Accountability is the cost of control

The other night I had my academic anxiety dream again. 

It’s the one where it’s the last day of the semester and my group is scheduled to present our big research project in front of the class and I haven’t written a word. Ugh

I’m completely mortified and just want to run away from all my responsibilities. It’s the worst feeling in the world. You just wish the ground would open up and swallow you. 

But then, when I wake up with palms sweaty and my pulse elevated, I remember that it’s just a dream, there’s no deadline, I’m not going to fail out of school and my group members are not going to hate me for abandoning them. Thank god. 

The irony is, when you work for yourself, running away isn’t an option. Because you’re the sole shot caller. And so, if it’s the morning of your big presentation and you’re not prepared, there’s nobody to blame but yourself. 

But that’s a good thing. In the absence of having others to hold their feet to the fire, entrepreneurs are forced to take full responsibility for their work. They’re permanently painted into an accountable corner. And that molds them into highly dependable professionals. 

It’s the equivalent of an outward bound program for businesspeople. Everyone ought to try it sometime.

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When was the last time you wanted to run away from your responsibilities?

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Surround yourself with evidence of your achievements

Perfection is overrated and impossible. 

All that counts it that you make progress in your work. That you move the story forward if only an inch. After all, slow, steady progress can erode almost any challenge over time. 

And so, celebration is so essential. It’s a ritual that amplifies your sense of progress. It’s a reminder that you’re in alignment with your vision. That’s why it’s vital to find daily occasions to enjoy and your attainment of milestones. Especially on longer projects, where it’s easy to lose a sense of momentum as the days and months pass. You have punch yourself in the face with visual reminders of your advancement. 

Something I learned over my year long documentary project was, don’t just enjoy your progress, memorialize it. Take pictures and make posters and do victory dances around the studio and hang artifacts on the refrigerator. No matter how dopey it feels. These celebration rituals are emotionally invigorating and always a worthwhile investment of your time. 

The secret, though, is making sure you don’t get too carried away by your own enthusiasm. Because for every effort you make to celebrate your progress, you also have to protect it. You have to guard yourself against the things that can diminish your sense of progress. 

Imagine the classical composer who, feeling energized by her new idea for a concept album, decides to share that vision with a few family members over the holidays. But she picks the wrong people. Overwhelmed with excitement, she accidentally gushes to a few disapproving relatives who do nothing but belittle her ambitions. And before she knows it, her sense of progress is completely derailed. Bummer. 

It’s a balance. You must take measures to both amplify and protect your progress.

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What’s your system for surrounding yourself with evidence of achievement?

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Work Manifesto

A hundred years ago, almost nobody on the planet had a job.

But they still worked.

Because that’s what our species does. We work.

I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and come up with something I called “The Work Manifesto.”

Enjoy!

Work encompasses all we do, paid and unpaid, throughout our lives. It’s what anchors our life with regular experiences of meaningfulness. It’s an institution that’s a fixture in every stage of life, but it’s also is the best way of escaping from life. It’s an endeavor that gives us the spirit of continuity and centrality and pays us the psychological salary of pride, honor and integrity.

Work is the organizing principle of life. It’s the iron rod in the center and validation of our existence. It isn’t just our plight, it’s our purpose. It’s where challenges ask us to tap into reservoirs of strength and patience we didn’t know we had. Work is how we create fulfillment, limited only by our imagination’s ability to create scenarios that excite us.

Work is a daily routine that ensures our days have a cadence and rhythm of movement. It’s a center of belonging where we connect to the collective human heart. It’s a contribution to the world where we become productive members of society. It’s where we go to find out what our true self really is. Work it’s the prime means to express our sense of who we are.

Work is an outlet for coming alive through the pursuit of our ideas. It’s the thing we do to build a stable life. It’s a platform we use to do art, hone skills, build a reputation and make our mark on other people. It’s a holy arena for our highest self and a home for all of our talents. Work is our necessity, our pleasure and our playground.

Work is where we channel our ambition and satisfy the most primal and sacred fundament of our being. It’s where we practice the act of dreaming, doing and finishing, driving straight to the heart of what it means to be a person. Work is what informs our sense of self, contributes to our identity and provides us with positive personal affect.

