We recently connected with Daniel Rivas and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

The way that I am today and reason why Im incredibly entrepreneurial driven are because of the qualities and morals my parents instilled in me at a young age. The values they imparted have shaped my character and influenced the way I approach life and business. Here’s why:

Honesty: My parents emphasized the importance of honesty, teaching my siblings and I that integrity is the foundation of success. This quality has made me trustworthy, enabling me to build strong relationships with customers, partners, and employees.

Integrity and Trustworthiness: Staying true to your word was instilled at a young age by my parents. You understand that maintaining your integrity and being reliable are essential for building a reputable business. By consistently following through on your commitments, you have gained the trust and loyalty of others.

Strong Principles and Values: Your parents taught me the importance of having a strong set of principles and values. These principles serve as my north star and guiding light, helping make decisions aligned with my core beliefs. My unwavering commitment to a strong set principles inspires others and attracts like-minded individuals to join my entrepreneurial journey.

Doing the Right Thing: My parents emphasized the significance of doing the right thing, even when it’s not the easiest path. This moral compass drives me to make decisions that benefit not only myself but also my peers, customers, and society at large. By prioritizing the greater good, I’m building a business that will leave a positive impact, creating a reputation that extends beyond profitability.

Embracing Challenges: I always embrace challenges and pushed myself beyond my comfort zone. This mindset has equipped me with resilience and a thirst for growth. Always eager to seek new opportunities to learn and improve, never settling for mediocrity.

The qualities and morals my parents instilled in me at a young age have shaped me into the person I am today. By emphasizing honesty, integrity, strong principles, doing the right thing, and embracing challenges, they have provided me with the foundation for success in the business world. These qualities guide my actions and decision-making, who operates with authenticity, responsibility, and a commitment to making a positive impact.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Over the last 12 years in my professional career, you can say that I’ve had a unique path in the health/wellness, sales and digital media industries. From starting as a personal trainer right out of college to working as a Senior SEO Strategist for one of the most widely known Digital Marketers of today. I’ve followed their passion for helping others and building impactful businesses. Here’s their inspiring bio:

With a degree in Exercise Science, I began my professional journey as a personal trainer because I wanted to positively impact people’s lives in the health and wellness space. However, after a few years, they realized that trading time for money limited my potential to earn the income that I really wanted.

After a few short years and hundreds of clients later, I shifted gears and went into sales. Thanks to a couple of buddies from the gym, they helped me land this role where I would learn the power of rejection even more.

I was cold calling into an industry that has long been dominated by people who have had their vendors for years and had no intention on changing. I quickly learned how to simply connect with people over a few shorts minutes and started to develop my own cadence. Needless to say, I was fired from that job because of a mistake that I made when purchasing an order that I didn’t clearance to make.

That was my first time ever to be let go but a learning experience.

From there, I worked as a recruiter, then SAAS for a health and wellness company, then finally decided to switch gears again.

I’ve always had a passion for marketing and knew that by working in sales for 3 years now, I was started to get the hang of it and went full in on starting my own Digital Media company with a friend of mine. Long story short, my partner and I parted ways after about a year and a half and now she has a successful agency with an entire team working for her.

I however, went back in to sales, but for a tech company in the Digital Media Space.

SEMrush which is a tool used by thousands of marketers worldwide and figured I’d get hands on training by working there and sharpening my digital media skills as an SEO.

Today, that’s exactly what I specialize in and after working for the Digital Marketing Institute and Neil Patel, I somewhat dont feel someone with imposter syndrome talking about SEO anymore.

I was recently hired on as a Web and Digital Specialist for another tech company in the Fitness and Club Automation space. It has truly come full circle by started my professional career working inside of a gym, and now helping gym owners operate their clubs more efficiently from a tech perspective.

Digital Media Ninja and NinjAthlete are two of the companies that I started and wanted to keep the Ninja name. By embracing the philosophy of becoming 1% better every day, I want to inspire as many people I can with that message of always striving for continuous improvement

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Atomic Habits, Take the Stairs, and Relentless.

I watch a lot of Valuetainment, School Of Greatness, Impact Theory, Lex Friedman, and Andy Frisellas Podcasts.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I shifted from being a personal trainer, to cold calling and selling lumber to companies, to recruiting for IT related positions, selling SAAS, working for an agency, back to sales for a tech company in the local SEO space, working back at an SEO agency, to where Im at now where I lead web and digital for a tech company.

A lot of industries, but each one of those has taught me something valuable which I continue to do today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ninjathlete.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ninjathletes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ninjathletes/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ninjathlete/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ninjathletes

Image Credits
Daniel Rivas