Movie Producer: How To Keep Moving When Life Knocks You Down

Dawn Krantz built a career by walking into rooms with no credentials and leaving with results. We dig into her first big swing in Austin real estate—pre-Google, pre-YouTube—where she fought through no after no, learned to face a city council with a plan, and delivered a guarded lakeside development against the odds.

From there, Dawn did the uncommon thing: she changed lanes entirely. She scaled a video store chain by studying failure first, mapping what broke, and building customer-friendly systems. She names the quiet levers most people miss: love the part you do, delegate the parts you don’t, and log your time to learn where “busy” hides. We talk about the real meaning of hard work, how to set vacation-grade deadlines, and why your strengths—not your job title—should shape your next move. Her stories of mentees, lawyers-turned-writers, and late-career pivots show how forced change can become the opening you needed.

Then it gets personal. Dawn shares the years that unraveled: divorce, cancer, eleven surgeries, a flatline, and the slow return. She couldn’t fly for film deals, so she rebuilt in real estate while becoming her own health advocate, blending top-tier care with integrative approaches. We also sit with forgiveness—caring for an ex-husband through Parkinson’s and dementia—and what it means to choose peace over blame. The thread through it all is ownership: don’t wait to feel untouchable, don’t force yourself into roles that drain you, and don’t let fear keep you from switching tracks. Hit play to learn how to work smarter, endure longer, and design a life that fits.

If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what pivot are you ready to make?

Transcript

Cold Open: A Kid’s Hustle

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey Adrian, what's up?

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Hi.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hey, there was um some there's a question I really have been wanting to ask you for a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Yeah, why didn't you ask me earlier?

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Um, because I was waiting until I put a microphone in your face. Okay. So you remember a couple weeks ago, your class had this competition where you had to collect soup cans and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

What was that called? Oh, the Super Bowl. So basically, you every class was competing to see who could get the most cans, basically, right?

SPEAKER_04 0:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

And you came home one day and you told me, oh, you know, our class is not doing so well, and like we just don't have that many, right? Yeah. So then I we got stuff from our pantry and then you took it, right?

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Okay. And then and then what did you do after that? So then you came home one day and you're like, Dad, like I need more cans because we're just not getting enough cans. And then you asked if we could go around the neighborhood and ask neighbors for stuff, right?

SPEAKER_04 0:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And then you did that. So can you tell us about it?

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Like, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Like just what did you do? So you you and mom uh because I didn't go, so tell me, like, what was it like?

SPEAKER_04 1:05

So we uh went to the call-sack and um we went to people's doors and asked for cans.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

And how did it sound did you just like go knock on Hi, I'm a Madrian, can I have some food?

SPEAKER_04 1:16

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

How did you do it?

SPEAKER_04 1:18

I told them the reason.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Oh, okay. And where most people were just like, oh yeah, I can help you.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Yeah. And then this one person said that he did this and it's work.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Oh really?

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

I guess my point is I thought it was really cool that you really put your mind to something and first you gave cans and then you thought it wasn't enough, and then you tried to help your class even more by going around the neighborhood and getting more stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

What do you think in your mind like made you want to do that?

SPEAKER_04 1:45

I don't know. Cause I mean it's because then we get a pizza party.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Yeah. Okay, so there was a reward, right? Yeah. But like I just not every kid would do that, is my point. So I just think I don't know, there must be something. Maybe you're do you know what the word competitive means?

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

What does it mean?

SPEAKER_04 2:04

I can't really explain it.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

So it's basically when you really want to do well at something, you'll basically try your best to try to get whatever it is you're trying to get. It could be like trying to win a game, it could be trying to win a competition, it could be different things.

Show Intro And Theme

Dawn’s Leap Into Real Estate

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Yeah. Hi, Let's Red listeners. Quick thing before we start. This podcast technically has a boss. His name is Adrian, he's seven. He checks the subscriber numbers every week, he sets aggressive targets, and I've been told just try harder is his full management philosophy. So follow or subscribe and tell a friend to do the same. It'll help me keep my job. And stick around, because this is a real-time journey, learning, parenting, work, life. I'm sorting through all of it out loud for your entertainment. So come on this journey with us. Now, let's ride. Our guest today built her career by repeatedly stepping into rooms where she had no formal training and refusing to leave until she figured it out. She jumped into real estate development in Austin without going to school for it, without mentors, and before Google could tell her how to do it. She learned by doing, then turned that first improbable win into a foundation of confidence that carried her forward. From there, she didn't play it safe. She built and scaled a chain of video stores, then pivoted again into movie producing, stacking entirely different careers instead of repeating the same ones over and over. And just what it looked like she'd right off into the sunset, life hit her hard, divorce, cancer, and starting over. This episode is about what it feels like to be on top of the world and then have to rebuild with perspective, humor, and grit. If you've ever wondered how someone keeps moving forward after massive wins and real loss, this conversation is for you. Our guest today is Don Krantz.

