Emily Merrell  00:00

Hey, my name is Emily Merrell. I’m a taco loving people connector. And I’m obsessed with playing the name game, and all things networking. I’m the founder of secondary society, a female focused networking community, as well as a business coach for female business owners passionate about bringing their business to the next level with the help of the fence, community and connections. I crave deep conversations, and I’m continuously curious to see what makes people tick. And I’m invested in uncovering their stories with some life lessons along the way. This podcast is aimed to inspire and educate as you tackle your busy day to join the conversation and tune in for the second degree podcast. I’m your host, Emily Merrell. And today I’m so excited to have my friend Diana Lanham. She’s a writer, director, producer and host of my best female show. Diana, welcome to the show.

 

Diana Lanham  00:56

Thank you very much, Emily. I’m very happy to be here today.

 

Emily Merrell  01:00

Oh, I was gonna say How does it feel? I feel like you’re always like, gather of putting together a shows and podcasts and YouTube. How does it feel to be on the like sitting and being taken care of side of things?

 

Diana Lanham  01:17

The guest side, you know, I, I love it. I love not being responsible for this. I know that I get to sit here and you get to guide me through it. And I’m gonna be honest with you. This is my first podcast. Yes, love. You’re the first time I’ve said yes to so.

 

Emily Merrell  01:35

Well, thank you. I feel honored. It’s yeah, it’s I don’t know, as someone who likes to be in control, myself, I think it is sometimes weird when I’m in a guest on a podcast. And maybe their questions are a little slow or they don’t guide and luckily, I’ve had experience with so many great hosts, but I feel like I’m a backseat driver sometimes.

 

Diana Lanham  02:02

So 100% Especially because I’m used to like, you know, encouraging and molding the actors and saying, Hey, we want to do or when I’m, I have guests on my show. And I’m not constantly saying it’s okay. You need to stop, you know, things happen. Just don’t worry about it. We’ll edit it out. And so now I feel like you know, I’m gonna be a nightmare for you. Like, you know, you

 

Emily Merrell  02:24

said this wrong now.

 

Diana Lanham  02:27

We need to redo that. We’re gonna, we’re gonna just reroll that. Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  02:30

she’s a perfectionist. I love it. Well, no perfectionism here, we’re gonna believe her production perfectionist and in our suitcase at the door. So Diana, I want to know, how did this independent woman based in Seattle outside of Seattle, start a career as a writer, director, producer? And then my second question, following up on that is what the hell is my best fail?

 

Diana Lanham  02:56

I love it. Thank you for asking. I, as a writer, I’ve always wanted to write ever since I was a little kid, and I just never did. I mean, I wrote in school, I did, you know, creative writing projects and things like that. But I knew I didn’t sit down and put my butt in the seat and start writing until I started about 2009. And I’m single mom, I didn’t have any money to do anything. And so I just had time to write. And I wrote my novel, The House of a GM,

 

Emily Merrell  03:26

they were gonna say Harry Potter and

 

Diana Lanham  03:30

I know similar things, right? There’s nothing like not having any money to do anything that makes you really buckled down to do your creative stuff. Right. I so I wrote that 2009 I self published in 2013 was called House of ajia. And I I loved it. I loved it. I can’t believe I waited so long. I the whole time. I’ve been working as an executive assistant, I worked in like operations and admin. For various companies. Microsoft, the last my last job was Starbucks corporate office down in Seattle, which I loved it. I loved it. And so I was writing. You know, why I was working, you know, 60 hours a week, I was writing in the nooks and crannies of being a mom and staying up late and, you know, in the middle of the night to do that. And then in 2015 I decided that I wanted to start learning, teaching myself how to write screenplays, because I’m a cinephile. I love film. And to be honest, if I wrote a book, I’d much rather watch a movie and read a book, even though I read it’s movies where I really kind of lose myself and I just, I can watch you know, when I want to veg out and have removed myself from the world and recharge, I will sit and watch, do movie marathons all day. That’s how I recharge, right? Any cake and stuff.

 

Emily Merrell  04:47

Well, the marathons be like a similar theme or like a series, or it’ll just be lots of movies in a row.

 

