How loud do I have to sing for you people to pay attention to me?

I was
recently listening to the executive of a popular television network explain how
the ratings system worked for his programming. And he said something that I’ll
never forget. 

Ninety nine out of a hundred people aren’t watching my show, and
I’m a millionaire. 

Funny how few people you actually need to make art, make a
living and make a difference. 

The challenge, then, is being okay with not being
for everybody. Letting go of the customers who don’t get the joke. Recognizing
who your people are and, perhaps more importantly, who your people aren’t. 

Every week, I perform music under tunnel in the park by my house. The
architecture is inspiring and the natural acoustics are astounding. 

But what’s interesting is, although hundreds of people will
walk through that tunnel during any given concert, a large percentage of them
won’t even acknowledge my existence. They treat me like I’m invisible. As if I
wasn’t standing there in public, nakedly sharing my art with the world. 

Which,
initially, hurt my feelings. 

I thought to myself, how loud do I have to sing
for you people to pay attention to me? 

But after a year of busking in that
tunnel, something occurred to me. Nietzsche was right. He famously said that those who were seen dancing were thought to be
insane by those who
could not hear the music. 

And so, let it go. I started focusing on the small
percentage of people who stopped, smiled and sang along. And to my surprise,
that audience was enough for me. 

Remember, if you are making everyone happy,
you are also making some of the wrong people happy. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you people pleasing the world, or are you famous to the family?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Would you rather be plagiarized or invisible?

Everyday, we read yet another
story about plagiarism and interpolation and copyright infringement. 

Companies
and brands and labels are suing artists for supposedly stealing their
intellectual property. 

And while I respect the need to protect one’s creative
work, the reality is, most people are not malicious thieving bastards. They’re
just human. It’s part and parcel of the creative process. 

We can’t help but be
influenced by the art we surround ourselves by. It’s the primary fuel for our
own endeavors. 

I’ve written hundreds of songs in my career, and each one is a
musical bouillabaisse of whatever music I was listening to at the time. 

I’ve
written dozens of books in my career, and each one is a composite of whatever
writers I was reading at the time. 

There’s no way around it. 

I’m reminded of a
fascinating theory posed by a
paleontologist, who also serves at the vice president of a nature and science
museum. Sampson calls it the law of interdependent origination, which explains:

Life’s unfolding is a tapestry in which every new thread is contingent
upon the nature, timing, and interweaving of virtually all previous threads,
and it can’t help by create a deeper incorporation of the connections inherent in
the web of life. 

Meaning, everything is made of everything. Everybody steals
from everybody. Artists can’t help but be at least a little derivative. 

The
real question is:

Is your work interesting enough that people are stealing from you? 

That’s the hallmark of genius. 

Hendrix was plagiarized so much, other
guitarists copied his mistakes. 

What a compliment. Sure beats obscurity. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Who’s wearing your number on their jersey?


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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


That moment when you wonder if there’s anyone who knows what it’s like to be you

We all have our own unique version of the wretched place depression drags us off to. 

There are as many gradations of anxiety as there are people to suffer through them. 

But what’s universal is the way out. The antidote to our feelings of emptiness and pain. 

And that solution grows out of the two most healing words in any language. 



Me too. 

Because in that moment when you connect with somebody to shake your fists at the heavens with, that person willing to stand with you in your pain, you suddenly realize that everything is going to be play. 

This feeling, of course, is a biological response. It’s the surge of oxytocin, aka, the bonding molecule, which is the powerful hormone of love, connection and belonging. It’s what makes us feel connected and content and safe and trusted. 

The challenge is, that drug is only available to us if we’re willing to break the box around ourselves. To battle our antisocial tendencies and reach out to somebody and make an earnest, exposed statement about our pain. 

Which is an emotional risk. It requires a willingness to create real, human intimacy, and not just clever marketing masquerading as vulnerability. 

But it’s the only way to secure a dose of me too. Because all healing occurs in relationships. Only through an interpersonal encounter with another person, be it a stranger, acquaintance, friend or lover, can we enter into the transcendental healing atmosphere. 

And so, next time the waves of depression come crashing in, call a friend who loves to surf, tuck into the curl of the wave and ride it for all it’s worth. 

Break the silence, break the isolation and let the bonding begin.



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you honoring the part of you that is not satisfied with a life of estrangement?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


The only obstacle to our sense of worthiness

It’s easy to tie our opinion of ourselves to success or failure. 

To believe that our value as people rises and falls in lockstep with our latest achievement. 

But human worthiness should not be contingent upon winning or losing, approving or disapproving, thriving or suffering. Esteem is a decision we make, irrespective of the vulgar accumulations and fluctuations of the external world. 