Fighting City Hall And First Big Win

SPEAKER_05 4:24

And on Lake Austin, Lake Austin is Austin's water supply. So very environmentally sensitive. I was told no so many times, it was unbelievable. Then I wanted a gate because of the on lobby. So I was so nervous, right, that I wanted to put up a gate. And I went before the city council. I mean, I'm 30 years old. What do I know, right? And I'm so nervous to even get up and say my name. No, let's sit and convince these people that I could build a guard gate. And I'll never forget them saying to me, this is not Houston. Austin has no crime. You know, we're not going to let you build the gate. And I'm like, yeah, I need my kids. And I went so many times before the city council and finally got it approved. And the subdivision took about three, four years to do. It was my first huge success. It was the first thing that convinced me that I knew nothing about what I was doing. Right. And yet I didn't give up. I had a plan. I knew what I wanted to do. And it was successful. I think that was really the beginning of me never giving up.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

So let's pause there because there's a lot there. And so the first thing that that I have to call out is so you're talking about real estate development. You you just said, hey, I know I don't know anything. The first thing about it, you didn't go to school for it. It's not like you were trained by somebody ahead of time. So again, when I think back to just the general person that gets this maybe opportunity, or somebody makes this comment, oh, hey, well, if you want to, there's this opportunity. And you know, people would say, Well, I don't know the first thing about that. So this isn't for me. And now what you just said was that you didn't know anything about it either, but you just decided that this was an opportunity and you were gonna do whatever it needed. I'm assuming what what what year was this?

SPEAKER_05 6:16

Uh now I'm dating Mike.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Okay. Ish, you can give a ballpark, it doesn't have to be precise. 1983. So, okay, so and the reason what the only reason why I asked that. So we're talking pre-internet, pre-Chat GPT, all the different amazing resources that sure. Now I could Google search things and I can probably figure out so you're way before all of that, and you still decide you're gonna figure it out. So, and so I I ask again, and and maybe you'll give me the same answer, but I think it bears repeating, and that is what in the world gives you that confidence that you can take on something like that when you know nothing about it.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Yeah, this is part of this is silly, but I'm obviously a redhead. And I'm a redhead with freckles.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

And I'm a redhead with freckles, and I'm sure. And my mother always say to me, you know, you're not like everybody else. She said, you know, you gotta make your own deal. Just don't be a follower, be independent. And so I never would go with the blow, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Do you think, Don, is that something that's learned? So you keep, you know, you keep referencing your mom, and and I'm sure that's a big part of it. Would you say that that is a learned behavior? Or or do you think part of it was just, hey, that's just your personality, you were built that way?

Nature, Nurture, And Building Backbone

SPEAKER_05 7:23

It's a combination. I really believe that it you're definitely blessed to a certain degree. But I do also believe it is your environment. Definitely your environment. I do feel from being teased so much when I was little for being different. Give me actually strength. I was born in New York. I came here when I was young. I had a very, and you'd still hear it, but then I really had a thick accent. And in New York, my name was Dunne. Here my name is Don. And when I got up in Playos and they asked me my name, I said Dwane Grant. And the whole class just started laughing at. Right. Uh that's something that went along with. And so you could either sit there and go sulk about things, and I learned to make everything kind of in a joke.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 8:14

That I would just say let it roll off my back, because you can't, and you're a kid. You know what I mean? But you realize that some of the people that teased you the most actually like you the most.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:26

And, you know, we could sit here and I'd look there's certain people that you're depressed, you can't help it. You got severe depression. Unfortunate, that's not me. I really feel for me, it was a whole combination of things that just happened to fall in line. I've had as many downs as I've had ups.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Right.

SPEAKER_05 8:48

So I don't want this to sound like my whole world, oh, just I was roses.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_05 8:54

Not at all. Not at all. I've had many terrible, tragic things in my life. I mean, you have a guy put a gun in your head at 20 minutes. That's not fun. Um, excuse me. I had an armed armory. That's how I moved to Austin.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Oh, you mentioned okay, well, you okay.

SPEAKER_05 9:08

And that is one scary thing. And you you got a baby in the room that's 11 months old and they're screaming at you, and very, you know, but it's what do you do? And my thing was I moved to Austin, which is great. I gotta do this. So I always kind of would look at what's the upside. I've always kind of been that person of okay, I'm knocked down, and this is the biggest thing, but how do you pick yourself up?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Right.

SPEAKER_05 9:37

That's a really learned experience, I think, of nobody else is gonna pick me up. I have got to do this myself.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Right.