Work is what gives us a secure place in a portion of reality. It’s our human imperative. It is a core conversation with life that gives us the chance to be as smart as we are. It’s how we find satisfaction by creating value through toil. Work is how we intentionally mold and fit our experiences in a way that excites us and feed our soul.

Work is the process of creating something for the purpose of human flourishing. It is the creative process of operating in the world, making things happen for others in exchange for the stuff we want. It is the collaborative, purposeful spirit of enterprise. Work is the mission and endeavor that captures our imaginations, enlists and transfers our energies.

Work is how we accumulate psychic nourishment, realize our species character and inhabit and intelligible moral order. It is a practice that has internal good and engages our attention. It is what opens us up into a chamber of consciousness that brings some measure of coherence to our lives. Work is done the service of an activity that we recognize as part of a life well lived.

Work is putting our best abilities into play and having the fruits of our labor rewarded fairly. It is what provides our much needed sense of foundation. It is being in touch with our environment in a way that benefits our heart. It is the struggle to show ourselves––and the people around us––our sense of individual agency, responsibility and competence. Work is what sums up all of the activities we do that make us the human beings we are.

Work is where the great majority has access to achievement, to fulfillment and to community. It is a matter of marshaling one’s will and initiative in the service of extrinsic motivations. It is any value we create that requires us to spend our time, focus and energy. It is the active compliance of the self. It is the prolonged exertion in the service of obligations and inducements. Work is what we do out of a sense of personal obligation, duty and destiny.

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What’s your definition of work?

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Moments of Conception 154 — The Preparation Scene from Little Giants

All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

And so, in this blog series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today’s clip comes from the preparation scene from Little Giants:

What can we learn?





Create an abundance of confidence capital. Modern psychology research warns us about the dangers of the digital dopamine
loop. How getting sucked into the online ego vortex of monitoring the world’s
reaction to our work can stifle productivity and deteriorate mental health.
Then again, we’re all adults. We’re all old enough to make our own decisions
about which drugs, if any, we choose to use. Even dopamine. Because when it
comes to that particular neurotransmitter, there’s something to be said about
judicious use. Because that hit dopamine can
be
a confidence building action. Especially in the early stages of a
project or even a career, when we take our confidence wherever we can get it.
Those little spikes in self assurance go a long way. Carlin used to say that
although he stopped smoking pot, he always had a joint nearby. Because
when he was writing and really pouring it out, one hit was all he needed. One
hit, and it was punch up time. With that judicious use, there was some value.
Dopamine works the same way. When we discover that somebody commented on or
spread the word about our work, that experience ignites a chain of confidence. The world’s affirmation of our work changes our frame
of reference in how we think about our own abilities. And
it’s just enough of a boost to keep the story moving forward. What
confidence building action could you taken this week?



Small victories first. Mastery is highly overrated. Life isn’t always about
being the best at what you do, it’s about being the best of who you are. That’s
enough. And once you become okay with that being enough, life is a lot more
satisfying and lot less stressful. Of course, you still have to believe. You
still have to own your value. Because when you get out on the field, and your
confidence in your competence is not in tact, you’ll get murdered out there.
This team of underdogs has zero confidence. Rashid, for example, couldn’t catch
a football if he had glue on his hands. And he’s supposedly the team’s star
receiver. So during practice, the coach teaches him to run passing routes with
rolls of toilet paper, which he snags every time. Coach found a way to lower
the threat level of the task of catching to build his player’s confidence. Score. This movie reminds us to learn
to learn to love the drudgery of small, simple tasks that push us in the right
direction. Because each of us gains confidence in ourselves once we’ve proved
to ourselves that we can be successful. And so, every victory counts. There’s
no such thing as small win. A win is a win is a win. What micro accomplishes would help build your confidence?



Expand your energetic relationship with the world. Pregame rituals are essentials. Whether you’re playing
football, performing comedy or painting murals, everybody needs a good on ramp. A routine that gets them in the mood,
in the flow and in the zone, so that by the time they actually hit the highway
of life, they’re traveling at the same speed as traffic, and can navigate the
road effectively. I’ve heard urban
legends about athletes who sleep in the opposing team’s uniforms the night
before the game, perform aboriginal dances on the field, obsessively line up
all the water bottles on the sidelines, eating fistfuls of grass before walking
on the field, even urinating on their own equipment in the locker room. Whatever works. The weirder the
better. If a ritual helps you communicate with yourself and expand your
energetic relationship to the world, it’s worthwhile. In fact, it’s less
important what we do, and more important that
we do it. Because rituals matter. It’s the conscious practice of mindfulness,
the ceremonial acknowledgment of importance, and the intentional celebration of
meaning, which keeps us focused and grounded and fueled and connected. Something that’s especially useful
when the enemy aims to annihilate us. What
rituals are you known for?