Diana Lanham  04:54

It depends on how I how I’m feeling. I am a I love action adventure fantasies. So Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, Game of Thrones, Raiders of the Lost Ark. And I love rom coms, Practical Magic, things like that. So it depends on what I’m in the mood for. If I’m in the mood, I will watch the entire Lord of the Rings series, the director’s cut, which is, that’s about 100,000 hours, I’ll watch things like that. But I just I love movies, and I get incredibly engrossed in them. And so I wanted to learn how to be a screenwriter. And so in 2015, I took a sabbatical from my job, well, actually, I quit. I stayed on as a, like, a consultant, I took like little jobs, because I couldn’t cut the cord. But I started learning how to screen write did online courses and things like that, and I loved it, it absolutely fed my monster, and screenwriting is my passion. So with all the things that I do writing is truly, it’s really truly at the core of who we are the core of who I am. And so I started writing a couple screenplays, I decided to do write a short, I had a kind of, you know, personal crisis, I was trying to, I wanted to enter the project that I didn’t get. And I felt like my submissions to it had been the best of what was and so I was having a crisis identity crisis. And I had told my then husband, I’m never going to write any I’m not going to write anymore. Why am I doing it? If they didn’t pick me, even though there was like, 14,000 people who find, and I’ll never movie because people like my writing, and I don’t know why I’m doing this, and blah. And I was in bed for like, three days. And David was like, okay, we can give you a little bit of time, but then you’re gonna like, walk up, get out of bed and start writing again. And so as kind of the Universe works in mysterious ways. And I was doing scrolling through my phone, and I was in my junk mail. And there was some messages there in my junk mail that I had missed from the LA lady filmmakers festival in Beverly Hills have been trying to get hold of me. Now, the short film that I wrote, I mean, the short script that I wrote that I had never written a short before. It’s the first time I did it, I entered it. And it was it was in the running for Best Short Film for the festival.

 

Emily Merrell  07:23

Script. And you had thought that you had just been ghosted by these people?

 

Diana Lanham  07:28

Well, no, I forgot about it. Because I never written a short script before all my stuff, just like screenplays. I mean, you know, for pilots, and features and stuff. And so of course, I was completely over my belays, I jumped. I am a writer, I am a writer, I can write the love pieces, like, oh my god, you know, the drama with you. And so it was fantastic. I went to the festival, and I actually, they picked five writers and we got to pick actors and got matched up with the director. And we got to do a live reenactment of like 10 pages of our script in front of the festival audience. I couldn’t believe it. And not not only was that fantastic, and that’s where I decided that I wanted to be a director because the woman that they connected me up with Linda Rice, who is a fantastic she was a new director at the time. She was fantastic. I was in love with what she was doing. And I’m like, I want to direct. And I found out when they were showcasing my my story that I won the short film festivals, the screenplay thing, I couldn’t believe it. And I was like, Oh my God, that’s what I want to do. And not only that, I met a producer there who had her own short film that was showing. And we just connected, we just happen to sit down in a bench outside waiting to go into a short film, I was with my my brother. And we just connected and she called me three days later, it was October 3 2018. And she said, You know, I’ve been thinking about you and thinking about your stories. And I told her about a script that I had just wrote before I come to the festival and she goes, I think you need to start making your own films. And I was like, What? What are you talking about? And she said, No, you should do and I go, I’ve never even been on a film set. She goes, nobody knows what they’re doing the first time. She goes, I like your story. You’re sitting around waiting for people to option your stuff. And you just need to start doing yourself. I was like, Oh my God. And I’m telling and she said, she said something that I firmly believe, which is the thing that made the decision for me. She said, just start talking about it out loud. And the people that you enable show up and do you do not leave the station? 100% right. I

 

Emily Merrell  09:39

1,000% I think that’s also the best advice for anyone that wants to do something. And they’re like, I can’t start No, say it out loud. Say it to a lot of people who are gonna then ask you about it. And we’ll say

 

Diana Lanham  09:51

You know what, or they’ll say to you, you know what, I know somebody who can help you with that. If they can’t know and then connect you right? And so I did that. I put it on Facebook and I said I wasn’t on Instagram or anything else was on Facebook and Twitter and I told her, but hey, you guys, I’m gonna do this thing. I’m gonna do this thing. And I swear to God, Emily, two months later, December 9 and 10th, I was on set with a full crew, and cast. And I shot my little short film that I had written in September in like a week. And we filmed it was my very first short film, it was called Greg on the tree. And I put it out, and it won a couple awards. And that was that I was like, this is I told David, this is what I’m doing. This is what I’m doing now. I said, I’m going to all the stories that I’m writing or have written, we’re gonna start this train, which was, you know, and then of course, it’s like, who’s gonna pay for that, right? But who cares? Who cares about funding, it doesn’t matter, you can make it happen. But that’s actually how it all started for me, because I was just writing. And I know, just writing is a feat in itself. But if Sonia had not whispered in my ear, and said, start doing it yourself, I don’t think that I ever would have. I am not kidding. I just didn’t seem it wouldn’t have been something even in my mind that I could do. I don’t know about now, you know, five years later, but it completely changed my life. It’s okay.

 

Emily Merrell  11:15

This is incredible. And I think the fact that you started at in 2009, as a single mom as doing it on the side, that there was something inside of you that was like, there’s more to me, there’s more that needs to come out. And that you didn’t stop at the writing, you decided to explore even further and explore what screenwriting would look like, versus just being like I published a book, it’s off my bucket list, Bada bing, bada boom, now you have a screenwriting and I love these tiny moments that it didn’t happen overnight. Like your story started. 22,009. And then you had it all filmed in 2018. So like, what a journey that was. And it actually it really wrapped reminds me Have you listened to the podcast? Julie Louise Dreyfus has a podcast with her

 

Diana Lanham  12:03

fabulous women. I don’t know if it’s probably seven or 50. But ever. But yeah, I’ve already listened to the whole thing.

