I want out of how I’m feeling right now

Seinfeld famously said when you reach dadness fully, nobody in your family can hurt your feelings anymore, because you don’t have feelings anymore. Feelings were too much of a problem to have, so you just get rid of them. 



That’s why he drives expensive and flashy cars, he says. Because they’re machines that stir deep, human emotions, and he really needs that because he doesn’t have any. 



What a fascinating and funny way to experience the world. And I’m sure it works for him. But personally, anytime I swallow my feelings, my body begins to digest itself. Anytime I attempt to suppress negative emotions, rather than accept and appreciate them, it typically backfires and increases feelings of distress. 



And so, instead of eating or drinking or shopping or whatever coping mechanism is available to temporarily hold despair at bay and distract me from panic and insecurity, I work to domesticate my emotions. I notice them without judgment, name them by affect labeling, accept them with compassion, sit through them with patience, and then process them into action. 



Because I trust the process. I know that all of my feelings have a beginning, middle and end. And so, whatever the emotion of the moment is, good or bad, I remember that it’s not going to last. That feeling will subside to the point of irrelevancy in no time. 



Meanwhile, I’m going to be proud of having my own feelings about the world and get on with my life. And as use them to fuel my meaning making efforts. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What is the feeling you’re trying to avoid right now?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Treat them like a client before they become one

I once posted a proposal for a research and data entry job.



About a dozen freelancers responded to my project, but as expected,
most candidates responded with the typical soulless, boilerplate sales pitch,
vomiting a list of qualifications and accomplishments and experience and
skills, along with their obligatory empty promises to exceed my expectations.



Wow. Be still my wagging tail.



However, one
particular freelancer separated himself from the pack. He didn’t say a word
about himself. Instead, he just started solving my problem. 



In the body of his
email, he provided links to a few pieces of research I was looking for.
Showing, not telling, that he was capable of doing the job. In short, he hired
himself and treated me like a client before I became one. 



He was awarded the
job on the spot. I didn’t even look what his fee was. Didn’t matter. He sold
value before price. 



How hireable are you? What’s your unique way of interacting
the world? 



Next time you interview for a job opportunity, instead of crafting a
convincing facade of eagerness and compassion, instead of puking a plausible
facsimile of care and performing another insincere illusion of professionalism,
just hire yourself and get to work. 



Treat them like a client before they become
one, and you’ll eliminate a lot of talk about irrelevant things. 



Remember,
caring for people is a useful shortcut to trust, and it’s free. Start today. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How would you treat people if you weren’t working so hard to sell them something? 
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Let’s put more tension on the table

Our dreams are often packaged in more anxiety than we would bargain for. 

With every passing moment, it can feel like the pressure is higher, the opportunities are fewer and the window is smaller. 

But that’s actually good news. Because anything that makes us anxious is where the real work lies. 

That’s the beauty of tension. It possesses its own generative drive, which gives rise to an impetus to move toward a resolution. It’s the major dynamic that moves our dreams forward. 

And so, we stack the cards in our favor by establishing and holding structural tension. 

When I go into the recording studio, for example, tension runs especially high. Because unlike busking for strangers in the street, where I’m free to create a series of never before, never again experiences, when I’m standing in a room the size of a closet with nothing but a guitar and a microphone, there’s nowhere to hide. Every note, stomp, breath, phrase and emotion is recorded, with zero ambient environment to protect me. 

Not to mention, I’m paying by the hour. And so, when the tape starts rolling, I feel deeply vulnerable and exposed and pressured and stretched. 

But that’s the point. The tension invites the human spirit will reveal itself more definitely. And you can literally hear it in my voice. 

Proving, that when you put more tension on the table, people take notice. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Do you have places you can go where tension is welcome? LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

By taking action, we reduce the intensity of the problem

When our yoga room is at full capacity, we practice mat to mat. 



And it’s awfully tight. Students have to be especially respectful of other people’s space, property and energy. Otherwise it can make for a distracted, frustrating and claustrophobic class. 


I was recently practicing within inches of another yogi, when it came time for the standing series. As usual, the instructor suggested we stagger horizontally, so as not to fling sweat or accidentally clip the person next to us. 



But the woman to my left wasn’t paying attention. She just stood there, hands on hips, chugging water. And in that moment, I could feel the controlling instinct inside of me welling up. 



I wanted to tap her on the shoulder and say, just walk towards the mirror, lady. It’s not that hard. 



But she still wouldn’t move. It was driving me crazy. To the point of anxiety and paralysis. 



How many times have we all been in that same position? Waiting around for somebody else to take the first step before we move? 



