Month: November 2010

The Official Nametagscott Guide to Stick-to-itiveness, Part 4

Stick-to-itiveness can be learned.

Aka, “Stick to it.”
Aka, “Stick with it.”
Aka, “Stick in there.”

All you have to do is shift your attitude completely – work hard, smart and long while nobody notices – and design a daily practice of self-determination and commitment.

Hey. I said it could be learned – not that it would be easy.

Up to the challenge?

Cool. Fortunately, I’ve already published part one, part two and part three in this series.

Today we’re going to explore part three with additional strategies for sticking with it – whatever “it” is:1. Shut yourself up. In 1933, newspapers around the world announced the death of a Chinese man named Li Chung Yun. Now, the rumor was that he lived to be over two hundred years old. Whether or not that’s true, nobody knows.

But Yun did deliver a series of twenty-eight three-hour lectures at a Chinese university. The topic: Longevity. And when asked for advice on lengthening one’s life, his greatest counsel for stick-to-itiveness was always two words: Inner quiet.

When was the last time those two words described your mindspace? For most people, that’s a tough question. For some people, that’s an impossible question. But that’s why Yun’s philosophy of inner quiet is more relevant than ever before.

The reality is: Our society doesn’t reward idleness. Money likes speed, not stillness. And when you factor in the information overload, the acceleration of technology and the (almost) non-existent attention span – it’s no wonder people can’t shut themselves up.

Have you ever actually tried just doing nothing? It’s like a workout. Apparently non-action is the hardest action of all. But in my experience, practicing regular intervals of inner quiet – every day – is the backbone of stick-to-itiveness. Tomorrow’s strength comes from yesterday’s stillness. At what point did you shut your brain down yesterday?

2. Find a place to put the fear. Are you scared? Perrrrrfect. Fear is a great compass for finding what matters. You just have to be bold enough to put your arm around fear’s shoulder and listen to what it’s trying to tell you. The world isn’t trying to knock you down – it’s trying to educate you.

The question is: Are you willing take notes? That’s when stick-to-itiveness develops. When you’re willing to view your shitstorm as a tempering experience. And when you’re faithful that there are many answers waiting for you to find them.

Here’s one of the mantras that keeps me going: “I look forward to looking back on this.” With that attitude, you approach your fear – which, by the way is completely human and natural and expected – as a teaching mechanism. You stop trying to change what you are only able to understand. What scared you this week?

3. Unholster the humor. In the documentary Why We Laugh, author, comedian and activist Cornell West explained:

“Humor is a diversion from despair. We laugh to keep from crying. And comedy is the tool of the spirit to pass through the wilderness of misery.”

It’s easy to get over things once you figure out what’s funny about them. And if you think you’re not funny, look again. If you’re a human, you’re funny. The challenge is excavating the constant and inherent hilariousness of your daily experiences.

Here are a few questions you might ask throughout your day: What’s funny about this? How can this mistake morph into something positive and humorous? What is the funny message the universe is trying to give me through this?

Ultimately, your answers will build a foundation of funny to help you melt on through the tough times. Humor doesn’t have to trivialize your tribulations. Every step is a spark that defies the darkness. How will you laugh your way through the struggle?

4. Develop strategies for responding to resistance. I’ve been playing guitar for almost twenty years. And I’ll never forget what my teacher taught me on our very first lesson: “If you break a string, don’t freak out. Everybody does it. What matters is how quickly you return to the music.”

That same principle of stick-to-itiveness applies to the song of life. My suggestion is to practice noticing things before letting them nag you. Don’t allow the world to choose for you. The most expedient way to overcome opposition is to respond, not react. The difference is that reacting is a reflex – responding is a choice.

In Grounded Optimism, my friend Kristi Govertson summarized this idea beautifully, “Sticks and stone will break my bones but the words I tell myself and choose to agree with either hinder or hurt me.”

The point is: You always have a choice. Always. Strength comes from facing storms. But not from inside your cozy house with your nose pressed against the glass. Instead, from bolting out the door and dancing in the rain. What fuels your strength to remain steadfast in your aims?

REMEMBER: It takes guts to stick yourself out there – but it takes gusto to keep yourself out there.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your secret for sticking with it?

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For the list called, “13 Ways to Out Develop Your Competitors,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

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

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9 Simple Strategies to Slay Your Inner Editor and Let Your Truth Sing

I don’t edit.
I don’t rewrite.
I don’t do drafts.
I don’t go back and revisit old work.

I write things once, I write them in blood, and I publish them to the world with zero regret and infinite confidence.

Sure, I might change a few words here and there. Or modify my position on an issue. And of course, always make grammatical improvements at the request of my (awesome) editor.

But that’s proofreading.

Editing means correcting the core of something.

And the moment you allow that to happen – to the work or to the person who authors it – is the moment you betray yourself.

Self-editing renders your creativity timid and impotent, and it’s not fair to your core to let that happen.

THE COOL PART IS: Living a life without editing yourself isn’t just about writing.

It’s about walking your truth.
It’s about breathing your brand.
It’s about staying loyal to yourself.
It’s about giving your river a voice and letting it flow.

Ready to put away your red pen? Let’s explore strategies to slay your inner editor and let your truth sing:1. Live without interference to the expression of your own individuality. Refusing to self-edit means you’re determined to stay undeterred when people attack you for exercising your ability.

This will probably happen more than once. Especially from the mouths of the mediocre. And it’s essential that you proactively pursue your own path despite lack of popular appreciation and understanding.

The hard part is, when the hurricane of Haterade devastates your inner landscape, it leaves a lot of soul damage. After all, your work isn’t close to your heart – it is your heart.

If you’re like me, you have this deep-rooted tendency to express your total sense of life. To embrace the totality of your truth, knowing that everything you do is an extension of the world you came from.

My suggestion: Don’t just stay the course – stay your course. Otherwise you destroy yourself in response to an invitation from others to stop living. Where are you holding back from expressing yourself?

2. Keep brighter company. Find people who won’t try to change you. Ignore people who attempt to smother you with their bodyguard of dogma. Delete people whose life goal is to stamp out any shred of creativity. And avoid people who seek to systematically beat the originality out of you.

