We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Mills Walden recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Danielle , thanks for joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
My Parents did an incredible job instilling discapline and work ethic into me.
They also were very instrumental in why I have such a positive mindset & a operator mentality.
I was not allowed to complain or make excuses as a kid. My parents would shut down this behavior immedietly so I learned that it was not an exceptable way to handle issues.
Instead I learned the method of focusing only on things that you can control and not allowing things that are not in your control to impact your wellbeing.
This changed my life because while other people would complain or feel sorry for themselves when something would happen to them, I would be focused on the controllables and how to make the situation better.
This 100% was tied to my parents teachings.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
Hi I’m Danielle Mills Walden. I am a retired Professional tennis player. I’m the Founder and CEO of a Mindset & Career coaching company called Headstrong. I am the author of the Amazon best selling book How to Master Linkedin & Seperate Yourself from the Masses.
When I retired from Professional tennis I knew I wanted to make a difference in my life. From as long as I could remember I always had a positive mindset. This was created and groomed when I was a junior tennis player training at IMG Acadamies in Bradenton FL. There I was surrounded by the worlds top athletes. I was also being trained by the worlds best elite coaches in all areas. We focused on mindset and actually had trainings called Mental Conditioning where for an hour everyday we were focusing on improving and maximizing our mental.
Combining what I learned from being a professional athlete & pairing it with the experience I had with mental conditioning Headstrong was Born. I knew I could help people achieve a Champions Mindset with my methods.
Fast forward to 2020 and at this time I was a pretty prominent creator on Linkedin. I would share posts about mindset, overcoming obstables, goal setting, and how to get through things. I began having people reach out to me to help them with their Linkedin.
With the encouragement and suggestion from my Dad I wrote my first book How to Master Linkedin. This is something I am really proud of. It has helped so many people build their personal brand and get noticed on the platform.
That led to me being hired by some of the top organizations to help their teams with their Linkedin.
I’ve gotten to work with The Florida Panthers, The USTA, The NAACP, Upstart, and be seen in various publications.
When people think of Headstrong I want them to think of reaching their potential and what that would feel like,
Its my passion in life to help people get there.
I also am the host of The Headstrong Podcast. Each week we learn how Mindset has impacted our guests to reach their success. From Pro Athletes to Entrepreneurs, to Film Producers, Business Owners; Models, success is not in a BOX. What links all of these guests together is their MINDSET
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Honestly it came down to being consistent and being intentional about every piece of content I was putting out.
Because my preferred method of creating content was through Video it allowed people to really get to feel like they knew me personally.
I was creating videos everyweek and sharing them with my audience on Linkedin. The reception was incredible.
Being that Linkedin is a business platform there still aren’t a ton of people who are putting content out.
I was super intentional about it and by doing this I became the Go To Expert in all things Mindset.
This really exploded my business.
My audience knew that every single day they would be motivated and inspired by me. My goal was to share and provide value in every video I did.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The biggest pivot in my life was having to retire from professional tennis.
I started playing tennis when I was 3 years old. I turned professional by the time with was 14.
I had been on the tour already almost 10 years when an injury happened to me that changed my life. I was playing a tournament in Mexico and I went to bend over just to tie my sneakers.
When I went to try to stand up I heard a pop and I could not move. It was so scary because I was in so much pain but I did not do something specific to cause that pain.
I had to be rushed to the hospital to conduct an MRI to see what was wrong. They came back saying I herniated 2 discs in my back.
After going through almost a half a year of Rehab and strength training to recover I came back and started to play tournaments again.
I just didn’t feel like myself anymore. There was still pain and I felt slow. I had to make a very touch decsision to retire from the sport at 24 years old.
I had to Pivot big time. My whole identity was tied to being a tennis player.
I did not know who Danielle was without the sport.
That was the hardest thing was trying to envision me doing something other than playing tennis. That is when I started learning into my friends and family and their comments about my mindset and always being positive.
This allowed me to think of owning my own company and being a Mindset coach. Headstrong Was created!
Contact Info:
- Website: headstrongmind.com
- Instagram: @danielle_mills_walden
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemillswalden/
- Twitter: @daniellemwalden
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4o6R3o1N98Y-Bf6VBDpsg/videos