EP 01: Starting Before You Have a Name for It

I recorded this episode without a name, a brand, or a plan. Just a burning desire to start. After 20 years building businesses by following my gut, I'm convinced: clarity doesn't come before you begin. It comes from beginning. This is episode one. And it's proof.

What if the thing that's been keeping you stuck isn't a lack of clarity — but a fear of starting without it?

In this first episode, I sit down with no brand, no logo, and no plan — and hit record anyway. Because I think that's exactly the point.

After almost 20 years in the beauty industry — building salons, training thousands of lash artists worldwide, and growing a product line — I've learned that the plan never actually comes before the doing. Clarity comes from beginning. And this episode is proof of that, happening in real time.

In this episode:

• Why waiting for the perfect name, brand, or plan is keeping you from starting
• The difference between overthinking as a thinking problem vs. a fullness problem
• What it means to build systems that create freedom — not more obligation
• The masculine/feminine balance in how we work and create
• Living cyclically: moon energy, hormonal cycles, and why linear living is exhausting
• The breadcrumb that led me here — and the question I'm leaving you with

Timestamps:

• 0:00 — No name, no brand, no plan. Starting anyway.
• 1:52 — Clarity comes from beginning, not before it
• 2:17 — "Overthinking is not a thinking problem. It's a fullness problem."
• 3:28 — What this podcast is actually here for
• 4:34 — Masculine/feminine harmony and why both matter
• 5:42 — Living cyclically: moon phases, hormonal cycles, seasons
• 6:42 — The two-week work cycle I accidentally created
• 7:55 — The question I'm asking you
• 8:27 — Following the breadcrumbs

✦ Connect with Danielle

🌐 daniellerae.co
📸 Instagram: @withdaniellerae
🎵 TikTok: @withdaniellerae
▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@withdaniellerae

