It’s all about increasing the probability.
Of getting noticed. Of getting remembered. Of getting what matters most.
And for a lot of people right now, that means getting a job.
And after tens of thousands of conversations with professionals worldwide, I’ve now written extensively on the relationship between approachability and hireability.
This book is a compendium of that work.
Much of it comes from my regular column on www.theladders.com. If you haven’t had the pleasure, they are the world’s largest community of professional job and job seekers. Their amazing platform of more than four million users has secured jobs for countless businesspeople worldwide. And because of their intelligent and interactive community, this book has come to be.

Please welcome to the family:

You’re Not There To Answer Their Questions:
And Other Thoughts On Making Yourself More Hireable 

If you don’t have a Kindle, here’s a downloadable version for free.

* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

In 1957, the New York Herald Tribune published an article that changed everything.
The headline said it all:
“Doing business without marketing is like winking in the dark.”
That sentence changed me forever.
Because no matter how smart you are, how valuable your product is, or how hard you work – if the people who matter can’t see you, you lose.

Visibility wins. 

To compete in an attention economy, sticking yourself out there is the only option.

Please welcome to the family:
Winking In The Dark: The End of Anonymity As We Know It

If you don’t have a Kindle, here’s a Winking In The Dark for free.

* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Eye candy.
It’s is an idiom of physical attractiveness that means someone with high visual appeal, yet little or no substance.
Brain candy.
It’s an idiom of psychological attractiveness that means someone with high mental appeal and significant substance.
Which one describes you?
Hopefully the latter, as it’s more enduring, more attractive, more equitable, more marketing, more memorable and more approachable. The best part is, eye candy eventually loses its flavor. But brain candy stays sweet forever.

Please welcome to the family:

One Smoking Hot Piece of Brain Candy:
Beguiling Success by Building a Beautiful Mind

If you don’t have a Kindle, here’s a downloadable version for free.

* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

I never went to the career fair.
I just hired myself and got to work.                                                                                                 
And after ten years, I still haven’t been fired. Which is surprising, as I’m the most unemployable person on the planet.
The cool part is, taking the road less traveled doesn’t just make the biggest difference in your life – it also enables you to make the biggest difference in other people’s lives. And there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.
There are forty-two million independent workers in this country. Why aren’t you part of that number?
Instead of waiting to be plucked from obscurity, this book will help you stick your fingers in your ears and create your dream job. It will challenge you to stop asking, “Who’s going to let me?” And start wondering, “Who’s going to stop me?”
Ready to burn your resume?

Please welcome to the family:
Hire Yourself:
How to Burn Your Resume and Build a Career That Counts

If you don’t have a Kindle, here’s a downloadable version for free.

* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

When I started wearing a nametag everyday, I wasn’t trying to make money – I was trying to make a point.

Friendly doesn’t cost anything – but it changes everything.
That was the stand. That was the movement I was starting. And to my delight, people proved me right. Thousands of then. All around the world. Two years later, I started my first company. Three years later, I published my first book. Five years later, I earned my first profit.
All from wearing a nametag.
Four thousand days, thirteen books and seven hundred speeches later, I still believe that friendly is the new professional. And yet, millions of people on a daily basis are working overtime to prove me wrong. They’re too focused on their own drama, their own company policies their own egos to see how easy it really is to be friendly.
Because they’re too busy being professional.
Professional is just a word for brands that seek sanitize the soul out of business. Professional is an excuse for delivering emotionless, forgettable non-service. Professional is an altar on which personal connection is sacrificed.
We can’t allow the feeling of formality keep us from communicating freely. We need to speak with soul. To talk like people talk. Love is the bell that is always ringing, and it’s time to be brave enough to hear it.
That’s worth noticing.
Please welcome to the family:
Friendly Costs Nothing, But Changes Everything: 
The Profitability of Treating People Like People

If you don’t have a Kindle, here’s a downloadable version for free.

* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

It’s hard to be inconsistent and win.
Especially now. 
People know more, see more, remember more and repeat more – than ever before. Everything matters. Everybody’s watching. Everything’s a performance. Privacy is so last century. And when you lack consistency, when your onstage performance doesn’t align with your backstage reality, people see through you like bottle of water.
Which doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. You are human, after all.
But that’s what I’ve learned after four thousand days of wearing a nametag, all day, every day, even at the beach and in the shower. Do something once – that’s a treat. Do something twice – that’s a trend. But do something every single day for a decade, and that’s a triumph. 