Individuals like these are cul-de-sacs of deadening cumulative saturation. And unless you surround yourself with people who challenge, inspire and support you, their negative voices will blend with your own. You’ll subconsciously absorb their whispered suggestions. And the red pen of self-editing will run out of ink very quickly.

As graphic novelist Alan Moore said, “When we’re doing the will of our true self we are inevitably doing the will of the universe and it’s impossible to do anything wrong.” Whose voices are blending with your own that cause you edit yourself?

3. Endure the scrutiny of spectators. “Scott, not everyone will get you. Learn to be cool with that.” My mentor told me that a few years ago. And it reminded me that you’re nobody until somebody hates you.

After all, if everybody loves your brand, you’re doing something wrong.

Then again, that’s just part of the success equation. And it’s shocking because you figure everybody would be happy for your success. But they’re not. Outside of those who really, really love you – your success will piss most people off. And it will drum up significant resentment, even if it’s never vocalized.

My suggestion is: Don’t get mad at people for being mad at you. It’s their perfect right. Just tell them, “I respect your opinion of my work,” and get on with your life. Otherwise their envy will encourage you to edit yourself.

Remember: If people don’t like you, why would you assume they have good taste?

Clearly, they’re morons. Otherwise they’d recognize your awesomeness a lot sooner. When the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune head your way, will you hold up your shield calmly or head in the other directly cowardly?

4. Accept not the status quo of the thinking that surrounds you. Don’t walk somebody else’s path. Don’t resign to reaching a certain familiar melody. And don’t allow the world to superimpose onto you its prefabricated definition of who you should be.

Otherwise, what you need to practice gets lost in what you are told to believe. The question is:

How do you drown out the toxic chorus of voices calling you to edit yourself?

Easy: Stop allowing the world to choose for you. It’s anesthesia of the heart. Don’t be bound and limited by the thoughts others have formulated for you. Instead, believe that you are the shaper of you.

Ask permission from your heart and nothing else. Be brave enough to inquire within. Trust yourself. Walk in a receptive and expectant state of mind. And you will remove what blocks the path of truth.

Ultimately, you’ll sustain more honesty per square inch than anyone you know. And you’ll reach a level of intimacy with yourself where you won’t need to write more than one draft. Ever. Remember: When you look outside of yourself, all you find are more questions. Whose permission do you seek?

5. Don’t save your opinion for later. Especially in those moments when you get the squirms. Find some means of saying the essential thing that is within you and let your art find its own legs.

The key is to remain respectful in your response. I learned this from my friend Nico during a workshop with a group of Toronto sanitation workers. She offered a suggestion that stopped the collective heartbeat of the entire audience:

“Listen to who you are before responding.”

Great idea. Especially since each of us has our own personal and emotional response to existence. Without that, without listening to who you are first, you’re just a parrot. A ditto. A copy machine.

As novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand once said, “If you, as an independent thinker, are trying to move the world – you cannot shrug”

She’s right. If you’re going to do your own thinking, you’ve got to give up what you’ve been taught to believe, impose your own order on chaos and slash your canvas to pieces. What do you need to let out before Friday?

6. Make no restrictions on your testimony. The question I constantly ask myself while writing is, “What do I risk in presenting this material?” If the answer is, “not much,” I don’t write it.

But.

If the material scares me, I write it.
If the material stretches me, I write it.
If the material makes me hesitate even a millimeter, I write it.
If the material convinces me that some Podunk housewife in Texas is going read one particular sentence of my blog – and think to herself, “Dude, this guy is disturbed!” – then I’d definitely going to write it.

That’s how you slay your inner editor: By redirecting your fear into a more creative channel. The challenge is learning how to assess the risk level of the ideas you share with the world.

Try this: Create a personal security system. Some form of biofeedback to alert you that your work has entered dangerous, honest and unedited territory.

*A hesitation in your hand?
*Do you notice a pulse in your gut?
*An increase in perspiration down your back?

Good. Now you know – based on bodily wisdom – that you’re crafting material that’s real and true. Which means you don’t have to edit. Because you’re living the best, highest version of yourself. What system can you put in place to remove the restriction of your expression?

7. Stand your ground without stepping on people’s toes. I should note that’s there is one caveat to living life without editing yourself: Terminal uniqueness. It’s defined as “thinking you’re uniquely qualified, excessively entitled or appointed to behave a certain way at the expense of others.”

Not attractive. And people can smell it from a mile away. The challenge is balancing between self-editing and self-righteousness. Because while you don’t want to wear yourself out trying to be something you’re not, you also don’t want to wear others out by trying to be on all the time.

Otherwise you wind up sticking to your guns only to shoot people in the foot. Including yourself.

Just be careful. Have some tact. You don’t need to share your opinion on every issue with every person on every occasion. Silence isn’t self-editing – it’s just self-etiquette.

Make sure you don’t become a victim of your own conviction. Otherwise commitment without cordiality becomes contamination. Is your commitment to slay you inner editor causing collateral damage?

8. Stock is the enemy of stardom. In his book Act of Creation, Arthur Kohler suggested that the measure of an artist’s originality is the extent to which his selective emphasis deviates from the conventional norm.

Case and point: There are no cover bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But this isn’t just conjecture – I’ve actually been there several times. And every time I go, I’m reminded of one fact:

The musicians who were inducted were the ones who refused to edit themselves.

From Springsteen to Jagger to Lennon to Gilmour, these people gave their music a singular quality. And the world followed whatever came out of them.

That’s the lesson for musicians and non-musicians alike: Every worthwhile life has a theme song.

If there’s something inside you, it’s your duty to sing your story. In a recent blog post, entrepreneur Seth Godin democratized it beautifully:

“The people who successfully start independent businesses do it because we have no real choice in the matter. The voice in our heads won’t shut up until we discover if we’re right, if we can do it, if we can make something happen. This is an art, our art, and to leave it bottled up is a crime.”

Just follow whatever comes out of you. Grab it with both hands. Crack the egg open and let the light come shining in. And never underestimate the power of a liberated artistic mind. Who’s doing a tribute to your music?

9. Trust most the art that executes quickly. Few things in life are more exhilarating than getting on a roll with your work. To the point where you lose track of time, shut yourself off from all external noise and, in my case, spill a mug of green tea down your pants without even noticing it until the dog wanders into the room three hours later and starts licking your thigh.

