Dani Wallace Is a Public Speaking Coach, Incredible Singer, absolute survivor and a guest on my show.
We talk about her journey to overcome adversity and build a successful business and life for herself and her children. I chose this topic, because many people need hope right now, and Dani delivers this in abundance.
About Dani Wallace
As a former serial self-saboteur, having grown up on the council estates of Preston, Dani has survived the adversity of domestic violence, homelessness and single parenthood to become a leading voice in empowerment around the UK.
Dani uses her knowledge of both traditional employment in the corporate sector and self-employment in the entertainment industry to deliver memorable, inspirational and thought-provoking talks. Through her world class courses, masterminds and VIP experiences Dani helps people all over the world create incredible talks that help them stand powerfully on stage, reaching more of their ideal audiences.
Fearless leader of the I Am The Queen Bee Movement and creator of the Fly Anyway Foundation, Dani helps people the world over Show Up Wise Up and Rise and is a reminder to anyone who enters her orbit that they too, regardless of their journey can #FLYANYWAY!
Katherine Ann Byam 0:14
Hello, everyone, good night and welcome to the fourth edition of transcending work, harnessing the courage to lead. It is such a pleasure to have you all this week and a pleasure to host my guest today. So my guest is a person who I met just around April, May June area this year. She is an incredible public speaker, former singer, a former corporate employee, former many other things and she has made her way through life in the most amazing and incredible way that you can imagine. So without any hesitation, I introduce to you, Miss Dani Wallace.
Unknown Speaker 0:55
Hello, Katherine. Hello, my darling.
Katherine Ann Byam 1:01
Hello, Danny, and welcome to the show. How are you doing?
Dani Wallace 1:06
So good. I am so thrilled to be here.
Katherine Ann Byam 1:09
So I see your backdrop is your morning show. To tell us about this morning show.
Dani Wallace 1:19
So at the start of COVID, there was a very real possibility that because I'm a singer and a public speaking coach, and I'm really very lucky that I've got like an online business, but I had a whole entertainments business offline, I would go out and do gigs on down the country. And when lockdown in the UK was announced, there was a very real possibility that I was going to end up extending and extending my lane. And it was gonna get late to relate to that was going to have a real effect on my productivity. So what I decided to do was to go live every morning, Monday to Friday, and get ready for work. So I'd get up at 8 am. And go live and do what I'd done. for pretty much the last seven or eight years, I've been going live on Facebook for the last seven or eight years.
And what I would do is, as a singer, you often play dressing room roulette, in that when you turn up to a venue, you never know where you're going to get put in order to get ready, nice decided to stop playing dressing room roulette. And instead what I would do is I would put my makeup on in the car, and to keep myself safe, I would put my phone up on the dashboard and talk to Facebook while doing my makeup. I thought well, why not kind of go back to my roots a little bit and I just got to put my makeup on for work in the morning.
And then realised two weeks ago that was gonna get really boring. And so I started to invite my friends on I started to invite the entrepreneurs in my space, inspirational people, motivational people in my space to come and get ready with me in the mornings come and get ready for the workday together. And as well in an answer to that, you know, putting on the news in the morning, which especially during that time was it was horrible. Yeah, it was hard to go in and to be motivated people and inspiring people are getting excited about stuff instead of allowing ourselves to be really weighed down. So then I carried on and then another week went by and another week went by and then all of a sudden I've been doing it for the past eight months.
Katherine Ann Byam 3:29
It's incredible. Every morning at 8 pm I get a notification that Dani Wallace is Live. It's incredible. Dani, you said you said seven, eight years you've been doing these lives on Facebook, etc. Tell us about 10 years ago, tell us about your journey, your transition to becoming the absolute superstar that you are.
Podcast Part 1 starts here
Dani Wallace 3:48
Thank you. It hasn't always been. So where I am now is I'm in a very, very, very different place to where I was say 10 years ago. And the way it was 10 years ago is a direct result of how I grew up. So I grew up on the council state of Preston. We were very very much on the breadline. And it's funny I talk about this now. In the media and on radio shows and in magazines And things and my mom always gets upset the first time I talked about this. She was like, “Daniela, were we poor” because she was just going through it. She was making ends meet. She didn't say that that's what it was. And I was like mom Yeah, we lost our house. We were having a tough time.
