We were lucky to catch up with Benjamin Meehan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Benjamin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

As of January 2022, I am a full-time content creator. It took nearly 4.5 years of investment of my time and finances, among many other sacrifices. I knew what potential my content had, so I wanted to push through the discouraging times. With my niche, plenty of traveling, lots of out-of-pocket expenses, and sacrificing of my social life was and often still is necessary. For events catered to my content, I would regularly have to take time off of my 9-to-5 to attend and document. There is obviously a lot of competition online, so I had to stay dedicated and continue to push myself to produce. Perhaps small things along the way I could’ve done differently, but overall I feel like the pace I set for myself was good, and I quit my 9-to-5 at just the right time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, I am Florida born and raised, so I grew up going to theme parks somewhat frequently. I got more and more excited for the next trip each time I went to a theme park. My brothers and I used to design amateur rides in our grandmother’s garage and push each other through them on a shopping cart we found. As I grew older, I could go to the parks as often as I wanted. I even started going by myself, taking plenty of pictures and videos, and waiting in the single-rider lines. I thought it would be fun to create a social media page about my trips. After getting tons of responses, I decided to start a YouTube channel. That’s when things really started taking off for my brand. One thing I really wanted to focus on with Theme Park Groupie is quality. I didn’t want to post photos and videos just to post them, but I wanted to set myself apart by the fine details others may have disregarded or skipped over. Above all else, the most important part of what I do is bringing the experiences to those that aren’t able to go to the parks themselves. Enjoying a theme park requires money, time off of work and school, travel, and other miscellaneous sacrifices. I feed off of bringing these sights and thrills to the devices of my fanbase, including to those who don’t necessarily have the luxury of going to theme parks regularly.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Many avoid creating on the internet because they’re unsure of how others will respond. Are there naysayers and adverse reactions? Of course. But the positive viewers who truly enjoy my content and appreciate the hard work behind the product outweigh in number and impact. Many people come to my sites to experience rides or events that they couldn’t try for themselves. People, in general, are very grateful to join me in these moments. Staying in contact with my followers motivates me to continue to do as much as I can.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Hard lessons I had to learn were to a) never be too proud to realize something you’ve poured your heart and soul into just… doesn’t work; be adaptable; watch videos on very specific improvements you can make to bring your content to the next level; and b) always stay connected to your competition; many (including myself) stay away from competitors in their niche in order to stand out and do things their own way, but getting past this mindset and recognizing the resources you can access from those who are working towards the same goal as you will improve your knowledge and craft in ways you wouldn’t realize or expect.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparkgroupie
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themeparkgroupie
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/themeprkgroupie
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/themeparkgroupie
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparkgroupie