Can’t you just take a break from being amazing?

Perfection is unattractive and unrelatable and unsustainable. 

I understand we’re all actors and we’re all on stage and we’re all playing parts. But I have limited patience for people who carefully curate themselves as flawless little universes with zero dark matter, whose faces are glossed over with the veneer of perfection and order. 

Can’t you just take a break from being amazing? 

Can’t you just admit and accept and own the fact that you have cracks just like everyone else? 

I’m not trying to be the vulnerability police here, but those who uphold perfection are turning their backs on real life. Those who refuse to share their mistakes and failures and anxieties and pains aren’t fooling anyone. It’s time to call bullshit on these social thespians. 

Jourard’s classic discourse on interpersonal disclosure pointed this out more than forty years ago. He said we display our love by letting others know us. And when we disclose our imperfect experience to another, fully, spontaneously and honestly, the mystery that we are decreases enormously. 

That’s what perfectionists don’t realize. Vulnerability is the door through which all humans must pass to open the next horizon of their lives. 

It may be messy, but that’s the whole point. We’re just animals in fancy clothes. 

And we can only protect others from who we really are for so long. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Which of your imperfections are you keeping in exile?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Every age has a battle to be happy

The thing about advertising is, it works. It’s always worked. 



Not because it makes people buy a product right away, but because it embeds subtle impressions that will drive sales later. 



Advertising is patient like that. And after years of hammering remorsefully into our brains, the clouds of metaphor and mythology and connotation hypnotize us into a buying frame of mind, ultimately creating an overwhelming sense of urgency that we are one purchase away from happiness. 



That’s the story every advertisement is telling, whether explicit or not. 



Excuse me. I think you’re forgetting. You have this problem, and it hasn’t gone away. And if you want to make it go away, you need to call me. 



There’s no stopping it. There’s no avoiding it. No matter how quickly we fast forward through the commercials, and no matter how hard we try to scrub our lives clean of it, as long as there are products, there will be advertisers to sell them to us. 



The challenge, then, is rewriting our personal equation for happiness. Using new variables and constants to fill our inner yawning voids. 



Happiness, after all, is attributable to intentional activity. It stems from what people do for themselves. 



I was having an especially unhappy day recently. And by the afternoon, I had become so disgusted with my own attitude, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I sat down on the subway, turned on my favorite album, pulled out my notepad and started writing a gratitude list. 



It’s the oldest trick in the book. And it works. Because after fifteen minutes of giving thanks for all of the amazing people and experiences and opportunities and feelings in my life, the verdict was out. I had saturated my consciousness with irrefutable evidence that I had every reason in the world to be happy. 



Next time you feel like one purchase away from happiness, take a few minutes to delight in what’s wonderful about your life. Stop and give yourself care and comfort and see what happens.



Might save you some money, too.


LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you overlooking the authentic bliss you create for yourself in the process of simply trying to be happy on your own terms?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Learn to trust that help is always at hand

Ambiguity is so uncomfortable that it causes people to abandon their project completely, or worse yet, jump into premature closure. 

It’s like eating raw cookie dough. It’s delicious and satisfying and helpful for quelling the anxiety, but ultimately, it hurts us in the long term. 

And so, the secret is to push through the ambiguity, rather than evade it. To accept that we will never be ready, never in the mood and never equipped with enough information, and so, we may as well proceed anyway. Because we have faith in ourselves, in the process and in the universe. 

I’ve written and produced two music films. And for the first project, I knew exactly what I was looking for, both aesthetically and logistically. Which made the filmmaking process easier, but extensive and exhausting. ]

For the second movie, however, I didn’t cast a big, sweeping, specific vision. I was much more willing to act in the service of whatever was emerging. Which made the filmmaking process scarier, but faster and more surprising. 

Because it required a level of trust that I wasn’t used to holding. 

But by the time we wrapped, not only did the movie come out more beautiful than I ever could have imagined, but I had also learned a powerful lesson in surrender, trust and ambiguity. 

The point is, we’re not always able to bring knowledge to the path. Sometimes we just have to trust that it is the function of the path to equip us with knowledge along the way. 

And all we have to do is take that terrifying first step to activate the process. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What are you willing to trade ambiguity for?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

A tremendous range of intuitive powers potentially available

We can make a pros and cons list. We can ask our peer review board for feedback. We can even use a software program to calculate the asset value of a potential new opportunity. 

But at the end of the day, we will only know what to do by realizing what feels right to us. Because the machinery of intuitive thought is, and always has been, the artist’s most dependable source of data. 

When I was editing the footage of my last music film, there were a number of scenes that just didn’t work. And the frustrating part was, I couldn’t pinpoint why. No matter how long I stared at the screen. 

But that’s when I would employ the strategy of working perpendicular. Intentionally walking away from the current work to engage in something unrelated to the flow of activity. Usually by going for a walk, swimming laps or practicing yoga. 