My dad was an alcoholic and domestic abuse was actually inherent sort of through generationally in our family. And as a child, we absorbed that. We watched what was going on and it formed a lot of my choices when I got older. So when I was 16, I essentially ran away with the circus. So I started to sing, and I fibbed about my age and I got on a plane and I ended up singing all over the world in different places. And really what I was doing is I was escaping where I was. And then, I was all over the world. It was fabulous. But people like me, people like us from here don't go on to be entertainers or singers or entrepreneurs or online whatever's.
So there was always, "come back, get a proper job." So I came back to the UK. And I was in a relationship and really what I wanted to create as a stability, and this what I didn't have - this not chaos of my younger years, and it didn't really matter. And who was there to fill this husband-shaped hole and I just filled it with this guy. Bless him. A completely railroaded him into you know, buying a house and you know, getting married and having a baby and he just kind of went along with it until one morning and a couple of weeks after we'd sent out the invites to our wedding.
He just woke up and he went, “Dani I don't want any of this,” and he left. So I was sort of left on my own single parent two weeks after we sent the invites out to the wedding to cancel the wedding. It was too close to the wedding to get anything back. So you can imagine I was feeling, (I'm allowed to swear I'm not gonna swear?) Tonight, and I'm gonna be very guilty. Now I'm gonna keep a lid on my swear words. I just get excited that's all. And but I was feeling rubbish. I was feeling pretty poor. It weren't right Good.
So what I am going very quickly because I was in that vulnerable place. And I got into another relationship very quickly and that relationship turned sour. I experienced an abusive relationship during that time and how to get out of it. And when I got out of that abusive relationship, I was then a single mom of two children under three. And then we couldn't afford to keep the house I couldn't say this kind of corporate job going along the top here. And then underneath my life was in tatters. It was all I could do to hold on to this flipping job like this.
Katherine Ann Byam 7:07
Yeah, yeah.
Dani Wallace 7:08
And we ended up homeless. So we ended up I ended up having to lose the house. And, and we were sofa surfing, me and the two girls, Poppy and Daisy, my big flowers. And I've had it since she's like some foliage to finish my bouquet off. And we will sell photography. We will sleep in it pair in my parents’ house or sister's house friend's houses that were to and from London, at the time with my dog. So one night, and I was talking my kids into bed and I can't say that I wanted to die. But I didn't know how to live. I didn't.
I was like I'm not a benefit to anybody. I'm not helping anybody. Not even my kids like I'm doing the best that I can be the best that I can doesn't seem to be good enough. How have I ended up homeless with these two beautiful children? How they ended up on my backside like this. I can't seem to make a good decision or hold a good relationship down. What's wrong with me. And I had a real like, sort of breakdown moment and I had to decide at that moment. It was either gonna happen to life or life was gonna continue happening to me. I don't think that was going to end very well. Yeah.
So I started in that at that moment, I guess a night in the car and it's raining out. So it's very dramatic. I'm sure it is like when they make a film about my life. When somebody did beautiful or famous plays me, there'll be a scene where she's in the car and it's raining outside and she's crying in the car. And there was that real light that proper moment. And it was from there. I kind of got out of the car and sat down and spoke to my mom. And I was like mom, I can't go on like this. I don't know what to do with myself. I don't know how to ask for help. You know, people at work didn't know what was going on behind the scenes people at work.
So that things went right. But I was trying to kind of put on this veneer that everything was okay and was just in transition. But I was on my knees. Yeah. So I started a journey as everybody does, whether this pivotal point to the film of my life. And when I started to do a lot of work on myself. Okay, so what did taking responsibility look like? How did I choose better for myself? How did I choose better for my kids? What could I do? How do I ask for help? And I started off on that journey. So after that, not so long after that, we found somewhere to live. We were very lucky. And we're where I'm living now.
