G. Brian Benson is an award-winning and #1 best-selling self-improvement and children’s book author, actor, filmmaker, project coach, spoken word artist, podcast host, and TEDx speaker. Talk about being multi-passionate. As a 4x Ironman triathlete and cross-country bicyclist, Brian knows the value of hard work and never giving up on his dreams, a message he shares with audiences through each of his creative expressions. Brian’s latest book “Habits for Success – Inspired Ideas to Help You Soar” was an Amazon #1 Best-Seller and was selected as a 2019 Book Excellence Award Grand Prize Winner. He is also the host of The Creative Spark podcast.
Creative Spark Podcast Host G. Brian Benson (Actor, Filmmaker, Author, Speaker) on His Multiple Passions
LINKS:
www.thecreativesparkpodcst.com
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, and welcome to episode 83 of Multi Passionate Artists. It’s been a while since the last episode. I have so many things to update you on. We had Canadian Music Week, I was on the Canadian Musician podcast and I’m writing a column for the Canadian Musician Magazine print edition for the fall.
Coming up in future episodes is I want to coach live on the show. First up, I have some of my current and previous clients that will volunteer to be coached on the show, but this is open to all of you. You may want to listen to a few of those episodes to see what it’s about before you volunteer. But if you’re like, I want that. I want to be coached on the show. You can head to Diane Foy.com/volunteer and fill out the application.
And we are open to talk about anything that is in my fans, media, and industry attraction playbook.
We can talk about any of the challenges that you have in your creative career, how to manage multiple passions. We can do that on the show, so stay tuned for that. I’m going to be doing more solo episodes. I’m going to have themes of certain topics that I’m going to be sharing on social media as well as the podcast. Right now, obviously, the first theme is multipotentiality. So I will be doing a solo episode all about multipotentiality. For now, you can check out @DianfoyArts on Instagram and in the Facebook group multi-passionate Artists. And I’m posting about multi-potentiality. So if you’re not really sure what that is, because I question my decision to change the podcast name and my niche to Multi-Passionate, because once I learn a lot about something that I kind of just assume everyone already knows about it. And maybe that is a multipotentialite thing. But I’ve been doing interviews whether I’m on someone else’s podcast or they’re online, and along the way they discover that they’re a multipotentialite. And every time it happens, they do a million things and they just don’t know that multipotentiality is a thing.
And when I explain it to them, it’s the relief and it reminds me why I do and why it’s so important to get the message out there that multipotentiality is a thing. And we have many superpowers, we have many strengths. There’s a lot of good about what we do. So our guest today, Brian Benson, this happened. You’ll hear this.
G. Brian Benson is an award-winning and #1 best-selling self-improvement and children’s book author, actor, filmmaker, project coach, spoken word artist, podcast host, and TEDx speaker. Talk about being multi-passionate.
As a 4x Ironman triathlete and cross-country bicyclist, Brian knows the value of hard work and never giving up on his dreams, a message he shares with audiences through each of his creative expressions. Brian’s latest book “Habits for Success – Inspired Ideas to Help You Soar” was an Amazon #1 Best-Seller and was selected as a 2019 Book Excellence Award Grand Prize Winner.
He is also the host of The Creative Spark podcast.
All that and he didn’t know about multipotentiality. It’s a wonderful conversation we had about everything that he does and I hope you enjoy it. hello, welcome to the show.
[00:05:03.390] – G. Brian Benson
Thank you very much.
[00:05:05.010] – Diane Foy
So tell me in a nutshell, or the long version, what is it that you do?
