Sentences are my spiritual currency. 

Throughout my week, I’m constantly scouring and learning and reading and inhaling and annotating from any number of newspapers, blogs, online publications, books, articles, songs, art pieces, podcasts, eavesdroppings, random conversations and other sources of inspiration.
Turns out, most of these sentences can be organized into about eleven different categories, aka, compartments of life that are meaningful to me. And since I enjoy being a signal tower of things that are interesting, I figured, why not share them on a regular basis?
In the spirit of “learning in public,” I’ve decided to publish a weekly digest of my top findings, along with their respective links or reference points. Sentence junkies of the world unite!
Creativity, Innovation & Art 
“I’m blessed with some pretty deep files,” from an interview with George Carlin.

Culture, Humanity & Society “The world turns to us because of the ideals we stand for and the burdens we bear to advance them,” from Obama’s State of the Union Address.
Identity, Self & Soul “A gift you cannot escape no matter how hard you try,” from an overheard conversation on the subway.

Lyrics, Poetry & Passages 
“I haven’t had white sugar since my first birthday,” from Kick Ass 2.

Meaning, Mystery & Being 
“What is the beautiful thing that’s drawing us forward?” from a stranger on the street.

Media, Technology & Design 
“Facebook isn’t watching out for our kids, they’re just watching them,” from Pysch Today.

Nature, Health & Science 
“The shortest distance to the heart is through the body,” from my stomach.

People, Relationships & Love 
“People should never have to ask why you care so much,” from my workshop at Nestle Purina.

Psychology, Thinking & Feeling
“Never put your self worth in anyone else’s hands,” from Susan Biali.

Success, Life & Career“The status quo is doing fine without you,” from The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck.

Work, Business & Organizations
“The brand wasn’t the star of that moment, it was a supporting character,” from Spike.

See you next week!

I’m an identity junkie.
Few things fascinate me more than the formation, nuance, complexity and absurdity of why people are the way they are.
But something I’ve recently realized is, identity is a luxury item.
Not everyone is lucky enough to become who they are.
There are several variables, most of which are based on pure chance, that keep people’s true identities from being known to the world:
There’s the issue of history. You have to be born at a point in time where your natural talents match the available opportunities. Otherwise, the person you are won’t get a chance to blossom to its full capacity.
There’s the issue of environment. You have to be surrounded by people who encourage you to trust yourself and carve your own path. Otherwise, you’ll end up wearing a false self that hides you true nature.
There’s the issue of resources. You have to possess the means that enable the experiences that expose you to your core self. Otherwise, you’ll never plug in where you’ve been gifted to fit.
There’s the issue of exploration. You have to actively seek out what is your own, beyond what you’ve been taught. Otherwise, you’ll never find new, meaningful facets to add to your identity.
There’s the issue of introspection. You have value paying attention to the voices and forces within you. Otherwise, you’ll conform to the tastes of others, slowly losing parts of yourself that you can never get back.
It breaks my heart.
Everyone deserves to become who they are.

Who knew identity was such a blessing?

Dogs can teach us a lot about motivation.

I’m reminded of my favorite commercial of all time:

Bacon! Bacon! Where’s the bacon? I smell bacon. It’s gotta be bacon. There’s only one thing in the world that smells like bacon and that’s bacon! There it is! It’s in the bag! Chewy, yummy smokey bacon! Oh boy oh boy oh boy, num num num num num, it’s bacoooooooon!

That’s motivation.

And what’s interesting is, human beings have their own version of this moment. Each one of us has a collection of currencies that, when sniffed out, override our excuses, tap into our natural motivations and drive us to do things we don’t want to do.

I have a client who’s obsessed with personal improvement. As a recovering academic and a higher education advocate, learning isn’t just what she does, it’s who she is. She even warns the people she works with, if you want to get me to do anything, I better be learning something new.

Learning is her bacon.

