Benny Blanco: 3 Ways to Stop Caring About Failure & Get Out of Your Own Way

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I walked in and I had a hard drive filled
with all of my music. He like, took it, he
listened to it. He threw my hard drive out the window,
broke into a million pieces. Not good enough. Start again.
A musician, producer a body of work. This guy is
produced a written Your list goes on and on, Benny Bronco.
If you want to try to be like a musician
an entrepreneur, it's scary. If you're gonna fail, Who cares?

(00:22):
The second I film, I'm like, the next day I
wake up, I'm like, all right, let's do it again.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey everyone, I've got some huge news to share with you.
In the last ninety days, seventy nine point four percent
of our audience came from viewers and listeners that are
not subscribed to this channel. There's resets that shows that
if you want to create a habit, make it easy
to access. By hitting the subscribe button, you're creating a

(00:51):
habit of learning how to be happier, healthier, and more healed.
This would also mean the absolute world to me and
help us make better, bigger, brighter content for you and
the world. Subscribe right now.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
The number one health and wellness podcast, Jay Sety Jay
Sheety sly.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Set Hey, everyone, Welcome back to On Purpose, the number
one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and
every one of you who come back every week to
become happier, healthier, and more healed. You know that I
love diving into the minds of people. I find fascinating
to dive into how people are creative, how people become conscious,

(01:31):
and how people create things that the world gets excited about.
I think I've always been a student of life and
a student of people's journeys, and here we get to
go back in time and find out what those key
moments were in people's lives. Today's guest is someone that
I've been dying to have on the show. I'm so
excited that he's here in the studio. I've been feeling
his energy and viable already. I'm excited to share it

(01:53):
with you all. I'm speaking about the one and only
Benny Blanco, record producer, songwriter, artist, actor, record executive and
cookbook Orthile'll have you know, I'll tell you about that
in a second. Benny has contributed to the sale of
hundreds of millions of albums worldwide through his work with
some of your favorite artists including Ed Sheeran, Scissor, Justin Bieber, Rihanna,

(02:15):
Katie Perry, The Weekend, Maroon Five, Juice, World Sea, and
many more. As a solo artist, Benny has released two albums,
Friends Keep Secrets and Friends Keep Secrets Too, that have
been streamed more than eleven billion times today and have
featured multiple platinum hits. Benny made his TV debut playing

(02:36):
a fictionalized version of himself on the FFX series Dave
with Little Dicky. If you haven't seen it, that episode's brilliant.
Benny's most recent project is his first cookbook, Open Wide.
You can get it right now. We'll be diving into
that as well. Welcome to the show, Bennie Blanco.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Wow, that was so cool. I want you to walk
around with me all the time. I understand. I get
why you're number one podcast for help. I was when
you were talking. I was. My jaw was dropped. I
was just mesmerized by everything.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Benny, I want to do the introduction now every time
you go on stage, every time you're there, it has
to be you know.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I know I got to come up with one for you.
I'd be like perfect skin, beautiful eyes, wavy hair, you're
talking about yourself and.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Same thing we both were saying.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
We're interchange.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
We got curly hair, we got colored eyes, you got
good skin. Okay, I love it, Benny. It's such a
joy to have you here, and I'm excited to dive
into everything that I was just talking about. But when
I'm sitting with someone like you, who you know, creativity
is at your fingertips, it's kind of embedded into your
whole life. I'm always intrigued. What's your earliest childhood memory
of being creative? Like, do you remember the first thing

(03:48):
you put together? You're just telling me you even had
this shirt made that you're wearing today, Like, what was
one of the first things you remember saying? Oh, wow,
I did some as a kid.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay, here's what I really remember. So I you know,
I didn't have the luxury of having like insane musical
instruments at my fingertips and recording studios. And I was
from a I was from the middle of nowhere. So
I my brother had a boombox, an old school boombox,

(04:18):
and I had a smaller, old school boombox, and I
was I remember my earliest memories that probably I'm probably
like five or six, and I remember realizing that music.
You know, when I first heard music, I always thought
that the like the musician was at the radio station

(04:39):
singing the song, and I was like, how do they
keep coming back to the station. I didn't even understand
how music was created, but somewhere very early I figured
out that it was like a multi track situation. And
I would take I had a boombox, and I would
record like me like hitting like this into the boombox. Okay.

(05:01):
Then I would press play on that one, and then
I would do the next thing on the other boombox
and record into that one, and I would keep going
back and forth until I created like a track. I
guess I was creating like my own like eight track
and multi track of layering things, and I didn't even
know what it was, but I was just so excited
that I was doing it. And my whole career has

(05:22):
been a version of that. Like I have no training,
I'm not good at anything. I'm I'm I'm really like
I like I like I know people are like, oh,
you're being humble. I'm really not great at anything. I
have like a ultimate will to get things done, Like
I'm like this will happened. But no, it's just I'm

(05:46):
always trial and error, and I always tell people. People
are always just like, wow, did you do this? How
did you? And I'm like, honestly like just going in
and I call it making a mess. I like to
go in and throw a bunch of shit around the room,
throw pained everything, and then we worry about cleaning it
up later. But maybe a few of those things just
happen the land correctly, and I just keep doing that

(06:08):
until everything fully lands where I wanted to and I'm
just playing clean up around the size.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
That's a beautiful way of describing the process. But what
gave you that? Where does that will or that confidence
come from? Because I think a lot of people are
scared of creating a mess or scared of things not sticking,
so they never try. Whereas it sounds like you're the opposite,
where you're like, well, I don't care if it doesn't try,
I'm willing to give it a go. Where is that
in a confidence that in an ability to say hey,

(06:36):
it's okay come from.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
I don't care about failure at all. I don't care,
and I never did. I think when I was younger,
I didn't understand what failure was like when you're you know,
when you're six, when you're seven, when you're twelve, you
don't there's not many people to let down, you know
what I mean. You let down Timmy at school. He's
your friend. Sorry Timmy, but you you're not thinking about that.

(07:00):
And I always I just remember from the beginning, like
my mom was like I wanted to drop out of school.
And you know, my mom was raising me alone, and
it was I was probably fifteen sixteen at the time,
and I was like, Mom, I know what I want
to do. She's like, what do you want to do?
I'm like the music stuff, like I'm so into it
and I know and I looked at and I go,

(07:20):
I know, I'm going to be the biggest in the world.
And she was just like, what do you say?

Speaker 2 (07:24):
You know?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
And I've asked her. I've asked my mom like later
in life, like how did you like trust me in
my journey? And she always said that she had dreams
that she never got to try in her life. And
a lot of people are just way too scared to
take the jump. You know, a lot of people may
have I'm sure everyone in this room, anyone listening has

(07:44):
a little something where they're like, oh, I really like that,
but they're scared. They're scared. They're like, you know, I
would you know, I want to post videos of me
cooking on like noah, no, no, no, no want to like it.
My friends will make fun of me. I want to
I sing in the shower like I want no no, no, no,
no no. Because we're taught to just follow suit and
do whatever you're supposed to do. You report to your boss,

(08:05):
But it doesn't have to be like that. Like if
you want to try to be like a musician, an entrepreneur, whatever,
it's scary and like I'm sure you've had moments like
that where you're like, yo, what am I doing? But
if you do try, I believe that if you keep
pushing yourself and you keep trying, you're going to succeed.
And I always tell people this, it may not be

(08:26):
in what you start with, you know, Like when I started,
I thought I was going to be the biggest rap
artist in the world, And am I a rapper out?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
No?

Speaker 1 (08:35):
And then I moved into producing, and then I moved
into songwriting, and then it's come full circle now where
I'm like an artist of some sorts again, and I
think you just jump in and just try something, just try,
and who cares if you're going to fail? Who cares
if you fail? I don't understand. This's the thing. I
don't understand. It's just you just get up and you

(08:58):
do it again. I like, I have amnesia the second
I feel, the second I film, I'm like, the next
day I wake up, I'm like, all right, let's do
it again.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
You know, that's an amazing mindset. So we share something
in common already. We both grew up wanting to be
famous rappers.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, I mean too. Yeah, No, that.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Was like my passion, like poetry, spoken word, writing, lyrics,
Like all I listened to is hip hop and rap
growing up. If you asked me, it's sixteen years old
what I wanted to be. That's what I wanted to be.
And it's so interesting because today I feel I use
the same skills that I wanted to use then, but
in a completely different way. I still write, I write
books instead of records. I teach meditation, which includes music,

(09:36):
includes cadence, it includes rhyme often, but not in the
way that a rapper word. And I'm using spoken word
constantly to get messages out into the world, but in
a different way. And so I love what you just
said about that idea of how you actually may succeed,
but in a way completely different to what you originally
dreamed of.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I hope it goes full circle for you. I want
to hear it. I need to hear the j shady
rap take what was your rap name?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Oh god, I don't know if I need to go
that farka. It was embarrassing, but I'll tell you later.
I'll tell you privately.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yea, is Ja Scheddy your real name? Yes, it's such a.
That's the perfect rap it. Ye Ja Shetty sounds like
a fire average really from East London?

