Podcast Summary: "Choose Ease, Not Urgency"

Podcast: Don’t Cut Your Own Bangs
Host: Danielle Ireland
Guest: LaShell Wooten (Life Coach, Abandoned Ordinary Wellness)
Date: November 24, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the difference between living with urgency versus choosing ease and floating through life. Host Danielle Ireland welcomes her longtime coach and friend, LaShell Wooten, to discuss how joy, alignment, and pleasure can guide our decisions, using personal stories from careers in the music industry, personal reinvention, reality TV, and daily life. The conversation invites listeners to challenge the assumption that struggle is necessary and instead embrace the “floating” feeling that comes with alignment and self-trust.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Floating (07:00–18:29)

• “Floating” as Life Philosophy:
  Both Danielle and LaShell share how their best career moves and life changes happened when they “floated in” rather than forced outcomes.
• Danielle's Reflection: She realized she thought “ease” meant she wasn’t trying hard enough.

  “I looked at floating through life, the moments where it felt easy. I thought that was a failure because I wasn’t trying.” – Danielle (16:39)

• LaShell’s Approach: LaShell frames “efforting” as often unnecessary, emphasizing that clarity and desire should lead, not struggle.

  “Fritting is for the birds. Efforting before the birds. Let the birds just pick it up and fly it south for the winter.” – LaShell (17:38)

2. LaShell’s Music Industry Origins and Emotional Intelligence (08:34–15:39)

• Career Beginnings: LaShell described how she “floated” into the music industry, landing a publicity job with R&B icons by accident after dropping out of college.
• Creative Lessons:

  “Creative people are crazy. And in a good way... You have to have this level of almost reckless abandon with yourself in order to actually express your creativity.” – LaShell (13:04)

• Industry Insights: Witnessing the highs and lows of artists led LaShell to pursue an education and career in understanding human behavior, becoming a coach and therapist.

3. Emotional Intelligence as a Compass (20:17–24:00)

• “GPS Your Life”: LaShell compares inner guidance to a GPS:

  “All I actually have to do is tell this thing where I want to go. And then I’m just going to sit here and it’s just going to tell me the best way to get there, and all I have to do is follow it.” (21:36)

• Desire as Direction:

  “Our true goal as people is to just figure out what we want. And when I say figure out, I mean feel. I don’t mean think about it.” (21:53)

• Resistance to the Unexpected: People balk when the “route” doesn’t look like what they expect, but the internal GPS sees more than we can.

4. Manifestation Through Clarity (18:35–19:26; 26:48–28:56)

• Magic of Clarity: Danielle and LaShell describe how, when Danielle gets clear about her desires in their sessions, opportunities seem to show up within months—often with minimal direct effort.
• Micro-Practice:

  “Your effort should be focused on discovering what you desire. Actually, accessing what you desire should really not be led with efforting. It should be floating.” – LaShell (17:44)

• Start Small: LaShell suggests starting with something simple—like choosing silverware or socks you love—to experience small daily joys and reinforce the muscle of desire.

5. Usher, Reinvention & Trusting the Universe (29:05–38:24)

• Saying Yes to Unlikely Offers: LaShell shares the story of leaving a 15-year social work career to unexpectedly coordinate for Usher, catalyzing her coaching business.
• Recognizing When a Chapter Closes: She knew her previous job was ending, not by misery but by a sense of “this is fantastic, but it’s over.”
• Following Clarity Over Logic:

  “I was as amazing as I can get in this moment. The road’s not opening. So I stopped looking for a job and continued to focus on enjoying the work I was doing. And then she called me…” (33:30)

6. Deal or No Deal Island – Floating into Adventure (39:03–45:31)

• Accidental Reality TV: LaShell ended up on NBC’s “Deal or No Deal Island” after filling out an application on a whim—with no intention of being cast.
• Doors Open When You Stop Resisting:

  “These doors are just flying open… So I said, you know what? I’m going to stop resisting, and I’m just going to follow this till it ends… As we all know, I was on the show.” (43:41)

• Lesson Learned:

  “It educated me about just how fearless and how free I can actually be… I went from floating to flying.” (45:03–45:49)

7. Don’t Cut Your Own Bangs Moments – Humor & Life Lessons (46:31–54:26)

• Major Mishap: LaShell’s literal don't cut your own bangs moment comes from gluing her hand to her face with Krazy Glue at age 18, leading to a day-long ER visit—a story highlighting self-sabotage through impatience and a lack of expertise.