Parenting Through Teasing And Resilience

SPEAKER_05 9:47

And that is something that most people can't do. And I just think a lot of it had to do with being teased so much. My parents moved when I was young, till we moved to California. We had actually moved like four times. Um, and so I'd always start like a new school from the time I was, you know, preschool, elementary school, junior high. And then because my dad was a doctor, he had to take state boards in California, and I would have to come with them to California, go to school here for like six months, then go back. And so I was constantly in a moving environment, which is generally very difficult for kids. Right. And because, again, having a very thick New York accent, being a witted with freckles, being teased from one school to the next, I just learned that very important part of it, which was So Dwan, I wanna I wanna stop you right there and ask you something real quick.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Duane, I just kind of had this conversation with my wife because I have a seven and a half year old son. He's in second grade, he's a big, athletic, smart kid, just like you know, everyone, every other parent would say about their kid. But you know, he recently did come to us and said, Hey dad, you know, I'm I'm kind of getting teased about my size, my size, like you know, I'm bigger than most. He's a big boy. And I wasn't prepared for that conversation. And when I thought back, so the first thing I did was think about my own childhood. And I said, you know, I don't remember really getting teased, thankfully. Uh, I remember doing a little bit of teasing, I'll be, I'll be honest, uh, there. I hope I wasn't that, but I definitely had my moments. Um, and so I didn't really know what to say to him. And, you know, we kind of talked through it a little bit, but as I'm talking to you now, I think, you know, as a parent, you want to insulate and protect your child from those types of things. But what I'm hearing from you is that at the same time, you can't protect them from everything. One, and two, there can be good things that come from that type of adversity, right? And so he hasn't mentioned it in a while. Um, so I don't know if he's just dealing with it on his own and maybe I need to follow up with them. But I I do think it's important because there's a lot of parents that that are listening to this, you know, that want to protect their kids, like I said, right? And so it's like, how do you kind of find that balance of letting them being supportive, being there for them, but also saying, hey, this is an opportunity for you to to grow as a person.

SPEAKER_05 12:11

My daughter is a therapist now. She's a scientist, she's now a therapist. So we had these conversations a lot because it's always when it's enough enough. So I have a granddaughter who's 11 with an opposite problem. So my she's the shortest in the class, she's in the five percentile. Um, she is like your son, and proud to say, in the top five percent of the smartest kids in the class. So my daughter's chosen not to even skip her because she's so kind. My thing to her was hey, I got the short guys, I got the tall guys. You know, she's 11, she wears a size seven clothes. That's how little she is. Okay. You know, I said you're gonna appreciate it when you're older. Your son is gonna be a football player. He's a guy. Every guy wants to be tall, every guy wants to be the big guy, right? So I think it's binding, you know, what you can to make them laugh at it, to make them look at the positive, to let them they're all bullied all the time. It's very sad to say. And who's the bullies? The bullies are actually the ones that are the most insecure of them all, right? So it's getting them to know that, them jealous. I mean, that's where so much racism. That's uh that's funny.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

That that is kind of what I said too. And you know, we try to get to a place where it's hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna help guide you, but at the same time, I want you to figure this out on your own. So, what I'm not gonna do is I'm I'm not gonna go to your teacher. I'm not gonna go to the other kid's parents. I want you to figure this out. And if you need help along the way, of course, come back and we'll help you. And by the way, don't don't don't like pick up your fists and start doing like, let's not do that, but try to figure this out on your own, right? And and maybe he has actually, it's been a it's been a couple weeks. I I owe uh him an update. I feel like he would have come back to me if if he had something. But again, I just think you want to be supportive, you want to, you know, show that they've got a resource that they can lean on when they need to, but at the same time, it's like, hey, look, I'm not always gonna be there, so you got to figure this out. And it sounds like kind of a similar story.

Finding Your Edge And Doing The Work

SPEAKER_05 14:16

You have to decide when you get to a point that where's that boundary and uh to help them. And this is interesting because this just made me think, again, having this conversation with my daughter, knowing I was gonna do the podcast and and what made a difference. My daughter had a, let's call it, a severe learning challenge and was made a lot of fun of. And I never gave up. And she said to me, you know, mom, I learned from you to be my own advocate, and I learned never to give up. And to you never stop. I went from one therapist to the next therapist to what? She's 45 now. They didn't diagnose girls like they do now. Um, and this has led her to become a therapist. And she helps learning about people. And because I never gave up, and she gave me the credit for that the other day, which m really brought tears to my to my eyes, she became a scientist at Caltech. And this was a kid that could barely make it to school. I mean, such challenges and such challenges. And she didn't like the fact that I was there always holding her hand and never giving up, right? So, and then she became a therapist. And I think I'm so proud of her that you have to figure out it can't be so tough I think how to stay them on their own. Because they're kids. We are here to teach them, to guide them, to help them through. You gotta understand when it's not a challenge, and you gotta understand when it truly is a challenge for them. And they need that support and love, that they know that you're really there for them. And she was frustrated as a kid that I did all this stuff. She hated it. She hated it. But she sees now what it did that I wouldn't give up because I knew she was smart, but we couldn't figure out why she was so challenged. So I think, you know, that's where figuring that out. Where do you go with your child? We all love our children. We want them to be the best for the best, right? But it's you're never gonna be perfect. Right. Not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

All right, that's true. We had just started a I'm gonna I don't know why in my mind the phrase wet the whistle came to my mind, but I'll use it anyway, on your career. And it started with a huge win, an improv I'm gonna call it an improbable win from an industry you knew nothing about. But what we learned was that it laid the foundation for this level of confidence, this can-do spirit that you had. Seems like that was really what set your trajectory forward from that point. So if you can just kind of at a high level, so you get this huge win under your belt. How are you feeling? And where do you feel like you need to go next? Like where is the the wind taking you next? And and what are you conquering next?