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Okay, I'm from North London, so not far all right? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Not far?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Cool?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
I like it. I like it, but no, I really
appreciate what you're saying there. And I think that anesia
to failure. Wow, like that that spec. I loved that
idea of having amnesia with failure. Can you give me
a time. Was that always the case or was there
a failure that like did kind of pierce that veil?
It never has I can see.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
From you now. No, I remember when I was gonna
quit music one time before I meet, right before I
made it, my my mentor passed away. He took his
own life. And I was really young. It was one
of my best friends, and I'm probably like eighteen. I
remember like sitting in my bed and I was just

(11:02):
like I was like crying. I like didn't understand. You know.
It was one of the first times that somebody who
wasn't supposed to die died. You know. I've had like
you know, I had lost my grandmother and lost my grandfather,
but it was like the first time in my life
where like someone that like I really knew and really

(11:24):
touched me, and I talked to them the day before
they died, and it's like, uh, I remember like that
hitting me like so hard in a way that I
didn't know was even possible. Like, you know, I'd been sad,
I had, but I remember sitting there in bed and
I was just like, I'm just gonna quit. I was like,
I gotta quit making music. And then in that very

(11:48):
same moment, like my head flipped and I was just like, no,
you can't. You gotta like take on what this dude
started because he didn't. He was also a musician, and
he didn't get totally. He was you know, he was
well known and he was a hero to me, but
he didn't get where I think he deserved to. And
I remember being like, I gotta do this, like I
got it, Like he would want me to be doing this.
He would. And that was like the only time where

(12:11):
it wasn't even failure. It was like the only time
where I like really question things. And but don't get
me wrong, every time I do something good in life,
I'm questioning. It's not but it's like a different feeling.
I don't know if you have this, but I'll have
a number one song, like a number one song, it's
the biggest song in the whole world, and I I'll

(12:32):
like look at the men and I'll oh, that's the
last one. Like it definitely not gonna have another number
one song again. Not saying I'm like scared of the failure.
I'm just like, oh, that's just like the last one.
That's what I did, or all something really good will
happen in my life and I'm like, oh, I'll never
recreate that again. And but in the same breath, I'm like,
let's go. Like I'm like, let's keep rolling, you know,

(12:53):
And and I've tried to do this thing lately in
the last like five or ten years, where I really
like take in my achievements because for a while I
never thought of them. I would just keep going. Like
when it was time they'd be like, oh, your song
number one, I'd be like, Okay, that's cool. What are
we doing next week? And I figured out like it's

(13:14):
okay to do that, It's okay to like take a
breath and be like, yo, we just did this shit
like this is tight, like we did this, this is
great and and yeah, I just I'm trying to do
that more and failure Like no, I've never had one
of those times because whenever I do fail, I'll sit
and I'll obviously like I'll sit there and I'll be
like this didn't work how I wanted it to. But

(13:36):
so many times have been the opposite where I was like,
this will never work and then it's me. So it's
like I feel like it always evens out and you
only have one other choice. It's like the air. Only
choice is just to keep going. What are you supposed
to do? Just be like no, get up and you
do it again.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, I've got so many questions I want to dive
into so much that you said, so rewinding with your mentor,
how did you first? And I'm so sorry to hear
thank you for sharing with us, and you know, such
a challenging event. And I lost my mentor four years ago.
He passed away from stage four brain cancer during the pandemic.
So I couldn't go back to see him because I
couldn't take a flight, and so I couldn't be a funeral.

(14:17):
So you know that, Yeah, it was super rough for me.
It was more recent. But how did you meet your
mentor and how did you form a bond? I think
a lot of successful people have mentors. They have guides,
they have teachers, they have coaches. But then sometimes when
you're listening to a conversation, you're like this, You're like,
I want someone to be my mentor, but I don't
know where to start and how to find them, Like

(14:38):
what does that mean? Like how did you connect?

Speaker 1 (14:41):
I had? I've had so many mentors. I have mentors
every day. I'm a mentor to people, but sometimes my
mentees are my mentor. Like I'm always you always got
to be open to just listening and learning every day.
I learned something. I was in the studio yesterday with
a guy who's one of my mentees. Like the way
I met I gotta tell you that story later. That's insane.

(15:03):
I'll go to that. I'll tell that after first one
is I met my mentor I was. This is when
he was like my second or third mentor. I met
a lot of really really important mentors in my life.
When I was about thirteen, I was a musician. I
was traveling for music at the time. I had gotten

(15:23):
like some buzz and my Space was a thing. Yeah,
and I had somehow created a profile where I had
a bunch of followers. Okay, so I don't even remember
how I did it, but I was a kid. I
used to do it in the library at school. And
there was this guy, he was a producer. I was

(15:44):
obsessed with him. I DM well messaged him the equivalent
of DM today. And I remember messaging him and I
was like, I love yourself, oh blah blah, and then
no response. And I was like, oh, I love you
like please blah blah blah. No response. Then I saw,
like a few weeks later, he was advertising. He was like,
I have studio time available. It's like you know, five

(16:06):
hundred dollars or something. And I remember just being like, Okay,
the only way I'm going to meet this guy is
if I get the studio time. So I say, I'm
interested in the studio time. He says, great, come to
New York and meet me here. He had no idea
where I was. I drove to New York and I drove.
We drove like four hours to New York. I get
to New York, I get in with him. The first

(16:28):
thing I say is I'm like, I don't really need
studio time. I just want to talk to you. Please,
I'll do anything. I just want to work with you.
I'll do whatever you say. But then he was just
like this was insane. He said, I'm leaving this weekend.
I need my studio book to the whole weekend. It's
eight hundred and fifty dollars for the for the two
days you need to book it. If you can book it,

(16:52):
I'll let you work for me. Who I called every
single person I know. I spent every you know, I
had like a few hundred bucks then, like I would
like beg my friends for money. I had like a
few into a few rappers at the time that wanted
studio time, and I like figured it out and he
was just like he got back. I did it like
I just did it in the nick of time, and

(17:12):
he was just like, all right, you can work. You
start next week. I would drive up every weekend from
Virginia to work with him. When from when I was
like sixteen seventeen, and we created this bond and it
was like he was tough on me. He was like
he was like not an easy guy. Like I remember,
like I I walked in and I had a hard
drive filled with all of my music, okay, everything I

(17:34):
had been making, and he like took it. He listened
to it, he ejected it, and then he threw it
out the window. He threw my hard drive out the window,
broke into a million pieces. No more hard drive, and
he was like not good enough. Start again. And it
was like yeah, he was like super sense. It was
like karate kid. And I like hated him in the
moments for it, but so many he taught me so

(17:55):
many things that like I learned and taught me things
not to do as a man, and like and you know,
it was it was a really special time. And now
I just want to jump to this okay.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, please, I love it.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
So I'm you know, this is I don't know, almost
ten years ago now, maybe eight years ago, and I'm
playing poker at a friend's house and my friend puts
me on her story, her Instagram story, and the next
day she comes to me and she said, hey, my

(18:31):
friend's son saw you on my story and apparently you're
like a big deal in music. And she was just like,
you have to have him come work for you. And
I was like what. She's like, yeah, you have to
have him come work for you. I was like, I don't.
I don't need anyone else. I already have assistants, interns.
And they were like, no, you have to. And this

(18:52):
lady is like a very there isn't really you don't
get to have a choice. So I was like, all right,
I'll meet him. So this kid comes in. He's fifteen
years old. He's like like everything, like he's just so
excited and he like was so sweet and he reminded
him me of me when I was a kid. He
was like, I'll do anything, I'll work for you, blah

(19:14):
blah blah. I was like, all right, come work for me.
He comes and works for me. I still like am
spending a lot of time in New York at the time,
and so I don't see him. He's just like building
a studio for me and has never even met me
besides that one day. But he like he does it
for like a year. Then like I finally come back
to LA and I I'm like, all right, you ready

(19:39):
to come into some recording studios and he was like
he was like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so excited.
So like you know, first week, first three sessions, it's
his first session is the Weekend. His second seession is
Travis Scott, and like his third session was like Maroon five,
so it's like he's getting thrown into it. So I
remember we're at the first session and I'm just like,
be cool, blah blah. It's the weekend, and the Weekend's

(20:04):
in there, and we're like all in a room and
we're just like singing into microphones like we're chilling, and
he's like, I know, his mind's blown. Weekend's his favorite
artists at the time, And I remember he when no
one's looking, he like sneaks a picture and he accidentally
has his flash on it, so it goes and it
has the noise too, and so I was like, and

(20:26):
when it did it, he went and he threw his
phone and somehow the weekend didn't notice, and like, I
pulled him aside after and I'm like, dude, you can't
do that, blah blah. Fast forward, he's in high school
and I say, hey, I'm in the middle of I
was in the middle of making Ed Sheeran's Divide album
and I was producing the whole thing. And I was like,

(20:49):
I need some help on the road. If I talk
to your school and get you off, will you come
And he was like, yeah, of course. Took him on
the road for like two weeks. Mine was blown. Then
you know, he starts going to NYU School of Clive
Davis School of Music, and he, uh, I have another opportunity.

(21:09):
I talk to his teachers. I take him on the
road for like a month. We're on tour with Halsey.
Then he's coming back to work for me. Now, okay,
we've never talked about him making music at all. And
we're sitting there one day, it's late at night, and
he said, my therapist said, he's going to stop working
with me if I don't play you my music. I said,

(21:29):
what do you mean, you make music, and he's like, yeah, yeah,
I make music. I was like, why didn't you ever
play for me. He's like, I was so scared. I
was trying to get better. Blah blah blah. He plays
me some songs. They're terrible, They're like they're awful, but
like I can hear something in him and I know
he's so you know, in music, so much of it

(21:51):
is like getting an artist to feel comfortable, getting them
to believe, getting them to you know, so much of
it is your personality, and he had that. He had
the it factor. I saw when he was with like artists,
he knew how to talk to them, he knew how
to make them feel good, just like getting them food, everything.
And you know, he spent years just seeing how I
did it with artists, and I decided to sign him.

