The Power of Connection with Greg Bennick

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In this episode of Speaking With Confidence, host Tim Newman has an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation with Greg Bennick, a world-class speaker, best-selling author, and a master of connection. Together, they explore Greg’s journey from overturning Seattle’s infamous Teen Dance Ordinance to becoming a leading voice in communication and leadership. 

Greg shares how his mother’s influence shaped his speaking style and how personal experiences, like the legendary “pinball incident” and a heartwarming train journey in India, demonstrated the power of humor, kindness, and shared humanity. Along the way, they uncover how laughter strengthens bonds, how listening builds bridges, and why stepping into the unknown is the key to unlocking new possibilities.

From his encounter with the Dalai Lama to his cross-cultural experiences in Ukraine and Russia, Greg reminds us that communication is more than just words, it’s about fostering understanding, breaking down barriers, and finding connection even in the most unexpected places.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Greg Bennick and a community of young activists overturned Seattle’s Teen Dance Ordinance, proving that people can make a difference.
• The role of personal experiences, like Greg’s balloon animal icebreaker, in shaping communication styles and building relationships.
• Why humor and self-deprecation are powerful tools for leadership and public speaking.
• The transformative impact of listening and finding common ground, especially in divisive times.
• How Greg defines success on his own terms and the importance of overcoming self-limiting beliefs.
• Practical insights on how to embrace kindness, foster connection, and create space for new opportunities.

Key Takeaways:

• Listening is the foundation of meaningful communication.
• Humor enhances leadership and builds stronger relationships.
• Smiling and kindness are universal languages that transcend cultural barriers.
• Success is personal—define it on your terms and let go of fear.
• Embracing the unexpected opens doors to growth and deeper connections.

 Connect with Tim:  

Want more tips to elevate your public speaking skills? Visit TimNewmanSpeaks.com for free resources or to book a call with Tim.

Connect with Greg Bennick:
Website
LinkedIn
Instagram - @gregbennick

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Episode Transcript

Tim Newman (00:07):
Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast
that's here to help you unlockthe power of effective public
speaking.
I'm your host, tim Newman, andI'm excited to take you on a
journey to become a betterpublic speaker.
I really appreciate each andevery one of our listeners and
thank you for your support.
If each of you could do onething for me, that would be to
give us a five-star review andshare the podcast with someone
close to you who would benefitfrom listening.

(00:29):
Today's guest is Greg Benick.
Greg is a world-class speaker,best-selling author, film
producer and global event host,whose ideas have inspired tens
of thousands of people to takenew approaches to productivity,
focus, inspiration and personaldevelopment.
He engages with audiences inconversations that span borders,

(00:52):
appearing on 27 in 27 countriesand counting.
His new book is titled Reclaimthe Moment Seven Strategies to
Build a Better Now.
His documentaries have beenwinning awards since 2003 and
have been screened on all sevencontinents.
Greg, welcome to the show.

Greg Bennick (01:09):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really excited and I thinkit's going to be great.

Tim Newman (01:13):
Yeah, me too.
You come from a variety ofexperiences and I can't wait to
get into it and really talkabout how you know all those
experiences really kind ofinform you know how you deal
with people, how you communicatewith people and build
relationships.
Before we even start gettinginto that, let's talk about the

(01:35):
documentary about Seattle'sinfamous Teen Dance Ordinance.
As I was coming across this,the first thing that hit me,
before even really looked intoit, was you and I are about the
same age and the first thing Ithought about was Kevin Bacon
and I just lost the move.
Is Kevin Bacon and Footloose,yeah, footloose, yeah.

(01:57):
Talk about the ordinance andhow you did this documentary and
you know your involvement inchanging that law so that people
could actually, you know, haveaccess to the arts in Seattle.

Greg Bennick (02:17):
Sure.
So the Teen Dance Ordinance wasa law that was on the books for
many years in Seattle and itwas during a time when there was
a panic about morality and thethought was that dancing would
lead to immoral behavior, Musicwould lead to moral behavior.
Basically, the law was createdto protect our youth.

(02:37):
Now, before I say anything else, everyone wants to protect,
Everyone wants youth to be safe.
There's no one in the world whowakes up in the morning, I hope
, and says that they want youthto be in danger or engaged in
immoral activities.
But in Seattle it was taken toan extreme and the Teen Dance
Ordinance was a law that wasenacted which made it basically

(03:00):
impossible for any concerts orany dances to take place in the
city.
And my interest was in theconcert side.
There aren't many dances, Imean, that's something which
kind of has disappeared sincethe 1950s.
Concerts were the thing that Iwas most interested in, because
I have a background in music,playing bands, and when I moved

(03:21):
to Seattle it was at the heightof Nirvana's Nevermind album, so
we're talking 1990.
And the entire world wasfocused on Seattle as a mecca
for music, essentially.
But all ages concerts, meaningconcerts where anyone could go
were illegal in the citytechnically and the law was
incredibly restricted.

(03:42):
And my friends and I decided tofight the law, and it was one
of these.
Uh, I fought the law and we won.
Rather, I fought the law andthe law won.
Uh, through an incredibleprocess that involved a number
of different certainly not justme we were able to get that law
overturned and replaced with andthis is where the me component

(04:02):
comes in with a law that myfriend Dave and I so the law
that exists on the books in thecity of Seattle, the All Ages
Dance Ordinance, is a law thatmy friend Dave and I actually
wrote and submitted to the citythrough a long process and the
city passed it.
It's a pretty interesting storyand there's been a podcast made
about it by a guy named Jonathanand he worked at KUOW and PR.

(04:26):
At podcasts we can put a linkto it, of course show notes.
Anybody would be fascinated tohear the story of the teen dance
ordinance and how, ultimately,a law that was designed to
protect our youth pushed youthout in the street into dangerous
situations, Because when therewas no concerts to attend, kids
had nowhere to go and they hadnothing to do.

(04:46):
And when kids have nowhere togo and nothing to do, that's
when they might get into trouble.
Not will, but might, and it waspretty ironic.

Tim Newman (04:54):
Yeah, and it's kind of funny that you know, yes,
they're trying to protect people, but didn't really even think
it through.
That's the funny piece, and youknow, on the other side of it
that's also an example of ifthings aren't right, there's a
process to go through and changeit, to make it right or make it

(05:15):
better for not just for you,but for the community.

Greg Bennick (05:21):
Yeah, and what was interesting about the process
overall and the takeaway forlisteners is there's very likely
listeners who are like, okay,that's great, seattle's 3,000
miles from me.
If I live in Miami or Orlando,why should I care about Seattle?
Or I don't go to concerts.
We're recording this onelection and, regardless of what

(05:46):
side of the aisle you sit,people can make a difference.
So the teen dance ordinancestory is one about empowerment,
one about community and oneabout drawing people together
and, yes, one about protectingyouth, but doing so by way of
inviting youth to creativepossibilities that they will
engage with if you give them theopportunity.
So that's it.

