About Us

An invitation from founder Ben Brophy to be in on The Pay It Forward Academy at Ground Zero along with a quick overview of the platform and what it's about. 

The platform is in it's infancy (starting in January 2020) but the vision for both the content & the global impact is large.

We already have a wealth of videos, podcasts & resources due to be uploaded over the next few months whilst we also have a whole range of very interesting & insightful guest contributors who are going to be curating their own pages within the site, bringing their experience, vision & expertise to the platform.

Below is a brief audio overview of the platform by Ben Brophy. The transcript of the recording is below the video.

Transcript of the video:

"A very warm welcome to you. My name is Ben Brophy and it's an absolute pleasure and honor!

If you're listening to this, it means that you're within The Pay It Forward Academy. And firstly I just want to welcome you and say thank you for being here. You've discovered this and you've been led to it for some particular reason and just to reassure you and to give you a little bit of background information, I'd just like to share some information about The Pay It Forward Academy, how it came about, what it's about and what you can get from it.

And then importantly, how collectively we, you, I and the other people who are using the platform can make our own little contribution very easily towards a better world.

So on January the 16th 2019 I was away on a silent retreats in Wales in the United Kingdom. And on the sixth day of the silent retreat, I had what could be seen as a moment of Satori - an insight.

It was literally like a pinprick in my head and I had the vision for The Pay It forward Academy just literally in a download very quickly.

And what it said was, look, use your wisdom, your experience, your skill sets, your passions, your vision to pull together content in the interconnected areas of life, the wheel of life, which we've already talked about within the platform, but whether that be our health, our parenting, our relationships, our confidence, our business skills, our digital marketing skills, our energy, our mindfulness, just a few of the interconnected areas. To pull together some of the world's best content to curate and create a library for people around the world.

It's not lost on me that it's an honor and a privilege to have had access via the internet, but also via courses and via books to many and much of the content that's contained within the website.

And having worked for a number of different charities and traveled extensively around the world over the years, including projects such as building 100 homes in Peru for very underprivileged people, sort of displaced people on the outskirts of Lima, having worked with children and young people in places such as Uganda and Costa Rica, among other projects.

Understanding how blessed and how privileged many of us are in life. So to readdress some of the balance, to be able to provide a platform where people don't need hundreds of pounds (dollars) or even tens of pounds (dollars) or even thousands of pounds (dollars) to access the content.

For people who maybe don't know about the interconnected areas of the wheel of life. To introduce that to people and then to introduce content from experts, from people who are already providing content, through other amazing platforms, whether that be, for example, Mind Valley, Hay House through YouTube, through the Internet Business School, through, you know, the thousands of amazing sites that are already out there, but pulling together some of the best free content and putting it together under one roof.

So that, I guess for you, most importantly as you're listening to this right now, you know, people always think, So what? Who cares? What's in it for me? And I'm sure you're thinking, well, maybe I don't care massively about the big contribution aspect to the wide world. That's understandable. That's fine. So the natural thing that most people will come to the website is to get information for their own personal use, which can impact ultimately their life, their family, their relationships at work, their energy, their wellbeing, their outlook on life.

So that's first and foremost the natural reason that most people will come to the website. But then secondly, once we've got access to it and we're able to use the contents to just share it, to pay it forward so that we can, between us reach many, many more people so we can make this content available in societies and in communities who wouldn't necessarily have access to it or wouldn't be able to pay for it.

For emerging economies around the world who, you know, in the Western world, I'm speaking from somebody who's living in the United Kingdom where we have, you know, even though we may be complained about GDP or the state of affairs, actually, if you look around the world compared to the vast majority of countries, we're extremely privileged and we are, you know, in many ways, way further and way more privileged than many other countries.

So just to level the playing field as well. And because there are many people who are severely disadvantaged.

So the ethos of the platform is to provide content that can make a difference to your life. Maybe you just want to dip in and you just want to access something on a particular area.

I don't know how you found the website. I'd love to hear about how you found the website, but maybe you just want something on parenting and you can look at what some of the experts on parenting are talking about.