 

Emily Merrell  12:10

And I was listening to the one with Carol Burnett. And oh, wasn’t

 

Diana Lanham  12:13

that fabulous? Wait. And

 

Emily Merrell  12:15

it reminds me a lot of your story, though.

 

Diana Lanham  12:17

A massive compliment. I

 

Emily Merrell  12:20

know. Right. But I think you know, Carol Burnett, just for those listening who were like, What are you guys talking about? Basically, this podcast, the premise is she interviews these awesome older women who have a lot of wisdom to impart. And Carol Burnett talked about the start of her career, where everyone was like, You’re not pretty enough, you’re not talented enough, you’re not XY and Z enough, or just not enough? Not enough. And this is before the internet. This is like literally pounding the pavement. And she decided, okay, well, what if I direct?

 

Diana Lanham  12:54

Why don’t just do it myself instead of somebody else to do it for me? Yeah. Sounds a lot like you. Emily, I have to tell you, and thank you for that compliment. I absolutely love that. Um, you know, it is, when you’re sitting in a space, where you don’t have a lot of opportunity. You don’t have funding, or, to me, those are the two biggest obstacles. If you have a creative idea. You don’t feel like you can do anything because you don’t have any money. And I’m talking about you you’re barely scraping by as it is. Yeah. Or you don’t have a support system. Because you cannot do anything by yourself. You have to collaborate and have a support system. And if you don’t have that around you organically now that we have the internet and there’s communities there six degrees, society seriously. It’s a fabulous community. Right? You have you have grown such a fabulous community. So people who don’t have their own organic tribe, can now actually go online and get one right and subscribe to one and find people who have mutual ideas and passions and even have mutual situations in life. Right? So it can seem like when you’re sitting in that moment, where you’re like, I have this passion or I have this idea and I just I you know you’re restless, you’re you’re grumpy. You cry, you just not settle. That is change waiting to happen. And that is your ideas inside of you knocking on the door to say you know frickin let me out and do the thing. So you need to say it out loud, but you just need to start and even if you make a phone call or go online today and connect with community or research something that you need to bring your idea to life or or anything you send an email if you just start something you swear to God you will start moving forward and circling back to When I started writing, yes, I had my circumstances were such that I had the time to write because I couldn’t do anything else, right. And, you know, as a toddler and being a mom, single moms of a toddler, but the thing that happened, for me is in my head, I knew things don’t happen overnight. And what I was thinking is, at the time in 2009, people were having movies made from books, it was huge. It started with Harry Potter and stuff, but people were making movies from books. And so I thought to myself, because I had this great idea. And I thought, if I can make this a book, and it’s successful, I can possibly have that can be a route to me make getting a movie made, right. I knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight. I knew things take years, but I was willing to do the work and write the book now. Or possibly, you know, 510 20 years in the future, having an all come full circle. Not only did I have to write the book, I mean, it had to come out. It just I mean, it did somebody at work sparked something that I needed an origin story. She said something and I literally couldn’t wait to go home because I knew that was the spark, I need it. I sat down that night, I stayed up for almost 72 hours. And wow, because my daughter was at her dad’s for the weekend. And I didn’t sleep for almost the entire weekend, I would just get up and eat, have coffee, go to the bathroom, have some snack. And I wrote it like in three days. It’s just launched because it was the time, right. But I knew I knew in my heart that I was setting in motion, something that was going to reward me and pay off in the future. And I’m telling you, if I had not written that book, I wouldn’t have I don’t think I wouldn’t have started screenwriting, maybe I would have later, right. But it directly led to that. And the House of ajia, which is my novel, not grant self aggrandizing here promoting, I’m just saying that’s what it was. It has led me to everything. And it has branched out in ways that I could have never imagined. in there. I’m not gonna say anything, but there’s something coming full circle about how stupid Yeah, that is. frying my brains. But, um, so even for if you’re sitting on an idea, or a passion that you want to go for, and you think, you know, it or even you’ve started and it’s been six months, it’s been a year, and nothing’s happening, you’re getting some traction, but nothing keep going. Because it is the long haul, you know that? Yeah. And I am, I am so impatient. I want everything, you know, immediate month, I want it right this second. So waiting for something kills me. But I have learned it is the long haul. And you know, just, you know, my personal philosophy, you know, just for myself as I just want to be better year after year, doesn’t have to be grand, it doesn’t have to be whatever. But you know, that whole thing about a year from now you wish you would have started a year earlier, I have seen that, you know, come true. And it is one of my things that I know for sure. And so every single year, I want to look back and go thank God, I started that thing, or thank God I did that thing. You know, and I have to say, you know, having, you know, because we can talk you and I can talk about the things that we’ve accomplished, right? And it’s not bragging, it’s not whatever. But you know, one of the things I’m very proud of is that I get shipped on. It has it is been part of my executive life, you know, as an assistant, it has and it is carried over into filmmaking because filmmaking solo entrepreneurship, by itself and filmmaking are so hard I was

