NSB Logo Ben Nemtin Ben Nemtin

Ben Nemtin

Speaker

Los Angeles , California, USA

On Radical Possibility: #1 New York Times Bestselling Author & Co-founder of The Buried Life Movement

Ben Nemtin helps teams find their purpose, adapt to change, and achieve big goals. Drawing from his journey of turning 100 “impossible” dreams into reality, he delivers practical insights and motivation that drives real growth. His message shows how purpose-fueled teams create a ripple effect that lasts far beyond the workplace. If you’re looking for actionable motivation that really moves people, he’s your speaker. Ben Nemtin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? and The Bucket List Journal. Ben’s been ranked the #2 Motivational Speaker in the World by Global Gurus and starred in The Buried Life, MTV’s highest rated show at the time on iTunes and Amazon. As the co-founder of The Buried Life movement, Ben’s message of radical possibility has been featured on The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, FOX, and NBC News.

Keynote Speeches

MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE

What if “impossible” was just a mindset? Ben’s extraordinary journey—from debilitating depression to achieving 100 seemingly impossible dreams—reveals a powerful truth: impossible is merely a starting point.

Ben weaves the remarkable story of how The Buried Life grew from 100 impossible dreams into a global movement and connects his lessons to the fabric of our daily lives. His remarkable achievements—from creating a hit MTV show to playing basketball with President Obama, from becoming a #1 New York Times bestselling author to sharing beers with Prince Harry—weren’t a matter of luck. They were the result of a repeatable system, a blueprint for success that anyone can master.

This isn’t just inspiration—it’s a practical guide to achieving the extraordinary. Ben shares the exact framework that empowered his team to defy impossible odds, demonstrating how these principles can transform your biggest challenges into your greatest triumphs. He reveals how small, consistent actions compound like interest, generating unstoppable momentum that turns seemingly impossible goals into inevitable successes.

Ben establishes an undeniable truth: personal growth fuels professional growth, which drives organizational success. Through his journey of completing seemingly insurmountable dreams, he demonstrates that purpose is the fuel that ignites the impossible and giving back is the catalyst that multiplies your impact exponentially.

PROGRAM TAKEAWAYS

  • Master the Impossible: Learn Ben’s proven ‘5 Steps to Impossible’ framework and turn ambition into reality.
  • Fuel Your Momentum: Discover how purpose-driven action creates unstoppable momentum.
  • Build a Resilient Team: Forge a high-performing team by connecting individual fulfilment with organizational success, creating a culture where everyone thrives.
  • Accelerate Your Growth Through Giving: Experience the transformative power of helping others and discover how it fuels your own personal and professional growth.
  • Unlock Radical Possibility: Embrace a growth mindset and break free from the limitations of “impossible”.
  • Amplify Your Impact: Unite your team around a shared purpose and create a ripple effect of positive change that extends far beyond your immediate goals.
POWERED BY PURPOSE

In today’s relentless environment, where uncertainty reigns supreme, why do some teams thrive while others struggle? Ben reveals the game-changing truth: purpose isn’t just a buzzword – it’s the secret weapon that fueled his own extraordinary journey, lifting him from the depths of depression to ignite a global movement and achieve the seemingly impossible.

Through compelling evidence and unforgettable stories, Ben demonstrates how embracing your professional and personal purpose unleashes untapped potential, creates true work-life harmony, and empowers you to become the best version of yourself.

In this revolutionary keynote, discover why purpose-driven individuals and teams are 7x more likely to overcome challenges, focusing on the “why” that ignites passion and resilience. Ben masterfully blends cutting-edge science with captivating storytelling to reveal how purpose transforms organizational culture from the inside out.

Leaders gain actionable strategies to build trust, authentically demonstrate care for their teams’ well-being, and foster innovation, retention, and breakthrough performance. This isn’t merely theoretical—it’s a strategic blueprint for translating purpose into tangible outcomes and cultivating a workplace that inspires genuine passion.

