Welcome to The Writing Coach. On this podcast, I speak with the instructors, editors, coaches, and mentors who help writers and authors create their art, build their audience, and sell their work.

In episode #109 of The Writing Coach podcast, I speak with Will Henshall.

Will is a Los Angeles based tech entrepreneur, inventor, and music producer. He was the founding member and main writer in the UK pop soul band Londonbeat. Their massive early 90s hit “I’ve Been Thinking About You” reached #1 in the Billboard chart, was the top selling single in all major territories, and won him BMI/PRS songwriter of the year.

In the mid-90s, he founded San Francisco based audio tech company Rocket Network. The “DigiDelivery” media transfer system, now part of ProTools 12 Cloud collaboration, is a standard tool used every day in pro audio production for TV, movies, and music. He sold the company to Avid in 2003.

His most recent start up is www.focusatwill.com, a science driven instrumental music streaming service (2 million users) that helps people at work and study reduce distractions and be more productive. He holds 5 patents, and has a new one in the oven!

During our discussion, Will describes:

* What it was like to write a #1 Billboard Hit and how he dealt with the pressure to follow it up with even more hits* The role the limbic system plays in creativity* How music and writing are “real time” art forms* The science of music, focus, concentration, and productivity* Why achieving a flow state is essential to creative success, especially for writers* The different brain types and what music they each need to thrive* And much more!

Listen to the full podcast episode:

Watch the video of the conversation:

The Writing Coach Episode #109 Show Notes

Learn more about Will’s productivity app at www.focusatwill.com

Check out Will’s most recent music project at www.naturebeat.com

Episode Transcript

Today on the podcast, I have William Henshall. Will, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you.

It’s not every day on The Writing Coach podcast that I have a genuine rock star on the show, so I’m so excited to have you here. Very cool.

Thank you. It’s a lot less glamorous than you might think it is.

Well, I think anyone who works in the creative field knows that a there’s a whole lot of, of working effort and nose to the grindstone behind the scenes of the glitz and glam

That’s for sure. It’s very true. You be referring for the fact that before I was the guy behind what I’m doing now, I was the founder and the white guy in the, in the band London beat.

Yes. I mean, I think that would be a great place to start. I myself, work with writers. Now I’m an author, but I got started in music as well. Not nearly the level of success that you had, no number one, billboard hits, but I grew up in the punk rock scene, writing a lot of music and I feel like it informed a lot of my approach to art as a whole.