Episode 40: Winning at Business and Life with Dan Riley

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

Thanks, Pete. Thanks for having me as a guest. I'm Dan Riley. I'm one of the principals at Riley Design Associates. We're a strategic design and marketing agency that I founded 35 years ago, and our office is located in San Ramón. That's me professionally, and personally, I'm a dad of two young adults I'm very proud of. I play men's competitive softball. I snow and water ski, tennis and golf. Mm, not so much on the golf. Well, I paint abstracts. I'm finishing a book, and I volunteer. Not all in one day.

Sounds exhausting. Dan, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

Uh, without a doubt, for me, it's being able to be creative. Uh, when we engage with the client, we start with the creative brief. It's the roadmap for a project such as a website or lead generation campaign, account-based marketing program. It could be in the medical device field or technology or consumer product space. If the project is not to actually create their brand, then we design within their brand, the brand essence and the brand guidelines. And those kind of act as our guardrails to design within. And so really everything that's creative problem solving that's involved with that project is really what I love. I mean, that's really why I went to school for it and really why I started the company.

That sounds so fun. Question number 3, I hear from other business leaders that staying in a good work-life balance for them and their team members is a challenge. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, yeah, $25,000 question. It's a constant balancing act to constantly assess where you are with your goals and priorities, both professionally and personally. I think each day and each year is going to be different. Um, when I began 35 years ago versus where I am now, things are radically different. Then I had to balance a young family, being married, two girls with school and sports, all of that. Then balancing employees, never saying no to a client for a deadline, all of those things. So I think just allowing yourself to remain open and redirecting and reassessing your needs on any day, I think, is a key to finding that balance.

Mm-hmm. I would agree with you. Very, very insightful. Question number— yeah, it is. Question number 4: What other successful business leaders like yourself should be on my podcast?

Tyler Scott. He's a lead pastor in a large local church. Church is a business, and it's a church business, but it has a lot of aspects of staff and budgets. Schedules, not including leading people in faith. So he's articulate, he's genuine. And I think his answers to these questions that you ask would be really interesting. So I think he'd make a great guest.

That's awesome. I'll reach out to Tyler. Thank you. Question number 5: What insight or advice would you give to other business leaders?

Building a business, I believe, kind of has 3 components. The first is passion. That's kind of a duh, but I'm still passionate after all of these years. I think second is acquiring knowledge that you maybe don't have and finding that and seeking that out from others who maybe have gone before you, whether they're in your industry or not. Maybe finding an advisory group, whatever that looks like for you. And then I think surrounding yourself with the right people. I've been blessed to have a business partner for 25 years, and his talents and strengths are different than mine. We overlap in some areas, not in others. And I think we balance each other out. So I think it's kind of like riding a bike. Your passion is pedaling and your knowledge and people help steer the bike.

Hmm. I love that metaphor for the bike. That's a really good one. Thanks. And question number 6. Tell me about your first job.

Paperboy, but in a different way. My dad was circulation manager for a group of newspapers, so I was responsible for what they call down routes, meaning neighborhoods that didn't have a paperboy. So I could be delivering to 10 to 15 neighborhoods. At one point, I was responsible for the entire city of Brisbane, California. My dad and I would get into his Volkswagen Bug and load up the newspapers. They were already tied up and round, and I literally would sit in the passenger seat and throw the papers out to each house in Brisbane and business. And then during the day I was a lifeguard, so it was good. It was good.

I love it. I'm just trying to think about a VW Bug with a backseat full of newspapers because it couldn't have been too much space there.

Oh, you could not see, and, and because you needed to get leverage, I literally was on top of newspapers because I had to get my, my arm above the window. And as Volkswagens, if you know, they kind of sat low. So it was an experience.

I love it.

It really was cool when I look back on it.

That's so fun. Dan, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?

All the normal ways, uh, rileydesign.com. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook, um, I'm on Instagram. So basically all the normal platforms you can find me.

Perfect. Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.