James Walters Turns Creativity into Survival

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County Living Presents, Conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Rich Bennett 0:28
There are moments in life that split everything into a before and an after. Sometimes it's loss, sometimes it's burnout, sometimes it's just a quiet realization that the version of you that got here isn't the one that can carry you forward. My guest today believes creativity isn't just about making art, it's about rebuilding yourself. James Walters is a photographer, writer, and the podcast host of a Joyful Rebellion, a platform centered on living intentionally and choosing meaning over autopilot. Through his photography and writing, James explores resilience, identity, and the courage it takes to rewrite your story when life forces a transition you didn't ask for. He doesn't just talk about creativity as a hobby or a side hustle, he talks about it as survival, as healing, as a way to rediscover purpose when everything feels uncertain. And today, we're diving into what it really means to use creativity as a tool for resilience, not just in art or business, but in the middle of real life. First of all James, welcome to the show, man, how's it going? 

James Walters 1:49
Rich, thanks so much for having me, it is going well. I am in a part of my life where I'm weighing over my head and having a good time. 

Rich Bennett 2:00
I got to admit, that's a first 

James Walters 2:03
because 

Rich Bennett 2:04
people say they're in way over their head, they don't say they're having a good time, they're stressed out. 

James Walters 2:10
I'm a little stressed out, but man, it's good stress because it's like that productive stress. It's taking me a long time to figure out that that's a productive thing and it's a good thing. But man, it's got a ton of projects going but it's not like I'm put life on pause to get them done. In a past version on myself, what I probably would have, I probably would have just focused really hard and let everything fall apart. Now I'm trying to keep all this stuff in the air and also part of the creativity is just figuring out how to do it. I'm having a blast and I'm really honest with people at this point, I'm like, hey I'm sorry if I forgot your birthday but I'm going 4 million miles an hour but happy birthday belated. We'll circle back up, have a beer or something and call it good. 

Rich Bennett 3:10
There's something you said there and I think a lot of people, a lot of people are probably just sitting back saying women, what good stress, what in the hell is he talking about? But I think when you're busy and I'm the same way, I'm going to work a haulic. I get up anywhere between 4 and 5, put on the coffee, come downstairs, start working, and a lot of times I'm not finished till 8 or 9 at night. But what I'm doing, and especially what we're doing here, the podcast and part which you also do, it is it's a good stress and I don't think a lot of people understand so if you can break that down and explain the difference between, I guess you could say good stress and bad stress. 

James Walters 3:51
You know bad stress is I've come to understand for me and I think it's a little different for everyone is when it is repetitive but it's not really helping you outgrow who you used to be. When it really keeps you who you used to be, that's what I've found for me to be that damaging stress where you're just living the same day, you're living the same year, over and over, and you can't quite figure out how to make things better. And so that kind of stress or if you if you can't figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be, let's say, you know something crazy comes up and life happens all the time, you know. 

Uh, so that was stressful, but I was like, you know what? And also, I'll just pause here and say, There's something about being a certain age. Like, when you hit over, I don't know if you had this when, when you hit over 50? And you're like, Dude, nothing's killed me yet. And I figured everything out so far. 

And eventually something's gonna get me, but up to this point, I figured it all out. So 

Rich Bennett 5:20
Yeah. 

James Walters 5:20
whatever comes my way, I'm gonna figure it out. And that's kind of a reassuring thing in it. 

Maybe I haven't gotten more reckless because of it, but I have gotten more confident 

Rich Bennett 5:32
Yeah. 

James Walters 5:32
because of that. So, yeah, that's that stress, but when it comes to good stress, it's like that stress of like, oh man, I've got a podcast episode I need to get out and there are people depending on me to do this. And as you know Rich, we make billions of dollars a year on this podcast thing. 

Rich Bennett 5:49
(laughing)

James Walters 5:50
We are throwing money everywhere, right? No. Anyone listening, that's not the case. We do it because it's a passion project. 

Rich Bennett 5:59
Yeah. 

James Walters 5:59
And I mean a lot of us, like some people maybe know. But for me, I've got people that I wanna talk to. I've got people whose stories I wanna tell them. When you have that purpose, when you have that reason. And when I was in my 30s and even in my 40s, I heard people talking about purpose. And I was like, oh cool, that's like that poster you would see on the office, whereas like teamwork. And I was like, okay, purpose. But there is a point where you start working at something and it's not easy, but it's worth it to keep going. 

Rich Bennett 6:31
Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

James Walters 6:31
And that's that good stress I'm talking about. That's that motivating productive stress. 

Rich Bennett 6:38
And it doesn't make you sick. 

James Walters 6:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:40
That's 

James Walters 6:40
Well, 

Rich Bennett 6:41
one. 

James Walters 6:41
that's another good point, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:43
Yeah. Cause that's one of the things, I mean, granted, I was, well, in the Marine Corps and I did sales. I mean, yeah, I was under stress a lot. But I think there's a lot of times where yeah, it would just make you sick. And you would have the panic attacks. And now, to me, you're right. I think the most stressful thing I worry about right now is you're getting the podcast episode done in time. 

James Walters 7:13
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 7:14
And it's, people, people that are listening may not understand And a lot of other broadcasters may not understand it. Some of us make money from it, not, not everybody does, and I've said this time and time again, the biggest reward is when a listener contacts you and thanks you for an episode that they heard. And that's when you know you are making a difference. And we live for that stuff. 

James Walters 7:43
Yeah, that's huge. 

Rich Bennett 7:45
Yeah, I mean, it just, it makes a huge difference. And it, oh my god, podcasting and that could be a whole new conversation. We'll have to get back into that. But actually, I want to, I want to hit on something else too, because, you know, you talk about creativity not just as an arp, but as survival. So I want to talk about that story. When did creativity shift from something you enjoyed to something you needed? 

James Walters 8:19
Yeah, man, that was, I'd say that was probably about close to 12, 15 years ago now, because I was at that part and everyone gets to this part in your life where the people you grew up around, the people you maybe grew up with, they start dying off. 

Rich Bennett 8:38
Yeah. 

James Walters 8:38
And so we're talking parents, we're talking grandparents. And I had some siblings who had some pretty unhealthy habits, and they ended up dying 

Rich Bennett 8:50
well. 

James Walters 8:50
off as 

Rich Bennett 8:51
Yeah. 

James Walters 8:51
So, 

that was at that period in my life where it just seemed like one thing after another. 

