Hillsdale’s finest hour might be close at hand and many of tomorrow’s leaders are at this school, CEO of Bold Gold Media Group Vince Benedetto said in a talk last week.
Benedetto gave a lecture on his background in the military and in media entrepreneurship as part of the Kehoe Executive Speaker series on April 10 at the Dow Hotel and Conference Center.
“I know many of you here are seeking to be entrepreneurs, and you’re learning — whether you realize it or not — through this education the virtues needed to be successful in life and in business,” Benedetto said, adding that starting or running a business requires a great deal of “Churchillian spirit.”
“In this landscape, the answers about how to move forward and be successful in business are not always found in the latest business book or self-help group,” Benedetto said. “Many of the answers about how to move forward boldly are best found by actually looking back.”
Benedetto said that his time as a student at the United States Air Force Academy and then later working for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations prepared him for business and life as an entrepreneur.
“What I learned, singularly, was that my limits are far beyond what I think they are, and that’s true of all of you,” Benedetto said. “Your body and your mind think they can do a certain amount of something, but they can endure so far beyond that. And that’s a great lesson for business — because you can’t quit in business.”
Benedetto also said that working in counterintelligence — which required building networks of experts and reasonably reliable individuals overseas — helped prepare him for business, particularly in media.
Benedetto’s Bold Gold Media Group, based in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, operates 14 radio stations throughout New York and Pennsylvania. He helped obtain the Federal Communications Commission licensing for WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale, and funded and assembled all the equipment for the station.
“Without Vince, we wouldn’t have Radio Free Hillsdale,” said Dow Journalism Program Director John Miller.
Senior Lydia Hilton said Benedetto’s military experience set him apart from other Kehoe speakers.
“After different confrontations were over with the U.S., his position was closed, and that’s when he started into radio,” Hilton said. “He still used his military tactics — which was different from other Kehoe speakers who used their educational background or college. He used what he learned in the military, which was a wholly different perspective.”
Executive Director of Career Services Ken Koopmans said Benedetto’s advice on maintaining local relationships in business and using local banks is consistent with the mission of the college.
“It was unique for them to hear a little bit about someone who had an idea, didn’t have access to the money, and he gave them a pathway to show them how it’s done,” Koopmans said.
After getting out of the military, Benedetto said he used his local bank to help him buy a few radio stations that were for sale.
“He talked about never viewing failure as an option,” Hilton said. “If he needed a certain amount of money, if he needed a loan, he had to get that money, and he would get it from any source necessary.”
Benedetto said all business is local, and encouraged students to focus on local relationships as an entrepreneur.
“People invest in you, as much as your idea and what you stand for,” Benedetto said.
Koopmans encouraged students to attend Kehoe dinners and learn from different people outside the classroom.
“It’s an environment where you can ask questions, get one-on-one, and perhaps just find somebody to get an internship, get a full-time job at some point,” Koopmans said.
