420 | Capitalism, Travel, E-Commerce Secrets & Creating The Perfect Business

Jan 8

[00:00:47] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody. I'm Chaz Wolf gathering the King's podcast. Coming back to you here today with another King on the stage, Ben Camille, my brother, how we doing?
[00:00:57] Ben Camille: I'm doing great, man. Thanks so much for having me.
[00:00:59] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, man. You know, we just got off of a little, a little side note over here. You were just giving me some awesome words of encouragement and I just so appreciate you.
[00:01:08] Chaz Wolfe: I just wanted, I had to say that publicly that this is going to be super special. ~Um, ~not because. Just because you're a great entrepreneur. We're going to get into your 20 year history here, but,~ uh,~ I can tell that you appreciate the things that,~ uh,~ are, are valuable. And so, ~uh, ~I just want to tell you, thank you for being here.
[00:01:22] Ben Camille: You're welcome.
[00:01:23] Chaz Wolfe: yeah, man. I think that, that people are going to get a lot out of the show. So tell us what kind of business that you have right now.
[00:01:27] Ben Camille: So before I answer that, I wanted to just tell you why I do appreciate what you do so much because I am an entrepreneur and I am someone that really does want to. Notice what's going on around me. And so when I see something that's unique and it's different, I notice it. Okay. A lot of people don't notice it and kind of flies by, but it goes into my business and how we began it.
[00:01:47] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~and that's a big part of it really kind of noticing what the opportunities are around you. ~Um, ~so I run travel defend, which is a travel insurance brokerage. ~Uh, ~it doesn't sound very exciting, but it is very exciting. ~Um, ~essentially right now. We work with hundreds of tour operators, travel agents. We have thousands of clients.
[00:02:04] Ben Camille: There's a massive hole in that market in terms of travel insurance. People are just, you know, very ignorant. You know, I'm not here to offend anyone, but the reality is there's tremendous ignorance that exists in terms of travel insurance. For 20 years, I ran a luxury tour company, and this is kind of an offshoot of that.
[00:02:21] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~and so we're here working with not just luxury clients, but many luxury clients,~ um,~ making sure they're legitimately protected. The commissions are insanely fantastic. And so we can get into why it's such a great business, but I think there's a lot of lessons here for the listeners for sure.
[00:02:36] Chaz Wolfe: Well, I appreciate your authenticity about some of those things, even just in that first couple of sentences, it's the vibe that I got, even from being on your website, just that there was transparency and authenticity. And I think that we're going to get that from you here today. I think that's a little bit of your style.
[00:02:50] Chaz Wolfe: You've mentioned that there's a major pivot here and obviously the travel industry is one that is never going to go away, but here a couple of years ago, it went to zero,~ um,~ real fast. Yeah. And, and you had to fight through that. So you're going to have, I hate, I hate the,~ uh,~ the idea of like, Hey, how did you survive through COVID?
[00:03:06] Chaz Wolfe: I'm sure you've probably told that story several times, but I'm sure we'll get to that major mountain for you. ~Uh, ~before we do though, you personally, as the entrepreneur, who's been in business now, 20 years and wanting to pay attention and do the things that are, you know, be, be in the motion. Like, as you kind of talked about the beginning, what's in it for you?
[00:03:21] Chaz Wolfe: Like what, why are you an entrepreneur? Like the deep seated, the thing that beats like real deep in there.
[00:03:28] Ben Camille: Yeah. I mean, something has to be a little wrong with you. You have to be a little crazy. ~Um, ~because most of, you know, and it's funny now that I'm 40 years old, I look back, I can really have perspective. You look at your high school class and you really can say, Oh, who was the, who were successful, who weren't.
[00:03:42] Ben Camille: And it's so funny to look at. And I see that, I don't know, 95 percent of all my friends. ~Um, ~they're not entrepreneurs, they have regular jobs,~ um,~ you know, their management consultants. And I'm like, you're a consultant. I'm like, what do you know? You don't know anything. How do you, how are you a management consultant?
[00:03:58] Ben Camille: You know, sometimes when you grow up with people, you can't imagine like anyone would hire you. But the point is, is that. ~Um, ~I started young. ~Um, ~I played college baseball. I was a baseball player. I was a division one baseball player and really up to the time I graduated from college, I never thought about business.
[00:04:13] Ben Camille: I never thought about money. I was really kind of just focused on baseball. ~Um, ~and when that kind of ended, I got to a point where I remember meeting with a friend of mine. And I mean, this may sound funny, but at the time he just said, look. Let's figure out a way to make you 30 grand a year. Okay. And I was like, okay, 30 grand a year.
[00:04:30] Ben Camille: I'm like, what are we doing? Like I knew nothing. Okay. And he's like, you could either get a real job or you can figure out a way to make 30 grand a year. That was our way of looking at it when I was, I don't know, 20 years old. And I got to a point where. I just tried a lot of different things and eventually I got into running super, super luxury tours.
[00:04:48] Ben Camille: I mean, I'm talking ultimate in luxury. ~Um, ~everyone saw us coming a mile away. It was a disaster in the beginning. That's a whole other story we can get into if you want to. But the point is we really fought through it. ~Um, ~I remember the first time I met with a high end hotel, the lady that was showing me around, she said to me, Oh, is this like a school project or something?
[00:05:07] Ben Camille: And I'm like, yeah, we're giving you like hundreds of thousands of dollars for my school project. I'm like, what the hell are you saying? Like really people couldn't compute that. I was really trying to run this business. ~Um, ~my family, many people around me told me. That I will fail and I shouldn't do it.
[00:05:23] Ben Camille: And this is crazy. And this was back in the days when you can get a loan from a bank. And I was living in my parents basement. I, you know, I got somehow a loan from a bank. My family does not come from any money. I mean, we had literally had nothing. And so somehow,~ um,~ we were able to. ~Uh, ~over years, really turn that into something that I will say was very successful,~ um,~ and kind of to jump ahead.
[00:05:46] Ben Camille: COVID was really a game changer for us. COVID happened. ~Um, ~it destroyed us,~ uh,~ not just financially, but I would say it destroyed my confidence. It destroyed me mentally. ~Um, ~I have a family like we discussed with kids. ~Um, ~and for three years, I didn't make any money. So all my life savings was shot. It was gone.
[00:06:04] Ben Camille: And, ~um. ~You know, that, that was something that I think that we probably should get into because there's a lot of lessons there. But the point is,~ um,~ I really kind of went down to a level of appreciating, you know, what life is not just about money and it's not, and you know, you have to really kind of get into a different mindset of just appreciating,~ uh,~ what you do have.
[00:06:23] Ben Camille: You know, I remember I told my son, he's nine years old. I told him, I said, would you sell one of your eyes for a million dollars? And to him, a million dollars would be like the best thing that ever could create it'd be created. And I, and he said, no, are you crazy? And I'm like, well, then you are a millionaire.