So where I am right now is in my bedroom, in the middle still in the middle of the Council of states of Preston because that was where I had to move to. Yeah, so where I'm about to move to is like, I can't even believe that this is happening. But I've we've just said we've just bought a house we haven't we're just buying a house we're in that horrible bit in the middle where all the mortgage has been sorted in your old in on feeler. But yet we're just about to buy and move into what is the house of our dreams? So things have moved on a lot since then. Yeah, but then there was a real moment when I realised that you know, you get to choose and it's really a quote from The Bee Movie that goes, aerodynamically a bee should not be able to fly its little wings shouldn't get its fat little body off the ground. And the bee, however, doesn't care what humans think. Is it possible to fly anyway? And that was it for me. I was like, that's how you choose.
The bee don't get the memo that it can't fly. You just got to do it. Well, I'm gonna send the memo back that people like us are successful. This lingo, which is exactly what we went on to do. And it's been just a roller coaster ever since.
Katherine Ann Byam 10:52
So when exactly did you become the queen bee? Was it directly after you watch this movie? How did this materialise into The Queen Bee?
Dani Wallace 11:01
I would like to say that I watched that film and then directly the day after created a public speaking business that then went on to turn over six figures. But that's not what happened. But it sowed the seed? Yeah. And it got me to thinking so remember, I was telling you about going live in the car? Yeah. So during this time, I had lost my job in corporate. And I think it was one of those situations, whether you are sort of down with universal energy or not. I am not in too much of a woo-woo way, but I definitely am.
I definitely believe in the person and all of that sort of stuff. Yes. And I believe that sometimes when you're too afraid to jump, you shall be pushed. And that's what happens. So I came out of corporate work and started to sing full time. And then my diary filled up very quickly and was very blessed in that I'm good at what I do. So I was able to fill my diary up, and we were safe and I'd be happy going live in the car like this and talking to people about my personal development journey. And I would talk about forgiveness.
I will talk about feminism. I will talk about how to be strong as a woman, how to speak how to do all of these sorts of things, and news and stuff. Some of it would be really funny, and some of it will be serious. Sometimes I would cry and then put my makeup on again. And yeah, it was so during that time, I was really thinking okay, so actually, there were people that were tuning in. And there were people who were watching regularly they would miss me when I wasn’t there, right and there's something really compelling I don't know what it is about somebody putting their makeup on it so the people start to watch and then when they watch and they listen at the same time they started to really start to get the benefit. Yeah, so how can I create something here.
And I really loved the concept of being the queen bee of making a statement, “I am The Queen Bee.” It's a very bold statement. Like I walk into places going, “I am the queen bee” and people have to get everything she has. It's not about that. It's a reclamation. When I'm saying I'm The Queen Bee. I'm not just saying - I am The Queen Bee. I'm reclaiming my birthright to success to a boom race to happiness friendships as we have.
All of this I'm reclaiming that because I was really annoyed Katherine that the Queen was born the queen and I was born on the council estate. so I'm like why neither of us got a say on this. Somebody landed easier than me and I was like why so I thought well in this reclamation in this statement and the bees do the most incredible things that I could do a whole conversation about bees and how amazing analogies for business in life we could use. But I'm the queen bee really spoke to this, standing up and this choosing to fly anyway.
I love the concept of grabbing hold of your own crown and bobbing that on and then you know what seeing your friends and if their crowns a bit wobbly straightening up their crown and sending them on the way as well and that is really how the concept started is. The more I spoke to people the more I realised that we are yes we all get to choose but you know you can say I am the queen. Absolutely as our you as our again anybody watching whether you're male, female gender, binary, you know, whatever it is king bee, queen bee, royal be whatever it is.
And Claudia MacFarlane is asking, Oh, hi, Claudia. In your journey to self-development, what were your biggest challenge and the habits you needed to break? And the biggest one for me, Claudio was the acceptance of myself. So what I always sought was external validation. And what you find is that people often let you down. And I'm not saying that people like, like your friends or your family but when you are seeking external validation when you're seeking peace and happiness, and wealth because wealth isn't just the money in your bank account when you're seeking those things from outside of yourself, then it is very difficult to obtain and keep hold of it.
So what I had to learn was how to love and accept myself in my entirety with my flaws and my perfections like I’m perfectly imperfect. And that didn't come till much later when I started to see where I am now and practice gratitude. So I needed to break being a victim. I needed to stop thinking life was happening to me and realise everything was happening for me. I just got to choose the outcome and my reactions dictating my outcome. But there was this really funny moment that I had.
And I was sad even I was feeling grateful for everything that was going on. And I’m surrounded by brilliant people. And, and when I look back, and I've done a lot of work on looking back on past Dani, that girl sat in the car who just hated itself. She didn't know how to live with herself anymore. And I look back on her and I go, God, I love you. I want to start to cry, like, Oh, I love her so much. She fought really, really hard. And then what she did, is then fought really, really hard to get to where I am now. And then I can now envisage future Dani, because I know that now. Dani loves the past Dani. That future Danny loves this Dani vehemently.
She's like cheering around saying Yes, come on, we've got the good stuff over here. You can do it. I love you. But it's me saying that to me. It's not anybody else saying that to me. It's me giving myself that validation is that understanding that it's got to come from you. In order for it to for you to be able to obtain and maintain that development. you've got to understand and love and acknowledge yourself.
Katherine Ann Byam 16:57
Absolutely. Now, absolutely. It's incredible your journey. And I wouldn't pivot a little bit to the point in time when we met. We met before as and we were in a group together. But we actually interacted because of Black Lives Matter. And I don't know if you exactly if you must’ve remembered this. So I decided to wire you up that week. And yeah, and it was about a programme you were running. It was a charity programme. Yeah. And Claudia saying that she loves your NGO. Just put that on screen.
Katherine Ann Byam
So you were running, you were running a charity event.
Dani Wallace 17:39
Yeah, the Big Festoon.
Katherine Ann Byam 17:40
And someone decided to flag you for not being inclusive, or she felt that you weren't being inclusive enough. And that week, as I will just tell a little bit my story in that week. I mean, all sorts of things were happening in that week that I wasn't ready to deal with, right? So all of a sudden, it's like people have been, you know, impacted by racism all of my life. But that week, something happened. It was there was a shift, there was a movement that, that just broke things and in a good way.
But what I saw and what I experienced that week at least online was a lot of women like me coming out and speaking their truth. And I'm not used to hearing that or speaking it you know, and I felt so uncomfortable that week. I remember thinking like I can't handle this. Every story that I read or I heard I wanted to cry like it was it was just such a powerful week in terms of getting connected with things that you've been suppressing for so long. So I empathise with that lady who got in your case, and you will get to tell the story. But I empathise with her because I recognise that even I didn't know the best way to deal with feeling oppressed. So if you can speak about that,
Dani Wallace 19:02
I absolutely can. And it's really not my place to kind of fill up and get emotional for you and with your base because you're my friend and I love you. And so that week, I put on a charity event now wide. I'm a survivor of domestic abuse and often watch the media with regards to what's been commented about it because I am an ally and a spokesperson when it comes to things that happen in the news. So for example, I will speak on Channel five about it when you know there are no refuge spaces and what have you. So I've noticed in the news that there was an increase of 700%.
We were seven weeks into lockdown and the increase was 700% in terms of domestic abuse, and I was like and wall sat here in the ivory tower thinking I can do something here um, but we live every day anyway, so I'm going to make this happen. So what I did is from my bedroom, I created a charity event to raise money for domestic violence charities women's aid. I was interviewing 24 people ended up being 25 people plus 25 sponsors. So I was like interviewing 50 people over the course of 12 hours to raise money for charities. Now, it is something that I have been making a conscious effort to work on for a couple of years now to make sure that the things that I do are diverse, or we have that in the middle of what we think is our value as absolutely a real core value. So when I was creating the lineup or trying to scramble together in a couple of weeks, this lineup,
I’m thinking so it's really important. This isn't tokenism, I just wanted to make sure we had a diverse spread of people. So I didn't want a full lineup of white people. Because it was wrong. Like it. It wasn't right. So we had members of the black community, we had members of the Asian community, members of the Jewish community, we have disabled people, members of the LGBTQ community. You can imagine that's quite broad. Yes. And booked, I thought I've done okay. And like, I never should just pat myself on the back. Yes. Good job, Daniela. That very week was the week that George Floyd was murdered.