If you want to uncover yours, plug yourself into the following statements:

I can rationalize anything, as long as it has something to do with blank.
I can feel like I’ve achieved a return on investment, as long as blank.I can trick myself executing something, but only if I get the chance to blank.I can accomplish anything, as long as the organizing principle of blank is installed.I can do things that I don’t want to do, providing blankcan be a part of it.I can stick with a new behavior, as long as I can find a way to incorporate blank.

That’s your bacon.

The one thing that freezes time and makes your left eyelid twitch and taps into your deepest cravings and human hungers.

Find that, and you’ll unlock your ability to motivate yourself.

Being prolific doesn’t mean doing everything fast.
In fact, when it comes to the principal act of writing, that is, physically putting words on a blank page, I actually work quite slowly. Which seems unlikely, considering I’ve published two books per year, every year, for the last decade.

But you have to understand, writing is only one step of the creative process.

Before showing up at the page, there’s a mountain of journaling and researching and ritualizing and gathering inspiration and taking notes and organizing material to be done. And after showing up at the page, there’s a second mountain of editing and formatting and architecting and managing and publishing and marketing to be done.

Now, those activities, I do execute quickly. Because they’re peripheral steps in the creative process, where it’s more about speed and less about skill. Where velocity doesn’t degrade value.
Photographers know all about this distinction.
According to the landmark study by the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, after editing, designing, bookkeeping, going to meetings, communicating with clients, marketing, networking, equipment setup, technical maintenance and working in photo labs, only about twelve percent of the photographer’s time is actually spent taking pictures.
Twelve percent.
No wonder they take their time.
Shooting is their principal work unit.
And that’s something that should never be rushed.
But as for everything else in the creative process, if you want to achieve artistic prolificacy, put the pedal to the medal. 

I have a confusing relationship with talent.
As a romantic, when I encounter someone so haunted by talent that I can barely look away from her, a once in a lifetime artist who makes me think, whoa, the world cannot be deprived of this person’s magic, I just want to run up and hug her until every drop of talent comes oozing out of her nose for all the world to see.
And that warms my heart.
As a realist, I know that millions of talented people will never become as successful and happy as they could be, because they literally won’t have the time to take their talents on the ride they deserve. Somebody could be the most brilliant illustrator on the planet, but if they spend the majority of their waking life waiting tables just to pay the bills, there simply won’t be enough hours in the day for them to develop, market and leverage their talents.
And that breaks my heart.
As researcher, I know there are always exceptions. We’ve all heard the mythologyabout the single mother on welfare who had a full time job and still managed to write the greatest fantasy novel series of all time. We’ve all heard about the systems for buildingportable creative environments, foldingtime and threadingour talents together. And we’ve all heard the puristsproclaim that talent is finally king because distribution is free.
And that inspires my heart.
But ultimately, I’m still confused when it comes to talent.
Which part of ourselves are we supposed to listen to?

In times of misery, our tendency is to try and outrun the pain.
To do some emotional jujitsu on ourselves, sidestepping whatever inner conflict bubbles up so we can move on before any of the punches land.

On the other hand, it’s also worthwhile to let everything register.
To sit with the mental waves as they come crashing in, trusting that we’re at the threshold of something important, and we should pay attention and keep going and run the extra mile just to find out how the story ends.
Because the benefit of misery is, it gives us window into our values.

And we all need help remembering who we are.

Sentences are my spiritual currency. 

Throughout my week, I’m constantly scouring and learning and reading and inhaling and annotating from any number of newspapers, blogs, online publications, books, articles, songs, art pieces, podcasts, eavesdroppings, random conversations and other sources of inspiration.
Turns out, most of these sentences can be organized into about eleven different categories, aka, compartments of life that are meaningful to me. And since I enjoy being a signal tower of things that are interesting, I figured, why not share them on a regular basis?
In the spirit of “learning in public,” I’ve decided to publish a weekly digest of my top findings, along with their respective links or reference points. Sentence junkies of the world unite!
Creativity, Innovation & Art 
“Develop muscles and routines and practices to consistently generate compelling messages that first move you deep in your bones so that you then have something worth telling others about,” from Craft Lab.