PROGRAM TAKEAWAYS

  • Unleash Your Potential: Discover how aligning your personal and professional purpose fuels sustainable growth and empowers you to become your best self.
  • Create Purpose-Driven Retention: Learn how to champion whole-person growth and cultivate a culture of trust, fueling engagement and retention.
  • Build Resilience in Uncertainty: Master practical strategies for maintaining well-being and navigating challenges with purpose and unwavering resilience.
  • Fuel Success Through Service: Discover the power of purpose-driven leadership to create a culture of service, where helping others becomes a catalyst for individual and collective success.
  • Magnify Your Impact: Reconnect to the profound ripple effect of your work and discover how purpose amplifies your impact, even when results are unseen.
  • Forge Deeper Connections: Cultivate authentic connections with your team and leadership, fostering a culture that attracts the best talent
THE CHANGE ADVANTAGE

TURN CHANGE INTO YOUR GREATEST CATALYST

In an era where change is the only constant, leaders face perhaps their most critical challenge: how do you build truly unshakeable teams that don’t merely survive disruption, but actively harness it as a catalyst for growth and competitive advantage?

Ben’s message is forged in change. From depression and feeling stuck, to chasing 100 “impossible” goals, he learned something simple and powerful: you can’t control the world, but you can control your next step. And your next step is where momentum lives.

Ben teaches leaders how to focus on what they can control without draining energy on what’s outside their control, and how to help teams find stability in their purpose and values when everything else is shifting. He also shows why leading the whole person, not just the job title, and serving yourself first aren’t optional, but essential to guiding others through the storm.

This is not theory. It is a practical, story-driven blueprint for navigating real change, building stronger humans, and creating teams that move forward even when the plan changes.

PROGRAM TAKEAWAYS

  • Control the Controllables: A simple framework to protect focus, energy, and execution.
  • Anchor Teams in Purpose and Values: Help teams find stability in their purpose, when everything else is shifting.
  • Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity: How to spot the upside that most people miss.

  • Lead the Whole Person: Discover how to show up for people as humans first, building trust, resilience, and real buy-in.
  • Serve Yourself to Lead Better: Tools to stay grounded, calm, and useful when pressure is high.

  • Build Momentum Fast: Small actions that create confidence, even when the future is unclear.
FROM BURNOUT TO BALANCE

What if the secret to peak performance wasn’t working harder, but working with purpose? Before becoming a #1 New York Times bestselling author, playing basketball at the White House, and being interviewed by Oprah, Ben faced a formidable opponent: crippling depression. Through his powerful journey, he reveals how purpose transforms burnout into sustainable success and shares a counterintuitive truth: prioritizing your well-being isn’t selfish—it’s the foundation of exceptional performance in every aspect of life.

This groundbreaking keynote revolutionizes how organizations approach well-being and performance. Ben demonstrates how genuine work-life harmony creates a positive feedback loop that fuels innovation, boosts retention, and drives breakthrough results. Through honest personal stories and key scientific insights, he shows how personal fulfillment becomes the catalyst for professional excellence.

Using a powerful blend of vulnerability and practical wisdom, Ben provides a proven system for turning life’s challenges into opportunities for renewal. He shares the exact tools that helped him build resilience and how sustainable excellence isn’t about pushing harder—it’s about aligning your actions with what truly matters… This isn’t another wellness talk—it’s an invitation to rediscover what makes you feel alive.

PROGRAM TAKEAWAYS

  • Master Your Well-being: Acquire Ben’s ‘Mental Health Toolkit’ and discover 10 powerful practices to transform stress into strength and cultivate lasting resilience.
  • Fuel Your Performance: Unlock sustainable energy and peak performance by creating true work-life harmony, where your personal and professional lives thrive in synergy.
  • Navigate Life’s Challenges: Develop resilience to effectively manage stress, navigate life’s ups and downs, and emerge stronger from adversity.
  • Build a Resilient Team: Empower your team with science-backed strategies to cultivate resilience, foster well-being, and create a culture of support.
  • Lead with Vulnerability: Destigmatize mental health and discover how vulnerability can become a source of strength and authentic leadership.
  • Unleash Your Full Potential: Infuse your life with passion and energy by prioritizing personal growth and discovering how it ignites professional advancement.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Workshop| Mental Health Toolkit
This workshop offers tangible tools to help attendees navigate stressful times of uncertainty. It is designed to give tangible takeaway to boost mental health and energy, offering free tools and habits to implement immediately.
Workshop | List Writing
This workshop puts the ‘5 Steps to Make the Impossible Possible’ into action. Inspiration doesn’t hit us out of the blue, we must create inspiration through action and that is exactly what this session is designed to do. Ben will guide attendees through the list writing process helping them create a well rounded list representing all 10 categories of their life. He will then help them identify the most important items on their list and facilitate goal sharing among attendees. These steps are designed to build accountability, generate inspiration by stimulating small actionable steps and connect teams through shared goals. This breakout session can be added to any keynote.