[00:05:15.510] – G. Brian Benson
Oh boy. I’m in transition a little bit. But I’ve done a lot of things and I will continue to do a lot of things. But I left my family business about 1213 years now into the unknown and I accidentally wrote my first book and it just set me on this crazy journey of self exploration and finding all these creative gifts I had inside of myself that I had no idea were there before and which have included since then writing more books. Some self help books and some kids books. Some presentations like TEDx type stuff. Spoken word poetry. Videos. I moved to La about nine years ago now and I’ve gotten into acting a little bit. I just love to create positive content in all kinds of different ways and I’m also a project coach that kind of helps pay the bills sometimes when acting in the book. Sales aren’t as much as we’d like them to be and that’s been a lot of fun because I put a lot of my own projects together and so it’s nice to help other people do that too because it’s a really neat thing to be able to access what’s inside of us and kind of just.
[00:06:38.700] – G. Brian Benson
I don’t know. Have it right there in front of us or have it up there to share.
[00:06:42.670] – Diane Foy
Yeah. Were you creative as a kid? Do you come from a creative family and what is your creative journey?
[00:06:53.120] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah, you know, I would not have said I was a creative kid. I mean, looking back maybe a little bit. I’m an outgoing introvert and I’d love to spend just hours and hours in my room just listening to records that I bought and decorating my room with the music acts that I like during of the day. And I love sports and I have baseball posters all over the place. I’d make it my space. Not that that’s very creative, but yet I really enjoyed it. I started playing guitar in high school too, a little bit. Writing never really when I was at the family business for a bit, we had a golf center. It was a driving range of retail store and whole par three course. And while I was there, I never thought I’d ever do anything with them. But every once in a while I’d get an idea for a character and I would start to write kind of a little story and it would be rhyming. And for me, it was almost more of a mental exercise or a jigsaw puzzle that I tried to put together. And so I never really had any writing instruction or what have you, through the years, but I was just for some reason able to do that.
[00:08:06.830] – G. Brian Benson
And so then I finally started putting some of those out into the world about three, four or five years ago, some of those kids stories, but not really. I played sports. I played all sports. And when I was in college day, this is the last thing I’ll let you talk I had to take a creative writing course as an elective, and I think we just met twice a week in the evening for 2 hours, and we had to do all the work in class and I got an A plus. And it surprised the heck out of me. It’s like, well, this is fun, you know what I mean? Just like being able to craft stories in that amount of time and just I don’t know. I thrive doing that.
[00:08:57.690] – Diane Foy
For all the different things that you’re doing now, what made you want to get into acting?
[00:09:03.060] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah, well, that was kind of accidental as well. When my first book came out, I was terrified to speak in front of people, and I wasn’t really marketing that much. It was way back in 2009, kind of before everybody started doing the book thing and what have you and all these different avenues for us to put them out there. But I moved. I left Oregon, I left the family business, and I moved to Reno, Nevada. My son was entering high school about 30 miles away in Northern California. And I just started to reinvent myself. And I knew that if I wanted to share the book’s message, I needed to overcome my fear of speaking. So I took a couple of community college speech classes, and the teacher was a really great guy, just very positive and empowering. And he also was an acting teacher. And he said, hey, why don’t you why don’t you come to the class? So I did with no plans on acting, but I thought it would be another great way for me to kind of be comfortable in front of folks. And I had fun and didn’t really think much about it.
[00:10:03.460] – G. Brian Benson
Then shortly thereafter, I had a dream. This is serious. I had a dream about this street guitar story. And when I woke up, I have to write this down. And so I did. I met a young filmmaker randomly, and I said, hey, I’ve never really acted before. I don’t know how to make a short film, but I think I have a pretty good idea. You want to do it with me? Sure. So we filmed it over the course of like four or five nights in downtown Reno. A Cold Guitar man, it’s like eight and a half minutes. And it did well at film festivals and it just made me feel really empowered and alive during the process. Somebody else saw that and gave me the lead in their short film and then Reno and then I moved to La shortly after that. After my son graduated from high school, I just came to La Grain and just dove in and started taking classes.
[00:10:52.950] – Diane Foy
There already is a podcast called the Accidental Creative. But you’re kind of the accidental creative.
