the entrepreneurs radio show 087 scott ginsberg

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW

Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show of 25

Episode #87: Scott Ginsberg

In this episode Travis talks to a successful writer and entrepreneur Scott Ginsberg. Scott is a very

talented and creative individual who has written over 27 books and teaches people how to improve their

business through branding and being creative at the same time. Scott's out of the box thinking and

radical approach to business would definitely help entrepreneurs in improving their own business.

Scott and Travis discussed on ways on how to improve one's business through Scott's methods which

is mainly through self-disclosure and improving your craft. Scott gave his take on the top 5 tips that

entrepreneurs could do to become successful and that includes creating a business around your brand,

highlighting customers first rather than yourself, focusing on creativity, being committed to your work,

and also being prolific in everything that you do especially in your business. These are just some of the

beneficial things that entrepreneurs can pick up on this episode of the Entrepreneur's Radio Show.

Scott Ginsberg – A brilliantly simple way to

make connections and grow your biz

Travis: Hey, it's Travis Lane Jenkins, welcome to episode number 87 of the Entrepreneur's Radio

show, a production of RockstarEntrepreneurNetwork.com. Today I'm going to introduce you to rock star

entrepreneur Scott Ginsberg. Now, Scott is the author of a large number of books, one that stands out

to me and that I'm familiar with is Hello, My Name is Scott, The Power of Approachability, How to be

That Guy, and Make a Name for Yourself. Now, one of the things I like about this episode is the

different angle that Scott goes about things which I personally believe is, well number one it is very

interesting because I believe that changing or going about things in an out of the box way or completely

unique way and forgoing a lot of the industries norms is quite often the fastest way to cut through the

BS and really get down to the success that you're after and you deserve. Now, in this episode we're

going to talk about his way of overcoming perfectionism which I know is a common problem with a lot of

people, plus we're going to talk about his top 5 ways to increase your growth and success through your

business. Now, Scott's a no nonsense type of guy so we go at it, have some fun, and he's pretty much

willing to do anything as you'll find out when you listen to the interview. Also, as always be sure and

stay with us until the very end if you can because I want to share some inspiration with you plus I've got

something that I want to talk to you about I'll give you a little hint by asking you a question. And the

question is this, have you ever gone up against your competition, somebody that can compete with you

on a local level. And let's say that they're 20%, 30% even 50% higher than you, and they still win a lot

of business. Does that perplex you, does that confuse you? I bet you there's even cases where

http://rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com/




someone does exactly what you do and they are 100%, 200% higher or more expensive than you and

they still get their share of business, right. Well, there's a reason why this happens, and I bet it's a

reason that you probably don't know, or don't suspect. So hang around and that's something that we'll

talk about after the interview.

Now, before we get started I want to remind you that there's two ways that you can take these

interviews on the go with you beyond just listening to them at your computer. If you're like me and you

like to work out or listen to them while you're walking, or driving, or whatever, you can go to

rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com and just click on the iTunes, well there's a menu bar right there and

you can click on iTunes or Stitcher and we'll take you directly to the podcast, that way you don't have to

try to bumble your way around and find it on either one of those platforms. So, now that we've got all of

that stuff out of the way, let's go ahead and get down to business what do you say? Welcome to the

show Scott.

Scott: Thank you, excited to be part of it.

Travis: Yes, I'm excited to have you here. Hey, do you mind giving us kind of the back-story of what

brought you to today and how you find your success?

Scott: Sure. Well, I took the subway here so that was probably the main transportation vehicle. Other

than that I usually walk. Now, I'm sorry I'm just being a jerk.

Travis: Wow, that's a simple path to success, it sounds like something that everybody can follow.

Scott: Yeah, MTA's always dependable.

Travis: Right.

Scott: So, what brought me here? I mean like the easy answer that you would expect to hear would be

you know, hard work, and commitment, and blah blah blah, like all that stuff and that's all true and

accurate. I think the other answer that perhaps people don't hear a lot and are not expecting but is

equally as valid is volume. My success is a 100% based on volume, and what I mean by that is I'm a

prolific person, I always have been, I make stuff very quickly and I put a lot of stuff out. I don't care if it's

the greatest thing, it's not bad, it's not good. I mean all of it's great, some are better than others but you

know, I'm more interested in prolificacy than precision than precision. So I have written just a ton of

books. I've travelled around the world and put on a ton of shows and it's just, I find that for me anything

that I am deficient in, sales skills, you know, being a detail oriented person, like I'm not good at that

stuff so I just figured if I could put out more stuff than anyone in the world and make it, you know, for the

most part pretty good, that makes up for everything. That's my success. It's a 100% based on volume.





Travis: So, that definitely makes sense. Although there's some in-betweens there that you can't turn

that crap, right? You got to get to a level to where you're turning some pretty good stuff out. I think what

you're talking about is getting over the stumbling block of perfectionism, right?

Scott: Yeah, and certainly I wrote crap in the beginning that I never-- But it's akin to going to the driving

range, right? Before you play 18 holes you have to go to get the shanks out on the range, right? Well, I

spent enough time going to the driving range to the point where now like I can hit par pretty much every

time.

Travis: So maybe the crap isn't distributed to everybody. You hone your skills and share it with your

friends and family, and figure out where the weak spots are, and a lot of this common sense early on. Is

that what I'm hearing you say?

Scott: I think that's part of it, you know. I mean a lot of the crap I don't share, I have a daily process of

getting all the crap out of my system first so that way I can let the good stuff rise to the top, you know,

above the cesspool. And I think that's a pretty reliable way to execute consistently well is by finding

some process to eliminate the waste first early and often, so that way all you have left is the honest and

good stuff.

Travis: Interesting. Okay, so let's talk about the story arc of success and you as a person when, I

mean, have you always been an entrepreneur since you've been an adult, or, how did you make that

journey?

