Dayna Del Val

04/09/2026

I'm buzzing like a hive of happy bees over what I'm launching in this Sunday's newsletter. 🐝✨

If you're a leader who's been thinking about how to expand your presence—not by becoming louder or more polished, but by becoming more fully yourself—you're going to want to see this.

I've created something brand new within my Audaciously Visible work:

One extraordinary day. Five leaders. Los Angeles.

An in-person intensive designed to help you experiment with your presence, get real-time coaching, see yourself on camera, learn from other leaders and walk away with something you can actually put into practice.

And yes…there's a lot more to it than that.

I'm sharing all the details in Sunday's newsletter.

If you're not already subscribed, now's the time.

https://daynadelval.kit.com/news

03/09/2026

Thank you, Gloria Steinem. ❤

02/09/2026

Your background was never your problem. Here's where your focus should be.

01/09/2026

What happens when you take a group of leaders out of their usual environment and give them permission to do...nothing?

Not catch up on email.
Not squeeze in one more meeting.
Not optimize their morning routine.
Not solve everyone else’s problems.

Just stop.

I'm bringing Uninterrupted: A Retreat to Spark Creativity to Los Angeles—and this time, I'm creating the experience specifically for leaders.

When I was a busy nonprofit CEO, I longed for time away to simply breathe and be, to lean into creative pursuits that called to me and to enjoy the company of other leaders who wanted the same things.

But that was never something I felt like I could seriously consider.

Until I went away on a two-week, solo writing retreat in 2020.

Fourteen uninterrupted days to explore whatever I wanted, to spend—and occasionally *waste—time as I pleased, to answer to no one but my curiosity.

And it changed me.

The more I work with leaders, the more convinced I am that creativity doesn't disappear when we become successful. We just stop giving it room.

And that's a problem because some of our best ideas, clearest decisions, most interesting questions and most unexpected possibilities show up when we're not trying so damn hard to produce them (I have so many stories about this very thing. Believe me, we'll talk about them, and yours, when we're together in LA!).

So I'm creating a few days of Uninterrupted space for a small group of leaders to step away from the noise, slow the pace, get curious, play a little, think differently and reconnect with the parts of themselves that don't always get a seat at the leadership table.

There will be thoughtful prompts, extraordinary food, good conversation, creative exploration, plenty of downtime and absolutely no pressure to "get something" out of every minute.

In other words: You don't have to be productive. You just have to be there.

I'm putting the final details together, but the dates are in place: October 22–25, 2026, Los Angeles

And yes, there's a reason I'm taking this particular experience to LA: Los Angeles is a city built on creativity. I'm inviting leaders to join me there to remember how to create—and why that matters so much for how you lead.

Creativity isn't just about making things.

It's about seeing possibilities.
Making connections others don't see.
Asking better questions.
Taking risks.
Imagining what's next.

All of those are leadership skills, too. But it's nearly impossible to make time to discover and practice them without the disruption of time away from your regular rhythm and routine.

If the idea of a few days in LA where you don't have to lead anyone, fix anything or accomplish anything sounds ridiculously good right now, stay tuned.

​Get on the wait list. Then you'll be the first to know all the details as they come together, or send me a note with questions.

Uninterrupted in LA is going to be extraordinary, and it might be just for you. ✨

*Lest you think me incapable of wasting time, I watched all 10 episodes of the Netflix series The Last Dance...in one day during that retreat. And I loved every single minute of it.

https://daynadelval.kit.com/786ea1dc6d

27/08/2026

What does Audaciously Visible have to do with a car wash?

Stay with me.

One of the things I find fascinating about getting a car wash is that, when I pull in, I don't suddenly acquire a new car. The car that comes out the other side is the exact same one that went in, but suddenly, I can see it again.

The dirt and salt is gone. The bugs, dust and whatever else has accumulated from simply moving through the world has been washed away.

There's something important in that.

We've been taught to approach professional development as if we're always missing something:

🛑 Another skill
🛑 Another certification
🛑 Another framework
🛑 Another way to communicate
🛑 Another version of ourselves to become

But what if development isn't always about adding?

What if sometimes it's about noticing what's accumulated and clearing away what no longer serves us?

