How Danae Hays Went from MLM Life to Making People Laugh

There’s a specific kind of confidence that comes from rebuilding your life in your late 20s or 30s—the kind that comes from realizing you’re allowed to evolve. That’s precisely where Danae Hays is right now.

On House Guest with Kenzie Elizabeth, host Kenzie Elizabeth welcomes Hays into her home for a conversation about the less glamorous chapters of her life, including working in real estate, joining an MLM, moving states multiple times, and trying to build something that felt sustainable. It’s a reminder that your life is allowed to unfold, without needing to “fix” it at the time.

The career pivot

Before building an online following and performing comedy, Hays was working in real estate. At the same time, her partner was involved with Beachbody (now known as BODi). She recalls seeing an opportunity—not necessarily the right one, but the one that was available in that moment.

“I was selling real estate in my hometown and she was doing Beachbody and doing really well at it,” she begins. “And I wanted to move to California… so I was like, what could I do in the meantime to like make some money but also work from home?”

She laughs as she remembers the moment she convinced herself to go all in, saying, “So I was like, oh, a pyramid scheme would be great. Let’s do that.” She was trying to create mobility—literally and financially.

Hays explains that the work itself wasn’t entirely empty. “The only fulfilling part for me was when I would get a message from somebody, and it would be like, ‘Danae, you’ve changed my life. I’ve lost 60 pounds,” she remembers. “Then I’d be like, okay, the mission feels good.”

But over time, the work stopped aligning with who she was becoming. She moved to California, then to Austin, and something shifted. “Once I got to Austin, Texas, I started on social media, and I just freaking loved it,” she says. “So I was like, I don’t want to do this anymore. I no longer need to do it. I’ve replaced the income, so I walked away from it.”

Finding comedy in the chaos

For Hays, humor is a coping mechanism that became a skill set. She tells Kenzie that she has, in her words, always been a prank-call person. “Hell, I’m 32 and I’m racking it in. Every night, I terrorize people on the phone,” she says, without a trace of irony.

She talks about finding connection and freedom in laughter, even when life is messy. She illustrates that point with a story about the overlap between her past Beachbody customers and her current comedy career. “I did a show this past weekend, and in the middle of my set, this girl in the front row just randomly goes, ‘You were my Beachbody coach,’” she remembers. “And I was like, ‘why are you doing this right now?’” It’s the kind of moment that would make most people want to crawl into a hole. Hays just turns it into material.

Permitting yourself to change

Hays’ story isn’t about choosing the “perfect” next step. It’s about choosing the next true one. She followed the smallest doorway that felt real—creativity, humor, self-expression—and let that build into something sustainable.

You don’t need to have a polished plan to start changing your life. You just have to be willing to try something else. No reinvention narrative is seamless. But the willingness to shift? That’s where all reinvention begins.

Listen to the entire conversation with Danae Hays on House Guest with Kenzie Elizabeth, available wherever you get your podcasts.

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