(0:00:00) Dani: There are so many wonderful networking groups you rely on to channel women. It’s fantastic and they have a huge member base, so they’ve got a lot of opportunity to do a lot of different things for us. Our differentiator is one, we have no membership dues or fees because we we don’t want that to be a barrier to be a part of our organization or anyone else is.
(0:00:21) Courtney: Hi. My name is Courtney and welcome to how they scaled it. We’re scaling is done with both sides of the brain. Today I’m excited to welcome Danny Pickens. Danny has become one of the youngest female challenges in the telecom industry currently at extreme. But beyond her corporate success, Danny is the founder of the Executive Evolution, or T for short, a fast growing women’s networking group dedicated to community mentorship and support for female professionals.
(0:00:48) Courtney: What started as a personal need for connection has grown into a thriving organization, with over 120 members in four chapters across the country in just three years. Danny, it is such an honor to have you here today. Welcome to how they scaled it.
(0:01:01) Dani: Thank you. Thanks, Courtney. Happy to be here. You excited to chat?
(0:01:04) Courtney: Amazing. Well, let’s go ahead and start with your very impressive career in the telecom industry. What drew you to that space?
(0:01:13) Dani: Well, I actually stumbled into it. To be quite honest, I had just moved back from Istanbul. I was living over in Turkey for about nine months. I got a little homesick. I, my humble beginnings out of northeast Texas, a little country girl. And I wanted to get back home. So I came home early, started looking for a job.
(0:01:33) Dani: Really wasn’t ready for a big girl job yet. I was still kind of in that whimsical, you know, living abroad. Mentality. But I answered, I’m going to age myself here. I answered a Craigslist ad that had an opening for, an outside door to door salesman for the local phone company. So I spent time.
(0:01:55) Dani: Different time. Craigslist, door to door. But it taught.
(0:01:59) Dani: Me a lot. Cut my teeth, you know, knocking doors, selling home phone, three mag DSL internet. And, at the time, the company that I worked for was Windstream, and they were partnered with a satellite company. So it’s a little bit of a, wild, wild West for a year and a half. But I moved up into the, business department with them, then continued to kind of move around, move up within the company.
(0:02:22) Dani: And, somehow I ended up here today.
(0:02:27) Courtney: Was there something in particular that you really liked about the company or what you were selling, or just like.
(0:02:32) Dani: Getting outside and, you know,
(0:02:36) Dani: I’ve always been kind of a sales, girl at heart. Right. You’ve got to you’ve got to sell and be yourself. And, it’s it’s a lot of fun. And even though it was just three Meg home DSL for neighborhood and phone, it was really fun just getting me to meet new people. I’m sure I got the door slammed in my face a few times, but I also had the little granny down the street.
(0:03:00) Dani: Invite me in and make me some sweet tea and, give me a jar peach jam to take home. So yeah, it just really fueled my love for meeting and being engaged with all kinds of different people from different backgrounds and different needs. And so that, really evolved into getting into the business department. And then what I’m in today is channel, and it’s a very dynamic, fast paced industry, kind of a silo, a part of the telecom space.
(0:03:27) Dani: It’s a lot of fun helping people and getting to meet all kinds of characters every single day.
(0:03:32) Courtney: Yeah, I also, I feel like when you do door to door sales or any kind of sales job, when you’re very young, you get used to hearing, no, but then you you like, crave the yes a little bit more. And you, you kind of like build up that tolerance for now. So I feel like those are the types of people who, like, really turn into really good entrepreneurs or really go far in their career because, you know, you don’t like, shy away from the.
(0:03:54) Courtney: No.
(0:03:55) Dani: Yeah. That doesn’t scare me. You said now, fine, I’ll go find somebody.
(0:03:58) Courtney: Yeah. There’s another door next door.
(0:04:00) Dani: I’m like.
(0:04:02) Dani: I always when I talk to, younger folks and, who are starting their career or interns are in college, I’m like, it’s not going to be fun. Well, it is fun. It’s not going to be easy. There are hard days knocking doors and people yelling at you or slamming the door. Right? Or even in businesses. Right. There’s a lot of door to door business, strategies out there.
(0:04:23) Dani: My husband actually cut his teeth knocking door to a door, for his company years ago, and it just it it changes you, but it changes you for the better. And like you said, you can take the word no and move right on.
(0:04:37) Courtney: Yeah, yeah. So interesting. So then you kind of work your way up, and you became one of the youngest female town chiefs, which is like a pretty big deal, I would say.
(0:04:47) Dani: So what?
(0:04:49) Courtney: How did that come about? Like, how were there any, like, pivotal moments or mentors or how did how do you make that happen?
(0:04:55) Dani: Oh for sure. I did not get here on my own. A lot of times, probably people dragging me along.
(0:05:03) Dani: Right. I take it it’s hard.
(0:05:06) Dani: And I coach, a young lady, one of my favorite people, actually. She’s fantastic. And she’s like, hey, how did you how did you do this? I said, well, lots of gray hairs, food here along the road. So be ready because you have to take calculated risk. Yeah. And you’re not going to win every time. Right.
(0:05:26) Dani: And you’re just not. And you have to be ready for that. But if you don’t take these calculated risk and you stay in the safe zone and you stay in your comfort zone, you don’t take these big chances. You won’t get big rewards. Very, very few are lucky to say that they don’t take a big risk. And then they land.