Scott: Yeah. Gosh, I was trying to like trace my entrepreneur journey over the course of my life. When I

was about 12 years old we started taping movies on the cable box we stole. Remember back in the

80's when you have to like steal cable by plugging the descrambler.

Travis: Yeah, right.

Scott: So we stole cable, and we used to tape all of them movies and then sell them to our friends who

didn't have cable. Like my friend and I, we took two VCR's and we hooked them up together so you can

make a copy of a copy. So you know, it was harmless fun as a 12-year old and we've made a couple of

bucks and stuff like that. But you know, I've always done stuff like that. I was a musician before I was

an author and a speaker, so I started writing music when I was 12 and 13. And then when I was 19 I

started my own record label and started putting out my albums and publishing my music. So, it runs in

the family, I come from a family of artists and entrepreneurs so it was pretty much laid out that I was

going to do something like that.

Travis: Okay, so you're innovative at 12 and I've talked about this before. I had a problem following the

rules. I maybe wasn't a terrible student but I wasn't a great student. And what I'm describing is painting




outside the lines and that's what I'm hearing you say. It's kind of blazing your own trail, painting outside

the lines, doing things your own way. So, it started very early. As an adult, what did you do that got you

on the path of being successful as an entrepreneur?

Scott: I don't think I did anything different than what I was going to do anyway. When I wrote my first

book when I was a senior in college, just because I liked writing and I wanted to be an author, and it

was no question that that was going to happen. The only thing I did differently was I raised my hand.

And I think that's a big thing for entrepreneurs to think about is are you really in the business because

you want to be a business person or did you just kind of raised your hand when an opportunity came

by? That's kind of what happened to me. I'm not a great business person, I'm a writer, and a thinker,

and a maker, an artist kind of guy. But I'm not a sales guy; I'm not details or any business kind of

person. I wrote this book and then people asked me to kind of tell my story about it, so I raised my

hand. And people asked me to, "Oh, can you give a presentation?" "Sure, I raise my hand." "Can you

do this service?" or, "Can you do this?" And just as it kind of came in I sort of just said yes to stuff,

because that's my nature, I'm a fundamentally affirmative person. I say yes to things and then I ask,

"Oh yeah, by the way what are we doing?" So, I'd say yes to stuff and, "Oh cool, I can make money.

Great." And I've said yes to enough things that I've been able to both be heard and paid, and somehow

keep the pirate ship afloat. That's kind of my journey; I am not the typical kind of business person. I

don't do it the way that I used to and I'm not driven by business growth, and money, and the way that a

lot of people are. I like to make stuff, and I'll find a way to get paid eventually.

Travis: Interesting. So you're just a total right brainer, right? You're just a highly creative person that

loves to exist in the creative space. And then, however, you monetize that as just however you

monetize it.

Scott: Yeah, I'll figure something out, I always do. I'm probably right brained to a fault; I'm trying to

learn how to become a little bit more tactical. I don't think I'm going to ever become a detail person, but

I think there's things I can get better at that I think are good to have in life. So I am working on it.

Travis: Right. Well, you know, it's a constant. I don't know that you're ever there.

Scott: No.

Travis: If everybody's being honest with themselves, you're never there. It's never--

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: There's this perception that everybody's got it 100% together. If they do I think they're being

dishonest with themselves because there's constant refinement. And so, maybe rather than spending




time to fill those gaps and become something that you're not. Why not hire somebody to fill those gaps

for you?

Scott: And you know, I did that for a long time as a business person and it works out very well.

Unfortunately, you can't outsource working on your marriage.

Travis: Yeah, right.

Scott: Well, actually, you can but you'll probably get divorced. So, yeah, I think for my business sense,

absolutely, you know. Over again, I would have hired a business manager immediately. I don't really

have the acumen or frankly, the money to do that, but day 1, that's what I would have done. I would

have found someone who has the left brain, the money making, the business thinker where I could

basically say, "Hey, I just made this thing" and handed off to this guy and say, "Alright, go sell it", or go

build a rubric and a customer base around. That's what I should have done. And I would totally do it

again if I could do it that way. But I didn’t and I'm okay with that. So, I totally feel you. When it comes to

business, outsource the weaknesses. When it comes to your personal life I think there are certain

things that I could get better at just for my own and my family's sake.

Travis: Well, you need to. There are some things that you do need to pay attention to, and you do need

to grow. You need to walk those miles and nobody else can walk those miles for you. Let's spitball this

a little bit here with what you're talking about. There's a ton of people that can't do what you do Scott.

So they can't wing it, they can't get out there and say yes to everything. They can't get in front of a

group of 10 people, or a hundred people, or a thousand people. And so, okay, maybe during the cycle

of building your business you can't afford to pay somebody to come in and be that left brain. But what

you can do is you can sell them a part of the vision. You can say, "Listen, this is what I want to build. I

can't pay you the ideal salary right now but what I can do is if you're the right person, and we can work

together, we can collaborate, and you can fill the weaknesses.

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: This is the projection, this is what I'd like to do over the next 5 years, I'd like for you since you're

strategic and since you're a left brainer this is where you're most comfortable, I'd like for you to help me

chart this out and in return you'll get this and a part of the business.

Scott: Yeah, I think that's such a great approach that more entrepreneurs should think about.

Travis: And there's a lot of business owners that I deal with that are wanting to make a move from

being a business owner to an entrepreneur. And they don't have the resources, but they're missing

selling that dream. And so, those left brainers out there, they would love to be able to do what you do,

but they're scared to death of it, right?




Scott: Yeah.

Travis: And they're never going to do it. And they know that they're never going to do it, right? And so,

partnering with you would be a dream, right?

