In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about how to create a meaningful “now” in the midst of everything going on in the world around us. With the upcoming election here in the US, volatility across the world and constant negativity on social media and the news, how do we get back on track and shift our attention to building a better now? This week, I talk with Greg Bennick, keynote speaker and author of the book, Reclaim the Moment: Seven Strategies to Build a Better Now. Here we talk about steps we can all take to embrace optimism, positivity and kindness in an increasingly negative world. We also talk about ways in which teams can use these ideas collectively to create more engagement and inclusion.
About My Guest
Greg Bennick is a comedic keynote speaker and presenter who shares strategies about juggling a world of distractions to enhance individual performance and drive organizational success. He has been traveling the world entertaining, uplifting, listening to, and learning from people for the last three decades. His work centers around the very human experiences we all share in common amidst a world that continually pulls us apart. Greg is the Executive Director of international humanitarian nonprofit One Hundred For Haiti and is also the first international speaking coach for TEDxPerth Australia. He has spoken in twenty-seven countries worldwide, including the first-ever spoken word tour by an American of all of Ukraine and Russia!
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Connect with Greg:
Website: gregbennick.com
Instagram: @gregbennick
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbennick/
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Transcript
Kim Meninger
Welcome, Greg. It's such a pleasure to meet you first. It's wonderful to have you here today. I would love to start by inviting you to introduce yourself.
Greg Bennick
Thanks for having me, and thanks for people for listening. I really appreciate, appreciate each and every one of you. So my name is Greg Bennick. I'm a keynote speaker and an author, and it's interesting, my book just came out and hit an Amazon bestseller status. So this is the first time that I might ever be saying I'm Greg Benning. I'm a keynote speaker and a best-selling author. That sounds so official, I don't even know if I'm comfortable saying that yet. So anyway, I am a keynote speaker, and my, my topic is build a better now. My book is called Reclaim the Moment: Seven Strategies to Build a Better Now. And the whole reason I wrote it is because we often get thrown off track by the world. And it's about strategies to get us back on center when we've been thrown off track by the world. So I, I focus on that, and I travel around the country and around the world doing keynote speeches for associations and meetings and corporate groups and whatnot and retreats and all sorts of things like that, conferences. So I love doing podcasts, so I'm very excited to be here and have a conversation with you today. This is fantastic.
Kim Meninger
Well, thank you, and congratulations on your best-seller status. That's exciting.
Greg Bennick
Hearing you say that I think you might be the first human on the planet, other than maybe my mom, to say, congratulations on your best-seller status.
Kim Meninger
Oh, well, I'm honored to be among the first. And if it's okay with you, I'd love to go backwards a bit. Obviously, you weren't always a keynote speaker, right? I mean, you have, you have a past, but that before that, what, what were you doing like? What does your career path look like? How did you get here?
Greg Bennick
Sure, so I will say that my mom is a speaker. And was, I mean, she doesn't speak as much anymore publicly, but she was a speaker. So genetically, I kind of always was a keynote speaker, even before I was because I get it from my mom, but I started out in my career as it were, when I was 12 years old, I learned how to juggle, and I did my first professional juggling show when I was 13. I did my first professional corporate juggling comedy show when I was 15. So by the time I was a teenager, I was already performing and already entertaining. And it was through realizing how important it is to have messaging that is customized for clients along with the entertainment. I realized how important that combination was. That's what set me on the path of doing what I do. So it was when I was in my I'd say, late 20s into my 30s, that I started speaking more regularly and having the content really drive what was happening on stage. So the ideas would drive what was happening on stage, the messaging for the client, the lessons, the takeaways, the impact, and then the entertainment was sort of an add-on, essentially, but it all started when I was a kid, and this is what I've done my entire life. So while I haven't always been a keynote speaker, I've always been in front of people, helping to inspire or and, or motivate and, or instruct, inform, learn from audiences. So I've always been on stage.
Kim Meninger
So have you always worked for yourself?
Greg Bennick
I always have.
