00;00;00;00 - 00;00;37;20 Christiane Welcome back to the Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast, where we explore the intersection of health, happiness and productivity. My name is Christiane and I'm super excited to be here with you today. I actually have a special guest. It's Danni Vodak and she's very well known on Instagram. The Dirt with Dani and the fact that I'm interviewing her today is a special treat because it's from having a wonderful transformational story. 00;00;37;23 - 00;00;44;25 Christiane Going through challenges in our personal life. Dani also had a viral post on Instagram. 00;00;44;25 - 00;01;15;03 Dani My name is Dani I started social media under the Handle the Dirt with Dani to focus on eco friendly cleaning content, mainly because I was a consumer of social media, on Tik Tok, on Instagram, on Facebook, and I just kept seeing so many people with bad cleaning hacks that were mixing chemicals. And it was really just frustrating. I mean, because first off, it's just dangerous. 00;01;15;06 - 00;01;37;01 Dani Second off, a lot of those chemicals aren't needed. And I just want it like, I just wanted to create space on social media to let other people know that there are far more planet friendly, sustainable options than what we've been consumerist to believe. We need in order to keep a clean home. 00;01;37;04 - 00;01;45;09 Christiane I want to hear a little bit about this viral post and then we will hear about Dani's background. What was that viral post? 00;01;45;11 - 00;02;16;25 Dani So it was a video cleaning a stainless steel hood. It was actually at my at my parents house, and I, you know, you see it as soon as you walk into the back door. It's it's this big stainless steel, you know, above the above the stove. And it had so much like grease and grime and it was streaky because whoever had been cleaning it was either using like a stainless steel cleaner or maybe they were cleaning it with Windex. 00;02;16;27 - 00;02;32;06 Dani I don't know. But it just it was such an eyesore to me and I was tired of looking at it. So I brought some of my products down with me and I was like, you know, I think this this might be a pretty good video. So, you know, my my dad would laugh. I was like, What are you doing? 00;02;32;14 - 00;02;56;01 Dani I was like, Well, I'm setting up to record. I'm I'm cleaning dad. Like, how can you be mad at me for cleaning? And I'm just going to record while I'm doing it. And I think the transformation of the streaky grimy stainless steel to this bright, shiny, beautiful stainless steel really spoke to a lot of people. I had no idea that it was going to go viral. 00;02;56;03 - 00;03;27;00 Dani I was really kind of shocked when it did, but it resulted in a lot of requests for my my sample kit of the cleaning products that I offer. I got really quickly overwhelmed by trying to reply to comments and trying to respond to these requests for the for my sample kit. But it was a great lesson to learn as I've had a few other videos go just as viral. 00;03;27;02 - 00;04;09;11 Dani And it's so it's been a really fun journey and it's amazing to be able made people reach out to you and say, I have that same hood and I never knew what to use to clean it. Or, you know, mine looks the same way. How am I supposed to clean it? And and I'm able to point them towards like eco friendly options that are going to save money and not take, you know, is not a huge hassle because that's I stainless I have all stainless steel appliances in my own home and before I when I was using chemicals in my own, you know, harmful chemicals in my own routines, I that's one of the things 00;04;09;11 - 00;04;29;14 Dani that I hated cleaning because it was like there was so many steps involved, many, you know, I needed this rag specifically for my stainless steel cleaner. And I got to make sure that that doesn't accidentally get used is like my dusting rag because it's covered with stainless steel cleaner and then you got to spray it on and, you know, rub it in and then you got a buffet out. 00;04;29;14 - 00;04;42;11 Dani And I would just I'd, I'd rather have fingerprints on it than take the time to clean it. So it was really a pleasure being able to show people like how easy it is actually to maintain stainless steel. 00;04;42;13 - 00;04;48;08 Christiane So you're overnight your account exploded from how many followers to how many followers? 00;04;48;11 - 00;05;09;09 Dani I think I was maybe barely scraping 2000. I think I worked up to 2000 in like two years. And almost within six weeks I was up to, I think, 120,000. Amazing. So that's good. That was really strong growth. 00;05;09;11 - 00;05;18;03 Christiane And we will, of course, now check things out and look at that stainless steel video and and feel the inspiration to clean our own homes eco friendly as well. 00;05;18;05 - 00;05;44;17 Dani That's that's mainly why I started creating videos. I mean, not only was I showing off the products that I use, but also to show that there are other methods that don't cost a ton of money that actually save you money in the long run because you're buying less product and that actually cut your cleaning time in half because you don't have to like switch up products constantly. 