Scott: Yeah, maybe. It depends.

Travis: Could be dream.

Scott: It depends. That's another thing I'm learning, is how to become more of a team player, how to be

a little bit less selfish and be more considerate of others. So, I don't know, I don't know if people want to

partner with me yet. Maybe give me a couple of more years and I'll be in a better position.

Travis: Well, why do you say that?

Scott: Well, I'm 33 years old; I've been married for 3 months. So, I'm just now entering into that sort of

phase 2 of my life where moving away from the selfish part of my existence to working as a team.

Going from ME to WE. So, this whole concept of transitioning pronouns is a big thing for me, that's a

big them of my life right now, and it's exciting I love it. I'm really getting better at it and I love working at

it and the improvements are just so great. So, I'll be excited to be in a good spot when I'll feel more

comfortable getting into those certain partnerships.

Travis: Right. Okay, that makes sense. So, how long have you been writing? What, you have twelve

books?

Scott: 27.

Travis: 27. Okay, wow, I thought you had 12. So 27, wow, that is prolific. And so, can you take me

down the path. What was the inspiration, why 27 books?

Scott: The number's irrelevant. Other than why is it 27, it's because I haven't finished my 28th one yet.

I'm not shooting for a particular number, I don't have a goal, I just write a lot, and I just put books out,

and I don't care if they sell, and I don't care if people like them, I just like to write.

Travis: But some things happened where you said, "I want to repeat this, I want to refine it, I want to do

more of this." What is that, and I agree with the number is irrelevant, but why?

Scott: Because that's who I am, that's what I do, I cannot write. I don't know who I am if I'm not writing,

it's so much a part of who I am as an individual that it's just a natural outgrowth of me living my life. So,

I don't know how many I'll write or what they'll be about but, I feel like myself when I do that. So I've

been ---I wrote a book when I was 9 years old called The Jelly Bean That Saved the World and I guess




that was officially my first book. It didn't do very well; it didn't sell a lot of copies. But I worked pretty

hard on it. So it's something I've doing for so long that I can't remember not doing it. And I imagine I will

continue that way for as long as I know.

Travis: And so, what has the writing the books done for you as an entrepreneur. You said that it brings

opportunities your way. What has it brought you?

Scott: A lot of things. Obviously, I wrote my first book when I was 22. Meaning nobody would have paid

attention if I didn't have one. When you're that young with no experience and you're just out of college

you don't have really a lot to offer. So, it gave me instant credibility which is tremendous. So, I think that

was the first thing it gave me. The second thing it gave me was a brand. My first book was called, Hello,

My Name is Scott. It wasn't actually a book, it was a brand. Now, I didn't know that at the time but when

look back and trace the trajectory of my career and that first book, it was what it was. It wasn't the

greatest book I've ever written but it sure did build something incredible. So, that was second thing it

did, it gave me a brand. And then the third it did, and it still does, it gives me an expression. I like to

write, I like to write to chronicle my thinking and I imagine if you look back at all the stuff I've written, I

don't really think of them as books. I know they're books and you can feel them and touch them, but it's

more of just a chronicle of my metabolizing my emotions and feelings, and experiences since I've been

21 years old. That's what it is and that's what it continues to be. So, in that way it gives me this great

outlet and this sort of, it's a gasket if you will where I can sort of process everything.

Travis: That's interesting that you say metabolize because I've written quite a bit. I hadn't written any

books, but I have written quite a bit on the topics that I teach. And it really is a process that goes

through you. It really like you've metabolized it. And so, I've got some books, for the lack of a better

term, maybe 37 page white papers, whatever you want to call them, that I've rewrote and edited for

three years.

Scott: Wow.

Travis: Not because I'm perfecting it as much as I'm going deeper on ideas. Do you ever do that?

Scott: I never used to but now I find myself seeing stuff that I wrote and thinking to myself, "You know,

I have a new angle on that" or "I have a new experience to give with it" or "I've completely changed my

mind, I disagree with what I wrote when I was 27." So, I like doing that. Actually, I was just working on

something this morning that I touched on a couple of years ago, but I want to kind of approach it a little

bit differently. So, I liked plagiarism myself to a small extent, I like to get old things I wrote. And not

completely repeated but pull a sentence or two out and use that as a spark for something new. I don't

write things twice, I don't really edit, I don't revise, I don't do second editions. I think that's such bull---

and a total waste of time. I have friends that are working on their second and third edition, I'm like,




"Why don't you just write a different book?" Actually, if you look at everything I've written, they're all the

next edition. I'm not writing the same book twice but all I'm doing is just writing about my values and my

things that are important to me. So they're all connected, they're all part of a chronology, and to revisit

something or to expand, update and revise, that seems like you're just going back in a time machine

and just kind of repeating yourself, as opposed to doing something new.

Travis: I agree with you. I only find value when I'm going deeper down the rabbit hole.

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: I don't want to find a new way to say the same thing.

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: Or I don't want put it in today's vernacular. I really don't care about that. It's from my own

selfishness because there's an incredible amount of clarity that comes with the writing.

Scott: Sure.

Travis: I've had a topic that I've generated $30-40 million through a business. And when I wrote on it,

now you think, if I generated that much revenue off of it that I'd know everything there is to know about

it, which I thought I did. However, once I wrote, I found a new level of competence and awareness

about that topic that I didn't have before.

Scott: Yeah, totally.

Travis: Does that surprise you?

Scott: No, I learned how to write from George Carlin, he's my hero in terms of a creator. And George

Carlin you should talk about how he wrote comedy different in his 30's and 40's than as 50's and 60's,

because the matrix was bigger and he says, "In the beginning of you career you're writing off on the

front of your brain very superficially. But as you get older or as you get more mileage depending on how

much you do in your years, you're kind of bouncing off a thicker wall. So, I think there's a certain

amount of perspective and insight that wasn't there the first time that you can go back in that into. And I

think that's really where the good stuff is, going down the rabbit hole and having some new tools to dig.

