Australian helps guide others out of despair
Benjamin Whittaker spends time reflecting in nature. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Benjamin Whittaker knows what it’s like to hit bottom. Not only did the Aussie rebound, he now helps others do the same.
The videographer, who specializes in filming weddings, became a content creator to that aim.
Benjamin, 22, explained how he chooses content.
“I'm thinking about a lot of the uncomfortable topics, a lot of things people don't want to talk about,” he said.
Losing friends was one of those topics Benjamin broached.
“I made a video where I talked about losing friends and the path of life,” he said. “You lose friends, you don't keep them forever. Some people, they drop off, they do other things. I had a 63-year-old guy comment, and he said, ‘I'm 63. I've lost lots of friends. But you actually made me think here today, because a lot of the time I thought it was because I did something wrong, but, you know, it's because it's just how life goes. I felt like it really woke me up, and that really kicked me into gear.’ When read that, I felt like, wow. There's definitely a pathway for topics that people don't want to talk about, especially when it comes to personal things.”
Benjamin said such an example shows the need for direction in one’s life.
“That's why it's so important, because I feel like being in your own sort of world can lead you in one direction,” he said. “But if you have a good enough guide and if you have someone who is a mentor to you, you can upgrade your whole life.”
Benjamin hit a low point in his life last year.
“A collection of similar events led to it, started eating less, had no routine, stopped caring, felt sorry for myself, had no discipline, and felt like I wasn't enough,” he said.
Benjamin explained how that led him to wanting to reach others.
“I'm providing content around that self-improvement niche,” he said. “In today's society, we have quite a small number of people in my generation that aren't willing to even talk about their thoughts. There was a time last year where I was basically at rock bottom. No job, no money, nothing. I was 21 at the time. But for that whole three-month period, I basically lost all this work. I'm a videographer and I'm an editor. During that time, I was just freelancing, going from job to job, been really sketchy with it. I realized that I didn't want to live. I never wanted to be in that position ever again and I never wanted anyone else to be in that position.”
Benjamin learned how to improve his life, which he could pass onto those in need.
“I wasn't someone who talked,” he said. “I wasn't someone who ever really reached out. I was a very insecure person. I didn't talk to anyone. The second I started talking to people and the second I started reaching out, I picked work up again. Of course, that's just common sense. But I realized through that, there were lessons I learned. If there was one service I could provide people, it was teaching those lessons to people who don't have any guides in their life.”
“I just want to help people grow.”
Benjamin knew from first-hand experience the value of having a mentor.
“I've got a few mentors in my life in the videography space, in the wedding industry and just the general industry,” he said. “Those mentors have carried me through since that time. They're absolutely incredible. I was lucky to get those sort of people in my inner circle because a lot of those guys are pretty top tier in their industry. I definitely know there's tons of people out there who are going through probably the exact same thing who don't have any guides or mentors or aren't able to have someone like that in their life, guiding them through their journey. One of my mentors just got me through the line with my personal development, literally in November. I had no routines. I had no understanding of what I was putting into my body and there was no structure to my life at all.”
Benjamin changed that due to having positive influences in his life.
“Today, I have a habit tracker I run every single morning,” he said. “I'm eating healthier than I've ever eaten before. I actually cook. That was just from one mentor. I was lucky that he was guiding me in that path. There were a lot of people that probably won't get that.”
Consequently, Benjamin started producing social media content.
“I was like, well, whatever I learn, I'm just going to put it out on YouTube,” he said. “I just want to help people grow. Even if it means reaching out to my generation and saying, hey, I know we're all depressed because we've grown up in this screen media time. We had Covid a couple years ago. My last school year, I wasn't at school. It was all online. It was so weird. In that time, I felt like if there's something I can do here, I can start talking about what I'm learning.”
Benjamin’s efforts soon yielded results.
