Rising Stars: Meet Daniel Olexa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Olexa.

Hi Daniel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Technically, my story starts outside of Philadelphia, where I was born. But in reality, my story started when I moved to Kansas City in 1998.

My 16 years in the Heartland were key to my growth and development; and much like Midwestern weather, those years were a full cycle of “if you don’t like (or like) what you’re experiencing, just wait a few minutes.”

I wasn’t yet an entrepreneur. Instead, I was happily (or was that unhappily?) working for others. For 15 years, I worked for three different family-owned companies… and had the wrong last name at every one of them.

My frustration was slowly building, as my confidence in myself slipping. Looking back on those years, I now realize that I was dying on a deep level of my soul.

I stopped living on some level and just started going through the motions: working for a paycheck, instead of for satisfaction and fulfillment; striving for a meaningless title that I thought was important, and merely checking the boxes of what I was supposed to do to be happy and successful in America.

Ultimately, none of it mattered. One day in 2014, I threw my hands up at work and walked out. I’d reached the peak of my frustration and I’d had enough.

It didn’t matter if I could pay the mortgage, it didn’t matter if I had another paycheck coming, all that mattered was that the sh*tty, soul-sucking feeling of being marginalized at the office was ended. In the days that followed that moment of pure action without thought, I realized that I had been living a dead life for years.

Instead of being happy and joyful about my success, I’d been worried about the next thing, fearful of the “what-ifs” (and they were ALWAYS focused on negative outcomes), and concerned about the feelings and opinions of others.
That weekend, after my impulsive action, I felt FREE. I was peaceful and calm.

Work and others had no control over me anymore, and I started to live from within, focusing on my happiness and well-being first. It was a shift from saying, “I’ll be happy when _______ happens,” to “I am happy if _____ happens or not.”

External situations were no longer allowed to affect my internal state of being. As the instructor of my hypnotherapy training said, “Anything outside of you has no control over you unless you allow it.” I stopped allowing it.

That awareness took me toward helping others to come back to life after losing their focus on their purpose, essentially bringing life back to those who had died before they truly lived.

My journey leads me from Kansas City to Naples, FL, Los Angeles, CA, and currently Sonoma County, CA where I still serve clients in the KC area.

I love KC. It’s the city where I found myself, and it holds a special place in my heart.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Any road worth walking is never smooth.

Of course, there were the basic struggles that every new entrepreneur faces not knowing fully how to run a business, setting boundaries around hours of availability, trying to please everyone rather than focusing on my niche, and finally realizing exactly how much 30% of gross income is for taxes.

The real challenges were inside. The work of the ‘giving’ professions, where we help others to live fuller, more meaningful lives, starts within. That can be a dark place to explore.

In those early days when I didn’t know any better, and the business was not yet sustainable, I faced low self-esteem and confidence. There were parts of me that wanted to run back to a ‘job’ that was familiar and safe.

The imposter in my head wanted me to give up on my dream and go back to the boring safety of what I knew.
Thankfully, my higher awareness, my soul, knew better and was stronger.

I remembered the quote by Benjamin Franklin, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety…” and knew that if I returned back to my comfort zone, I’d die again.

Shortly before I moved from KC, a lawyer said to me, “There are no failures, only learning opportunities.” It’s an idea that shifted my viewpoint and helped me to stay on the harder path while growing my business and personal presence.

I faced the challenges and embraced them as things to help me grow, rather than as obstacles. That made all the difference.

Part of what I share with students and clients now is that any voices or thoughts in your head that tell you that you are in any way ‘less-than’ or incapable are lying to you (just like the people around you who you learned them from). Any feeling or thought that tells you that you are ultimately capable and deserve success is telling you the truth.

I learned how to shift those voices in my head. Now it’s what I help others to do.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I coach dead people.

I bring them back to life.

I serve those, who much like me at one time, stopped living a fulfilling, purpose-driven life of personal meaning and instead gave their happiness away to the things and people around them.

My specialty is listening deeply to the life stories that my clients bring. Behind their stories are the limiting beliefs of what they think they are allowed to do, or deserving of, which diminish their full experience of life.

As we explore the ‘shoulds’ that they are living in, they discover that those ideas came from others and are not theirs to live if they no longer find value in these ideas.

I am proud to be internationally known, an award-winning hypnotherapist, and a 3-time Amazon #1 bestselling author. I am also proud to be the lead facilitator/trainer for Certified Life Coach Institute where I teach individuals from around the world to become coaches.

In that work, I see myself as a mentor to the next generation.

To remind me of the responsibility of that role, I have two signed Chiefs jerseys framed in my office: Alex Smith 11 and Patrick Mahomes 15. Their relationship is the template for my teaching work.

Life is good.

The thing I have been told sets me apart from others is that my presence with a client, the level at which I focus and listen, allows me to see and hear their soul.

When I hear it, they begin to hear that deep, powerful voice too, and they remember who they truly are…and they start living that life. “When you forget who you are supposed to be, you can remember who you truly are,” is the keystone of my practice.

Since 2020, I have been hosting international retreats to Peru’s Sacred Valley for purpose of helping my fellow adventurers to remember and reconnect to their soul’s purpose and begin living it. These are truly magical trips of personal awakening.

What does success mean to you?
Success is living and doing what makes you truly happy. It’s having the freedom to choose for yourself what you want to do at any moment.

Success is knowing the term ‘enough’ and never felt lacking. Success is being wholly who you are mind, body, and spirit, without apology so you can impact the world in the way that only you in your uniqueness can.

Success is living outside of the shadow of the imposed bullshit ideas of others. Success is owning, truly embodying the statement, “I am successful.”

Pricing:

• 3 month 1:1 program: $9,000
• 6 month 1:1 program: $18,000
• 12 month 1:1 program: $36,000
• 8 week group (select open enrollment dates) $1,495

Contact Info:

• Website: www.transcendentliving.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielolexa_pcc_ciht/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielolexaccht
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMymBi5al5El1XGLbjqRobg

Image Credits
Stefanie Blue of Stefanie Blue Fine Art Photography, Marco Callasi, Molina Machu Picchu, and Daniel Olexa