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I started this blog as a way to establish an online brand for myself, and it quickly became my full time business.
I now coach high performers and consult for companies ready to take their businesses to the next level.
DaneJutila.com is also one of the world’s top sites for resources on business optimization, with software reviews providing companies with the knowledge they need to optimize their tech stack, and how-to’s on everything needed to run a successful organization and fulfilling life.
With nearly 2 decades of experience in sales leadership, I have encountered every strategy and tool under the sun. From being an individual contributor, to leading teams, to eventually leading leaders and running entire orgs, I am one of the top personal brands in the SaaS world today.
As a kid growing up in mid city Los Angeles in the 90’s I had the tremendous privilege of being exposed to and interacting with people from all walks of life. The youngest of two, I shared a room with my sister in a tiny apartment as our young parents did their best to scrape and claw so that we would not fall below the poverty line.
While I didn’t realize it at the time, those humble beginnings would go on to shape me tremendously later in life.
Growing up in L.A. during this period was tough at times. I still remember vividly the gas station on the corner from our apartment fully engulfed in flames during the 92 riots, and my 6-year-old mind not being able to fully comprehend the scope and reason for the underlying tension going on.
Where we lived was an area that separated what, at the time, was a good and bad neighborhood(s), and because of this I went to an elementary school where the vast majority of kids came from a totally different socio-economic situation than me. I was a shy kid – in part because of this, and in part because I had the thickest coke-bottle glasses anyone had ever seen. As a result I didn’t really make a ton of friends until the 5th grade, when I started to become comfortable being in my own skin.
My high school experience was pretty typical. Days were spent trying my best to fit in, despite the ever present and at times unrelenting insecurities about any number of trivial things, which at the time felt like the most important things in the world.
Mixed in with that were all the great life experiences that come with being a teenager. Falling in love, being heartbroken, depression, jubilation – the slow and inevitable realization that life, and the world, are not what you thought they were as a kid
After graduating I spent a few years still trying to figure my life out, while catching up on some much-needed growing up. I worked a few odd jobs as a bouncer and a personal trainer (at this point I had become obsessed with weight training).
During high school I worked as a teller at a bank in Beverly Hills, but after one too many interactions with a so-called affluent client treating me like a lesser human, I had decided that wasn’t that job for me – although in hindsight those tough customer interactions were critical in preparing me for my future career.
I spent a few years at Community College before coming to the first of many inflection points in my life, when I finally decided to get serious. I had never been a great student, rather I was more of the ‘smart enough to just get by with minimal effort’ type – a blessing and curse. But life and circumstances had brought me to a place where I started to wise up. It occurred to me, after a little research, that despite my sub par GPA to that point, I could get an automatic transfer to a U.C. (University of California) school by completing a set of basic requirements.
I still remember clearly the moment I learned this in the transfer office of Santa Monica Community College – it was a major paradigm shift that changed the course of my life. No one in my immediate family had graduated college, and it was never a topic of much consideration or planning. Because of this and my general beliefs about myself at the time, I never really thought it was something I could do. Seeing a clear path forward changed that, and with the newly formed belief that it was possible I got my act together and completed the requirements to transfer.
The school that I ended up transferring to was U.C. Santa Barbara. I liked it because it was far enough from LA that I could be away from home for the first time, while still be close enough to visit easily. Also the automatic transfer to the History department (my major) there was very doable.
If I’m being honest though, the real reason I chose that school was because it was a party school known for being wild and right on the beach. I remember being on the school tour with my Mom and seeing coeds in bikinis running around shooting each other with water guns. I think that was the moment Mom realized that is where I would be going.
College didn’t teach me a lot by ways of academic knowledge that had any resemblance to real world application, however what it did provide me was some of the best years of my life, and some of the strongest friendships I have to this day.
Being around a core group of people who were intelligent, driven, and still liked to have a good time, showed me that it was possible to do both and motivated me to apply myself, if for no other reason than to fit in with my social group.