Travis: Yeah, it's really amazing the level of clarity of-- I was talking about this, I just did in my last

interview, and the guy that was interviewing said that he had found that just journaling was very

beneficial for him. And something that I had said is I had been wrestling with a back problem for over

the last 5, 6 years , and I said, I'd started journaling, writing about-- really not journaling, just writing

about what I'd been doing to and how the back problem ebbs and flow. And I said, "It's almost gone."




And then we moved on to another thought. Really, in order to give that a proper explanation, it didn't go

away just because I was writing about it, what it did is it engaged me in a new, linear fashion of thought.

And as it moved me down that linear fashion of thought I come to the conclusion of the problem. And I

feel like that it wouldn't have unfolded if I hadn't done that, does that make sense?

Scott: I think that's awesome, I'm actually writing down what you just said because I think that's great.

Writing engages you in a new linear fashion of thought. Yeah, I found the same process to be effective

as it related to some stomach problems I used to have. My therapist who once gave me this great

exercise and he said, if you are noticing stress, manifesting in my stomach, everyone manifest stress

differently, but he says, "If you feel it in your stomach and you notice it's there, it's not about fighting it or

wishing that it goes away, or trying to work to make it go away." "You know what you do, is just sit down

and literally have a conversation with your stress." And I'm like, "How does that work?", he goes, "You

will write it on your screen or your computer as if you were writing a script for a movie. And you would

have character 1 is Scott." And he says, "Hello stress, how are you?" And then character 2, stress, "Oh,

hi Scott, I thought I'd stop by." "Oh really, what were you thinking?" It's hokey but like you really sort of

have this, you change your relationship with your stress, and you use writing as the tool to sort of

create this world around it. And you just have a very relaxed, peaceful conversation. And I started doing

that and it really helped me understand why I was manifesting stress and where it was coming. And just

by having those conversations it changed your relationship with it. It's amazing how it tends to go away

in a different type of fashion.

Travis: Yeah, it puts a handle on it. Sometimes when you can't pick something up if it had a handle on

it, you could pick. That's what it does; it puts a handle on it. That's a crazy way of saying it. So, I did

something very similar. So number one, let me go back about the health thing, and I completely agree

with you. It was like a bad movie with my back, it just kept playing over and over and over, and I really

never could come to the solution. But until I wrote it down, once I wrote it down, it quit playing over, and

over, and over, and I could move forward. And I think that's part of the mechanism of what works

whenever you start doing what we're talking about. So, as a young man I had managed to screw

around and not get an education at all because I realized I could charm and manipulate my way

through school and not learn anything. Are you there? I think we lost Scott. I saw the connection drop.

[00:27:00-00:30:27]

Travis: Scott.

Scott: Okay, we're back.

Travis: Did you have to reboot?

Scott: Yeah, what the--




Travis: What's that?

Scott: Wi-Fi was all messed up but I'm good.

Travis: Okay. So basically I went through a phase some 20 plus years ago where I couldn't read. I had

a real problem with reading. And the problem is I kept having dialogue like another person inside of my

head was having dialogue with me while I was trying to read.

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: I think this is a common problem with most people, right? Or I've found, when I've asked other

people that they have had similar problems. And so I had messed around and didn't get the education

that I should have gotten, and it really concerned me. So, I was on this path to where I was going to

undo the wrongs of my wasted childhood by reading, right? And so, my first book was Psycho-

Cybernetics and I started reading it, and every page I kept having dialogue with myself. Well, what does

that word mean? You can't even focus. Why are you reading this, none of this is making sense to you.

This is all inner dialogue while I'm going on when I'm trying to read. And it really got in my way for

several days, and I kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing. And one day I just got really angry, and

something inside of me just broken. And I threw a fit, and I cussed that voice out. This is probably a

very silly sounding story. But once I got angry and I treated that voice as it was someone else, and said

what I needed to say to it, the voice went away. And all of a sudden I could read the pages and I could

understand what was being said on the pages to a much greater degree than I had before. And that's

one of the times that I had stumbled into a connotation of what we're talking about. Sometimes when

you're dealing with a problem or an issue, or even a person that's passed away. The way to continue

that conversation is sit down and either have that conversation with him or write about it, does that

make sense?

Scott: Yeah, that's a powerful experience for sure.

Travis: Yeah, have you had any type of experiences like that to where you've just kind of stumbled in

to how to get in touch with that inside voice, or is it just something that's always been there that's dying

to get out?

Scott: I guess it's a little bit different. I never took a combative approach with that, I always honor the

voice. And whatever voice was in there, I try to find a way to let it out and listen to it, and share it with

people. Maybe that was the big discovery for me is not just letting out, you know, [No audio 00:33:33]

with people and maybe finding out they've got a similar voice, and then we can all get together and we

can share the voices, and figure out what to do about it.




Travis: I think we have two voices in us. We have one that's our lower self, our inner child that wants to

be destructive, and mean, and say cruel things about you, and disrupt things. And I think we have a

creative voice inside of us also, which is our truer self. Do you agree with that?

Scott, I lost you.

[00:34:00 – 00:34:49]

Scott: Okay, here we go.

Travis: Alright. What's the deal, is it Skype, or is it your--

Scott: I have no idea.

Travis: Okay. Alright, so I was saying, I feel like there's two voices. I think there's an inner child that's a

little negative.

Scott: Right.

Travis: One that wants to say mean, horrible things to you, and then there is the creative voice. Do you

think that way also, do you agree?

Scott: Maybe. I don't know. I think it's other people's voices. My creative child voice has always served

me really well, and asked me to--

[00:35:31 – 00:36:38]

Travis: Hello?

