The U is Silent; We Aren’t-Episode 6
Real, Rooted, & Rising: Danielle McEwen’s Bold Playbook to Business
Danielle McEwen reveals why Staunton isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a catalyst. From tackling anxiety and entrepreneurship myths to harnessing the power of storytelling, she offers a blueprint for showing up, standing out, and leading with heart.
About This Podcast
The U may be silent, but Staunton has a lot to say. Join Visit Staunton as we sit down with inspiring individuals at the top of their craft. We’re chatting about what drives their passion, the actions behind the impact, and a little about the place where they’re making it all happen.
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TRANSCRIPT
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the You Is Silent We Aren’t podcast from Visit Stanton right here in Stanton, Virginia. Thank you guys for tuning in. We have such a treat for you guys here today. We’re going to cover a whole slew of conversations and topics and insight. And I’m just so happy to have our guest here today, Ms. Danielle McEwen. You have a
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mini hat. So I’m like, Danielle, unique McEwen. And you are certainly such a unique and vibrant personality in our community. You are owner of Unique Vision. You are also the director of programs for the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, a marketing consultant, a public speaker. So a little bit of
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of all things. Thank you for joining us here today. Of course. I’m so excited to share the stories that are behind Visit Staunton and excited to be a part of it. Staunton has a really special place in my heart. So I’m excited to get into the conversation and be here. Yeah, I mean,
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too. You know, so the whole way this even came about is, I just met you by chance one day, I was in the innovation hub. Yeah. And leaving a separate meeting. And I think you were talking to somebody else. And they just happened to introduce us. And I think we ended up staying and chatting for like,
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30 minutes or so about just different ideas and insight and wishes and things were pumped about happening right now. And it was just such an invigorating conversation and energizing conversation. And so I was like,
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Man, she’s awesome. We got to bring her on. So please, if you don’t mind, just tell us a little bit about yourself and the work you’re doing right now. And then we’ll dive in and chat about some more. Sure. Thank you for that. You caught me leaving one of the many things that I do here, which is looking at how we can bridge some of the gaps in our community, how we can serve people better, our youth, our
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our businesses, our entrepreneurs. And so it was perfect timing. I also thought you had an amazing energy. And I was actually excited to dig into what Visit Staunton has for us. And so, yes, my name is Danielle Unique McEwen, owner of Unique Vision, director of programs for SCCF. And I have dedicated a lot of my life to making sure that people really own who they are and
1 min. 59 sec.
They own who they are mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. And they see the power in that. And they are able to use that story to bring the visions they have to life in order to impact the world. And so I’ve been actually a marketing consultant for 15 years. That’s amazing. Yeah. I started working when I was 13 years old. So there’s a whole other story there. And it was in the government center, which is in Northland.
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Verona, which is still right down the street. I think Verona and Staunton are cousins at this point in time. And Staunton is developing in such a beautiful way. And so it really set my path and my trajectory to understanding businesses in a different way. And so my business actually kind of mixes business acumen with intuitive guidance and strategy and strategy.
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bringing all those worlds together to help businesses amplify, like I said, their stories, their messaging, their impact more than anything in the most authentic way as possible. Yeah. So locally, I participate in a lot of different initiatives. I take advantage of
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leadership opportunities where I can help to inspire the next person to inspire the next person to inspire the next person. Um, I take a lot of opportunities to kind of, um, tap in and work with our youth. That’s very important to me. Um, I’ve done some of the speaking events and panels for Mary Baldwin, um, here locally, also JMU as well, um, teaching them marketing and branding and, um, um,
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Yeah, I’ve done. I do a lot of the different things. Yeah. And you really do. And you bring so many different skills to the table, but also I think how you’ve wanted to plug in. So I guess and I think what’s amazing because we’ve chatted more about your, you know, your full history and you’ve worked everywhere from Atlanta.