 

Emily Merrell  18:48

gonna say I feel like there’s so many moving, moving, moving pieces by where it’s moving pieces to be had with a creating a film to like you. It’s not just you it’s its location, its people. It’s the equipment. There’s if it’s everything, and I have I was having this conversation yesterday I was talking about. I have a friend who was the director for Blue Bloods in New York City. I know. And he was like, Kelly, come visit me on set. And so I visited on set at 9pm in the middle of Glen, New York. And we sat and we watched what was Donnie Wahlberg, like, throw himself through a window about seven times. And I was like, This is so boring. This is so boring. But you could see his face and you could see the actors faces they were so they were in it. There was like this trance about them the desire to get it perfect. The desire to get the right angle, the desire to show more expression or whatever the scene was just a desire

 

Diana Lanham  19:52

to make it real, to make it real to real so that when you’re watching it in the movie, you’re just like, you just want Watch it flow and you just feel it in the passion. And I have to say filmmakers, all of them, you know, the directors, the producers, the technical crew, the DP, the director of photography, cinematographers, the gaffers, the grips, the actors, we’re, we’re a fanatical bunch. Yeah, that’s where you have to be, you have to be and, you know, out of all the things that I’ve done being in an executive assistant, was the thing that absolutely prepared me the most for being a director and a producer. And I had no idea because that first time for Greg in the tree when I stepped on set, and I had never, and I didn’t even know how to, you know, you know, you have it’s the stereotypical the director goes, action, and then everything starts, right. Well, I knew that didn’t you don’t, I wasn’t going to just walk out and say, Okay, is everybody ready? Action. I knew there was a whole lead up and process and I was watching, I was on YouTube, I was trying, nobody said this specific thing. Actually, I’m gonna create a YouTube video about it. No one had the exact steps that when I wake up in the morning, I arrived on set, everyone’s in their places, and how I queue up action. And I was so afraid. I was like, Oh, my God. And I was telling this, I was working with friends and family on the set. You know, as the actors. I had a, I got lucky. And I had a real film crew. And I finally had to admit to one of the crew members, I said, I don’t, I don’t

 

Emily Merrell  21:35

know what to do. Yeah, I’m making this up as I go. And I was shaking,

 

Diana Lanham  21:38

because I’m like, you know, I know that I have to say, action. But I go, I don’t know what to it. He just looked at me. And he was like, I think he didn’t realize that I was that much of a noob. Like he didn’t know. And he was so he could have been sarcastic and kind of like, why are we even here? up whatever. There was a couple people who took me aside and said, just you know, this is what we do. And this is how you call out, you know, sound sound rolling Camera Camera rolling. And you know, and then the clapper comes out. And, you know, he says the thing and then the assistant director, which I didn’t have I have one now that I wouldn’t she Trina Griffin shout out, can’t live without her. She she calls out and says everyone says, oh, ready to go. And a lot of times on big sets. The assistant director is the one that calls out action. No way. I learned that on my this film that I just we just wrapped which I’m going to send you a private link. I told her I said Don’t you dare call action. That’s the most fun thing I get to do. And don’t don’t that’s my thing. And she goes, Okay, no, no, I love calling action, right. But I learned on that set what to do. But I’m telling you, I was shaking. And I was so afraid. That’s how new I was. I didn’t know. And it was a horrible, horrible experience. It’s so fantastic and wonderful that all of us were like, we’re gonna do this again. And I was completely addicted. And that’s how I started it. And I just have not stopped. Oh, I love

 

Emily Merrell  22:58

1. It sounds like surfers where they just like see the wave, they fell off the board, they do it again, keep going

 

Diana Lanham  23:04

like oh my god, I’ve got a gash on my head, or sharks or I can shake it off go. That’s what happens. You know, and I think especially because I think that if I didn’t have all that experience as an executive assistant, and how events, manage people and work the problem when you have a huge, you know, town hall where everyone’s there and you got 400 people, and the tech isn’t working or the guest didn’t show up or the sky is falling and everyone looks to you to make it happen. So I learned how to work the problem. thing I found too, which is this is generally in life. When sometimes when you have it’s one thing if you hit a wall bat and that’s the universe telling you, maybe you need to rejig and turn around and knock. But when you just hit a bump, and everything else is going forward and doors and windows are opening up and people are showing up that you didn’t know when you hit these little roadblocks. I learned to just work the problem because a lot of times as a director and unset the the I the solution that you find is usually better than what you even had. And until you experience and that and know that you can everyone huddles, you know your key, your key crew huddle, and we’re like yeah, we get into and then we all just go go go we find a solution. And it just works. And once that happens the first time, no stress. As much as you’re like, Are you kidding that we just lost that location? Are you kidding that that I gotta fire that person and we need another actress or whatever, or costumes are working or whatever. And I just know now even though we’re stressed for time, I know that we’re going to come up with a solution. And I swear Emily, that is the thing that keeps me moving forward. And you only learned that by experience and

