A little miracle happened in my life a few years ago… and it all started with a middle-of-the-night impulse.
Back in 2010, when we took our scrappy little company public, every officer needed a personal brand website.
Naturally, I wanted benward.com.
Simple. Clean. My name.
The problem?
Someone already owned it.
We tried everything to buy it.
No luck.
No amount of money would get the owner to sell.
So I settled for benjaminmiltonward.com.
Not exactly the same ring to it… but it worked.
Fast forward 11 years.
It’s 2021, and I woke up in the middle of the night with this burning desire:
“I need to get benward.com.”
Nobody was using the website…
But someone still owned it.
So I went on a mission.
I started researching to figure out who owned the domain.
Dead ends everywhere.
Finally, I reached out to a friend and called in a favor.
Through some serious Jedi-level wisdom, he helped track down what we believed might be the owner’s email.
It was a complete Hail Mary.
I sent a short message telling my story and included a link to my YouTube channel so they could see the kind of leadership work I was doing.
Then I waited.
A couple weeks later…
I got a message back.
The owner’s name was Lance.
He told me something that blew my mind.
Apparently they get contacted all the time by people named Ben Ward who want to buy the domain.
Little did I know…
There are over 1,000 Ben Ward’s just on Facebook alone.
Seriously — go type “Ben Ward” into Facebook and start scrolling.
It’s wild.
But Lance said something else that stunned me.
He and his partner had been holding the domain for over 15 years for a close friend of theirs.
That friend never ended up using it.
So they made a decision:
“The next Ben Ward who reaches out… we’ll look them up. If they’re doing good work in the world, we’ll consider selling it.”
Lance commented on one of my YouTube videos:
“Hey this is Lance. We love your work. Great job.”
Then he emailed me.
They were willing to sell the domain.
Now here’s the part where I braced myself.
I expected this to cost $50,000+.
Premium domains like that often do.
But Lance said something incredible.
They had no interest in making money from the domain.
They just wanted to see it go to someone who would use it for something positive.
So they offered it to me for their total out-of-pocket cost over the past 15+ years.
$3,256.
That day…
benward.com became mine.
And the rest is history.
Here’s the lesson.
When an idea hits you…
When that little voice says “go for it”…
Listen.
Take action.
Dream big dreams.
And then move toward them one small step at a time.
You never know what miracles might be waiting on the other side of that first email.
Holy smokes… you necver know what blessings might be coming your way.
Make it a great day!
