Are you a writer, filmmaker, artist, or business person stuck on a creative problem?
Are you burned out after spending tons of time looking for a unique angle for your idea, an unexpected twist, or an insightful discovery?
Do you need some fresh perspectives—an explosion of new thinking—a brainstorming guru to help you?
If you answered Yes to any of these questions, this is the 1-day trip for you.
You recall the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour? Well, this is The Incredible Inspiration Tour, a day of discovery and AHA experiences you will never forget.
On The Incredible Inspiration Tour, you will be guided by professional creativity expert Rick Benzel on a day of exploration and super creative thinking as we are chauffeured from Los Angeles along the inspiring Pacific coast through Malibu and Ventura up to Santa Barbara. Along the drive, we will delve deeply into your creative blocks, brainstorm ideas and concepts, and discover options and insights that energize your creative thinking. Our time together will be punctuated by walks along the beach where the ocean air will inspire your thinking and the crashing tides will punctuate new idea after new idea. We will stroll through some of the historic locales of Santa Barbara taking time to reflect and relax, plus enjoy a sumptuous lunch in one of the most noted restaurants in region.
By the end of the day, you will walk away EXPLODING with ideas
that will lead you to your solution.
Rick Benzel is a highly experienced creativity coach. His background in the field of creativity is extensive. Rick spent 35+ years in publishing, working with authors and leading corporate thinkers in many fields. He was the editor who helped publish the bestselling creativity book, The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. He helped develop and edit many other books about the creative process, including by Eric Maisel’s Staying Sane in the Arts and Jordan Ayan’s AHA! Ten Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas.
Rick is the Founder of the Creativity Coaching Association, the only association in the U.S. to train and certify professional creativity coaches. In that capacity, Rick established the Creativity Coaching Association Press and published Inspiring Creativity, an anthology of 22 essays by the leading creativity coaches in the country. The book was selected as the Book-of-Month for the North Light Book Club.
Rick is an expert in the many models of how the creative process works. He will teach you how to find the right style of creative thinking for you. He will introduce you to dozens of ways to overcome creative blocks to produce amazing results for yourself or your team. His brainstorming capacities will impress you for their breadth and depth of knowledge.
Rick graduated Magna Cum Laude from Amherst College and holds an M.A. in French literature from Boston University. He also studied in the MBA program at Boston University Graduate School of Management. His professional background includes 35+ years in educational and trade book publishing, with positions at Houghton Mifflin, Prentice Hall, and Jeremy P. Tarcher. He has authored 5 books and ghostwritten 15. He is currently the Co-Founder and Editorial Director of Over And Above Creative Group, a self-publishing company that helps authors get “New York publishing company quality” editing and design services with the speed and efficiency of the new self-publishing model. Rick speaks French, Italian, and Spanish, and has lived and traveled widely in Europe.