If you have to tell someone you’re not a stalker, you probably are.

I learned this the hard way.

His named was Stephan.
He was a fan of my work.
And he called me every day.

Every. Single. Day. For three weeks.

Did I mention he was a middle-aged unemployed alcoholic with social anxiety disorder whose father abused him physically, sexually and emotionally?

He told me these things. On his voicemail messages. Along with the disclaimer that he swore he wasn’t a stalker.

HELLO, my name is Creepy.

I changed my number.
Took it off my website.
And thought that would be the end of it. Until he showed up at my house.

I was taking out the trash – wearing my nametag, of course – when I saw what looked like a homeless guy hanging out by the dumpster.

He said my name.
He reached out his right hand.
He held his other hand behind his back.

And I was thinking: Ice pick.

But instead, he pulled out copy of my book.

He didn’t want to kill me – he just wanted an autograph.

I took his pen and signed it. Kind of. I was so terrified I think I wrote, “Best wishes! Love, Jamal.”

But that was it. He said thanks, walked away and I never saw him again.

And as I went inside to change my underwear, something occurred to me:

If you don’t set boundaries for yourself – other people will set them for you.

And then they will violate them.
And then they will tell all their little friends to violate them.
And it will be your fault because you never decided where to draw the line.

It is possible to be too approachable.

In addition to stalkers, over the years I’ve had cult members try to covert me, drug dealers try to sell me, religious zealots try to proselytize me and pyramid schemers try to recruit me. All the time.

Because that’s what happens when you put yourself out there.

Don’t wait until you’re defenseless to learn this lesson.

Decide where you draw the line early.

And the minute somebody tries to push you past it, run.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What boundaries are you setting?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

My generation is typecast as being afraid of commitment.

The consensus is that we’re impatient, have mediocre work ethic, don’t offer loyalty easily and are quick to quit and pursue something better.

Is that an accurate description? Doesn’t matter.

What matters is that commitment is unquestionable.

That’s why I got a tattoo of the nametag on my chest.

Not a marker. Not temporary ink. Not the sticker on my skin. Tried all those already.

A real tattoo. The kind that doesn’t come off. It symbolizes my commitment to my truth, my name, my identity, my brand, my philosophy and my life purpose.

And it hurt like hell.

But while the needle hurt my chest for an hour, not being taken seriously would’ve hurt my career for a lifetime.

And when people ask me if the tattoo is real, I say:

“It’s as real as my commitment.”

What’s interesting is, when I got my tattoo, that was right around the time my company finally starting making money.

Huh.

I guess when you commit with both feet, the world doesn’t just pay attention – it pays dividends.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How committed are you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

It’s not a sticker – it’s a spark.

Every morning when I put on a nametag, I light a match and see what catches fire.

Will I make a new friend? Will I have a cool conversation? Will I be mistaken for an employee at Office Depot? Will I get insulted by a group of drunken football fans? Will I get harassed by the flight attendant who thinks I have a memory problem?

There’s no way to tell. After tens of thousands of interactions, I’m still never quite sure what’s going to happen each day. And that’s the beauty of the nametag: It’s my constant source of adventure.

It creates a never-ending stream of human moments that I live for.

That’s all I ask for.

I just want to have an interesting life. I just want to live a good story.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Don’t you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

I just wanted to see what would happen.

That’s it.

The nametag was an exercise in curiosity, nothing more.

But that’s just me. I’ve always been incurably curious. I’m a giant question mark. I’m the annoying kid who raises his hand right before the lunch bell rings – because he just has to know the answer – then makes everybody late for Tater Tot Tuesday.

The point is, history proves time and time again that the most successful, most celebrated and most influential people in the world were the ones who asked dangerous questions. Despite overwhelming efforts to silence their enthusiasm and deflect their interest, they kept curiosity burning. We can’t forget this. We can’t slide into complacency.

Otherwise we descend into fundamentalism.

Curiosity is not a threat.

It’s a healthy, active response to life.

It might have killed the cat, but it also created my career. I’m a dog person anyway.

What we can’t see, what we are afraid to see and what we are unwilling to see, that is what threatens us more.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are you questioning?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Today the barista asked me for a name on my coffee order.

I didn’t answer.

Instead, I just waited until she looked up from her computer, actually made eye contact with me and noticed my nametag.

“Oh, duh – Scott. Your name’s right there. Sorry.”

This happens to me all the time.

Sometimes people feel embarrassed.
Sometimes people say thanks.
Sometimes people just laugh.

But I always smile. And I never bust chops about it.I just wish people would pay more attention to their customers.
I just wish employees would notice opportunities to take a moment and make a memory.

What if, upon seeing my nametag, she thanked me for making her job easier?
What if, upon seeing my nametag, she used my name and said she was psychic?
What if, upon seeing my nametag, she offered a friendly joke that made my day?

That would be worth repeating. That would be worth telling a friend about. That would be worth remembering next time I walked in the door.

Instead of reaching for another robotic, ready-made script about how important someone’s call is, say something that invites people to store the memory in the heart.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Will you take a moment to make a memory?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “52 Random Insights to Grow Your Business,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

When I was a kid, I struggled to find a spot.

A niche. A home. A place where I belonged.

But nothing seemed to work. No matter how hard I tried, I still felt like an outsider.

Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was tired of feeling like part of the wallpaper. I was tired of being held hostage by my outsiderness.So I stuck on a nametag and said, “Screw it. Now I belong everywhere.”

And that changed everything. The posture with which I approached the world was never the same again.

My name is Scott. I am a global citizen.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Where do you belong?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Wearing a nametag didn’t make me into somebody new.

What it did was surface the kind person I already was. What it did was accelerate my growth into the person I was born to become.

And if I do a little research, it makes a lot of sense:

I’ve been creative, quirky and exceptional my whole life.
The nametag just gave me an outlet.

I’ve been a performer, an artist and a writer my whole life.
The nametag just gave me a canvas.

I’ve been a radical, a heretic and a leader my whole life.
The nametag just gave me a platform.

It’s weird. The older you get, the younger you feel. The older you get, the more you remind yourself of the person you’ve always been.

But I do think people change – when they want to. When they decide to. And when the pain of staying the same is greater than the cost to change.Still, we are all more or less the same as we were. I think if each of us traced our identities back to the beginning, we’d find shocking similarities between the people we started as and the people we became.

Michelangelo used to say that the sculpture was already inside the stone.

Maybe that’s all life is: A chance to chip away.

It’s not a nametag – it’s a chisel.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s yours?

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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

“How long do you plan on doing this?”

That’s what people used to ask me.

As if my dream had an expiration date. As if one day I was going to snap out of my delusions, close the door on my cute little experiment and rejoin the rest of the world.

But I just kept saying forever.

Me and my nametag just kept showing up.

All day. Every day.

And after about five years, the questions stopped. People knew I was serious. People knew I was in it for the long haul. And they no longer doubted my dedication.

Dennis Miller used to say a good rule of thumb is, if you’ve made it to thirty-five and your job still requires you to wear a nametag, you’ve made a serious vocational error.

Funny what forever can change.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How committed are you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

When you look into a trashcan, you have a choice.

You can see trash, or you can see treasure.

It all depends on how big your thinking is.

On that fateful day in college when everyone else threw their nametags away, I looked into the trash and saw the latter.

And it changed everything. Forever.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What do you see when you see things?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “6 Ways to Out Position Your Competitors” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2011-2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!