Unlocking Your Potential with Ben Nemtin

Ben Nemtin
9/9/2024

Ben Nemtin, one of the keynote speakers at the 2024 VRMA International Conference, is known for his inspiring journey from battling depression to achieving extraordinary life goals while helping others along the way. As co-founder of The Buried Life movement, Nemtin has been on a mission to help people accomplish their bucket list dreams, from playing basketball with President Obama to helping a stranger reunite with a long-lost family member.

In this Q&A, Nemtin dives deep into the principles behind his message of hope, resilience, and purposeful living. He offers practical advice tailored to vacation rental managers who face the dual challenges of high-pressure work and an ever-evolving industry landscape. Whether it’s fostering a culture of service, balancing personal well-being, or embracing uncertainty, Nemtin shares insights that can empower you to unlock your greatest potential—both personally and professionally.

Check out Nemtin’s presentation, “Resilience in the Face of Uncertainty” on Tuesday, October 15, from 9-10:15 a.m. MT. Register for the conference here.

Your journey from overcoming depression to achieving incredible life goals is inspiring. Could you share what specific message or theme you plan to focus on during your keynote at the VRMA International Conference?

The messages I will share are how to achieve seemingly impossible goals and steps to achieve goals that feel out of reach, as well as some strategies to overcome some of the current challenges facing the industry and a process to create a work-life harmony that energizes the audience to be the best version of themselves and unlock their greatest potential.

You mention that audience members will take away eight practices that increase well-being during times of stress, anxiety, and burnout. Could you highlight a couple of these practices and explain how they might be particularly beneficial for those managing vacation rentals, who often face high levels of stress?

I know that vacation rental managers are always on. It’s a 24/7 job, and it’s also a high-stress job. So, here are a few tools that helped me navigate high-stress situations. One is the importance of connecting and sharing the stresses that you are under. I want to strip away the shame of any challenges—mental health challenges, emotional challenges. This is part of the human experience. We all have ups and downs, and that’s OK. It’s important to share these challenges with friends, loved ones, and professionals so that we can learn from them and grow, as well as connect purpose.

This is why I talk about a bucket list. A bucket list is just a list of all the things that bring you a sense of purpose. I want to give people the opportunity to find the things that make them feel more alive and allow them to navigate the ups and downs of life. Because when we are doing things that give us purpose, we’re able to unlock our health potential. There’s all this research coming out that correlates health and purpose, and those with a sense of purpose are able to bounce back from illness more quickly.

I also want to talk about the impact that helping others has when we are navigating our stress. When we help someone else, it takes us out of our own heads. We’re able to connect with someone else, and it increases our well-being. We’re also able to build a connection with someone else.

You emphasize the power of small acts of service to create a large-scale impact. Can you share some examples of how to incorporate acts of service into daily operations?

I like to think about the ripple effect that we have the opportunity to create through all of our micro-interactions in our day-to-day lives. When it comes to incorporating acts of service into daily operations, it’s thinking about how small actions create large-scale reactions through this idea of a ripple effect. Every gesture of kindness, every helping hand, every time you go above and beyond—whether it’s with your clients or with your team—all actions, big or small, create a reaction. So, we want to be cognizant of the ripple effect we are creating and know that change happens even if we don’t see it. It’s an empowering thought because it’s proof that one person can create an incredible impact through small acts of service.

You talk about the importance of recognizing that all aspects of life impact work performance. What advice would you give to property managers who struggle to balance the demands of their work with their personal well-being?

You can’t do your job at the highest level if you don’t serve yourself first. This means taking time to do the things we love outside of work because that will energize us to do our job at the highest level. My advice would be to carve out time for the things that make you feel most alive outside of work and protect time to do those things, knowing that they’re not selfish. It’s actually service, because when you put yourself first, you put yourself in a position to serve others.

For property managers looking to foster a culture of service and gratitude within their teams, what steps can they take to start this transformation, especially in a high-pressure, customer-facing environment?

Property managers should consider taking an interest in their team’s personal passions. Who are you leading? What type of person are they? What are their dreams? What do they value? How can you identify the things that they value and help them find purpose at work? How can you, as a leader, enable them and encourage them to create a work-life harmony for themselves to unlock their full potential?

I would encourage each person to identify one personal passion from their team members and check in on that goal down the line. That will create accountability for the person to actually drive toward that goal, and then they will associate that personal win with you as a leader and the organization. I think that’s how you foster a culture of service and gratitude. They will feel empowered to be their true self. They’re thriving at work, and they’re thriving outside of work.

The vacation rental industry is no stranger to uncertainty, whether it’s due to economic shifts, regulatory changes, or evolving customer expectations. What strategies can managers use to not only cope with uncertainty but find opportunities within it?

My belief is that there’s a huge opportunity in uncertainty because change and growth happen outside of our comfort zone. I think we can all pinpoint examples in our lives or careers where we were faced with a change or an uncomfortable situation and we were forced to adapt, and on the other side, we grew stronger, found opportunities that were not available or that we didn’t see before that change. Something transformational is on the other side of that discomfort and fear. It’s not a bad thing; it’s proof that the thing you’re doing is meaningful. You’re putting yourself on the line. You have to be vulnerable, and by doing that, you’re actually forcing yourself to grow. And whether or not the outcome is what you want, at the very least you’ve grown as part of the process. That is how you evolve. You know that there’s constant change happening; understanding that you can only control what you can control instead of trying to control the things that are out of your control, you will be able to focus on what you can control.

What do you hope attendees of the VRMA International Conference will take away from your keynote session?

I really hope that attendees will take away a feeling that anything is possible for them in their life and a renewed sense of hope in their ability to wake up every day excited to tackle the challenges that they’re facing at work and in life. I want them to not only feel inspired but to know the playbook to extend that inspiration and to put that into practice so that they have the steps to achieve those things that are meaningful to them and feel the energy to do so.

What is your favorite vacation destination?

This is a great question and the most difficult to answer. I love Tokyo, Japan. I went there last year. But I also just went to the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. I hiked hut to hut in the Dolomites, and that was, I think, my favorite vacation experience. It was an adventure. It was beautiful. The food was incredible. I did it with my girlfriend. We had an incredible time.

---