(22:12):
I was like, I'm gonna sign you. And he went
on this journey and now he's one of the biggest
music producers in the world. I mean last year he
won you know, Best Record at the Grammys. He's had
like five or ten number one records, and it's like
this guy started he was so humble, he was fifteen
years old. Now he's like probably twenty six, twenty seven,

(22:34):
and he did. He just went on the journey. He
knew when his time was and he went in and
he did it. And it was just like I always
tell people, you know, you just got to stick through it.
You gotta stick around, you know. And when I first
signed him, it wasn't working for him. It took him
like a few years for it really to like connect,
and he's just like, it's such a fun story for me.
That's a brilliant yeah to you know. And I've been

(22:55):
fortunate enough to have that a few different times in
my life with people, and it was so cool because
I had that experience and we're all to pay it forward.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
It's just yeah, the interne applications to the Benny Blanco
School of music just went through the roof. Now read's
gonna get up, dude. I love that. No, it's it's uh,
it's it's beautiful to hear that. And and also what
I love about that message is when your mentor throws
your hard drive outside the window, like it's so easy

(23:25):
to be like I'm never going back, Like he's crazy,
like I'm never going back. It's that whiplash. Oh yeah, right,
like that.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Was my life. That was I was a cleaning toilets
with a toothbrush, like that was my real life.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking of when you were
describing it. I felt exactly like that. I'm thinking, you know,
it's but how do you show up again and recognize
this value because I think now we're in a place
as well where it's like if something like that happened,
we'd be like, oh, get out of there.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's you know, so I know it did change a
little bit, Like.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
You wouldn't do that, That's what I mean. You wouldn't
throw something's hard drive.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
No, I would never do those type of things. I'm
not I'm just like not that type of birth. I'm
not like a yelling person. I'm not like it's just
like not, that's not my way of communication. Like if
I was like sad about something, I'd be like, man,
I think it's like probably almost worse. Like I'm like
i'd be like, ah, why did you do that? You know?

Speaker 2 (24:16):
I go quiet.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, I'd be like you know, you know, if you're
ever like in a you know, in an argument in
a relationship, Like I'm not a yeller, I'm like a
I'm like a oh man, like I wish it was different,
like and I can't even find the words usually at
the beginning, and I think that's how I am. And

(24:37):
I think, like I really learned that you don't have
to do that stuff. You It worked for me. It
got me to where I am. But it's like, you can,
you can be really positive. You can you can be
a good influence on someone. You don't have to like
you can be hard on someone like I'm I'm definitely
like I was definitely hard on on the guy was

(24:59):
talking about Blake, I was, I was, I was tough
on him, but I was never like I would never
be mean. I would never like there's no reason to
do that. And what made me keep going back, I
don't know. Sheer just will and drive like that. That's
like I just was like, I what they're trying. That's
what they're trying to do. They want me, they want
me to quit, they want me to you know, And

(25:21):
I don't know. I always I don't know why I
do it, and I wonder, you know, sometimes I sit
in bed and I'm like, why am I still working
like so hard? Like I still work like I've never
done a thing in my life, Like I'm still wake
up every morning, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna do this.
Then I'm gonna do this, and then I swear I'm
gonna get this thing. And I always That's why I

(25:41):
try to do different things that I'm not necessarily great
at to or not that I'm not great at, but
that I don't have. You know, in music, I can
go in, I can work with anyone. I can do this,
but like, yeah, like making a cookbook, being in a
TV show. I've never done these things. So it's like
very interesting to me to start at the bottom again

(26:01):
and just like try to work my way up. It's fun.
I love the climb. Like that's my favorite part about life,
even everything. Like in a relationship, when you meet that
person at the very beginning, it's like, oh, I gotta
like make my way into their heart and they have
to make their way into mind, and it's just all
about I don't know, getting there is always the best.

(26:22):
And then when you're there, I'm just like, all right,
what else can I I want to get? I want
to get some you know what I mean. Like so
when you're like, you know, you do the music stuff
and you get there and you're like, I think the
only thing where you get there and it just keeps
getting better is in a relationship with someone. I think
that's like the only time you get there and you're like, Okay,

(26:45):
this is cool, like but when every other time I'm
just like okay, cool, Like let's go.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
What do you think makes relationships different that makes you
feel that way as opposed to music because or anything else,
any other achievement.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
No, well, well I've never been in a relationship the
way that I've been in one with music, because it's
been like a thirty year relationship, so I have no
idea what happens thirty years from now in a relationship.
But uh, I just feel like in a relationship is
like all these other things I'm doing, there's so many
like tentacles, Like it's like you go this way and

(27:18):
then you guys explore that together, and you're exploring so
many It's basically anything I would explore in my life.
I'm exploring with a partner, and so it's like figuring
out like you guys are like figuring out things together.
And it's so cool when you have like a partner
that like I don't know, like I just get the
feeling like it's it's awesome when you can have a

(27:40):
partner that you look at and you're and it's like
the end of the day and you're like, oh, what
did you do today? And they tell you and you're
like that's so tight, and you're like, I want to
do more. Like when you can feed off of each
other and just keep growing together, it's like every day
is a new experience and you guys are like facing
different things together and it's I don't know, it's cool.

(28:00):
And I always tell my friend. I was just talking
to my friend yesterday about this. I was like, you
always have to keep your work and life balance. And
I was like, because you can feel it in the
music and art if you don't have love or you
don't have something. So I always tell them I always
feel that it's just like this. I have like rules,

(28:22):
like every day, like I only work till like a
certain time. I make sure I you know, like cooking
is very important to me in therapeutic, so I make
sure I do that. Like it's like xanax to me,
Like I and I have like all my things that
I have to do to make that bound because I
do push myself. I shove my head through that wall,
just that dry wall if I had to butt at

(28:43):
the same time, I try to do all the things.
It's like, okay, like every you know, it's like every Sunday,
I see my mom no matter what, every single Sunday
at the exact same time. It doesn't matter if I
like stay up all night, I'll just go right into
seeing her. And it's just like we have like a
ritual we do. And then I have like my ritual
where I go and get my groceries at the farmer's
market every weekend. And there's just all these things that

(29:06):
help keep you on track and grounded so you can
keep doing what you're doing, you know. I mean, I'm
sure you have things like that for yourself.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Absolutely. I mean, mind similar, call my mom at the
same time every week because she's back in London, yeah,
where I was born and raised, and so I have
the same time I call her on the weekend. And yeah,
there's certain things that have to be done that way,
and same with you. And you know, I have a
certain time as well that I switch off from work
and I'm not looking at my phone. I have a
time in the morning I have like three hours of
being awake before I'm doing any work. I have to

(29:35):
take that time for myself. But what's interesting about what
you're saying is that there's a myth obviously that the
broken hearted artist can pour into the music, but you're
actually saying that if you have love in your life,
that can also be felt through music.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah. I think that at times it's good to have
a broken heart, but it's also good. You know, there's
a time and place for everything. What time you wake up?

Speaker 2 (29:57):
I wake up now at five thirty am?

Speaker 1 (29:59):
What you wake up before?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Usually it was like I was. This year has been different.
This year, I've been really prioritizing five point thirty, But
up until last year, it's probably like six to six thirty.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
And what time do you go to bed?

Speaker 2 (30:10):
I go to bed at like nine pm? Now really yeah,
I love my eight hours of sleep. So if I
get into bed at nine, I'll be out by nine
to fifteen, okay. And then if I wake up at
five thirty, I've at like eight hours and thirty year
it's asleep, Like, it's.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
What are you doing? What are you doing in those
first three hours?

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Meditating for a lot of it. So I'll wake up
at five thirty, I'll be ready to sit down for
meditation by like five forty five, or meditate for an
hour and a half, and then seven fifteen I'll go
for a hike or go to the gym or yeah,
usually I hike on the gym from seven to fifteen
till about eight fifteen, eight thirty, get ready, and then
nine am I'll take my first emails, meetings, all that

(30:46):
kind of stuff. So I think you came at ten today, So.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, hour and a half, eleven hour and a half.
Is that's that's a good meditation hour and a half.
How do you even stay focused?

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Well, I think it's it's a good question. And I
always say to people that when I started, it wasn't
one and a half hours like you start up with
doing like seven minutes, yeah, twenty minutes, yeah, forty minutes.
And what I found was just in the same way
as if you go to a trainer at the gym,
you'd hope that they work out more than you. So
as someone who teaches meditation and helps people with mindfulness,

(31:19):
I believe that as a trainer and as a coach,
I have to do it for more time and deeper time,
because otherwise If I'm only doing it for seven minutes
and I'm mentoring you and you're only doing it for
seven minutes, then how will I ever have an experience
to guide you deeper? And so I've been doing that
since I was eighteen now, so it's been a long time.
And when I was a month for three years, it
was longer, and that's where I got that deepest experience

(31:41):
of practice for it. So I feel like if I
didn't have those three years of going really deep into
the practice, I may not have the focus I have today.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
You're a month for three years? Yeah, like a real month?
Same Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've never met I'd have to
show you. I've never even met a month.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah I'm not anymore, but yeah, how long you still
haven't met? Where?

