Meet St. Louis’ master of shameless self-promotion
By Matthew Halverson
Photograph by David Torrence
Prince and Madonna may have done it first, but Scott Ginsberg has done it better: The professional speaker and Parkway North grad has been turning his first name into a brand by wearing a name tag 24/7 since he was a junior in college. We called him seven years to the day after he embarked on his self-marketing mission—which has even included getting a name tag tattoo—to find out what drives a guy to make a career out of dropping his own name.
You’ve written six books, you speak all over the country, you wear a name tag every day ... Is there a better-known Scott right now? The only other one that came to mind was Scott Peterson. Well, I’d like to think I have a better reputation than him. It would be cool if I could say that when you Google “Scott,” I would come up, but you can’t. But if you Google “name tag,” I’m in the first 10 pages.
So do all of your shirts have squares of sticky name tag residue on them? My workout shirts are disgusting. I get a buildup of this black, squishy stuff, but I just take another name tag and slap it right over it.
On your website, you say, “nerds, dorks and geeks rule this world.” I might be all three, but I have trouble paying the rent and I drive a run-down Honda. What am I doing wrong? I think the main reason people aren’t successful is that they don’t execute. A lot of people like to point out the obvious: “You know, Scott, anybody could have worn a name tag.” And I’m the first one to say, “You’re right—but they didn’t.”
Don’t you ever want to be anonymous? Yeah, and that’s why I love Halloween. I have a gorilla suit, and for one day a year, I get to be anonymous. It feels great.
Wait—you don’t wear a name tag on the outside? Actually, I wear a name tag that says “Harry.” Or sometimes I won’t wear a costume, but I’ll change my name tag to “Steve.”
You rebel! So this is it—you’re going to wear a name tag for the rest of your life? I’d love to be 94 years old, on my deathbed, thinking, “Man, I can’t believe I pulled this off for my entire life. This is awesome. I’m ready to die.” I hope that happens, but who knows? I could get stabbed on the street because I wear a name tag. Granted, it would be a great story in a speech, but that might make me reconsider it.