Please welcome to the family:

Consistency is Far Better Than Rare Moments of Greatness:  Living Life Without Editing Yourself

If you don’t have a Kindle, here’s a downloadable version for free.
* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Today, I am releasing eight new books on Kindle.

All digital. All daily devotionals. And the best part is, all books are $0.00 for Prime Members for the first five days, then $0.99 after that.

Why? I’m starting a global movement. And I need your help…

Help me prove that thinkers don’t need permission to do so.
Help me show which of the mainstream hoops aren’t worth jumping through.
Help me lead the charge to risk our faces and step across the lines of artistic safety.
Help me reject the invisible jury who no longer needs to stamp our creative passport.
Help me make a global statement about the state of the mainstream publishing industry.
Help me end the shipping of easy, predictable safe work that appeases our corporate masters.

WHAT I AM SPECIFICALLY ASKING YOU TO DO RIGHT NOW:

1. Please download each of the new books to your Kindle, IPhone, IPad, for zero dollars. Here is the link. If you don’t have access to a digital reader, the PDF versions are below. If you don’t see all 8 books on Amazon yet, they will be there this week. I’m on it.
2. Please personally email one friend — who digs this kind of thinking — and infect them with this movement. Feel free to use my words in this email, or add your own!

3. Please share my press release on whatever social media outlets matter to you. Here is the headline, link and sample tweets/announcements:
Liberated Author Releases 8 Books in One Day, Flips the Digital Bird to the Mainstream Publishing Industry http://bit.ly/ISHrlK

Today, @nametagscott releases 8 new books on Kindle. All daily devotionals! http://bit.ly/ISHrlK

@nametagscott flips the digital bird to the mainstream publishing industry! http://bit.ly/ISHrlK

Join my friend @nametagscott in a global movement to stop editing yourself. http://bit.ly/ISHrlK

…thanks for your help!

NOTICE: If you are having trouble with Amazon, here are free, downloadable versions of the eight books…

You’re Not There To Answer Their Questions 
And Other Thoughts On Making Yourself More Hireable 

Winking In The Dark 
The End of Anonymity As We Know It

Stick-to-itiveness
How Commitment Changes Everything

Playing For Keeps
A Young Artist’s Guide to Going Pro Without Going Broke

One Smoking Hot Piece of Brain Candy
Beguiling Success By Building A Beautiful Mind

Hire Yourself
Burn Your Resume and Build a Career That Counts

Friendly Costs Nothing, But Changes Everything
The Profitability of Treating People Like People

Consistency Is Far Better Than Rare Moments of Greatness
Living Life Without Editing Yourself

LET ME ASK YA THIS… Will you join me in this movement?
* * * * Scott Ginsberg That Guy with the Nametag Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Most authors pontificate about how many publishers and agents rejected them before they made it big.
Ten years ago, Scott Ginsberg hired himself. Since then, he’s written and published thirteen internationally recognized books that have made money, made a career and made a difference. And the best part is, he hasn’t been rejected once.

“Why torture ourselves listening to voices that don’t matter when we could be executing work that does? Seems to me, the best way to bring home the bacon is to raise our own pigs. That way, when we’re hungry, all we have to do is grab a knife and go outside.”

Impatient by nature, Scott’s release of eight books on one day is a world record, a global message about the state of the publishing industry and a thank you in perpetuity to the audience that has supported, shaped and stuck with him over the past decade. Here are six lessons Ginsberg, aka “The Octomom for Books,” has learned in ten years of publishing: 

1. Digital isn’t the future – it’s the present. “Books aren’t going away, paper is,” writes Ginsberg on his award-winning blog. “Which sucks, since I love the smell of books. But I write faster than I can print. And now, thanks to digital, that velocity can convert into value for my readers.” That’s the state of the industry, Scott says. With the infinite shelf space of the web, with the major publishers approaching irrelevancy, with the long tail knocking down barriers to entry, with behemoth retailers like Borders going bankrupt, with zero printing and shipping costs, and with minimal design and setup costs, digital is here to stay. “Never again do writers have to wonder: Who’s going to let me? Now the only question that matters is: Who’s going to stop me? And the answer is, nobody.” 