SPEAKER_05 17:05

It was funny. I learned I was a problem solver fairly early on. That was one of my better skill sets. So I got my real estate license and was delving into real estate, doing fairly well. And my husband said to me, I want to get you a video store. I said, excuse me.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

We're talking like blockbuster kind of thing? This was before. Before that, okay. So like um just a mom and shop, mom and pop, VHS.

SPEAKER_05 17:32

I want to get I want to buy you a store. Yeah. I'm selling real estate, I'm selling multi-million dollar deweys. You want me to rank movies for 99 cents?

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:43

We did what I've always done in my career kind of, it's a lot of research. Found a guy at a video store and fail. And said to him, I don't want to know your success. I want to know why you fail.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 17:55

And brought him to Austin, spent a week with him really trying to understand the business, the pros, the cons, the, you know, what he saw that he thought was great. And at the time I was going to a video store almost every night. But I was in Texas, and that's where Blockbusters got started in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Okay.

Delegation, Focus, And Time Mastery

SPEAKER_05 18:15

The the big one at the time was called Center Warehouse. And it was so disorganized. And I I've always tried to see what I could improve on, kind of. So anyhow, opened up the video store. Um, right away it succeeded. The way I am, I don't know how to do things like small. Uh, just opened up one store after the other after the other, went to every class I could go to, every time there was a seminar, reached out to everybody, joined every kind of association, anything I could do to learn. Uh, I I think that's been a big thing for me. I mean, I don't care how much I know, I'm still gonna go to those conferences. I'm still gonna go and learn and learn and learn and learn. And I did not graduate from a college. I went two years, but thinking I was gonna be a singer, it was all about the music. So I'm not this university scholar. So it's really been how do I learn? And through that I just was opening store after store after store and uh got in at the right time and learned as much as I could. And then my life took off from there.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Wow. Yeah, there's just this this common thread of it's like a thirst for knowledge. It's like I'm I'm just envisioning your your motor is just like non-stop, right? And so I feel like you're the you're the exception, not the standard. So I'm trying to figure out how to tie this back to just us common folk like myself, that you know, we we do what we can, but you know, I it seems like the more I'm hearing about this, yeah, it sounds like you had a great mother and family support, and your husband was was very supportive, and no doubt that that contributes to everything, but I'm still hearing there's this internal drive that I'm just I'm not yet convinced that that can be taught or learned. It I'm getting from you that it it it just seems like it's this innate natural ability. So maybe if you could try one more time for us common folk, how do we no no? This could be me too, right? I'm just trying to dig deep and just say, like, hey, if I wasn't born like Dawn, how in the world can I become her? So what would you what advice would you give me?

Constraints, Career Pivots, And Timing

SPEAKER_05 20:25

I think most people just do the least they can do to get by. And then they think they're gonna succeed. And it's really quite amazing. I love to teach, I love to mentor. I've coached so many people over the time, and and I could almost tell within minutes who's gonna do it and not. With one exception, is a guy that is in Austin who shockingly has just got through the roof that I I loved him, but I as a friend, but I never thought he would have wound up. But all of a sudden he clicked in his head. And he has said to me, I learned so much from you. When I was doing real estate, the next part of my life, um, he came to work for me right away. And he had worked for me in the entertainment business before, but he wanted to learn. And he just didn't click. He just he was kinda good looking guy, kind of arrogant, kinda just thought everything would come to him. When he hit, I think he was about 40 years old, he realized I can't be doing this. Right. Things are not gonna come my way. And he called me and we had a conversation and we had another conversation, and then, you know, I said to him, what are you good at? This is a big deal. What are you really good at? You gotta figure that out. I don't want to hear you're an engineer. I don't want to hear that you're a lawyer. What do you love to do? I love to solve problems. And if you look at my career and you break things down in real estate and movies, I love to make inspirational movies. In real estate, I love to help people. I don't care that's first time home. Buyer who barely has a dollar in their pocket. If I could figure out a way to get them into a home, I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Right.

SPEAKER_05 22:06

So that's who I am. You can't make yourself into a problem solver. And you so I tell people, let's sit down and make a list. Then make a list what you're not good at. And then put a list what you really love, which what you love may not necessarily be what you're good at.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

You could take what you're good at and make yourself great. It's very hard to take what you're not good at and think you're gonna make yourself great at it.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Right.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

If that makes sense, which a lot of people do. It does. They they think they've gotta get into a box, and this is what they have to do. And I've never been in a box, and so I do the best I can do. I've again had failures, and those failures I realized I have to move on and figure out what else can I do. Most people are just lazy, and I hate to say it, and they just accept. And I love, love to quote Will Smith, who said, I'm not the smartest guy out there. I'm not the best looking guy out there, but nobody works harder than I do.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Right.

