How to Disappear Faster than a Fart in a Fan Factory

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 feel like they’re being lectured…
No good sushi.

If your leadership style makes followers feel like they’re being controlled…
No good sushi.

If your marketing activity makes prospects feel like they’re being targeted…
No good sushi.

If your recruiting strategy makes candidates feel like they’re being proselytized…
No good sushi.

LESSON LEARNED: Your job as a leader, as a businessperson and as a creative professional is to disappear.

Here’s how:1. Bring flowers – show up naked. My favorite piece of writing advice comes from Kurt Vonnegut: “If you want to be a great writer, be a great date for your reader.”

This makes total sense. Think about the characteristics of an ideal date: Fun. Funny. Engaging. Emotional. Interesting. Stimulating. Memorable. Does that describe the written messages you send to people each day?

From emails to texts to tweets to memos, your goal is to be a better date. Ultimately, the question you have to ask yourself is:

Are you writing to sound like a writer, or to sound like you?

Hopefully the latter. Otherwise you’ll never be a great date for your reader.

Remember: Writers that sound like writers are annoying; writers that sound like human beings are applauded. Are your readers hoping for a good night kiss or hailing a goodbye taxi?

2. Ensure rapt interest. I’ll never forget reading the Rolling Stone interview with Dave Grohl. As the co-founder of the genre-defining group, Nirvana – and as the frontman of multi-Grammy award winning band, Foo Fighters, he’s someone whose brain is worth listening to.

In the article, he revealed his band’s performance strategy: “Our goal is to make sure nobody in the audience looks at their watch.”

Great performers keep audience members from looking at their watches – but awesome performers make audiences forget they’re even wearing one.

Make it impossible (not) to pay attention. Whether you’re delivering a speech, conducting a meeting, holding a conference call or giving a sales pitch, anyone can do this.

You just need to deploy your genius. To give what you are. You know: Thing you don’t have to talk about. The thing you don’t have to do anything with.

The music is just there. And all you have to do is play it.

What uniqueness can you enlist to assure that surrounding people can’t help but watch with breathless interest and rapt attention?

3. Meet people where they are. When asked to describe the work of Leonardo Davinci, colleague and mentor Sandro Botticelli said, “His work will reward you from every angle.”

That’s the next strategy to help you disappear. I’ve found a helpful way to foster that process. At the beginning of every presentation, here what I tell my audiences:

“I’m here to do three things: Share my story and the lessons attached to it, make suggestions and ask questions. That’s it. Cool?”

Interestingly, these three components enable the audience members to plug themselves into my equations, thus creating a unique experience for each individual.

Your mission is to do the same: To meet people where they are. To accept everything, reject nothing and attend to people with deep democracy. What generic formulas are you allowing people to plug their unique selves into?

4. Take people back in time. Have you ever watched a show that made you forget you were in the audience? It’s a beautiful thing. And it happens for one reason: Kim Kardashian.

Just kidding. Real answer: The performers knew how to disappear from the stage.

They know how to let the music become bigger than the musicians. That’s what transports the audience to another realm of experience.

For example, every time I attend a Dave Matthews concert, I travel back in time. Because after listening to their music for almost twenty years, every song is attached to an emotional experience. Or an old girlfriend. Or a particular period of my life.

Therefore: Every show is a time machine. And your challenge as a leader, businessperson or creative professional is to do the same. To take people back in time.

My friend Ria Sharon suggests asking yourself one key question: What is the emotion you are selling?

“When you know your emotion, you engage people with your brand because they have something to latch onto,” she explained during a recent speech. “Then you can let the emotion do the heavy lifting for you.” What emotion will you use to disappear and take people back in time?

5. Never let them catch you acting. Michael Cane has appeared in over one hundred movies. He’s been acting for over fifty years, earned several Academy Awards and was even knighted by the Queen of England.

In a recent interview on public radio, Cane discussed the very concept of disappearing:

“If someone in my audience watches my performance and thinks, ‘Wow, that Michael Cane is such an amazing actor,’ then I’ve failed.”

The art is hiding the art. Not just in acting –but in business too. For example, most membership organizations don’t get this. And they could exponentially increase their joinability if they just stopped hawking membership and started hailing community.

