Oct 6, 2026 · 47 min · 10 segments
Elevator 263: Ben Sharf is the co-founder and CEO of Platter, one of the fastest agencies ever to reach Shopify Platinum Partner status, building storefronts for brands like NeuroGum, Gainful, and…
You know, obviously, Ben, you mentioned you played competitive hockey, Parker, soccer and baseball, and myself, basketball.
And, you know, I think just like you, we grew up very, very similar, right? We had expectations on our parents from the high school that we went to, what our parents did for a living, the grades, the clubs, the sports, the everything.
And while that's a beautiful thing, 'cause I think the pressure and the expectations actually makes you learn who you are and define yourself, I think it also, to your point, and I love that you're talking about curiosity because my mental motto is live curiously.
And so younger Sam, very similar to Ben, was like, "I'm gonna play basketball, then I'm gonna go into something in the business world, and that's just gonna be my life, and that's gonna be it." Now, older Sam, I, I kinda, I like to use this analogy.
I love treating life like a video game, which is how many cool random power-ups and new skills, and I'm talking really weird random shit, can I acquire? I think the concept of a renaissance man gets thrown around a lot.
And so Ben, I'm curious, as you are thinking about the young man that, you know, Ben has formed into, what are some of the wild, wacky, and curious things that you've gained in your life that you want to continue to learn or new things that you're like, "Sam, this is on the bucket list," like, that's a skill I want?
Yeah, I mean, I think I have a deep curiosity with like pushing myself in ways that I maybe never thought was possible or doing things that I think are kinda ridiculous 'cause I'm a firm believer that if you do things that make you uncomfortable or like push the boundaries on, on your own limiting beliefs, it changes your worldview.
Like, and I, I don't know, I'm sure if you guys looked at anything I've put on the internet, you'd probably see some of them.
You know, from sitting in silence for 10 days to training for a boxing fight to running 130 miles from Montauk to Manhattan.
I, I've gone in a lot of different directions, both like physical challenges, mental challenges, because I think for me that a lot of my own purpose comes from, as we talked about, exploring my curiosities, and I think a lot of that is also, uh, in line with just like things that are met with friction.
I, I don't, I don't really find things as interesting or as fun if they're very easy and there's not 1% of you that's like, "I wonder if this is possible," or, "I wonder if I'm gonna be able to do this." And I don't know if that's just like the sick bone in my body of like being an athlete and, and always choosing like the hard road in a lot of different ways, but I think a lot of the activities that I do or a lot of the curiosities that I have are around just like pushing the bounds on what I think is possible within, you know, myself.
It's not, it's not about competing with other people so much as it's, it's like pushing my own limiting beliefs.
We call that, uh, at Elevation Nation, like the elevator mindset, 'cause I think Sam and I-- I mean, I've never run 130 miles.
I, uh, definitely have never spent 10 days in silence, even though that is a goal of mine one day.
But our idea here at Elevation Nation is if you wanna go elevate in life, you wanna make something of yourself, you wanna live a f- life that's worth living, right, fulfilling life, it cannot be in the comfort zone.
But something that we've found, Ben, through the years with the elevator mindset, that it can be kind of like a blessing and a curse.
You know you're doing something that's hard, and you're gonna get through it, and you're gonna learn and grow.
You know, obviously, Ben, you mentioned you played competitive hockey, Parker, soccer and baseball, and myself, basketball.
And, you know, I think just like you, we grew up very, very similar, right? We had expectations on our parents from the high school that we went to, what our parents did for a living, the grades, the clubs, the sports, the everything.
And while that's a beautiful thing, 'cause I think the pressure and the expectations actually makes you learn who you are and define yourself, I think it also, to your point, and I love that you're talking about curiosity because my mental motto is live curiously.
And so younger Sam, very similar to Ben, was like, "I'm gonna play basketball, then I'm gonna go into something in the business world, and that's just gonna be my life, and that's gonna be it." Now, older Sam, I, I kinda, I like to use this analogy.
I love treating life like a video game, which is how many cool random power-ups and new skills, and I'm talking really weird random shit, can I acquire? I think the concept of a renaissance man gets thrown around a lot.
And so Ben, I'm curious, as you are thinking about the young man that, you know, Ben has formed into, what are some of the wild, wacky, and curious things that you've gained in your life that you want to continue to learn or new things that you're like, "Sam, this is on the bucket list," like, that's a skill I want?
Yeah, I mean, I think I have a deep curiosity with like pushing myself in ways that I maybe never thought was possible or doing things that I think are kinda ridiculous 'cause I'm a firm believer that if you do things that make you uncomfortable or like push the boundaries on, on your own limiting beliefs, it changes your worldview.
Like, and I, I don't know, I'm sure if you guys looked at anything I've put on the internet, you'd probably see some of them.
You know, from sitting in silence for 10 days to training for a boxing fight to running 130 miles from Montauk to Manhattan.
I, I've gone in a lot of different directions, both like physical challenges, mental challenges, because I think for me that a lot of my own purpose comes from, as we talked about, exploring my curiosities, and I think a lot of that is also, uh, in line with just like things that are met with friction.
I, I don't, I don't really find things as interesting or as fun if they're very easy and there's not 1% of you that's like, "I wonder if this is possible," or, "I wonder if I'm gonna be able to do this." And I don't know if that's just like the sick bone in my body of like being an athlete and, and always choosing like the hard road in a lot of different ways, but I think a lot of the activities that I do or a lot of the curiosities that I have are around just like pushing the bounds on what I think is possible within, you know, myself.
It's not, it's not about competing with other people so much as it's, it's like pushing my own limiting beliefs.
We call that, uh, at Elevation Nation, like the elevator mindset, 'cause I think Sam and I-- I mean, I've never run 130 miles.
I, uh, definitely have never spent 10 days in silence, even though that is a goal of mine one day.
But our idea here at Elevation Nation is if you wanna go elevate in life, you wanna make something of yourself, you wanna live a f- life that's worth living, right, fulfilling life, it cannot be in the comfort zone.
But something that we've found, Ben, through the years with the elevator mindset, that it can be kind of like a blessing and a curse.
You know you're doing something that's hard, and you're gonna get through it, and you're gonna learn and grow.
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