[00:06:38] Ben Camille: I mean, if you have something that you wouldn't sell for a million dollars, you are a millionaire. Okay. And so I know it sounds like kitschy or whatever, but it's really true. Okay. Like we really have to appreciate our health. We have to appreciate what we have. ~Um, ~now coming back from COVID. I knew that nobody was going to book these super luxury vacations without travel insurance.
[00:06:57] Ben Camille: And so I became really hyper focused on it and I became obsessed with it. And I think it's really just. I don't know if you want to say it's from God or whatever it is, why I became so focused on travel insurance, like who cares about it, but I got obsessed with it. Okay, I wanted to understand it. I understood the policies.
[00:07:14] Ben Camille: I wanted to understand everything there was to know about it. And not just that. I wanted to make sure people will get paid in real life. Okay, so I went to all the industry events. I started meeting who are the head of the claims departments. Who's the decision maker on these policies from all these companies?
[00:07:28] Ben Camille: And I just immersed myself to such a degree that I kind of became an expert very quickly. I started selling it to my own clients and the commission structure is fantastic. ~Um, ~they pay huge commissions and travel insurance. So if I have, let's say, I'll give you an example. Let's have a couple. And there are 60s, 70s, you know, paying, let's say 15, 20 grand on a, on a, on a tour.
[00:07:50] Ben Camille: I mean, that could cost two to three grand right there. Okay. And I can get 40 percent of that. Okay. So it's, it's cash. It's straight cash. I mean, you're making very good money very quickly. We never add a penny to the cost. I don't, it's the same cost it would be anyway, but we have. All the expertise,~ um,~ we make sure they get paid and all this kind of stuff.
[00:08:09] Ben Camille: And so we really full service. And then I went to all the other companies in my niche. I said, look, you guys are in the same boat. You need help with this. Your clients aren't going to book with you either. They started sending them all over all their people. And we were doing that and then giving them back a commission.
[00:08:23] Ben Camille: And now we've built it. We have hundreds of tour companies. We work with hundreds of travel agents. We have thousands of clients. ~Um, ~and it really has. I I've given up the tour business. This is a much better business. ~Um, ~so that's, I don't know. I, I guess that's as quick as I can
[00:08:36] Chaz Wolfe: No, dude. All of that. I mean, if you're listening right now and you're not fired up. ~Um, ~just turn it off because we're not the same people. ~Um, ~every part of that, especially as you were kind of getting into like, I don't know why I was obsessed with this. Like, I just wanted to know all the nooks and crannies and the policy details, and I wanted to meet the people.
[00:08:52] Chaz Wolfe: And you were being thrusted into this next thing. And the mindset that you had was obviously the complete opposite of, you know, a victim. ~Uh, ~I've been taken advantage of from COVID and the, and the government or this or that, or I don't have any money or you just could have. Told yourself a story in so many different ways.
[00:09:10] Chaz Wolfe: In fact, actually you were just talking about being grateful or having appreciation for things, health wise, whatever. Sometimes when we get those things kind of too far back there,~ um,~ we've kind of forget about them. I was listening to a podcast actually this morning, and I rarely do this when I'm working out, but I was listening to a podcast this morning.
[00:09:27] Chaz Wolfe: And the guy was talking about his mindset shift when he was going through a death with his dad. And,~ uh,~ he was talking about mental health and,~ uh,~ how he found this picture of his dad. It was his, the last picture known of his dad, but it was literally his dad was dead. It was a picture of him, his dead body there in the casket or whatever it was.
[00:09:46] Chaz Wolfe: I don't know. And he hated this picture. And it just like, it really got him like frustrated every single time until he started working on it. Until he started working on it more until he said, I fell in love with the picture and I'm sitting there, I'm doing, I'm doing chest press today, going, what in the world is he talking about?
[00:10:03] Ben Camille: I did chest press today too. We got to talk about
[00:10:06] Chaz Wolfe: Kings. All right. So, so he's like a couple minutes later, he's like, dude, I fell in love with the picture because it's the last picture of my dad.
[00:10:13] Ben Camille: Yeah, everything is is mental structure,
[00:10:16] Ben Camille: right? It's a way of looking at
[00:10:18] Ben Camille: things. Yeah.
[00:10:19] Ben Camille: that's cool. That's a cool story.
[00:10:21] Chaz Wolfe: You've been in this travel world for 20 plus years. COVID's on the, like the, the, the tickle, right? Like everybody's talking about it. It hasn't come burning, crashing down. What are you thinking in that moment?
[00:10:31] Ben Camille: well again, I I can't I'm not here to talk about anyone else and and all that but in my world personally all the people that I know and all my friends and everyone in my community everyone Benefited from COVID I was in my world. Again, obviously I'm not, obviously there were millions of people that got hammered, but I was the only one in my world that really got destroyed.
[00:10:54] Ben Camille: And so essentially we had a massive event. It was starting in April. ~Um, ~there would have been millions of dollars coming in. Okay. And about a week before the governor of California shut down, it was in San Diego, this event, he shut down events. Right. And at the time, now we look back and that's somewhat normal, but at the time I'm like, Shut down events.
[00:11:14] Ben Camille: Like what the hell are you talking about? You're shutting down. This was American freedom. I was like, this is not possible. People were asking me, are you going to cancel? I'm like, I will never cancel. Why would I cancel? I I'm all pay every, all the bank accounts are full. We're ready to rock. Okay. I was literally at the property a few days before setting up like.
[00:11:33] Ben Camille: Final details with the, with the, you know, with the hotel staff and all this kind of stuff. And anyway, so that happened and all of a sudden I was the bad guy, right? I'm this terrible guy. Everyone's screaming at me. We want our money back. And we're talking about millions of dollars. Okay. And so we kind of, you know, internally looked at everything.
[00:11:51] Ben Camille: We said, look, we already spent 25 percent of what we got in creating this event, because I mean, how are you supposed to create an event? You know, we're talking about food going 24 hours a day. We're talking about super high end entertainment. This is all families. Also kids. We had day camp daycare. We had.
[00:12:10] Ben Camille: World famous speakers, you know, like Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, all these guys come to our, our event as speakers. All right. We already paid out a lot of money. So we looked at everything internally and we told everyone, look, we can give you 75 percent back of what you gave. And I know that's not like, that doesn't make them happy that they did lose money, but that's what I have.
[00:12:31] Ben Camille: I'm like, I don't have a penny more than that. I'm saying, what am I supposed to do? And so we had, everyone basically was, was cool with that. ~Uh, ~for a while, the hotel didn't want to give us, we had 800, 000 in with them with deposits. They didn't want to give us that money back. They said, yeah, we'll roll it over to the future.
[00:12:46] Ben Camille: I'm like, bro, who knows what the future holds? Do I know that what, what's going to happen here? I mean, this is like the craziest situation ever. So we were very, very, very tough on the hotel. ~Uh, ~they did give us, thank, you know, thank God they gave us that money back and we gave everyone 75%. And now I just worked an entire year and I was about to make money for my family.
[00:13:08] Ben Camille: And so that happened a week, that event was a week after, like they shut COVID was like end of March. Okay. I don't know if you remember that time. And so our event was beginning of April. And so I gave all that money back. I had nothing. I just worked the whole year. I have nothing. And,~ uh,~ our events were in California.