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and overseas and Dominican Republic and here. And we have such, I think, a vibrant community in town, but we are also a small town. We are so fortunate to be located where we are in the Shenandoah Valley. But I think sometimes…
4 min. 24 sec.
or pushback can arise when you are pushing forward with innovative marketing concepts or being an entrepreneur. Have you encountered any types of myths in a variety? I mean, you’ve worked in so many different small towns, but have you encountered any myths when approaching entrepreneurship or marketing in a small town? And how do you kind of go about pushing through that? Yeah.
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Yes, there are a lot of myths, but there have also been a lot of truths. And for me, I’ve been someone who has always sat at the intersection of disrupting outdated narratives. So disrupting some of those myths and busting them, but also accepting the truth that does exist so that we can collectively all play the best role and position because you need
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everybody, you know, in order to make things work and to make things shift. So one of the biggest myths, you kind of spoke about it, but one of the biggest myths is definitely people thinking that you have to think small when being in a small town and
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I think we have these bias and these ideas, and I’ve been guilty of them when I was younger before I came back to the area. I’ve been guilty of them. I was a digital nomad for three years. The reason for that after attending middle school and high school here in this area was that I thought in order to get the big opportunities, I needed to leave. I needed to go somewhere else that was more connected or that had more opportunities that were aligned with where I was trying to go.
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As I grew, the more experience I had, and as you mentioned, kind of working in all these different areas. When I came back in 2022, I really, really wanted to show our small business owners and our entrepreneurs here locally that you can be in a small town with a big vision. Mm-hmm.
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And that’s really the foundation of a lot of the work that I do. It’s helping people see what they currently have in place, realizing that you already have everything you need. But what we can do is really hone in how you’re thinking about these things and thinking bigger and adopting more of a global mind. So a lot of those like.
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speaking events and workshops and presentations that I did, um, like 30 of them in 2023, they were really all, all about expanding people’s minds at the end of the day. The vehicle in the channel may have been marketing branding, um, or coaching or consulting work, but it was all about helping shift people’s mindset. And that is, um, we have such beautiful, um,
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Such talented people here in the Valley. And we are, you know, I say the Valley and not just Staunton because we are all so collaborative. We really are. We’re so fortunate. We are so fortunate. And I think when you bring so many different minds and perspectives to the table, well, you have a lot of different diverse opportunities and solutions to fix different problems and or to just optimize things. Yeah.
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So that’s been one of the biggest things that was my goal. Like, how can I expand people, people’s minds, expand people internally so that what they experience externally is a new kind of reality that’s just super impactful. Well, I love what you said, too, about the connectivity of our valley and of our region as a whole. And I am curious from your perspective, especially when working with different organizations or businesses, right?
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We are in such a close-knit community. And in many ways, that can make or break an organization or a startup or a well-established business. How do you encourage a business or even yourself to amplify those relationships to help push your business even further? How do you lean on those relationships? Yeah. There are different approaches and strategies. My biggest thing is that…
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People buy from who they trust. Simple. Yeah. People buy from people. It’s simple. We want to make things super complex and super complicated, but a lot of us just need to peel back some of that pressure that we put on ourselves and.
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Take a minute and realize why did we start to begin with? What was the purpose of our business? What is our purpose as a person? How do these things kind of integrate and rely, you know, relate to one another? And so that’s.
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So building those authentic connections that are not surface level, that is the game changer. That has been the game changer for me. I’ve attracted a ton of different opportunities here in this area because I simply care about people. I care about who they are. I care about their stories. I care about what they’ve overcome. I care about their friendships.
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fears, not just their aspirations and what they desire, because I’m not just trying to sell to one someone. I’m trying to understand like, what is their relationship to the world? What is the higher impact they want to make? What is the legacy they want to leave? And how do, how does the way they have lived their life play a role in that? And how have they chosen to show up and how do they want to show up?
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and helping to bridge that gap. And when we’re talking about the business owners in this area, and we’re talking about entrepreneurs, what can they do to network better, to leverage the relationships that they have? They need to become better leaders of themselves.