Kim Meninger
Wow. That’s amazing.
Greg Bennick
Yeah, it's been pretty amazing. Yeah, I always have. So I'm pretty excited about it. And you know, there's, there's merits to working for yourself, and there are merits to not working for yourself, right? When you're working for yourself, imposter syndrome becomes a an immense hurdle that you have to either be blocked by or learn to jump over constantly, because it's there every day. You think, am I going to get this event? I didn't get this event. Maybe I didn't get this event because I shouldn't be doing this, right? You know, you start to think that way, and or rather, it's easy to think that way, but you can't let that win. As soon as you let that win, the game is over, right? So I think, and that's true whether you work for yourself or not, but when you work for yourself, you're in an echo chamber of one and those, those internal thoughts come up, come up often. I mean, they just come up often. So I think that it's, it's been a wild ride, and I've loved every second of it. So it's pretty, pretty exciting and happy to share that with people.
Kim Meninger
That's great. And, you know, it's interesting. I, as you're saying that I'm thinking about my own experience, having spent, you know, the first part of my career in a high-tech company, and then, you know, the last roughly 15 years or so working for myself is my imposter syndrome has looked different in both of those environments, just like you're describing when you are working for yourself. There's a lot of that. Who am I to do this? Right? Are they gonna, you know, who you sort of compare yourself to, self to other people, and think, you know, everybody else is so much better than I am when you're in the corporate world? Where it showed up for me was more so am I doing it right? Because there was this corporate structure that I felt everybody had a blueprint. How to operate within except me. And so then the interesting thing about entrepreneurship is there's more freedom and flexibility. And one of the things that I learned, one of the ways that I've been able to manage my imposter syndrome much more effectively as a business owner, is that I learned most of the time, people are just making things up.
Greg Bennick
100% Absolutely.
Kim Meninger
There's no like, one precise right way to do things. And I think in a corporate environment or in a work environment where you're working for other people, there's always that pressure to do it someone else's way. And when you're when you're on your own, you can think a little bit more creatively.
Greg Bennick
Absolutely, I mean 100% and I think that society with social media, and this isn't an attack on social media, but society and social media set us up for the image that everyone else is doing it right, that everyone else is doing it right. So I think that we, we often are in that position where everyone else seems to be doing it right, therefore we should be doing it differently, different somehow, Am I doing it wrong? Oh my gosh. What's wrong? Here's the bottom line, we are all insecure, frightened, terrified creatures hurtling through space and time towards an uncertain end. Thank you everybody. Good night. I'm Greg Bennett. The point is that it's true. We are all insecure, frightened, terrified creatures. I write about it in the book, and it's true. So societally we met, we've had that magnified. And you know, in the corporate world, you're looking at a situation where you're always comparing yourself to some unwritten or written rulebook, standard operating procedures, etc. When you're on your own, it's you against the world, in a way, and you're doing the same thing. It's kind of the same animal, just under slightly different circumstances. The bottom line is we are the same in each situation. We're insecure or worried. Are we doing the right thing? Am I doing am I doing enough right now? And it's easy for imposter syndrome to kick in. Well, here's a little story. About 20 years ago, I produced a documentary film. The documentary was narrated by Gabriel, Byrne, who's an A list actor who's in the usual suspects and a whole host of other things. Gabriel's brilliant. And when we were trying to find a narrator for this documentary, and it was a friend of mine, this is not a major Hollywood production, my friend and I made a documentary we wrote to we first had it narrated by a friend of ours. He was a guy, just a guy, no one anyone has ever heard of. Then we thought we should go a step further. Let's try to get an a narrator. So we