We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eric Benson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Eric, thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?
Like most people I was initially overwhelmed with a sense of failure. I was afraid of what the future would hold, and how I would support myself and my children. After I lost my job, I took some time to just rest and heal. With the free time that I had, I decided to take the time to fix a few electronic devices that I had put off repairing. It occurred to me that I could possibly make some money preparing electronics. So I took the electronic devices that I had repaired, and listed them on Ebay just to see what would happen. Surprisingly, a few of them sold! I began buying damaged electronic, repairing them and reselling them. Overall I didn’t generate a significant amount of income, but it was very first time that I realized that I could make money for myself outside of a 9-5. Eventually, I began to learn all kinds of different things, exploring what skills I could capitalize on in order to generate some income.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
At Erben Creations, I make personalized engravings. Primarily wood engraved portraits and personalized light displays. I’ve also made plaques and various other home decor items. Wood engraved photos make excellent gifts, as most people have never seen them before, and they are usually blown away by how cool they are when they receive one.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
3 crucial qualities are patience, the willingness to learn, and confidence. Patience will be needed because in any new endeavor, you will experience growing pains as you find your way and learn what works best for you. The willingness to learn will enable you to hone your craft and perfect what you are working on. Confidence is important because it’s easy to be fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other people who have more experience and are more established in your field.
My advice to folks who are just starting their journey is to learn from those who are very good at what you’re trying to do. Find other people with similar goals and you can learn from each other. On social media there are countless groups or forums dedicated to just about every craft, business endeavor, and hobby that you could ever think of. Those are places where you can exponentially increase your knowledge and find people to network with. Don’t expect to become a master overnight, and don’t expect the learning process to be easy. It will be exciting at times, but could also frustrating. Just keep moving forward no matter what, and one day you will look at your journey and appreciate just how much you have grown throughout the process.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?Initially I believe it is important to focus on your strengths. When you’re first starting out you want to focus on what you do best, as that will help you to develop your brand. However you must be aware of what your weaknesses are, so that you can improve on them as you go. It’s better to be excellent at a few things, than it is to be mediocre at many things! And for the areas that you need help in, that’s what partnerships and collaborations are for!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erbencreations/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErbenCreations
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJxbImW5ovzTDPyCrWwWuxA