00;05;44;19 - 00;05;59;13 Dani You know, when you're moving from the kitchen to the bathroom and you set down your your counter spray and pick up your all-purpose bubble bathroom cleaner, you know that it just it creates time and and you can clean more efficiently. 00;05;59;13 - 00;06;16;14 Christiane Now, you talk to us already a little bit about your background sound and your motivation and the why behind it. How would you define your superpower if somebody could say what makes you you and what makes you special? What would you really describe there? 00;06;16;16 - 00;06;49;23 Dani I think I would have to go with resilience. I you know, I mean, everybody has their story and everybody has, you know, their personal growth moments and the I think the first time that I was challenged to be resilient was as a teenager, my my mom was in a really bad car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. 00;06;49;25 - 00;07;15;24 Dani And I was 13 or 14 around the time. And our roles really kind of reversed. I mean, my mom a very was she just recently passed away, but she was a very strong willed person. But, you know, if she was already in bed for the evening and wanted a glass of water, you know, me or my father would go and get that for her. 00;07;15;24 - 00;07;39;10 Dani So there were like some things that she just had to hand off, you know, some things that she had to ask for help with. And and it gave me a lot of autonomy, I think, as a teenager. But definitely one of the things that I started doing around the house was cleaning. And, you know, because she was paralyzed from the waist down. 00;07;39;10 - 00;08;03;28 Dani So, you know, there just were some things that she couldn't do. So I took on the bulk of the cleaning for the for the house. And around around that time it was like my own little world that I could go into where I could control, you know, what I was using, how long I was spending. You know, what the order of which I like to clean in. 00;08;04;01 - 00;08;29;18 Dani And like I she didn't really like tell me what to do, I think, because she didn't it's not like she could show me, you know, like she couldn't take over and show me the right way to do it. She really just kind of let me figure things out on my own and, you know, I think and it was just it was a very chaotic time for our whole family. 00;08;29;18 - 00;08;50;19 Dani I mean, we had to have renovations done on the house. We built a deck with a ramp, you know, on the back of the house so that mom could get in. We lived in an older home and the doors had to be had to be widened so that her wheelchair would fit through. We had to put an addition on to the house and move her bedroom downstairs with a full bath downstairs. 00;08;50;19 - 00;09;27;12 Dani And, you know, and my mom loved to garden. She had just amazing, beautiful gardens. And her accident didn't slow her down. You know, her. She just continued to grow her gardens every year and do an amazing job. She only took six months off from work. She went back to work after this. Could have collected disability, you know. So I think she really was an awesome role model for me in how to be resilient, how to not give up, you know, how to keep going even when you just how to keep showing up. 00;09;27;18 - 00;09;56;05 Dani And and I definitely think that that has translated it into my social media strategy and building that kind of consistent presence online and, you know, finding something that works like my what the fuck Wednesday videos and to just be consistent so that people know what to expect and know what they're going to get out of you. And I think that that resiliency I really I think it speaks to a lot of people later on in life. 00;09;56;05 - 00;10;26;08 Dani I struggled with addiction and alcoholism and, you know, it's definitely not something that I saw had been happening since my teenage years and just as it progressed and really kind of this perfect storm of things, of experiences happened to me where I just care, relying more and more on alcohol to escape those experiences, those things that were happening. 00;10;26;11 - 00;11;05;14 Dani And and it you know, it took a while to really firmly grasp that I had an addiction and that the only way that I was going to break through it was to get help. So, you know, faced with faced with those challenges throughout my lifetime and, you know, being sober now over three years, you know, with really on the brink of losing my job, losing my family, I really kind of hit bottom and and clawed my way back up. 00;11;05;21 - 00;11;23;28 Dani So I for, you know, if I if I had to answer what's my superpower, I think it gets it's resiliency. And I think that a lot of people somehow are relating to that. It really wasn't something that I opened up about when I first started posting online because I didn't really see how it had anything to do with cleaning. 