(0:05:45) Dani: You know, they win the lottery, right? Right, right. But you have to you have to buy the ticket. You got to do it. And I took some very, big, big risk, in my career, certainly felt some pain from it. It’s not going journey, but it’s been very rewarding. And I am very honored. I set a goal, early in my career that I wanted to be channel chief by 40, and, I was very surprised.
(0:06:13) Dani: It kind of happened out of nowhere. There were some shifts. Telecom, right? Industry is ever changing. And I was asked to step up into the leadership role, six months before my 37th birthday.
(0:06:26) Courtney: Oh my gosh, you’re way ahead of schedule,
(0:06:29) Dani: I, I.
(0:06:29) Dani: And I witnessed in there. Had I not made some calculated risk, I left some really big jobs, some cushy, amazing culture, great money jobs. And people looked at me like, are you crazy?
(0:06:42) Dani: Out of your mind? You left.
(0:06:44) Dani: Zoom.
(0:06:45) Dani: Yeah, you.
(0:06:45) Dani: Left dial pad. And I still bleed blue and purple for those companies.
(0:06:49) Dani: I love those companies. But yeah, I.
(0:06:51) Dani: Had to take big risk for my career. And they’ve they’ve done well so far.
(0:06:58) Dani: I’m not win. Okay? I will not.
(0:07:00) Dani: Win. But I’ve been very fortunate with the people, the mentors, the calculator risks so far. It’s been really rewarding, both amazing.
(0:07:09) Courtney: And so then in 2022, you decided to found the Executive Evolution, which is this amazing networking group. So what led you to do that? Because I feel like your plate was probably full with your current job experience. So what what brought you into the executive evolution?
(0:07:26) Dani: Yeah.
(0:07:26) Dani: So, that story is definitely tied to one of those calculated risk. I made a big change, in 2020, leaving a company, going to another company that were, highly competitive. And I unfortunately got, put into a non-compete lawsuit. I really got caught between mom and dad’s divorce. Really? But I was in the middle of it.
(0:07:50) Dani: I, unfortunately, was in, litigation. All kinds of just terrible things. It changed my life. I honestly, I, I tell people I, I almost didn’t survive it, and it was 15 months. There were restraining orders. There were, I mean, all kinds of the wildest things. That’s a whole nother podcast, right?
(0:08:10) Courtney: But, gosh, yeah.
(0:08:11) Dani: I, I, I was isolated. I was in the middle of 20, 20, a lot of our telecom industry friends become our family. And part of that non-compete was that I couldn’t speak to these people. I was getting married. Our best man in the wedding was in the industry that I legally was supposed to not be able to talk to.
(0:08:29) Dani: It was just all kinds of really crazy things happening. And I told the universe, he said, if I survive this, if I make it through this promise you I will pour myself into every other person that I can. I will do everything I can to help, teach, show not what not to do. Don’t burn. I’m still on your way now.
(0:08:49) Dani: So you know, like don’t do these things and really learn from each other. Yes, I’ve got a lot of strengths and I’ve got a lot of really great things that I can tell you what to do. But I’ve got more about what not to do. Yeah.
(0:09:01) Dani: Don’t touch the.
(0:09:02) Dani: Stove. Right. And those are things that we should be sharing as women, as colleagues. Right. And so when I got on the other side of that, the universe was pulling me and said, all right, it’s time to keep your promise. And I went to my best friend. So I’m a co-founder, of T, and I went to my best friend, Heather Graham, and I said, I’ve got this idea.
(0:09:22) Dani: Let’s let’s build this, let’s build this community and really create this mentorship, this, sisterhood of being able to share best practices. Hey, don’t do this. Hey, I need help. It’s a lot of times that we shoulder and had these heavy burdens that we go in silence about. A lot of people don’t know the struggles because we have to keep a smile on your face and on LinkedIn, and everything’s great because we’re salespeople.
(0:09:49) Dani: Nobody wants to buy from, you know, somebody on the floor crying five minutes before.
(0:09:54) Dani: Just do it and don’t tell anyone. But that’s not truth. That’s not being a human being. And so I think that there’s this element of our industry that was lost, that was shoved under the, you know, the doormat that don’t talk about being a human being, don’t talk about your weakness or vulnerabilities or your fears. And that is not who we are.
(0:10:15) Dani: And I think that’s what pulls a lot of people, a lot of salespeople apart, is just this pressure and nowhere to go. And so we built a home, a community where these women can share their and be celebrated and help and connect and network. And we’re really proud we’ve placed probably ten plus people at new jobs and built and, you know, really helped people through all kinds of things that affect maybe women only.
(0:10:42) Dani: But as a business woman, a business person that just needs an ear and a friend.
(0:10:49) Courtney: So, yeah. Well, I think, one thing that you hear a lot is like, oh, it’s just business. It’s not personal. And I think what you experienced in this whole lawsuit and it’s deeply personal because you, you know, these, these companies, they, they expect a lot from you and you pour your life into it and, and it becomes a part of your, not your whole identity, obviously, but a big part.
(0:11:12) Dani: Yeah.
(0:11:13) Courtney: And like, you know, the people that you work with, you’re, you’re with them every day for years sometimes. And so I don’t whenever people like well it’s not personal. It’s just business. Like in what.
(0:11:23) Dani: World is it not.
(0:11:25) Courtney: Personal. And so then.
(0:11:27) Dani: Crushed. Yeah.
(0:11:29) Courtney: And then you’re like embracing that with the executive revolutionary. Like it is personal and you are a person. And you’re right. Like, I feel like we’re always losing our humanity.
(0:11:38) Dani: A little bit.
(0:11:41) Courtney: Bit by bit like it. It just happens over time with like increases in technology. But having somewhere where we can say no, we are like, let’s center, let’s ground ourselves. I think that’s probably why it’s been doing so well. Is that just giving somewhere, a place where people can just be human? And I always think it’s so interesting that authenticity becomes such a differentiator.
(0:12:02) Dani: And being genuine and, it’s funny because I tell a lot of failure stories what people would consider failure, but you’ll fail if you don’t give up. Yeah. Right. You learned a lesson. And just keep going. Take that in and make it make you better. Right. So I, I agree with you. I the human element I, I wanted to start a podcast.
(0:12:26) Dani: Maybe maybe I’ll pick it up after this. Being inspired by.
(0:12:28) Dani: You. I.
(0:12:30) Dani: Wanted to create a podcast called The Human Channel because our industry is called The Channel. Yeah, but it’s all about technology and it’s all about being driven and but it’s really about bringing that human element back front and center. So. Yeah.
(0:12:43) Courtney: Yeah. No, I, I love that. I also when, you know, you talk about like I didn’t think I was going to survive this, this whole situation but the universe they pulled me through I, I love having those moments. Really this is the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. But now every single experience you have after this, you can point back to me like, well, it’s not as bad as that and I survived that, so I can do anything now.
(0:13:06) Courtney: Like as long as it’s not as hard as that, I’ll be fine.
(0:13:08) Dani: All right. It’s funny because I, I have a dear friend that I have a sticky note that, when I was going through this, he was actually my boss, leader over at the company, and he said, Danny, tough times don’t last. Tough people do. Yeah. And that it was just resonated with me. I was like, oh, I can give up.
(0:13:28) Dani: I can’t give up. And I, you know, my family and there are all these things that just kept me going. My mentors, my friends, my husband, my, you know, my boys. But I read the other day you have a 100% track record of making it through your worst days.
(0:13:43) Courtney: That’s so true. God, I love that. Yeah, yeah. The one thing that all success people, successful people have in common is that they didn’t give up. That’s like the only thing that they all have in common. So long as you just don’t give up, is keep getting up doing the thing. So when you think about your you have over 120 members.
(0:14:05) Courtney: Who are these people? Like what? What roles are they in? Is it like for specific types of, people at certain levels in their career? Like who are you supporting the most?
(0:14:14) Dani: Yeah. You know, we get a lot of.
(0:14:15) Dani: Questions around that. I’m glad you brought that up because we.
(0:14:20) Dani: I chose the name and maybe it was a bad name because.
(0:14:23) Dani: I’m not an executive, so I can’t be a part. No, no. This is your executive evolution and executive anything, right? You’re owning your life, your own business, right? Your being an entrepreneur of your own destiny. Owning that. So it’s an executive evolution and, but it’s for everyone from all kinds of backgrounds. We just had a wonderful event, two days ago, and we had women there that are channel chiefs.
(0:14:51) Dani: We had women there that were just starting their career. And we’re talking about, you know, what do I do? And with this sweet gal is her first time with us. And she’s brand new to the scene. And this is her first, tech sales job the past eight months. And she’s like, I’m so glad I found you guys.
(0:15:09) Dani: I’ve learned so much today, and we offer help, and I have a big sales training and scale for my team coming up. And a young lady was like, I’ve never been through a channel manager training. I’m like, come on, you can be me at this time. Just just kind of fit in. And she’s like, really? I was like, if you if you really want to sit through my.
(0:15:28) Dani: Boot camp on.
(0:15:31) Dani: You know, it’s about helping others. The channel industry specifically is very unique because we’re salespeople, but it is relationship driven. It is dynamics. We’re still supposed to be business partners and drive value for, you know, our partners, business. But it’s also relationship. And, you know, being there and being trust, trust and transparency. So there’s all these different layers of complexity on partner management.
(0:15:56) Dani: And I’ve been very fortunate always laugh and say I’m a classically trained, channel manager. Like a ballerina. Yeah. The the company I will not my hat hat to that. I had an unfortunate, departure from with that non-compete issue. They put me through so much training for channel management, and I’m. I’m honestly so grateful for that.
(0:16:18) Dani: I will always be appreciative and say, you know what a great company they were before I left. And I see all the time that there are women that have never been given that opportunity to be in some kind of management training. So that’s a big part of the executive evolution is bringing everybody together. Let’s learn from each other, leverage each other’s strengths so that we can be stronger community together.
(0:16:41) Courtney: Yeah, I, I love that and I know that a lot of companies are are pulling back on training. And what they’re doing is they’re trying to hire people who already have the experience, but like, there’s no where to get that experience. Yeah. And so doing things like management training or training more specifically in like that industry is probably made a huge difference for some of these women.
(0:17:02) Courtney: And just that is that kind of you feel like your main differentiator from these other networking groups?
(0:17:09) Dani: There are so many wonderful networking groups. ACW Alliance, a channel women is fantastic, and they have they have a huge member base. So they’ve got a lot of opportunity to do, a lot of different things. For us, our differentiator is one, we have no membership dues or fees because we we don’t want that to be a barrier, to be a part of our, our organization or anyone else is, we do a lot of charitable work.
(0:17:39) Dani: And that’s why it used to be a little bit of a differentiator. Not so much anymore. A lot of others have adopted that same approach. I think our differentiator is that sense of community and and building the spark. And again, that mentorship program is, is a really huge, piece of of who we are.
(0:17:59) Courtney: Yeah. As. Yeah, I, I as someone who does a lot of networking, I can’t say every group is a little bit different, but, having mentorship up, I think is something that you don’t get every everyone’s kind of they’re like, all right, this is what I have. This is what you have. How can we exchange our services here?
(0:18:17) Courtney: But kind of shifting to be more mentorship focused. That is a big difference. Especially for, for young women who don’t always get as much mentorship.
(0:18:26) Dani: Right.
(0:18:27) Dani: I certainly I had maybe 1 or 2. And so now that we can get these young ladies that are coming in 15, 20 more, that’s that’s really special.
(0:18:38) Courtney: Yeah. Well, so you’ve scaled quite a bit in the last couple of years since starting, but we know that scaling isn’t always linear. So what were some of those challenges early on getting T off the ground. And how did you kind of work through those?
(0:18:53) Dani: Yeah, it was a lot of learning. I am not a business owner. I didn’t know where to start. So it’s a lot of trial and error. I became a master in Canva in job form.
(0:19:05) Dani: Right? Right.
(0:19:06) Dani: And website building, all that. Our website. I am going to hire a professional. I can tell I’m bored, I promise.
(0:19:13) Dani: But it was a lot of fun learning.
(0:19:14) Dani: And when we were smaller, it it was okay. It worked. And I think we’re actually facing that scaling and seeing a lot of challenges now, because we have gotten and have gotten so large grown and there’s a actually a bigger demand than we can keep up with. And I, I carry that a lot, that if I had a few more better, a better process, could we scale faster?
(0:19:40) Dani: Could we reach more, could we help more? So I, I lose a little sleep at night over that. So we are looking I have an incredible board that is helping me scale this appropriately so that we can reach and, answer the demand that ladies are looking for to help and join and be a part of t. I think the biggest thing right now, we are looking again, the way that this was built and grew so fast, because we took about a year and a half off, to, to help some, dear friend through some medical, journey of hers.
(0:20:12) Dani: But when we came back to it, it has just exploded. And we were trying to work on our nonprofit, to try to get everything in order so that it’s not an LLC, and so that we can actually do the right things for the organization. And get it all, I’ll pretty, you know, buttoned up for about it.
(0:20:31) Dani: So. Yeah.
(0:20:32) Courtney: How did you see so you have a board. How did you build that board out?
(0:20:36) Dani: Yeah.
(0:20:37) Dani: Oh, well, we did, our first retreat, two years ago. And after that retreat, it was just Heather and I. And then we had this young lady that came to us with the with the retreat idea. She wanted to join forces. She had created female executive mindshare. She’s like, how do I scale this? Let’s work together.
(0:20:59) Dani: Yeah. And we, the three of us, put together this 30 person retreat in Austin. We had 30 women from all over the country from California, North Carolina. I mean, all over. And it was a wonderful success. I don’t know, it was a miracle we pulled it off.
(0:21:18) Dani: But you don’t.
(0:21:19) Dani: Know until you show up what you’re going to face. It was our first one. It was amazing. And after that retreat, we were like, we need a board, right?
(0:21:28) Dani: We got to have a board after that experience. Yeah, yeah.
(0:21:31) Dani: Some of those young ladies that really showed up that were part of panels, that were mentoring girls that were really just vocal leaders immediately right out of the gates from that retreat we went to and we said, hey, you are no doubt a star in this industry. You are a girls girl, and we want your voice, your vision and your unique perspective to be a part of this growth and helped you become the best it can.
(0:21:56) Dani: So we, we asked immediately, Darcy, who was the female executive mindshare, creator to be our director of special events? So she does our annual. She’s the leader for our annual, fem retreat, as well as our annual, a big charity event for breast cancer awareness. Then we brought in Sharon Kershner, who is our sponsorship director.
(0:22:24) Dani: No one tells arena no.
(0:22:26) Dani: So that’s gonna be.
(0:22:27) Dani: Like, go to. She is a firecracker. Just powerful woman. Mackenzie Maness joined our board as communications marketing director. She’s increase table. Jessica’s amazing, genuine woman who shows up for everyone. She should probably say know a little bit more, but she’s incredible. And then, last but not least, we asked, Jackie Mcelveen to join. If you know Jackie, to know Jackie is to love Jackie.
(0:22:55) Dani: She is our sunshine. Positivity. She takes us, like, every other day. Just this beautiful quote. Just thinking of you girls. And she is just this warm soul that, there’s only one Jackie in the world. And she came on board to be our membership chair. We were getting so many members asking to join, and I was trying.
(0:23:15) Dani: To fill that. And she had to move it all the things.
(0:23:18) Dani: And I met Jackie. She she met me, actually. She asked me to coffee, and immediately I was like, she has to be a part of this. So we all agreed as her to be a part of the board. We’ve then grown beyond the board for co-chairs in the communities, so that really helped us, scale. We could not be who we are without our incredible co-chairs.
(0:23:37) Dani: There’s typically 2 to 3. We like three. That’s an easy round. Number four responsibility so that it’s not just on two people or when life seasons and it’s all on one person. Right. So we found that three is the magic number for our co-chairs. They are absolutely incredible. They are the fire and soul of tea. And our expansion and how we really keep that genuine authenticity, not just here with me and our board, our main girls.
(0:24:04) Dani: Right. Like this is how we expand, right? Because of them, right?
