All work is fundamentally human.

And when we identify the universal experience of
what we do, master the deeper humanity behind our work and embed that spirit
into the whole of our job, we truly have the greatest impact.

As
a writer, publisher, performer and consultant, I’ve worked with hundreds of
organizations worldwide, small and large, from lunch ladies to funeral
directors to pharmacies to landscapers. And every time I spend a day or two at
their offices, I learn something new about the humanity of work. I learn what these
people really do.

Recruiters,
headhunters and staffing professionals enable the explosion of human potential.
Nurses, doctors and healthcare
professionals give oxygen to people’s souls by allowing the dignity of
self-definition. Company and organizational leaders connect the duty of today
with the dream of tomorrow.

That’s what they really do.

Relocation specialists and moving companies unpack the contents of the
human heart. Anti-virus software
companies preserve the inalienable right of digital freedom. And insurance companies help people live
their lives free from fear every day.

That’s what they really do.

Coffee shops create a familiar, daily refuge for people seeking an act of
peace in a moment of chaos. House
painters enable the expression of individual humanity. And
professional networks and industry associations
build a network of human healing.

That’s what they really do.

And
that’s exactly why their customers, employees, patients, members, users and
readers love them forever.

It’s
the humanity embedded in their work.

Sell
that, and it won’t matter how bad the economy is.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What is the human side of your work?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask,” 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Passion is illusive.

For years we’ve been told that if we find it, follow it,
channel it, leverage it and stay committed to it, then eventually, with a lot
of hard work, we can profit from it.

How romantic.

I fell for that fairytale when I started my company nearly a
decade ago. And while I’m still a believer in passion and the profitability
thereof, unfortunately, because of the nature of passion, because of its
white-hot burning fire in the deepest parts of our hearts, we quickly forget
that passion isn’t without its own share of problems:

First, passion is not a substitute for
reality. Without an intersection between our obsession and
the marketplace need, we’re just passionately irrelevant. It’s the difference between making something
useful and just making something.

Secondly, the thrill of our passion dissipates once it
becomes a daily task. Sometimes what used to bring purpose, meaning
and mattering to our lives slowly begins to cause stomach ulcers. To avoid
this, our passion must be both scalable and sustainable.

Third, passion without
purpose is pointless and leaves us penniless. Without a strong why, without
a foundation that comes from our truest desires, our passion becomes a blazing
fire that burns everyone we touch, including ourselves. Careful.

Fourth, passion isn’t
the only activity that occupies our time. If we work a job doing what we
love, we still have to deal with the menial, soul-sucking activities that have
nothing to do with our passion. And if we don’t delegate those tasks, our
passion becomes a chore.

Fifth, passion without
commitment is just an expensive hobby. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Hobbies are essential to life. But if we want to turn a profit, if we want to
make dent in the universe, we have to make the decision to play for keeps.

Not to rain on your passion parade or anything.

Because the good news is, every year, people around the
globe make millions dollars doing exactly what they love. Passion is, was and
will always be, a profitable enterprise.

And as long as we’re willing to confront the realities
attached to making a living from our passion, there’s no reason we can’t be one
of those people too.

We just have to make sure we’re not dreaming in the wrong
direction.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What is the paradox of your passion?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “27 Ways to Out the 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

The best way to have a good idea is to have a hundred bad ones.

It’s a painful process, especially if we’ve gotten
accustomed to being good. But any seed to imagination, any ignition of pure
creation, is not just healthy and safe, but practical and necessary.

First, it gives us perspective. It humbles our creative
spirit. Second, bad ideas come in handy for other problems later. Nothing is
ever wasted; every idea eventually finds a home. And finally, our process of
experimentation helps create the elbow room for good ideas to emerge. All we
have to do is listen.

In the decade I’ve worked as a freelancer, I’ve had thousands of bad ideas. Horrible ones. Bordering on embarrassing. Several of
which were executed, poorly.

But out of that slush pile, I’ve also had maybe thirty or
forty really, really good ideas. Ideas that spread, ideas that made money,
ideas that made a difference. I believe there are no successes or
failures, only the consequences of our experiments.

We can never lose that spirit. We owe it to our creative
selves to set up a consequence free space for experimentation. A safe place
where we can boldly fiddle our way to the truth.

Thanks to the web, the cost of doing so is approaching zero.
We can run hundreds of experiments a day, if we want to.

But that’s the thing: We have to want to. It has to be
important to us.

Otherwise, if we’re not trying things, every day, until we
die, we’re not fully living.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How many experiments did you run yesterday?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “11 Things to Stop Wasting Your Time On,” 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Freedom means finding a home for all of our talents.

Not hiding our light under a bushel, not asking for
permission to shine, not waiting to be picked, not waiting to be paid, and not
hesitating to take our talents on the ride they deserve.

Instead, allowing our entire portfolio of talents – tiny,
titanic and in between – to have a more prominent place in our lives,
regardless if the world approves.