00;11;24;00 - 00;11;47;09 Dani And plus, when I first started, like I wasn't I was kind of like freshly sober. I mean, three years in, I'm still freshly sober, but I didn't feel as confident, I guess, to talk about my sobriety and my struggle with addiction because, you know, we're one of the big sayings in the recovery community is one day at a time. 00;11;47;15 - 00;12;01;21 Dani And I didn't feel like I had enough days behind me to be able to talk to somebody else about, you know, about my journey. My journey hadn't really been long enough yet. 00;12;01;23 - 00;12;35;15 Christiane Tying your family story together. So there there was this tragic incident that happened when you were a teenager, and that really made you the head of the household in terms of taking care of your mother, taking care of the household, really flipping the rolls. As you mentioned, and then picking up. Also just love for the gardening and for the outside and for nature, because your mom really cared so much about this very passionately, so much that she didn't give up on it, even though she was paralyzed. 00;12;35;15 - 00;13;11;02 Christiane So that is really a beautiful arc to how you created your your passion, because you're hearing a lot about eco friendly products. You're talking a lot about cleaning, as you mentioned, cleaning in less time with eco friendly products. And that really now creates to us the background of why that happens. And at the same time, the resilience is beautiful because you kept pushing through, but then it sounds like the alcoholism might have been a consequence of your teenage years. 00;13;11;09 - 00;13;28;29 Christiane And that's maybe also the next question. If you were to look back and would say, what is a challenge and how did I overcome it? Well, there were many challenges in your life, but which challenge would you really pinpoint was the one that really transformed your life the most? 00;13;29;01 - 00;14;21;07 Dani Yeah, I think it was definitely it was definitely my my sober journey. I think I talked about like the perfect storm of these experiences kind of coming together. I had been sexually harassed at work. I had a member that was close to our family, had about to get really deep here, someone who was close to our family, who had been abusing me for years, for years, and he actually was able to take the the consequences of my mother's accident and kind of all the chaos that was happening during that time began grooming me. 00;14;21;10 - 00;14;52;27 Dani So, you know, throughout those teenage years and in my early adulthood, I had been groomed for really it all kind of really worked my mind as far as having like my own relationships and, you know, and plus, he was someone who was, you know, very close to the family and, you know, the person who grooms you, teaches you about secrecy, you know, how to hide things. 00;14;52;27 - 00;15;23;11 Dani And I really felt for many years, decades, really, that I had this mask on, you know, that I would have to present to people in a certain way so that they only saw if I wanted them to see. So around that same time that I've been sexually harassed at work, I needed to tell my family about this person. 00;15;23;14 - 00;16;09;09 Dani And when I did, my family did not take it well, it's not that they didn't believe me, but they felt like I had some sort of responsibility. And this was a much older person, you know, in the start, when I was 14, around that same time, my oldest daughter was 14. So, you know, these three things kind of came together all at the same time and feeling kind of, you know, rejected from my family, watching, you know, kind of happening at some point in my mind that this was the age I was when this all started happening, You know, being able to look at my daughter and see, oh, my God, I was that old 00;16;09;09 - 00;16;38;24 Dani when this started happening. And then to have it all kind of brought back up by being, you know, sexually harassed at work, that's when I really kind of started. That's when I started drinking almost every day, if not every day, every other day, because I just had all these emotions that I didn't know what to do with. And alcohol really, really puts those emotions down real quick and just kind of lets me focus on what's happy. 00;16;38;27 - 00;17;07;04 Dani And that worked so it didn't work anymore. And instead I would drink and I would get angry and I would get dark and I would start feeling sorry for myself and so but the thing is, is that I kept blaming my alcoholism. Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't acknowledge it as alcoholic. Right. I would it was trauma, right? I was trying to deal with trauma. 00;17;07;04 - 00;17;34;02 Dani And how could you deny me this little bit of relief that I might be getting from alcohol? Because I'm dealing with all of this trauma? But there are people that go through those same traumatic experiences that don't turn into alcoholics, Right? So I think that there was definitely something in me that is allergic to alcohol. And when I drink it, it kicks in that allergy and starts all of these these other chains of reaction. 