Danielle Raine is a holistic creativity expert and mindset coach for creatives and entrepreneurs. She has been studying the creative process since an epiphany at Art School in 1993 that revealed how to access the flow state.
For three decades, she's been working and experimenting in the creative fields of design, blogging, publishing, marketing, tech, and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on the nature of inspiration and flow productivity.
Her specialty is a wellness-based, feel-good approach to creative fulfillment and success, along with an enduring theme of enjoying the journey as much as possible.
Through her coaching, courses, books, and blogs, her mission is to share the simple, practical tools that create rapid shifts and inspiring results so that her clients, students, and readers can do more of the work they love to do and bring their most exciting creative visions to life.
Danielle Raine, Holistic Creativity Coach
What led you to become a creativity coach?
I love to blog, and since 2012, my favourite topics have been the creative process and creative living. Readers would often get in touch with questions about my ideas, and these exchanges eventually led me to the field of coaching.
Since my focus was on the benefits and challenges of the creative path, I was overjoyed when I discovered the field of Creativity Coaching in 2014. I immediately signed up for both Basic and Advanced training with the leader in the field, Eric Maisel, and I haven't looked back. I see my work today as winning the Career Jackpot, so much so that I love to share all I've learned with other aspiring Creativity Coaches. It's such a richly rewarding way to earn a living.
What is your business and how do you help your clients?
I'm a proud multi-passionate creative, and as such, I run a multi-faceted business. It's taken some years to make peace with this scenario after being told by so many experts that I should focus or stick to a single narrow niche. However, I've learned that I am happiest and most productive when I have a range of projects to move between. It just works well for me and I love it, so as part of my commitment to enjoying the journey, I'm sticking with this approach.
This means that there are a number of strands to my business. I offer Creativity Coaching exclusively via email; email coaching is wonderful for my fellow introverts and writers. My specialities are mindset work, career clarity, and flow productivity. I also have a lifelong obsession with wellness and longevity, so all of my work is built on a foundation of the body-mind-spirit connection. Essentially, I want to help creative people do the work they love as easily, healthfully, and joyfully as possible, because if it's possible, why not?
I also love to create online courses, it's my kind of happy, and I have a platform called Creative Well that's the home of my growing collection of digital course creations. These are designed to support people who feel called to a creative life – because it's not always an easy calling, yet I've learned many tips and techniques that can make it much more breezy and enjoyable. I also believe that healthy, happy creatives are a blessing to humanity, so by helping to support them, I'm doing my bit to change the world for the better.
Alongside sharing ideas and theories, I feel it's important to be active within the creative industry, which is why I still run my design & marketing agency, Pepper White. I love the variety of my multi-faceted business. I get to meet so many wonderful people from different backgrounds, and I feel that each strand of my work helps to support others. I feel very blessed to have found my way to such a happy creative mix.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
In 2009, I first stumbled across the concept of dharma, and I was hooked. It was perfect timing because I was at a pivotal point in my life when I had to return to work after my baby breaks, and I was considering my options.
The Law of Dharma states that there is something uniquely valuable that we are perfectly designed to do, and this sweet spot is a combination of our happiest expression that leads to our greatest success and most aligned contribution to humanity.
It's quite a promise! I was totally smitten with this idea, so I embarked on a mission to discover my dharma, my creative career sweet spot. Along the way, I also came across a principle that we teach what we need to learn, or at least, by teaching, we learn concepts more fully. So my mission became two-fold: to both learn more about the principle of dharma and to teach it.
What happened next was amazing. I spent a couple of years documenting my career journey, and sharing everything I was learning with my newsletter subscribers. This led to a stream of clients signing up for coaching with aspects of career confusion or finding their purpose. And the more I helped others with their dharma journeys, the more the puzzle pieces fell into place for me.
Because I'd documented every step of the way, I was able to look back and see how things had played out. I could spot patterns and see some universal principles at play. This framework became the core of my Creative Dharma programme; in essence, it's a fast-track through the work and concepts that had taken me over a decade to discover.
I'm really proud of that programme, for two reasons. Firstly, I've learned that a key part of my dharma is to help others discover theirs especially those called to a creative life. The second reason is that I've had feedback from students about how the exercises in the course have helped things click into place, even after many years of confusion. I'm passionate about Career Happiness, so it's truly rewarding to be able to help my fellow creatives enjoy their own dharma breakthroughs.