It happens every day. Not just in yoga, but off the mat as well. What keeps us stuck is the belief that someone else needs to change before we can move forward. That others should align with our implicit expectations, rearranging their existence around our requirements for happiness. 



Unless we remind ourselves that people are not here to meet our expectations. Only through taking action do we reduce the intensity of the problem. 



And so, instead of making so many unbalanced, burdensome demands on others, we learn to take our own action. To readjust our own posture and position and move closer towards our goals, while granting others the space to do the same. 



It works in yoga, it works in business, it works in marriage, it works everywhere. 



Nobody is going to change as a result of our desires. 



And so, instead of working from a place of coercion, asking how we can get other people to change, we ask ourselves, what is the transformation in us that is required first.



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What expectations do you have that lead to fear and caution?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Idle dreamers who give creative visionaries a bad name

Attempting only what has been proven creates a life of imitation. 



Somebody whose work is an echo of an echo of an echo. 



The real work is refusing to follow the person who went before you. Doing your art without a map, accepting moments of profound disorientation along the way, but trusting that you’ll arrive at a place that’s yours and yours alone. 



When I went into the studio to record my latest album, I informed my production engineer that I planned to record all fourteen songs in one day. 



He was flabbergasted. No musician had ever laid down that many tunes in one session. Most people, he said, took a few days to master one song. 



And that’s when my originality buzzer went off. Because anytime I hear somebody say those three dangerous words, well, most people, it reminds me that my job is to not be most people. Originality is too much a part of my constitution to allow that. 

And so, regardless of what worked in the past, regardless of what the statistics show, anytime I begin a new project, I don’t want to know what the last musician did when they were in the studio. Because I don’t need their style infiltrating my vision. I want to stand at the foot of the unblazed trail and go wreck some shop. 

Koestler observed this distinction in famous book is about inspiration, innovation and creativity, which was the first major treatment of this subject in the twentieth century. He said: 

The measure of an artist’s originality is the extent to which his selective emphasis deviates from the conventional norm, and establishes new standards of relevance. All great innovations which inaugurate a new era, movement or school, consist in sudden shifts of a previously neglected aspect of experience, some blacked out range of the existential spectrum. The decisive turning points in the history of every art form compel us to revalue our values and impose new sets of rules on the eternal game. 



Original indeed.



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How do you stay faithful to your original vision of reality?


LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

We bartered away our capacity to aspire

The industrial revolution trained our culture to
believe that utility was the only thing that counted. That dreams, reflections
and feelings were considered to be lost production. And that the workplace was
no place to show up and invest in the realization of our desires. 

If something
wasn’t concrete and measurable and practical and functional, it was sent to the
gallows. End of story. 

This mindset, however, did enable our culture to
transition into new manufacturing processes that marked a major turning point
in history. Almost every aspect of our daily lives have been influenced by it
in some way. 

The only problem is, we traded those advancements for the freedom
to take our dreams seriously. We bartered away our capacity to aspire. 

And now,
more than a century later, our deepest desires have lost vitality from lack of
use. Our entire culture is experiencing collective existential guilt, which
derives from having betrayed ourselves. It’s what we feel for not being who we
are. For postponing our possibilities. And if we have any intention of
returning to a state of wonder and desire and hope, we have to remember who we
were before the world told us who we needed to be. 

The good news is, dreams are
very resilient. They will wait for us. But they thrive on applied willingness.
They only come to life because we take steps to move our story forward. Because
we accept the fact that the world doesn’t always want us to dream, and we do it
anyway. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

When will you finally choose adventure and accept the fact that there is no safe path?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

The unedited life is the one worth living

The more we expect from technology, the less we expect on each other. The further we disappear down the digital rabbit hole, the more we lose touch with what is essential about being a person. 

And so, each of us needs to make a special effort to deepen our direct participation with the world. To get out from behind the screen and engage in real interactions with real people in real time with real consequences. 

That’s one of the reasons I started busking in the park. Because singing songs alone in my room, while safe and controlled and predictable, was ultimately an antisocial experience. 

I didn’t need more me. I needed to break my isolation, get out of my head and get into the world. 

And so, when I began performing in public, it breathed new life into my music through the power of touch, vulnerability, disclosure, surprise and raw feeling. 

It challenged me to make and hold eye contact with complete strangers, which stimulated the release of the hormone oxytocin, which made me feel more connected and social and happy. 

It challenged me to read people’s movements and respond accordingly, which created unedited, unplanned interactions, which made me feel more human. 

The experience was so magical, I made a documentary about it. 

