Ben White of White Cloud Concierge was recently featured on the Scaling Mountains Podcast with Kyle Sullivan. Scaling Mountains focuses on the obstacles and challenges people face in life and stories on how they overcome these challenges with confidence. In the “Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles” episode, we learn how Ben White of White Cloud Concierge has scaled mountains. From healing a broken back, summiting and skiing the Wasatch 22 to overcoming obstacles he faces as an entrepreneur.
In August 2020, Ben had to overcome a scary obstacle when he broke his back in a paragliding crash. After two days in the hospital without any answers from doctors, Ben wanted to go home. He knew he was able to walk and he could feel his fingers and toes, so he left the hospital despite the doctor’s recommendations. The doctor said if he tripped and fell, he could risk never walking again in his life. Ben was ready to give his absolute 100% to heal at home and have a full recovery. He knew he would give his all and have a full recovery without back surgery.
When Ben broke his back, he realized how precious and short life is. He decided to focus his energy on healing and making a goal to hike and ski the Wasatch 22 once he recovered. The Wasatch 22 are the 22 highest 11,000 foot peaks in the Wasatch range near Salt Lake City. In December 2020, when Ben had skis back under his feet, he set off on his goal to ski the Wasatch 22 in one winter season.
Ben was inspired to take on this challenge as his back was healing because one of the role models in his life, Chris Davenport, skied all the Colorado 14ers in the past. This initially inspired Ben to summit and ski all 4000’ peaks of New Hampshire when he was a teenager. Breaking his back made Ben want to scale more mountains and reach another backcountry skiing goal by conquering the Wasatch 22. In the winter of 2020-2021, Ben reached his goal by summiting and skiing the 22 highest peaks in the Wasatch. To learn more about Ben’s accomplishment, watch The Wasatch 22 from the 2022 Wasatch Mountain Film Festival.
When Ben climbed the Wasatch 22, he had different friends join him on his mission. It required many technical mountain skills, experience in the backcountry and a significant amount of teamwork. The teamwork he used on the mountain was a crossover with his experience as a business owner and an entrepreneur. Vital communication in the backcountry directly mirrors the importance of communication with his team at White Cloud Concierge.
Ben started his company, White Cloud Concierge, to give more time back to people in Salt Lake City. He initially wanted to provide a solution to help his friends get household chores taken care of so they could spend more time skiing. Through Ben’s boundless extroversion and his natural ability at connecting others, he started White Cloud Concierge. He has been able to retain customers through effective communication and by exceeding expectations. By solving problems for people and providing convenience, it brings value to vendors and customers. Vendors can make more money and customers have more time for themselves.
The scariest aspect of business Ben had to face as an entrepreneur was the initial realization of becoming self-employed. His mentor, Chris Santacroce pushed him to start a paragliding business which eventually led him to start his second business, White Cloud Concierge in 2020. Organizing everything on his own was both intimidating and overwhelming, but looking back on the past he realized that starting his own business was one of the best things that has ever happened in his life.
Ben White prioritizes living his life with as much time as possible to go skiing. It’s easy for entrepreneurs to invest too many hours into growing their business and neglect doing what they love. This can often lead to burnout. Something we can learn from Ben is that recharging in nature and doing what you love the most is the best way to enjoy this one precious life we have. It’s important to think about what you value and what you want in life in order to have success with both business and personal goals.
If you want to watch the full Scaling Mountains episode with Ben White, head to Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles and listen to more Scaling Mountains episodes to learn about other business and life challenges all different people have overcome.
To save more time for your own life, consider booking services with White Cloud Concierge. White Cloud Concierge helps busy people buy their time back. Book house cleaning services, landscaping, car detailing or pickup and delivery ski and bike tuning in Salt Lake City.