What if it's about releasing the doubts and second-guessing?
The habit of overexplaining?
The instinct to make ourselves smaller?
The belief that we need to wait until we're completely ready before we speak? The polished, professional persona that has become so familiar, we no longer notice how much of our real ourselves we're keeping hidden behind it?

This is where the conversation about presence gets interesting because developing your presence isn't about becoming more charismatic, more "shiny" or more like someone else.

It's actually about asking: What's getting in the way of people experiencing more of who I actually am?

You may already be an expert in your area, but are people engaging with your ideas? Do they see your content as central to their own progress? Are you showing up as your most human self so that people are drawn to what you have to say?

If the answer is no to these questions then your leadership is likely getting missed, and that's a shame.

I'm increasingly convinced that becoming more effective rarely requires reinventing yourself. Often, you just need to wash off the stuff you've accumulated while moving through the world.

Here's what I'm wondering: How might you make more of an impact if you stopped focusing on what needs to be added—and started paying attention to what needs to be cleared away?

That feels pretty audacious to me. 🚗✨

25/08/2026

"Working" Isn't the Same as Working Well.

Over the weekend, a Facebook memory popped up, and it felt like too good a metaphor for my work in Audaciously Visible not to share.

Five years ago, our pantry technically worked. The shelves were cheap plastic. One was nearly cracked in half. They had originally been Quinn's childhood "chest of drawers," complete with stickers from his younger years.

But they held the contents I needed in some form or fashion, and I thought it was ok...until I saw my mom's newly redesigned pantry. Suddenly, I could see another possibility for ours.

Dr. Marry and I spent about three hours painting and installing new shelving and storage. Then we put almost everything back.

The contents of the pantry didn't change. The structure did.

Suddenly, everything was easier to find, access and use.

One of the challenges of becoming good, or better, at something is that we can stop examining how we're doing it.

We're successful. We're competent. We know how to lead the meeting, answer the question, give the presentation and navigate the room.

It works.

But often, working isn't the same as working as well as it could.

And that's where some of the most interesting work around presence begins.

Not when someone is failing, not when they need to be "fixed," but when a successful person becomes curious enough to ask: Have I become so accustomed to the way I show up that I've stopped noticing what else is possible?

What habits have become automatic?

What parts of my experience or perspective aren't coming through?

Where might I be making myself smaller, more complicated or less clear than I need to be?

What would change if I became more intentional about not just what I communicate, but how people experience me when I do?

That's what I find so compelling about presence.

It's not a personality transplant. It's not about becoming louder or more polished for the sake of being polished. It's about examining the structures—the habits, skills and assumptions—that shape how we show up.

Sometimes the experience, expertise, perspective and humanity are already there; they're just not as accessible to other people as they could be.

And sometimes, the next level isn't about adding something new. It's about creating a better structure for what you already have.

That's the work I'm exploring through Audaciously Visible. And it's the conversation I'm most interested in having with leaders right now: Where in your professional life have you become functional enough that you've stopped asking whether something more is possible?

Five years later, I still often stand in the doorway of my pantry and admire it.

Not because shelving is particularly fascinating, but because I remember what it felt like to suddenly see a familiar space differently.

Sometimes, seeing another possibility is all it takes to realize: What you've been doing may be working just fine. But what if it could work even better?

19/08/2026

Check out this quick,

Reach out with any questions to [email protected]. I'd love to ...

18/08/2026

14 hours. No Internet.

No scrolling
No email
No news
No checking what everyone else was doing

Last week, our Internet was down for the great majority of one whole day.

After I realized what was going on, I recognized that this was not a problem; it was an opportunity.

Honestly? It felt strange at first. What was I going to do all day? How would I stay productive? Stay in the loop? Stay connected to the world?

We're so accustomed to filling every little pocket of time that being given intentional time and space can feel disruptive. Far too often, we don't have enough time to actually notice it, but in the case of a full work day, my usual rhythm was interrupted long enough that I not only noticed it, I had to deal with it.

Which, of course, was the unexpected gift I was given when our Internet went down.

I spent the day reading and enjoying my prairie garden. I pondered. I sat with my thoughts.

And somewhere in all that quiet, things started to emerge. Not because I was trying to brainstorm, had a strategic planning exercise in front of me or was working toward a quarterly goal.