00;17;34;02 - 00;18;00;17 Dani So, you know, being able to finally look at the disaster that that my life had turned into and admitting that regardless of these bad things happening, I have a problem that is completely separate from this. And in order for me to address it, like I have to admit that I have a problem, I have to get help for that problem. 00;18;00;19 - 00;18;37;17 Dani And it took a couple times. I mean, I I've done outpatient programs, I've done inpatient programs. I have gone to three different rehabs for 30 day stints. You know, it was not it was not an instant fix for me. But once I really kind of hit my knees and talked to a higher power, you know, a power greater than me, some people call that God, some people call it the power of the universe, whatever. 00;18;37;17 - 00;19;06;28 Dani It's personal to me what my relationship is, but, you know, once I hit my knees and knew that I couldn't solve this problem on my own and and gave it all up, did I start to see, like, good things happening for me? I got your job and I was I was unemployed at the time. I started to get my family back. 00;19;07;01 - 00;19;44;23 Dani I that's when I started with with Norwest and I started creating videos and I started growing on social media. And so there's just nothing like the confirmation that I'm on the right path now, you know, and being able to look back and see how far I've come and to want to keep going, you know, because I, you know, sometimes sometimes after I make a cleaning video, I have to figure out, okay, well, what am I going to say for the script of the video or how am I going to edit it? 00;19;44;23 - 00;20;01;07 Dani And what am I going to I'm going to add the captions. Oh, I need to do a cover photo and maybe I need to add some music to it. And honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm just being let there's like this feeling that I get that says yes, you know, that's what you want to do right there in this video. 00;20;01;07 - 00;20;18;26 Dani And yes, you want to zoom in now. You want to zoom out. And I if I just keep myself open and like, listen to that. It's like I get rewarded and it's it's amazing. And it you know, it's it keeps me going. That makes any sense. I feel like I'm sharing that. 00;20;18;29 - 00;20;45;00 Christiane Well, I feel the transformation that you went through is inspiring because many times we look at people and you had this wonderful video that was your breakout on Instagram that really exploded, and we could call it a viral video or a viral post that really increased your followers overnight nearly. And you can mention that in a little while. 00;20;45;03 - 00;21;13;14 Christiane And that's sometimes when we look at it and think, Oh, yeah, she's just having this wonderful life, living this, you know, with her family. And it seems like, you know, she's just a lucky star. What we don't see is the authentic truth behind it. And what I adore is that you shared your story on Instagram and that you actually spoke out, that some people started unfollowing you because maybe they want the truth. 00;21;13;16 - 00;21;41;10 Christiane And to me, that's really a very wise decision that you're saying, All right, this is me. If you're not somebody that aligns with my personal shit, well, then you know, so be it. Because we all have that. But that only makes us stronger and that makes us real and that makes others trust. You know, trust in you because you're authentic, you are real, and you're basically sharing. 00;21;41;10 - 00;22;00;21 Christiane These were the dark corners I turned and I'm now transformed and I'm feeling every day is another new beginning on my journey getting out of this mess. What I also love is how you are. You guided by your feeling because I think you kind of need to pick your own lane in life and not really look at what other people are doing. 00;22;00;22 - 00;22;19;05 Christiane It's kind of feeling that that's right and what feels honest and truth and not going in a lot of different direction, but staying in your lane and really creating something that you feel you stand behind as your brand. Because it's not just what we see on Instagram, but it's also who you are and you need to be comfortable with that. 00;22;19;07 - 00;22;35;26 Christiane So what would you say helped you the most through all of this in terms of being your influencer or maybe influencers like who was the one person or the one issue that really gets you out of this? 00;22;35;29 - 00;23;02;16 Dani Yeah, so I think, you know, actually just to rewind back a little bit about, I kind of want to touch on that gut instinct, right, for so many years because of, you know, the the trauma that I was living through. I know that I didn't trust my gut. I, you know, would think, oh, this this person doesn't have out for me. 00;23;02;18 - 00;23;30;24 Dani You know, they want what's best for me when they really didn't. And, you know, when I finally got to a point in my life where I could, you know, where I had the confidence to be able to trust my gut, that is like that's really kind of when everything turned around for me, you know, when I got really honest with myself and realized that, you know, I do have something. 