Rich Bennett 8:59
mm-hmm, 

James Walters 8:59
And the way I dealt with it is I kind of went into what I called now robot mode. I was just, okay, let's get it done. We don't have to think about the repercussions later. I don't have to think about myself. It was taking that stress, and it was just forging ahead and ignoring the stress, and some of the ways I dealt with that, I dealt with it responsibly, as far as the external stuff, I got the funerals done, I got the people, you know, the estate settled. I got all of that stuff done. And then after that I found in the aftermath, I had ignored most of my, you know, immediate family, my spouse, my kids, that kind of stuff, just to be able to make it through those couple of years. Oh, and those were also the years the economy was crashing down, and I had my own business, and we were dealing with all of that stuff too. So, yeah, it was double triple hit, all these things. So at the end of all of that, I look around, there's not much around, like my, my marriage was estranged, I wasn't showing up right for all that. So when it kind of like that saying, if you ignore your health, it'll go away. Same thing with relationships, if you ignore it, they'll go away too. 

Rich Bennett 10:20
Yeah. 

James Walters 10:20
So I was at that point, and I also with my spouse, we own the business together, we were like a husband and wife team. I lost a relationship, and I also lost that identity in my business. So when I talk about identity, I had a lot of stuff wrapped up in, oh yeah, we are this, we do this. And that wasn't the case anymore, I had to look around like, who the hell am I now? Because I've been this thing for a couple of decades, and that's what we've been writing. I thought we were going to be a couple of decades on. So now, a lot of my support system has gone, you know, family wise, a lot of the things that I knew to be true, we're also gone, and I had to figure out how to, I wasn't necessarily restarting, still had the business was still running the business, but now had to figure out, okay, how, how am I going to show up in the world now? 

Rich Bennett 11:23
You always have to like a rebranding. 

James Walters 11:25
It was totally reinvention, and I've always been in a creative business. I've been a photographer for 30 some years. And the thing I had to really start focusing on was myself, how do I take the creativity that I've used for other people to tell their story? How do I rebuild myself and tell myself my own story, or even create my own story now that everything I thought was true is falling apart? 

Rich Bennett 11:54
Wow, 

James Walters 11:56
so that's when I started writing, that's when I started doing a lot more, I'd never really done photography for myself. Because I was always doing it for other people. It's what I got paid to do, so whereas some people I talk to, they're like, I love photography as a self-expression thing. I was like, no, since I was at a high school, I went to college for it, I learned how to do this for a job. It was not a therapeutic thing, it was going to work. 

Rich Bennett 12:23
What kind of photography were you doing? 

James Walters 12:25
At that time I was, so I spent the first year, 10 years of my career doing commercial, like advertising, I was shooting anything from one day I might be shooting hardware for hardware store. The next day I might be shooting bras for a catalog that was selling that kind of stuff. The next day I might be shooting race car drivers, and it was one of those deals where I worked in a huge studio and whatever came in the door, we were photographing. And I got bored with that after about 10 years. 

Rich Bennett 12:59
I couldn't understand why. 

James Walters 13:00
Yeah. So after about 10 years I was like, I need another challenge. And so I went into the world of photographing weddings, which I never thought I would do, but it's a much less predictable subject. And people can show up in whatever state people are in, all sorts of emotional states but we still have to get the picture. And that gave me that adrenaline rush that I needed for the next 10 years of doing that. And that's what I was doing in the middle of this period. I was showing up at the wherever people see in their vows, you know, my life's kind of in disarray and shambles relationally, but I'm going to see these people, you know, like, orging into it, and keeping it all together that way. That's what I was doing. And I had to really shift focus from all the external storytelling and get into, okay, what's my story going to be now? 

Rich Bennett 13:59
And 

James Walters 14:01
when I when I did that, I started writing more than taking pictures for myself. I did that a little bit later, but I started writing. 

Rich Bennett 14:11
Now, when you say writing, you mean journaling or like writing a book. 

James Walters 14:16
I did write a book that was more of a memoir of my life as a wedding photographer, 

Rich Bennett 14:20
Okay. 

James Walters 14:20
but it did help me think about, okay, what, what things do I find interesting about this, these people, their stories, and also that came out of every time I met someone new, and they found out I was a wedding photographer, they would say, oh my gosh, you must see some crazy stuff. 

after a while, you know, if you're living like a fish doesn't know it's in water, right? So, 

Rich Bennett 14:46
And, 

James Walters 14:47
if you're living in that every single week, you don't really realize, like, how crazy stuff is until you just casually drop a thing, you probably know this about being in the military, 

Rich Bennett 14:57
you'll, 

James Walters 14:57
you'll, 

Rich Bennett 14:57
oh, I know it from the weddings, I was a wedding DJ for a 

James Walters 15:00
long 

Rich Bennett 15:01
time. 

James Walters 15:01
Okay, I got you. So, you've seen some stuff in, 

Rich Bennett 15:04
oh yeah, 

James Walters 15:05
For you, it's like, oh, it's just another Saturday, but for people you're telling these stories who are like, I can't even imagine, and you're like, oh, really? Oh, well, this is kind of normal when you get people in, I always saw weddings were interesting, I mean, it is, it's a theatrical production, right? 

Rich Bennett 15:21
yes. 

James Walters 15:21
You've 

Rich Bennett 15:21
Mm-hmm. 

James Walters 15:21
got a specific wardrobe with you, you've got the soundtrack, you've got the actors are on stage and the audience is in the audience and there's a backstage where only like me is sorry, forget to go and see. And the biggest thing, there's a script, you know, but the biggest thing is, it's all, it's all populated and acted out by amateurs who practiced it one time the day before. 

Rich Bennett 15:48
Yes! 

James Walters 15:49
And they expected to go flawlessly and sometimes it does, but usually they're the little hiccups a long way. So that was the first book, in writing that, that did get me to what you mentioned was journaling. 

Rich Bennett 16:03
Okay. 

James Walters 16:04
And finally I came around to journaling, I started writing in a journal, I found this book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, it's been out a long time and her thing was just write one page every morning and just do a brain dome. It doesn't matter what it's about, it doesn't have to be gratitude. I tried the gratitude, journal thing, it felt a little contripe for me. 

Rich Bennett 16:25
Yeah! 

James Walters 16:26
It was like I'm happy for the... But when I did a brain dome of like, "Hey, this went well yesterday, this is what I'm doing today, these are things I'm frustrated about, just whatever was on my mind in the morning with my cup of coffee, I could you get up, go to work and my mind was kind of clear at that point." But then one day I made the mistake and also had the revelation of having a few extra minutes and I went back and I look like, "Hey, I wonder what I'm doing a year ago today?" So I flipped back in the journal to that same date. And what I saw did not make me happy, I looked at the page. And when I saw what I had written on the page, I was talking about some of the same complaints that I was talking about on that very day. I 

Rich Bennett 17:14
right 

James Walters 17:15
was talking about 365 days ago. At that time I was in karate, I made a promise to myself because when I was a kid I was like 8 years old, I was in karate, I had to stop karate. And I made a promise to myself, "Okay, when I get around to it, I will that black belt." So I was in my 40s when I got around to it but I did get around to it 

Rich Bennett 17:41
get 

James Walters 17:41
and it took me a little longer. So when I went back to that year ago, I was like, "Yeah, I'm in the home stretch on getting my black belt," which should have taken like 4 months, but now we're talking where a year later. And I had just written, "Yeah, I'm really close to having that black belt get in the test for the black belt." And it just made me realize I was on hamster, we were living the same day, living the same year over and over and it just hit me upside the head like baseball, bat, frying pan, whatever you want to say. It was just like, whoa, things have to 

Rich Bennett 18:19
Something's 

James Walters 18:19
change. 