said, who's our, like, top 10 people we would dream of having, who's our second 10 people who we dream of having from Hollywood actors, who's our third tier? You know, who's last in line, the first three people on the list, Jillian Anderson from the X Files, Lawrence Fishburne and Gabriel Byrne. We're like, Let's go for it. We write to Julian Anderson. She actually wrote back her. People wrote back and said, Jillian's doing theater in London and is unavailable for your production. We went, Whoa. She wrote back, okay. Lawrence Fishburn wrote to Lawrence Fishburn, Lawrence Fishburn's people wrote back and said, Lawrence Fishburne is currently making a movie called The Matrix. He's basically not interested in your little film. Thank you, you know. And I'm joking, but it was really along those lines, like he's doing the matrix, you know. Thanks, um, Gabriel Byrne's people wrote back and said, Gabriel would be interested, and we'd like to see a script. So we sent Gabriel a script, and Gabriel ended up replying through his agent, saying, I'd love to do this project. We worked out a deal, and there were all these hoops that we had to jump through to get Gabriel to Los Angeles to do this project, and he did it okay. What does that tell us? Does it tell us that Greg is so cool? No, it doesn't. It tells us? It tells us that Gabriel Byrne, A-list Hollywood actor, had some time and wanted a gig, and took our gig and narrated my documentary. So what does it mean if Gabriel Byrne, the Hollywood actor who everyone knows and everyone has seen in his movies and TV shows, what does it mean if he's got time that he's not working, that he's sitting around looking for a gig. It means that if you're looking for a gig, you're on equal par with a Hollywood actor. You're on equal par with the you see what I'm getting at. So yeah, we just have to put this in perspective. I literally get goosebumps talking about this, because I think so many times like, you know, who am I do? I deserve. Of course, we do absolutely. We deserve every second of this. This is the one-and-only life we get. Let's live it fully. I mean, let's be, let's be the way we want to be in the world and, and have that imposter syndrome just be a a momentary hurdle rather than a roadblock. Well, there's so much power to what you just said. I think, first of all, like you said, you're not alone if you're in between things. And I think about especially for people who are unemployed, looking for a new job right now. It's a temporary status, but it feels really anxiety-provoking and overwhelming right now. But that is, you know, just part of the journey. It will end. And the thing is, is that life is a temporary status. So let's dive in. Let's go like, what are we doing? Let's dive in. You're absolutely. Be right. I also love just ask, right? You don't know what people are gonna say, and if you don't ask, you don't get right. And so you might have talked yourself out of all 30 people on your target list, 100% and I'll give you the little follow up insider behind the scenes. Story is that the deal with Gabriel's agent was Gabriel will fly into Los Angeles. He will read our narration. Once he will leave the studio. That's it. Don't ask for more. You won't get it. And I said, Okay, Gabriel shows up. He reads the entire narration. He was the friendliest person you could ever possibly meet. At the end of the narration, I'm on the talk-back mic in the studio, so I press it, and I say, Gabriel, that was really great. Thank you. Expecting him, per his agent, to say thank you, goodbye. And instead, in this brogue, which I can't possibly do, he's very, you know, dark. He's like, Greg, thank you. I think I could do it a wee bit better if I do it one more time. And I was like, Okay. And he ended up, like, three more times, just to make sure we got we wanted. And then we had an assistant go out and bring freshly baked cookies, and we all sat around and ate cookies together. The point is, you never know. You have to make the ask, and if imposter syndrome prevents you from asking Gabriel Byrne to narrate your documentary, you miss out. So please, please, please, folks. You know, life is a temporary status. Let's get busy.
Kim Meninger
I love it. I love it so much. And, yeah, what have you lost if he didn't respond? Right? That is so great. So I want to talk about your book too because you said getting back on track. And we all know that the volatility of the world that we live in right now and how easy it is to be thrown off by it, tell me more about the concept of now.
