Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / Why Not Today? Season 1 - Episode 17 with Donielle Scherff

Transcript

Why Not Today? Season 1 - Episode 17 with Donielle Scherff · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

• 0:00
  Hello, this is Leslie and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
• 0:05
  This podcast is to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not today?
• 0:12
  I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Kane, who often said, why not today?
• 0:17
  I am based in Reston, Virginia, a Planned community right outside Washington, DC, and
• 0:21
  thanks for joining us today.
• 0:22
  And I'm super excited for my guest today because although she's got a very courageous story,
• 0:28
  she's also a super close, good friend, part of my tribe, and I'm excited to have Danielle
• 0:33
  Scherff, did I pronounce that right?
• 0:35
  Sure did.
• 0:36
  Oh, yeah.
• 0:37
  As my guest today, and I always talk about connections and how you meet people, and it's
• 0:42
  kind of funny, and I may have mentioned this before, but when I meet somebody that I know
• 0:47
  is going to be in my life forever, I exactly remember the time I met them, and I goes back
• 0:53
  to mutual friend, who was a coach, I was talking to her about coaching me, and she's like,
• 0:57
  you know what, I have another idea.
• 0:58
  I've got two friends that are in business by themselves, and I would love to do all
• 1:03
  of us get together.
• 1:04
  So I remember exactly where I was sitting when Karen and I had that conversation, and
• 1:07
  then I met you and just totally fell in love with you.
• 1:10
  And as I said, you've been, I think, one of the reasons I survived COVID.
• 1:16
  We got together a lot and kind of in each other's little pod, and I'm super excited
• 1:21
  to have you as my guest today.
• 1:24
  You're going to share courageous things about running for town council.
• 1:28
  Is that the title?
• 1:30
  Town council?
• 1:31
  That's it, yeah, absolutely.
• 1:32
  So yay.
• 1:33
  So welcome, Danielle, and tell us, oh, and then the other kind of fun connection, and
• 1:37
  it always somehow goes back to this, is I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I
• 1:41
  was born in Buffalo, and that's where Danielle's from.
• 1:43
  So kind of a small world connection.
• 1:45
  So Danielle, introduce yourself, tell us a little about you and a fun story, a fun fact
• 1:51
  we don't know, nobody knows about you.
• 1:52
  I'm going to think about my fun fact.
• 1:55
  Well, hello, it is so good to be here with you.
• 1:58
  I'm Danielle Scherff.
• 1:59
  I am running for town council, and I'm really excited about that.
• 2:02
  But I have to say the thing I'm most excited about this morning is being here with you
• 2:07
  because I feel like life has gotten so busy.
• 2:10
  But I will say about our connection, there is rarely a time I leave your company where
• 2:14
  I don't feel just invigorated and ready to take on the world.
• 2:18
  And talk about why not today.
• 2:19
  Those are the people you need in your life to make that happen.
• 2:23
  Yep.
• 2:24
  So you said town council, so you're running for town council of Herndon, Virginia, who
• 2:27
  I've had on the podcast before, Lisa Merkel, who started running for town council and then
• 2:32
  became mayor, or she was in town council and then she was the mayor of Herndon.
• 2:35
  And Herndon, for those of you listening that aren't local to us, is a little town close
• 2:40
  to where I live, and a historical town.
• 2:44
  Historical town.
• 2:45
  And so yeah, Danielle, you're running.
• 2:46
  So tell us a little about you before we jump into that and a fun fact.
• 2:51
  Okay.
• 2:52
  So I am originally from Buffalo, New York.
• 2:55
  I think that that informs a whole lot of how I approach the world and why I'm even running
• 2:59
  for town council.
• 3:01
  I moved to Reston, Virginia in 2008 and a couple of years later then moved to Herndon.
• 3:07
  And I picked Herndon because it speaks to my soul.
• 3:10
  It has sidewalks and streetlights and neighbors and you know the people who you run into in
• 3:17
  town, and I absolutely love that about this place.
• 3:22
  If you've ever been in a room with me, the things that I absolutely can't keep quiet
• 3:25
  about are community and caring adult engagement, which we can talk about another time, but
• 3:32
  I really feel strongly about contributing to the community that you live in.
• 3:36
  And so that's a huge part of who I am.
• 3:39
  Fun facts about me.
• 3:40
  My default fun fact is always about my dog Charlie.