“I wrote this mindset eBook guide,” he said. “I had a kid reach out from Perth. He saw it on Instagram. I made a reel about it on Instagram promoting the ebook and he got it. This kid was really depressed. He was like I just don't know what I'm doing with my life, my life's just gone all downhill. My family hates me, but I read your book and you've basically changed my life around. He showed me a before and after picture of him, before he read the book and after. He told me everything that he does now and his routine and everything. I broke down. This is incredible. I actually helped someone. I didn't care that it was one person. When I discovered that, I was like, well, then there's a deeper level to this. I could probably put this on YouTube.”
Benjamin continues to receive glowing remarks.
“Amazing feedback,” he said. “I woke up to comments today like thank you for this.”
Benjamin said a major issue for young people is feeling they’re inadequate.
“Feeling like you're not going to be enough,” he said. “The major target today is we live in a world where basically our parents’ generation, they all bought houses, they all have mortgages. Some of them are going through mid-life crises. A lot of them are selling their houses. I got this from a lot of my friends — their parents are saying you're never going to be able to buy a house. You're never going to be able to do all this stuff.”
Benjamin challenges that mindset.
“My feelings towards that is I just want to say: why can't you do that? Why can't you have multiple income streams? Why can't you start a business? There's no reason you can't be doing any of that stuff,” he said. “That's the number one issue. A lot of kids feel like they're never going to have enough to support a family. They don't see a clear path through the current times we're in, but I feel like it's always been this hard. It's just a matter of navigating that through your life and through business.”
“It’s a matter of if there is a specific video that reaches out to a specific person and that helps that one person, that’s good enough for me.”
When Benjamin was at his lowest point, he initially sought entertainment to lighten his mood.
“I was nearly homeless, nearly lost the place, nearly lost my car,” he said. “I was sitting on the floor of my apartment, and I opened up YouTube because it was like a comfort TV show. I started watching comedy videos because I wanted to smile. I knew if I wanted to smile, I had to laugh. I would watch all these comedy videos, but nothing would make me laugh.”
Benjamin eventually discovered self-improvement.
“I started reaching out to Instagram, and I found a guy named Tom Noske,” he said. “He does self-development, personal development content as well. He basically told it to me straight in a reel. He said you're in this now, you have to get yourself out. He was talking about ways to do it. It felt like it was such a real conversation. I felt like I was actually talking to this guy, and he's being real with me, just being dead honest. That's what kicked me into gear. I said all right, I have to do something here. I started writing things down: how long I had until I lost things, how long I could survive, how much food I had. I started writing all this down. I need to make this happen in this much time. I started doing that, and that basically what kicked it into the year.”
Benjamin said his work is worth it if he reaches one person.
“It's a matter of if there is a specific video that reaches out to a specific person and that helps that one person, that's good enough for me,” he said. “I don't care how many videos I have to be making. I do them every single day, so at some point, one video will reach someone and it'll help them. I would love to see the journey of someone's personal growth. One day, they see one video and they comment this was really good, this actually helps. Then I see them another day, hey, I actually took your advice from the other day. Now, I'm doing this to see that personal growth over time. That would be amazing.”
Benjamin takes the plunge via a parachute drop.
Benjamin said individual coaching may lie in his future.
“I'd love to talk one-on-one with people if it got to that point,” he said. “That would be incredible. That way, I can devote a lot more energy into one person rather than 10, 20 people. I can sit here and have 20 people in the call and talk to them, but it's not gonna target the individual person. It's very stylized to each person because every single person has a different story. Every single person has a different way of how they're spoken to as well. I talk to people differently. I don't talk to everyone the same. I talk to people the way that is fit for them. I turn into a little bit of a chameleon when I talk to people. If someone's really high energy, I'll be really high energy with you. But if someone's really low and depressed, we're going to slowly build this up. It's different for everyone. That would be really cool to do coaching.”
In the meantime, Benjamin will continue generating content.
