Entrepreneurial Dreams and Cultural Connections with Danae

What drives someone to make a bold career transition from the media industry to healthcare? Join us as we unravel Danae's transformative journey from being a media mogul at CHRY to an influential leader in nurse practitioner-led clinics. Danae's story is a testament to the power of transferable skills and the courage to pursue passions, no matter the industry. Her experience is a beacon for those contemplating a career change, showcasing how involvement with community health initiatives can spark unexpected interests and lead to fulfilling roles in healthcare.

Balancing a day job while nurturing entrepreneurial dreams is no small feat, especially in a post-COVID world. We explore the intricate dance of building a consulting business aimed at uplifting small businesses, all while honoring cultural roots and personal identity. From organizing events like AfroFest to supporting the Caribbean diaspora, this narrative highlights the intertwined journey of career alignment and community development. The challenges of blending full-time work responsibilities with the calling of entrepreneurship are painted with vivid strokes of passion and purpose.

The episode takes a reflective turn as we consider the broader societal issues of climate change and economic challenges, and how these shape our work ethic and financial outlook. Personal anecdotes reveal the influence of family and upbringing on our approach to work and money, urging a reevaluation of inherited mindsets. By sharing the struggles and triumphs of breaking generational patterns, we aim to inspire listeners to cultivate self-awareness and strive for personal growth in both their careers and financial lives.

Chapters

• 0:00 Transitioning Careers From Media to Healthcare
• 14:57 Navigating Business, Community, and Purpose
• 24:11 Navigating Concerns Around Climate Change
• 35:01 Navigating Career Transitions and Growth
• 46:45 Influences of Family on Work Ethic
• 51:43 Breaking Generational Patterns for Personal Growth

Transcript

Carlene: 0:00

hi, I'm carlene and this is diva tonight. I have with me on zoom dene. She is a woman with many titles. I I mean, if I want to say anything she used to work at chRY. I was the manager. Yeah, you're a manager, yeah.

Danae: 0:25

And then change the station to Vibe. Yeah, change titles to CEO to better reflect what was happening in the industry.

Carlene: 0:34

Yeah, and now you're actually working in the medical field. That's quite the change from music yeah, I mean, you're still in music now, obviously as a media consultant, a business consultant, but what made you decide to do that so?

Danae: 0:56

short answer is I needed a change. So, after after doing the station reorg, establishing, establishing not just a station but a social enterprise, trying to delineate for people like, what are the aspects of media that we would engage in going forward, not just radio, we would be going to digital presentation, so video and so on. That was two years of a lot of heavy lifting, a lot of stress, and I got to near the end of that two year mark and was like I don't need to do this anymore. I don't, I don't need to prove anything. You know, I've done a decade in media, in leadership, in media and what else is out there for me as the short version. And so I looked into how do I transfer the skills that I do have into anywhere? I literally, when I, when I resigned, I had no job lined up, I was just taking a leap of faith. I knew I was done with that. I knew, you know, my health would be at risk because my stress levels were high and I was like something will show up, leap, and the net will appear. Some people say so I took a leap of faith and so I said I'm open and that's what I said, you know, outwardly, I said I am open to wherever this goes. I am going to test for myself that transferable skills is a thing. And so, you know, I was an operations person, that that was the bulk of what I did, apart from, you know, knowing media, understanding media, you know understanding sales, training, all of these pieces that I had already done. But at the core, my core skill sets is operations, and so I kind of leaned into that. I was fortunate.

Danae: 2:49

I, in my time on, you know, in VX3, vibe and CHY prior, I was also on boards. I was on board of directors and one of the boards I was on was Black Creek Community Health Center. I was even the chair of that board at one point and that kind of lit a little bit of a light bulb kind of went off and I was like, huh, I'm in this, I'm going to conferences. I learned the jargon, I understand the issues, I'm in the space, even as a board member, but I'm consuming it. I'm, you know, in the space even as a board member, but I'm consuming it, I'm in it.

Danae: 3:27

So when the opportunity came up to work in health care, it wasn't scary because all I, you know, I tell people all the time. I think our lives are a sequence of things that we put in our toolkit. So every job you've had, every experience you've had, adds to your toolkit. And so all those years I was in media and I was doing other tangential things in entertainment, I was adding to my toolkit. So when I was on the board of Black Creek, I was adding to my toolkit and that toolkit led me into healthcare. So now I'm you know, I'm an executive director for a pair of nurse practitioner led clinics. Yeah, that's my nine to five.

Carlene: 4:10

Yeah, yeah.

Carlene: 4:11

I think, I think it's like it's not where. I always say this it's not where you're going, it's where you came from, and so it's like you're. You built your career in radio, but I think working in community radio is different than working in, I guess, mainstream radio. Right, because it's stressful in the fact that every year you have to do fundraising to help raise money for community radio. Like people don't understand, like most of the announcers that work at CHRY, they don't get paid for what they're doing, right, and so it's volunteer work at the end of the day. And you know, only some positions are paid. But your journey to health care, obviously that's a big leap, like, because they always say don't leave one job unless you have another one lined up, you know, and so that itself is like a scary role to be in. But if, if it's too stressful too, like I guess for you it was the best thing to do at that time, right?

