We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andre Benjamin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Andre , thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.
It’s interesting because creativity blocks and how we perceive them, it’s all internal. I have the perception that over so much time I’ve hindered myself rather than propelled myself forward because I look at creativity as something that I need to feel emotionally. I needed to be in a space of feeling creative, I needed to be inspired, I needed to have someone inspire me, I needed to be motivated, and I needed someone to fan the flame of motivation. I needed someone to unlock me, so to speak, in the mental arena so that I’d be able to create freely and in particular with writing yet in reality what I found is that inspiration, motivation comes from within mindset is either going to hinder or it’s going to propel you, right?
My outlook determines the outcomes my worldview determines my own sense of worthiness and worth and if I have a low energy around what it is that I have to offer then I’m not going to produce. So what did I find? I found out that I got to give back to the source. Whenever I come against an obstacle in writing, then I’m inspired by remembering what was accomplished before and then looking forward to the future for myself personally. What I do is I get it back to the source.
I get back to the source material I go as a songwriter I go look at the greatest songwriter to ever exist in human history and that is a man named King David and King David has songs that have been covered by so many different cultures, ethnicities, translated into so many different versions, produced, so many people borrow from his songs, his words, and this is literally the best selling songwriter of all time, right?
These songs, these phrases, these things that he’s put that have gone global. I mean talk about viral before viral. You’ve got thousands of years of people publishing these songs and republishing them and then people taking credit for them as if they came up with them, so I’m going to do that. I look at that language. I look at the way that he is so expressive from the heart.
I look at how he’s transparent about his own foibles and mistakes and flaws as well as his dreams, desires, and aspirations. His heart is towards the Creator and his belief that the Creator is working on his behalf. And even his frustrations when he doesn’t understand anything. It’s like, hey, this man’s laying himself bare.
Completely bare and I can relate to that. I can relate to the challenges that come in my life of not knowing everything. Right? As a human being, that can be frustrating. Yet, I do know that I love to create. I know that I love the feeling of the process. I love the feeling of coming up with the idea for the song.
I love the feeling of, uh, starting to not know where I’m going. I know the feeling of sitting with the producer and saying, Hey, I want you to compose it this way. This is what I want. This is what’s inspiring me currently. This is what I was thinking when I, I love, I love talking, I love hearing melodies that come from a realm that is not my realm.
I know that they come from heavenliness. And I know that the King has given me something that I want to release to share with others. And then lastly, of course, you know, it’s a, it’s like the icing on the cake. Others tell you how it’s affected them, It’s like, Oh my gosh, it helped me through a hard time.
You know, I really listened to this when I needed to go forward in my life. I really need when I, when I, when I need some encouragement, When I need a booster in my faith to really believe in, in my Creator and to believe in who he’s made me to be, I want every single person to no longer say that I have writer’s block.
That’s a lie because you don’t have speaker’s block. And you don’t have a thought block. Your thoughts are always going. “It’s just about being in touch and being courageous enough to continually write what we express, speak out what we express, write it. If you, if you feel that your pen is, your pen game is slowed up, then get dictation software and begin to speak out.
And speak about what it is that is on your mind and add value to others, Bring value, solve problems, bring encouragement, bring life, and bring the life culture in. In a culture that is filled with so much dreariness, weariness, doubt, unbelief, fear, uncertainty, Evil, and what about people sparking people for innovation and encouragement and transformation of that?
Man, you don’t have to be. What you have, you know, you’re not your environment if you came from an environment that was tattered and torn as many have, you can be the redemptive element in that you can change that you can literally be spurred on by the Creator to be the first bridge maker, the pioneer in your family to go further and faster and bring the rest of the family up to first be the person to secure your own air mask and go through the transformative power of the King of Kings being within you.
So how do I get past writer’s block? How do I get past the creativity block? I’ll just do it. I read about other songwriters as well. I read from different genres. I listen to, I watch biographies. I watch interviews, and I love the best interviewers. This helps me to become a better songwriter, helps me to become a better interviewer, and this is the same when it comes to writing books.
I go back to the last thing that inspired me because there were some ideas that hadn’t yet been given birth to, and that always gets me moving. That gets the pen moving, that gets the keypad moving, that gets things, you know going at an accelerated pace. I hope this is very encouraging. And that you can take these words and that you can look at your own life and do an inventory of what you have in your house and you can begin to compose if you’re you know, musician, you can begin to you know, first off, pause and reflect and be like, all right, I’m really thankful for the opportunity to be able to create and I want to create beauty.
I want to create beauty. I want to release beauty. I want to make beauty because there’s beauty around us. But now let’s export something that will uplift others and will transform people to not be into these limited scarcity based, fear driven mindsets. But what about faith and love and hope and encouragement, right, that people can see a higher quality of life, a more excellent way through that which you are creating.
Be inspired. Go forth and create. Shalom.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an author and I create training and publish materials for leaders that want to expand in their leadership ability so, everything from parents, to teachers, to leaders of families, husbands, and wives, legacy.
