Everyone has talent. Everyone. 

But not everyone has the
ability to use their talent in a broad range of applications. And as a result,
they’re just winking in the dark. All trained up and nowhere to go. 

The
question is, how to do you improve your ability to make better use of your
strengths? How do force yourself to fire on all cylinders? 

In video gaming
parlance, players call this processunlocking.
It’s when a character gains access to weapons andprivileges and prizes that points and
levelsthat
are outside of a game’s traditional parameters. 

Each one of us can do the same.
We can unlock our talents. And in most cases, it’s a simple matter of permission.
Culture. Context. Environment. 

Zappos is the ultimate case study. Read a few
pages of their annual culture book, and you’ll quickly discover that the
company has a system for unlocking people’s gifts. Because as long as it
creates value for customers and coworkers, employees are encouraged to bring unrelated
talents to the work environment. They’re given the freedom to use abilities
they might never exercise anywhere else. And they’re challenged to discover
pieces of themselves that were under nurtured in the most extreme of ways. 

As one team member said, it’s like a game to
see what part of ourselves we can bring to work every day. In short, the
company allows people to do what they love in an environment that wants them to
do it. As a result, their collective talent is unlocked at warp speed. 

And nobody feels like they’re winking
in the dark. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How will you unlock your ability to make an impact?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “24 Questions to Discover Which Word You Own,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

I was listening to an interview with a famous television executive whose production company has created thousands of hours of shows for major networks. 

He told the inspiring story of trying to secure funding from a major investor, and how nobody would call him back, no matter how hard he pushed. But when it came down to the eleventh hour, he shifted his sales approach. He sent an email to every single person who worked for the company he was trying to get money from, with the following message:

Please see the attached list of ninety people who will lose their jobs if you don’t call me back. 

Within twenty minutes, his phone was ringing off the hook with investment offers. And within twenty weeks, his show had launched the career of one of those most influential talk radio personalities in the country. 

Neil’s story is a shining example of sales creativity. Instead of begging and nagging and nipping at his prospect’s heels, he transferred the burden of pressure to a third party. He helped the customer calculate the cost and consequence inaction. And that created a sense of urgency.

The longer I wait, the more I lose. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How are you helping your customers consider the loss and cost of not moving forward?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “24 Questions to Discover Which Word You Own,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Eyes Full of Dreams is now a hard cover, full color, two hundred page dream journal. 

It includes pictures, lyric ideas, song sheets, exercises, essays from the film and a few other surprises.

There will only be 100 physical copies in existence. Ever. 

To buy your limited edition, autographed copy, click here. Shipping included. Limit one per person. $50.00

You can also download a PDF of the dream journal here.

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Hoff’s treatise on eastern philosophy makes the point
that everybody has purpose, but no matter how useful we may be, sometimes it
takes us a while to recognize our own value. 

The good news is, the world is
mirror. Humans are able to understand the self in the context of other people.
We form our identities based on what we hear ourselves say, and how we see
others react to that. 

And so, as we continue to peel back the onion of own
identities, sometimes all we have to do is listen. To pay close attention when
people reflect our realities back to us. 

Here’s a common example. If everybody
is surprised at how easy something comes to you, there’s something there.
Regardless of what that thing is, regardless if you think it’s remarkable, and
regardless if you’re even proud to possess such a gift, there’s still something
there. You just have to be willing to accept that it’s a window into your
talent, a vehicle of your value and a step toward your future. That it’s worth
channeling into something real in the world. 

I recently launched a web
application to help people with this very process.Leverage Junkieis a strategic
framework that uses challenging questions to increasing the rate of return on
your assets. 

Here’s one of my personal favorites. 

How can I translate this gift
into something pragmatic that can be loved and purchased and accessed and
implemented by others? 

Because even if you’re not an entrepreneur by trade,
such a question trains you to think entrepreneurially about your talents. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How do you evaluate the market value of your unrealized but inherent expertise?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “24 Questions to Discover Which Word You Own,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Maisel’s research on the creative mind explains how racing brains don’t come with an off switch. 

That they can overwhelm a person’s system and cause anxiety, restlessness and mania. What’s more, if hyper creative people fail to regain control of their psychic environment, their racing brains will incline toward insomnia, mania, obsession, compulsion and addiction. The smarter people are, he says, the more likely it is that they will use their brain in negative ways and the more painful pressure they are likely to produce. 

