Dayten Rynsburger: Why Getting Fired at 19 and Accumulating $60K in Debt Fueled My Comeback as a Chief Revenue Officer

The world of sports is not just about physical prowess or competition; it’s an incubator for leadership qualities such as discipline, teamwork, strategic planning, and resilience. Athletes, from amateur levels to professional arenas, often encounter situations that test their limits and require them to step up in ways that mirror the challenges faced by leaders in various fields. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dayten Rynsburger

Dayten Rynsburger is the Chief Revenue Officer of Niche Capital a leading online business-to-business loan marketplace, with over a decade of experience in sales and marketing. Dayten started his business journey in sales where he first learned how to adapt his athletic philosophies & principles to business. Dayten quickly became the top salesperson in every sales position he held. Finally, he made his way to the commercial lending industry, where he earned the title of Top Funder month after month. Dayten leveraged his athletic background of being a high school varsity wrestler and a current Muay Thai athlete to shape him into the leader he is today. His athletic background taught him how to “embrace the suck” & that by learning not to quit in wrestling or Muay Thai he learned to never quit in business. Under Dayten’s leadership Niche Capital has grown to become one of the fastest-growing B2B lending marketplaces of 2022–2024 and continues to improve under his guidance.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career in athletics?

Growing up I enjoyed two things. Playing basketball and mixed martial arts. I would rough house, wrestle with my MMA friends, and play basketball till it was dark out with my basketball friends. By the time I was in middle school, my parents put me in an MMA class where I would learn some grappling and kickboxing etc. But the truth was I loved basketball, even more than MMA. I would play every day after school and I figured when I got to high school I would try out and make the team.. Oh boy was I wrong.. I never made the basketball team despite my numerous attempts to try out. So, as a last effort to get involved in sports, I joined the wrestling team. I was naturally good at wrestling, due to my prior grappling experience and mma. However, It was not all sunshine as they say. I remember this one specific day. The coach told the entire wrestling team to lay on our backs and lift our legs 1 foot off the ground, these were called leg raises, a core exercise. The coach, said, “If anyone drops their legs before I say, you all start over.” I was not the biggest or strongest and, unfortunately, the one who kept dropping my legs. I felt the team getting increasingly frustrated by my lack of performance. So, I stood up and told the coach “I quite, I don’t want to be the reason that the team keeps failing.” The coach instead of letting me give up, looked me in the eyes and said “Oh you want to quit huh? What are you going to do when you’re older and things get hard? Are you just gonna give up on paying your mortgage? How about your family will you just give up on them too?” I responded in a frightened tone “No sir.” The coach grabbed my shoulders and said “You quiet in here, you will quit every time things get hard on anything you do out there.” That turned something on in me. I walked back on the wrestling mat, layed down, lifted my legs, and did not ever drop them again until the entire team was told to do so. That was the most defining day of my life. After that, I quickly moved to varsity during my first year of wrestling and won my first match over Buena Park High School. I started looking up to wrestlers like Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Dake who were NCAA champions at the time. This mixture of unlocking the will to win and actually winning got me hooked. Not knowing it at the time, that this would be one of the core moments which helped shape my leadership skills in business.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

After high school, I got straight into sales. I went from LA Fitness gym membership sales to door-to-door solar. I then ended up selling health insurance over the phone on a sales floor in Irvine, CA. I leveraged my skills and grit from athletics to help me become the top sales agent amongst other more seasoned insurance agents. Well, at the ripe age of 19, I got fired. Why? My head got too big, and I started being, let’s say, “too cocky” on the sales floor. So, with my new experiences of being a top producer on a big sales floor in Irvine, CA, I decided to start my own health insurance brokerage. Long story short, it ended with me being 60k deep in toxic credit card debt from ad spend, living expenses, business expenses — you name it, I put it on a credit card. The interesting thing was that I never worried about debt like some do. Looking back, I had built such a no-quit attitude and a desire to win from athletics that it carried over to business to make me ultra-resilient to stress. I knew deep in my heart that I would be able to get out of debt if I could just win. I ended up meeting a woman whom I fell in love with, and, as people who are in love do, we wanted to move out. The problem was I had 60k of debt and a tanking credit score. So, I did what any young, hungry salesperson would do. I found out what sales job paid the biggest commissions. It turned out that financing yielded some pretty big commissions. So, I became a loan officer. I worked 7 days a week, 12 hours a day for about eight months to pay off that 60k in credit card debt, which fixed my credit and allowed me to move out with the love of my life and pursue my dreams.

Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

One key trait that played an instrumental role in my success is grit. Throughout my career, I’ve faced challenging obstacles, from wrestling to sales. Whether it was cutting weight or hitting aggressive sales quotas, I found a way to get it done regardless of the circumstances. A perfect example of this is the change in market conditions when I was a loan officer. As the 10-year Treasury rate rose and interest rates started to climb, everyone was quitting or changing careers. I did not follow suit. Instead, I buckled down and shifted my sales strategy to selling cash-out loans. This adjustment proved effective, and I continued to be successful.

Another trait that played a major role in my success is hunger. Ever since I can remember, I have been hungry to win. I was hungry to reach my goals, which made me willing to go further than most. A good example of this is when I started my first company, a health insurance brokerage. It caused me to go into 60k worth of toxic credit card debt, but my hunger to win did not allow this to break me. I figured a way out and was able to keep going.

