One of the ways that I gain perspective and control is by keeping inventory.
By that, I mean any system that gives me an objective account of everything on my mind and in my life. Any tool that helps me assess things immediately within the context of everything I do. This keeps me from being overwhelmed at any given time.
For example, there’s my meaning inventory, which is a list of existentially nourishing activities and tasks that are guaranteed to provide me with the experience of meaning.
There’s my project inventory, which is a list of interesting creative ventures and commitments that flood me with a set of intensely positive emotions like happiness, exhilaration and even bliss.
There’s my sales inventory, which is a list of prospects and potential collaborations with whom I expect to do business in the near future.
There’s my intellectual inventory, which is a system of ideas and notes and sentences that fuel my daily creative efforts.
There’s my financial inventory, which is a breakdown of accounts payable and receivable within my business.
And there’s my ambition inventory, which is a list of one hundred goals and dreams for the current year that tells me a story about the ideal future I want to see.
That way, each day, often multiple times a day, I can walk the factory floor. I can run a regular review process, taking time to see all my various inventories in one place.
It’s a sort of mission control for my existence. A snapshot of everything that’s important to me, helping me understand the relationships between the various buckets of my life.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What inventories are you keeping?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “31 Questions to Turn Your Expertise into Money,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
Stick your fingers in your ears
I overheard a fascinating conversation the other day.
Two friends were having coffee, reminiscing about their college days, when one of the women said, I was looking for people to tell me that my dreams were crazy so I could abandon them and make it other people’s fault, not my own.
That broke my heart. In fact, part of me wanted to walk over to their table and scream, why are you listening to these people?
Nobody knows anything. Nobody knows what you are here to do. Nobody knows what’s inside of you. Greenlight your own desires and get on with it.
And yes, I understand we all have a unique chorus of voices inside our heads, filled with parents and family members and authority figures enlightening us with their brilliant advice. But listening is highly overrated.History has literally proved this time and time again.
Ford? If he listened to his customers, they would have asked for faster horse. Edison? If listened to his critics, we would still be going to bed at seven. Jobs? If he listened to his pundits, we’d still be carrying nylon cases of compact discs.
Clearly, if we’re too busy listening to everybody, we’ll never hear the sound of our own voice.
And so, don’t let one piece of information fill your entire identity screen. Don’t let people’s feedback define who you are or dictate how you see yourself. Stick your fingers in your ears. Tell yourself that you’re worthy of your dreams, that your dreams are worthy of you, and get to work.
Because nobody knows anything. They’re all just guessing.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Who are you still demanding excessive reassurance from?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “20 Types of Value You Must Deliver,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
Reinvention is the secret of longevity
I understand you’re comfortable with your current level of success.
I understand scary to let go of what’s working.
I understand it’s painful to walk away from a process that’s been good to you.
But if your work is the same that it was two, three or even five years ago, you’re doing something wrong.
Reinvention is a fundamental requirement of the entrepreneurial journey. It’s what keeps you alive and competitive and interesting. Without it, you’re doomed to the bargain bin of the marketplace.
The trick is, reinvention more than just a cosmetic change. Just because you redesigned your website doesn’t mean you reinvented yourself. True reinvention comes from within. From the courage to live larger than your labels, paired with the commit to remake yourself as you grow and as the world changes.
I’ll never forget the advice my mentor once gave me.
It’s okay to be known for more than one thing.
When those words first landed, something inside of me melted. A profound sense of relief filled my bloodstream. Because I knew that I was ready to do move to the next level.
Within a few years, my business was dramatically different, from the scope of work to the range of clients to the level of income to the type of schedule to the amount of satisfaction. And even though it was painful to let go of what I had, it was the only way to get what I needed.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Is the tradition in your brand nostalgic or just out of date?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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!
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!
Download Nametagscott’s 30th Book For Free, Right Now, No Strings
After I finished writing the book Prolific, which was an intellectual property development system, I decided to create a series of case studies on my blog, deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post contained a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.
When In Doubt, Commit is the second volume of those case studies. Each chapter contains a link to the video clip, which I suggest you watch before reading each chapter, to better understand the context of the lessons.
