We had the good fortune of connecting with Danielle Janssen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danielle, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?

I’m not sure there is a thing called balance, yet, we all tend to strive towards it. The truth is, life ebbs and flows, some days are harder than others and we all just try to keep our head above the water. Most days, I knock it out of the park. Some days, I feel like I’m drowning and that’s OK, that’s part of the ownership of being your own CEO.

I think the first step to finding “balance” is really understanding why balance would be important to you or your family. IE. Is it to be able to manage the day to day stress better? Maybe the idea of not being so busy or everything coming at once would help control ones stress, mood, anxiety, etc.? Well, if that’s the goal, then how can you set up your day, to achieve just that as much as possible. Finding out the WHY and then working backwards on your business, analyzing systems, communication, and how you connect would be hugely beneficial.

For me personally, I am constantly trying to pivot in my businesses as they grow to help me achieve the work/life flow I want. I started with one business and scaled this business to 3 days a week on, 4 days a week off. This allowed me to have plenty of time to connect with my husband and children more, do things that light me up in my free time and continue to drip on self-care which is a priority to me personally, spiritually and professionally. And just when I figured that out, I added another business. Now in those 4 days of off time, sometimes dripping into the other 3 days of work time, I’m juggling this other business. Now What? Time to Pivot! I assessed the client load I was taking and how I could continue to scale my business for that self-care time and time for my family.

Some steps personally that work for me to find flow with 2 businesses now is on my 3 day work week for my 1st business, I created a 3 hour lunch break. I know.. seems a bit much YET, I use those three hours to purge any stresses that come up personally for me during the day. If you are a mom, you tend to start your day and all these personal to-do’s creep into you sub-conscious mind. You start feeling anxious that there are so many things to do at home, whether its cleaning, prepping dinner, your kids laundry, the dog needs a walk, etc. Trying to work and visualize in business is hard when your sub conscious is telling you, you are lacking. SO, here came the brainstorm of a 3 hour lunch break.

During this time, I will:
-Go to the gym
-Schedule any pick up orders (target, grocery, etc)
-Walk or run the dog
-Clean the house / conquer a load or two of laundry
-Meal prep for dinner
-Run any errands, sometimes a quick car wash
-Listen to at least 1 podcast
-Meditate or a 10 min sensory shut down (no computers, phones, etc.)

This all allows me to show up for the 2nd part of my day, ready to serve again and anxiety free for my growing to-do list. Now you may be thinking, Danielle why not hire someone to help with all this? Great question. For me personally, I feel like my best self when I get to show up as mom, homemaker, business women, CEO. If you are someone who actually feels more empowered to just show up as CEO, than hire a nanny/personal assistant. This is a great way to scale and keep in FLOW (balance) with your home life and work life. Delegation is huge if you are someone like me, that likes to control.  Bringing on an assistant feeds anxiety. Here’s the analogy. If you delegate someone else to run your financials for your business and you are going to stress about it anyways as you want to be in the know, why worry twice? Just do it and worry once.

The question of finding balance really boils down to one question. What makes you feel EPOWERED YET IN flow with your life?  This is where comparison of Other professional, CEOs, colleaugues, is ridiculous as you don’t know what systems, or help they may have in place.   As a realtor, I can watch other realtors killing it – never taking a day off, barely seeing their families but making a lot of money. Why would I want this? I just shared what’s important to me. If I led their lifestyle, I would be miserable actually. So why do I compare myself to them? Their business? Maybe they have a nanny, an assistant, or spouse that is also licensed beind the scene etc. Do what’s best for your life/family and business. Create space to work on YOU as it will always transcend into a more abundance self which will transcend into a more abundant business.

AND, remember, everything is seasoned. You may find a season where something impacts you more than another and you spend more time on or in your business or the opposite, outside of it. Lean in so you can rest at night knowing, you were able to achieve the things that are most important to you.

I’ve learned finding flow in life and business is key. You with have seasons where it feels off or out of balance. That’s ok. Work through them and do you best to find flow again.

That the single best thing you can do in business and personal growth is invest in yourself. People can “out-work” you but if they aren’t doing the self-work, you will transcend them both personally and professionally soon.

Finding a tribe of like-minded people is key.

I’ve learned in business that comparison is a thief. That my life and journey is just that – Mine. Don’t compare where you are to others. Everything can look awesome on social media but most likely, their home life sucks. Their relationships lack, their flow with family is strained. The best thing you can do is focus your energy inward and show up and serve those around you and the rest will fall into place.

