Seinfeld was recently asked how his comedy act has become more personal over the years. 

He said that as a father, nobody in his family could hurt his feelings anymore, because he didn’t have feelings anymore. They were too much of a problem to have, so he just got rid of them. 

What a fascinating way to lead life. No feelings, only cream and sugar. 

Hugely practical. Wildly efficient. And even though it smacks of narcissistic, cynical and sociopathic tendencies, I can still find value in the comedian’s perspective. 

Especially in those moments when I start getting down and being hopeless and feeling sorry for myself and allowing a single drop of meaningless to poison my whole day. Eventually, I look in the mirror and think:

Okay, are you done beating yourself up? Have you had quite enough yet? Or do you need to sit here and continue feeling disgusted with yourself for another hour or two? 

Because hating yourself doesn’t make you interesting. There’s no studio audience. And there’s no shiny prize for the winner of the suffering contest.

The bottom line is, your precious feelings have done their job, but they’ve reached a point of diminishing return. And there’s a beautiful and abundant world waiting for you to return to it. 

So get back to work. Even if you think you’re incapable. Stop measuring mood and start making meaning. Because it’s physically impossible to feel sorry for yourself when you’re creating something new. 

Feelings, schmeelings. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What conversation do you have with yourself to help snap out of it?

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!

I was eavesdropping on two college girls sharing stories about their respective love lives, when one of them made a comment that caught my ear. She said:

I didn’t know I was on a date until I came home from one. 

Apparently this happens all the time. The guy fails to declare his intentions, and so the girl assumes they’re just hanging out. As friends. With no benefits. 

Until it’s midnight on a weekend and they’re sitting at a small table in a dark bar drinking wine and playing footsie under the table. At which point the girl realizes, wait a minute. 

This feels an awful lot like a date to me. 

Of course it does. Because it is. There was just a failure of communication. 

More importantly, there was a failure of compassion. And this is the piece most people miss. Because whether we’re dating or being interviewed or making a sales pitch or conducting our annual performance review, we should never assume that other person is having the same experience we’re having. 

That’s the best explanation for any human behavior that we don’t understand. 

It’s not our fault, it’s just their experience. 

Of course, this doesn’t mean we’re off the hook. If we want to build real intimacy with each other, there’s still an interpersonal responsibility to dig deeper. One question that repeat to ourselves in these situations is:

How is it possible that this person could think or behave in this way, and under what circumstances would it make perfect sense to do so? 

It’s a useful thought experiment that helps us meet people’s lives with empathy and compassion. 

Even if we’re not on a date. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How do you help yourself understand other people’s experience? 

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!

Feedback is
source dependent. 

As encouraging as it is to hear your spouse or your friends
or your parents or your colleagues sing your praises from the rooftops, deep
down, you can’t help but remember that they have a significant vested interest
in your success. 

Their impression of your talents isn’t exactly an unbiased
opinion. 

And so, their feedback, no matter how complimentary it may be, rolls
off you like water off a duck’s back. It blends into the background. Becomes
the new normal. Simply part of your brain’s landscape. 

On the other hand, if a
person who isn’t obligated to love you begins verbalizing your strengths and
expertise right back to your face, that’s a different story. 

Because their
feedback is complete and impartial. It comes from a source that has no personal
stake or involvement in your success. Meaning, the results reported are a
direct reflection of your actions and behaviors. 

And the beauty is, that kind
of feedback can change everything. 

I remember periods of my life when I was feeling somewhat
incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life. Hanging on by the slimmest
threads of reality, starting to think I didn’t understand the world or myself
anymore. 

And during those times, it was imperative to see signs that the universe was on my side. I would have three or four meaningful conversations with unbiased people
who have given me solid faith in my own capabilities. Their healing words paved
me like an avalanche of light.

It felt like I’ve been given a new way of
momentum. Real breathing room for the first time in a long time. 

That’s what’s
possible when we believe the truth about ourselves, no matter how beautiful it
is. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Whom might you ask for feedback that will give you real ground to stand on? 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!

Making a name for yourself is only the beginning. 

The real challenge is maintaining a name for yourself. Keeping the story alive and relevant. Because after a certain number of years, every brand starts to slide down the path of terminal decline. 

And unless you learn to create value in diverse offerings to as wide an array of clients as possible, you might fall off the radar completely. 

The good news is, it’s easier to take an old brand to a new market than to create a new brand all together. It’s simply a matter of reframing. 

