Welcome to My Middle Name is Joy! I’m Danielle Joy, see what I did there? 🙂
I’m a thirty-some-year-old, newlywed, living in North Phoenix, AZ, ready to celebrate and devote more energy to the things that bring me joy in life, while hopefully spreading some joy to you!
This blog is a destination for you to find joyful cooking and clean eating recipes, essential oil & plant based solutions for your health, home, and happiness, fitness go-tos, music inspiration, and a little bit of my random joys in life 🙂
I am a creative spirit who loves fitness & dance (certified Zumba instructor for 6+ years, dancer most of my life), I maintain a clean lifestyle in my kitchen and home, and work as a distributor for Young Living Essential Oils (Enroller ID: 12170381), spreading oily goodness and chemical/toxin free plant based solutions to families. Music is also a huge passion in my life, and I perform together with my husband in our group Lockstep Music , where you can catch our positive harmonies and mellow acoustic tunes at local wine bars, coffee shops, weddings, and private events. I studied Communications and Spanish at the University of Arizona, and after working for 5 years as a Senior Manager in digital marketing for a very large publisher, I’ve recently made the switch to to using my skills managing social media and digital marketing for a variety of companies that align with my passions, including an eco-friendly, sustainable, and ethical Yoga fitness apparel brand called Yoga Democracy.
I’ve lived in Manhattan in my twenties, backpacked Spain twice in high school, traveled almost every major city and state in the US while scouting for actors and models (an awesome job I had once upon a time), and recently truly fell in love with the island of Maui after visiting on my honeymoon (cannot wait to go back), travel brings me great joy to say the least. Born in Long Island, NY, I moved to Scottsdale, AZ with my loving parents and 2 older sisters in the mid-90s. I still proudly say I’m a New Yorker, but have truly embraced and love the west coast lifestyle!
What brought me to start this blog?
About a month before my wedding in early 2017, my company of 5 years went through a restructure and my position was eliminated. Obviously stunned at first, with a little time I saw the gift I was actually given. When life flips you upside down, you can freak out, or you can realize maybe you weren’t on the right side all along. This down time allowed me to appreciate my wedding and soak in my honeymoon free of deadlines and emails. For the first time I gave myself the freedom to ask “what things bring me joy?” and “am I spending enough time and energy on the things I’m passionate about?”. When the honeymoon was literally over, I was hitting the pavement applying for jobs that checked the boxes on paper, I found myself moving further and further away from wanting to return to the same type of desk job I was accustomed to. After a few months of being unemployed, I decided to get out of my funk and took a leap of faith to explore other career options and ways to express my creativity, and I am so happy I did. Instead of feeling like my digital and communication skills I’ve developed over the past 10 years of my career were going to waste, I channeled my inner JOY and decided to use these skills in another way-from blogging, sharing about my clean living ways, or simply connecting with you.
So that is why I am here, to not only have the middle name “Joy” but to embrace living a more joyful life, and to try my best (we’re all human), to be my most joyful self. I’ve taken a leap of faith and started a more present and meaningful chapter of my life, I hope to inspire you to do the same.
Thanks for joining me on this journey!
Danielle Joy