What are you currently working on?
My current labour of love is something I've been musing over for a while – a resource designed for creative non-fiction writers.
I used to write fiction, and I may do it again, but for now, non-fiction is my passion, and I know I'm not alone. It can sometimes feel like the whole writing community is geared toward fiction writers, so I'd like to redress the balance. So, this project, called Flow Writers, is devoted to my fellow non-fiction writers.
Bloggers, entrepreneurs, memoirists, creative academics, historians, biographers, and content writers are the people I most want to help with this project. It's still in the early stages but it's a labour of love. I've been writing for over 35 years, so I have a lot to share and my main focus is the flow state and all its benefits for health, wealth and happiness. I'm very happily obsessed and can't wait to share more.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
I'm on a mission to raise awareness about the creative power of joy. Happily, I'm already seeing some shifts, with more experts championing the role of joy in the success journey. Yet, there's still a huge amount of advice that suggests joy can't be trusted, that it's irresponsible or selfish to do what we love or to follow our delights.
So, if I could change one thing in my industry, it would be the message that joy can be a reliable guidance system and a fast track to success. I'm not advocating that we can or should only ever do what feels easiest or most appealing (although that can work more often than is commonly believed). But I feel there’s definitely room for a shift towards more delight en route to our goals and that joy can be a potent creative force rather than a trivial distraction.
What's your greatest vision or big dream?
I'm so glad you asked! This is one of my favourite things to think about. My Big Dream is to buy a beautiful chateau or stately home and convert it into a luxury wellness and creativity retreat for women. I even have a name for it: Heaven Hall, and it will also have a state-of-the-art spa to support my holistic wellness and body-mind principles.
Part of this vision is to incorporate some kind of one-for-one model so that women from all backgrounds can enjoy the line-enhancing magic of creative wellness. I'm currently in the research phase, which as you can imagine, is a delight.
Another vision I hold is for a new kind of schedule for the working week. It's a routine that’s perfect for creative types, especially multi-passionates, blending hours of focused work with leveraged leisure time for hobbies, wellness, learning, and play, all of which I believe support productivity and creativity.
It's a vision of free-flowing mornings, supportive practices outside of work, and optimum creative performance. I've adopted this for myself, and it's working like magic. I can't wait to help more people enjoy it. I believe working less but better is the future.
(Case in point: I wrote half of this piece from my bed when I woke up and the other half out in the garden during my morning yoga session. Work can be effortless when we have the right schedule and practices!)
How can people start working with you?
My core work – Creativity Coaching is a relatively new field of coaching, and I know that many people are new to the work and aren't exactly sure what's involved. So, I’ve created an introductory experience for anyone curious about this wonderful support system to help them learn more about what's possible and to get a sample taster of the benefits.
The Creativity Coaching Starter Kit is a short and sweet 5-day online course that's a whistle-stop tour through the benefits and potential of creative support. For anyone considering hiring a Creativity Coach or for those considering working with me, it's a fabulous way to dip your toe in the water and see if it's right for you. It's where I recommend all my new clients begin our work together and for some creatives, it's all they need to get their spark back, so they can then explore my Self-Coaching options.
Another easy way to sample my work is to read my book, Tonics For Your Creative Spirit – a compilation of some of my all-time favourite coaching tools and tips. There are some powerful self-coaching principles built into the book, so it's perfect for those not quite ready for one-to-one work, and it's also a perfect primer for those curious about going deeper with my work.
Any last tips for your fellow creatives?
The people in my audience tend to be very purpose-driven, keen to share their gifts in a way that also serves their fellow humans. For these types, I highly recommend getting clear on your unique purpose and your creative dharma so that you can tap into an exciting range of benefits beyond the conventional pursuit of success.
This is what I call Creativity for Humanity, and it’s a powerful creative force, one that has incredible positive ripple effects for the collective. It’s greatly needed and freely available. Being creative, sharing your gifts, and enjoying your journey can be potent contributions, and I invite anyone who feels called to this vision to go for it with gusto. We’re waiting for your creations!