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That is the key in the work that I do as well, is how do I lead myself better? Because then I can lead my business better. I could lead the relationships in my life better. I could lead my team better. I can be able to show up a lot more confident and with authority and with security. And so the people that I work with and the organizations, they’re
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I’m always telling them, like, pay attention to the things you think are small. They are the big things. And they’re going to be the difference between you having a customer and having a raving fan that stays with you no matter how you shift your business, no matter how you pivot your business, because the economy is always going to change.
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But how can we build things that are from the inside out of who we are as leaders and the business or the vehicle at that time? Because sometimes you don’t always stay with the same business either. Sometimes your brand evolves, sometimes it shifts. But for a lot of people, it’s challenging for them to keep up with that. And so that’s the disruptive and kind of innovative approach that I have. We’re not building on that stuff. Right.
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We’re building on the essence of who you are and the essence of your brand and the vision that you want to create in the world at large. And we’re looking at our businesses and our lives as vehicles to get us there. Well, on that side of the world at large. Right. And I think that’s what I love so much is that there’s opportunity to instill sometimes sometimes businesses or groups just need the encouragement that, hey, what you’re doing is worth it.
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worth the reach as far as you want it to go. Do you have any advice or insight that would, what’s one piece of advice that you would give for a business or organization to extend their brand story globally or to go beyond? We talked about our local connections. How can they take that story and go even further with it unique to them? First of all, you need to figure out what the story is.
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So what I see a lot of times is that a lot of people sometimes lack clarity. Clarity is one of the biggest game changers for you individually and for you as a business. And I don’t think that people talk about why clarity is so important. You see some people lead with it in their marketing and in their advertising and promotions, but they’re not telling you why and how clarity really can be leveraged for who you are and what you’re trying to do.
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The reason is because when you’re not super clear on who you are, what you do, why you do it, how you do it, what’s unique about the way that you’re doing it, it is very easy for you to fall into the noise. It’s very easy for you to fall into the comparison trap. It’s very easy for you to fall into so many different rabbit holes that naturally come
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Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a business owner, for me, I also look at for women specifically. And then I also look at for African-Americans. I always look at these four perspectives because it provides space.
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It provides a foundation for people to understand themselves better and to not get down on themselves or beat themselves up and get lost in their mind that they’re not good enough. They’re not worthy enough. They’re not valuable enough. And so…
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When I’m talking to businesses, if you want to expand globally, you first have to get super clear and not be afraid to go back to the beginning stages. A lot of business owners are really afraid to go back to the business, the beginning stages, the foundation of their business. And I know it’s scary because, you know, you have something and it’s worked for so long and you don’t want to disrupt that or deconstruct it. But sometimes it’s.
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it is so much more effective for you to take a step back to take 20 steps forward. Yeah. Well, and I think you can speak on that so well. So you grew up in this area and went away for a good while and worked in different fields, not necessarily different fields, but had different experiences. What ultimately led you to make the decision to come back home and come
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back home as you’re in this pivotal moment in your life and your career and diving into starting a business all your own? You know, when we first met, I told you healing, right? I told you that one of the things that I have recognized about the beauty of Staunton and the magic of Staunton is that this is a beautiful place to heal, reset, restart, recalibrate, realign. And
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And even to rebrand yourself, this is a beautiful, a beautiful place for that because of all of the different elements that make up who we are as a community, as thinkers.
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people willing to build relationships, willing to help just the purity of moving from a space of like love first sort of thing. And so I’ve come in and out of the area several different times. And the last time the reason was healing, but this.
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what I recognize once I moved past, like nothing’s wrong with you. You’re just shifting. You are just pivoting. You are just evolving as a person. Staunton helped show me that. Yeah. And now I understand that
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I came home because this is in alignment with where I’m truly supposed to be during this part of my journey. Unique vision actually only works with people who are mission driven, impact driven or purpose driven. That is important for us because that means that you are building something bigger than yourself. And it also means that you are resilient.
