NametagTV: Interactions That Matter

You’re not in business to sell a product.
You’re not in business to provide a service.

You’re in business to become known for a unique way of interacting with the world.

Interactions that get talked about.
Interactions that give the gift of social elevation.
Interactions that very well could change people forever.

THAT’S THE GOAL: To interact with people in a way that nobody else can touch.

Today we’re going to explore a collection of interactions to incorporate into your daily worklife:1. Interact with swift responsiveness. The medium is the message. The speed of the response is the response. And when you become known for returning calls, sending emails and replying to instant messages quicker than anyone else, people don’t just pay attention – they pay money.

Speed is a form of currency. Speed is an asset that appreciates with every interaction in which it is exalted. And even if you don’t have all the answers. Customers would rather you get back to them right away just to say you’re on the case, than having to wait three days just to discover you still haven’t solved it. When was the last time one of your customers said, “Wow, that was fast?”

2. Interact with nonstop gratitude. Gratitude is not a chore. It’s not a corporate initiative. And it’s not some annual act of forced kindness that makes you feel good about yourself. Gratitude is giving the gift of attention. Gratitude is existing in a perpetual posture of thankfulness. Gratitude is a telling people how much better your life is because of them.

Instead of reaching for another robotic, ready-made script about how important someone’s call is, say something that invites customers to store memory in the heart. How could you turn your words into a gift that erases the memory of every other gift customers have ever received?

3. Interact with true care. You don’t need another soulless bureaucratic tactic that bastardizes caring into a technique. What you need is to create a sincere individual strategy that shows people you care about their experience when they’re interacting with you.

That’s the beauty of care: It’s found in the basic. It’s when you bother to bother. It’s when you show up, even when you’re scared, and take five extra minutes to do something that people remember forever. The best part is, caring is like epoxy glue. It only takes a few drops to make it stick. Your just have to listen to find out where people need the glue applied. Do you have the courage to care?

4. Interact with unexpected honesty. Honestly is attractive because it always has been. It’s a classical value. And few virtues have been around longer. What’s changed is, technology makes dishonesty easier to spot, quicker to spread and harder to disguise.

Every interaction that leaves a customer skeptical about your truthfulness, makes your company suck a little bit more. If you want your interactions to matter, tell the truth when there’s no reason to be honest. Tell the truth when most people would say nothing. How are you branding your honesty?

5. Interact with compassionate intimacy. Instead of plotting how customers fit into your nice little marketing plan; focus on how your product fits into their lives. And not just the conversation about their lives, but their actual lives.

That’s the distinction: Intimacy isn’t starting with customer in mind – it’s start with the customer. Intimacy isn’t projecting onto the marketplace what you think they ought to want – it’s asking people to tell you what matters to them, shutting up and taking notes. What would happen if you treated customer intimacy as an entire business model, not just a marketing tool?

6. Interact with exquisite playfulness. Wearing a nametag everyday never fails to generate spontaneous moments of playfulness. The cool part is, these are people I’m meeting for the first time. What about your customers? Is their very first interaction with your brand friendly, fun and relaxed?

Or has your organization – in the name of professionalism – prohibited its employees from expressing any shred of playfulness?

The point is: Not every customer craves an unforgettable service experience. Sometimes they just want to laugh. To play. To forget about life for ten seconds. Maybe if you focused on that, they’d come back. How playful are you willing to be?

7. Interact with loving unfairness. Love isn’t supposed to be fair. If it was, it wouldn’t be love – it would be strategy. Silly rabbit. Fairness is for kids. That’s how love works: It finds the people who don’t deserve it – then offers itself to them freely and fully when they least expect it.

Next time customers reflexively apologize for minor inconveniences, forgive them. Next time readers offer negative criticism about your brand; tell them you respect their opinion of your work. Because if you only love people when it’s fair, you haven’t learned anything. When was the last time you loved a customer that drove you up the wall?

REMEMBER: The goal of your brand is become known for a unique way of interacting with the world.

Find your nametag.

Stick yourself out there today.

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

Sick of selling?
Tired of cold calling?
Bored with traditional prospecting approaches?

Buy Scott’s book and learn how to ~~sell~~ enable people to buy!

Pick up your copy (or a case!) right here.

How to Build Story Equity

People don’t just buy what you sell.

They buy the mythology you create around what you sell.
They buy the story you tell that taps into their existing worldview.
They buy the meaning they create for themselves in response to that story.

BUT: It’s not enough for people to simply understand your story.

They need to believe it.
They need to feel proud to be part of it.
They need to become eager to share it with others.

Otherwise you’re just winking in the dark.

Today we’re going to talk about building story equity into your brand:1. Make your brand deliberately mythological. Every brand needs a human story behind it. Something that gives your values a heartbeat. That’s what earns the right to have your story told. Unfortunately, a good story doesn’t happen by accident. You can’t sit back and wait for people to talk about you – you have to prime the pump. Otherwise you run the risk of being ignored.

