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I think that amongst all the other strategies, there's one about believe in the possibility of kindness, and that sounds like a soft skill, but I think that in a world which is aggressive inherently and also aggressive in terms of business ambition achievement, that we need to remember that people have kind intentions more often than we let them have in our perceptions of them.
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So when we believe in the possibility of kindness, it actually opens us up to connections with other people.
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Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back.
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This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher.
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In today's episode, I sit down with a dynamic, greg Benek, a professional speaker and juggler yes, I said juggler and author of the newly released book Reclaim the Moment Seven Strategies to Build a Better.
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Now we dive into the trials and triumphs he faced while writing this book, including a life-altering moment in a bookstore that redefined his purpose.
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Greg enlightens us with powerful strategies for reclaiming focus and harnessing the power of kindness, offering insights that resonate both in personal growth and professional success.
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Also, we'll get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Greg's unique juggling metaphors he uses in his keynotes and discover the most outrageous items he's ever juggled live on stage.
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You don't want to miss this inspiring conversation, so let's get started.
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Greg Benek, welcome to the Uncommon Leader Podcast.
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It's great to have you on the show today.
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How are you doing?
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I'm doing great, and I mean that sincerely.
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It's not just the I'm doing great, I'm really doing great and I'm very happy to be here with you.
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Good Well, greg, we're getting ready to chat about your book that's going to be coming out real soon and I'm excited about it.
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Reclaim the Moment Seven Strategies to Build a Better Now.
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So I know my listeners are going to find value in the conversation we're going to have today.
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Some of the homework I've done, but I never let my first-time guests off the hook real easy.
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I'm always looking for something else that exists to get the conversation started and I always use the question of asking them but tell me a story from your childhood that still impacts who you are today as a person, or even as a leader.
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Absolutely.
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I mean and this is a good one, because I didn't include this story in the book I was about six, maybe seven years old.
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I was at a friend's condominium complex in the main hall of the condominium complex and there was off to the side an arcade.
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And I went into the arcade by myself my friend was with his parents or something and there was pinball machines lined up in order and I went and was standing in front of a pinball machine as if I was playing and I was six or seven, so I didn't have quarters to put in the pinball machine.
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But as I was standing there, a group of older kids came in, older boys, teenagers and I turned and sort of positioned myself in between the pinball machine at which I was standing and the one next to it.
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So now all of a sudden I'm in between these two machines and these boys came over and started to play this pinball machine that I'd been miming playing.
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So now I've got this group of older boys kind of wedging me in between these two pinball machines and I'm watching the pinball, but at the same time I kind of want to leave, like I'm feeling a little awkward.
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These are much older, taller kids, but I was afraid to say, excuse me, or can I get out, or can I leave.
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So I didn't say anything and after 10 minutes one of the boys looked down at me and realized that I probably had a look of terror on my face and he said do you want to get out?
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And I kind of probably nodded and he parted the seas and let me out, as it were.
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That story, which sounds basic and rudimentary, almost impacted I'm pretty sure impacted my entire life and is probably why I'm a professional speaker today, because in that moment I could not find my voice.
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And I've thought about it over the years again and again and again.
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Why didn't I speak up?
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Why didn't I just say, hey, can I get out?
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I didn't want to be embarrassed, I didn't want to look foolish, I didn't want to look silly, I didn't want to be embarrassed, I didn't want to look foolish, I didn't want to look silly, I didn't want to sound like I was weak.
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All of those things still tie into fears people have around public speaking and they definitely impacted me.
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So many years later, here I am.
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I've recovered, I now play pinball from time to time.
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I'm not afraid of teenagers.
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And there we go.
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Life goes on.
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It's amazing some of those stories that stick with us and impact us.
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I love that story.
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Again, I can imagine the losing your voice and not wanting to say anything, not wanting to be embarrassed and not wanting to go through that, especially with those big, tall 12, 13-year-old kids that were coming in and playing pinball.
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They might as well have been 70 years old to me Absolutely Exactly right.