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Because in order to build something bigger than yourself, you require having gone through some stuff. Sure. We put it nicely on the podcast. You have had to go through some stuff in order to really make it out. And going through that stuff probably has required you to pick yourself up off the floor when no one else was with you.
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And you allow that to transform and you allowed your pain to be alchemized into purpose. And that’s why you’re doing it for. Well, I think about the work that you’re doing with Staunton Black Business Collective and Love Forward and SCCF and so many nonprofits that collaborate with that space. And I imagine that very idea of seeing people.
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come together, build this community of healing. It seems like you mirror that perfectly. Yeah.
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Thank you. I do. I do. I do. And that’s a part of what I shared earlier where I came here. I’ve done the work. I’ve included my community in the work that I’ve done. And I’ve also found the courage to share with the community the type of work that I do and to continue to pour, whether it’s received or not, because one of the journeys I’ve.
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of a visionary, an innovator, a disruptor, a changemaker, a trailblazer. All of those people are my people. They probably were like the black sheeps of their family or they identify with misfits, like some of the unique, like all of these, that journey of us at large, it requires courage in order to share it with the next person. And one thing that I encourage businesses to do
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all the time is share the story, share the story, keep sharing the story. Look your eyes in the mirror, share the story to yourself, share the story as many times as you need to until it becomes as an, as authentic as possible in your rarest form, very raw, authentic,
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Yeah. And and use that to attract your people. I’ve said way more no’s in business to working with people than I ever have said yeses to work with people. And that’s because I’m really clear on my purpose. I’m really clear on the organizations, the businesses and the people and the clients that are aligned to the purpose I’m supposed to serve here in this world, in this earth, in this lifetime. Yeah.
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And I share that with people. The other day there was Poetry Out Loud, the national competition at the Wayne Theater. And I attended because locally I just love to support the kids as well. And they needed some time between classes.
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the poets and allowing the kids to kind of get in their space, get their game plan together. And so the host, she asked the audience a question and she was like, does anyone want to like speak to this? I have been a speaker before and I love interaction when it comes to speaking to people. And no matter how confident you are, when people don’t say anything back, you kind of
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You know, it makes you just want to make sure you’re like, oh, my gosh, yeah, am I am I you’re questioning it. So anytime I am an audience member or participant in someone else’s there, I always pay it forward. I will always say something.
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And, um, it was a room filled with a lot of people and I was very hesitant. And instead of getting in my head and being like, Danielle, just be quiet. Like nobody cares, whatever you have to say. Like, you don’t even know what you’re going to say. I moved with my intuition. I stood up and I shared my story and the entire audience clapped.
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clapped. They were so thankful. There was another young man who was super inspired. He was like, you said this. So it made me think of this. And afterwards, the part that I want to really share is that a woman came up to me afterwards and she said, I just got through cancer. I’m still working through it. But what has happened, if you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have had enough information to figure out what’s been happening to me. And I couldn’t
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figure it out. I just knew there were certain things that didn’t feel right. And she said, you shared like, you’re right. My identity is shifting. And the things that I once loved that I also get paid to do, they’re feeling suffocating.
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And I gave her those words for her to now be able to communicate to the other people in her life how she’s feeling, why she may be showing up in a different way. The biggest thing that I wanted to give to her, which I did, was hope. There is life after what we go through. Yeah.
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And it doesn’t matter your level of pain. Nobody’s pain is different than anyone else’s. When I talk to people, that’s what I say. No matter, don’t dismiss your pain. Don’t minimize it. Whatever you’re going through, it hurt you. And that’s okay. But now you have a story as well. Now, if you choose to allow it to transform you,
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If you lose if you choose to allow it to be a part of your purpose, you know what you are going to come into alignment with things bigger than you could ever vision for yourself. The voice that you use to only write with it may get expanded to now sharing that with the next person in your story becomes someone else’s blueprint that can save someone’s life.
