Everything takes longer than you think it will

The most demanding type of execution is following through on a project, long after the mood has passed, long after you’ve run out of steam, and long after your inspiration reserves have been tapped out. 

It sucks. You reach that dreaded point where you can’t even conceptualize how the hell you’re going to muster the momentum to catapult yourself out. 

During preproduction of my animated folk rock opera, we ended up getting delayed nearly six months before officially starting the project, thanks to equipment malfunctions, scheduling conflicts and a few other unforeseen wrinkles. 

It really started to infuriate me. Anything that delayed me from moving the project forward felt like a conspiracy against my greatness. There was a sad little death of hope and optimism that happened every time another unforeseen delay went down. 

But over time, the lesson became abundantly clear. 

Just because your project has been derailed, doesn’t mean it has to die on the vine. Just because your idea has its delays and disruptions, doesn’t mean it has to become a monument to a rare burst of creative enthusiasm. 

We’re not perpetual motion machines, we’re human. We expect to lose momentum. We expect that there will be discouragements, delays, distractions, derailments and disappointments. 

And when it inevitably happens, we don’t beat ourselves up, we simply start again. We don’t let our fleeing sense of impatience give way, we simply start again. And we don’t distort our work by not allowing it proper timing, we simply start again. 

Trusting that we will reengage with the original joy that got us here in the first place. And that will be enough fuel to carry us to completion. 

Grazer said it best in his book about curiosity conversations:

Perseverance is the capacity to calmly separate yourself from what’s being done to you. 

Remember, everything takes longer than you think it will. You can’t move through anything faster than the hands of the clock will allow. But if you learn to trust the tempo of your own timing, there’s no reason you won’t be able to follow through. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How are you bolstering your sense of being in the right place at the right time?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

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The first time it’s art, the second time it’s a tactic

Here’s something nobody tells you about building your body of work. 


Everything after the first one is business. 


It’s an unfortunate reality of the creative marketplace. The purity, naiveté and idealism with which you came out of the gate is quickly replaced by more practical concerns. Like strategy, monetization and scalability. 


And not that your work is devoid of heart and soul, it’s just that after you’ve been around the merry go round once, you can’t help but view your creative projects through a more sophisticated lens. 


My first book was written and published a few months after graduating college. My life was in a fertile limbo state of innocence and independence and possibility. There was no plan, there was nothing to achieve and nobody was looking over my shoulder. 


It was just a book. About a guy who wore a nametag every day. And to my surprise and delight, it went viral. That book altered my professional vector forever. It may have been lightning in a bottle, but there was enough charge to last a lifetime. That timing wasn’t everything, it was the only thing. 


The disappointing part is, that never happened again. Even after dozens of creative projects over the next fifteen years, nothing quite had the executional force of that first at bat. Even despite my best efforts to recreate that lightning in a bottle, ultimately, my romantic fantasies were at odds with the cold facts of business life. 


Because as my cartoonist friend likes to say, the first time it’s art, the second time it’s a tactic


But there’s still hope for your body of work. Even if you do find yourself replacing your purest longings with the more sobering preoccupations of a mature life, it’s not too late. As long as you don’t stop taking the creative risks that made you successful in the first place; and as long as you find ways to reconnect to the joy that made you an artist in the first place, you never know what kind of magic you might create. 


LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you treating your business like your second child, or your first one?



* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


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Even when we doubt our ability to contribute

Your talent needs two things. 

First, the right environment to take your talents on the ride they deserve. Meaning, the platform, venue, vehicle, organization or community through which you can make use of all of your gifts and create real value in the real world. 

And second, the right mentality to bring yourself into the best shape for contribution. Meaning, the belief that you can make a difference. The courage to honor the whole of yourself. And the faith that you can live up to the incalculable gifts that had been bestowed on you. 

Our true talents rise from pools we cannot fathom. But by being intentional about the structures and attitudes that support them, we might surprise ourselves with our own actions. 

Even when we doubt our ability to contribute. 


LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What environments and mentalities must be in place for you to operate at your highest point of contribution? 
* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.


You’re working way too hard

A scary moment for any entrepreneur is when they discover the discrepancy between the labor intensity of their input and the dollar amount of their output. 

In short, they’re working way too hard. 

It feels like they can never fully break out of the ghetto. They can never quite rise above the middle market. Jason, my cartoonist friend, said it best. 

You feel like a hippo in a hot air balloon. Barely off the ground, just trying to get some lift, with very little progress to show for a heck of a lot of effort. 