Maybe you want something on digital marketing and business and you want to go and listen to what some of the ideas and thoughts around digital marketing and business. Or maybe you want something on mindset, confidence, leadership. I don't know. There's no right or wrong way to use it. All we know is that there's an abundance of great content that is going to be evolving very organically and it will evolve consistently and quickly and collectively as we get new suggestions, as we become aware of new people, new content, we will endeavor to keep the site updated with some of the world's best content for you so that it really is a very, very useful library of content for you, your family, your colleagues (if you work with a business or have teams), for your teams and that collectively we just, you know, make life easier for each other.

So my vision is, and I truly believe that all people are inherently good. I believe that all of us doing the very best with where we are with what we know with our previous experiences in life. And I do hold a very positive outlook for the future for humanity. And I believe that this is my contribution, our team's contribution. This is, if you look at the front page of the website, there is something called KIIGAI, I K, I ,G, A, I, which means life purpose or meaning. And if you haven't seen that or familiarized yourself, I would recommend that you have look at the image.

But there are four questions for us to ask ourselves,

What am I good at? Because or could I be good at?

What do I love or what do I enjoy? Because we want to do something that we love or enjoy in life.

Life's far too short to be doing stuff that we don't enjoy.

Thirdly, what does the world need? We want to contribute to something more than ourselves.

And then fourthly, where is there opportunity? Could I potentially be paid from this? And if we can find the overlap of those different areas, then it's suggested, and this isn't Ben Brophy, this is the the creators of the IKIGAI concept. But it makes perfect sense to me. I've never seen it so visually - it makes total sense.

If we can find the overlap of those four things, then it means that we're likely close to our purpose and The Pay It Forward Academy for myself and those that I'm working with is definitely our purpose to contribute towards a better world.

I'm not sure how it's going to open up opportunity wise, but I know that if I follow the instinct to create this platform as I'm being guided to as I had on the insight from the seven day silent retreat, if I know that I'm contributing to a better future, if we're impacting one person at a time and people are sharing, That the opportunities will open up.

We love learning, we love sharing, we love to contribute. So it ticks all of the boxes for us and we would ask you to ask the same questions yourself. What do you love? What does the world need? What can you be paid for and what are you good at (or could you be good at)?

But in a nutshell, The Pay It Forward Academy is here for you to enjoy, to evolve, to contribute towards a better world. And I'd just like to part with what's the value of one life changing idea? Even one life changing idea. We guarantee that there are (and we can say this hand on heart) because it's not our content - we're pulling together all of these amazing experts in the different interconnected areas of life. There are some amazing ideas, some great insights, some great tools, things that could really, really make an impact in yours and your loved one's lives.

So, and just like to say, just as a disclaimer, we don't necessarily endorse every single viewpoint contained. We know that there's a lot of amazing content, but because there's such a wide range of content within the website, we don't necessarily endorse every single thing that's been said by every speaker at all of the times.

So we're presenting it to you to use your own judgment. We know that there is a range of incredible content. You please use your discerning judgment, your viewpoints, and as anyone should say, you should never be told what's right and wrong. You know what truth is for you. And the truth well is truth. But we know what inherently feels right and resonates with us. So as in general, as in life. But with this website, please use it freely, use it open mindedly and then you just trust your instincts, not what you've been told by somebody.

But use your heart, use your judgments to see what resonates for you and our intention, our belief, our wish is that The Pay It Forward Academy delivers value to your life and as a result of the value it brings to your life that you intend and you'd like to pay it forward to other people.

So from myself, Ben Brophy and all of the team - and I hope you don't mind, I'm just speaking very honestly very fluidly without any notes here just because I want to connect with you and share with you.

But it's a true honor and a privilege and a blessing to bring this platform in Beta version one as it is now. You're one of the very first people in the world to have access to it. We have a vision to reach at least a million people over the next two years because we believe that that will be a tipping point, a million people and that knocking on into local communities, into families, into workplaces will help to raise the consciousness around the world, to help people be happier and more empowered, more fulfilled. And collectively we can make a big difference in this world.

So on behalf of myself and all of the team, thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Enjoy the content. And then if you'd like to contribute or support or suggest, or if you could give introductions, let's say, to prison services or to communities where you really think this would be really valuable, then we would greatly welcome that. But enjoy the content. We look forward to hearing from you, from all of the team myself, Ben Brophy. Thank you for your time and enjoy The Pay It Forward Academy. Take care."