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin discussed this very idea:

“To invent a mythic brand, be sure that there’s a story, not just a product or a pile of facts. The story should promise and deliver a heroic outcome. And there needs to be growth and mystery as well, so the users can fill in their own blanks.”

If you’re not creating a mythology around your brand, you’re destined to a future of mediocrity. Find the story, the mythology, that’s yours and yours alone, and shot it from the rooftops. And when the right people hear it, they’ll recognize it as their own and join forces with you. What is the creation myth behind your brand?

2. Give your story a trophy. It’s not enough just to clarify your story – you also have to humanize, personify and memorialize it. Like my friend Chris, the founder of Simplifilm. Their specialty is creating digital videos for client websites. The cool part is: Chris doesn’t market them as videos – but as trophies.

“I wanted my people to feel honored, their creations to be treasured and their stories to be cherished. So we started creating limited edition posters for each client after the job was complete. We now ship them as gifts of gratitude. And when they eventually hang in the client’s office, these social objects not only memorialize the work we’ve done together, but also stimulate conversation about their story.”

That’s how you build story equity: By creating an artifact that extends the influence of your brand into the marketplace. How are you making it easy for people to tell your story?

3. Manage your story like an asset. When you wear a nametag everyday for a decade – then somehow make a successful career out of that – people are going to tell your story. I’ve tried to stop it, but failed miserably. Whether I’m attending a conference with colleagues, practicing yoga with friends, interacting online with readers or having dinner with family, people are constantly telling me stories about telling my story. Almost daily.

For this, I am eternally grateful. It’s how I’ve turned my badge into a brand. Still, every time this happens, I always listen closely for patterns, lessons, assumptions and emotions. Your challenge is to do the same.

Any time people tell you they’re telling your story, don’t just thank them – probe them. Find out where the rock created the ripple so you can go back and throw more rocks. After all, the only thing worse that being talked about is not being talked about. Who’s talking about you?

4. Your brand is a story waiting to be told. In his acclaimed book, Story, screenwriter Robert McKee explains that story isn’t a flight from reality, but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality. It’s our best effort to make sense of the anarchy of existence. It unearths a universally human experience and wraps itself inside a unique, culture-specific expression.

That’s where smart brands are missing the mark: Their stories are boring. When people hear your story, they should be convinced that it’s a truthful metaphor for life. And it should create a rich, emotional universe that helps people carry hope to the end.

Zappos founder Tony Hsieh is the perfect example. Initially, he sold pizza to his dorm mates at Harvard. Later, started a venture capital firm on a dare from a friend. And recently, Amazon acquired him for more than a billion dollars. And now he runs the company, writes books and gives speeches on delivering happiness. That’s one hell of a human story. That’s one hell of a metaphor. Is your story an anecdote for a party or a vehicle for a movement?

5. Start positive rumors about yourself. A few years ago I was on the bike at the gym. In between sets, the guy next to me noticed my nametag. After a few moments of awkward silence, he launched right into the rumor:

“You know, I once heard a story about some guy who wore a nametag everyday in college. I think it was a sociological experiment or something. But they made a documentary about him. And think he set a world record. Pretty crazy, huh?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him. The rumors were far too interesting to listen to. But that’s the whole point: Facts are misleading, but rumors are always revealing – even if they’re wrong. And if people aren’t currently spreading positive rumors about your brand, you might consider taking matters into your own hands. Certainly beats being ignored.

When all else fails, start gossiping about yourself. That way at least someone is talking about you. Are you a person worth spreading rumors about?

REMEMBER: Your brand tells a story whether you like it or not.

If you want to make your legend worth crossing the street for, if you want people to feel proud and eager to spread your myth, manage your story like an asset.

Because people don’t just buy what you sell – they buy what you tell.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are your predictions for the future?

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For a list called, “11 Ways to Out Google 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]

“I usually refuse to pay for mentoring. But after Scott’s first brain rental session, the fact that I had paid something to be working with him left my mind – as far as I was concerned, the value of that (and subsequent) exchange of wisdom and knowledge, far outweighed any payment.”

–Gilly Johnson The Australian Mentoring Center

Ten Chances Worth Taking

The best part about playing Monopoly was drawing a chance card.

It was risky.
It was exciting.
It was the only way to beat my older brother.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: Chance Cards taught kids that life without risk, isn’t.

What chances are you avoiding?

Consider this list of ten chances worth taking: 1. Every interaction is another chance to give. Charisma is irrelevant when people walk away from you feeling more in love with themselves. That’s the greatest gift you can give people: To be a mirror. To give them a front row seat to their own brilliance.

Every time I interact with someone, I go out of my way to write down at least one thing they’ve said into my pocket jotter. And always right in front of them, too. It makes them feel heard, quotable and smart. What gifts are known for giving?

