Daniel Kimble is the CEO and founder of Resonance Executive Coaching. He is also the author of the book Unshakeable Influence: Mastering the Inner Game of Leadership in a VUCA World, hosts the Unshakeable Influence Podcast, and is a keynote speaker on leadership, teamwork, and culture.
He has 25+ years of operational experience in marquee Silicon Valley technology companies, 15+ years as an executive coach, holds executive MBA degrees from both Columbia University and UC Berkeley, and holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from UC Santa Cruz. He is certified as an executive coach by UC Berkeley. He also studied coaching with the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and is a graduate of CTI’s leadership program.
Daniel is a motorcycle road-race winner, a musician, and an adventure junkie. He brings warm confidence and a sense calm to all his endeavors. He is both results and relationship focused at the same time.
And he is nearly always willing to speak the difficult truth.
Speaking
Daniel speaks regularly as an expert in leadership, culture change and storytelling. His presentation style is very insightful, highly engaging, interactive and warm. Daniel often shares engaging stories from his motorcycle road-racing career to illustrate key points for leaders and teams.
Feel free to view this 4 minute video of Daniel.
Daniel’s talks include topics such as:
- Leadership Lessons From The Racetrack
- Unshakeable Influence: Mastering the Inner Game of Leadership
- The Leadership Crisis of the Digital Age, and What You Can Do About It
- Agile: A Culture Change Initiative in Disguise
- Cultivating and Maximizing Your Executive Presence
- Storytelling for Maximum Influence
- Silicon Valley: The Unique History, Culture and Leadership Styles That Make it a Continuing Hot-Bed for Innovation
Testimonials
“Resonance Executive Coaching has been an incredibly valuable partner to CNA for the last couple of years in the area of leader development. They did all of our 360-degree development assessments and provided executive coaching to all of our leaders. They also created development workshops for our leaders, conducted C-suite coaching, and guided us on change management. Their greatest value was their willingness to invest their time up front to understand our unique challenges and design and deliver a program to meet our exact needs.
Resonance’s deep expertise helped my leaders understand how they could be at their best. The changes are visible and tangible. My leaders are more capable and aware. The culture is more collaborative, transparent, and trusting.
Katherine McGrady, President & CEO, CNA
I wholeheartedly recommend Daniel Kimble and his Resonance team to any CEO who is looking for a partner to work with on all levels of their leadership – C-suite to front line managers and everything in between.“
“I’ve worked with Daniel and Resonance Executive Coaching for more than a year now. We already have a high performing team and during our work together, Daniel has shown the utmost understanding and knowledge of how to help my team grow into performing even better. Daniel very quickly gets to the core of any leadership, teamwork, or culture challenge. From there, he provides deep insight and then influences everyone to grow into the very best version of themselves. Whether it’s 360s, executive coaching, team collaboration, or culture change, Daniel is the best I’ve come across and I look forward to working more with Resonance’s global team as my responsibilities expand.“
Sami Shihabi, Chief Commercial Officer, Progenity
“Daniel has an impressive ability to take unfamiliar and complex theory, relate that to my experiences and present new “tools” to help in meeting my desired outcomes. Central to this is Daniel’s talent in cutting through everyday noise, both corporate and ego, to arrive at the base issues. Sometimes with sharp wit, other times with deadpan commentary, Daniel brought me to the key points and helped maintain my focus on my own growth and goals. Daniel is deeply engaged in the successes of his clients and clearly has a passion for the work.”
Patrick Lough, Sales VP, First American
“Daniel’s unique ability to calm me down and allow me to focus on core issues was frankly, astounding. His calm demeanor and empathy are just two of his skills. I highly recommend Daniel to others including those who may be reticent to engage with an executive coach…within moments they will feel at home and unburdened to talk about what’s on their mind. And in doing so, begin a journey to help themselves through his guidance.”
Ron Benza – Former EVP, McCann WorldGroup
Nate Turner, President, Thermal Energy at NLine Energy
“Daniel has a masterful ability to identify and prioritize opportunities for growth as well as a poignant methodology to illuminate missteps or weighty hang-ups. I met Dan at a very pivotal time in my career, and our work together had immediate and lasting impact on my day-to-day as well as my long-term goals. Even from the beginning, chemistry with Daniel was so easy, and his inherent understanding of the corporate and entrepreneurial culture was not only reassuring but also necessary to gain faith in the actions/tweaks that were born from our coaching process.”
“Daniel is a very astute listener and provides incredible clarity and context to our conversations. He asks very probing questions and provides thoughtful insight on almost any topic we are discussing from organizational strategies to job transitions and entrepreneurial opportunities. I strongly recommend Daniel to help you work through important decisions, create an actionable plan for execution and then track to the plan and work through any barriers to success.”
