Passion, Purpose, Profits: Reach for Your Dreams

Diane Strand is a serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, and nonprofit founder. With a steadfast mission of providing access and career pathways for all in the arts, Diane leads her business with passion and purpose to help make this possible. She sets out to provide H.O.P.E. which Diane defines as; Helping One Person Everyday! She is the majority owner of the multi-award-winning JDS Video & Media Productions, Inc. The Producer at JDS Actors Studio where she has launched over 100 careers into the mainstream entertainment industry, and Founder of the nonprofit 501c3 JDS Creative Academy, where she works with youth, teens, and adults mainstream through special needs, at-risk, and foster youth. Diane is the Creator and Executive Producer of the broadcasted and live-streamed TV Show Spirit of Innovation now in its sixth season delivering news and information for Riverside County and created the award-winning international event DigiFest Temecula.

More at – https://jdscreativeacademy.org

 

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou:
Welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. This is yet another unique episode, #405. Really wonderful, and it continues to be wonderful. New people that we’ve discovered. Actually, Diane Strand discovered us, and so we’ve invited her to be on the show today. This is The Nonprofit Exchange. You can find it at The Nonprofit Exchange. I’m the co-host, Hugh Ballou, and David Dunworth from SynerVision Leadership Foundation. And so, David, I think we need to get started and ask Diane before we get into our topic, it’s a fascinating topic, I’m going to let you introduce it. Before we get into that topic, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, and what your passion is.

Diane Strand:
Oh, well, thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here with you guys. Um, well, you know, my, my short or long version of my title is I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’m an executive producer. I’m a bestselling author, speaker, and nonprofit founder. And I’ve been in the entertainment industry for, I think I’m going to date myself probably over 25, almost 30 years now. You know, I had an extensive Hollywood career on shows like Friends, General Hospital, and Veronica’s Closet. But I’ve been an entrepreneur for 21 years now with my own video production and multimedia solution company doing marketing and training videos. I also have an actor’s studio where we’ve launched over 100 careers into the mainstream entertainment industry as actors, producers, and directors. And I have a nonprofit called JDS Creative Academy that is a career pathway training in visual performing and digital arts. And we help those turn their dreams into reality by giving them training and career pathways in all areas of the arts. that are from visual to performing arts for youth, teens and adults, mainstream and special needs. And we’ve been rather successful in that. So I’m really proud to say that even in the special needs area, we have launched those into their dreams of the passion of working in this industry as well.

Hugh Ballou:
That’s amazing. That’s amazing. So our topic today is passion, purpose, and profits. And it’s about reaching for your dream. So there’s a lot to unpack here. Our audience is people leading nonprofits like yourself. and people who sit on their boards, and maybe some clergy doing some innovative and creative things. It’s really about making a difference. We are philanthropists, and it’s the love of humankind, and we make a difference in people’s lives and the work that we do. I can figure out your passion for starting your nonprofit, but talk a little bit about how you started it, and how you got it going are people out there who are early stage, some of them are thinking about founding a nonprofit, you know, it was not like you just had the idea and you went for it and it was an immediate success or was it?

Diane Strand:
Well, nothing’s an immediate success, of course. But we were a small, self-funded nonprofit. It started at my kitchen table with a couple of my close colleagues that I trust in the industry. And we sat down and decided that There was so much to offer that, you know, it wasn’t something that we could just do independently. We needed to come together as a collective to be able to open up doors for others. And so today, you know, I’m happy to say we’re a thriving seven-figure nonprofit. that started at the kitchen table. It didn’t grow overnight. I would say it kind of grew after about maybe that fourth year. It was a good struggle for a good four years to try and get everything in place. whether that be our determination from the IRS to be able to build those relationships with our city and our county and our, you know, commerce around us. But then it started to grow. You know, my philosophy is always to say yes. And well, first, it shows up and then it says yes. And That’s what really turned the nonprofit around. I was at a chamber mixer. So you got to show up, you got to get involved, you got to be out there in the community. And I showed up and somebody asked me to take a meeting and have coffee. And I wasn’t even sure what the correlation was. But of course, I said yes. And as I Sat down and met with this person. It required me to meet with another person and I still wasn’t sure that this was all going to pan out. But it was just if I could meet this one individual who had special needs and loved audio and all he wanted to do was learn audio. And it was if he could come to work at my facility and I was like, well, I don’t really even work at my own facility. I’m more work at home because remember I’m a small nonprofit. I had a building, but I only really used it when we had classes going on. So, I had to figure out how I was going to make this work. But I said, yes, one more time. And So he started coming and it was small little things that he was doing, which was moving flats around, helping us clean up. And he just started watching us as we started doing audio projects and video projects, and he started learning. It dawned on me is if I could show him how to learn these tools and learn these trades maybe I could do this for more. And so I sat down with my writing partner and we created a Title 17 project design, which started bringing in adults with developmental disabilities to teach them video production and multimedia. And that was a huge shift that hugely changed our business to now where we serve over 30 every day, teaching them video production and multimedia to learn, you know, their dreams and their passions so they can go off and have successful careers and not just, you know, work at Walmart or not that there’s something wrong with that, but not everybody wants to do that. They want to have careers they have goals and they have dreams. And just because they have challenges doesn’t mean that they can’t succeed with their goals and dreams.

