We recently had the chance to connect with BENJAMIN PEACE HOFFMAN and have shared our conversation below.
BENJAMIN PEACE, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I usually begin my day with a reading alongside my life partner—we really enjoy a 365-day book focused on peaceful communication (Peaceful Living: Daily Meditations for Living with Love, Healing, and Compassion),
After that, I try to get outside to catch the morning light while I do my morning meditation, then I do my sun salutations, and then journal. My journaling has three parts:
Free-form writing (Dear Universe)
Gratitude – from the prior day
Planning the day from a place of gratitude
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m the founder of cityHUNT, a company that brings teams together through fun, interactive scavenger hunts designed to build connection, improve workplace culture, and spark joy. For over two decades, I’ve been combining mindfulness, positive psychology, gamification, and adventure to help individuals and organizations thrive.
In 2019, a retreat in Costa Rica shifted everything for me. That experience led me down a path of self-discovery through India, Ecuador, and deep inner work. I began to shed old patterns—emotional reactivity, codependency, excess weight—and embraced a more intentional, grounded way of living. Yoga, meditation, and time in nature became daily rituals, helping me return to presence and purpose.
Now, I focus on bridging ancient wisdom with modern strategy. My work and life are guided by biophilic principles—regeneration, reciprocity, and deep connection with the natural world. I believe that true transformation begins with reconnecting to ourselves, and then extending that connection to others and our environment.
Through cityHUNT’s Make Awesome for Others initiative, we’ve redirected over half a million dollars in profits toward scholarships that allow nonprofits, schools, and mission-driven groups to experience the power of team building.
These days, I live in a wellness-centered community near Atlanta. I spend as much time outdoors as possible—often walking barefoot during calls—and do my best to live in alignment with the values I teach.
At my core, I’m committed to my journey for inner peace, regardless of the outer world and supporting others on their journeys.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
One of the earliest, strongest memories as a child was setting up a “circus” in the tiny triangle of grass in front of our row home in Overbrook Park, Philadelphia. Our street was a stretch of working-class row houses—brick boxes neatly stacked, each one sharing walls with the next. There were no porches, just a row of small front yards, each one fenced in with a chain-link fence.
In our little yard stood a metal jungle gym—simple, sturdy, with monkey bars, a swing, and maybe a slide. It took up almost the entire space. To the grown-ups, it was probably just a structure to keep kids busy. But to me, it was a stage. A circus tent. A place where imagination could take over.
I recruited the neighborhood kids—who all lived just a few feet away—and together we put on shows. We climbed, swung, invented acts, and rehearsed like it mattered. I printed flyers, charged a quarter for admission, invited every parent on the block, and handed out Dixie cups of orange juice to our “audience.”
Even then, I was drawn to connection—to turning the ordinary into something joyful and shared. That little ringmaster in a chain-link triangle, dreaming big on a tiny patch of grass—that’s who I was before the world tried to shape me into anything else.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
During COVID, I felt like my world was collapsing. I was still in the early stages of my divorce, living alone with my dog on a small farm. The quarantine rules kept me from seeing my two children, friends, or family. I felt completely isolated.
At the same time, cityHUNT—the team-building scavenger hunt company I had poured most of my life into—came to an abrupt and expensive halt. All of my investments dropped dramatically, and I was under intense financial pressure. It felt like everything I had built was crumbling around me.
In that silence and uncertainty, I came dangerously close to giving up. But something inside me shifted. I had to dig deep and learn how to transform loneliness into the power of solitude. It was during that time that I discovered how to find peace in stillness, and how to rebuild—not just my business, but myself—from the inside out.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
One of the biggest lies I hear in the team-building and personal development space is the promise to fix or heal people and teams—as if that transformation can be done to them. But real growth doesn’t come from an outside expert swooping in with answers. It comes from within—within each person, within each team.
The real work isn’t about delivering a quick solution. It’s about creating meaningful experiences and offering the right tools so people can do the work themselves—together—in ways that are engaging, empowering, and even fun. That’s where true and lasting transformation begins.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
I love this question, because I see inner peace not as a moment, but as a practice—a way of living. I feel most at peace when I’m consciously choosing to return to it, over and over, throughout the day, through my practices. Whether I’m meditating, walking barefoot outside, or just taking a breath before a conversation, those small moments of presence bring me back to center.
Peace isn’t a quick fix—it’s something I commit to every day. It’s the foundation for how I show up for my family, my team, my friends, and the world around me. Living from a place of inner peace is my work, my path, and my offering.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cityhunt.com, https://www.benjaminpeacehoffman.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cityhunt/
- Other: I find less is more with social media
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