And so, just because my bank balance hits two digits or I lose my biggest client or the project I slaved over all week gets ignored or my new business venture is met with shrugs and yawns, it doesn’t mean that I’m a worthless pieces of shit. 

It simply means that an event happened, and while there might be waves anger and frustration and meaninglessness, I trust that they’ll soon drift away like weather patterns. 

Because every feeling has a beginning, middle and end. 

Taylor’s groundbreaking research on brain functions proved this clinically. She found that the natural lifespan of an emotion, meaning, the average time it took for an emotion to move through the nervous system and body, was ninety seconds

After that, humans need thoughts to keep the emotion rolling. 

Proving, that once our initial feelings come and go, the only obstacle to our sense of worthiness is the story we’re telling ourselves. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you allowing your discouragement to globalize? 
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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Don’t take things personally, people are only talking about themselves

Most
creative people have developed a hypersensitive relationship to the world. 

And
that’s what allows them to do the work they do. Artists think and feel things
that other people can’t express for themselves. They can deliver something that
their audience can’t find on its own. 

Unfortunately, that hypersensitivity
results in artists taking everything personally. They overanalyze, ruminate and
even become depressed and anxious over brief interpersonal interactions,
wondering if their criticizer was onto something. 

I once spent an entire summer
beating myself up over a one line email from an angry reader. And I became
trapped in an bitter, ruminative loop that left me awash in fury and resentment
and made me feel irritable and on edge most of the time. 

A friend of mine once
gave me a great tip for this very situation. He said:



Don’t take things
personally, because people are only talking about themselves. 

Most people are just projecting their autobiography onto others. Spewing their
emotional bile onto whoever crosses their path. 

And so, if we allow people’s
external criticism to trump our own belief in ourselves, the joke’s on us.
Because we’ll grow so busy and stressed trying to absorb and neutralize
everyone’s feedback that we’ll never get anything done. 

Bikram famously reminds
us that nothing can steal happiness and peace away from us. If someone makes us
angry, we are the losers.

It’s all about ownership. Refusing to give people
you’re not even invested in more power over you than they deserve or should be
allowed to have. 

Remember, hypersensitivity is an asset, but it’s also a
liability. 

Learn when to exert it, and learn when to holster it. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you allowing the words and actions of others to define your 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


If this is what it feels like to give my best, why would I continue?

You’ve seen the trope in popular culture a thousand times. 

A character says or does something intended to elicit and enthusiastic response from the audience, but instead of getting the reaction he expects, the guy hears nothing but the sound of crickets chirping. 

The audience is stunned into silence. They’ve missed the joke entirely. 

Hence the expression, hearing crickets. 

Of course, stage performers and television actors don’t have a monopoly on this moment. It’s the universal human experience of not feeling heard. 

And so, when you’re an earnest, intelligent, creative individual who cares and tries and believes and hustles and does all the right things and ships great work every day, but still doesn’t seem to move the needle, it’s deeply frustrating. 

It makes you want to throw your hands up in the air in a state of futility and despair, groaning to yourself, if this is what it feels like to give my best, why would I continue?

It’s the purchase price of making art for a living. 

Accept the precariousness and unrelenting anxiety and occasional dispiritedness as occupational hazards. 

Trust that the world isn’t moving on without you and they’re not going to forget about you. 

Remember that the crickets are actually chirping all the time, but you can only hear them when it’s quiet. 

It’s simply a matter of timing. 

Again, that song lyric pops back into my head:

Don’t chime the armageddon bell, give the law a chance to work. 

Even if you have to invent a hundred ways to delude yourself. Because maybe it’s not a hopeless endeavor. Maybe it’s the moment right before success. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How patient can you afford to be?
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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Treat yourself as you wish to be treated

When you work for yourself, it’s dangerously easy
not to give yourself the gift of time off. 



That’s the nature of the modern
workforce. In a freelance economy, you only eat what you kill. The demands of
the enterprise rest solely on your shoulders. Being your own boss demands
unremitting effort, constant commitment and deep diligence. 



And so, on any
given day, you feel like you need a excuse to be compassionate towards
yourself. Like you have to earn the right to press the pause button. 



But that’s
crazy talk. Being kind to yourself isn’t an indulgence. You are entitled to
have your needs met. Especially as the owner of the business. You aren’t
obligated to justify and apologize for the actions, demands and needs that most
people would find quite acceptable. 



You have to pay yourself first. You have to
find the wherewithal to respect your own needs as much as the needs of your
work. Otherwise your career will implode on itself. 



Take it from a guy who was
hospitalized multiple times for stress related injuries. It’s not worth it.
Here’s a simple but powerful litmus test to gauge your professional compassion
towards yourself. 



If I had a boss that treated me like I treat myself, would
I still be working there?
 