[00:13:23] Ben Camille: So. You know, it was another two years. So it was really three years between events. And so I don't know, I don't know what your question was, honestly. ~Uh, ~this was a very hard time. I, you know, again, it's a very hard time.
[00:13:35] Chaz Wolfe: we got, we got plenty, man. ~Uh, ~you, I love, I love the energy, honestly,~ uh,~ for that moment, because I think that we were all there. We all remember what we were doing in March when all this was happening, but for you to have millions of dollars come in and out, like just, you know, ~um, ~And basically you feel, you know, robbed a little bit, taken advantage of,
[00:13:54] Ben Camille: Well, everyone hated me and everyone was upset with me. And so we had to kind of remind people like. We didn't do this. Okay. But when money's on the line, you know, people can get very ugly. And we had some people that were so beautiful and so like understanding. And we even had people that were like, look, a lot of these people are very wealthy.
[00:14:14] Ben Camille: Okay. But still, who cares? Wealthy people like their money. Okay. ~Um, ~and so we even had, I still remember I was actually crying on the phone with one of our clients came to us for years. And he said to me, he goes, look. You don't even have to give me any money back, you know, whenever you can, whenever you can.
[00:14:30] Ben Camille: And, and it's just the way he said it and the way he did it, it hit me so hard that I literally, and I was under so much stress and I just started crying on the phone, like, like, like a baby almost. I mean, it was just very, you know, it was just, it was really destroyed my world. And,~ um,~ I did, we did, we gave him the money back just like everyone else, but some people were very beautiful and there were some people that were so ugly and you don't realize when you act ugly like that, it made us like, not want to.
[00:14:55] Ben Camille: We were going to, we gave everyone back. But the point is it doesn't help to be ugly like that. Like they think they're going to like get themselves better,~ uh,~ position, but it really doesn't. ~Um, ~you know, and so that, that was a big struggle. ~Um, ~
[00:15:06] Chaz Wolfe: was that, that, that emotional moment for you of really just someone giving you some grace and seeing you,~ um,~ we don't get that as entrepreneurs very often. I kind of have a storyline that I follow and most entrepreneurs, I think, can relate to it where, you know, it's like, You've always been the guy, right?
[00:15:23] Chaz Wolfe: I've always been the guy, every circle that I'm in. I'm always the guy, right? I'm the guy in my house. I'm the guy in my marriage. I'm the guy, you know, in any sort of environment I've ever been in, you know, outside of business or in, and, and that's actually how we like it because we've, we are creators. We create our environment.
[00:15:40] Ben Camille: Yeah,
[00:15:40] Chaz Wolfe: But that doesn't mean that it doesn't get heavy sometimes. And so obviously that's a big reason why I even started gathering the kings a couple years ago is to be able to have a group of people around me that would help me carry the weight. But for you in that moment, that's an essence of what was happening.
[00:15:52] Chaz Wolfe: This other guy was like, Hey dude, I see you. Let me carry a little bit of that with you. And it like moved you.
[00:15:57] Ben Camille: it was beautiful.
[00:15:58] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. What's the, what's the takeaway for the listener in that? Like they weren't there with you. They can obviously feel the emotion, but what, what can they glean from that?
[00:16:04] Ben Camille: I mean, I think the takeaway is that, when you're going through hard times, especially when you're an entrepreneur and you're really starting out and you feel like the world is against you, there are people out there that will help you. And I know people are shy to ask for help. ~Um, ~but you know, I find in my situation as well, and it may not be someone that's super successful, but there's always people around you that, that, you know, either want to give their time for you.
[00:16:29] Ben Camille: Or they want to give their knowledge for you. And it's very flattering, I think, to some very successful people. If you reach out to them, you will be surprised that they really, not everyone. I mean, some, there's not, you know, there's bad people or some people just busy and it's fine, but you'll be surprised if you reach out to some very successful people.
[00:16:47] Ben Camille: Oftentimes they know they've been down that road and they really will help you. ~Um, ~and I think it's not often enough that people. ~Um, ~we'll reach out and say, Hey man, you know, you've done something amazing. I would love to just get some advice from you. I want your thoughts and people love to give their advice.
[00:17:02] Ben Camille: So I think that just to feel that you're not alone, even if you did come from a background of, you know, you're poor and you don't really look at yourself as very advantaged in terms of what you have to create a business. Well, it's good for this guy. Cause look, he has blah, blah, blah, but I don't have any of that.
[00:17:19] Ben Camille: Right. ~Um, I~ think we shortchange ourself a lot. I mean, I think that's the lesson that. You have more power than you think. And there are people out there willing to help you. If you kind of just are not shy, reach out and you're cool to get rejected. You got to handle that. You know,
[00:17:32] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah. I think that's a beautiful thing for folks to realize. It's just the courage then to be able to step into that. Also then the courage when we then have the opportunity to be that person. Right. Cause that's part of
[00:17:43] Chaz Wolfe: kingship is not just, yeah. Like next time you're in a situation where some other entrepreneur or system or business or whatever has, has maybe,~ uh,~ given you a little bit of a pressure situation.
[00:17:55] Chaz Wolfe: How, how are you acting?
[00:17:57] Ben Camille: I do. I love to give advice. I mean, I have a lot of people in my world that do come to me for advice, honestly. ~Um, ~and I'm very opinionated about my advice. I don't know if I'm always right, but,~ ~
[00:18:07] Chaz Wolfe: ~But you're all~ in.
[00:18:07] Ben Camille: I'm very passionate about it. Yeah,
[00:18:10] Ben Camille: definitely. Definitely.
[00:18:11] Ben Camille: That's
[00:18:11] Chaz Wolfe: I mean, it's the, it's the principle, I guess, of, I mean, I'm, I'm going, I'm either going up or down either way. It's like, it was my choice, you know, and, and, you know, either way is fine, but,~ uh,~ I'm not going to be swayed, you know, one way or the other. Which is great. The story of COVID obviously a massive,~ um,~ you know, mountain for you to move.
[00:18:30] Chaz Wolfe: Let's fast forward just a little bit here. Inside of this pivot, what was the good decision you could, you said, you started to pay attention to people aren't going to travel in your regular business without this other thing. So it started to glean your attention. What was just like the really practical decision that you made, whether it was the actual pivot, what was it was learning about the new industry.
[00:18:48] Chaz Wolfe: What was just something super practical. We could,
[00:18:50] Ben Camille: mean, I think that there were, you know, there's a concept that I think is very important. You know, like if I said to you, you may have heard this before, but it really resonated with me. If I say to you, okay, this morning, how many blue cars have you seen driving? Let's say to work or whatever you did.
[00:19:04] Ben Camille: Right. And you would say, oh, I, you don't really know. You say, well, I'm not really sure if I would have told you, I'll give you a thousand bucks for every blue car that you see. Right. You're going to know that number. You're going to say, oh, I saw seven. Right. And the point is, is that these opportunities are always around you.
