Transcription
You're shutting down a highly profitable business that's bringing in a h 100,000 a month profit or more where you don't even need to do sales calls to enroll clients. Everything is automated, yet you're shutting it down.
I'm here with Dan Bolton, value creator, business mentor, wizard, all sorts of titles. For those who are watching this who don't know who you are, what's the 30-second blurb of like, some, some highlights of your background? I could say you're a youth pastor before growing up. I could say, uh, that you've worked for some of the biggest names in the industry before you launched your own things. And if someone who doesn't know you is asking for like a, a one-minute intro, what's the, the Dan intro that you give people?
Yeah. So, judging by the accent, from New Zealand, uh, grew up, uh, with a single mother, dropped out of high school at 16. I was telling everyone here at this event, uh, I was the youngest sex ed presenter, uh, when I dropped out of high school at 16, I became the youngest sex ed presenter in the country. Was hilarious, uh, because I had really had no expertise on the subject. And, uh, went from there, bounced around in a few different jobs. And all throughout my teenage years, the thread was I was involved in a church. And so when I was 17, I went to this kind of internship sort of thing. And then at 18, I found myself, uh, working for a church with primarily with the teenagers. And I thought I was going to do that forever. But then come 2017, I kind of had the sense that something was next for me. And I didn't know what that next was. I just knew I had to close one chapter in order to start another.
So in 2018, I started a business and, uh, started out doing everything for everyone, agency work, things like that. Over time, got a really good knack of working with a certain type of person, uh, kind of experts that that had a calling, had a message, had an offer, and we ran ads and built funnels for them. And then eventually, I became so good at that that we just taught people how to do it themselves. And that then evolved to me just coaching people on all sorts of things. And throughout that process, I, I grew the business to, you know, really decent side of multiple six figures a month in revenue and freaking hated it. Had a team of 13 and, uh, back-to-back calls all day long, borderline alcoholic, like 44 pounds or you do kilos, right? 20 kilos heavier than I am now. And, um, I was asking myself like, is there a better way? Is there a different way? And more accurately, not like a bad verse good, right verse wrong, but is there just a way that suits my personality more, which is more creative and artistic and I don't want to have a big team and I want to have a simple business with a, a few offers, not a freaking value ladder of all these different things. So, uh, that's really what the last two years have been about is like experimenting, kind of like playing with a blank canvas of like, what would it look like for me to create a business that reflects who I am, not who everyone else is and me trying to be a carbon copy of them. So, that's really what, uh, I've been doing the last few years.
What an awesome intro. And I would say, as someone who's been lucky enough, been in your world for the last few months, that you really have built a business that is reflected of you and what's important to you and what you value and how you want to live in the world. And me asking you that context question is really just to kind of set the stage to the real question I want to ask you, which is, I'm with you right now. We're in Bali with 30-some odd people who've gathered here because they love you. They trust you. They, they believe in the people that you bring together and the experiences that you create. And in less than two weeks' time, you're shutting down a highly profitable business that's bringing in a h 100,000 a month profit or more where you don't even need to do sales calls to enroll clients. Everything is automated, yet you're shutting it down. And it is something that that people are struggling with. So to comprehend, I think some, some people who would put themselves in your shoes would think like, well, like, why would he do that? So, why are you making this change?
Yeah. I think for a lot of people, we perceive what it must feel like at a certain level, right? And my, my life is amazing. Business has been great. I had the real gift of being broke for a really long time and having to make up for the lack of money with, with a majority of purpose, right? And so when I was working for a church, there was no exterior success or financial compensation that I could go, "Ah, this is me. This is amazing." You know, from 18 to 28 years old, and I'm 34 now, I was making 13 US an hour and working long hours and working really, really hard and definitely built skills throughout that time. But while I was doing it, there was no one patting me on the back being like, "You're crushing it at life." Right? My, my friends were, they'd gone to university and gotten jobs and they're working their way up the ladder and they're buying their first house and then maybe renovating it or buying their second house. And my wife and I at 28 had less than $1,000 to our name, didn't own anything. And so we jumped into this world of business, uh, because there was a curiosity. There was a sense of intuition of like, there's something here for me. For a lot of people, including myself in different seasons in the last eight years, seven years, money can become a trap, right? We, we, we hear the phrase the golden handcuffs, but I've always believed that life is really about feeling like you're doing the right thing at the right time. That life is cycles and seasons and rhythms. And so all I can say is it feels like the rhythm for me is changing where it's time for me to exit one chapter and go into another one. In the same way when I finished church, I was closing one chapter. I didn't know what the next chapter looked like. That's how I feel now.