2. Volume is the vehicle to value. “Some authors are good writers,” Ginsberg tweets, “but most are just good businesspeople riding the wave of past literary glory.” For Scott, his enterprise is all about ubiquity. And after a decade of writing, publishing, performing and consulting, here’s what he discovered: Volume trumps accuracy. It doesn’t matter if you’re right; it matters if you’re everywhere. Volume trumps knowledge. It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing; it matters if you’re doing a ton of it. Volume trumps popularity. It doesn’t matter if the world likes you; it matters if your audience loves you. And volume trumps influence. It doesn’t matter if you’re persuasive; it matters if you’re pervasive. “Some people have babies, I have books,” laughs Scott, “they’re not as fun to make, but certainly less expensive.” 

3. Mainstream is lamestream. “Instead of buying tickets for the starving artist lottery, I just went out and created market for what I love,” Ginsberg shared on a recent podcast interview. “The hard part was divorcing my ego from the illusion that market size matters. It doesn’t. If size mattered, the dinosaurs would still be around.” In order to win the publishing game, Scott encourages us to change the game, change the rules of the game, or create our own game so there are no rules. That way, by learning which of the mainstream hoops aren’t worth jumping through, it’s easier to forge ahead without stopping. “Artists like Henry Rollins, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, Seth Godin and Kevin Smith have been doing this for years,” Ginsberg notes, “And those heroes taught me that we can’t sit back and wait for some invisible jury to stamp our creative passport and tell us our art is okay. We ship our work to express ourselves and please our audience. Everybody else can go to hell.” 

4. Access doesn’t lead to the value – access is the value. “It’s impossible for writers to matter in a void. If we want to win, we need an audience. Otherwise we’re just winking in the dark,” Ginsberg tells graduate students during a campus seminar at Xavier University. Fortunately, our work is no longer limited to living in one place, he says. Thanks to the web, access is the new currency. Thanks to the web, we can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. Artists who used to be chained to a single gallery now have multiple entry points to their marketplace. Businesses whose sole distribution used to be limited to a few channels now have the advantage of infinite digital shelf space. Foundations whose financial support used to flow from a few wealthy donors now have access to social microfunding worldwide. Access doesn’t lead to the value – access is the value. “When we run into the corners, nooks and crannies, make something we love for the people who love us, focus our time on creating brilliant work that speaks to people in a way they have never been spoken to before, we change everything,” Ginsberg says. 

5. Where have all the original ideas gone? Everything that comes out seems to be a sequel, a prequel, a remake, a revisit, a reboot or a reinterpretation of another artist’s work. “That’s fine if we want to ship easy, predictable safe work that appeases our corporate masters and their incessant pressure to create fail proof work,” Ginsberg tells the viewers of his online television network, NametagTV. “But there are no cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame. We need to make our own music and walk a new path. Not an old path in a new way. Not some supposed new path that’s really just a nicely packaged book report of a bunch of old paths. Something new. Something scary. Something people don’t even have a name for.” And this stuff is possible because it’s always been possible, he explains. As long as we’re willing to cede permission, risk our face and step across the lines of artistic safety – at the risk of getting a few black eyes – originality can happen. “If we think there’s nothing new under the sun, remember that the sun is eight hundred and sixty four thousand miles in diameter. If we can’t find something new under it, we’re not looking hard enough.

6. Build a strategy to leverage free. The greatest barrier to success as an artist isn’t incompetence – it’s anonymity. For that reason, Ginsberg recently gave away all of his previous books for free, no strings, forever. “It was a tough call to make, but I’d rather be heard than paid. Besides, my entire career as a writer, publisher, performer and consultant has flourished on the power of giving myself away. Considering the current expectation of the marketplace, why charge customers for a digital cow they’re already milking for free?” He knows it’s a bold move, but by leading with this gift, he believes his new work will be discovered, attract attention, spread and then lead to some portion of the masses actually buying his other products and services. “We can’t set art off in a corner,” Ginsberg says, “Without a collision between our work and the outside world, we’re the tree in the forest that nobody hears. The upside of exposure is everything, and I’d rather be risky and everywhere than safe and invisible.”

