Meet Danalyn Savage

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danalyn Savage a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Danalyn, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome started early. It showed itself in my belief that I was never good enough to be where I was and my constant effort to prove that I deserved to be in the room.

Growing up, I never seemed to fit in. I tried hard, but wasn’t great at anything in particular. I was overlooked and unseen. When that is a daily occurrence it can ultimately lead to believing you are less than. This was my experience. So when I was seen, it was always a surprise.

The first time I was surprised was when my 4th grade teacher Mr. Schreck called me out for not doing my schoolwork. I had become lazy and wasn’t doing my classwork or my homework in a couple of my classes. He informed me that I would be doing the work that weekend and then bring it back on Monday. It was quite the stack. So my bicycle collected dust that weekend. But, he also told me that I was better than the effort I was putting in and he expected more from me. I did the work then and the rest of the school year. I wasn’t convinced that I was as smart as he said I was, but he planted that seed in my brain. To this day I still have the award from the end of the school year for “Most Improved.”

In 9th grade I tried out for the basketball team. I had only started learning to play in a couple of camps starting in 7th grade. I had never played on a team until 9th grade. I made the JV team and at some point during the season the Varsity coach asked me to come practice with them on Saturday mornings. I was surprised because I had very little experience and did not believe I was that good. But Coach Baker saw something in me that I did not. I realize now he believed in me and my ability to play.

In college after making the basketball team as a walk on, I had the privilege of playing on the team. During my Senior year I was applying to law school and was not confident I would get in. I had a lack luster LSAT score and believed that would keep me from being seen and accepted anywhere.

One day, prior to getting any acceptance letters, I went to my Coach with a plan. I told him that if I didn’t get into law school I would come back to the college, start my Masters in Psychology and use up my last year of eligibility with the team. He looked at me and said “No. You are not coming back. You are going to law school.” So while I didn’t believe I was good enough, or deserved to get in, Coach Williams knew. I was mad at him at the time because I thought this was just another person telling me I didn’t matter. But what I realize now was he believed in me and wasn’t going to let me stay and waste my potential. No contingency plans.

I have now been at attorney since 2005. Almost 20 years. But that feeling like a I don’t belong in the room, that I am not good enough or I don’t know what I am doing, it persisted. The story I was telling myself was that I didn’t know enough, I was going to fail eventually, I was going to let someone down, I was going to get in trouble for messing up, I didn’t know what I was doing and someone was going to see that soon and expose me. Then I would be out of work as a failure and a fraud.

In 2018 I finally decided to go to therapy again. Part of the work I was doing, seemed to stem from childhood trauma. I learned in the process that I never believed I was enough just as I am. I spent my life trying to prove to everyone, including myself, that I belonged and deserved to be seen. As I went through this process I began to believe I was enough. But it was still a process.

Then in 2023 something clicked. I went to the investiture of my friend and watched as Judges who were former colleagues I worked with walked in. For the first time in my life I asked the question, “When will it be my turn?” Turns out my turn was one month later when the first application for a Judicial position posted in my county that year. I applied and got the first interview. Then I made it to the second interview. I didn’t get that position. But, I did learn a couple of things.

First, not only am I qualified to be a Judge based on my extensive experience as an attorney, but also based on my life experience. I learned this while I was completing my application. Through essays and answering questions, I realized that while my legal experience is nice, my experience as a human is what makes me a good Judge.

Second, I do not need to make myself small and hide. I spent all of 2024 going out to different groups and talking to them about who I am, what I was doing on the bench and why I am a good Judge. Despite the ultimate result being a loss, albeit a close one, in the election to keep my position, I know that I belong in the rooms I am in and I am good at the work I do. I am capable of learning new things and excelling in my work. This is not arrogance. This is simply believing what is already true about myself and living out everyday.

I am smart. I am strong. I am efficient. I am kind and compassionate. I care about humanity. I am good at what I do. I am a good mom and wife. I belong in the room with everyone else. I found my voice over the last year and a half despite things that were said about me. And I hope that my story helps other women find their voice and move through the world taking up the space they belong in. I hope they understand that they are not imposters and their work matters.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

As I mentioned, I have been an attorney for almost 20 years. In December of 2023 I was appointed to be a Superior Court Judge for Yavapai County Arizona. I ran in the 2024 election to keep my position as is required by our statutes and laws. While I did not win that election, with a margin loss of less than 9%, I loved the work that I did on the bench.