Tim Newman (06:08):
Absolutely so.
Let's talk about your speakingjourney, and I've heard you tell
a story about what is calledthe pinball incident and how
that kind of traumatized you,and if you want to get into that
, that's fine.
But when did your speakingjourney start, where you knew
that you were going to be goodat it, that you really had a

(06:31):
message and you could share thatmessage and people received?

Greg Bennick (06:35):
it?
That's a great question.
Okay, so there's a couple ofdifferent angles here.
So I'll tell the pinball story.
And it's not so traumatic thatI'm going to have to call the
therapist as I'm recording.
But the pinball story wasinstrumental and it's not so
traumatic that I'm going to haveto call the therapist as I'm
recording.
But the pinball story wasinstrumental and basically what
happened was that I was a kidand I mean a little kid, maybe
seven or so, I'm not rememberingthe month but there was a
community center near where Ilived and there was a pinball

(06:58):
machine line and, long storyshort, I was standing in front
of the pinball machine withoutorders to play.
That was a little kid and I wasstanding next to the machine
pretending to play and someolder kids came in to the arcade
older, you know, teenagers andthey started to come over to
this pinball machine for us.
I decided to kind of turnsideways and step in between two

(07:23):
pinball machines.
So I'm standing here in betweenthe two now, looking at the
side of the pinball machine asthese older kids surround the
machine.
Well, they started playing andI started realizing that I
couldn't get out, meaning oneway out into the wall, the other
way out, into these big kids,and big kids are scary when
they're six, seven, eight yearsold.
So I didn't know how to get out.

(07:43):
But I also was too nervous andshy to ask them to move so I
could get out.
And I think I was looking up atone of these kids, these wide
eyes not knowing what to do, andhe looked down and he's like,
want to get out, and I was like,uh, and they all kind of
laughed, you know, and they letme out.
Okay, not too traumatic, buttraumatic later in reflection

(08:05):
because while it wasintimidating, what I reflected
about later on was, wow, Ididn't have a set of thoughts In
terms of speaking confidence Ihad neither.
I couldn't speak, I didn't havethe confidence to speak.
I couldn't get out of thatsituation and it was really an
intimidating moment that Ireflected on quite often in life
and my you know my mom was aspeaker.

(08:26):
My mom is a very gifted andgrowing up my mom was always
speaking, either when she was anaerobics instructor in class,
inspiring people to pushthemselves past physical limits,
or she would talk aboutexercise, different organization
.
She was always inspiring, but Inever heard her speak until
later in life.
I'll get into that story in abit, but I realized early on

(08:50):
that I had a propensity andability to speak.
When I was in middle school,ish, and I was joining a date
club and speaking extemporaneouslike I'm doing now, uh, came
very easy.
It it wasn't hard to putthoughts together and form a
cohesive structure to argumentsand I thought, wow, this is cool

(09:13):
, I'm good at this and it wasall genetic.
So I thank my mom for pavingthe way.
So thank mom paving the way.
So thank mom, if we have achance in this, uh, in the
podcast, I'd be happy to tellthe story.

Tim Newman (09:29):
The first time I saw my mom speak much, much later
in life and mind bogged it wasquite yeah, tell a story about
your mom because you know I Ithink sometimes you know the my
audience is essentially youngprofessionals.
They don't really have beengiven a whole lot of thought
about things that have shapedthem or who they are or the

(09:53):
power that people close to us,such as parents or guardians or
mentors, really have.
And when we see you, like youbeing a little bit older in life
, how do you really treasure andreflect back on how important
those people are and whatthey've actually taught?

Greg Bennick (10:09):
us.
So I'll tell you the story ofmy mom.
She was living in Virginia.
My parents were living inVirginia they're rural and I was
coming to visit and my mothersaid I mean all five foot one, I
think she was four coming tovisit and my mother said I mean

(10:30):
all five foot one, thanks for it, but it's with my feet of.
My mom was saying I'm so happythat you're gonna.
I have a speaking and I'mafraid I've never actually seen
you speak.
I've seen you and you know talk.
I've heard you talk about speak.
I've never seen you speak.
And she said well, it's sold,but I can get you in.
I thought sold out, what areyou even talking about?
So it was indeed sold out.

(10:50):
It was at the local hospital.
It was 150 or 200 ticketsavailable at $1.50 or $2 each
and it sold them all.
And my mom was speaking onexercising.
So the day that the event comes,go to the event.
My mother's like walking aroundand keeping all of her friends
and being cute, amazing and justfun and lighthearted and

(11:12):
whatnot.
And I'm in the back of the roomwatching these people pour in.
It was standing room only formy mom and they introduced her.
She walks to the front of theroom and they said please
welcome, and she's giving it tofriends please welcome, diane
Bennett.
She turned around, thoughtafter literally five seconds,
before we're giving it tofriends, and said if you don't

(11:34):
exercise as you, your peers andfriends are going to read about
you in the newspaper when theyfind you at the bottom of the
stairs.
Now what you need to realize isthat her audience was all
senior citizens.
It was people in theirseventies, eighties and nineties
and my mom's opening line is ifyou don't exercise, your bones
will be weak, you'll fall downthe stairs and die, and they'll

(11:54):
read about the paper.
I thought oh, my gosh, what iseven happening here?
She proceeds to do 90 minutesof a combination of fun stories,
intensity.
It was like literally four feetand 11 inches of my mom as Tony
Robbins and drill sergeantcombined and at the end, every
single person in that room readyto sit up and push up,

(12:17):
including.
It was unreal.
And at the end of 90 minutesshe thanks, the audience starts
waving at her friends walked offthe stage and goes back.
Mom, incredible.
And I thought to myself oh, wow, okay, all my years on stage
and bands and microphone and mic, all of a sudden makes sense.
That's where.
That's where I got it.

Tim Newman (12:39):
That's amazing, it really is.
So my wife is short, she's fourseven.
She says she's four nine, she'snot, she's four seven.
And you know when, when youhave somebody of that stature,
right, that physical stature,and they can command a room like
that, it's a drop of a hat,that is.

(13:00):
That is.
It's amazing, it's eyeopeningand it's really powerful Very
powerful.

Greg Bennick (13:05):
Well, it's amazing .
You know presidentialcandidates not to even bring
today into it, but presidentsand presidential candidates and
CEOs are often tall.
Right, we equate height withpower and it's ridiculous.
I mean, my mom is this shorter,less height filled person I
don't know the best way to sayit, Let me not very tall, and

(13:26):
she commanded that.
She commanded that room withideas and impact power.
Anybody, including me, who hadunderestimated her going in
certainly didn't.