• 3:44
  He is my sidekick and I adore him.
• 3:46
  He's a Dachshund Beagle mix that I rescued seven years ago.
• 3:50
  And in 2015, Charlie, this tiny puppy and I went to Manhattan and he was in the Discovery
• 3:57
  Channel Puppy Bowl and it was the cutest experience of my life.
• 4:01
  And while it's his accomplishment and not mine, it's definitely a fun fact.
• 4:06
  Yeah, I love that about Charlie.
• 4:08
  So cute.
• 4:11
  Definitely a part of you.
• 4:12
  So tell me, Danielle, what does courage mean to you?
• 4:16
  What does courage mean to me?
• 4:18
  You know, I struggle with that word.
• 4:19
  I mean, there's big terms like that, like courage and resilience that I really struggle
• 4:24
  with because it always reverberates to me to you had to overcome something.
• 4:32
  So I think prevailing is what I think of when I think of courage.
• 4:37
  And I'm really motivated by prevailing in situations that are especially difficult.
• 4:42
  But there's a part of me where that I just feel like, oh, if we all didn't have to be
• 4:48
  so courageous and so resilient all the time, what could we accomplish?
• 4:53
  And you know, ask everybody that question.
• 4:56
  And ultimately, my goal is to have a little courage cards and courage votes for everybody.
• 5:02
  But everybody's answer is different.
• 5:04
  But a lot of people, you know, it's overcoming it.
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  But a lot of people say it's taking that one step, doing those little things and they add
• 5:13
  up.
• 5:14
  So I know we talked about your running for town council.
• 5:17
  So let's talk about the courage it took to that to do that.
• 5:20
  And you just know you said when we came on originally, this is the hardest thing you've
• 5:24
  ever done.
• 5:25
  So let's talk about running for town council and what that looks like and why you're doing
• 5:30
  it and all those things.
• 5:32
  There is a great story behind that.
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  I like I said, when I moved here, I felt really strongly that when I decided to live here,
• 5:39
  I decided to really be a part of this community.
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  And I have been, you know, I'm engaged in a lot of different community organizations.
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  I help people really address problems in their communities.
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  And I am always cheering this town on.
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  Like you said, Herndon is a small town, about 35 minutes outside of D.C. It's about four
• 5:56
  square miles.
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  And unlike a lot of the places around us, it feels like a naturally occurring neighborhood.
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  All of the houses don't look the same.
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  The streets are different.
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  There's different, I would say, pockets in town that have a very different description
• 6:12
  from one another.
• 6:14
  And I love every inch of it.
• 6:17
  Now I will say I am a political beast.
• 6:21
  You know, not a partisan person, but I really love the chess game of politics and I follow
• 6:25
  it pretty closely.
• 6:26
  But I believe that real change comes at the local level, the change that people could
• 6:31
  feel and the change that people could be a part of happens right where you live.
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  And I'm lucky that Herndon has one of the few local municipal governments in the state
• 6:41
  of Virginia.
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  So the town council in Herndon is six council seats and the mayor.
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  And they work closely with the chief of police and the town manager to make this town run.
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  And I really thought that it was time for me to take what I do in sort of a more, I
• 7:01
  don't want to say casual, but less formal way and formalize it.
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  Take a position of leadership in this new way.
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  And so I decided to run for council.
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  I knew this would be hard work.
• 7:15
  I had no idea how much work this would be.
• 7:17
  Yeah.
• 7:18
  I admire you for doing this.
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  Nothing I would ever cap.
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  What is hard about it and what's taking courage to prevail?
• 7:27
  So the courage, I mean, there's a couple, I feel like the courage and flexion points
• 7:31
  are making the decision to do it.
• 7:34
  So is it one thing you just woke up one morning and say, I'm going to do this or is it been
• 7:38
  something you thought about for a long time or?
• 7:41
  No, I knew that I would run for something at some point.
• 7:45
  I always did.
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  And I come from this family that has, I'll tell you a really interesting story about
• 7:50
  my mom recently.
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  I come from a family that has always been, if not engaged in the political process, really,
• 7:57
  really excited about voting.
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  And I think back on a lot of times growing up when my grandfather was a committeeman
• 8:05
  and people would show up on their porch unannounced and just ask for help or just talk to him
• 8:09
  about something going on in the neighborhood.
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  And I'm sure you had that happen too, because your dad was sort of an unofficial community
• 8:14
  ombudsman too.
• 8:16
  But I was always a part of it.
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  I was definitely in a family that they didn't separate the kids from the adults very much.
• 8:22
  And so I got to see all of that happening.
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  And my uncles worked for Public Works and then eventually started helping folks get
• 8:30
  elected in the community.
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  So I got to see the mechanics of how that works.
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  And the story of my family is my great grandparents came here from Sicily and they were so excited
• 8:40
  to vote that that was the reason why they learned English.
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  And there's a picture somewhere that I can't put my hands on, but the two of them, my
• 8:48
  great grandparents dressed up to walk to the end of their street to vote.
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  And they were so happy to do it.
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  So I was just confirming all these facts that I knew as sort of like community or family
• 9:01
  lore with my mom.
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  And I said, you know, mom, why didn't any of them ever run?
• 9:06
  And it seemed like a really innocent question.
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  And she was quiet for a second.
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  And then she said, they just didn't feel like it was their place.
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  And it really took me a second, you know, it took me back because these people whose
• 9:20
  intentions were good, that were smart, that were engaged, that were living in the community
• 9:23
  that they wanted to serve, they didn't feel like it was their place, Leslie.
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  And I think that's the point where I said, I have to have the courage to do this because
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  I'm the next step in this chain.
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  All the things that they did got me to this place so that I could be the one who does
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  the next thing.
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  And the next thing was running.
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  So I have to do this.
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  I have to.
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  That's awesome.
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  And I know that definitely took courage to put your hat in the ring.
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  And yes, Tommy, what does it look like?
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  What are you doing?
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  How can people help you?
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  Oh, my gosh.
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  What a great question.
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  It is a lot of getting out in the community and talking to folks.
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  I have lots of events that I'm going to tonight.
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  For example, there's a Meet the Candidates night sponsored by the Dulles Chamber of Commerce.
• 10:12
  And that's terrific because everyone who's running will be in the same room.
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  And if someone has a question or if they just want to walk through and meet everyone and
• 10:20
  see the materials, they can do that.
• 10:21
  So it's a very easy thing to be a part of.
• 10:24
  But if you want to have some hard-hitting conversations, it's absolutely an option.
• 10:29
  I have been doing everything from I have a trunk or tree coming up with the candidates.
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  We have Herndon Parade this weekend.
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  So we'll have a float in the parade.
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  It has been nonstop events for several months.
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  And we're starting to canvas.
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  So we're going door to door, knocking on doors, talking to folks, making sure to leave information
• 10:50
  so that they're as informed as they can be to make the decision that they need to make
• 10:54
  on November 3rd.
• 10:55
  Yeah, that's awesome.
• 10:56
  I mean, you are doing all the things.
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  And it's getting and I think Lisa Merkel said, too, what she loved is she just got out and
• 11:02
  talked to people.
• 11:03
  Yeah, and that's what she said she loved so much about being on the council and the mayor
• 11:08
  is just getting to know people and talking to people.
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  And it always like where I live at, like, again, when I walk around the morning, walk
• 11:16
  around the lake and see people and the stores are starting to open up and things are kind
• 11:20
  of buzzing down there.
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  It always reminds me of Sesame Street.
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  Who do you know in your neighborhood?
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  Absolutely.
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  That's my ringtone.
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  So important.
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  What?
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  Who are the people in your neighborhood is my ringtone.
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  It's my favorite song.
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  Really?
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  I did not know that.
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  So yeah, getting out and meeting people and sharing your views.
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  So what do you want to see?
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  How do you want Herndon to be different?
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  What do you want to make or why?
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  Where do you see you can make a difference?
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  So I have to first say that you mentioned Lisa Merkel and she was the mayor before the
• 11:57
  current mayor.
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  And she worked tirelessly to take Herndon from kind of a dark place in its history to
• 12:04
  this inflection point where we are now.
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  And there is so much growth just on the verge of happening in Herndon.
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  And it's so exciting, especially for me coming from Buffalo where things had a tendency to
• 12:17
  stall out.
• 12:18
  I am feeling so encouraged but so much responsibility for Herndon right this minute because we have
• 12:27
  this opportunity to sort of craft what the future looks like.
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  What we have this responsibility to craft what the future looks like.
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  Herndon is getting a new metro stop too in fact.
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  And that's a big deal.