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That’s the philosophy I operate on. That’s what I share to business owners. That’s what I share to organizational nonprofit leaders as well. Those pieces that you want to hide, these are the things that are going to make you… It’s your superpowers. It’s your superpower. It’s your superpower. And once they embrace it, and if they get to a place where they accept it…
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Now I start adding the business onto it. Okay, now that you’ve personally embraced that for yourself, now let me tell you what that looks like marketing-wise. Let me tell you what that looks like business-wise. That’s your unique selling proposition. This is your brand positioning. This is how you can make it turn into content. This is how we can articulate it. This is how we can communicate it. This is the type of community that you can attract with it. This is the way you can relate to your community. Yeah.
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et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. People buy from people more than they buy a product. Yeah. So I do want to touch on, because even on that vein of things, let’s chat about the world of public speaking, right? And I love watching and listening to public speakers because everybody has their own style and approach. And I guess for you, like, what would you say is your secret sauce or your approach to hooking an audience and when you have public speaking engagements? What’s your style? Yeah, my style.
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would definitely be considered a conglomeration of things, as you hear. I am a person that reads the room. So mostly it’s intuitive. And that goes against…
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A lot of the suggested things when it comes to public speaking preparation is very important. You see people, they follow an exact plan, an exact presentation. They take that presentation. They do it everywhere. And I’m not that type of person. My.
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specific approach, and I’m looking like this because I would get frowned upon probably in the industry. I build the presentation, the topics, the
24 min. 8 sec.
the talking points from the audience it’s going to serve, as well as the mission of the organization of the business. So when I did those 30 speaking presentations and workshops and keynotes and things like that in 2023, every single organization had a custom tailored presentation for their mission and who they were trying to serve. Because I really truly believe in leadership.
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I believe everyone’s different. I believe everyone needs something different. And I also will allow my intuition to guide where I go. And so when it comes to the audience’s needs, I’m very in tune with that as well. If I hear someone or I recognize and see body language or…
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or someone holding themselves back and they actually want to speak up or whatever the case may be. I really believe in supporting and being a resource and providing people with tools. So that is mostly my style, but it’s very energizing as well. Yeah.
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let me ask you because you do you do bring a lot of energy and and I love getting to see you speak with creative mornings and other outlets but you’ve also shared that that you you sometimes even now and have experienced anxiety when it comes to public speaking specifically and so it’s always so interesting that it’s like nope this is a path I’m going into yeah how how have you taken that and I
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Either continue to work through it and gotten to the other side of it or or even just rolling with it. How have you dealt with that? Yes. So, yes.
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I’ll first tell you how it came about. So in 2022, I’d co-founded a tech company, a social impact tech company. We were teaching people how to use the Metaverse AR, VR, XR technology. And specifically the goal was to help educate and train 1 million black and brown people on utilizing this new innovative technology.
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The marketing, my inaugural marketing campaign overnight generated. We were like the lead in the industry for this work during this time. I think you can even still look it up on TikTok. And we are like some of the first videos that that come up and provided that insight of how to market and brand and build community in the metaverse and using like oculus and things like that.
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That company dissipated. The partnership dissipated in 2022. And honestly, it rocked my world. I had wrapped up so much identity and time and money into this business and it needed to go separate ways. There were changes in leadership. And then I was stuck trying to figure out, like, who are you again?
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Like, Danielle, who are you? What do you truly stand for? Because I always tell people, you are the magic. You are the secret sauce. And the reason that you don’t have to care about comparison, if you know your secret sauce individually, you’re the secret sauce.
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is because it outlives whatever trendy thing is happening. Focus on yourself. And so in 2023, at the beginning of 2023, I committed and dedicated and declared to myself, you will dispel any limiting belief you have. The biggest one was public speaking.
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Although that kind of notoriety put me on a lot of stages where I was sharing this information at conferences and all of that stuff. It was the first time I did it and I didn’t do it with intention. But the result of it, the way people responded to me, the way people wanted more from me, I was like, something is wrong because I suck at public speaking. Right.