Hugh Ballou:
David, in addition to being co-host here, David Dunworth is the chair of the Center Vision Leadership Foundation Board of Directors. So David, that puts a different lens on things, doesn’t it?

David Dunworth:
Well, it does. And it made me think a little bit personal, to be honest with you. In my family, in the larger family, I have a couple of special needs nephews. And they were in their mid-20s now, but when they were young, there were, you know, some challenges and they wanted to do things, but they didn’t have the capabilities of doing it. And one of them, one of the boys we used to call sugar boy, because he was such a sweet thing, but he was autistic and struggling. And so we spent, you know, time with him and we got he ended up going to a coach. and that sort of thing. So you’re hitting on stuff that just makes so much personal sense for me. You know, we just learned about how you created that video training and job training program for us. But before we got to turn the camera on, we were talking, you were saying how your journey started. And I think that’s a valuable story that I would appreciate it if you shared it.

Diane Strand:
Well, I always say you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You have to look back. It’s a great Steve Jobs quote, actually. And my first couple of dots show up really early in second grade. I wanted to play Betsy Ross in the school play, but I couldn’t read. And everybody was telling me that I shouldn’t even try. And I do have that little precocious little attitude that says, just watch me. So I set out to figure out how I could win this part. And I taught myself how to read or at least audition. And I got the role of Betsy Ross in the school play. And one of the other dots that show up really early is my tenacity. There was a candy-selling contest. And I wanted to win the candy-selling contest in my elementary school. And whoever sold the most candy would win this 19-inch black and white TV. And I really wanted it for my bedroom. You know, I set out, I enlisted some help, maybe a little bit from my parents, from my mom and dad, and I sold the most candy and I won that TV and I still work in television today. So that kind of brings it all together with, you know, from being dyslexic to setting my mind to something to still working in television, getting that tenacity out. Those are all things that make for a great entrepreneur. And it was really the arts. It was that connection to the arts. I kept it all through school. School was never something that was easy for me. So I always relied on the arts to carry me through to keep me focused and to keep me connected. As a teenager in the late 70s, and early 80s, it was very easy to go off track, but it was The arts, you know, I wanted to be in the play. So I had to attend school to be in the play. And next thing I knew I graduated high school and I floundered a little bit after that, but it was the arts that got me to go back to college and, you know, get back in a play and be connected. And so That is my true philosophy is the arts connect everything. It doesn’t matter what industry you are. If you’re creative and you’re looking to launch, then you need a little bit more business. If you’re a business and you’re looking to leverage and scale, you need a little bit more creativity and the arts will give you that. And that’s how I connect everything.

David Dunworth:
That’s great. That’s super. What a great story.

Hugh Ballou:
I heard precocious. That’s a pretty fascinating word. I saw Mary Poppins this weekend with a relative playing in it. And supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, there’s precocious in that song. It’s a good trait. And actually stepping up to the plate. So I’m fascinated. In the arts, we think it’s only the right brain. But as a conductor, I got to tell you, it’s right and left brain simultaneously because you got a rigid structure and you got to be creative. So that’s true of any of the arts, especially video production, because you got some really rigid things to control, but you got to be creative. So we’re fans of looking at people with, we call disabilities, but they’re differently abled. They’re not disabled, they’re differently abled. And there are so many examples through history that people we thought were disabled have done remarkable things. And so it’s a different way of, the arts is sort of a leveling, it gives opportunity to everyone, doesn’t it?

Diane Strand:
It does. I mean, it really does level the playing field. You know, the arts are subjective. So it also teaches kindness. You know, that is one of the best things about the arts is, you know, when you put something out there to be received, you open yourself up. It teaches you how to be vulnerable. It teaches you how to be kind. And it also teaches you, like you were saying, it is not just a left brain or a right brain. You’ve got to bring them together. And that’s what I, you know, one of my biggest passions is putting those things together because, you know, when you are moving forward, you got to get creative. You can’t research and develop without creativity. You can’t work with others and be in, you know, play in that sandbox without teamwork, without bringing it together. And the arts really teach you how to do that, how to cohabitate with others in that workspace. And it is such a great tool that when you have a background in the arts, you can do anything. And I truly believe that.