And what I found was, somewhere in the middle of my repetitive monotonous movement, all of the sudden, I would have language for something that I was feeling. I knew exactly why that particular scene didn’t work, and what I had to change to make it better. Two hours later, I would return to the project with a solution. 

It was a powerful reminder that human beings do have tremendous range of intuitive powers potentially available. We truly are indeed wiser than our intellects, and sometimes all we have to do is walk away and trust that intuition will deliver. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How do you treat your own intuitive promptings?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Steal Scott’s Ideas, Issue 015: Cozzzy, Showeroke & Wipe Mitt

Ideas are free, execution is priceless.

That’s been my mantra since day one of starting my business.

It’s also the title of a book I wrote a few years back. You can download it for free here.

But here’s the problem. I’m an idea junkie. Everything I look at in the world breaks down into a collection of ideas. I have about fifty new ones every day, and sadly, I can only execute so many of them. Even if I had all the resources and all the time in the world, I still wouldn’t be able to keep up with the whirlwind of insanity that gusts through my brain.

And that’s where you come in.

I believe ideas were never meant to stay that way. And so, in this new blog series, I’m going to be publishing a sample of them on a weekly basis, in the hopes that they inspire you to (a) execute them, (b) improve them, or (c) invent something completely different.

Remember, once an idea springs into existence, it cannot be unthought.

Even if that idea is ridiculous.

Enjoy! 


Steal Scott’s Ideas, Issue 015


01. Gratisfy. Let art by they medicine.

An arts charity that gives away free supplies to creatives struggling with depression who need to heal through making things

02. Kinder Car. Fast shipping, safe parking.

A valet babysitting service for big box retailers where retired grandparents watch your kids in the car while you run into the store

03. Church Plan. Looking for a pew good men.

A placebo service that pays people to attend services at new congregations to help preserve the illusion of community, growth and momentum.

04. Fitbud. Never sweat alone again. 

A calendar and meetup up for gyms and fitness centers who want to help unmotivated members never workout alone

05. Cozzzy. Even adults need to be babied.

A delivery service that brings you cookies, tucks you in and reads you bedtime stories when you have trouble sleeping.

06. Mercurial. Take responsibility for your orbit.

A service that monitors your social media feeds and uses a language algorithm to tell you when your mood has dramatically shifted.

07. Showeroke. Lather, sing, repeat.

A waterproof karaoke machine for your bathroom for people who take singing in the shower seriously

08. Wipe Mitt. Crap without collateral damage.

A ten inch, hand held toilet paper applier that allows you to clean yourself properly and without a mess

09. Hire Ground. Vett people’s brains, not their resumes.

A talent recruitment software application that creates a social media algorithm to protect a job candidate’s attitude, mindset and communication

10. Polygameet. Stay on top of your dates.

A relationship management dashboard that helps you keep track of your various romantic partners.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How will you turn these ideas into I-dids?


LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “49 Ways to become an Idea Powerhouse,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

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

It’s not about good or bad, it’s about what gives us energy

For decades, management gurus have been preaching to the masses about enhancing strengths, rather than correcting eliminating weaknesses. 

Which is a solid approach to activating human potential, but only if we understand the difference is between the two. 

A strength, for example, isn’t necessarily something we’re good at. Because it’s not about a good or bad. It’s about what gives us energy. 

Similarly, a weakness isn’t necessarily something we’re bad at, it’s just something that drains the life out of us. 

Take community management. Movement starting. Creating a tribe and leveraging that energy to make real change in the world. It’s a strategy that’s been scientifically proven to work for brands, businesses and organizations. 

But only if that’s your strength. Only if you get energy from building a tribe. Otherwise it’s just another shiny object. 

I’ve attempted to build community around my business on a number of occasions, but every time I try, the energy drains out of me faster than water out of a busted dam. It’s deeply frustrating. Because even though I’m an extrovert, and even though there’s a part of me that wishes community management was as strength, trying to coordinate a meetup with seven complete strangers, half of whom aren’t even going to show up anyway, makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall. 

That’s just not who I am. I was born to be an expresser, not a connector. I was born to be an example, not an organizer. 

The point is, strengths and weaknesses are important traits to understand. But what’s more important is arranging your work to coincide with your energy style. To invest your time in experiences that focus your whole being in a harmonious rush of vitality. 

Otherwise you’re going to deplete yourself getting something that is worthless. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Will this new project add to your life force or rob you of my energy?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Tapping into your native endowments and limitations

When it comes to getting your work done, you do whatever it takes. 

It
doesn’t matter if your productivity tool is dopey or dramatic or extreme, as
long as it gets you one step closer to your dream, it’s worthwhile. 

As long as
it advances your ability to do what you love, it’s worthwhile. 

I have a writer
friend who’s highly extroverted and has severe case of attention deficit
disorder. As such, she requires constant external visual stimulation while she
works. 

But instead of keeping the television on the weather channel, poisoning
her brain with disaster porn, during her writing sessions, she lights a candle.
Not because it’s inspiring and warm and spiritual and pleasant smelling, but
because the constant moving of the flame stimulates her eyes and provides her
brain with just enough external stimulation to prevent her from getting bored
with the primary task at hand. 