The, the reason, the kind of like the, the question behind the question is like, like, why would you do it? And how are you even, how are you doing this? Is I feel like money is an amazing tool. It's an amazing friend. It's a terrible master. And so I would rather be broke. Not that I have to choose between money and no money and freedom and no freedom. I think you can have both. But, but I'm not afraid of letting go of the financial security in pursuit of what feels right for me next. And this was a really hard decision because, uh, I feel like a complete idiot in many ways because it's like, dude, you've worked so hard and you built this thing and we have about 130 clients right now and we just finished probably the best event of, I've run 10 events. This is probably the best. So I'm finishing on a high, but there was a sense of like, oh my gosh, am I doing the right thing? And earlier this year, I really asked myself, what's the measure of an authentic life? Like, how do you know when you're on the right path? And I think many different people have a lot of different answers, but the question I asked myself is, uh, or the, the conclusion I came to was, I think authenticity is often times expressed through courage. And if you were going to live an authentic life, it's going to require immense amounts of courage from you. And so the question I asked myself is, what degree of courage is my life requiring of me right now? And at the start of this year, it was like, not much. Life is easy. Business is easy. And I feel like I'm playing it really safe. It's all known. It's familiar. And so the question I asked myself coming to this year was like, what would be the most courageous act that I could think of in this season of my life? And I felt like it was to close one season, one chapter as cleanly as I could and make room for whatever's next. So, I know that's a long-winded answer, but one of the things that I think is really important for us all to reflect on is that life is never binary and clean, right? And so, there's not like one thing that has caused me to want to step away. There's the courage thing. There's all these different, like moments that led up to the decision moment where I told clients this is what I'm going to do. But more than anything, it was like an intuitive sense of like, it defies logic, but it feels like the right thing for me. And then the next question everyone has is like, what's next? And the answer is, I have no idea. Sometimes it is that full, like, you leap and then you see if you've got a net below you to catch you once you're at the bottom. And so, uh, yeah, I'm going off track, but I, I think that kind of solves that the essence of like that, that courageous act of trying to follow that intuitive sense.
It's funny you said going off track, but no, you just gave me the answer behind the answer, behind the question without me having to to probe right away. And I love that you connected it to courage as far as like, well, what is a life worth living? That's a question you're kind of asking yourself. What does courage just look like? And if I'm just doing the easy thing, what would be the, the big decision? Has there been any point since you've made the decision where you questioned it, where you thought like, oh, maybe this was a mistake, or was there any point where you've had a wobble since you've made the, the decision?
Yeah, it's interesting. Not in the sense of like, I'm going to backtrack the decision, but one of the things that I really struggle with, and it's also the reason why I do what I do, is I want to help people. And that's a really big shadow for a lot of people because we can lose ourselves in service, right? We start to ask ourselves the question, what do other people need from me? And this can, this can be as simple as in family, you're the sibling, you're the child who becomes who the family needs you to be. And you put who you are or what you want on the back burner and you just go, this is what the family needs and this is the son I need to be for my mom or my dad. This is the brother I need to be for my siblings. And the backtracking for me was going, but what if I'm letting people down? And what if everyone would prefer for me to keep doing this and sitting in that uncomfortable feeling of feeling like if I was to do this, I might be disappointing people. I might not be living up to people's expectations of me or the person that they hoped that I would be for them. And that's been the medicine for me, right, is sitting in that discomfort of going, I'm a person who who loves working with people, who loves helping people. It's why I chose this industry and chose this career. But there's a shadow, which is we can put others before ourselves. And so, as funny as it sounds, it's like this last seven years has been amazing and I, I don't regret it for a second and I've loved every moment of it. And then the invitation for me has been like, what is a holistic self-centered next season look like? As in, me at the center of like, this is what I feel like I'm doing for me. This is what I feel like I'm being called into and having the courage to be misunderstood. Having the courage to not be seen for the person that I am, at maybe the person that people think I am. And that's been scary and that's been uncomfortable. And so no backtracking like officially, but definitely a lot of questioning of like, it feels like I'm going against, like the grain of how I've shown up in life for a really long time. And that's been really uncomfortable.
It's fun, the against the grain piece, because there's been some really profound conversations here with people about what it means to live a life like the kind of life we're choosing to lead and to create your own thing and to carve a different path than what society and school and all these things prepare us for. And on a meta level, this is also you doing that. Like, well, what is going against the grain? What does it look like here? And you being courageous. And I asked you at dinner last night or the night before, if someone put a gun to your head, if someone had kidnapped your family and you were forced to continue to do a version of of your business right now, what would it look like? And I found your answer fascinating and insightful. So, what would it look like if you absolutely had to keep this going against the courage and all the beautiful things you've just shared? What would it look like? What would you change going forward?
