Own Your Labels | Nick Benoit on Leaving the Only Path He Knew, the Risk to Stay & Wonderhunt

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Nick Benoit is a filmmaker, writer, performer and director, and the creative director of Wonderhunt, a nonprofit that makes cinematic short films and gives every one of them away for free. He’s also my friend, and I could talk to him literally all day.

As a kid, Nick built imaginary worlds and made his friends play in them. He went to college to become a pastor because it was the only picture of a calling he had, and by the end of his first semester he knew the theology debates at the coffee house were not his people. His first speech grade came back with a note: next time, try breathing. Years later, on the floor of his house after a string of failures, he heard something that changed how he saw his whole life: “I didn’t put that on you.”

We talk about the year and a half in LA that ended in his first real failure, and why that failure gave him a new kind of bravery. We talk about the email he turned down, the road sign in the Arizona desert that changed his mind, and the season at Willow Creek when the risk was to stay. And we talk about the day he resigned with no job lined up and no safety net, and the backyard fire where Wonderhunt began.

In this episode:

• Building imaginary worlds as a kid, and the narrow picture of calling he grew up with

• “I didn’t put that on you,” and walking away from the only path he knew

• A year and a half in LA, and how failure created a new bravery

• Twelve resumes, a church in San Diego, and a creative director job he’d never held

• The email he said no to, and the road sign in the Arizona desert

• Why sometimes the risk is to stay

• The people and practices that held him up in a hard season

• Resigning with no safety net

• Starting Wonderhunt around a backyard fire, and giving every film away for free

• The one risk everyone should take: own your labels

Key takeaways

Nick trained as a Christian ministries major because it was the only version of "calling" he had seen modeled, and quit after realizing the theology debates his classmates loved held zero interest for him.
Chasing clarity can become its own trap: both hosts argue that a clear label feels safe but hardens into an identity that leaves you feeling captured rather than directed.
Dropping out, moving to LA, and failing at an acting career in 18 months taught Nick that failure is survivable and actually produced more willingness to risk afterward.
Leaving a comfortable role in Orange County took a different kind of energy than the desperate risks did, and it only happened after his wife and both sets of parents independently sensed a change coming.
When a mentor told him his assignment at a church in crisis wasn't finished, Nick stayed through the fallout and credits daily spiritual practices and close friendships with keeping him functional.
Nick resigned with no job lined up, no open doors, and no plan, because he had learned every earlier risk turned into something better than what he'd wanted beforehand.

In this episode

1:46Starting at the beginning as a creative
7:21Terrified of public speaking in seminary training
11:41Why clarity can become a prison
16:59Dropping out and moving to LA
28:36Risking from comfort versus from desperation
38:41A road sign in the Arizona desert
48:32When staying is the bigger risk
59:29Resigning with nothing lined up
1:05:29A backyard fire and Wonderhunt's beginning

Read the full transcript78,763 words

Key takeaways

In this episode

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