The One With Dani Louise Smith

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:00:32]:
Hey. Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for joining me. Glad to have you here. Whether you’re a long time listener or a first time listener, you’re most welcome to join join me in this episode. I have a guest this time around. It’s Dani Louise Smith.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:00:46]:
Now Dani is now is the queen of business organization. Her superpower is using her organization and mindset skills to show up regardless of circumstance, and also to build a business where you can earn more without working more, and you can create an impact. She’s a business mentor, she’s a coach, and she’s an author. And more importantly than that, today, ladies and gentlemen, she is my guest. Let us bring her in. Hello, Dani. Are you there?

Dani Louise Smith [00:01:17]:
Hello. Thank you.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:01:19]:
How are you doing?

Dani Louise Smith [00:01:20]:
I’m good. Thanks. How are you?

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:01:22]:
All the better for having you on. I’m really looking forward to, to exploring how we can work around our lives rather than living around our work, which I know is is a key thing that that you you help people do. But before we dive into all of that, Dani, we’ve heard your bio, but who is Dani? Who’s the lady behind it all?

Dani Louise Smith [00:01:41]:
I’m glad you’ve asked this because it it’s really important to give a bit of context to why I do what I do. So I’m a mom of 3, which keeps me on my toes.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:01:50]:
Mhmm.

Dani Louise Smith [00:01:51]:
As of the other day, my son turned 11, so they’re all 11 and under. And then I’ve got a husband that’s got 6 diagnosed disabilities. He’s about to go through the assessments and diagnosis for autism and ADHD, and one of her children is autistic. And, you know, what he thinks that all the parents who have neurodiverse children will get it, like dealing with meltdowns, not wanting to go into school. And then in the past, I’ve struggled massively with my mental health, and there’s been a lot to juggle. And I want to help people like me, and and who would, you know, who would juggle in, to find a balance between work and life. But outside of business and family life, who am I? More than just a mom. I am I’m very creative.

Dani Louise Smith [00:02:33]:
I love I’ve got, like, 10 hobbies. I love dancing, music. I love reading, writing. Obviously, I’m an author, but I love writing all kinds of things, crochet. So in all of the creative stuff, like, anything, I’ll I’ll try it. I just find it so, so fun. And that’s that’s kinda who I am outside of my work life.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:02:53]:
I love it. Love it. And it’s I I love the way that you separate your work life and your you life, which is a a key part of what you you do and what you what you help other people to do. We’re gonna explore all of that. But before we before we we do, explore that, how did you I mean, you you presumably, when you’re at school,

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:03:15]:
you aren’t going, I am gonna become the queen of business organization.

Dani Louise Smith [00:03:18]:
No.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:03:19]:
How did how did it all come about?

Dani Louise Smith [00:03:22]:
So it’s been quite a long journey, really, and it’s it’s something that I do I have actually written about quite a lot. And what happened was I actually want I wanted to be a writer, funny enough. I wanted to be an author, but I’d I’d no idea that I was gonna be writing, as the queen of business organization, and I’d be writing my story of educating others as well. So I get the journey actually started with a kind of repeat of failures, and I don’t like to see them as failures. I like to see it as letting things go, from, like, dropping out of college to then dropping out of college again to then leaving my jobs to become a mom, and I did that repeated amount of times. But at one point, you’re gonna get it right, aren’t you? And so I actually ended up setting up a keepsakes business, creating handmade memory bears and stuff while I was on maternity leave with my first child. Mhmm. And it was just a hobby back then, you know, my creativity becoming a business.

Dani Louise Smith [00:04:15]:
But what happened was I realized I was really good at social media. Before it even started selling, I built a a community of 8,000 women, and few men, and we’re all parents. And we connected, and we had, like, an admin team, business sponsoring us. And that was kind of the first kind of get the ball rolling to, oh, I could do something with this. So then it kind of became a business. I started selling my mix, but it didn’t go quite too well. So after 6 years, I decided that, you know, I’m gonna have to go in to work. By this point, I’d have 3 kids, and I’m gonna have to learn how to run an actual business.