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Where? When was this?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
So this was twenty ten to twenty thirteen and I
was among across India, Uken, Europe. I traveled between the
three and I shaved head, I wore robes, I slept
on the floor. We meditated for like four to eight hours,
sometimes a day, and so.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
It was a standard standard Sandy stanturday eight hour meditation.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Sometimes when do you do anything else? Well, sometimes you
didn't that was the point.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
In eight hour meditation sometime, isn't that sleeping? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:30):
I mean you can count it as the same thing.
We sleep for eight hours.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I you know, my heart. The hardest part for
me with meditating is that I instantly fall asleep. I
can fall asleep very easily.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I'll tell you why though. The reason why that
happens during meditation or any practice of that sort is
your body and mind are finally coming into sync, and
so it's your body saying I need sleep right now.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
And so if you're falling asleep during meditation, it's not
a bad thing. It's just you've literally because what's happening
when you're not falling asleep is your mind saying we
got to do more, Yeah, we got to do more.
And then finally, when you become present, you fall asleep
because your body's saying I've done enough today.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Where do you do these meditators?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I want to do a meditation. We'll take you too afterwards.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
I want to do a meditation with you.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
All right, we'll do it.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
I want to I want to learn I I you know,
I've done it. There was like a time in my
life when when I was going through rough patch and
then like, you know, I was going to therapy and
I was meditating and stuff, and it actually helped me
so much. It helped me.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
What was that during What were you going through?

Speaker 1 (33:30):
When everything first started happening for me all at once,
it was like really overwhelming. I was, you know, for
the first like year or two, I was like, Oh,
this is awesome, and then like it really hit me
because you know, so many different responsibilities and people asking
you for money, and like I just didn't grow up
in a way like I had never I didn't even imagine,

(33:51):
you know, I was I was young when I made it,
so I was like I didn't really I didn't even
realize about like money. And then I'm like, oh my god,
all like I have this, what do I do with
the like? And then it's like I have all the
success and people need things from me and people want
and it was just too much. And where I grew
up like I didn't, like, I don't know, I didn't

(34:12):
go to like therapy as a kid. I didn't I
didn't know about any of that. I didn't know what
anxiety was. I thought like everyone I was like, oh everyone,
the room spins for everyone when you like sit down
and you're like doing something. I just there were so
many things I didn't understand, and I thought it was
just my body. And I never talked to anyone about it,
and I was like, oh, they were just things like

(34:33):
I learned to live with. And I remember, like I
just remember exactly where I was. I was like walking
in to get a new cell phone. I lost my
mind and I and I and I just couldn't handle
it anymore. And I remember like a week later, I

(34:55):
went home to Virginia where my mom was living at
the time, and I remember I was like in the
bathroom and I was like, I'd like I don't, I
can't do that. I was like I can't do this anymore,
Like I don't, I can't. I had this feeling, like
this crazy feeling of anxiety that was like crippling, and
it was like I couldn't do anything. And I was
just like I I was like in the bathtub, and

(35:17):
I remember like calling from when I was crying and
I was like, I don't know, I can't do this.
I don't know what to do. I like, I can't
even explain the feeling. I didn't know how to articulate
the words. I was like, I can't even explain what
I'm feeling to you. I feel like I'm going crazy.
And you know, in my family, you know, there's some
people have some issues, and I was always scared of

(35:37):
myself falling into some similar things that are in my family,
that run in my family. And I just remember somebody
was somebody got me to go to therapy and they
and I met this guy and he's my therapist today
still to this day. This was it's been my therapist
for almost twenty years. And I remember like I first

(36:00):
went there and I had like all these things. I
was like, I used to like go and I'd have
to like hold my head like this, and I was like, well,
I can't let go on my arm because if I
let go my arm, my neck's gonna fall off and
I'm gonna be paralyzed. Like I had like create like
I was so in deep and I never thought I
was going to get out. And I remember I started.
I used to go six days a week, and then
it was like three days a week, then it was
two days, then it was one, and it was CBT,

(36:24):
you know, cognitive behavioral therapy, and it's like kind of
like a type of therapy where you use your words
and it's not I was very I didn't want to
do medicine and I didn't, you know, because I also
had in my family there's some drug abuse and stuff
and I I I was like, I don't want to
do this with medicine. I want to figure out how
to do it the right way. And at that time

(36:45):
I wasn't. Now I'm like a workout fanatic. That's like
my new meditation nice. But before that, I was like,
well how do I do this? And I started, you know,
my therapist recommended meditation to me, and he had this
really easy way of doing it and it was so
easy and it wasn't it wasn't even like anything specific.
He was like just you know, he would just like

(37:08):
it was the most basic form of meditation. I would
do it with either with a spoken word thing or
just like he'd be like, find the most calming music
you like, and I would and he would just be like,
no matter what, just every day he was like, for
twenty to thirty minutes, just sit down, put a pillow

(37:29):
on your head, try not to be too comfy where
you'll fall asleep. Set a timer and just do it.
And I remember doing it and at first it was impossible,
when I was like in my shit, it was impossible.
And then eventually I started like looking forward to that
time every day and it really just helped me a lot.

(37:52):
And then like in twenty eighteen, and then I got
like it was probably like a year or so of
and this was probably two thousand and nine, maybe this
was happening. And then like then I like got back
on track and everything was great. And then in twenty eighteen,
I really like working out became like my new meditation

(38:19):
like and it was just like I have to do it,
and it was so funny because I went so many
years without doing it. And I'm sure in your life
you went years without doing meditation, and now, like what
happens if you randomly mist do you ever miss one? Ever?
Like just like you're.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Touching up, I won't. Yeah, I don't meditate at five
thirty every day, Like it's not I can't keep that
up because on planes were traveling, like our lifestyles don't
allow it, and so I will be meditating in the evening.
I'll be like, what the quality, Well, I find that
for me, the quality dip So the last week was
one of those weeks I was I had like three
massively late nights in a row on the weekend because

(38:53):
of events and parties and things and things that I
was going to and I couldn't wake up early, and
then I still had a full day of work, and
then in the evening I was catching up with it,
and I found that I didn't have the time and
space that I need in order to feel really aligned.
And what I mean by that is I can still operate.
No one else will really know it's the difference, but

(39:13):
I know it's the difference where I'm like, I feel
like I have less energy today. I feel like I
have less clarity today, and I feel like I'm not
as aligned is the best word I can think of,
as I like to be. And so it doesn't really
affect anyone else, but it does affect me, and I
know what level I can race to, which is what
you're probably saying when you're working out, Like when you

(39:34):
miss a day of working out, how do you feel now?

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah? Yeah, you know, I thought of something when you're seah, please,
so you're scene as like, you know this guy who's
like mindfulness help this like isn't it, aren't you? Sometimes
do you feel like I have to be so perfect
all the time?

Speaker 2 (39:55):
You know, it's so interesting you say that, Bennie. I
used to think that when I started out, that that's
what I had to be. And then I've let go
of that pressure personally, Like I let go of that,
and I'm just like I'm saying to you now, I
don't wake up every day medica. Sometimes I'm meditating on planes,
in ubers, on trains. Sometimes I'm doing it while I'm
falling asleep. Like, I'm okay with opening up about that

(40:18):
because to me that A, I hope, well, A, it's
the truth. B I hope that that actually helps people
realize that they don't have to have the perfect regime, yeah,
every single day. Because I used to think that, and
all I did was put more pressure on myself, like
I'd stress myself out. So I'm more comfortable today saying
I believe in meditation, I value mindfulness, I value all

(40:41):
these things. But it doesn't look perfect in my life
and it won't in yours either. Yeah, and it doesn't
in anyone's whoever's life. We think it looks perfect in
is a myth.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, Sometimes you get upset, like if you get like
you're like a guy who's like not allowed to get upset,
like something happens like it's you know, I find that what.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Do you know, Benny, what are you trying to say?

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
No.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
I find sometimes in work, like you know, when you
get to the top of like your field, people are
only expecting like a perfect wreck. Like like if you're like,
say you're like Lebron James, Like if you don't have
if you score like twenty instead of like forty in
the game, they're like, oh, what's happening in Lebron?

Speaker 2 (41:22):
You know?

Speaker 1 (41:22):
And it's this like it's this pressure that I know
exists for people, and I just wanted to know.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
No. No, I definitely have felt that pressure, and I
think I've removed it from myself. That's what I realized
that Ultimately, it was a pressure I was putting on myself.
It wasn't actually from anyone else. It was me thinking
whereas if I was just honest and transparent and authentic
with people, then all of a sudden, the pressure is off. Yeah,
and I can also be a human because I am one. Yeah,

(41:48):
And I think I think there's so much more of
a joy in embracing our imperfections and flaws and recognizing
that it's even with coaching people by doing I'm sure
you fill this with music, Like when you work with
a artist to produce their album is like what I
do with coaching clients. So coaching clients come to me
and say, hey, can we solve this problem whatever else?