Membership isn’t a piece of paper you receive – it’s a feeling you remember.

That’s the approach I take as the president of my local association. Instead of puking the benefits of joining all over perfect candidates, I just say, “Look, don’t worry about joining – just come hang out with us. We like your brain.”

You’d be amazed how much more responsive, more willing to show up and more willing to come back people are who don’t feel like they’re being recruited to join a committee. How are you hiding the art of what you organization does?

6. Profitability comes from revisitability. In the final scene of Ratatouille, snobby food critic Anton Ego skeptically takes a bite of Chef Remy’s special dish.

He expects to be disgusted, but ends up pleasantly surprised. When the food hits his lips, he instantly flashes back fifty years: He sees his childhood as a French peasant. He pictures his mother, his home and his family. And he remembers his humble beginnings.

When the flashback ends, a tear forms in his eye as he scarfs down the rest of dish with absolute delight. And in the next day’s newspaper, he publishes the following review:

“To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. And I will return to Chef Remy soon, hungry for more.”

What do you do that brings people back for more of you? Are you selling a product or are your offering an experience?

That’s what smart companies know: That what they sell isn’t the same thing as what people buy. And if you miss out on that distinction, your customers will always feel like they’re being sold. What are you really in the business of?

REMEMBER: Sushi that taste like fish – no good sushi.

Incorporate these practices into your daily life, and you’ll disappear faster than a fart in a fan factory.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Does your sushi taste like fish?

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

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Has Your Company Had These Six Sales Epiphanies Yet?

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 – they buy because they want to say thank you. Instead of the psychological default of ownership, the cognitive processes of gratitude drives the sale.

Take Radiohead, for example. Their album In Rainbows was released independently through their own website. No labels. No brokers. No stores. And fans were invited to pay as little or as much as they wanted for the record.

Personally, I gave them fifty bucks.

That’s four times the amount of what I’d normally pay for an album. And why did I do it? To say thank you. Because I love Radiohead’s music that much. Because their art has been such an important part of my life. And because I literally want to give them more of my money to keep them contributing to the soundtrack of my life. Are your customers thanking you?

2. Listening is the new selling. My doctor, Steve, once told me that there are two levels of listening. “When I listen with my ears, the patients provide their own diagnosis. But when I listen with my heart, the patients provide their own cure.”

What body part are you listening with? And when you do, are your customers telling you how to solve their pervasive, expensive, urgent and real problems?

Take social media, for example. In my opinion, it’s not a mechanism for closing sales – it’s a platform for listening to why people buy. I learned this lesson last week when a group of my audience members asked me for a copy of my slide deck.

“Really? You actually want that?” I thought.

“Absolutely!” they said. “You have the best slide show I’ve ever seen.”

Naturally, I listened to my customers. I uploaded my presentation onto SlideShare. And dozens of audience members shared their experience with their friends.

Who knew? Maybe I’ll start doing this more often. How many sales are you missing because you’re listening on the wrong level?

3. Companies that teach, win. Seth Godin wrote, “The more the people you sell to that are more informed, inquisitive, free-thinking and alert they are, the better you will do. And the competition will have hard time responding with a dumbness offensive.”

Lesson learned: Instead of handling, managing or dealing with customers, try educating them. Stop thinking of them as people who pay your salary and start attending to them as pupils who enrolled in your class.

At the end of your transactions, instead of asking, “Is there anything more I can do for you?” or “How else may I be of service to you?” start asking your customers, “What else can I help you learn?”

This question is unexpected, thought provoking and revolves around your ability to educate your customers. How are you making your customers smarter?

4. Sell to your audience; don’t sell your audience to others. Most customers have been advertised to, marketed to, duped, fooled, conned, scammed, sold and screwed over too many times – and they’re tired of.

They’re not your little targets anymore. And approaching the sale in such a way degrades your model. Take blogs, for example. Readers don’t want to have to barrel through banner ads, pop-ups, sponsored links and other interruptions, just to get to your content.

Instead of making customers feel sponsored – make them feel special. Create products they actually want and sell to them directly. Nothing has more wallet-opening power than mattering. What do you share that people (actually) give a damn about?

