Daniel Batten, founder of Beyond The Ceiling, is a pioneering educator and thought-leader in the field of “authentic influence”. He is a successful entrepreneur, trainer, speaker and author.

Daniel is a teacher by training, and has an MA(Hons) in literature and a diploma in Drama. What sets Daniel apart as an educator is that he has put his theories to practice by becoming the CEO and founder of a multi-million dollar company which today is an award winning NZ export success story exporting into 65 markets internationally.

In his companies, everything from recruitment of the team and the board, to sales, to succession planning was done using authentic influence principles which he has now systematized so that anyone he trains can use as his tools as a vehicle to pursue their passion profitably.

Over the last five years, Daniel has become an expert business mentor. He has worked with over 100 entrepreneurs and identified a method to teach entrepreneurial success that combines the missing element that incubators and business schools do not teach, to get real-life results based on his own direct experience as an entrepreneur.

Author and Pioneering Entrepreneur
He is the author of two books, “The Six Secrets of Authentic Influence” and “How to Build a Million Dollar Business in as Little as 365 Days” and too many published articles to list. His business accomplishments have been reported multiple times in all of New Zealand’s leading Newspapers and business magazines. He has also been the subject of PhD research into entrepreneurship.

Trend-spotter

He is an expert trend-spotter, and has already successfully identified and researched many trends before they got mainstream acceptance, and often against the advice of other “experts” including
- social media, which he began using and researching in 1993
- e-Learning, which he began researching in 1994
- Authentic communication, which he wrote his thesis on in 1996
- bioinformatics, establishing a company in this area in 2003
- online sales through free initial product offerings (strategy commenced 2005)

In 2006, Daniel spotted another trend –  the fast-arising need for anyone wanting to achieve anything of note in their career or business to absolutely master a new type of influencing: “authentic influence”.

Clients regularly comment on his uncanny ability to sum up an entire business, product, or personal uniqueness in a single compelling statement, or instantly create the perfect metaphor for them on the spot.

Complementing his professional life, he has a passion for volunteer service which he expresses through teaching highly effective stress-elimination techniques to the public and also in prison. Proving the degree to which a full and rich life is possible when living authentically in accordance with one’s passion, he has also recently achieved celebrity status as an actor. Daniel is married and has three children.