131: Hello, My Name is Scott – Featured Interview with Scott Ginsberg

Scott Ginsberg, author of The Power of Approachability

Scott Ginsberg talks with Bill Ringle about approachability, embracing failure, and the advantages of “Try-Listen-Leverage” as a business tactic.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

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Interview Insights

Listen to this interview to learn:

• The importance of “I did” versus ideas.
• The advantages of just jumping into the abyss with “Try, Listen, Leverage”.
• About joining versus buying brands.
• What is a “brand tag.”
• How you can learn to fail with style.

Read the Show Notes from this Episode

• 1:04 How Ginsberg’s fascination with approachability led him to conduct some ultimately successful experiments in college.
• 1:55 [Ideas vs. Execution] – “You don’t need an idea, you need an I did.”
• 2:54 “It is a mindset, execution, it’s sort of a way of life, and there are key distractions and things people need to get rid of. And it’s not about productivity, it’s not about ‘getting things done,’ it’s about creating a filter for your life.”
• 3:21 “It’s about being willing to delete the people, being willing to delete the processes, and deleting the irrelevant stuff that’s just killing you.”
• 4:27 [On ready, aim, fire] – “A) you’re never ready, B) aiming is overrated, and C) fire burns people.”
• 4:37 “Try, Listen, Leverage.”
• 4:45 [On Try, Listen, Leverage] – “You just try stuff, you just jump, you take the risk whether it’s a blog post or a new product or an idea or you wanna create a group on Facebook. Just try it. You listen, you see what happens, and then you leverage it. If it works, then great! If not, you move on.”
• 5:25 “You gotta fail yourself to success.”
• 5:40 “I’m actually not afraid of failing. I fail all the time. I love failing. I feel like failing is the best way to learn. I think it’s more fun. I think it makes a better story.”
• 5:59 “Can you imagine anything more terrifying than getting exactly what you want?”
• 6:40 [Paraphrasing Estée Lauder] – “Men buy brands, but women join them.”
• 6:48 “We should invite people to join our brand, not ask them to buy it, because it’s a totally different mindset, not to mention heart set.”
• 7:12 [On branding his company] – “What I wanted to do was create a piece of art that makes the mission more than a statement. It’s not just some sense that people memorize or something people stick on the wall.”
• 7:50 [On brand tagging] – “I don’t think people should wear a name tag every day. I think they should find something that takes their identity and shares it.”
• 8:40 “My job is to come in as both a writer and translator to interview the key people and hang out for a couple of hours and find out: who are these people, what’s important to them, why are they. What’s the why behind what they do?”
• 9:25 “Never fall in love with your own inventory.”
• 9:48 “Every brand tag has an intentional typo. It’s put in there as a reminder to be human, to be imperfect, and that’s a good way to get conversations started too.”
• 10:50 The importance of injecting life into your company mission with the use of a brand tag.
• 13:20 “Execution and commitment are part of my constitution. It’s not just what I do, that’s who I am.”
• 13:53 [On creating motivation for yourself] – “I don’t have deadlines, I have smell dates.”
• 15:15 Ginsberg’s experience giving a speech to a Rotary club, and how an audience member’s encouragement made him think.
• 15:45 “When you have a topic like an approachability or you address an issue like execution, you frame it in a way where you can meet people where they are, and you can let them put themselves into your equation.”
• 16:40 “You open yourself to a lot of new markets, and a lot of it has to do with your willingness to just stick it out there and to be open and to be welcoming when people add different angles to your theme.”
• 17:34 “The first word after no is next.”
• 18:00 “I don’t work with people I don’t like, and I don’t have clients that annoy me to no end.”
• 18:18 “Part of execution is knowing when to say no. I’d rather be known for things I don’t do.”
• 19:02 “I think the secret is coming to this realization that saying ‘No’ to the good you make room to say ‘Yes’ to the best.”
• 19:38 “You gotta know where you suck.”
• 19:45 “I’m not much of a team player, I work really well alone. It’s my style, it’s my personality type. I love people, I crave human interaction and I have to have it every day. But when it comes to my work, I have to do it alone.”
• 21:39 Ginsberg’s daily routines for success and productivity.

Expert Bio

Scott Ginsberg transformed wearing a nametag into a six-figure enterprise. His publishing/consulting company, HELLO, my name is Scott! offers an array of products and services. Dubbed “The Authority on Approachability” and voted as St. Louis’s “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2008 by The St. Louis Small Business Monthly, Scott is the author of twelve books including HELLO, my name is Scott, The Power of Approachability, How to be That Guy and Make a Name for Yourself.

Scott gives presentations, breakout sessions, keynote speeches, and seminars to tens of thousands of people each year. Companies and organizations worldwide, including Staples, Verizon Wireless, and Boeing, have been successfully implementing their programs on approachability since 2003. He is regularly interviewed by and writes for major media outlets.

Scott is the only person in the world who wears a nametag 24-7 to make people friendlier. (In case you’re wondering, he has a nametag tattooed on his chest for certain occasions.)

Contact Info for Scott Ginsberg

• Business Phone: 314-256-1800
• Web address: Hello, My Name is Scott
• Travels From: St. Louis, MO
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

Books by Scott Ginsberg