[00:19:19] Ben Camille: And we don't notice it. That's a huge lesson for entrepreneurs. Like for example, during COVID, right. I was really destroyed mentally destroyed financially. Many people that I know, I'll give you an example. They started COVID clinics. Okay. All they got was a storefront. They had some nurse and it was just, there's nothing to it.
[00:19:37] Ben Camille: You don't have to be some medical professional. Okay. And they literally just did COVID testing all day. And it was racking cash minute to minute. All day, any one of us listening could have done that. Okay. Maybe some did, but I would, I would venture to say 99 percent of us didn't do that. Okay. Now, again, that's not something you can do forever.
[00:19:57] Ben Camille: Fine. But it's an opportunity and guys did very well. Okay. Like very well, but could I see that opportunity at the time? No, I couldn't see it. Because I was so destroyed. I wasn't even like my mind wasn't open to it. And so when this opportunity came, COVID is kind of, you know, it's, I don't know what word you want to use.
[00:20:15] Ben Camille: It's fizzling or whatever it is. And we're going back into the real world. I knew it was on my list with my business partner, travel insurance that I got to figure this out. Let me ask you why out of thousands of tour operators that exist in America. Okay. You know how many did what I did? Zero,
[00:20:33] Ben Camille: ~Um,~ yeah, I was gonna say hardly any, I bet.
[00:20:35] Ben Camille: No zero, because you know how many travel insurance brokerage concierge services, like what we do, there is no one else doing this. It doesn't exist in America, which is crazy. You would say, oh, of course it does. Trust me. I've done a lot of research on this. They have, you can either buy travel insurance directly through, let's say Allianz or AIG, you know, go to their website.
[00:20:53] Ben Camille: You don't know what the hell you're buying. If something happens to you, you're a faceless, nothing that they're not, you don't even know what's going on. Right. Or you can go to like an Expedia type website. And they'll give you a hundred options. But again, you know, nothing. And you're, you are nothing to the insurance companies.
[00:21:06] Ben Camille: You are nothing. ~Um, ~Ken, is there anyone you can call to actually have real guidance who can actually, we have access to every policy in America, figure out what's good for you, do the paperwork for you, make sure you get paid. ~Um, ~and we don't charge for this. We don't charge a penny for this. So the point is, is like, yes, you have.
[00:21:22] Ben Camille: Travel agents who will do their own clients. You have tour operators who are doing their own clients, but these people know nothing. They know nothing. If you have a real problem, they're like,~ ~~uh,~~ ~we can't help you. And so the point is what we do is very special. It's very unique. It took time to figure and figure out what did I have here and even put the pieces together.
[00:21:39] Ben Camille: But the point is this opportunity was available to anybody. And let's say the tour industry, because we were all in the same boat and I came out of it and I didn't realize until actually I was on another podcast recently that I was like, yeah, you know what? I really did do something very special because the fact is I saw an opportunity and.
[00:21:59] Ben Camille: I attacked it and I made it happen and there's nobody else doing this in the entire country. And so you can imagine the potential we have. I think we'll be as big as any travel insurance company in itself. I mean, we have, if you look at the competition, right, they're all fighting, all these idiots fighting with each other.
[00:22:16] Ben Camille: Okay. What companies should you use AIG Allianz, whatever you don't know, you don't care. You're not loyal to any of these companies, but with us, I have access to everything. So I'm not competing with anybody. I'm saying, what do you want? We'll talk about it. We'll make sure you have it. And so the point is we're really kind of in our own world in terms of a business model,~ um,~ which, which is, is lucky and special and very blessed, you know, to have that.
[00:22:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I think that the story,~ uh,~ that we're hearing you say is, or even just that maybe you had a recent enlightenment on, it wasn't just that, that you made a pivot. A lot of people made a pivot. They had to, to survive during COVID, but you saw a game changing opportunity, but then went after it. It wasn't like you just attacked it.
[00:23:01] Chaz Wolfe: It was like, no, like I'm all in a hundred
[00:23:03] Ben Camille: Can I stop you for a second also? Because if that's okay, my business partner who I ran these tour companies with, okay, we were, we grew up together since we were 10 years old. We were literally in school our whole life and we were best friends. And now looking back, this sounds like, Oh, what a fantastic idea.
[00:23:19] Ben Camille: This is going to work. I mean, it is working. We're bringing in millions of dollars. He didn't want to partner with me on this. We were partnering together our whole life. He told me. Terrible idea. This is not going to work. No one else is going to talk to you. No one else is going to work with you. You know, you're not going to be able to get all the tours on board and dah, dah, dah.
[00:23:35] Ben Camille: And so the point is, is that it, it is obvious now that it's successful, but it wasn't obvious at the time. And that's, I think a big lesson for entrepreneurs because you always like to look after and you say, well, this guy has this cool, this travel insurance, you know, he lucked out and got into this unique situation.
[00:23:51] Ben Camille: Trust me, it wasn't so obvious. Everyone I spoke to was like, travel insurance is 20. What are you talking about? How you've been making money on that? You know, and we have policies now that are done, which I could tell you about, which are 20, 000 policies. So the point is there's a lot here, but it was not obvious to anybody.
[00:24:08] Ben Camille: ~Uh, ~at the time, I mean, as we were beginning it, I was thinking also maybe of doing,~ uh,~ like a maid service company. Like we had a lot of ideas on the table. It wasn't like so obvious. And then as we're thinking of this maid service or different businesses, Travel insurance cash keeps coming in. I'm like, maybe I should just focus on this.
[00:24:24] Ben Camille: Like it actually is working pretty well. So yeah, that was, that was interesting.
[00:24:29] Chaz Wolfe: there's so much here. I want to read you a quote that I, I just posted this. It says 40 minutes ago. So before our show, I posted this. I want to, I want to know your opinion. It says, when you are obsessed with getting better, your mind can't stay stuck. The very act of obsessing over bettering yourself forces your mind to find new solutions.
[00:24:47] Ben Camille: Yeah.
[00:24:47] Chaz Wolfe: That's everything that you just said.
[00:24:49] Ben Camille: I like that. Yeah. I was obsessed. I was obsessed, but I
[00:24:52] Ben Camille: also
[00:24:52] Chaz Wolfe: I can hear it.
[00:24:54] Ben Camille: yeah, like I saw the opportunity and I knew, listen, I'm obsessed with. Not having a real job. Okay. That's my obsession is never having to be under the thumb of anyone. I just met my friend in the gym. Okay. Literally like an hour ago.
[00:25:06] Ben Camille: And he's telling me how he's a lawyer and he's at his firm and he's working on some big count and they just brought in some other guy and all this political crap, you know, they have to deal with, and he has to pretend that he's happy about this or else he's not going to get the promotion. I don't have to deal with any of that stuff, you know?
[00:25:20] Ben Camille: And so I'm committed to that. And so, you know, I happen to be very passionate about travel insurance, but it's funny, like if you get into it, you would be, but I think it's just passionate about being an entrepreneur,
[00:26:21] Chaz Wolfe: What is about that? I mean, you kind of talked about freedom there. You've also kind of mentioned that, you know, you've got a, you've got a family, of course, and there's survival and like, a provision,~ uh, ~Element, I guess of that, but for you, it really has transcended. Like you, you threw out maid service.