Culture, Humanity & Society “Those who seek peace above all else will always deceive to keep the water calm,” from Divergent.
Identity, Self & Soul “A man with a habit ain’t hard to find,” from Kick Ass 2.

Lyrics, Poetry & Passages 
“Let me heal your eyes,” from Jim Henderson.

Meaning, Mystery & Being 
“You have bitten into something, your own chewing drowns out the world’s chatter,” from Brainstorm.

Media, Technology & Design 
“It’s not technology, it’s what companies are doing to people through technology,” from Generation Like.

Nature, Health & Science 
“Healthy means not driven by anything unwholesome,” from Jerry Seinfeld.

People, Relationships & Love 
“God went on vacation and put you in charge,” from an overheard conversation.

Psychology, Thinking & Feeling
“Be the one who redefines toughness as restraint,” from Jen Lemen.

Success, Life & Career“You can still make a full commitment without taking yourself too seriously,” from Michael Port.

Work, Business & Organizations
“You can hire people to do everything but hire people,” from David Rosenblatt.

See you next week!

My TEDx Talk is now live!

Recorded at the famous Sheldon Theater in St. Louis, Scott Ginsberg tells the story of how he built an iconic brand, a profitable business and a fourteen year career out of wearing a nametag everyday.

To watch the movie on TEDx, click here.
To see pictures from the event, click here. 
To download Scott’s original slide deck, click here.
To book Scott to speak at your next event, click here.

“What are you looking to do here?”
I think that’s a trick question.
And I’m not so presumptive to try and answer it with the limited information that I have about you and your organization.
So instead of telling you what I want to do, let me show you who I am.
Let me to take you on a guided tour of my history, my engine, my values, my anthology and my assets, and then let me ask you if that’s the kind of person who can plug into your organizational machine.
Let me tell you about the life situations have brought me to my knees, exposing my journey to become what I aspire to be, and then let me ask you if that’s the kind of rare and valuable resource who might make a real difference here.
Because I didn’t come here to hit the bullseye.
I came here to fashion new arrows, raise the target, change entire field upon which the target rests and redefine what it means to hit it.
Cool?

Sentences are my spiritual currency. 

Throughout my week, I’m constantly scouring and learning and reading and inhaling and annotating from any number of newspapers, blogs, online publications, books, articles, songs, art pieces, podcasts, eavesdroppings, random conversations and other sources of inspiration.
Turns out, most of these sentences can be organized into about eleven different categories, aka, compartments of life that are meaningful to me. And since I enjoy being a signal tower of things that are interesting, I figured, why not share them on a regular basis?
In the spirit of “learning in public,” I’ve decided to publish a weekly digest of my top findings, along with their respective links or reference points. Sentence junkies of the world unite!
Creativity, Innovation & Art 
“Solitude is a precondition for creativity,” from Sherry Turkle.

Culture, Humanity & Society “Religious institutions could always rely in the past on the relative ignorance of their flock,” from Planet Ivy.
Identity, Self & Soul “I don’t think anybody who’s ever done everything hasn’t been considered an asshole by the general populace,” from Slacker.

Lyrics, Poetry & Passages 
“Instead of waiting to be hit by the light, I decided to become the light instead,” from Gaping Void.

Meaning, Mystery & Being 
“The existential threats worthy of your worry engine,” from Edge.

Media, Technology & Design 
“We’re paying companies to beta test their technology,” from Art Alexakis.

Nature, Health & Science 
“We should worry less about our species losing its biosphere than losing its soul,” from Douglass Rushkoff.

People, Relationships & Love 
“This idea of a soul mate, of someone who will come to complete us and save us from having to take care of ourselves,” from Before Midnight.

Psychology, Thinking & Feeling
“Someone who has inconvenient feelings,” from Feelings Schmeelings.

Success, Life & Career“Instead of telling people what you want to do, show them who you are and let them fill in the blanks,” from a job interview.

Work, Business & Organizations
“The artifact isn’t just a product of an exercise, but a rubric for operable behaviors at all levels of the organization,” from a brandtag.

See you next week!