SPEAKER_05 23:18

And that's kind of what I think my thing is. I'm gonna absolutely work as hard as I can work, never give up. I think that's one of my biggest strengths is I was here last night at midnight still working.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Right.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

You know, I've got a I have so many projects I'm working on. And I'm obviously not a spring chicken. Most people my age are retired, have been retired. I love what I'll do. I do. I'll never retire. Uh I'm working with your brother on so many things. Uh I follow up all the time because I love what I'm doing. And if you don't love what you're doing, the likelihood of succeeding is nil to nut. And that's one of the biggest takeaways. I could tell the average person is what I think.

Forced Leaps: Layoffs To Life Upgrades

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Yeah, now we're getting somewhere. This is this is now we're getting the meat and potatoes. So, or at least that's where my my brain is starting to connect the dots. So the first thing, there's two main points there. So the first one is that you said you have to love what you do. I'm I'm drawing a blank right now on the very first thing that you said. Give me a minute, it's gonna come back to me.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

What are you good at?

SPEAKER_03 24:22

Yeah, but even before that. Oh, okay. Hard work. Okay, so here's what I think. I think that people don't necessarily know what hard work is. I don't know if it's lazy. Maybe some of it is lazy. What I see actually is that people say that they're working hard, and in their mind, they might be working hard, but they don't actually know that there's more levels to it. Meaning in their mind, they're working as hard as they can, and they, let's say they got as far as they think, and they're like, Man, I'm this is the max effort I've ever given. Like, I think I'm giving the best I could possibly give. And then they meet somebody like you and they go, Oh, wait, actually, there's like, I'm only halfway there. There's actually five more levels to this. So I think one is perspective on what hard work actually is. And I think maybe people need to gain that perspective on what hard work actually is, and maybe that can lead to more success. And then the second part is, yeah, you definitely hear online and things like that doing what you love. And that's like this pie in my mind, like this pie in the sky kind of thing. But and as I think about again, I'll, you know, using this podcast is when I got into this, it's like I know I want to stick a microphone in front of my face, meet interesting people, have a really interesting conversation. I knew that part, right? What I also knew was that I don't want to be the guy that uploads the files, edits them, uh, learns the technical, how to level the voices. I don't have any interest in learning that. Oh, and also, this has to go out on social media, you have to engage on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. I don't want to learn that part either, right? So I kind of went into this, but you have to do those things to be successful at this. But for me, it was I could grit my teeth and probably figure this out, but I probably would have burned myself out and just kind of moved on after a couple episodes, like a lot of people do. Instead, I knew my limitations and I said, I really I want to focus on this part, and then I need to find other people that are really good and like doing those other parts, and then hopefully collectively we can make something that works. And so I think that's that's what I've people don't like to delegate. Is that it? Oh, I loved that's that's I love it. You know, so I think maybe those are those are my two things. And I don't know if that's what you were trying to get across, but that's how I understood them.

Why Keep Climbing After Success

SPEAKER_05 26:37

Yeah, I mean, I think it's it I think it's multiple things. I had a wonderful business coach, and he said, take a time month and time yourself every 15 minutes, and then write down what you've actually done. And you'll be amazed what you haven't done in those 15 minutes. Right. And for business people and not even business people, um, when you're going on a vacation, how come you generally can get everything done that you have to do before that vacation? Well, why can't we do that in between? You'll take exactly that same thing and you kind of put it off and you procrastinate, right? Right. But you know that specific date. That's why they say you need a timeline. Everybody's personality is so different. Of course. It's like people are door openers. I'm a closer. I hate to open doors, you know. So I have to find the somebody who could cold call for me, because it's not my thing. So don't try to make yourself in a job with a cold call. Right. Because it's never gonna happen. Right. Because you're I tried it, it doesn't work for me, but I'll close you.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Right.

SPEAKER_05 27:42

So I think that you think you're working hard, but you're not really loving what you're doing. You're not being satisfied. And maybe you have a job you're doing, but maybe you can find something on the side that does satisfy you, like you're doing, okay? And all of a sudden, because you're feeling so good about this, maybe this part-time thing becomes your full-time thing, but it gives you the confidence in the other thing that you're doing to make a living on. There's so many ways that you can make it happen. I have seen enough people that have been able to turn their lives around, that have really wanted to turn their lives around. You know, you could you could look at people that are addicts. You know, I love to take and people that are two people brought up in the worst of the worst circumstance. One person's gonna sit there and say, I am never gonna live that way again. And they become so successful. And the other guy that said, Look how I was brought up. What did you expect of me?