That’s why I never lay in bed, counting holes in the ceiling, for more than a few minutes. Because I don’t want my brain to start attacking itself. I know myself too well to just sit there, wide awake and fully alert, praying for sleep to come. 

It’s poor sleep hygiene, poor time management and poor anxiety maintenance. Plus, I don’t want to train my brain that staying up in bed is okay. 

And so, I introduced a boundary. I now give myself ten minutes. Ten minutes. That’s my brain’s limit. If I haven’t quieted the voices by then, I find alternative means. I take control of my mind before my mind gets in control of me. 

Instead of sitting in bed ruminating about how hard it is to sleep, I get up and use my brain in the service of something meaningful. Instead of staring into the void, petrified by the view, I march out of the bedroom and give my neurons an outlet that might actually make me tired. Instead of magically willing sleep to come, I healthily sedate myself through reading, meditation or journaling. 

In short, I don’t spend time in the brain as if the brain were a destination, but I use my brain in the service of my meaning making mission. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

When your mind has trouble quieting itself, what’s your system for taking charge of your own thoughts?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “22 Questions to Sidestep Entrepreneurial Atrophy,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Sometimes we need to acquire new skills. Sometimes we need to develop existing skills. But sometimes we simply need to reveal hidden ones. To identify the gifts we most enjoy using, the ones we never get the opportunity to employ, the ones we want to use more often and fully, and bring them to the forefront of our lives. 

That’s how we grow our value, build our business and sustain ourselves through the next stage of life. We build a set of skills that allows us to earn an income in as many ways as possible. 

I’ve spent the past few years coming out of music hibernation. After more than a decade of composing and performing in secret, I finally started sharing my original songs with the world, both in concert and digital form. 

But here’s the situation I found myself in. I knew there were musical skills I was building, skills that contributed to my story as an individual, that I wasn’t engaging in the service of my work. I knew there were intrinsic artistic gifts that deserved a more prominent place in my life. And that bothered me. I felt like I was hiding from the world. Like I wasn’t respecting the gifts I’d been given. And I wasn’t okay with those feelings of lack. There was just too much cognitive dissonance. 

And so, I committed to bringing those new skills to my audience, clients and prospects in a number of different ways. I launched a new website that educates people about the other ways I can serve them through music. And now I can confidently say, without feeling hypocritical or cowardly, freedom truly is finding a home for all of your talents. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you expressing each of your gifts to make a difference in all parts of your life, including your business?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “18 Marketing Questions to Uncover Uncontested Waters,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

When you know who you are, every moment isn’t a moral challenge, it’s just a checklist. 

Decisions are easier, postures are sturdier, interactions are warmer, relationships are healthier, risks are smarter, transitions are smoother, failures are faster and commitments are stronger. 

What happens when you know who you are? Everything. 

Including executional velocity. After all, you can’t expect to get things done until you get to know the doer. And so, identity is the engine that drives productivity. It’s what allows you to take action faster, better, cheaper and smarter. 

That’s what I tell my clients. Whether you’re a one man show, a boutique agency or a large organization, don’t start with why, start with who. Because the word identity derives from the term identidem, which literally means, over and over. And that’s the secret to moving any brand forward. Understanding who you are, over and over. 

Harvard recently published a study that interviewed three hundred leaders across a variety of successful companies. They tested the extent to which the leader’s identity affected team effectiveness. And what they found was, whenever the leader demonstrated a lack of understanding about their true identity, the organization substantially suffered. 

From to teamwork to productivity to market share to conflict management to decision quality, identity was the missing ingredient. Had they started with who, perhaps these gaps could have been avoided. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Do you have a good working model of your identity?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “18 Marketing Questions to Uncover Uncontested Waters,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Few things in this world are evenly spread. Most of life happens in clumps. There always seems to be a multiplicity of contingent events that happen in close succession. 

The spooky thing is, clumping occurs in almost every domain of daily existence. It happens to organic behavior in biology, it happens to asteroids in space, it happens to software testing in computer science, it happens to breakfast cereals in milk, it happens to surface bubbles in soft drinks, it happens to bus schedules in public transportation, it happens to paperclips on desks, it happens to patient loads in emergency rooms, it happens good ideas in group brainstorms, it happens to customer problems in call centers and it happens to bad news in mainstream media. 

Life clumps. Period. 