Scott: Are you there?

Travis: Yeah.

Scott: I think Skype has a voice and it's really pissing me off.

Travis: Right, okay. Alright, so you were saying.

Scott: Anyway. I think it's a lot of times it's not so much your voice but maybe voices from the past of

other people that you can't get out of your head. And that's the challenge, is to not let those voices of

people that have said negative things. Not to let those voices rule the day.

Travis: Right. Okay, so since this show speaks to entrepreneurs, what do you feel like-- let's take your

top 2 favorite books that speak towards entrepreneurship. I think that really, the majority of them do.




Scott: Oh, I think so. I mean you can take any book and make it an entrepreneur book as long as you

have the right filter.

Travis: Right.

Scott: The two that have been the most helpful, the first one is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Have you read that one?

Travis: No, actually just downloaded the audio version of it about 30 minutes before we got on this call.

Scott: Good. It came out in 2001, and it is the only book that I read every year. That's how good it is,

and it's about resistance and the creative blocks, and hard work, and showing up every day to do

whatever you have to do. It's really great, and it's sort of like watching Shawshank Redemption, you

know, I always get something new every time.

Travis: Right.

Scott: There's that one, I love it, everyone should buy it. And then I read a book about two years ago

by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, and it's a book called The Start-up of You. It's really good, it

talks about viewing yourself as a start-up and always being beta mode, and you know, in the same way

that start-ups pivot and adjust based on market feedback. We have to give the same. I went through a

pretty serious identity crisis a couple of years ago when I was making some professional transitions.

And that book was really helpful and kind of reminding me, don't cling to your gifts too tightly. And don't

make one thing all you stand for, and diversify your identity, and become known for more than one

thing beyond just what you've already done. All that stuff was really instructive to me and I recommend

it to everybody.

Travis: Very cool. I've never heard that one, The Start-up of You. And who's that by?

Scott: Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn.

Travis: Okay. Take me down the path of some of your books here. I think one of the common themes

that I see is just approachability, right?

Scott: Yeah, that was the first thing I really noticed of wearing a nametag every day, it did two things. It

made a people more likely to approach me, which is awesome, but also gave me a chance to approach

people with a different attitude and different contacts. And I've always struggled that part of the

communication to being proactive and stepping out, and expressing myself, and volunteering

information about how I'm feeling. That's always been struggle as a communicator. I'm great at the

other end of it, I'm a great listener, and I'm great at letting people come on to me. Wearing the name

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tag was really helpful on kicking me in the butt and trying to be more proactive with stuff. That's kind of

where approachability started.

Travis: It's interesting that you're so prolific of a writer yet you have those other aspects of your

personality to where you're not completely outward with your mindset or your thoughts. Did I

understand that right, you're more interested in what's going on with other people than sharing what's

going on with you?

Scott: I think that's shifting. Perhaps in the beginning, yeah, I've learned over time and certainly it's

reflected and stuff that I put out about having a good balance between the two. I like my private time

and as much as I'm an extrovert I'm a highly introspective person. So, I try to strike that balance and

make sure that I'm doing both because it's pretty central for me, your identity. Human beings create

their identities in the context of other people. You can't sit in the corner and perfect yourself, you have

to develop the self as it relates to connecting and having intimacy with other human beings, friends,

colleagues, partners, etc. So, yeah, I'm working on that balance.

Travis: Well, it's interesting, it's polar opposites isn't it?

Scott: Maybe. It's on the same spectrum that's for sure.

Travis: It's polar opposite and I guess it's standing out with me because I suffer from some of the same

problems. I do this show, I speak with a lot of people, I know a lot of people. But I mostly spend my time

talking about them and what's going on with them because that fascinates me, it's interesting to me.

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: Yet I'm not as comfortable talking about myself a whole lot. I do try to share some of my

personal stories because I think it's jarmaine to the story and I want to drive home the importance of

what you're sharing. But I'm more comfortable living in other people's world and that's really kind of the

polar opposite, and that's what I hear you saying also.

Scott: Yeah, it's good to have both. I think readers appreciate end of the story.

Travis: Yeah. So, wearing a name tag everywhere you go. Other than starting up conversations, does

it really add value from a business standpoint?

Scott: Well, still here.

Travis: Well, I mean.




Scott: Directly, no. Wearing a name tag isn't going to do nothing for your business. But what will do

something for your business is when you start to look at what a name tag symbolizes and how to apply

it, and I'll give you an example. Because I wear a name tag, is the fundamental unit of self-disclosure.

This is my name, that is the basic way that we get to know people. And self-disclosure is reciprocal. So

when I wear a name tag people just introduce themselves to me just out of nowhere. Why? It's because

of reciprocity. So if you go to a sales-- maybe a better context of the leadership situation. If you're in a

leadership position and you want to have a connection with your team or your whoever. Your

volunteers, your people. Whatever it is that you're willing to share. If you're willing to be vulnerable, and

to be open, and to share your mistakes and failures then that inspires other people to do the same.

They feel comfortable, and they feel okay, and they kind of have the permission to be themselves too.

And I think that enables an organization to do better, to have a sterner connection in the culture

because of that reciprocity. That's got nothing to do with the name tag but it is symbolized by that basic

concept of a name exchanged with others.

Travis: Yeah, and I've been to a lot of events to where you walk around with name tags around your

neck, right?

Scott: Right

Travis: And you just forget that they're there because you've had it on all day. And people do act

different. They--

Scott: Oh yeah. It's interesting how anonymity affects behavior. One of the most well-known topic was

in the 70's by Dr. Philip Zambardo. What he did is he had these fake nurses applying a very minor

electro shocks to patients who answered questions incorrectly. That's a very like 70's, 80's thing to do.