Dani Louise Smith [00:04:51]:
So I I went into employment. I hate it. I wanted to be at home with the kids. I wanted to have that balance. So I started investing. I started learning even more just implementing it. When I was implementing and my business took off, I was sharing with, I was part of, like, business communities, and I was sharing with loads of women in those that were like me what I’ve done to kinda turn it around. So it wasn’t just about what I was learning, but it was the systems that I created the way I organize my business.

Dani Louise Smith [00:05:19]:
And people were like, oh, you’re really you’re really good at this. And they told me I should be doing it. Like, literally people are connected. Like, you should be selling this. You should be doing this.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:05:26]:
And

Dani Louise Smith [00:05:26]:
I’m like, oh, should I? And I just went with it. At first, I started coaching and mentoring creative business owners, but after about a year, I realized that I was actually really good, even better. So at the service based business side, So I then kind of transformed into the queen of business organization and then took it to helping other service based businesses. And that’s kind of that’s the short story version. There’s been a lot of roller coasters with, like, my family and stuff like that, but that’s the short version of the story and how we actually came to start teaching, with my friends of being organized.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:06:01]:
Love it. As you say, a short version. We plenty of roller coasters. I think we can all we can all look back over our own lives and see lots of lots of highs and lows there. Yeah. Lots of failures for all of us. I liked it’s interesting your take on failure. So often I hear people say, I don’t don’t believe in failure.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:06:19]:
It’s not failure. It’s a learning opportunity and and and so on. But you you I like the way you expressed it slightly differently. You don’t see it as failures. You see it as as as letting

Dani Louise Smith [00:06:27]:
go. So. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s part of the writing for me that’s made me realize that because, like like like you introduced me at the beginning. I’m an author. I’ve wrote a couple of, collaboration books, shall I call it, and this year, it’s my book. But in writing, it’s been quite therapeutic, and I’ve actually learned that, yeah, I left that job and I left I dropped out of college twice, and I didn’t stick at what I was doing even with my first business.

Dani Louise Smith [00:06:52]:
But what last year when I closed that business down, it was really empowering to let it go rather than see it as fairly because actually it didn’t fail. It was still making me money. I just didn’t enjoy it anymore. And when I actually turned 30, it was a pivotal moment for me to realize that I needed to just trust the decisions that I made, believe in myself, and always be in alignment with what my next step is. So that has kind of been part of that those three keywords themselves, the trust, belief, alignment, but then the writing has helped me realize that it is about letting things go that not no longer serve you. And, of course, I’ve had a lot of coaching and therapy and support myself, which has helped me realize that. So it’s not as negative that I have quit things before.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:07:34]:
Yeah. So I get that. I I I love that. Let’s let it go because it it no longer serves it. Whatever you were doing presumably did serve a purpose at some point, Yeah. Longer serves a purpose. Let it go and move on to the next. I I love that.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:07:47]:
That’s a really, really nice way of of of looking at things. Love that. So how do you help how do you help, other other business owners and other businesses?

Dani Louise Smith [00:07:59]:
So it’s all about for me, I mean, I’ll I’ll say, you know, I can help you make more money and work less, but actually the byproducts of that is about giving people the opportunity to create the balance that I’ve created really because it’s been so super, super hard, like, with my family and and their daily challenges we’ve had and then my own mental health as well. But I’m finally at a place where I’m really happy, and I’ve got a balance between being able to be my creative self, to be a mom, to be a wife, and to be the queen of business organizing. I feel like it’s kind of my alter ego now. I’ve become her on a daily basis, and the the lines are starting to blur. Like, I’m her when I’m with my friends because I just I forget now. But it’s nice to find a kind of flow with it, and that’s what I want other people to have and achieve. So, yeah, we all wanna make more money, and we wanna work less, which is definitely what’s it about. But deeper than that, it’s about being able to work around your business and not have your life controlled by it.