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What did you learn from this movie clip?

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For a copy of the list called, “5 Creative Ways to Approach the Sale,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!


Money is a lubricant for other things

As I’ve admitted many times before, I’d rather be heard than paid. It’s just the way I’m wired. Much more of an artist than a businessperson. And I’ve made peace with that part of myself. 

However, as my business continues to grow, I’ve stopped telling myself and others that money isn’t important to me. Because that’s just not true. It’s really just false humility. It’s me overcompensating for the fact that I grew up with money and harbored a lot of guilt around it and never wanted anyone to think I was a spoiled rich kid. 

I’m reminded of something my mentor once told me: 

You’ll never be wealthy if money isn’t important to you. 

He was right. Money may not be my primary motivator, but it can’t mean nothing. And so, what I’ve learned to do is reframe the construct of money into something more aligned with my values and meaning making mission. I view it not as the focus of my work, but as the fuel that allows me to keep doing my work. Money advances my ability to pursue my creative vision and bankrolls my capacity to contribute to the world. Money affords me the opportunity to follow my dreams and inspire others to follow theirs. Money surrounds me with more activity that will inherently increase my opportunity stream. And money buys me discretionary time so that I can pursue my various interests when I’m not working. 

Proving, that money doesn’t buy meaning, but it does allow you to spend more of your waking hours pursuing things that procure meaning. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How do you tie the concept of money to your deeply held values?

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For a copy of 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

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Get people to want you to come do things for them

Your overarching business goal is actually quite simple.

Get people to want you to come do things for them. 

Let’s unpack the strategy behind each of the key words in that sentence. 

First, get, meaning earning attention and trust through the delivery of unique value. 

Second, people, meaning opening yourself to broad audiences in multiple spheres. 

Third, want, meaning creating enough good in the world that the market targets you. 

Fourth, you, meaning what you’re known for, what you’re known as and what you’re known for knowing. 

Fifth, to come, meaning the mere access to your brainpower is worth money. 

Sixth, do things, meaning the dissemination of your expertise into diverse avenues. 

And finally, for them, meaning the impact of their ownership of your value improves their condition. 

Get people to want you to come do things for them. That’s the goal. And when they finally do, here’s the appropriate chain of action. 

Tell them you’ve been expecting their call. Express your gratitude for the opportunity. Raise your hand for the job. State your fee confidently. Ask for the sale. Book the gig. Make it laughable the amount of time you put in. Show up early. Be amazing. Make them miss you in their past. Make them regret not meeting you sooner. Train them to delegate certain chunks of their thinking to you. Finish the work. Express your gratitude again. Get the rest of the money. Then go to back work getting them to want you to come do even more things for them. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Is what you’re doing right now consistent with your number one goal?

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For a copy of the list called, “10 Ways to Make the Mundane Memorable,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Interrupt the worry stream with wonder

Learning how to relate to money in a better way can be as simple as changing the way you talk to yourself. 

For years, anytime I found myself with less money that I needed, I would start to worry to myself, crap, my bank account is dramatically low. But that kind of thought wasn’t serving me. I needed to eliminate the behaviors that stopped the flow of positive energy. I needed to give my mind a better technology. One that demonstrated my intention to create abundance. 

And so, I started reframing my worry as wonderment. Anytime I experienced tension around the money issue, I would wonder to myself, okay, how can I always have plenty of money to do all the things I want to do? 

That kind of thought changed everything. Whereas worrying invited heaviness and anxiety and tension and exhaustion, since it’s a survival and security mindset; wondering activated lightness and imagination and problem solving and peacefulness, since it’s an abundance and possibility mindset. 

Now, while this mental shift didn’t magically change the amount of money in my bank account, what it did do was help clear a path in my mind to help me move forward towards prosperity. It helped me relate to money in a better way. 