It's sort of like out of the beginning of Ghostbusters. But like these women and these fake uniforms, the

control group was just women in nurse uniforms, but the variable group were women who had names

on their badges on their uniforms, and they actually held the buzzer about 50% less than the women

who didn't have names. Why? Because they want anonymous. So when you know that people know

your name there's just certain amount of accountability, and there's no anonymity so you tend to

behave better. And this study was one of the landmarks, sort of perks of that concepts.

Travis: That sounds like a connotation of the Milgram Experiment where they administered shock until

actually to a level that's lethal after 12 or 13 times. But due to the fact that an authority was present

they went ahead and delivered it anyways. So it's a connotation of that. Wow, that's interesting. So the

name is there. So the person obviously is second to themselves. Well, I know this is Mary and so

Mary's going to have to be accountable for this

Scott: Yeah.




Travis: I'll go ahead and press the button.

Scott: Exactly.

Travis: Okay, interesting. Alright, so, all of these books that you've written, let's condense some of this

wisdom into things that we can share, maybe actionable items or things that you feel like that stand in

the way of most entrepreneurs, way of maybe being prolific or making more connections, growing their

business. How does that relate to these people and what would be the top 5 things that you would tell

them they should or shouldn't do.

Scott: Okay. So, top 5 things, number 1. One of the things that I learned is that my process was

essentially creating a business around a brand. I already had my brand, it was Hello, my name is Scott,

it was the name tag. And then I spent the past 13, or whatever many years, building the business

around that. A lot of people, entrepreneurs being these people have the business first, and then they

build the brand around it. So, there's two different approaches, one is not better than the other. You

can't only have a brand, you have to have some substance to it. But you can't only have substance with

no brand, or nobody will remember it. So, that's the first thing is when it comes to identity is to side

which one are you doing. Are you building a brand first or the business first and the other around it. And

if so, [No audio 00:47:37] between those two.

Travis: And now, you cut out. So if you're building a brand around this then what?

Scott: Just finding the balance between, you know--

Travis: Okay, find the balance in between.

Scott: Brand versus business and you know which one you're building around which and just be aware

of how you're doing that because either path can work as long as you understand its relationship to the

other.

Travis: Okay, alright.

Scott: The second one, and we've been talk from a sort of interpersonal level. I always thought that

being approachable, or being memorable, or whatever. I always thought it was about being the life of

the party. It's not, it's about bringing other people to life at the party. And I think it's a good approach

that people can have when they're at an event is what can I do to be the reason this other person is

excited and has come to life. And how can I set that person up to look great. So that way, put their

name up at the lights and give them a front row seat to their own--

Travis: Yeah, you cut out there are you still there Scott?




Scott: Still with me?

Travis: Yeah, you cut out for a second. So how would we structure that sentence. So number 2, how

would you phrase that? You've described it and what I hear you saying is rather than being interesting,

be interested.

Scott: No, I don't-- I mean sure, that's been said a million times so I want to sort of think of the better.

It's not about being interested, it's about finding someone else is interesting, and make sure that you

amplify that, interesting-ness to everyone else.

Travis: Okay.

Scott: You know what I mean, like, I'm interested but I want 200 people that see this other person to be

more interested in that person. I just want to push that person out there.

Travis: Okay and so how would we structure that? What would you call that? Even if you had to craft a

word, you know.

Scott: It's called orderliness.

Travis: Orderliness, okay, there you go.

Scott: Okay. Number 3, we can focus more on the sort of creativity, writing side. For me I find writing to

make everything else I do easier, and that's because I'm a writer but you don't have to be a writer. So,

example, let's say you have a sales job, brand new job, just started your new business. Well, it's always

an interesting challenge to think about how writing can make you better at this job. So, maybe if that

means writing out the description of your product over and over so you know it better. Maybe it means

writing material about the value of your product as publish own material so you can promote it better.

But the thing you can do to write more, makes you more familiar. As you said earlier today writing gives

you a handle. So if you can use writing to give you a handle on your own products, that's only going to

make you a more effective sales person.

Travis: Okay.

Scott: Fourth example, what we'll talk a little bit more strategic and a lit bit more macro. The best

technique is commitment. I get emails all the time from people asking me for like techniques on stuff,

I'm like, you know what, there's every book in the world, we'll give you techniques, it's like there is one

technique and they always works and it's called commitment. It's like the simplest thing in the word and

it pisses people off because it's really hard, and no one has got a commitment. And there's no math, it's

like you have to just sort of figure it out yourself, like, I am amazed that when you just commit and stick

with stuff, and stay consistent with it a lot takes place.




Travis: So commitment, not just commitment to being successful, but say you have-- because that's

too broad. But say that you've decided to execute item A, stick with it, commit it, or is that what we're

talking about?

Scott: Yeah, I mean I think of it on a very granular level. Committing to success is going to do nothing

for you.

Travis: Right.

Scott: But committing to introducing 2 new people every week that need to know each other, that will

do something.

Travis: I know lots of people that are on to executing the new thing, and the new thing, and new thing,

and new thing, and they never finish the old thing.

Scott: Yeah, I think that's pretty common with like serial entrepreneurs that they just kind of move on

and go to the next thing. But, it's amazing how much that stuff pays off. Anyone who can get really

good at not going away will win.

Travis: Right. I agree with you. It's an incredibly unsexy skill and item to put on the list here but it's

very, very accurate. Okay, so number 5.

Scott: I mentioned this very early in the interview that volume was my secret, and I think that

entrepreneurs should think about what prolificacy can do for them, and what that looks like for them.