Buy it on Amazon, or download the entire book, for free, right now, no strings.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
When will you learn how to monitor the efficiency of your thinking?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “50 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
Moments of Conception 178: The Taxi Scene from Slacker
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 taxi scene from Slacker:
Create a new realm of possibility. Linklater explains that every thought we have has its own reality. Every choice we make, even the thing we choose not to do, fractions off and becomes its own reality. It just goes on from there, forever. What’s interesting is, his monologue is more than just slacker conjecture. Thoughts actually cause an electrical change in the environment outside of our heads. Adams once reported that scientists can put sensors on your scalp and detect slight changes in electrical impulses that correspond to your thoughts. And this tiny change in electricity can cause lager changes in the world. Thoughts truly can influence the environment. And so, if it’s possible that our thoughts define reality in a more direct way than we ever imagined possible, then everything that happens today forms the basis for what can happen tomorrow. Even the most infinitesimally small changes from our day today can magnify into huge transformations over time. That’s why affirmations work. They force us to steer our perceptions to directly influence our environment. I started practicing affirmations many years ago, and now that I look back on the things that I affirmed to myself a decade ago, it’s almost spooky to see how many of them have come to fruition. And I realize that my personal anecdotes are not statistically valid. I get that data is not the plural of experience. But in my alternative view of reality, statistics are meaningless. What will free you from the optical illusions that restrict your view of reality?
Art is the great permission slip. Slacker was a series of personal experiences of unconnected characters whose lives randomly meet on the streets. The movie was literally made up as it went along, as the actors often designed the next day’s shootings the evening before. Linklater created a vehicle way to illustrate the incoherence and randomness of life. More importantly, he created something uncategorizable. A work of art with an appeal almost impossible to describe. And as a result, the film is often dubbed as the starting point for the independent film movement of the nineties. In fact, many independent filmmakers credit this movie as the wedge that opened the doors for their own creative work. That’s the real art. Not the movie, but the gift of permission it gives to people. Because any time your work becomes an invitation for people reach deep down inside themselves and express what is there, without reserve and without regret, you win. And nobody can take that love away from you. What we need as artists, then, is audacity. The willingness to try some radical shit at every turn. Because we inspire people to believe in themselves when we first throw ourselves boldly and joyfully into the life adventure, never looking over our shoulder to see who’s laughing. In fact, I didn’t watch this movie until twenty years after its initial release. But it still inspired me to create my own movie as a result. Proving, that permission is timeless. What is your art going to be the first at?
When resources are free, it’s all permission. This seemingly plotless film portrays a generation of young people characterized by aimlessness, apathy and lack of ambition. In short, slackers. But what’s interesting is, the director says that the modern meaning of the word slacker doesn’t necessarily have to be pejorative. It could simply mean being responsible to yourself. Not wasting your time in a realm of activity that has nothing to do with who you are or what you want. It’s like my mentor to say, remove what robs you. In fact, I remember my own slacker moment. I went to the career fair my senior year of college. And when I walked in that gym and witnessed sea of stale corporate exhibits handing free mouse pads to herd of starry eyed students hopping from booth to booth trying to prove themselves to people they didn’t even like so they could land boring, soul sucking jobs that preserved the status quo, only one question entered my mind. What the hell am I doing here? So I went home and finished my first book. And nine months later, I published it. Because I never waited to be picked, I just hired myself and got to work. If being a slacker is wrong, I don’t want to be right. What permissions are you afraid to give yourself?
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What did you learn from this movie clip?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “11 Ways to Out-Market the Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
Work hard now, you’ll figure out how to work smart later
Mogensen was an industrial engineer and authority in the field of work simplification and office management. In the early thirties, he popularized business flowcharts and was remembered for coining the term, work harder, not smarter.
Which made perfect sense in the world of factory management and maintenance. But in the entrepreneurial world, especially in the early stages of a new venture, we rarely have enough experience to know what smart means yet.
As my mentor used to say, you haven’t written enough to know what kind of writer you are yet.
And so, before we start calculating efficiencies, what’s more important right now is volume and momentum and rhythm. Putting boots on the ground so we can gain traction. Cranking out piles of work so that we might find our authentic voice.
Carlin used to say that unless performers get up in front of people every day, they’ll never know who they are. Entrepreneurs are the same way. Only through working hard do we earn the right to work smart.
One of my clients is a talented food photographer. But she’s only been in business for a year. And so, during our strategy sessions, I have to remind myself that she has yet to figure out how to work smart. For now, hard is all she knows. And that’s okay.
I, on the other hand, have developed an exquisite sense of efficiency. My filter for discerning hard versus smart work is finely tuned like a microchip. But it took fifteen years to get there.
And so, if you’re in the early stages of your creative endeavor, work hard now, and you’ll figure out how to work smart later.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
When will you learn how to monitor the efficiency of your thinking?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “50 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
No one event is ever the whole story
Carlin famously said that in any given career, we will have detours off our main lines that we’re not completely thrilled with. But because we learned from them, because they gave us perspective that we couldn’t have gotten anywhere else, we accept them as part of our journey.