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But these people aren’t saying that. Right. These people feel something different. So it must be in my head. Mind versus reality and how our perceptions of the same situation can be so different. So different. You are hitting the nail on the head. And so I began that year with this motto of me versus me. Hmm.
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And so that’s when I started doing super deep mindset work. And I can operate as an extremist because I love to embody stuff. And so the first thing I did, I was like, okay, public speaking is the biggest one that I am extra insecure about. It automatically brings the anxiety. Let’s do it. Okay.
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I know. Yeah. Who does that? And so I joined a local. Well, I partnered with a local organization on the road collaborative in order to come in and teach the youth in that area how to present themselves professionally, how to use social media to understand marketing. And I had a deeper meaning under that curriculum I specifically built for them. I wanted them to learn self-expression.
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I wanted them to learn how to name their feelings and their emotions. I wanted them to think bigger than themselves and do some self-discovery and self-awareness work. It resulted beautifully. But my thought was, if I can stand once a week for an hour at a time in front of middle schoolers. That’s a gauntlet. Yeah.
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You can do anything, girl. Right? Yeah. And so I did that. And then I partnered with SCCF actually several times that year. I also was reached out to by Content Marketing World, which is an international marketing conference that everyone flies into. And I was a speaker there. Yeah.
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And I took every single, I told myself, I say, yes, this is the year of yes. You say yes to everything. If it comes across your desk, you say yes to it. The next year I decided to be intentional about it because you can’t just think that things are going to happen in life. Right.
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You have to put in a little elbow grease at a certain point in time. Amazing how luck follows hard work. Oh, yes. I agree with that. And so when it came to public speaking, I just did it as I put. This is what I tell my clients or people who are trying to move into thought leadership. You have to befriend your fear, whatever that looks like for you.
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Become friends with it because eventually you’ll have a healthy relationship with it. And I tell them sometimes it shifts. Sometimes you are making fear chase you in the car. Sometimes you put fear in the front seat. It’s a passenger with you. Sometimes you get it to the back seat. Eventually, the more and more you do anything, this is the secret to habits, routines, and
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muscle memory in your body, the more and more you do anything, the more you surpass it. Yeah.
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And so it’s all about developing these healthier relationships with all of these things. That’s what I did with public speaking. Does she still get anxious? Yeah, sometimes. And at the beginning, I had to command the room and get in front of the fear by calling it out. Hey, guys, I don’t speak in front of people often. I literally chose my majors and all of my minors for the reason that it allowed me to be a playmaker very behind the scenes. Sure.
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And I loved that aspect until God was calling me forward. And so I would tell people sometimes like, hey, guys, I have anxiety. I’m a little anxious, girly. And so if anything sounds crazy, you know, brush it off. And what I didn’t realize was developing anxiety.
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It was this authentic brand. It was this authentic personal brand and relationship that other people don’t typically lead with. When we are in positions of leadership or power status or whatever, you know, you consider it for yourselves. We’ve traditionally been conditioned and taught that you have to look and present a certain type of way.
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You don’t show people those things because you can’t command the room. But I kind of think that’s a little bit of like fear mongering, if I’m being honest. I think the more we humanize ourselves, especially as leaders, especially in these roles of power or status or whatever you want to call it. I think that is where you help out the little kid that is dreaming of being this big thing.
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That’s where you help out the community who is segregated and wants to come together. That’s when you bring all of these different perspectives, different ideas, much like I was sharing earlier. That’s when we can all get around a table because we realize you’re human like I’m human. I might have a certain title. You might have a certain title. But we are better together and having this authentic, honest conversation more than anything. And so it required me to learn vulnerability first.