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That's amazing, the perspective that we have as well.
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Well, this is good, so I appreciate the story.
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Now I like how we'll see if it can fit in with the book as well.
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And maybe it does a little bit with my first question, because, as I did my research getting ready to have our conversation today, the first thing that I found in some of the notes was there was a quote said writing this book almost killed me.
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This is your first book, so what is it about writing this book that almost killed you?
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Tell me that story.
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So readers will find this story in the book, but I'll give an abridged version.
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But I decided many years ago and in the midst of doing so made quite an enormous mistake that I was going to sell out, as they say, and what I meant was, rather than and I had not written at the time rather than write a book that had meaning to me and was valuable, I thought how could I write something that makes me a lot of money?
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Thought, how could I write something that makes me a lot of money?
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And I went to a bookstore with my friend in order to find self-help books that I could emulate and literally almost copy, in order to write a self-help book, which is not what I'm into, it's not what I like, it's not what I pursue, but I thought this is going to make me money.
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Well, readers will read this story in detail in the book.
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But I had a situation happen where a vehicle an actual vehicle crashed through the wall of the bookstore, through the self-help section, where I was sitting looking at copies of self-help books to copy or emulate.
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The full version of this story is actually in the book and and literally being so off course, so off track, so insincere with myself that I thought I'm going to write a self-help book and make money and sell out my values led to a truck almost crashing me in the face.
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I have photos to prove it.
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So, literally, writing this book, which has meaning to me and is not me selling out, is the end point of a process that quite literally almost killed me with a truck crashing through the wall of a bookstore, and there is a full version of the story in Reclaim the Moment.
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But that's the connection.
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Oh, I so appreciate you sharing that and not what I would have expected to hear in terms of how that process worked, so that, wow, I can't imagine I mean being there and observing that and watching that happen.
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What an experience that must have been.
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But it wasn't enough to turn you away from it, so that's a good thing.
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No, I mean what it did was.
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It turned me toward it, and the reason I say that is because I was about to write a book that would not have been sincere, accurate or meaningful to me.
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And when I reconnected with whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa go readjust your relationship with the universe Then over years, I got connected to things that actually mattered, rather than trying to become the next Tony Robbins or any such thing.
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So yeah, hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share something special with you.
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Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations.
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If you've been inspired by our conversation and are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me.
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It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team.
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Okay, let's get back to the show.
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All right, so let's stick with that a little bit.
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So, as you chose there, as you went there and you chose to write it the way you wanted to, who were you writing it for and why was kind of now the right time for you to write a book as you went through your career so far?
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Yeah, it's interesting.
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You know, I was approached by Wiley who asked me if I would write a book with the Build a Better Now theme, because that's been my keynote theme for quite a while.
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How can we get ourselves back on track when we've been thrown off track by an increasingly complex world?
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Essentially, you know, when the world encroaches upon us, how can we get centered again and how can that be true for ourselves and for teams?
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And Wiley approached me with the idea of writing a business trade book and as I wrote the book, I expanded the vision to include how do I write a book for people who have been thrown off track?
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Because I know that focus is a challenge for me, it's a challenge for all of us and how do we reunite with our teams and how do we approach one another in proactive ways that truly develop and nurture relationships and creativity?
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I started thinking about that and thought you know what the people I'm writing for sure might be in business, but they are human beings in business.
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So I wrote a book for people who care about getting focused, getting back on track and getting specific, about creative thinking, not from the standpoint of painting pictures, but how do we creatively engage with the world so that we're vibrant in what we're doing and how we're feeling every day.
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And yes, there's absolutely chapters on leadership and teamwork that one could take to their boss and say hey, this is a cool idea, a cool chapter.
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How does this apply to where we work?
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But there's also chapters in there about how to best be in a very alienating and overwhelming world.
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I love that.
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Again, the focus for one thing I mean in terms of what I've talked about before is distraction is one of the number one thieves of productivity that exists in today's world, and these little phones that we carry around with us, that we claim to be the number one productivity tool that we have available to us, as more of a distraction than anything else.