00;23;30;24 - 00;24;00;06 Dani I do have this innate ability to relate to people. You know, I I've always been in some sort of, like customer facing customer service kind of job because that's what I mean. It's what I really like. It's what I excel at. I like making other people happy, which sometimes can be toxic, but I, you know, part of this process is that I've learned boundaries. 00;24;00;06 - 00;24;25;27 Dani And I realized that by setting boundaries, I am trusting my gut and I am letting other people know what I will and will not find acceptable. And, you know, once all of those things came together, that's when I really started to see, like, the rewards. That's when I started waking up. Looking forward to the opportunity is not coming to and thinking, how am I going to get through this day? 00;24;25;27 - 00;24;56;10 Dani You know? So but okay, so to answer your question about, you know, influencers or, you know, what really influenced me, it was seeing video after video of chemicals, you know, from, you know, dish spray, especially especially like fad cleaning products. Oh, that, that one was really driving me nuts. And I have always been like that. Like when a new show comes out, like when Laura when Oh, what was that lost. 00;24;56;16 - 00;25;16;19 Dani Do you remember the show? Lost. I almost like refused to watch it because so many people liked it, you know, and, and it took me a couple of years and once I started watching, I was like, oh, now like, now I get it. When a lot of the Game of Thrones came out, I, you know, and everybody was talking about it was like, I tend to always just go in the other direction. 00;25;16;24 - 00;25;47;12 Dani And I don't know why that is. I think maybe it's a trust issue. Like if too many people like it, then there's got to be something wrong with it. So yeah, so yeah. So when I started seeing like these, you know, cleaning videos with, you know, scrub daddies, which are terrible for the environment, I was like, you know, people need to know like, I understand that it's really popular and it's really cool that it changes texture when under running water. 00;25;47;12 - 00;26;17;04 Dani But, you know, those bits of plastic that are breaking off are going right into the water system and, you know, people just like exposing themselves to these cleaning chemicals that just aren't necessary. Like there is a different way to clean just as well without having to waste all that plastic that it's contained in, you know, that you're essentially pouring those chemicals right down the drain right into the environment. 00;26;17;07 - 00;26;44;10 Dani And I just I, I mean, it's something I never thought about when I was cleaning my house when I was younger with, you know, comment for the sink and pine-sol for the floors and bleach for the toilet. And, you know, and especially because, like I have four daughters of my own and more and more information comes out that these cleaning chemicals are endocrine, just endocrine disrupting. 00;26;44;12 - 00;27;13;20 Dani You know, they mimic the hormones of your body and throw your hormones off. And like, I just didn't want to expose my daughters to that. So I'm letting other people know that there are alternatives to all of these cleaning chemicals and these cleaning fads that are really just going to waste your money. That's really what what drove me is that I just I saw it was just it was so frustrating. 00;27;13;23 - 00;27;43;17 Dani It was it was just really frustrating. So but, you know, there are definitely cleaning influencers that I kind of like took bits and pieces from. One of them is her name is Laurie, and her account is now it's clean and she has this really soothing voice when she does voice overs on her videos and she always ends it with and now it's clean and it just, you know, And so that's something that I wanted to take into my videos. 00;27;43;17 - 00;28;06;15 Dani There's another cleaning influencer. Her name's Lisa, and her account is clean, happy, cool, and she is just a goofball and, and I love her for that. And a lot of people love her for that. She makes some of the funniest reels that I have ever seen. And see. Who else do I love? Melissa Maker. She's a big one. 00;28;06;15 - 00;28;37;10 Dani She's was has been famous on YouTube forever from Clean MySpace, but she what I like about her is that she doesn't like she's like she started her own brand of cleaning products and she is but she's not all the time like promoting her own brand. She gives like solid cleaning tips that aren't brand diluted. You know, she really she like she does her her own thing and like she is not out there promoting like women, stainless steel cleaner. 00;28;37;10 - 00;28;43;17 Dani She's like, you, all you need is a little bit of dish soap and a microfiber cloth, you know. So I. I admire that about her. 00;28;43;19 - 00;28;44;10 Christiane Oh, these are great. 