[00:26:36] Chaz Wolfe: You threw, I mean, travel, like those are very different for me. I've been in different industries about, about being an entrepreneur. Is it creating pro or,~ uh,~ solving problems, creating solutions? Is it really just about winning? Is it about not having a job? Like what, what's
[00:26:50] Ben Camille: Well, for me personally, it comes to the point where I grew up,~ uh,~ in a situation, you know, my father passed away when I was three years old. Okay. And my mom had to support us and she was an optician. Okay. So she made, I don't know, her 30 grand a year. And we really grew up with very meager. You know, ~uh, ~finances.
[00:27:08] Ben Camille: And so I remember very clearly, like remember Reebok pumps. You remember that you might be the same age as me. ~Um, ~but like, I couldn't have Reebok pumps. Okay. And it still sits with me. I still remember. And I was like, Oh my God, I want the Reebok. And everyone in my class had it. And my mom saw that it was like, I don't know, 120 or something.
[00:27:26] Ben Camille: And she's like, no. Like you can't have it, you know, and so like, just like I grew up in this kind of manner. Like I really grew up in a, in a way that I think was, was tough financially. And so really I'm, I'm like a, I'm a scrapper, you know, I'm a bare bones scrapper. And so to me, the main thing is I want to just be able to survive.
[00:27:48] Ben Camille: Okay. That's like step one. And you know, now. Thank God I'm doing a lot better than that. But the point is, is that that's really for me where it came from. Now, this is why I love capitalism, right? Capitalism. You can have some people saying, Oh, capitalism isn't good. It's not, you know, ~um, ~I don't know what they say, but they, they're all against capitalism for some reason.
[00:28:07] Ben Camille: But the point is, is that what is capitalism? It's kindness, right? It's all it is. Is if I think about Chaz and I think about you and I think about what you need. And I provide that to you in a fantastic way. ~Um, ~you're going to want to give me your money. Okay. They make it out like Jeff Bezos, a bad guy. Oh, he's a bad guy.
[00:28:25] Ben Camille: So rich. He's a bad guy. Why is he so rich? Cause he's a freaking amazing business owner. That's why. Cause don't use Amazon then who's forcing you to buy Apple. Who's forcing you to use Amazon? Nobody. It's such an obvious argument. It's so stupid that we live in a society that people don't even see these basic concepts, but capitalism forces you to care about other people.
[00:28:44] Ben Camille: And that's why I love it. And so, yes, my, my business is here and I am passionate about helping people. And I'm passionate about giving them quality. ~Uh, ~and when I ran a luxury tour company, I, I always hated that vibe or that feeling that someone paid all this money and didn't get their value. And so I'm very into just giving people great value and really giving them what they want.
[00:29:06] Ben Camille: And I think it, it leads into this business as well. We're very passionate about helping people and making sure that if you buy a policy with us, for example. We will make sure you get paid. But it always stemmed to me just from survival. I just wanted to be able to survive and not rely on anyone else.
[00:29:22] Ben Camille: And that, that's to answer your question, like for me it wasn't about helping people. It was about for me, trying to survive and then the beauty of capitalism, that it does help people and that is the only way to succeed. You have to help people.
[00:29:34] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. And you're right. I think every entrepreneur listening right now has taken that same journey. It starts out as survival,~ uh,~ to some degree, some sort of provision. And then eventually you realize the game you're like, Oh, if I increase the value or I help more people, or like you said, pay closer attention to people's needs, then I can actually transact at a higher level, either more people or at a higher margin.
[00:29:57] Chaz Wolfe: Oh. This makes sense. Let me do that. Like that. That's an essence. Capitalism. ~Uh, ~thanks for the clear,~ uh,~ teaching there because it's, it's that simple. Let's flip the coin here because somewhere in here, you made a bad choice. ~Uh, ~I want to know what this new business, because like you said, it wasn't that obvious.
[00:30:11] Chaz Wolfe: You had a partner that didn't believe in you. Nobody else was even around this circle going, let's do it, dude. What was the bad choice along the way, after you kind of took the courage to make it happen?
[00:30:21] Ben Camille: listen, that's A fantastic question. And it's something that I think everyone is going to have an answer to,~ um,~ this business in particular, and we can go into why, but it is the perfect business. It's hard to create a more perfect business than this. And so my only negative decision was taking so long to jump in on it.
[00:30:42] Ben Camille: It was just me not trusting it or not believing it. But the fact is when you talk about a business that I spent zero, think about this, I bet you, there's no enlisting that even this exists. Okay. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it does, but not, not, not common
[00:30:56] Ben Camille: zero, zero dollar marketing, zero, not 10, zero. Okay. Set up a website, 0 Merrick marketing, bringing in, let's say, in terms of gross, you want to say first year, 1.
[00:31:09] Ben Camille: 5 million in sales. Okay. 0
[00:31:12] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:31:17] Ben Camille: no marketing and then you have no inventory. And then, you know, what business costs you have zero, because typically if I create a business, I have to now provide the service. Okay. Most people buying. They end the phone call saying I hope I never have to use your product.
[00:31:35] Ben Camille: I'm like me too We all hope you never have to use it. So the fact is is that normally when you scale a business You can't scale properly because you need more product. You need more money for marketing You need more back end to be able to help you Fulfill the product. Okay, the insurance companies handle the back end.
[00:31:55] Ben Camille: They already pay all the claims They have the whole system set up. Okay Our heavy lifting is just the phones, you know, that we have to be on the phones. And I have a whole team with me now that are just on the phones with people. And we're all experts at this and helping people. But as a business,~ um,~ it's almost impossible to have a better,~ um,~ you know, financially set up business in this.
[00:32:15] Chaz Wolfe: Love it. I love it. ~Um, ~okay. So for the person that's listening right now, obviously, if they haven't jumped in, you know, you're, you're suggesting to jump in, but this idea of signing up is actually an ongoing thing, right? So you have to continue to re sign up, even though you've got a great, great business, you make money, there's still days where you're like,~ uh,~ you know, cause that's just entrepreneurialism.
[00:32:35] Chaz Wolfe: For that guy listening right now, what would you say to that guy to, to resign up again and again?
[00:32:41] Ben Camille: Well, how do we know he should re sign up again? Maybe he has a crappy business. I'm saying like, not every business is great. Okay. And I've been a part of some bad businesses as well. I started an e commerce company during COVID that was, you know, really, really tough. The, the dirty secret of e commerce, which we can get into as well, if you want to, the dirty secret of e commerce is that virtually nobody's making any money in that game.
[00:33:04] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~many people like to, Oh, I sold millions of dollars worth of this, but again, it's all stuck in inventory and it's all goes back into marketing. You can look at companies like Casper, okay. Mattresses, which is a very big company. I mean, they, they sold maybe 600 million worth or something like that.
