Professional speaking Bennick began professional speaking as an offshoot of performing, following themes of sincerity and connection with the audience rather than traditional motivational speaking. He has previously included juggling as part of his speaking engagements. Midwest Speakers Bureau, and BigSpeak Speakers Bureau. Bennick is the first international speaking coach for a TEDx event, appearing at TEDxPerth. In addition to speaking events, Bennick has performed
spoken word on tour in multiple countries, including traveling to Russia and Ukraine.
Films Bennick co-wrote and produced his first documentary,
Flight from Death, with director
Patrick Shen. The film explored the topic of
death anxiety, something that initially intrigued Bennick through a talk based on the works and writings of cultural anthropologist and social theorist
Ernest Becker, given by
Sheldon Solomon, chairman of the psychology department at
Skidmore College. Solomon was interviewed for the documentary as well. The film was narrated by
Gabriel Byrne, and earned recognition at multiple film festivals, including the audience choice for best documentary at the
Beverly Hills Film Festival. Bennick co-produced his second documentary,
The Philosopher Kings, which sought to display wisdom from custodians who worked at major universities. Bennick is also a co-producer of
La Source, a documentary that follows Josue Lajeunesse, a janitor at
Princeton University, working on developing running water resources for the Haitian village of
La Source.
Acting Bennick played the role of John Luka in the 2018 film,
7 Splinters in Time. He appeared in a short film created by the same director (Gabriel Judet-Weinshel) in 1995.
The Legacy Project Bennick and David Whitson co-founded The Legacy Project in 2006, with the purpose to “better understand how humans can transition from violent, bloody conflict to peace, justice, and reconciliation.” The organization has gone on multiple trips, including Poland in 2007, South Africa in 2008, Chile and Argentina in 2009, Canada in 2012, and South America in 2014.
World Leaders Project Prior to the filming of
Flight From Death, Bennick approached Sheldon Solomon, seeking to contact world leaders in an effort to have a dialogue about how "death anxiety perpetuated world violence." This effort would become known as the World Leaders Project. He serves on the board of the Combined Organization of Numismatic Error Collectors of America (CONECA). ==Music career==