My assignment included most of our specialty courts. I was responsible for our Treatment Court, Mental Health Court, Court Ordered Treatment Cases, Criminal Competency Court, Guardianships and Conservatorships and Probation Violation cases. I found that this assignment allowed me to help serve what seems to be a more marginalized and overlooked part of the community. Seeing the people in the treatment courts find internal motivation to change and make their lives better is encouraging. We would even celebrate graduates of the program at a quarterly graduation. To see how different a person is from the start to the finish, is absolutely amazing. Especially when much of what we see in court is not as joyful.

But, now I am in transition from where I was to what is next. My last day as a Judge was November 19, 2024. This loss was heartbreaking for me and the grief has been overwhelming. I spent almost 3 weeks not feeling like myself. I had to feel the grief, the anger and the disappointment in the result of the election and the loss of work that I truly love and believe in.

I decided that this interview would be my way to inspire myself and others to move through things that threaten to destroy us and destroy our motivation. I had to decide that the only way any opposition would win, is if I decide not to get back up and fight.

I learned over the last few weeks that I am strong, I have amazing support in my friends and family, AND that I am ready to be in charge of myself. I can be brave in my grief and loss. I started my own law firm and my work will fill a need in my community that I saw from the bench. It is hard to find local attorneys who are willing and have the time to serve lower income people because everyone is so busy with the work they are doing already. Rural communities struggle to keep attorneys in the area for various and sundry reasons. It is what our Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice calls a legal desert.

My law practice will focus on being a court appointed attorney for wards in Guardianship and Conservatorship cases. I will continue to be on the bench in a substitute type position (Pro Tem) in some of the limited jurisdiction courts. And, if schedule allows, I will also take on a contract to represent domestic violence victims in family court. I do not know what else private practice has in store, but I am excited to learn and grow. Savage Law Office is a cool name too.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Kindness. Humility. Resilience. These three qualities have followed me throughout my career. They have instructed me on how I move through the world and interact with people around me.

Kindness requires a measure of humility and the need to acknowledge humanity in every person. When we see the human behind a circumstance, no matter how awful, it is easier to respond with kindness. This does not mean that we let people walk all over us. As a Judge I learned how far kindness can go, even from the bench. Kindness can look like listening, but still being firm with a decision or response. Kindness can be allowing someone another chance, or not.

I made a choice, when I started my career, to show kindness as a way to help make the places I walk through more beautiful. This is a conscious decision. Some days are harder than others. Many days the word feels darker than other days. But my choice hopefully makes the world better for the people who encounter me.

Humility. I am fully aware of the fact that I do not know everything. I am not afraid to ask questions when I don’t know what I am doing or what I need to do. But in order to ask questions and ask for help it is necessary to be humble. Humility is so much more than knowing I am not the smartest person in the room. Humility requires vulnerability. It requires a willingness to put our real self out in the open for others to see, be willing to fail spectacularly, get back up and show our face to the people who watched us fail and maybe wanted us to fail. Humility requires an ability to learn and be taught, but also to teach what we have learned.

Brené Brown, in her book “Rising Strong” says this:

“I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make a choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time. Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”

And this leads us to the last quality. Resilience.

Failure is inevitable. Setbacks will happen. Sometimes they are far more painful than we want. But what we do with them is what helps us keep growing into the person we were made to be. Resilience doesn’t have to look like a massive action or a significant pivot in your career. It often looks like something small – like getting out of bed when you are depressed, putting yourself out there again after you’ve been rejected, or fighting through anxiety in your car before going into an event. For me, resilience has led me to continue serving my community even after my election loss. I’ve cried, gone to therapy, prayed, and put one foot in front of the other until the fog of grief lifted and I felt like myself again. You’ve just have to keep getting back up.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

I asked my husband for some help on this one. His answer was “Confidence. Courage. Public Speaking.” I agree. But I think the theme in these is voice. From December 2023 to November 2024 my biggest growth point was: I found my voice.

I learned to believe that I am good at what I do and my voice in the community is valuable and necessary. I learned more than ever to love how I choose to dress and do my hair, even when people want to define my character based on a picture and my short hair.

I learned how to walk into rooms with people who probably wouldn’t like me and remain the woman I have been my entire existence. I learned to walk into those same rooms and sit tall when someone in power decided to use the stage to attempt to bully and humiliate me and make me feel small. I learned to talk to the people in those rooms one on one and from stages, and share who I truly am and why I love to serve my community.

I learned not to hide to stay safe. I faced the bullies that nobody else wanted to face. And in finding my voice, I hope that I helped those who interacted with me to find theirs, or start on the journey to find it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: danalyn_savage
• Linkedin: Danalyn Savage

Image Credits

Photo with tattoos and Photo sitting on the rocks by Sedona Bella.