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  And we're sort of in this nebulous middle of redeveloping our tiny historic downtown.
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  And there's a big piece of property in the center that we have an agreement with a local
• 12:51
  developer Comstock to redevelop for us.
• 12:54
  And there's a plan and it's signed and it's all ready to go.
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  But the pandemic and supply chain issues have forced the developer to take a pause on the
• 13:03
  project.
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  So one of the things that's very important to me is to make sure that that project gets
• 13:08
  top priority and that we both love and pressure our partners to do the best thing for this
• 13:14
  town.
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  I feel like I say this a lot but when a project like that in the middle of town that's very
• 13:22
  visible that people have put so much time and energy and effort and feeling into stalls.
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  It could really erode what a community feels about itself and that could have reverberations
• 13:32
  for a long time.
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  And I don't want that for Herndon.
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  So that's a top priority for me.
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  And you know we're coming out of the pandemic and facing growth.
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  So we had this sort of scale back and now we need to scale up.
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  And that's a lot for any town.
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  So again it's going to take some really good leadership to stay mindful to all of the things
• 13:55
  that make us a great place right now and all the people who have contributed their heart
• 13:59
  and soul and their family life to making Herndon what it is that was so appealing to me and
• 14:04
  so appealing to other people when they see it and want to live here.
• 14:07
  And then being a steward of what's to come and making the best decisions so that the
• 14:13
  next generation feels great about living here too.
• 14:16
  Right and Herndon is definitely a unique place.
• 14:19
  How many people live in Herndon?
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  You know the population?
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  Under 30,000.
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  Really?
• 14:23
  Yeah.
• 14:24
  And so and I always talk about the connection with my dad at the end but there's way too
• 14:29
  many connections with this.
• 14:31
  So I grew up in Reston and the next town I'm over for people that don't know is Herndon.
• 14:39
  And growing up that was like our backyard and actually we didn't even go to high school
• 14:44
  because high school was built the year I started high school in the Westbrook room for us on
• 14:49
  the side of Westbrook when I lived there.
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  So I went to Herndon High School and was totally heard of Herndon and you know done tons in
• 14:57
  Herndon and go back to my dad and I think it was like a couple years ago but obviously
• 15:02
  not but he worked for the town of Herndon.
• 15:05
  They hired him as a developer and working in a community.
• 15:09
  He was a community planner and what he really did is went into town and revitalized them.
• 15:14
  And so he did several towns in New York Batavia which is right outside of Buffalo and that's
• 15:20
  actually where he worked as his first job as community planner was in Buffalo but then
• 15:25
  he worked for Herndon.
• 15:26
  And I don't know how long it's been.
• 15:29
  We need to ask Mr. Downer.
• 15:30
  He would know how long it's been because it has been a long time.
• 15:37
  But a lot of the ideas that he worked on that they just couldn't get pushed to happen.
• 15:43
  They had lots of resistance and just didn't come to fruition.
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  Finally I think Lisa Merkel came into office and things started happening that they talked
• 15:51
  about like the sign coming into Herndon that welcomed Herndon.
• 15:55
  That was one of the ideas I came up with when he was working in town.
• 16:00
  And I think it was 30 years ago if not longer than that.
• 16:05
  Your dad's a visionary.
• 16:07
  There are just I feel imprints in the sand before me wherever I am of your dad.
• 16:13
  And it's so interesting because I met you and I didn't know anything about Pat Kane
• 16:18
  but through the process of just coming into the selection season and leading up to it
• 16:22
  there are so many connections.
• 16:25
  I feel like he's right before me in all of these things.
• 16:28
  I know I'm going in the right direction because I see where Pat Kane was before me.
• 16:31
  It's interesting when talking to Lisa Merkel.
• 16:35
  She's like I never met your dad and I didn't know who your dad was.
• 16:39
  I heard her name and Lisa was very kind and sat down with my mom.
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  My mom brought her all the history stuff that my dad had for the office.
• 16:47
  In his office.
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  About Herndon and brought it to Lisa and Lisa sat and talked to my mom for a long time after
• 16:52
  my dad had passed away.
• 16:54
  And Lisa's like I never knew your dad.
• 16:56
  But after he passed away I was talking to Mr. Downer and he said something about it
• 17:03
  was right after my dad had passed away.
• 17:04
  He said something about it.
• 17:05
  I wish I would have met him from time to time.
