Gary Greenberg shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Gary, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I start almost every day by doing some maintenance on the temple of my body. I pretty much rise with the sun, drag myself out of bed, pull on a pair of shorts and t-shirt, and go on a 5- to 10-mile bike ride on different routes that take me through the still-quiet streets of Boca Raton, Florida, and along a nature trail or the beach. It’s not always easy to get going, but once I do, it feels great to get my blood flowing, feel the sun on my face and wake up with the world. After getting home, I spend about 30 minutes stretching out and doing some light calisthenics, including deep knee bends, pushups and planks. I try to involve pretty much every part of my body, feeling the tightness in muscles and sinew ease. I even massage my scalp, roll my eyeballs and tap chakra points, and use a foam roller to ease some sore points in my back, which has been bearing the weight of my world for 71 years now. I finish with some breathing exercises, designed to increase CO2 blood saturation, which actually helps boost oxygen absorption. Then I have a cup of coffee and read the morning newspaper sitting on a terrace outside our front door as our dog Roxanne stalks squirrels and chases lizards in the yard. It’s a nice way to start the day, and I feel as though by 9 a.m. I’ve already accomplished perhaps my most important daily task, that is doing something good for my body.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’ve been writing professionally for more than 40 years, primarily as a journalist covering everything from sports to local government to crime to holistic health. For more than a decade, I was a staff writer and editor for the National Enquirer and it’s related supermarket tabloids. I now own and operate SuperWriter, Inc., a freelance writing and editing service. Along with thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, I’ve published three books: the metaphysical crime thriller Dead Man’s Tale, the transformative health guide The Beer Diet: How to Drink Beer and NOT Gain Weight, and another health-related book called The Chelation Revolution. I also co-authored with a prison inmate the true crime saga Sex and the Serial Killer: My Bizarre Times with Robert Durst. Yet-to-be published work includes Read Aloud Tales, a collection of children’s stories; Mortality Tales, a collection of literary short stories; and Work: A Memoir, which recounts my unusually varied vocational journey, including jobs as as a roofer, factory worker, waiter, door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, ballpark beer vendor, apartment house manager, show horse groom, movie extra, migrant worker, college professor, tree trimmer, weight training instructor, performance artist, drawbridge operator, video producer and import/export business manager.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
Basically nothing. All of my core beliefs as a child remain pretty much the same. In most ways, I remain that same child, a little on the shy and runty side but bold in pursuit of sports and other physical challenges; in awe of all things natural; game for adventure; terrible at planning but good at adapting; a bit of a know-it-all and wiseass; soft-spoken; funny; good reader and writer; underachiever; fairly good-looking; happy…and despite being a journalist, a profession in which cynicism is part of the job, I still have my child self’s trustfulness, sometimes to a fault. I’ve learned a lot but somehow still need to keep learning many of the same lessons. I used to worry more as a kid, and adult, until hitting my 70s and now worry less, maybe because I have less time left to screw up.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I’ve led a pretty charmed life by most standards, raised in a loving home, financially secure for the most part, no major tragedies. Still, life is hard and we all get wounded in some way. Ironically, the worst physical wound I experienced made me stronger. When I was 14 years old, I got hit by a car and broke my femur. I spent 10 weeks in traction in a hospital, unable to get out of bed for anything. That was followed by six weeks more of immobility in a body cast, six more weeks in a hip-to-foot walking cast and many months of self-administered rehab. It all instilled in me a sense of resolve, and a determination to heal through hard work. I also felt a strong sense of gratitude, as some of my hospital roommates were hemophiliacs who would never get better and likely die young. I realized I was the lucky one.
My biggest emotional wound was heartache after being dumped by a longtime girlfriend when I was in my mid-20s. It led to many joyless months and left a scar that made it very difficult for me to love in the same way for years, if not decades. Eventually, I did learn to love again with another wonderful woman, Nora, who’s now been my wife for 30 years.
Professionally, I’ve been incessantly wounded by rejection. I could paper my office walls with rejection letters (or now printouts of email) from editors, agents and publishers for books and other projects. I’ve managed to make a living writing, but not on my own terms. That continues to be frustrating, but I keep trying, keep creating, and keep believing that I have something of value to share with a broader audience.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
I’m on the introverted side and not very emotive. I shield my feelings from others, so I probably seem a bit more aloof than how I really feel. People tend to see me as a relatively cool guy, an image I promote. But that coolness demands a keeping a certain distance that inhibits my ability to connect with others on more emotional, visceral levels. So my public and private personas are not much different. That said, I can also be a very outgoing, warm, bundle of huggable energy at times, depending on the people around me and situation. When I taught freshman comp at Florida International University, I loved “performing” in front of the class, sharing my love, and knowledge, of the writing craft. I rarely had a specific lesson plan beyond a topic to cover for the day and spoke off the top of my head for the better part of an hour, striving to connect with the students on their level. And following the publication of my book The Beer Diet: How to Drink Beer and NOT Gain Weight, I created a persona I dubbed The Beer Diet Guy to promote the book/brand through YouTube videos and personal appearances at breweries. The Beer Diet Guy is very open and outgoing (more so with every beer he drinks) and is more like the person I want to be but am not most of the time. Yet he’s still me. So it’s kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Beer Diet Guy situation for me.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. When do you feel most at peace?
Feeling at peace is kind of my default state of mind. I feel at peace when I am immersed in my writing, or cuddling with my wife in bed, or taking my dog for a walk, or playing touch rugby on the beach with my pals, or anytime I am in a natural setting (without mosquitos), or even when driving my car and daydreaming. Perhaps it is most evident after a day of work, when I pour myself a fine ale and sip it while sitting on a terrace in front of my house where I also have my morning coffee. We have a lot of life in our yard, both flora and fauna. Birds chirp, windchimes peal, butterflies flitter around flowering plants, and the setting sun brings a golden glow to everything. Squirrels skitter through the trees, at times daringly jumping several feet from the live oak to the sea grape. Occasionally, one will tease my dog Roxanne, sitting or even dangling, from a branch just out of her reach. A variety of lizards dart about, something else for Roxanne to chase without catching. Neighbors stroll by, walking dogs, kids or just themselves, and wave or stop for a short chat. I sip my beer as slowly as I can, the alcohol gradually ushering me into an even more blissful state of mind. It really doesn’t get more peaceful than that!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://the-beer-diet.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeerdietguy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-greenberg-91258b3/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gary.greenberg.7
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgtSDBbSuVvq2p7QTdleN7Q
- Other: https://cosmiccafe.com/
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