I would want to world to know:

The single best thing you can do in your personal and professional life in my opinion is, do the self work. You can actually attract the clients you want, the abundance you seek and the life you desire by holding a high vibing frequency. I am not saying, hard work wont come into play, but I would argue 75% of success starts from within.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
DJSELLSAZHomes is primarly focused in the East Valley but serves all over the valley #SELLINGTHEVALLEY.  I focus on the east side as I have resided in this area for almost a decade.   My tag line is selling lifestyles + luxury + living.  If you know me, the buckets are quite fitting.   As my other business is a huge sphere of influence to my real estate business, lifestyles & living are hugely important.  Evolve a Centre for Optimal Living is my second business and we help people with neural integration.  Neural integration is allowing people to deal with past and present traumas within their biology and transcend it.   Once you evolve, your life begins to change, one starts truly living.   As people start to change their lifestyles, naturally, their home lives may EVOLVE.   It was important for me to bridge my busineses as clients at Evolve Centre have seen my face for the past decade.  People want to work with those they “know, like & trust.”   If you want to learn more about Evolve or transcending past physical, mental or emotional stress, visit the link at the end of this article.   If you are a business owner and are not incorporating neural integration as a part of your self-care routine, Why not?  Tony Robbins talks about “priming” his nervous system every morning to start his day.  If you truly want to grow and evolve, you MUST incorporate nervous system work!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Being from the midwest, this happens often. Everyone wants to come check out the warm weather and sun!

Breakfast at some local fav’s, Morning Kick in Gilbert and Sidewalk Coffee & Bagel Co. in Queen Creek.

Golf at my country club, Seville followed by lunch at The Grove on property.

Dinner in Scottsdale at Maple & Ash.

There would be pool days and relaxing again at Seville where they have cabana service which feels like you are at a resort but we can’t spend the night. hehe.

I enjoy my family and friends spending time in our residence, enjoying the pool, the indoor/outdoor entertainment atmosphere that Arizona allows us to have.

I am a sucker for downtown Gilbert, the energy and amazing food is awesome. I love The Porch! A new restaurant to Gilbert that I really enjoy is SALT. I am a sucker for good tacos & margs. The vibe is on point with loud music and bright colors.

When in doubt, hiking near my home in the San Tan Mountains always makes my out of town visitors appreciate all that AZ has to offer. Goldmine trail is a must.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband. I know, sounds cheesy but seriously, the man has helped transcend my life for the better. Fun story, my husband and I started dating when we were 14. Two kids from a small town in Wisconsin that no one really wants to visit. I mean, there’s no real infrastructure, limited financial opportunity and success and we knew at a young age as we were dreaming… we want more. We helped each other become the best versions of us to get out of town and create the life we wanted. Now, that sounds easy, it wasn’t easy. We had no idea what we were doing but we set the intention to live a different life at just 14 and look what transpired. My husband went to Doctorate school and moved far away from friends and family in Wisconsin to Georgia. It was just him and I to conquer the world. We were lost. We didn’t know what we were doing and then, we got pregnant with out first daughter! WTF. Seriously. Now, we are broke, in a new place, I’m the only one working to support us as he is in the trenches of doctorate school and we are about to have a newborn. Do you know, that was the put up or shut up moment? It forced us to become or be trampled. This is where I first stepped into owning my life as a CEO and building my way up a corporate ladder, if you will, to be successful. At just 26 years old, I had an infant, worked 60+ hours a week, made around 6 figures, put my husband through doctorate school and lived on airplanes and mingling with CEOs, Doctors across the world. Might sound like a cool life to some but I also realized for the first thing, this was not for me. This time of our life showed me, I wanted to be the CEO of my life, create and own flow and life where I could be in charge and do what’s more aligned with our values.
My husband graduated and we decided Arizona is where we wanted to start a practice and serve our community. Here went another challenge to take on together and to truly become the people that people would want to invest financially into. You can’t take people on a journey of health and healing when you yourself are limited in thinking or lacking health. The universe forced us to become better versions of ourselves again. And the big piece here is, my husband took the reins to support for us as I was doing the leg work when he was a student. It wasn’t easy. He had a lot of rejection, fear and anxiety he had to work with. I watched him complete transform his mindset, study and read for hours a day, workout twice a day, eat clean, … honestly, he was doing 75 hard before it even became that and more like 150 hard. His drive inspired me. He knew he couldn’t push me so by osmosis, I became following in his steps. We 100% grew at different levels and in all transparency, had moments where we questioned each other our marriage, if who one was becoming was what the other one wanted. It was HARD. Why I tell you he is the person that deserves my shout out, he is the glue, the backbone, the person who inspires me most to be the best version of myself. Not the 14 year old girl who had zero confidence and a lot of anxiety, fear, and lack. He knows when I need to be picked dup and kicked in the ass to get going. He runs the energy of the household and has such a conscious outlook and abundant mindset, I can’t even go back to limiting beliefs if I try. It’s not easy to keep this frequency in life. He has to work daily to hold this and for that, I’m grateful for him. I’m grateful he is my husband, my daughters daddy and our leader.

Website: Daniellejanssen.exprealty.com. | www.EvolveCentre.Info

Instagram: DJSELLSAZ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJSellsAZ/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2bUuLSf8aYp0yfj8_a5ncw

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.