Danae: 5:17

Yeah, I mean it was a life changing time in general. Right, yeah, dress aside. What else was I going to do? What else was I going to do in campus-based community radio as a leader? Right, I'd already done it. I was on boards. You know, I had led a reorg. I had led the prior station. I have established now a new station, vibe 105. I have established now a new board. I've established what new thing could I produce? One new idea I could have. I could have challenged myself and do more and do different. But did I want to? Did I want to in that setting? You know, like the reality is, if other stations had come calling, maybe I would have gone there. I don't know, because, again, I just said I'm open. Right, I'm open to change. Yeah, I want change. Whatever that looked like, it could have been change within the sector and another positioning in the sector, or it's a new sector.

Carlene: 6:20

I was just open to change Right right. I think that you know I didn't work with you at CHRI for long and I think there was one video that I found while on YouTube that I thought was so interesting. When everyone was locked out of the station it seemed like it wasn't publicized. It was like something that caught everyone off guard. Were you there at that time when that happened? I was like, oh weird, like why did they do that?

Danae: 6:54

I guess that was when things were changing right. That's when we were changing, yeah, yeah. So so I mean you know, to quickly recap, that we took everybody off air and we're establishing a new entity. In essence, we're we're doing a full overhaul. We're going to change technology. So no more CD players, no more tape decks. We're modernizing. We're modernizing the space, we're changing how we approach campus-based community radio. We're taking we're taking it to the next level in terms of presentation, professionalism and so on. So we had to have a clean slate, so we wiped. We literally said it's done. Whatever you thought it was Right, that's done. We're going to establish a new thing and that's what we did.

Danae: 7:39

So the reality is a lot of people take ownership for things that they don't really own and a lot of people take ownership for things that they don't understand. So the community and I use community lightly, the community who were engaged in, listened to or were on air. They thought they owned something, and I guess it was a hard lesson in you don't own it right. Own something, and I guess it was a hard lesson in you don't own it Right. It was, and I guess that was the harsh part for them is oh, I was hosting and now I don't anymore, so that I can understand their reactionary thing to that is oh, I no longer get to do what I used to do. But if you were a student of media, if you were interested in media, if you were growing in media, there's a role for you in the new thing. But if you've been stagnant, you never shifted anything. We always offer trainings at a station and I can tell you from the people who are on air handful of them would come to trainings.

Danae: 8:42

Every time we changed any equipment outcry, outlash, oh my God, what is happening? So you're risk averse and you're change averse. We have to clean the slate and then we can re-recruit from within or outside. Right, and that's what we did when we changed the station. We re-recruited mostly from within. Most of the people who we took over into Vibe were people who had done shows, but they were at a different growth level. They were not afraid of change, they were not afraid of technology, they were willing to come in and learn and try, and even some of those people aren't there now because we have to keep evolving. Media does not stay still. Anybody who knows anything about media. If you think it stays still, you are in the wrong place. What we're doing right now, this podcast stuff didn't exist. Didn't exist when we were doing CHOI.

Danae: 9:38

No no, but we saw it coming and we're like we need to be able to produce media that we can drop into a podcast format. We had those conversations because we are leaders, we're having that conversation. We're paid to have that conversation. What is the next best thing for us to do? So the people who weren't paid, who are volunteering, who are community members and so on everybody has an opinion.

Danae: 10:01

Great Awesome, you're not the one doing the job. Great Awesome, you're not the one who has to handle change. So I took a hit personally and I think that may have propelled my leaving as well because, personally, I was attacked personally. People. I had to change all of my social media handles because people from outside of the country who did not listen to the station were messaging and sending me hate mail and doing all this stuff because they were caught up in the frenzy of not knowing, not understanding and you're not the lead decision maker. So it sucks to be you, to not be the decision maker, but you're not the decision maker and the decision maker has to wear the crown, has to take the blame, has to take the hit. I did it. Great, moved on, you know.

Carlene: 10:51

Yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's been a long time since that was a station and obviously a lot has changed since then. I mean, when I volunteered, I was like how many years ago now, you know? And when I volunteered, I was like how many years ago now, you know? It's 2006 to 2008 when I volunteered at CHRY and I think that from volunteering there, that's how I knew I wanted to get into radio, and so it was a good learning experience, of course, and learning from community radio.

Carlene: 11:20

I think it gave me even that video, even though it had that negative spin on it. It made me realize how attached people are their community and it's hard to accept change if you're not in it. And I no longer work for this company, but even listening to you talk about that, there are always going to be people who can't accept change. I started this company I had. When you go in, you're so excited to bring in like new ideas because we're going into this, whether or not you want to, ai is here to stay. It's not going anywhere. Being a part of like learning how to do things more efficiently, like you were talking about, like the changeover in media itself, like even me working in an environment like that, there's some people that just are going to complain about the change, right, no matter what. Yeah.

Danae: 12:15

And during that change there was something I would say to new recruits, new people who are doing internship with us, who didn't know the old station. They would come in and I'd be like listen, the key to media is being flexible. Right, the key to working in media and staying in media and staying at the top of your game in media is to be flexible. The power of campus community radio was that flexibility.