[00:10:58.530] – G. Brian Benson
No. Is it really? I am the accidental creative. I follow my intuition and if it feels good and it feels like a heck yeah, I step into it, even if it’s scary. And I kept stepping on my comfort zone over and over again, but I kept having fun with the question mark. Sometimes it was not fun, but fun. And I just started kind of like gaining more confidence and just having really unique experiences that made me feel alive and meeting great people. And one thing, you know how things go, one thing leads to another and you meet more people, good people, and other things kind of open up and that’s kind of what’s happened.
[00:11:44.130] – Diane Foy
So you’re writing books and you had a book about I’ve already forgotten the name of it. What is the book called?
[00:11:53.780] – G. Brian Benson
It’s probably the last one. You’re talking about? Habits for success.
[00:11:56.880] – Diane Foy
Yes.
[00:11:57.300] – G. Brian Benson
Inspired ideas to help you store. Yes, yes.
[00:12:01.070] – Diane Foy
What are some habits that we can implement to be successful?
[00:12:05.980] – G. Brian Benson
Oh, my gosh, there’s 48 chapters. So there’s a lot I suppose it just probably depends on the person and where they’re at, what they’re wanting to accomplish and stuff. But I think you can never go wrong with movement, whether that’s exercise or just going for a walk. I think it just kind of gets us going. Meditation has really helped me a lot, and it can come in all kinds of forms, too. Whether you’re actually sitting down in a comfortable place for a half hour, an hour, or if you’re walking, you can get a little bit of a meditative juice going there, listening to kind of ambient music, just something to slow down, slow our brains down. That’s always been very helpful for me, and it’s not always easy, but I really try and remind myself to find gratitude in lots of different things. And that kind of helps keep my vibration up a little bit. And yeah, there’s so many different things we can do. I mean, eating is a good habit. What we put in our bodies makes a difference and how we feel and how we’re able to perform. We could take a whole nother.
[00:13:22.570] – G. Brian Benson
We could go to the other side here and just talk about being vulnerable. That can be a really good habit and really help us become more self aware and grounded in ourselves. The list goes on and on.
[00:13:42.550] – Diane Foy
And what made you write this book?
[00:13:48.710] – G. Brian Benson
Great question. Well, it was my first publishing deal. The first four books I did, I self published. And I don’t know, it felt like it was time. Just like a lot of the things since, I kind of felt like I was kind of moving forward in a lot of different positive ways and kind of working on myself and trying to get the whole self growth process and self awareness process down. I luckily had a literary agent kind of fall into my lap and so I connected with them and they forgot about me or I started getting more into acting for a little while and that was kind of put on hold for a couple of years and I said, you know what, it’s time. So I reached back out and they hooked me up with another one of their agents and it was a really good fit. And I just kind of had this idea of taking my very first book and just kind of blowing it up in a lot bigger way and that’s kind of what happened. And as I was writing, it ended up kind of turning out a little bit different than the proposal sometimes that often happens for me.
[00:14:58.740] – G. Brian Benson
You just kind of get going on something and then it kind of begins to show itself and maybe a little bit different way, but I’m really proud of how it turned out. It won a couple of book awards. That doesn’t always translate to sales, but I’m really proud of how it turned out. And there’s so many self help books out there and I tried to make it. I don’t ever try to tell anybody what to do. I just try to lead by example and share some fun stories and some good ideas and just try to make it an entertaining read also.
[00:15:29.990] – Diane Foy
Right. What brought you to having the Creative Spark podcast?
[00:15:36.130] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah, I have done a couple other podcasts in the past and I may get like four or five episodes in and then kind of saw something else that was shiny or I got busy with something, but this just felt right. I have to digress a little bit. Last year I spent six months on the road in a used RV I purchased and just to kind of heal. I had prostate cancer two years ago and I’m fine now, but it was kind of a crappy thing to have to go through during covet. I don’t know if there’s a good time to have it happen, but everything was shut down and I just went to Oregon, where I’m from, for six months. Not last winter, the winter before, just kind of just relax. And it was really a blessing in the sky because it gave me permission to get off the hamster wheel a little bit and really kind of like take a closer look at what I was doing and why I was doing it. And it also gave me permission to say no to some things that I was doing that I didn’t like. But fast forward to last year, I’m on this trip and just really having an amazing experience and healing in a lot of different ways and learning about myself in a lot of different ways and I just felt like it was time to start another podcast.