And that week was the week where really, the lid was really lifted off the conversation as he's writing proper, about moving things forward, and how should we move things forward. But when you plaster off something that you are never allowed to expose, there's hurt there, and there's pain there. And you know, you've experienced it yourself. And, you know, being a friend of so many members of the black community are being an ally, and really sit in there and just trying to hold space was all I could do is just hold some space that week. And go and stand side by side with my brothers and sisters and siblings and speak as a white ally.
And do all of those, just try and hold that space. Because it was painful. I'd done this event because I want to pull the event. Is even right that I do it. And I just think, no because there were still lots of other people that need help him right now. And they are also members of the black community that are victims of domestic abuse. So I would be silly if I was going to stop all of this now. So what I did is I made a conscious effort on the day, I was like, made sure that we spoke about this with all of our guests made sure that you know, we were sharing relevant things on the day. And but some somebody really, and it was only really one person, but it was enough that from a real place of her was like “Your lineup is not diverse. In fact, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to create a smear campaign and say that actually.” One of the things that were said is this woman has just raised the Confederate flag.
And I was like, definitely. Because there's a difference between accepting that there's more to be done, and simply being just wrong. Yeah. So again, but as a white person at that time, it's not my place to start going, “Well, actually.” There's so much pain like even is my pain in that is nothing. So all I could do is kind of absorb what this person was saying. And this person was trying to create like me, and just sit there and hold steady and say to my audience, look, yes, there was more than I could have done.
Yeah, there's more. There's more than I could have done. But I don't know what else to do. So what I'm going to do going forward is just keep trying my best. That's all I can do. And I look for ways to move forward together. And you reached out and you were so kind to me that day because I was able to do this and feeling guilty for a bit because so many of my black friends were in pain isn't even the right word. It's generational like rage and hurt.
Katherine Ann Byam 23:59
It is such a complicated emotion. Like, I don't think I felt something like that. I mean, I felt a lot of things in my life. But I think I've not felt the pain of coming out the way I felt it in that week. Right? That it was a release. And I remember taking an action in that week, that was probably overdue for six months, right because of an experience that I'd had. And I took action that week saying I will never work with this person.
I will never do this again. You know, but it takes it took that it took that moment of realising Hey, you know, this is meant to be a balanced playing field for everyone. You have in your mind that that, you know, you don't even realise where you get this belief from. So you have this thing displayed, this track running in your head which isn't allowing you to step into yourself and step into your pride and step into who you are. So so it's been an incredible journey and I love that that's the moment that I connected with you. Because you're such a bundle of light and opening so much space for so many people, and this is why you're on my show. This is why I have introduced you to everybody. So Dani, tell everybody about flying away Fly Anyway.
Dani Wallace 25:30
I think he's, I think when you meet people when I just kind of want to say when you do meet people in those situations when you meet them in love, yes, powerful things happen. And I think that was what I learned at that time. And it was a test for myself,. Could I hold space for anger directed at me that is righteous? It might not belong to me personally. But can I hold space for that person? And the answer was, yes, it was my job. If this all I can do is hold space for that anger, and say, You know what?
Just if I could, if I could be the sounding board for that anger, for now, while you're getting your thoughts in order, then please let me be your friend. And I love you. And I will accept that anger from you. And I think that was really that was what I learned at that moment is how do I do that? And it's painful for everybody. The whole thing is, you know, as people who believe that their allies suddenly realise that that again, that they the curtain is lifted, and they can start to see, actually what they've been privy to all along. Yes. And they didn't realise it.
So on both sides plus has been ripped off and like all of this stuff. So that's really what I learned. And during that time is how do you hold space for somebody who's angry, and anger might not belong to you personally, but it still belongs to you, it's still yours, you still got to absorb some of it and understand how to make things better. So and So yeah, I just kind of wanted to say that. The Fly Anyway foundation is very exciting. It's something that I've been wanting to create for the longest time; where, if somebody like you, for example, somebody really inspirational like you or somebody like me, had been able to look after me and really helped me with my mindset stuff properly, excited to go and read books and audibles and stuff, there is a degree of having to do the work.