 

Emily Merrell  24:49

1000 1,000% and I think they’re to your point about the executive assistant. I did special events in marketing. So I’ve been in all circumstances You’ve told me before where, of course, like the musical performers, DJ, Booth doesn’t work or whatever, whatever, all the things. You’re like, oh my god, it’s the end of the world and everyone’s freaking out and fluttering around, and you have to stay calm, and you have to send your assistant to go to Best Buy to buy a whole new DJ set in 10 minutes, and it gets done. And it’s forgotten, and fun, and you grow and you keep learning and you have more tools in your toolbox. Moving forward. So, yes. Oh, well,

 

Diana Lanham  25:31

I’m sorry, I just cut you off. Go ahead. No, no, I

 

Emily Merrell  25:33

was gonna say all of these roles in your life have led you to be exactly where you need to be right now.

 

Diana Lanham  25:40

Absolutely. That is 100%. No, I was gonna say, everyone might forget that the problem may be exists, it even existed, but they will not forget how you acted. Amen. When you are, you know, you know, grace under pressure, and you saw things. That’s what they remember. They don’t remember the crisis. Right? So good on you. Because that’s a leader. That’s a true

 

Emily Merrell  26:02

leader. Oh, my gosh, I had a friend I would, who would hire me for events, and she would get a lot more anxious about things than I would. And she would be like, you’re making me so stressed out by House calm. You are.

 

Diana Lanham  26:18

Okay, are you fully realizing the amount of crisis we’re under? Yeah, I’m like, it’s

 

Emily Merrell  26:23

fine. Like, it’s, everything’s fine. That was my motto. And she was like, freaking out. And everything was fine. Everything turned out fine. But it takes a while to get there.

 

Diana Lanham  26:33

It gets Yeah, it does. It’s not as calm as I am. Now. I used to be like,

 

Emily Merrell  26:39

Well, I think internally, you’re calm can also have like alarm bells ringing. But externally, you want to be like, everything’s cool. Speaking of which, though, you this is a theme that is big in your life, so much, in fact that you created a whole show called my best fail. So what is the premise of the show? And like, Why? Why were you inspired to create something based on this idea of failing?

 