[00:16:47.910] – G. Brian Benson
And so when I was little, my mom said the only word that ever came out of my mouth was why. So I’m very curious and I love to talk to interesting creative folks and so I’ve met a lot of really neat, cool people since I’ve been here and through social media. And so I just said I wasn’t sure what I was going to call it, but I didn’t want to make it a self help podcast. It can be very helpful and inspiring, obviously, with the stories that I’m getting from my guests, but I wanted to just kind of have a little different take and so I’m just finding all kinds of interesting creative folks in all kinds of different realms. I had an ESPN Sports anchor on a little while ago who’s just a wonderful guy and he kindly gave me his time because he’s very busy and a science fiction writer, musicians, a really amazing painter, just all kinds of stuff. I’m having fun and so for me that’s kind of I just want to have fun and if it can help, I want to help other people too. I want to put positive stuff out there but that’s kind of how I’m going about it with that.
[00:18:02.360] – Diane Foy
Yeah. It’s always interesting hearing other people’s stories, their journey.
[00:18:07.220] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah.
[00:18:08.230] – Diane Foy
The struggles along the way.
[00:18:09.880] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah. Because we don’t all go through the same things, but we all want the same things and we all have our own version of stuff we have to overcome and maybe purge from the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves.
[00:18:27.490] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And where do you want to go with it? Is this a long term thing?
[00:18:35.590] – G. Brian Benson
Interesting question. Well, who wouldn’t want to have Spotify or some big podcast company pick it up and pay you millions of dollars? That would be awesome. I would love it and have a team to help me do all the stuff that I don’t like to do.
[00:18:51.850] – Diane Foy
Yeah, it’s a lot of work.
[00:18:53.600] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah, I mean, I’m really kind of doing it really in a casual way, but yeah, I’m just going to keep doing it and just see what happens and I’ve got a lot of different seeds planted. I think that’s really important and you just never know when something’s going to take and sometimes when something takes, it kind of takes other stuff with it. Right?
[00:19:17.820] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And how do you balance your time when you’re doing so many different things?
[00:19:24.190] – G. Brian Benson
It’s not always easy. Sometimes I kind of like I’ll have my list and see all these things that I want to do when I’m doing and then I don’t know where to start. So then nothing gets done for the day. Right. Because you’re just kind of like but what has really helped me and like I kind of mentioned on some of those habits is just I go to the gym in the morning pretty early and that always kind of gets me going because I have to move. I’m not nervous person. It’s just that it just helps relax me and settle into all that I’m doing. And sometimes I don’t do it in the morning and I’m kind of like a little antsy and it’s hard for me to get focused and grounded on what I want to do. So I make sure that I do that. I go in the morning and I also get a little meditation in and then I kind of feel like, okay, I’m granted I got the stuff done that is important, that will help me ease into the rest of my day. And then I just kind of have a priority list.
[00:20:18.880] – G. Brian Benson
Right. And sometimes it will be an audition that needs to be sent in in the next day or two. Other times it’s preparing for the podcast. I am starting to write a book about my experience last year and what precipitated it. The Cancer Experience. It’s not going to be a cancer book, but obviously it kind of pushed me in that direction and I’m really excited about that. It’s going to be kind of like a memoir, a bit of a memoir. And I don’t know if I could compare it to anything else, but maybe something like Wild and I’ve Got a friend and we’re going to work on a script for it as well. Yeah.
[00:21:00.450] – Diane Foy
Because this is the most passionate artist podcast. You’re obviously multi-passionate, multipotentialite . Had you even heard of those words before? How did you come to know that it’s even a thing that’s not something wrong with you?