Rich Bennett 18:19
got to change, 

James Walters 18:20
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:21
Wow. 

James Walters 18:23
So that was a start for me. 

Rich Bennett 18:25
That's amazing because everything you just said there reminded me of me. 

James Walters 18:32
Yeah. A 

Rich Bennett 18:33
lot. You know, with the wedding's karate, I took as a kid. I got kicked out. 

James Walters 18:38
Yeah, okay. And 

Rich Bennett 18:38
I wanted to do it again. Of course, Marine Corps, we learned a lot of different things. 

But yeah, I never journaled. I have two journals sitting next to my bed. I've never 

James Walters 18:55
written 

Rich Bennett 18:56
any -- and the reason I got the journals was, I don't know if you ever read the secret by Rhonda Berne. 

James Walters 19:03
I did, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:03
Okay. That changed my life. My outlook on things are completely different. and i was always having a hard time sleeping because all these negative thoughts were going through my head. And so i read that everything started getting better, started the podcast, started my good news website, all that now. The problem was I would wake up in the middle of like with these good, good ideas. 

James Walters 19:32
That's where I live, 

Rich Bennett 19:33
yup. Yeah, and you didn't. I go back to sleep about the time I wake up again to come downstairs, I forgot what the idea was. 

James Walters 19:40
Ah, 

Rich Bennett 19:41
so I got the two journals, and guess how much I have written in those journals? Not one damn thing because now I had the idea I just come right downstairs and fill 

James Walters 19:53
it. Oh, get on it, okay. 

Rich Bennett 19:55
It's down. I need to start writing because I mean, I want to, there's so much I want to do. I would love to write a book. 

James Walters 20:04
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:04
You know, and I started it and then put it on hiatus. But just so many different things, but I am. I'm having the time of my life now. Yeah, I'm not working for anybody, I'm working for myself. Now, let me rephrase I guess you can see him the voice the boss. 

James Walters 20:22
Yeah, haha, 

Rich Bennett 20:24
but you know, I'm just, I'm just having a blast. You know, loving it, and I'm working, I'm there for you when I was in the car business. I was working 60 to 80 hours a week, I'm working seven days a week now. But I'm loving 

James Walters 20:41
it. Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 20:42
you know, and it's, it makes a big difference, but my father always told me that when you, well, you're not having fun at your job. It's time to find a new job. 

James Walters 20:52
Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 20:52
You need to have fun. You need to love it. And 

James Walters 20:55
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:55
oh my god. What a blast. Now you wrote another book or you're in the process of writing another book. 

James Walters 21:04
I did write another, so a few years ago. Well, not a few. It took me seven years to get to this, but 

Rich Bennett 21:11
I 

James Walters 21:13
was doing the journal and I was also kind of toying with another book. This was a book that was just words, it was stories. But in between that, I've always loved to just take walks, and especially take walk, not out in nature necessarily, but I love going to cities that are old 

Rich Bennett 21:34
oh 

James Walters 21:34
and 

Rich Bennett 21:35
my god. 

James Walters 21:35
Have a little, have a little grit to them. 

Rich Bennett 21:39
Yeah. 

James Walters 21:40
New York would be one of those, but I love, I'm in the south and I love towns like Charleston that are, you know, colonial towns. They came up in the 16 1700s, so Savannah. In Charleston, we're talking Wilmington and New Bernice, some of those places. And, you know, they were shipping ports. All of them really back in 1700s 1800s. They got a history. 

Rich Bennett 22:06
Mm hmm. 

James Walters 22:07
And because of that, they've got a lot of really interesting stuff. So I just love to walk around look at the architecture. 

Rich Bennett 22:12
Yeah. 

James Walters 22:12
And as I started, I started taking some pictures, but I wasn't taking pictures of the obvious things like you would see. Oh, that's beautiful. House or all. There's another palm tree or something like that. I was taking pictures of all the things I was challenging myself to notice the things that most people would just walk right by. And that got me interested because it was, you've got to really look at a place 

Rich Bennett 22:38
Yeah. 

James Walters 22:39
to get in. It's kind of like a person, you know, everyone of us has flaws. Everyone of us has things that we probably don't want to show the world, but someone who truly understands us, someone who truly accepts us, is going to look at those and find something beautiful or good about it. Right. And that's what I was trying to do in these places. Know them on a deeper level, even though I didn't live there than I could if I was on a bike or in a car or experiencing them in some faster way. So I did that around my hometown. I did that around the places I would visit. And I started collecting these photos. And after about seven years, I was like, oh, I've got a lot. I've got a lot of these photos. Because I should put a story to them. And then I found this one. It was just a hair tie. Like you, if you walk out into your city right now, you can see a hair tie like a woman would put up a ponytail. And I just saw it sitting on the sidewalk, but I could tell it had been there a little while because it had a little dirt built up around it. And you can just tell that it had been there maybe a week without blown way of moving. And I was like, this is cool. I kind of wonder, I mean, it's boring hair tie, seeing them everywhere, but I wonder what the back story is. I wonder what, what happened? How did it get there? Like, 

Rich Bennett 24:02
yes, 

James Walters 24:02
what was the woman's name who either dropped it or tossed it or was it a kid who found it and like shot it like a rubber band? Yeah, what was the deal? 

Rich Bennett 24:11
Yeah. 

James Walters 24:12
So I thought, you know, this book could be about everything I found is an object. It's a thing there are no people in these photos. And what if I took that object and I gave it a personality, you know, personified it, gave it a backstory, gave it thoughts, gave it, you know, it could be really judgy. It could be observing the world. Like I thought this hair tie could be pretty confused and, and like, where'd my girl go? Right. I was on a wrist like, three days ago, and, and now I've just been staring up at the sky and it's cold out here. And you know, what gives? So I went back to every one of those photos I've taken so far, and I was like, okay, what is this thing telling me? What is this thing thinking about? Where's this thing been? 

Rich Bennett 25:02
wow, 

James Walters 25:02
And every single picture I created a story from the perspective of that object. And it was a really cool fun exercise. 

Rich Bennett 25:12
I love that. Oh, wow. That's one of the things I love about when I'm walking in a special architecture. Oh, 

James Walters 25:22
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:23
But I take the time. I don't just look at the buildings like, oh, I mean, that architecture is amazing. No, go up and look at the little things. And think 

James Walters 25:33
of, 

Rich Bennett 25:36
you know, who was it that created that? Who carved that? Even like you said that here time, my first thought is was, was the little girl upset? Was the little girl that lost it? What's she upset? You know, is she ever going to find again? How many times we see like stuff the animals just laying around outside? 

