: Being your own biggest fan is how you prepare the soil from which a harvest of meaningfulness grows. But only if you’re radically honest with yourself first. Why do you believe in yourself?

4. Smash through self-doubt. Like a sledgehammer through an Easter egg. Otherwise you short-circuit your momentum. And he who takes no action makes no money.

My question is: Why take up unnecessary mental disk space questioning yourself? Limits are for calculus teachers. Yes, you are the detonator of your own destruction – but you’re also the conductor of your own self-belief.

To free yourself from the fear of being found out, recite the following affirmation: “I am the person who can do this … I am the person who can do this.” I use that one all the time. And it’s a great tool when I need help convincing myself that I actually know what the hell I’m doing.

Otherwise self-doubt becomes the ultimate self-betrayal. Therefore: Your mission is to keep the faith. Like the diehard fan that refuses to leave the half-empty ballpark until the last pitch is thrown, stick with yourself.

And if you throw a hanging curve that gets tattooed out of the stadium, so be it. Learn from it and move on. How often do self-doubt and caution take hold of your decision making process?

5. Success alone is not enough to anchor you. First, you have to embody the unshakable, unbending belief that you deserve success. That it’s yours for the asking. Not that you’re entitled to success – but that you’re good enough to receive it.

My suggestion: Cure the waves of whoami. Remind yourself that who you already are – is enough to get what you want. You are worthy of this dream, and this dream is worthy of you. Otherwise you’ll never rein superior to the wounds and upsets of life.

As Karen Salmonshon wrote in Enough, Damn It! “Lots of pessimism will only get you lots of opportunity to be right about your pessimism. Don’t be a pessimist who succeeds at being right about being a pessimist.” Are you shaping your world or being shaped by it?

6. Stick around anyway.. Even when it’s late. Even when you’re tired. Even when it’s raining outside. Even when you’re sitting in the nosebleed section because your friend who got the tickets is a total tight ass.

That’s what real fans do: They pull on their ponchos and wait the out the storm. Even when nobody notices. Because it’s not about being noticed – it’s about being dedicated.

Fans like these came to see a performance and, damn it, that’s exactly what they’re going to get. And maybe some nachos. Your challenge is not to let the breaks break you. To relentlessly pursue an upward course, crappy conditions notwithstanding.

For example: When you discover that not everybody cares about you, be your biggest fan anyway. When you learn that not everybody is invested in your success, be your biggest fan anyway. And when you realize that not everybody will notice when you fail, be your biggest fan anyway.

Like Garrison Keilor said when I saw a live 2008 episode of Prairie Home Companion, “Never, ever give up. Because when you do, most of the world probably won’t notice anyway.” How are you building your resiliency?

HERE’S THE REALITY: You don’t need millions Twitter followers, thousands of Facebook friends or hundreds of LinkedIn connections to have fans that matter.

Start with you.
Become your own biggest fan first.
Before selling yourself to the world, invest the proper time selling yourself to yourself.

Because unless you believe in yourself more than anybody else on the planet, your career will be a pointless, empty journey.

Gooooooooooal!

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you cheering for yourself?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “35 Things You Simply Can’t Do,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

The world’s FIRST two-in-one, flip-flop book!

Buy Scott’s comprehensive marketing guidebook on Amazon.com and learn how to GET noticed, GET remembered and GET business!

How to Stop Being a Passenger and Start Blazing a Passageway

“There’s more to life than just being a passenger.”

Amelia Earhart said that.

But she wasn’t suggesting you try to control life. Rather:

She teaches you to tackle life assertively, adventurously and ardently.

She inspires you to avoid marching to the drum of other people’s demands.

She challenges you to nominate yourself as the architect – not the victim – of your life’s course.

THAT’S THE COOL PART: The territory is yours to carve.

Here’s a set of steak knives to help you on your way.

1. Live by default – not design. I’m astounded at the percentage of people whose identity is inherited and not invented. But I guess it’s not terribly surprising, considering the price you have to pay to be in charge of your own life. Default, after all, is easier, cheaper and safer.