[00:21:19.290] – G. Brian Benson
Well, that’s interesting. I don’t know if I’ve ever really thought about that term before, but I know it’s something that intuitively. I know I’m supposed to do a lot of things, but then sometimes you’ll get pushback from people that are trying to help you or whatever and say you got to focus on one thing.
[00:21:37.170]
Exactly.
[00:21:38.080] – G. Brian Benson
I can’t that doesn’t mean that we can’t focus on one thing for six months or for three months or something, right. Just to berth it or what have you. But I know I’m supposed to do a lot of different things. I mean, I’m a Gemini. I don’t know if that means anything in that realm in that regard, but I have to do all the different things just to really feed my spirit.
[00:22:02.170] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And part of the reason I even changed, I changed my podcast name. It used to be Sing, Dance, Act, Drive, and coaching musicians and actors, mostly. But I’m a multi passionate, and I think there’s so many of us that don’t even know that it’s a thing. And we all think it’s something wrong with us, that we can’t stick with anything. Are we afraid of success?
[00:22:33.370]
Right?
[00:22:34.750] – Diane Foy
Yes. And we all feel that way once we discover that it’s an actual psychology term, multi potentiality. And it just means that our brains are wired a little bit differently. And we are so curious. We want to know so many things about so many different topics. And when we’re passionate about something, we will dive in and learn everything we can about it. And some things are lifelong interests, and other things, it’s like, okay, I’m good. Move on. Next topic. And it’s this thing, and I can send you some links and some books. So Emily Wapnick has a Ted Talk, and she talks about multi potentiality. And basically, when I saw her talk in this Ted Talk, I was like, So there’s nothing wrong with me. It is a thing. And it’s funny. When she was telling her story, I’m like, basically change the job titles. And that’s my story of how she was in a punk band, then she wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to be this and that, and those feelings of, is there something wrong with me? Because everyone tells me I’m supposed to pick one thing and stick with it.
[00:23:56.770] – Diane Foy
And that’s part of why my coaching is kind of opened up to multipassionate artists, because I want everyone out. So many people don’t know that it’s a thing, and they’re still struggling of why they can’t focus. And I want to kind of say, Come to me. I won’t tell you to pick one thing, and that advice of Niching Down and you can’t do all this. And I’m like, yes, you can. Come here and I’ll help you.
[00:24:26.850] – G. Brian Benson
No. Well, that’s awesome. And to be honest, I’d never heard of that term before, so that’s really interesting. And, yes, I’ve gone through all the same things and thought all the same things you probably did and other people did, whether it’s something wrong with me or man, if I would have just focused on that, I would be there now.
[00:24:45.070]
Exactly.
[00:24:46.050] – G. Brian Benson
And so there’s a little bit of, like, but we’re not wired that way. When I was little, this is bringing back memories. I love history, and I would just freaking dive into it. And then I would collect stuff from that era, whether it was Civil War artifacts or baseball history. I mean, I would just go full in. And some of the stuff I still have that a lot of I got rid of, but I just yeah, that’s so me.
[00:25:13.990] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And you’re. Okay. There’s nothing wrong with you. And if you watch that Ted Talk, then she goes on to talk to all the specialists in the world of how much you need us because we have skills. That because we can draw on so many different things and because we’re always a beginner, so we can pick up on things really fast. And she was, like, just going on about all of our superpowers.
[00:25:45.790] – G. Brian Benson
No, I love it. No, it’s so true. That is so true. I mean, I can do so many different things, potentially.
[00:25:51.830] – Diane Foy
Yeah.
[00:25:53.530] – G. Brian Benson
Wow.
[00:25:54.360] – Diane Foy
So you’re a multi potentialite
[00:25:57.550] – G. Brian Benson
Thank you.