Nobody epitomizes this more than
Keller Williams. At any of his hundred concerts each year, audiences drool as
he plays an average of twenty instruments per show, they marvel as he takes
live digital looping to new levels and they cheer as he sings hilarious lyrics
to improvised songs.

His life, his career and his fans
prove that talent isn’t just a gift, it’s an asset.

Our job, not just as artists but
as humans, is to invest it as aggressively, creatively and prolifically as
possible, and never to feel guilty about having it or ashamed about expressing
it.

Whitman said we contain
multitudes.

It would be ashamed to watch it
go to waste.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you using your talents or investing them?

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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

If we’re too busy listening to everybody, we’ll never hear the sound of our own voice.

Yet another great dilemma of the entrepreneur.

On one hand, we could listen to what people say they want. Do market research and focus groups until we’re blue in the face. And then launch something that predictably fits into their nice little box.

It’s the safe path that pleases people, satisfies their expectations and challenges the competition for a while.

On the other hand, we could figure out what people are going to want before they do. Give them what they don’t realize they need. And hope that they get to a point where they can’t live without it.

That’s the bold path that changes people, captures their imagination and erases the competition forever.

Steve Jobs rarely gave the customers what they wanted. He believed people didn’t know what they wanted until somebody showed them.

So he spent his career showing them.

And the entire world watched in awe.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What do you need to decide?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “12 Ways to Out Service 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Everybody is somebody’s somebody.

It all depends on what we see when we see people.

When we sit down on a bus next to a complete stranger, we
have a choice. We can take the easy way out, crack open a book, put in our ear
buds and disappear into ourselves.

Or we can say hello. We can notice people. We can create an
act of connection in a moment of silence.

It doesn’t work every
time, but we have a lot of times.

What’s neat is, once we have a chance encounter with a
stranger that changes everything, we start to see strangers differently. Our
posture changes. What we see when we see people isn’t what it used to be.

And that’s when the real fun begins.

Not because we see somebody as a mark, but because we view
every interaction as a chance to change somebody’s world.

Maybe theirs, maybe ours, or maybe both.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How many people did you go out of your way to ignore last week?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “19 Telltale Signs of the Perfect Job,” 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

I was flying to Denver when it happened.

I was preparing my notes for a speech called, The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma. The focus of the presentation was how loneliness was an inevitable landmark of the entrepreneurial landscape, and how to manage it. A topic near and dear to my heart.

The guy next to me couldn’t help but notice my screen. After about twenty minutes of sneaking glances, he finally asked, “So, Scott, are you writing a book?”

Headphones still in, I said yes.

Next, he asked about the topic of the book. And I said something vague like “communication.” Being on a roll with my work, I didn’t want to give an answer that garnered too many follow up questions.

Couldn’t this guy see that I was busy trying to write about loneliness?

I went back to my work.

About thirty seconds later, he asked another question. Then another. And another. Apparently he had never met an author before and was curious about the publishing process.

Seriously. This guy really needs to leave me alone. How am I supposed to finish writing this piece about how lonely I am if –

Oh. Right.

Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.

Smacked in the face with a healthy dose of irony. I wised up, unplugged and started talking to him.

Nice guy, actually. He was an entrepreneur himself.

And I asked him, “What takes you out to Denver?”

“My father’s funeral.”

Oh.

And I thought I was lonely.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How many people did you go out of your way to ignore last week?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “12 Ways to Out Service 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

We’ll never run out of reasons not to do something.

Our capacity to rationalize our way out of anything will always be available. Human beings, more than any other species, have an infinite ability to procrastinate their way to inaction. We can put things off like bumblebees can fly.

Eventually, though, we have to decide.

To move our dreams out of dream form, we have to figure out what’s important to us, honestly admit what we’re really afraid of, calculate what we’re willing to lose and then go, go, go make something happen.

Otherwise it will never happen. The resistance will win. And we’ll reluctantly join the ranks of the wannabes, gonnabes and nevergonnabes, reminiscing about dreams we once had, but never did anything about.

The exciting part is, no matter how many excuses, no matter how many reasons we have not to do something, all we need is one really good reason to say yes.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What do you need to decide?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “12 Ways to Out Service 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

I recently chatted with woman who ran a mom and pop garden center.

When we got on the topic of word of mouth, Ellen bragged about how her customers rarely told people about her plants.

I was confused. Anonymity didn’t seem like something to be proud of.

Until she told me what one of her customers told her.

“I love your flowers, so please don’t send me your catalogs. I don’t want my neighbors to know where I buy them.”

Yes, it’s a selfish thing to request. And yes, it’s a frustrating marketing dilemma for any business to manage. But this level of loyalty, this echelon of exclusivity, might contain huge leverage potential.

Sometimes buzz that goes the wrong way, goes a long way.

Because if a business is willing to stay small, willing to focus all of its energy on a single, narrow, high-end micro audience – who buys enough to keep the lights on – maybe it doesn’t matter if not everybody’s talking about us.

Maybe all we need is a small handful of people who love us to help our brand last forever.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Who’s afraid to tell people about you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “50 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask,” 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 2012-2013!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!