We were lucky to catch up with Ben Lee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ben, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Finding balance and self-care is one of the most radical career moves I’ve ever made. Being from LA and growing up in a very superficial environment, where masculine worth is linked to productivity and financial success, I thought I could work myself to the top. I did become successful in many ways, but at the expense of my health, my happiness and my sense of self. I had 2 auto-immune conditions and Lyme disease, I was overweight, I was completely addicted to technology and spent way too much time staring into devices. My health was steering me in another direction I never cared about or thought I’d gravitate towards- holistic health, meditation and ultimately, digital detox. I unplugged from tech for one week in 2020 and my entire life changed. I now work as a Chief Marketing Officer for Formula.Monks, the technology group of Media.Monks and also facilitate men’s retreats called THE RESET. It’s aimed at helping men find the balance between superficial success and profound inner fulfillment. My passion is supporting other men unplug from the matrix and find themselves while still needing to exist in our busy world.

Ben, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m building a retreat center in Costa Rica where men can come to experience one of my signature offerings, mainly THE RESET, an individual digital detox program, or a psychedelic integration, which means taking a dedicated time to oneself after a psychedelic or plant medicine journey to digest the experience. The aim is to eliminate the distractions of the day-to-day and drop into what’s been beneath the surface. I created THE RESET, which will be hosted here when construction is finished, to help men rewrite the narrative on what success means to them, where their purpose lies, and the limiting beliefs that say we have to choose between money and happiness.

Ben Lee, creator of THE RESET men’s retreat has been living in Costa Rica for 4 years.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Back in my early twenties, I was in the restaurant and nightclub scene. By the time I hit 21, I had reached a pretty high level of success and became a partner at a restaurant called Kitchen 24. But then the global financial crisis hit, and everything came crashing down. I found myself burnt out, physically ill, sleeping on my sister’s couch and totally unsure what to do with myself.
That’s when one of my old investors threw me a lifeline—a job offer at a tech consulting firm. It was a total 180 from what I was used to, but I took it. That decision changed everything. For the past 14 years, I’ve been knee-deep in that world, building up my social media presence along the way. At first, it was all about the ego trip—chasing after girls, hitting up lifestyle brands for freebies, and hanging around with celebrities and influencers, all that cliche LA stuff you know? But I saw an opportunity with LinkedIn and started sharing there. Pretty quickly I was getting millions, sometimes hundreds of millions of views, and I was dubbed the “LinkedIn broetry guy.” It led me to where I am now, which looks nothing like where I started, and that’s the beauty of it.

Construction of re:center, Ben’s retreat and digital detox hub is underway in Santa Teresa, Playa Hermosa

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yobenlee.com/ , https://coaching.benlee.ventures/
• Instagram: instagram.com/@yobenlee
  
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/yobenlee
• Twitter: twitter.com/yobenlee
• Youtube: YouTube.com/yobenlee 
• Other: tiktok.com/yobenlee