It's really funny because I can't remember at all what I said. So, I'll just answer how it, how it's coming up for me right now. So, one of the things that I've really struggled with is the nature of business in general and all kinds of businesses is that you can be married to the wrong things. And as someone who's been married for 12 years, coming up 13 years in 2 months, and been together with my wife for 16, marriage is really built on the framework of dating. Marriage starts to fall apart when you're trying to rely on the decision you made a really long time ago to hold things together. Now, you have to keep making the decision over and over. So, when it comes to business, often times we built a business based on the previous version of us. And we're hoping that that yes holds it together long enough despite the fact that we are changing and we're evolving and maybe we prefer something different now or our skill sets evolved or, uh, we've gotten better at what we do. Think about prices, right? That's a, that we started charging something and hopefully we change the pricing over time to reflect the increased value and skill set we bring to what we do. And so when I look at the business as it is now, it's a coaching community and there's events and curriculum and, uh, you know, coaching calls and things like that. Strategically, what I would do is I would start to create short-term commitments, like a dating. Like, this is what we are all doing for this season. Totally get if this isn't for you. If that's not for you, no worries. Love you heaps. I'll see you around. Um, but this is what I'm going to do over the next nine days. If anyone wants to join me, um, then let's do it. And so when I think about the season that I'm in now, it'd be like, let's delete the calendar and let's be much more fluid and asynchronous, right? So it'd be less structured, like we have this and this and this and this and this coming up. And I'd let more of a flow and a fluidity and a creativity, uh, come into it and be less rigid and more fueled by what I want to do this week, knowing that people are paying me and people are counting on me and I, I want to add value. So what would that look like this week? And then what would, what structures do I think I, I could invite people into to support them in this week? So it might be a call, it might be, uh, a series of voice messages, it might be a new training video, but allowing the flexibility and the freedom to be the foundation so that I could step into the most creative version of myself in every season, I think is a really big thing because when I look at friction or points of where the business has felt heavier than it should, it's always because I'm carrying on a yes I previously said rather than asking it again and seeing what the new answer might be.
I'm glad you didn't, I'm glad you didn't remember your answer from dinner because the similarities are there as far as the maintaining a previous yes, and the business structure piece and the flexibility and creativity, but you just expanded on it in a way, in a much more profound way, and it just, it sounds like creative business structure. Creative every week instead of being like, "Oh, I said yes to this two years ago. We're still doing it now." Or you've signed up for a six-month commitment, it's going to be the same versus, yeah, what happens today is maybe what happens next week or next month. And, uh, the only other thing you did say when we talked at dinner, which complements that is that you maybe would still do events, but it would also be, it wouldn't be like planning half a year in advance. It might be like, hey, two weeks from now, I'm in Vancouver. Who wants to hang out? I'm bringing some people together and it would just be every aspect would be more fluid. This is amazing. Thank you for taking the time to share. I really wanted to capture you at this moment before you step over the threshold because you don't know what's next and where you're going from here. And there's this kind of beautiful moment in time. And when you announced it in the community, there was, I don't know, 50 or 100 comments. It was insane. And there was one thread in so many of the responses from people which was, you're walking your talk. You talked to us about living a life aligned, about being genuine, about listening to ourselves and and living accordingly. And you're doing this in the truest way, in a way that most people, just the golden handcuffs, they, they would struggle to make that leap. So, thank you for for walking your talk in such a way that's so inspiring. Is there any final thoughts, comments, someone, something you want to end on here?
I think that whole idea of walking the talk is is really key. I think for a lot of people in the coaching, consulting, info industry is, uh, in many ways, we're all wounded healers, right? We're all teaching on the thing that we struggle with, right? It's the mindset coach who struggles with their mindset. The relationship coach who still, you know, doesn't have their [ __ ] together completely. The business coach who still goes like this with feast and famines. And all of those things are just the human experience, right? I don't think any of us have it together. But the thing we should aspire to all be, at least, at least what I'm aspiring to be, is an embodied leader. That when people look at me, they're not saying, "Dan says this, but he does this." And, and so there's two ways to think about that. You say less and you do more, right? Or you become more. And so I've become more and more comfortable with the idea that when people really pay me for advice, the thing that they need is not advice. They need a model. They need to hear someone who has been where they are share how they might approach it and then challenge them to, uh, ask themselves what they think they should do. And that's just made it so much more clean for me because my job is to become the message, not just to teach the message. It's much easier in theory to say, do this and you'll be successful. It's much harder to say, this is what I'm doing to become who I am, and this is who, uh, this is what becoming this person has created for me, good, bad, ugly. And so for me, it's like, yeah, there's money and there's freedom and there's also imperfection and there's also struggle. But if you, not so much like what you see, but resonate with who I am, then come with me as we walk this journey. And so the thing that I am most aware of in this season is that I just get to add more story and more substance to the embodied leader I, I aspire to be.
Become the message and that you just get to embody even more. Thank you, Dan. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.