The point is, computers can’t do that. Digital interactions tend to make a person feel objectified and quickly discarded, reduced to emotional shorthand. They convert someone into a matrix of preferences that supposedly represents their essence as a human being. 

And despite its amazing power to educate and connect and empower, often times, it just feels like an unpleasant necessity that does not feed the human spirit. 

We mustn’t allow ourselves to become immune to ordinary human connection. 

We must make a special effort to deepen our direct participation with the world. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

When was the last time you engaged with real people in real time with real consequences?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Prosecute myself for crimes past

When I think back to all the nonsense I spent so long giving a shit
about, all the redundant and petty ego vortexes that frittered away my time and
money and energy, it’s hard not to become frustrated. 

It’s hard not to
prosecute myself for crimes past. 

I recently stumbled across an invoice from a
decade ago. It was the bill from my web development company, who charged me
fifteen thousand dollars to design my new website. Which, at the time, was
cheap. And the product came out beautifully. 

Smash cut to ten years later, and
I’m rebuilding that same website for a fourth of the cost, and the quality is
ten times better. It’s astounding. 

But instead of celebrating this amazing new
technology and dreaming about what it will make possible for my business, I’m
still kicking myself for a check I wrote ten years ago. 

Thankfully, my web
developer calmed me down. She reminded me that every one of her clients says
the same thing. Every one. 

And so, it’s a complete waste of time throw our line over the wall of the past and
see what we can catch. It’s not worth the beating. 



Regret is just a
punishment we administer to ourselves



Truth is, we are who we decide to move forward as, not what we have done in the
past. And if we are to think clearly about the future, we need to clean up the
language we use in labeling our behaviors in the past. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you prepared to let the past die and let the future take care of itself?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Forging new frontiers of originality

Saying no is the fundamental way we have of differentiating ourselves. 



We are defined by what we decline. 

And so, I work very hard at saying, let somebody else play that game. It’s a crucial part of my originality filter. Rejecting the low hanging fruit opportunities so that I can gravitate toward projects and activities where the amount of craft I have to bring is higher. 

Where I can engage all of my gifts in a meaningful way. 

Where there’s fresh powder, so to speak.

I once entertained the idea of converting my intellectual property into a ten week college course. Both for the continuing education department at major university, and also for a popular online community. 

And so, I spent several months with my nose to the grindstone, learning about instructional design and fleshing out the curriculum. 

Until one afternoon during a walk in the park, it hit me. 

I’m not a teacher. I don’t want to be a teacher. In fact, I would made a horrible teacher. Because teaching involves giving assignments and having patience and holding people’s hands and managing details and thinking linearly and setting milestones and keeping the peace. That sounds awful. At least, for someone with my personality and skillset. 

But that was an important realization to have. Because once I learned that I wasn’t interested in enduring the sacrifice, risk and adventure that committing to being a teacher entailed, I was free to say, let somebody else play that game. 

So I did. I abandoned the education venture. And in its place, I initiated an exciting new project that forged the frontiers of my originality. The concert documentary integrated all of my talents, from songwriting to musical performing to mass communicating to public speaking to marketing strategy, all in one. Something teaching a class could never do for me. 

Lesson learned, instead of executing another me too product, place yourself in a market niche where your existing assets shine brighter than the competition. Ask yourself:

Will this create the feeling of a new sense of energy flowing through me? Will this enable the soul to find greater expression? And will this result in the human spirit revealing itself more definitely? 

If so, go get that fresh powder. 

Because the reward is, you get to feel like you’re creating in a risky way. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you competing in events where you can win the gold?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

The lights are low, come see these gifts I’ve made for you

Carlin was frequently asked by journalists if his comedy was meant to get people thinking. 



But being the intellectual and artist and performer that he was, he said that what he wanted people to know was that he was thinking. To show off that he had brought himself to a cleverer, smarter spot than they had. 



As if to say, can’t you see this? Can’t you see? 



That’s why people loved him. He had an exquisite sense of hierarchy. He was a man who understood his artistic priorities. Job number one wasn’t to educate and teach and mentor and inspire everyone around him, but to enjoy a complete, thoughtful and joyful life that allowed him to serve as an exemplar for those around him.



And so, not only did his comedy deserve an audience, but his life model deserved a following. Very few modern artists can say the same. 



George’s life reminds us that we are the model for what we create. And when we work from embodiment, when we remember that we are the stuff art is made of, there’s no stopping us. 



The lights are low, come see these gifts I’ve made for you. 



Because every audience loves to see their performer’s wheels turning. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Does your life model deserve a following?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” 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 2016-2017.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

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