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