2. Every mistake is another chance to evolve. Winning is boring because you never learn as much. Personally, I’d rather screw up. It builds character and makes for a much better story. Besides, you can’t win if you refuse to make failure a regular part of your experience.

People who tell you failure isn’t an option need to have their vision checked. The goal is to fail and fail and fail some more, learn and learn and learn some more, and then win and win and win some more. Are you ready to endure the failure that growth requires?

3. Every sentence is another chance to bleed. As a writer, my job is to put my entire world into everything I write. That way, every sentence is a piece of my truth. Every sentence has a story behind it. Every sentence provides experiential value at the point of consumption. Every sentence deliberately sets out to make the reader blink.

And, every sentence holds up a mirror that demands people look at themselves. In my experience, when you approach writing in that way, your material connects with readers in a personal, relevant and emotional way. How bloody is your art?

4. Every decision is another chance to matter. When Alfred Nobel’s brother died, several newspapers accidentally published his obituary instead. He was remembered as, “The merchant of death who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.”

Devastated, Nobel spent the next seven years making sure he left a legacy that mattered. And then, one year before his death, he created the most prestigious award in human history. Looks like he made the right decision. That’s the whole thing about mattering: The people who do so are the ones who choose so. Who is thanking you for making that choice?

5. Every anxiety is another chance to inhale. Yoga has doubled my pain tolerance. For serious. Thanks to my practice, when I experience moments of discomfort, waves of anxiety, even bonafide bouts of physical agony, I’ve trained myself to breathe through it.

Which doesn’t make the pain go away, it just changes your relationship to the experience of it. Turns out, when you greet the pain with a welcoming and thankful heart, you can use its momentum against itself to convert it into a meditation. When was the last time you gave thanks for your discomfort?

6. Every customer is another chance to research. Even if the customer is unprofitable. Even if the customer is a pain in the ass. Even if the customer is someone you hope takes a long walk off a short pier. Every one of them is a walking case study. Every one of them has the potential to make you smarter.

Listen to them. Loudly. Rejection is cheaper than silence. And don’t forget to take notes, too. Because these people will happily tell you what to sell to them – and how to sell it. Probably not through words, but they’ll still tell you. Whose feedback are you listening to?

7. Every question is another chance to catapult. My presentations overflow with disturbing questions. Not because I want people to answer them, but because I want to flip a mental switch inside their heads.

That’s the mark of a good question: Once you hear it, you’re changed forever. Once you hear it, you can’t get it out of your head. And once you hear it, you begin to answer it with your life.

Next time you attend another pointless department meeting, see if you can ask the most disturbing question of the day. Because it only takes one moment of stunned silence to change everything. What questions are you known for?

8. Every accident is another chance to leverage. Leverage is the bridge between occurrence and opportunity. And since everything unfolds regardless of how we feel, it all depends on how you approach what happens to you.

First, get good at recognizing when life is giving you a gift. Listen to your unintentional music. That way, you can convert accidents into advantages. Next, get good and calmly coping with inconvenience. Instead of fighting or flighting – try friending. It’s much easier to respond to the crap the world hurls at you.

And last, view accidents as adventures and not ordeals. Try making a list of every good thing that will come from change. Do you welcome every opportunity to build resilience?

9. Every conversation is another chance to respect. Being an asshole is not a scalable business model. If you want your people to gasp with delight, help them feel more respected every time they deal with you. Learn to see the world through their eyes. And participate in their lives – not just the conversation about their lives.

I’m reminded of my mentors, Arthur and Bill. They’re more than twice my age – and probably thrice my intelligence – yet both of them ask for my advice almost every time we talk. Point is: Respect is the engine of communication. And we can always sense when it starts sputtering. Who have you disrespected this week?

10. Every audience is another chance to shine. Even if it’s only one person – that’s still an audience. We live in an experience economy. And if you’re not willing to invest a little effort in the art of showmanship, customers will take their business elsewhere. To become a hard act to follow, consider these ideas:

First, ask your audiences to take part in the communication of an idea. Instead of expecting passive recipients, demand an active participant. Second, take a moment to make a memory. Burn the service moment into people’s brains. Third, create a verbal incident. Add something to their lives and rewards them for spending time with it. What’s your sharing device?

REMEMBER: Life without risk, isn’t.

Draw a chance card.

It’s the only way to win.

Especially if you’re playing against my older brother.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are you taking chances on?

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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!

NametagTV: Compressing Time

You can borrow time. You can make time. You can steal time. You can save time. You can take time. You can find time. You can buy time. You can eat time.

But that takes time.

And you’re a pretty busy guy.

ASK YOURSELF THIS: What if you compressed time?

That’s what I’ve been doing since say one.

When I started my company right out of college, I was hungry, impatient and on fire. Ready to take my ideas into the world and change it forever, no matter how many people thought I was crazy.

The only problem was, I had no credentials. No foundation. No body of experience. And certainly no leveragable assets that could become something bigger.

