Danielle Burken escaped corporate in September 2023 — but her journey started six years before that. In this episode Danielle shares how she went from a full-time agency job with two kids under two, to building a six-figure solopreneur business in under 90 days by doing one thing most corporate professionals never do: listening to what people were already asking her for and charging for it.

She also breaks down human design — what it is, why it works, and how she uses it to help entrepreneurs build businesses that are aligned with how they naturally operate. If you've ever felt like you're forcing something that should feel easier, this episode is for you.

What You'll Learn

🎯 Why Danielle tried to escape corporate for six years before it finally clicked

🎯 The exact moment she realized she was sitting on a business nobody told her to build

🎯 How she landed her first clients using a local networking group — no social media, no ads, no cold outreach

🎯 Why overthinking your offer is the #1 thing keeping corporate escapees stuck

🎯 What human design actually is and why it's not as woo as it sounds

🎯 How she built her business during Tuesday nights at Panera while her husband handled bedtime

🎯 Why confidence comes from doing — not from waiting until you feel ready

🎯 The push that finally got her to put in her notice — and why timing matters less than decision

Key Quotes

"I trusted so deeply that I was going to be caught. And I was." — Danielle Burken

"Business gets to be easy and fun. We just weren't taught that in corporate." — Danielle Burken

"Anybody exiting corporate has the skills to do it. They're overqualified. They just need to go have the conversation." — Brett Trainor

About Danielle Burken

Danielle Burken is a human design-based business coach and marketing strategist who helps solopreneurs build sustainable businesses in alignment with how they're naturally wired to operate. She escaped corporate in September 2023 and built a six-figure business in her first year.

🌐 Website: https://www.danielleburken.com/ 

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielleburken_/ 

Connect With Brett

Ready to stop watching from the sidelines and make your move? The Escapee Collective is the community built for corporate professionals who are done with corporate and ready to build something of their own.

👉 Join the conversation at theescapeecollective.com

Hi, Danielle, welcome to the Corporate Escapee Podcast.

Awesome, Brett. Thank you so much for having me today.

My pleasure and I'm looking forward to this conversation and you're gonna educate me on what designing my life means. It sounds like it's something I probably should have done before, but we'll get to that, promise. That's a little bit of a tease. So maybe just to kick us off, why don't you just share a little bit about you and what you're working on and then I'm gonna take us back in time.

you

Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah. So I am a human design based business coach and marketing strategist. So what Brett was alluding to in regards to designing your life, I really support my clients to build a sustainable business that is in alignment with how they are naturally here to operate and their strengths and even their weaknesses and

really support them to create this sustainable business that stands the test of time. And whether that means they transition into something different along the way, that doesn't matter. It's really about that sustainability that they're doing something they absolutely love because that's really what got me started in becoming an entrepreneur in the first place was doing something I really loved.

Yeah, it's so true. It's just us that have been in corporate forever, right? You think back and it served its purpose. like I said, I'm anti-corporate, but it definitely had a role. But I'd say for the last 10 years, I was in it probably not as much as you kind of lost your way. what is it? Who do you work with today? Is it solopreneurs, small entrepreneurs, business owners? Who's your ideal client?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Primarily solopreneurs because human design is based on your birth date and time. We can still run a human design chart based on your business. So right. Like when your LLC was incorporated, we can also create a human design of your business. But I really love working with personal brands with those individuals because they are the face of

their company and what they're building. And more often than not, a lot of the people I work with really have a heart for what it is that they've built and the people that they want to support and the impact that they're here to create.

All right, so I'm going to take us down our first rabbit hole already. We haven't even gone back in the journey yet, but you know, because the old corporate wouldn't, so I've been out of corporate six plus years and people who knew me in corporate never would have believed, you know, that I take what's important now, right? Time, money, relationships, fitness, health, mental, all of those types of things have been critical to me, but in corporate they weren't. And so,

Amazing.

the old skeptical means like, ah, life design on your birthday, that seems, and we're talking horoscopes, a little out there, but I'm telling you, I'm on board. So, but for the rest, might not share a little bit about that and how it works. And like I said, I was trying to go back. had another guest on six months ago that was also, was big into the human design. So you guys are onto something. So maybe.

little out there.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Let's start there and then we can go back in how you got into this position.