So, it's easy as a writer because it's a little bit more tangible because I write lots of stuff. But if you are

in the technology world, if you're developing, encoding, what little bit can you do every single day to

build up a body of work. If you're a graphic designer that's a no brainer because it's so visual. What can

you draw every single day and can you publish that on the hands and build their portfolio. Prolificacy

pays off and volume wins, and I challenge people to think about like what is your sort of daily micro

moments of value, of volume I should say. I try to write 500-ish words every single day. I'm pretty good

about it, and we do that over the course of a year, that's a couple of hundred thousand words, and that

really adds up. So, what is that moment of volume for each person?

Travis: 500 words a day, that's all?

Scott: Yeah.

Travis: I would expected a whole lot more, and not to trivialize that. I didn't mean to say that in a

trivializing way but I just expected 2,000 words from you a day.




Scott: I used to. I don't write as much as I used to because I just don't care as much as I used to. But I

would certainly put out a couple of thousand back in the day. But I don't write 8 hours a day like I used

to. So 500 is manageable, it's enough for me to be okay with myself. Do the math, 500 words a day, 5

days a week, that's 250,000 words a year, that's like four books a year, that's insane, and that's a page

and a half.

Travis: Well, you know, it really is. I think very few people make slow, steady, forward progress.

Scott: Right.

Travis: And I'm guilty of it at times to where I'm busy going laterally rather than forward because I'm

just bored with what I'm working on.

Scott: That's interesting. What do you mean like laterally?

Travis: Well, sometimes instead of completing a project, I will set it aside and work on something else.

And I'll work on something else so I'm not necessarily moving towards completing that one project, like I

have. Now, I will, I'm very tenacious and that's a part of my success, but I have three projects that I'm

working on right now. And so, I could've put them back-to-back, finish one. And efficiency experts

would say put them back-to-back, finish one then move on to the next, and then move on to the next.

Whereas, a lot times I'll work on 3 different projects.

Scott: Yeah, I guess it's the temperament thing. I'm an incrementalist, I like to do a little bit every day,

and I like routine, and I like consistency. So, I'm the same for the music world. Like I said I've been

writing music longer than I'm writing books. And I make one maybe two songs a month, that's not very

much but that'll give me an album by the end of the year.

Travis: Do you still play?

Scott: Yeah, all the time. I perform on the weekends in the park, there's this real beautiful tunnel right

by my house at this park and it's got great natural acoustics so I just play. There's always kids and

people and stuff walking by, it's pretty fun.

Travis: Cool. So, let's see, we're getting long on the time here, what do you say we transition to the

lightning round where you going to get a chance to sing.

Scott: Okay, man, let's do this.

Travis: What do you want to sing?




Scott: Oh jeez, I mean it is Christmas time. I do love Christmas music. Do you have a favorite

Christmas song?

Travis: How about something by Elvis?

Scott: Elvis is good. God, which ones did he do, he did so many of them.

Travis: Blue Christmas.

Scott: I love Blue Christmas and I don't know the words, but I will tell you. My favorite Christmas song

is an obscure one and it's called I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.

Travis: Oh yeah, that's one of my favorites. I'm totally pulling your leg. Is this the part where you grab

your guitar and play I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas? I think we've lost Scott again. Scott?

Scott: Can you hear me?

Travis: Yeah, I can hear you now.

Scott: Okay, yeah. Anyway, like I was saying, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is by Gayla. So

the girl who sang this song, her name is Gayla Peevey, age 10. Is this the part where I sing it?

Travis: Well, yeah, are you going to grab your guitar, or are you just going to do it?

Scott: I guess I'll have to do it acapella. Alright, here we go. One, two, three.

(♪♪♪) I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only hippopotamus will

No crocodiles, or rhinoceroseses, I only want hippopotamuseses.

A hippopotamuses like me too. (♪♪♪)

Thank you.

Travis: Well, it's very nice of you to share that with me. I have to confess that I haven't heard that

before.

Scott: Oh, it's so good.

Travis: Yeah, that's excellent. There's no bridge in there.

Scott: That was just one verse. I'm not doing the whole thing, my voice is tired.

Travis: Okay, alright. I'll let you slide on that.




Scott: Thanks.

Travis: Alright, so listen. Let's go ahead and transition to the lightning round.

Scott: Alright.

Travis: I'm sure you've probably spent quite a few hours noodling over the questions that I sent you

and pontificating what your answers would be, right?

Scott: Yeah, I couldn't sleep last night because I was looking at them.

Travis: Yeah, I was troubled that keep you up.

Scott: Yeah, that's alright.

Travis: Okay, so basically, my first question is what's a book that you would recommend? And you've

really already answered that, right?

Scott: I can give you a new one.

Travis: Yeah, well, give us another.

Scott: Alright. I just read Dave Eggers' new book called The Circle, and it's awesome.

Travis: The circle. What's that about?

Scott: It's a dystopian fiction, my favorite kind of book. And it's about like a sort of Google, Apple,

Facebook mash-up company that's taking over the world but it's like a huge cult and it's just spooky and

awesome.

Travis: Circle, okay. What is one of your favorite tools or pieces of technology that you've recently

discovered, if any, that you'd recommend to other business owners and why?

Scott: It's not that recent but I discovered Buffer App which a tool for timing and scheduling your

tweets. I used to binge tweet and people got really mad at me, and they're like, "Just use buffer." I'm

like, "Oh, okay." And so, you can tweet 15 tweets at once but you spread it out throughout the day so

people don't hate you.

Travis: People hating you, not a good thing.

Scott: Sometimes. It's good to have people to hate you initially because it's good to go back and say

"How do you like me now?" but no, it's not good.

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Travis: What quote would best summarize your belief or attitude in business?

Scott: Gosh.

Travis: This is probably what kept you up last night.

Scott: I will say that "Ideas are free, execution is priceless."

Travis: Not only a great quote but great advice.