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But you use that word focus, and we know that a diluted focus will lead to diluted results, whether it leads to mediocrity, whatever that is, and there are many things that cause that lack of focus.
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So, in your experience over your time doing your speaking, and when you've experienced it, whether it's you or others, you've experienced it with what are some of those big, you know, thieves of focus that you talk about.
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Well, I think, realistically, I mean, and I don't want to condemn any one of these things but if we take social media, for example, I don't want to condemn it, I use it all the time.
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It's how I reach out to people, it's how I know what my brother's doing across the country, that sort of thing.
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But, realistically, the way the algorithms work is to present me with things that I quote, unquote, like, and then it presents me with more of those things.
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Well, if you tell me, greg, I really like pizza, I go cool, john.
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And if I throw pizza in front of your face every five seconds, you're not going to pay accurate attention to your family members, the things you need to read and focus on today.
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You're going to be so excited about all the pizza.
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Well, social media works the same way.
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It presents us with the things we have said we like and therefore, in liking them, we get more offers for them.
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So that's one example.
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The news is another example and the media is not to condemn media and the news, but it's very easy to get swept up in it.
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Pick any day of the last year.
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This particular week we're recording is a perfect example, and we certainly get swept up in wanting to know what's happening in the moment, exactly when it's happening, and we have fear of missing out if we don't.
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So between media and between social media, and those are just two examples.
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Already, we've created a maelstrom for navigating through being a challenge in terms of keeping our focus on track.
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I mean, that's aside from just the fact that human beings have a tricky problem.
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I mean, we are finite creatures with infinite minds.
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We can imagine possibilities for ourselves and at the same time we have a sense that maybe we're running out of time.
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That makes us frantic.
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So when images are presented to us and we say, ooh, I think I want that, that we dive into that thing, because we want to have it right here, right now.
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Well, multiply that times a thousand times a day and it's a miracle we get anything done.
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Amen, you're exactly right, greg.
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I can't.
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I can't stress that enough.
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I don't want to go back with this, but, as you said that, there's something that came to my mind.
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There's the why, then, of the words that you had reclaim the moment.
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So tell me about the title inside of that, because if we eliminate or focus better, then that gives us the opportunity to do this to reclaim the moment.
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So tell me about the title.
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Sure, absolutely, the idea just being that this moment, as we all know, is the one that matters most essentially.
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Sure, we can plan for a future, we can make a five-year plan or a 10-year plan, but unless we're focused and centered in this moment, or at least grounded in this moment, how are we going to actualize the future that we want?
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Well, I can tell you this If I wasn't speaking to you, I bet my cell phone, which is by my side and shut off right now, has already, in the last seven minutes, pinged with opportunities to go, hang out, to eat food, to meet, to do this, to look at this, look at this link.
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Well, I need to reclaim and grab this moment back so that I can focus on you Cell phone off, focus on you, consideration of the conversation and your graciousness and asking me questions.
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I need to reclaim this moment so that I can be present and then go off into the world and do whatever I want to do, but without reclaiming this moment, this moment, and now this one, and now this one will all be lost to me, essentially I love that within relationships being present, uh, it being so important there.
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And even you know even what I've experienced with some of my clients and even in my own.
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Frankly, in my own work, if I'm owning it myself, there's a level of that distraction, that lack of focus, that if I just need to focus on one project myself, on my own, and I allow those things to hang out there the little text message beep that pops up and I see it in my screen or I feel the desk vibrate when it's like there's just this urge to go over there and pick it up and, frankly, once I address the urge, I lose presence, I lose the focus on the moment and it's hard to it's hard to get it back.
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So I appreciate how you say that that moment is so powerful.
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So you talk about seven strategies.
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I want folks to buy the book, so I don't want you to talk about all seven of them.
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There are one or two, though, that maybe stand out to you in terms of what are most impactful for you on those strategies.
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Absolutely yeah.
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I would say.