But because I finally had some room to think.

Since then, I've:

→ Signed two new Audaciously Visible clients—both people who had been quietly following my work for some time

→ Soft-launched the Audaciously Visible Fellowship, a year-long experience for high-level leaders combining 1:1 coaching, domestic and international retreats, community and more

→ Made some important decisions about my podcast, Brave Middle Ground

→ Begun separating my (re)Discover Your Spark travel experiences from my Audaciously Visible coaching programs to create more space and clarity for both

None of those things appeared out of thin air. The thinking had been happening for a while. But the space allowed me to see things differently.

And that got me thinking about why I create (re)Discover Your Spark experiences.

Big ideas need time to germinate, but it's hard to give them that time when you're constantly chasing your inbox, your to-do list, your quarterly goals or your strategic plan.

Those things matter.

But they don't always leave room for the kind of wide-reaching, creative thinking that can happen when we step outside our usual rhythm.

In fact, it was another period of disruption in 2020 that gave me the idea for what would eventually become the (re)Discover Your Spark experiences in the first place.

That's why the travel isn't actually the point.

Yes, the places are beautiful, the food is incredible and we have a ridiculous amount of fun. But we go to disrupt the ordinary. To step outside our day-to-day long enough to give something extraordinary room to emerge.

To interrupt the pace and routines that become so automatic we stop noticing them.
To create space to think. To ponder what we want next. To reconnect with things that matter to us. To spend time with people who are equally invested in doing something different.

And then—perhaps most importantly—to come home and do something with what we discovered.

You don't have to travel to Ireland to interrupt your rhythm. Sometimes, you just need your internet to go down for 14 hours.

But the real opportunity isn't in having the interruption.

It's in what you do with the space it creates.

What might you notice if you stopped filling every available minute? What might emerge if you gave yourself enough quiet to actually hear yourself think?

And what might you do with it once you did?

Join me tomorrow for a 30-minute, FREE workshop where we'll spend a few minutes disrupting our rhythm to see what emerges when we get quiet.

And we'll talk a bit about the upcoming May 2027 (re)Discover Your Spark travel experiences in Ireland, too.

Sign up even if you can't be there live because I'll send out the replay afterwards.

Your extraordinary is waiting—join us tomorrow to get started.

Register right here: https://daynadelval.kit.com/8fbd900a04

13/08/2026

Thanks to Jay Evans and the team of the Never Been Asked That podcast for this interesting conversation that went all over the place, spanned all my decades and tapped into my Spark.

11/08/2026

I could tell you why I believe the (re)Discover Your Spark travel experiences matter.

I could tell you about

The beautiful places
The incredible meals
The thoughtful details
The laughter that inevitably fills the house
The conversations that continue long after we return home

But honestly? I'd rather let the people who've experienced them tell you.

Over the past four years, I've had the extraordinary privilege of traveling with women and men to Bath, Florence and Edinburgh—and next May, we'll gather again in Ireland.

Some have joined us once, and some have been with us every year.

So I asked a few of them a simple question: Why did this experience matter to you?

Watch the two videos in the comments below.

What I love about their answers is that none of them are really talking about travel.

They're talking about space.

Space to step away from the usual pace of life
Space to think differently
Space to have conversations they might not otherwise have
Space to notice what had been sitting just below the surface
Space to reconnect with themselves—and with other people who were doing the same thing

Yes, we travel, and the places are extraordinary. But the destination isn't the point.

It's the condition the destination helps create.

A little distance from your everyday life
A little less noise
A little more room to hear yourself think

And sometimes, that's enough to rediscover a Spark you didn't realize you had been missing. That's what (re)Discover Your Spark has become over these past years.

If you're curious about what that might look like for you, I'd love to have you join me for my FREE (re)Discover Your Spark Travel Experience Workshop on Wednesday, August 19 at 11am CST.

We'll talk about next year's Ireland experience, how the new format will work and what makes these experiences different from simply taking a great trip.

And we'll create a moment of uninterrupted space together, too.

Because you never know what you might notice when you finally give yourself a little room to pay attention.

[Reserve your free spot here: https://daynadelval.kit.com/8fbd900a04