All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

And so, in this blog series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today’s clip comes from the idea man scene in Nightshift:

Keep your eye on the ball and let your mind go. If you don’t write it down, it never happened. That’s
a mantra I’ve lived and worked by for many years. But writing down your ideas
the moment you have them isn’t necessarily about quality, it’s about
continuity. It’s not about the material, it’s about the muscle. Training your
brain to become proficient at collecting and creating and communicating ideas.
Creativity, after all, is cumulative. The more you use it, the more you have.
If we’re sitting around the dinner table, for example, and somebody accidentally
spits out a great band name, I write it down. Every time. Not because I’m
actually going to start a band with that name, but because I want to practice
recognizing interesting ideas. Carlin explained it best in his posthumousbiography. He said hewanted his brain to get used to the
fact that collecting and capturing ideas made it feel good. That it liked
finding those things. That way, every time his brain found another one, it
would say,oh boy oh boy,there’s another one! This is going to feel
good. Let’s go back to work and find more of these for him.It’s positive
addiction. Creating optimalconditions
for the brain to grow. Blaze is over exuberant, irrational, hyperactive idea man
who never stops talking. He had attention deficit disorder a decade before the
disease was even discovered. And yet, he knew how to channel it. The tape
recorder was his ground zero. Hisentry point into
the creative processing workflow. The primary location for offloading raw
materials into his idea factory. Is
everything you know written down somewhere?

Creativity is an act of trust.Planners and control freaks often struggle with the creative
process. To them, creating something out of nothing can feel like banging their
head against a brick wall. Embracing uncertainty just isn’t in their nature.
They prefer to compartmentalize the world around them. And I understand.
Ambiguity is hard. Blank canvases can be overwhelming and paralyzing. The
secret, then, is building your muscle of trust. Assuming the power is there for
you to use. Developing faith inyour own creative mechanism. And that can only come
through practice. For example, every day when I sit down to write, I have no
idea what I’m going to say. Butafter
years and years and pages and pages of practice, I’ve developed deep faith in
my ability to sit down and respond to the world. And so,I always end up saying something.
Because I trust that the forest will provide. The writing isn’t always guaranteed
to be good, but that’s not the point. Overcoming resistance is the victory. You can’t micromanage every outburst of emotion. You just havelet the performance happen by itself. It takes massive
amounts of trust, both in yourself and in the process, but it’s a lot less
stressful and a lot more productive than the alternative.When was the last time you were stronger than you gave yourself credit
for?

The perfection bug
sinks its teeth into my skin.When my director and I wrapped post production on
our documentary, I rang the concierge bell on my desk, gave him a high five and
pumped my fist towards the sky.What a
moment.Two and a half years of work, finally coming to fruition. Hallelujah.
Beautiful feelings of satisfaction and relief and pride washed over me like a
tidal wave. Five minutes later, I felt a twitch in my left eye. And I realized,
wow, I could easily spend three more months making this movie fifteen percent
better. Think of all of those scenes
and sounds that would benefit from a quick once over. Maybe we could push the
deadline back till next year?No.Don’t you dare, I reminded myself. Stay
away from that goddamn treadmill. Don’t even think about scratching unless
there’s really an itch. Finished is the new perfect. And so, I snapped out of
it. I sidestepped the seductive trap of perpetual improvement. And we began
distributing the documentary two weeks later.Phew. Close call, though. Turns out, I’m just as susceptible to
resistance’s trickery as the next guy.Have
you ever asked yourself why you procrastinate?

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What did you learn from this movie clip?

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* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

The more I am me, the better work I do. 

But force me to work against my instinctive grain, and my output will be shite. 

That’s why I’m both a proponent and practitioner of identity based creation. Tapping into my native endowments of creativity, motivation, inspiration and intelligence and channeling them in the service of the work I do. 

It’s like a game to see what part of myself I can bring to the task at hand. It requires having a high level of consciousness about myself, but it’s always worthwhile. 

Here’s how it works. Before doing something, I instinctively ask myself certain questions:

How can I use the parts of myself that I most value to make this more enjoyable? What unique aspects of my personality can I enlist to help me in this situation? And which talents, that I might never exercise anywhere else, might be valuable here? 

Asking these questions only takes a moment, but adding that extra layer of awareness and integration to the activity makes it more enjoyable for me, and more effective for the people around me. Which is especially helpful when I’m doing something boring or meaningless. 

And so, the process of integrating the whole of my personality reconciles the experiences. It makes me feel okay with myself. And it keeps apathy from completely degrading my performance. 

