[danielle miranda] ​​​​​​​Not Broken

Welcome to Exit the Matrix Stories of Success with your host, Jane Slack-Smith, where we celebrate the incredible journeys of individuals who've transcended their limitations and achieved extraordinary success.

Hello, I am your host, Jane Slack-Smith, of Exit the Matrix Stories of Success podcast, and I am so excited to bring today a very unusual and international special guest that we have onto the Exit the Matrix podcast. So I'd like to welcome Danielle Miranda. Hi, Danielle, how you going?

Hi, Jane, thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here.

Look, Danielle's really interesting because, you know, she talks about not being unbroken. She talks about having a truth seeker orientation around creating wisdom and enlightenment, and she is doing so much in the world in bringing this beautiful message to the world. But As all things that we do in Exit the Matrix, we know that everything didn't always turn out how it is now. And for often people, there's a sliding door moment, or there's a moment of awakening, or a moment of awareness where we realize the orientation or the path, the journey that we're on is not the one that we want to continue on. So I'm so excited to hear a little bit more about Danielle's journey today. And Danielle, we're going to kick off with one of the big questions, which is, Basically, what was your sliding door moment? What was that opportunity for you to become aware that you possibly weren't on the path that you wanted to continue on?

Well, it was in my 20s, so I had been through a lot in my life. And my mom, I knew she did the best she could with what she knew how, but she had me when she was a teenager and was kind of a rebellious teen herself.

Yeah.

So I wasn't really raised by her for like the first few years of my life. My grandmother, aunts, and uncles kind of stepped in and helped raise me for the first few years of my life. So my foundation was already a little cracked because I didn't have that mother and father figure in my life. My dad, I didn't get to know my biological father. He wasn't in my life. And so I grew up already feeling like I wasn't loved, right? You don't have that foundation of parents.

Hmm.

And then, um, as I got older, my mom came back into my life and moved me to California here in the United States in a town called Big Bear. And it's up in the mountains, beautiful resort town. And, uh, back in 1992, the earthquake hit. So there was a lot of cities that were damaged by the earthquake in California. And so at the time, she had met a guy who became my stepfather, and I ended up having a half-brother and half-sister from my mom and my stepdad. And my childhood, to be transparent, was very rough. I was abused as a child, bullied in school. I lived in a town where minorities and people of color was not common. I already felt like an outsider in that aspect. And so I've always felt this sense of needing to belong somewhere. You know, I always felt like I was— I didn't feel like I was home.

Mm.

So I had started soul searching at a young age. I knew that I was different. I knew that I was an old soul. I was very drawn to older people, very drawn to nature and animals. And I wasn't your typical kid. I didn't really— I wasn't in the house, you know, playing video games or with dolls. I was outside. I was very active as a kid. And as I got older— I'm kind of jumping around a little bit— but as I got older, I had went back to Ohio, which is where my mom's side of the family is from. And my grandmother was sick with type 2 diabetes. She was a nurse and had lost both her legs at the knee. So I had originally turned down some scholarships to go back and help out with her. And she passed away a few months later, and I had stayed. And in that process, I was literally teaching myself how to become an adult. I was never taught how to become an adult from entering into womanhood, right, with our monthly report card, our menstrual cycles. My mom didn't really teach me that, to how to handle finances. I never knew how to do any of those things. So from 18 on, I was basically teaching myself how to become a woman. And in that process, around my 20s, I, you know, got raped. And it was in that moment of being raped that I started to change. And I was very angry, very depressed, really didn't have any type of motivation in my life. I was withdrawn and really was going down a dark spiral that I was not okay with. And it took for me to almost be suicidal and really at my wit's end before I started to have that enlightening awakening moment. I write in my book— so in my book, I just finished completing a book called Test of a Lifetime. And in the book, I talk about how I was crying out to God and I was asking him for something. Help me because I can't do this on my own. And I remember falling on my knees and breaking down, and it was in a dark room. And right in that very moment, a ray of light goes into my room and shines right on me. And I saw a figure. And the figure literally said, I've got you, Dani.

Wow.

You're going to be okay. And it was in that moment that I started to change my life. That was my sliding door moment, was realizing that all of these years that I thought I was alone and that I wasn't loved and that I didn't have a place on here, in that very moment, that's when I first learned that I was loved, I was valued, and I did have a purpose on this planet. You know what? And so that's when my life started to change.

What's incredible about that, Danielle, and a testament to you and your, I'm gonna say fortitude, but not just that, bravery and boldness, is that even if we come back from like to a neuroscience beginning, 76% of our neuro connections are made by the time we're 7. And they are made from the experiences that we have from our guardians and our orientation to people of power of how are we loved, how are we accepted, The last of the 5 senses that you lose before you go into a full set of stress is touch and the importance of touch and being held and being loved. And for a child to have that, as you say, that foundation wasn't really there in the beginning. Essentially, for many people who've had something similar to that, they have then gone through a period of not being able to connect emotionally to themselves and to others because they haven't really had the role models. But the fact that you've gone through that and gone through the bullying and gone through those rites of passage as a woman and a woman that's then abused and then come through the other side and still had this hope that there's got to be an answer, like, help me. A lot of people don't get to that point. That must have been like an extraordinary, not just life-changing moment for you, but one that kind of validated that there is a path forward. So I'd like to hear a bit more about what then happened after that.