Dani Louise Smith [00:08:54]:
Because one thing I hated in employment is that your life kinda revolved around it. And I thought one day I just look up and thought, why are we working like this even with our business where we are more in control? But if we can build it to a place where we can create our life first and then business around it, then that gets to be more fun. And just it’s only recent that that’s coming to into my mind, and I love it. And, I’ve kind of kind of, inspired by myself now to live my life that way every single day if I can. And that’s, you know, things like not overworking even though you’ve got deadlines and things like that. Yeah. It’s making sure that you still get to have fun. You still get to spend time with people that you love and and do all those amazing things that you wanna do, which for me is not massive things.

Dani Louise Smith [00:09:39]:
Sometimes it’s just a spa day.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:42]:
Nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong with that at all. So when, when we stop working around oh, sorry. When we stop living around work and we start working around our lives, how does life look different? What what’s different about our life? How does how does how does things change? What basically, why why would we want that? What do we get from that?

Dani Louise Smith [00:10:03]:
2 things came to mind for me then when you said that. The first one was a lot less stress. I think because if as much even if you love your job, if you have got deadlines and commitments and responsibilities, even with your family as well, it can be really stressful. So if we bring more fun in and living into it, like doing obviously, business can be fun, but outside of that and spend some time in that and asking, you know, like, what do I actually want? So for me, it’s that creativity is the massive part. Writing is, however, obviously, that’s linked to my work, but I do a lot of writing just for myself as well. I used to do that as a teenager, and and we grow up and we’re like, god, don’t we? So the biggest part of it is fun and is not stressing as much because sometimes when you step back, it then allows you to grow. So the second part I was gonna say is actually growth because if you just step back from your your work for a little bit and go and, you know, just live your life, then when you do come and pick your business back up again, it allows that growth because you’ve had the time to regulate, the time to explore, to get to know yourself, to self reflect, or have that self awareness. And I’m sound like a mindset coach now, and I’m not, but it does play a massive part in what I do because for you to get organized, for you to be able to take the action because this is the thing.

Dani Louise Smith [00:11:22]:
I don’t wanna come on here and say this and encourage people to just go and have fun and do nothing because it’s not about that. But it’s about organizing your life and business in a way that you can do both, have both so that you can do the work, work, work, then also do work and play. It’s about work and play. So, yeah, definitely the balance can tip if you’re feeling that you’re very stressed and you’ve not got time for yourself or others. Whereas if you just think, you know, I can release this time and and prioritize it so that I can do the things I actually really wanna do, like for me, creativity or spending time with my family. And it’ll be different for different people. Some people, it’s going to the gym every day or, you know, things like that. So it’s it’s about recognizing what it is you wanna do and how you can bring that in and how that will help you grow as well in in all areas of your life, not just your business, but with your relationships with how you communicate with people, maybe even making new friends.

Dani Louise Smith [00:12:12]:
It’s so hard to make friends as an adult. In fact, I find it easier because I run a business because I get to go to networking events, so I make a lot of friends that way. So it’s quite nice.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:12:23]:
Love it. Love it. Yeah. You you you kinda touched on on this, in what in what you’re just saying, but I want to explore it a little bit more. What are the sort of signs that, we should be looking out for that let us know, you know what? Things are out of kilter. Maybe I do need to, do need to sort of create a bit of bit of organization in my life. What are the sort of signs going on in our lives that we should be looking out for?

Dani Louise Smith [00:12:48]:
Yeah. I see this a lot in people. So things like I think the biggest sign is often we get ill and we burn out. That’s a clear sign that you need to work on your time management. And I know this can be very challenging because a lot of people are saying, oh, I’ve not got time to be ill right now, but actually you need to give yourself that grace first. Rest is super great. And then when you do come back to to, you know, work or life and whatever you’re dealing with, it’s about coming at it with, an approach that it’s not gonna happen again. So how can you get yourself and spend spend the time and getting yourselves prepared? Because I truly believe in prepare preparing for everything.

Dani Louise Smith [00:13:25]:
Like, I have to be prepared. I think this is my, like, neurodiverse brain, but I have to be prepared for things for it to go smoothly. And sometimes curveballs happen, but that’s alright. But I feel if I am prepared, you know, this this could unexpectedly happen, then I kind of face it there. So that’s one of the things. Another thing I recognize a lot of the time in clients or even my friends as well is that they always are saying things like I don’t have enough time. And I think what happens is is when we’re saying that, it’s not that we don’t have enough. It’s just about how we’re spending it.