[00:33:20] Ben Camille: They're not profitable. They're not profitable. The point is these e commerce companies, very hard to ever actually turn profit. And that was what I learned over time of doing it kind of like during the three years of COVID. I was just trying to do something to figure something out. And for whatever reason, that was the idea.
[00:33:38] Ben Camille: Me and my business partner came up with that. We're going to start like a men's fashion brand in terms of accessories, sunglasses, watches, things like that. Now we always,~ uh,~ we made it in the sense where it was, we didn't go under, you know, like we were making money, but like peanut money, you know, nothing big.
[00:33:54] Ben Camille: But the point is. If I would have put all my eggs in that basket and really put everything I had into it, it would have been a major, major mistake because that type of business model just doesn't make money. So I think many people have to be honest with themselves. Is the business I'm in actually a good business?
[00:34:12] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~many people are in really, really crappy businesses. And so you're having a very hard time because it's not a good business. Okay. Again, we have to, they have to be honest with yourself about that. If it's a good business that you're in,~ um,~ what you need to do is you need to look at the offer. You need to look at what do you offer and why is it different?
[00:34:32] Ben Camille: Like my nephew came to me and he wanted to buy a company, which I don't think is a good idea anyway. That's a whole other story. But the point is he wanted to buy a Turkish towel company. Okay. So I said to him a very basic question. I said, what is your differentiator? I said, there's 8 billion Turkish towel companies and nobody cares what Turkish towel they have in their house.
[00:34:50] Ben Camille: No one could give a crap what company it's from. If it feels good, it looks good. Why would I buy your Turkish towel over anyone else's Turkish towel? And he never had an answer for that basic question. I mean, if you can't answer these kinds of basic questions, like you love to do, you love pizza. So you're going to open a pizza shop. You have to be honest with yourself. Like, is your pizza actually going to be better than anyone else's, or maybe your location is very special. Or there has to be some differentiator that makes it worthwhile. ~Um, ~if it is, and that's true, and it's really been figured out that this is a good business. ~Um, ~then you just got to grow a pair of balls and you just got to fight.
[00:35:24] Ben Camille: And that's the only thing what every day is going to be rainbows. No, but you know, it's like working out. It's the same thing. Okay. And I love to work out. ~Um, ~You know, is that some days maybe you don't want to work out. It's not as fun to work out. Some days it is very fun to work out, but like I'm to a point where I don't care if it's fun or not fun.
[00:35:42] Ben Camille: That's not relevant to me. Like, like the relevant decision was I decided that years ago that. Lifting weights and working out is what is best for my health. What's the alternative? You become oily and fat and disgusting. Okay. And then you get diabetes. And what's the alternative here? Right? So once that decision has been made, it's over.
[00:36:02] Ben Camille: There's like to think about many days. I show up in the gym. I don't even know. I don't know how I got there. I'm like in the middle of like starting my set. And I don't even think about it. I'm like, wow, I'm here. I'll read you a quote. Okay. This is from Hermosi, who I'm sure you
[00:36:14] Ben Camille: love, right? The world belongs to those who can keep doing without seeing the result of their doing.
[00:36:19] Ben Camille: Okay. So that's the answer. If you know you have something good, you just gotta, you just gotta keep going. And, and, you know, you know, you're on the right track. Keep going. If you're not on the right track, you've got to be honest with yourself. ~Um, ~but if you are, the only answer to your question is you just got to keep going, fight the good fight and you know, great things will happen.
[00:36:38] Ben Camille: We have slow days here. I'm not saying we always are killing it. We have slow days and when it's slow, it sucks and you kind of get depressed a little bit and you kind of think like, Oh man, what do I need to do? And then, you know, you keep pushing and before you know it, wow, there's a new client here and you, you just made tons of money and like things turn and it happens and you just got to fight the good fight.
[00:36:58] Chaz Wolfe: yeah, the, the baseline decision or the filter rather that you presented here to the listener is, are they in the right vehicle? ~Um, ~and, and I think it determines where they're going to go. And, and so I, to be a little bit more precise here, we're using that analogy. Am I in a two seater trying to go fast or am I in a suburban?
[00:37:16] Chaz Wolfe: Cause I have my family with me. What's the point, where am I going? How far is it going to take? What kind of vehicle do I need? What would you suggest? Because obviously. The definition of your business and whatever type of vehicle that is in real life versus this other guy, obviously his wants desires out of life might be different.
[00:37:32] Chaz Wolfe: How does he figure that out as far as whether he's in the right business or vehicle or not?
[00:37:37] Ben Camille: I mean, it's such a broad question, right? It's hard to, to give kind of like a one all answer for everyone. But I would say you'd have to look at your skillset. What are you good at? What can you offer someone and then do it in a way that, that you don't dislike. I'm not into, if you really dislike the business, you shouldn't do it.
[00:37:54] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~find something that you like, like I'm really good. ~Um, ~on the phones. Okay. Like sales on the phones. Now I have a whole team that does that for me now. And I don't do much of that, but the point is I enjoy the business. ~Um, you~ know, in my current, my other business, when I was a tour operator, a major part of that business was the kitchens and the food service and all that.
[00:38:13] Ben Camille: I would walk into a kitchen. And even though I did it for almost 20 years, 17 years, I never understood kitchen stuff. It was always like, it just didn't like when you're talking about that level, you have a thousand people for 10 days. Okay. So we're talking about busting food. It's a world and you really need to know that world.
[00:38:30] Ben Camille: My business partner, you know, he just kind of like learned it and it hit work for his brain. And for me, it just did it. So I was more in the front dealing with the clients and making sure, you know, I was front of the house, you know, dealing with everyone. ~Um, ~but the point is is that, you know, when it comes to your skillset, you gotta be, be honest about what, what you're good at and what you enjoy doing.
[00:38:48] Ben Camille: And, and, and I would say that's probably the biggest thing. Cause, cause being an entrepreneur is, is fantastic, right? So we don't want to make it miserable. You know, we don't want it to be miserable. If it's working,~ um,~ and you have something that you enjoy, then it's great. If you have a business that you hate every day,~ um,~ then what are we doing?
[00:39:04] Ben Camille: I mean, you know, go get a real job.
[00:39:06] Chaz Wolfe: control, the controllables and it's like, man, if it's already going to be hard enough to, to, to overcome your partner who doesn't want to do it, your family that thinks you're stupid, you know, all the other things that come along with being a business owner. ~Um,~
[00:39:19] Ben Camille: Yeah.
[00:39:19] Chaz Wolfe: speaking of family, let's kind of parlay here into, you know, your family, you've recently made some big changes in your world because of your family.
[00:39:27] Chaz Wolfe: I guess my question is clearly you're an obsessive person. We've seen how that has worked for you and your business and businesses over the years. How does that work for you as an entrepreneur in your marriage, in your family, in your health, you've mentioned going to the gym. Like what I see a lot, a lot of times is.
[00:39:43] Chaz Wolfe: A guy or gal thinks that, well, I got to be all in. And they kind of put those priorities down or even off the list altogether. And they don't know how to be obsessed with all of it all at the same time. What would you say?