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Right.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

And they're brought up exactly in the same circumstance. A lot of therapy, you probably have to go through if you feel so happy.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

This is my therapy. You don't realize that, but this is my therapy. It's free uh for me. Uh but yeah.

Divorce, Cancer, And Starting Over

SPEAKER_05 28:53

And so I can't teach you number one how to have the confidence. I can teach you how to make sure your kids have a little bit more confidence by quit knocking them down all the time, being supportive of them, you know, being loving, just be as loving as you could be, and people are, you know, oh I'm gonna go to the school, tough knocks, you know, that's baloney. You know, that I I don't see that that works. I I think that paralyzes people. Okay. That that really does. Not being so controlling, you know, that is a big factor that I see failures, people that work really hard, but they're so controlling. You gotta give it up. You you can't do it all. Right. You know, I work so hard, but I know I don't ever want to be a director. I'm a producer. No interest in directing. It's not what I am. Right. Where if you get people, a lot of directors or writers that are like, oh, I'm a writer, I'm director, producer. As soon as I see a script that they're the writer, director, producer, I'm like, hi, you know. So, you know, you you got two sides, you brain the business side, the creative side. Right. Figure out who you are. You know, I think one of the sad things are you go to college when you're 18. 18, you really don't know what you want to do.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

I I knew what I wanted to do, John. I wanted to party and have a good time.

SPEAKER_05 30:17

There you go. That's probably what you should have kept doing.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

That is what I did.

SPEAKER_05 30:21

And that is what most people want to do. That's exactly correct.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Right.

SPEAKER_05 30:25

But then they graduate with that degree that they had to get that they don't even want.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Right.

SPEAKER_05 30:31

And now they're 25 and 30, and that is so not who they are because their brain isn't even functioning at that time. So now you're stuck because you have a degree, you don't want to go back to school, you got a child, you got a husband, a wife, right? And what do I do now?

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Yeah. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_05 30:51

I think unfortunately, that's one of the problems white people can't succeed, because they're really stuck into something that they don't want to do.

Advocacy, Alternative Paths, Survival

SPEAKER_03 31:02

You're absolutely right. I think this is a very important dynamic, and that is the older you get, well, at least in my mind, your options become a little bit more limited for the reasons you mentioned. You have more responsibility. So now instead of being, you know, this young single person with, you know, just having to take care of yourself, now you potentially have a wife or husband that you have to partner with. You have potentially kids, you potentially have a mortgage payment and all these bills that now have to get paid. And so as these layers and variable, and by the way, these are wonderful things, but when it comes to career, it's like literally those things stack up and your window of opportunity just gets narrow and narrower and narrower. Uh, if you're responsible, right? Because you want to you got to take continue to take care of all those things while you're figuring it out, versus, like you said, I'm a little bit earlier. And before I take on all that responsibility, let me do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Let me explore, let me figure out what I want to do, and try to like really take my big swings earlier on when if I fail, the fall's not gonna hurt as bad as if I fail when I've got all these responsibilities, and then I'm in a I'm in a really bad place. That's tracked.

Forgiveness, Caregiving, And Closure

SPEAKER_05 32:15

So I want to give an example of I have way too many lawyers, or I'll make the entertainment this you need a lot of lawyers. And then one of the lawyers I'm really the closest with, and I've known him since he's like in his early 30s or so. Um he's now, well, he's now 40, I think he's 48. And about he was a senior, very young, he was a senior entertainment attorney with huge, huge law firm in Beverly Hills. And this law front, the month before the pandemic closed down, they rented like 18 floors of an expense building, bought all new furniture, got everything, and they had 1,500 attorneys, and they had a fire 500. And he was one that got fired, and he loved to write. And he started writing, and he called me and he's like, I don't know what should I do. Should I go to another firm? Should I open up my own firm? You know, I'm I'm kind of trying to figure it out. He said I loved writing. Well, let me tell you, this guy's life is totally turned around. During that time he got a divorce, he got remarried, he had a baby a week ago, um he wound up, he still practices law maybe 20% of the time. He has written seven great scripts, all have been picked up since he got fired. He was forced and able, and he already had a daughter, to do something he loved because he didn't have a job because he got fired. Yeah. And he's so happy. He's like this happy clam now, right? And uh he still is a lawyer and he'll always be a lawyer, and he's an excellent lawyer, but he's an excellent writer. So I've had so many of these opportunities of that have put huge success in front of me that I was petrified to do. But I did it, and it changed my life in so many situations. And that's the other thing. Look at that opportunity that's put in front of you. Yes, it's scary, but most people are afraid to take that leap unless you're forced to take that leap. My son-in-law started a new job on Monday. He's very high up in uh state government, and he lost his job. They'd just given him a raise two weeks before, and then the city just decided to change things. And very unexpectedly, no warning, he was shot, but he didn't like that job. It was he had to drive two hours to work every day, and two hours back. He didn't like it at all. But he wasn't gonna leave because he's got a kid. Right. And it was a great job. But he got fired. Monday, he got a job that's about ten minutes from the house. He moved up all the way up the ladder, like this great position, and he's been trying to get to this director position for probably 15 years, and you know what? He got it.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_05 35:13

He got fired, but he didn't give up. He absolutely applied and applied and applied and you know, tweaked his resume, and he got what he has wanted forever. And so if he wasn't forced to do it, probably would have been still sitting at that other job. And people have so much put in front of them. There's a joke, and I'm not gonna get into it, but most people know about the joke that Jesus picked throwing the fishing pole and you never took it. It's thrown out there. You have opportunities, but you're too scared. You sabotage yourself.

