The person getting interviewed in this podcast is named Danielle Mcdaniel, who is known as “The Clay Lady.” Mcdaniel is a ceramist and businesswoman. Mcdaniel started by taking ceramics class in high school. After high school, Mcdaniel started teaching kids and adults as a person who goes to parties to paint plates with kids. Mcdaniel did in-house field trips, went to teach at schools, and taught her students how to do things step by step. She got her nickname “The Clay Lady” from the kids who would be really excited to see her when she came to their schools they would call out “Look! it's The Clay Lady.” Mcdaniel’s career has been one of slow growth; she calls the growth of grass roots organic. After running paint parties, Mcdaniel later opened her own studio. She mentioned in the interview that she teaches her students how to find their voice in their art and how to sell their artwork. Additionally, Mcdaniel made Clay Lady products, like slip recipes and putting them in a jar and selling them. And with that Mcdaniel made tutorial videos and books to grow her business. 
Mcdaniel sounds like a very powerful woman. She seems to know herself well. She thinks that being an only child created the person that she is today. She also says that she only likes to do things that she knows she can be successful at, because she felt it was a waste of time to do something she isn’t good at. Mcdaniel was self taught growing up thats why she likes to teach kids and adults now. Ultimately, she feels that the process of artmaking and teaching is what makes her an artist, and not the project that she is working on.
From listening to Danielle Mcdaniel, I learned that anyone can start a business and run a business by themselves, as long as they are dedicated and determined. As Mcdaniel mentioned in the interview, she’s been self-employed all her life. I am impressed by her mentality and I like the confidence that she has.
The biggest takeaway for me is how this woman created a life for herself, by that I mean how she found something she was good at and kept growing her business from there. She began as a substitute teacher, and now she teaches her own university classes! When I was younger I used to like to do a lot of DIY’s and listening to Mcdaniel reminded me of the enthusiasm I used to have when I made little hair clips and hair bows. I wonder: if I had really stuck to making those clips a business, could I too have been self employed? Mcdaniel really is a very powerful and inspirational women who started from nothing and made a career for herself by self-teaching all the way through. 
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