Yeah, I will say too, I feel like I took one of the biggest skeptics. My dad is an engineer and like not just by trade, but also I feel like he just engineers it so much in his entire life. Probably one of the biggest skeptics to something that feels maybe woo or energetics or something that's maybe a little out there. And

converted him because he's the person that every single time I do a human design guide with someone, they are literally blown away by how accurate that system is, that tool is, because it is based on our birth date and time. I mean, I love a Enneagram, a disc assessment, a Myers-Briggs, any of the personality tests.

especially for past corporate life like disk assessment Myers-Briggs was huge. And what I've really realized is that human design, because you're not answering any questions or, well, I think I might answer it this way based on this scenario, or I might answer it this way based on this situation, that human design is how you are naturally here to operate. And that I think is one of the coolest parts of

that tool and then how we start to use it to build our businesses and really live our lives in full alignment. very quickly, human design based on your birth date and time, and there are five main types within human design. So that's one of the things that people connect with first inside of their chart and then.

everything else gets layered on top because we are very layered human beings. And I think that's the part I love about this tool as well is that it's not surface level. It's very like deep into how you create the best opportunities, how you function, how you communicate with others, how you parent, your digestion, there's literally everything.

sort of under the sun when it comes to this personality and life tool.

Yeah, I was looking at trying to see if I can find the podcast episode. I will link to it because she did some after pre-show where it went through mine and the birth date and it was shockingly accurate. Like I said, I was skeptical. like, oh, all right. Damn. So I will link to People can go back and check out that episode. no, so I'm super intrigued. And again, I think.

Yeah.

Yours. Right?

Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah.

one of, and we'll get into it a little bit later, is just with everybody exiting corporate, and I mean, that's my audience, the people escaping, many are still sitting in corporate listening to this, but having that path, right? always, I'll argue that the quickest path is just monetize what you already know, and maybe that's personal, maybe that's work-related, whatever that is, that path of least resistance, but eventually you wanna find what gives you the energy, what you'd like to do that thing, so.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

All right, so let's pause that for a moment because I do want to get back to how we actually got to how you got here now. Because you were, when did you escape corporate?

huh.

Okay, so relatively recent and did corporate quit on you? Did you quit on corporate? Did you have a plan? Kind of walk us through the tail end and how you escaped.

Yeah, still fresh.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I always say, you know, it looks like an overnight success when I tell people that I started this part of my business in June of 2023, and then put in my notice at the beginning of September, and then left corporate at the end of September of 23. So right, like a very short period of time, but

Okay.

I was quite honestly destined for and it's even in my human design chart, I can see that entrepreneurship is a big part of what I'm here to do. But for me, it just then became so clear. I started monetizing something I was really great at and the thing that I was getting the most questions on from people. So I worked at a marketing agency.

primarily doing done for you social media for the clients we had there. And I was part of a networking group and every time I would get on calls, individual calls with people I'd share, here's this business that I'm building over here, not at all in relation to marketing or social media. And I'm still working a full-time job doing done for you social media. It was always,

Okay.

this business is great over here, but can you tell me how I do social media when I hate it or when I'm just, you know, I'm not a marketer. So how do I really grow my business? That was so many of the questions I was getting from people. And so I think, you know, it's really important. I'm going to guess a lot of your audience members are in that space of like, well, how do I monetize what I'm good at?

What am I even good at? And will someone pay me for this? And so it was really starting to see how often people were asking me those same questions, the things that I'm like, I can just tell you that at the drop of a hat. And realizing, hang on, people need this. They're asking a lot of questions about it. And people will pay me to...