Danae: 12:39

Mainstream media is very hard to change. You literally have to shut it down, sell it, change owners to change what they're doing. If you're a country station, you're a country station, you're a country station. So Campus Community Radio had that, that pliability, because we were always open to multiple genres, we were always open to diverse voices, we were always so. There was that wiggle room to do some shifting because we knew the model could take it, the model of media could take it. Not all models of media can handle the abrupt changes that are happening right now and we see it. We see how many newspapers are folding, we see how many magazines no longer exist. Because if you can't have a digital platform, if you can't interact in that way, you're going to die. So you have to be flexible and you have to be quick at change. That's just where we are.

Carlene: 13:31

Yeah, I mean, even though you're not in community radio anymore, you're still working in media and you're still doing a lot of things behind the scenes. A lot of things behind the scenes like going to events like AfroFest and covering different things other than you're. Obviously, you're a nine to five. So what made you decide to do that, like create Hurt Media and become a business consultant in that way?

Danae: 13:58

So that was actually born out of my working with artists. While I was at the station, there were artists that would call me up, would want to sit with me, would want some ideas and so on, and I realized that I had a knack for certain things in media, whether it's because I was working in it or because of my eye or my ear Right. So people used to send me their tracks and they're like you know, before I put this out, what are you? What are your, your thoughts? So parent media and business consulting started because people used to always ask my opinion on brand related things and and marketing related things, and I also noticed that a lot of artists didn't have the backend. So they were talented, they can sing, but they don't have any kind of marketing material. They have no idea about how to brand themselves and, similarly, small businesses were having that challenges. So those set of challenges. So a small business owner would also approach me and is, like you know, 10 years in and I haven't grown my business, 10 years in and I don't know what I'm doing. 10 years in, I have no systems and structure. So I'm applying my my operations skills and I'm applying my brand marketing skills to help them navigate that. So I registered the company. I was like, ok, there might be some there there, let me register and see what comes of it.

Danae: 15:26

The reality is I haven't. I haven't even worked this company yet. I really haven't, because I have a nine to five. When you have a nine to five it's hard to be a part-time entrepreneur, it just is. Entrepreneurship takes time. Time takes a lot of time. But when you're busy doing the nine to five, paying the bills, all of that stuff, it is almost a distraction from your entrepreneurial exploits. So I haven't even hit 50% on how I work that business yet. But each year more projects come to me and I'm refining.

Danae: 16:03

What is it that paired media and biz wants to do? You know, sometimes people are like so why not just media? Why did you add on biz? I'm like because small businesses are having the same challenges that media personnel are having. Soul entrepreneurs are a ton of them now, especially post COVID. Everybody's an entrepreneur. None of them have a structure, none of them know about policy, None of them know how to set up a proper business. But I got an idea and I'm running with it. So contact me, I will help you. You know, put a little order to what you're doing and I can consult you on the brand. So those opportunities are still out there and you know, that's that's why I opened up that bucket to be like let me see what I can catch in there and what I can, how I can help people, cause ultimately, that's always I'm always going to be drawn back to media. I'm always going to be drawn back to business. You know running things well and so on. So that's how that came about.

Danae: 17:04

Hosting. I'm a good host, like if I should toot my own horn, I'm a very good host. So that's going to be a no brainer. I will, I will always host. I think every year I say I'm retiring from hosting and I don't. I get more gigs and more gigs and more gigs, because word gets out. People realize that I actually am a very seamless host. I actually do more than the average host, so, and I have a great voice when it comes to that stuff. So I will always somehow get a call for hosting. So that will always be a part of whatever it is I'm doing, you know, and I enjoy it actually. So it's a good side thing to have, if you enjoy your side gig great, so I enjoy doing it.

Danae: 17:48

So hosting AfroFest is a privilege being able to stand on a stage in front of thousands each year and to rep for the Caribbean because AfroFest is the continent and it's diaspora, and they're making a wiggle room for the rest of the diaspora, those of us who were stolen, and so on so I take it as a privilege to be able to stand on that stage and help navigate. So those things will always be a part of what I do.

Carlene: 18:16

Yeah, and so like, even stemming from your growing up, like you didn't grow up in Canada, like you came here later on, from what I've learned, like you came here when you were 21. So later on in life, and so do you feel, like as a Jamaican, that you have a role, like as someone who has to help your community in some way, whether it's in the health care system or in media, like you say, because we all have a calling, we all have something that we're meant to do. So it seems to me like, even though you've changed your career path, there's still that, that side of you, that's, that's your passion. It seems like you know it's a part of who you are, right, yeah.

Danae: 19:07

So I've always struggled with calling and purpose. But what I can say is I'm actively engaged in what I'm supposed to be doing and I think it stems from my identity, like I strongly identify as a Jamaican strongly like, unapologetically but I also strongly identify with community. So I studied local economic development because I thought I would go the route of planning and economic development and help build up community. So everything I have done, whether it is scholastically or career-wise, has always had that lens that I'm going to help to build up community. So when we changed the station and the name was settled it was VX3, voice Village Vehicle, right, it was always going to involve the people. It was always going to involve elevating community, everything I do.