(0:24:08) Courtney: Oh, I mean, it really sounds like you’ve kind of built this village to to be able to, like, grow and bring more people in. And that first event must have been just, like, so magical, man.
(0:24:19) Dani: It was it was really something special.
(0:24:22) Dani: Yeah.
(0:24:22) Courtney: So now that you kind of you have this board, these co-chairs, you have all these really smart people in place, how are you attracting members, like, how are you finding people to come join the network?
(0:24:34) Dani: You know, it is really organic, grassroots. It is word of mouth. And it’s we’ve been really fortunate that the ladies have had such an incredible experience that they they are going out, they are evangelizing, and they’re recruiting new members. Right. So it’s funny, we had, an event this week in Dallas and, one of our wonderful members, oh my gosh, we had three members bring three new ladies.
(0:25:04) Dani: And then I had one of our wonderful Denver members just send me an email this week going, hey, this is Morgan. You have to meet Danny. And the tea, lady is like, she’s got to be a part of this. So we’ve we don’t advertise. We? You know, a lot of LinkedIn. I guess that’s advertisement. Right. It’s really word of mouth and organic growth through our wonderful members who it’s really, it’s just really special because if they want it that much and they want to share it, you know, you’re on the right path.
(0:25:33) Courtney: So. Yeah. No, I mean, that’s like the definition of a proven product, right? It’s like kind of self self. And eventually you’ll probably want to do some kind of marketing or to build out in a much larger way. But it’s I honestly, it sounds like you could probably keep with the word of mouth and keeping it kind of tight knit, and everyone kind of brings their friends in for a pretty long time.
(0:25:54) Dani: We’re going to have to eventually, right? I think maybe after we get all the legality and yeah, the real foundation of the organization in place, and then we can sky’s the limit right? We sell and we can do some really big things. So.
(0:26:09) Courtney: Yeah. Well, let’s talk a little bit about, team which is the executive Evolution Mentorships, which is like one of your big differentiators. And it seems like that is something that people really respond well to. So how did that kind of come apart, like how did that get structured? And is that something like what kind of impact have you been seeing from that?
(0:26:29) Dani: Yeah, that was a big, big piece. Even the origins of this, right. Mentorship from the very beginning. We went out, we talked and spoke up and did like this lunch and learns. But it was always about just connection, mentoring, helping one another. I had a lot of that through my hard times. How can I help others? How can I encourage other women, inspire them to help other women and vice versa?
(0:26:53) Dani: So that was a big piece of it. I we launched it very early on. And it was just me. I have a pattern and, I took on a lot. And then when we had our pause for our dear friend that was going through her breast cancer journey, we stopped everything. We made an announcement. We said, we’re shutting off all programs.
(0:27:13) Dani: We’re not doing any events. This is our focus. And then through that journey on the other side, she beat breast cancer.
(0:27:21) Dani: Yeah. Yes.
(0:27:23) Dani: She fought very quickly. We were also just in awe of her, and it was very inspiring. Journey. She, when we came out on the other side, there was a lot to catch up on. A lot of change for me with work and then getting channel chief and a lot of, you know, that changed a lot of family dynamics with a lot of travel.
(0:27:44) Dani: So it really sat on the shelf for a while, and it it hurt my heart. I thought about it all the time, constantly. So finally I said, enough’s enough. I will just have to make time because this was a part of my universal promise. This was who I am. So we we relaunched it and by then we had some already incredible co-chairs, other committee members that were like, we want to be a part of this.
(0:28:05) Dani: This is important to us. So we launched it, scaled it. I have two incredible, directors that manage this. Genesis and Tammy are out of Denver, Cara Augustus of Salt Lake City, who also happened to be co-chairs of those communities. And they have, we we built a pairing questionnaire. Weeds advertised it. You can’t get on LinkedIn without seeing something once a week from the three of us and others that have shared it, but I believe we’ve paired well, they’re going to ask me if I get this number wrong.
(0:28:37) Dani: I believe we’ve paired, with the relaunch in the just, just the past few months. I think, three months, I think we’ve paired over 20 women. So it’s it’s incredible. Right. And that’s it. That’s a tricky thing, finding the right two ladies who can help each other, who can learn from one another. Because, yes, there’s a mentor and mentee.
(0:28:59) Dani: But I know when I mentor people, I learn just as much from them and they experience as they do for me. Yeah.
(0:29:06) Courtney: Well, and I also think that like, it’s because you’re probably mentoring people who are who are much younger or just kind of coming out of college and, and their experience of the world is so different and I think so important to understand, like how they see things because that’s like the next generation of customers too. So it’s like there is a lot of value there.
(0:29:27) Dani: Absolutely. And it’s it’s interesting because that has been a very comment, parameter factor, how we how we do that. Right. There’s a lot of, more tenured, experienced ladies want to be a mentor. And then those coming out of internships, college or first year in the industry, they want to be the mentee. But I’ve seen a little bit of a shift when you get to to my level.
(0:29:51) Dani: I haven’t been in the industry that long, and I have asked, some key people along the way to be mentors for me, Shane McNamara, who I am forever in debt to Joe Sikora. I just these incredible people, Susan Leverett these are just amazing people. But I have folks now that have actually been in the business longer than me, and longer than some of my peers.
(0:30:15) Dani: And they’ve been asking me or, some of the other young ladies to actually mentor them because a, I just said, like, you come from that next generation of leaders, I want to I want to continue to learn. And I think that speaks volumes about those folks. Because if you stop learning, if you think you know everything, yeah, you’re out the door, right?