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One of them is keep your eyes on the knife.
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And what I mean by that is I use a juggling metaphor.
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Throughout the course of my life, I've interspersed and peppered into my keynote speeches comedy bits and juggling or magic mind reading, in order to keep audiences always on their toes Like what is this guy going to do next?
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So it's idea generation, along with those fun moments.
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Well, I use a visual image and I basically say to the reader you know, if you were juggling, imagine you're a juggler.
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You're juggling two beanbags and one knife.
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Where's your focus going to be?
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I hope it's going to be on the knife.
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So, with that in mind, what is the mission critical task that is your quote, unquote knife in the moment?
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What's the thing that's flying before you that really matters, that you keep your focus on?
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If a beanbag drops, that's okay.
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If a knife spins out of control, bigger issue.
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So what is the mission critical task that matters most if it fails?
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That's right in front of your face right now.
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So keep your eyes on the knife, consider that mission critical task.
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I think that's an important one.
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I think that, amongst all the other strategies, there's one about believe in the possibility of kindness, and that sounds like a soft skill, but I think that in a world which is aggressive inherently and also aggressive in terms of business ambition achievement, that we need to remember that people have kind intentions more often than we let them have in our perceptions of them.
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So when we believe in the possibility of kindness, it actually opens us up to connections with other people, and humans are social creatures.
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We are not solitary, even though social media, for example, sets us up as having isolated, solitary personalities online that people can like or dislike as they choose.
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We are social creatures and truly need one another.
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So when we believe in the possibility of kindness, it opens us up to possibilities with others to create, to grow, to develop, and I think that this is true in life and I think it's true in business, and I've spoken to lots of people about it and kindness, I think, is going to be an increasingly important theme in the years ahead.
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Yes, I agree.
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Again, when we're recording this, it's a big part of the topic of conversation in terms of understanding.
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So let me go back to keep your eyes on the knife, because I did.
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I got a chance to see your TEDx presentation, as well as some of the other presentations that you do.
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You mentioned the juggling that you have as a part of your keynote presentation and the juggling that you have as a part of your keynote presentation.
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Tell me how that fun well, how you get to choose kind of doing juggling for one thing as part of your keynote presentation to talk about focus, but how that has come to frame a little bit of your book, reclaiming the Moment.
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Absolutely.
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And there's a chapter on focus where I actually offer juggling lessons in the book and I tell readers don't skip over this Like there's lessons here, important lessons on paying attention and self-confidence and having it be okay if a mistake happens in a moment.
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You know I'm also cognizant of.
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I tell you know rocket scientists and brain surgeons.
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Mistakes aren't as okay for them, but for everybody else mistakes are more okay than we let on oftentimes.
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So I teach juggling as a mechanism of that.
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But I've also taught juggling in addition to keynotes in workshop settings.
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And it's amazing what happens when people try something new and step into the unknown.
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And there's a chapter in the book called Leap Into the Dark which is about stepping into the unknown.
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You put a couple objects in somebody's hands and say, okay, I'm going to teach you how to juggle, and you watch their face go whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no way.
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And then all of a sudden, 15 minutes later, they're at least trying and throwing and catching.
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These are little victories and those little victories throughout work.
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The reason to lead workshops with it is because people and groups and organizations get something out of it.
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Their people, their teams get something out of this visual metaphor of oh wow, I'm trying this, and it's okay that I look foolish, or it's okay to try something new.
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There's a lot of lessons to be had amidst that that I look foolish, or it's okay to try something new.
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There's a lot of lessons to be had amidst that.
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When you talk about Greg, some of the distractions that exist, so let me combine two of those juggling and a social media distraction, one of the recent juggling phenomenons I've seen on LinkedIn.
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There are young teenagers juggling three Rubik's cubes and as they juggle the Rubik's cubes, they're solving the cube as they juggle it as well, and by the time they're done, all three of them are solved and I'm like, dude, I can't even watch this.
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There you go, there you go.
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It's the Rubik's Cube.
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Hey, great.