Scott: And a great title of a book you can buy.

Travis: Oh yeah?

Scott: Yeah, it's mine.

Travis: I was fixing to say-- Do you have any special super powers that you wouldn't mind sharing with

us?

Scott: Yeah, I can see through walls. It is really helpful when by like the girl's bathroom.

Travis: You can see through what?

Scott: Walls.

Travis: Oh nice, okay.

Scott: Yeah, I'm actually looking to the wall right now and my friend of mine is washing her hands.

That's kind of awkward.

Travis: Okay.

Scott: But other than that, no, I don't have any superpowers, I just make a lot of stuff.

Travis: Cool. What do you dream of?

Scott: Let's see. Last night, I had a really interesting dream about playing basketball, which is

fascinating because I suck at basketball. But I have very random dreams. A lot of times they're about

sports which is strange because I'm not good at it. But yeah, there's an example for you.

Travis: No, what do you dream of as far as accomplishing.

Scott: Oh sure. Well, like I said, I got married a couple of months ago and I think the most exciting part

about getting married is all I've ever wanted was to be married. Like my whole life I just wanted to be




married, I never cared about going on dates, and sort of the typical single male approach to dating. I

just wanted to be married. So, now that I've accomplished that, I'm good for awhile.

Travis: Well, that's a good place to be. Since we're running out of time I better wrap it up here. Let me

ask you, what's a best way for people to connect with you?

Scott: I don't know what the best way for people to connect to me, it's up to them. So if they just

Google Nametag they can make the decision from there.

Travis: Spoken like a true artist. You're such a right brainer there Scott. So, in whatever links I find for

you, do you mind if I go ahead and post them up there on the website so that they can just connect with

you there?

Scott: Yeah, Travis, whatever you like man.

Travis: Yeah, cool. Well, listen; you've been a blast to visit with. I love the left field creative angle that

you come from. I like people that think completely different. I don't mind left field answers or crazy

attitudes about things, it really shakes things up and encourages you to kind of find your own groove

and do your own thing, right?

Scott: Absolutely, left field is a good place to be. Center field was never for me so I like over there on

the left.

Travis: Right. Well, listen man, I enjoyed it. Let's stay connected, and what I'll do it whenever this

episode goes live, I will reach out and let you know. And share the link with you.

Scott: And I will spam the world with it.

Travis: Alright. I enjoyed it Scott, sorry about the connection stuff brother.

Scott: No, it's my fault. So happy holidays.

Travis: Alright man, take care.

Scott: Later.

End of Interview




Travis: Bye. Okay, great, thank you, thank you for that. Now, remember that you can find all of the links

to the books and resources mentioned in the show in the show notes. Just go to

rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com. It's a brand new site that we're building out that is completely

focused on giving you the resources to grow your business.

Now, at the beginning of the show I asked you this question. Have you ever gone up against your

competition locally, and their 20, 30, even 50% higher than you and they still win a lot of the business,

they still have customers. Does that confuse you, does that offend you, does it perplex you, what does

it do? And I even said, I bet you there are cases to where people selling, or offering, or providing the

same thing that you offer, or a very similar version of it, are charging 100% more, even more than that.

And they're still getting their fair share sales, right? Well, there's a reason why this happens. Normally,

they have systems that are hidden, at least from you and the rest of their competition. Now, the

systems give them an unfair advantage. These systems are the things that once they're set-up many of

them work on autopilot, conditioning those prospects to know, like, and trust them. This makes those

potential clients that are thinking about buying whatever it is that you have, if this is been done to them

for awhile, then they're willing to pay more for your services or your product, and they're much less

worried about price. They still want a fair, equitable deal, but they're more willing to spend that extra

money. Now, the important part of what I'm telling you here is these little elements when someone's 20,

30, 40% more than you, typically increase the net profit of your business of whatever you offer by

several hundred percent, 200, 300, 500. I've seen it increase the net profit of a business by 2,000%. So

think about it, how would your business, if we didn't even go to the extreme. How would your business

and your life change if you made 400% more profit on every sale you make. Normally, that makes a

drastic difference with most people. Well, that's part of the formulas that I talk to you about, that I

discuss in the intro of the show, that needs to be adjusted to fit your own, unique business. As you

apply this, now it's important, I want you to realize I didn't figure this out early on into my business. I

spent 15 plus the transition, right around 17 years before the light came on and I figured out what I was

doing wrong and the shift that I had to happen. So, anyways, getting back to this. As you apply these

formulas to your business, your profits become very predictable and start building long term wealth.

This is what moves you into a position to help others, which I believe is part of our responsibility as

entrepreneurs. Now, if you haven't reached that level of consistency yet with your business and you'd

like to learn how it's done, we've put a free program together called the Business Breakthrough

Sweepstakes, I've told you about that several times, where we teach you some of these formulas in

simple step-by-step format. Again, so that you can customize it to your business. This is what I've used

to build several tiny, little local companies into multi-million dollar businesses during the recession while

everybody else was struggling. Also, to add a little fun and excitement to the program, if you join the

sweepstakes you'll have a chance to win the $73,000 in cash and prices, where we'll go beyond just

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to that next level of success and beyond. Plus, again, you have a chance to win my personal

Lamborghini. So, for more information go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com and click on the

sweepstakes promotion. I'm going to be looking for your name to show up in my notice that you're

opting in to the sweepstakes there.

So, before I wrap up the show today I want to read you a quote that I just wanted to share with you.

And so the quote's from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it reads, "What you do today can improve all of

your tomorrows." This is Travis Lane Jenkins signing off for now. Stay motivated my friend, what you're

doing as an entrepreneur is much more important than you may realize. To your incredible success,

take care.





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Travis Lane Jenkins

Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist

Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show

“Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"

http://www.rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com/biz-accelerator

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