• 17:08
  And then somehow the way he looked to see if the eye patch on Handelbarr mustache came
• 17:12
  up that Mr. Downer said something about it.
• 17:15
  And Lisa's like I know him.
• 17:16
  I saw him a while.
• 17:17
  I had no idea who that character was.
• 17:20
  Yeah.
• 17:21
  I mean you bring up a really good point.
• 17:26
  I've lived here since 2015 in Herndon.
• 17:30
  And it's been that long.
• 17:32
  It has.
• 17:33
  I know.
• 17:34
  But it's needed to be that long.
• 17:36
  And I'll tell you in a second.
• 17:38
  But I had the opportunity to meet your dad's contemporaries.
• 17:42
  You know Les Lidell and Richard Downer.
• 17:45
  They were always so quick to mentor and always so quick to say let me tell you the history
• 17:52
  of this thing.
• 17:54
  And you know we lost Les during the pandemic and Richard and Linda have recently moved
• 17:58
  to North Carolina.
• 17:59
  And so it was like just that tiny little overlap right where I got to meet them.
• 18:07
  And you know talking to your mom about your dad's priorities.
• 18:10
  She was so good to me when I asked her you know talk about courage.
• 18:14
  I asked your mom very frankly what was this like for your family to have your husband
• 18:18
  so engaged in the community.
• 18:20
  How did that feel for your life because that's a huge part of this journey.
• 18:26
  You know every time I take a big step I think what does this do to this amazing life that
• 18:31
  I have already.
• 18:33
  Because life is pretty good here.
• 18:34
  You know this area is wonderful.
• 18:36
  Our tribe of friends is wonderful.
• 18:39
  There's so much opportunity.
• 18:40
  I have never been in a community and I love Buffalo with all my heart.
• 18:46
  But I have I've never been in a community so accepting of new ideas.
• 18:51
  And I joke with with people all the time.
• 18:53
  You can say you want to try or do anything here.
• 18:56
  And the person you're talking to will say oh my gosh have you talked to this other person
• 19:00
  or oh I know something like that.
• 19:02
  Everyone wants to make a connection and lift you up and help you towards your purpose.
• 19:06
  And what an amazing thing.
• 19:07
  And that's been the same thing in Herndon.
• 19:09
  You know there's there's always some people that are going to be adversely and difficult.
• 19:12
  But for the most part people want to help you along because they see that you're taking
• 19:16
  on something that's important everyone.
• 19:18
  Right.
• 19:19
  And I think your point about helping connect you is definitely not everybody.
• 19:24
  But I think you like me are connectors and we are there to help other people.
• 19:30
  And I think we are attract those kind of people in our life that you know that a lot of people
• 19:37
  do not do that and aren't like that.
• 19:41
  But it's funny there's a podcast that Jim was going into her and he was going to interview
• 19:46
  him on a podcast that Jim was going into her and he walked in to people in the palette where
• 19:51
  my friend Robin was the other day.
• 19:53
  Three of us were talking women and he walked in and we're all like have you met this person?
• 19:57
  Do you want to do this?
• 19:58
  Let's do this.
• 19:59
  And he probably walked out the door with his head spinning.
• 20:03
  He's like who the heck did I just meet?
• 20:06
  A better friend.
• 20:07
  He's like wow.
• 20:08
  He had no idea.
• 20:09
  But yeah I think we attract people like that.
• 20:13
  And I want to share that right?
• 20:17
  Like that's amazing Leslie that you are a connector.
• 20:20
  I am a connector.
• 20:21
  It's just how we operate.
• 20:22
  But when I meet folks that don't have that or aren't that I just want to coach them because
• 20:25
  I feel like if they knew about it they totally would do it.
• 20:27
  It's too important not to.
• 20:30
  Herndon this is one thing that I think is really important that I don't think it's talked about
• 20:34
  enough.
• 20:35
  Herndon is a minority majority town.
• 20:38
  And that minority is primarily Hispanic but not only Hispanic.
• 20:44
  And our Hispanic community is primarily Mayan.
• 20:46
  So they're Guatemalan and from Belize and they're from that part of the world.
• 20:52
  And I think that part of my task moving forward is making sure that that connection and that
• 20:58
  invitation and that everybody's welcome at the table reaches more deeply into that community
• 21:05
  because there is sort of an unintentional but no less unexcusable break.
• 21:12
  You know it seems pretty separate.
