Read time: 6.0 minutes
Welcome back to Spotlight Hustle, where we celebrate Black women whose voices build businesses, communities, and legacies.
Today we profile Daniella Blechner, publisher, mentor, and founder of Conscious Dreams Publishing. Her work is simple and radical at once: help Black women tell their stories, publish without compromise, and turn books into lasting platforms.
Feature Story: From Stories to Legacies
“Your story is your brand, your power, and your passport. As Black women in business, when we share our journeys, we don’t just inspire, we ignite opportunities for others to rise.”
From a very young age, Daniella Blechner loved reading and writing stories. It was what kept her going through challenging times. She loved escaping to magical lands and going on journeys with different characters, but there was just one problem: she wasn’t visible.
Growing up in the 80s in London, UK, Daniella didn’t see any characters or authors that looked or even felt like her — brown skin, gappy teeth, big bottom, big feet, and neurodivergent. She was an avid reader and had always dreamed of being a writer for as long as she could remember. But the absence of her image in the characters she read about and the authors she saw subconsciously sent her the message that her story didn’t matter.
Career & Business Journey
Daniella’s career officially began when she penned and published her first book, Mr Wrong, a relationship book designed for women to share their stories but also a space where they could self-reflect and self-discover.
She originally set out to publish traditionally, receiving great feedback from agents, but encountered many hurdles and gatekeepers along the way. Finally deciding to publish the book herself, she realised what a minefield it was out there, with many self-publishers taking advantage of authors who had good intentions of sharing their story with the world.
After publishing Mr Wrong in 2014 — which beat Steve Harvey’s Think Like a Man, Act Like a Lady on the bestseller list — Daniella began receiving messages from women, mainly Black women, with inspirational stories who wanted help with the publishing process. Some had even experienced agents trying to dilute their voices by changing main characters’ names like Abiola to Sophie for “commercial” appeal.
She began helping these incredible women with powerful messages, connecting them with professional editors, typesetters, and designers, and assisting them through the publishing process as a labour of love. Seeing the lack of diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation in the publishing industry, she realised that there were so many writers who needed support in a system that did not always honour Black women’s voices in the way it should. That realisation became the foundation for Conscious Dreams Publishing.
Gifts and Strengths
As a former secondary school teacher, Daniella’s strengths lie in patience and communication. Her gift, as others have told her, is bringing the best out in people and finding creative, innovative ways for them to create a bigger vision.
“We don’t just publish books,” she says. “We provide mentoring services to our authors from writing workshops and retreats to one-to-one mentoring, helping them find their voice, explore new and unique ways of promoting and marketing their book, and learn new skills.”
Being an author, she explains, is so much more than just writing a book and sitting back. It’s about creating a vision and building something lasting around your skills and services. She is passionate about helping authors build visions that will help them create a legacy.
Another strength Daniella embraces is her neurodivergence. Having been diagnosed with Autism (Asperger’s) and traits of ADHD, she’s learned to see her uniqueness as a strength. Some of her “superpowers,” she says, include exceptional attention to detail, determination to see things through to completion, a passion for innovation, and deep compassion for others whose voices often go unseen.
Challenges and Resilience
One of Daniella’s biggest obstacles has been balance. When she first started out, she was a team of one with a few freelancers on board. “It was very much a passion project — a labour of love. Everything started and stopped with me.”
At the time, she was running her business alongside a full-time job as an English teacher, which, as she describes, “does NOT finish when the bell rings or even when the school day is over. It’s never-ending.”
She was undercharging significantly while balancing many clients, but a lesson came from it: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”
That lesson pushed her to grow her team. Today, she leads a trusted group of 15–20 passionate professionals who align with the Conscious Dreams values of Integrity, Passion, Commitment, Creativity, and Excellence.
“I’ve never felt like giving up,” she says. “But I’ve had days, especially earlier on, where I’ve just felt exhausted.” Her advice to other entrepreneurs is simple but profound: “Do what you can, set strong boundaries, know what you have to say ‘no’ to, and say ‘yes’ to the things that make your heart sing.”
What keeps her going is knowing the impact her work has. Over the last nine years, Conscious Dreams Publishing has published over 350 books, and Daniella has mentored more than 1,000 people from all over the world, helping them share their powerful messages.
Her “why” is clear: “I want to change the narrative around who and what gets published, and to readdress the balance. I also want to be part of creating a safe space for our stories to be heard.”
She describes Conscious Dreams Publishing as more than a publishing house — it’s a community where authors support one another and share their expertise.
A powerful demonstration of this is their event Black Authors on the Rise, where authors get to share their stories and expertise while promoting their books. “For me, the most rewarding part is watching someone’s story empower another, or seeing one of our authors speak confidently on stage about their book, business, and services and, in turn, empower others. That’s what makes it all worth it.”
Routines and Practical Hustle
Daniella treats creativity like a garden. It needs tending, rest, water, and variety.
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Walks in nature for grounding and creative clarity.
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Morning meditation to settle a busy mind
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Protected meals and hydration to replace the coffee-only days of early hustle. “Gone are the days of downing coffee in the morning and skipping meals while immersing myself in work and hyper-focusing on my business. As women, we are cyclical beings. We are not made to push forward and punish ourselves with forceful routines and constant work. We need to tune in more and work with our cycles, knowing when to work and when to rest,” she says.
Identity and Representation
“Representation to me means being seen, heard, and valued in spaces where our voices have too often been excluded,” Daniella says. “As Black women entrepreneurs, every story we share is an act of leadership. Our voices not only build businesses, they also build bridges of representation, resilience, and legacy.”
She embodies representation by creating platforms where stories are not just published but celebrated.
“Your story is your brand, your power, and your passport, and when we share our journeys, we don’t just inspire, we ignite opportunities for others to rise.”
For Daniella, storytelling is strategy. It transforms challenges into credibility, victories into visibility, and vision into movements.
“Sharing our stories as Black women in business is not optional; it is essential. It dismantles barriers, commands authority, and ensures our voices are heard in rooms where decisions are made.”
Through Conscious Dreams Publishing and Black Authors on the Rise, Daniella helps Black women entrepreneurs tell their stories with confidence and power.
“Because when we tell our stories,” she says, “we don’t just build brands, we build legacies.”
Over to You
Which part of Daniella’s journey spoke to you most? Hit reply and let us know. If you are ready to start a book, reply with the word draft and we will send a quick starter checklist to help you begin.
If you run a space that needs diverse authors or you want to sponsor an author into a retreat, reply and we will connect you with Conscious Dreams Publishing.
Why We’re Excited
Daniella Blechner proves that publishing is a practice of justice and craft. Her work flips an extractive industry into a platform economy that funds authors, amplifies communities, and creates legitimate pathways to legacy.
If you want a practical, heart-led approach to publishing that protects voice and scales impact, Daniella is someone to watch and to partner with.
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