I spent the first twelve years of my professional life working for myself. Freelancing as a writer, consultant, strategist and public speaker. But then, as an experiment, I tried my hand at being employee. For fifteen months I worked a day job at a small marketing agency, while still holding onto my unique brand by night.
And it was the best decision I could have made. Exactly what I needed to find out who I was, what I wanted and where I belonged.
And I do admit, I was underpaid, overworked, manipulated and neglected as an employee. But welcome to the corporate world.
And yet, I still deeply valued that experiment. Despite the expected frustrations and anxieties of working for someone else, I never failed to keep the bigger picture in mind. I always understood that my detour was merely one scene in a much larger narrative. And I knew that once my day job experiment was over, I could return to the freelance world refreshed, recommitted and reenergized.
The point is, no one event is ever the whole story. As long as we maintain perspective, there’s nothing wrong with a taking a little detour now and then.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What experiment could you run to find out what you really want?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “7 Ways to Out Attract Your Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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 oldest ache in the bones of humanity
It’s lonely when we make a commitment not to take a check
from anyone above us. Living on an unpaved road, hoping to find beauty at the
end, can be a solitary existence.
However, while loneliness is most common
ailment of the modern world, it’s also the most curable. Because the reality
is, we’re never alone in this world unless we want to be. We are the only ones
telling ourselves that we feel lonely.
Anytime I find myself longing for
connection, I ask a simple question.
What can I choose to do in this moment to
not feel lonely anymore?
In my experience, the best answer is to give what I
need. To get out of my own head and go be that person for somebody else. After
all, loneliness is just a reminder that we’re dwelling too much on our own
identities.
And so, if the waves of solitude come crashing in, we ought to
think about people we can reach out to who might need someone to share their
journey with. People who might appreciate having others witness their life.
People who might need someone to be there for them.
Because it’s not just
lonely at the top, it’s lonely everywhere.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What do you choose to do in those moments to not feel lonely anymore?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “7 Ways to Out Attract Your Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
Use your experiences before they use you
There is nothing that can’t be leveraged. Every experience can be used as a catalyst for creating value, generating opportunity, stimulating growth, deepening education, accomplishing goals, achieving realization, even activating transformation.
It’s simply a matter of framing experiences and redirecting them to meet your objectives. Leverage, after all, is the bridge between occurrence and opportunity. And those who ask intelligent questions as they cross it, arrive to the other side faster, happier, healthier and wealthier.
When I first started my publishing company, without any money, contacts, experience or credibility, I constantly started asking the question:
How can I use this to help me get more of what I want?
I found this question helped stimulate a greater sense of single mindedness. It forced me to frame whatever I was doing as possible resource or support structure or solution for my dreams, even if there was no apparent relationship between the two.
What did I have to lose? Asking questions like this may not have increased my success, but what it did increase was my field of vision, and that allowed me to better notice the opportunities that lead to success. That’s how the leverage mindset works. It may not affect the outcome, but it does affect the experience.
Ultimately, the goal is to ask the questions so often that they become integrated into your thinking like a champion golfer’s natural swing, and leverage becomes second nature to you.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What questions do you ask to turn every situation into an advantage for yourself?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “37 Things Not To Do This Year,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
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!
Capitalize on whatever your circumstances have to offer
The great creative discipline is simply knowing what season it is. Developing an exquisite understanding of your own timing. And not just of yourself, but of the world you live in.
That’s why I love the beginning of the new year. There’s just something fresh and clean and energizing anytime nature zeroes out its annual board. Intention is set, action is taken, change is made and momentum is built. It’s a beautiful thing.
Watterson’s final cartoon strip on the day before he retired put it perfectly. Calvin notices the new snowfall, feeling that everything familiar has disappeared, that the world looks brand new and it’s like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on. It’s a magical day full of possibilities. Let’s go exploring.
And so, when that particular season arrives, we need to make the most of it. We need to fish while the fish are biting. Because nature has its own tempo and flow of which human beings are only a small part.
My mentor used to hang a huge wall calendar in his office, color coded with various climate tends, astronomical events, national holidays, financial seasons, behavioral movements, corporate budget cycles, peak retail shopping times and other key time periods throughout the year. It helped him stay connected with the seasonality of his work and gave him a reference grid against which to execute his marketing strategy.
Whatever it takes to build momentum.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you understanding and leveraging the timing of seasons to your advantage?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a copy of the list called, “27 Ways to Out the Competitors,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!
