In this episode of Inside Great Minds with Adam Outland, we have a special guest I have looked up to as a mentor and example. Dan Moore joins me and shares incredible nuggets of inspiration from his new book, Control, Influence, Accept (For Now) Coping with a Future No One Can Predict.
Dan grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and was an honors graduate of Harvard. He holds an MBA, with honors, from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, where he was named class speaker. He started in the business world the same way many of us have: as a college student running his own business -- in the Southwestern Advantage Summer Sales and Leadership Program.
Southwestern Advantage is the oldest direct-selling company in America and the founding member of the Southwestern Family of Companies based in Nashville. Dan paid his tuition to Harvard by selling educational books door-to-door to families and building sales teams.
Dan was promoted to District Sales Manager with Southwestern Advantage upon graduation. He pioneered many roles within the company, eventually serving as Vice-President of Marketing for many years. He is credited with modernizing the company’s sales school and mission statement, developing its highly-regarded product line, and helping to launch new businesses within the company.
In July of 2007, he was named President of Southwestern. From an 18-year-old summer intern to President, he never worked anywhere else. He served on the company’s Board of Directors until his retirement in January 2023. He presently serves on the boards of the Direct Selling Association and the Direct Selling Education Foundation. He is also a Co-Founder of SBR Consulting and Southwestern Consulting, also members of the Southwestern Family of Companies. These firms are dedicated to elevating sales globally by transforming the culture of sales and sales leadership within their client companies. In total, he taught more than 100,000 people how to sell, how to lead, and how to get on the path toward achieving their goals in life.
Dan also served as an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Business and speaks regularly to business and collegiate audiences. In his spare time, he enjoys playing the guitar and piano and is an avid runner. Since the age of 51, he has completed 24 half-marathons in four countries and also completed in the 2011 New York City Marathon finishing in the top half out of more than 46,000 runners. He is a past Master of Ceremonies for TEDx Nashville.
Dan met his wife, Maria, through selling books together when they were students. She is from Portugal. They have been married for 45 years and have three adult children and one grandchild.