5. Stop pitching and start offering. Pitching, according to Dave Barry, is a Hollywood term for, “Trying to sell your project by acting like a low-cost prostitute.”

That’s no way to sell. Not in this decade. Remember: You’re starting with a negative balance with most customers. This puts you in a deficit position. If you want to lower the threat level of a sales conversation, trying offering instead.

Rob Bell addressed this in his groundbreaking book, Velvet Elvis. “I am far more interested in jumping than I am in arguing about whose trampoline is better. You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to enjoy them with you.”

Sell like that. Are you pitching people on the springs or offering them a change jump with you?

6. We don’t trust what people say about themselves. We trust what the web says about them. We trust what their current customers say about them. And we trust what our closest friends say about them.

But we definitely don’t trust them. Why? Because nobody wants to be the first person to trust somebody. It’s too risky. That means your challenge is to help customers, employees, member – or whomever you serve – to verify your trust via predictability.

That’s where it comes from. People trust people who are predictable. Period.

Fortunately, that’s all branding is: An expectation. Which means it’s your job to prove customers right. To confirm their suspicions about the value you deliver and the values you stand for. How predictable is the value your company delivers?

ULTIMATELY: When the sales landscape changes, your sales approach needs to change with it.

Remember these epiphanies or risk being left behind.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What sales epiphanies have you had recently?

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For the list called, “15 Ways to Out Learn Your Competitors,” 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]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

What Every Leader Needs to Know About Infecting Their Followers

Not with a fatal disease, of course.

We’ll leave that to the zombies.

Instead, let’s talk about your role as a leader.

The word “infect” comes from the Latin infectus, which means, “to put in.”

THAT’S THE BIG QUESTION: What are you putting into people? What are you infecting them with?

Fire?
Love?
Creativity?
Negativity?
Inspiration?
Indifference?
Enthusiasm?
Salmonella?

It might not matter. With the exception of most diseases, what you infect people isn’t as important as how you infect them.

Try this:1. Be a mirror. Sometimes the best way to infect people is to staple your tongue to the roof of your mouth and let them infect themselves.

In my leadership council, we regularly employ the practice of “becoming a verbal mirror” for the presenter. By reflecting their reality back to them – using their exact words, not by summarizing – we allow them to see themselves as we see them.

Often, that’s all they needed to become infected: 50 ccs of self-awareness. What do you reflect back to people?

2. Help people become impressed with themselves. Lead them towards the answers they need to find. You might try using leading, one-word questions like, “But…?” “And…?” or “Because…?”

This puts the conversational ball in their corner, equipping them uncover their own solutions. It also shows people you trust them enough to find their own answers. Finally one-word questions reinforce their sense of self-reliance.

All of which infect them with a steady stream of self-belief. Have you mastered the economy of words?

3. Inspire others of a vision of what they can contribute. The night before delivering a career-changing keynote, I handed my friend Dixie Gillaspie a note. I told her not to read it until she went to bed.

It read: “You own tomorrow. I believe in you.”

Twenty-four hours later, she did. Big time. And all it took was seven words. I wonder who you could deliver a simple, handwritten note to in the next week that would become infected. How will you help people taste the sweet liberation of what’s possible?

4. Infect through being. In my thirty years of experience as a human being, there are four channels of infection: Thoughts, Words, Actions and Being. All are effective, but you’ll find the fourth to be the most beautiful, most sustainable and the most efficacious.

As Ram Dass wrote in All There Is, “The only thing you have to offer to another person, ever, is your state of being. The degree of consciousness with which you’re protesting determines how well they can hear what it is you’re really saying.”

My suggestion is: Next time you’re having a conversation with a friend, employee, volunteer or complete stranger – thrust your whole self into that encounter.

When you passionately and respectfully present people with a compelling vision of the future – and, the choice to be both participant and creator of it – you indirectly make them want to ride along with you. Is your personhood infectious?

5. Go out of your way to gush. I’m also board member of a small organization comprised of professional speakers, consultants and other thought leaders under the age of forty.

Once a quarter, we meet in a convenient location for an energizing day of brainstorming, masterminding and bullshit-free discussion. Now, although we’ve only been active for a few years, I’ll never forget what happened immediately after our inaugural meeting.