Hugh Ballou:
I, at one point in my life, I taught middle school music, which if you do that, it can do that. You can do anything. But all of the kids in my ensembles were on the headmaster’s honor roll. And so there’s a correlation with our state of being, our learning abilities with the arts, not only music, but all the arts. David has many talents. One of them is writing. You have very purposeful writing for very specific. That’s a whole nother area of creativity. So you’re speaking to something that’s beyond what we think is our immediate presence. It’s us being present in the world together through the arts. And so that opens up a whole new paradigms for us. So talk about your, a little bit more, you’ve talked about job training for adults with autism and developmental disabilities. Talk about the results of the work. You have a number of people you’re working with, you know, what is your, what is the end result? What happens to people’s lives as they go through your program and finish it?

Diane Strand:
Well, you know, we place them into paid internships and we have 30 individuals that we work with every day, 25 hours a week. They come into our studio and they learn video production and multimedia. They learn animation. They learn. We start with the basics, you know, from email to Google Docs to then teaching them writing. We produce two TV shows, a radio show, and a podcast, and they all participate in all of the above, whether that’s writing the radio segments, starting with the research, writing it, or recording it. Then they get to edit it and they submit it to the radio station. They pull story ideas, they research them. and then they go out and shoot them. And the goal is to place them into paid internships. We’ve placed over, our program’s been in existence for just over six years. We have placed 12 into paid internships some have gone on to full-time jobs, some have gone on to higher education, and some have gone on to work from where their internships started. you know, they’re learning all different kinds of skills. They’ve worked on, you know, they’re earning their IMBD credits, which is the Hollywood, you know, credit roll list that exists out there on the Internet. They’re doing camera work, reporting work, writing work. They do editing work. They’re learning graphics. They’re currently making sizzle reels for big animation projects. So the goal is to build their resume and build their portfolio so they too can pursue their dreams of passion and we’re seeing it come to life.

Hugh Ballou:
That is a huge impact, isn’t it, David?

David Dunworth:
That’s tremendous. That is a tremendous impact. You know, and so many people have different learning styles that, you know, everybody’s unique in one way or the other and The same thing goes with learning styles. Hugh and I have a colleague who is also a friend of ours who had some difficulty in education. He’s blind, and he didn’t have the opportunity to learn Braille and that sort of thing. So he put himself through school. He’s a lawyer now, a blind lawyer, and he’s a tremendous keynote speaker. because he had the will to do it. He co-founded a foundation that focuses on inclusion. That’s all they focus on. The DEI thing is that diversity and equity are pretty much beating over the head. But it’s the inclusion part that needs so much work. And that’s great work that you’re doing. So I really like the fact that you can take those adaptive life-learning skills and help so many people. Tell us a little bit more about some of your stories, some of your success stories or troubles that you’ve had or whatever.

Diane Strand:
Well, thank you. You know, you were talking about the learning styles, you know, some people learn by having to read, you have to have the instructions right in front of you and they have to read and go step by step. Some learn by memory and putting their hands on it and doing it repetitively over and over. Some do it just by watching somebody and then being able to pick it up and go. And that’s what I really have seen by watching these individuals, all the different learning styles that come together and work fabulously and, you know, and teaching leadership and showing how others can mentor others, and how they can grow from that because that’s one of the best ways you know that I’ve been able to learn that I’ve seen others be able to learn. is that when you start to know something, starting to give that away. And when you start to teach somebody else, you start to learn it more. You start to understand it more. And, you know, I’m a problem solver. So if somebody brings me a problem, I’m going to go try and solve it. And if I don’t have the answer, then I’m going to go out and try and seek it. So I’m going to I’m going to learn that. That’s one of the things that I really love about video production and what we did even just as a business when we were doing it. We were making videos that matter, working in the biotech and the medical industry and creating videos for people who needed to learn how to take certain medications. Maybe they had cancer or rheumatoid arthritis. or they had heart disease and they had things that were put into their body and needed to understand how it worked or why it worked. And so learning all these different things, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a scientist, I’m none of those things, but I’ve learned a lot. just by being able to share other people’s stories, being able to understand where they’re coming from. And that’s coming back to the beauty of the arts and how it works is, is it life imitating art? Is it art imitating life? They run in a circle. And when you can bring that together and you can be collaborative and make things work and share, a little bit of kindness, a little bit of something that matters. It changes not only for the person that you’re helping, but it really impacts you as well. And, you know, that’s been the biggest gift that I’ve been able to receive is by giving gifts to others and having that come back and see when other people’s successes are happening. It embodies my success. And that’s what I’ve been able To find, you know, I didn’t set out, you know, as I said, I was precocious. I’m not this altruistic person. But, you know, in in that same sense, you know, like I said, I found the more that I’m able to give, the more that I’m able to get. And if we all just kind of led with that, I think what a better world we’d be in. Amen.