Yeah. Yeah!

create social media on their behalf. so it started, that's really where it all snowballed from was I said to a couple people in my local networking group who were all entrepreneurs, solo entrepreneurs, and I said, you know, I'm gonna start doing some done for you social media. I'm still, you know, working my full-time job and I can only take on a couple of clients right now.

and that took off so quickly. And that's where I really started tracking and seeing, how much income am I getting? How much, like, sorry, chirping up on my words here. Looking at then the consistency in the income and that I had clients booked out for six month packages and

Yeah.

then said to myself, okay, I need to have this nest egg in my business bank account. I need to have X amount coming in each month. And when I get my business account to that amount, then I will be ready to leave. And that's, I mean, that's literally exactly what happened. And it was one of those, like, yeah, it was...

Get out.

Tough, I mean, I was working full time at this agency, building my business on the side. We had two kids under two who were in daycare. right, so was like, it was a lot, but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I could see that, my gosh, this is working. And people are very interested in this and need this and I wanna support them.

Ugh.

the shift happened in September and yeah, it was one of those like listening to your intuition and having the data to back it up.

To back it up, yeah, so good. So much, I wanna dig into that. One, congratulations on figuring it, because there's so many people that get stuck with, don't have the time, right? I'm like, everybody's got the time. The time is there. If you break down how many hours in a week, especially two kids under two, and then full-time job, okay. So what was the idea when you said, because you were listening to the network, lesson number one, join the local networking group. I'm a big believer in.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

opportunities in our own backyards, regardless of what we want to do. So do that is one. Two, you listen to hear what the problem was. People had this problem. And then was it, I think I can help. I'm going to put a plan together and then just took a shot at it. Kind of walk us through what your thought process. Well, maybe it wasn't just a ton of thought. I can help you and this is what I'm going to charge you. And you had some agency background that helped, but how did

Absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly. And that, mean, I think that was a big piece of it. I had, you know, four and a half years under my belt at that point when I was working at the agency. so, right, like I was seeing how they were operating. I was seeing how I sort of wanted to start to put together my own packages. And so I did, you know,

I had three sort of packages in the beginning and then I very quickly realized like it needed to be custom and tailored to what what the people needed. But for me it was I I had this network already and basically just saying to them hey here's what I'm what I'm thinking about doing.

Yeah.

And I know a lot of you need this type of support. And again, I have very limited space. I think that also kind of worked in my favor as well because so many people needed social media support and I was able to provide it in a way that felt very tailored to them and their business. So, I mean, there was a plan, but also the plan

Yeah.

I look back on it now, I'm like, I wish I wouldn't have spent so much time on it because I just, and I think that's where a lot of, cause I saw it in myself, like making that transition and going from corporate to full-time entrepreneurship, we spend so much time in trying to like get the package just right. And well, I think people are gonna need this and how do I price it?

Yes.

what does all of it need to look like versus, this is what I'm putting together. Are you interested? And like it actually, I think sometimes we can overcomplicate the process and we just gotta get it out there because then I very quickly saw, oh, I didn't need to spend so much time on all of these separate packages because really what I found was that people needed something very tailored and getting it.

out there allowed me to see that by working with clients.

Yeah. Yeah. it's, and the good thing is you found it quickly. Cause one of the things I've grown frustrated with, with folks in corporate or I've actually kind of, I don't say giving up. I'll be here for them when they want it, but I've kind of, there's like three stages. The first one is realizing corporate's broken or it's not for you anymore. Step one, you don't know if life outside of doing what you did would make sense. But I think that's kind of step two is you realize that maybe I can do something outside of it.

Yeah.

Too many people get stuck at their, used to be so focused on just getting that spark, but that spark's not enough. You kind of touched on, just, I over planned, but then eventually you just said, what the heck, right? I'm just going to go, I don't want to say wing it, but I've been starting to quote risky business a little bit more when he's got that. He's like, sometimes you just got to say, what the F and you know, let it ride. And that is so true. It's, even I think over my six years.