(42:09):
And maybe someone's coming to you saying, hey, Bennie, can
you make this album with me? And before I used
to think, God, if I don't say something profound in
the first hour of meeting someone, then they're not going
to think I'm worthy or valuable. And I started to
realize I was like that blocked me from saying something worthy.
It didn't allow me to be a channel or a vessel.
I was now forcing some manufactured version. And even if

(42:31):
I did, now, I was just setting myself up for
more pressure every time we met, rather than just having
a flowing exchange with someone. How do you feel like
when an artist comes and says, Hey, Bennie, I want
you to produce my whole album. Where was the time
it switched from pressure to just flow.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
I never had pressure because I don't care, because I
treat every experience, like I'll be like this. You know,
some people when you get in the studio there's something,
or you're a TV set or you're on here, they're
just like, Oh, we got to get it all. We
have to get this done today. We have to. For me,
I'm just as happy if we were to come in,
Like if I came into this podcast today and you're like, hey,

(43:08):
I'm sorry, like the equipment's not working, then I'd be like, Oh,
let's just like chill, walk around your thing, because that's
what was meant to happen that day. And I'm not
stressing because you know what, eventually we'll get like an interviewer,
Eventually we'll get a song or you know. I I'm
a big like procrastinator in work, Like when someone comes over,
I'm like, you like to eat? What do you want

(43:30):
to eat? You want to eat something? All all that
stuff is part of it. It's part of what's gonna
happen later, you know what I'm saying. Or you like,
let's say you have a client someone like you're trying
to get to the bottom or the root of a problem.
You're gonna have to disarm them and get them to chill.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's not gonna happen through anything else.
What's your do you have? Do you have a setup
process for every person or do you really go with
the flow with each individual.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
This stuff got caffeine in it.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
It has natural caffeine from tea.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
I'll take a sip of it. Yeah it's green tea.
Green Tea's really caffeinated, right.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's not.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
You drink caffeine.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
I only in the tea form.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Only in the tea form. Yeah, yeah, I don't only
in the tea form.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
As in, like I drink ubble tea and I drink
this tea, but I don't. That's good, thanks man, appreciate it.
My wife and I put it together. So natural.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Go buy his drink. How do you come up with
the name?

Speaker 2 (44:21):
It stands for just you and I. So its a
way of trying to bring people together through sharing a moment.
How's caffeine hitting? Is that right?

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I'm taking him little little. I don't drink caffeine.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah, neither do I apart from tea.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
So yeah, I don't drink. I don't drink. I'm not
like a caffeine person. I wake up and I'm like
ready to rip me too. I wake up, I like
pop out of bed, wake up early? Yeah yeah, like
uh six usually six ten to six thirty.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Yeah. What gets you in the creative zone? Like you
always like cook it? Let's let's talk about open wide
for a second. Like creativity. I think people look at
you and they think, oh, he's musically creative, but then
the rest of his life must be. But no, it's
like your creative and cooking your creative and music obviously
to my relationships can be creative too, Like is it
just something that was cooking always a passion?

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, it's just like do you cook it all or no?

Speaker 2 (45:09):
So I'm the exact opposite cooking kitchens and cooking scares me.
My wife is a plant based chef and recipe development.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Really, oh my god, this is all she does? What
has she always cooked?

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yes? Oh my god, she's loved it since she was
and she's a dietician in nutrition is what's her name?
Roddy Roddy's name r A d hr Roddy and okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta see it. Yeah, I'm obsessed
with all that. One of my friends, uh, the person
who I wrote my book with her name is Jess.
She has like a she's predominantly like a plant based chef,
sure for Martha Stewart for years and she's incredible, And
I I, it's funny, like my books are always crazy
for I eat very healthy unless I'm being like a

(45:52):
naughty boy.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
What's what's noisy? How bad?

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Oh? Naughty is like you wake up and there's crumbs
and glaze all over you don't even know what it is.
But mostly I'm I'm I'm pretty. I'm like during during
the week, you know, because I lost a lot of weight.
I lost like fifty pounds consciously, yes, uh yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, honestly, at the beginning, I was going into
a weight loss challenge because my brother gained a bunch

(46:17):
of weight. And then when I went and we like
did the DESA scan thing, I was thirty three percent
body fat and I was like, am I fat? And
I just didn't even I didn't even know that I
was being, you know, unhealthy. And then like that's when
I started working out and I got obsessed with it,
and it was like I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight,
but then like once I did, I was like, whoa
this is cool and I'm one of those people. Now,

(46:41):
Like when I lost the first weight, it wasn't trying
to lose weight, it was just like trying to be healthy.
And then I felt like the feeling every time I
went to the gym, I was like, whoa, I have
no anxiety like after this and I'm not thinking about
anything else except like what's happening. And that was very
rare for me. So I was like, I gotta chase
this feeling. And then now I like, you know, me

(47:02):
and my friends we do like little like weight loss challenges.
We're like, okay, whoever can lose the most weight and
like one month or whoever can do this. I just
like to I like to challenge my comfort zone.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
I like to just like push myself in any way possible.
But yeah, no I eat. I eat like I do.
You eat pretty healthy?

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, very well.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Because of her.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Because of her, she'd be like before I met her
was la Pizzas midnight burgus. So that's my favorite.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
What do you guys eating? What'd you eat today?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
What did I have in the morning? I had like
avocado mushroom toast in the morning, And did you make
it or she did no, no, no, she did.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
So if she's not in town, do you.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
Ordering I'm ordering in by I'm ordering healthy.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
You're ordering healthy because you're scared she might be filming, you.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Know, yeah exactly. That's actually say. I'll say to my team,
I'll be like, guys, just you know, let's order this
because my wife's all right, yeah, you'll be a little
not She's been a good influence on me because before
I met her, I was addicted to sugar, like I
was addicted to chocolates. People have that. I had a
message because my mom.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yeah, I don't have this. I don't have the sweet too.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
That's lucky, man.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
I'm much rather like a huge slice of bread or
a taco, like I really like like one bite of
a dessert like I always want. My wife does I
always want one bite like at the end of the day,
like I always have like a date or something, or
like a piece of fruit, like I love that, But
like I don't like the I don't know, like occasionally

(48:25):
like a cookie or something if it's not too sweet.
I don't like really sweet things. They make my stomach hurt.
Like so I like there's a few, like I like,
what's that thing? When it's uh, it's like meringue Pavlova
because it's not too sweet and it's like light Pavlova
makes me.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
How did you cub your cravings? Things you love? Like
when you're doing a challenge, how do you cub your crava?

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Just shut it off? I love I love like I
love a challenge, just any challenge. If someone's like, I
bet you can't walk twenty five miles right now, I'm like, yes,
I can, and I'll do it, like I just love
I love that feeling of doing something. And they do
it with my friends. I work out with my friend.
If I didn't have a trainer, I only pay. The
only reason I see a trainer is because I'm so

(49:12):
crazy that I was would be like, oh, I can't
waste the money, like so I gotta go. But if
I if it was just up to me, I wouldn't
do it. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't be able
to do it. It's just that someone's you know, or
my friends are like, let's go to the gym. We
gotta go together, and we work out together, and I like,
you know, coming back to food. I like anything. I

(49:33):
love community. I love hosting. I love, like there's there's
nothing better to me than like creating like an experience
for people. I don't care what the medium is, Like
creating some experience where like when someone leaves, they're just
like whoa, and they're telling all their friends and like
for me, it's it's just like you're you know, this
is like uh, looking to give someone an orgasm face

(49:57):
at all times, like every moment like it, because that's
what it is. It's when you when someone tastes your food,
they just like open their mouth and they put in
You just want them to be like like you just
want that feeling that when someone plays a song, you
want them to be like, oh my god, that thing
is crazy. You know, like after you like change someone's
life and they can do a meditation where they can

(50:18):
like put their leg behind their head, they're just like, oh,
thank you, you brought me to a higher sense of being.
Like it's it's that's what we're looking for, yes, And
and I'm always looking to make my friends happy. I'm
always you know, if someone comes to my house and
they have like, you know, a hamburger and they're like,

(50:40):
I love this. This is my favorite hamburger. I know that,
so then I'm thinking, like the next time they come to, like, oh,
I'm going to like make sure they have that for them.
And you know, my grandma when I was a kid,
one of my grandma's she you know, she she was
not wealthy by any means. She grew up in it,
like you know. She her place was in Section eight
housing and we would go visit her, and she had

(51:02):
a lot of grandkids. And if we went over there
and one time we like had a junie and we
were like, we love this. It would be there every
time they ever went. And she had so many grandkids,
so everyone had every single thing, and she would she would,
you know, she wouldn't eat for the week to make
sure that like everyone had their things, and because it
made her so happy the joy she would have when

(51:25):
everyone was coming in and all the things were there.
We'd be like, oh, she has this. And and that's
what I like to do. And I love to create,
like whether it's like the perfect napkin, the perfect like meal,
the perfect music playing at the same time, like you know,
And that's what I did with this book. I was
like trying to teach people how to have like the
perfect dinner party. That's because I was like, Okay, you

(51:47):
know some people, they might not know what to do,
Like you're nervous in the kitchen. This book is gonna
make it so like surefire away. You want something easy
that looks good, great, you want to have a dinner party,
Like do you know what type of wine to serve?
I don't know. Do you want to smoke weed with
your people? Does weed make you anxious? Who knows? Is
it midnight and you want everyone to leave because you
got to wake up at five point thirty the next day,

(52:08):
but you still want them to love you. I'm gonna
teach you how to kick them out, you know. And
it's just like I love that. It's that whole thing.
And it's just like that moment of just like getting
a bunch of people together. And I love getting to
people together that don't necessarily go together. And it's like
someone is like a musician and they're sitting next to

