Danielle Wallington is the Owner of Milknfizz, an events Entrepreneur who was painfully shy as a child. At all cost she would avoid having to publicly speak but leaving her corporate events career led to her facing her fears and doing it anyway! Danielle believes she has ‘made it’ when she gets to make choice. Choices that enable her to serve both her business and her family life with no compromise.

Danielle will return for an in-depth conversation delving into her childhood shyness. She will share how being shy gave her traits that enabled her to become the successful entrepreneur she is today.

You can find out more about Danielle at:

www.milknbizz.net
www.milknfizz.co.uk
www.instagram.com/milknbizz
www.instagram.com/milknfizz
www.facebook.com/milknfizz
www.facebook.com/milknbizz

[Roksana] My guest on today’s show is female entrepreneur Danielle Wallington. In 2016 she gave birth to her first son and much like me, she felt she’d lost her identity. After a decade as an events manager in the corporate world, like many women, she discovered she wasn’t able to go back to work part time. She spent her maternity leave setting up her first events company, Milk n Fizz, and this led to the birth of her second company Milk N Bizz which has gone on to become an award winning community supporting mums in business. Welcome Danielle!

[Danielle] Hi, thanks for having me.

[Roksana] Thank you for coming on. Now Danielle I ask my guests all one big question, and that is: how have you defined success and satisfaction in your work and personal life?

[Danielle] OK so I had to think about this one actually, because it’s something I think you get so kind of bogged down in the day today that you don’t often find time to stop and reflect but I wrote a few things down. I think the main thing for me since having children is having the freedom. Having freedom to to make choices, to be able to work flexibly around the kids, and in my previous career before it was very long hours so being able to do that is amazing. It feels like I’ve kind of made it when I’ve got to that point where I can actually make those choices. Also, the confidence. I think the confidence to succeed and having self-belief has really helped me, not only within my business but also in my personal life, making personal decisions. So I think a mix of having choice and freedom and being confident and having belief in myself I think are the main things for me in success.

[Roksana] That’s amazing. I think that sort of setting off and doing your own thing helps you to grow your self-trust, doesn’t it? It kind of forces you to do things that you probably wouldn’t have done if you stayed in the corporate space.

[Danielle] No, never and I feel like I have grown- as cheesy as this sounds, I have grown as a person in setting up my business and building on that. I’ve done things, and I pushed myself to do things I would never in a million years ever have done before I set up this business. I just- looking at some of the things I’ve done now, I would have laughed at somebody telling me I’ve done that, and so I feel like I have I’ve really grown as a person.

[Roksana] I’d love an example. What’s one thing that you kind of  look and think, that you can’t believe you’ve done it?

[Danielle] Public speaking. Standing up in front of people and talking to them as like was my worst nightmare. I would have been physically sick if someone asked me to do that at school. If we had anything we have to stand up in front and stand up in front of people and talk to them, I would have missed days off school, I would have pretended I was ill. I’d just not go to school and in fact I did do that on a few occasions. It absolutely terrified me; I was quite a shy child, and the thought of doing that would have been horrendous, but obviously when you are running your own business you are- you have to put yourself out there and you have to do these things that really scare you. I think the first time I did something like that, I was terrified. I was sweating. It was just really scary, but the more I’ve done it the more I- you know it’s still quite scary for me, but actually I think things that are a bit scary at all is quite good, just pushes you that extra bit. But yeah public speaking for me was always a big deal, and learning how to do that without being scared was very challenging.

[Roksana] I was gonna say, public speaking is something that affects so many of us. Because I think in Britain, we’re not really taught to do that.

[Danielle] We’re not taught it in school, and in America it’s a lot- it’s big, they have debates and a lot of private schools over here, they kind of encouraged that a lot more… so I think when you- if you’re in school, when you’re around that a lot, then it’s not as scary, but when you don’t practise that tool you’re not used to it, it is something really it is just terrifying to some people. A lot of people, and I think unless you’re doing it everyday, then you’re not- you’re not going to want to stand up in front of lots of people and start talking.

[Roksana] I’m so impressed that you figured out a way to overcome your fear of public speaking, because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t know who you are today, you wouldn’t have been able to support your businesses in the way that you do, and you do it so well… obviously I’ve been part of your networks and part of your events that you’ve organised, and when you stand and talk I would never have known that you had this kind of- that you had to deal with this fear of public speaking, so well done.

[Danielle] I’m just good at blagging it.

[Roksana] Awesome, thank you so much for your answer Danielle.