But if I'd have had access to business services, or like things like website design, branding, photography, because I'm clever. I'm very intelligent, which in the corporate an incredible job for years and years, and knew how to build a business. But I was so on my knees that there was no way that I could afford to have a website build, there was no way that I could afford it. But I could barely afford to feed myself and my kids. So what I've done is I've created a foundation of social enterprise, where survivors of domestic abuse who are ready are able to come and access funds and support so that they can create the businesses that they really want.
Yeah, so often, when you are a survivor, you will want to create a new identity of yourself, not a different identity. But the new improved and galvanised version of yourself as sometimes that involves like your work, like what work do you want to do, and survivors often serve as well. So you'll often find that survivors are going to be things that coaches or they'll help people.
They might not have access to brand photographers, or business coaching, or mindset coaching. So what we're doing is we are creating (and this is a call to action tonight). We're creating a bank of ambassadors who are willing to either donate or discount their goods and services because it won't be the 1000s and 1000s of 1000s of people. Yes. And then we'll have a pot of money that will fundraise so that say, for example, you're a fledgling company, and you're really incredible at what you do. But you really want to be an ambassador, we will be able to pay you for your goods and services.
You know, we're able to support grassroots because grassroots businesses are so important. Now more so than ever. Yes, all this pot of money that will be available for us to pay for business goods and services for survivors of domestic abuse and domestic violence who are wanting to build businesses. So it's almost like we get to hold hands and lift each level. We just hope. Yeah. So we become a hub of small businesses and medium-sized businesses and micro businesses and big businesses actually reaching out a hand to those people out there who are ready to create and allow them the space to do it and allow them the funds to do it as well.
So the Fly Anyway foundation is on the search for ambassadors and we're going to be having a big sort of zoom meeting about that on the seventh of November. I don't know the eighth of November if I'm live.
Katherine Ann Byam 29:55
Awesome, so people can participate. How can people participate if they wanted to support the idea? So we, we have Charlotte saying, I'd love to be an ambassador, how do we apply it?
Dani Wallace 30:06
So we are just in the process of creating the invitation and space on my website where you can go and register your interest to be an ambassador. So before the end of the weekend, there'll be a space on the name of The Queen Bee website, where you can go on and register your interest. And then we'll send you an invite to the zoom. And it's going to be like a town hall at seven o'clock UK time. On Sunday, the eighth of November, we've chosen the eighth of November, because that was the day I was originally meant to get married. So that was the day that the wedding was cancelled. And also the day that I got homeless.
So I wanted to make that day a day where actually I took real action. So at 7pm on Sunday, the eighth of November's anybody who wants to be an ambassador, can either just make us make themselves known to me. Come into my world, follow me on socials for more information. And then in the next, say, in the next four or five days on my website, we'll be pushing out, how do you sort of sign up to come on to that zoom?
Katherine Ann Byam 31:05
Yeah, fantastic. So I'm absolutely willing to promote that. So when you're ready to send me the links. I will share it with everyone. And the last thing I guess is to tell us about your book. So So a little bit of story before we get to the book, right? So I think it was about a month ago, maybe just under two months ago, Dani just locked off the show and started writing this book. I have never seen someone turn around the book in what, two weeks?
Dani Wallace 31:33
Yeah, it was three and a half if you add for procrastination. Yeah, it was a book in two weeks is what I'd seen. So tell us about your new book.
Dani Wallace 31:46
So what I wanted to do so I wanted to create a book. So I've got a little book, which is like a how-to it's called “Closed Mouths Don't Get Fed.” It's just this tiny little book. So we're a public speaking coach. But because I share my story as a motivational speaker about everyone, really everything that we've spoken about this evening, about my story, where I come from, and how specifically, I overcame the years of generational self-sabotage, to go on to create a six-figure business in the online space, and all of that sort, all of their kind of the entrepreneurial. I've got successful businesses. It's nice. It's good.
And but I really had to do a lot of work on myself in order for me to do that. Because if you remember people Iike us don't go on to make a success of themselves. Right. So what I wanted to do is pull together a mixture of an autobiography that flushed out some of the talks that I gave it give a bit more detail a bit more background on why is that I do what I do. And then so tell the story of the last 12 to 18 months, because then that's when things have gone from that to this. Whereas now you know, you know, I am asked to you know, pass comment in the media on stuff and I am and I do sellout events now. And it is just, it's just phenomenal.