00;28;44;10 - 00;29;00;20 Dani I think that yeah, I think mixing those three, I feel like, you know, I kind of there's cleaning accounts that I follow that I just kind of taken little bits and pieces from what they do and tried to incorporate it into my own videos. So I mean, I'm definitely influenced by what they do. 00;29;00;22 - 00;29;25;20 Christiane Well, and that's the beautiful thing that you stay in your own lane, as I mentioned earlier. But you look at others and you see what works for my own personal brand and who am I? Well, I'm not going to be this goofball, Lisa, but maybe she has like a little bit of a fun twist in that I could add to my video and a soothing voice from Lori. 00;29;25;23 - 00;29;35;22 Christiane And maybe there's, you know, other things you could see with Melissa. So I love that you're creating your own little brand. And it's a patchwork of things you have seen you really liked. And yeah. 00;29;35;22 - 00;30;05;00 Dani I it's again, it's, it's listening to my gut. Like when I see something that they do that speaks to me, you know, I just I feel so right and like, kind of taking it and putting my own little spin on it and, and it's the and it seems to work, you know, it's and I and I hope that there are people out there that are watching my videos and, you know, getting that same kind of feeling, that gut instinct of of, you know, hey, this this speaks to me. 00;30;05;00 - 00;30;32;03 Dani So, you know, it's something that I'm going to incorporate, too, or I don't think there's anything greater than than being copied. I find like it's a it's a great it's a it's a it's a great feeling knowing that you have influenced somebody so much that they are going to start doing it, too. And I think more cleaning. We need more cleaning influencers and it's so easy. 00;30;32;03 - 00;30;47;27 Dani I mean, you just you're cleaning anyway, right? Just set up your phone in the corner of the room and record yourself cleaning, Speed it up. Posted on social media. People love to watch cleaning videos because it provides motivation for people that don't necessarily like to clean. 00;30;47;29 - 00;31;08;28 Christiane Yeah, so one thing I would say is imitation is the biggest form of flattery. So if somebody hates me, I'm like, by all means, whether they have a bun all of a sudden because I'm known for my bun, or maybe they are saying things that I say in the classroom or when I teach or something, I'm like, You go, Yeah, know, I pick this up. 00;31;08;28 - 00;31;11;02 Christiane I am flattered if you're imitating. 00;31;11;02 - 00;31;12;16 Dani Yeah, well, yeah. 00;31;12;18 - 00;31;44;05 Christiane Thank you so much for sharing all of this. So maybe what we should, should say at the very end here that it was definitely eye opening. How you shared your transformational journey from, you know, being a teenager, coming through a very dark time and then really turning things around that transformed Asian because the podcast is called The Happy Healthy Hassle, and it sounds like you are on that end now, part of the happy, healthy hustle. 00;31;44;08 - 00;31;47;20 Christiane So with that so much. Dani Absolutely. 00;31;47;26 - 00;32;25;21 Dani So much for having me. Thank you so much for having me and for, for giving me the space. You know, creating this environment that I could that I feel comfortable talking about some of those things because they are, they're kind of heavy. And but, you know, the more the more that that kind of stuff is talked about, I think the more warning that it can kind of put out there for, you know, young, young girls, young mothers with their it's not so stigmatized and, you know, looked looked down upon. 00;32;25;23 - 00;32;55;28 Christiane Yeah, I think it's good to share the message because I'm sure there will be listeners on this podcast that will identify with one or the other of the struggles. And they will also, of course, applaud you for getting through the struggles and be inspired by your journey. So with that, we all want to be successful in our personal and professional lives, but often we forget that it is sometimes a struggle that you need to go through. 00;32;55;28 - 00;33;14;20 Christiane And then when you look back you realize, What did I actually learn from this? How did I come out On the other side is because of these particular issues that really shaped me and the person that I am today. Well, with that, thank you so much for tuning in today. We certainly appreciated Dani and all the insights that she shared with us. 00;33;14;21 - 00;33;35;22 Christiane If you have any questions, I will put her contact in the show notes. And as always, reach out to me if you have any suggestions for future speakers. Otherwise, thank you so much for being a happy, healthy hustler and stay happy and we look forward to tuning in with you soon. All right. That's it for today's episode of the Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast. 00;33;35;25 - 00;34;06;01 Christiane If you have any suggestions for future content or any feedback, please let me know. I would also love to share with you that I'm about to launch my Journey to Wellness program, and I'm sure that you as a happy, healthy hustler, would love to be part of this wonderful 21 day transformational program. It gives you some quick and easy tools that you can use at home to get your health journey started. 00;34;06;04 - 00;34;19;11 Christiane Stay tuned. And until then, we catch you next time.