Each week on “Around Town,” our host talks to members of the First Coast community who are making an impact in their part of town. Today our host Sarah Olson spoke with Kevin McDaniel.
Kevin McDaniel
Chief Strategist at WindRiver Strategies
Website Address: www.kevintalks.net
Short company description:
Kevin McDaniel is a Keynote Speaker, an International Bestselling Author and Executive Coach focusing on leadership, team development and rapid career advancement with a low stress, high productivity focus.
Transcript:
Sarah:
Welcome back to another episode of Around Town. I am your host, Sarah Olsen, and today joining me is someone you’re going to want to hear about and hear from, Kevin McDaniel. Great to be here.
Kevin:
Yes. So glad to be here.
Sarah:
Before we get to this special piece, tell us a little bit about you. You’re an executive and leadership coach. Tell us about this.
Kevin:
So the short history, the very short history is I’m in college, last two years are a breeze. I go to work in corporate America, and I’m feeling more pressure than I have ever felt in my entire life. Yeah. And didn’t like the way I was managed, didn’t like the way sales was managed. And after a number of years, you know, I’m thinking they just don’t realize what they’re doing.
After a number of years I’m like, no, they know exactly what they’re doing. This is how they want to do it. They want me to feel a little at risk. In my late 20s I just decided I’ve had enough of that and found a better way.
And then 16 years ago I started coaching. And that’s what I do. As a coach I help people love their work, be high performers, grow in their career rapidly. And we’re just going to pull all the unnecessary stress out.
Sarah:
Is there a song and dance with corporate America and employment? I just feel like there’s a negotiating, there’s a song and dance. And then there’s also the emotional aspect of wanting to please your employer, but also knowing that at any given time they could just find somebody else.
Kevin:
Yeah. A great way of putting it. What the work that I do, I want my clients, I want their boss to love them. And we’re going to do everything we can to do that.
But we’re going to work hard to again take their stress away. And part of the way of doing that is creating filters for the constant flow of input that is intended, again the song and dance, it’s intended to get you to feel a certain way, to feel a little at risk.
In 1960 there was a professor at MIT who wrote a book. I don’t remember his name. I don’t remember the book title.
Sarah:
But it stuck with you.
Kevin:
Boy, it stuck with a lot of people. He talks about Theory Y and Theory X.
In Theory Y you trust your employees, you love them, you’re there for them, you’ve got their back. That’s Theory Y.
Theory X is you distrust. They’re not going to work hard if you don’t hold them accountable.
And a whole genre of management entered corporate America from that theory. Theory Y is not the one that took over. It’s Theory X.
So I need filters that when I get the stress conversation coming here, I need filters that allow me to go, okay, here’s what they’re really wanting. I don’t have to take on all of the mess that they’re loading on me.
Sarah:
So it’s almost like Morse code where the employer is saying this, but it means this, and this is how you should process it and respond.
Kevin:
Yeah. That’s great. It’s going to filter through things that allow me to still work hard, but I’m going to have fun.
I remember about 25 years ago I just said, if I can’t have fun, I’m not doing it anymore. And I want my clients to have fun too.
And the great thing about this is this is not an outrageously difficult skill.
You and I want to be happy. You and I don’t want to stress out. If there’s a path I can follow, then most people are going to take it.
And so as a coach sometimes it’s a little hit and miss, but we find a path so that people can wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work.
Sarah:
So do most of your clients stay with the employer that they’re working for, or do they also have discovery where they say, I’m out of here, I’m going to go somewhere else and do something different?
Kevin:
Yeah, that’s a good question. A little of both.
I work with clients and I’ve got a program I call Velocity. And what Velocity is about is we’re going to take charge of our career. It’s not going to be in the hands of the employer. It’s going to be in my hands.
By doing that, there’s a number of strategies and tactics that we follow that sometimes we discover, to use your word, that I’m not going to find my way here. I’m going to need to go somewhere else.
And one of the ways we do that is with a calculation that I call uncompensated value.
Sarah:
Okay.
Kevin:
I’m worth more than what I’m getting paid. So I’m going to claim that value either here where I’m working, or I’m going to go claim it somewhere else.
Some people stay and some people go elsewhere when they claim their uncompensated value. Did that make sense?
Sarah:
It does.