  “My hand is glued to my face… [the hospital] laid me on a gurney, clamped my eye open, and flushed my eye for hours.” (48:23–50:00)

• Deeper Lesson:

  “If you feel resistance, stop. In life or with Crazy Glue. When you feel resistance, just stop.” – Danielle (51:19)

• Another Metaphor: Don’t follow someone else’s “hairstylist”—even if it worked for them, your way might be different.

8. Consumerism, Desire & Holiday Season Insights (54:08–57:05)

• Buying the Feeling, Not the Sweater: Danielle reflects on how she buys cream sweaters because she wants the cozy feeling the ad promises.
• Reframe:

  “What can I access in my world that gives me the feeling that I wanna access, that I’m looking at when I see this woman?” – LaShell (54:27–54:42)

• Simple Swaps: Light a candle, wear a different perfume, get a blowout—solutions that embody the desired feeling without mindless consumption.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• LaShell on Not Personalizing Setbacks:

  “Whoever you are in that version, whatever’s not happening or is happening, it doesn’t have anything to do with you because you are at your most amazing right now.” (33:30)

• LaShell on Desire:

  “We are here to express what we desire and engage with it when it shows up.” (29:05)

• Danielle on Floating:

  “Rather than busting through brick walls like the Kool-Aid Man, maybe consider floating.” (12:32)

• LaShell on Internal Compasses:

  “All I actually have to do is tell this thing where I want to go… and it’s just going to tell me the best way to get there.” (21:36)

• LaShell on Experimenting with Joy:

  "Every time you eat, which is multiple times a day, you’re having a moment that feels like floating. That feels like you." (28:14)

• Danielle on Buying Sweaters:

  “I don’t want the sweater. I want that feeling.” (53:41)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------------------------|------------| | Intro to LaShell and “floating” philosophy | 03:27–08:29| | Music industry beginnings & creative lessons | 08:34–15:39| | Choosing ease over urgency; effort vs. floating | 15:39–18:29| | Manifesting through clarity | 18:35–19:26| | GPS metaphor: using desire as your compass | 20:17–24:00| | Micro-practices: silverware, socks, small joys | 26:48–28:56| | Usher story & aligning with new opportunities | 29:05–38:24| | Deal or No Deal Island adventure & embracing the unknown | 39:03–45:51| | Don’t Cut Your Own Bangs mishap (Krazy Glue story) | 46:31–51:19| | Consumerism, desire, and how to feel instead of buy | 54:08–57:05|

Tone & Language

The episode is warm, playful, both deeply insightful and funny. Danielle and LaShell are candid, frequently laugh at themselves, and invite the audience to try simple reflection exercises rather than intellectualizing everything. The conversation is filled with quotable lines, encouragement, and practical wisdom grounded in lived experience.

Summary Takeaways

• Life doesn’t need to be forced; ease and floating often produce the most satisfying outcomes.
• Desire is a feeling to tune into, not an itemized to-do list or set of goals.
• Building joy and self-trust starts with tiny, tangible choices.
• Setbacks and closed doors are information, not personal failures.
• When in doubt—or pouring glue—pause, and ask: Am I acting from resistance or from ease?
• Especially during seasons of high consumerism, remember to seek the feeling, not just the thing.

To connect with LaShell Wooten and find her resources, visit the episode show notes or DanielleIreland.com.