Greetings from Miami Beach!
I’m currently at Art Basel, running around from one production to the next, and I absolutely love the vibe the city has at this time of year. Everywhere you go there are cool events, old and new friends in town, and exciting projects happening. I’ve probably been to Miami ten times by now and I really know my way around. At least enough to avoid the worst traffic and always have a great location for shooting up my sleeve. Or to know where in Florida you can find a Christmas tree. That was actually a to-do for a production. BMW already did a post about it.
BMW Christmas tree post on Instagram
Speaking of Christmas, end of year, etc.:
A few days ago, I had dinner with a colleague from the team, Kenny (@kennayp). Especially at team dinners like that, I’m not a fan of basic small talk – I want to go deeper. And Kenny asked me a great question that night:
“What do you consider your biggest personal success of this year?”
That made me reflect on all the crazy things that happened this year:
- Marathon
- Pilot’s license
- Travel
- Backpacking with my dad
- BDX growth
But despite all these amazing things, my biggest success was this:
“Believing in the mission even if there’s reason to doubt.”
At the beginning of the year, we set insanely ambitious goals for 2025. And we’re not going to hit all of them. One goal was, for example, to double our revenue. We did grow, but not as much as I had hoped. In the past, I used to be super hard on myself when something like that happened. I would spend forever looking for reasons and mistakes. But this year, for the first time, I managed to differentiate: what can I actually control, and where do I just need to let go? That really helped me enjoy these experiences and the path we’re on with BDX, NTS, and all the other projects. It’s not about the numbers getting bigger, it’s about the special moments. With the team. With partners. With clients.
And there were so many of those again this year:
- An insanely cool production for BMW in the Wild West (Watch on YouTube)
- Super funny content productions for SIXT and an invitation to speak at their Brand Vienna conference
- A super successful new edition of TRENDCON
- The F1 project in Las Vegas
And so many more. Getting to experience all of this is bigger than any goal we set.
Two and a half years ago, I came to the US by myself. In Germany, I had everything. And here, I had a lot to lose. No one knew whether this would turn into the biggest adventure of my life or my biggest mistake. And now I’m sitting here with a really amazing US team, and things are just working. I’m endlessly grateful for that. And with that spirit, I want to keep going full throttle into 2026.
That’s it for this week. See you next Friday! ✌️
Benjamin