Unfortunately, that makes it ten times harder to put a dent in the world. My suggestion is: Stop bowing to other people’s opinions. Stop submitting to the category. Invent your own. Take an active role in the ongoing creation of your identity. Whose paint by number are you trying to draw yourself into?

2. Stop saying, “It is what it is.” Wrong. It isn’t what it is. It is what you’ve chosen it to be. It is what you’ve given yourself permission to accept. It is what you’ve allowed to exist into your life. It is what you’ve assumed you’re stuck with.

Screw “it.” I loathe the word it. “It” is a personal responsibility dodger. If you don’t like it, change it. And remember what Tony Robbins says, “The only reason you don’t have what you really want is because of the story you keep telling yourself about why you can’t have it. Is it (really) what it is?

3. Suit your temper to any circumstance. Mood doesn’t matter. Mood follows action. And situations don’t create moods – moods create situations. Your challenge is to take control of the emotional climate. Here’s how. First, recognize that you are the result of yourself, the dominant determiner of your own development and the agent of your own future. This awareness compels you to hold yourself accountable – even if you’re feeling like crap.

Second, remember that if you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace. It’s amazing how quickly a bad mood can dissipate with a little belly breathing. As philosophy Lieh Tzu reminds us, “To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.”

Third, revise your attitude by shifting your language. Instead of letting your emotions own you by saying, “I’m so annoyed,” try saying, “I’m noticing some frustration.” And instead of consigning yourself to a state of inequity by saying, “This is the worst week of my life!” try saying, “Until now, this week has sucked.”

Remember: You can’t afford to engage in negative thinking for more than about five minutes. The thing that causes you to overreact, owns you. How are you taking ownership of the dissatisfying aspects of your life?

4. Trust your own inner authority. Beware of becoming overly dependent on outside voices to validate your truth. If you solely appoint other people as your decision-making cabinet, your intuitive voice will stay silenced. And your best self will remain repressed.

In the book Winners Always Quit, author David Cottrell makes an important point on this issue, “People who choose to be passengers have to go where the driver is going. And they have little or no control over how fast they move ahead, and no say about whether rules are observed.”

Ultimately, you have to believe in the availability of your own answers. You have to formulate and memorialize your own decision-making system, instead of blinding accepting the yeses of people who don’t matter. Are you open to ideas from everyone, but delivering the ultimate verdict yourself?

5. Use life’s circumstances. Look. I know this unscheduled catastrophic event was not part of your nice little plan. Tough cookies. It’s time to take control of your life and find alternative means. Here’s how: First, the bravest way to face your problems is to make the decision that your problems are facing you. Tell ‘em to take a number and get in line.

Secondly, figure out what you need to become – not just what you need to do, but what you need to become – to overcome your current situation. I promise that the willingness to become what you need to become is more effective than any to-do list you could write.

And finally, ask yourself two questions: Which part of this chaos can I tame? And what is the most trivial thing I can do that would represent a baby stay toward my goal? That’s how you take control of the process. That’s how you take responsibility for your responsibilities. When was the last time the economy stayed up all night worrying about you?

6. Become the guardian of your mind. It’s one of the few things you have control over. May as well get good at it. Here’s how: First, learn to spot toxicity. Declare: “You will not infect me with your misery.” Especially to negative people whose orbit of hot trash attempts to infiltrate your reality.

Next, decide to withdraw support from destructive people. Affirm: “I’m tired of being edited by you.” Especially to insecure tossers who insist you squeeze yourself into their nice little mold of a perfect person.

And third, promote yourself to general manager of your mindspace. Avow: “I choose not to participate in the fear of the world.” Especially to poisonous mass media banditos whose sole purpose in life is to scare you into buying whatever unnecessary pseudo-luxury their advertisers vomit all over airwaves. What are you finished listening to?

REMEMBER: You always have a choice. And although you and I may never actually meet, I have this sneaking suspicion that you’ll pick the right one.

I’m confident that:

You will not be a spectator.
You will not be a bystander.
You will not be a passenger.

And you will blaze a passageway.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What charge are you leading?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called,”11 Ways to Out Market the Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

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