That’s when I learned how to compress time. And here’s how to make it work for you:1. Learn the art of volume. The first lesson I learned as an author was, if you’ve published a book, people think you’re smart. Even if the book is a joke – it’s still a book. Ink is credibility. Which led to the second lesson I learned as an author: If you want people to think you’re really smart, write a dozen books.

So I did. In eight years.

Because it doesn’t matter if you’re right – it matters if you’re everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing – it matters if you’re doing a ton of it. It doesn’t matter if you’re good – it matters if you’re visible. It doesn’t matter if you’re put together – it matters if you’re putting something down.

It doesn’t matter if you’re persuasive – it matters if you’re pervasive. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the right place at the right time – it matters if you’re in a lot of places. How will you use volume to make your voice matter?

2. Waiting is the new working. I no longer mind waiting in line. I’ve accepted the following reality: Life is the line. There’s nowhere to get to. There’s no future. All you have is right now. And I don’t know about you, but if I’m waiting, I’m writing. Even if only for twenty seconds at a time. You’d be amazed how easily a year of lines turns into a box of books.

Instead of looking at your watch, huffing and puffing and trying to enlist the other people in line to join your pity party, make love to the present moment. Then take notes. Because if you don’t write it down, it never happened. But if you build portable creative environments for yourself; you can leverage every micromoment that presents itself. And I guarantee you’ll triple your output. Are trying to find time, make time or steal time?

3. Make energy a priority. If you can’t put more hours in your life, you can always put more life in your hours. That’s the big secret about time: Having more energy not only compresses it – it multiplies it. Think about it: When you’re truly fueled, you take on more work, you solve bigger problems, you pursue bigger challenges, you contribute more value and have greater confidence in the process.

The secret is, you have to become a master of your own energy patterns. That means knowing what makes the most energy available to you. That means identifying what your biggest energy drains are. And that means developing a personal system for replenishing your energy reserve whenever it’s depleted.

Soon, an hour of your time will be more just as meaningful – if not more – than an entire week of someone with poor energy management. On a scale from one to ten, how effectively do you manage your energy?

4. It’s not the years – it’s the mileage. We learn not from our experiences, but from intelligent reflection upon those experiences. As such, wisdom has nothing to do with how much time has past and everything to do with what you did with the past. In the words of the wise philosopher, Henry Rollins, “Wisdom without experience is bullshit.”

If you want to compress time, get direct experience any way you can. Intentionally put yourself in situations that force you to grow up quickly. Write down everything that happens to you along with what you learned along the way. And then teach those lessons to others. You can gain five years of experience in six months. Are you a master at to drawing wisdom from every experience?

5. Execution is a process of elimination. The reason I was able to write a dozen books in eight years is not because I’m superhuman. It’s not because I’m a genius. And it’s not because I’m a better writer than anyone. I just know how to delete. Here’s a quick overview of my publishing and consulting company:

No meetings. No busywork. No status reports. No television. No task requests. No putting out fires. No managing people. No micromanaging people. No committees to go in front of. No office politics. No office. No commute. No distractions. No paperwork.

And after deleting all of that noise, what are you left with? Work. That. Matters. I challenge you to make a list of twenty things you could easily delete from your day. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to compress time. What things are you doing – everyday – that make absolutely no sense at all?

6. Audit the company you keep. Life’s too short to surround yourself with people who don’t challenge and inspire you. If you want to compress time, play with people who are better than you. That way you can absorb their experiences, sponge from their knowledge and grow from their mistakes. As Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour once said, “You have to put yourself in an environment where you get your ass kicked.”

That’s why I don’t have a mentor – I have a galaxy of mentors. And the accumulated insight from each of their life experiences compresses my time beyond belief. Just make sure you’re not bypassing real experience. Becoming a clone of people you admire gets you nowhere.

The point is: If you can’t whistle while you work, you may as well hustle while you wait. As every unforgiving minute passes by, will you be disciplined enough to practice fertile idleness?

REMEMBER: Your time isn’t just valuable – it’s compressible.

Stop trying to steal what you need to shrink.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you finding time or compressing it?

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For a list called, “66 Questions to Prevent Your Time from Managing You,” 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]

Sick of selling?
Tired of cold calling?
Bored with traditional prospecting approaches?

Buy Scott’s book and learn how to ~~sell~~ enable people to buy!

Pick up your copy (or a case!) right here.

Does Your Company Take Itself Too Seriously?

Think about the last time one of your customers made the following complaint:

“I like their product, but I just wish the company would take themselves more seriously.”

Exactly. They’ve never said that. Ever.

WHICH MAKES SENSE: We live in a litigious, hypersensitive and politically correct society.

And instead of branding their humanity, organizations – in the name of “professionalism” – are prohibiting their employees from expressing any shred of soul in their work.

Here’s why it’s dangerous to take yourself too seriously:

You limit yourself.
You lose perspective.
You miss moments of joy.
You stifle the growth process.
You create unnecessary stress.
You forget who you really are.

