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Once in awhile someone knows exactly what they’re going to do with their lives from childhood on. They know it, they dream it and they continue pursue it.
But more often than not, we explore one avenue and then another and then another…often times finding our passion lies in a compilation of those different avenues we’ve already explored. Such is the case for our guest for episode 39, Ben Arment. Ben’s journey began in advertising but today he is a successful, Virginia Beach-based event planner and author.
Join us as we discuss how his childhood interests and passions of his later years eventually led him to the wide world of authorship and event planning!
MORE ABOUT THIS SHOW
When he isn’t busy putting on workshops for the creative types of the world, he’s promoting his new book called Dream Year. Dream Year is a book about helping readers figure out where their lives are going, and gives them tips to create the life they want to live. And the source of the book lies in Ben’s experiences from childhood into adulthood.
Ben split his childhood in a small town called Tip City, just north of Dayton, Ohio, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He has many happy memories of attending rural festivals like Strawberry Festival at the farms that surrounded both towns. As a child, Ben’s dream was to own an ice cream parlor. In college, he finally got the opportunity to work at a parlor. It was an incredible experience for him, and to this day, owning an ice cream parlor is still a dream of his.
Leaving the ice cream parlor dream to the side, Ben pursued an English degree with the aim of having a career in advertising. He interned in a variety of roles: a local newspaper, a television station, and even at the White House for a summer! Throughout all of these experiences and his collegiate career, he honed his writing skills. Doing so would prove to be the foundation of everything he did later in life, from working at an advertising agency to writing his own books.
THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOW:
- How to give yourself permission to start over in your career.
- Which book had an impact on Ben and why?
- It’s important to diversify your revenue portfolio: true or false?
- How to identify which avenues to pursue and how to pursue them.
- Combining passion with profitability: when and how to do it.
- Why you don’t have to fear failure.
- And so much more!
After college he did land a job in advertising but soon lost interest in it; he loved the type of people he was working with but something wasn’t exactly the perfect fit. So he continued to search. Going back to his love of event planning, Ben took a job in event planning with a company called Catalyst in Atlanta.
While working at Catalyst, he helped them organize events were that served three thousand or more people. Their primary target was young leaders. This opportunity in event planning was a tremendous boost for Ben; by doing so he realized his true passions are working with the creative class and event planning.
With this realization, Ben knew he could make the leap and run his own event. So he began a program called Dream Year. With Dream Year, he serves people who are ready to make a change in their lives, take steps toward doing what they love. Dream Year involves taking these ready-for-change people, 12 at a time, and walking them through the program to make their own unique ideas and dreams a reality.
When Ben looks back on his earlier life, he can see what led him down the path of event production. As a child, he enjoyed the grand events that his church put on, and he loved planning fun events for his little sister. Those fond memories coupled with his initial success and his background in advertising all led him to create the thriving and successful enterprise he has today in Dream Year.
Please join me in thanking Ben for sharing his knowledge biscuits with us today! I know you’ll find them inspiring and helpful. We appreciate you being here with us and we’ll see you on the next episode of “How Did You Get Into That?”!
Tweetable: “The thing I really wanted to do was live a significant life.” Ben Arment
EPISODE RESOURCES
- 99 Designs – Complementary Power Pack
- Ben’s web site
- Ben on Twitter
- Dream Year, Ben’s book
- Email me with any questions, comments or guest suggestions at Grant@GrantBaldwin.com
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