Episode 1394: Interview with Sam Bennett About Getting it Done as a Creative Person

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1, 394 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:09] Samantha Bennett: I'm Sam Bennett. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to get things done is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:39] Literally nothing bad is happening. This is a big tenant of my faith. Nothing bad is happening. So it looks like I've just lost a big client, or it just looks like something, my launch has just crashed and burned. And I think, oh, this is terrible. And I think, okay, wait, Sam, nothing bad is happening. Because I have a spiritual belief that says the world is a benevolent place, and God is [00:01:00] great all the time, so.

[00:01:02] Scott Maderer: Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, And your treasures for your true calling. And the Inspired Stewardship Podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:34] In today's podcast episode, I interview Samantha Bennett. I asked Sam to share with you how creative people, including entrepreneurs, can still be productive. Sam also shares with you something about her faith journey and belief. And Sam also shares why she believes that everyone at some level is a creative person.

[00:01:56] I've got a new book coming out. Called Inspired [00:02:00] Living. Assembling the puzzle of your call by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about it and sign up for getting more information over@inspiredstewardship.com. Inspired Living. That's inspired stewardship.com.

[00:02:17] Inspired Living Recently, she has become a top instructor on LinkedIn Learning originally from Chicago. Samantha or Sam Bennett is a writer, a speaker, an actor, a teacher, and a creativity productivity specialist and the author of the best selling Get It Done, From Procrastination to Creative Genius in 15 Minutes a Day, which Seth Godin called an instant classic, essential reading for anyone who wants to make a ruckus.

[00:02:46] Her latest bestseller is Start Right Where You Are. How little changes can make a big difference for overwhelmed procrastinators, frustrated overachievers, and recovering perfectionists. Sam has also written the script for the hit [00:03:00] musical In a Booth at Chasin's and is working on her latest book, Unboring, Secrets of Highly Creative People.

[00:03:07] She is an award winning marketing expert, having spent 15 years as a personal branding specialist for Sam Christensen Studios, and has been honored as an Ultimate Marketer Finalist at InfusionCon. She's also a Keap certified consultant and a reseller. Welcome to the show, Sam!

[00:03:24] Samantha Bennett: Thanks so much for having me, Scott!

[00:03:25] Hi, everybody!

[00:03:27] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I know we talked a little bit in your intro about some of the work you've done and the book and all of these different things, but I always joke with people that I always think that intros and bios that we give like for speaking and podcasting.

[00:03:43] It's like the Instagram version of things, right? It's make sure the dirty laundry is not behind you when you take the picture, that kind of thing. So let's talk a little bit more about your journey and what actually brought you to the point where you thought get it done, [00:04:00] procrastination, productivity, these sorts of things were the topics that you wanted to put out in the world and talk about.

[00:04:06] Samantha Bennett: Yeah I started out as an actor. So I was a kid who did all the transition. Yeah. Just so you know and I have to say acting is an incredible preparation for entrepreneurship and for life in general. So parents out there, if your kids are interested in theater, don't be afraid.

[00:04:25] They're learning great things. But I was the kid who did all the plays in school. I went to theater camp. It was really all I was ever interested in and went to college for theater ended up getting a job at the Second City Theater, which is a legendary comedy theater in Chicago worked there for a long time.

[00:04:43] So I was hanging out with. There's a picture from my first wedding of me and my first husband and I'm the one in the big white dress and

[00:04:52] Scott Maderer: there's, that does make it easier

[00:04:53] Samantha Bennett: to pick out. It makes it easier to pick me out. But there's also Steve Carell and Steve Colbert and [00:05:00] John Favreau and Amy Sedaris and Neal Riddell and Ian Gomez and Jim Belushi and all these people who weren't legends at the time, That's where they

[00:05:09] Scott Maderer: got their start.

[00:05:10] A lot of 'em got their start in Second

[00:05:11] Samantha Bennett: City. That's right. We were all just kids in a van going down to do a show in Bloomington Normal, Illinois, and then I moved out to LA and I had one of those acting careers that always went well enough that you didn't wanna give up on it, but not so well as to actually be able to support a person, which meant that I had a bazillion other.