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which is a key and it’s also a key in the work that I do. But when it comes to public speaking, like that’s important. And at the very beginning, I did used to have very structured preparation. I believe in managing the fear and,
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versus disregarding it or not claiming it or pretending it’s not there, I think you can manage these things. And as I’m talking about anxiety specifically or other mental health things, learn how to manage it first because denying it would actually do the opposite. Pretending that it doesn’t exist. Just lets it grow. Yeah, it grows. It grows. And I love that you said that. There’s been something ringing in my head
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recently that I’ve been seeing the, it was some, it’s like some quote about like what you focus on grows essentially. Yeah. And so on the positive side, that’s true. Yeah. But if we also focus on the negative things and creating distance or avoidance in the things that we would like to change, it grows with public speaking too. I’ll say one more thing.
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You have to trust in exactly who you are, how you are, the work that you’ve put in. And you have to trust in your audience a bit too. You have to trust that if your audience needs clarity, they’ll ask for it.
34 min. 28 sec.
You have to trust that if someone’s confused at the end, they’ll come up to you or that they’ll raise their hand. Or if the organization you’re representing, if they want more information shared about something, they’ll tell you. That helps you take the pressure off. It helps you take off kind of that that.
34 min. 44 sec.
umbrella that anxiety comes with. It helps you ease out. And the more you kind of ease out in it and you just embody it, you will do it. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I am curious on your side, and this is, I could have a million questions, but on the last I have, because you have spent so much time not only cultivating what your own story is, but encouraging others to lean into their story. Mm-hmm.
35 min. 6 sec.
What do you think separates Staunton’s story and unique identity the most? I think that Staunton, I think we have this beautiful culmination of heritage, innovation and heart. I agree. I think that we see a lot of those puzzle pieces separately. Yeah.
35 min. 37 sec.
in different groups of people or with different organizations and businesses. But what’s happening now, and it probably started happening potentially post COVID, is this beautiful melting pot of it. It’s all coming together.
36 min. 2 sec.
That’s why the storytelling and the relationship building and the connections are so important. The networking is so important because you shouldn’t look at it as networking. This is relationship building. You should do it with intention. Yeah.
36 min. 17 sec.
And the more that you do that, the more you’re helping our economy as a town, as a valley, as a state. That’s how these things start getting more and more global, you know. And so, you know, we’re very much changing, right? Heritage means different things to different people. But I think the heritage that we can see and appreciate and honor in Staunton is that we see it characterized differently.
36 min. 33 sec.
in our buildings, right? We see it in the little crevices. We see it in the brick. We see it in the stone. We see it in the streets. We see it in the stores. We see it in the conversations we have with people as well. One of my defining characteristics that people who know me will say to you is that one thing I’ve always done since I was a child is I sit at the feet of wisdom. I’ve never stopped doing that.
37 min. 3 sec.
I will always sit at the feet of wisdom because there’s more experience there. And understanding how to take that experience, bring innovative thinking and lead with heart where we are have a collective mission. That’s how you bridge generational gaps here at the Innovation Hub. You know, fantastic.
37 min. 31 sec.
I mean, we have such beautiful, such beautiful culture here and atmosphere here. They really built something beautiful. But you still have to take initiative. My mom is local here. She is a grief coach. Mm-hmm.
37 min. 54 sec.
And one of the things that she does with women her age is that I think almost maybe once a month, she’s been hosting different events here in the area. Yeah. And bringing women from Harrisonburg, just people who she meets or who has sought her out.
38 min. 9 sec.
And we’ll go to the cash financial office and she’ll always have food. She loves to eat. She’ll always have food, but she’ll also always have a theme. Typically, she gets maybe like 10, 10 different women. It’s all different ages. I sit at 35. We’ll have someone in the older 30s. We’ll also have, I think she’s had as old as kind of like 80, 70, like some of that. And women who are getting their second wind at life. Yeah.
38 min. 26 sec.
And I sit there not because it’s just, you know, like a thing I want to do. It’s because I need to understand the history, the experience that has come before me so that I’m passing those things on to my colleagues, conversations that I have, children that I come across. I make it unique to myself as well. But we cannot we can’t.