This has got to stop.

Today we’re going to explore a few ideas to help take yourself less seriously:1. Grandiosity isn’t relatable. If your commercial only shows the product at the very end and spends the rest of the time pontificating about its awesomeness, you’re too serious. If your promo video is nothing but an overproduced, epic adventure that says nothing about what actually makes the product unique, you’re too serious.

It’s not enough to get over yourself – you have to stay over yourself too. And part of that process is admitting that your marketing doesn’t always have to solve the world’s problems. Yes, people are buying more than just what you sell. But not every customer cares which organic farm your cocoa beans came from. Sometimes they just want the cookie. Is your brand still riding the wave of elitist pretention?

2. Master the wink. Smart brands create a smile in the mind. The subtly tug our emotional heartstrings in a playful, respectful way. And instead of carefully architecting their image in every touchpoint, they steep themselves in casual panache.

That’s the secret to taking yourself less seriously: Adopting a more playful attitude in everything you do. Extracting the innate and inevitable funniness of your brand. Not through jokes. Not through cheap laughs. But through true humor. After all, humor is the only universal language. And it has the capacity to override people’s native defenses.

But, not if you use it as an additive. That’s not humor – that’s hair gel. And not if you use it at other people’s expense, that’s not humor – that’s cruelty. Are you aiming for stiff, formal and starched; or flexible, bouncy and sweet?

3. Playful is the new professional. Professional is just a word for brands that seek sanitize the soul out of business. Instead of delivering emotionless, forgettable non-service, bring your humanity to the moment.

Don’t let the feeling of formality keep you from communicating freely, either. Speak with soul. Ante up the emotional temperature. Delete every dehydrated, annoying, tired, vague, empty, overused eye-rolling piece of jargon in your marketing materials.

Talk friendly. Talk like people talk. Because the goal of your brand is make this moment, right now, a more humane, pleasant passing of time. How much value are you sacrificing on the altar of professionalism?

4. Stop nickel and diming customers. I used to work in guest services for a large hotel chain. And in the two years of my stint, the most consistent complaint from our guests was about minor charges. But that wasn’t surprising: The bigger the hotel, the more small things you have to pay for. Drury Inn, on the other hand, positions their brand with the tagline, “Where the extras aren’t extra.”

Free breakfast. Free beverages. Free copies. Free wireless. Free phone calls. Free cable. Free parking. Free coffee.

Which probably costs them a nice chunk of change at the end of the year. But at least thousands of their guests don’t check out pissed off. What about you? Please tell me you don’t take yourself so seriously that you’re sacrificing experience on the altar of expense. Not good for business. How often are you nickel and diming your customers?

5. Educate yourself in the language of humility. First, publicly celebrate mistakes. Prove to people that you’re willing to support and learn from failure. Second, engage young people by asking them to teach you. And actually listen to and take notes on what they shared.

Third, flip through your daily planner from five years ago when the economy was thriving. Remember how good that felt. Fourth, create a daily gratitude wall at your office. Use sticky notes and never write the same thing twice. And lastly, start a daily blog. The commitment required for writing and maintaining it will shock the hell out of you.

Ultimately, it’s hard to take yourself too seriously when if you’re busy knocking yourself off of your pedestal. When was the last time you did something for the first time?

6. Creativity doesn’t erase credibility. Just because you work in a conservative industry doesn’t mean you should be afraid of doing something offbeat. And just because your company serves sensitive customers doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun.

I once stumbled across a website for a urology clinic that specialized in vasectomies. Their practice leader was a surgeon named Doctor Richard Chop. His patients affectionately called him, “Dr. Dick Chop.” Swear to god. That guy couldn’t take himself too seriously if he tried.

Nobody gets a free pass out of creativity. It’s everybody’s job. Who is murdering your creative nature?

REMEMBER: There are some things in life worth taking seriously.

Health. Values. Relationships. Commitments. Honesty. The new season of Glee.

But when it comes to your business, when it comes to your brand and most importantly, when it comes to your employees and customers – lighten up.

Nobody ever got mad at their boss for being too much fun.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are your predictions for the future?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a list called, “11 Ways to Out Google 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]

–Gilly Johnson The Australian Mentoring Center

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

Adventures in Nametagging: Makeup, Baristas and Geography

“Acts of friendliness in moments of anonymity.”

That’s why I wear a nametag:

To invite people to join me, to remind the world that face to face is making a comeback and to create spontaneous moments of authentic human interaction infused with a spirit of humor, playfulness and connection.

And if a picture is worth a thousand words, a nametag is worth a thousand stories.

Here are my most recent adventures:*DAY 3,878: Today I had to buy powder for a video shoot. Not having a lot of experience purchasing makeup, I sought out a woman’s opinion. “Which of these shades should I go with – sand or cream?” I asked the lady next to me. She took a hard glance and said, “Well Scott, you’re pretty white. I’d say cream.”