[00:05:30] jobs and gigs and projects and shows and auditions and I was just constantly juggling. I delivered flowers. I worked as a barista. I had, I was a whitewater river guide. I did scarf tying demonstrations in the department stores, like every. Flippin thing. And along the way, I got really interested in this question of how do highly creative people make decisions.

[00:05:55] I noticed that I was pretty good at getting projects done. I was producing shows. I was, like I said[00:06:00] moving along in my own career. And then a lot of my friends had trouble making decisions like how do you promote when you could do anything to promote yourself. What do you do? Should you have a podcast?

[00:06:12] Should you put up a one person show? Should you stand on the street corner with a sandwich board? What do you do? And for some reason, my brain just automatically goes how do you do that? And I'm good at breaking stuff down. So I just, so I started teaching a class called Get It Done.

[00:06:30] And I thought, that's the dumbest name ever. I'll have to fix that. The big, the whole brand. And I was doing it in a church basement in Van Nuys, California for 11 people. I might have charged them 75 and felt really weird about it. And it was just one, again, of a lot of things I was doing for a couple of years.

[00:06:48] And then I had this moment where It's like all of a sudden my calendar got erased I was doing work for a production company that laid off like two thirds of their people, including me a thing I [00:07:00] thought I was going to be doing ended up going away, and I had this big gap in my schedule, and I thought, oh, great, now I gotta go get another day gig ugh, and then I thought, I wonder if I could, at the time the business was called the Organized Artist Company, and I thought I wonder if I could do this Organized Artist Company thing full time, and then I thought, I guess I should order business cards, and I knew nothing.

[00:07:23] I knew nothing about running a business. I didn't know anything about marketing. I didn't know anything about sales, but I made it my business to learn pretty fast. And and it turns out I fell in love with it. It's like the place where I can show up with my whole self. The only thing I've ever found that engages me as much as acting does.

[00:07:41] So when it

[00:07:41] Scott Maderer: comes to getting it done, and you mentioned the highly creative people, and there's a lot of different ways of quote, slicing and dicing and thinking about personalities and communication and people. What do you think is different for that creative person that, that, that entrepreneur that has [00:08:00] 3, 672 ideas before they get out of the shower and,

[00:08:05] and the artist and the actor and the these, those folks that we would call And by the way, I do include the entrepreneur in that. A lot of people don't, but I think. What's different about those folks when it comes to getting things done?

[00:08:22] Samantha Bennett: Yeah. So one quick little footnote we want to make a the words creative and artistic are two different things.

[00:08:34] There's been a bit of collapsement in the society between those things. Sometimes people think I'm not an artist, therefore I'm not creative. No. I

[00:08:40] Scott Maderer: can't draw. I must not be creative. What, exactly. Exactly. I even for a long time, I felt I'm not an artist. I'm an actor, but I'm not an artist.

[00:08:47] Samantha Bennett: No acting's an art form. So yeah artists has to do with artistic talents and artistic ability and making things. Creativity, everyone is creative.[00:09:00] Everyone is creative. Creativity has to do with innovative problem solving. If you have ever solved a problem differently than anybody else has ever solved that problem, congratulations, you are a creative genius.

[00:09:09] And everyone has at least one, and probably several, zones of creative genius. It's just that thing that you've always been interested in, you've always been naturally good at it, you love it you spend money on it, and your family's what are you doing? And you're like no, I love it.

[00:09:23] Somebody will wake you up at three in the morning and say, Hey, we're going to go do this thing. You'd be like yeah. I'll give you

[00:09:28] Scott Maderer: a clue to a lot of times. It's the thing that you think is so easy that everyone must be able to do this well.

[00:09:36] Samantha Bennett: Okay. Let's like, just put off a little bit of fireworks around that idea.

[00:09:39] Cause that's exactly right. And if you were thinking, gosh, I don't know what anybody would pay me for. It's that. Oh no, I can make up cookies with whatever's in the fridge. Oh, I can plan a party with one hand tied behind my back. Oh, I love. Tying flies. I love Chinese pottery.