James Walters 25:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:54
You know, or, of course, we always see the sneakers or whatever up in the tree or power lines 

James Walters 25:59
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:59
or whatever. But there's a story behind that. 

James Walters 26:02
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:02
You know, it just, oh, man. And this is, this is going to be a photo book. 

James Walters 26:08
It's a photo book and it, it came out last year. It's called meditations of the mundane. 

Rich Bennett 26:13
Okay, oh, okay. 

James Walters 26:14
It's, uh, the whole purpose behind it is to just explore because I spent the last, or I spent the first 10 years of my photo career in commercial photography. And a lot of what we did and those times we objectified people and not in a way that was, you know, trying to disparage the person. But sometimes when we were photographing blue jeans, for example, the client wanted someone wearing them. So people could see, Oh, how's this fit? What kind of person would be wearing these jeans? You know, is it a cowboy or are we going out on the town in the city? It's that sort of thing. So we didn't care about the model. We just needed them to fill up the jeans and show them off. So that's a form of objectification, but it, it's not. necessarily bad. It was just utility, 

Rich Bennett 27:07
Yeah, 

James Walters 27:07
but I wanted to see what's it like if we personify an object, you know, just completely flip the script and it takes on. And then it's not a new thing. I mean, Disney does it all the time with candlesticks and, you know, all, all the stuff. So it's something that's been done, but I've never done it before. And I've never done it with my photographs. Like I said, I've always been paid to take a picture either a person or an event or a product. And just to do something that was purely creative, it was really, pretty cool. It wasn't any easier, but it was enjoyable 

Rich Bennett 27:44
yeah, 

James Walters 27:44
and a little stressful in its own Because I was like, OK, I've got this picture. How do I tell a story that's going to honor it or maybe the best it can be, or at least at the lowest level, make it interesting. So that was my goal and not being a professional writer. Sometimes I was like, OK, this is, this is hard because writing is hard. 

Rich Bennett 28:07
Yeah. 

James Walters 28:08
Anyway, it and that's why so many people are like, I want to write a book and then they start writing it. And then they read a little back and they're like, Oh, this doesn't really capture like what's up here. And I have that experience all the time. So I just kept pushing forward. And eventually I got something I was proud of and so 

Rich Bennett 28:28
Now you know, I got to 

James Walters 28:29
happy 

Rich Bennett 28:29
get 

James Walters 28:29
with 

Rich Bennett 28:29
back to 

James Walters 28:29
it. 

Rich Bennett 28:30
writing. 

James Walters 28:30
Yeah. Yeah, do. 

Rich Bennett 28:32
Victoria. Now are you working on another book now as well? 

James Walters 28:36
Alert. 

Well, I have. Yeah. That's the problem. I have two in the works. And 

Rich Bennett 28:42
it's not a problem, 

James Walters 28:44
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 28:44
Jane. 

James Walters 28:45
Well, the problem is 

Rich Bennett 28:46
stay good 

James Walters 28:46
I 

Rich Bennett 28:47
stress. 

James Walters 28:47
Yeah. That's, that's where I am. I'm right in the middle of these. I've got a manuscript that I've been working on for about a year. 

Rich Bennett 28:55
It's 

James Walters 28:56
about six months away from being finished. But in the mean time, I've been asked to jump in and start working on some documentary film projects. 

Rich Bennett 29:05
Oh, wow. 

James Walters 29:06
That's where I'm really over my head because I was actually asked to teach a class on documentary filmmaking to suboter journalism students and we are we're in the middle of the class right now. I did a whole day of filming yesterday from 4.30 in the morning. I think I got home at 8 last night and it's technically it's been challenging creatively. It's really going to be challenging because I've got like 13 voices I'm trying to figure out how to bring them into a story because just you probably seen a news story and it's like talking head talking head and it gives boring it's like oh I'm asleep so now I have to figure out how to weave this subject matter together so that it's interesting and that's the creative challenge but that's what I'm I'm like okay I don't know how I'm gonna do it but I figured everything else out so far and here we go like game on and yeah so I've got this once that settle down that'll settle down a month or two 

Rich Bennett 30:08
uh-huh 

James Walters 30:08
then I can get back to you know real-life fulfilling client orders stuff like that but then also get back to working on this book. 

Rich Bennett 30:17
Have you ever done a documentary before? 

James Walters 30:20
I have so that's the thing I've never done it in this capacity where so right now they have me as director 

Rich Bennett 30:27
wow. 

James Walters 30:27
I've always as uh as the person with a camera for the last 30 years I've filmed documentary work but all I had to do was show up point my camera at the thing get all the technical stuff right. I wasn't responsible for the whole story and that's so someone was telling hey we need an angle of this we want an angle of that so before it was kind of like just for me because I'm so used to holding a 

Rich Bennett 30:58
yeah nothing 

James Walters 30:58
camera and telling the story through lighting telling the story through composition but I don't after the shot's done I don't have to worry about okay how does this get pieced together how does this quilt get made that's what I have to worry about now so that's where I'm I'm like oh I hope I hope I've got 

Rich Bennett 31:16
wow 

James Walters 31:16
this yeah so it's a fun time 

Rich Bennett 31:22
it's one time wow that's 

James Walters 31:28
so 

Rich Bennett 31:28
that's a big switch for a photography to do in a documentary

James Walters 31:34
yeah I mean I've been building the skills over it and also I guess I will say it's not like I'm coming to completely new or fresh because when you're part of a crew I guess you know I in the past I've only served that one thing as the person holding the camera but I did have to work with the director I had to kind of understand how that process of them communicating their vision so I've been around it enough to say okay this is probably how I need to approach this thing but I want to approach it in my own way and then of course just like we do with life we see the results and then we iterate and that's all creativity is it solving problems and then you see the result and then you iterate and every time you do it you grow as a person you're whatever you're doing hopefully we'll get a little bit better and hopefully you're improving either lives or situations for people around you and solving this problem so that's why I say creativity is not really an option it's not a luxury it's necessity for just having a better life for you and for the people around

Rich Bennett 32:52
you you're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett we'll be right back I want to take a moment to tell you about someone I truly trust with financial planning Paul Applegate from Edward Jones I've been with Edward Jones for years so this isn't just a sponsor mentioned it's personal Paul's story is powerful he's a former police officer who spent years protecting our community and today he serves people in a different way by helping them take control of their financial future Paul works with individuals families and small business owners who want to be purposeful with their money build real financial confidence and design a retirement that actually aligns with their dreams whether you're just starting out or fine tuning an existing plan Paul brings structure clarity and direction you can trust his mission is simple protect your future the way he once protected the community with a plan you can believe in Paul offers no cost no obligation retirement checkups and consultations reach out to Paul Applegate with Edward Jones and take the first step toward confidence in your financial future Give him a call today at 410-297-7267. Again, that's 410-297-7267. I actually, I'm glad you said that. Have you ever seen, besides yourself, creativity change someone in a way that really surprised you? 