But, that’s the good stuff. That’s when you’re wired into the hard drive of the creative unconscious. And as such, one of my mantras has become, “Quiet. The art is coming.”

If you truly want to slay your inner editor, you have to learn when to shut up and take down notes. That’s all creativity is anyway: Active listening. You don’t decide what you’re going to write – you listen for what wants to be written.

What sucks is, the voice of your self-editor can get pretty noisy. Your challenge is to listen to the voice that comes quickest – not loudest. Do that and you’ll bleed your truth all over the page.

Remember: Most of this stuff operates below the threshold of awareness, engineered by the unconscious. So, while you don’t need to know where you’re going – you do need to go there with everything that you are. Are you ready to receive the gift of yourself?

REMEMBER: Self-editing is self-betrayal.

Look: I know what you’re thinking:

Sometimes it’s safer to sabotage the work.
Sometimes it’s safer to sabotage yourself.

And you’re right – it is safer.

But to those who seek to turn their lives into remarkable portraits of brilliant creative expression, safe is a very dangerous place to be.

Stop editing yourself.

Your heart can’t take it anymore.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What is preventing your truth from singing?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “11 Ways to Out Market Your Competitors,” 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!

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9 Ways to Make Your Customers Smarter

Contrary to popular practice, it’s not smart to have dumb customers.

The more your customers learn, the more profit you earn. The more your customers know, the more your business grows. The more your customers understand, the more powerful your brand.

LESSON LEARNED: Companies that teach, win.

Here’s a list of ways to make your customers smarter:1. Curators aren’t just for museums. In an increasingly commoditized marketplace, service is the key differentiator. Competing on price, performance, and features – aka, pure economic value – isn’t enough anymore.

Polly Labarre, columnist for The Huffington Post, wrote a classic piece on this very topic:

“Sure, customers love a good deal, but what they love even more is feeling like they’ve discovered something new. Increasingly, the best brands are waking up to the fact that the way to establish an enduring connection with customers is not to push their own stuff, but to act as a curator; a host to a whole universe of stuff they think will click with people based on shared values.”

Introduce your customers to new things. Help them feel more connected to the front edge of culture. They’ll forget all about the fact that you sell a commodity. What value do you provide beyond low price and high quality?

2. Teaching diffuses sales resistance. Brian Clark, award-wining writer of CopyBlogger and the creator of Teaching Sells explains:

“When you come rushing out of the gate selling, it’s easy for people to resist. But when you establish yourself as a teacher who people have bonded with, it gets much harder to say no by the time the transaction is proposed.”

That’s the reality of the current marketplace: Any idiot can lead their customers down a path, but only smart companies can help their customers discover the path on their own.

The goal is to stop giving sales pitches and start delivering lesson plans. If you do that, even if it’s a simple attitudinal adjustment from sales-oriented to education-oriented, the entire buying experience will shift.

Remember: Customers aren’t people who pay your salary – they’re pupils who attend your class. How’s your enrollment this semester?

3. Become a wealth of inform. Because my specialty is approachability, I’ve hosted a lot of workshops for retailers. Namely, jewelry stores. And during a recent round of presentations (video here), I made three suggestions to help the store owners turn rare into remarkable by introducing education.

First: What if, in the corner of your store, you had an entire shelf filled with bestselling books on relationships, romance and interpersonal communication? That way, while stupid husbands buy jewelry to make up for forgetting their wedding anniversary – again! – they could learn a few tips on how to better communicate with their spouses and avoid the doghouse.

Second: What if, once a week, you invited a local fashion consultant to come in the store? She could advise customers on wardrobe, accessories and current style trends to help them present themselves smarter, and not get fired for dressing like a streetwalker.

Third: What if, on the last Friday of each month, you brought in a local relationship therapist to provide tune-ups for newly engaged couples? He could offer suggestions, exercises and advice to help people make their fourth marriages work.

Ultimately, these suggestions work not only because they’re education-based, but also because they’re rare. And rare becomes remarkable. And remarkable becomes repeatable. And repeatable becomes profitable. What are you willing to lose on the first sale in order to guarantee a relationship?

4. Education means fascination. I understand your hesitancy. You think that if you make your customers smarter, they won’t need you. Not true. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. If you expand their thinking, grow their knowledge base and stretch their brains, they’ll actually need and love and respect and want you more.

And the best part is: Companies that educate, fascinate. And fascination, according to author and consultant Sally Hogshead, plays a major role in every type of decision-making – from the brands you choose, the songs you remember, the person you marry, and the employees you hire.

The hard part is to trust yourself, trust your resources and trust the process. And to believe that the people you add value too won’t outgrow their need for your help. How fascinating do customers think your organization is?

5. Reframe exit questions. Over the years I’ve consulted with dozens of hotels, hospitality associations and other customer service organizations. And in my experience, the best question to ask a customer at the end of a transaction is not, “How else may I be of service to you?” but rather, “What else can I help you learn?”

The reality is, customers don’t need more service – they need more answers. And this particular question works for three reasons: First, it’s unexpected. And the best way to attract someone’s attention is to break her patterns.

Second, it’s thought provoking. And anytime your customers are thinking more and complying less, you win. Finally, it’s open ended. This decreases the likelihood of hearing the most useless, unleverageable customer answer of all time: “Fine.” Does your organization deliver customer service or customer answers?

6. Mum is overrated. Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way: The only thing worse than saying something untrue is saying nothing. Turns out the opposite of honesty isn’t lying – it’s omitting.

Sadly, too many organizations – who are (clearly) terrified of having smart, healthy, proactive customers – are keeping their mouths shut at the expense of the people they serve. Believe it or not, the United States government actually did something cool for a change. They were smart enough to stop shutting up.

In 2009, www.recovery.gov was launched as is the government’s official website that provides easy access to data related to Recovery Act spending.

It allows for the reporting of potential fraud, waste and abuse. And it has pictures, graphs, numbers, interviews, videos – you name it. All in the name of not staying mum.

I wonder what your organization is choosing not to reveal to your customers that’s actually causing more stress, pain and profit than if you had just told the truth in the first place. I wonder. Are you willing to be honest and direct at the risk of jeopardizing the relationship?

7. Send a continuous flow of education. That way, your buyers always know how to more creatively, efficiently and effectively use what you sell them to grow their business and make their lives better.