Yeah, so wanted to do not how-to but like a beginner's guide to getting out of your own flipping way. And, and I thought now more than ever, it's important because I think when you're in fear, and a lot of people have been in fear this year, and rightly so. Because if I hear the word unprecedented one time, I'll just I'll get vomit. But if I could give a survival guide to at least introduce how to get out of your own way so that you can create success and you stand up and say, “I am the queen bee too.” And that's what I wanted to do. So that's the premise for the book. It's called I'm the queen bee how. This is how I overcome self-sabotage and how you can, too.
And which released next Thursday you can't buy it yet to buy on Thursday next week because we've got a best seller campaign.
Katherine Ann Byam 33:57
Alright, so I will be tweeting and commenting and posting that everywhere next week.
Katherine Ann Byam
Wonderful. Any closing notes from you Dani on how people can find you, how people can follow you, or even get into your morning show. Tell my audience.
Dani Wallace 34:16
If you would like to come and speak with me and get ready for the day of the show, The Rise Up show applications are open on Friday. So please do give us a follow either you know on Instagram or drop if you're watching on LinkedIn, drop me a message on LinkedIn.
And even though I'm not super active on LinkedIn, I am in my inbox there so you can DM me. You can get in touch with me across the socials at The Queen Bee Dani and all of the kind of kickoff info will be on there so you can apply to be on the show from Friday. If you want to become an ambassador for the Fly Anyway Foundation, we’ll be banging that drum from Monday onwards. And yeah, I think you just come and get in my world. And I'm excited. I'm excited because I'm working with you too.
Katherine Ann Byam 35:02
I’m excited. So don't judge my public speaking performance yet. Okay. But as of last night, I am working with this woman to help me to be the best I could be, which is so exciting. Like, I can't, I can't wait to get roped into this. And the journey has been incredible for me. I mean, I can tell a little bit about that as well. But when I started in my business, I was afraid to be visible.
I was doing everything behind the scenes, right? I didn't want to be out there. And that's slowly changed, right? It's slowly changed from around this time last year, but it really changed from around April after I got over the shock of all my business going away with COVID. I suddenly realised hang on here. No, I need to show up here. I need to do something. I need to be who I am meant to be. I need to take space. And it's taken me a while. It's been a journey over the last six months. But I would have never imagined going live on LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever a year ago.
Dani Wallace:
Oh, We’re having a chat on your podcast.
Katherine Ann Byam
Oh having a chat in the podcast - it's crazy. No the latest in the podcast is 17 countries now. So it's nuts and top 10 in eight countries. Like seriously, it's nuts. And I never would have imagined that could possibly happen. And that's been a journey of being prepared to put me out there. And it's like, it's not that I had any training, right? I just went, I just did it and now I'm gonna improve those skills. But yeah, but part of it is to just go. It's about courage and I like to say to people confidence is overrated. It's all about courage, right? It's more about standing proud in your courage and saying, “Hey, I'm out here, and I'm imperfect, but I'm still gonna do it, I'm still gonna push on.” And I think you embody that.
Dani Wallace 36:59
And that's a difference between people who make it in inverted commas. They're the people that are willing to do the thing that everybody else isn't willing to do--- that are willing to record that podcast and put it out there, that are willing to turn up live at eight o'clock every morning, that are willing to write the book, that are willing to spend all the plates of the incredible businesses, that you run, that are willing to put themselves out there invest in themselves. Confidence is a hat that you put on knowing and accepting of yourself. Confidence doesn't arrive one day people wait for confidence to arrive and it's not a step that you take. You take steps towards confidence.
Katherine Ann Byam 37:36
Yes, absolutely. So I hope we have inspired many people tonight. If not tonight I hope they all watch it on the replay. If you do watch it on the replay, hit #replay so that we know that you watched and you know we will post links so that you can follow Dani, etc. So thank you Dani for joining me. This has been an absolute pleasure. I love your energy. You lift my energy. So it's always a pleasure to spend that time with you. And thank you to everyone who's joined and asked questions and interacted with us. So see you next week for another edition of the show. Claudia says thank you very much. Fabulous. See you next week.