Danae: 20:08

However, over time community is hard because community is unforgiving and is high demand, high demand, low resources and so on. So over time sometimes I get tired of that. Sometimes I feel like man. I wish I would just chuck all of this and go work in for profit and just let go of that thing that keeps pulling me back in to building community. I don't know what that thing is. Maybe it's purpose, maybe it's calling, but I keep getting pulled back into it some way somehow, no matter how I've changed sectors, no matter what I consulting, I am still being pulled back into it. So could be purpose.

Carlene: 20:52

Yeah, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to find purpose or to find your calling or what you're supposed to do in life. I think I understand when you say it was hard, because I think now that I'm older like I just turned 40, I feel I can understand what you're saying, because there are sometimes I don't know if you've had people say to you that, oh, this is what you're good at, this is what you're supposed to be doing, and I'm like, no, what are you talking about? Like that's not what I see myself doing, like you have this other idea in your mind and then it just takes time and like trying different things to figure it all out. Oh, this is this is what I'm good at, and not necessarily what you're good at is what you're supposed to be doing. But getting back to what you say, what makes it hard about community work? I think there's a lot of misunderstanding with that. What makes it challenging? What do you think? So community?

Speaker 3: 21:47

work tends to be under-resourced right, so that's the first issue.

Danae: 21:51

Right it has. It is usually where the highest need is and the least amount of support, and so people who are on the front lines in any form of community work whether it is in campus-based community radio or in healthcare or in you know any, anything where you're the word nonprofit is a yeah it's going to come with challenges, because we'll never have enough resources to meet the needs and the needs.

Carlene: 22:19

The needs, especially these days, expand right Like we're dealing with a lot of like now you're, you're dealing OK, so you're in health care, but non-profit, like the fact that we're dealing with inflation, we're dealing with homelessness, like we're dealing with a housing crisis. There's so many things and that is like what do you, what do you say to that Like we've been dealing with this?

Danae: 22:43

And which do you fix? What do you say to that? Like we've been dealing with this and which do you fix how?

Danae: 22:45

do you fix it? Yeah, when you don't have enough. When you don't have enough, we're all functioning from a place of a deficit. We're all functioning from that. Every sector that has the word nonprofit is functioning from a deficit. And as the society grows, more immigrants, you know more challenges economically, because, don't be fooled, this economy is not getting any better. You could change five million prime ministers and presidents. Yeah, they do not have the answer. No, because society changed. Society changed faster than the people did. It did so.

Danae: 23:26

Now that we've entered a digital, virtual era, how many people are tooled for this next phase? And you started earlier in the conversation with talking about AI. Ai brings me excitement and fear, because we can only at this stage manipulate it, use it to our advantage, incorporate it in our work. But what happens at the next phase, when less and less of us is needed? Right, so we're not ready. We're not ready. And if you're a nonprofit, you're so not ready for what is about to happen, right? So, yes, we will incorporate all these new things and we will change and we will try to change, but we're going to hit a wall at some point.

Danae: 24:11

So, if you're somebody who, like me, I read a lot. I keep up with current affairs because of my local economic development background. I'm very curious about development issues. I'm very curious about development issues. I'm very curious about climate change. All of these things sometimes keep me up at night because it's like a puzzle. I'm like how will we navigate this? I literally am concerned. I'm literally concerned in any sector I'm working in or consulting in. I'm concerned for what does next five years and next 10 years. So that's why it's hard.

Danae: 24:47

It's hard when you care, if you don't care it might not be hard it might not be hard. If I could take on that new attitude that people are having because I'm seeing it in the workforce now where people don't care If I could take that on, I would have more sleep. I'd have more sleep at night.

Carlene: 25:05

It would be, it would be so easy if we could. Just, you know, sometimes I have to say that to some of my colleagues. Like, I'm just like OK, because it takes one person to want to change, but if you don't have a collective Denae, you're not going to get the change. Like if there's only one person who's going to voice, like every, there's always the people that are going to talk about the issue but they're not going to do anything about it, and that's the hard part. And so, like you said that, the people who don't care, I'm like well, I guess I just come to work, do my job and go home, you know yeah, and here's the thing.

Danae: 25:41

I don't even blame them, because they're looking at what. What we are looking at now financially. We're looking at inflation it's a recession but they're not using the R word. We're probably in a depression, but they're not using the D word. When you're looking at all of that, yeah, a protective measure is I'm going to do less. Measure is I'm going to do less. At the very least, I'm going to stress myself out less, because I don't control none of this stuff that's happening.

Danae: 26:12

Let me back up, right, I understand that it's, it's almost a protective measure that people are taking is hey, look what happened. My parents were for 40 years at this place and got a pen. I'm not doing that. Right? I know that's what people are thinking. I know people are like I'm not going to work as hard as my parents and have nothing to show for it, and or they're looking at I'm working at the same level, my parent is working and I can't own a home. I'm working at the same level, my parent has worked and I can't own a car. And we're in a space and time where that is more and more the reality. So I do understand, but as somebody who does HR, it's frustrating, right, but I do understand that perspective is like no, get somebody else to do it, I get that perspective I get it, yeah, but when I'm hiring, I hate it.