Greg Bennick
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And you know, one thing about being back on track, there's a lot of books about focus out there. There's a lot of excellent books about focus, about from scientific researchers doing research on brain chemistry around focus. And that isn't this book. This book talks about, okay, so in this moment, the now to your question, Where, where am I? What am I doing? What am I believing? Where am I focused and not focused, as I was discussing a moment ago? But really, where is my focus in this moment? So, for example, the first chapter in the book is about believing in the possibility of kindness. Now, that sounds like a soft skill, believing in kindness. But the reason it, it plays in is because, okay, so listeners who aren't listening in 2024 might forget that this is an election year and leaving politics out of it, but remembering that a political cycle is a stressful time, we see a lot of imaging that is negative. So, that negative imaging seeps into our brains and we begin to think that we are part and parcel of a society, a communicative dynamic, a relationship with the world that is inherently negative. We start to get a lot of a lot of influences that impact us towards the negative. We start to feel that people are out for themselves. And believing in the possibility of kindness helps us escape the trap of pessimism. So that helps us recenter right now, so that when I talk to you, I'm not thinking to myself, well, you know, Kim seems really nice, but inevitably, there's going to be some ulterior motive. I'm going to be asked to buy something. She's out for herself, you know. And that's not a way to interface with the world. My life is better when I assume the best of intentions in people, or when I assume that it's possible that people have better intentions. So that helps me in this moment. There's chapters in the book literally on, on focus. There's chapters in the book on leaping into the dark and leaping into possibility and saying yes before we say no. There's chapters in the book on engaging the world with laughter so that we don't forget amidst the weight of the world that we can be uplifting for and with one another. So you get the idea that each of those things brings us back in a moment, or in this moment, to being more grounded and being more centered and being more ready to interface with people in creative ways and, and ultimately, in the book, I talk about the fact that it's not about building better nows that's not what we're doing here. What we're doing is creating space for possibilities. So I'm really I'm really curious about how that happens, and I like to hear from people how that happens, how they create space in this moment for possibility, rather than being overburdened by the world.
Kim Meninger
I love that so much. And you're making me think too, because I just returned from a vacation on Saturday, and I have two boys, ages nine and 14, and we've been on a mission to see all 50 states. [Nice.] So we've been going around to different states, some of which have very wildly different political views. And again, we won't get into the specifics here, but there is so much. There are so many caricatures. I think if you just look at the news and you just listen to or look at social media and listen to the rhetoric around politics, then you forget, like you said, there are actual human beings living in all of these other locations. And when we go, we try to immerse ourselves in the culture and get to know people. And it just brings me a sense of optimism and a sense of connection that I would not have if I just kind of sat at home and felt like it's us against them, and I want my kids to live that way too. And so that has brought me a sense of peace and a moment where it's really hard to find.
Greg Bennick
That's right. It's hard to find peace. Now, Isn't that ironic that the best that we have created as people is a world in which we can't find peace? That doesn't quite make sense to me, that, that strikes me as being the lowest possible common denominator that we could have created. You get billions of people together, and the best we can come up with is a nonpeaceful, chaotic, unstable social structure. That's really unfortunate. We're all smarter than that. We are smarter than that. So, yeah, to be able to be grounded amidst that sounds like a really good first step.
Kim Meninger
Absolutely. And I think that's a really important perspective too, that we are better than that. And I, you know, I think each one of us individually, and I felt like this too when I traveled to Southeast Asia for the first time a year ago as part of a leadership development program. And I'm surrounded by people who look different. For me, they have different languages, different religion, different dress, and we're all sharing the same experience and sharing the same goals. And I just thought we are so much more connected than we think we are, and all of the noise gets in the way and, and so finding these opportunities like you're describing to just shift your attention in a different direction. So.
Greg Bennick
You have to it's essential. It's essential. We don't get a lot of time. I mean, we don't get a lot of time 100 years from now, you and I are not sitting here having this conversation, and your listeners aren't sitting here 100 years from now, that's a might be a harsh reality, but it's, it's true. And so in the time that we have, let's, let's do better. Let's make better things happen. Let's, let's be more lighthearted. Believe in the possibility of kindness and, and develop relationships that matter and engage with laughter. You know, all these are chapter titles in my book. Let's do that thing, and we'll have a better life and better interactions and better teamwork as a result.
Kim Meninger
And so for people who are feeling like that, sounds great, but where do I begin? Right? Do you have like, a first step?