Bill Scanlin, CTO, Warrior Trading
“I have found Dan genuinely caring and so far, the best and most influential coach I ever had for team building and coaching activities. Dan is able to create a relaxed environment where everyone feels free to express thoughts and share impression. Specifically, Dan promotes the idea of self-reflection, allowing each of us to go deep inside so we can understand even better our own personality and how we may use it to our advantage so we can work even better together. The team walks away with great tools and inspired. I would definitely recommend Dan for your future team building needs.“
Brigitte Richard, Director of non-clinical development, Progenity
Daniel’s Origin Story
One of my earliest memories as a child was as a five-year-old boy sitting in the back of my mom’s Dodge Polara, my mom behind the steering wheel driving near our home in rural Michigan. She was arguing with one of her good friends, sitting next to her in the front seat. As it got a bit heated in the subtle way discussions between two women in the Midwest get heated, I could see why they were disagreeing. It was crystal clear to me at age five but a mystery to them. The truth was: they thought they were disagreeing, but actually they did agree and were simply miscommunicating. I didn’t yet know how to articulate what I saw; thus, what I tried to say to help them didn’t help. That experience has stuck with me because I could so clearly see the communication issues that my mom and her friend could not see.
Just a few years later at the age of nine I had a number of insights into how and why parents just don’t fully understand their children. I got so inspired by my insights that I began to write a book about it. I was completely determined to reveal once-and-for-all the mysteries of parent-child relationships as told from the perspective of the child. Ironically and unfortunately, I soon destroyed that book in anger after an argument with my dad.
I didn’t know it at the time, but those early experiences were very indicative of the professional calling I would discover years later in an epiphany experience from my M.B.A. program— executive coaching. That epiphany led me to found Resonance Executive Coaching. That epiphany also led to me, years later, pick up the pen again and publish my book Unshakeable Influence: Mastering the Inner Game of Leadership in April of 2019, and then the second edition Unshakeable Influence: Mastering the Inner Game of Leadership in a VUCA World in February of 2021.
Long before that epiphany happened, I worked in Silicon Valley for 25 years, starting as a high school drop-out production-line worker at a semiconductor manufacturing plant at the age of 17, and culminating as a global program manager reporting to the COO for a multi-billion dollar technology organization. And yet, I had reached complete burnout. While I had seen significant success in my technology career and likely could have remained comfortable there, I knew I needed to make a change.
At a career crossroads, I seriously considered getting a M.F.A. in screenwriting, a lifelong passion of mine. Instead, I decided to go after a M.B.A. I didn’t just go for any old M.B.A. program. I went after getting accepted into TWO of the best business schools in the country: UC Berkeley and Columbia University. And this wasn’t just their traditional M.B.A. program, this was an executive M.B.A program. In retrospect, it seems I may have had just a wee bit of a chip on my shoulder about college because I was a high school drop-out after some difficult teenage years.
I knew my grades weren’t great and thus I prepared like crazy for the entrance exam. I scored quite well, just barely missing a MENSA qualifying score, and I got into both schools. If you’re curious to learn more about the distinctions between a high school drop-out and an Ivy League graduate, You can read a blog I wrote a few years ago here. Hint: those distinctions are a lot thinner than you might think.
OK, I got into two great business schools, now what??? The truth is I really had no clue what was next for me career-wise… I just knew something big had to change and I hoped my experiences at these schools would open more doors and expose me to more options. One thing I knew for sure, I had always been drawn to what makes a great leader, what makes a great team, and what makes a great organizational culture. Thus, I took every single elective I could find on all these topics. I simply wanted to figure this stuff out so I could master the topic and I figured what better place to do it than two of the best business schools in the world?
It was one week-long immersive course that really changed the trajectory of my life in nearly every way. The course was called Leadership Communications. As it turned out, the professor who teaches this course is an executive coach and utilizes techniques from theater, storytelling, and improvisation. It was a magical fit for me, as I saw for the first time how I could combine some of my passions into my business life, and vice versa. A year later, I started Resonance Executive Coaching.
The scene in the video below was shot that same year, when I got certified as an executive coach through UC Berkeley’s Executive Coaching Institute.
A Leadership Story From Daniel
This story captured in one of my talks conveys a key motorcycle racing experience in my life and how that experience both formed who I am and keeps me going every day.
Congrats! You made it all the way to the end!
If this biography about Daniel didn’t satisfy your curiosity, please feel free to learn more about Daniel on his LinkedIn page.