Ownership, Optimism, And Next Steps

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Yeah, I've seen that a lot. And I I think, again, this is a maybe part of your personal anybody's personality, is like you said, you you say, Oh, you know, you could be that person, oh, you know, woe is me. I lost my job, I gotta go find something else, and just kind of look at it from the negative perspective. Or, you know, you could be like your son-in-law and say, Let me use this as a catalyst to do what I really want to do. And so, you know, I think it's just kind of it's it's all about that perspective there. And so I love all these things, and I can't get through, I need to get through the rest of your career. Well, I'm gonna try to get through more of your career because here's the thing that I I want to get to the bottom of, and that is so you found success in real estate. You probably could have just kept running that play over and over and over and been successful, but then you decide to get into video stores, and you know, you turn that into a chain, it sounds like, and you're doing really well. Again, probably enough wins for most people's lifetime and just said, hey, let me ride off into the sunset. I I was successful at this. That's two big wins. I'm really riding some momentum here. But hey, you know what? I'm pushing my luck. Let me just call it here. It's been a great life. I've made my money. Let me write off into the sunset. And then you just then you're like, nope, okay, let me move on to producing and now, you know, now this other this other lifetime. So again, if it's me, if I have one major success like that, I'm probably super happy. I'm sitting on that money and I'm just kind of like, I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I'm painting in a I don't know what I'm doing. That wasn't. You just kept going. So where does that why? Why? Why, Don? Why? Like you've got to never give up. But it's not even about giving up. Like you already accomplished. You've already, you're very accomplished at this point, right? So why?

SPEAKER_05 37:27

What am I gonna do? Sit around and do nothing? I don't know. Opportunities put in front of me. That was amazing that we don't have the time for me to get into the couple of great opportunities I had. Life happens. And I wound up getting a divorce after 21 years, and a year later I got cancer.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

And so I obviously had money and it was hidden. And I got this horrible judge that said, Mrs. So-and-so, you're obviously a lot younger than your husband and the breadwinner, so I'm also giving you the debt. That's a typical Texas deal. Here I went from having all this money. I didn't walk away with nothing. I'm not gonna say I walked away down, bro. I got cancer, and I had 11 surgeries. And out of my own, right? What do I do? Was in the entertainment business. I could not get in a plane and go flying to California like I've been doing constantly. And so I got back in real estate and had a great success story.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

Before we move back on to an uh another success, um, I think it bears uh going and talking about what I just heard, which is a lot of wins. And you I just am picturing you just writing so high and just being so happy with what you've accomplished, what you've achieved financially, and just from like a you know, fulfillment perspective, and just feeling like, okay, like I've done it. Like I like I said, I was talking about writing off into the sunset, resting, and just saying, I'm so good. And then life deals you really challenging. So you talked about a divorce, you talked about cancer. Like, if you could just tell us about one, am I right? Like, were you did you feel like you were on top of the world riding high? And then two, when you know, I'm I'm thinking about it, like I'm a number numbers guy. So you're at the top of the chart, you're at the peak, and now all of a sudden you're coming back down. Were you riding this high? And then to go from that, what just tell tell us through that journey of then kind of maybe I don't know if you reached a low after that, or just kind of like what was it like going through that?

SPEAKER_05 39:24

Oh, it was rough. I chose to have the divorce, I will say that.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Did you feel like you were untouchable? Like, I just want to like get your peak. What did that feel like at the very, very peak?