Greg Bennick
100%. The reason that believing in the possibility of kindness is the first step in the book is because that's where it has to start. We have to start in the moment. Having an outlook that allows us to believe in possibility. We have to believe in possibility. And I think that you know when we're when we're speaking about imposter syndrome, imposter syndrome typically destroys possibility. There's no one who has ever said it's because of my imposter syndrome that I'm so successful. People say I got past my imposter syndrome and then was successful. So I think that in in the moment, it's important to step past or beyond or around that imposter syndrome and believe in the possibility of kindness, or if, if not even kindness to escape the trap of pessimism. You know, each one of the titles in the book has a a title and then almost a subtitle. So the first chapter is, believe in the possibility of kindness to escape the trap of pessimism. That to escape the trap of pessimism is a great first step. Is a great first step. Let's check and see where our pessimism arises, where it comes from and why, and sidestep it, get around it, get past it by any means necessary because pessimism doesn't help. It really doesn't help, and believing in possibility most certainly does. So I think it can start there with each of our listeners can make a choice today to, to take any pessimistic trends or, or methods of thinking in their in their in their process, and think in terms of possibility. Try to live for five minutes with thinking about possibility as the priority and see what happens. See what happens when you even if you have to lie to yourself and believe in possibility for five minutes, try that and see where you end up.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, I think that's a really great point. And I often advise people to start with observation, and I think that's along the lines of what you're saying is pay attention to where you're saying no, to yourself, [yes] and, and to really, because a lot of this, we just take for granted, right? We just the these limiting beliefs, or whatever you want to call them, that we, that we operate by, feel like truth. They don't feel like, you know, fiction that we've chosen to believe and so, so I think it has to start with just taking a more careful look at what we're telling ourselves in those moments.
Greg Bennick
Absolutely, absolutely. It's critically important, because what is, where's the, where is the, the foundation for most of the messages that we get. It's external. So we see images on social media. We see images in the media. We are constantly scrolling through news feeds and. Get our information and our identity that way. I'd like to have people interact with human beings more and with the world around them a bit more. Again, not demonizing social media, but to say that we're getting messages from so many external sources that are impacting us negatively that it's become normal. It's normal if we hear outlandish things said in the news on either side of the political spectrum, or about horrible things happening in the world. It's so normalized at this point we don't even think about it. That's a huge problem that impacts our ability to escape the trap of pessimism. It impacts our ability to overcome this, this deception, that that that defeat is inevitable. We don't have to do that. We can, we can make other choices. And you know, a lot of these things in the corporate world are considered soft skills, but I think that they're essentially important as soft skills, and are as important as some of the traditional hard skills that get, get discussed and developed. We have to be thinking about these things because in doing so, we become better teammates. We become better individuals. We become better supporters for one another, and that's how growth happens. That's how we actualize the possibility that is available to us if we choose to embrace it.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, and I think you know what might sound a little bit corny, but I believe it's important, is we have a, just a more meaningful and more satisfying life when you let go a lot of, of, a lot of that pessimism. It's just, it's it doesn't feel good to think that way. Yeah,
Greg Bennick
Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't. And okay, so there's another problem not feeling good has become the norm, is that could, What? What? What more lowest common denominator could we come up with? Then? Guess what? Everybody here's the reality we created. None of us feel quite right. Welcome. That's terrible. Who wants that? Who wants that reality? None of us feel quite right. We're all insecure. We've all got our anxieties heightened by the world that we've created. Welcome. Have a nice day. That's ridiculous. We can do better than that. So let's start and the whole idea, you know, with the, with the book, is, let's get everybody on your team reading the book. Let's get everybody in the office. Let's get everyone at your company reading the book. And once everyone's on the same page, and everyone's believing in the possibility of kindness, or at least believing in possibility, once everyone's thinking, You know what, engaging with laughter sounds like a good idea. Let's do a little bit more of that. We don't have to turn the whole thing into a comedy special. We don't have to turn the whole day into a Comedy Hour, but let's at least engage one another with a bit of lightheartedness, with a bit of laughter, remembering that we can laugh through the hard times. All of a sudden, you get a different type of culture. So that's, that's where I'm headed with all of this well.