James Walters 34:34
Hmm. 

I've seen, I think all the, it's funny. It's all the things that come around and are the result of creativity, 

Rich Bennett 34:49
it's 

James Walters 34:49
like confidence. It was so funny, you know, totally off topic, but kind of not really. I have this friend who started taking that shot. You know, that shot that helps people lose weight. 

Rich Bennett 35:02
Oh, 

James Walters 35:03
yeah. It's kind of controversial right now. And she said basically, she was explaining the process and she said, 'Oh yeah, it just makes your appetite less so you eat less so you lose weight'. And I was like, 'Okay, cool'. I guess. I was trying to understand it. And she said, 'But it's got all these great side effects, like it lowers your blood pressure and your cholesterol'. All these other things. And I'm like, those are all side effects of just losing weight. 

Rich Bennett 35:28
yeah, 

James Walters 35:28
That's not side effects of taking this medicine. She's like, 'Yeah, but I need to take the medicine to lose weight'. And I'm like, you? 

Rich Bennett 35:37
'Do 

James Walters 35:38
Do you?' 

Creativity is the same way. Like, you don't have to do it in any certain form. But the side effects of, when you do it, whether it is art, whether it is, I got to a point where I was not feeling creative in my art anymore, like in my actual taking pictures. And I put my energy into getting creative about my business. Like, how do I respond to client email, how do I put marketing and communication out there? So I kind of focused into that because I was at a point where like, 'Oh, I don't want to try to reinvent this whole taking pictures thing again'. So I found a different way to get creative. And it completely like, it expanded a lot of things that I was doing at the time. And created that confidence in my business that I never had. 

Rich Bennett 36:34
Do you meditate? 

James Walters 36:36
'I try. Gosh, I try. Like, five minutes every morning, right after I do the journal, I 

Rich Bennett 36:43
'Yeah'. 

James Walters 36:43
got my- 

I try my best to just focus my mind, not really focus, not focus on anything, but focus on my breathing 

Rich Bennett 36:57
maybe. 

James Walters 36:58
I find all the things that I'm excited about doing that day will start to come up or problems that I was trying to solve two weeks ago will 

Rich Bennett 37:07
And 

James Walters 37:07
come up. And from what I hear, that is meditating, because I always try to refocus. Okay, we'll put that on the back burner for now. We'll focus back on what is going on now. And there's nothing going on right now. So let's focus on that. And, yeah, try that every morning and I fail. And from what I hear, that is what I'm supposed to be 

Rich Bennett 37:31
I 

James Walters 37:31
doing. 

Rich Bennett 37:32
don't think you're failing, James. You're able to, like, what you just, you know, mention, you know, trying to take your creativity and looking at a different way, the marketing and all of that. That's, you're not failing. A lot of people can't do that. You know, and I think, you know, just that breathing helps a lot with everything else you're doing. We talked about the good stress. 

James Walters 37:59
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:59
Yeah, you're not failing at all. Not at all. Do you ever think about becoming like a business coach or a life coach? 

James Walters 38:08
Well, see, that's where your imposter syndrome creeps in and is like, uh, what do I know? Right. And that's, uh, but 

Rich Bennett 38:18
you, 

James Walters 38:18
I hear what 

Rich Bennett 38:18
you are your own best client. 

James Walters 38:21
Yeah. Well, that's true. And have you, you've heard about when people say right the book that you most need to read. that's kind of the book I'm writing right now. 

Rich Bennett 38:31
Okay, 

James Walters 38:32
And it is all those life lessons that every one of us in our individual way, we get to learn the hard way. And you can't go back and relearn it a more gentle and elegant And you needed whatever it was that came at you that life through at you and just getting comfortable with that is tough in itself, but then to write about it. And hopefully help other people. That is kind of a fun process. once you've passed the hard parts. 

Rich Bennett 39:08
Say, I mean photography, writing, uh, we're gonna want to documentry. I mean, everything that you've done, would make you decide to start a joyful rebellion, the podcast. 

James Walters 39:24
Yeah. That, that came back in 22. 

Rich Bennett 39:29
Okay. 

James Walters 39:38
Well, I know I didn't want to work a holiday, you're a workaholic, we love our work, and when I would meet new people, they would say, "So what do you do for fun?" And I would just stare at them like, What are you talking about? Like, I work. I work, it's fun. 

Rich Bennett 39:56
yeah. 

James Walters 39:56
And they would be like, no, like when you're not working. And again, I would just look at them and shake my head like, when is that? So I realized I had a little life balance stuff. I did go to, I was going to the therapist at the time and I was working with a business coach. And they said, yeah, you need a little something to round you out because it's just create creatively. The will runs dry, if you're just working it, if you're just pouring out of yourself, eventually that's gonna dry up. So I thought about, okay, what would I want to do? And my whole entire career, I've been taking pictures. I've been basically dipping into other people's lives for a few minutes, sometimes a day. And I was telling their story. And I thought, you know what? You know what? There's a, there's a cool thing I could do. I, I just need a reason to do it. I don't need to get paid to do it. But I think it would be fun to talk to people who have been through some stuff, 

Rich Bennett 41:00
Yeah. 

James Walters 41:00
like been through some crazy times. And talk about how they got through it. And they got to the other side. And quite often those people get inspired to help others, who maybe go and do that situation. And the cool thing about podcasts is it's the exact same workflow as photography. You, you have a conversation, you dip into someone's life for a little while, you record the conversation. And then for me after the conversation, I polish it up in editing. 

Rich Bennett 41:32
Yeah. 

James Walters 41:33
And then after that, I release it to the world. Exactly what I would do if I had photos. I would do the exact same steps. So I was like, okay, I'm comfortable with this. It's just a very different reason for the conversation. So I started talking to people who have been through what I call a joyful rebellion of their own. And that is a 

Rich Bennett 41:55
technically in a way everybody's been through that. 