[00:09:55] I don't know, whatever it is that you're just like, that's nothing. Oh no, believe me, it's something. [00:10:00] And the fact that you have a natural gift for it makes it even more valuable to the rest of us, right? So to me, the hallmark of the highly creative person, and you're right, you can slice and dice it is it ADHD?

[00:10:12] Is it ADD? Is it highly giftedness? Is it ADHD? Who knows? I don't, I'm not

[00:10:16] Scott Maderer: a doctor. Probably all of the above and none of the above.

[00:10:21] Samantha Bennett: Yes, some, all, whatever, however you want to self diagnose is fine with me. I don't care. To me, the hallmark of the highly creative person is first of all, as you say, a grillion ideas all the time.

[00:10:32] You have ideas about your ideas, you have ideas about other people's ideas. And this is not a character defect, okay? You need a way to track your ideas, you need a way to capture them and retrieve them you don't need to act on all of them. But understand that's your natural creativity.

[00:10:53] It has never abandoned you. Not once. It is an endless and endlessly renewable resource. It's a beautiful thing.[00:11:00] I noticed highly creative people tend to be good at a lot of things. It's one of the reasons we make good entrepreneurs because we can do the accounting. We can do the marketing. We can do the team management.

[00:11:09] We can create products and services like we have multiple skill sets. I noticed that highly creative people really love nuance and subtlety and gray area. If you ask a highly creative person a question, they're going to say. It depends,

[00:11:27] Scott Maderer: right? Okay, the joke there is, I just got back from a conference, and literally every time anyone said, it depends, everyone would say, Scott's favorite answer!

[00:11:38] Because it's literally my favorite answer to every question is,

[00:11:42] Samantha Bennett: It depends. Exactly. And we're not big fans of orthodoxy or black and white thinking. And again, this is it's not really a plus or a minus either way, what it does mean is that we will over complicate a freaking paper bag.

[00:11:57] Oh, yeah, we will overthink and [00:12:00] go all the way around the block to get next door. The

[00:12:03] Scott Maderer: endless right? Is there a way to add more steps to this? Let's do it.

[00:12:08] Samantha Bennett: Exactly. We tend to be a little suspicious of anything that's too popular. I don't know how many people I know who've said oh yeah, no, I never read the Harry Potter books because everybody said how great they were.

[00:12:20] Yeah, I get it. Sometimes I think

[00:12:21] Scott Maderer: that's because too, it's not even suspicious or untrusting. It's almost I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. because I'll probably judge it and and everyone else says it's great. I won't think it's great. And now I'll be weird exactly.

[00:12:37] Samantha Bennett: And I definitely make a policy. If I know that I'm going to go see a show or a film or something, I will not read the reviews. Because I don't want anybody else's voice in my head, except mine as I'm watching it. Yeah, we notice all the things all the time. We're really intolerant of small talk. It's just too

[00:12:56] Scott Maderer: small.

[00:12:56] Okay, so have you been following me around? Sorry. [00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Samantha Bennett: And then one biomarker of high creativity that I've been able to find in my very casual and non academic research. Very

[00:13:10] Scott Maderer: non scientific

[00:13:11] Samantha Bennett: study. Very non scientific research is, it is not so much that we are more right brained or more left brained. And I think we all knew that wasn't really a thing.

[00:13:20] It's an interesting concept, but It's not like one side of your brain does more than the other. But what we are is more both brained. So we make more connections between more things, more of the time, which allows us a couple of things. One is to create a lot of those innovative solutions, right?

[00:13:39] Cause we're putting together things that other people have never put together in that way before. But it also means that we can work fast and slow at the same time. By which I mean, we can. Be in total creative flow. We can be playing with the band in total creative flow and be thinking five, six, [00:14:00] seven, eight, where's the waitress with my drink, right?

[00:14:03] We can be in total flow in a conversation on podcast and be working the controls as we do it. I assume it's what surgeons do, right? They're in total flow with cutting you open, but, and they're also tracking all the numbers and probably thinking a little bit about lunch. This ability, again, is something that not many people have.

[00:14:23] So when, don't get frustrated with other people when they can't do it, because the fact that you can do it is weird. It's great, but it's weird. So

[00:14:33] Scott Maderer: these are some of the things I noticed. And to build off your surgeon example, though, it's also why, if you think about a surgeon as an example, there's a surgery team.