[00:25:59.230] – Diane Foy
And there’s so many different words for it. And there’s so many different books because she even mentions in her Ted Talk. It’s like she thinks it’s funny. As a community, we can’t pick one thing to be called. So there’s a book called Refused to choose by Barbara Sheer. She calls us scanners. And then there’s a book called Renaissance Soul. We’re renaissance souls and Emily calls us multi potential lights. And I’ve always just been drawn to the multipassionate word, and I don’t really follow her, but I think it’s Marie Forleo that came up with that. Multipassionate entrepreneur or multi passionate creative entrepreneur, I think, is what she and I just was drawn to that multi passionate word. But there’s many words for us, and it just means we have crazy curiosity and we dive into different subjects. And sometimes hobbies can be all consuming, and other times it’s like it’s a casual interest, but it all comes together. And that’s why I love what I do now, is that I can draw on all the different careers and into what I’m doing now is coaching. And you’re coaching as well, right?
[00:27:18.810] – G. Brian Benson
Project coaching. Yeah, helping people maybe kind of get the book finished or get it self published. And it’s been interesting. I kind of have all kinds of different little things that I’m doing right now. I’m helping a gentleman. I can’t talk too much about it, but he’s been 20 years in prison, and he’s an amazing artist, and he created these courses, prison, that he was staying, and they were just incredibly popular, and he combined art with positivity and some self help stuff, and it was just very fruitful for a lot of people that took it. And so now he’s putting that together in a bigger package. He’s out now, and so we’re kind of putting some of that together to market and such. But yeah, all kinds of different yeah. Some people want to really make something hit big and financially successful, etcetera. Other people just want to kind of realize a dream they’ve been holding on to their whole life, whether it’s a memoir or just whatever.
[00:28:29.650] – Diane Foy
Right. So you help them take their big idea and break it down into how to get there.
[00:28:36.640] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah. How to put it together. Luckily, like I said, my first four was self published, and I put a couple of short films together on my own without any knowledge. I’m just really good at the gorilla stuff and just making it happen.
[00:28:53.410] – Diane Foy
Yeah. It’s being resourceful, and I think that’s when I first heard of that, Marie Forleo, because someone on a podcast told me, you should read this book. She wrote a book called Everything is Figure Out. So I got it and I started reading it and I ditched it very quickly because I’m like, I could have wrote this book.
[00:29:14.410] – G. Brian Benson
All right.
[00:29:15.160] – Diane Foy
Like, you’re speaking to the wrong person. But it’s great because it’s true. Everything is Figureoutable and people like us, whatever the issue is, we’ll figure it out. There’s this thing called Google. It’s amazing that people don’t think of this, but it’s like, why are you asking me something that you can easily Google? Well, yeah, I don’t know how to do this. We’ll figure it out.
[00:29:40.150] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah.
[00:29:41.290] – Diane Foy
We’re the type of people who will just go figure it out. Yeah.
[00:29:44.690] – G. Brian Benson
I mean, the very first one I did, my first book, I think even before Amazon had a print on demand thing, it’s I just found someone who had a book out and I got a few tips from her. I found an editor, I found a printing place some place, and my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Ordered 2000 copies of it and just, okay, let’s do this.
[00:30:10.810] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And I think that’s also the good thing about coaching is that we’ve already figured it out, so we can help people get there a little bit faster and not have to struggle as much as we did.
[00:30:23.610] – G. Brian Benson
Yes, for sure. Wow, that’s so interesting. Yeah, we’re definitely multi passionate folks. I’ve had some ups and downs because when I was three, I told my mom and I was put here to inspire people. And she reminded me after my first book came out, I was like, so then my expectations just went through the roof. And that kind of killed some of my joy over the course of the next eight years. Because every time I would do something or release something, I would think, is this the thing that’s going to spring me?
[00:30:58.240]
Right.