Closing Reflections And Sign Off

SPEAKER_05 39:34

I've never felt untouchable. And I think that's the thing. You get people that get to the top and they feel untouchable. You feel no different. Uh-huh. You feel no different. You're treated differently, which is weird. So you do get spoiled somewhat, but you can't let it get to you because what's gonna happen tomorrow, you don't know. And I think that we still are who we are. Yes, there were tons of perks. There was no doubt there was tons of perks. The negative? You asked my daughter, since we're talking about family, I couldn't spend the time with her that I needed to. Some of the most important times of her life, I was out of town doing business, right? So you always have challenges. People think, oh, I'm so successful, I'm making so much money, I'm doing this. There's so many challenges. I'm probably the happiest almost now in my life, and I don't have the money that I had back then. But I got very sick. Anything that could go wrong basically went wrong, literally even flatlined. They screwed up all the surgeries. Um, what should have been one or two became 11. And I had wonderful friends around me. My parents both got ill at the same time. My mama had always been there for me, was uh she actually died within that time period, um, which made it tough on me, which made it very tough because I was used to her being there. I actually met a man uh six months before, and uh I wound up uh marrying, well I shouldn't doubt, but he was terrific at that time. He was really took care of me, and it was rough. It was rough, it was financially rough. I was so sick, and the doctors were just screwing up one thing after the other, and this has to do with me being my own advocate and uh never giving up. And I literally went from Austin to Houston uh to MB Anderson. I found the best I could find. I did alternative medicine at the same time, uh, did everything I could, and here I am 23 years later, I'm a survivor. I also want to talk about before we have to end this forgiveness, my ex-husband, who was not a nice man, the first one, and that's why I left him. He was a very cold man, but I did love him, and he taught me a lot. He was an aerospace engineer, so he was brilliant. And that's part of what I loved about him so much was his his brain was just amazing. I've got to give him and his family so much credit for what I learned over the years. You know, it's like we didn't have Google, but I had his brain. Yeah. Five years ago, he had Parkinson's cancer and dementia, and he'd been married twice after me. But I brought him here and I took care of him for four years. Uh, he passed away a year ago. And I kind of put everything on hold. I was still working, but not to the degree. And that was so satisfying to me to be able to do that. Uh I didn't have to do it by any means, but he's a father of my daughter. And I was able to forgive him, and he was so happy that I was there. And I have to tell you, that was meant a lot to me in my life to be able to do that. See, I'm choked up about Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

We can get into the whole thing. Before we uh can uh Don, we're at 10 30. Are you I you want me to wrap up?

SPEAKER_05 43:02

Yeah, I gotta I have another zoo.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Yeah, let's gonna let's see, let me just try to think of how to end this real quick. Good luck. And do you need to like tell your yep? You know, Don, your story is full of just tremendous wins. You know, you just shared some of the the more challenging parts of it. You've since, you know, I'm talking back to that chart. Now you're you you've come back up again. So just it feels like this this roller roller coaster ride. And you know, that's life. You know, people deal with the ups and downs. I think you know you're no different in that perspective. Although you could argue some people's highs are higher, some people's lows are lower lower, but we all kind of go through those things. And so I don't know, you it just seems like you've come out of it the other end, you've just lived a tremendous life, you know, decades long, and you're still going. Like you still mean we just today we learned this a tremendous attitude and the joking and happiness. And so I guess if you could leave the listeners with just like, how do you go through all that and just kind of maintain like what? What can we do just to maintain the spirit of just like, hey, look, this is what's happened. Good and I take the good and the bad, but here's the deal.

SPEAKER_05 44:07

You gotta make your own life. You can't blame other people for what your life is. And that's what a lot of people do. You know, I had terrible parents. I had a terrible childhood. My husband was miserable. I didn't have a break. I didn't have you can't do that. Your life will never be wonderful if that's the you know where you're at in life. You know, because you can't hold a grudge, you can't be angry, you can't you see what we're living through right now with somebody that cannot get over, has to have revenge, the anger. Do you think he's a happy person? Here's the most powerful person in the world, and yet he can't be happy, you know? So you can live that life and think, I've got all the money in the world, all the power in the world, all the oh, she was given everything, you know? I've had to work really hard for everything. And yes, I was blessed that I had good parents. I'm not gonna say that. And that is a rarity. But again, my sister's not the happiest person in the world. So because she always looked at and it's truly is this glass half empty or is it half full? It's easier to set than done. If you know you're that way, and you know you have challenges being positive, you should look at it and step back and say, what can I do to change? Which is something I've always done. Is okay, I'm in a rut. Things aren't working. What can I do to change? And I don't sit there and blame it on other people. Because maybe it was somebody else's fault, but what good is that gonna do? I only have one person of my life that I can't forgive. One. That's it. Um and it just part of it was a challenge that I had to do with when I had cancer and just to me being kind of an evil person. I think forgiveness is so important. Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for all the mistakes you've made in your life, you know? Get up in the morning, figure out what you want to do with your life. What do you want to change in your life? You know, how can I make it better? Yeah, how can I achieve that goal that I've always wanted to do? And you know what? I've done two, three jobs at a time, very often, because I knew I had a switch, right? And I didn't want to just end it and then have nothing to do. So, I mean, I could have a whole two hours on that conversation of how do you switch professions, right? But that's what you need to figure out. Yeah. How can I find what I love to do? Whatever that is, and just don't sit stagnant. And I think that's what happens. People sit stagnant, they sabotage themselves, and they have paralysis and they can't move.

SPEAKER_03 46:53

I love it, Don. So I would I just to paraphrase that, I would say, you know, we all have the opportunity to take ownership of our lives and the outcome of it. And so, Don, Dawn, really appreciate the insights. It's been wonderful. I think we're gonna have to have you on again because there's there's so much more to do. But I I really do appreciate your time today and getting to know more about your story. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 47:16

Thank you, Peter. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

All right, thank you.