Ginsberg’s eight new books, published through his company, HELLO, my name is Scott, are now available on Amazon.com. The titles of these books include: Winking in the Dark, Consistency is Far Better Than Rare Moments of Greatness, Friendly Costs Nothing But Changes Everything, Hire Yourself, One Smoking Hot Piece of Brain Candy, Playing for Keeps, Stick-to-itiveness and You’re Not There to Answer Their Questions.

The books are also available as free, downloadable PDF’s for people who don’t have access to Kindle.

#  #  #  #

Tomorrow I’m releasing eight new books on Kindle.
All digital. All daily devotionals. All $0.99 each, or $0.00 this week for Prime Members.
And the point is, it’s not about being prolific.
Artists who create massive amounts of output in their careers do it for reasons far beyond the typical chest beating, attention craving, score keeping and money making. We ship, ship and keep shipping for a number of profound reasons.
It’s not just about spawning, it’s about stretching. Stepping outside of what’s comfortable, constantly creating something new, living larger than your labels, that’s how you grow as a person. But if you never make anything, you never find out who you are.
It’s not just about executing, it’s about elevating. Running up the score on your resume doesn’t matter if you’re not getting better, smarter, stronger and sharper with every new thing you create. But if the work never improves, you’re just running in place.
It’s not just about purging, it’s about providing. When you die, plan to leave behind a body of work, not just a body. Until then, each artistic milestone you pass is another piece of your legacy. But if you do it right, it will live forever.
It’s not just about content, it’s about commitment. The guts to stay in the game, show up every day and ship no matter what, will earn respect for the work and, more importantly, for the backbone behind it. But if you lack continuity, the content won’t matter.
It’s not just about money, it’s about mandate. Most artists do what they do because they’re ugly when they don’t. It’s central to who they are. It’s their spiritual imperative to make art. But if they don’t create, they don’t feel alive.
It’s not just about entertainment, it’s about expression. The purpose of art isn’t just to please people, it’s to project ideas and feelings. To share a sense of life and an index of human values. But with only a few pieces of work, you can’t express the whole picture.
As an artist, as you continue to ship more and more great work, never forget that giving birth to your creative brainchildren is only the beginning.

Look for the new books tomorrow!
LET ME ASK YA THIS… What did you ship today?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS… For 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 Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting scott@hellomynameisscott.com
My job is to help companies make their mission more than a statement, using limited edition social artifacts.
Want to download your free workbook for The Brandtag Strategic Planning Crusade?
Meet Scott’s client from Nestle Purina at www.brandtag.org!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Most authors pontificate about how many publishers and agents rejected them before they made it big.

Ten years ago, Scott Ginsberg hired himself. Since then, he’s written and published thirteen internationally recognized books that have made money, made a career and made a difference. And the best part is, he hasn’t been rejected once.
“Why torture ourselves listening to voices that don’t matter when we could be executing work that does? Seems to me, the best way to bring home the bacon is to raise our own pigs. That way, when we’re hungry, all we have to do is grab a knife and go outside.”

Impatient by nature, Scott’s release of eight books on one day is a world record, a global message about the state of the publishing industry and a thank you in perpetuity to the audience that has supported, shaped and stuck with him over the past decade. Here are six lessons Ginsberg, aka “The Octomom for Books,” has learned in ten years of publishing: 

1. Digital isn’t the future – it’s the present. “Books aren’t going away, paper is,” writes Ginsberg on his award-winning blog. “Which sucks, since I love the smell of books. But I write faster than I can print. And now, thanks to digital, that velocity can convert into value for my readers.” That’s the state of the industry, Scott says. With the infinite shelf space of the web, with the major publishers approaching irrelevancy, with the long tail knocking down barriers to entry, with behemoth retailers like Borders going bankrupt, with zero printing and shipping costs, and with minimal design and setup costs, digital is here to stay. “Never again do writers have to wonder: Who’s going to let me? Now the only question that matters is: Who’s going to stop me? And the answer is, nobody.” 

