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Not every businessperson is an artist, but every artist is a businessperson. Whether they’re performers, painters, writers or sculptors, they can teach all of us key insights to help grow our business. Straight from my regular column on American Express Open Forum, consider these ideas: 1. Access. It’s impossible to matter in a void. If we want to win, we need an audience. Otherwise we’re just winking in the…

It’s not just about perfecting the audience experience. It’s about extending it. Right before Bruce Hornsby sits down at the piano and dazzles the crowd with his famous spider fingers, he walks over to the edge of the stage and scoops up a fresh pile of handwritten song requests, art pieces, love notes and other messages from the very audience he’s about to play for. Because while he was…

Knocking is an interruption. The days of darkening doorsteps to bother people into buying from us are over. Instead, we need to go where the door is already open. To follow the path of permission, greet the people who invited us in once before and gently remind them why we’re worth keeping around. What if, during a slow season of business, we spent a few days personally emailing every…

[ View the infographic! ] “Everyone should wear nametags, all the time, everywhere, forever.” That’s my thesis, philosophy, dangerous idea and theory of the universe. My name is Scott, and I’ve been wearing a nametag for past four thousand days. And after traveling to hundreds of cities, a dozen countries, four continents, meeting tens of thousands of people, constant experimentation and observation, building a enterprise and writing a dozen…

Everything that comes out seems to be a sequel, a prequel, a remake, a revisit, a reboot or a reinterpretation of another artist’s work. Which is fine if we want to ship easy, predictable safe projects that appease our corporate masters and their incessant pressure to create fail proof work. But there are no cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame. And if we want to…

[ View the infographic! ] “Everyone should wear nametags, all the time, everywhere, forever.” That’s my thesis, philosophy, dangerous idea and theory of the universe. My name is Scott, and I’ve been wearing a nametag for past four thousand days. And after traveling to hundreds of cities, a dozen countries, four continents, meeting tens of thousands of people, constant experimentation and observation, building a enterprise and writing a dozen…

A few years back, I wrote a post about sugar packets. At the time, Equal launched a campaign that printed clever slogans like “Ban the bland,” “In taste we trust,” and “Power to the packet,” on their packaging. They transformed an ordinary confection into a mini billboard. I still have the packets to this day. Better yet, my article was reprinted on dozens of popular blogs within hours of…

My friend Bill is a chiropractor. In the past five years, he’s sent over one hundred of his patients to the yoga studio down the street from his clinic, where he is also a student himself. The other day his assistant yelled at him for sending too much business away. He feared Bill’s patients would fall in love with yoga and never come back for another adjustment again. But…

I get hatemail. For wearing a nametag. To make people friendlier. I’ve had people start fights with me. For wearing a nametag. To make people friendlier I’ve received death threats. For wearing a nametag. To make people friendlier And only from men, too. I don’t understand this. Is it resentment? Jealousy? Animosity? Does a sticker threaten their sense of self? Oh well. Better to be hated for who you…

Next year is going to be the best ever for your business. But only if you enhance your company’s usage of the following three words: Knowledge, reassurance and conversations. Straight from my regular column on American Express Open Forum, consider these ideas: 1. Knowledge. The tendency is to hoard knowledge is a seductive one. It makes us harder to replace, enables greater leverage, increases promotability and gives us a…