We have books on leadership for those in education and students. We’ve got stuff for children to be activated in their own personal leadership. We have materials and resources to help people level up.
My ultimate goal is for people to bring in the ultimate investor. The maximum ROI so I believe our Creator is our greatest investor and I believe that everything that that Creator has deposited within us we are to bring him back the ultimate return on investments which means that we optimize our talents, our gifts, and our abilities and I would love to do that I through publishing of books through online courses and through content that we put online.
Through group coaching, through speaking, seminars, workshops, zoom based in person. That’s where we’re at. I love that and then of course I love to put out music a ton of music, a lot of music, we don’t stop in the music department because music is a great way to bypass all of the differences and this goes straight to the heart and you know, either you feel music or you don’t so music is a great tool and we’re excited about that.
You can find all of this, of course at ceoofdestiny.com
ceoofdestiny.com is the portal that opens up to everything else.
Follow us on all things social and add us on different handles. You can find us @ceoofdestiny at most handles and you will be thoroughly acquainted with our work.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The ability to speak, writes, communicate, and express my unique point of view.
What advice do I have for folks who are early in their journey? So, like I said reading, writing, and speaking.
Reading is essential to develop a depth of knowledge and to continue to expand your worldview. Reading is essential. It’s a human gift or skill set that’s developed that helps you realize how human you are and the ability to grasp concepts, to critically think and, to engage with ideas.
This is how we grow and expand. And then to be able to write your thoughts out and then to be able to communicate them to others is powerful.
What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop and improve on these? Well, reading, start with reading things that you’re interested in.
Do not allow the broken school systems of our planet to convince you that all reading must be compulsory and boring. Find the things you’re interested in at first to be the spark plug to get you to read other things then challenge yourself It’s like don’t just eat candy and junk food go and eat the good healthy things go and get that, you know your asparagus or your broccoli or your you know spinach or your green beans, whatever it is that, and then go into the meat.
Then you go get your favorite lamb, or whatever it is you like to eat. So, take the levels of reading and start with our article a blog post then go out and read a you know go look at magazines go through the magazine section I like those because they frequently update them but go to the magazine section if you’re tactile look at those and then flip through Magazines that you wouldn’t necessarily go to and see what things catch your attention.
Read those articles and then you know go to the longer form You might read a newspaper article, or if, do people still read newspapers?
You might go to a blog post and read a blog post, or some people might have a, uh, a tweet, or a X Storm, where they continue to just have different, uh, streams of consciousness that they do. Then go read a book about people and subjects that interest you or if it’s nonfiction or if it’s fiction, but just start to develop by I like Autobiographies for myself.
I look at people who have achieved that in that area and then I build from that because I take the principles that they have and I take those ideas and I process my own ideas and then I take them and I activate them in my own life so reading is super important. Communicating get past the jitters and taking all the butterflies in your stomach and learning how to stand before people and speak out your ideas and to be able to persuade effectively and then learn how to write.
Learn how to write in a manner in which you’re able to express your thoughts coherently. These are skill sets, so just do it. If you want to know how to do it, just do it. If you need to draw it out, you’re more of an artist, draw it out in comic books, and draw it out in infographic forms. This is what I added there.
I once knew a young lady that was in a group that we ran, and as we were training in this group, every time we’d finish speaking, she would create these infographics, and that was her gift. The infographics were phenomenal. It was just the way she thought to remember for herself. She wasn’t even making infographics that she was going to give to others.
They were for her personal notes, how she visually saw things. So you don’t know what your gift is until you activate it. The only thing to it, is to do it. That’s what my suggestion is. Just do it. And that isn’t a plug for some brands to activate, take action now and execute.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I think those that are already executing in the area, especially when it comes to development of content and the content that is uplifting their community content, is strengthening people’s ability to be effective and to be contributing citizens to their area of life. I want to see people raised in leadership, and I believe that character and integrity is core to which people are.
And so I come out of a kingdom-based framework that I go from scripture, and I, launch off from that into how I see the world. So I want to see the world beautified. So people who desire to see a beautiful future and they don’t see the future as dystopian and scarcity based, but they see that there’s opportunity for us to collaborate interdependently and that there’s abundance available for everyone.
Especially in their areas of influence, not to say that its life is a crystal stare and there’s no problem, but that’s the content we’re making this content that shows people what ought to be, not just what is. So if you are, that resonates with you, you’re a writer that resonates with you and you are a videographer and you’re an editor, um, and you know how to, uh, do these things, if that resonates with you and you understand Sync licensing and how to get things placed with brands and ads, this is your team if you if you love your Creator, you love God, you love your family, and you love people and want to serve people with your gift, talent, and ability come align with us.
Find us at ceoofdestiny.com
@ceoofdestiny find us everywhere and links us up.
Let’s link shields and let’s see the world be beautified Shalom.
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