We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dan Koval. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dan below.

Alright, Dan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

It is always the right time to do the right thing.

At the company where I previously worked, people were rewarded for many things – sales, performance, intelligence – but for me, it was different.

My career grew because: working hard was a way of life, helping came naturally, and learning was paramount.

Challenges were always fun, but trying to outwork myself was always the most rewarding. I had tried to compete against coworkers, but someone eventually took the results personally. If I am only trying to outwork my previous self – then I have to take the results personally.

Let’s go two miles. In a world of people who claim “that’s not my job,” I tried to do my best to see how I could help others get to where they wanted to go. If they needed a little help, I was there. If they needed more, I walked with them holding their hand until they were safely at their destination.

Everything was once new to me so why not find more things to learn? Being willing to dive in head first, new roles, new technology, new teams, new bosses, all of it! I want to know more so I can help more and be more efficient at my role.

Dan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Here now, I am in the first real stages of what I feel is the calling of my life. I spent the previous 16 years in the for-profit corporate world and that was such a tremendous blessing, but now in the nonprofit space, I am really starting to come alive. As the Director of Development and Marketing, I have the unique opportunity to tell stories about what Handi-Crafters does, the lives it impacts, and the way your generosity makes it all possible. We help some truly amazing humans to achieve their full potential in life. Helping them as they transition from disability to dignity, needing help to being helpful, being dependant to fully independent!

I landed in this role because of how I was called out of one of the best jobs in the world – giving away millions of dollars globally, to be able to be the megaphone of the voice of the most marginalized population in our community. I have the pleasure of enabling and empowering dozens of other people who then in turn help, support, teach, train, and care for hundreds of differently-abled adults in my community – what a blessing!

I am most excited about where we are going and what we will be doing as we start our journey of transformation to the next stages of support. Originally created to be a safe haven and extension of education, we are embarking on a mission of even bigger dreams and aspirations for the people we support. Not being content to help them make simple strides we are going to propel them into the endless possibilities that are out there for them

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In early 2023 in my previous role at my previous company, I presented my then boss with a proposal of my future goals. It included an expansion of my team, an explanation of a delegation of duties, and a thorough explanation of all the facets of the company I was responsible for. With this proposal came a title change and potentially a raise. In less than 3 days my proposal was declined and I had to tuck my tail and get back to work.

In that moment, I decided I would do the absolute best job I possibly could and would give it my all. This was in February.

Fast forward to June and I had a meeting with who was going to be my future boss at my current company. She shared that she was hiring for this role and asked if I knew anyone. As a connector, I know lots of people. I asked her to send me the description. Both my wife and I thought it looked like me. So from the interview to offer was 2 weeks.

The role description I gave to my previous boss became the job description used in their job posting. As for me in my new role, the amount of responsibility and authority I now have is exactly what I was looking for in that proposal.

Being able to remain steadfast in my old role opened up an opportunity for not just myself but for someone else too.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I wear my heart on my sleeve. In most circles, I am known as the guy that cries. Even women refer to themselves as the “female version of Dan” because my emotions are on display regularly. I am thankful that I am able to share my heart with others and I believe it helps others to connect with me in more meaningful ways. Additionally, I believe it increases the trust that others have in me, they know the genuine person they are getting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hcocenter.org/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-koval/
• Other: https://givelikemad.com/

Image Credits

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