Kim Meninger
And one of the things that I really like about that approach, too, is I am a big fan of approaching these types of missions, for lack of a better term, collectively, as opposed to individually because I think that there's a fear factor for individuals who worry about rejection, right? Like, Oh, if I approach this person in this new way, they're not going to respond positively or something bad is going to happen, right? And so if you are doing this as a team, if you're having this conversation as group, you're creating a permission structure for people to try out new behaviors and to engage in new ways that, that don't seem kind of, quote-unquote, like strange to people, gives you a good place to practice, I think, and then building those muscles so that you can take them out into other parts of your life.
Greg Bennick
Essential, absolutely essential, that it goes beyond the last chapter in the book is start a reverberation effect. And what I talk about in the book is that a ripple effect is what we all hear of like. Let's you know, you can be a ripple effect. You can start the first ripple. Well, a ripple effect, a ripple ebbs and quiets and calms and disappears as it reaches the edge of the pond. But I talk about reverberation. What happens if your ideas and your thoughts amplify that which I've said? If I'm open to that kind of communication, I send an idea to you, and instead of you being just a ripple, you become a reverberation. You share an idea back with me or with somebody else, and all of a sudden we have ideas bouncing off one another as relays, essentially almost like imagining, like the way that, that relay towers used to, you know, many, many decades ago, used to share electronic signals, or radio signals, TV signals and whatnot, they would be amplified along the way. So I think that it's important to think of ourselves as relays for other ideas, and that way we start to reverberate with this idea and or with these ideas, and it gives an organization renewed interest, renewed energy, renewed vitality. So I think it's really important to reverberate and have these ideas bounce off one another.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, and I was thinking about that earlier too, of the contagious effect of what you're describing because I think we all know this too. I mean, there have been times on the negative side where you know somebody doesn't say thank you when you let them in, when you're driving and it ruins your true. Oh that jerk and so ungrateful, and then it affects the way that you interact with other people. Well, it's a chain reaction. And similarly, you know, when someone smiles at you, or you have, like, a positive interaction with somebody, that changes the way you interact with other people. And so I think it's a really important reminder to try to be the person who keeps that chain going, [yes] and remember that you can't control how everyone else reacts, right? That there are going to be people out there who aren't ready for this, people who are just having a bad day, right? That's not a reason to not make this right,
Greg Bennick
Right. I absolutely agree. I absolutely agree because, I mean, what's the alternative? I mean, the alternative I mean, the alternative is just, we succumb to our just frustration. That doesn't sound fun or even remotely interesting to me.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, absolutely. Do you get when you're talking about this? Do you get pushback? Does anybody ever challenge you?
Greg Bennick
Oh, yeah, sometimes like I'm having a bad day, I don't, I don't really want to listen to this. How do I how do I get past it? And that's the whole point. That's the whole point. That's the whole point right there. It's exactly what you just talked about. So not often, I don't often, you know, people, more often than not, are like, oh, yeah, I think, you know, I need to introduce this idea to my boss and the team and everything like that. So I think that that's more what I hear. But every once in a while, of course, in every keynote situation, every workshop, every training, there's always somebody who's like, you know, arms crossed in front of them, you know, tell me more. Really, tell me again. Really impress me, that kind of thing. But I think if we think of it as a bell curve, those people are on one side of the curve, the people who are wild fanatics are on the other side of the curve, and in between are people who are genuinely interested in taking action to make their workspace or their life better. So I think there's always going to be outliers on either side, but it's not often that I get negative pushback in any way.
Kim Meninger
And that makes sense. I mean, what you're saying is not particularly controversial, yeah. I mean, I think it just inherently makes a lot of sense. And I wonder for people listening, who might be thinking about, how do I bring this to my boss? Right in the midst of maybe a lot of stress going you know, all companies are struggling with trying to do more with less. There's a lot going on. How do you make the business case for this? Like, what's the, what's the argument you would encourage people to use to bring this to their teams?