I once worked for a marketing agency that
famously bribed its unhappy, overworked and underpaid employees with free food.
It was a nice gesture, but they couldn’t fool me. Working all weekend for
nothing but free pizza and isn’t a hackathon, it’s a toxic work environment. 



Our own needs shouldn’t insult us. We have to treat ourselves as
we wish to be treated. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you being vulnerable enough to acknowledge your own needs?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Steal Scott’s Ideas, Issue 20: Stampvertize, Repossessive & Rage Cage

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 020


01. Cafe Perago. Drink up, work hard, repeat.

A coffee shop where you’re charged by the hour to work there, but instead of money, you pay with productivity.

02. Salt, Sugar & Fat. Eat bad, feel good.

An unhealthy restaurant that doesn’t apologize for its menu and honestly gives people exactly what they want.

03. Stampvertize. Send mail freely.

A program for companies to put advertisements on postage stamps so poor people can mail things without paying



04. Rage Cage. Shed your anger safely.

A padded, portable closet sized shed where people can privately process and purge their angry feels

05. Homesickle. Mom’s cooking, delivered

A food shipping and delivery service that allows parents to send their homemade food to their children without it going bad or losing freshness

06. Repossessive. Get your stuff back quickly and safely

A third party delivery service that returns possessions to both parties of a recently broken up couple, without drama, awkwardness or wasted time

07. Twenty Fortunate. The future is the same day

A directory of only local, same day services for impatient and rushed customers

08. Unrequited. Get your ex back, jack.

A search engine and social optimization service that uses paid media, comment strategies, algorithm and other digital technologies to help heartbroken lovers create campaigns to get their exes back

09. Requiremently. Take the hard decisions out of software selection

A recommendation engine for software that lets users type in their needs and challenges, then it makes a series of product suggestions for you

10. Complire. Word up, stress down 

An intern staffing agency who supplies large companies with friendly and attractive temp employees whose sole purpose is to walk around the office all week and give team members compliments and boost morale

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How will you turn these ideas into I-dids?


LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

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 2017-2018.

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

The lifelong homework assignment we’ve given ourselves

Every day, employees struggle to work for organizations because they feel robbed of their individuality. 



That’s the corporate way of life. In most companies, the individual is the instrument, not the purpose. 



Fat chance finding a company that says to its employees, what do you want to become and how can we adapt to help you be that? 



And yet, freelance work isn’t without its share of existential anxieties. They’re just inverted. Because once you’ve hired yourself, a primary source of anxiety is be the persistent pressure to meet your expectations for yourself. 



That’s how entrepreneurs and artists are wired. They’re not built to conform. They’re born with a deep desire to assert their individuality. They’re constantly differentiating and battling convention and trying to stand out in everything they do. 



Which can be rewarding, but also exhausting. The struggle to become and remain the individual they were born to be can feel like a lifelong homework assignment they’ve given themselves. 

In fact, people often indulge in the fantasy of working a mundane day job at some warehouse where they don’t have to stress about making a name for themselves every goddamn minute of the day. 

There’s something strangely liberating about an existence of exquisite ordinariness. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What is the psychological cost of retaining your individuality?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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


Will your creativity survive its own success?

Watching our dreams become realities is one of life’s most fulfilling experiences. 



Most people, after all, only get to dream their dreams. Few people actually get to live them. 



But if we’re one of the lucky ones, something we have to watch out for is speed. Because if the wish fulfillment process happens quicker and earlier than initially anticipated, and if we manage to satisfy so many of our dreams that we become lost and burned out and disconnected from the work, that’s when the dream can invert into a nightmare. 



And we start treating ourselves like we’re doomed. Asking devastating, soul crushing questions like. 

How am I ever going to top that? Is the rest of my life going to be anticlimactic? What am I going to forego because of this success? Should I just quit while I’m ahead? 

It’s classic fear of success thinking. Which, arguably, can be more pernicious than the fear of failure. Because at least with failure, you’re off the hook. You don’t have to show up the next morning.

Maslow researched this phenomenon in the early seventies. He cited the fear of success as the evasion of growth and destiny and greatness. Running away from our best talents. Fearing our highest possibilities. Evading our constitutionally suggested vocations. 

He wrote that humans were generally afraid to become that which they could glimpse in their most perfect moments, under the most perfect conditions, and they shiver with weakness, awe and fear before these very possibilities, partly a justified fear of being torn apart, losing control, being shattered and disintegrated, and even being killed. 

It makes perfect sense. Success is uncharted territory. It means more responsibility and less freedom, more fame and less privacy, more change and less stability. 

What’s not to fear? 

All we can do, it seems, is to keep working. It seems impossible and unfair, but at least it creates compound interest over time. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Will your creativity survive its own success?

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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!


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