• 21:14
  And so I don't think it's not out of malice or anything negative.
• 21:19
  It's just we need to do a better job of reaching out to each other.
• 21:22
  And so that's part of the goal for me.
• 21:24
  Yeah and connecting.
• 21:26
  Connecting yeah.
• 21:28
  Yeah because the vision of Herndon has always been you know historical old school from what
• 21:34
  I got growing up.
• 21:36
  You know Reston was the new place.
• 21:38
  Herndon was the old place.
• 21:41
  And almost like we're kind of more country than Reston.
• 21:46
  I don't know if I want you to go to Herndon which is so funny.
• 21:51
  That's so funny because you grew up here and so you have this like big institutional knowledge
• 21:56
  of this place.
• 21:57
  And I think a lot of people who live in Herndon still think of it as like a dairy town.
• 22:01
  And as someone who didn't grow up here truly 35 minutes outside of the capital of the free
• 22:08
  world I cannot think of this place as anything other than just barely suburban.
• 22:14
  And I think there's so much about Herndon that is it toggles small town and urban.
• 22:19
  I love that.
• 22:20
  I love that.
• 22:21
  But it's funny you're not the only one who said yeah small sleepy country town.
• 22:25
  What?
• 22:26
  And then I love the historical part and the old houses and the history and so many things
• 22:38
  because Reston is only 59 years old.
• 22:41
  So Herndon is a lot older.
• 22:46
  So what else?
• 22:51
  So we talked about so anything in life other things you've done courageous or something
• 23:00
  you wish you would have done or no and we talked earlier I'm going to interview for
• 23:04
  other things that you've done.
• 23:07
  So I feel like there are a handful of things that have been my courageous things.
• 23:14
  You know I started my own business 10 years ago and that was a big deal.
• 23:19
  I moved here from upstate New York really for a temporary job.
• 23:23
  It was a six month position and never looked back.
• 23:27
  I do brave things and I think brave things for me shake me out of my rut and it's always
• 23:33
  good for me to take on a new challenge.
• 23:35
  I will tell you at this point in my life and this is the hardest thing this is part of
• 23:38
  this just being like I'm at a growth moment so I will keep saying this is the hardest
• 23:41
  thing but I am growing.
• 23:45
  The challenge right now the brave thing is staying you know doubling down and saying
• 23:50
  no this is home for me this is where I put down roots and the bravery is when it's hard
• 23:58
  when it's good when it needs more work when I'm exhausted when I'm inspired all of it
• 24:05
  I'm staying and that's my great thing right now.
• 24:08
  Yeah and it probably takes bravery every morning out of bed and keep going with this and I
• 24:16
  know something you're like as soon as the election is over I have to do this but until
• 24:20
  then you can't.
• 24:22
  Yeah yeah yeah it's taken up every every possible minute.
• 24:26
  I get up extra early because it's still the business to run and I plan my day really carefully
• 24:31
  and I collapse in bed at three in the morning with a list for the next day but that's the
• 24:37
  name of the game and that you know everyone says more women should run and more young
• 24:43
  people should run and I feel like there's a bigger project coming behind this for me
• 24:49
  because there's always a bigger project coming behind this.
• 24:53
  You know to ask that of a single person to ask that of a woman who has a family I think
• 24:57
  that's a bigger ask than for someone who doesn't fit those descriptions because we're already
• 25:02
  pushed you know our time is already precious and so you know how many women and young people
• 25:10
  can really do this.
• 25:12
  If you work with somebody else, you didn't have your own business.
• 25:18
  But then again if you work with somebody else you're getting that constant paycheck which
• 25:23
  now you still have to work to keep you're not just getting paid.
• 25:27
  Absolutely.
• 25:28
  Yeah so a whole different scenario.
• 25:32
  So what advice would you give somebody to be courageous or say why not today and do
• 25:41
  that thing that you're doing.
• 25:45
  So I think you're partially doing it.
• 25:48
  I don't know if you've ever talked about this but when you first showed me for Christmas
• 25:52
  you gave me a why not today mug and when I pulled it out of the bag I started to cry
• 25:58
  because I was so moved by that idea and I was so moved that you were going to encourage
• 26:04
  people to take their why not today step and I'm tearing up right now.
• 26:10
  And I think why not today is just a far more beautiful far more encouraging way to say
• 26:14
  well what's the worst that could happen and I think that's where I usually start well
• 26:17
  what's the worst that can happen.