Dani Louise Smith [00:14:02]:
Time is like money. You choose what you spend it on, and I think people forget that a lot of the time. I keep saying I think, but I know a lot of people forget about that. And so just in knowing that can create a different perspective. So if you chose time as you as you would choose you choose to spend your money and were a little bit more thoughtful about it and prioritize where your time actually needed to go, it will let you feel a little better, and it will be it makes you feel lighter for me. I feel like a lot of the time people believe that structure, routines, systems create restriction. They can if you let it, but I’m all about being organized but still having flow. And and actually the it’s not restriction, but the structure creates the space for more freedom and more flexibility because if I know this day I’m gonna do this and that day I’m gonna do this and something goes wrong, then I can just move it and it’s fine.

Dani Louise Smith [00:14:55]:
And it’s about taking as it comes. So, yeah, definitely recognizing the burnout, recognizing that you don’t have enough time is a couple of signs that you probably do need to get a little bit more organized.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:06]:
Yeah. Yeah. No. I I hear you. I I you’re absolutely right. Pete, so you hear so many times people saying, oh, I can’t be ill. I haven’t got time to be ill at the moment. It’s like, well, either you take some time off to recover or Yeah.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:18]:
You’re gonna be really ill further down the line, and you’ll you’ll you’ll be forced to take time off. Your body will just go, no.

Dani Louise Smith [00:15:24]:
That’s it. Yeah. Yeah. My my answer to that is, oh, wait. And I even tell myself it when I I can’t afford to be ill right now. Well, if you can’t afford to be ill, it’s a sign that you need to take to rest, because it’s it’s needed.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:36]:
Absolutely. Okay. You got me sold. So what what’s what’s a couple of couple of things we can do to get us started on this?

Dani Louise Smith [00:15:43]:
Oh, well, at least you’re gonna set me off now. So planning, I’m a huge advocate of planning, And I kind so when I became the queen of business organization, so it was very, you know, emphasis on business. I started realizing the impact it had. So now it’s bled into my life so that I’m a lot more organized in life. Like, I literally added my husband to my project management system yesterday so I can put tasks that we need to do all day. I am obsessive, and I am ridiculous, and I don’t I get not everybody has to be as organized as me. But even if you can just, you know, improve 1% each day, we’re on to a winner. So planning, I’m a huge advocate of planning with your business, with your life.

Dani Louise Smith [00:16:22]:
So for example, if you have something you want to achieve, it’s not gonna happen and you’re not gonna be able to take action. If you don’t know what the actions are, if you don’t know where to stand, it starts with a plan. So if I’m I, liken it to losing weight or going on a diet because a lot of people, that that’s one of their goals. So I compare it to that because it’s really easy to compare. So if I know I wanna lose 3 stone, then I need to create a plan of how I’m gonna make that happen. And because if I just get up tomorrow and go, right, gonna start, you know, I’m gonna diet. I’m gonna lose 3 stone, but I’ve not actually decided what I’m gonna eat, what exercise I’m gonna do, what changes I’m gonna make. I’ve no plan, and I’ve got no direction.

Dani Louise Smith [00:17:00]:
Same with driving. I don’t actually drive yet, but I’m about to start learning. And I have to go to a destination, and you’ve never been there before. Most people turn on the satnav. Gone are the days where we used to use mats, but we used to use mats.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:17:13]:
Oh, yes.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:17:14]:
So now it’s all on the satnav system.

Dani Louise Smith [00:17:16]:
But if we didn’t turn that on, we wouldn’t know which turn to take, where we’re going next. So I believe planning is those that path, that that road in the right direction for you. And, yes, sometimes the road, you know, the roadworks, things might change, and that’s what I like and plan into. So planning, definitely something you can do. Another thing you can do is get support, and this is the thing I think people find the hardest, but the people I’ve surrounded by myself by have been the most amazing thing for me. So I have invested in a lot of support in terms of my health, my business, therapy, mindset. What else? Loads. Learning stuff.