Tim Newman (13:36):
And you know it's so important.
You said she commanded it withideas and if it doesn't matter
how, how smart you are, if youcan't communicate your ideas, it
just doesn't matter.
You could have, you could havethe best ideas, but if you can't
communicate it, you're going tobe at the bottom.

Greg Bennick (13:57):
It's interesting that you mentioned that because
years ago I produced adocumentary called the
Philosopher.
It was put out by a filmcompany called Transcendental
Media, southern California, andthe Philosopher Kings was about
wisdom seen through the eyes ofcustodians prestigious Americans
.
So, as a producer, my job wasto find custodians who had a

(14:17):
compelling story and the abilityto tell it.
So I called Dartmouth,princeton, yale, harvard, get
the MIT and what not, and Iasked to speak to members of
their custodial staff to findout who had the most insight and
wisdom and impact, along withthe story they could tell
Clearly.
Well, there was a combinationof responses.
There were people with amazingstories who couldn't communicate

(14:38):
and people with completelymundane stories who could
communicate them mildly.
Neither of which is what we'relooking for.
We're looking for the magicalcombination.
Oh right, and out ofinterviewing 40 to 60 people I
can't remember how many exactlyit was I mean there were people
who would you know I'd get onthe phone.
Oh, dramatic, I'm so excitedfor this story.

(14:58):
The biggest operative moment ofmy entire life was when I put
staples in that stapler.
It was so great.
I'm like wait what?
And then there were otherpeople who would say things like
yeah, and then you know after Iyes, everest, you know,
whatever.
It was cool.
Wait a minute, everest.
It was cool, wait, whoa, whoa,whoa, whoa.

(15:19):
So I had to find the people whohad a compelling story and the
dynamic voice to tell it,because, whether you are taller,
whether this or this condition,having the ability to speak
effectively, strength andclarity, is really powerful and
it's something most definitelyhelpful.

Tim Newman (15:39):
And again, it takes practice.
It's not something well, formost people it takes practice.
It's not something that justhappens and takes.
It takes work and takespractice.
It's not something, well, formost people.
It takes practice.
It's not something that justhappens and takes.
It takes work and takes time.
I agree, let's shift gears andtalk about some actionable
things that their audience cando.

(16:00):
And I got your book, and peoplethat know me know when I buy a
book I've got a real problem.
I don't read the book fromstart to finish.
I open it up and I find achapter Well, I think I'm going
to start here and then I'm goingto jump over to here.
And I'm going to jump over tohere.
And so you didn't tell me tostart from the beginning and
read through, so I didn't.

(16:23):
I started at chapter nine, whereyou talk about building
relationships.
You know, for me, I think, withall the talk of AI that we hear
nonstop every day, to me it'sstill about relationships.
I don't care, no matter whathappens, everything that we do
is going to come down topersonal relationships, and if

(16:45):
we can't build personalrelationships, we're not going
to be successful.
I say that if we can't do this,we're not going to be
successful.
If we can't do that, we're notgoing to be successful, and it
really does take, I think, acombination of all these things
to do that.
So talk a little bit aboutrelationships.
But how do we go about buildingstrong relationships?
Because, again, that doesn'tjust happen, we don't just.

(17:08):
You know.
Okay, I met you today and allof a sudden you know we're best
buds.
How do you go about buildingstrong?

Greg Bennick (17:14):
relationships.
I think one of the mostimportant things pay attention
to people.
I think, in an increasinglydistracted paying attention to
people and I talk about this inthe book that we want to feel as
though, as though we arevaluable contributors to
something and when we can allowsomebody to feel, or help or

(17:36):
inspire someone to feel thatwe're going to make a stronger
connection.
If I just sit here and talk atlike you are pixels on a screen,
you're going to know it, you'regoing to feel it.
There's going to be no bond andno.
But if I'm listening to you,paying attention to you and
really actually willing, excited, able and excited diving into

(17:57):
connecting with you, you'regoing to know it and you're
going to feel it.
Okay, does that mean we have todo that every single person we
meet?
It's going to be chow, but ifwe keep applying that mindset to
our connections, we're going tobuild stronger relationships.
It's just going to happen whenwe pay attention to people, when
we listen to what they'resaying, when we listen between

(18:17):
the words, when we offer insightinto what might support, help
or elevate, not because there'ssomething in it for us, but
because the relationship will bestronger as a result.
We create space for possibility.
Ultimately, that's what theentire book is about creating
space for possibility, and we dothat certainly through
relationships.
So I think an actionable pointis pay attention, connect with

(18:40):
them by paying attention to them, helping them feel as though
they matter, because hopefully,in the moment you're connecting
with them, they do, they matterto you and if they do, they're
going to feel.

Tim Newman (18:54):
You're 100% right and you said something.
You said the word listening acouple of times.
And you said something.
You said the word listening acouple of times, and I think
listening is something that isso often overlooked.
And again, we're doing this onelection day, right and not to
get political, but we are sodivided and the left doesn't

(19:16):
ever listen to the right.
The right doesn't ever listento the left, and my issue is if

(19:40):
you would just listen to theother side, you may learn
something.
You may actually, you know, getan understanding of why they
think this or why they thinkthat or why they want to do
whatever, but listening in termsof building relationships, like
you said, not listening so thatyou can respond, but listening
to understand and listening towhoever's talking.
What they actually mean, is soimportant.

Greg Bennick (19:54):
I agree with you.
Years ago not too many yearsago, about 10 years ago I did a
spoken word speaking tour ofUkraine and never been done
before.
I don't think anyone's done itsince.
I can't imagine anyone's goingto do it now, but I did a 21
dates of speaking across Ukraine, russia, your wallows in Russia
, every night.

(20:14):
As part of what I did wasexplaining to people that,
growing up in the United States,we always thought that the
Russians were going to bomb usif we turned our backs on them.
And every single night,audiences across Russia, from
all the way in the West to allthe way in the East, thought
that was the most ridiculousthing they'd ever heard.
People said we didn't want tobomb you, you wanted to bomb us.

(20:37):
And we would sit there and havea moment of realization in
which it came quite clear thatfear among and the messages we
were receiving all along fromnews, from politics, whatnot had
created in us an inability tosee the other yes, other than as
an enemy.
And that's exactly along thelines of what you said, what we

(21:00):
have, going on To the pointwhere we cannot even say the
word politics without adisclaimer, the one you offered,
for example.
I would have done the same thing.
You know, not to get political,but hey, let me make this
Because we want to soften theblow in case we come across as
adversarial.
Realistically, the Russiansthought it was ridiculous that

(21:22):
they thought they wanted to bomb, I mean.
But if you were, you know,alive in the 80s or the 90s, you
know, you absolutely thoughtthe point is more the 80s and
earlier.
But the point is that there's alot of room to make connections
.
We just have to find commonground beyond what the media is
serving every single day.