James Walters 41:57
Oh, yeah. And, and you can be in so many different ages. It can come. So it's not necessarily a midlife thing. But I do talk to a lot of people who have been through it in that identity crisis is something that I experienced myself and I got to think in like, you know, we were all fed a lot of stuff as kids like our. Our dentist was like brush your teeth every day and your apple a day keeps the doctor what well, okay, cool. But then you got your school saying, you know, make straight A's. And you can be this or you can be that. And then you got your family saying, oh, you should go to for your college because that's going to set you up for success. And then along the way, you know, if you remember of a church, if you remember of a sports team, wherever you did end up going to school, you're kind of in that little culture. And that culture, each of them individually has this idea what success looks like. And they'll tell you what that should look like. And then so many people in it and I'm one of those in a way you follow all the rules, you check off all the boxes and then you get to the part of your life where you got all those things they said you have, you know, like the family, the 2.5 kids and you got the career. And you got a 401k or whatever. And then you look around you like, okay, this is everything. Everyone said would make me successful. And the silent part was they said if I was successful, I'd also be happy, but I am looking around and I'm not I'm not seeing the happy show up. And then they have to figure out what do I do next. And that's where the search for joy leads to the rebellion because sometimes you have to rebel against what your family taught you, what your preacher taught you, you know, way back what society has been telling you for your entire life. I've talked with people who they kind of came to this joy for rebellion in their 80s. And yeah, and they're like, whoa, yeah, society had me in this box for this, for my entire life, but now they are able to blossom because they just, through all of that, 

Rich Bennett 44:22
and 

James Walters 44:23
uh, way, and now they're themselves, and now they're having some of the best years, in terms of feeling the joy, 

Rich Bennett 44:31
Wow. Yeah, 

James Walters 44:33
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:33
now you started the, you said 2022. 

James Walters 44:36
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 44:37
so what do you do? Drop an episode once a week. 

James Walters 44:40
I try, I've, 

Rich Bennett 44:41
try, I like that, 

James Walters 44:43
I try. I always go, so last year when I didn't have all this stuff, I wasn't in over my head. I was just kind of treading water, 

Rich Bennett 44:50
right, 

James Walters 44:50
last year with, with work stuff, and I was dropping an episode every week, very consistent. I 

Rich Bennett 44:57
okay, 

James Walters 44:57
was, there were some times I was, like, I had four or five episodes waiting to be scheduled, and they were ready to go. This year, like, I had a break while, I had a, and it's all for good reason. I had a couple of brand new clients come on for the, the photo stuff that they had specific deadlines that my podcast wasn't prepared for. 

Rich Bennett 45:20
right. 

James Walters 45:20
And now I'm doing this documentary stuff, so I've recorded several episodes. I just haven't edited them. So out of, I don't know what we're in first part of the year, I think I've launched about four, four episodes for this year. But we are more than four weeks 

Rich Bennett 45:40
yeah, 

James Walters 45:40
into the year, so 

Rich Bennett 45:42
But you know what, that's the one great thing about having your own podcast. 

James Walters 45:46
yeah, 

Rich Bennett 45:46
You can, you can take a break. It's allowed. 

James Walters 45:49
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:50
That's why a lot of people even do seasons. 

James Walters 45:52
Yeah, and no one's come at me upset yet. No one's been like, Hey, I haven't heard you in a week or two. 

Rich Bennett 45:58
Well, I mean, look at a lot of your TV shows out there. You know, people will sit there and binge them. Oh, yeah, and then though they just, they'll wait and wait, like me, with someone I've been watching, a reacher, I, 

James Walters 46:15
oh yeah, 

Rich Bennett 46:15
wait for the new season to come out, but it's, you look forward to it. You know, and then once it comes out, what do you do? You binge and then you're like, damn, I shouldn't spread it out. 

James Walters 46:25
yeah, yeah. I got that Little like a pizza 

Rich Bennett 46:29
where, 

James Walters 46:29
coma 

Rich Bennett 46:29
yeah. 

James Walters 46:29
Yeah. Yeah, the whole thing, you're like, uh, I'll never do that again. And then of course you do. 

Rich Bennett 46:35
So when you start your podcast, cause I love talking to other podcasts. It's about this because as you know, a lot of people get into podcasts because they think it's easy. It's not your, you are, as I checked, I think you're at 93 episodes. Which 

James Walters 46:52
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 46:52
is very good. Uh, a lot of people don't even make it past 25. You 

James Walters 46:57
oh 

Rich Bennett 46:57
know, 

James Walters 46:57
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 46:58
Um, but what has, what was the biggest struggle for you when you started 

James Walters 47:04
when I started. It was, uh, getting over my own perfectionism, because it was, I, I knew how to record. I knew 

Rich Bennett 47:16
right, 

James Walters 47:17
the, on the gear. I've always been in a, uh, career, this very gear focus. So that part was set. Didn't have to worry about that much, but when it came to the editing. And so if I had a guest who, after everything they said, they said the word right. So they're like trying to get agreement. I would go in and I'd take out, you know, 70% of those just so someone on the other side listening wasn't like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm in corporate meeting or something. I wanted to feel story. I wanted to invite the listener and, and I was put in the same level of detail that I would put into a photo shoot or editing a photo into the podcast episodes in the editing part. 

Rich Bennett 48:02
Okay. 

James Walters 48:03
And man, talk about slowing down your life. 

Rich Bennett 48:06
Yeah, it does. 

James Walters 48:07
Yeah. It's crazy. And I still, there's software out there and I, I use the same one that you do to it will automatically take out homes and us and all the things. And then I found out after clicking that button, like, oh, we, we all sound weird because we don't sound human anymore. 

Rich Bennett 48:26
Right. 

James Walters 48:28
So, there was that balance and I had to struggle with my own perfectionism to say, okay, this is good. This is good enough. If we veer way off track and we just go down a rabbit hole that the listener is going to be like, what just happened? Yeah, I'll take that out now because that does happen and that's normal. But I'll take that out but I'm not getting so picky with the final result like I used to be. But that was the hardest thing to overcome was just, okay James, this is not going to win a Pulitzer. It's not going to win an Emmy or Grammy or whatever podcast, what do you podcast win? 

Rich Bennett 49:08
There are some different awards. 

James Walters 49:10
There's an "ambie." 

Rich Bennett 49:12
But now I mean I think they're part of the Golden Globes or whatever which is a 

James Walters 49:16
Oh, fancy. 

Rich Bennett 49:17
pun. 

James Walters 49:18
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 49:18
Most of your awards things you have to pay to be nominated anyways. 

James Walters 49:23
Yeah 

Rich Bennett 49:24
so it's like 

James Walters 49:25
very much. 

Rich Bennett 49:26
Yeah I look at the In fact, I think somebody had asked Joe Rogan if he was going to be a part of, I think it was the Golden Globes. Okay so he said, why? So I'm going to pay $500 to be nominated or something like this. I can't remember exactly what he said but you look at the charts. 

James Walters 49:46
I'm 

Rich Bennett 49:47
already number one. Why do I, I don't need an award for it. 

James Walters 49:50
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 49:50
The listeners. Who cares? It's like, oh, okay. I mean the award, the awards aren't ice just like with authors. You know, the awards do help. It helps sell them. But when you're somebody like Rogan, do you need it? No. Absolutely not. And the thing is, I was doing the same thing when I first started taking out the uhs the ums and all that. And I found that and I was the one that was doing it most of the time. 

James Walters 50:19
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:19
Um, that with my guest, and we talked about this in the green room, it took away from the conversation. And the whole idea with the podcast, it's what changed throughout the years. When the podcast and first started, people were doing it on their phone. 

James Walters 50:40
Hmm. 