That’s why I tweet all morning. That’s why I blog everyday. That’s why I send out an ezine every other week. That’s why publish videos every month. And that’s why I put out three books a year.

Not just because it expands my platform. Not just because it earns my enterprise money. And not just because it markets my business. But because it consistently teaches the people who matter most how to matter more.

The way I see it: The smarter I make my audience, the better their world will become. And if they realize that my work played a small part in the betterment of their life, they’ll come back, hungry for more. And next time they’ll bring their friends. What did you write today?

8. Smarter means surrendering. In Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko, he travels to France and interviews several doctors and professors. He discovers that the French government provides social services health care, public education, vacation, day care for one dollar an hour and neonatal support that includes cooking, cleaning, and laundry services for new mothers.

But here’s the part that rocked me to my core: One professor explained, “When you have a population of people that are healthy, educated and unafraid, it’s impossible to control them.”

Huh. No wonder corporations and organizations are afraid of educating their people: They don’t want to lose control. Interestingly, I recently watched a vintage interview with global innovator, Buckminster Fuller, who echoed the same sentiment. He helped me realize why it’s so hard for some businesses to risk making their customers smarter:

“Governments, religions and businesses would find it devastating to their activity to have humanity a success. They are predicated on you being an inherent failure.”

Surrendering control doesn’t mean losing it. You’ll be fine. How are you leveraging your vulnerability to make your customers smarter?

9. Refuse to leave people where they are. Customers don’t want to be handled. Or managed. Or dealt with. They want to be better. And the only way that’s going to happen is if you add value to them.

My suggestion: Stop handling and start educating. Make a list of the fifty most common questions asked by your customers. Write a paragraph-long answer for each one. Hire a professional designer to convert the text into a downloadable ebook.

Then, give it away for free on your website. Print out hard copies. Hell, save it on jump drives with your logos on it and physically hand it to every customer that walks in the door along with a note that read, “Fifty answers to the fifty questions running through your head right now. You’re welcome.” That’s what I would do.

The point is, when you deliver education to your customers, move forward with your customers and stay relevant in the eyes of your customers. If you were arrested and charged with adding value to people, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

REMEMBER: Companies that teach, win.

Don’t be dumb.

Make your customers smarter.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you selling or educating?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “26 Ways to Out Brand Your Competitors,” 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!

Scott Ginsberg Teaches Retail Store Owners How to be a Hero to Their Customers

This excerpt comes from a recent presentation in Atlantic City with my client, Ultra Diamonds.

These guys are busting their butts during the holiday season to make sure their customers look and feel like a million bucks.

They’re truly heroes.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Whom are you a hero to?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “15 Ways to Out Learn Your Competitors,” 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!

What To Do When You Feel Like You Don’t Matter

When was the last time you were paralyzed by the threat of insignificance?

Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. Myself included.

THE REALITY IS: The human need to feel valuable to the world runs deeper than just about anything.

THE SECRET IS: How quickly do you recognize, overcome and leverage that that looming threat into something positive?

Not sure what to do when you feel like you don’t matter? Try this:1. Delete people from your life who make you feel invisible. Success means surrounding yourself with people who don’t just look at you – but actually see you. Huge difference.

It’s like in Avatar: When the Na’vi people meet, they greet each other with, “I see you.”

That was my favorite part of that movie. Because their phrase is more than a simple greeting – it’s an acknowledgment. It’s a form of namaste. It means I understand who you are. And according to creator James Cameron, it’s an alternative way to say, “I love you.”

You need people in your life who will greet you that way. No matter how insignificant you think you are. This provides a foundation to sustain your spirit during times of perceived non-mattering. How many of the people you interact with on a daily basis leave you feeling seen?

2. Ritualize your life. In his book Reflections on the Art of Living, Joseph Campbell suggests that ritual introduces you to the meaning of what’s going on. It properly puts your mind in touch with that you’re really doing.

Personally, I perform a ritual every morning: It’s called a Daily Appointment with Myself. And it’s exactly the same, every day, no matter where I am in the world, no matter where I am in my life.

Unfortunately, I can’t share all the details or I’d have to kill you. Sorry. Personal policy.

However, my experience with this ritual has proven countless times to be the single best daily reinforcement of mattering I’ve ever practiced. And I challenge you to think about the rituals you practice every day, and how they might reinforce your ability to matter. When was the last time you made an appointment with yourself?

3. Reframe perceived meaninglessness. Think of it this way: Moments of non-mattering are positive reflections of your inherent desire to make the world better. After all, mattering wouldn’t be important to you if you were a loser.

Look: I’ve been there. Inconsequentiality is a bitch. It’s a form of spiritual bankruptcy that feels like an earthquake to your heart.

The good news, it’s also a wake up call that mattering is like oxygen to your soul, and your tank is just a little low right now.

No problem. You just need to refill it.

As long as you start with that baseline level of awareness. Otherwise mattering will feel miles away. As Joseph Campbell also said, “Everything is a possibility, everything is a clue and everything is talking to you.” The question is: Are you brave enough to listen?

4. Normalize your fear. It’s a beautiful moment when you understand that you’re not the only one who struggles to matter. It’s not fair, however, to commandeer other miserable people just so you have someone to sulk with.

Misery might love company, but mattering loves positivity.

Instead of boo-hooing, start brainstorming. Ask each other, “What was in play the last you felt an overwhelming sense of mattering?” As my coach, Dixie Gillaspie explains in Anatomy of a Brick Wall,

“Figure out what inspired you and find another way to design that outcome. Reframe it, repaint it and redesign it. You can achieve your purpose, but sometimes you’ll have to rethink your method.”

This exercise – which I’ve done before – will help you commit your whole psychological pitch to believing in your ability. And that will exert the necessary energy to effect the transformation from wah-wah to wow-wow. With whom could you greet and leverage your fear together?

5. Rewrite your definition of mattering. Many of my readers are unemployed. Still, despite their job search struggles, they’re some of the most driven, intelligent and amazing people on the planet.

And here’s what I’ve learned after a few thousand of their emails: A principal struggle of the unemployed is, “How can I matter when I’m not making money?”

Good question.

Fortunately, mattering doesn’t come from money, power or responsibility. Mattering is the incidental consequence of the intentional commitment to fulfill your whole capacity for living.

Let me run it by you again.

