"Babies cry for it and grown men die for it."
Daniel Tolson has served as a consultant to more than 15,000 companies and individuals throughout Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, and both North and South America. As a business influencer, he impacts millions of people each year. He has studied, researched, written, and spoken for 20 years on the topics of time management, goal setting, strategic planning, sales iQ, business model innovation, and emotional intelligence. Daniel is considered the world’s Number One business coach specializing in Emotional Intelligence, with over 5,500 case studies into emotional intelligence in the past three years alone. Daniel speaks to corporate and public audiences on the subjects of Emotional and Social Intelligence, including the executives and staff of many of Australia’s largest corporations.
His interactive talks and seminars on Selling with Emotional Intelligence, Business Model Innovation, Time Management, and The Psychology of Success bring about immediate improvements in productivity, performance, and output. Before founding his company, The Tolson Institute, Daniel was a leader of 17,000 cabin crew for Emirates Airlines. He has had successful careers in real estate sales and marketing, Pawnbroking, Second Hand Dealing, a former Australian Champion Wakeboarder, and eXtreme Games Competitor. He has conducted high-level consulting assignments with many billion-dollar-plus corporations in emotional intelligence and business model innovation. Daniel has traveled and worked in over 100 countries on six continents and lives in both Taiwan and Australia. He is happily married with two children.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Daniel Tolson: We’re relentlessly pursuing our goal to teach 1,000,000 businesses how to catapult their influence, accelerate their impact and unleash new income levels. It’s time to eliminate the major sources of stress and tension in your business and learn practical, proven ideas, strategies, and techniques used by all successful businesses that survive and thrive in tough markets.
The reason why I started this business was to solve my confidence and self-esteem challenges. At age 11 I was diagnosed with Linear Sequential Learning disability, I spent 5 years in remedial therapy having cranial realignments, spinal manipulations, and treatments for allergies and asthma that lead to a collapsed bronchial tube. Dues to the pressure of the misaligned cranial plates, I could not see correctly, I was tone-deaf and lived with constant migraine headaches.Eventually falling behind my classmates I was hit with Epstein Bar Virus and chronic fatigue. I was forced to drop out of school and then the 2 years that followed I was in back-to-back knee surgeries and rehabilitation. By the time I was back up on my feet, I was left behind, and playing catches up. I thought I was alone until I realised there were so many people like me
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Daniel Tolson: At age 19, my Uncle John O’Brien took me under his wing he said “Your life is out of control, you are being reckless” At age 19 he gave me a career in real estate and said “if you do what successful people do, you will get the same results. He mentored me, taught me how to prospect, present, and close sales professionally, Within 12 months I was in the top 10 sales creators in Australia. During this time my Uncle Jonn also introduced me to the work of Brian Tracy and the book Maximum Achievement. Through Brians’s work, I learned how to set and achieve my goals.
Within 1 year of application I was buying my first investment property, by the second year, my second! In addition, I pursued my sporting career and became an Australian Champion Athlete in 2006, whilst simultaneously managing and turning around our family Pawnbroking business and scaling our clothing brand with more than 50 retailers stocking our goods and a successful e-commerce platform. After studying the works of Brian Tracy I felt anything was possible and then in 2016 I became business partners with Brian Tracy, I taught his philosophies, and programs across the world eventually being recognized as his Rookie Business Coach of The Year. In 2017, I was also asked to address an audience of more than 250 business people in San Diego on behalf of Brian Tracy. This was a great honor.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Daniel Tolson: In December 2019 I had the highest-earning income hour of my career. Earning more in one consulting hour than I’d previously earned in a month. We were on top of our game. In March 2020 I took a risk and flew to Malaysia to deliver a live event, I addressed an audience of more than 350 business people and opened up a new Market, The very next day I flew back to Taiwan and arrived at the airport 2 hours before they shut down the borders.