It’s a perfect example of identity based
creation.
Tapping into your native endowments and limitations of
creativity, motivation, inspiration, personality and intelligence, and
channeling them in the service of making your ideas happen. 

The candle reminds
us that we’re adults, we can do whatever we want, and there’s no creativity
police who’s going to arrest us for putting into place a new structure or
ritual that support our aims. 

The process of creating the art should be just as
unique and customized and personal as the art itself. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How is your creative environment tailor made to your brain’s tendencies?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

All unhappiness grows from that which goes unquestioned

It’s hard to have a predilection for rebellion. 

When your dominant ethos is innovative, risk taking and individualistic, and when the choices you make are often as an expression of your identity, you have to steel yourself against the inevitable slings and arrows. 

Because despite millions of years of evolution, human beings are still superstitious natives. We’re still tribal animals. We possess the profound tendency to affiliate. 

And so, any time a person is heretical enough to raise doubt and deviate, they’re vulnerable to being discouraged, ridiculed, shamed, ostracized, isolated, and sometimes even imprisoned, tortured and killed. 

It’s the oldest form of social control. And if we have any intention of chasing down the authentic self, we must resist. We must make personal choices divorced from inherited morals and values of the current culture. 

I’m reminded of an fascinating interview with a successful comedian who’s known as an avid non drinker. Hal’s explanation of the reasoning behind his choice was brilliant:

At a very young age, it seemed like drinking was an experiment that everybody seemed to be conducting on themselves, but with no control to the experiment. Normally when you test a drug on a lab rat, you have one rat that isn’t taking it. But it seemed like everyone I knew took the drug without ever seeing if their life would be better or different or the same, normal or abnormal, if they just didn’t. And so, I figured I’d just be the control. The odd thing is, more people ask me why I don’t drink without ever asking themselves why they do drink in the first place. Considering they’re making the decision to participate in an activity, logic would follow that they would have to explain why they do it, instead of those who are sober having to explain why they don’t. 

The point is, saying no is the fundamental way we have of differentiating ourselves. It’s not about drinking, it’s about making personal choices independent of what the herd is doing. Even if we’re ostracized for doing so. 

Remember, deviance isn’t a crime, it’s a badge of individuation and honor. 

Instead of perpetuating norms of what is acceptable, instead of mindlessly accepting the socially sanctioned boundaries of what can be rejected, embrace alternative ways of being and relating. 

Because all unhappiness grows from that which goes unquestioned. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Do you do what you do because you actually believe in it, or because you inherited the culture around you and mindlessly started marching in lockstep?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Spur into the kind of action that will help the organization thrive

Nobody goes to work waiting for somebody else to light their fire. 

That’s how motivation works. It doesn’t happen to people, it happens in them.

And so, if you want the people around you to spur into the kind of action that will help the organization thrive, don’t spend too much time pointing out their flaws and inspiring them with fear and offering sandwich feedback and dangling carrots on sticks. 

Instead, focus on creating an environment that supports the pursuit of meaning. 

Zappos employees often say that they love seeing the look on friend’s faces when they tell them where they work. It’s that motivated and meaningful of an organization. According to their annual culture book, the company allows people to do what they love in an environment that wants them to do it. They offer team members the freedom to use the talents they might never exercise anywhere else. They create a platform for employees to evolve into who they are, and more importantly, to evolve at their own pace. 

And along the journey, those people are cherished, not appreciated, but cherished, for what they contribute to the world. 

When you consider that framework of motivation and meaning around the work, it’s no wonder their organization is not only one of the best companies to work for, but also one of the best companies to buy from. 

People light their own fires. And customers from around the world pay money to watch them burn. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you helping people live their life as an example of choosing meaning?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

Enter into the transcendental healing atmosphere

Neff’s psychological research on compassion found that people’s relentless pursuit of superiority is the cause of significant emotional pain. 

She reminds us that we live in a hyper competitive culture where we need to feel special and above average and okay about ourselves, which leads to chronic social comparison. 

And one of the saddest consequences of that behavior is how we distance ourselves from people whose success makes us feel bad about ourselves. Our climb toward superiority is a descent into isolation. We tend to cut off from others when things go wrong. 

Which, of course, is at odds with our human tendency to affiliate. And that sends us into a spiral of loneliness. 

Therefore, our challenge is twofold. 

First, learning to let go of the need to feel better than others. Releasing our perceptions from the tight clamp of negativity. And never allowing our value to rise and fall in lockstep with other people’s latest success or failure. 

The second challenge is, replacing comparing with connecting. Trading introspecting for interacting. Because all healing occurs in relationships. Brains heal brains. Only through interpersonal encounters with others can we enter into the transcendental healing atmosphere. 

We have to reach for others and cocreate and expand our brain’s repertoire and get new wiring out of our interactions. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

How does social comparison block your ability to heal?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. 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 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 


The Nametag Guy in action here!

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