Mattering is the incidental consequence of the intentional commitment to fulfill your whole capacity for living.

The hard part is believing you can actually fill it. As Benjamin Hoff wrote in The Tao of Pooh, “No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value. But in order to take control of our lives and accomplish something of lasting value, sooner or later we need to learn to believe.” Have you put unadulterated self-belief at the apex of your value system?

6. Surround yourself with visual evidence of why. The two biggest challenges of being a writer are (a) the crippling fear that you don’t have anything worthwhile to say, and (b) the existential agony of not being read.

That’s why I keep the following email on my desk. I received it about five years ago, and I look at it every day:

“Dear Scott. My name is Karen Tarrentine. I’m sixty-five years old, and lately, I’ve been having a very difficult time with my bowel movements. However, now that I read your blog every day, I have become regular again. Apparently hysterical laughter is just what the doctor order to get things moving along. Thanks for everything you do!”

That’s how I reinforce my why, that’s what reminds me that I matter: Because my writing helps old ladies poop. Validation of my existence? Check.

Any time you feel like you don’t matter, physically keep something in front of your face to remind you why you do what you. After all, you can’t spell “matter” without “why.” What will you hang on your wall to remind yourself that your life counts?

7. Mattering is a choice. Feeling insignificant sucks, but refusing take responsibility for your perceived insignificance is just plain stupid.

However you look at it, it always turns out that you are chiefly to blame for everything. That’s what Dostoevsky wrote in Letters from the Underground. And that’s what you have to take ownership of: That you are the result of yourself. That the feeling of insignificance floated downstream of yourself.

Now, that doesn’t mean other people didn’t play a role in influencing the way you feel about yourself. After all, human beings craft their identities based on how people react to them in the past.

Still, you can’t absolve mattering to someone else. My suggestion is to make a list called, “One Hundred Reasons Why I Matter.” The first third will be easy. The second thirty will be challenging. But the last third will be revelatory. If you still feel insignificant after that, email me. Have you decided to matter?

REMEMBER: It doesn’t matter if you feel like you don’t matter.

What’s important is how quickly you recognize, overcome and leverage that that looming threat into something positive.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
When was the last time you were paralyzed by the threat of insignificance?

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

“Engaging in email mentoring with Scott was an amazing experience! Not only was he incredibly responsive but his advice was clear, concise and thought provoking. Based on clearly agreed areas I wanted to focus on, Scott worked through them with me systematically and at my pace.”

–Donna Rachelson, Branding & Marketing You

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

How to Disappear Faster than a Fart in a Fan Factory

I was in Tokyo when it happened.

After two hours of eating the freshest, most delicious and most expensive sushi of my life, the proud chef looked me in the eye and imparted a priceless life lesson:

“Sushi that taste like fish – no good sushi.”

For example:

If your sales efforts make customers feel like they’re being sold to…
No good sushi.

If your writing voice makes readers feel like they’re being lectured…
No good sushi.

If your leadership style makes followers feel like they’re being controlled…
No good sushi.

If your marketing activity makes prospects feel like they’re being targeted…
No good sushi.

If your recruiting strategy makes candidates feel like they’re being proselytized…
No good sushi.

LESSON LEARNED: Your job as a leader, as a businessperson and as a creative professional is to disappear.

Here’s how:1. Bring flowers – show up naked. My favorite piece of writing advice comes from Kurt Vonnegut: “If you want to be a great writer, be a great date for your reader.”

This makes total sense. Think about the characteristics of an ideal date: Fun. Funny. Engaging. Emotional. Interesting. Stimulating. Memorable. Does that describe the written messages you send to people each day?

From emails to texts to tweets to memos, your goal is to be a better date. Ultimately, the question you have to ask yourself is:

Are you writing to sound like a writer, or to sound like you?

Hopefully the latter. Otherwise you’ll never be a great date for your reader.

Remember: Writers that sound like writers are annoying; writers that sound like human beings are applauded. Are your readers hoping for a good night kiss or hailing a goodbye taxi?

2. Ensure rapt interest. I’ll never forget reading the Rolling Stone interview with Dave Grohl. As the co-founder of the genre-defining group, Nirvana – and as the frontman of multi-Grammy award winning band, Foo Fighters, he’s someone whose brain is worth listening to.

In the article, he revealed his band’s performance strategy: “Our goal is to make sure nobody in the audience looks at their watch.”

Great performers keep audience members from looking at their watches – but awesome performers make audiences forget they’re even wearing one.

Make it impossible (not) to pay attention. Whether you’re delivering a speech, conducting a meeting, holding a conference call or giving a sales pitch, anyone can do this.

You just need to deploy your genius. To give what you are. You know: Thing you don’t have to talk about. The thing you don’t have to do anything with.

The music is just there. And all you have to do is play it.

What uniqueness can you enlist to assure that surrounding people can’t help but watch with breathless interest and rapt attention?

3. Meet people where they are. When asked to describe the work of Leonardo Davinci, colleague and mentor Sandro Botticelli said, “His work will reward you from every angle.”

That’s the next strategy to help you disappear. I’ve found a helpful way to foster that process. At the beginning of every presentation, here what I tell my audiences:

“I’m here to do three things: Share my story and the lessons attached to it, make suggestions and ask questions. That’s it. Cool?”

Interestingly, these three components enable the audience members to plug themselves into my equations, thus creating a unique experience for each individual.

Your mission is to do the same: To meet people where they are. To accept everything, reject nothing and attend to people with deep democracy. What generic formulas are you allowing people to plug their unique selves into?

4. Take people back in time. Have you ever watched a show that made you forget you were in the audience? It’s a beautiful thing. And it happens for one reason: Kim Kardashian.

Just kidding. Real answer: The performers knew how to disappear from the stage.

They know how to let the music become bigger than the musicians. That’s what transports the audience to another realm of experience.

For example, every time I attend a Dave Matthews concert, I travel back in time. Because after listening to their music for almost twenty years, every song is attached to an emotional experience. Or an old girlfriend. Or a particular period of my life.

Therefore: Every show is a time machine. And your challenge as a leader, businessperson or creative professional is to do the same. To take people back in time.

My friend Ria Sharon suggests asking yourself one key question: What is the emotion you are selling?