If you’ve been in business for ten or fifteen or twenty years, and you’re starting to feel gravity plucking at you like a small, insistent hand, here’s my suggestion. And this based on my current battle with brand irrelevancy. 

Instead of going back to the drawing board, take an honest inventory of the equity you already have. Start building subtly on what already exists and what you’ve already accomplished. 

And then, see if you can find one. Just one. One new client from one new market segment that you never thought to work with before. 

Pursue it. Dive in. Learn fast. Tweak your language. And then repeat. 

Because where there’s one, there’s a ton. 

That’s how to maintain a name for yourself. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What new market are you going to take your brand to?

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 goal is to be the bullseye, not the arrow. 

To let the market target us. 

And yet, we limit ourselves with too narrow of a role repertoire. Instead of enlarging ourselves to source of holistic improvement, we perceive ourselves in terms of a single function. 

Instead of showing the world that we are capable of acting in new ways, we remain beholden to one method of delivering value. 

And instead of being pursued for a wide variety of client improvements, we limit our pool of new opportunities by arbitrarily creating too fine a filter.

I recently met up for coffee with a colleague of mine who works in the tech startup space. She wanted to chat about collaborating on a new project. And so, I prepared for our meeting by creating a think map of questions and ideas and strategies, equipping myself to wow her within minutes of sitting down. 

But then I remembered, oh right, not every company needs a creative visionary. Maybe she has something else in mind. And so, instead of whipping out my notebook and swooping in to tell her about all the amazing things I could do for her company, I sat back and listened. 

And within minutes, it was abundantly clear that what she wanted to buy had nothing to do with what I wanted to sell. 

But based on the company’s challenges and my capabilities, it was actually perfect fit. The project sounded challenging and interesting and rewarding. It simply required me to be open to a wider role repertoire. To let the market target me, not the other way around. 

Next time you sit down to brainstorm with a client, resist the urge to project your autobiography and superimpose your own skills upon them. 

Let them tell you what they need. Let them tell you who they think you are. 

And if it fits, just say yes. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you letting client lay track down in front of your train? 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 best piece of business advice I ever got was:

Don’t just put yourself in the customer’s future, make the customer miss you in their past. 

Be so inspiring and create so much value and deliver such a compelling case for your work that the person sitting across the table from you literally regrets not meeting you sooner in their life. As if slam their fist on table in anger and say, where the hell were you six months ago? 

That’s power. Because there’s real energy in that moment. And when channeled strategically, it can be used to your advantage. 

I recently had a meeting with a prospective client who’d been trying to hire me for years, but for whatever reason, our timing simply never worked out.

But what I realized was, that was actually a good thing. Because the emotional buildup compounded her desire. It tapped into the potent buying mechanisms of guilt and regret and loss aversion and fear of missing out. Which made her miss me in her past. 

Think of it like a sexy advertisement for a designer perfume. 

When this scent touches your skin, it will cast a spell on everyone around you. The audacious top notes of pink pepper and red fruits, and the base notes of patchouli and amber will make women’s knees wobble with excitement and feel guilty for not meeting you sooner. 

Sound ridiculous? It most certainly is. 

But remember, perfume is a multibillion dollar industry. 

They must be doing something right. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What do you have to do to make your clients miss you in their past?

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!

I’ve never been addicted to shopping or had a compulsive spending disorder that lead to severe consequences like debt or ruined relationships. 

But I have always had a habit of buying my feelings. 

In moments of emotional distress, I would jump online and start buying used books or new shoes or old records, thinking that they would make me feel better. 

When the reality was, my brain was releasing the addictive chemicals of endorphins and dopamine, which allowed me to dissociate from my feelings and avoid facing the pain. 

It’s a terribly unhealthy cycle. Not to mention expensive and wasteful. In fact, it’s not unlike eating or drinking or smoking or popping pills in times of distress. Because it had nothing to do with the activity, and everything to do with a lack of emotional regulation. 

Shopping a toxic way of acting out to alleviate discomfort. Yet another way of taking a materialistic detour around my feelings. 

And so, what I’ve learned is to interrupt the worry stream with wonder. To buffer against my impulsive spending with reframing devices. These days, anytime I get the overwhelming sense of urgency that I’m one purchase away from happiness, here’s what I try to say to myself:

What am I afraid to feel right now? What does this feeling want from me? What catastrophe will befall me if I don’t buy this? And whom might I call to create a safe place to process my emotions? 