(52:28):
a man who wrote a book. And I mean one
time we were at my house and I remember I
was my mother was sitting here, and Sissa was sitting here,
and a man on the other side actually makes rocket
chips that go to space. And to me, it was
just so cool to see them all talking and not

(52:51):
caring about, you know, what was going on, and there
was no egos and there was everyone's just having a
good time. And food is like the best social lubricant
in the world because it's like you can immediately talk
about something you're like, oh, you like food. It's just
like the automatic conversation starter.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah, yeah, next time you come over, we're gonna have
to do food for sure. Because yeah, that's it's a
big love language for my wife. She loves she always
that's her love language. I want to cook, she wants
to Yeah, you guys would have you guys would have
a blush. She loves cooking and creating recipes. And also
same with you create community. And it's actually funny to
say that. I'm trying to think of a book that
you just reminded me of that was based on a
restaurant that did that and they recently converted it. It became

(53:31):
a eleven Madison Park in New York, and it was
a restaurant that tried to give that level of care
and that you feel in a home. Yeah, and so
open wide your book. I loved I love that it's
not just a cookbook. I love that. It's it's to
build community and had all of that, because I think
that's what people miss out on, right. We think that
hosting is about all the fancy stuff, and it's like,

(53:51):
it isn't it.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
It's not about any of that the food. You know.
My godfather always said this thing. He would always say,
you know, and when I was a kid, I never
even understood it, but I so understand it now. He
always used to say, we'd always figure out where we
were going to dinner, and he goes, it doesn't matter,
it's about the rap and now, and and we were like,
what do you mean. He's like, it's just about the rap.

(54:12):
He's like, the only thing, it's just to get everyone together.
If the food's great, that's awesome. But it's about hanging
with your friends, laughing till you cry, you know, falling
in love with someone, fall you know. I've I've had
the opportunity to have dinners where like so many things
have happened to people. You know, someone's found the person
they date, somebody's you know, started a company, somebody's laughed

(54:34):
so hard they cry, you know, and it's that's that's
what I'm trying to do. And I love you. Do
you ever you have dinners with people and.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
It's one of my favorite things as well.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Yeah, it's my favorite thing to do. I don't want
to go out to a night club. No, I want
to like sit at home with my friends till two
in the morning. Well, for you, you can't do that.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
I can do that. I can do that.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Now what happens? What happens if you stay up late?
Do you just sell? But you can bust?

Speaker 2 (54:55):
No, man, I can stand when you choose not to
always do it because I love sleep.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Okay, when you were out uh late this week? And
what time? What time were you out?

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah? Probably probably get in the bedroom one or two?

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Okay? And you and you then what time do you
sleep till? Oh?

Speaker 2 (55:11):
No, that the problem was I was still waking up
because my buddy cloaks. So why that I was wake
up at the same time.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
No matter what I wake up at, like six in
the morning, that's what matter. When I go to bed. Yeah,
I don't go to bed as early as you though. Yeah,
I'm like if in my dream world, I go to
bed at like eleven thirty twelve, and then I wake
up at in real world six, six thirty and then
on the weekends. I really don't sleep a lot, but
I don't need a ton of sleep. But I know,
I'm sure you're going to say that's terrible.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
For no, not to man, I'm not going to say
anything terrible.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Its for your works, but you should I should be
getting more sleep, right.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
I mean, scientists say seven to nine hours a day.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
What else do scientists exactly?

Speaker 2 (55:45):
I don't know, but that's I mean, that's what I'm said.
I but yeah, my whole I need a I know
I need a and I can survive on I can
do fine. Then six, well, five I love, like six
and a half is my life is a sweet one.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Yeah, chef's kiss. Anything over seven I feel strain.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
That's good though, but then don't follow it seven, like,
don't push it. I think that's a big part of
it too. Right, So my wife talks a lot about this,
this idea of being able to listen to your body,
and I feel like so many of us are like, God,
I gotta wake up at five thirty now because Jay
said he wakes up at five thirty, Or I gotta
wake up at four because Elon Musk wakes up at
four or you know, Benny said he wakes up at
six tens. You know, so whatever it is. And it's like, well,

(56:22):
creativity is not based on those things. That's just what
works for your body and your mind is what works
for my body on my mind. So I think, you know,
but you seem to have a lot of like not
just community, but you seem to have like a lot
of the same people around you, loyal friends like that
seemed to be a big part of your How have
you continue to be able to build that as you
grow and make it? It sounds like all your friends love

(56:43):
challenges and growth, because a lot of people who are
listening sometimes feel their friends are not wanting to grow,
They're not wanting to try new things.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
But it's so fun you do it. Some people have
pushed to that, and some people have pushed me in
other ways, and like that's the that's that's what it's
all about, you know. To me, I've just had some
of my friends for so long because it's hard to
find people that are on your and I think it's
harder and harder as you get older. You know, a
lot of my friends, most of my friends I knew

(57:11):
since I was young, and then I have like, you know,
like a new friend for me is like five years.
Like I'd be like, I'd be like, whoa, yeah, this
is like one of my new friends. Like most of
my friends are eight, ten, twenty. Yeah. Do they live
in the city too or all different places? Some of
my friends are like some of my friends have very

(57:33):
regular jobs, and and you know, some of them I
only get to see once or twice a year in
person because of their job. You know, my friend was
just out here. He comes every year for you know,
like a month and a half towards the end of
the year because he's a therapist and he works, you know,
in Virginia and he can't really travel that much. So
then we get to see each other then. And then

(57:54):
you know, my other friend, his wife is becoming a
doctor and they've had to have residencies and all these
other places, and he works for like Capital one or something,
and he we don't get to see each other in
person very often, but when we do, it's like we
saw each other yesterday, you know, and we talk all
the time. And then some of my friends are in

(58:14):
the same world as me, so they get it. Some
of them are in entertainment, and I just love bringing
My friend group is very eclectic, Like it's like all
different types of people, and I love putting people that
wondn't normally be in a room together in a room
to see what happen.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
What's the randomness too? Is it the person building walkeet
ships and then your mom and then Sissy.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
It's just like people, you know. It's very common for
me to go out to dinner and have like one
person be twenty two and then the next person be
like seventy, and that's not and having it not be
someone's mom or dad, like having it just be someone
that's my friends, you know. And because I've met so many,
I'm very interested in people and I love I love

(59:01):
meeting creative people, whether that means they're creative professionally, whether
creative in their mind, whether they you know. Yeah, I
just love I love that feeling of getting into a
conversation with someone.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Yeah. I also think multi generational friendships are so powerful,
Like I was talking to someone about that, Like me
and my wife have a couple friend of us and
they're in their late sixties and they're some of our
favorite people that hang out with like, I feel like
I learned so much, I grow so much again, so
much perspective. They've lived thirty years more life than I have.
And I think that's it's so interesting how we may

(59:35):
spend time without parents, but we're not necessarily having friends
that are in a different decade of their life. But
how powerful it can be to be with someone.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
A lot of people don't even know their parents like that,
Like even if you're like close with your parents, like like,
how close are you with your mom?

Speaker 2 (59:50):
I'm pretty close to them, okay.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
But like you don't know, there's so many things you
don't know about her, Like you don't know like how
she felt the first time she got her heart broken.
You don't know, like if she ever cheated on someone,
like you don't like Sometimes I for me, I'll sit
my mom down and I just ask her, Like every
I'm like, what drugs have you taken? And I'm like,
how did it make you feel? Because my parents got divorced,

(01:00:15):
I was like, how did you know you wanted to
get divorced? What did you feel? And I always I
try to do that because one of my friends started
recording his dad when his dad got sick and he
asked him every question you ever wanted to ask him,
because it is so crazy you're so close to this
person that you really don't know, like you really like,

(01:00:36):
we really don't even know our parents that well because
you don't, you don't ask them those type of things
and no one does. Like, And it's also that time
where I remember, like your parent's gospel is just like
the end all be all when you're a kid, and
then all of a sudden, you're like fifteen or sixteen,
you're like, wait, you're just a human. That was a

(01:00:58):
mess up on you. You just lied, like I caught
you in that lie. But like until you're like fifteen
or sixteen or something, you can't even fathom that, and
then like you realize it's cool. I'm so thankful that
I get to, like, you know, talk to my parents
and my family now like as an adult and be like, Yo,
what were you feeling like like when you went through this,

(01:01:19):
and like how did you raise us like that? And
is it so hard to do this? And it's cool?
I like that feeling.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Yeah, I did something similar a few years ago. I
felt that way with the podcast, where I was like
learning about people I'd never met and so we were
celebrating my sister's thirtieth birptist. Who's me, my mom and
my sister, my younger sister, and I just started interviewing
my mom at dinner and there was no we didn't
record it. It was just us three and I learned
so much. So my mom was studying for her exams

(01:01:48):
while because she was born and raised in Yemen, while
there were Yemeny soldiers fighting British soldiers on her roof,
like you know, and I was like, I had no idea,
and she just casually drops that as if it's like no,
And I'm like, Mom, you've realized that's not normal.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
You should interview your mind.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
You need to end everything about it. It's been it's
been on my mind.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Interviewing your family is so crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Yeah, because you're right, and I think everyone I would
love to do it because I want everyone to do it.
My wife was my first have a guest on the show.
Really yeah, yeah, because that was a big part of
it for me. It was like, I feel like, you're
so right. We don't really deeply know our family. We
think we know them, Yeah, we think we know them.
We assume that we know them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Yeah, I used to do this thing on my uh well,
I still do it on all of my albums, where
like the last song on my album has like a
spoken word section of it's like over instrumental of each
person in my family and so far. I did my
mom and my dad and I asked them all these questions,