“When you know your emotion, you engage people with your brand because they have something to latch onto,” she explained during a recent speech. “Then you can let the emotion do the heavy lifting for you.” What emotion will you use to disappear and take people back in time?

5. Never let them catch you acting. Michael Cane has appeared in over one hundred movies. He’s been acting for over fifty years, earned several Academy Awards and was even knighted by the Queen of England.

In a recent interview on public radio, Cane discussed the very concept of disappearing:

“If someone in my audience watches my performance and thinks, ‘Wow, that Michael Cane is such an amazing actor,’ then I’ve failed.”

The art is hiding the art. Not just in acting –but in business too. For example, most membership organizations don’t get this. And they could exponentially increase their joinability if they just stopped hawking membership and started hailing community.

Membership isn’t a piece of paper you receive – it’s a feeling you remember.

That’s the approach I take as the president of my local association. Instead of puking the benefits of joining all over perfect candidates, I just say, “Look, don’t worry about joining – just come hang out with us. We like your brain.”

You’d be amazed how much more responsive, more willing to show up and more willing to come back people are who don’t feel like they’re being recruited to join a committee. How are you hiding the art of what you organization does?

6. Profitability comes from revisitability. In the final scene of Ratatouille, snobby food critic Anton Ego skeptically takes a bite of Chef Remy’s special dish.

He expects to be disgusted, but ends up pleasantly surprised. When the food hits his lips, he instantly flashes back fifty years: He sees his childhood as a French peasant. He pictures his mother, his home and his family. And he remembers his humble beginnings.

When the flashback ends, a tear forms in his eye as he scarfs down the rest of dish with absolute delight. And in the next day’s newspaper, he publishes the following review:

“To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. And I will return to Chef Remy soon, hungry for more.”

What do you do that brings people back for more of you? Are you selling a product or are your offering an experience?

That’s what smart companies know: That what they sell isn’t the same thing as what people buy. And if you miss out on that distinction, your customers will always feel like they’re being sold. What are you really in the business of?

REMEMBER: Sushi that taste like fish – no good sushi.

Incorporate these practices into your daily life, and you’ll disappear faster than a fart in a fan factory.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Does your sushi taste like fish?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “15 Ways to Out Learn Your Competitors,” 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!

5 Ways to Retain Relevancy So Your Organization Doesn’t Fall off the Face of the Earth

The evidence is overwhelming:

Start-up companies are spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars creating elegant solutions to problems nobody has.

Membership organizations are suffering low attendance because traditional, boring, and non-engaging programming refuses to align with multi-generation preferences.

Government-funded advocacy groups are draining their entire budgets conserving insignificant resources that are going extinct anyway.

Corporate advertisers are projecting onto customers what they think they ought to want, instead of actually listening to their problems and satisfying a compelling need.

THAT BEGETS THE QUESTION: How much profitability are you sacrificing by being irrelevant?

ANSWER: Too much.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, multinational corporation, starving artist, local mega church or non-profit do-gooder, consider these ideas for retaining relevancy:1. Teach the dog new tricks anyway. Regardless of your age, it’s impossible to be relevant if you refuse to play the technology game.

And if you think that’s easy for me to say that because I’m a digital native, you’re right. Technology doesn’t intimidate me because I’ve always been around it. I consider that a fortunate position.

Then again, I certainly understand technology’s power to threaten relevancy. For example, I recently delivered a presentation via Skype for one of my clients. It was fun, challenging and different – but also a little scary.

Not because I was talking in front of a screen, but because I wasn’t talking in front of a live audience. And I couldn’t help but wonder, as a public speaker: Does this type of disruptive technology threaten my profession’s livelihood?

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But I’m still learning the technology anyway. Because it doesn’t matter how old the dog is – if the new trick matters to your customers, you still have to learn it. Old age isn’t the problem – old thinking is. Are you obsolescing yourself with it?

2. Your customers will tell you how to stay relevant. In a recent interview with FastCompany, Steve Jobs summarized Apple’s innovation strategy in four words: Turn feedback into inspiration.

The cool part is: It actually works. Like, really well. I had the perfect opportunity to execute his suggestion with one of my readers, Dawn. She emailed me with deep concern about an unsuccessful job search:

“I’m feeling chewed up and spit out. Being jobless is heartbreaking. Where do I get the inner fortitude to get up one more day and try again?”

Great question, I thought. But instead of giving her off-the-cuff advise; I spent the next week writing a post called, How to Find the Inner Fortitude to Get Up One More Day and Try Again, Even When the World Kicks You in the Crotch with a Golf Shoe.

To my delight, the blog post was featured on NPR the day it was published. And I sent a copy to Dawn, who replied with the following:

“You really invest yourself, very personally, in all your articles. That is why you are (and will be) relevant: Because you’re always there to listen to the people who really need you. That is the basis for true dedication. When we help others we do help ourselves.”

Your customers won’t just teach you how to stay relevant – they’ll tell you how to sell to them effectively. Is it important to the customer, or does it just make you feel better?

3. Enable a regular attention stream. Attention is currency. Think about it: We live in a world of continually eroding confidence. We work for a world of steadily declining attention span. And we market to a world of gradually fragmenting participation.

If you want to retain relevancy, you have to remember that you’re competing against everything else in people’s world.

Take faith-based organizations, for example. Congregational vitality is at an all time low because they’re trying to buy attention with boring. Doesn’t work that way. I don’t care what version of God you believe in: People don’t come to services that fail to engage their spirit.

Therefore: The only way to enable a regular attention stream is to be interesting. What’s more, attention is irrelevant if nobody cares about what you’re offering.

“Most of the people in this world don’t – and will never – care about what you’re doing,” suggests Josh Kauffman in The Personal MBA. “Your challenge is to earn the attention of the people who are likely to buy from you. Otherwise, people ignore what they don’t care about.” How will you combat your customers’ overwhelming urge to ignore you?

4. Grow bigger ears. To retain relevancy, you have to develop an ongoing relationship with your market. Naturally, the foundation for this relationship is the same for all healthy relationships: Grow bigger ears. Here are three strategies for expanding your listening platform:

First, use every listening post you can find. From offline to offline, from electronic to human, from walking the floors to monitoring tweet streams, whatever gives you insight into how your customers operate is a worthwhile endeavor.

