#17 Kevin Dahlstrom - Chief Marketing Officer & Angel Investor: Living Life On Your Own Terms & Avoiding The Opportunity Trap

The best way to introduce Kevin Dahlstrom is in his own words:

"Through hard work and an unfair share of luck, I’ve done some cool “bucket list” things in my career:

- Raised VC from the worlds’ top firms
- Helped build 100’s of millions in revenue from nothing
- Rang the bell at the NYSE
- Met & did deals with billionaires & business icons

These are things I dreamed about when I was young and I treasure some of the memories. But when they finally happened I felt surprisingly unfulfilled.  I was scoring lots of points but didn’t feel like I was winning.

Then a few years ago during a board meeting I had a moment of clarity. I looked around the table at 10 people, all absurdly successful by financial measures. There wasn’t a single person I wanted to emulate. Most were unhealthy and several had told me that they were unhappy.

Within months I walked away from from a 7-figure salary, moved my family to Boulder, and haven’t looked back. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a capitalist and I like money as much as anyone. But for me it's not the thing, and more of the wrong thing is less."

Kevin splits his time between Boulder, Colorado, and Honolulul, Hawaii, where he is currently EVP and CMO at Pacific Central Bank. He has 20+ years of experience heading marketing, product strategy, and e-commerce for leading financial organizations. Kevin was CMO at Mr Cooper, CMO at Elevate, and been a founder or early in multiple high-growth fintech startups in the USA.

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