Meet Ben T. Dills of River Beats Digital Group

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben T. Dills.

Hi Ben, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I founded my first company in 2003 in Sarasota Florida at the age of 22. It was a joint-venture “Dental Spa” with a local Dentist that I knew from our community. The venture was very successful, and I eventually exited the business and moved to Colorado in 2006. During my time in Florida building the company I was also a professor of Anatomy & Physiology at a local Medical Campus in Bradenton, FL.

After moving to Colorado in 2006, I spent my first decade living in the mountains between Vail and Beaver Creek. I founded a Commercial Painting Business, a Pressure Washing & Window Cleaning Company that I owned and operated for just over eight years, and in 2011, I founded a media company and publication (print magazine) branded EPIC Colorado. We covered extreme sports events like X-Games and The DEW Tour and many other music and sporting events until around 2014. It was an incredible experience in the early stages of my entrepreneurial career.

In my spare time in the Colorado mountains, I was a professor of Anatomy & Physiology, Kinesiology, and Clinical Pathology at a local Mountain College. I also worked as a FireFighter EMT and Volunteered for some Vail Ski mountain programs for kids (NASTAR). I occasionally got up on the slopes as well.

In 2016, I launched a media brand in New Orleans named River Beats with my business partner Sean Schmidt. River Beats has grown since 2016 to become a ‘Digital Group’ made up of three (3) publications, a Creative Content & Digital Marketing Agency, a full Film Production House, a Live Event Production company, and our very own Streaming Platform & App (RIVER BEATS TV). Our eco-system of companies at RIVER BEATS allows us to bring everything in-house, from web development and graphic design to film and event production!

In Denver, we have partnerships with some incredible venues that allow us to build community around events that we participate in. Our longest-standing partnership in Colorado is with Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom, where we put on a weekly event series called SHIFT Thursdays. We surpassed the two-year mark this year at Cervantes and the series is going stronger than ever. We also have a partnership with X Denver where we throw our rooftop pool-party series, The DEEP. 2024 will be our third (3rd) year bringing this series to Denver and New Orleans and it has been a smashing success for the past two summers. All together River Beats participates in producing 70+ events a year between Colorado and New Orleans.

My entrepreneurial career has continued along as I grow my portfolio of businesses. I currently own seventeen companies in the US where I play an integral role from the Board of Directors, the Executive Suite, or both.

What can I say, I’m a serial entrepreneur and I’m addicted to my craft and helping other entrepreneurs realize their dreams of being business owners. It’s about the freedom that can bring you. You know the old saying, “An entrepreneur will work 80 hours a week to not have to work 40.” Lol. Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle. It takes grit, determination, and an unrelenting belief in yourself in the face of constant adversity.

I also have four kids (22, 21, 3, & 2 years old) and another boy on the way in April of 2024! Needless to say, I don’t sleep much, haha

#FamilyMan #CommunityBuilder #BusinessExecutive #SerialEntrepreneur or as I like to say, I’m a Renaissance man.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being an entrepreneur is never a smooth road, but I guess that’s why everyone isn’t doing it. You learn more from problems and mistakes than your successes. If you carry that mentality throughout your career, you will do great!

I would say the biggest hurdle along my path as an entrepreneur was always choosing the right business partners and investors. More than once in my career I have been on the receiving end of a corporate take-over, competing companies stealing IP, and much more nefarious dealings.

Call it “Corporate Espionage” if you will. The world of business can be a volatile place, and every “situation” is a learning experience. Let’s just say I’ve received an IVY League education in business lessons over my 21 years as a serial entrepreneur.

What were you like growing up?
My family moved every two years for most of my life. My father worked in the Nuclear Industry, so when his contracts ended, we were off to the next state… It really made us learn quickly how to make friends, but you always knew it would end one day, so you never really planted any roots. I guess that contributed to me becoming who I am today. Now I’m grateful for it, but at the time it seemed dreadful.

I’ve been an entrepreneur since as early as I can remember. When I was six (6) years old, my four (4) year old brother and I went door to door with a couple of paintbrushes and a gallon can of brown paint that I had found, asking all of our neighbors if they wanted their houses painted. They answered no of course, but apparently, we decided to give our neighbors a nice paint job anyway, lol.

My parents were not too pleased with my first business endeavor. We were eventually caught because my parents read the story in the newspaper and put 2 and 2 together. It must have been us coming home covered in brown paint the day prior that gave us away. The police report and interview were in the newspaper the next day. Whoops! We were so young, we didn’t know any better.

At the age of 8, I collected the pencil shavings from the classroom pencil sharpener to bring home and make fake cigarettes. I got in trouble for selling fake cigarettes to my 4th-grade classmates.

By the age of nine, I had learned some lessons about business and I picked some more acceptable businesses… I had a snow shoveling and yard clean-up business in my neighborhood. I also had the usual jobs like a paper route, but running my own business was what interested me.

I figured out when I was eleven (11) years old that the telephone wire was filled with an array of colorful wires, so we collected the disregarded wire from the telephone company and stripped it all out for months and made braided jewelry (bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc) and sold them to our middle school classmates in 6th grade. We would also buy bulk candy and sell it to our classmates at a premium.

My family separated when I was twelve, and things went downhill from there. I was emancipated at the age of early age of 15 in 1996 and became a legal adult at 16 years old. Since then, I have been on my own, raising a family, working in sales, and honing my skills as an entrepreneur. My life’s work revolves around my family and a legacy that I am trying to build and leave to my children.

Colorado is home to me. It’s the place I’ve called home for almost half of my life now. I’m a transplant, but about to hit the twenty-year mark in the state, so I feel good about calling it home.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://RiverBeats.life
• Instagram: @RiverBeatsDance
• Facebook: @RiverBeatsDance
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bendills
• Twitter: @RiverBeatsDance
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RiverBeatstv2774
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/RiverBeatsDance
• Other: https://RIVERBEATS.TV