Cartwheels Should Tell Us Something

The night I ended a four-year relationship, I slept like a rock.

I felt guilty. Like I should have been more devastated, more disturbed, busy counting dots on the ceiling, tossing and turning until the sun came up.

But when I woke up the next morning, rested and relieved for the first time in weeks, my body sent me a memo:

You made the right decision.Cartwheels should tell us something. Whether we quit a job, end a relationship or walk away from a lousy situation, if our legs are flying through the air, odds are, we’re on the path of truth.

Guilty or not, we still have to appreciate the rightness of every experience.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What do you need to let go of?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “58 Questions about Questions,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Creativity Isn’t About What We Create

I’ve been playing, composing and performing original music since I was twelve.

And yet, despite natural talent, despite evolving confidence, despite explosive creativity and despite flowing support, it wasn’t until last week that I finally found the courage to release my music publicly.

That’s twenty years.

Twenty years of winking in the dark. Twenty years of being selfish with my art. Twenty years of dodging any form of feedback, believing that the theater of the mind is better. Twenty years of hiding my history behind a vault, keeping my feelings to myself, singing in corner, hoping to God nobody would walk in on me.

Until I couldn’t take it any more. I realized that had I lost touch with a part of myself. A part that was too essential to my makeup to ignore. A part that had a voice that couldn’t go unheard.

By not sharing my music, it didn’t really exist. By refusing to make my pain public, the scars could never fully heal. By not giving myself permission to express that side of my heart, there would always be a part of me that was still hiding from the world.

So I finally got over myself and shipped.

I released four different albums, recorded at four different stages of my life.

I took a stab into the unknown, threw myself blindly into the impossible and braved the gaze of the whole world, with teeth poised to bite into the fruits of my courage.

And it paid off instantly.

Not because people noticed. Not because fans downloaded. Not because I plan to go on forty city tour. But because the moment I saw those songs live, naked to the world in all their imperfect splendor, there was a piece of me, a piece that waited in the wings patiently for twenty years, that finally exhaled.

Creativity isn’t about what we create.

It’s about who we become by sharing what we create.

We did not come here to bury our music. And if we get our strength from hiding it from the world, nobody is every going to hear it.

Save the shovels for the gravedggers.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What art are you hiding from the world?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “31 Questions to Test Your Listening Skills,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Treehouse And The Skyscraper

I had an idea for a treehouse and ended up building a skyscraper.

Never saw it coming. Never saw myself as much of an architect. But as I lean over the ledge and let my eyes tumble down the side of the glass, all the pieces fit.

This edifice, this thing that I have built with gallons of blood and sweat and whatever bodily fluid was required at the time, isn’t just some project, some arbitrary eruption.It’s a public index of my values.
It’s a tree on which the fruit of my bravery hangs.

What’s strange is – and I never thought I’d say this, but – twelve years later, I think I would be okay letting the city crumble to the ground.

As long as we come home together.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are you afraid to let go of?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “26 Ways to Out Brand Your Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Own your breath, nobody can steal your peace

Success morphs into failure when it comes too fast, too early and too abundantly.

I learned this the hard way when I was twenty-six and my left lung collapsed.

It’s called a pneumothorax, which is a fairly common incident among young, tall men in their late twenties. And although the doctor said it was sporadic, I chose to tell myself a different story. A story that would teach me a lesson I’d never forget:

When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace.

Develop a healthy relationship with your breath. While money loves speed, velocity creates stress, and stress kills people.

You have to honor what stops you. And if nothing stops you, stop yourself.Otherwise, you’ll never get over yourself.
Otherwise, you’ll become a victim of your own conviction.

It’s amazing how quickly humility shows up when you’re incapacitated in a hospital bed for six days with a tube in your chest whacked out on morphine experiencing multiple anxiety attacks.

Interestingly, it was my left lung that collapsed.

Directly underneath my nametag.

Who knew a sticker could be so heavy?

Maybe it’s not a nametag — it’s an anvil.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How’s your breathing?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “21 Things I Learned While Spying on Myself,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Gift that Costs Nothing, But Changes Everything

It costs nothing to encourage.

It’s gift we can give to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and change them forever. And it’s our responsibility to be dispensaries of encouragement to everyone we meet.

Let us give people permission to do something great. Let us throw people over the other side of the wall. Let us provide the spark that grows into an inferno. Let us take people’s hands and push them into the fire.

Let us give people a front row seat to their own genius. Let us believe in them more than they believe in themselves. Let us help people fall in love with themselves all over again. Let us leave people altered, refusing to let them stay where they are. That’s encouragement.

A gift that costs nothing, but changes everything.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Who did you encourage last week?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “10 Reasons Your Business Doesn’t Really Exist,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

What happens when we make a decision?


There’s nothing harder than making a decision.

Decisions mean commitment, and every commitment has consequences.

But even though we’d rather dwindle indecisively for an eternity, artfully creating excuses why something won’t work, persistently telling ourselves stories about why we wouldn’t deserve it if it did work, eventually, we have to decide. We have to set a drop-dead date, cut the ropes and run.

Otherwise we waste our time trying to figure out whether the move is right. When the reality is, if we don’t commit, we’re always wrong.On the other hand, what happens when we make a decision?

Everything.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are you waiting for?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “8 Ways to Out Question Your Competitors” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Problem with Compartmentalization

How do we balance it all?

It’s not just productivity, creating environments free from distraction that open up our capacity to start and finish what matters.

It’s not just structure, building regiment and blank time into our schedule that allow us to alternate between focus and freestyle.

It’s not just energy, expanding our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bandwidth so we can support the exertion life requires.

It’s not just permission, refusing to addict ourselves to preparation, planning, perfection, proficiency and permission.It’s not just identity, knowing who we are, what we do and why we matter, so decisions are easier and quicker.

It’s not just commitment, jumping in with both feet and playing for keeps so discipline becomes a non-issue.

It’s not just persistence, relentlessly ignoring voices that don’t matter and feedback that isn’t helpful to our journey.

It’s not just diversification, allocating our creative attention to a broad range of symbiotic endeavors.

The big win is when we stop with the boxes. When we realize that living a logically divided, perfectly compartmentalized existence isn’t sustainable or realistic.

That way, everything is everything, all the time, everywhere.

And there’s nothing to balance.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What boxes do you need to eliminate?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “26 Ways to Out Brand Your Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Let me give that no thought.

We shouldn’t have to talk ourselves into opportunities.

It’s more exciting to just say yes, and then ask what it is.

That’s how I’ve run my business since day one: I don’t have a target market, a positioning statement or an elevator speech. Instead, I make myself highly yessable by positioning myself as a resource who does a lot of different things for a lot of different clients through a lot of different media.

Some commission me for writing projects. Others book me a speaker or on-camera talent. Many retain me as a mentor. Plenty hire me as a content provider. And others bring me in as a strategic planner or small group facilitator. It all depends what the client’s needs are.Either way, when an opportunity for new work comes in, my gut response is to say:

“Let me give that no thought.”

And I don’t see this approach as spreading myself too thin, becoming a jack-of-all-trades or lacking focus. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.

Instead of telling people how to consume my work, I let them target me. Instead of demanding that people come do my thing my way, I meet them more than halfway. And instead being stringent about what I do, I just focus on who I am, and let the marketplace fill in the blanks.

Just seems smarter.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are you afraid to say yes to?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “8 Ways to Out Give Your Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.

Now booking for 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

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