Tim Newman (21:44):
Yeah, I would say part of that is turn the TV off.
Turn the TV off, put your phonedown, put social media away and
actually have a conversationwith a real human person.

Greg Bennick (21:55):
Yep, absolutely.
I have a good friend who livesin Michigan.
He and I couldn't be fartherapart on the political spectrum,
like we literally were votingfor two different people today,
for two completely differentreasons, and platform points
that we're, you know, voting onare completely different.
I read posts on social mediaand I want to write to him and
say, come on, you don't really.

(22:15):
You know really, and of coursehe doesn't, because he's
repeating what he's been told,just as if I was to, you know,
type out the party line of myvoting choices.
I I'm repeating what I've beentold, what I would love to do
sometime and I plan to sit downwith them and just say, hey,
let's talk about, like not withour friends around their phone,
not because we're going to postabout this, not recording it.

(22:37):
Let's actually talk about this.
Because one thing I've learnedyou know I mention all the time
in my introduction Greg Menick's27 countries, spoken in 27.
Hooray, what have I learnedfrom the 27?
I've learned and I write aboutthis in the book that ultimately
we all want the same.
We want to know that we matter,yes, and that we're vital
contributors to somethingmeaningful.

(22:57):
We want our kids to be safe, behealthy.
We want to move over our head,we want to have something to eat
.
We want to have clean water.
Go to Haiti, be in the jungle,Go to Siberia, go anywhere in
Europe, go to Japan, anywhere,and ask people what do you
really want?

(23:17):
What do you really want most?
And if they're away from theirboss or their spouse, their kids
, whatever, their parents,they're going to say basically
what I just said I want a safeplace to live.
I want to be able to affordthings that I want.
I want to be healthy.
I want clean water.
In a lot of places I've been to, there are commonalities,
points through which we can makeconnections with basically

(23:40):
everyone on this planet who arewilling to do the work to find
those.

Tim Newman (23:47):
Exactly, Exactly, I mean, you nailed it.
You're exactly right.
You know, I haven't been aroundthe world nearly as much as you
have, but the places I've beenaround the world nearly as much
as you have, but the places I'vebeen.
That's it.
You nailed it.

Greg Bennick (24:10):
And it doesn't matter.
You know the all walks of lifein different countries as well
Same thing you know in variousforms, right, in various forms
you're going to talk to peopleand get different answers, but
they're all going to be in thatsame wheelhouse Meaning.
You know, people in Seattletoday are not thinking to
themselves I need to have cleanwater.
Well, that's because the wateris clean.
Go talk to folks in Flint,michigan, and they're going to
say clean water, but the actionis the same we want water,

(24:33):
whether we have it already orneed it.
That's just the thing that weneed.
There's points and ways toconnect people that we often do
away with and, uh, could bedoing less of the doing away,
especially during times we findexactly.

Tim Newman (24:49):
You know, I don't think I've ever talked to
anybody that says you know, Idon't want clean air, don't want
it, don't want clean water,can't exactly, exactly, yeah,
these things aren't important.

Greg Bennick (24:58):
I want, I want the , I want the world to blow up in
a, in a firestorm of pollution.
That would really make my day.

Tim Newman (25:04):
It's but but yeah, well, we'll, we'll, we'll move
on from this.
You know um it it.
It's crazy.
You know what we, what we thinkwhen we have our TV on and
we're looking at social mediaand we get caught up in that,
but anyway, so what do you meanby being the driver of

(25:26):
relationship culture instead ofsimply being a passenger?

Greg Bennick (25:30):
Well, I think exactly what we've been talking
about.
If you're a passenger inrelationship culture, you're
going to end up falling in linewith what you sold, what you're
offered, what you're told, andI'm entirely convinced we can do
better.
I'm entirely convinced we can dobetter, meaning I'm entirely
convinced that the ways toconnect with people that are

(25:51):
offered to me by liking theirposts, by commenting on their
posts, by sharing their postsare a start, but they're not
that's.
You know, if we want to bedrivers of relationship culture,
we need to reach beyond justclick like, click, share, click,
comment.
We need to actually makeconnections, and that doesn't

(26:12):
necessarily mean throw out yoursocial media.
It means that even in usingsocial media, there's ways to
connect more thoroughly andconcretely, and I think that
that's a way to be a driver isto actually use social media,
use the affordances that we haveto actually make deeper
connections.

(26:33):
I think that the connections wehave are superficial when we're
driving relationships andconnection.
Take the time to listen, takethe time to pay connection, take
the time to listen, take thetime to pay attention, take the
time to ask questions.

Tim Newman (26:46):
Yeah, and it's funny you say that I spent some time
on LinkedIn today Funny storyhere in a second.
But as I was scrolling throughI saw a post from somebody who I
hadn't connected with inprobably about six or seven
months and all I did was open updirect message, send them two

(27:07):
or three sentences.
I want to let you know.
I saw you came across my feed.
I hope you're doing well.
Let's catch up next weeksometime.
Give me a call and it's thosethings that you know, because we
all get busy in life, we allhave our own stuff going on and
things fall through the cracks.
But you know, again, usingsocial media for ways to, to, to

(27:28):
connect and and keep thoserelationships strong are
important.

Greg Bennick (27:33):
I agree with you and I think I think it's
important.
Yeah to.
Not that are social media atthe end, but a beginning
beginning.

Tim Newman (27:39):
Yeah, exactly.
So when I was on LinkedIn, Ihad reached out to a colleague
to be a guest on the show inSeptember and he said and this
is all through direct message hesaid I'm really booked up in
October.
You know, contact me inNovember.
I said great, awesome, perfect,it was November.

(28:08):
So I went back to the directmessage.
I was going to reply to thatand the the algorithm was um,
I'm going to pull up just justso that I can not make any
mistakes.
And as I say this, there was asafe content message in his

(28:29):
reply, after I had alreadyreplied awesome, great, it said
if the content in this messageis unwanted or harmful, please
report it to us.
And I'm thinking you've got tobe kidding me.
This, this is where we are.
You know, there was everythingin that in that whole exchange
was positive.
I mean, there was.

(28:49):
There was nothing in there thatthat you could ever even, um,
consider negative or harmful orattacking anybody, right, and
and it came after I said awesome, I'll reach out to you.
Then I'm like you gotta bekidding me.
First and foremost, ifeverybody's listening, if I

(29:10):
reach out to you and you can'tdo it, you're not interested.
It's okay to say, no, I'll beokay, you know, I won't need
therapy, we'll be, we'll be okay, but you know, but that, but
that's really kind of where weare, I guess, um, I won't need
therapy, we'll be okay, butthat's really kind of where we
are, I guess.
I just thought it was justcompletely bizarre.