(0:30:38) Dani: Yeah. You continue to evolve. And when you stop learning, what is that saying? You start dying. Right? And so seeing those leaders come forward and they don’t have egos, but you know, basically checking their egos to say, I want to learn from someone younger or from someone and not necessarily even younger, but, you know, people that have been in the industry way longer than me.
(0:31:01) Dani: And that’s really something special that I’m seeing that breakdown and going back to the human element of saying, hey, I want to continue to learn. I want to continue to be better. I’ve got vulnerabilities. I’ve got things that I can be better and stronger. Let’s share. Right. Let’s let’s pair up. So it’s it’s a really cool experience to see that shift in mentality.
(0:31:22) Dani: It’s almost like there’s a new guard coming in. Yes. And I love that.
(0:31:27) Courtney: Yeah. Well yeah I mean like when you think about this generation like the newest generation who’s entering the workforce, I mean, they had internet their whole life and social media their whole life and technology their whole life that that we just didn’t. And so they have to have some kind of perspective that is valuable. Because it’s a, it’s a very, very to sets that, that change so fast.
(0:31:51) Courtney: So I love that you have these women who recognize that and are like trying to take advantage where they can. So you also, it feels like giving back is like a big part of your life right now. I think mostly because of the experience you had with the, the lawsuits and everything, but you also do an annual charity fundraiser.
(0:32:12) Courtney: Can you tell me more about what that is about and kind of what your role is in that organization?
(0:32:18) Dani: Yeah, that was, borne from our, our dear friend at the time and going through her journey. And it, it really rocked us. Yeah. And it was quite an experience, you know, being by her side and being that the phone call, saying, hey, I, I, you know, I don’t want to die. And that just that really changed us all.
(0:32:42) Dani: And of course, we’ve all had mothers and aunts and, you know, grandmothers that have faced that and typically much, you know, older age. But this is this vibrant young woman and more and more we’re seeing that. Right. So we had, oh my goodness, this gem in our industry. Morgan Granville, she came forward and she had her own battle of breast cancer.
(0:33:07) Dani: Young mother again, just so, so such a tragic story. And she fought like hell. She is a breast cancer survivor. And when we were going through this journey, with this other young lady, Morgan said, hey, pair up with the National Breast Cancer, Foundation. We’re so fortunate they’re here. Headquartered in Frisco, Texas. So in the Dallas Metroplex, we’re a big part of our t, community is.
(0:33:33) Dani: And so we paired up with them, we do, an annual fundraiser where we go out and it’s donations based. But after we get all of our donations, we then go back. And again, we’re lucky we get to go to the headquarters here. And we do hope kit packing, hope kit boxes. And we actually pack these boxes with all of these really wonderful comfort pieces.
(0:33:57) Dani: We write handwritten notes, to these women that are that are strangers, but they’re not we’re, we’re they’re in sisterhood. And, speaking to them and Pat and putting our hands on these pieces. Fuzzy socks, lemon drops, moisturizer, just little comfort pieces to know that someone’s thinking of them through the hardest battle of their life. And so we pack them.
(0:34:21) Dani: And then you put that mailing label. We just did this, so it’s a little fresh. I’m gonna try not to cry. You put them in the label on the box, and you see the name. Yeah, I see where it’s going, and you’re like, you know, it’s a real person. And so as in, as important and critical it is for there to be a million, breast cancer fundraisers and for, you know, research.
(0:34:46) Dani: This was something really special. That was a big part of who we are of connection and community that we get to do this really special event with this amazing, fundraiser organization, fundraising organization and get to just bring a little bit of sunshine to these people when they open that box.
(0:35:04) Dani: Yeah.
(0:35:05) Courtney: Oh, I love that. And as you know, I feel like cancer or, you know, those types of, terminal diseases, they touch so many people and it’s just you feel so powerless in those moments when you’re sitting with your loved one who’s, like, suffering through it, or you feel like it’s so much bigger than you are. And so I like what you’re doing because you’re you probably felt a lot more direct impact.
(0:35:32) Courtney: You can raise a lot of money, which also is very important for research and everything. But having that direct impact and knowing that it’s going directly to someone who’s struggling and, trying to be that support, I, I imagine it felt a little bit more like you’re taking a little bit of the power that you could grab back.
(0:35:52) Courtney: Yeah, but that must have been so hard just to. Yeah. Be with there with her.
(0:35:56) Dani: Yeah, it’s really amazing. So from last year and Darcy runs this are our special events director that this is really her I mean of course we’re all passionate about it, but she is the driving force with keeping this going year after year. So I think we’ve raised now over 130 whole kits that we’ve sent out, in the past two years.
(0:36:16) Dani: So it’s it’s really, it’s really it’s really special. Yeah. It is.
(0:36:20) Courtney: Amazing. Well, yeah, it you know, it feels like there’s a lot of kind of joy and fulfillment and, and I mean, like, I think really valuable things that you’re creating through t and like, that community is so important to build and it and it sounds like it becomes important in different ways. So whenever someone’s like, directly affected by something.
(0:36:42) Courtney: Okay, well, let’s do something to try to work on this or and I really appreciate that because again, it’s not just about like, okay, I have these skills. You have these skills. How do we interchange them? It’s more like, okay, we’re all people. How can we all succeed more? But you’ve also done that well, while still being kind of in a full time leadership role at, at your company.