That really was a defining moment, Jane. And to be honest, that was my rebirth. If I'm going to be very transparent, that is when for the first time my eyes were wide open because prior to that, my eyes were wide shut. And so I was able to then say, OK, now that I can see, how am I now going to view the world? And how am I going to step into the world and be a significant player on this planet? And so that is when I came up with the motto that I was going to, no matter what, change the world one smile at a time. And so I make it my mission every day when I wake up I know that it is now another opportunity to go out into the world, to change the world with my smile, and to be a guiding light to anyone who needs it because I know what it's like to not have that in life. And so at that moment, I started to think about what was next for me. So, okay, what do I want to do here? I have this newfound purpose in my life. What am I going to do with it? And so I started to develop my gym. I had a gym and a concept that Was unique, and really what got me going down that path was I had been a personal trainer and in the health and fitness industry, not only as an athlete myself but also training clients. And there was a lot of things that I was seeing in the industry that I didn't agree with. I was like, this doesn't make sense. You know, something as simple as you hear trainers say that a guy who's six foot five. 185, needs 1 gallon of water a day. Well, how is that possible? But then on the other hand, you're also telling a woman who's 5'4, 120, that she needs a gallon of water a day, right?

Mm-hmm.

So it was simple stuff like that that didn't make sense. And then it was bigger things like having an exercise class or a workout class with 30 people to 1 instructor. That didn't make sense because how can 1 instructor pay attention to 30 different people? So seeing these things over time allowed me to say, okay, I want to come into the industry with a concept that not only is going to allow people to feel like they're being seen, but they're actually getting results, not only physically and nutritionally, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Wow.

So that is where—

yes.

So that is where Rock and Shock was born. And it was a beautiful concept that I came up with. And my vision was to have a female side, a wellness center, and a guy side. Because I do believe, although women and men can do the same workouts, that we are built differently. So women have certain needs and men have certain needs. And I wanted to make sure that both of them were being highlighted. So I came up with this concept. I developed my own style of training called HIIT Fit. And that stood for high-intensity functional interval training. It was based on a clock. The first number was a strength move. The second part of that number was a cardio move. And the third part was your rest. So for instance, 1 minute of strength, 1 minute of cardio, 1 minute of rest. And what was great about this was everybody that joined my gym, they were tested into a level. So you were with other people in class that were around the same fitness level as you, and there was no more than 10 people in a class.

Yeah.

So it was very unique. And COVID hit. So I had that gym for about 3 and a half years, and then COVID hit, and I Shut down my gym, and I'm really happy I did. I really believe that that was meant for me to close around that time. And so at that point, I was like, okay, what's next? Right here, I invested all my time into this gym. That was my heart, and now it's being cut off. I need to figure out what's next in my life. And so again, having this awakening allowed me to go back within myself and figure out what was next on this journey for me. And that is when the Unbroken Method was born.

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So COVID allowed me to come up with—

I just pull out there. So with the gym, when you were working with these people, and I guess from a point of view of seeing them individually, like individual assessment and then into a small group of 10, when you actually added not just the health and the fitness and nutrition, but, you know, the whole holistic wellness, were you seeing results in them that then kind of became the foundation of this next step for you where you were like, actually, We need to treat the whole person.

That's an excellent question. Yes, I saw results in women quickly. And what was so neat about it, Jane, was their marriages started to improve, their relationships with their children started to improve, their vigor for life in their career started to improve. These women were glowing from the inside and out. And I believe when you reach that level, In your life, that is when your health journey starts to take a tremendous positive turn because it's so much more than vanity. Health starts within, and I truly believe that. And so Rockin' Shock was a concept that allowed women to start their health from within.

Yep.

And as that started to come out and blossom, losing the weight was easy at that point. Following a healthy nutrition plan was easy at that point because they were fixing the foundation, which was trauma from their past, whether it was childhood trauma or trauma in their adulthood. They were fixing limiting beliefs, right? They were reaffirming themselves and knowing that they were beautiful and loved and worthy of having the healthy lifestyle that they desired.

Mm-hmm.

These things allowed them to really get the results they wanted. And so it was a joy to watch women come in just broken, essentially, and to, within a month, walk out completely unbroken, shoulders rolled back, walking with just this confidence and smiling when they walk in at 6:00 AM and when they would leave at 7:00 AM. It was just such a joy to be a part of that.

It's interesting. So you kind of saw this unbrokenness that was created through the gym. Take me through then what happened post-COVID. You know, the gyms closed down. You've got your own fundamentals here where you know that, you know, your bigger contribution is something so much more. So how did Unbroken Method, how did that come about?

So, you know, I actually was gonna say this, I struggled when I closed my gym. I was not okay because I had invested so many years into my concept, and it was my baby, essentially. So, you know, it was kind of like a death that I went through. I was grieving that process, and I went through a depression. I'm not going to lie. There was a period where I was really lost in trying to figure out what is next for me. And I made Rock 'n' Shock my identity.