After college I spent a good amount of time trying my best not to grow up. I got the first job I could get, which was a sales gig at an AT&T retail store. It was actually a great job for what it was, and served its purpose of allowing my to keep living like I was still in college and partying 4 nights a week while still earning a decent living. It was also my first real exposure to the art of sales and influence
Over time though, as more and more friends started advancing their careers and moving on, it became apparent to me that I was falling behind. I had grown complacent in my current role, satisfied with crushing the monthly goals and the pride that came with consistently being number 1 on the board, while knowing deep down that I wasn’t living up to my potential.
The growing feeling of being the one who didn’t have their life together, and the subsequent dread that comes with that, coupled with a string of either toxic or meaningless relationships, led me to a tipping point that would be one of the most important moments of my life. I decided enough was enough and it was time to hit the gas and get things going.
In hindsight the time spent complacent after college ended up being an immense gift, as the feelings of being behind and not living up to my potential developed in me an urgency and lit a fire that I have kept with me to this day.
I moved back down to LA, got a job with a startup in the text marketing space, and I haven’t looked back since.
I started my new gig hitting the ground running. As an individual contributor I broke every record there was and set an unmatched standard of excellence within the org. I had always had a knack for selling, but the urgency and drive that had awoken in me pushed me to master the craft. I read every book I could get my hands on and engulfed myself in whatever I could to get better.
This quickly led to a promotion to leadership, where I built out entire playbooks and drove the success of others, leading to 2 additional teams being transferred to me. At its largest, my org was 22 heads as a manager. It was here where I really found my passion for coaching, motivating, and inspiring others to grow and be their best – a passion I hold with me to this day.
Success here led to a merit based promotion to a senior role, followed by another to the role of Director of Sales, and I was quickly putting my career on overdrive.
As Director of Sales I scaled out the entire SMB team and created the Mid Market and Enterprise teams as we moved up market, as well as the entire Sales Development organization. The experience of building entire playbooks, making data driven tactical and strategic decisions, recruiting, leading leaders, and crushing targets, was one of the most challenging and rewarding of my life.
During this time I had the honor and privilege to marry the love of my life, and the pride of being able to finance the occasion as a byproduct of my hard work.
Eventually, as is inevitable often with career progression, I hit the proverbial glass ceiling in the role and the nagging ambition I carried put me in a place where I was open to new opportunities. Because of the network I had built over the years, one such opportunity emerged and I took on a new challenge as Senior Director of Sales for a SaaS company selling to the public sector.
After building the entire organization from scratch, including the Mid Market Sales teams and the Sales development teams, I was laid off in March of 2022 as the company restructured.
This event gave me a new perspective on many things, and is something that I am incredibly grateful for, as it was the catalyst needed for me to make tremendous change for the better.
My wife had just given birth to our son, and through the entire experience I wasn’t able to be there as much as a should have been, being too consumed with my job and the stresses that come with building out an org from scratch with very limited resources.
My wife had just given birth to our son, and through the entire experience I wasn’t able to be there as much as a should have been, being too consumed with my job and the stresses that come with building out an org from scratch with very limited resources.
Missing that time may be something I never forgive myself for, and I promised myself that I would make it up to him and to my wife.
I dedicated the next few months to supporting them and being fully present with my family. During this time I reflected heavily inward on what was really important, and what my next move would be.
I came to realize that whatever path I take, the choice of abundance was mine to make each day, and from that place I began to see the world from a new paradigm, where I realized I could start my own company and make it work.
And thats what brings to the here and now of today, where DaneJutila.com allows me to do what I love while being with the ones I love, and helping others do the same.
If you made it this far, I appreciate the time you took to read this and deeply value every relationship I make from this business.
I’m here for you on this journey as both a guide and a friend. My hope is that somewhere here, whether it be through content or via working directly together, you get value that has meaningful, real-world impact on your professional and personal life, and that you can take that impact and help others do the same. At the end of the day we’re all spinning around here on this rock together, so let’s help each other win.
Thank you for reading. I hope that life brings you joy, fulfillment, and happiness.
– Dane