38 min. 54 sec.
We cannot just write off the generations in order to truly shift and to truly change our world for the better, to come into a space where we’re operating out of love first and not divisive or differences.
39 min. 21 sec.
we have to create, we have to bridge that gap. And I’ve always done that. And I inspire other people to do that because the more you know, again, it goes back to clarity, right? The more that we know as the future generations and millennials, the more that we can help Gen Z, the more that we can invite Gen Z into the room,
39 min. 37 sec.
the more that we can also have the people who’ve come before us and help enlighten them. That makes a better world. And those are things that I really care about and I’m really passionate about. And I will always join those moments, even the Gen Z initiative that’s happening. That’s literally the work that we’re doing. And I’m volunteering as a part of that because bridging the generational gap
39 min. 59 sec.
is important. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been thrown into roles where there’s always fires happening. They’ve either never had a marketing person or they have like a marketing person who’s doing this and doing that and this and they’re calling it marketing. Or businesses are really in a tough spot.
40 min. 25 sec.
And they need someone. And a lot of times when you’re thrown into those roles, even when I was the sales director in Dominican Republic at a five-star resort, that was a startup. I literally had this, like, glam outfit on, this long hair that I had just gotten done, full face of makeup, got there. And, of course, construction is, like, months behind. Mm-hmm.
40 min. 45 sec.
So I have boots with mud on with my fabulous outfits I purchased. And it’s starting. It’s building those foundational pieces. I stayed, though. Yeah. I stayed. And I think we don’t need to fear the work. Mm-hmm.
41 min. 9 sec.
But we do have something that can make the work more efficient and more effective than those who came before us. And we have to own our stories so that we can own our voice so that we’re not afraid to speak anything.
41 min. 25 sec.
Even when our voice shakes in the room or even if it shakes up the room. Yeah. Just continue building. Yeah. Just continue building. Yeah. And find your people always. That’s what I always encourage. Find your tribe. Yeah. Love them and let them love you too. Yeah. That. Yeah, girl. I was like, Oh, that’s a whole nother conversation. Let them love you too. I think that’s also what’s beautiful in Staunton is because even if you’ve been the person that has poured into other people, um,
41 min. 42 sec.
you have trusted people that you can be safe with to allow to pour into you as well that was one of the challenges that I had to experience and overcome as well and now there’s beautiful friendships beautiful relationships I’ve poured and given very freely to other people who I come across and I will always do that because it’s who I am and even though my industry says don’t you know
42 min. 9 sec.
You know, I think you can and you should give value before asking anything. But that’s how you build deep, meaningful relationships and deep, meaningful connections that live a lifetime that come back to you. Yeah. I’m now the director of programs for SCCF. Yeah.
42 min. 38 sec.
Yeah, it’s beautiful how you can just kind of see dominoes add in. But I’m so glad you’re in our community. And I’m so excited for the work that will continue with Unique Vision, but also your work now as director of program with SCCF. And so glad that that connection is there too and truly rooted in community. But I thank you so much for your time and your interest.
42 min. 56 sec.
insight and your thoughts. And I’m just I’m excited for everything that’s going to keep growing, too. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. This has been amazing. You’re amazing. I am actually really excited to see how you are going to bring innovation to visit Staunton. And it’s so invigorating to see. Yeah, we have such a good team here. I’m very, very fortunate to work with so many good people. I love what you guys are doing. And I’m so excited. I’m keeping my eye on it.
43 min. 15 sec.
and excited to see how that impacts all of us in our community are already doing such amazing things. So congratulations team. Thank you.
43 min. 43 sec.
thank you and thank you guys so much for tuning in continue to check in with us for the you is silent we aren’t podcast we’ll come back again in a couple weeks but if you like what you hear let people know tell a friend tell a neighbor tell a stranger bring them all to the table give us a good five-star rating and continue sharing it and we will continue coming back danielle thank you so so much i appreciate it of course thank you for having me bye guys you
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