Rich Bennett 50:40
They were recording on their phone. You. You do a podcast like that today. People aren't going to listen because they, they want the clarity. They want the sound. They're 

James Walters 50:51
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:51
not worried about the uhs, the ums and all that. At least I don't believe they are. I'll listen to podcast. And you can tell a lot of times when if it's chopped. I say chop like too much editing. 

James Walters 51:03
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 51:04
I'll turn it off. 

James Walters 51:05
I've been guilty of that. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:06
I turned off. It's like, okay. Now and I was like that too. And I always go back when I edit. Of course, I listened to the full episode. And if I can, there are a couple episodes that I have recorded that I never released, because when I'm listening to it's like, now it's, if it's not grabbing my attention. It ain't going to grab my listeners attention. And you just put it to the side. I didn't delete them. I still got files and that's what the guy always say. I think it was Pat. I think it was Pat Flynn said this. Never delete your original episode 

James Walters 51:48
your old episodes. 

Rich Bennett 51:48
put them up there because you're going to learn from them. 

James Walters 51:51
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 51:51
And I go back and listen to my first episodes. I'm like, I cringe. Oh 

James Walters 51:55
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:56
Oh god. Really? You learned from it then? You learned. It's 

James Walters 52:02
funny. My first couple of episodes I did in person because I 

Rich Bennett 52:07
yeah. 

James Walters 52:07
And I've gotten such great feedback from those because if you are sitting across from someone, there's just a different report. But technically, was having Mike bleed like their Mike was bleeding it like what they were saying was bleeding into my microphone and there was just a little bit of technical strangeness but the actual rapport that was going on. And that's when I wasn't even doing video yet. Like back in 22 and 23. It was just an audio podcast and I had to work my way into video before I was comfortable with it. But yeah, doing those, but I realized quickly that doing in person interviews just wasn't possible to put out an episode every week because not only were my options drying up locally. 

Rich Bennett 52:59
yeah. 

James Walters 52:59
You 

Rich Bennett 52:59
I 

James Walters 53:00
know, a really cool and interesting people, but yeah, just figuring out times to physically meet somewhere is a lot different than, hey, let's pop on a call. So the amount of conversations I was having when I went remote was so much more and so much more interesting subject matter, but the reports suffered a little, but I was willing to take that hit. 

Rich Bennett 53:30
Yeah, sometimes you have to, I mean, I still I'll still do the in person ones. Locally, 

James Walters 53:37
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 53:38
but now granted, we have a place where where we record. But thank God for the software out there has gotten so much better. Like I don't know what platform you're on. I'm on Buzzsprout and they have like the magic mastery and you can, it can take out that bleed. 

James Walters 53:57
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 53:57
Yeah. 

James Walters 53:57
I like 

Rich Bennett 53:58
So. 

James Walters 53:58
it. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 53:58
There's a lot of different things that for editing, I use Hindenburg Pro Journalist Pro. And there's so many things that that does, but yeah, the in person ones are fun. What I did find, that is scary. And Alex from pod match recommended this for my 750th episode, he recommended that I do it in front of a live audience, not broadcast live. 

James Walters 54:24
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 54:24
But alive recording. 

James Walters 54:26
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:27
That is that can be scary. 

James Walters 54:31
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 54:31
because when we did the 750th episode, it was a good turnout. But then there was other guests that I had on it and to turn that wasn't that good. And depending on where you're doing it, you're, 

there may be things that come up where all of a sudden you got a cancel that recording because the place isn't open. 

James Walters 54:56
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:57
And, and that is happy. But now I'll still do the in person ones. I love doing the virtual ones, because I was the same way I was just talking to all local people. And then a friend of mine suggested that I, you know, go outside of the county and start talking to people throughout the world. And it was a godsend. 

James Walters 55:18
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 55:18
It was a god said. 

James Walters 55:19
Makes a 

Rich Bennett 55:19
Now, 

James Walters 55:19
big difference. 

Rich Bennett 55:20
and with yours, create me from wrong, but you do a combination of you have a guest on you do solo ones as well, don't you? 

James Walters 55:29
I tried to do a few solo. My goal was to do one a month. And I haven't been a, I don't know why, but it seems harder for me to sit down and record one by myself, then it does to sit down with a guest 

Rich Bennett 55:45
Yeah. 

James Walters 55:45
and have a conversation. I don't know what that is. If it's just some sort of procrastination resistance or what it is, but I have started a list of all the topics I would love to talk about, but I've done a few I did one about journaling. It was called nothing changes if nothing changes. And it was fun because I do get a lot of feedback from those like, oh, I've been wanting to try that. Or I've never tried it the way you explained it. I might try that. But just as you mentioned when we get feedback from a listener, that's so cool, because it's like, oh, you tried, and I just got last week. I had someone she texted me and she was like, hey, I finally got that book done and I was like, no way. And she was one of those people and I talk about this type of person on the podcast. A lot of the person who they found out I wrote a book and they were like, I would love to do that. And then maybe a couple of years later they come back and they were like, I did it. I actually did it. And I was like, that is so cool. And it is not like I'm the reason they did it. But any encouragement, your podcast or your story or anything you do, any guests that you bring, it feels so good to know that even if it's not directly from you, you had a little something to do with giving them either inspiration or confidence or whatever it took to get them. And then they came to this goal that they had in mind that would bring them joy and for anyone who's thinking about writing book like it's really fun. And then when you've written it and 

Rich Bennett 57:25
see 

James Walters 57:25
you 

Rich Bennett 57:25
a millionaire from doing it. 

James Walters 57:26
No, that's not true either. You are definitely going to put a little more of yourself into it. Then you get out in most cases, unless you're doing it for a job. But when you hold it in your hands, I talked to so many authors who are new authors. What do you feel like when you held that final printed thing in your hands? Some were like, oh, such a relief. Some were like, oh, I was so done with the process by then. I was just glad it was done and I put it on the shelf. Some people have that, and then some people had the realization that they looked down and they're like, oh, so proud of it, and I had no idea the hard work was about to begin with all of the marketing and whether it's book signings, whether it's going on podcasts. I have so many people who wrote a book there on my podcast, and they're like, yeah, I had no idea it would be more work after the book was written than it was to get the book written. I was like, okay, that's good perspective. 

Rich Bennett 58:25
Mm-hmm. 

James Walters 58:26
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 58:27
You mentioned that lady that listened and she contacted you because you one episode helped her. 

James Walters 58:35
She could be 

Rich Bennett 58:36
a good guest. 

James Walters 58:37
She would, I was thinking about that because I want, I would love to have success stories 

Rich Bennett 58:44
Yeah. 

James Walters 58:44
that kind of happen from the, from the podcast itself, but not like patting myself on the back. I just wanted, like, this person got some inspiration, they got some confidence, or they got a little kick in the pants and we're like, okay, there's no more, so that's how all of my books have come about. I just look at myself and say no more excuses. Let's just get this thing done. 