[00:14:42] Because they need that. One of my clients is this, her job, literally, she's the person in the OR who's going, wait a minute, I handed you 12 sponges, I've only got 11. Go back in there and find the sponge. Where is it? It's somewhere we got to find the sponge before we sew them [00:15:00] up.

[00:15:00] Cause he's not necessarily able to keep all of in his head because of where his brain is focused and paying what they're paying attention to is a different thing. So they actually give people in the room, this is your job. This is it. That's what you do. You pay attention to that one thing so that it doesn't

[00:15:21] Samantha Bennett: get missed.

[00:15:21] It's why it's so important to have a team and have a great team. And have a team that has different skill sets than you when I knew it was time to bring in. Sort of a COO kind of person. I wrote an imaginary help wanted ad in my mind that said wanted eagle eyed naysayer with a dim view of humanity who loves reviewing contracts and telling Sam, no.

[00:15:49] Scott Maderer: Okay. Yeah, that

[00:15:51] Samantha Bennett: would be a good one. Wait, I know that person and I hired her. It was great. So

[00:15:55] Scott Maderer: changing gears a little bit, my podcast has a faith [00:16:00] component. And I talk a lot about faith and what that means to people, because that's, it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So as you go through your journey, and you reflect on your journey, how has your faith journey intersected with your journey through acting and to what you do today.

[00:16:19] Samantha Bennett: I wouldn't say it's intersected. I would say it's the jet propulsion engine. I would say it's everything. When you are an actor, when you are an entrepreneur, the future is deeply uncertain. All the time. And even when things look like they're for sure happening, sometimes they don't.

[00:16:43] I've been at the movie Premier waiting anxiously for my scenes only to find out that they just got cut for time or got hired for a gig that, oh, we've changed the script. We wrote out that character. We'll work with you again. We love you. Okay, thank you. So even when things look like [00:17:00] they're completely dialed, they're often not.

[00:17:02] And we know as entrepreneurs that until the check. clears and the product is delivered. It is not a sale. And I think it gives us a little bit of an edge because I think everybody else lives in a world that they feel is more secure, but it's not. It's really not. I remember my sister said to me one time, she's you genuinely don't know how much money you're going to make from month to month, do you?

[00:17:29] And I said, no, I don't. I have projections. I have ideas. I have plans. But no, in fact, I don't. I'm like, but the fact is, you don't either. Because all those safe jobs, we all know people who've been laid off from those safe jobs. And because they felt so safe, they have not kept their LinkedIn profile up.

[00:17:47] Their resume is out of date. Their skill sets might be out of date. They're not sharp. They're not ready to go out in the world And

[00:17:54] Scott Maderer: they don't have extra money in the bank set aside just in case,

[00:17:58] Samantha Bennett: right? Cause they thought, oh, this is [00:18:00] just, this will just keep flowing. The ability to live in deep communion with uncertainty and still, and find the calm in it, find the rest in it, know that you have not been brought this far to be left behind now that something will happen.

[00:18:22] It always does. And that if it appears that there is an absence, yeah. An absence of money, an absence of clients, an absence of time, an absence of whatever. That's an illusion. And you get to wake up every morning and be guided and be led and be humble to your work and understand that you're not alone.

[00:18:52] Literally, nothing bad is happening. This is a big tenet of my faith. Nothing bad is happening. [00:19:00] So it looks like I've just lost a big client. Or it looks like my launch has just crashed and burned. And I think, oh, this is terrible. And I think, okay, wait, Sam, nothing bad is happening. Because I have a spiritual belief that says the world is a benevolent place and God is great all the time.

[00:19:14] Okay, nothing bad is happening. If nothing bad is happening, what is happening? Is something heartbreaking happening? Is something hard and challenging happening? Is something that's just not the way I planned it to go happening? So getting a little more precise in my language, what's actually happening?