(0:37:06) Courtney: So how how has that now been able to manage that?
(0:37:13) Dani: I get the question a lot.
(0:37:15) Dani: How do you do it? I don’t sleep.
(0:37:17) Dani: Yeah. No.
(0:37:20) Dani: You know, the journey the past two and a half years with, has been incredible. Lots of long days. Lots of long days. Long hours. But it’s so rewarding because when I came in, I learned I was learning from a great leader. I worked with him and alongside my peer, who was our VP of the East, I was our VP of, West, and we just leaned in.
(0:37:46) Dani: It was the three of us, and we did everything we could, you know, startup life, right? Yeah. You do what you can with what you got. No more manpower, right? Now on our budget. And so you just had to get our boots on the ground, and you had to really believe in this. And I’ll tell you, I’ve worked for some incredible, incredible companies.
(0:38:06) Dani: RingCentral, zoom, and MacDonald had these incredible, communications companies use Ucaas companies. But being here. Exciting. I’ve never believed in a story so much, and I think that keeps me going on those long days when I am answering for TI and trying to expand and be there for all these amazing women, I’m trying to help build this brand here at home, and we’re hiring and growing, and I’m hiring three people.
(0:38:36) Dani: Next week. And so it’s, you know, travel and then I have to leave time. I mean, I have to make time, and it’s first. My son’s too beautiful. Incredible sons. 12 and five both play two sports, so that.
(0:38:51) Dani: Oh, my God.
(0:38:52) Dani: My son is really my rock. He, a rock hard head at.
(0:38:58) Dani: Sometimes.
(0:38:59) Dani: Just absolutely incredible and patient and understanding. And when I had the opportunity to step up and channel chief, you guys knowing what that meant because he’s in the industry, too, and, he goes, this is this is what you want, and this is your passion, and we’ll make it work. And he’s, you know, really, been so supportive and has taken care of our family while I’m doing all the things.
(0:39:26) Dani: Your passion fuels you as long as you believe in it. I believe, and I believe in the heart of all of these girls that are around us. I believe in them. And if you believe in something that keeps you going. Yeah. Our days, a long hours. And I think. Not that anyone’s asking me for any advice here, but if you are killing yourself at a job, right, you’re still human.
(0:39:52) Dani: You have to make sure you believe in this. And you see the good in the goal. And at the end, the light at the end of the tunnel. Right. And pray it’s not a train coming down the.
(0:40:01) Dani: Tracks.
(0:40:04) Dani: But as long as you believe in it and you’re being true to yourself and often, often, and having authenticity, being authentic, you can make it. Yeah. Don’t stop. Right. Just keep.
(0:40:14) Dani: Going.
(0:40:15) Courtney: Just keep going. And I find also like when you believe in something, it’s it gives you energy rather than sucks your energy away. And while it’s exhausting, like, I don’t want to downplay that at all. Like what you’re doing is really hard and there’s so much to balance. But I also feel that energy coming from you where because you believe in these things and the mission of axiom and the mission of T, and then obviously your family is going to give you energy.
(0:40:41) Courtney: But like all of that is what makes it makes you able to keep going. And like really just like continue to grow and like build more. It sounds like you, you don’t say no to a lot of stuff yourself.
(0:40:56) Dani: My husband gets all the way for that. Yeah.
(0:41:00) Dani: You know, I think just having that human element and what I did experience, I think that drives me to an extent to maybe it’s a little like, I’m going to prove you wrong. Like, yeah, I can run this. I can be this leader. I can be this channel chief. And still be a human being and still have this human element and I’m going to I’m going to prove them wrong.
(0:41:25) Dani: I’m going to show them that corporate. Yes, I know it’s a business. Yes, we have to make corporate decisions. But we can be we can be good.
(0:41:32) Courtney: Yeah. Yeah, I, I love that. But we also see leadership as like a real key theme in your career throughout. Do you have any leadership lessons that have really made the biggest difference for you? As you’ve gone through your career?
(0:41:51) Dani: Those are those, great. Great question. I would say the practice that I put in place, I’ve reaching out, asking for help, don’t I? I tell my team constantly, I don’t know everything, and I’m going to be pretty open about it. Right? I want to learn from you. I want to hear your ideas. That’s the biggest thing, is as you are trying to drive and move into leadership roles, you’re already a leader.
(0:42:18) Dani: Yeah, use your voice. I was given a book a long time ago. A leader without a title. You can be a leader without that title. And if you start acting like a leader now, you’re going to be recognized. And those efforts and that authenticity and being genuine and wanting to help and wanting to improve process and wanting to mentor, that is going to shine.
(0:42:41) Dani: And you will be a leader very quickly. You just have to do that work as a leader before you get the title.
(0:42:48) Courtney: Yeah, dress for the job you want right? So, so over the next couple of years, where do you see t going? Where, where where are we going? To see the executive evolution.
(0:43:01) Dani: Yes. There are new programs that we are looking at. We had a fun one that we, experimented with last year called t talks. We want to expand that. We had this young lady, actually, my lawyer from Pete. This is a big thing in our industry and really scary. And you can’t ask questions because who are you going to ask HR, right?
(0:43:25) Dani: I had, my lawyer, my legal team. Come on. She’s incredible, young lady, very successful. She came on and kind of coached, taught through. So t talk. So we’re trying to find things that, leaders outside in different industries that impact that there’s ripples and hours to come in and be a voice of, expertise. Right. That the expert and, come in and, and share knowledge so that we are better prepared so that we have a better understanding financial.