Rich Bennett 59:07
Uh-huh. 

James Walters 59:08
Knock it out. And when I say knock it out, it sounds like it happens quickly, but knock it out could be a year and a half process. And that's okay because, uh, you know, I hear all these people talking about, I write a thousand words a day and I'm like, cool, that sounds amazing. I don't have that life. I've tried it. I've definitely like, okay, it's November. I'm gonna write a novel and no, it's not how my life is going. Yeah. god. Nano-Rymo, I think it is November, right and novel month. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:42
Oh One of the, one of the things I'm trying now, and I have a Facebook group, so I'll ask, you know, anybody in the group for suggestions on who I should get on, but one of the things I'm doing now, if they suggest somebody, and I can get that person on, then I'm contacting the person that suggested it for them to come on and co-host. 

James Walters 1:00:06
Oh, that's cool. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:07
And if it's virtual, of course, they have to have the equipment. If not, then 

James Walters 1:00:10
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:11
Yeah, they can't do it, but, uh, I had a guest on, then I met through pie matching. He told me he does it. He'll just have, um, if somebody suggests a guest, and a lot of times it's one of his co-hosts or whatever, but then he'll just say, okay, they're on, you're in charge, you're hosting, and he'll just sit back and he'll run the board and whatever. 

James Walters 1:00:33
Nice. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:34
So, and I started doing that with some of my co-hosts when it's in person. 

James Walters 1:00:38
Okay, 

Rich Bennett 1:00:40
and the only reason I have co-host is because I think, I understand to become a co-host because I think they could end up doing their own show. Uh, now, now these are my, I'm talking about the co-hosts that I have now. 

James Walters 1:00:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:53
The ones that suggest somebody, they may not be able to do the room show, but I just think it's a good idea. If you suggest somebody, you have questions for them. So, come on on. Let's, 

James Walters 1:01:05
no doubt. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:05
Let's do it. All right. So James, before I get to my last, go away, wait a minute before I even do that. Those of you listening, make sure whatever platform you're using, whether be Spotify, good pods, um, it's not iTunes. What is it now? Just Apple, Toons or whatever. Uh, even you say you're on YouTube as well, right? The podcast 

James Walters 1:01:27
just, yeah. Just last year started on YouTube, putting the videos up. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:31
Okay, so wherever you, wherever you watch it or listen to podcasts, whatever, make sure you subscribe to the podcast and leave a review because us podcasters really, really like them reviews. And can people purchase your books? 

James Walters 1:01:49
They can purchase, uh, the one about weddings is on Amazon. It can be purchased. It's called, uh, accessory to marriage. And the other one, it's the coffee table book 

Rich Bennett 1:02:00
Yeah. 

James Walters 1:02:01
and that's not the kind I can get, uh, print on a man. So I had to custom print those. I'm going to be selling them on the, my own, uh, what is it? Website? I'm going to, 

Rich Bennett 1:02:13
uh, website, yeah. 

James Walters 1:02:14
Website, but that's going to come out later this year. So 

Rich Bennett 1:02:17
it. 

James Walters 1:02:17
I'll 

Rich Bennett 1:02:17
And 

James Walters 1:02:18
have 

Rich Bennett 1:02:18
that's James Walters dot com, right? 

James Walters 1:02:20
It is. Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:02:21
Okay. 

James Walters 1:02:21
that's kind of the hub for all the projects I'm working on. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:24
Smart. Smart thinking. So, is there anything you would like to add before I get to my last question? 

James Walters 1:02:50
I 

think I would like to add something I would like to add before I get to my last question. I think I would like to add something I would like to add before I get to my last question. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:19
Alright, so James, pick a number between one and five. This is going to determine the question. 

James Walters 1:03:25
Alright, let's say, I'll go for a nice round, 

Rich Bennett 1:03:29
two. Two, alright, now pick a number between 21 and 40. 

James Walters 1:03:33
Alright, I'm going to go with 36. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:37
36, 

okay? What is a habit? You've cultivated that has significantly improved your life. This goes with what we've been talking 

James Walters 1:03:52
about? Definitely. I would say it would be that journaling. I did it this morning. I had to rush out the door at 5am yesterday so I didn't. So, it is a habit in the sense that I probably do it five times a week, at least. But if I'm out of town, if I'm in a hotel, I don't bring that book with me, I don't, I don't make myself feel bad about missing a day, but I make sure I get back to it. It took years to develop that habit. And I also call it a practice because you hear people talking about things you practice, like people practice yoga, people practice karate. You don't necessarily. It's not a habit and it's something you never master because you're always working on it and you're always working at it. But that's definitely a habit that I have tried to build into my life. I've tried to make space for it every morning, when I am home. The first thing I do is make the coffee. The second thing I do is while the coffee is cooling in the cup, I sit down and I just write that one page. And I've always suggested to people, if journaling is something you're interested in doing but a page feels overwhelming, just get a smaller journal and make a smaller page and knock it out and go for it. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:10
Oh, I like that idea. 

James Walters 1:05:13
Yeah, just not, I mean a page can have a 100 lines or a page can have like four lines. It's up to you what a page is. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:22
My page is going to have one line because I'm going to be using that big fat pencil like we used to using kindergarten. 

James Walters 1:05:28
right. And just make it like what the Twitter post used to be 144 characters 

Rich Bennett 1:05:33
That's 

James Walters 1:05:33
and you're done. Yeah, that's perfect. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:36
Well, James, I want to thank you so much, man, the doors open anytime you want to come back. Yeah, 

James Walters 1:05:44
Rich, this was amazing. This is a great conversation. And I'm really excited for what your podcast does for people being able to overhear conversations like this from people that you don't know. In some cases, I seem random sometimes and that's the thing I know about mine is I've had listeners who say, oh yeah, I listened to this thing. I didn't think it would apply to me at all, but man, I heard this one thing that totally applies to my spouse or to someone they know at work. And I had a conversation about and they're they listened to it too and they were like blown away. So, I mean, this, this goes down the line really far and I'm excited about what you do. So thanks for doing it. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:27
Oh, thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:29
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love it if you can leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversations with rich Bennett dot com for updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care, be kind and keep the conversation's going. You know, it takes a lot to put a podcast together. together, and my sponsors help add a lot but I also have some supporters that actually help me when it comes to the editing software, the hosting and so forth. There's a lot that goes into putting this together. So I want to thank them and if you can please, please visit their websites, visit their businesses, support them, however you can, so please visit the following. Full Circle Boards, nobody does charcuterie like full circle boards. visit them at fullcircleboards.com. Sincerely, Sincerely Sincerely Sawyer Photography. Live in the moment, they'll capture it. Visit them at SincerelySawyer.com. The Jopatown Lines Club, serve in the community since 1965. Visit them at JopatownLinesClub. org. And don't forget the E at the end of Jopatown because they're extraordinary.