[00:19:37] And then where's the invitation? Where am I being called forward to grow? To be a better person, a better citizen, a better friend, a better salesperson? Where is. Where am I in this? And how can I bring the fullness of myself? And sometimes where am I being called to be a gentler person, a more fragile person? [00:20:00]

[00:20:00] And that, again, makes this endlessly interesting to me.

[00:20:10] Scott Maderer: And it is, so one of the frames that I've used and talked about on the podcast, and it sounds like you, you fall into that similar space sometimes, where I think a lot of times in our thinking as humans, we try to make things into either or it's either a good thing or a bad thing.

[00:20:29] It's either black or it's white. It's either up or it's down, where I think a lot of times faith comes from recognizing the both and. Yes, this is, this stinks. I didn't enjoy this experience. Something happened that's not fun, but there's probably good in there too, somewhere, or at least beneficial, or, in the long term, there's something else.

[00:20:54] There's more than just bad

[00:20:55] Samantha Bennett: here. If nothing else, it's what's happening. [00:21:00] You got to just deal with it because

[00:21:03] Scott Maderer: You can complain about it or you can recognize it and move on.

[00:21:06] Samantha Bennett: And You can feel like, yeah. You can say, oh it's terrible that I'm in the hospital.

[00:21:10] Oh, it's terrible that this person died. Oh, it's terrible that this failed. It's it may be terrible or it may not be terrible either way. It's what's happening. So you got to show up and be your best self. And yes, find that which is good in it. Find that which is in which it isn't even needful Getting away from the belief that being a good person means having an easy life, or being a faithful person means having an easy life, or terrible things don't happen to you if you just do it right, it's one of my beefs with the personal development community.

[00:21:47] is there's often a little bit of a tinge of if your circumstances aren't what you want them to be, it's because your positive mental attitude is not sufficiently positive, which you get a little bit of blame the victim in there, right? I've been like, I don't [00:22:00] think that's exactly how that works.

[00:22:01] Scott Maderer: And Even there, it's is there some truth to that? Yeah, probably, but it's also not completely true.

[00:22:09] Samantha Bennett: I noticed the pessimists make money too. There's not a hundred percent truth to that statement it's, but we want to make it again, it's that's, and a lot of times what I found in a lot of quote gurus and it is they're sharing the thing that worked for them.

[00:22:29] Scott Maderer: As if it will work for everyone.

[00:22:31] Samantha Bennett: Oh, that's every diet book too, right? I lost weight on this, therefore you should too. And again, is there a segment of the population that would? Probably, but is it everyone? Probably not, that that kind of thing. So let's define. I used a term earlier.

[00:22:49] Scott Maderer: I said productivity instead of time management. That's my own personal pet peeve. I hate the term time management, but when you think about, getting it done, what do you mean by, [00:23:00] by that? What do you mean by helping people be more engaged, more productive, those sorts of things.

[00:23:06] what does That mean to you?

[00:23:09] Samantha Bennett: My.

[00:23:12] favorite thing, to talk about with productivity. And I agree with you. I don't talk about time management either because time management is not about time. It's not about managing time. It's about managing you. But the thing, my, the gong I'm always banging on is, are you moving forward on that, which is important to you?

[00:23:35] Because I noticed that we get everything done for everybody else all day long and the thing that really matters to you that you know would really make a difference in your body, in your house, in your life, in your business, in your faith journey, in your creative journey, somehow stays in a drawer. And we wait, we Oh I wish I had, I need a whole [00:24:00] weekend to clean out the garage.

[00:24:00] I need three months in France to write my novel. that would Be great. But I noticed that weekend and that Villa and NCE isn't showing up so much, . So my question is always, what can you spend 15 minutes on every single day? Because if you spend 15 minutes doing something that matters to you, and again, I don't care if it matters to anybody else, all of a sudden you are lit and a flame.

[00:24:31] You get that little joyful smugness like you do when you go to the gym in the morning and you're like, that's right. I'm awesome. I went to the gym. How are you? A little like a little into yourself. And we just, we love that version of you, the version of you that is constantly stressed out and exhausted and complaining and tired and we don't, that's not fun for us.

[00:24:54] You have no sense of humor. The rest of us have to deal with you like that. That's not joyful for us. [00:25:00] If you spend 15 minutes on what matters to you, now you've got a light in your eyes, you're a little more relaxed, you're a better listener, you're less reactive. It's so good. It's so good.