*DAY 3,879: Today the barista asked me for the name on my coffee order. Usually I don’t answer. I just wait until they look up from the computer and notice my nametag. Sometimes they feel embarrassed. Sometimes they just say thanks. Either way, I just wish baristas would pay more attention to their customers.

*DAY 3,880: Today I was reading a book outside of a coffee shop. A woman asked me if I was the guy who wore a nametag everyday. I said yes. She told me she followed me on Twitter, and we ended up having a delightful conversation. Diane had just relocated with her boyfriend from Seattle to St. Louis. When I asked why, she said, “Love trumps geography.”

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What was your best nametag related adventure?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “71 Things Customers Don’t Want to Hear You Say,” 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!

Six Ways to Prove What Matters

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri.

Affectionately known as, “The Show Me State.”

According to the state government homepage, the most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903.

“I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have to show me.”

THAT’S THE REALITY: Even if you’re not from Missouri, you still need to show people the proof.

Customers, employees, bosses, fans, competitors – and of course, yourself.

Today we’re going to explore six ways to prove what matters:1. Criticism is proof of visibility. I won’t pretend that negative feedback doesn’t hurt. It does. Every time. I’m not impervious to those feelings. When I get a message from a reader who thinks I’m spitting hot garbage, I take it personally. After all, I’m a person. And the persons who take things personally are the persons who make things better.

Besides, if people aren’t reacting, you’re doing something wrong. May as well be winking in the dark. Personally, I’d rather be shot to the ground that not remarkable enough to be a target. Sure beats being ignored. When was the last time someone said you were out of your mind?

2. Doubt is proof of legitimacy. Feeling like a fraud is a right of passage. It helps you get over yourself, helps you to stay over yourself and installs the proper humility required to win. Instead of trying to eradicate feelings of inadequacy, lean into the doubt.

Override the disbelief by telling your face that you’re enough. You’ll discover that what you say to yourself when you have doubts about yourself determines how, when and if you make a name for yourself. Feeling like a fraud? Fantastic. That means you’re doing something right. That means you’re stretching. When was the last time you questioned your own abilities?

3. Fear is proof of mattering. In The Courage To Write, Ralph Keyes says, “If you’re not scared, you’re not writing.” That’s the cool part about fear: When you find the places that scare you, you find the work that needs to be done. In that respect, fear isn’t a crisis – it’s a compass. And if you have enough faith, you can use fear as a guide to where your heart belongs.

It all hinges on your willingness to change your relationship to fear. To start greeting, bowing, hugging, investing and leveraging it – rather that hiding from it. Are you brave enough to go after what you want?

4. Resistance is proof of rightness. If the work is too easy, it might be the wrong work. As Steven Pressfield writes in Do The Work, “The more important an action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance will feel toward pursuing it.”

The good new is, when you’re willing to endure the period of difficulty that wipes out most of the competition, you don’t just come out first – you come out focused. Because you picked the right work. Or maybe the right work picked you. Either way. Are you willing to bleed for it?

5. Promiscuity is proof of life. If you die a virgin, you did something wrong. And I’m not talking about sex. A virgin is simply someone who’s untapped, uninitiated, uninformed and underexposed. That’s no way to live. As Henry Rollins wrote in A Mad Dash:

“I want to make life run for its life. I want to be a pain in life’s ass. I want life to celebrate the day I die. I want life to finally get a breather once I’m dead.”

That’s the advantage of promiscuity: Your experiences turn into leveragable assets. Will you end the innocence to begin the opportunity?

6. Struggle is proof of life. A life of ups and ups is boring, uneducational and uninspiring. Besides, if nothing bad ever happens, you’ll never know what good feels like. If nothing bad ever happens, you’ll never learn how to cope. And if nothing bad ever happens, you’ll never strengthen the muscle of resilience.

Maybe it’s time to paint yourself into a painful corner. To practice a little voluntary suffering. To put yourself in a position where you have no choice but to struggle. Are you still trying to outsmart getting hurt?

REMEMBER: If you want people to believe, you have to show them.

Practice proving what matters.

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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!

9 Business Trends That Aren’t Going Away

Last time I was in Florida, I passed a woman on the beach wearing a shirt that read:

“Pregnant is the new skinny.”

I was beside myself. Not just because of the shirt itself, but because of the overall ridiculousness of the fashion industry.

HERE’S THE REALITY: Fashion isn’t about your appearance – it’s about your approach to life.

Straight from my monthly column at American Express Open Forum, today we’re going to explore a collection of trends that aren’t going away:1. Inspire is the new motivate. You can’t motivate anybody to do anything. All you can do is inspire them to motivate themselves. Find out what fuels people – then fill the tank.

Like the Saturday Night Live character, Matt Foley. He convinced us that a boisterous man in a plaid blazer, hopped up on twelve cups of coffee – who lived in a van down by the river – could motivate another human being. Yeah no. Who are you inviting to do something great?