“It might get to a point where I actually might start doing coaching, but until it gets to that point, I'm just happy doing these videos,” he said. “I'm just trying to help one person at a time. I'm not trying to help a million people at once. I'm very honest and open about what I talk about, and I just give my honest opinion. If people want to enjoy it, they get to come along for the ride as well, because I want to build a community who were one type of person before they came to the channel and after they finished watching it, they were a totally different person. That would be cool, so that would be the goal.”
Benjamin always had a passion for filming.
“I've been in the videography space for about two or three years now,” he said. “I always wanted to do something with a camera from an early age of 12 years old. I got given a camera for Christmas and I just started making videos. I've been making YouTube videos for 10 years. There's a whole archive on my channel of me growing up. We're the first generation that can document our lives, put it on the Internet and keep it there.”
“I love videography so much. You get to tell stories and that’s the one thing I love.”
That passion led Benjamin to a career.
“Once I left school, I said I want to do this as a job,” he said. “I was working at the KFC and I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't want to go to uni because I didn't believe that would help at all. I just wanted to get straight into working. I found the wedding industry. Some guy, he messaged me on Instagram, said he watches my YouTube videos, and he said he saw the potential in my storytelling through the YouTube videos. Because he saw that, he wants to bring me along to a wedding that year, I ended up going to like 30, 40 weddings with him.”
Other avenues opened up to Benjamin as well.
“The following year, I went to film camp,” he said. “That was last year. Ever since I went to film camp, I met even more people. I've worked with some of the best wedding videographers in the country. Now, I work with a friend of mine named Tim on a digital media marketing agency as well. We do all sorts of stuff. We don't just do weddings. We do real estate. We do all this really fun stuff. I don't like wasting my time. I like getting things down to the minute, whereas a year ago, I wasted weeks. But I'm now at a point where I love making every single second count. Then, I started making the videos. I've just been doing those in between my work as well. I'll do a video in the morning, work my eight hours, edit the video at night and upload it. That's basically my day, but I love it. I love videography so much. You get to tell stories and that's the one thing I love.”
For wedding videos, Benjamin tailors the content to the clients.
“It's very stylized to the individual person,” he said. “Everyone has their own stories and quirks. We had a wedding the other week where I edited chapters for them. They wanted their raw footage, but we were like, well, we won't give you all your raw footage just like that because it'll be messy and yucky. We'll give you chapters of your day in documentary segments, so we did that. Their actual five-minute wedding film was much slower because they're an older couple, and they loved it, absolutely loved it. Whereas the younger couples, they get something fast-paced and energetic.”
Benjamin explores with his best mate Angus Murray.
Benjamin also works for companies.
“We had a client,” he said. “We went up to the Gold Coast for property investors. We had a lot of deliverables set for this guy. He had a lot, 20, 30 deliverables, long-form and short-form. We said if we could do this in a week, we can do anything because this is the most work we've ever done in a week. We smashed it all out in a week. We had it done because we're giving ourselves a deadline. This needs to be done, so we need to do this much each day. Did that through the week and smashed it out. Between that, I was doing the YouTube videos as well. I am losing energy slowly, but at the same time I'm gaining energy because I'm so hyped, because I just enjoy it so much.”
Benjamin also enjoys filming documentaries.
“Two years ago, I did an interview with my grandfather,” he said. “My grandfather at the time, he was 96. He was three months away from passing away, but I didn't know that because this guy seemed like he could live forever. He was always so happy, always so jolly. You felt like he would just be around forever. I decided I'm going to interview my pop and ask him some questions. I didn't do it in the intention to create any sort of film. I just wanted to do it for myself. If you don't get a lot of time with family members, it's very easy to lose track of time. But three months later, unexpectedly, he passed away. I was so shocked. Now, that interview can be used as a keepsake forever for my family, and I can turn that into a documentary. I did the same thing with my other grandpa just a few days ago. He's 80 now, and that was obviously much more higher quality. But I realized that there's a whole market here, too. People just have photos. I feel like their story isn't told properly. So I started thinking, you know, why not do this as well?”
“What I want from myself, it’s just to grow, just to make the younger me proud.”