(01:02:51):
and it's crazy to know because I basically I asked
them questions for like an hour and then I take
like the best like thirty seconds, and it was both
my parents wound up talking the most about like their divorce,
and it was like so interesting to see both sides

(01:03:12):
of it because I have now forever in time, I
have my mom's version and my dad's version. And then
like I just you know, I'm putting out a new
album and I interviewed my brother for his version of
it now and it's.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Like that's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Yeah, it's fun. It's fun, and it's like, you know,
it's emotional, and it's like, whoa, it's cool to hear
both sides of everyone's side of an event.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
What did you? Yeah, I think you're so right, because yeah,
we often think there's only one truth in one story
and then all of a sudden there's three, And what
was the biggest thing you learned from hearing your mom
and dad's version of divorce? Like, what was something that
surprised you something you were like, wow, I did not
recognize that when I was growing up.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
I think that it made them both better people to
get out of the relationship. And I think like, at
first it seemed like my parents were not fans of
each other. At first it was like crazy, but now
they're friends. I mean they haven't been married for you know,
twenty something years, but but yeah, now we all like

(01:04:14):
go to dinner together and like go on vacation. But
you know, it wasn't always that way, and it's it's
cool to see like where it started to where it
is now. And I do think like me and my
brother like we're a big like our success was like
a big catalyst on getting like everyone together because it
forced us to get together. And then no, it's cool.

(01:04:38):
I don't know, yo, life is so crazy, like the
way you know, the way you meet people and the
way people come in and out of your life. And
someone you may not even like really know, could become
like your wife or someone like that's like you despise
could become your best friend, and it's just it's very
interesting how how life plays out. And I find that

(01:05:02):
more and more as I get older. And my mom
always used to be like, should be like, you know,
when you get older, you're gonna and I used to
be like, what are you taught? But it's so true,
just like over and over again, I'm learning something new
every day.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Yeah, yeah, it's so true, man, Benny. I could talk
to you for hours, genuinely, like we could go on
and on and on, but I wanted to make sure
is there anything that we haven't talked about before we
go to the final five, which is the way we
end in the interviews. Is anything we haven't talked about
that you've really wanted to touch on that's on your
heart or mind or something.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
That what's your five thing? What's that you that?

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Yeah, we can do that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
We'll start with that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
It's a final five that we end every interview with
of all time, and that same questions. It's the same, well,
same four questions. One of them I usually play with,
same three or four questions and one of them I
usually play with for the person, and uh, these are
your final five. They have to be answered in one
word to one sentence maximum Oh my god. Yeah, and
then I may ask you to go on because I
usually break my rule. But okay, here we go, all right,

(01:05:58):
Benny Balcot, these are your final five. So the first
question is what is the best advice you've ever heard
or received?

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Don't be afraid to fail?

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Who told you and how have you practiced it?

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
I can't remember who told me, but someone did tell you. Yeah.
It wasn't something that no, no, no, somebody told me it.
But I will tell you this. I always say this
this summer because people come up to me all the
time and they're just like, oh man, you don't miss
you did this, you did that. And I'll talk to someone.
You know. One of my friends was going through a

(01:06:34):
hard time recently. It was like his first failures, and
I remember talking to him and I said, I said,
you don't think I've failed a million times. I said,
you look at someone like Michael Jordan. Okay, he's taking
like so many shots, He's missed so many shots. Do
you remember any of those? No, you remember him swishing
it and walking back with his tongue out. Nobody's sitting

(01:06:55):
there being like, uh, jay, I saw that you know
back in like two zousand and eight that rap career
didn't really work out for you. No, they're like, Jay, Wow,
every get you got Michelle Obama on you. So I
always tell people like, it doesn't it doesn't matter, don't
be afraid to fail. Nobody's even gonna remember it. There's
only and if someone's literally tallying your failures, they're psycho.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
Yeah, well I said, yeah, No one remembers the missing. No,
no one remembers the missing. If you keep going, yeah,
if you stop at the miss, but you gotta keep going,
you gotta keep going. A question on the two, what
is the worst advice you've ever had or received.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
I was going around playing my music for people, and
I had just switched my style up because I used
to make I like, originally made music that sounded like
I was copying Timbaland, sounded like I was copying Pharrell,
sounded like I was trying to be someone else. And
I remember I had just made music that didn't sound

(01:07:53):
like anything. It sounded so weird, it was so different.
It wasn't like what was going on. I remember I
went into a meeting and someone's like, nobody makes music
like this. They're like you gotta you gotta fit in more,
like and that just like made me go the opposite way.
Then I was like, now I know I gotta do
the crazy stuff because at least I just want someone

(01:08:15):
when I used to go in and play music for
them to be like, I've never heard anything like this,
Like this is so weird. This is not gonna work,
because that's when everyone likes something. Usually that means it's
not gonna work. You know, when when some people are
unsure about something, that's when it's usually gonna work. So
I don't know, someone told me to fit in more
and I didn't really vibe with that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
That's that's a great answer. I think it's so interesting.
When you're young, everyone tells you to fit in, and
when you get older, everyone says stand out. Yeah, it's like,
well wait a minute, I have to wear uniform coming
on time, and now all of a sudden, I've got
to find who I am. Yeah, and it's such your
contradiction of course. Yeah, that's great. On two, all right,
Question number three, what's something that you used to value
that you no longer value success?

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Are you to really care about getting that number one song?
Getting that thing and I feel like I I feel
like I did everything I wanted to do, and now
I feel like everything's like the cherry on top of
the Sunday now. So I'm just having so much fun

(01:09:20):
trying new things, and of course I want them to
be successful and stuff, but like I don't have I
and I do still like work and have a drive
and want to do it, but I want to do
it more for me and less for like other people.
I used to want to do it because I was
like I have to be number one, I have to
be the best in the world. I have to be this.

(01:09:41):
And now I just get to wake up and I'm like, Okay,
I already did the things I want to do, So
like I want to make a cookbook, I want to
do it. I want to do this, and I like
really want it to be the best and I want
it to be awesome. But it's something that I want
to do and I'm putting like that pressure on myself.
It's not like for other people anymore, and yeah, I

(01:10:04):
think I don't know, it's I and I always had
a strange feeling with success too. I was always like
kind of like ashamed of it for some reason or
I'd be like, oh, I don't, I don't. I don't
deserve that. I'm probably gonna get like cancer now because
like I did because I did well, So like I
don't deserve this, and like somebody else, somebody else deserves

(01:10:26):
this more, And.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Like how did you overcome that doubt? Because I think
a lot of people feel that way. People are coming
to money, fame, even a bit of success and we
start going out, crap, this wasn't meant to be.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Yeah, it's still I still it's still there for me
that that part. I still have that feeling a little bit,
a little bit of the imposter syndrome. But it's so
funny because I'm so confident at the same time. But
you know, sometimes I do have that feeling where I'm
just like, ah, like why do I deserve this? Like
what did I do? And like there's so many more
people who are more talented, and I'll like start questioning

(01:10:56):
stuff like that in my head. Yeah, and you're still
working for Yeah, every day we're working through everything, and
the success thing, like it's not fully let go, but
it's like it's something that like I catch myself more
and more like just really wanting to do the things
because like it's not a competition always anymore, and it
used to be like such a competition with me in

(01:11:17):
my head with that, and I try to find like
other things that are competitions, and like competitions like that
are like friendly and there's not like a huge thing
at the end of the tunnel for it beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
Question number four. What's something that you think you learn
from your parents' relationship that affects your relationships moving forwards,
Like something that you'll take as a lesson on what
to do or what not to do.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
I don't think my parents listen to each other. And
I think all relationships, whether it's romantic, business friendships, you
just have to listen to each other. It's like the
easiest thing in the world just be a listener and
it's okay to be wrong. And I like that's that's

(01:12:05):
also another thing that like I've really come to terms with.
Like it's like I always would find myself like wanting
to be right about the thing, wanting to be this,
and it almost makes you look better if you're like,
you know what I was, I was wrong and stop
trying to like defend a thing to the end that

(01:12:26):
you know you're wrong about so it's like I was wrong,
I was wrong, and then like everyone's happy if you
just say if you're like I was wrong, I messed up.
I messed up instead of like trying, it's like putting
shame around being wrong, and it's okay to be wrong,
Like it's okay to fuck up sometimes, Like you know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
That's great, listen and it's okay to be wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Yeah, it's okay to be wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Fifth and final question Bennybelss to every guest who's ever
been on the show. If you could create one lure
that everyone in the world had to follow, what would
it be?

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
You know, I just I wish there was a world
where just everyone could find a way to just like
fit in and just like not be It's okay to
get upset sometimes. I just wish people could talk things
out and find a way to like love each other
and find I don't know, find a way to like
live together. You know, it just like killed me, Like anytime.

