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I was in Tokyo when it happened. After two hours of eating the freshest, most delicious and most expensive sushi of my life, the proud chef looked me in the eye and imparted a priceless life lesson: “Sushi that taste like fish – no good sushi.” For example: If your sales efforts make customers feel like they’re being sold to… No good sushi. If your writing voice makes readers…

The evidence is overwhelming: Start-up companies are spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars creating elegant solutions to problems nobody has. Membership organizations are suffering low attendance because traditional, boring, and non-engaging programming refuses to align with multi-generation preferences. Government-funded advocacy groups are draining their entire budgets conserving insignificant resources that are going extinct anyway. Corporate advertisers are projecting onto customers what they think they ought to want,…

I was sitting on my mom’s couch when it happened. “Scott, did you notice what was missing from this article about you?” she asked. “No. What?” “Look closely. You’ll see it.” And then it hit me like punch in the gut. For the first time in my career – after eight years, ten books and five hundred interviews – this was the first article about me that wasn’t about…

Stick-to-itiveness can be learned. Aka, “Stick to it.” Aka, “Stick with it.” Aka, “Stick in there.” All you have to do is shift your attitude completely – work hard, smart and long while nobody notices – and design a daily practice of self-determination and commitment. Hey. I said it could be learned – not that it would be easy. Up to the challenge? Cool. Fortunately, I’ve already published part…

LET ME ASK YA THIS… How will you increase the probability of success? LET ME SUGGEST THIS… For the list called, “27 Ways to Out the Competition,” send an email to me and you win the list for free! * * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor [email protected] Who’s quoting YOU? Check out Scott’s Online Quotation Database for a bite-sized education on…

Last week I wrote a post called, The Starving Artists’s Guide to Making Use of Everything You Are. I couldn’t fit everything into one piece, so today we’re going to explore the second volume of strategies for doing so: 1. Honor your dominant architecture. Remember what happened when the Green Bay Packers offered Brett Favre twenty million dollars to retire? Right: He turned the money down. To me, that…

Did you know that most “close door” buttons on elevators don’t work? It’s true – they’re called placebo buttons. They’ve been around since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed about twenty years ago. And according to the act’s homepage, the button is there for workers and emergency personnel to use, and it only works with a key. Also, according to the Otis Elevator Company, most door close buttons…

You never know when your brand will need to rise to the occasion. That’s why consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness. But. Living the brand isn’t what you think it is: It’s not about dressing for success. It’s not about converting yourself into a corporate clone. It’s not about memorizing some hollow, hackneyed mission statement. It’s not about puking your unique selling proposition all over everyone…

The sales landscape has radically changed. Customers have the power. Customers make the choices. Customers drive the engine of interaction. Customers decide how much attention to give you. THE QUESTION IS: Has your organization adjusted to these new realities yet? Today we’re going to explore six epiphanies to help you make sales, make money and make a difference:1. Gratitude trumps desire. Sometimes, customers don’t buy because they want it…

The other night I received an instant message from one of my readers. She told me that her parents’ attitude continually crushed her entrepreneurial spirit. They didn’t take her seriously. They weren’t interested in her progress. They only seemed to notice the negativity of her endeavors. Can you imagine how disheartening that must be? I can. Even though I’ve been fortunate enough to have an endlessly supportive family, I…