Meet Gary Bennett

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gary Bennett. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gary below.

Hi Gary, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

My dad ran his own business for a while when I was young, and I think that entrepreneurial spirit rubbed off on me. From an early age I had always wanted to run my own business and be like my dad. As I grew older that spirit continued, and when I enrolled in college I chose to get a minor in Business Administration in addition to my primary degree (Electrical Engineering), expecting that would help further my goal of running my own business. After college, working through my various jobs, I found that I was pretty good and every task thrown my way I handled readily. As my responsibilities grew and the work became more demanding, I rose to each challenge. That successful track record led me to eventually quit my job and start my own engineering firm, knowing that I not only had the technical know-how but I had the ability to take on any challenge that came my way. After 12 years of working in the industry and then 14 years of running my own successful engineering firm I came to a point in my life where I wanted something different. I was an avid audiobook listener for years and when I realized that this was a job that people did for a living (it never really occurred to me previously) I investigated this career more and quickly knew, without a doubt in my mind, that I could do it! I knew that I had a lot (a LOT) to learn, and I knew that I was starting at the very bottom, but I never had any doubt that this was something I could do and become good at. That confidence and self-esteem was developed over the many years I spent taking risks and facing unknown challenges and overcoming them, over and over again. This new career path for me was just another challenge to be faced. And once I got into it more, this new career became my dream job!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a full-time professional audiobook narrator and voice actor. I’ve been working in the industry for almost 8 years and I absolutely love my job! I fell into this career almost by accident (although I don’t really believe in accidents like that), and I quickly realized two things: 1) I relished immersing myself in the story and bringing it to life using my voice, and 2) I needed lots and lots of training if I was going to pursue this work as a career. And so that’s what I did.

I got connected through industry Facebook groups, I relentlessly pursued coaches and mentors and workshops and retreats to hone my craft, and I put myself out there connecting to industry leaders and influencers and networking with fellow narrators, authors, and publishers. When I realized that this career was my end-game career, that I’d finally found what I wanted to do when I grew up, I embraced each new challenge and strove to become the best version of myself through this new endeavor! And when I did so, I found so many likeminded colleagues and such a close-knit, welcoming and generous community of fellow actors, and I knew I was home.

As of this writing, I’ve performed in a handful of voice-over projects and narrated over 225 audiobooks, and it’s in those audiobook performances that I’ve really found my stride. I’ve been so honored to bring each and every one of those stories to life and I’ve found joy in every title! I especially enjoy mysteries, thrillers, fantasies, and science fiction stories, as those were the tales that I grew up reading and that even now I gravitate to when I read for pleasure. (And yes, I am still a voracious reader and love reading for pleasure, but most, if not all, of my pleasure reading these days comes through my ears, rather than my eyes, in the form of audiobooks–who would’ve guessed?!)

I think the best part of my job is that I get to embody each and every character in a book. I breathe life into them as, I hope, the author intended, through their voices, their various accents (which I adore performing), their attitudes, their emotions, and their wants and desires, and I make them real for the listener. It truly is, in my very humble opinion, the best job in the world!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Only three? In that case, I’d have to narrow it down to 1) belief in yourself/self-confidence, 2) perseverance, and 3) a sense of independence.

I truly believe that anyone can develop these skills, and I also believe that they’re all interconnected–that to develop any one of these skills, you would need to develop all of these skills.

As I talked about earlier, I credit a lot of my success to my self confidence–something that I developed over time and having an innate belief in myself and my ability to do whatever it was that I set my mind to. Throughout my formative years and then continuously into my careers, I intentionally sought out situations where I did not necessarily feel comfortable, situations in which I didn’t have commensurate experience that would normally give someone in my position more confidence. I did things that others around me weren’t doing, going out on those limbs on the daily, blazing my own trail and leaning on my sense of independence. At first, those experiences were especially daunting, but the more I did this–and the more I eventually succeeded in each of those circumstances–the more my confidence and self-assurance grew.

I truly believe that the only way to grow–in your particular skillsets, in your career, in your life–is to continuously test yourself, to push the boundaries of what you thought you could do, to always strive to do better, whatever it is you’re tackling. A quote and mindset, often attributed to Jillian Michaels, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, and others, has become a personal goal and mantra for me: get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

So that’s my advice to everyone, no matter where they are on their journey, no matter what they’re attempting to do: strive to do better than you did yesterday, push yourself and expand your boundaries and your capabilities, keep trying and doing no matter what anyone else may be doing, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

This is an easy one for me. Absolutely, unequivocally, I believe it’s better to be well rounded in as many areas as you can, rather than focusing all your efforts into your strengths. Don’t get me wrong, I think you should maintain focus on the thing or things that sustain your soul and that you really want to excel at, but you can’t do so at the expense of expanding your horizons and broadening your knowledge and skills.

As a voice actor and audiobook narrator, it’s my job to not only convey the intents and truths of the authors whose words I’m entrusted with, but in the process to also call upon my own emotions and experiences as a human being to give those words life and a sense of realness and humanity. The more experiences I have in my own life, the better I’m able to infuse richness and believability into a story and it’s characters.

And beyond the influence this mindset has on my career, I believe that knowing as much as you can about as many subjects as you can just makes you more human. This allows you to speak with more people on a greater variety of topics, which then continues the process of learning. As with my goal to keep pushing myself and my boundaries, another factor in growing as a person is to continue learning, and learning about as many subjects as I can; in short, to becoming a better version of me and a better human being.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Jason J Kim Photography (outdoor headshots only)

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