(01:13:21):
It's so hard for me to ever watch any of
the news and it's just like, oh, I'm like it
just like crushes me watching people fight and people like violence,
and it's like crazy, like I don't understand. I just
like don't even unders I don't know people, you know,
to like for someone to do something so bad, to

(01:13:44):
like an innocent person, Like anytime I see things like that,
I just don't understand. And I, you know, I in
my ideal world, there's I don't even know if it's
a law. I don't know. People just be nice to
each other and just be like caring and consider it
and understand that it's okay to not be the same
as somebody else, and it's okay to not have the

(01:14:04):
exact same opinion as somebody else, but you guys can
coexist and live and just like, I don't know, it's
like I always have these like idealistic thoughts in my
head and it's very hard to create those because we're
so far gone as a planet. You know, there's like
so much greed and there's so much I don't know.
I've always been like just like happy, whether it was

(01:14:24):
like I had a lot of money or no money.
And I've always found that when me and my friends
listen to each other and work together and talk things out,
like every like nothing can go wrong, and if it
can go if it does go wrong, then you talk
about it and you make it better. And I don't
know what's the best law. You heard someone say.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Oh, that's a good question. I think a lot of
people share the sentiment that you're saying, like, I think
a lot of us feel like that, like we want
to live in a more just, happier, loving kind of world.
I think two that stand out to me. Daniel Caluia
came on, He's the guy. Yeah, yeah, So Daniel came
on and he said that for everyone that you judged

(01:15:06):
or criticized, the law would be that you'd have to
then whoever you judge and criticize, you'd have to go
live as them for a day or a year or
something like that. I likes something it was like it
was like a fixed thing. And then Trevor Noah had one.
His one was there'd be a rule that every day
someone's bank balance in the planet could go to zero.

(01:15:29):
So it could be you, your friend, your family, And
how differently you'd behave with people knowing that that could
be you one day, it could be your mom, it
could be your dad, it could be your friend, And
that way you'd be more conscious of what it would
feel like to be around people who don't have a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Yeah, I changed mine free weed foreveryone.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's not that's not a new one. No,
that's great.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
Is weed and unlock your creativity? Does it make you anxious?
As you were mentioning for other people earlier?

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
I love smoking? Yeah? You are you allowed to know?

Speaker 2 (01:16:01):
I don't. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
You don't do it that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
I'm not allowed to.

Speaker 1 (01:16:04):
You don't do anything. You ever have a sip of alcohol? No,
not anymore. When do you cuar? When you were a monk?

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Fifteen years ago? Yeah, fifteen sixty years what?

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
What? What's your what do you do? What's your wild thing?

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
My wild thing is I know, No, I'm just kidding, No,
what is it? I'm a super I guess my wildness coming.
I'm super competitive. So if I'm playing a sport that
I'm good at.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
No, give me. I'm like, what's your vice?

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
My vice is sugar, man, It's like it's taking a
sugar Yeah. Literally, yeah, my advice is sugar. My vice
is I like to work hard my vices.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
So, but you don't have anything, so you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
No, it's not that I don't have anything. I've worked
on it hard.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
Yeah. No, drinking, no weed, no psychedelics, no, no, i'd
be I saw your eye.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
I'm always open to exploring anything that would. I mean,
we was something that I did a lot on my teams,
so it's not something I've never done.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
I want to know the team, the team you was why?

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
Yeah, the team was wild. I think that's what it
is like growing up in London too, Like you start
drinking very early, you start playing around with drugs and
stuff very early, and so we just had access to
a lot of things. So I feel like it's not
that I don't It's that I've done a lot in
my teens, and so it's not that I have a
again and I have nothing against it. I think I'm
always open to things that have medicinal or healing benefits.

(01:17:23):
So I've always been opened. A lot of my clients
will do MDA, do eboga, do ioas, and so I'm
very familiar with these things, and I'm always working alongside
clinical neuroscientists that I take advice from for my clients
and clients own explorations. So I'm very aware and like
to be educated more and get more experience. But I

(01:17:43):
would do it if I felt there was healing that
that could reward me with for sure. I'm very open
at anything that has healing powers. You take any supplements,
I take a lot of. I take twenty settlements a day.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
All right, let's tell you about Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
So I'm taking I'll show you my drawer later. It's
likely two twenty tablets today. But it's like B twelve, magnesium,
d C K, probiotics, gut supplements, creatine like a mill.
You take them because I really do feel a difference.

(01:18:15):
I find you say, creatine, that's like from the eighties. Yeah,
but it works. Like so what's really interesting is that
I work with We've had the doctor that I work
with on the show. His name is doctor Shark. He
runs Next Health, Okay, and Next Health basically will do
the deepest blood tests and give you like.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Oh yeah, you do that thing where you have like
a bowl of pills. You gotta takes like a pack. Yeah,
you get all your biomarkers, so you get everything. And
what I found is that different body types can't digest
certain things, Like my body can't get the nutrients from
certain things, so I have to eat different proteins. I'm
also plant based, so the supplements provide me with all
the missing nutrients. So were you feeling bad before you

(01:18:53):
did this?

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
I was feeling when I wasn't taking all the supplements.
I was feeling more tired, more easily. And I was like,
why am I tired? Because I work out, I sleep
well and meditate, Like, why am I tired?

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
What type of tired?

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
Just like a feeling of like lethargy or fatigue at
the end of the day, but like a tired that
I didn't like. And I realized that so vitamin D
is meant to be at sixty is safe, one hundred
is ideal. I was at ten and if and people
always say, well, you live in La you get enough
vitamin D. It's not true, like you've got to be
out in the sun naked, like for four hours a

(01:19:30):
day to get enough vitamin D, especially with my color
of skin. And so for me today, vitamin D is
non negotiable and for most people alone vitamin D and
so my doctors my nutrition was saying, Jay, you'r vitamin
D levels means you should be depressed. I was like,
I don't feel depressed. I'm just tired. And she was
just like, well, you know, if you change that will
make a massive difference. And it did. And so I
think a lot of people a lot of the times

(01:19:52):
we think we're struggling mentally, but a lot of it's
chemical and biological and physical. What you're saying with working
out right, Like it's a physical shift that's in your mindset.
And we can get in our head and get oh God,
why am I tired? To something wrong with me? Like
maybe I'm stressed And it can be that. Yeah, of
course it can be that, But sometimes it's chemical and physical.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
So you take twenty supplements.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
I'll show you. Yeah, I'll show you my little pill draw.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Do you do any other things?

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
No, that's do you drink any other tinctures through the
day that you have to do?

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
No? No, Well, creating is I have to mix it in?

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
And then why do they have you do creatine?

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
That's for me to digest a particular nutrient for my
digestion to be good.

Speaker 1 (01:20:31):
Also take oh do you have trouble? You have bad stomach?

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
Not a bad stomach. I think that when I went
completely plant based, which I always tell people if they're
making that transition, I always tell people to do it slowly.
I kind of did it overnight. When eight years ago,
when I married my wife, I was vegetarian, but I
became plant based as soon as I married her, and
I think that my gut reacted poorly to that quick transition.

(01:20:56):
And so whenever anyone's talking about being plant based or
eating healthare, I'm almost like, do it slowly, because your
body is just used to a habit, whether it's good
or bad. And now I feel great. But it was
a transitionary period for sure. So I do that, and
then I do I have vinegar before meals because that
regulates the acid internally, So that's like mix shot of

(01:21:16):
vinegar with diluted in water.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
Do you take like a lot of protein a day.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
Yeah, I take a lot of protein, but a lot
of protein meals, but like natural natural forms of as
much as I.

Speaker 1 (01:21:27):
Can, Well, what's your natural protein?

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
Well, like I'm doing a lot of lentils and dolls
like the Indian. The Indian diet generally leads well to
that kind of stuff. And then I will do things
like tofu, which of course you know, and then not
so natural, not so natural forms of protein as well. Yeah,
I'll found I found these amazing bagels that are protein
filled they're amazing. So things like that just to just

(01:21:49):
to stuck up. But I found that eating protein every
day has made a big difference the amount of protein
that we don't have in our dieties. And I'm not
a pro at this. We've had doctors who come on
the show and yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
People, yeah, you're supposed to eat a gram of protein
per a pound.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
Yeah, and you realize you're like nowhere close, Like even
if you're eing meat. It's hard. Yeah, And so what
to speak of anyone who's plant based, Bennie, This has
been a joy and honor. I hope you do a
part two. I hope there's dinners. I hope there's so
much more in the works with this relationship. I appreciate
you man, Thank you so much. Like you took us
on a whole journey today and I felt like we

(01:22:27):
got to peek into your mind, which is always my
favorite thing to do. I want everyone to know Open
Wide is available right now, so make sure you go
grab it. We'll put the link in the caption in
the comments and wherever you're viewing. Of course, if you
don't follow Benny on social media already, please go and
follow him across platforms and BENNI thank you so much
for showing up for on purpose today is so grateful

(01:22:47):
and deeply appreciated.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Man, thank you, man, Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
If this is the year that you're trying to get creative,
you're trying to build more. I need you to listen
to this episode with Rick Rubin on how to break
into your most creative self, how to use unconventional methods
that lead to success, and the secret to genuinely loving
what you do. If you're trying to find your passion
and your lane, Rick Rubin's episode is the one for you.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value,
Like as an artist, if you like it, that's all
of the value. That's the success comes when you say
I like this enough for other people to see it.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

The Nikki Glaser Podcast

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Benny Blanco: 3 Ways to Stop Caring About Failure & Get Out of Your Own Way

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

The Nikki Glaser Podcast

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

Benny Blanco: 3 Ways to Stop Caring About Failure & Get Out of Your Own Way

Dateline NBC