Greg Bennick (29:29):
That's the first time I've ever seen anything
like that, anyway, well, I mean,there are so many pitfalls in
our communication on socialmedia, so many things that can
be misconstrued andmisunderstood from our
standpoint in terms of what wetype, what we don't, what we
leave out, what is nuanced, whattype what we don't, what we
leave out, what is nuanced, whatnuanced spaces we don't fill.
But also remember that it, whenengaging in social media, we've
made an agreement to play bythe rules of the social media

(29:50):
giant with whom we'reinteracting.
I mean, people all the timepost this ridiculous thing
saying I don't give facebook orinstagram the right to use my
photos and I I claim sovereigntyover my own space.
It's like no, you don't.
Second, you signed up, giveaway all that.
You're playing by their rules,and their rules don't
necessarily facilitate amazingcommunication.
That's up to people to do.

(30:12):
It's up to us to engage in waysthat are vital and valuable.
We have to do that.
The platform is not going to dothat for us, whether that's
Facebook, linkedin, instagram,tiktok.
We have to make changes Exactly.

Tim Newman (30:27):
Exactly, and that kind of leads me into the next
chapter.
If anybody knows me, I wentfrom chapter nine right to
chapter eight, which is laughter, Because I'm a big believer in.
You know I don't take myselfvery seriously at all, but I
take what I do serious and in mydaily life I use

(30:49):
self-deprecating humor, make funof myself.
It really is okay, and I sawyour list of movies that you
listed in there that you thoughtwere funny, but you listed one
that I'd never heard of.
It was the Grand Budapest Hotel.
What's that movie and do Ireally need to put that on my
list?

Greg Bennick (31:10):
Okay.
So I mentioned movies like theBig Lebowski, I mentioned Elf, I
mentioned Office Space, all ofwhich I think are funny.
The Grand Budapest Hotel at theWest Anderson and it's not
laugh out loud ridiculous.
Funny the way that some ofthose others are.
I mean, if you watch Elf,you're just going to be laughing
at how ridiculous it is.

(31:31):
The Grand Budapest Hotel ismore sophisticated, more well
written, expertly, amazinglyshot film.
I highly highly recommend it.
You're going to watch it andwhat's funny about it is more
it's so clever at times you'regonna say, wow, that's really
funny, but not like the laughout loud, hysterical laughter
that you might, you know,experience when you're watching

(31:52):
the dude in the big house.

Tim Newman (31:54):
So I would highly recommend uh, uh, the grand, all
right so that's going on thelist, because that's that's I
like the list, Because that's Ilike every one of those other
movies for those same reasons.
But I also like those clevermovies too, Because those are
you know, Grand Professor.

Greg Bennick (32:11):
Tell is ridiculous .
It's brilliant.
It's brilliant and it is funny.
It's funny in its own way, allthroughout, but it's not
necessarily a comedy the waythat those other comedies are.

Tim Newman (32:23):
I don't know if you saw this, but recently James
James Cahn did an interviewwhere he was.
They were actually talkingabout Elf and he didn't get it.
He didn't get Will Ferrell atall, so.
So his reactions in the movieswas real at all.
So his reactions in the movieswas real, and it wasn't until

(32:43):
the end of the movie, aftereverything was done and shot,
and he saw the movie.
That's when he got it.
So those were real reactions.
That's awesome, isn't it?

Greg Bennick (32:51):
great.
That's so great Because allthroughout the word that
describes him, he's likeincredulous.
He has no idea what's happening.
What is this?
Who are you?
Why?
What's happening?
And if he didn't get it whenthey were filming, that's even
better.
I love it.
I hope they didn't even givehim a script.
Fantastic.

Tim Newman (33:10):
That's amazing.
How do you incorporate, youknow, laughter in your
presentations and yourleadership style?
Because, again, you'retraveling all over the world and
I had a conversation withsomebody today.
We have to be respectful ofcultures and what we say, but
how do you incorporate laughterand humor in your presentations

(33:31):
and leadership style?

Greg Bennick (33:32):
Absolutely.
You have to turn it in right.
You can't go into somebodyelse's culture, somebody else's
space and make fun of them andexpect that you're going to look
better as well, which is nothow it works.
So I think you have to turn itin.
You have to be willing to pokefun at yourself, your condition,
your circumstances, why you'rethere, what you're speaking
about, circumstances thataudience might relate to.

(33:54):
Those are ways to buildconnection and those are ways
that you're going to be able toincrease the laughter content of
what you have going on.
I mean, when people are lookingat themselves and looking at
you per se or me, yes, maybe assomebody who is worth being
critical of in a supportive way.

(34:15):
You're going to find commonground and be able to do that.
So I think that one thing is tonot think of punchlines that
have audiences as the punchline,because in a live setting it's
never going to work.
It will work, but I mean to acertain degree, and then the
audience is going to say, okay,not alright, as long as you're
willing to put yourself and I'veread about this in the book put
yourself as the punchline, andI think that that goes along.

(34:38):
I also, when I'm performing.
When I'm speaking, doing thesekeynote presentations, I
incorporate elements, say, ajuggling trick, a magic trick, a
balance trick, something theydon't expect.
People are like, wow, that'sridiculous and funny.
I couldn't have anticipatedthat he was going to balance a
chair on his face.
I couldn't have anticipated hewas going to make his point
about focus while juggling himsteady came out of left field.

(35:02):
Those sorts of things becomefunny circumstances or so on.
So and and none of them requirethat I use somebody at the
punchline rather it's thecircumstances of the, the event
being outlandish at times, thatbecome funny.
So that's a good approach.

Tim Newman (35:20):
Yeah, and I love the stories that you tell in the
book.
They're great.
You juggle a leg.
I want to talk about Dalai Lama, but not yet.
Okay, okay, I think I alreadygave away.

Greg Bennick (35:40):
Anyway, let me explain to viewers and listeners
real quick.
Okay, that I was.
I was at a performance inMontana, I think, and I have a
moment in my show at the time Iwas doing a comedy and I have a
moment where I was jugglingobjects that the audience and
I'm going to cut to the chaseand give away sort of.

(36:01):
The punchline of the story isthat somebody in the audience
held up their own prosthetic legand said, basically, juggle
this.
And I juggled this young man'sleg and the audience went wild
and this young man went evenwilder with joy doing this.
So when you casually say justnow, juggle the leg, it's not
like I removed somebody'sseparate leg in the midst of a

(36:24):
traumatic injury.
Rather, somebody quitewillingly gave me their leg.
That don't and and and that'sthat.

