Tag: scott ginsberg

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 Nametag Manifesto — Chapter 6: The End of Dishonesty

[ View the infographic! ]

“Everyone should wear nametags, all the time, everywhere, forever.”

That’s my thesis, philosophy, dangerous idea and theory of the universe.

My name is Scott, and I’ve been wearing a nametag for past four thousand days.

And after traveling to hundreds of cities, a dozen countries, four continents, meeting tens of thousands of people, constant experimentation and observation, building a enterprise and writing a dozen books in the process, I believe, with all my heart, that the societal implications of wearing nametags could change everything.

This is my manifesto:

6. The End of Dishonesty

If everybody wears nametags, untruthfulness becomes extremely difficult.

We’re all lie detectors. Instead of manipulating the way other people see us, now, what we see is what we get, despite our best efforts to obscure the truth.

We’ve returned to a world without a backstage. We’re always going to be known for what we’re about to do. And as such, we start choosing smarter.
Now we can stop racking our brains trying to remember what we told and to whom. Now we can use our brains for more creative and valuable functions. Like listening and sharing and connecting and feeling.

If everybody wears nametags, no more dishonorable action, no more lying and no more aliases.

# # #

You are now ready for chapter seven.

You can read The Nametag Manifesto, in full, for free, right now, here.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your manifesto?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “10 Ways to Help Your Customers Know You,” 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 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!

Portrait of a Modern Career

It’s tempting to covet other people’s careers.

Especially when we see them doing things we’d like to be doing.

But the reality is, we can’t have another person’s career any more that we can have another person’s hair. Their history, their trajectory and their motivations are theirs and theirs alone.

Even if we did try to copy their path and plug our variables into their equations, we’d still come out with a different result. Like taking Pemberton’s recipe for Coke and mixing it ourselves, we’d always produce our own unique flavor of soda. Every time.

But that’s the beauty of the modern career: It’s the river we can’t step in twice.

With global shifts in economics, technology, culture and population, there are as many career paths as there are people to take them. No two are exactly alike. And if we want to support each other in our mutual endeavors, we need to greet each other’s careers with affirmation, not envy. We need to treat each other’s careers as a source of inspiration, not frustration.

That way, instead of bastardizing our life into a cover song of another person’s music, we craft our careers into the limited editions that they were meant to be.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Whose career do you covet?

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!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

What’s Your Relationship Bandwidth?

People come in and out of our lives everyday.

Some stick around a few minutes, some stick around forever.

And what’s amazing is how much they can impact our life, even if they’re only part of it for a short while. Strangers on the bus, neighbors down the street, roommates for a semester, lovers over the summer, guests at a hotel – when we meet someone we like, someone who brings us to life and makes us feel better about ourselves, part of us is frustrated that they can’t be in our lives for a longer period of time.

If only we’d met one year earlier, we think.
If only we’d done a better job staying in touch, we think.

But that’s the wrong attitude. That’s the scarcity mentality that doesn’t serve us.Instead of fantasizing about what life might have been if that person was still living down the street from us, instead of kicking ourselves for not being better friends, let’s be thankful we were lucky enough to have had a relationship in the first place. Let’s honor the place that person had in our history instead of apologizing for not being better at returning phone calls.

Because despite our best efforts – even despite our hyper-connected society – it’s hard to stay friends with everybody. There’s only so much social bandwidth available. Some relationships have an expiration date, and we have to learn to be okay with that.

It doesn’t mean we’re insincere people.
It doesn’t mean we’re bad at relationships.
It doesn’t negate the good times we had together.

It just means that life happens. People get busy.

With the population nearing seven billion, this minor transgression is certainly forgivable.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Who do you need to thank for being in your life?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “7 Ways to Out Leverage 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!

The Nametag Manifesto — Chapter 5: The End of Social Conflict

[ View the infographic! ]


“Everyone should wear nametags, all the time, everywhere, forever.”

That’s my thesis, philosophy, dangerous idea and theory of the universe.

My name is Scott, and I’ve been wearing a nametag for past four thousand days.

And after traveling to hundreds of cities, a dozen countries, four continents, meeting tens of thousands of people, constant experimentation and observation, building a enterprise and writing a dozen books in the process, I believe, with all my heart, that the societal implications of wearing nametags could change everything.

This is my manifesto:

5. The End of Social Conflict

If everybody wears nametag, the awkwardness goes away.

The cost of interaction approaches zero. We feel more comfortable engaging because we have nothing to lose. Never again do we have to work down the hall or live down the street from people – for years at a time – without knowing their name.

It’s simple: Conflict leads to uncertainty, which leads to anxiety, which leads to avoidance.
But with nametags, the ice is never not broken. Guesswork is a thing of the past.

Now, all first impressions are good impressions. We’ve sidestepped the entire spectrum of social awkwardness that stems from not knowing people’s names. And this frees us to focus on the conversation at hand – instead of the silent dialogue of self-consciousness.

We never have to wonder who anybody is. We can connect faster, better and truer.

If everybody wears nametags, no more shyness, no more avoidance behavior and no more social blunders.

# # #

You are now ready for chapter six.

You can read The Nametag Manifesto, in full, for free, right now, here.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your manifesto?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “10 Ways to Help Your Customers Know You,” 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 2012!

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Are You Forcing Intimacy or Accelerating It?

It’s not enough to just be amicable strangers.

I want to be friends with everyone, all the time, everywhere, forever.

That’s just me. I don’t have to warm up to people. I don’t have to get to know someone before we connect. I don’t have to wait until we’ve hung out six times before I start opening up.

I just jump right in. I reveal myself quickly, openly, honestly and respectfully. I don’t make small talk – make big talk. Immediately.

And most of the time, others reciprocate. People appreciate the willingness to cut the formalities and start connecting for real. With the exception of occasional weird looks, most people are cool with it.The nametag is merely the entry point. The spark. The signal. And while it’s nothing grandiose, it’s proven to be a strong enough lever.

It doesn’t force intimacy – it accelerates it.

Not by false identification. Not by pretending to be everyone’s best friend. Not by memorizing a few pieces of personal information.

But by reducing the distance between people.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How do you do that?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “153 Quotations to Inspire Your Success,” 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 Only Thing We’re Waiting For

We have all the ideas we can handle.
We have all the support we can get.
We have all the tools we can use.

That’s not the problem.

What we lack is the initiative. The capacity to execute. The willingness to stand naked before the world and give it our best shot, even if we fall flat on our face.

What we lack is the will to make the decision, right now, that we are going stop sitting on our hands and go, go, go.

That’s the currency. That’s the scarcest resource we have.

In a world where we have everything we need to begin, the only thing left, the only thing we’re waiting for, is permission.What’s hard is, nobody is going to give it to us. They can’t. Only we can give it to ourselves.

But what’s neat is, nobody is going to stop us either. So in that moment when we decide to act without restriction, to listen to our deepest desires and plunge into the burning heart of uncertainty, it’s surprising how few people stand in our way.

Forget about the idea – it’s all about the “I did.”

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

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “27 Affirmations to Prepare Yourself to Listen,” 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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