Audience reviews:

  • The chat was exploding with so many people inspired! - Senior Speaker Coordinator, Northwestern Mutual
  • Dynamic!…Powerful!…Inspirational! Ben hit it out of the park” for our virtual Convention, you felt like you were in the room with him! - Director of Communications and Community Relations, Cooperative Credit Union Association
  • Since Ben's virtual keynote, a number of our team members have accomplished their goals and are helping each other through acts of service. - Head of Employee Experience, TaxJar
  • Ben's virtual keynote not only captivated the attention of our audience but evoked intense emotional responses that left everyone feeling motivated and inspired. I have never experienced a keynote speaker so seamlessly weave in small, but meaningful, tie-ins to our business and industry without feeling forced or unauthentic. - Event Marketing, Trimble
  • Having Ben as a guest speaker at Headspace was nothing short of sublime. Not only is his own story an incredible inspiration, he also stands for creating the culture where others can inhabit a life they love. - Creative Director, Headspace
  • Ben's transformational keynote energized our team to move towards more productive, satisfying lives by committing to something greater than ourselves. Ben inspired a culture of service where we support each other, both inside and outside the office. This was a catalyst moment for our newly promoted senior managers. - US Chief Wellbeing Officer, Deloitte
  • I laughed, and I cried. I think it was important for Harvard students especially to experience this because for most of the students here there is pressure to embrace the material things in life and sacrifice any in your way to make it to the top. This is a message that we could all embrace and learn from! - Director of Student Life, Harvard University
  • Perfect alignment with our values. Authentic and inspiring! - VP of Global Marketing, Levi's
  • Ben’s storytelling and ability to connect with our audience was apparent from the minute he greeted our participants. The message was perfectly aligned with our theme and I had so many attendees say it was the best event to date. I would highly recommend Ben to anyone wanting to add that “WOW” factor to their event. - HR Strategic Advisor, FedEx
  • He was really well received. From my end, he is a really nice man and easy to work with onsite! - Event Planner - Education & Membership, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board

Speaker Biography

  • #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
  • Ranked #2 Motivational Speaker in the World by Global Gurus
  • Created the world’s greatest bucket list with three friends
  • Starred in hit TV series The Buried Life
  • Message of radical possibility has been featured on The Today Show, Oprah, CNN, FOX, and NBC News

 

Ben Nemtin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? and The Bucket List Journal. He was ranked the #2 Motivational Speaker in the world by Global Gurus and starred in the hit TV show The Buried Life. Over half of Fortune 100 companies have turned to Ben to inspire their teams around purpose, change, and fearless goal-setting.

Ben’s message lives in radical possibility. In university, he was blindsided by depression and forced to leave school. Searching for a way forward, he and three friends wrote the world’s greatest bucket list and set off in a rickety RV to chase it. They never imagined it would inspire a global movement.

Their mission became simple: for every dream they achieved, they helped a stranger achieve theirs. From playing basketball with President Obama and surviving on a deserted island, to reuniting a father and son after 17 years and surprising a young girl with a life-changing bionic arm.

Oprah called their mission “truly inspiring,” while The Today Show put it simply: it’s about living with purpose. Ben believes the fastest way to grow, personally and professionally, is to connect to purpose. He has crossed off 96 of 100 dreams, and is on track to complete his ultimate goal, “#100: Go to Space.”