These questions, at the very least, help to give me pause. They create mindfulness in an otherwise impetuous moment. They challenge me to stand in the fire of difficult feelings. 

And as a result, they allow me talk myself out of impulsive, unhealthy behavior. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How are you building the machinery that regulates emotion?

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!

For some people, feeling like shit is a way of life. 

It’s their brand. It’s what they’re good at. 

In fact, even the act of telling other people that they’re miserable actually gives them a shot of happiness. It’s like the pellet that makes the rat feel like himself. 

But that’s perfectly fine. I respect people’s right to be miserable. I empathize with the inevitable low feelings of life. And I don’t judge others for the sad movies their brains might be playing. Because I understand that everybody is fighting a battle that I know nothing about. 

What’s hard, though, is when other people’s misery starts to influence my behavior. When they become so miserable, that I find myself having to hide my joy around them. Having to curb my excitement just to be sensitive to their feelings, lest my cheerful disposition send them further down into their depressive tailspin. 

That bothers me. Nobody should have to feel guilty about their own happiness. 

I once worked in an office full of cold, unhappy, unhealthy people. Six months into the job, the girl at the desk next to mine pulled me into the hallway and alerted me that I was smiling and laughing way too much during the workday, and that it was upsetting people in the office who were under a lot of stress. And so, if I could just keep those feelings to myself, she said, they would all appreciate it. 

I wouldn’t call myself an angry person, but in that moment, I wanted to bash her teeth in with a wireless keyboard. How dare she make me feel guilty about being happy? 

Not to be insensitive about the stress of other people, but I will smile and laugh as much as I want to, thank you very much. Don’t lash out at me because you’ve made the choice, I repeat, the choice, to be unhappy. 

Yet another reminder never to take things personally, because people are only talking about themselves. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you stifling your enduring bliss because you don’t want to appear too happy? 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!

Too many of us maintain a polarized mindset of ones and zeros and yesses and nos and eithers and ors and successes and failures and blacks and whites. 

But if we have any intention of expanding our sense of possibility, we must embrace the both and mentality. We must neutralize the binaries, to borrow a term from the world of computer programming. 

To do so, there’s a powerful question we can learn to ask ourselves. One that allows us to throw our weight behind all kinds of new possibilities. 

How might we create, reassign or leverage resources and take advantage of multiple options? 

This question was pivotal for me. Especially in those moments when life gave me the gift of desperation, it allowed me to stare into the mouth of panic and see possibility. And it reminded me that only in very few situations was I truly facing a yes or no decision. 

Goldberg famously dubbed this state of being wild mind: 

A place where everything exists, where we are not separate from anything and boundaries melt. 

It’s a path that can make us freer than we could ever imagine. And it all boils down to our emotional willingness to open ourselves to new opportunity. 

Remember, the world is a bundle of possibilities waiting to be explored. 

But only if we’re prepared to neutralize the binaries and hurl ourselves out there. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Will you stare into the mouth of panic and see possibility?

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!

When I was going through a messy breakup, the best advice my therapist gave me was, keep pulling your triggers for joy. 

That sentence single handedly allowed me to create light in an otherwise dark time. 

And of course, it’s not only helpful in the moments when your heart is breaking. Pulling your triggers for joy is a daily practice that’s fundamental for a meaningful life. 

For example, the moment I step into the airport, I see thousands of fellow travelers who make me think, wow, joy can get no grip on these people. 

And that’s why I sing eighties pop songs on the way to the gate. Loud and proud. Even if people give me weird looks. I don’t care. Joy is flooding my veins, and they hate their lives. 

How often do you announce to yourself that you’re on the lookout for joy? Start pulling your triggers today:

Have some agency over joy. 

Defend your capacity for wonderment. 

Appreciate the value of your own thrills. 

Orient yourself toward that which delights you. 

Allow the expression of your full arousal constellation. 

Embrace what resonates with the needs and natures of your soul. 

Give yourself permission to spend time tending to the things that bring you genuine pleasure. 

These pursuits are not indulgent. They’re not shameful. They’re not guilty pleasures. And they’re not selfish. 

They are the primary paths to aliveness. They are the tools for restoring our capacity to enjoy existence.

Res severa verum gaudium. 

True joy is a serious thing. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

When was the last time you wrote down the exact kinds of thrills that were calling to you?

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!