We had the good fortune of connecting with Benjamin Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Benjamin, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I had always wanted my own business, I followed the usual course for education receiving my bachelor’s in business. Then things changed, I was never a fan of the corporate setting, and the lifestyle of trying to make it while living in California at the time was incredibly stressful. I decided to move back home with my father in Alaska, the winter of 2013. I did some soul searching that summer and explored the outdoors and mountains while deciding to pursue what I would come to find be my passion, helping people stay out of pain. I started studying massage and manual therapy to combine passions of traveling, bodywork, teaching, and went for it. I wanted to be able to help anyone anywhere in the world and used this career as a way to travel and help people. It has led me to work in multiple states and countries, working with Professional and Olympic athletes and coaches, and with people from over 30 countries, some of whom didn’t speak any English.
What should our readers know about your business?
What sets Bodysmith is the mindset and perseverance, for my clients, that translates to compassion and results. I choose areas where I feel that better knowledge of the body should be taught and shared, one example is backstage at international and world championships. I have now been in 5 professional sports, but I am very proud that I am still in business and was able to develop a system that allows me to help people, new challenges and settings are always exciting to me. I got to where I am today by sacrifice and perseverance. I gave everything and am still consistently studying and learning. I have faced more challenges than I could’ve imagined, but it has been extremely rewarding at the same time. Funny enough, I got here through salsa dancing. Going back to my teacher Jay, I was very tight after being an athlete my whole life, and men’s rugby had really stiffened me up. He encouraged me to loosen up my chest (a problem most of our society has). I chose salsa dancing, started traveling and performing in major cities on the west coast such as Honolulu, Los Angelos, and Seattle. From there I saw a sport that was severely lacking self-care, moved to Houston, Texas for better mobility, and haven’t looked back. In 2019, I worked 27 International events and am the current therapist for the World Salsa Summit (Latin Dance World Championships). in 2021, I started working in professional basketball with the Houston Push and am attending the Olympic Trials. I have learned so many lessons through this journey, some of the more important ones are taking every day one day at a time and complete one challenge at a time. It challenges the current belief of “I can do 10 things at once” – I can too, but not well. Focus is the key to success. To be able to focus one must go slow, and by going slow, we actually can progress much faster toward our goals. I’d just like the world to know, there are a lot of ways we can stay healthy and out of pain with the correct training and exercises. My clients that come in are constantly learning how to live more pain-free lives, a lot of times with just little tweaks to habits or stretches they are already doing. You don’t need to live every day in pain. I am getting ready to start putting corrective exercises and stretches/mobility videos on my Instagram at Bodysmithtx and starting up a YouTube channel to help spread the knowledge, the new challenge is finding a way to help people virtually.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As a matter of fact, my best friend is coming to visit Houston. There are tons of amazing restaurants here, but we’re both big into the outdoors and working out so we would have to go running in the trails at Memorial Park, It’s the perfect place to take a break from the busy city life around you. As far as eating and drinking, it would have to be all-new places since Houston is so diverse.. One place that’s a must-go-to is House of Pies, they make some of the best pies in the city. If we had more time than a few days a trip to the gun range and some lake or river fishing outside the city would be on the itinerary. Some golf, a trip to check out Nasa, or some of the museums. This city is so big, you can do almost anything. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My teachers Jay and Jenn Bartholomew for their mentorship in both education and life.
Website: Ben@bodysmithtx.com
Instagram: Bodysmithtx
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bodysmithtx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BodysmithTx
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bodysmith-houston
Image Credits
Walter Fernandes Sarah Lopez