Kevin:
When you claim it, so you’re back getting paid what you’re worth, then the next step from a coaching perspective is now we want to create more uncompensated value at the place I’m at.
So once again it starts to be a gap. And sometimes companies don’t typically keep paying you what you’re worth.
Sarah:
No.
Kevin:
So that gap expands. And at some point once again we’re going to reengage and reclaim it.
Sarah:
It’s just like the common sense that if you’re working at a job and you leave, it’s going to cost them a lot more to hire somebody to fill that position than who they have right there in their base.
Kevin:
And if you are delivering excellence for them, they’re also not going to replace that with a new hire that’s going to take time.
So I work with my clients. You need to be a high performer. You need to deliver excellence.
What does that mean for your job? It’s usually the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of what I do drives eighty percent of my results. What is the twenty percent? That’s where we want to excel.
Sarah:
So you’ve written a book. Tell us about what’s in this treasure right here. “You’ve Been Upgraded: Lead Happier, Achieve More, Stay Sane.” I love it.
Kevin:
That’s an expression of what I do as a coach, keynote speaker, and trainer.
I’m not going to go into a company and teach how to be more productive and leave out that we’ve got to create a culture where I’ve got your back, you’ve got mine, and it’s safe to be me.
So this book, the first part of the book, I’m a golfer, there are 18 chapters.
Sarah:
Well sum it up for our next minute on air.
Kevin:
The first part is written more like story. It’s not like a textbook. You’ll find yourself in the stories.
If you want to take meaning from that, there are games at the end that you can play that incorporate it into your life.
Then the last half of the book I call “We’ve Been Upgraded,” and that’s how to take it to work.
If I’m flourishing as a human being, an incredible thing can happen. I naturally give that as a gift to other people around me.
Sarah:
And it’s a top seller, so let’s not forget that.
Kevin:
Well, okay. That’s crazy.
We published at the end of September in 2025, and about five or six weeks later I get a call from the publisher on a Tuesday and they said, we just wanted you to know your numbers are great. We think you’re going to be a bestseller at the end of the week.
And I’m like, wait, what?
They said it’s looking really good.
Then I get an email from them the following Friday saying the book is a number one international bestseller in seven countries across 31 business and leadership topics.
Sarah:
That’s amazing. You’re sitting here on my show, so that’s awesome.
Kevin:
And I’m sitting here on your show. Thanks.
But I take that as an affirmation that what we’re talking about here really resonates with people. People need it. There are millions of people that want to find a better way to win at work.
And we can build it.
Sarah:
It’s so great. I’m so pleased to have met you. So pleased that you are on the show. And I’m going to get my autographed copy.
Kevin:
Look, open it up. It’s autographed.
Sarah:
Oh, I love it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Where can people find your book?
Kevin:
It is on Amazon.
Sarah:
Perfect. “You’ve Been Upgraded” on Amazon.
Thank you, Kevin, for being on our show. It’s been a pleasure.
Kevin:
My pleasure.
Sarah:
And thank you for watching another show, Around Town. You can watch this on PropertySolutionsTV.com.
The Daily News Network, Buzz Tv News, and DAILYBIZBRIEF highlight business professionals, nonprofits, veterans and community leaders on over 40 TV Segments including The Horse’s Mouth, Legacy of Leaders TV, Veterans Buzz TV, Finding Your Frequency, and Buzzworthy Businesses.
Teal, The Agency, powered by Client Focused Media, offers marketing agencies a full-service white-label solution to scale their services without the cost or complexity of building large in-house teams. Tailored for small and medium-sized agencies, Teal specializes in relationship-driven lead generation, advanced CRM workflows for personalized client engagement, and end-to-end project fulfillment. With powerful integrations like HighLevel, Stripe, and Zapier, Teal simplifies your operations while optimizing efficiency—saving you valuable time and resources. While other tools on the market like Vendasta, RocketDriver, and DashClicks, may require contracts, Teal provides flexible, no-contract pricing, giving you the freedom to grow on your terms. Ready to elevate your agency’s impact and efficiency? Explore how Teal can help you deliver exceptional results and better serve your clients. Apply on BeTeal.com today to start your journey toward becoming a marketing powerhouse by understanding digital marketing strategies for agencies, SEO best practices for marketing agencies and scaling a marketing agency.
