Danielle DeVereaux

I think it's really the persistence and the decision that this is what I'm doing. It's also about checking in with myself and making sure I'm letting go of fear - starving the fear and feeding the faith - and checking in with that feeling every day. It's about forward movement and persistence, because success is about connecting dots. As long as you're putting yourself out there and driving your car, you're going to bump into either the right places. When one door closes, another one opens, and it's just forward movement all the time, but with conviction and knowing where you want to go. That journey is completely up to you.

The best advice I ever received was during a time when I faced real adversity, which can be a downer. I was told, don't stop. A parked car in neutral doesn't move forward, and so there's growth in movement - just keep going. Persistence. That's made a big difference for me. Applying it means having that as your motto - you just keep moving. You're either breaking through barriers or you're bumping into them, but either way, you've got a choice. Keep it forward motion, because that's growth. What happens with growth is you learn as you go, so you can navigate and turn as you're moving. You get better at driving the car, so to speak, and understanding where it's going.

I can only speak from my experience and journey as an entrepreneur. If someone's at that juncture in their life and they're sensing that entrepreneurial spirit, I would say, especially to women, that I had a pretty disruptive season or tumultuous time in my life where I really had to rebuild - identity, career, everything was completely disrupted. I had to figure out how to move forward without bitterness and resentment, and I had to choose purpose and look within to what's driving me. I would say, especially to women, to understand that their past, their teardowns, their falls from grace, their crash and burns - whatever euphemisms you want to use - that it doesn't disqualify them from leadership. That was a big eye-opener for me once I finally started to experience success. I hope my work or my story can remind others that rebuilding isn't failure, it's courage. Courage is a big part of it.

Opportunities are limitless. I'm definitely a technology nerd and junkie, and I love how exponential it is with AI and all the language learning models. I'm really getting into that for opportunity space. Technology is a huge driving force for not only businesses but a new world essentially - we've entered a new era, and I think opportunity there is limitless, fascinating, and exciting for me in my business. I have a lot of passion projects that I think it will be great for. As for challenges, a lot of what I bump into day-to-day is that we're in such a disruptive space with technology, and businesses are lagging to an extent because they're either afraid or don't understand it, or they're outdated or older with a different mindset. Bridging that gap and getting clients to understand that eventually, if you're a business owner, you're either going to want to sell or continue to scale your business, and either way it needs to be leaner and more attractive. The only way to do that is to understand the playing field moving forward through data intelligence and AI. Sometimes that remains a challenge - explaining these things to people who are stuck on fear or old patterns. Systems and patterns are changing, and it's really just trying to convince people that that's the future.

In my work, it's ethical. I think it's about influence, but seeing influence not necessarily as visibility but as responsibility. I like to create and help others create a space to speak in their truth. Authenticity is a huge part of the backbone of my brand, and to model what's possible even when the path isn't easy. A lot of my clients do struggle when they come to me because I'm kind of a small firm, even though I'm getting bigger. My motto is starve the fear, feed the faith. My values are rooted in faith for the most part in work and personal life. If you're going to look at it more for work, it's technology, creativity, and also anchored in faith. That's the underlying spirit. I don't really lead with that spirituality, but I think it resonates and comes through in actions and the way you conduct business and interact with others.