“It’s the fleeting moments of bliss — being connected to your family in a real, meaningful way.” – Daniel Hearl Dan has a big job. Really big. He leads a 300+ person sales organization inside a Fortune 100 company. It’s not what he talks about most. In fact, he rarely talks about titles, quarters, or wins at all. What he talks about is time — with his kids, with his family, & in life outside the day-to-day grind. It’s not by accident. Dan grew up watching his parents work hard to provide, doing everything right but often letting work take over the life they were trying to build. What he learned wasn’t to chase more. It was to guard the moments work can quietly steal. So he’s intentional about where his energy goes, who gets it, & how not to let “success” quietly replace presence. Because in the end, there are only a few relationships that truly shape a life. And you don’t protect those casually. You give them everything you’ve got. To learn more, connect with him on LinkedIn. Not all legacies are loud. Some are built quietly — right where you are. As Audrey Hepburn once said, “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”

“Belief isn’t a feeling — it’s a decision.” – Dean Otto One moment, Dean Otto was living life on his terms — an avid cyclist, athlete, & high-achieving leader. And then, everything changed. On what should have been a routine morning bike ride, an F-150 — a truck weighing more than two tons — struck him from behind. The impact shattered his spine. Doctors gave him a 1–2% chance of ever walking again. In that instant, his future was rewritten. Not by the accident — but by the decision he made next. Dean didn’t put his faith in percentages. He put it in belief — in himself & what persistence could unlock. Months of grueling rehab followed. Pain. Setbacks. Uncertainty. And then, miraculously, steps. One year later, Dean crossed a half-marathon finish line. Not alone, but alongside two unlikely partners: the surgeon who helped him walk again & the driver who hit him. Together, they raised nearly $100,000 for spinal cord injury patients — turning trauma into hope & recovery into something bigger than self. Dean could have stopped at survival. Instead, he chose impact. Connect with him at DeanOttoSpeaking.com Strength doesn’t always look like winning. Sometimes, it looks like getting back up — and bringing others with you. As Albert Camus wrote, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

“I like to solve problems, & I never give up.” – Martin Kenneth Lopez Most founders talk tough. Kenneth grew up in a place that required it. Lima, Peru — beautiful on the surface, unforgiving underneath. Corruption. Precarity. An environment built to break entrepreneurs. There’s no help desk in a place like that. You either solve problems… or you get swallowed. That wiring became his operating system. So, when he launched his first company in his early 20s, he didn’t seek the easy path — he sought a bigger arena. “Forget local,” he said. “I’m building for the U.S.” No connections. No warm introductions. Just hunger, a laptop, & LinkedIn. And his pitch wasn’t polite — it was legendary: “Give me the project nobody wants. The ugly, neglected, impossible one. If I don’t deliver, you don’t pay me.” All the risk on him. All the upside for them. That’s how a kid from Lima ended up solving Perl script nightmares for Bank of America… & earning a reputation as the one-man A-team you call when everyone else slinks away. Today at Equals 11, the stakes are higher — Salesforce chaos, global teams, stalled initiatives — but Kenneth’s ethos hasn’t budged: Run toward the hard. De-risk it for the client. Solve — don’t whine. If you’re the kind of person who gets stronger when the work gets messy, this episode is for you.

Connect with him through Equals 11. Kenneth doesn’t quote Churchill — he proves him right: “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”