If Oprah is the queen of self help, Danielle "truthbomb" LaPorte is the prodigal child.
Named as having one of Forbes' "Top 100 Websites for Women" and a member of Oprah's Super Soul 100, the best-selling author and self-help entrepreneur, LaPorte swears freely and has developed a cult-like following for her recalcitrant, non-conformist advice.
"You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge," the Canadian, who prides herself on street smarts and tenacity in favour of formal education, has said.
Her message of authenticity and originality has served the 47-year-old well.
After working her way up through the ranks at the Body Shop, to a position as executive director of Washington think tank The Arlington group, LaPorte released her first book in 2008 and now delivers her 5 million-odd following regular "truthbombs" based on her own "self help journey".
And her journey and advice centres around breaking rules before remaking them on your own terms.
She credits Indian philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti with being formative to her approach.
"He said 'discipline is a tool that numbs the mind' and that just blew it wide open for me – it put so many of the spiritual disciplines into perspective for me – I don't have to do yoga every day, I don't have to meditate for one hour, I don't have to do 108 mantras, and if you really take that philosophy then it's well, what about diet and what about so-called 'best practices' and 'seven habits' and 'five steps' and it turned it inside out and I could see how robotic so many of us have become in so many of our self help practices," LaPorte says from her home in Vancouver.
"That really was liberating to me."
In her effort to liberate herself from "robotic" habits, LaPorte admits she developed a "prodigal relationship" to spiritual practices.
"There was this time in my life I decided I'm not meditating any more… it's not going to be my thing," explains the mother-of-one.
"I had a really a long list of self-help to-dos where at one point I was like 'f--- it'."
For 12 years she gave up being vegetarian, along with her meditation practice and daily yoga. Eventually, instead of doing practices out of obligation, she returned to some out of curiosity.
"I came around to it in my own way, in my own time, in a way that worked for me and it was joy-based not fear-based, it was inspiration-based instead of motivation-based and it was totally different," she says.
"Two people can say the same prayer, do the same practice, eat the same diet for two very different reasons, one is doing it out of fear and one is doing it out of love and inspiration and they'll have very different results."
Returning to vegetarianism again, for instance, was about aligning her behaviour with her beliefs.
"The more reflective I become, the more sensitive I become, then I become more aware that every single time I ate meat...I had a very subtle moral dilemma with myself that I would override … it was actually creating a lot of stress and now it's just so much easier not to have that conversation with myself."
Our tendency to override our "subtle moral dilemmas" and ignore our own truths is, in LaPorte's eyes a problem holding many of us back, herself included.
"All of my person pain to not speaking the truth – I can trace every one of my professional failures to being silent, not speaking up," says LaPorte.
"Using your voice is far more satisfying and pleasurable than not speaking up. Truth is not always easier but far more gratifying than lying to yourself."
LaPorte knows from experience. She was "Steve Jobbed" from her own company, the direct result, she believes, of "keeping my mouth shut" about how it operated.
"There's a habit of spiritually oriented women, in particular, we think tolerance is the spiritual thing to do," she reflects, "and in many cases it is, but we turn it into this excessive tolerance where we just take a lot of s--- and silence is related to that – you stay quiet and keep putting up with things, so that you look better … you look more enlightened and resolved … but sometimes the spiritual thing to do is to kick it all to the kerb."
When she was kicked to the kerb of her company, she made a vow to "never be quiet again".
"It's a journey and a process and of course there are times when I'm like 'ugh, I should have spoken up' but not very often," she says.
"I think there's equal parts to learn from success and grace and hard times. I think the more awake you are, the more committed you are to being authentic – you don't need to learn by being fired from your company – the smaller pain keeps you awake instead of the big agonies."
It drives LaPorte to peddle truth and encourage others to also question their habits and look outside the square.
"Everybody is looking for permission to want what they want," she says. "A lot of it is about getting unstuck and the secret fears that are driving us … how can you go out and manifest your desires if you don't even think you deserve them? It begins with that sense of deserving and that sense of permission, which comes from you and nobody else. You get to feel what you want to feel and want what you want. It doesn't mean you'll get it but you get to go on the journey of going after it and attracting."
It's a journey that can send people looking in unusual places, going to and trying strange things, but that, LaPorte believes, is part of the adventure of self-discovery, self-improvement and spirituality. And she takes it all with a slightly bolshie grain of salt.
"I have been a fool and how lovely – the crazy things we do, all to be better," she says chuckling, "it's as beautiful as it is messed up."
LaPorte's 'Choose to Shine' Australian tour kicks off in Sydney on February 20 next year. For information and tickets, go to The Wake Up Project