Tim Newman (36:32):
It's awesome and it's funny and it's it.
You know, being able to tellthat story too, right?
And and when you, when you talkabout um, focus and doing those
types of things, and thatthat's you're.
You're doing it to make, tomake the point.
That doesn't really matter, aslong as you're you're focused on
what, whatever it is you can do, you can do those like.

(36:55):
I watched your.
I watched your juggling videosand I tried it.
It's going to take somepractice.
The videos that you put upthere are, honest to God, the
first time I've ever really seendirection, easy directions on
how to juggle.

Greg Bennick (37:12):
Oh, I'm so happy, I'm so very happy about that,
great, great.
And if people are interested,there's a secret website, as it
were, for readers of my book.
And if people are interested inmy book, of course you're more
than welcome to buy it and reada copy.
But gregbennickcom, forwardslash plain, has these videos

(37:35):
that I reference in the booklessons on how to joke, but also
there's a few extra stories inthere that are very unusual
videos describing some unusualthings.

Tim Newman (37:45):
Yeah, and they're amazing stories and we'll talk
about one here in a little bit.
You talk using laughter orhumor or other things, and
you're on a train in India.
You're the only American.
You've got a battalion ofmilitary on the train with you.

(38:10):
You're sitting next to anIndian family and everybody's
staring at you.
You know that's—it's got to beunnerving.
You know I talk about that's.
It's gotta be unnerving.
You know I talk about to, to,to my audience a lot.
Don't worry about what otherpeople are doing looking at you,
whatever.
Okay, you've got a battalion, amilitary and a family staring

(38:33):
at you.
At that point it's okay tostart worrying about why, why
everybody's staring at you, andwhat you're going to do.
Tell that story and and how youbuilt connections, how you
actually broke the ice and, youknow, dare I say, made friends
or made Absolutely.
Without giving a story away,I'll let you tell a story.

Greg Bennick (38:57):
No, I'm happy to tell it.
You know, basically I was on atrain and then I was by myself
and I had a long train ride anda family got on the train and
this was a train that was empty.
Basically Imagine, bench seatFamily got on the train mother,
father, two kids and they weresitting across, as is the case

(39:18):
in sort of the custom.
The social norm is they huge,huge kids, and they were sitting
across from me, as is the casein India, sort of the custom,
the social norm is they startedstaring at me and they weren't
saying anything, I wasn'tstaring at them, they were just
staring.
So amidst that it wasuncomfortable for me.
It's not the social norm for meto stare.
Well, at the next train stop orsoon thereafter, an entire, as

(39:40):
you said, battalion of Indianmilitary personnel got on the
train Guns, bullets, handgrenades, rockets.
They were on their way to somemilitary train.
They all got on the train.
So now it's not just me andfamily of four, it's me, a
family of four, a base, an armythey're all heavily armed and
they start to tear.
Now I've not just got twolittle kids, parents staring at

(40:02):
me from, you know, three feetaway, but everywhere I look
around me are heavily armed menjust staring.
So it was very awkward.
Well, at the time I was makingmy living as a street performer
and I happen to have in mypocket I don't have any around
here anywhere some balloons likeyou'd blow up to make an animal

(40:26):
.
Well, I had to break theoppressive and intense stare of
all these probably very kindpeople filming.
So I pulled out a balloon outof my pocket and inflated this
balloon to make a dog balloonfor one of these kids and the
second I did.
This family and these IndianArmy humans lost their minds and

(40:47):
I ended up making balloons notjust for the family.
I ended up making them for allthe Army guys.
And when the Indian Army guysgot off the train, instead of
staring, now they're waving andholding a gun in one hand and
waving the other, the balloon intheir hand, and the balloons
were a mechanism by which I madeconnections.
Now they're waving and holdinga gun in one hand and waving the
other, the balloon in theirhand, and the balloons were a

(41:08):
mechanism by which I madeconnections with people in very
unusual circumstances.
And again, the point is what dowe have in common?
Right, I mentioned before.
What do we have in common withpeople around the world In this
case?
What do we have in common?
Well, balloons are cool, fun iscool, I like fun.
To quote Elf you know, I likefun, I like smiling.

(41:29):
I think it's not like smiling,I can't remember the exact quote
.
The point is is we like to havea good time, so let's have a
good time and just see whathappens.
That will transcend ourlanguage barrier and our custom
barrier, and that's exactly whathappened.

Tim Newman (41:40):
He just said smiling and it had triggered something.
For me, smiling is is auniversal language, it's a
universe.
I've got a, a three-month-oldgrandson.
It just got baptized this pastweekend and my, my, my family
knows I talk about my, my, Italk about my grandkids all the
time now.
Now I've got grandkids and hedoesn't know anything, but if

(42:06):
you look at him and smile, he'sgoing to smile, right, yeah,
that's what they do.
And go anywhere in the world,if you smile at somebody, more
than likely they're going tosmile back.
That's a universal language.

Greg Bennick (42:28):
You break the ice with something fun, start
smiling and then it takes overthe whole train, it takes over a
whole battalion of soldiers,and even if the person you smile
at doesn't smile back, theylikely are not going to
interpret your smile asantagonistic, whereas if you're
staring somebody down, but witha smile, you can certainly break

(42:50):
the ice Absolutely.

Tim Newman (42:53):
Absolutely.
Again, getting back to theaudience of young professionals,
I think a lot of times they getso hung up in their own inner
talk and inside their own headthat they lose.
They can't come up with theidea of just to relax and be

(43:14):
yourself.
That's it, relax and have fun.
I mean because when you're outwith your friends or what have
you, you're going to have fun.
I mean, if you're by yourself,the only way to to to you know,
to not be stared at is to relaxand have fun.

Greg Bennick (43:35):
Yeah, Just be you.
I think it's important.
I think that I think thatoftentimes one thing that I
think is true, at least for me,is that I get in my head.
I think to myself oh, I wonderwhat that person and I wonder
where, where the and one of thereasons one of the chapters in
my book is believe inPossibility and Kindness is to
assume and believe the best inother people in order to create
space for possibility through arelationship that might develop.

(43:57):
And I think that when we thinkthe worst of people, or we
automatically assume negativeintentions in people, we close
the door on possibility.

Tim Newman (44:07):
And you bring up the possibility of kindness, that
that that leads me to the talkabout the Dalai Lama.
You know, you, um, you spentsome time in India.
Your, your friend, had to go,had to go home, and and so you
decide you were actually lookingfor a prayer bowl.

(44:28):
Right, that's what it was.

Greg Bennick (44:29):
Yeah, it was, I was looking for a um, a singing
bowl, a bowl where you draw apiece of wood around the
periphery of the bowl.
It makes a sort of ambient,interesting, haunting sound.