• 26:19
  And my my advice would be take the first step over your fear and give it a try.
• 26:30
  The worst thing that could happen is that you end up where you started and the best
• 26:33
  thing that could happen will defy your wildest dreams.
• 26:37
  Right.
• 26:39
  And you know there's something somebody was going to write a book and decided not to and
• 26:44
  sometimes the why not today is okay I tried that on not for me but I tried and decided
• 26:50
  to.
• 26:51
  I was going to say I interviewed somebody that went to school for engineering and didn't
• 26:58
  go that often.
• 26:59
  I was just talking to a friend of mine yesterday whose son is in school for engineering and
• 27:04
  doing an internship and not sure that's where he wants to be going.
• 27:08
  That's okay.
• 27:09
  I think that you know maybe it's not the engineering degree or the book or the election that you're
• 27:16
  supposed to be doing but maybe that's the step you needed to take to get to the thing
• 27:19
  you are supposed to be doing.
• 27:20
  I mean if I would have not taken my courageous step to move here I wouldn't have started
• 27:24
  my business if I wouldn't have taken the courageous step to start my business I wouldn't have
• 27:29
  met you and if I wouldn't have met you we wouldn't you know it goes on and on and on
• 27:33
  and it all led me to this moment right here and I know this is the right moment for me
• 27:37
  I know where I'm supposed to be that I'm living my purpose.
• 27:39
  That's awesome.
• 27:40
  I love that and it's interesting you talking about those moments and I talked to a friend
• 27:45
  of mine like the connections and where you met that person.
• 27:49
  So I always share you know tie it back to my dad with this podcast honoring him and
• 27:55
  so if I look back like I met you because of Karen and I met Karen and got to know Karen
• 28:00
  because of my dad.
• 28:03
  That Karen was my dad and we changed a few years ago and I didn't really know Karen very
• 28:07
  well and so my dad passed away and it's up this way back.
• 28:12
  So connection to my dad we can go on a Buffalo we can go to the town of Curned in meeting
• 28:19
  you because of my dad because of Karen.
• 28:21
  Tell me about your team being involved and you totally touched my heart when you did
• 28:29
  cry when I gave you the wine with the sake of like and that you said that you were thinking
• 28:35
  about running and that was the kind of the following from my dad.
• 28:42
  And you know there was this gentleness about the canes and I think if you meet the canes
• 28:49
  in the wild you wouldn't know that there's this gentleness because you are just you know
• 28:52
  you're like a bunch of puppies you love each other you're loud it's wonderful but the
• 28:57
  encouragement that I've gotten from your dad and from you and from your mom and from your
• 29:00
  sisters has been this gentle warm nudge of well obviously you're going to do this and
• 29:08
  that's been that's been sort of the kindness that I've needed through this so I owe you
• 29:13
  a thank you.
• 29:14
  And I also want to say like this is really important because you're talking about courage
• 29:20
  and starting something big and new just because you have the courage to do something doesn't
• 29:25
  mean it won't be really hard and I don't think we say that enough it'll be a struggle you
• 29:32
  might want to give up sometimes you might have good and bad days there's these slumps
• 29:36
  and these peaks but and it'll be hard but it's worth it it's worth it.
• 29:40
  A friend of mine has a tag line so we can do hard things.
• 29:44
  Absolutely.
• 29:45
  And you know I'm always going to like what you do but doing the hard things you come
• 29:52
  out afterwards like stronger and crazier.
• 29:55
  Yes absolutely.
• 29:56
  So well we can talk ever now or never but thank you for being on and so I'm going to
• 30:04
  share with this podcast when I post it where everybody can find you so I'll have you share
• 30:09
  that with me.
• 30:10
  You can find the podcast on iTunes or Spotify and I think Google now eventually be on YouTube
• 30:19
  or on the website.
• 30:24
  Have Why Not Today t-shirts, Why Not Today tops, vinyl so we're trying to spread the
• 30:29
  word just to say why not today.
• 30:31
  So Danielle thank you for saying why not today and carrying on my dad's legacy with the
• 30:36
  Town of Herndon making a difference and I so admire you for doing this.
• 30:40
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 30:42
  You're welcome.
• 30:43
  So just everybody remember to say why not today.
• 30:47
  Bye.
• 30:48
  Bye.
• 30:49
  Bye.