I went straight back to my hotel room at midnight and emailed three of my good friends who were unable to attend the session. “Holy crap guys,” I said, “my brain, heart and spirit are simultaneously overflowing. We have to have lunch within the next week so I can gush about today’s meeting.”

We got together a week later and I spent the better part of an hour infecting them with my energy and passion. Not to sell them on the group. Not to convince them to come to the next meeting.

And not to create a convenient deficit position that could only be filled by the thing I was selling. Just to gush. Just to let the infection cascade out of my pores like an Amazon waterfall.

To the delight of the group, all three of my friends committed to attending the next meeting. Which they did. And which they loved it just as much as me. Who could you set up an agenda-free gush session with next week?

6. Mood matters. According to a twenty-year study published in a 2008 issue of Time, emotions can pass among a network of people up to three degrees of separation away.

“Your joy may, to a larger extent than you realize, be determined by how cheerful your friends’ friends’ friends are, even if some of the people in this chain are total strangers to you.”

Lesson learned: Moods are contagious. The question is whether you infect people with the right one. Consider asking yourself: When you walk into a room, how does it change? When you walk out of a room, how does it change?

Remember: As a leader, people are looking to your face to see where the organization is going. If you asked the five people who spent the most time with you, what one word would they use to describe your mood?

7. Punch a few stamps on their sandwich card. During high school, several of my friends worked at a local sandwich shop. As you might expect from teenagers, they tended to get a little “stamp happy” on my sub club card.

Yes, this habit was unethical, dishonest and probably cost the store thousands of dollars in free sandwiches over the years. But you have to understand: The sandwiches were really, really good.

Not that that makes it ok. But the image of the sandwich card is a helpful reminder of how to liberate the inner motivation of others. According to Dan & Chip Heath’s bestseller, Switch:

“One way to motivate action is to make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought.”

As a leader, your mission is to figure out how to throw people that lifeline. For example, whenever new students come to practice at my Bikram Yoga studio, I always make it a point to congratulate them in the locker room for sticking it out the whole ninety minutes.

“Hey, at the minimum,” I’ll tell them, “at least you stayed in the room the whole time. Not all first timers do. Consider that a victory!”

Every time I’ve said this, new students never fail to become energized. What could you say to someone to reinforce her self-belief that she’s progressed (significantly) more than most people her exact same situation?

8. Instinctively respond favorably. That way, no matter what people say, you lay a foundation of affirmation. This increases their level of receptivity, which increases their infectability.

Even if you don’t know what, specifically, to say to someone, you can always respond with the word, “Wow.” It’s a neutral, versatile, empathetic, non-judgmental and emotionally unreactive term.

It buys you some time, until you can define your official response. It also helps you maintain composure when presented with unexpected, difficult or crucial information.

Ultimately, it creates objective space in the conversation, which grants the speaker permission to continue. How positive are your default responses to people?

9. Take people to the depths they desperately need to explore. Even if that means going to a completely unexpected place. Meet people where they are. Sit there with them for as long as they need.

Then, challenge them to go somewhere even better. Ideally, they’ll walk away from you as an upgraded version of themselves. All because you steered the rudder as they paddled like hell. Are you an interpersonal archaeologist?

REMEMBER: Infection has nothing to do with being sick.

It’s about transferring emotion.
It’s about putting something into people.
It’s about influencing them your state of being.

Spend your days doing that, and you won’t even need the zombies.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Whom are you infecting?

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For the list called, “37 Personal Leadership Questions Guaranteed to Shake Your Soul,” 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]

Never the same speech twice.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Watch Scott Ginsberg’s Speech to The Million Dollar Roundtable: Seoul, South Korea

In March of this year, I had the opportunity to speak in front of 4,000 insurance agents at the Million Dollar Roundtable Korea.

One of the coolest experiences of my career.

This playlist contains all four parts of the speech. Enjoy!

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Who’s cheering for you?

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For the list called, “15 Ways to Out Learn Your Competitors,” 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]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Watch The Nametag Guy’s 72-Minute Keynote on How to Get Hired in a Hellish Economy

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How will you become more hireable?