Second, listen deeply. That means don’t just listen for the facts; listen for what the facts point to. Like my doctor, Steve, who once told me, “When you listen with your ears, patients give you their own diagnosis; but when you listen with your heart, patients give themselves their own cure.”

Third, listen for the right reasons. Not just enough to flip the answers for your own uses. Not just to boost your ego. And not just to confirm what you already think. Staying relevant means getting out of the way of what you need to hear, listening to where you suck, then responding by becoming better.

The whole point of growing bigger ears revolves around the following leverage question: What does expanding your listening platform earns you the right to do?

Answer: Everything, that’s what. Everything. Are you listening to the sound of your own voice or the music of your customer’s voice?

5. Maintain a steady stream of minor enhancements. Relevant doesn’t have to mean radical – just regular. After all, consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness.

The secret to keeping the stream flowing is to implement routine relevancy audits. Ask yourself and your team questions like:

*What irrelevancies have you recently discarded?
*What do you share that people actually give a damn about?
*Is the information you have truly relevant to the client and the client’s situation?

This will fuel your ability to make minor enhancements along the way. Interestingly, the word “relevant” comes from the Latin relevare, which means, “to lesson, lighten or relieve.”

This creates a few more questions for your audit:

*What burden do you lighten for your customers?
*What pain do you lessen for your customers?
*What does your value relieve customers of?

Remember: Relevancy isn’t a chore; it’s an ongoing progression. It’s not just about becoming relevant – it’s about relentlessly pursuing relevance to make sure you continue to matter to the people who matter. Are you combining relevancy with frequency?

THE BOTTOM LINE IS: No relevance, no revenue.

But.

It’s not about financing.
It’s about focusing.

It’s not about killing yourself.
It’s about keeping the brand current.

It’s not about discarding the soul of yesterday.
It’s about embracing the spirit of today.

It’s not about focus groups, demographics and target markets.
It’s about directly communicating with your audience in a meaningful, honest way.

That’s how you retain relevance.

You establish a direct link between the journey of your organization and the joy of the people it serves.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How much profitability are you sacrificing by being irrelevant?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “11 Ways to Out Market Your Competitors,” 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 Live Larger Than Your Labels

I was sitting on my mom’s couch when it happened.

“Scott, did you notice what was missing from this article about you?” she asked.

“No. What?”

“Look closely. You’ll see it.”

And then it hit me like punch in the gut.

For the first time in my career – after eight years, ten books and five hundred interviews – this was the first article about me that wasn’t about my nametag.

In fact, the article didn’t even mention my nametag. The piece was about creativity, content management and entrepreneurial execution.

And as I sat back and soaked in the moment, my mom cemented the experience with single question:“How does it feel to be known for your brain – not just your badge?”

Pretty. Damn. Good.

LESSON LEARNED: When you learn to live larger than your labels, an entire symphony of advantages comes your way.

You expand your role repertoire.
You open yourself to becoming more.
You reengage with life’s possibilities.
You uncover new territory for expansion.
You invite new dimensions to your career.
You make profitable use of everything you are.
You crush the boundaries of your personal growth.

Today we’re going to explore strategies to help you live larger than your labels.

1. Know that you’re bigger than your past. Living larger than your labels means bowing to the door of next. Surrendering your case history. And accepting that whatever you created in the past – or whatever created you in the past – matters little beyond the fact that it brought you here.

After all, what happened to you isn’t who you are. Past is prologue. Past brought you here. Past made you who you are. And to align your thinking with this truth, try asking the following question:

If everything I’ve done up until now is just the beginning, what’s next?

When you start to explore a few answers, a new world of growth will opens up like a spring perennial. And you’ll forget all about those measly labels that once limited you.

Maybe Edwin McCain was right: Tell people to let you be who you’re becoming and stop seeing you as everything you’ve been. Will you view the past as a crutch or a catapult?

2. Cast a wider net. When I decided to redesign my blog this year, Tim at Out:Think asked me, “What’s going to be different this time around?”

To which I responded, “Well, I don’t want my blog to box me in. Not to one topic, not to one target market and not as one role. No labels, no limits.”

Two months later, the final product came out beautifully. And not only was the design striking, simple and professional, but Tim also added a minor accentuation that perfectly personified my limit-free objective. On the title bar it reads:

HELLO, my name is Blog! The Brain of Scott Ginsberg.

Yes, yes and yes. Exactly what I didn’t realize I needed. And the best part is: This positioning enables me, as an entrepreneur, to deliver value via infinite ways and via infinite channels. Even the ones I can’t think of yet.

Lesson learned: When you cast a wide net, the right customers will swim into it when they’re ready. How are you positioned in the minds of the people who matter most?

3. Make use of everything you are. Cali Lewis is the founder and host of GeekBeatTV, a widely popular podcast about technology, gadgets and important research projects.

During her keynote presentation at Blog World 2010, she discussed the concept of labels, and how they inhibit growth. And I swear I was the only person in the audience who heard it, but Cali had an inspiring throw-away line that I wrote down immediately:

“Don’t get me wrong: I love my website. But that’s not everything that I am.”

It takes a heroic dose of courage to admit that. To declare in front of thousands of people that your thing, your brainchild, your passion – that became widely successful because you worked your ass off eighteen hours a day for three years – is not all there is to who you are?

That’s how you live larger than you labels: When you realize that it’s okay to be known for more than one thing. As the Tao De Ching said, “When you let go of what you have, you get what you need.” What aspects of yourself – that you absolutely love – do you have to let go of to become something better?

4. Trace your trajectory. Have you ever mapped out your entire career, year by year, on one sheet of paper? It’s a fascinating exercise: Some call it a lifeline, some call it a visual biography or some call it a career trajectory map.

Either way, I was curious about it, so I decided to give it a whirl over the summer. And to say that the results were revelatory would be an understatement. Here’s what happens:

First, you become inspired to live larger than your labels by investigating the labels you’ve already outgrown.

Second, by examining each of the progress points of your professional life, you gain greater perspective on where you’ve been, where you’ve come and who you’ve become in the process.

Finally, because the exercise it’s a form of visual self-reflection and cumulative self-confrontation, the trajectory map helps you creates a healthy distance from yourself.

Ultimately, the map reflects your truth in a new light. The kind of light that outshines the brightness of the former version of yourself. The kind of light that helps you cut yourself loose from the past and swing into the future. When was the last time you traced your professional trajectory?