✦ Work with Danielle

 🤍 Join The Frequency (community): https://www.skool.com/the-frequency/

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Danielle. Welcome to my podcast. I have spent almost 20 years in the beauty industry. I've opened multiple salons. I've trained thousands of lash artists worldwide. I have a product line of supplies. And recently I have been playing with a thought of running my business in my life in a completely different way. And I'm recording this episode without knowing exactly what it's called. I don't have a brand, I don't have a logo, I don't even have an exact plan. But I'm following my intuition and I think that's something that we're all gifted with, women especially. And I wanted to sit down and I wanted to record this because my own life experience has really showed me that the plan unfolds itself. You can't even plan for what's coming. And so this is what keeps a lot of people stuck is having this attachment to needing the brand figured out. The most interesting aspect of that I've noticed when people are gonna start a business or a brand is they want to jump into the logo. They want to jump into the name. I actually teach this in my lash courses. Don't get so stuck on a business name that it slows you down because you might change your business name like multiple times throughout your brand journey. I have. I have experienced the resistance of, oh my God, I've got to pick the perfect name. I've got to, it's gotta be figured out, right? I've been there and then I've I've I've chosen names that I later changed and then changed again. Um, I think that too many times we're waiting for clarity before we start, but really clarity comes from beginning something. So I'm doing this right now on this episode as proof that sometimes you just need to start. I think that we've been told that we need to figure things out first, but what if starting is the figuring out? Overthinking is not a thinking problem, it's a fullness problem. When you are waiting or you have too much empty space, then it's so easy to spiral. And when you're just busy creating, then you don't have time to waste, or you don't have those opportunities to overthink and overthink, overthink. You just create. You know, some people will be like, how did you do it? Like, how did you get to where you are now? And my answer every single time is I don't know. It just landed here. I'm still landing here. Like, I don't even know how I or why I got here to begin with, and I didn't plan it. I just flowed. I literally flowed. And every day I do feel like I'm flowing and I feel like I I've been tapping even more into how to flow with cycles and seasons and things like that. But my lash business grew because I just couldn't stop. Like I couldn't, I loved what I was doing and I couldn't help but expand on all my ideas, which is exactly kind of like where I'm starting with now. I'm taking a leap of faith because I want to jump into a new container of working with women on an energetic level. I want to talk about these things, not always directing relating to like salon operations specifically, but I want to talk about just growth and evolution and elevating. And I think we're in this interesting time where just the veils are being lifted and a lot of us are recognizing another dimension of energy, which is often to refer to as the 5D energy. This is the 3D where we're in the physical form, but there is this element of energy that a lot of us are working with, whether or not we are aware of it or not. But um, this is just my episode one. Episode one, I'm gonna call it starting before you have a name for it, quite literally. And I don't know what to call it yet, but I do know what it's here for. And it's for women who are high achieving, but they're exhausted about how they're doing it. I want to talk about building systems, but to create freedom, not more responsibility or obligation. I do think there's a masculine-feminine balance in all of us. And sometimes some of us women who are successful in business or entrepreneurs, we're tapped into that masculine energy that we have. And I'm, it's not new to me to like have this conversation with other women where we're like, oh yeah, you know, we're so masculine. We're so masculine. Yeah. Like I've spent a lot of my life talking like that. And I don't feel that I'm not. I like I feel tapped into my masculine qualities, but I also feel very tapped into my feminine qualities. And I think, you know, being balanced and understanding the two, like having a feminine and masculine harmony within ourselves is truly optimal. I do think that like operating on a strict system is a more masculine trait, but it is okay to find those, those parts of us because that's the grounded part. So when we create systems for ourselves that are fully automated, then we can play in the other realms because we know things are being taken care of for us. So I do love systems and I love automations. I also know that this podcast and this journey is going to be about living cyclically, um, tapping into the cycles of life. Women have hormonal cycles. Well, men and women have hormonal cycles and they're much different. But as a woman, whether or not you're in your bleed part of your life, we still have cycles within our body that we can tap into. In addition to the cycles of the moon, the moon offers energy to the earth. There's no denying that everybody knows that the tide is controlled by the moon, or you know, that the hospitals have more uh ER visits on a full moon. There's something going on. So if we can tap into the energy of the moon, our own cycles, the cycles of the earth, we have seasonal uh cycles that we can tap into. Suddenly it makes for me life sound more fun than this linear journey of doing the same thing every day. And I've also been blessed that I accidentally created some interesting cycles in my life. I do live on somewhat of a every two-week cycle with my business. So I have these alternating work type weeks where one week I focus on client work, um, lash extensions, and then another week I focus on other creative work, which is more usually technology-based, or I don't know, just it's not it's not sitting in the chair doing lashes. And so I love that. I love having a cycle. I'm not doing the same thing every day. Um, and then even tapping into weekly cycles, like cycles, the week feels different, right? Every day of the week feels different, I think, regardless of what you do for a living. You know, we have this like standard Monday through Friday, you know, way midweek awareness, and the weekends have a different energy. And so it's really fun to start working with the energy so that you don't feel like the energy is working against you. Um, so that's kind of what I feel like this journey is gonna be about. It's gonna be about embracing new ways of living for those that are interested in tapping further into this and um just a completely different operating system. So I want to ask you, what are you waiting to start? And what would you do if you gave yourself permission to start, even if it's messy? What would you do? What would you do today? Today, for me, it was sitting down and recording this podcast because two hours ago I had no idea I was gonna do this. I had this burning desire to start something new. And I will say that, you know, something that really inspired me. Sometimes you got to follow the breadcrumbs. I love that. I love that kind of ideology ideology, I guess you can say. I think again, tapping back into your intuition is trusting the little, the little glimmers that are given to you when you say you just have this like gut feeling that you should do this other thing today. Um, and that's also the beauty of flowing, creating space in your life to flow. But I stumbled upon a podcast like a week ago, maybe less than. And I'm not always like a podcast listener. In fact, sometimes I don't create enough time. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. Well, today or this week, I have really created the time because I was so indulging in this podcast and I realized I really enjoy consuming content in this way. In fact, I was doing so much podcast listening that when I went into short form social media, I was a I was very turned off by the energy of it. And I'm not saying it's not useful or that I don't use it or that I'm not gonna continue to use it because I do think it's an important way for us to connect and for people who are wanting to reach others. You need to go to where they are to reach them. But I was enjoying the consumption of sitting down and listening to full thoughts drawn out. And it really inspired me because I've known deep down, I've wanted to start a podcast of some sort. I already podcast, actually. I I have an ongoing podcast in the lash industry that's super fun and that's definitely relevant to people who do lashes, but I've known for a long time, I've had a deep knowing that I want to do something else with my energy, with my knowledge, and I want to connect to others in another way. And today's the day where I sat down and I turned my mic on, and you are listening to that. So thank you so much for being here. I really truly appreciate this alignment, and I'll catch you on the next episode.