# 153: Daniel Harkavy - How Advisors Accidentally Build Businesses They Hate

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/do-business-do-life-the-financial-advisor-podcast-dbdl-6175641/153-daniel-harkavy-how-advisors-accidentally-build-businesses-they-hate
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/do-business-do-life-the-financial-advisor-podcast-dbdl-6175641/153-daniel-harkavy-how-advisors-accidentally-build-businesses-they-hate.md
Podcast: [Do Business. Do Life. — The Financial Advisor Podcast — DBDL](https://stenobird.com/podcast/do-business-do-life-the-financial-advisor-podcast-dbdl-6175641)
Published: 2026-01-28T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/99d476be-e25b-42f3-9cec-89f12e865741.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
Audio file: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/99d476be-e25b-42f3-9cec-89f12e865741.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
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Duration seconds: 4584

## Resource

What would make a 30-year-old with a corner office, a clear path to CEO, and more money than he ever imagined… walk away from it all? That’s the question at the center of this conversation with Daniel Harkavy. Daniel spent his 20s grinding in the mortgage banking world, chasing deals, money, and success. By 30, he was next in line to run the company—but a quiet inner voice told him this wasn’t the life he was meant to live. So he walked away. For the last three decades, Daniel has helped high-performing leaders do what this show is all about: build successful businesses without sacrificing their life in the process. As Founder of Building Champions, he’s coached CEOs and executive teams at organizations like Chick-fil-A, Pfizer, and Bank of America. We talk about why so many leaders burn out after they scale, how culture and leadership behavior quietly shape everything, and what it really means to do business and life by design. 5 of the biggest insights from Daniel Harkavy… #1.) Walking Away Wasn’t Quitting, It Was Clarity Daniel walked away at the height of his career because success didn’t feel sustainable anymore. A one-year sabbatical forced him to realize that continuing would have meant building a life he didn’t want, no matter how successful it looked. #2.) A Smart Approach to Hiring Top Performers Daniel built his team by intentionally spending time building relationships with his competitors — learning their goals, understanding where they were stuck, and finding ways to help them improve. By genuinely helping competitors grow where they were, he built trust, loyalty, and credibility. And when the time came, people chose him willingly. #3.) Scaling Without Vision Is How Advisors Get Stuck A lot of advisors scale because they think they’re supposed to. But if…

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## Transcript

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