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What questions do you ask yourself to help tape into your native endowments of creativity? 

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* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

I try to focus on executing good process, whether or not I achieve good outcomes. Because process is something I can control. Outcomes are not. I’ve been burned enough times to know that the more I hang my sense of achievement onto a flimsy foundation, the more likely I am to be disappointed when it topples. 

Process orientation, then, becomes a form of creative insurance. It’s a way of protecting myself against the inevitable disappointments and fluctuations of the work. Because in the end, process is something nobody can take away from me. I own that. Even if the outcome does fade into the shadows, the person I became and the insights I gained and the experiences I collected are mine forever, minus zero, no limit. 

That’s why I’m so adamant about documenting everything I learn behind everything I make. The act of writing down the moments of my history lets me own them. Writing assures the events belong to me rather than me belonging to them. 

While I was filming my music documentary, I made thousands of notes filled with insights and perspectives and lessons learned in the process. In fact, by the time the movie was finally finished, I had already written my next three books. 

That’s the beauty of process. We can always use it to our advantage. Each journey can be a vehicle for answering questions about ourselves, adding value to ourselves and creating art for ourselves. Everything is designed to give us a stronger base. 

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What’s your system for learning from every process, regardless of the outcome?

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* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Ideas are free, execution is priceless.

That’s been my mantra since day one of starting my business.

It’s also the title of a book I wrote a few years back. You can download it for free here.

But here’s the problem. I’m an idea junkie. Everything I look at in the world breaks down into a collection of ideas. I have about fifty new ones every day, and sadly, I can only execute so many of them. Even if I had all the resources and all the time in the world, I still wouldn’t be able to keep up with the whirlwind of insanity that gusts through my brain.

And that’s where you come in.

I believe ideas were never meant to stay that way. And so, in this new blog series, I’m going to be publishing a sample of them on a weekly basis, in the hopes that they inspire you to (a) execute them, (b) improve them, or (c) invent something completely different.

Remember, once an idea springs into existence, it cannot be unthought.

Even if that idea is ridiculous.

Enjoy! 

Steal Scott’s Ideas, Issue 003

1. Shamesake, a productivity software program that uses positive guilt to get more done.

2. Bullshitter, a public nomination forum to call government liars onto the digital carpet.

3. Sign Thyself, a digital platform for indy musicians to start their own record labels.

4. Coffee & Pilot, a twenty four hour cable station that plays only failed pilots.

5. Last But Not Yeast, a gluten free bakery.

6. Rationalize, a portion controlled snack machine for humans with bad eating habits.

7. Active Nakedness, a sex guidebook for couples who want intimacy without intercourse.

8. Cell Find, an app that sends a text to your spouse when your phone suddenly dies. 

9. LuvNotes, a publishing service that converts old love notes into keepsake albums.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How will you turn these ideas into I-dids?

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For the list called, “49 Ways to become an Idea Powerhouse,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

If you stay in the entrepreneurial game long enough, eventually, you stop challenging your anxieties and start leaning into them. You learn to live with them long enough to respect them. 

As the ancient scripture beautifully reminds us, should we want to contain something, we must deliberately let it expand, and should we want to control something, we must deliberately grant it access. 

Because there’s no point in trying to overcome something that’s part and parcel of the process. In my experience, that only compounds the pain. In fact, consider the ever expanding list of forces each of us has to contend with. 

We have provider anxiety, performance anxiety, opportunity anxiety, option anxiety, waiting anxiety, withdrawal anxiety, selling anxiety, expectation anxiety, survival anxiety, failure anxiety and success anxiety, to name a few. 

And so, spend a few years working for yourself, and you quickly learn that anxiety permeates the creative process. Forever. It may change shape, but it doesn’t go away. 

The trick, then, is to always reserve a portion of your stamina to work with the inevitable anxieties of the journey. You might consider treating it as one of your most important projects or clients, one that needs constant attention and prioritization. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What would be different in your life if you realized that the door must be opened from the inside?

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For a copy of the list called, “123 Questions Every Marketer Must Ask,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

I judge people by their vocabulary. 

I believe we are revealed in the language we create for ourselves, especially when we write. 

I once got an email from a high school student who struggled with shyness, lack of confidence, fear of rejection and inability to be taken seriously. What’s interesting was, her email didn’t read like an struggling teenager. He words were written clearly, eloquently and respectfully. Could have fooled me. 

And so, I replied to her email with two thoughts. First, I told her, every teenager on the planet is going through the same struggle. You’re not alone. And second, I told her, the fact that you are astute enough to notice these feelings, articulate enough to communicate them, and brave enough to share them with a total stranger, makes you light years ahead of ninety percent of every other teenager on the planet. Consider yourself taken seriously. 