And so, what happens when you’ve made a million dollars, but you have nothing to show for it? It all goes back to strategy. 

If you want to operate a business within a rhythm of life that’s actually sustainable, here are the questions to ask before starting your next venture. 

How do you contribute a professional legacy that increases in value daily? 

Where can you start rolling snowballs down the hill, building real assets that grow more meaningful over time? 

How are you focused on activities that create compound interest? 

What are you doing today to increase your freedom tomorrow? 

What is the one thing you could do now that will have the most impact on your success in the upcoming year? 

And my personal favorite:

What are you creating that will honestly impress historians in two thousand years? 

Without asking these types of questions, the discrepancy between the labor intensity of your input and the dollar amount of your output will only increase. 

And your very cells will get exhausted at a primal level. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you working way too hard?* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

How to meet your fears in a new way

Fear need not always be harmful to our lives. 

We can have a healthy relationship with fear by approaching it as a continuum. A vehicle to get where want to go. 

And so, from farm to table, so to speak, here’s how we engage with it. 

We notice it, name it, greet it, accept it, thank it, love it, unravel it, share it, and lastly, channel it. Let’s unpack each of these elements. 

First comes noticing. Not judging or fixing or fighting. Merely noticing. Standing as compassionate witnesses to a feeling that has arisen. Staying at the sensation level of our experience as an objective third party. And so, observing our flushed skin or our fluttering stomach, our curious mind says, huh, now there’s an interesting feeling. That’s all. 

Then, once we’ve pressed the pause button with noticing, we move into naming. We announce to ourselves that there appears to be an experience of fear. That’s what this thing is called. It’s just a feeling, it’s not who we are, and it’s not going to last forever. But there it is. 

Next, we greet the fear with a welcoming heart. Like an old friend. And we accept it as a natural part of our life experience. Giving thanks for its primitive but practical powers that have been evolutionary advantageous to human beings since the dawn of time. What a glorious endowment. 

Moving forward to the most challenging part of all, we love the fear. Let us count the ways. We love fear because it protects us. Because it keeps us in tune with our bodies. Because it guides our journey like a compass. Because it offers insights about important parts of ourselves. We might even imagine ourselves bear hugging the fear. 

Okay, now that we have noticed, named, greeted, accepted, thanked and loved this feeling, the next step is to unravel it. Because our fear is never really our fear. There’s always something deeper at the bottom of the feeling. Some fear ancestor. Something we’re afraid to know about ourselves. Which isn’t always easy to uncover, but it’s there. 

And that’s when sharing comes in handy. Once we communicate our fears to at least one other person, realizing that we’re not alone in our pain, their divine human mirror reflects back to us what might be lurking in fear’s shadows. 

And once we figure that out, now we can use it to drive us where we want to. Our fear melts into determination and fuels us to take action. 

That’s the fear continuum. 

Notice it, name it, greet it, accept it, thank it, love it, unravel it, share it, channel it. 

It’s a big ask. Cultivating such a holistic relationship with fear requires significant physiological, emotional, mental, interpersonal and social resources. 

But once you learn to hold your fear from a position of power, choice, energy and action, there’s no stopping you. 


LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How might you meet your fears in a new way?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


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Forgive me for being an extension of your dysfunctional family of origin

People can be foolish, heartless, annoying and toxic. 



But since we can’t change others, we can only change our responses to them, the onus is on us to take the first step. Before reverting to cynicism and deeming that all people are blanks, we learn to start from a place compassion and curiosity. 



Because every grating personality trait in another person has a long history behind it. Every emotional response is reasonable and logical based on that person’s personal journey. 



In fact, by the time most of us reach adulthood, each person still contains heaps leftover pain that no person could ever fix. And it’s just waiting to be activated. 



Imagine a coworker condescends you during the weekly staff meeting. It’s not necessarily because you did something wrong. It’s because that guy has trauma in his psyche which is reexperienced through your language. He doesn’t see you as you really are, but as an extension of his dysfunctional family of origin. You remind him of his older brother or drunk uncle or overbearing mother. 



This is where compassion and curiosity come into play. You leave your disdain for that guy’s opinion behind and approach him as a human being who is hurting. Instead of harboring ill feelings towards this person who is teaching you a difficult lesson today, you ask yourself a question. 



How is it possible that this person could think or behave in this way, and under what circumstances would it make perfect sense to do so? 



There is almost always a logical answer to that question. Because people aren’t evil, they’re just complicated. 



Next time you’re in a meeting with a client and resentments which that person thought they didn’t have suddenly emerge, forgive them. 



