If you would have asked me back in May of 2011 (holy crap…12+ years ago), I would have told you I wanted to live in New York City, planning and working fashion shows.

Life looks pretty different.

12+ years later I’m married, a mom to two, living in Wisconsin, and owning my own business.

That last one gets me a bit choked up.

For those of you who have been with me since the beginning know a lot of this, but I thought it would be fun to take a little journey together. Because even if you’ve been here for a while, there might still be questions on your mind as to how exactly we got here.

Where it all began

So let’s start back in 2011. Yes, all the way back there. This will make such a difference to the whole story and how we make our way to Danielle Burken, LLC.

I had just graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelors in Apparel Merchandising. I desperately wanted to move to New York City. Instead I landed at Lands’ End, in Dodgeville, Wi.

While I hadn’t gained the freshman 15, I gained the senior 25. So when I started at Lands’ End, I also started Weight Watchers. This kicked off my journey with exercise, food and dieting.

I spent three and a half years at Lands’ End. During that time I met my husband Burken (his actual name is Nick, but I never call him that). I also became obsessed with exercise and tracking all my food – or being on some sort of diet.

Fast forward to 2015 – just married, still on Weight Watchers, but now working at Spectrum Brands. I was a recipe developer for Black and Decker home appliances, George Foreman and Russell Hobbs. This was literally a dream job for someone who was obsessed with cooking.

But there was still something nagging at me when it came to food.

Intuitive eating here we come!

While at Spectrum Brands, a co-worker had asked if I had ever heard of intuitive eating. I told her no and brushed it off. How could someone possibly be healthy if they weren’t tracking everything they ate?

A few months after that conversation I started second guessing my stance on Weight Watchers. I quit cold turkey.

From there I dove into intuitive eating. This was literally a game changer for the thoughts around food, dieting, exercise and my body image.

But it would be awhile before I ever started talking about intuitive eating to anyone outside of my immediate group of friends and family.

The start of the blog

It’s now 2017 and the birth of my healthy desserts blog: ‘I Only Came for the Cake’. The Flo Rida song was really popular at this time.

I was always the dessert person of our group. And I really loved making healthy, yet delicious desserts for our friends and family.

I gained so many wonderful photography, writing, marketing, time management skills and more with that blog.

The more I got into intuitive eating, the more I started to transform my blog from just healthy desserts. Now the blog also included intuitive eating and the change in my health journey.

Big ass life changes

It’s now 2019. I’ve left Spectrum Brands to join a boutique social media agency in Madison. I was there two months before there as a huge layoff – including myself.

During this time we were also on an infertility journey, which I was documenting on the blog.

I spent five month unemployed.

While unemployed I became a Beachbody coach and a certified health coach. I felt like they were the perfect combo for growing my own business.

These five months included going through IVF, getting a job with a marketing agency (Filament), getting pregnant, selling our home and moving across Madison.

There’s a lot in that sentence.

The many iterations of my business

Okay, here’s where I’m going to breeze through so that we can get to the good part. The below encompasses 2019 – 2023. All of this is happening while working full-time at the marketing agency.

• 2018 – 2019: Piece of Mind Squad launches – dedicated to helping others on their intuitive eating journey. A play on the ‘cake’ part of my blog. Didn’t take off like I had hoped.
• 2019: Change to Eat for Life Collective – bringing women together who are ready to focus on their health outside of dieting. Basically an iteration of Piece of Mind Squad.
• 2020: Had Kennedy and got pregnant (naturally) six months later with Carter.
• Developed a program for Eat for Life Collective – didn’t take off like I was hoping and was super bummed.
• 2020: Human Design – I had learned about this incredible personality typing and was super intrigued by how it played into so many aspects of our lives.
• 2021: Six Weeks to Wellness launches – my mom had given me this wonderful idea of combining many of my passions. Also areas where people were always asking me how I “did it all”. This program includes personalized tips and tricks for time management, pantry organization, meal planning or prep, exercise and mindfulness practices – i.e. how to do this all while raising a family and working.
• June 2023:
  • Name change to Danielle Burken, LLC to showcase more of my personal brand. Still maintaining the transformation of health and wellness. Incorporating Human Design into my work for personalized support for clients.
    • Launch marketing services for small businesses. Utilizing my expertise that I’ve gained over the past four years at Filament, I started supporting small businesses with their social media.
• September 2023: left Filament to pursue my marketing and coaching business full time.

Present day

If you’ve hung around this long, congratulations! Here’s where I feel like it starts to get really good.

Since June I’ve been grappling with how all of this fits together. How does Human Design Holistic Wellness and Marketing actually fit together?

How do I continue to showcase my passions and present a holistic brand?

The message came to me loud and clear about a week ago in the shower. (Anyone else think about Legally Blonde when you say that? “While you were in the shower?” – I digress.)

The message was holistic health and authenticity.

How it all fits together

You see, all pieces of this story continue to point back to health, wellness and showing up authentically.

Throughout all of this I was authentically showing up, showing all sides of our life. I wanted to be healthy in both life and business. I wanted to support others in doing the same.

To support others to show up authentically in all that they do. To live in alignment with themselves, their life and their business.

The marketing work I do combines Human Design to support mompreneurs and small business owners to show up authentically. Typically it also means taking social media marketing off their plate so they can begin creating work-life harmony.

Six Weeks to Wellness and my holistic wellness coaching becomes even more important now. It allows me to help support my mompreneurs and small business owners to take care of themselves. Because if they’re not well, neither are their businesses.

There you have it

Phew! That’s the end of the story – for now.

But I thought it was important to share the past of my business, the transformation, and how it all starts to work together.

So that when you see me showing up on social media, the blog, or IRL, you’ll understand the trajectory of my business. To know that all of my passions are combining and bringing themselves together to support the business owner, mom, woman who’s desire is for work-life harmony and living an authentic life.

TL;DR

Okay, this might be too hard to sum up in a too long; didn’t read, but I’ll try.

There have been many transformations and iterations of my business and brand over the last 12 years.

The one thing to know is that I’ve remained consistent in a focus on holistic health.

At the end of September I left my full-time marketing job to pursue supporting mompreneurs and small business owners with holistic and authentic marketing and work-life harmony.

Keep on this journey with me!