Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dan Bauer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Dan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
My mission remains the same as it’s been for the past 35 years… educating, empowering and encouraging the next generation of business leaders. The genesis of this journey was my good fortune to have a series of amazing mentors who instilled and nurtured my professional focus and direction from the very start of my career. Inspired by their unselfishness, patience and wisdom, I feel compelled to honor their legacy by doing the same for students and young business execs.
I first put this mission to work as founder and CEO of The MBA Exchange, Ltd., (www.mbaexchange.com) an award-winning career and education consulting firm that helped over 5,000 early-career professionals discover and pursue the best possible path for their future. I continue today as founder of three entrepreneurship forums and, most recently, as founder of the Inc. Magazine Young Entrepreneurs (www.summerdiscovery.com/young-entrepreneurs) program for high school students.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As a teenager growing up in suburban Cleveland, I fell in love with the advertising agency business after visiting the office of a family friend. The energy and creativity I felt during that visit were palpable and enduring. I chose to develop my writing skills as an editor of my high school newspaper and then as a Communications major at Ohio University. My dream came true when I landed a coveted job at a top agency based in Pittsburgh.
From there, my agency career took me to work for a larger firm in Honolulu. A few years later, I was recruited to the client side, expanding my role beyond advertising at Bank of Hawaii as VP of Marketing.
After a few years of success and satisfaction in financial services, I reached the conclusion that accelerating and elevating my career would require more business education. Now in my 30s with a young family, living an enjoyable and rewarding life in Hawaii, I felt that this education would have to be “blue-chip” to justify uprooting my family and leaving “paradise”. I had the good fortunate of being admitted to the revered MBA program at Harvard Business School.
After an intensive immersion in management education at Harvard, I accepted an offer in Chicago to join Citibank as VP-National Marketing and was later recruited to MasterCard International as Senior VP – Global Marketing.
When MasterCard informed me they were relocating their business from Chicago to New York, I faced a crossroads. Rather than continue my corporate career, I chose to become an entrepreneur by launching The MBA Exchange, my career and education consulting firm. For the next 20 years, I built and led an organization of 85 consultants located in 11 countries. My service model enabled young professionals to understand and optimize their professional, personal and academic profiles to qualify for highly competitive academic and career opportunities. The highlight for me, as founder and CEO, was our being named to the “Inc. 5000” in 2013 as one of America’s fastest growing private businesses.
In 2016, after deep reflection, I accepted an offer to sell The MBA Exchange to one of my colleagues. I had achieved my goals, exceeded my expectations, and built a brand that would endure. At that point, still passionate about business, I focused on building my marketing consulting practice at Bauer & Associates, Inc. (www.bauer-inc.com). Since then, I have provided strategic guidance to a dozens of businesses across industries. However, I was not quite done being a mentor.
Now spending half my time in Nashville, I’ve launched three entrepreneurship forums through which I continue to. give back and pay forward. Most significantly, I founded “Inc. Magazine Young Entrepreneurs,” (www.summerdiscovery.com/young-entrepreneurs) a summer immersion program on college campuses for high school students, featuring engagement with CEOs and founders of Inc. 5000 and Shark Tank-featured companies.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I built my reputation as a mentor, advisor and leader by executing three strategies:
- Be informed.
Observing, analyzing and anticipating trends in the marketplace provides me with a strong foundation for the advice and guidance I provide to others. Good instincts and a risk appetite are valuable, but when the outcomes are as meaningful as one’s career success, having a factual basis for recommendations is essential. So, I’ve studied and tracked the corporate and academic arenas to ensure that I understand the current landscape and how to help others pursue their goals. - Be authentic,
Providing advice from the heart and the head shows individuals their advisor is truly committed to their success. Investing emotionally in the best interest of those who trust me produces win/win outcomes. This prompts them to spread the word and encourage their friends and associates to sign up. Observing my former clients now becoming CEOs and entrepreneurs is the ultimate reward. - Be actionable.
People engage an expert to help them prepare for and navigate through challenges they’ve never encountered to date. Clients benefit more from a compass than just a mirror. Being a sherpa who anticipates challenges and guides them along an often treacherous path maximizes the chances for their success as well as their satisfaction. I always made sure to share my observations, feedback and advice in a way that helped the client take specific, productive action.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Every entrepreneur who wants to grow a business reaches a point where hiring and leading a team becomes essential. Over the span of 20 years, I found the following strategies were key to our shared success.
1. Know yourself first.
Personal strengths and limitations are a reality for CEOs just as they are for employees. Understanding what you do well, what you enjoy most, and what constrains you are vitally important for a team leader. Only then can the leader select and engage with teammates who will complement rather than conflict with those traits.
2. Trust, then verify.
As long as a leader hires thoughtfully and objectively, teammates should expect to be trusted from day one. Subordinates can instantly sense whether they have the confidence of their leader. And the right kind of teammates leverage this freedom to exceed expectations. That said, observing performance and getting objective data about a subordinate’s contributions is smart and necessary if that trust is to remain and grow over time.
3. Discover what motivates individuals.
Different teammates have different incentives. For some, it’s compensation or paid time off. For others, it’s a bigger job title or a challenging assignment. The sooner a leader understands what is most motivating to each colleague, the more effectively those rewards can be used to encourage excellence and discourage missteps.
4. Celebrate victories and study defeats.
Nothing bonds a team like a celebration! Whether it’s an elegant dinner, a ballgame, or just a pizza party, sharing joy after a big win brings out the best in people by recognizing and connecting them. But when a team effort ends with a loss, there is usually great value in confronting that situation together to learn from it. Avoiding finger-pointing and ranting, leading the team in an objective evaluation of what could have been done better helps ensure learning and fosters commitment to future success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bauer-inc.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bauerdan/