Because of the pandemic, I exited a Franchise that I was operating in Australia. This was an extensive and very costly process that involved lawyers from both parties. In addition, I also had to exit my company structure because I was unable to meet the legal requirements of days inside of Australia. Again this was a stressful period and more than a 12-month process. To succeed our company had to totally reinvent itself and operate 100% online, build new programs, reinvent delivery methods and build a new audience outside of Australia. Covid was a curse and a blessing. I predicted in 2017 that the future of my business was 100% online, before Covid 19 the marketplace was not ready for it. Thanks to Covid 19 they are being for it to be 100% online. Over the past year thanks to Covid I have been able to influence additional 10,000 people through live events.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Daniel Tolson: It positively impacted our businesses and our clients. Secretly, I believe so many people wanted to leave their jobs, so many wanted the flexibility to work on their terms. One of my clients, a mortgage broker was begging not to travel and visit clients on-site. Thanks to Covid she does not have to leave the house! Other clients in real estate had resigned from CEO roles to start their small businesses, before Covid they were struggling, thanks to Covid their competitors went into hibernation, as a result, their businesses exploded and they are making millions.
One of my clients who was in banking had been working 16 hour days for 17 years, she did not know her children. During Covid, she resigned from her job, stayed homes, pursued her passion for Crocheting, and now has a thriving e-commerce business with more than 400 sales this month. The list goes on and on. Even for me personally, I was spending more than 3 to 4 months each year away from my family, an average of 25 domestic and international lighter every year, I was always, fatigued and sick. Today, I am with my loved ones 24/7 and I am loving it! The impact has been extremely positive, new clients, with new goals and new visions for their future. It has been exciting.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Daniel Tolson: I love this trend. In 2010 my wife was wanted to quit her job, I encouraged her to quit her job, but unfortunately, she didn’t have the courage, and eventually, she was involved in an aircraft accident resulting in a permanent disability and 2.5 years of surgeries and rehabilitation.
Eventually losing her job in 2012, she was then FREE to reinvent herself. Today we work together and have a successful international business. Humans strive for consistency, they live within their comfort zones and they fear change, I see this every day. I remember Brian Tracy once said that 84% of adults have a feeling of unfulfilled potential, they would prefer to be working another job and pursuing their life’s passions. Change has been forced upon them, test it hurts, yes it is uncomfortable, yes they’ve had to give up some creature comforts, and soon they will realize Covid was their ticket to freedom and a way to live life on their terms.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Daniel Tolson: Focus on intrinsic motivation, help your employees build a career around their unique behaviors, drivers, and skills, provide them with both interesting and challenging work, keep them busy and show them how to incrementally improve their performance over time providing regular training, coaching, feedback, plans for growth and lots of public praise and recognition. As the old saying goes, “Babies cry for it and grown men die for it”
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Daniel Tolson: We all have 24 hours to utilize every day, some people have learned how to manage their time effectively and others are yet to. People with an excellent work-life balance are intensely goal-oriented, they work all the time they work, avoid office gossip, focus on high-value activities, they do what is both hard and necessary, and have developed the confidence to no to things of no value. The ones who struggle with work-life balance are activity-focused, they procrastinate on high-value activities, they engage in meaningless conversations in the workplace, they do what is tension relieving and because of low levels of self-worth and esteem, they say yes to tasks and activities that are not in alignment with their key accountabilities and eventually they run out of time.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Daniel Tolson: We counter this through the Science of Job Matching! Over the past 35 years, we have conducted more than 30,000,000 case studies into the emotional intelligence of people from all around the world. Based on this research we can predict people’s behaviors, what motivates them, and also measure 25 of the most important skills for career success. Using this data we find the right job, for the right person, a job that leverages their natural talents and abilities and doesn’t expose them to unnecessary stress by shoving them into a role that conflicts with their behavioral and motivational preferences. The result is happy high performing people, the first time.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Daniel Tolson: Resiliency.
The world is changing faster than it ever has before, and our ability to adapt, adjust and respond to these changing conditions will ensure our success. Focusing on resiliency will enable us to weather any storm or economic climate.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had 10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Daniel Tolson: I’d hire myself a really good coach and then send my wife to the top university to complete her master’s.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Daniel Tolson for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Daniel Tolson or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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