[00:25:12] And it's so simple. It seems ridiculously simple. But I know, I spend my 15 minutes every morning doing a little prayer and meditation practice and a little bit of journaling. It's nothing fancy, nothing elaborate about it, and when I don't do it, I can watch my life and my business go right off the rails.

[00:25:36] And when I do it, I notice I've got a lot more stamina and a lot more energy and just show up better.

[00:25:45] Scott Maderer: Let's go For another one, because in another area where I think I hear a lot of talk about it, we're back to that guru and all of that is work life balance. Everyone has an opinion about work life [00:26:00] balance and what it is and what it means and how do you achieve it and all these wonderful things that are out there.

[00:26:05] when You hear and think about that term what's your take on it? How do you approach that with folks?

[00:26:15] Samantha Bennett: Yeah. I it's a fraud. They've been lying to you. There's no such thing. Tell us what you really mean. Yeah. There's no such thing. They made it up to make you feel bad. Just don't eat. Reject this idea completely from your mind.

[00:26:33] Because it's not like life is a pie and everything should have a certain piece of the pie. there Are times at work where it's going to really be taking up your brain. And certainly as an actor If I'm in, tech week for a show, there is no work life balance. There is only work and not if I'm in a launch, there's pretty much only work.

[00:26:57] [00:27:00] And what I do think is an interesting question though, is not so much work life balance, like the scales of justice, but work life balance, like going in and out. Am I getting back as much or more than I'm putting in? So is there Balance back and forth? I put a lot into this project. I get a lot out.

[00:27:21] Where are the things where I can put a little bit in and get a lot back? Those are good. We like those. We call that leverage. That's good. When I am with my family. And by getting something back from him, I am I, are we really together? Are we really looking in each other's eyes? Are we really having time together or are we just in the same room?

[00:27:42] So where's the, it's where's the meat? Where's the juice? Where's the stuff that's really valuable to you? And how can you do more of that? That's the question I think is interesting.

[00:27:53] Scott Maderer: So what that process, it [00:28:00] sounds like there's a activity to it or an energy to it, so to speak.

[00:28:06] What, if someone's struggling in that area and maybe they're feeling like, there's a lot of things in my life that I'm putting things into and I'm not getting anything out of it. What are some things that you would say to that person who's feeling that right now?

[00:28:24] Samantha Bennett: Stay connected to the people who love and value you.

[00:28:28] And whom you like and love and trust and respect? Our relationships are everything. Everything comes to us through other people. Pardon me? Everything comes to us through other people. God comes to us through other people. Opportunities come to us, through other people. Money comes to us, through other people, other clients come to us, through other people.

[00:28:47] Maintaining the important relationships in your life. Is I think the number one key to success. And again, if you want to spend 15 minutes a day reaching out to somebody that you haven't talked to in a while, I think that is [00:29:00] an outstanding use of your time. And I get it. I've Had long haul covid for almost 2 years now.

[00:29:08] Which means that my natural energy level has plummeted my ability to do stuff, which was always like that was the big engine that drove the business was that I could just plow through and get stuff done has gone away almost entirely. So I get it like there are definitely times we feel like sometimes showering is that's what I can do today.

[00:29:30] There it is. I'm done. Peace out. So yeah,

[00:29:36] Scott Maderer: then I've done it today. I got out of bed. that's Congratulations.

[00:29:41] Samantha Bennett: You get the gold star. That's it. That's the prize. So really being aware of your own energy levels, and then you have guests to get super strategic. What is it that's really genuinely worth.

[00:29:54] My energy doing this podcast, 100 percent worth my energy to connect with somebody else who has similar views to be [00:30:00] able to talk to other people who, might need to hear what I have to say, totally worth, even if I spend the rest of the day in bed, totally worth it. for Me, this, every decision about where and how I spend my time is strategic, and I recommend that even if you don't have an incurable long term illness.

[00:30:17] I was gonna say, the

[00:30:18] Scott Maderer: truth is, that's true of all of us.