Not surprisingly, there are tons of complicated explanations from theologians and physicists and conspiracy theorists and numerologists as to why clumping is so prevalent. Because humans love to look for meaning where there is none. We’re too afraid to accept the random chaos of the human experience. 

But in the absence of a universal law around the phenomenon of clumping, perhaps our job shouldn’t be to prove why there are clumps, but to accept them as a natural pattern of life, and to prepare ourselves to exploit them when they arrive. 

I notice this trend in my own business, specifically when it comes to sales. Leads for new client work will come inbound, literally within minutes of each other. As if coordinated by a central computer. It’s the strangest thing. 

But instead of trying to localize the infection, so to speak, I recognize the clump, give thanks for the clump and keep my antennas up for whatever contingent events might occur next in the clump. 

As a great pirate once said, don’t try to explain it, just nod your head, breathe in, breathe out and move on. It’s just another clump in the road. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Where have you recently noticed clumping in your life?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “74 Qualifying Questions to Test the Net Worth of Your Company Tagline,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Gandhi’s theory of social reconstruction famously said it was a false notion that competition was an integral part of human society. 

His belief was that competition glorified the tendencies of selfishness and greed and rivalry and envy, and that it didn’t have a place in a non violent society. 

I couldn’t agree more. Competition is not a mechanism that operates very strongly within me. Because despite its positive economic implications, I believe competition is still grounded in scarcity thinking. Notenoughness. Disconnectedness. The assumption that people can’t share what’s available. The fear there isn’t enough room in this place for more than one of us.

I’m reminded of my grandfather, whose company has been a leader in closeout industry for more than forty years. His brand has always revolved around the idea of class. Classy products, classy people. 

And so, it’s no surprise that he had competitors, but he didn’t have competition. There was never any rivalry or bad blood or cutthroat dealings with enemy corporations. He wasn’t against anybody. Frank just tried to make the pie bigger. To treat everybody as a friend and a partner and a colleague and a family member, that way everybody’s business could thrive. 

The goal wasn’t to make war on the competition, but to make love to the customer. 

That’s class. No wonder there was zero competition. He was running a different race. 

And so, next time you split into the mindset of competing, try on the idea that there is no separateness. That we are all one. That abundance is right around the corner. Create and connect and communicate and collaborate, but don’t compete. Learn to operate from a place of enoughness, and watch what that does to your business. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you spending more time educating potential customers on the benefits of your service, or telling them why you are better than the competition?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “22 Questions to Sidestep Entrepreneurial Atrophy,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.

Whether it’s
getting married or starting a business or having children or moving across the
country or going full time with your business, you’ll never really be ready.
It’ll never really be the right time. 

So what’s the holdup? 

Because by that
logic, you’re always ready. It’s always the right time. And so, making the
right choice doesn’t matter as much as making the commitment to choosing. It’s
not what you choose, it’s that you choose. Simply making a choice, any choice,
and following through with absolute commitment, makes it the right choice. 

On the other hand, if you never choose,
you’re always wrong. If your hands aren’t dirty, the court doesn’t recognize
your right to comment. 

I have a client whose biggest struggle is creative
overwhelm. He wants to do everything, and that’s why he does nothing. The stifling
cocktail of ambition paralysis and option anxiety creates a diffusion of
execution, and it leads to a deeply frustrating, infinite regression of
stuckness. It’s debilitating. He feels creatively constipated and unable to
move forward with his projects. 

And so, I reminded him that when you’re doing
the right things, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing things right. Failure is
off the table. It’s neither here nor there. What matters is that you decide. 

What
matters is that you believe you’re ready enough, that the time is right enough,
and you’re going to do something, anything, to add energy to the system and move
the story forward. Because even if you can’t explain your choice, and even if
that choice isn’t correct in any objective sense, the fact that you made it is
victory enough. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What would it take to get your hands dirty?LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “22 Questions to Sidestep Entrepreneurial Atrophy,” 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

Rent Scott’s Brain is part mentoring, part coaching, part consulting, but all strategy. 

Whether in person, via phone, or another digital channel, Scott works with you both strategically and tactically to achieve your goals. 

His brain will be a source of profound holistic improvement for your business. 

You’ll learn powerful strategies for: 

Ideation. Messaging. Storytelling. Platform creation. Brand development. Content strategy. Inbound marketing. Thought leadership. 

You’ve seen what he could do with a nametag, imagine what he could do for you.

Learn more @ www.rentscottsbrain.com.