2. Join is the new buy. Este Lauder once said, “Women don’t buy brands, they join them.” When I first heard that quotation, my inner geography changed forever. And I eventually came to a conclusion that has yet to be disputed: Good brands are bought, great brands are joined.

Otherwise, people are just giving you money. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in making money – I want to make history. If you want your brand to last, it has to connect on visceral level, engage on a human level and unite with it on a personal level. How joinable are you?

3. Judgment is the new access. When information is infinite, people don’t need information, they need people who can explain the information they’ve already found.

The point is: Curators aren’t just for museums. In an increasingly commoditized marketplace, service is the key differentiator. And if you can make your customers smarter by explaining the world to them, you win. Can you interpret and translate better than anyone?

4. Love is the new black. As long as you’re unfair about it. As long as you find the people who don’t deserve and offer to them freely and fully when they least expect it. Like the Sofitel. When I arrived last month at their New York property, their system showed no record of my reservation.

A bit annoyed, I ended up staying across the street at a competing hotel. No problem. But when I got my credit card statement, Sofitel still billed me. Later, after speaking with his reservations manager, he decided to refund the charge immediately. The Sofitel earned a fan for life from a guest who never even stayed there. They rewarded my mistake. Are you loving people don’t deserve it?

5. Naked is the new uniform. Wearing a nametag twenty-four seven is a risk. But it’s also good practice. Practice being vulnerable, that is. And as I continue to reflect on the past ten years of adhesive adventures, I’m slowly starting to realize the connection between vulnerability, approachability and profitability.

But when you open yourself to the world, the world will opens its wallet to you. But only if you’re willing to strip away the superficialities and occupy your vulnerability. Are you willing to lay it bare?

6. Offline is the new online. Although Watson the computer not only won Jeopardy – but, was the first to buzz in on twenty-five out of thirty answers – he did manage to answer one question wrong: The question about art.

Lesson learned: Having access to two hundred million pages of content still doesn’t mean you know how to feel. The heartbeat of the human experience is a function of emotion – not information.

Face to face is making a comeback. And we can’t solely filter our lives through pixels. Not if we want those lives to matter. Are you talking to people with your mouth or your thumbs?

7. Playful is the new professional. Retaining childlikeness makes you more approachable, more relaxing to be around and more relatable to all ages. That’s what my nametag does: It makes this moment, right now, a more humane, pleasant passing of time.

From my handwritten nametag to my trademark philosophy card to my daily fill in the blank exercise, my goal is create simultaneous engagement and entertainment, both online and off.

What does your brand do for people? And do those people care enough about your brand to take a moment, take a picture and make a memory? I hope so. Because you have to let people into the moment.

Induce participation. And intuitively respond to the human thirst for connection. People won’t just buy you — they’ll join you. Forever. Are you providing an opportunity for people to participate in a way that speaks to their individual needs?

8. Transience is the new permanence. The Internet is forever. Every tiny moment now lasts forever. Better be careful what you publish. Dishonesty has a limited shelf life. According to a recent study from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, eighty percent of divorce lawyers have reported a spike in the number of cases that use social media for evidence of cheating.

Still, this problem isn’t the computer – the problem is the character of the person using it. People don’t get divorced because of Facebook – they get divorced because dishonesty is written all over their face. Employees don’t get fired for blogging – they get fired for being stupid.

Organizational leaders don’t go to jail because some intern squealed – they go to jail because they’re morally bankrupt cracker-honkeys.

If you choose to live a dishonest life offline – there’s going to be a huge echo online. And your digital footprint will slip on the technological banana peel and destroy the things that matter most in your life. Do you want to become known for what you’re about to do?

9. Waiting is the new working. I love waiting in lines. I’ve accepted the reality that: Life is the line. There’s nowhere to get to. There’s no future. All you have is right now. And I don’t know about you, but if I’m waiting, I’m writing. Even if only for twenty seconds at a time.

You’d be amazed how easily a year of lines turns into a box of books. Instead of looking at your watch, huffing and puffing and trying to enlist the other people in line to join your pity party, make love to the present moment. Then take notes. Because if you don’t write it down, it never happened.

If you build portable creative environments for yourself; you can leverage every micromoment that presents itself. And I guarantee you’ll triple your output. Are trying to find time, make time or steal time?

REMEMBER: The trends that have nothing to do with clothes are the ones that matter most.

Keep these new fashions in the front of your mind.

Stick yourself out there today.

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

–Gilly Johnson The Australian Mentoring Center

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NametagTV: Sales Love Letters

Companies that inject soul, win.
Companies who are touchy feely, win.
Companies willing to brand their humanity, win.

That’s not customer service – that’s a love letter.

But, contrary to popular conditioning:

Love is not a weakness.
Love is not a combination lock.
Love is not an instrument of control.

No.

Love is the bell that’s always ringing.

THE QUESTION IS: Is your brand brave enough to hear it?