Diana Lanham  27:05

Well, actually, what we were just talking about and what you were saying, about grace under pressure. And, you know, my big thing for my best fail before I explain it, is that everybody has a story. We all have stories of big failures, or epic setbacks, that we did not think we were going to survive, you know, we think I can’t believe this happened to me, or it’s so bad that I can’t go on public, or how am I going to deal professionally, you know, it might be a divorce, that that just completely killed you, or approved of promotion that you did not get and it was public, and everyone knows you didn’t get it? Or it’s having something traumatic happened to you that is this horrible, and you just don’t want to face the world? Or it’s, I mean, it could be anything that’s very, very personal to you, that when you fail at it, you don’t just don’t think you’re going to overcome it, or you think there’s going to be public embarrassment, right. Everybody has a story of failure, right. But most importantly, people have a story of failure, that became their best next best life, that if they had not gone through that thing, they would not have the life that they have now. Mm hmm. And so I have as a storyteller, I’ve always been very lucky that people tell me their stories. It’s just something that people tell me stuff. You know, and a lot of it is very confidential. People have always told me stuff in school, in my jobs or whatever. And a lot of times, almost all the times they’re telling me because they trust me, but they need to tell the story and release it. Right. They just need someone to hear it. Maybe they’re the people in their family, their closest people hear it, but people need to tell you something, right? And then the relief release that people get from telling that story. It’s palpable, and it’s just, it’s just such a such a good feeling. And I’ve always thought about that. And then, about four years ago, a friend of mine told me a story. She’s actually our very first episode of Mind misspell. She had told me a story that I knew her. I knew her through work, and we’d become friends. But I didn’t really know this story that she only very, very few people knew. And when she finally couldn’t find it into me, I told her I said, You know what, I find this story so inspiring. And it’s such it is such a perfect example have moved through the failure. Get up, make it happen, and it has completely changed her life. The bad thing that happened completely changed her life. Right. And I I asked her, I said, Do you mind if I share the story with some people? And I said, not a lot. But I go, I have a couple friends that are going through something, I think that they would love to hear your story. And she was like, surprised that if I had that impact, and I said yes. Then, you know, as things happen, it started, you know, brewing and simmering inside of me. And I’m a filmmaker. And I had just done, you know, Greg in the tree. And I was just starting to write my next big film, which I just finished. And I thought, You know what, this would make a good, like series. I mean, people, everyone has a story. And she was so relieved about telling me her story. And she was starting to speak about it publicly, but not broadly. Yeah. And so I had an idea for, and I called it my best spell, where I have guests, I talk to guests. And they tell me what their worst fail was, and how they didn’t think they were gonna get through it. And they fought and they got through it, and how it completely changed their lives. And it’s a very simple premise. And that’s what my best val is. What what happened is, I interviewed her and another woman, Sarah, that is, we interviewed her, we filmed her again, for the the new show. And I just, you know, everything in life is about timing. Mm hmm. It just wasn’t the right timing for it. I had other things that were going on, we were filming, we were doing some other things. I didn’t have the right setup that I wanted. I wanted a different setup, but I didn’t know yet what that was. So I put it on the back shelf. Three years later, a random conversation with two of my friends at work. And they both said, Whatever happened to that idea, and one of the one of the people was the guy who actually filmed those two interviews with me. He goes, Are you ever gonna do anything with that? And I go, yes, because I love it. Love it. And, you know, I’ve been thinking about it. And I had said something about it being a year and a half ago. And he goes, Dana, that was three years ago, I go Shut up. I guess it was three years ago that we did that. And I go, that is not true. And I was stunned that I had three years go by. And in my head, it was really only like a year. And I’m telling you, you know, Emily, how things swirl in the air all of a sudden, and they just start getting on your radar of people’s radar, and they just come out of the ether. Yep, I had that conversation with them. And I swear on my wife Srei, who was my very first interview that we had done and had told me that her story, she posted a picture that I had taken of her that I turned into an avatar on Facebook randomly. And people were like, I always love this picture. It was from an interview that my friend Diana was going to do for a show of hers called my best film. That’s all she said. Seriously, how does that happen? And then all of her friends were like, what, what is this? Where can we watch it? What is this thing? And she goes, Oh, she hasn’t done it? She’s, you know, it’s not done yet. And I read that. The day after I’d had that conversation station with Justin Jason. And he just was like, oh my god, guys,

 

Emily Merrell  32:56

I’m gonna make this live. It’s gonna happen. We get the messages loudly. No, I

 

Diana Lanham  33:02

did. I said, Okay, universe, knocking knock knocking. And I’m gonna do this. And I did it with two people that I trust. Absolutely. And they said, Yes. Especially David said, now’s the time. I think it’s your time. And I’m telling you, so that was a Friday, Saturday. On Monday, I came into work. And I gave my notice. Because well, I have to tell you, I had I actually it was Tuesday, because Monday I asked, I said, I need some time off. And I think it’s looking like one to three months. One person said yes. The other person said, Please, God, don’t do that. Maybe just a couple weeks, maybe three weeks. I said no. I think I need a month. And then I realized that night, Monday night, when I came back, I realized I needed to take three months off. I did ask for it. They were like, Please, God, don’t do that. And I knew in my heart, oh my god, this is the thing that I need to do. I do want to say which I posted on one of your posts. I did have a little bit of a cushion. So I knew that I could cover my statement cover my life for three months. You know, and I want to say don’t go quit your job if you do not have a plan. Because you have to be okay, like, Are you right? I knew that and that just happened that I had, I could use that. And I quit my job. And I gave my notice. In October 7 From mid September from when all this happened. October 7 was my last day. And the minute I stopped that following Monday, that was Friday, October 7 October 10. I got in touch with someone who I thought could help me. And I started branching out singing out loud. And we launched my misspell February 8 of 2022. This was October 7. I quit my job October 7 last year 2020 to 22 and February was that five months later? That’s amazing. I miss later we launched our first episode. And yeah, it was it was life changing to this because it’s such a feel good thing and people telling their stories. Couple of them they’re telling their stories for the first time. Like one person, nobody knows her story. And she released it. It was it was picked off.

 

Emily Merrell  35:03

And for our listeners, I think you definitely need to check it out. It lives on YouTube. It’s so beautifully done. It’s so beautifully edited. And the questions you ask are so poignant, and it feels like, feels like your version of a talk show.