Lastly, patience has been a huge reason why I have been successful. In a leadership role, you cannot expect everyone to move as fast as you or work as hard. Things take time, and nothing worthwhile comes fast. Some employees take longer than others to get stuff done and simply require patience. A good example of this is one of our top developers, Thomas. Thomas was not always our top developer. Instead of parting ways with Thomas, I could see greatness in him as my wrestling coach once saw in me. I worked with him, gave him time to develop as a developer, and was patient with him. Thomas is now our senior developer and leads our data integration team here at Niche Capital Co.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a pivotal moment in your athletic career that taught you a leadership lesson you’ve applied outside of sports?

In wrestling, there is a lot of strength and conditioning that must be done. During summer, we would go out in the field, run & carry each other, do endless push-ups, pull-ups, & squats with a buddy on your back. We had been out there for a while, and the team started to get in a slump, run down, if you will, and so was I. Looking around, I noticed this and chose to do something about it. All I did was change my attitude, stopped feeling sorry for myself, and started counting out my repetitions louder and louder. I noticed almost instantly that the energy shifted, and the entire team had an almost surge of energy. Everyone was yelling their rep count and working out with more intent. This was a big pivotal moment for me that carried over to sales. There have been times where my team feels like this. Whether it’s my developer team feeling run down trying to solve a problem or my sales guys tired of making calls. I simply lead by example; if my sales team is feeling run down, I let them hear me on the phone with a prospect and persist in the sale until it’s done, if it’s my development team, I get on with my partner and start brainstorming ideas to help them. Which, just like those days in wrestling strength and conditioning, gets the team fired up and creates a surge of new energy.

How has your experience in team dynamics within athletics influenced your approach to leadership in the workplace?

My experience in team dynamics taught me attitude is everything. If the team sees the leader feeling sorry for himself or has his head down the rest of the team is going to mirror that. As a leader in the work space I set the example and set the pace. I know that if I am looking beat up, the team will feel like they are beat up as well. I make it a point to focus on setting an example daily.

In what ways has facing defeat or challenges in sports prepared you for handling failure and setbacks in your professional life?

Not everyone is going to have an undefeated athletic career, and not everyone will have a business career that is all ups and no downs. And that is a good thing. When I would lose a match or lose a sparring round in Muay Thai, something beautiful takes place. You get to analyze the situation and find where you came up short. The same thing happens when running a company. If something goes wrong, I treat it just like losing a wrestling match and analyze where things went wrong and how to prevent them in the future.

How do you apply the discipline and training regimen from your athletic pursuits to your current leadership role?

The beautiful thing about athletics and being in a leadership position is that they are both performance-based. One thing I learned from wrestling and Muay Thai is that the more disciplined I became, the better I performed. There was a direct correlation between discipline and performance. If I stay disciplined and always do what I know I need to do — and then some — the team will thrive off that and become that much better.

Reflecting on your journey, what specific skills or attributes developed through athletics do you believe are most essential for effective leadership?

Reflecting on my athletic journey through wrestling and now Mauy Thai, one skill that stands out as having been essential in developing my leadership skills is attitude control. We can not control everything, and there will be times when you feel life is simply against you. As a leader, it is on you to maintain a strong mental attitude, and a positive mindset to keep everyone moving forward as one unit.

Another attribute that played a significant role in my leadership skills development is knowing how to effectively handle failure as a team. Sometimes people on your team do not meet their goals, sometimes you do not. And like I said earlier no one rarely has an undefeated record. The question is not “if you will fail?” It is” How do you recover from failure and let it make you better?” I learned if the team fails, it is always the leader’s fault, and that there is no such thing as bad teams, just bad leadership. In those situations, the best thing to do is use skill #1 “Stay in a positive mindset,” reflect on what went wrong and where, then simply try your best never to let that happen again.

Based on your experience, can you please share “5 Ways That Athletics Can Help Train Great Leaders?”

1 . Sport teaches you how to persist through the tough times. Those long practices after 8 hours of school. Those summer strength and conditioning sessions where you thought death was around the corner from all the running. But then you get through it and realize you are that much stronger because of it.

2 . Athletics teaches patients. Most people did not go to state their first year or make Varsity year one. As a leader, most employees do not become your top sales guy or top developer overnight. You need patients to work with them and help shape them. That is what athletics does. You realize that the more I put in the more I get out. And the harder I work at wrestling or Muay Thai, the better I become. Which takes time there for teaching you to be patient.

3 . Handling defeat is something all leaders must learn, and athletics does a great job at teaching you this. Most leaders are great when the team is winning, but how do they act when the team is in a slump? Do they rise up above it and motivate the team to perform and fix their mistakes? Or do they get a bad attitude? The wrestling & Muay Thai taught me to recognize my mistakes in defeat and help motivate others around me to do the same, thus making us stronger as one.

4 . Some people are just born knowing how to work hard, others have to be taught. Working hard is a key trait of most successful leaders and athletics teaches you that. Those hard practices or games/ matches where you almost lost but increased your work output and won, teach the trait of “work hard.” Which carries over in all aspects of leadership.

5 . Discipline is one of my most valued traits. I was not always the most disciplined person, still am not. But I know for certain that prior to wrestling and Mauy Thai I was far less disciplined. Athletics forces you to do the same thing and stick to a regime or else you will simply not be good i.e. lose matches lose tournaments etc. Athletics will force you to become disciplined or you will not make it, just like in business.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

No matter where you are in life or the situation you are in the number one thing you can do to better yourself or your situation is not quit.. I would love to see a movement of #neverquit take effect and see an abundance of people simply not quitting regardless of their situation. I do not know it all, but I know quitting never solves anything.

How can our readers further follow you online?

The best way to follow me is on my linkedin or my website.

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.

Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.