Benjamin discovered the second grandfather made a huge impact on Australian industry.
“Because he was a metallurgist, he went over to America to learn what the material on the front of the F-18 (military jet) was. He figured out how all that works, and he came back to Australia. He was one of the people who convinced the Australian government to buy some F-18s. You find out all these things. It's so valuable even if it's someone you don't know.”
Benjamin’s comfort in front of the camera ebbed and flowed over the years.
“I had phases where I was and I had phases where I wasn't,” he said. “There was a time when I was 16 to 19, for some reason, I was uncomfortable in front of the camera. I wanted to film more. I think it was because I was also behind the camera a lot more. I was trying to create more films. I was trying to upskill my skills on the camera as well. I didn't know how to do anything. It was all self-taught until I met someone from the wedding industry. Once I did that, my whole life was mind-blown. I was doing it all wrong.”
Benjamin’s home life impacted him at another period.
“There was a time in my teenage years where I didn't live in the greatest household,” he said. “It wasn't very well-structured. There was a period where I was living with my mum, and then on the back end, there was a period living with my dad. Before that, when it was mum and dad together, they divorced leading up to that. I knew I was surrounded by all this negativity. I understood that mum and dad weren't happy together, but I didn't understand how it would have affected me. It's not until my teenage years that it actually did affect me.”
Benjamin experienced a trying time living with his father.
“Sometimes, I'd get home from school and I'd want to film a YouTube video,” he said. “But I'd be conscious about making sure that I pleased dad first because I didn't want him to interrupt my videos. I would try to please him, make everything nice and clean. But, he was a very stressed nurse. He's not now. He's actually much happier now. He would always come home from his 12-hour shift just so angry. In that period of my life, I'd say I was less confident on camera because I was more conscious about what was lurking behind that door.”
Benjamin relies on multiple motivations.
“It's three things,” he said. “It's family, self and service. The family part isn't too crazy hard, because I just live in an apartment by myself with my cat. But I do have a younger brother. He's seven years younger than me. He looks up to me a lot. He's always seen my videos. He's basically seen me build what I have built from the ground up. He takes a lot of inspiration from that. He's like, wow, if Ben can do anything, I can do anything, too. He's always asking questions, hey, what do I do? What's your advice here? One would be family being just my brother because at the moment, focusing on him is my number one.”
Benjamin also is motivated by his own needs.
“What I want from myself, it's just to grow, just to make the younger me proud,” he said. “I'm always looking 10 years ahead. I'm like, wow, the guy in 10 years, he looks sick. I take a lot of inspiration from him. That's the person I'm chasing.”
“There’s different people in this world. It’s just a matter of trying to figure out how you can spark something in them.”
Benjamin also prioritizes others.
“My service is what can I provide for people to build relationships, to build connections, but also to leave a legacy, not just for myself, but for them as well,” he said. “I want to leave legacy for my clients. It doesn't matter if it's a brand story, for a brand that does shoes. Family, self and service, I live by those very actively. I'm always writing my journal every morning, what can I do today for family? What can I do today for service? What can I do today for myself? If you don't also include the self part, it's sort of purposeless, because you're not doing anything for yourself.”
Benjamin dispensed advice to someone wishing to improve his or her own mindset.
“The first thing they need to do is understand their why,” he said. “Why am I depressed? I'm depressed because this happened. Why do I want to be motivated? Firstly, why do I want to have personal growth? Why is this good for me? Once they realize why it's good for them, then they'll be able to understand how to structure around it, how to write things down and understand how they can go from A to B.”
Benjamin said each person will have different motivations.
“There's different people in this world,” he said. “It's just a matter of trying to figure out how you can spark something in them. Once you do spark that thing in them, they're off. They're just like a gazelle. But it's very hard to find that, especially on your own. That's why people turn to these videos. They turn to YouTube. They turn to something to guide them, because they don't know what to do.”
Benjamin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjaminjwhittaker/
Benjamin’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-ZQLYlg6a-Pvhu-7jjTKw