 

Diana Lanham  35:17

Basically, that’s where I wanted to catch up something. Thank you, Emily, I love that you said that, because that is exactly what I was going for. I and it’s long form, I want to tell people, This is not 50 minute chunks as long form, you know, anywhere from 45 to an hour and a half. And it’s because the story needs to be told like that. And it’s not the Diana Lanham show, it really is I give a platform for guests to tell their story, right? Especially a learning story that people can get inspired from, and they can say, that’s where I’m at. Or I know somebody who is at that at that spot. If that this person can do it, I can do it. Right. And that is why we’re doing it not just for the guest to release. Yeah, no fuel to reveal before someone else saying who’s in a similar situation to get inspired and get strength from it. And I’m telling you when we shoot them after we’re done the crews here it’s a small crew was shoot literally on my white sofa back there. Everyone is just Hi are just like the feeling you get that somebody just had this great experience. And we’re just happy and it’s just, man, it fills me up. I love it. And And now because we have the audio just so you know, it’s long form content, it’s video or video, video interviews or conversations, because we have the audio for it. We’re now we’re creating a podcast with it. And so now it’s on Apple and Spotify. I love it. I love the podcast, saying that we’re on Apple, Spotify makes me feel more legit. Even Yeah, video, the video podcasts on YouTube is it’s I love it. It makes me so happy. I love it.

 

Emily Merrell  36:51

I love it. And I love the using the use of one platform across multiple platforms. Well, Diana, I want to know how can I how can our listeners find out more about you your books, your your web, your web series, your YouTube series or your podcast? What are the best places for them to look for you?

 

Diana Lanham  37:13

Well, I am I’m kind of in all the familiar places if you go to YouTube and you put in at my best fail outside my best fail, I should pop up or even if you put in Diana Lanham, I do have a website for my films but also for my misspell you should be able to find it. And it’s an orange dot with white writing. This is my bestseller that’s how you know you’re on the right the click on the logo, and I’m on Instagram as my best fail my dot s dot fail and also as Diana Lanham, Diana dot Lanham. So I have two Dinah Lana one is kind of it’s more personal, more filmmaking. And I have pictures of my family and things like that. But my best l site is just about the site. I’m going to be on Twitter soon. So I’m excited. And I’m interested to see what that behemoth can do as well. And then also, you can always reach out to me at contact at my best fail.tv Emily, if you don’t mind me taking this moment to kind of do a little bit of promoting, there’s one thing that I would love if your listeners you, as well as your listeners can help me with is I do need more stories. We have a couple episodes right now that we’re everyday editing, I have a couple more episodes, I’m pretty much good for the year, but we’re still shooting. I have done a lot of local, local conversations on stories, and we’re now flying people in to have them come in and tell their story. But I, if you have a story, I say this at the end of each episode, if you have a story that needs to be told. And it has to be a learning story, you know it and it doesn’t just have to be dramatic, even though we have dramatic stories. And it’s funny, and it’s a learning thing, I’d love to hear it. But if you if you want to send a story to contact at my best fell.tv I’m not the only one that fits it. We have a couple of people that got the story. And if we think it’s, you know, on brand, if it fits our story, and it’s it’s going to inspire and motivate the way that we want to, we will reach out to you and don’t worry about the fact that you know I’m in Seattle and you’re somewhere else. Don’t worry about it, we’ll make it happen. And But definitely, if you’ve got a story of a friend has a story contacted my baseball.tv and we’ll reach out if we think it’s a good fit. So that love it. Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  39:27

that’s a great plug. Well, in the next few minutes. We’ve got six fast questions for you. So this is the fun part. turn your brain off answer the first thing that comes to mind short sweet, succinct. So tell us an unknown fun fact about Diana.

 

Diana Lanham  39:44

Um, what is an unknown thing about me? I actually I don’t know why this is nursing now. I went through a period in Hawaii because I lived in Hawaii after I graduate I moved to Hawaii And I lived there for 11 years, but I also and I worked for so lucky and I worked for a talent agency and model and talent agency Susan pages she was a poor Miss Texas. She became actually my business mentor everything that I I feel like I knew when I started doing business I learned from her so thank you Susan Page. But I started entering pageants and I was in pageants and look at how white I am and all most of the pageants are like, you know, these beautiful Polynesian women and Asian women and stuff. And then there was just me. And there’s I actually went to a pageant in Hong Kong, that was massive. We had no idea how big it was, but it was broadcast all over Asia. And the venue. We had it in 45,000 people. Wow, I was representing Hawaii. Oh my God, that’s good Jan, pigment in my skin at all. And it was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. But I have to tell you, man, I was with women who are pageant queens, they were bred to do that. And they this is their job. And they were the most beautiful, wonderful women I’ve ever been with. And I have to tell you that experience, not everyone’s going to have an experience like that. I was so lucky. But I it makes me laugh because everyone says like you represented Hawaii and imagine like, Oh my God.

 

Emily Merrell  41:21

In fact, I will find that footage. Who would be a dream person you’d want to be connected with?