Yeah!

that it started very structured came from consulting. You came from an agency. just mimic that. And then I moved into fractional, but it was still very structured. I only want the big deals. And then I started to figure out I can make money doing this, this, this. Then when I finally just kind of let go and said, what the hell, let's, let's see what happens, man, that's when things opened up. And so that's what I'm really trying to get people now is you just, nothing's going to hurt. You're going to say, what the heck? I'm going to go talk to three people, listen and say, can I help? Can I not help?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

And if you get it wrong, it's okay. think people are so paralyzed by over analysis and the fear of, you know, getting it wrong, but no one's judging you. Right. So.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And yeah, you can't get it wrong. And that's the piece that I tell so many of my clients too is like, if you price it, like price your offer at X and then you go through it one or two times and you're like, my gosh, I put so much time, energy and effort into this. I can't keep charging this. Okay, great. Raise your rates. Like that's the beauty of.

being an entrepreneur is we get to test and try things out and experiment. And if you don't want to do that, then entrepreneurship might not be the avenue. But I think like that to me is the is the fun part and really getting to work with clients and seeing, OK, where am I as the coach really excelling?

Yeah.

or as the consultant or as the strategist, right? Like whatever title you're giving yourself, where am I having the most fun? Where am I really supporting my clients in the best way that they are getting the most amazing results? And then keep refining into that because I think it can be so easy to feel like we have to refine so fast and then nothing ever gets out there.

Yeah.

But if you can write, like start a little broader and then start to move into, I'm working with these clients and I'm realizing, I don't really like doing that. But this thing over here, I absolutely love and I'm really, really good at it and it's easy and it's fun. And I think that's one of the biggest things I want to bring to entrepreneurs and corporate escapees of like,

Yeah.

Business gets to be easy and fun. We just weren't taught that in corporate.

Yeah. And no, and it's and we make making money so complicated, right? We overcomplicate it. We make it because when you leave, you think it's so hard. It's got to be the right pitch. And how do I sell? But man, what the one thing that I've really learned is I think there is a perception that entrepreneurs are super smart. They're not. There are some smart entrepreneurs, but they're the ones that said.

Yeah.

Right?

here.

why not? Why not me? Why not go do this? And it's they're having the conversation. They're having fun with it and they're being successful. They don't have the same skills. I just look at folks with like 30 years of corporate skills and think, I don't know if I have the skills. I'm like, you're way overqualified to do this, but it just, just go have that conversation. So it's really, really hard to break down 30 years of.

Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

even call it habits, just conditioning or don't make mistakes, don't rock the boat, follow the process. This is what it looks like. So I haven't found the secret sauce other than having folks like you come on and talk about and say, Hey, yeah, I was slow to it, but figured it out. if we can get people to figure it out sooner, and realize that it's okay, especially if you're still in corporate and did you know, right?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

and really want to move. Yeah.

When you started in corporate, were you like working on weekends and working with the clients and they understood that you were still in corporate and so, right.

Yeah, yeah, and that was a great part too. I mean, honestly, I had a conversation with my husband's like, I think it was a couple weeks into, I got a couple of clients right away. And I was sort of, I tried really hard not to work on the weekends because our kids were home and I really wanted to spend that time with them.

Yeah. yeah.

And so sometimes I would work during nap time on the weekends or to sort of get things ahead for clients. But I very specifically remember saying to my husband, I am going to take one night a week where, you know, you've got the kids and you've got dinner and bedtime and all the stuff. And I'm going to work on my business. And, and sometimes it was

things that, you know, working in my business and working on things for clients and deliverables. And then sometimes actually working on my business and how do I want to market this and setting up my LLC and all of those kinds of components. But I would take one night a week from like 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and I would go to Panera near our house and I feel like they had to have known me at that.

Yeah.

Yeah!

point, the game because I did it for like three or four months of just consistently that Tuesday night was exactly what I needed to continue to grow my business. And quite honestly, I think grow my confidence in being a solo entrepreneur and being a business owner, because that is such a huge part of, you know, making that that leap is

Yeah.

going out there and doing it and then actually like growing your confidence from doing. We don't get confidence just wake up one day I'm like, I'm so confident.

Yeah.