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I've got the Rubik's Cube, but I don't solve it while juggling per se.
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Very impressive, and it speaks to what I'm talking about here the idea that when we focus amazing things can happen.
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Amazing, amazing things can happen, absolutely All right.
00:19:39.290 --> 00:19:47.795
So let me let me ask you because you touched on a little bit with regards to the eyes coming on Is there a specific story of you know someone in the crowd that you've taught or someone that you've coached?
00:19:47.795 --> 00:19:52.115
That's been a memory, that's been big for you as you've gone through this journey as well.
00:19:52.490 --> 00:20:06.473
Yeah, and I'll word it this way that rather than there being one, there's always a couple, and I don't mean like two people together, but rather there's always somebody who, hierarchically, is more established in an organization we're talking about.
00:20:06.493 --> 00:20:16.564
If I'm training a corporate or association group, there's always somebody who's hierarchically more established in the organization and somebody who, hierarchically speaking, is of less stature.
00:20:16.789 --> 00:20:49.241
And when I think of hierarchies, I often question them at times, because it's important to remember how much we have in common is that the people who are of, let's say, lower stature in an organization than a CEO or CFO often feel incredibly empowered during a juggling lesson, and the people who are the CEO or CFO learn to laugh at themselves and get a bit of humbleness or humility in a sense not in a negative sense, but in a positive sense Like oh, wow, okay, we're all in this together.
00:20:49.710 --> 00:20:50.396
That's a critical teamwork moment.
00:20:50.396 --> 00:20:50.961
We're all in this together.
00:20:50.961 --> 00:20:51.869
That's a critical teamwork moment.
00:20:51.869 --> 00:21:00.424
We're all in this together because if you've got somebody who is hierarchically more of stature and somebody less so, but they're all on the same team.
00:21:00.424 --> 00:21:14.519
And then all of a sudden we start to balance out the hierarchy just a touch in terms of how can we capital letters, we achieve more towards the goals of this organization, and this is true for nonprofits as well as it is for corporations as well.
00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:19.978
But I love seeing people laugh at themselves and then get empowered through that laughter.
00:21:19.978 --> 00:21:21.241
I think that's really important.
00:21:22.491 --> 00:21:27.871
I think it's really cool, greg, when you coach organizations through this or you see leaders that are going.
00:21:27.871 --> 00:21:30.335
What are the ways you get them started?
00:21:30.335 --> 00:21:32.961
Like, how do you get them started on these seven steps?
00:21:32.961 --> 00:21:34.824
What's a good tactical way?
00:21:35.410 --> 00:22:00.251
Well, I mean, I think that a really great tactical way is to review what is most important about an organization in terms of a mission statement, in terms of values, in terms of strategies that the organization uses, and again, like, take the example, the example of a, of a nonprofit, say and again, we can talk about any major corporation as well, but realistically, like, let's just take a nonprofit who are doing development work somewhere or something like that, you know, asking them what's most important?
00:22:00.251 --> 00:22:03.819
Well, it's most important that we get our donations up.
00:22:03.819 --> 00:22:04.821
Okay, why?
00:22:04.821 --> 00:22:08.013
Well, because it's most important that we're able to help people effectively.
00:22:08.013 --> 00:22:09.836
Cool, now we're onto something.
00:22:10.178 --> 00:22:14.944
If the goal is to help people more effectively, then how are we doing that in terms of the team structure?
00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:17.538
How are we doing that in terms of everybody knowing what the mission is?
00:22:17.538 --> 00:22:27.872
How are we doing that in terms of how we're going to focus and then relate to one another and step into the dark while keeping, you know, leap into the dark while keeping our eyes on the proverbial knife.
00:22:27.872 --> 00:22:33.422
All of these strategies drive forward, but it starts with asking where's the value?
00:22:33.422 --> 00:22:34.763
Where are your values?
00:22:34.763 --> 00:22:45.843
Where are the values of the group, the organization, the company, the collective, whatever it might be that then we can use to frame the rest of the questions about are we being kind to one another?
