We recently connected with Benjamin Koch and have shared our conversation below.
Benjamin , appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
Several years ago I attended a leadership and entrepreneur retreat in California that included being guided through a process to create a life purpose statement. Up until then, I had generally, if not vaguely, thought about purpose as an important aspect of setting goals and making decisions, but this was the first time I’d done an in-depth dig for something definitive. For that particular retreat, we closed with a ceremony in which every attendee (400+ total) shared their purpose statement with the whole assembly. I got up with great anticipation, declared my life purpose, and if felt….completely FLAT!
I didn’t understand. I’d used all the right words, evoked a deep and altruistic mission, and it totally aligned with what I was currently doing. And yet, it didn’t resonate. This insight that I hadn’t tapped in deeply enough, or with the right amount of self-honesty, was a massive turning point for me.
So I went back to that same retreat the very next year and promised myself that I would not stop working on my purpose statement until I KNEW it was on point. I abandoned all expectations. I got vulnerable. I surrendered to the process. And that time, when I read my purpose statement out loud, I felt it from head to toe. It reverberated throughout my energy system. It felt like truth. Like a deep acceptance of something about myself that could only be reached by surrendering layers of concepts and self-imagery and relaxing into my essence.
You see, your true purpose is not something you muscle your way to, or construct with cleverness and algorithms. It’s the simple, naked, cosmic truth you have about yourself once you’ve abandoned all those constructs.
And when you get there, you can finally get down to business. The years after that SECOND retreat, my life began to evolve and transform rapidly in alignment with my purpose statement. Doing that work was a game-changer that opened unforeseen doors and avenues for growth and expansion.
Benjamin , 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?
Inspired by my own experience with purpose work and the transformative effect it had on my life, I’ve built a coaching and consulting practice around creating and holding space for others to discover and define their own purpose. I use many tools and approaches, including mindfulness meditation, breathwork, visualization, sound healing, ceremony, and mindset work to co-create the conditions and causes for clients and students to have their own breakthroughs. My goal is for them to find their own natural expansion into their gifts, their potential, and their purposeful evolution.
One of my programs is called the Purpose Lab, which is an experience I created based on my own purpose definition process and all the additional research I’ve done in the years since the experience I’ve described. I offer it in regular virtual workshops as well as in-person experiences, including at retreats.
My background is education and I did spend many years in the classroom, but since 2013 I’ve been an entrepreneur, when I co-founded a startup called NuMinds Enrichment focused on transforming the education landscape with real, inspired learning. I’m currently the Executive Director of a non-profit called Education Unbound, where our mission is to nurture the potential and flourishing of underserved populations.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
The more experienced I get in the entrepreneurial and coaching/creative space, the more I understand the simple, powerful role of consistency and mindset. One creator I really admire, Rich Roll, has a phrase he shares (which he got from someone!) that goes, “It’s not about who goes the fastest, it’s about who stops the least.”
In other words, long-term success, impact, and growth isn’t about those mega-moments of energized inspiration when you feel invincible. True transformation happens when you KEEP MOVING on those days when you feel lost, vulnerable, and unsure, but you hold enough of that vision of where you’re headed that you can take the next step. Then the next one.. And another. The key to holding that vision on those days? Purpose.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the pandemic hit in 2020, my business NuMinds was a 95% old-school, in-person service company. Literally over the course of a single weekend we shifted all of our energy and resources into figuring out how we could serve in the new digital, virtual only era. We took our years of educational content and knowledge and began to live-stream 6 hours a day for parents, teachers and students. We had practically become a TV station.
This model wasn’t sustainable over the long-run but it opened up new possibilities for a wonderful pivot. We developed a new platform and approach to empower schools and districts, nurtured the art of virtual student programming, and even created a podcast that still runs today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.benjaminkoch.live/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjaminkoch.live/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-koch-m-ed-3708442a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN2fS8Ew-qJvlIEopylbtSA
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