Meet Dani, a Nomadic Entrepreneur!

Recently, Danielle "Dani" Schnakenberg joined the Container Yard family, for a little while anyway. Aside from being a successful entrepreneur and mom of five kids and a Goldendoodle, Dani has quite the story to share...so check it out!

Where are you from?

Originally I am from a small college town outside of Kansas City.

So, where do you call home now?

Honestly, wherever our 37-foot travel trailer takes me, my husband, kids and of course dog.

Tell us what led you to live such a nomadic lifestyle in this season of your life. Well, a few years ago we were living the normal “American Dream.” My husband’s job took us to Michigan and we bought a house and truly thought we were putting down roots there. It turns out that we only loved Michigan for about 6 months out of the year (we weren't big fans of the freezing temps), so we decided that the best way to find a new “hometown” would be to travel the country in an RV, so that is what we are doing! 9 months later and there aren't any plans to settle down any time soon. There's still a lot of the country we haven’t seen yet, so we’re going to take it slow and visit many more places.

Tell us about your career and what you do that allows you to embrace this nomadic call.

I’m a Business Systems Strategist. Ultimately, I help small business owners streamline and optimize their businesses by implementing systems and processes that allow them to run their business with more confidence and fewer hours.

Typically I work with my clients for 3 months and help them set up systems and hire appropriately. Occasionally I do take on a more active, longer-term role as an interim project manager or integrator if there’s a lot of shifting that needs to be done. I also recently launched a membership site that helps business owners walk through my processes on their own timeline.

The bottom line is that I love helping entrepreneurs move from being overwhelmed to confident and growing!

Okay, so with 7 bodies and a large dog in a 37-foot travel trailer why have you chosen coworking?

I get this question from other RV Entrepreneurs all of the time! It seems odd to them that we would work so hard to become location-independent only to turn around and use coworking spaces. But, as you can probably figure out by now, we like to do things our own way!

We travel at varying paces, sometimes moving to a new area every few days or every week. Sometimes we like to stay 2-3 months. My business also comes in seasons and sometimes we just need to slow down for a bit. We knew we wanted to spend winter somewhere warm and close enough to a city with coworking options since I am launching the new membership program. Using a coworking space just made sense when all these stars aligned. Plus, I know my kids enjoy not hearing “Please be quiet. Mommy is on a client call.” so many times a day, ha!

So, now that we know why you chose coworking, tell us how you found out about Container Yard.

Once we chose Mobile as our winter destination and made our reservation at Meaher State Park for the winter, I started searching online for nearby coworking spaces. There was a handful on both sides of the Bay, but Container Yard was the best fit in terms of location and our shorter-term stay.

Since you have traveled around for nine months now and have seen a few coworking spaces in several places, what differentiates Container Yard from the other spaces you have seen?

The community-based feel here is awesome! I’ve felt so welcomed even though it’s clear that I’m not staying for long. A lot of spaces are only open to long-term users which is frustrating as a nomadic entrepreneur.

Okay, so now that we know all about your nomadic lifestyle and entrepreneurial quest, tell us if you ever get a moment to actually slow down what is your guilty pleasure?

Well, first, I refuse to feel guilty about anything I enjoy! When I do shut my entrepreneur brain off though, I do enjoy watching cooking shows with my kids and then letting them experiment (as much as we can in our tiny space). Our favorites right now are Nailed It and Sugar Rush. We’re also avid board-game lovers with our current rotation of Settlers of Catan, Evolution, and a totally nerdy baseball statistics game!

It has been such a pleasure getting to know Dani and welcoming her to our Yard family during her short stay here! Learn more about Dani and her business, Simplified Business Systems here!