And so, next time you find yourself worrying about money, try wondering about it instead. Ask yourself big questions with absolutely sincerity and openness, and then allow life itself to become a living answer to them. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What might happen if you stopped the worry stream and introduced a wonder question?

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For a copy of the list called, “6 Ways to Out Answer Your Competitors,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

Moments of Conception 153 — The Losing Scene from Casino

All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

And so, in this blog series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today’s clip comes from the losing scene from Casino:

What can we learn?



If we can’t get in trouble, it’s not an adventure. Ace says that in the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and to keep them coming back. Because the longer they play, the more they lose. And in the end, the casino gets it all. That’s why I never play the casinos. The deck is literally stacked against me. But that doesn’t mean I’m not a gambling man. In fact, I bet on myself all the time. Because when you bet on yourself, it’s an asset you understand. And that’s the kind of risk I can get behind. Interestingly, according to modern portfolio management research, gambling actually becomes an investment once it meets the three specific criteria. First, the bet has to provide economic utility, because the good or service meets the demands of a consumer. Second, the bet has to yield positive expected returns in the long term, because the incrementalism pays off in the end. And third, the bet has to have underlying value independent of the risk being undertaken, because the experience of betting on yourself is meaningful in its own right. I like those odds. Because unlike the casino, as we continue along our creative journey, our steps become more certain. The more shots we take, the more precise and dangerous we become. The more we play, the more we win. How much of your income have you invested in yourself to further your vocation and passion?



Show people that you are a viable force. Casino is a movie about gatekeepers. Dealers and box men and pit bosses and floor managers and security guards and mob bosses. And these people, these authority figures, will happily punish the rule breakers by smashing their fingers with a ball peen hammer. But we don’t live in a casino. Not anymore. The world of gatekeepers where you have to wait for someone to say yes for you to practice your art is long gone. Now you can create a vehicle for yourself. Now you can open your own casino. Now you can can become you’re the craps player, card dealer, pit boss and security guard, all at the same time. But you have to move fast. Creativity is more than just knowing a good idea when you see it, it’s executing that idea before anyone else sees it. Like knowing when the deck of cards is due for an ace. Because odds are, somebody else is having a brilliant idea the same moment as you are. And so, the most responsible thing you can do as an artist is never wait. Like my mentor likes to say, just go be the first at something. Because there’s nothing more valuable than unclaimed real estate. Will you give yourself permission to go through a door nobody’s ever gone through before?



You don’t need money, you need permission. The costume budget for this film was one million dollars. One. Million. Dollars. Deniro had seventy different outfits throughout the film, and was allowed to keep every one of them. That’s obsceneYou could make forty movies on that amount alone. Of course, when you’re the most brilliant director in the history of film, you can ring the register as loud as you want. What’s interesting is, this movie was filmed twenty years ago. Back then, a naïve, inexperienced, underfunded artist wouldn’t dare such an ambitious project. But today’s filmmaker lives in a completely different world. Now that the resources are free and accessible to everybody, anybody can do anything for nothing. Which means the only thing stopping them is permission. Eighty percent of the distance between idea and execution is the mental construct of notenoughness. And so, if you’re forty years old and you still haven’t written that script or made that movie or produced that album, it’s not because of procrastination, it’s because you haven’t given yourself permission. Period. If you found yourself and your thoughts interesting, what might you try



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What did you learn from this movie clip?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “157 Pieces of Contrarian Wisdom,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!


Having The Guts To Be You: Mitch Matthews Interviews The Nametag Guy

I recently did an interview with my friend Mitch Matthews on his new podcast, Dream. Think. Do.

We talked about raising your hand for opportunity, never dreaming alone, being a cheerleader for other people’s dreams, protecting your thinking, outsourcing your weaknesses, creating opportunity filters, knowing your intrinsic triggers, and much more!



Thanks to the team for having me on the show!


LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Do you have the guts to be you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “38 Ways to Make Customers Gasp,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Nametag Guy Live @ Sycamore High School: On Failure

Last year I delivered a keynote presentation to 350 seniors at Sycamore High in Cincinnati, OH.

This particular clip tells the story about failing, learning from failing and viewing failing as another chapter in the story of life.

Enjoy!

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What are you turning your failures into?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of 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

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!


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