[00:39:52] Ben Camille: Yeah. That is a good question, man. That is a hard thing to do, as we all know. ~Um, ~I happen to be very blessed, you know, in the sense that my wife can really, she's not like, I even noticed this when we were dating some girl and I dated a lot, bro. I dated over a thousand girls. Okay. So we can really talk about that.
[00:40:07] Ben Camille: But the point
[00:40:08] Ben Camille: is
[00:40:08] Chaz Wolfe: like You actually know that number?
[00:40:10] Ben Camille: ~uh, ~it's a lot, it's up there. I wasn't into guys. Like, honestly, every night I would try and get dates going Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, like different. Like I was into that. That
[00:40:19] Ben Camille: was
[00:40:19] Chaz Wolfe: Hey, how am I supposed to get the right one? If I don't have enough opportunities in the
[00:40:23] Ben Camille: Yeah, it was fun for me. I mean, that's kind of like what I was into.
[00:40:26] Ben Camille: I mean, I've been married almost 12 years now. So that's like kind of been gone for a while. But the point
[00:40:31] Chaz Wolfe: you're into her. Yeah.
[00:40:57] Ben Camille: would be disastrous. I don't want her ever involved in any of that, but she can handle. Our kids and she can handle that kind of thing. And she really does allow me to do my thing and kind of like to succeed in that way.
[00:41:10] Ben Camille: But everyone's personality is different, you know, and obviously I have kids and I want to be with them and I need to be with them. ~Um, ~but you know, I, I'm with them in the evenings and I'm with them in the morning and I take my kids to school and stuff like that. But yeah, listen, life is, is,~ uh,~ is, is kind of a struggle in that way.
[00:41:27] Ben Camille: I mean, you gotta make time for everything. ~Um, ~And I think in the beginning, it's hard. It's the hardest in the beginning. In the beginning, something is going to,~ uh,~ probably have to fall and you're going to have to just, if you, if you're committed in a relationship or whatever, you're going to say, look, for us to get this off the ground, I'm going to have to go, you know, balls to the wall, basically.
[00:41:46] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~but that doesn't mean it has to be like that forever. I mean, I, in the beginning of my company, I mean, I was taking all the calls. I was helping everyone with claims. I was doing everything. ~Um, ~I, you know, I have a team now that helps me. ~Um, ~and so that has taken a lot of load off me. I hire managers now who are fantastic, who are real killers.
[00:42:04] Ben Camille: I mean, they're amazing. And so if you hire really fantastic people, I look in and check in, but it takes a huge load off of me. And then I can spend my time doing this with you, right? This is the kind of stuff I like to do is go out there. ~Um, ~and trying to build the brand and go after tour operators and travel agents in a high level,~ uh,~ way.
[00:42:24] Ben Camille: ~Um, ~but yeah, I mean, it is tough. Listen, no one says it's not easy and it's not easy. I mean, I can't, I can't lie to you and say, Oh yeah, there's some magical answer. It's it's hard. It is hard.
[00:42:33] Ben Camille: You
[00:42:33] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Especially with that family. I think you hit the nail right on the head there with, with the importance of the spouse. I would say the same thing for me, Julie, my wife, not involved in our businesses, from a perspective other than some,~ uh,~ help when I need it, you know, but really it's more of a,~ um,~ A support.
[00:42:49] Chaz Wolfe: And it, that sounds, I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, that sounds a weak, like that I would need support. But the support is like what you're saying, the freedom to just go do your thing and to know that she's like, go get them champ, you know, like that's just so powerful for guys like us.
[00:43:06] Ben Camille: I know that everyone's different. Everyone's marriage is different. I'm not saying this is the only way it has to be like my, my other friend, his wife is an advertising,~ uh,~ executive. And so she helps him in that marketing of their business tremendously. I don't have that. Listen, everyone's different, you know, but the point is, ~um.~
[00:43:25] Ben Camille: You know, to, to have someone that you can allow yourself to focus, because focus is key if you're not going to be able to focus. And by the way, we should touch on this because many people have side businesses and many side businesses,~ um,~ are a problem. Okay. And so you really, I think over time you have to commit to something and, and build that.
[00:43:47] Ben Camille: Cause if you're going to have many little side businesses,~ um, ~I think it's tough to ever really succeed in a proper way. There's only so many hours in the day. I mean, I don't want to do so much.
[00:43:57] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I, I've used the phrase attention units and I don't know how many we get, let's say let's call it a hundred. But,~ um,~ if, even if it, that little side thing only takes two or three, it's still two or three that I don't have to put towards something else. ~Uh, ~we actually had a guy inside of the mastermind group gathering the Kings about a year ago present in the hot seat around, I think he's got four companies, but one of which was a little bit smaller.
[00:44:18] Chaz Wolfe: It was an old family business that he had purchased and, and really it was just. Low margin, difficult customers. And he was just like, ah, and the circle was like, dude, just get rid of it. And he did.
[00:44:30] Ben Camille: People have a hard time saying no
[00:44:33] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well, I mean, it was his family's business from 40 years ago, you know? So like, that's tough. Like you're, you're, you're deep in the forest on that, you know? So he, but he did though, a year later, he posts that he shut that down. That company actually made more 5 percent more that year because he shut that part of it down. And his other business.
[00:44:48] Chaz Wolfe: his main business. 37%. I mean,
[00:44:51] Chaz Wolfe: come
[00:44:51] Ben Camille: Right, man. Of course that's going to happen. How could you be conceited to think that other people are doing this full time? You're doing it part time and you're going to beat them. I mean, come on.
[00:45:00] Chaz Wolfe: That's right. I've got one last question here for you, Ben. We've kind of, we've touched on a lot of different topics here today. Your energy is true. And I, and I'm, and I'm holding you to that same standard here on this question, because even though it's a little heartfelt, I assume that you're going to give us the same intensity.
[00:45:16] Chaz Wolfe: ~Um, ~I want you to roll the clock back. And you get to look at a younger Ben and you just tap him on the shoulder and you whisper in his ear. What do you tell him?
[00:45:25] Ben Camille: So I've thought about this many times, okay? And the real answer is, what would you do, right? You're going to a guy, let's say, what age am I by the way? Is this 15
[00:45:33] Chaz Wolfe: your choice, your choice.
[00:45:35] Ben Camille: Okay. So you want to say that I'm 15, 18? You we're not going to talk about like just flowery stuff. We're going to give a real answer because what would you do?
[00:45:44] Ben Camille: I know what you would do. You're, you're smart. Like me. You would tell this guy. You need to invest in Amazon and Apple, right? That's what you would tell him. Right? But the point is there's a lesson there. The lesson is the same passion. Let's say I went to my younger self and I said, okay, bro, you need to put everything.
[00:46:02] Ben Camille: You can freaking get your hands on. Okay. I don't care how you get it, steal, beg, whatever the hell you have to do. Put it all in Amazon and Apple. Let's say that. Right. And the young Ben says, no, no, I'm cool. I'm cool. I'm good. I'm good. You'd be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not good. Okay. You're doing this, you you're doing this.