Danae: 27:03

I'm like, oh my gosh, what happened to work ethic, what happened Passion? What happened to interest? Where is it gone? Right, so I can see from both lenses, but my day to day life is to hire talent and keep talent. So when I have little to offer talent, yeah, I, I understand. I understand when they're like get somebody else to do it. You know it's rough it is rough also.

Carlene: 27:32

You do hire as well.

Danae: 27:34

Oh my goodness, like wow I'm an executive director, like, yeah, I have all of the, all of the things coming at you from different directions diva tonight with carlene humphrey.

Carlene: 27:47

This is 40, a female perspective what do you say to the, to the future? Like I mean, it's a scary thought. Just just even listening to you talk about what keeps you up at night, that's a scary thought too, because that's why sometimes I'm like, okay, I can't watch this anymore. Because when you're talking about the environment and climate change and like even just the news right now, what's happening in California, like someone said to me that they could have prevented this from happening. Now, I don't know if that's true or not to a certain extent, cause I haven't done the research but when you think, when you see stuff like that, like we've had so many things happen, uh, environmentally, like where I'm from, grenada, they've had like three floods, like there's one in Karakoram and then they had two others, which is not the norm. I mean, there's floods that do happen, but not to this extent. No, everybody's experiencing.

Danae: 28:42

Yeah, experiencing it and and I hear people on the prevention thing, but we're 20 years late. We're literally 20 years late. When I was doing local economic development, it's a part of environmental studies, that's the faculty that it was a part of, and so we would talk about climate change and so on, and the models that the climate change pros had worked out puts us right where we are right now in terms of increased sea level, increased heating, increased extremes. All of this was known, and I'm talking 20, 30 years ago. So could it have been prevented? Not last week, it couldn't. You know what I mean. What could they have done when? So you know, quickly and this is kind of tangential, but quickly I saw something on Instagram.

Danae: 29:34

Somebody did a video on a home that survived the fire because it was concrete. It was a concrete structure, they had a concrete wall around it and the home itself was concrete and you know, everything on the exterior was a retardant and all of that stuff. Right. Right, you didn't have that technology for 20 years. We had it. But the other thing that we need is the will the will of the politicians, the will of the people to change Right. So, if you're, if you're comfortable in a gas guzzler, I drive a crossover, so I'm not judging anybody, but if you're comfortable in a certain lifestyle, know that it has repercussions in the future. Right, and they've been telling us.

Danae: 30:14

But we're like, ah, they're talking about these increased floods. Ah, you know, we're in Canada where we always have cold weather. Ok, did you notice how cold it is this week? Did you notice how cold it's going to be this week? No problem, keep ignoring it. The weather is going to do what it's going to do. Climate change is going to climate change, right, so can we prevent? I don't even know. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but we have been told, we have been warned. And you know right wing, you know political thought leaders. It's hard to say thought for right wing but right wing people have determined that that's foolishness.

Danae: 31:12

Climate change is foolishness. In science, know more than their doctor, and people who have an F in chemistry know more than the pharmacists and the anesthesiologists no more than the pharmacists and the anesthesiologists. That's where we are now for the future. Here's here's the hopefulness in everything. We can still shift. I don't know if we can save the planet, but we can save our current existence. We can save our future existence for a little bit longer. We can delay some things if we are willing.

Danae: 31:42

I strongly believe that people have to find the will to do better, and right now I'm not seeing the will to do better, but that's the hope. The hope is finding the will to do better, finding the will to improve where you are, finding the will to be like what happened to curiosity? We have been so satiated by social media's folly that we're not a curious people anymore. You know, like how many kids are we encouraging to play, pull Play-Doh together and make something with their hand and see what comes of something? Them in front of a PS5, in front of whatever other device, and we ourselves have plopped ourselves in front of TikTok and Instagram and all the things that are distracting us from real life and we're not engaging. So if people want hope, I say re-engage, re-engage, re-engage in living, re-engage in what could your future be? Don't give up on it. What could it be if I did two more things? If I, if I shifted my perspective? What could it be? And if I have a child? I don't have any kids, but if I have a child, what is the future I want them to have? What is the future I want to leave for them? I should leave one of hope. I should leave one of striving beyond the odds. I should leave one of finding the answer, because I've been doing this for 20 odd years. I must know the answer now, right, and impart it.

Danae: 33:14

So, if you know, anybody watching this or listening to this is like where do we go from here? Hope is in inside, it's internal. It's not giving up. It's not throwing in the towel. It's saying there has to be a better way and I'm going to be a part of it. Right, that's the hope. I can't impart hope to you. You have to tap into that Right and know that it doesn't have to be. We don't have to continue on this path. We don't have to go down this hill. Other people went down it and they told us it's not cute, we don't have to go down there as well. You know what I mean. But that's that's internal. That's internal.