Yeah.

So because I had made that my identity, it was very hard to even think about what was next for me. But once I allowed myself to sit in that, feel what I needed to feel— so grieve it, feel it, understand it, and release it— and ask God to give me a sign of what's next, That is when the Unbroken Method was born.

And I—

the Unbroken Method is honestly taking everything that I've gone through in my life and also helping people and what they've been through in their life and culminating this program where it works on every aspect of your life and allows you to search deep within yourself Figure out what is going on and work on it at a level that you've never worked on it before. So it's not easy, right? Becoming unbroken takes work.

Mm-hmm.

There's going to be a lot of tears with some people. There's going to be, you know, maybe some frustration and emotions that may come out. There's going to be things that we may not want to resurface. But in order to heal and to really move forward in life, And to break away from those cyclical patterns, you have to face them head on. That, in my opinion, is the only way that you can genuinely move forward and become unbroken.

It sounds to me that you've had a couple of those experiences, right? When you're sitting in the room asking for a sign and you're sitting post-COVID going in depression, going, what is this? There's that moment of awareness where you're like, I mean, you know, I'm in a low. And what's really interesting there is the identity that you put on yourself as the gym owner or the owner of your methodology. We all do that. Like, we put an identity on ourselves as I'm defined by my job or by the fact that I have children and they go to college and I'm like, who am I? Or, you know, I'm married and my wife leaves me and I'm like, you know, who am I now? Or, you know, we have a shocking health challenge. And it's like, well, I'm not healthy. So we all kind of have these identity moments where we have this kind of opportunity and choice to say, this is something that I can take on and it defines me, or this is something that I need to go and I get to redefine and relabel myself. And what I love about your story is you've had a number of those situations through childhood adversity, through this kind of early 20s, and then this post-COVID experience. experience. When you're talking to people who are going through those type of, my identity's changed, or the label of who I thought I was has changed, is it similar to what you said? Is there a grieving and then an awareness and then happy days? Or what's the kind of process people go through?

There has been such a wide range of emotions that I have encountered with clients. There have been some clients that For some reason, and I've always had this gift where people tend to trust me, so they'll open up to me and they'll tell me things. I've had clients that have been open books and they have told me so many personal things about themselves and they want to heal and they want to release. And then I've had clients that have fought me. And what I've come to find is the ones that fight you, they're the ones that need the most love and compassion. Because at some point, they're going to break down. And we are all on this journey to figure out our healing. And some of us take longer than others. And so I am honestly, Jane, just grateful to be a vessel, right? I am just an instrument. I give everyone the credit that is making the choice because at the end of the day, it's a choice.

Mm-hmm.

I give people credit that choose to want to heal because it is not easy to do and it takes a lot of strength and courage to do it. And the fact that I'm being used as a vessel to aid in their healing is humbling for me.

So, yeah, so many different paths. Well, let me, um, come to the final question, a bit of a fun question, this one. And that is, what's something that's unique? I mean, I heard that you're an athlete, you know, you obviously were a personal trainer, you've had some unique experiences in your life. What's something bizarre, unique, or What's something interesting that people wouldn't really know about you?

Bizarre, unique, or interesting? Well, there's a couple. So one is I am a goofball. So a lot of people, to be honest, they know me as like being very calm. You know, I'm pretty level-headed, but I'm absolutely a goofball. I love to laugh. I love to have a good time. So when people see me in that dynamic, they're like, whoa, we didn't know that you had that type of personality. people to see that fun side of me. And then a lot of people don't know this. I'm actually a pretty good singer. I love to sing and was in choir in junior high. And I've actually always wanted to be either a singer or a background dancer, like a dancer for like Janet Jackson.

Yeah.

You know, Justin Timberlake.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. A singer, dancer, and a goofball. I love it. I love it. Well, look, what an amazing story. And thank you for sharing so vulnerably some of the challenges that you had and your unique story on recognizing where you were and the choices that you had at those stages. And for people who would like to reach out to Danielle, I'm gonna put a link below. But if you're listening, it's exitthematrix.io/s/danielle. D-A-N-I-E-L-L-E. And you can go and join her free group. The Unbroken Method is something that Danielle is her signature movement. She has a daily inspirational quote and challenge for you. She has a paid membership as well. And she just is bringing the love one smile at a time to the world. So thank you so much, Danielle. It's just been an absolute gift hearing your story and for sharing Thank you so much, Jane.

I really appreciate being a guest on your amazing podcast. And for anybody who's out there, it is not too late to become unbroken.

That is beautiful. Well, look, everyone, thank you so much. What another incredible guest. I really encourage you to go to exitthematrix.io and sign up and subscribe so I can let you know when we have the next guest on. And I'm going to give you access to a free module of my course. So go over there, sign up, and of course, you know, let's crack the algorithm ourselves and leave us a 5-star review on Apple. And, uh, yeah, we'll get this message out to more and more people. Anyhow, thank you so much for listening to Exit the Matrix, and as always, here's to your success. Bye for now.

Thank you for listening to Exit the Matrix Stories of Success. Make sure you subscribe to future episodes at www.exitthematrix.io. Until next time, here's to your success.