Dani Louise Smith [00:17:54]:
But there’s always got to be room for learning because if you can’t do something, learn how and then obviously plan that into your life. So definitely learning and support around yourself. So the people you surround yourself there’s that quote, isn’t there about, like, the the 5 people you surround yourself with, you’d like those are people you become most likely. It’s so true. We adapt people’s, like, mannerisms. We adapt their mindset, and we take out on as our own. So think about carefully who you’re surrounding yourself with. So like I mentioned earlier, networking, I do that a lot.

Dani Louise Smith [00:18:26]:
I I love being around the business mentors that I’ve connected with and getting into more circles like that. And I I actually love the challenge of being a small fish in a big pond these days. It used to scare me. But when I do that, I realize that everybody that I think is bigger than me, and, you know, we have this perception, put people on a pedestal. But once I get in that circle, I realize we’re all the same. We’re all dealing with the same child not the exact same. Not everybody’s got another 1st child or anything. So the same, like, mindset blocks all the same.

Dani Louise Smith [00:18:57]:
I don’t have enough time issues. And the more you can put yourself in more circles and recognize everybody’s facing similar things and how they’re pulling themselves through it now and out of it, you can kinda get that support as well. And you converse with people and help each other grow together, which I find find really important. So definitely the community you surround yourself within your network has a massive impact. So it’s making time for that. Again, it always comes back to time for me. I need to talk about it. But then in terms of, like, an an actual business perspective, I’d say just make sure that you are managing your business.

Dani Louise Smith [00:19:31]:
Like, you’re running it. It’s not running you because there there’s different elements here I can dive into. With like, I I’m a massive lover of a system automation and, you know, how you manage your time, obviously. But, like, what your schedule looks like and how you how that all looks like when you’re doing more and making sure it all fits in. But if your business is running you and you’re not running it, then that’s when we do tip the scale and we do lose balance. So definitely in terms of an organizational management approach, make sure you are managing the business is something to definitely work on. But within that, that’s just an umbrella. There’s loads of different elements you can work on.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:20:10]:
So plenty plenty of things that we can do. There are plenty of things we can do there and some some really good really useful tips. Really useful tips. Sorry. I love that. Thank you. Now you mentioned you mentioned a couple times that you are an author. You are indeed.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:20:23]:
Tell us about your books.

Dani Louise Smith [00:20:25]:
Oh, so I have covered it on a few, books where I’ve done a chapter, but the most recent one that came out 11th October in 2024 is beyond the ordinary. It’s just this I joined because it’s such a passion project of mine. It just totally aligns with me, and it’s about the link between neurodiversity and creativity. So being a creative person myself, undiagnosed ADHD, and my husband being neurodiverse, my child being neurodiverse, we are all creative in different ways actually, but Yeah. I see that link a lot. And when I so I as an author, I actually got to read the book first before it went out. And when I read it, I was like, oh, this is just me in a book. Like, I’ve never heard anything speak to me so much, and I knew it was gonna do that.

Dani Louise Smith [00:21:10]:
So I was excited to contribute to that. And so I actually share a bit of my story in there on the link with neurodiversity and how I actually tackled organization as a strength too. Because a lot of people at ADHD struggle with that, but I found it’s my superpower. It’s been my coping strategy. So let’s talk about that. So that came out on 11th October, which was amazing. And then the biggest project I’ve ever done in my life, which has been the most stressful, but the most exciting, and it’s been my little 6 year old self is excited because since I could write, I wanted to write. Like I said earlier, I never expected to share my story.

Dani Louise Smith [00:21:46]:
I never expected to be teaching business, and it’s called business fundamentals, organize and streamline your operations for success. So it is about everything we’ve talked about today, really. It’s a step it’s like a step by step it’s like a course in a book. It’s like step by step, process within the book that teaches you how to get organised, how to build those foundations to be successful in your business. And when I say success, that is about money and time. So having that flexibility and freedom, but getting what you want as well out of life and business. So it’s a step by step like that with a very a big heavy mindset approach, a big organizational approach on it, and then practical actions that you can take. But there’s also my story weaved in, so it kind of shows you an example.