5. Think of your label as a dry erase board. I’ve never walked off stage without reminding my audience: “If you don’t make a name for yourself, someone will make one for you.”

However, as I evolve as a human being, I’ve recently decided to make an addendum to that philosophy: “If you refuse to rewrite the labels you stick onto yourself, you rob the world of the opportunity to experience the best, highest version of that self.”

That’s the problem with labels: They imply immunity. And you assume you’re nailed to a certain cross forever. Fortunately, you don’t have to choke on your labels. In Self Matters, Dr. Phil explains:

“Acknowledge the existence of labels, challenge the ‘fit,’ confront the impact these labels have on your concept of self, and then identify the payoff those labels have in your life.”

He’s more than just a mustache. When was the last time you took a long, honest look at the labels you gave yourself?

6. Differentiate between identification and definition. The most powerful life lessons come unsolicited, unidentified and unexpected. Like the anonymous email I received five years ago that read,

“Dear Scott: Big fan. Love the nametag concept. Hope you keep it up. And just remember: What identifies you doesn’t define you.”

After reattaching my jaw, it occurred to me how right that person really was: Identification is about recognition; definition is about explanation. And you need to be honest with yourself about differentiating between the two.

Here’s how: First, there’s the thing that brings you to the table. That which identifies you. And usually, it’s some kind of shtick.

Second, there’s the thing that keeps you in the room. That which defines you. And usually, it’s some kind of substance.

Now, both things are essential – but each thing fulfills a very different function. Your challenge is to confront the two levels of value that you provide. Otherwise you’ll walk into a room assuming people care about your nametag, when what people crave is the committed heart behind it. Are you identifiable or definable?

REMEMBER: To live larger than your labels is to reengage with life’s possibilities.

Therefore, as much as it pains me to say this, maybe it’s time to rip that stupid nametag off your shirt and open yourself to becoming something more.

No labels, no limits.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you ready to live larger than your labels?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “11 Ways to Become Brilliant By Next Thursday,” 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.

The Official Nametagscott Guide to Stick-to-itiveness, Part 3

Stick-to-itiveness can be learned.

Aka, “Stick to it.”
Aka, “Stick with it.”
Aka, “Stick in there.”

All you have to do is shift your attitude completely – work hard, smart and long while nobody notices – and design a daily practice of self-determination and commitment.

Hey. I said it could be learned – not that it would be easy.

Up to the challenge?

Cool. Fortunately, I’ve already published part one and part two in this series.

Today we’re going to explore part three with additional strategies for sticking with it – whatever “it” is:1. Call upon the full range of your faculties. At my yoga studio, our instructors remind us to use every part of our body to achieve the total expression of the posture. Even the parts that are relaxed.

Erin says, “Just because something is disengaged doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.” After three years of practicing, I’ve seen this principle play out during every class.

It’s the stillness of one leg that fuels the exertion of the other.
It’s the rock-solid locked knee that frees up the motion of your lumbar spine.
It’s the relaxed, drama-free facial expression that counteracts the inevitable mental exhaustion.

The cool part is, this is a principle non-yogis can apply to their lives. To call upon the full range of your faculties, all you have to do is ask the right questions. Try these:

*What unique aspects of my personality can I enlist to slog through what matters?
*What personal skills have I not tapped into yet to sustain stick-to-itiveness?

You don’t need yoga to stick it out – you just need you. Who, according to Walt Whitman, contains multitudes. Maybe it’s time to start using them. Are you making use of everything you are?

2. Increase the probability. My favorite scene in The Bucket List is when Jack Nicholson makes a crucial decision: He’s going to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.

Confused, Morgan Freeman asks him how specifically he plans to accomplish that. And in one word, Jack says it all:

“Volume.”

Now, a lot of the time, that’s what stick-to-itiveness means: Playing the odds. Trusting the numbers. And you have to believe that even the weakest step toward the top of the hill still helps you through the strongest storm.

And you have to trust that if you stay determined – not deterred – eventually, you’ll engineer your way through the landscape of your life current craziness.

Remember: Going until you cannot beats stopping when you still can. Are you a pioneer of carrying on, or a purveyor of calling it quits?

3. Practice pressing the off button. Stress is a funny thing. It’s related to ninety-nine percent of all illnesses; yet it’s one of the healthiest tools for jumpstarting a new realm of human ability.

Truth is, stress can’t hurt you if you learn how to displace the impact. That’s how you press the off button: By finding a counterweight. Something that creates an inner sanctuary. Something that provides rest, recovery and renewal to balance out your tension. And something that allows space for quiet within yourself.

Yoga, meditation, singing, dancing, writing, massages, turning your cell phone off for twenty-four hours, watching low-budget horror movies by yourself in the middle of the afternoon, whatever works.

The whole point is to gather the quiet so you’re able to stand up in the storm. Otherwise, if you never take the time to press the off button, you become so action-oriented that you forget to stop and reflect on what’s happening.

And that’s when you painfully discover that persistence without reflection is blind ambition. Have you pressed the off button lately?

4. Maintain a strong focus when surrounded by chaos. Good news: You don’t have to be overwhelmed by circumstances. You just need to ask: Which part of this chaos can I tame? That’s how you avoid the ocean of overwhelm.

By taking charge of your emotional climate and, with a steady gaze in your eyes, tapping into your indispensable stabilizing element. That’s my new favorite phrase: Indispensable stabilizing element. Damn that’s good.

And the best part is, everybody has one. For me, it’s my breath. Not just because I’m a yogi, not just because I meditate – but also because I once had a collapsed lung. And I certainly know how essential it is to have a healthy relationship with your breath to sustain stick-to-itiveness.

Your challenge is to indentify your indispensible stabilizing element. And to create a system that enables you to access it instantly. Then, to practice using it every day. Do so, and you will rise again, more balanced and more steeled each time. What’s your inner bolster?

REMEMBER: It takes guts to stick yourself out there – but it takes gusto to keep yourself out there.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your secret for sticking with it?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “13 Ways to Out Develop Your Competitors,” 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.

The Nametag Guy Tells Fox 2 St. Louis How to Increase the Probability of Success

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How will you increase the probability of success?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “27 Ways to Out 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]

Who’s quoting YOU?

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

www.stuffscottsaid.com.

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