Tim Newman (44:41):
And you head north to I almost said Indiana.

Greg Bennick (44:46):
Yeah, dharamsala in India, in India, not Indiana
India.
Dharamsala in India, in IndiaNot.

Tim Newman (44:50):
Indiana, india, and the Dyalama holds, I guess,
meetings, public audience,public audience.
And you had the opportunity toshake Dyalama's hand.
Yeah, I did To me again.

(45:10):
I had no idea that was evenpossible really, yeah, it was.

Greg Bennick (45:14):
Uh, you know, I was in the north of india, my
friend had had to fly home sickwith this and I went to the
north of india by myself and, uh, just walked around this
village, which at the time wasjust I think that mcleod gone is
more developed now, but at thetime it was just.
I walked around and ate foodand talked to monks and just

(45:36):
walked in the woods, I think.
But the Dalai Lama held publicaudience for a time and what
that consisted of was thatpeople who had walked all over
Asia in order to get to Indiaand all over that part of the
world in order to get to Indiawere able to wait outside the
Dalai Lama's residence to comeout and then we would have a

(45:58):
chance to greet.
So I waited for hours forpeople who had walked hundreds
of kilometers to get there, andthis is after waiting weeks for
him to have a public audience.
I happened to have a scheduleof loudspeakers and the Dalai
Lama eventually comes out ontohis front porch and I swear I
mean when I saw the man Ithought he had an aura about him

(46:21):
.
He's really a really powerfulperson, whether I imagine him
and imagine the aura and one byone, you walk up to the mother
next to the Dalai Lama.
There's a moment of peace andyou're able to greet the Dalai
Lama, shake hands with the DalaiLama and then go on to the next

(46:42):
monk next and leave.
That whole process took about.
But the entire process, capitalP processed for hours and hours
and hours and hours.
We were out there for hours.
I did have a chance to meet.
I said I wish you my bestalways for you and your people.
Ashidele, you know, generallysay that and I smiled and shook

(47:05):
my hand and a very powerful,because this is a person revered
around the world and he wasvery humanized.
But one of the lessons takeaway from it was just to
remember that people are indeed,uh, people.
Uh, as schmode said maybedecades ago, people are people
and just think that the dalailama as a person and he has been

(47:28):
most vocal and talking abouthimself as a person it was
really nice to see this amazing,wonderful person, body of
kindness for many people,face-to-face, really quite one.

Tim Newman (47:44):
I can't even imagine .
You know, even when the Popecomes and the Pope travels
around, nobody's getting closeto the Pope?

Greg Bennick (47:53):
No, he's in a Popemobile.

Tim Newman (47:54):
The Dalai Lama doesn't have a Dalai Lama mobile
, as I remember, full of glassyeah and you got to talk to him,
you got to shake his hand andyou know, nobody's probably
going to get this, but I'mhoping he wishes you total
consciousness.
You know nobody's probablygoing to get this, but I'm

(48:16):
hoping he wishes you totalconsciousness.
But anyway, you know I joke onthat, but you know he that's one
of the most famous people andone of the one of the people
that is really.
You know we should mold ourlives after Peace, kindness.
You know understanding, youknow all those things that we

(48:37):
talked about.
He is the embodiment of thatand again, you had an
opportunity, you know, to meethim and I wish, you know, more
people could emulate those typesof characteristics.

Greg Bennick (48:52):
Well, I agree with you.
Like I said, one of thechapters in the book being
called Believe in the Possibleis sometimes to escape the trap
of pessimism.
Because when we assume, as Isaid before, when we assume the
worst in other people, we becomepessimistic.
That pessimism grows, itcreates antagonisms, it creates
divisions.
And when we imagine thepossibility, just the

(49:14):
possibility, that other peoplemight be kind creates space for
possibility.
I think that creates space forpossibility, growth, development
, for work to get done and allstarts.
I think it's really important.

Tim Newman (49:28):
And that story even has another step to it, because
you, you got it was.

Greg Bennick (49:33):
It was a red um red string or or red uh yeah,
there's a prayer string thatyou're given, basically um, and
it nodded to symbolize uh, aprayer, a mantra, uh source that
the dalai lama, um and and andand followers of the dalai Lama
would recognize.
And when I got back to theUnited States, I was in a

(49:54):
Tibetan restaurant in Salt Lake,utah, and I walked in and staff
was basically closing.
It was towards the end of thelunchtime.
They were like hey, sitanywhere.
And I had this string wrappedaround my neck with this knot in
it, symbolizing the Dalai Lamaessentially.
And when I pulled it out andshowed it to this family of
Tibetan people who owned therestaurant, they were in awe.

(50:16):
There was an instant connectionmade there over a cord, but the
cord was a symbol and thesymbol was of something we
shared.
That's the most important thingto remember.
We have visions at work.
Having trouble in humanresources can't connect with
other people.
We have visions at work.
Having trouble in humanresources can't connect with
other people.
We have to dig deeper and findconnection.
We have to dig deeper andremember what base level things

(50:38):
do we have in common.
That's the way.

Tim Newman (50:41):
Exactly Because, going back to it, we all want
the same thing.

Greg Bennick (50:47):
We do.
We just have our kids safe.
We want to be healthy, but moreimportantly, we want to be
healthy and, but moreimportantly, we want to list
that we matter.

Tim Newman (50:52):
vital contributor yeah, have you ever talked to
anybody and they said that theydon't want to be successful?

Greg Bennick (51:04):
um, yeah, I have people who, well, to whom
success doesn't necessarilymatter, they're just happy
raising their kids.
They're happy, you know, goingabout their day.
You know people who don'tnecessarily.
It's not that they don't wantto be successful, they don't
want to be ambitious to reachthe next level, they're happy.
And I agree with you.

(51:33):
I agree with you.
I'm going off the societal ideaof success being ambitious,
achieved.
But yeah, I think what I couldanswer more concisely is to say
everyone wants to be successfulon that level, whether the
success is embodied in the carthey drive or the kids they
raise.
People want to have a health.
So, yes, people all acrosssuccessful in that.

Tim Newman (51:53):
You know, and I I asked that question because
that's chapter seven, and forwhat reason I ended up going
backwards in your book.
But but to me, success successis whatever the individual says.
It is Yep, you know, if, if, ifyou want to spend your life

(52:16):
working all the time, not have afamily, and that's what you
want to do, good for you.
If you want to have a family,good for you.
If you want to work innonprofits, good for you.
If you want to help thehomeless, good Whatever success
is.
I've never, you know, based onthat, I've never talked to
anybody who says that they don'twant to be successful.
If you want to live on the beachif you want to live on the

(52:36):
beach and go surfing every day,if that's all you want to do,
and that's what you're doinggood for you.