Carlene: 33:49

Yeah, those are some inspiring words for sure. Like I think it's from what I've learned myself and just like being mindful and practicing mindfulness and just being in the moment, because we've lost that Like and you can't make other people want to be in the moment because we've lost that like and you can't make other people want to be in the moment. Like you just have to, you know, surround yourself with people who have that way of thinking because, like you said, we are, a lot of us are just I'm not going to say I'm not addicted to my device like I think we all have seen ourselves. And like we have to retrain or, you know, work on those things. But, like you said, it's just having that hope and working towards it in the way we think. And so, as a person who is very insightful about the future and hopeful, what do you think that keeps you hopeful, like in your line of work, I guess, working in nonprofit for so many years?

Danae: 34:50

So I don't know if it's keeping me hopeful, but each time I see the power of what doing more can get us right. Yeah, so when you engage more with people, when you take the time to care, you know like I always jab health care. I'm like there's not enough care in the health care. When you tap back into that, when you tap back into why are you doing what you're doing, I strongly believe people should do things that they love and do things that they're good at. I believe in that wholeheartedly. If you're not good at it, don't even attempt. I think you know what I mean.

Danae: 35:28

I don't subscribe to this. Everybody can do everything. Mentality I don't. I think there are things that you can learn. I think that you can add skill sets. But tap into why are you doing the thing you? And if it's not the thing you should be doing, walk away, because the thing you're doing deserves your best. The thing you're engaged in deserves your best. If you're in healthcare care, care is the key word. So if you don't care, walk away. Walk away if you don't care, because people's lives depend on you caring. Right Changes in society depend on you caring. So if you don't care anymore, walk away. No shame in that. Maybe you were meant to be a barber, maybe you were meant to be an architect, maybe you were meant to be a farmer. Who knows? Tap back into what is it?

Carlene: 36:21

you're good at and what is it you love. And I think that's the scary part for some, you know, like when you're not good at something or you're just doing it to get a paycheck Right and then walking away, that's a big move like walking away, you know, or I don't think.

Danae: 36:35

I don't think it's easy by any stretch of the imagination, right, yeah, yeah, walk away like you literally have to jolt yourself sometimes to shift, right, yeah, but I strongly believe in doing what you're good at and strongly believe in doing what you love. I think the world deserves your best and whatever that best is, that's what you should be tapping into. I don't. I don't think you should be doing things mediocre. I don't think you should be doing things mediocre. I don't think you should be doing things less than but that's just me. I'm old school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long time ago I came up with principles and standards and all these things.

Danae: 37:11

Yeah, I would be wrong.

Carlene: 37:13

Yeah, but like. I remember even a manager saying to me if you can't do it right the first time, don't do it at all. Like I think that's an old school mentality. It's old school man.

Danae: 37:23

Yeah, it is I was still living in Jamaica and worked in insurance for a bit, yeah, and my manager said to me do you know TQM, do you know TQM? And I'm like I don't know, I'm new, and she's like TQM, total quality management If you can't do it right the first time, it's not worth doing. And I was like, okay, you're intense, but I took it in and TQM hasn't left my mind and I'm talking about the nineties, right, and that never left my mind. Do it right the first time, do it good the first time. And that's not necessarily applicable to everything that we're dealing with now. No, right, like now, in this digital realm where you know, you see like one percent of the people making good money on YouTube, one percent of the people making good money on TikTok, you think they're stopping to think about quality. You know what I mean? Let's just see what sticks through.

Carlene: 38:22

They're just throwing it and hoping it takes you know.

Danae: 38:28

So I can't say to a person existing in these times, with these challenges, that the old school way is right. I can say that the principles of old are correct. Yeah, work, ethic, right, integrity, saying what you mean, meaning what you say. I can say those core principles will always be right. The ways in which we execute them have changed. Right, because here's the thing we're on a podcast now.

Danae: 38:59

Yeah, the podcasts that are top 10. Yeah, have quality. Right, everybody has a podcast. I have a podcast. Yeah, I took a hiatus. Everybody has a podcast. Right, podcasts that are top 10, regardless of how many people have been throwing spaghetti on the wall, they didn't throw, they planned, they executed impeccably. Their aesthetic is on point, they have a show script, they have a person who helps them with ideas. They're executing in a way that is almost traditional radio, almost traditional media. They are still the top 10. So, cool, gen Z, throw all the spaghetti. I don't need to worry about how it looks, I don't need to worry about how it sounds, I don't need a real mic, I don't need whatever Cool, but there's a million of you doing that, and then there's a top 10. So, again, the core principles still hold.

Carlene: 39:55

Yeah, yeah, no, it's very true what you're saying. I think when you don't plan things, there's always obstacles that come in the way, like obstacles that come along, obviously, and what you're saying is very insightful and very practical. So I hope that whoever is listening to this can get some insight, or get the belief again, because what you're saying is so important, because we, I think, even for myself, I've had to rethink my career path too, because for months, I was working in an industry I didn't work in before and then, when it didn't work out the way I wanted it to, it's like this time I think I have to do something differently. I do like it's important because it's either you get forced into doing things differently or something changes, like I feel like we have to go through something traumatic or some kind of experience to make us turn on the light bulb, to be like, ok, I have to change something now. Like this is not working. It's not.