Dani Louise Smith [00:22:34]:
I like to lead by example, so not just do what I say, but also that I’ve done it myself. So I share that in there. And it’s just quoting my editor. It’s just an amazing resource for business owners out there. She got so much value from it, which was just amazing to to see, and hear, and I can’t wait for everybody else to experience that as well when it comes out on the 25th November.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:22:56]:
Awesome. And that that’s business fundamentals streamline and organize your operations for success. It’s your your first so should we say first solo book? I mean,

Dani Louise Smith [00:23:08]:
that’s Yeah. There’s gonna be more.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:23:10]:
Yeah. It becomes addictive after a while, doesn’t it?

Dani Louise Smith [00:23:13]:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love writing.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:23:15]:
Oh, brilliant. Brilliant. I love it. Well, best of luck with, with business fundamentals, and congratulations on being part of, Beyond the Ordinary as well. Looking forward to seeing what, what you come out with next. In fact, that is a good question to things up with. What’s next? What’s next for Dani?

Dani Louise Smith [00:23:35]:
Well, I’ll let you into a little secret. I’ve not told many people there’s gonna be a second business because why not juggle more things?

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:23:42]:
I’m just juggling. Alright? So, but this one will be mostly led by a team, although I

Dani Louise Smith [00:23:48]:
will be in it as well as the CEO. I want to set up a a very, welcoming networking business that’s both of there’s so many values around this about being affordable, being accessible in all different kinds of ways so that no one’s excluded, but also that it’s online and in person as well. So it’ll start small and grow. Oh. But the big value there is everyone that’s in there in the team gets paid fairly. So, yeah, there’s so many values around it. It’s only in planning stages at the moment, but it will be coming in 2020 5.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:20]:
Oh, wow.

Dani Louise Smith [00:24:20]:
And then more

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:21]:
books more books, of course.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:22]:
More books. More books. Remember, folks, you heard it here first.

Dani Louise Smith [00:24:27]:
Yeah.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:30]:
Dani, unfortunately, time is marching on as as it always does. I know there are so much more that we we could we could chat about here. Best place people well, what is the best place for people to find out more if they wanna find out more about you, maybe get in touch? What what’s the best way to do that?

Dani Louise Smith [00:24:47]:
Well, the link’s for the show notes if you need to come and connect with me out there. But, to find me on social media, Queen of Business Organization, but the best place will be my website because you’ll be able to find the book on there, everything that I do, and my freebies. I love I love giving out a freebie. So all of that is available on my website for you to check out.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:05]:
And the website is?

Dani Louise Smith [00:25:07]:
It’s queenofbusinessorganization.co.uk.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:10]:
Brilliant. Queenofbusinessorganization, all one word, dotco.uk. Yeah. As as Dani said, you can find out more about her, find out about the books, connect with her, get loads of information. Queenofbusinessorganization.co.uk. Of course, Sally’s on the socials. Why wouldn’t she be? She’s got more links. All of those links and the books, links to the books are all in the show notes for this episode.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:37]:
The usual place, keithblakemorenoble.com/show. Go to the Keith Blakemorenoble radio show and look for the one with Dani Louise Smith. You’ll find all the all the details in there, or just go directly to queenofbusinessorganization.co dotuk. Dani, thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to to share to share this with us and and and to inspire us. I’ve I’ve picked up a few notes. Hope, our viewers and listeners have as well. So, yeah, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you, dear viewer. Thank you, dear viewer, dear listener.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:26:13]:
Thank you for joining us. Remember, give us a like, a comment, a share, subscribe. Give us a review. It all helps to spread the word and get more people to to find, find these shows and, hopefully, to get more inspiration for them. That’s it for now. We’ll catch you in another episode very soon, and I’m gonna leave you with Dani’s favorite quote. Beautiful quote. Very, very, very accurate quote as well.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:26:38]:
Failing to plan is planning to fail.