2. Volume is the vehicle to value. “Some authors are good writers,” Ginsberg tweets, “but most are just good businesspeople riding the wave of past literary glory.” For Scott, his enterprise is all about ubiquity. And after a decade of writing, publishing, performing and consulting, here’s what he discovered: Volume trumps accuracy. It doesn’t matter if you’re right; it matters if you’re everywhere. Volume trumps knowledge. It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing; it matters if you’re doing a ton of it. Volume trumps popularity. It doesn’t matter if the world likes you; it matters if your audience loves you. And volume trumps influence. It doesn’t matter if you’re persuasive; it matters if you’re pervasive. “Some people have babies, I have books,” laughs Scott, “they’re not as fun to make, but certainly less expensive.” 

3. Mainstream is lamestream. “Instead of buying tickets for the starving artist lottery, I just went out and created market for what I love,” Ginsberg shared on a recent podcast interview. “The hard part was divorcing my ego from the illusion that market size matters. It doesn’t. If size mattered, the dinosaurs would still be around.” In order to win the publishing game, Scott encourages us to change the game, change the rules of the game, or create our own game so there are no rules. That way, by learning which of the mainstream hoops aren’t worth jumping through, it’s easier to forge ahead without stopping. “Artists like Henry Rollins, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, Seth Godin and Kevin Smith have been doing this for years,” Ginsberg notes, “And those heroes taught me that we can’t sit back and wait for some invisible jury to stamp our creative passport and tell us our art is okay. We ship our work to express ourselves and please our audience. Everybody else can go to hell.” 

4. Access doesn’t lead to the value – access is the value. “It’s impossible for writers to matter in a void. If we want to win, we need an audience. Otherwise we’re just winking in the dark,” Ginsberg tells graduate students during a campus seminar at Xavier University. Fortunately, our work is no longer limited to living in one place, he says. Thanks to the web, access is the new currency. Thanks to the web, we can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. Artists who used to be chained to a single gallery now have multiple entry points to their marketplace. Businesses whose sole distribution used to be limited to a few channels now have the advantage of infinite digital shelf space. Foundations whose financial support used to flow from a few wealthy donors now have access to social microfunding worldwide. Access doesn’t lead to the value – access is the value. “When we run into the corners, nooks and crannies, make something we love for the people who love us, focus our time on creating brilliant work that speaks to people in a way they have never been spoken to before, we change everything,” Ginsberg says. 

5. Where have all the original ideas gone? Everything that comes out seems to be a sequel, a prequel, a remake, a revisit, a reboot or a reinterpretation of another artist’s work. “That’s fine if we want to ship easy, predictable safe work that appeases our corporate masters and their incessant pressure to create fail proof work,” Ginsberg tells the viewers of his online television network, NametagTV. “But there are no cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame. We need to make our own music and walk a new path. Not an old path in a new way. Not some supposed new path that’s really just a nicely packaged book report of a bunch of old paths. Something new. Something scary. Something people don’t even have a name for.” And this stuff is possible because it’s always been possible, he explains. As long as we’re willing to cede permission, risk our face and step across the lines of artistic safety – at the risk of getting a few black eyes – originality can happen. “If we think there’s nothing new under the sun, remember that the sun is eight hundred and sixty four thousand miles in diameter. If we can’t find something new under it, we’re not looking hard enough.

6. Build a strategy to leverage free. The greatest barrier to success as an artist isn’t incompetence – it’s anonymity. For that reason, Ginsberg recently gave away all of his previous books for free, no strings, forever. “It was a tough call to make, but I’d rather be heard than paid. Besides, my entire career as a writer, publisher, performer and consultant has flourished on the power of giving myself away. Considering the current expectation of the marketplace, why charge customers for a digital cow they’re already milking for free?” He knows it’s a bold move, but by leading with this gift, he believes his new work will be discovered, attract attention, spread and then lead to some portion of the masses actually buying his other products and services. “We can’t set art off in a corner,” Ginsberg says, “Without a collision between our work and the outside world, we’re the tree in the forest that nobody hears. The upside of exposure is everything, and I’d rather be risky and everywhere than safe and invisible.”
Ginsberg’s eight new books, published through his company, HELLO, my name is Scott, are now available on Amazon.com. The titles of these books include: Winking in the Dark, Consistency is Far Better Than Rare Moments of Greatness, Friendly Costs Nothing But Changes Everything, Hire Yourself, One Smoking Hot Piece of Brain Candy, Playing for Keeps, Stick-to-itiveness and You’re Not There to Answer Their Questions.

#  #  #  #