Greg Bennick (52:42):
Yeah, and that's success.
And with that definition, thoseparameters, yes, I agree with
you, everyone wants to.

Tim Newman (52:49):
So why do we, as individuals, put up these
barriers so that we can't besuccessful or aren't successful?
You know the self-talk of youknow whatever it is can't do it
because of this, or you know, Idon't have that, so I'm not
going to do this.
Whatever it is.
To me it seems like we are ourown worst enemies in terms of

(53:14):
reaching the success that wewant to have, absolutely.

Greg Bennick (53:17):
I mean, I think that sometimes we are
intimidated by the idea ofsuccess.
I mean I mentioned that in thechapter in my book called Leap
into the Dark, which is an ideaaround leaping into the unknown,
just seeing what happened andyou might just succeed, but
we're often afraid of succeeding.
What happens if this podcast issuccessful and gets a million

(53:38):
listeners tomorrow?
How does that change my life?
And then what's that going todo?
What happens if 100 millionpeople hear oh my goodness, well
then I'm going to have to getnew shirts, get better glasses.
You know, my whole life isgoing to change.
Oh my goodness, maybe I shouldjust keep things Well, by
fearing success, we often don'ttake chance, and I think that

(54:00):
there's room for possibilitythat we would love to improve if
we're willing.
So I think that that's part,and I think that's what that
chapter is about.
Oftentimes, you know, we can beintimidated by fear of failure.
We can also be intimidated Yep.

Tim Newman (54:18):
And fear of failure to me is just as bad.

Greg Bennick (54:21):
Absolutely Sure, because I mean, you might not
try something, you might not tryto connect with somebody you
want to connect with, you mightnot try to try something new
that you might enjoy and hobbyand skill, you might not bring
up an idea at work that'll leadto a transformative moment for
you, your team?
All those things are feared.
Not feared but led by fear offailure.

(54:45):
Yeah, yeah.

Tim Newman (54:47):
You know, I was with my grandkids this past weekend
and we took them to this placein Baltimore.
It's called Port Discovery andthey have this one slide where
you have to climb up.
It's kind of like a rope ladderall the way to the top of the
building and then you slide downand my four-year-old

(55:07):
granddaughter she jumped in thefirst one and the first error
and she says she needs help.
I said no, you can do it, youcan do it.
And she once you get to thatsecond level, it's a lot easier
to keep going and she struggledgetting up to that first level
and then she made all the way upto the top.
I was petrified for um, becauseI was, you know, afraid she's

(55:28):
going to get hurt, but she lovedit.
She didn't allow other people'sfears or her own fear to stop
her from trying something.
And I think that's somethingthat as we get older, we start
to do that to ourselves again.
Not necessarily society.
We start telling ourselves well, I better.

(55:50):
Not necessarily society, it's,it's we, um.
We start telling ourselves well, I better, not do that.
Maybe it's because pop said oh,be careful.
Maybe you may not want to dothat, maybe that is our fault,
right.
Maybe that's the parent's faultor whatever, but but as kids
they have no fear, and I would.
I hope that, you know, I wouldhope that they could have no
fear to do the things that theyneed to do to be successful,

(56:12):
would carry on.
But for whatever reason, wehave those again, those
self-limiting beliefs that stopthat.

Greg Bennick (56:20):
Yeah, and I think that self-limiting beliefs take
the form of fear of success andfear of failure.
It's not just that we're afraidof failing, we're also
sometimes afraid to succeed.
It can be equally afraid offailing, we're also sometimes
afraid to succeed.
It can be equally.
When we create space forpossibility, as I talk about in
the book, we're creating spacefor opportunities beyond fear of
defeat, beyond fear of success.

(56:40):
We're just trying to moveforward in a way that doesn't
create stagnation.
I think it's the option,unfortunately, to open when
we're afraid of succeeding orthink that we have the bag.
Yeah, I agree.

Tim Newman (56:57):
Is there anything else in the book that we need to
talk about before?

Greg Bennick (57:01):
we, I would say.
I mean we covered kindness,keep your eyes on life.
We covered the idea of leapinginto the dark and engaging with
laughter and relationship.
I mean there's lots of otherideas, yeah, trying to pack all
the dark and engaging withlaughter and relationship.
I mean there's lots of otherideas, yeah, trying to pack full
of stories and fun, but alsoideas and actionable steps that
people can take to make forbetter relationships, more
advancement for themselves.
But I think we covered quite afew things.

(57:23):
I mean, if people are interestedin the book, I would love to
have people read it and write meand ask questions, and I got to
talk about it all day long.
Those are the main ideas otherthan you know.
I think that when you createspace for possibility right and
in your, you then have theopportunity to fill that space.
And what I'm curious about, howdo book when somebody reads the

(57:43):
book?
I would love to what happenedas a.
What step that comes fromreading the book?
They close the book.
They say that was a great book,fantastic.
Now, what this conversation hascome from you reading the book,
that's great.
We've created the space forthis.
This conversation results fromthat.
I would always love to hearfrom you whether via Instagram,

(58:03):
my website, linkedin, all ofthose different routes Hear what
you've created, based, affordedto you, opened up through the
possibilities that that happenedfrom the book.
So where can people buy the book?
Uh, people, of course, can findit on amazon.
It's available there.
Uh, if you want a signed copy,they're available through me, of

(58:23):
course, gregbennickcom.
You can reach out togregbennickcom, but it's also on
bookshoporg, I'm pretty sure,which is a website that
independent booksellers list in.
You can order it from anybookstore.
So if you have any, anybookstore can order it because
the distribution network throughWiley Publisher, so any

(58:44):
bookstore can order it on theshelf.

Tim Newman (58:46):
Yeah, but I would encourage anybody who wants an
actual physical copy to go tobookshoporg, because that is the
local bookshops and it's notthe big box companies that do
that.
I love it, you know so well.
Greg, thank you so much forjoining us.
I really do appreciate it.
I got so much out of the book,as you can tell.

(59:09):
I got a new movie to watch ontop of everything else.
I'm so glad I've been learninghow to juggle.

Greg Bennick (59:14):
It's great.
That's what I wanted.
I wanted something foreverybody in there and I really
appreciate it.
And people can reach out to methrough gregbennickcom,
b-r-e-g-b-n-n-o-m-n-acom and, ofcourse, via social media if you
like.
But be in touch anyway.
Any listener, I'd be happy.

Tim Newman (59:31):
Yeah, I'll put all those links in the show notes
for everybody.
But again, thanks so much andwe'll talk to you soon.
Thanks so much, everybody.
Thank you.
Be sure to visitspeakingwithconfidencepodcastcom
to join our growing communityand register for the Formula for
Public Speaking course.
Always remember your voice hasthe power to change the world.
We'll talk to you next time,take care.