Send. 

I trust she realized the great irony of life. That everything we’re reaching for is already inside of ourselves. That whatever we want to accomplish, what we already have and who we already are is enough to get started. It’s simply a matter of announcing to ourselves that we possess sufficient resources to achieve our goals and trusting in the availability of those assets. 

There are no guarantees, unfortunately, but those resources are at our disposal to increase the probability of success.

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What would be different in your life if you realized that the door must be opened from the inside?

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For a copy of the list called, “52 Random Insights to Grow Your Business,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Historically, the artist made
the art. That was their sole job function. The primary creative act of putting
words on paper or clicking the shutter or performing on a stage. Middlemen and
vendors and corporations and intermediaries accomplished everything else. 

But
thanks to the confluence of modern culture, i.e., the digital revolution and
the direct to consumer era and the long tail phenomenon and the connection
economy and the nonexistent barriers to entry the infinite shelf space of the
internet, now, artists can take all the aspects of making things into their own
hands. 

First, they can create the opportunity create art. Long before they even
break ground on the canvas. Then, they can create art. Quickly and cheaply and
publicly. Next, they can take their truth to market. They can package, publish,
distribute, promote, merchandise, leverage and sell the art. Then, they can
communicate around the art. Connecting with media and fans and customers and
viewers and audience members. Lastly, they can earn the right to do the work
again. And start the process over. 

There has never been a better time in
history to be an artist. Control is cheap and ideas are free. The only caveat
is, with great control comes great responsibility. Should you decided to take
all the aspects of making things in your own hands, it’s your ass on the line. 

There’s nobody to blame for your failures but the person staring back at you in
the mirror. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How much are you willing to bet on yourself?

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For a copy of the list called, “49 Ways to become an Idea Powerhouse,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

And so, in this blog series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today’s clip comes from the Gozer scene in Ghostbusters:

A little
confidence goes a long way. About
thirteen years ago, the largest news outlet in the country interviewed me. Their
article dubbed me as the world record holder of wearing nametags. I laughed out
loud. Forget about running the four minute mile, this was a real accomplishment. I had officially
arrived. And even though the world record holder of wearing nametags wasn’t exactly what I was going for, it sounded
credible and interesting and memorable. And since I was just starting my
career, I took my credibility where I could get it. So I embraced it. I began
including that moniker in my marketing materials and bio. And it just stuck.
That’s what I became known for. And the strange part is, people never tired to
prove me wrong. Because when you focus on something nobody else has bothered to
think about, there’s no competition. It’s virgin territory. When you create a
category where you define the rules and set all the standards, you catch a
foothold and slide into pole position. And so, I ultimately became the world
record of wearing nametags, not because there was a sanctioning body to
legitimize my achievement, but because I told people that I was. Confidently.
Over and over. And they believed me. It’s funny how that works. When somebody
asks you if you’re a god, and you say yes, nobody questions you. But when you
buckle under the pressure, fumbling to articulate your answer, everybody smells
the fear. How might you
persevere and extend your confidence?

I had a big
imagination, and wanted to put it to work.Vonnegut once said that the triumph of most things is a matter of organization. I agree.
But I also think that the failure of most things is a matter of imagination.
It’s our lackof
creativity that hinders success.And unless we began taking charge of how we use our
brains, we’ll never achieve it. Maisel’sworkon brainstorms has been transformative for me. He taught me notto spend time in my brain as if the brain were a destination,
but to use my brain in the service of the work I intend to accomplish. For
example, when I’m practicing yoga, I have a tendency to put the pedal to the
metal inside my head. Every thought and idea plan and problem comes thrashing
to the surface at once. In fact, I’m almost shocked at just how many thoughts
can run through my head at any given moment. Now, most yoga instructors would
tell me to focus on the breath, stay in the present and let my thoughts come
and go like passing clouds in the sky. But as an experiment, I recently tried a
the reverse approach. Instead of attempting to force calm my mind, I started
wondering to myself, how could I channel my thoughts into something more
meaningful? And so, I started running creative visualizations. During class, I
would use my imagination to build a story in my head. A mental movie with
pictures and sounds and smells and other sensations associated with reaching a
particular goal. And I would hold that fantasy until class was over. The
experience was blissful. As a result of biting into the visualization, I was
able to drown out the chatter of my mind. By tuning into the exciting movie I’d
created for myself, I experienced a completely different kind of relaxation. To what extent could you let you brain race,
but still be in control of it?

Terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. Gozer initially appears as a woman, but her voice
echoes that the destructor will follow, taking a form chosen by the team. So
that’s their challenge. Don’t think of
anything yet. Clear your mind. Because they only get one chance at this.
But’s too late. The choice has been made. The traveler has come. Ray couldn’t
help himself. It just popped in there. He tried to think. He inadvertently
recalled a beloved corporate mascot from his childhood. Something that could
never, ever possibly destroy them. And the hundred foot marshmallow man begins
attacking the city. It’s a classic case of ironic process theory. Harvard
cognitive scientists defined this as the psychological process whereby
deliberate attempts to suppress certain thoughts make them more likely to
surface in one’s thoughts. For example, don’t think of a white bear. Now, what
are you thinking about? Of course. A white bear. That’s ironic process theory. But
the good new is, the researchers found that individuals do have a capacity to successfully suppress thoughts. Not by trying
not to think, but by focusing on a specifically prepared distraction or object.
It’s a  process in thought suppression
experiments referred to as focused distraction.Wegnerexplains that picking and focusing on an absorbing
distractor, like a car from your childhood, helps avoid unwanted thoughts. And
if you allow yourself to think in controlled ways on and around the thing that
you want to avoid, he says, then it will be less likely to pop back into your
thoughts at other times. Which thought
might release the peddle on your racing brain?

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What did you learn from this movie clip?

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For a copy of the list called, “22 Unexpected Ways to Help People,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Every company is convinced they’ve
unlocked the secret to productivity. 

Every week I read another article about an
innovative organization that has it all figured out. 

They build creative
incentive programs and use employee game mechanics and have real time chat
tools and track goals on public dashboards and install screen monitoring
software and create content filtering malware that blocks social networking
websites and set work timers for fifty minutes and take breaks for exactly
seventeen minutes. 

It all sounds like a lot of work, ironically. People
deluding themselves into thinking they can hack human performance and game the
corporate environment. 

But the reality is, no office will ever be productive.
They can’t be. Workplaces are optimized for interruption. Nobody works at work
anymore. 

Unless, of course, they hire themselves. They remove all the toxic
variables from the productivity equation. Because when you do the math, one
hour of work as an employee is worth five hours of work as an entrepreneur. 

Think about it. You don’t have pointless distractions like meetings and
administrative busywork and conference calls and checkins and status reports.
You don’t have infuriating interruptions like taps on the shoulder and names
being yelled across the room and multiple phones ringing off the hook and
endless ambient commotion. You don’t have soul crushing bureaucracy like asking
permission and gaining approval and cutting through red tape and following
rules. And you don’t have energy killers like putting out fires and walking
on eggshells and resolving unnecessary conflict and mitigating drama. 

Once you
subtract that noise from the equation, all you’re left with is work that
matters and a committed, happy person who can’t wait to do it. 

Miyagi was right. The best way to block
the punch is to not be there.

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How productive were you in the last hour?

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For a copy of the list called, “12 Secrets of Supremely Successful Writers,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Ideas are free, execution is priceless.

That’s been my mantra since day one of starting my business.

It’s also the title of a book I wrote a few years back. You can download it for free here.

But here’s the problem. I’m an idea junkie. Everything I look at in the world breaks down into a collection of ideas. I have about fifty new ones every day, and sadly, I can only execute so many of them. Even if I had all the resources and all the time in the world, I still wouldn’t be able to keep up with the whirlwind of insanity that gusts through my brain.

And that’s where you come in.

I believe ideas were never meant to stay that way. And so, in this new blog series, I’m going to be publishing a sample of them on a weekly basis, in the hopes that they inspire you to (a) execute them, (b) improve them, or (c) invent something completely different.

Remember, once an idea springs into existence, it cannot be unthought.

Even if that idea is ridiculous.

Enjoy! 

Steal Scott’s Ideas, Issue 002

1. Episowhat, a curator that summarizes an entire television series in twenty minutes.

2. Spendy, a wallet with a private screen that broadcasts messages about smart spending.

3. Connectify, an app that tells you which friends you haven’t called or texted in a while.

4. Asaknot, a service for couples who want to have yoga themed weddings.

5. Pullover, a texting service that alerts neighbors to move their cars for large trucks.

6. Tranzish, a counseling service for retiring entrepreneurs who need to get real jobs.

7. Buskrs, a geolocation app that tells musicians best locations for urban busking.

8. Brain Vomit, a journaling software to help people with racing brains release their thoughts.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How will you turn these ideas into I-dids?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

Send an email to me and let me know how they turn out.

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!