[00:30:21] Samantha Bennett: That's true of all of us. We all have a limited amount of energy. That's right.

[00:30:24] Scott Maderer: you have a Limited amount of energy, you have a limited amount of time, you have a limited amount all resources at some level are Finite no matter what.

[00:30:33] So you, yeah. And

[00:30:34] Samantha Bennett: that's the other, that's the other thing that really drives me. I think about it a lot, honestly, and it sounds, it might sound a little morbid, but yeah, we don't have an unlimited amount of time here in which to do our work. And we don't know how much time we have. I'm always a little obsessed by those news stories of a plane crashing into someone's bedroom or an icicle falling on someone's head.

[00:30:57] I'm like, that person That

[00:30:59] Scott Maderer: could [00:31:00] be me! That could

[00:31:01] Samantha Bennett: be me! They didn't even get a chance to get out of bed that morning. You've got to do the stuff that is on your heart to do. You're the only one who can do it. You're the only one of you we've got, you're the only one that ever will be. So please stop putting off a thing that is really on your heart to do.

[00:31:22] Scott Maderer: So I've got a couple of questions, a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I go there, is there anything else about the work that you do, the book that you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:31:39] Samantha Bennett: Just to know that you're perfectly prepared for whatever it is you would like to do. You don't need to be younger or thinner or older or more attractive or better at social media or have more money in the bank. There's no, there's nothing. There's no future point that in which you will [00:32:00] be better equipped to do what it is you wanna do.

[00:32:04] And most of what you need to know, you will learn in the doing of it. The person you want to become, you will become in the doing of it. So all those excuses that flood your brain and say, it's a really good time. I'm busy. My work really needs me. My kids really need me. No, they don't.

[00:32:21] Certainly not for 15 minutes a day. They don't. So again, whatever it is, that's poking at you start paying attention and do it. Cause we need it. We need your work.

[00:32:36] Scott Maderer: One of the. ways that I look at the world, my brand has inspired stewardship and yet like we were talking about productivity, work life balance, leadership, there's a lot of words that we hear and yet the truth is they mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

[00:32:52] And I found stewardship to be one of those. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to

[00:32:57] Samantha Bennett: you?[00:33:00] it's interesting. I've Been thinking about this a lot since we made our appointment to talk. And I think the main thing for me is that it means. living a life and creating a business that lives out my values in the world.

[00:33:16] So the stated values of my business of therealsambennett. com are creativity, authenticity, kindness, good humor, and then something we call the perfect word, which has to do with being conscientious about our languaging and being exceptionally literate. So when I have a problem in my business or I have anything in my business, my first go to is okay what is the creative, authentic, kind, good humored way to deal with this?

[00:33:54] and Now I've got to come from, right? And now I've got a way to move [00:34:00] forward in a way that feels good to me. So somebody is hurting my feelings, somebody wants a refund, somebody, the flight gets canceled whatever. I get to be a force for the values that I believe in the world. I'm not going to suddenly lose my temper at the flight attendant, partly because I very rarely lose my temper anyway.

[00:34:19] Also because that's not. Aligned with my value system, right? And have, the great thing about having a business is then my business gets to do that even when I'm not there. This, don't tell the other kids this. You guys, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you a secret. Some, I sell some, especially some Evergreen programs.

[00:34:41] stuff that's Just a avail. you buy it and then you Just get access to it and and enjoy it for the, your lifetime. and Every once in a while we get somebody asking for a refund, hardly ever, but every once in a while. And so we always write them back right away and say, absolutely.

[00:34:54] Even if the refund file period has expired, I'm like, of course. If I haven't helped you. I don't want your money, please, [00:35:00] here's your refund. And then I say, and please keep the course as my gift. And then people freak out. They're like, what? Really? That's so nice of you. Oh my gosh, you're so generous. And here's why I do it.

[00:35:11] Partly because I really love a little bit of unexpected generosity. I think that's very nice. It turns somebody who was working up a big head of steam into a raving fan for life. it's Exceptionally kind, right? And. What they don't know is that honestly, it's easier for me and the team not to have to go in and untag them and take away their access and worry about whether or not they're getting this or that or the other thing to just say, you know what keep it.