(0:43:52) Dani: Right. I mean, a lot of folks will talk about finances, especially women. Right. And so that’s something to have a conversation around, to be more educated, to be more responsible, to be more secure in what we’re doing or oops, okay, I’m going to start doing that right. We want to give value and provide opportunities for women, not just for mentorships, but through things that financial, legal, all these different things that can impact you.
(0:44:18) Dani: Another really special program. And I’ll, I’ll wrap it up. We are doing at launching a soft launch pilot of, Leadership Exchange. And so we have asked, if there was a demand for this, there was interest in this as a young female program leader, I’m not the only one. There are some incredible women out there.
(0:44:41) Dani: And not just young, but first time program leaders. I mentioned Susan Leverett, a mentor of mine. She is an incredible woman. This is her first channel chief role this year. Very deserving, probably should have had it years ago. Yeah, but she, even though she’s been a leader for 15, 20 years now, it’s her front and center, right.
(0:45:02) Dani: And there’s things that she’s never been exposed to or had to have the answer for. And so we went out and we asked, can we find 15 female program leaders from sales, marketing or operations to be a part of this pilot special program? The demand we’ve got 15 people on the waiting list. Right. And so we launch next week, our first leadership exchange.
(0:45:25) Dani: We’ve got 15 incredible women, plus my, communications and marketing director, Mackenzie Manis is the moderator, although she is a program leader, too. She’s incredible. But this is an opportunity for us to come together in a closed room, all share our vulnerability, show up as a human and say, hey, I need help. Oh, you know what? I did this.
(0:45:47) Dani: Oh, I learned a lesson. Don’t do this right. This is where we come together and we are going to shape the future of our industry. Because these 15, 16 incredible women are program leaders making decisions on what is happening today and what’s going to change tomorrow.
(0:46:05) Courtney: Yeah. That’s great. I mean, there is nothing like closed door vulnerability in like it’s so powerful. It’s so empowering too. Like, I’m sure all of them are going to walk out being like, okay, I thought it was the only one that had that problem.
(0:46:18) Dani: And I’ve don’t.
(0:46:19) Dani: Have to show up and we have to pretend that everything’s fine when the roof’s on fire.
(0:46:24) Dani: Right? Yeah.
(0:46:27) Dani: So this is an opportunity for us to check our egos at the door. I mean, these are all incredible women, but show up, show vulnerability and ask for help and more importantly, leverage each other’s strengths. Yeah, so that we’re all better together.
(0:46:41) Courtney: Yeah, sure. We, you know, I, I think that your industry probably is pretty small generally like, people move around companies a lot. It sounds like I mean, we’re all connected. So like, even if like I always think about like, do you have a competitor or do you have a potential partner, like there’s no comfort. Like, yes, you’re competing, but there’s not really competition here.
(0:47:01) Dani: Like here.
(0:47:02) Courtney: You’re eventually you’re gonna probably work with this person on your team. So, you know, why not build those relationships from the very beginning?
(0:47:09) Dani: And even as competitors, I get funny looks. Sometimes I’ll do lunch and learns and events with my best competitors because we’re all we’re all growing in the same direction, and there’s so much business out there. Let’s get out there, educate our clients, help them, support them, enable their businesses. It will all come back to us, right? And it all evens out.
(0:47:31) Dani: It all comes out, the wash out will all be fine and we’ll all have enough business for each other. So rowing in the same direction, let’s not make it harder, you know?
(0:47:39) Courtney: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. So to kind of wrap up here, I always ask this same question to everybody, but if you could go back to the very first day when you started the executive evolution with your co-founder, what is one piece of advice you give yourself?
(0:47:55) Dani: Oh, gosh.
(0:47:57) Dani: So many come to mind, Stay the course. Do it. Stay the course. Because there were a lot of moments where I’ve wanted to shut shut the book. Yeah. In the chapter and through a couple of really, really hard lessons. Just stay the course, lean into the people that love you and and keep going.
(0:48:28) Courtney: I love that. That’s great. And, I mean, I think that’s a lot of that is just trust yourself too. You know, you’ve gotten to this point. Trust yourself.
(0:48:36) Dani: You know, like 100.
(0:48:38) Dani: Percent of your worst days.
(0:48:39) Dani: Yeah. You’re right. And you’ve got this woman.
(0:48:43) Courtney: Amazing. Well, where can people find you online, Danny? Yeah.
(0:48:48) Dani: We’ve got several, several groups, linked in our website. We’ve got a membership form, maybe we can share that in. Yeah. And the. Okay, great. Well, sure. That there’s a lot of different forms. Our team membership, mentorship, application. And so we’d love and welcome anyone, to be a part of that and, be a part of the community.
(0:49:11) Courtney: Amazing. Well, thank you so much. And we will link, everything on our site and, and in our Spotify. And thank you for joining us today. I know that you’re very busy, so I appreciate it.
(0:49:21) Dani: Thank you. This is a joy. I love sharing our message and all about, these wonderful ladies that have made it so special. So really appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time.
(0:49:31) Courtney: Of course. And thank you to everyone at home or on the go for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please make sure to subscribe, share with a friend. And leave us a review. And if there’s anything you’d like to hear on an upcoming episode, just let us know. For more insights, please follow us on LinkedIn or visit Right Left agency.com, and we’ll be back next week with more stories of success, innovation and marketing strategies to help you grow.
(0:49:54) Courtney: See you on the next one.