I don't know about you, I still doubt, right? There's still days I doubt and it's just, I've learned to just deal with that and say, all right, this too shall pass and we're gonna keep going. Now in hindsight, you have converted sooner or was it the timing, was kind of the perfect storm for you? I'm always curious.

my gosh, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

I do feel like the timing was just what I needed because I mean, I really wanted that nest egg because I knew it was gonna feel like, okay, I know I have income coming and I have this nest egg should I not get another client for a month or two after leaving and

Okay.

It was for my husband and I very much a, okay, I can see the income coming and we do need to build this up so that when you leave, the kids are still in daycare. Like it's not cheap, putting two kids in daycare. And so we really needed that solid base to feel like, okay.

Yeah.

Great.

things are really working, we can see them continuing to work, not just, June got a lot of clients and it's great, and then nothing. So this was really showing that consistency behind the business. then there were things that happened towards the end of August, beginning of September that I would say really pushed me.

Great.

to put in my notice because I think it could have been very easy to have said, oh, you know, I hit it, am I ready, right? Air quotes. Yeah, just a few more. Maybe I'll just go to the end of the year. Maybe if I can just get to the end of the year and then we'll have six months of seeing that this is really working, right? Like I needed that push that came.

Okay.

few more months, right? Yeah.

at the end of August to say, I'm ready. Like there's no more sort of holding back because I think that's another place that can be so easy for entrepreneurs who are still in corporate to lean into like, oh, well maybe just one more paycheck. Maybe just let me get to the bonus. Let me get to X, let me get to Y. And then all of a sudden you're like, and now it's two years later and I still haven't left.

Yeah, yeah.

And sometimes it really is like the leap is scary, but I trusted so deeply that I was going to be caught. And I was.

Great.

Yeah, that's so, so, so again, I wish I would have had a plan in hindsight, right? Corporate pushed me out. I knew it was coming, but yeah, did I do anything? No, but so it forced from a cold start basically to, to run. So I tell people are still in corporate. Your time's coming, right? It's probably, you're not going to be the one that you're, you got to choose, but there's many, many, many folks that, that aren't right. And so what, what's your exit strategy as far as your corporate career? mean, again, but long Jeff.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Roudon? Yeah.

Well, and I think that's such, yeah, that's such a corporate fallacy too of I have this secure job. It's not like I will bet on myself 10 times over. I really don't think corporate is as secure as we make it. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not anymore. It's a numbers game and it's a profitability game. And if more experience you have, more expensive you are, more likely to be cut. again, I'd rather, you said it perfectly, bet on yourself, take that chance, even though we didn't have the confidence. Like I said, I'm absolutely convinced that anybody exiting corporate has the skills in order to do it. They do, it's just figuring it out. And one of the things that you didn't say directly, but you said what you enjoy doing.

You to shut up?

One of the things I was able to see after the fact was my journey was really chasing energy. What gives me more energy? Right? Never would have heard me say that when I was in corporate, but, literally that's what it was. This is, you know, it's like the Goldilocks and three various, it's not quite right, not quite right. And what I'm doing today gives me a ton of energy, but maybe there's something down the road that's going to take me even to the next level. So I don't know, but that's just been so helpful to get up every morning with energy.

Yeah, my heart.

Yeah.

Yeah.

right versus dread is is unbelievable. but I do. When did I want to find out when you when the design your life was that in the early stage with your early customers or did that evolve? How did kind of talk through that?

huh. Yeah.

No. Yeah, so when I left corporate was doing done for you social media and I did that for about a year in my business and I was really starting to, cause even when I left corporate, I was more strategy focused with the clients that I had within that agency. And when I left them to do done for you social media, it was one of those things like,

Okay.

I can do, I'm good at, I can really support my clients in that way, but I was really missing the strategy and I really started to see, I can't look at your business in a silo of social media. I really need to know what's going on in the ecosystem of your business to help make social media actually work for you. And so,

Yeah.