Next time you’re eating dinner with a friend and they find themselves needing to deal with guilt or anger they thought they had already eliminated, forgive them. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you trying to change people, or change your response to them? 

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


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The best way to get what you want is to already have it

It’s easier to land a job when you already have one. 

This is not a cliché, it’s a clinically proven marketplace reality. 

In a national survey of more than four thousand job seekers and human resources professionals worldwide, people with jobs have a better chance of being hired than unemployed job seekers. 

It makes logical sense. They have social proof, confidence in their own abilities, greater negotiating power and, most importantly, they’re not running around town with their tongues hanging out of their mouths desperately seeking any organization to show even the slightest interest in their work. 

Reminds me a lot of dating. 

Why are men with wedding rings so attractive to single women? Same reason. Their marriage is social proof. It demonstrates their willingness and ability to commit and be responsible. Not to mention, these men aren’t running around town with their tongues hanging out of their mouths desperately seeking any woman with a pulse to show even the slightest interest. 

Buss actually coined a term for this. Mate poaching is people’s attraction to, and pursuit of, others who are already in committed relationships. 

Maybe the best way to get what you want is to already have it. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How are you using social proof to show people they’re not the first ones to trust you? 


* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Assume people don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing

Netflix once published an inspiring employee culture guide about freedom and responsibility. 

There’s an entire chapter about setting the right context, rather than controlling people’s actions. According to their managers, high performance people will do better work if they understand the context and are turned loose to work within it. 

Here’s the best passage: 

When one of your talented employees does something dumb, don’t blame them. Instead, ask yourself what context you failed to set. 

Each of us can adapt this principle to our own workplaces and relationships. We can assume people don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing. We can add a layer of attention at the top of our interactions. We can give the gift of conversational context. And we can be disarmingly clear with our intentions. 

How we do that is up to us. It could be as tactical as printing out an agenda for the meeting, as inspirational as telling story about what your vision is, or as simple as starting the conversation with, here’s why we’re here today. 

Whatever it takes to set context and give people a frame within which to do what they do. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How are you declaring your high intentions to all of the living of earth?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Project management software for your emotions

When we have number of different feelings, thoughts and emotions running simultaneously, it’s really difficult to manage them all. 

Because our psychological bandwidth can only cope with so many components before the emotional malaise engulfs us and starts overloading our system. 

And so, instead of trying to manage them all, we should manage them one by one. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to introduce my latest technology innovation. 



Feelz is a project management software application for human emotion. This new app has the capacity to help you notice, name, compartmentalize and manage your psychological well being. 

Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, open up the app. Scroll through your emotional vocabulary list and begin selecting words that best express how you’re feeling in the moment. 

Next, the app will group your emotions into folders. These are your projects. Each folder has customizable fields where you can jot down thoughts, action items, questions, ideas, reminders and any other relevant content relating to that particular emotion. 

The project dashboard allows you to visualize the full diversity of your current emotional landscape, so you can feel organized and in control and ready to take action. 



Feelz puts the compartmentalization of your emotions at your fingertips. It gives you a platform for maintaining emotional control, one feeling at a time. There’s even a resource bank filled with meditations, affirmations and other therapeutic tools to make sure you don’t drown in your moods. 

Available wherever apps are sold. 

Remember, the more effectively we learn to compartmentalize our emotions, the less likely they are to come out through the cracks in unhealthy ways. 

Next time you start feeling all the feels, don’t try to manage them all. 

Manage them one by one.


LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What overwhelming feelings do you have no healthy coping mechanism for?  

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

You’re changing, which is a form of leaving

Who do you think you are? 

We liked you better when you did everything we wanted you to do. 

But then you just had to start growing and maturing and taking the time to care for your own needs. And now it’s just not the same between us. Ever since you decided to wake up and get off your treadmill of obligations, now you’re not a deluded as you used to be. 

And that’s scary. It’s like you’re abandoning us. Leaving us alone, locked in our dysfunctional ways of living, left to confront our own anxiety instead of masking it through the opiate of controlling others. 

How dare you try to be something different. How dare you not melt down into our collectivist pot of conformity. How dare you not feel guilty about exercising your fundamental human rights. How dare you not uphold the one and only identity we’ve assigned to you. 

Where we come from, there’s a little something called loyalty, and it should be maintained at all costs. 

By the way, dinner is at six. See you soon! 

 
LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What will happen when you start to grow and those around you become uncomfortable with the changes you are undergoing?



* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

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

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

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