How I led a company through the hardest year of my life | For your life

Curiosity is what keeps founders from getting stale

Curiosity isn't just a personal habit — it's a competitive advantage most leaders let go stale. Dan breaks down how he forces himself to keep learning, from testing four different AI models against each other with his leadership team, to never repeating a restaurant on date night. The point isn't the specific habits. It's what happens to your thinking when you stop defaulting to whatever's easiest.

Great teams aren't hired, they're built

You can hire ten great people and still not have a team. Dan shares the technique he's used repeatedly to take individuals — new hires or a team he's inherited — and get them operating as one unit: the quarterly offsite, done right. Real debate, real OKR accountability, and why the person creating dissent on your team is a problem everyone already sees but you.If you want to address your specific situation with Dan, use this link to book a meeting [https://content.databased.com/revenue-consulting-and-sales-recruiting]

Five numbers that tell you if you're the problem

You spend all your time grading the people who work for you. When's the last time you graded yourself? Dan breaks down the five areas every founder and every functional leader needs to score themselves on — HR, finance, product, engineering, and revenue — and what it actually means when most of them come back red. Spoiler: it's not a talent problem. It's a hiring and leading problem, and it starts with you.If you want to talk about recruiting, click here to book a meeting with Dan [https://content.databased.com/revenue-consulting-and-sales-recruiting].

The best work of your life might still be ahead

Click here to book a meeting with Dan⁠ [https://content.databased.com/revenue-consulting-and-sales-recruiting] and talk about your specific situation. - Dan read an article that said the best work of your life happens in your 40s and 50s. It made him ask a question he's been sitting with since: what does he actually want his legacy to be? Not a business outcome. Not a number. Something that's still true 20 years from now. Dan talks through what 20 years from now looks like for him, the specific legacy he's building toward, and the person who shaped him most: his grandma, who showed up through every hard season of growing up and made the time for him no matter what. If you're in your 40s or 50s, this one is worth slowing down for.

If you left tomorrow, what would happen to your top people?

Click here to book a meeting with Dan⁠ [https://content.databased.com/revenue-consulting-and-sales-recruiting] and talk about your specific situation. ---- Most leaders build an organization that requires them to be there for it to work. They can't take a vacation. They can't step into a new role. They can't focus on an acquisition. If you're the only person who can do your job, the board, the CEO, the investors — they all know it. It's a risk to the business and a ceiling on your career. Dan walks through the 18-month framework for building your number two: who to choose, how to give them real visibility with leadership and the board, what assignments to shift their way, and what to watch for as they handle the added pressure. He also shares what happened in 2018 at Qualtrics when he got serious about leaving. If you want to talk through building your revenue team's leadership depth, book a meeting with Dan. Link in the description.