 

Diana Lanham  41:26

Oh my gosh, you know who I love. I love Brene Brown. I love her. But I don’t know, I hate to say she’s the person that I’d love to have on because I would want to be on the couch and have her interviewing me and just being in her her Brene Brown, who I think is one of the leading thought leaders and has done it but she is one of the the most important thought leaders of our time. I truly believe that. And I love Mel Robbins. Oh, yeah, she’s great. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like

 

Emily Merrell  41:57

you I saw her show in New York City. Never show yeah, live. It was 60 days event. Back in the day. I could your your My vestibule kind of reminds me of Mel Robbins. That’s what came

 

Diana Lanham  42:11

to mind. Absolutely. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I think she’s fantastic.

 

Emily Merrell  42:15

I love her have her on it. And then What show are you watching?

 

Diana Lanham  42:18

Oh my gosh. Honestly, I have been editing nonstop. And especially with the show and and my short film. I haven’t been able to watch a lot of things. But what I just finished I finished all the episodes. I can’t believe it took me so long of Barry. Oh, so good. Yeah. I was also I’m starting watch the bear. So good. Oh my god, I I love it. It’s fantastic. And then a lot of times I rewatch things because they’re familiar and it’s relaxing. And I know what’s happening. And so I’ve been watching, you know, I’ve been watching some Game of Thrones, but you know, I have to pick the moments because as much as I love it, I can’t handle gore. I’m the worst. You know, like, I’m sitting back, you know, during that whole thing. But I love I watched Wonder Woman a million times already. I’m trying to think of all that. Just one

 

Emily Merrell  43:06

show one show. You got it. You nailed it. Yeah, good, good. TV.

 

Diana Lanham  43:10

I’m addicted to it’s hard to be very careful how I watch it. So I will i am addicted. But I love movies and TV. And we just we did we just see. Oh, we just finally saw Mission Impossible. My brother and I oh my god, I was so good. And I’m gonna be seeing Barbie and Oppenheimer this weekend. So I cannot wait. It’s a big it’s a big month for

 

Emily Merrell  43:31

you. Yeah, what? Are you really? Are you reading one? Are there any books that you’re reading one book.

 

Diana Lanham  43:36

Um, so actually, I’m reading. There’s a guest that I’m going to be having on my show. If everything aligns His name is Eddie Ellis. And he has a wonderful story at 16. He was sent to prison at 16 for murder. And it’s all about how he survived and you know, children, being in prisons basically like that. And so I’m reading his book, and it’s just, oh my god. But he’s amazing person. We’ve had several conversations to try and get him on. I was connected with him by somebody that I absolutely respect and adore. And he wants to be on the show to I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. So I’m very so I’m reading his book right now. And it’s it’s pretty amazing. So yeah, I’ll add that

 

Emily Merrell  44:19

into the list. What is your favorite emoji?

 

Diana Lanham  44:23

Oh, my God. Everyone was like Dan, can you quit it with a smiley emojis? I love I because I smile all the time. Just like you. You know, you’re smiling. You’re smiling all the time. And so when I’m emailing or texting, I have to like have emotion like I’m in you know, in person. So I use the smiling emoji. I use the the heart and and just the smiling with the hearts those three things. You’re not going to get over again text or an email from me without one of those. Yeah. Oh,

 

Emily Merrell  44:54

I love that. Okay, my final question for you, who gave you permission or insight I urge you to do the thing you wanted to do with your life.

 

Diana Lanham  45:04

You know, no one gave me permission to do it. I just, you know, I’m ADHD. And so I have a problem with ideating. I mean, I have too much. And sometimes, you know, people do not start another project stop. They’re like, we will not support you if you do not start another project, right? Because I’m like, radiating right? So I have to, and my dad has always in my life been so I have a very creative mother and dad, my dad has always been like, you can do whatever you want to do. You can be the President of the United States just don’t have any skeletons in your closet. So you’re looking over your shoulder, which crushed him on there. But he said, You can do anything that you want. And he always always said, you know, be creative, do the thing. Do the thing, right. But I have a very large family, there is 11 of us siblings. It’s a half step and half sisters and brothers. And we are all very close, which is amazing. Because some people only have one sibling, and they’re not close, right? We’re all very close. And I am seeing this 100% Dead to Rights. I would have nothing in my life without the support of my family. My siblings, my dad, my ex who is a huge supporter of mine, we’re still very close friends. Without my direct family. I wouldn’t I’m not I’m kidding you. I nothing. I have ideas. But nothing happens when you’re alone. You have to collaborate and have a team. And not only do I get lucky with my film team, which is phenomenal. I cannot believe I connected with them. But my siblings and they have my eye I tell you, I’m so lucky. Very, very

 

Emily Merrell  46:52

blessed. So wonderful, wonderful answer. Diana, I clearly could talk to you for hours. I want to thank you so much for being a guest on today’s show. And listeners, please make sure to follow Diana follow her stories follow her her creations. She’s such an motivation and inspiration and motivation, most motivational speaker and everything she does. So thank you, Diana for being here.

 

Diana Lanham  47:17

Thank you so much, Emily. I loved it. It was fun. And we’ll see you the next time