[00:35:38] It's fine. So it's things like that I get to surprise people. And again, have a business that. Even if I'm not there personally is still being a vehicle for my values.

[00:35:52] Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a minute that I invented this magic machine.

[00:35:59] [00:36:00] And with this machine, I could pluck you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years. But through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life and see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left behind.

[00:36:17] What impact do you hope you've left in the world? I

[00:36:21] Samantha Bennett: have often said, that I think I would like to be on a stamp. Okay. I would like to do enough good in the world that at some point, yes, 200 years from now, someone puts me on a stamp. And then when people get a piece of mail with that stamp, they go, oh yeah, her, oh yeah, she did some good stuff, that was cool.

[00:36:43] That's what I would like to be on a stamp. Okay.

[00:36:46] Scott Maderer: I think that is the first time I've ever gotten that particular answer. I like it. you Just want to be stuck on envelopes.

[00:36:57] Samantha Bennett: I'm hoping that the postal service is still functioning. [00:37:00] And that's true. They

[00:37:01] Scott Maderer: may not exist in 200 years. I don't know.

[00:37:04] Samantha Bennett: and again, can you Imagine there's an army of entrepreneurs. I'm just standing with my arms crossed at the postal service. Really? You have everyone's name and address and a delivery system to their names and addresses and you can't figure out any way to make money off of that? Really? I

[00:37:19] Scott Maderer: think I can help you.

[00:37:20] Happens when they run by. It's run with a different philosophy. Let's just put it that way. Correct. So as we, launch into 2024, what's next on the roadmap for you? What's on the

[00:37:31] Samantha Bennett: agenda? I have a new book coming out in the spring called The 15 Minute Method, the surprisingly simple art of getting it done.

[00:37:39] And it's all about this 15 minute idea and getting out of this word that I hear way too much. Maybe you do too. Overwhelm. Knock it off. You are not overwhelmed. You are not too busy. You are not stressed out. Stop saying it. Stop saying it. Overwhelm is not something the world does to you. It is something you do to you.[00:38:00]

[00:38:00] Drop the story that you're overwhelmed, because chances are you're probably just underwhelmed, you've got too many things on your list that you don't care about, and then, hire somebody else to do that stuff. Yeah. So I've got the book coming out in the spring. We have the Get It Done Lab, which is a 90 day productivity sprint that's been running, for the last year or two and is super fun.

[00:38:23] And we even this last, starting in the summer we put in a daily practicum. So for 15 minutes every day, right now it's at 9am Pacific, noon Eastern. We hop on a Zoom. I say hello. I start the timer for 15 minutes. Everybody puts their head down and does whatever it is they wouldn't normally get to, that's the idea, is do the thing that you wouldn't normally do.

[00:38:47] And then, it's the end of 50 minutes and I say, how'd everybody do? And they're all like, it was amazing! And they look so lit up! It's amazing! People have these big grins on their face, they're like, Oh my god, I cleared that pile of clutter that I thought was gonna take me all day! I reached out to my [00:39:00] friend!

[00:39:00] I played guitar! I sat in the garden! And just looked at the garden. I called my sister. I it's so fun. And so we do that every weekday, which is just a blast.

[00:39:13] Scott Maderer: That does sound good. So you can find out more about Samantha Bennett over at the real Sam Bennett. com. That's Bennett, B E N E T T. com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well.

[00:39:30] So you can find it there. Sam, anything else you'd like to share with the

[00:39:33] Samantha Bennett: listener? Just. Do you remember that your weirdness is your strength? All the things that they told you were too whatever in school, they always said to me that I was too sensitive. Too sensitive. And it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized, no, I'm not too sensitive.

[00:39:56] I'm just sensitive. I might have been too sensitive for my mom. I might [00:40:00] have been too sensitive for the third grade. But I'm not too sensitive for the planet, right? God don't make no junk, you're not a mistake, and whatever it is that you think you are to whatever, that's actually your superpower, lean into it and share it with the rest of us, please.

[00:40:25] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard, and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor, go over to inspired stewardship.

[00:40:49] com slash iTunes rate, all one word, iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and [00:41:00] review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.

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