An Inspired Chat with Ben Ivers

We recently had the chance to connect with Ben Ivers and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Ben, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? Who are you learning from right now?
Lately, I’ve been learning the most from my friends and family. I’m in a season of life where I’m really cherishing my relationships and putting them at the highest priority – a decision I made a few years ago after unexpectedly losing a few loved ones.

Ironically, switching the priority from my career path to my relationships has only made me stronger in both my career and my personal relationships. I was anticipating some type of compromise, but it’s actually not the case. I suppose it could be because as a non-scripted documentary and branded content director/ editor my job is to tell honest, human stories; so the better I am with connecting with people in person, the better I am at connecting with people through film.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Ben and I’m a director/ editor in Connecticut. As a filmmaker, I’m most fulfilled when I can tell human stories that ignite curiosity and inspire action for a more inclusive and compassionate world.

Some of my work has been recognized by The Clio Awards, DOCNYC, Tribeca Film Festival, BANFF, and has earned a Vimeo Staff Pick. I’ve worked with a range of brands including Google, Toyota, Nike, Smirnoff, Athletic Brewing, Marriott, SanDisk, and many more.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
For as long as I could remember, I was always associating my value with my productivity. Any of my friends can attest that I always had a project queued up and never had a day where all I did was relax. For example, I could never sit and binge a whole season of a show because internally I was telling myself that I was wasting time and I could be doing something.

Although I still can’t imagine watching an entire season of a show in one sitting, I’ve learned that it’s more important to enjoy free time than to chase productivity 100% of the time. More importantly, I no longer measure my worth by how productive I am. That part of me once served it’s purpose and without that part of me I don’t think I’d be where I am today; But now I am relearning how vital it is to explore my passions even when they don’t align with my career or daily responsibilities.

I can’t take credit for this mindset shift, though—if it weren’t for my fiancé, I might never have realized what I was missing. It’s been incredibly fulfilling to readjust my mindset, and I’ve even gotten back into mountain biking for the first time in 15 years. It feels amazing.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Fear of failure has held me back the most in my life – more specifically fear of failing to be perfect. Striving for perfection is a great thing to strive for but waiting to complete something until its perfect is not practical and in many cases is more destructive than productive.

It took me a while to learn that no one has everything figured out and we’re all just doing the best we can. And thats the thing, I always want to improve, I always want to learn more, to be better than I was before; If things were perfect, I would never grow as a person. A word I now prefer to use instead of perfection is “Kaizen” a Japanese word that stands for continual improvement – as long as I’m improving in someway, big or small, I will never fail. So it’s taken me a while to learn, but I’ve finally overcome the fear of failing to be perfect and for the best.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
In my opinion, brands wanting “Content Creators” is the biggest lie in my industry. First off I hate the term “content creators” it feels broad and meaningless to me, which is my exact problem with content creators. The most powerful messages in the world are told by quality storytellers – not from generic content creators that promote a new brand every week. So why are brands so eager to work with content creators?

Sure the viewing numbers probably look enticing, but is that really a metric to abide by? How long does that content live with them after they watch it? Will they think about it tomorrow, a week from today, or a year from now? Most likely not.

I’m not a marketer so I don’t actually know the metrics, but what I do know is that people care about stories. And I think it’s more powerful to connect with people through one quality story than through hundreds of generic miscellaneous videos.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
When I’m dead and gone, I think people will mistake my legacy with my accomplishments such as the brands I worked with or the stories I’ve helped tell, but that’s really not what I want to be remembered by. Maybe it’s an elementary concept, but I really do live my life by the golden rule, “treat others as you would like to be treated”. I really just want that to be my legacy – not accomplishments or possessions, but the way I treated people. I think most people believe in this idea that a legacy has to be grand and astonishing, but I don’t think it has to be that extensive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.benivers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ben.ivers/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benivers/
• Youtube: https://vimeo.com/benivers