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For the list called, “15 Ways to Out Learn Your Competitors,” 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]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Ayn Rand Guide to Becoming an Object of Interest

“Nobody noticed if he was good looking. When Francisco d’Anconia entered a room, it was simply impossible to look at anyone else. He had a name that wiped out all others when people saw it.”

That’s my favorite scene from Atlas Shrugged.

Why?

It’s about intrigue.
It’s about fascination.
It’s about interestingness.

IN SHORT: It’s about being an object of interest in the minds of the people who matter.

Is that the way people describe you?
Is that the way people describe your brand?
Is that the way people describe your organization?

If not, try this: 1. Autobiography is irresistible. Since day one, you’ve been beaten over the head with the same three words: Know your customer, know your customer and know your customer. Which is great and all, but here’s the real question:

How well do your customers know you?

Answer: Not enough. And they need to know who you are, where you are and why you are. That’s what matters. Because if trust is a function of self-disclosure (which it is), and if trust is the only currency that counts (which it is) – if they don’t know you, you lose.

No need to run around the office naked. But do find a way to give people a snapshot. A glimpse into that which the world cannot usually see. By enticing their visual appetite by dangling the carrot of fascination in front of their nose, your interestingness will skyrocket. Is the bio page on your website worth showing to a friend?

2. Detail creates a vortex of interest. Adam Durtiz, in my opinion, is the most devastating lyricist in modern music. After fifteen years of listening to Counting Crows, his style has served as a barometer for my own. And as a write, I constantly ask myself:

“Does this sentence use the detail of Duritz?”

If not, I replace mundane, lifeless words with smarter, muscular, more specific words. This makes the piece more readable and interesting. Plus, it satisfies the advice given by Kurt Vonnegut, who once said, “If you want to write a bestseller, be a great date for your reader.”

What about you? Are the details of your life interesting enough to make it through dinner? Or would your date fake a cell phone call from her roommate just to get out of listening to you? That’s the power of detail. Be specific or be ignored. Are you worth writing home about?

3. Monstrously human means monumentally noticeable. Reality television is popular for two reasons. First, it’s incredibly cheap to make. That’s what happens when you stop casting actors and start using citizens. Secondly, the human factor is off the charts. This makes it easier for viewers to see themselves reflected in the people on the screen.

Now, odds are, you won’t be staring in your own reality show anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean you can’t invite people for a leisurely swim in your massive sea of humanity. I’m not promoting rampant narcissism, inflated self-importance or a violation of personal privacy.

Rather, I’m suggesting you sack up and show more of true self to world. Your audience doesn’t just expect it – they demand it. Give the people what they want. Take them behind the scenes.

When they see that what you do on a daily basis speaks straight to the heart of the human experience, it will be hard (not) to pay attention. Turn yourself into a walking mirror. How are you fully integrating your humanity into your profession?

4. Depth is the greatest of heights. Think about the last person you stalked. Oh whatever. Don’t tell me you’ve never gone to a guy’s Facebook page (two hours before meeting him in person) and carefully scrutinized each of the three hundred pictures in his photo album.

Don’t act like you’ve never spent your entire lunch hour googling the woman you were going on a date with later that week. Everybody does it. Admit it: We’re all a bunch of stalkers.

But, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned: Nobody stalks boring people. The more depth you have offline, the more interesting you become online. And as long as stalkers keep it in their pants and don’t cross any dangerous lines, I say: Stalk away. It’s a high compliment.

In fact, I once went on a date with a woman whose mother spent four hours Googling me just to decide whether or not she approved of her daughter dating me. Turns out she didn’t. Apparently men who “wear nametags everyday” and “build hotel room forts in the Rosemont Days Inn” are “weird” and “should never be trusted.”

Whatever. That chick looked like Ron Howard’s brother anyway.

The point is: Don’t be a flat person. Create a persona worth looking at and listening to. One-dimensional people are about as fascinating as a tube of denture glue. Are you worth stalking?

5. Demand an explanation. As a lifelong writer, science has been never my forte. And yet, I see physics as the most interesting subject on the planet. Imagine: You’re either dealing with numbers too big to imagine or too small to comprehend. Life doesn’t get more fascinating than that.

And that’s the lesson: When you become the kind of person for whom onlookers demand an explanation, people can’t help but wait with baited breath.

Like my mentor, Bill. The reason he’s such an object of interest is because you’re always curious what his next move will be. What about you? How do you create a sense of anticipation in everything you do? Answer those questions and you’ll attract the eyeballs that matter. What questions are people asking about you?

6. Suspend disbelief for as long as possible. When I tell people that I made a career out of wearing a nametag, they either think I’m a liar, a lunatic – or both. What’s interesting is that the less people believe me, the more questions they ask.

They simply can’t help themselves. Human beings are inherently curious beings. And part of their nature is to reduce uncertainty whenever possible. It helps people preserve their sense of control.

The irony is, when you suspend disbelief and become the object of interest, you have the control. Which means you have the power. Will you use yours for good or evil?

7. Reveal the record of your origins. I love old trees. They never fail to be objects of interest because their rings, branches, roots and bark always take me back in time. Your challenge is to do the same. To give people a ride on the wayback machine.

For example, I used to work in a furniture store in Portland that covered their walls with black and white photos, newspaper clippings, decade-old advertisements and antiquated business cards. People would come to the store just to look at the walls. No wonder they did twelve million a year. Ask yourself:

What artifacts could you use on your website, in your office or at your store to personify your humble beginnings?

Remember: Customers love this stuff. Artifacts lend personality to your surroundings, humanize your organization and build the fascination and intrigue of your brand. Are the relics of your origins collecting dust or compelling eyeballs?

8. Never underestimate the intrigue of honesty. That’s the interesting thing about telling the truth: It’s so rare that it’s become remarkable. No wonder nobody watches television anymore – they’re tired of being lied to.

Maybe that’s the secret. Maybe being an object of interest is as simple as not bullshitting people. It certainly worked for Scott Adams. His philosophy, according to The Dilbert Future, is to be completely honest where most people would say nothing. He’s done that for twenty years and become one of the most successful cartoonists in history. What would happen if you branded your honesty?

9. Be a synthesizer. This is, by far, my favorite musical instrument. And you don’t have to be a big fan of electronic music to admit: They’re pretty damn interesting. Probably because they create sound combinations that are outlets for emotions and feelings that can’t be adequately articulated in plain language.

Now, as an individual, your challenge is to do the same: To be a synthesizer. That’s one thing all objects of interest have in common. Take Henry Rollins, for example. The reason big audiences pay big money to sit for three hours at a time – just to hear him talk – is not an accident.

They do so because the composite of his synthesized experiences as a punk rocker, author, world traveler, political activist and television/radio host make him so compelling that his audiences demand to hear more immediately. No wonder he’s done over one hundred talking shows worldwide, every year, since the nineties.

Even Rollins admitted this himself in an interview with The Independent Film Channel: “My goal is to be completely interesting, take whatever intellect I’ve accumulated and come out hard from the gate every night.”

Remember: Be anything but monotone. Remain a consummate adventurer and you’ll remain a competitive animal. What are you synthesizing?

10. Firm up your faculty of self-expression. I watch a lot of documentaries. Mainly about artists, writers and actors. And in my experience, the reason these movies are so interesting is because the featured individuals are masters of self-expression. They create highly visual experiences with their work.

Lesson learned: If you want to become an object of interest, you have to express yourself. Period. It doesn’t matter how you do it – only that you do it. And it doesn’t matter if it’s good – on that you’re willing to share it with the world.

The hard part is, sometimes the theater of the mind is better. I know. Sometimes you’d rather keep your art to yourself. But if you truly want to arrest the interest of masses, you’ve got to expose (at least) some of it to the eyes of the world.

Remember: Art, as Edward Debono once said, is the choreography of attention. How much of it will your self-expression earn?

Ultimately, becoming an object of interest isn’t something that happens overnight.

It’s the result of a life lived fully, actively and creativity.

Remember that, and next time you walk into a room, it will be impossible to look at anybody else.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you an object of interest?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “15 Ways to Out Learn Your Competitors,” 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]

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

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Tag: object of interest

How to Disappear Faster than a Fart in a Fan Factory

Has Your Company Had These Six Sales Epiphanies Yet?

What Every Leader Needs to Know About Infecting Their Followers

Watch Scott Ginsberg’s Speech to The Million Dollar Roundtable: Seoul, South Korea

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