[00:46:20] Ben Camille: And so the same passion has to happen when you're selling yourself and you're selling your product. If you believe genuinely in your staff, genuinely believe it's good for people, your staff will have that passion. So if you have people working for you, or even if yourself, you're a salesman and you're not successful.
[00:46:38] Ben Camille: It's because you don't honestly believe it's good for that person. If you believed it was good, you would fight to the death because I wouldn't let young ben leave without doing that investment Okay, because if he did that investment at 18 now 30 years later, we would be worth I don't know even if you put in 100 grand or something.
[00:46:55] Ben Camille: Well, what would I be worth now? Probably I don't know 400 million So the point is That, you know, that's the lesson is that if you have something good, you need to, you need to be passionate. People feel that passion and they'll believe and know, okay, he's passionate because this is really great for me.
[00:47:11] Ben Camille: And I believe it's great for him, you know, and that's the, that's the lesson that I would say,
[00:47:15] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's good, man. The,~ uh,~ the answer there. I'm not sure if you, I may have said this once on another show potentially, but,~ um,~ my producer. Actually, cause I've asked this question a couple hundred times now. And so she asked me, this was a while ago. She was like, Hey, what would your answer be? And I answered it exactly how you said,~ uh,~ by Apple, by Amazon,
[00:47:35] Ben Camille: easy cash, easy cash.
[00:47:37] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And she was like, no, come on. Give me the real answer. I'm like,
[00:47:40] Ben Camille: what could you do? That's better than that. I'm like, literally, what could you do?
[00:47:45] Chaz Wolfe: I
[00:47:45] Chaz Wolfe: love it how you turned it into a principle
[00:47:47] Chaz Wolfe: because
[00:47:48] Ben Camille: Remember Biff, he knows the scores. He knows what's going to happen,
[00:47:51] Ben Camille: right?
[00:47:51] Chaz Wolfe: man. So I, I love though that because, because really the, the, the question lends itself to what do you believe, right? What's, what principles are you guiding here that you know now that you can share to your younger self? Which the cool part about this question, and this is for the listener as well, is that you could still go implement this right now.
[00:48:12] Chaz Wolfe: Now you may not be able to say, Hey, go buy it, but it can be the same lesson that you just gave of. Be all in and passionate about, about your stuff, because that's what would have sold the younger you on buying the Amazon. And so I think it's the same lesson that we can always just retell ourself just today.
[00:48:27] Ben Camille: If you want a successful product, create something that you really believe is good for people. And if you believe it and people, if it's true, if it really is true, you're going to have people who are going to come work for you. And they're going to love to sell your product. Anytime I see people that are struggling to sell, it's because they don't believe that it's good.
[00:48:46] Ben Camille: If they really believed it was good for the client,~ um,~ they wouldn't be shy and they would have a lot of passion and they would succeed. ~Uh,~ you know, that's, that's primarily why I've succeeded in selling because I am passionate about, and I try to align myself with things that I know are good and I believe are good.
[00:49:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's right. It's actually an integrity. ~Um, ~the, the, the definition of integrity is not doing what's right. It's what's right for what you've said. And so a thief is in integrity when he steals. Everything that you've just said is because I want to win, because I see value, because I want to help people, even going back to the beginning of the show, you talked about capitalism and this is what it is.
[00:49:24] Chaz Wolfe: As long as I can just pay attention to people's needs and actually just raise the bar, then I get, I'm a beneficiary of that. And so why wouldn't I just do that more? ~Um, ~that's the same, the same lesson here. So Ben one, if somebody is listening here today and they are about to go on some incredible tour of sorts and they need your product, they need to protect themselves, how can they find you?
[00:49:44] Chaz Wolfe: Or number two,~ um,~ if they're an entrepreneur and they want to pick your brain, how can they find you that way? Yeah.
[00:49:54] Ben Camille: because when I was coming up with the name, the biggest travel insurance company in America is travel guard by AIG. Okay. Travel guard. This is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Any entrepreneur worth anything that's bought a website in the last, I don't know, a couple of years knows every single website on the planet is taken.
[00:50:10] Ben Camille: You cannot find anything. And so the fact that I got traveled defend. com perfect for a penny, by the way, is. I was like, someone's smiling, shining on me. I was like, what, anything you put in dot biz dot UK dot CEO. It's all taken the whole world's taken. And somehow that was sitting there right for us. And so travel defend.
[00:50:32] Ben Camille: com go on there. You can call our team 1 800 578 2871. We're a concierge service. ~Uh, ~you call in and our team will give you time. They will figure you out. ~Uh, ~do the paperwork for you, make sure you're protected in real life. We have a WhatsApp that we set up with all of our clients, which is monitored 24 hours a day.
[00:50:48] Ben Camille: If you have any issue on your trip, you reach out to our team and our team will help you. Again, that ties into we're offering more than anyone else offers. All these companies are dinosaurs. Good luck getting anyone of consequence on the phone yourself. You can't, but we can, we bring the millions of dollars.
[00:51:02] Ben Camille: So we have a lot of power there. ~Uh, ~if anyone,~ uh,~ Wants to reach out directly to me. I mean, easy, you know, you can find me on LinkedIn. That's, that's my game. I'm I'm a LinkedIn guy because in my business, at least, you know, all tour operators, travel agents, and I'm going after, I want to partner with them.
[00:51:18] Ben Camille: They're all on LinkedIn and they're all saying, Hey, I'm a tour operator. Hey, I'm a travel agent. So, you know, and it's acceptable to start business conversations on LinkedIn. So to me personally, Instagram is useless. Facebook is useless. It's all about LinkedIn. If you're a business owner, in my opinion, and there's a lot of power there that I think most people just leave by the wayside, which is a whole other conversation.
[00:51:39] Ben Camille: I think you have to bring me on again. We
[00:51:40] Ben Camille: can
[00:51:40] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. We've got a lot of offshoots here, man. We're going to have to make sure we get another time. ~Um, ~your energy in life,~ uh,~ is contagious. And so I just want to appreciate you for that. ~Um, ~now not only will I walk away from this conversation,~ uh,~ grown, but I think many of the listeners will as well.
[00:51:54] Chaz Wolfe: So Ben, thank you for just spending your time with us here today. ~Um, ~encouraging us and just blessings on your business and all the things that you got moving,~ uh,~ your family, all your beautiful kiddos. Thanks for being here, brother.
[00:52:04] Ben Camille: Likewise. Thanks to you. Have a great one.

Dive into the entrepreneurial world with Ben Camille, Founder and CEO of Travel Defend, in this episode of Gathering the King's Podcast, Host Chaz Wolfe engages with Ben to uncover the challenges and triumphs of his journey from a college baseball athlete to revolutionizing the travel insurance industry. This episode offers a wealth of knowledge on adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, the intricacies of e-commerce, and the strategic thinking behind creating a standout business.

Ben Camille:

Website: https://traveldefend.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traveldefend/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traveldefend

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-camille/

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day

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