Danae: 40:59

Yeah, and I think the wise people among us don't wait for that moment. Right yeah, the wise people among us don't wait for crisis. They're quick to change, they're quick to adapt, they're quick to course correct, because you could be on the right course, but there's a hiccup. What is it that you need to shift while you're on the right course? Right, because if that is something you're good at and something you're passionate about, you could be on the right course, but you're not executing well. So how do I course correct? How do I, you know, hoist the next sale Because maybe I'm using one sale and I should be using two? How do I get a paddle going because the motor died? Whatever that situation is, get on that, right.

Danae: 41:44

If you're on the wrong path, get off it right. Get off it. If you have no passion, no interest, no insight, no skill set for the thing and you're going around moping, who are you serving? Who are you serving by continuing? Right? It's not serving the people you're supposed to be serving in the role and it's not serving you right. So either you course correct or you get off that path and get on your right path, for, like, we're in dire straits now. We don't have time to waste anymore, right? This is not the time. This is not a time to experiment. Too many things are moving. So now, it's okay, this is my path.

Danae: 42:23

For sure, I feel it, for sure, I know I'm good at it. For sure, I just need something else. It might mean going to do a course to upskill yourself so that you can get to the next level. It might mean hiring somebody. It might mean consulting with somebody. It might mean shedding all the. It might mean consulting with somebody. It might mean shedding all the other things. Like, as much as I'm here talking, I do too much. Right? So in 2025, I'm going to shed some stuff, because when I look at successful people people I deem successful- they hone in on one or two things and do them well.

Danae: 42:58

Yeah, right yeah, so me with my 10 things. I'm a multi-hyphenate. I need to pull that in.

Carlene: 43:05

What does multi-hyphenate mean?

Danae: 43:06

I'm, I'm, I'm a. I'm a executive director. I'm a media consultant. Yeah, I'm a host, I'm a you know, yeah, yeah, I'm an event coordinator.

Danae: 43:17

I can do all these things, yeah, so what I have to do now, in 2025, is hone in on the best of it. Yeah, yeah, I can do everything I had to out of necessity because I was in nonprofit. I was always in nonprofit, and in nonprofit we do a lot of DIY. We do a lot of DIY, but is that efficient and is that effective? So in 2025, I'm working on I want more for my life. That's my word this year is more. I want more from my life, more from my talents, but in doing that, I have to also do less of the wrong things. That's where I am. I need to rejig my formula because, yes, I've expanded, I've done all the things and I've shown all the skill sets. What do I need to do? What is my best self? What are those one to three things that I can hone in on that will have the most impact, most effect, most results? Right, yeah, that's the work I'm doing, right.

Carlene: 44:20

And that's and that's important too, I think for anyone you know, even myself, it's like I have two podcasts, but it's like which one should I focus on Right, and that's so important. Like talking to you, you've kind of added the fuel to the fire in a way, like with your passion, with the way that you express yourself. It's very important and I think it was this conversation needed to happen. In one way or another it's important to share. Whatever you may, even if it's an old school mentality, it's still important because that's the foundation. Like you know the knowledge base, knowing and getting to where you are now. You know what I mean. If you didn't work in community radio. You know the knowledge base, knowing and getting to where you are now. You know what I mean If you didn't work in community radio, you wouldn't be working in health care now, and so it's just the steps leading up right to where you are now, and so it's the journey, right, and how you got there.

Danae: 45:13

So that's why my podcast one of my podcasts is called the Journey. Yeah, yeah, I strongly believe that we're all challenged with similar things, just in different aspects of our life, right? So, like a lot of people, when they saw me launch it, they thought I would only talk to artists. I don't only want to talk to artists, I do want to talk to artists. I want to talk to somebody who's a mechanic I want to talk to because I know there is a shared set of challenges that we face as humans, and each person is is combating it in different ways, whether because of the sector they're in or because of the skills they have. Right, and? And life is a journey, and sometimes we're not enjoying the journey because we get bogged down, right, we're distracted by all the things that we're trying to do and trying to keep up with and try. No, let's enjoy the journey because we get bogged down, right, we're distracted by all the things that we're trying to do and trying to keep up with and try. No, let's enjoy the journey.

Carlene: 46:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one thing I didn't ask you about is, like, you know your parents. Do you feel like your parents influence who you are as a person today?

Danae: 46:15

For sure, I didn't know how much of an influence they were until I got older, right? So if you would ask me this question when I was 20, I just said no, they don't influence my life. But after 20, it started to make sense. So my love for building community, you know, helping people to reach their best self, that's both of my parents. I'm an orphan now. My dad died two years now.

Danae: 46:45

My mom was a cultural development professional. She would go around the island of Jamaica, you know, honing young talent, bringing them to the festival event she would introduce. She would be like a guide for ambassadors that came on the island. This is what we are culturally. These are the things you should take away. This is what Jamaica is. That's her job before she had cancer.