00:22:45.843 --> 00:22:48.459
Are we keeping our eyes on the proverbial knife?
00:22:48.459 --> 00:22:55.402
Are we thinking and cultivating a revolutionary, a creative mindset so that we think, oh wow, what if we did it this way?
00:22:55.402 --> 00:23:02.174
And then we support one another along that mission, and are we engaging one another with laughter as we leap into the dark creatively?
00:23:02.174 --> 00:23:09.182
All of those things start with asking what's the reason behind what we do and what direction do we really want to be going.
00:23:11.109 --> 00:23:12.574
Love that you just took them through the seven steps too, Greg.
00:23:12.574 --> 00:23:16.236
They didn't know that yet, but they're going to get it when they read the book as you go forward.
00:23:16.236 --> 00:23:18.125
So what's a little fun.
00:23:18.125 --> 00:23:22.756
What's the most outrageous thing that you've either juggled or or the feat that you've had, I mean.
00:23:23.277 --> 00:23:25.180
Okay, so I I have.
00:23:25.180 --> 00:23:46.259
I have a section in the in the keynote, which I don't do every time but on request or if I think it's applicable, where I have the audience suggest an object that they have with them that I then incorporate into the routine, into the juggling moment amidst the greater keynote, and I've had the widest range of things suggested.
00:23:46.259 --> 00:23:55.671
I mean, I had a group of people in business suits and I said I need an object from the audience and of course somebody will raise a lipstick or somebody else will raise a wallet.
00:23:55.671 --> 00:24:03.832
I had a guy open his jacket this is at a sit down brunch and opened his jacket and pulled out a shovel.
00:24:03.832 --> 00:24:07.461
That was about this long your face is perfect.
00:24:07.903 --> 00:24:12.758
I will be 90 years old someday wondering why he had a shovel in his jacket.
00:24:12.758 --> 00:24:14.395
So things like that happen.
00:24:14.395 --> 00:24:16.917
I mean, of course somebody will say, hey, how about this?
00:24:16.917 --> 00:24:24.180
And they'll hold up a potted plant or something that they see in the corner of the room, but anything you can imagine has come up.
00:24:24.180 --> 00:24:29.901
But the shovel was up there and I tell stories in my book about other examples.
00:24:29.901 --> 00:24:31.993
But the shovel was up there and that one's not.
00:24:34.425 --> 00:24:35.750
That's so funny, greg.
00:24:35.750 --> 00:24:36.874
You went through the book.
00:24:36.874 --> 00:24:39.713
The book writing didn't kill you, we know this.
00:24:39.713 --> 00:24:45.096
We heard that story about the truck come through, but now you've also come out with an audio version of the book as well.
00:24:45.096 --> 00:24:46.872
So how's that been for you?
00:24:46.872 --> 00:24:55.734
I mean, I've often been told that I have a face for podcasting like this in terms of going on, and I've got a good radio voice, whatever that means.
00:24:55.734 --> 00:24:59.375
But what was the process of doing the audio version?
00:24:59.805 --> 00:25:01.069
Yeah, we just completed it.
00:25:01.069 --> 00:25:09.625
Last week in New York City I flew to New York and we did the audio version, which basically you know we're aiming, as with most audio books, that you're looking for something around.
00:25:09.625 --> 00:25:29.269
You know eight or nine hours worth of content, but to get there it means you sit in a room that is about the size of a closet and you read your entire book to yourself, basically in a soundproof room, and that takes about 18 hours because, of course, I start off and say reclaim the moment seven strategies to build a better now with Gary Benek, wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:25:29.269 --> 00:25:30.477
That's not my name, greg Benek.
00:25:30.477 --> 00:25:34.833
And then we have to go back and re-record bit by bit.
00:25:34.933 --> 00:25:45.965
You get through it and it's an incredible experience because you really start to learn what it is that you've written about, because you start to get the context as a reader.
00:25:45.965 --> 00:25:47.289
It's really enriching.