Hugh Ballou:
Your bio says you’re the creator and executive producer of the broadcast and live-stream TV show Spirit of Innovation. It’s in its sixth season, is that true? And tell us a little bit about that and Digifest Temecula.

Diane Strand:
Okay, well Spirit of Innovation Arts Across Temecula actually just launched Its seventh season last week with our first show of our seventh season. Not only did I create the show, but I also was the host. I’m a co-host with my partner in life and business, my husband, we co-host the show. And Arts Across America is really a message that we bring because the arts touch everything. And when you add that creativity to it, how you can share stories and tell things of impact and importance. I live in Southwest Riverside County, which is Southern California. We’re between San Diego and L.A. and our media market is L.A. And when I first came into this area, we didn’t have our own news and media to know what was going on. We were watching LA News, which is about 70 to 80 miles north of me. And for 2.4 million people who live in Riverside County, we needed to know what the news and the information was here that was happening for our businesses and our community. I set out to create a show that would be good to know, the need to know, and impact. That’s what we share, our impact stories, and good to know things that are going on. We highlight other non-profits as well as other businesses that are doing things of passion and purpose. And it’s now nationally streamed through binge networks on 150 platforms. It’s on Amazon Fire TV and Roku apps. And we have a great audience not only here in Riverside County, but across the nation. And you mentioned Digifest. Digifest is a three-day, more than a film festival, but it has that film festival vibe to it. It’s now going into its ninth year, and it is an international festival. It’s an award-winning festival, and we bring Hollywood out to Temecula and Network. We have presenters and Emmy winners and directors and actors who come and speak. We have entertainment and wonderful food. It’s a competition. People get to win awards. They get to learn. They get to network. And it’s one of those things that just make the industry thrive. When you come together and have that passion for working together, then everybody is going to work really well and be able to reach their goals and dreams too.

Hugh Ballou:
That’s a model of how the world could be. I just love it. David, I didn’t realize we’re interviewing a celebrity today. I know. Let’s look at your website, JDS Creative. creativeacademy, J-D-S, creativeacademy.org. This is your nonprofit. So people listening can’t see it, but that’s the URL. They can go to it. But if they’re watching the video, what will people find when they go to this website?

Diane Strand:
Well, this website, it does talk about all the things we just mentioned. It talks about our video production day program and those with developmental disabilities that we work with 25 hours a week. It has all the extracurricular classes that we offer from musical theater to backstage production, script writing, and filmmaking. And we also have great programs that get everybody involved. You know, whether we’re doing our Haunted Studio event or we’re doing a play, like we’ve done some great shows. We’re about to do Adam’s Family this fall. And those different programs, you can even find links to the TV show and the festival, even though Spirit of Innovation Arts Across America has its own website. So it is Digifest Temecula. But you can connect to all of it from here as well. It’s a big, deep website to dig through. It has all the things on it as well as connects you to some other websites and platforms so you can dig in a little deeper as well.

Hugh Ballou:
So what happens when I connect, I click the connect us, contact us button, sorry.

Diane Strand:
Yeah, that’s a great way for you to reach out and ask us any questions. We love to answer questions and share so you can contact us. You can see where we’re located, as well as you can enroll in our programs. We have a giving tab because not only can you give and support us, which is always a great way to show support, but we also give. We give over $10,000 a year in scholarship money, whether that’s to take classes at our studio and our program, or we’re giving to the high schools and seniors going off to pursue their arts goals and dreams. We’re here to support those who want to keep reaching for their career and dream goals. And that’s what we do, whether that takes money or support, we’re here for you.

Hugh Ballou:
Diane Strand, this has been great. You’re just doing such great work. And if nothing else, there’s plenty, plenty for people to learn. But the big thing for me is the inspiration. This is a model for how we create community everywhere and doing it through the arts. Of course, I have an affinity for that. So what’s the thought you would like to leave people with before we end this great interview?

Diane Strand:
Well, show up, say yes, and start before you’re ready. And remember, the more you can give, the more you can get, turn your dreams into realities, and that takes passion and purpose, and then the profits will follow.

Hugh Ballou:
Don’t forget the profits. David, I think this is an inspiration, isn’t it?

David Dunworth:
It’s been a terrific afternoon here. Thank you so much, Diane. Thanks for being here.

Hugh Ballou:
Thank you.