“I realized how much of an impact we make when we’re working in people’s homes and residential environments.” – Dan Oltersdorf

Dan’s story began in student housing, where his role as an RA opened his eyes to the power of community. From that spark, he built a career that combined entrepreneurial drive with operational leadership culminating in his role as Chief People Officer at Campus Advantage. What struck me in our conversation was how Dan always returned to the same theme: impact comes from focusing on the right things and clearing away the rest.

“We can be your backstage crew. You’re in the spotlight, you manage your production. We help make it happen.” – Dan Oltersdorf

The complication he identified is one that I’ve seen firsthand: operators are crushed by foundational work like HR compliance, property accounting, IT and insurance. These functions are critical, but they drain energy and distract from building communities and serving residents. Dan and Centricity were created to solve this exact problem by centralizing and outsourcing those back-office burdens so operators can focus on their core mission. Listening to him, I realized how often leaders confuse what they have to do with what they should be doing.

“How do I sleep again at night? Because this stuff is keeping me up, and it’s not the stuff that should be keeping me up.” – Dan Oltersdorf

That was the turning point for me in this conversation. Dan described how many operators hit inflection points whether rapid growth or painful turnover where the cracks show in HR and accounting. They’re left pulling all-nighters to solve problems that shouldn’t even be on their plate. It made me reflect on my own journey: how often am I kept up by the wrong problems? And how much more effective could I be if I let go of the grunt work and focused only on the strategic levers?

“Busy is the new stupid.” – Dan Oltersdorf

Dan didn’t mince words about how much wasted energy exists in this industry. Too many leaders spend their days mired in low-value, high-effort tasks instead of high-value work that drives results. I loved his framing here because it challenged me to re-audit where I’m spending time. If busyness is a badge of honor then we’re rewarding the wrong behavior. Hell Yes! comes when leaders trade busyness for focus.

“Pay attention to what gets you excited because that’s where you’re going to be most effective.” – Dan Oltersdorf

Dan closed with advice that hit home for me. Passion isn’t just nice to have, it’s the fuel for resilience and creativity. If you’re faking interest in work you don’t care about, it will drain your energy and eventually your results. I’ve learned that too: when I align with the work that excites me, it takes less energy to show up and I deliver better outcomes for customers.

Action Items & Follow-up Questions

From Dan’s journey, I walked away with both practical and personal takeaways:

• Offload what isn’t core. Focus your time and energy on impact not compliance.
• Audit your day for “busy work” where are you just keeping the wheel spinning?
• Look for inflection points. Are you growing so fast that cracks are showing?
• Reconnect to your passion. What work excites you most and how can you do more of it?
  

And the questions I’d love to hear your perspective on:

• Where in your operations are you losing sleep over the wrong problems?
• If “busy is the new stupid,” what would it look like to be smart with your time?
• What functions in your business could a “backstage crew” take off your plate so you can shine?