Danae: 47:09

My dad an educator both of them were educators, but he kept in education for a while and he built up. He literally built up structures for education, tertiary education, built stuff from the ground up. So all of that is in me, whether it is through DNA or through osmosis. I saw those things, I know of those things and I'm looking at my life sometimes and I'm like, ooh, that's my mom. Right, I'm looking at my life. I'm like, oh, that's my dad.

Danae: 47:39

When I'm training people, when I'm, you know, taking the time to do a manual, when I'm taking the time to guide somebody, when I do a consultation like my first hour with somebody has nothing to do with collecting money, I'm just trying to calibrate them. That's what my dad did for years. He to calibrate them. That's what my dad did for years. He taught teachers. He taught master's level teachers. He established institutions. He was on 5 million boards of directors, from schools to colleges to church stuff and unfortunately I also got workaholism from him. I'm a big workaholic. That was in my DNA, me and my brother. We laughed about it last year. We're like we got that from him.

Danae: 48:21

Huh we cannot stop, we are always working. I remember I'd be here studying and it'd be 5am. I'd message my dad. He's up at his desk in Jamaica writing a consult paper for USAID or whoever he was consulting with at the time. Yeah, that was my dad. Wow, you can reach me at any time. I'm likely up doing something. So I got that from him. Good and bad, right. So, yeah, great work ethic. I'm a hard worker. All those things I overwork, overwork, overwork, right. So again, 2025, I'm bringing back balance because for me to have more from my life, I need to do less of the bad habit. Right, and workaholism is a bad habit that I need to break Right.

Danae: 49:09

But for sure, when you talk about influence of parents, that's them man, that's my dad.

Carlene: 49:16

Yeah, yeah't. You say you can, you're like you can change certain habits, but it's, it's that instilled in inside you, no matter what. And then it you have moments where you're like oh yeah, I did get that from them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you get older, like you said, like the rebel, and you're at 20, you're like no, not like my.

Danae: 49:36

No, you're not, you're just a younger version. Right.

Carlene: 49:45

Yeah, yeah, we're all doing that. And then we have those moments where we're like sitting alone and you're like, wow, yeah.

Danae: 49:53

Yeah, that's them. And I mean luckily I won't have children, because they would be subjected to all of the bad parts. You know, I'm strict.

Carlene: 50:05

I'm all the things. I'm strict. I'm going to be like you would have been a strict mom, what are you doing?

Danae: 50:10

Oh my gosh. And you know you're not getting any time to play. No, nintendo and PS5 and all them things. That's not how I was raised, right, yeah, so be thankful I don't have any kids out there. That kid would be so uptight and miserable and be like how did I get this parent? I want a redo. But you know we are them, we are, and I'm aspects of my grandmother and I'm aspects of my aunts who helped to raise me when my mom passed. And you know I mean we're, we're aspects of all the things we're exposed to, right, we just don't take in all of it, right, but we, all of these things influence us. Right, it's our decision making.

Danae: 50:52

Like you know, we can have a whole conversation on how our poverty mindset comes from, how we were raised, right, you know, not not wanting more, because we were afraid. We got that fear from somewhere. Where did that fear come from? Around money. Well, we were told money is the root of all evil. No, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. But we, we just, you know, took that bit out and ran with it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and we're just like, yeah, I'm just going to be humble and meek and mild. We got that from somewhere. We did yeah, because the people who did not get that, you see it, you see it in their business practice, you see it in how quickly they accelerate in business While we're struggling, because we're, you know, we, we were trained different, we were exposed differently. Right, so everything, everything is a foundation.

Carlene: 51:48

everything is a foundation to the parents are definitely an influence yeah, and then, like you said, the influence with the relationship we have with money as a community, as a race. Yeah, we, we have to change that. Yeah, we come from a place of lack. Right, we didn't have enough.

Danae: 52:03

Yeah yeah, whole slavery like we don't have anything.

Danae: 52:07

And then they promised them 40 acres and a mule in america and never gave them even a mule. Like we come from, lack, right, so everything influences how we, how we, function in the world. Now the key is to finding out quickly what's influencing your decision making. Right and like I'm, I'm being open and saying in 2025, I got to whittle down, I got to you know, reformulate how I do things, because I'm realizing some of those habits, some of the bad habits that I got from the upbringing, that I got from the fear based conversations that I got from how, you know, parents move through this world, have influenced. Right now, I'm trying to have way more self-awareness than I did in 10 years ago. Right, just so that I can rejig my formula Right in 10 years ago. Right, just so that I can rejig my formula right.

Carlene: 52:58

Yeah, it's a journey together and it's a process, and I think I agree with you too, because I have to change a lot of like my bad habits with certain things too, because it's important as to who we are. Yeah, like if we want to get better, like if you want to be a better person and make better decisions and have be able to retire you know better person and make better decisions and have be able to retire, you know what I mean. Like it's all those things. So it's important and this has been a great conversation. Denae, Thank you so much for sharing your journey to where you are now and I wish you nothing but the best for 2025. It's been great. I'm Carlene and this is Diva Tonight with Denae Hurd.

Speaker 3: 53:39

Diva Tonight with Carlene will be back. Send us a message on Instagram at diva underscore tonight.