TEDxDuluth speaker Dayna Del Val has spent much of her life in front of people – as an actor, nonprofit CEO, and now as a coach helping others show up with confidence. Her TEDxDuluth talk, though, isn’t about speaking at all; it is about the quiet, disruptive power of silence in a world that never stops buzzing.​

A Life on Stage, A Message About Quiet

Dayna’s background spans more than 45 years of acting, 30 years as a professional actor, and a long tenure leading a nonprofit before launching her coaching work, Audaciously Visible. She helps people who already have something to say learn how to say it better and command the spaces they walk into.​

She is quick to point out that content alone is not enough. Most of us have sat through talks where the material was good, but the delivery lost us, while someone with “moderate” content but a strong presence lingered in our minds. For Dayna, that kind of presence is closely tied to the deeper inner clarity that can only come from making space for quiet.​

Living Through a Crisis of Noise

Dayna believes we are living in a “crisis of noise.” Between podcasts, music, streaming, social media, and constant notifications, almost every gap in the day risks being filled by sound or scrolling.​

That saturation, she says, drowns out the inner voice “trying to give us direction, trying to help us uncover what’s next.” Even simple moments like going for a walk are often framed as chances to “be productive” by consuming more content, rather than opportunities to hear nature or our own thoughts. Silence becomes uncomfortable, in part, because it is where our “deepest, truest, and most honest” thoughts tend to surface.​

Breaking the Productivity Habit

One of Dayna’s main points is that silence rarely happens by accident. The moment someone sits down to write, think, or simply be still, everything around them suddenly seems urgent – the dirty refrigerator becomes a crisis, or the inbox starts calling. She names this for what it often is: resistance to doing the harder inner work.​

Her suggestions are intentionally practical and small-scale:​

• Leave your phone at home for a walk and resist the urge to fill the time with a podcast.
• Commit the first 15 minutes of your day to external quiet with no music, news, or notifications.
• Turn off the TV before bed instead of falling asleep to a timer.
• Consider a short solo retreat or even a quiet afternoon away from your usual environment to interrupt old habits.

Like any habit, making space for silence takes practice, but Dayna insists it is learnable and accessible.​

Listening to the Internal Compass

In 2020, Dayna went on a solo retreat that became a turning point. In the stillness, she realized she was meant to leave her job and bring this work about presence, purpose, and silence to more people. That insight did not lead to a dramatic walkout; instead, she stayed in her role for two and a half more years, gradually building her next chapter alongside her day job.​

She describes this process as listening to an internal compass:​

• Silence reveals what you already suspect about what needs to change.
• Intuition “will rarely lead you astray,” though it may guide you through some murky water before things make sense.​
• Big shifts often unfold through small, consistent steps, not instant reinvention.​

For Dayna, purpose is less about becoming a cultural icon and more about refusing to drift through life on autopilot. That purpose might look “small” from the outside like a nurse sitting with patients who have no visitors, but its impact can be enormous.​

What to Expect at TEDxDuluth

On February 6th, Dayna will explore how intentional silence can “disrupt your life” in the best possible way. She will invite the audience to question a culture that measures worth in likes, followers, and overnight success stories, and instead pay attention to the quiet, long-game work of becoming more present and purposeful.​

If you watch the full Zoom conversation, you will see her gently validate choices like deleting TikTok when the noise becomes too much and offer concrete ideas for carving out quiet even in a busy, connected world.​Watch the full, unfiltered conversation here: [ Link to Full Clip ]