[00:31:02.070] – G. Brian Benson
I was having success in a lot of different ways, but not maybe in the way that I had hoped or had envisioned it. Maybe the financial success wasn’t quite there error. And so I would kind of beat myself up and hold myself back in a lot of ways in that regard. But I don’t know. We all have lessons to learn. And I always just try to tell people if they’re doing books, just, hey, the book is for you first and foremost. Everything else is icing on the cake. It’s very competitive out there, and I’m not trying to squash anything. I mean, just make it happen. Just do it. Get it out there. Make it write the best book you can, and then just be proud of yourself. And then just see what happens.
[00:31:42.810] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And as my publicity brain comes in, it adds credibility.
[00:31:49.830] – G. Brian Benson
Oh, yeah.
[00:31:50.660] – Diane Foy
I don’t have a book, but it’s like, if you have a book, it adds. Credibility to whatever it is you do.
[00:31:57.040] – G. Brian Benson
Yes, it’s interesting. You’re right. And I think a lot of people now are feeling like they need to do one. And for me, it was never that. I just had to write it. It had to come out of me. And so content is not a problem for me. I have enough content to last me the rest of my life if I want to focus on a certain thing. Right. But a lot of people, they might have the client, let’s say the Coach, for example. They have clients and all that kind of stuff, but maybe they don’t have the book or a TEDx Talk or a Ted Talk under their belt. For me, it’s just like, I have to create, and then I worry about the other stuff later where they already started their business and got it going or what have you, and then they feel like they need to do to add on. But, yeah, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Sometimes I see other people that might be further along than I feel like I am, and that kind of tweaks me a little bit, triggers me a tad, but I’ve worked through that.
[00:33:00.470] – G. Brian Benson
But I am who I am.
[00:33:06.250] – Diane Foy
Yeah, well, that’s definitely a skill because you’re just a natural writer and you want to get it out. You can just write it, whereas other people struggle with that. And I always say I’m a good editor. I’m a better editor than I am a writer. Writer sometimes is a bit of a struggle, but putting things together and editing oh, I love that.
[00:33:33.870] – G. Brian Benson
Well, that’s important, too.
[00:33:35.400] – Diane Foy
Yeah.
[00:33:36.810] – G. Brian Benson
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people, if they’ve never done a book before and they’re not much of not a writer I’m not referring to you at all, but they just feel like it’s a big undertaking. But I think a lot of folks think they need to go from A to Z, and I always try to share. It depends on what kind of book they’re writing. But what has always worked for me is just write down what I feel like I need to write, get it down, and then it begins to show itself where maybe it’s supposed to go. Now, my books aren’t like fiction novels. They’re more nonfiction, so it might be a little easier to do that for that reason, you know what I mean? To cut down copy and paste, but just jigsaw puzzle the book together. But I was just trying to tell people to write down outlines, get some headlines, some things you want to talk about that you know, that are going to be in the book, and just write underneath that and just keep doing that, and then all of a sudden, you’ve got a lot of information, and then we’ll piece it together.
[00:34:38.730] – Diane Foy
Yeah. And also I’ve started trying to do this, too. It’s like I’m good at talking, which younger me would be shocked that I even say that.
[00:34:50.110] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah, me too.
[00:34:52.970] – Diane Foy
I’ve just gotten so much knowledge that you can ask me and I’ll spill everything I know, but for me to write it down, I freeze. So I’ve started to transcribe maybe interviews I’ve done and transcribe, I haven’t done it yet, but I could just start talking, record it, transcribe it, and then turn it into something.
[00:35:16.230] – G. Brian Benson
For sure. Easy. Yes, for sure. I’ll do that. I like to hike a lot and I get an idea. That’s why I usually get a lot of ideas. I’ll just voice it into my notes on my phone and then I’ll email it to myself, and then I’ll put it on a document and then just clean it up. It might become a blog. Some people might think minor blogs, but it just can get used that way. And then with the trip I took last year, I did a lot of voice notes while I was driving when I would get ideas about things. And then I also kept a daily RV journal of my trip. And I just got done. I just got an app for 699 a month or something and just vocally transcribed everything onto a word dog from my journal. And so now I’ve got that, you know what I mean, to work with as I start to piece it together. But yeah, that’s a great idea. Great idea.