I slowly started to transition more to strategy, support, consulting, and then the human design piece, I was studying it back in 2021 and actually like bringing it into the agency that I was at because it's a really great tool for understanding your team and understanding as, you know, a manager with direct reports. How do I support you?

the best that's in alignment with who you are. And so I was really, really getting into human design at that point and saw that I had grown my business the first year to six figures. And from there, I started realizing, wait, I basically built my business in alignment with my human design. Is this something that I can help others do or is it just like,

Danielle, you got it for yourself, but to help others strategize their business and their marketing in alignment with their design is that something that you can actually do. And turns out I could. And so that was kind of the start of it was focusing first on like marketing strategy aligned with their human design. And I remember the very first client I did it with because

awesome.

I knew she was on board with more of the energy aspect of it. And we created her strategy and it was all based in her design. One of the things that she kept saying over and over was, I hate Instagram. I don't wanna be on this platform. I just don't really like it. And I said, well, it's no wonder because in your human design space,

chart, you are a storyteller and you are here to be on video and create stories that people connect with. She already had a YouTube channel at the time. She was very consistent with it. But for me, it's like, okay, let's look at your human design. Let's create your strategy and then let's actually, you know, do SEO and titles that are going to connect with people, right? Like, so the very tactical components of it with that shift,

Yeah.

Her she left Instagram. She focused primarily on Facebook, another platform she really loved and YouTube and storytelling. She messaged me, I think, within like a couple of weeks of us putting together the strategy. And she said, I got my first discovery call through YouTube by doing the strategy that we put together based on how I naturally operate. And it's like that.

no kidding.

That gives me so much joy every single time clients will message me and be like, wait, this works. Like leaning into my design and building my business based on that, not only does it feel good, but it's actually working because it feels good. And that's the piece that honestly, sometimes it blows my mind still, but.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was really where I started to see the shift from done for you social media into more strategy and then bringing in the human design element where that's really the basis of everything that we do and then build up from there. So, mean, even, not even quite three years in to business and one, it looks wildly different than it did when I started and two,

Yeah, yeah.

I'm really in the place that I'm creating and working with clients that I love and the work that we do with something I truly love and stand behind. that's the right, like making that transition into entrepreneurship is what I want so many corporate escapees to know is that you can start with one thing and a year later have a completely different business. You're not.

Yeah.

stuck in that one thing. So just get out there and start trying and and see where it takes you.

Yeah, such, such good advice. And it's so true. And now you've got a differentiator, right? Cause you're going to filter some people because life design won't be for everybody. Fine, right? Cause this gives you energy to do it. You're excited and passionate to talk about it. Not that you weren't with social media, but it just, you could have made a living and replace your paycheck with social media. But now you've got something even better. And again, I think as we had more and more into solo businesses aligning with,

Mm-hmm. yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

huh.

what's your good and passion, especially if we've been like boxed, you can help people unbox what they've been doing in corporate. So now I absolutely love this story and it's early, right? It's still going and that's the beauty of this. We have no idea where the next steps will take, but like said, I'm super excited to see where you're going because I think this is gonna resonate with people. One, that you can absolutely do it. You did it while you were still working. And again, we'll figure out where, not we, but you.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

no.

Yeah.

independently, we're still figuring out where this journey is going to take us. it's, yeah, that's awesome. Well, I appreciate you sharing. So if folks want to connect with you learn more about this and potentially work with you, what's the best way for them to to connect with you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, my website, danielleburken.com, B-U-R-K-E-N, tends to get spelled incorrectly. And then Instagram is another great spot. Just danielleburken underscore is a great place to connect.

Awesome. And we'll have to get into the community and maybe we can do a little mini workshop around life design. Cause I think this would be a cool topic for folks as well. So, so I appreciate you taking a few minutes. Thank you for sharing this story and we'll catch back up with that. Cause one thing I'm trying to do now is bring some past escapees like a year later to see where they're at in their journey and see, Hey, what would you have done differently? What's working? What's not working? but.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, thank you.

Ooh, yeah.

love that.

Like I I appreciate the time and we'll catch up with you here pretty quick.

Awesome, thank you.