Greg Bennick
Uh, yeah, that they need, that. They need better working teams. They need better individuals on those teams. They need to be able to believe in a vision with, with more with more focus and more enthusiasm. And you know, sure, I could say to anybody, buy a copy of the book, read the book. Show your boss some of the ideas in the book. There's inevitably going to be ideas in the book that people relate to. Maybe everyone won't relate to every single idea in the book, but inevitably, I think that organizations want people who are committed to a vision, who are inspired. People want to feel like they matter. That's just true. I take that as true, that people want to feel that they matter, that they're valuable contributors to something meaningful. That's how you're going to make enthusiastic teams and enthusiastic groups pursuing a vision a reality. So those ideas are all in the book. I mean, I, what I would invite people to do is, say, pick up a copy of the book or and write to me and ask me for advice on how to approach your workplace or your organization with these ideas. Best. I think that ultimately, it's about making sure that people feel like they matter within a structure that is meaningful. Because when you have a team built of people who feel that their contribution matters amidst a greater vision, what better definition of fantastic teamwork could you possibly come up with other than a group of inspired people working toward a vision, all of whom feel directly involved and directly meaningful in that goal. I think that's essential. Then all of a sudden, people aren't feeling like imposters. They're feeling like supporters of one another. They're feeling like they belong. They feel like they matter. I think that's essential.
Kim Meninger
I agree. I think that's absolutely foundational to everything else. And so a lot of times, there's this almost backwards focus, right? Like we are too busy for that. We need to focus on sales. We need to focus on the bottom line. Well, your bottom line is limited by how much your people feel like they matter, right? And so it's really important to zoom out and think about your skipping a number of steps here by not focusing on what you're describing and giving people the structure because I think a lot of a lot of what you're saying is important, but people don't know how to get there. Like, yes, we all want people to have a shared vision. Yes, we all want people to feel like they matter. But how a lot of people, managers are not equipped to do that kind of work. They've been promoted because they were good individual contributors. They haven't, haven't the first idea how to go about inspiring their teams or communicating at a higher level.
Greg Bennick
For sure, and that's one of the reasons I packed the book full of ideas and I talked about different. Managerial styles in there. I mean, are you focused on, on, on being authoritarian? Are you focused on a team mentality? There's ideas all throughout the book which invite people to consider, you know, changing your, your approach, again, bringing up the laughter, idea being slightly more lighthearted instead of heavy-handed, the idea of taking risks, leaping into the dark, as a chapter about embracing the possibility of success that we're often intimidated by the idea that we might just succeed. What if, as a leader, people were more willing to take risks, and it doesn't mean a risk that's going to sink the entire organization, but rather, what if they were willing to take risks that inspired people to be engaged with a risk-taking venture, with a new idea, with a new approach, all of a sudden people are like, wow, I want to be a part of that. That sounds different, new and original, and that's another way to engage people. So there's ideas all throughout about engagement.
Kim Meninger
Oh, I just think that it sounds fantastic. And Greg, I want to thank you so much for being here today. This is such a great conversation. And so you've mentioned the book you talked about having people reach out to you. How can they reach out to you? How can they find you? If they want to learn more about you and your work?
Greg Bennick
Sure people can go to gregbennick.com that's G-R-E-G-B-E-N-N-I-C-K.com, gregbenek.com. They can find me on LinkedIn. Just search. Greg Bennick again, spelled the same way. Can find me on Instagram, spelled the same way. Just seek me out in those, in those, those ways, and I'd be happy to respond to questions anytime, thoughts about the book or anything. I'd love to hear from people.
Kim Meninger
That sounds great. I'll make sure all those links are in the show notes as well for everybody who's listening. And thank you again, Greg, I really appreciate you being here and I also appreciate what you're doing. I love your message, and I'm excited to share it so thank you.
Greg Bennick
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me and thanks for listening everybody.