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Hi there! I'm Molly: small town enthusiast, digital marketer, and mom of 4, passionate about helping local, small businesses thrive. Stick around to learn how YOU can flourish while living and doing business in a small town.

molly knuth

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Finding Your Why with Mariah Danielsen

Hey listener! Welcome to another episode of the Found podcast. I’m so excited to bring Mariah of Wander Design Co to the podcast. (Although- why has it taken this long!?)

Mariah and I go back a ways to when we were put together in a breakout group at the Empower Her Summit. She’s a great friend and a highly recommended Instagram follow. It MIGHT seem like I stalk her feed, but it’s just so good! 

You’ll see why she’s awesome in our chat today. I’m so inspired by her Why and grateful for the wisdom, spark, and energy she shared in the episode.

Key Takeaways

  • Mariah Danielsen got her start in graphic design and has grown to offer branding, website design, mentoring for creative women, and why discover through her business Wander Design Co
  • Mariah studied graphic design and marketing and worked her way up to leading a graphic design team for a company. Meanwhile, she started blogging about vintage and indie weddings, which lead to exposure on bigger blogs and speaking engagements. She got a sinking feeling that corporate wasn’t where she wanted to be and quit to pursue her own interests ten years ago.
  • She was doing graphic design, blogging, offering vintage wedding rentals, wedding planning, and running an antique shop when she had her second child and realized it was A LOT. She narrowed her focus back to graphic design.
  • “Everything builds on top of each other and the more you can make these conscious decisions in the right direction, there’s no telling what your life can end up becoming.”
  • Mariah had the opportunity to travel to New York to attend Marie Forleo’s B School in 2011. She met Simon Sinek and learned about Start With Why.
  • What is our Why? This is our purpose and how we operate at our natural best. What are we striving for? How do we want to impact other? Your Why statement is your overarching theme for life.
  • “If you could wake up and be the absolute best version of yourself, what contribution would you make to the world and what impact would it have on other people in the best way possible”
  • “Your why is only as strong as you can share it with others”
  • “It’s a waste to spend your time working on projects that drain you and are going to put you in a bad mood for your family when you get home, or if you feel like you have to work on the weekend so you can finish this project that you don’t enjoy anyway, it’s just not worth it.”
  • Mariah says setting long term goals is more difficult now, but it’s due to her confidence in her Why: “I know I am on a path and as long as I can build other people up so they can confidently put themselves forward, I’m happy.”
  • Mariah’s is a big fan of the Showit design tool for WordPress sites (me too!) and recently had her work published in their anthology, Spark.

Connect with Mariah

You’ve got to follow Mariah on Instagram. You can learn more about her services on her website.

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Hi there! I'm Molly: small town enthusiast, digital marketer, and mom of 4, passionate about helping local, small businesses thrive. Stick around to learn how YOU can flourish while living and doing business in a small town.

molly knuth

Meet the blogger