[00:36:17.190] – Diane Foy
Yeah, because I struggle with that too. It’s like, oh, I got to write a book. You’re probably as similar as that. I’m a big thinker. I see the big picture, and it’s maybe harder to kind of break it down. Or also once I know something so well, I tend to overwhelm people with information. So like writing blogs or doing the short reels where it’s three tips to this. My brain doesn’t work like that. And I know that those three little tips is not really going to help you. I need to sit down with you for an hour.
[00:36:55.650] – G. Brian Benson
I guess that’s just a fish hook. That’s just the base.
[00:36:58.150] – Diane Foy
Yeah. Three tips to do this.
[00:37:00.740] – G. Brian Benson
And I’m just doing so much. It’s like I’m not doing some of that stuff, and I should be. I can’t do it all. And I’m at the point where I’ve done pretty much everything by myself and I need help now just to do some of the social media stuff. But yeah, that’s just bait.
[00:37:16.730] – Diane Foy
Yeah.
[00:37:22.990] – G. Brian Benson
Such an interesting journey.
[00:37:24.580] – Diane Foy
Yeah. So what’s next for you? What do you want to achieve that you haven’t already? What’s your thinking about the future?
[00:37:35.020] – G. Brian Benson
Well, I’d love to really write a really good book, the one that I’m currently starting to dive into about my trip. If I could just snap my fingers, who wouldn’t want it to be a New York Times bestseller and be option for a film. That would be for wishing and dreaming. That’s what I would love to have happen with that. The podcast is just kind of just cruising along sometimes. Just get a whole bunch of interviews done like in a week and then I won’t do anything for a couple of months. But yet I’ll have release them. Right. So it’s just an easy little thing. But I’m kind of open. I mean, like I said, I’m transitioning, and I always thought I’d be the next Wayne Dyer. This is very embarrassing. Like way back when my first book came out in 2009 and it won a couple of awards too. And I wanted to really kind of dive into the self help world. But I don’t want to be a self-help guru anymore. I just want to be a creative that his work gets recognized and enables me to make some money. I have so many ideas and things I want to continue and do to help people in a fun, unique way.
[00:39:04.270] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah, just to kind of continually be supported and make it sustainable.
[00:39:08.540] – Diane Foy
Yeah. Cool. And you said that when you were a kid, all you ever said was why. Yeah, I can relate to that. And I always ask at the end of every podcast, what is your why? Why do you do what you do? Wow, it gets deep.
[00:39:30.740] – G. Brian Benson
Well, yeah, no, that’s fine. I’m a pretty deep person. I don’t really share a lot of my depth. I just feel like I was put here and I don’t want it to sound egotistical. I mean, we all have our places in all kinds of different ways. But I really do want to make a difference on a big scale just to kind of raise the vibration on the planet and just by sharing what’s kind of coming through me. I mean, I feel like I’m just a conduit and I’m not religious. I guess I consider myself spiritual. But just to get it out there and just when people come across it or read it or view it or whatever, just make them feel good and feel inspired in whatever way that the inspiration is supposed to touch them. And so I think that is my why and I can’t do anything else but that, right?
[00:40:28.200] – Diane Foy
Perfect. And so where can people find you online?
[00:40:33.750] – G. Brian Benson
Lots of different places. My website is Gbrianbenson.com. I go by my middle name, Brian. All the books and everything is on there too. And there’s some fun videos and stuff. But all my books are on Amazon under my name and the podcast is just the creativesparkpodcast.com. And I just released episode 15 and I just wrapped up season one.
[00:41:04.060] – Diane Foy
Wonderful.
[00:41:05.180] – G. Brian Benson
Yeah.
[00:41:05.860] – Diane Foy
Thank you so much. This is a wonderful conversation.
[00:41:08.910] – G. Brian Benson
Thank you, Diane. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I appreciate you.