Here’s how to turn your interactions into love letters:1. Make loving you easy. In the opening scene of the award-winning film, The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend complains, “Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster!”

Ever encountered a business like that? Sure you have. And odds are, you probably never went back. That’s where companies blow it: They overlook the importance of making their brand a welcome oasis. A place of refuge, a place of belonging and a place of connection.

My yoga studio, on the other hand, breathes out the love people need. It’s a place where every student feels welcomed, affirmed and encouraged from the moment they strut in to the moment they stumble out.

The best part is, by the end of class, you’ve completely forgotten about the fact that you just sweat off seven pounded of water weight doing the hardest possible physical exertion known to man. And you feel like you could take on the world. That’s hard not to love. Are you?

2. Choose heart over handbook. Love cannot be done from a script. If it were, it wouldn’t be love – it would be calculus. Instead of being a passionless rule follower, give yourself permission to make every connection more human. Give your people permission to be more promiscuous with their love.

If that means going off script and improvising to meet customers where they are, do it. If that means breaking a small rule to give the gift of deepened connection, do it. And if that means rewarding (not just forgiving, but rewarding) a customer for making a mistake, do it.

Because once you’ve accumulated all of those moments of humanity, you’ve built an asset that nobody can take away. And it’s worth much more than some sterile handbook employees never look at again after their third week on the job. Customers are desperate to be touched. Give them what they want. Are your love letters coated in ink or blood?

3. Learn to be indiscriminate. Love is like creativity: The more you use it, the more you have. The hard part is finding the customers who don’t deserve it and offering it to them freely and fully when they least expect it. That’s love worth crossing the street for: When you welcome people into your home, even though you wish they stayed at theirs.

Try writing a few of these questions on sticky notes and posting them around your office or by your phone:

*What would love do in this situation?
*What do you are you choosing instead of love?
*How can you help yourself choose love instead?
*How many acts of love have you performed today?
*How will you use this as another opportunity to be more loving?

Over time, these questions will seep into your subconscious and infiltrate your work on a daily basis. People will notice. Are willing to be unfair with your heart?

4. Don’t give – pour. Love is any interaction that reduces the distance, enhances the bond between people and gives the precious gift of a strengthened connection. And most of the time, it sneaks in the side door when you’re busy doing something good.

Here’s what I do: Any time you encounter someone in a bad mood, just assume they feel unloved. Don’t take over. Don’t try to fix or solve. And don’t try to dilute the distaste. Just pour in more love. Just dance in the moment and respond to the other person’s immediate experience.

Be brave enough to say nothing when speaking would be faster, and be bold enough to apologize when pride would easier. Because there’s always something left to love. You’ll secure a spot in people’s hearts forever. Are you trying to fix the carburetor when you should be watering the flower?

5. Show up for people. Open your store ten minutes early. Keep your doors unlocked ten minutes late. Answer the phones after normal business hours. Talk to customers while you’re still setting up the booth. Field a few questions on your lunch break. Leave comments on customer’s digital platforms. Come in for an hour on Sunday. Follow up six months later just to see how everything is going.

These are the love letters smart companies send. And that’s your challenge: Not just to show up, but to show up when you’re tired and scared. To show up when you’re not asked, not ready and not prepared. To show up when you’re not expected, not being paid and not in the mood. And to show up when it’s not your place, not your job and not your responsibility.

Truth is, love is the natural impulse of the heart. And it would be a shame to suppress it just to comply with some outdated, pointless rule that strokes the ego of a soulless executive in windowless boardroom. Show up for your customers. When is it hardest for you to show up?

REMEMBER: Your brand is measured by how you love.

Lead with your heart.

Tell your customers you love them before somebody else does.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you making sales calls or writing love letters?

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

Sick of selling?
Tired of cold calling?
Bored with traditional prospecting approaches?

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The Nametag Manifesto — Chapter 16: The End of Entitlement

[ 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:

16. The End of Entitlement

If everybody wears
nametags, deeper humility results.

Instead of arrogantly assuming everybody already knows us – or
that we’re too important, too busy and too entitled to be approachable –
nametags ground us.

Now, they level the playing field so nobody is too good to
reveal themselves.

Nametags engender a greater sense of social warmth, as
opposed to separating people by whether or not their job function or role
requires them to publicly identify themselves.

If everybody wears
nametags, no more us versus them, no more power struggles and no more
unfairness.

# # #

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

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* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting

[email protected]

My job is to help companies make their mission more than a statement, using limited edition social artifacts.

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Tag: scott ginsberg

NametagTV: Interactions That Matter

How to Build Story Equity

Ten Chances Worth Taking

NametagTV: Compressing Time

Does Your Company Take Itself Too Seriously?

Adventures in Nametagging: Makeup, Baristas and Geography

Six Ways to Prove What Matters

9 Business Trends That Aren’t Going Away

NametagTV: Sales Love Letters

The Nametag Manifesto — Chapter 16: The End of Entitlement