We recently connected with Diane Strand and have shared our conversation below.
Diane, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The absence of the Temecula Valley International Film Festival left our region yearning for a place to bring the artistic community together. Our peers from that community suggested we create an event in its place, but a festival dedicated to film didn’t make sense for us because we aren’t a film company; we are a video production company, actor’s studio, and creative arts nonprofit. For us, it would have to be an event with a film festival concept that also incorporates many types of arts, with a focus on digital media. The word “DigiFest” came out of my mouth while describing the idea, and we realized that’s what we would call it.
But we still needed to figure out what exactly it would be about and what it would include. We had many ideas and knew we wanted to connect it to the city and make it the big community art festival the area needed. The city has a lot of different events, but none have to do with the digital arts, so DigiFest Temecula would be about bringing together different mediums of digital arts while bringing back that festival camaraderie.
The event’s philosophy is to make it possible to pursue your passion for the arts. We wanted it to be an event where even those who make corporate video content, as we do, could celebrate and share their work. We also wanted it to be a place where people who are starting out could grow from within. One of our goals with the event is to put amateurs in the middle while giving professionals an opportunity to give back to emerging talent. That’s what we try to do here at JDS Creative Academy– make things accessible to those who don’t have access because they’re out of reach.
Today, DigiFest is about making opportunities accessible to those who are emerging. Most of the work we do is rooted in that same mission. One of my newest initiatives does this in a different way. It’s called Arts Across America and localized, it’s called Arts Across California.
The idea came to me while journaling about gratitude during a business trip in New York. Reflecting on my life, I realized that everything that brought me to where I am today happened because of the arts. For example, in second grade, I was told I struggled to read because I had dyslexia. Refusing to accept that as my fate, I taught myself to read to audition for and earn one of the lead roles in the school play that year. That experience cultivated my love for theater, but to continue performing throughout high school, I had to keep good grades. So in that way, the arts held me accountable and kept me from ditching school and partying like my peers. Later in junior college, I continued gravitating toward theater, despite studying journalism, what I thought would be my formal major initially. It wasn’t that I was a great actor with big roles; it was about being part of a community and the connection that all art mediums give you and the ability to share that with others.
As I moved through life, advancing in my career, I saw how the arts and storytelling through video connect people and bring people together. The art world is inclusive to everyone– it doesn’t matter if you’re Black, white, gay, or straight – everyone fits in. It’s a way for people to learn, celebrate diversity, and become more accepting of others. And so it was while reflecting on the impact that the arts had on my life that I realized that if I could spread this message to everyone, I could make a difference. Having been an entrepreneur for 20 years now, I have the resources and a platform to make it happen. That day, I wrote “Arts Across America” in my journal, meaning that we are making the arts accessible across all of America. We are starting locally with Arts Across California but taking the message big.
We are creating courses to help more people gain access and give access to the arts as we do here at JDS Studio. We have seen the impact of arts education on people’s lives, and we want to make it bigger and reach people hundreds of miles away. This curriculum will give those who have the passion for teaching art what they need to do it, even if they don’t have any training, and that’s how we will start a ripple effect. Arts Across America is truly an idea about filling a need for the arts.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Twenty years ago, before I became an entrepreneur, I worked in production in Los Angeles on television shows like General Hospital, Friends and Survivor. I also produced major live events at The Staples Center for HBO Pay-Per-View and Barbra Streisand at the Shrine Auditorium. These experiences taught me many valuable lessons about the industry– how it can be both draining and rewarding, how you have to have thick skin to survive, and what it takes to bring a vision to life, for example. My husband was a working actor and director at the time, enduring the same long, intense days all while we were raising our three-year-old son. One day in 2003, he suggested we cash in our chips and leave Los Angeles to start our own video production company. Taking a leap of faith, I instantly said, “Yes!” and we sold our home, leaving behind our high six-figure incomes and everything we had known to risk it all as entrepreneurs.
I now run my own award-winning high seven-figure production company, actors’ studio and nonprofit. I also produce my own magazine-style news and information television show, radio show, podcast and annual live events, like DigiFest Temecula. Much of my work today is about transferring those valuable industry lessons I learned earlier in my career to those who have the passion for this work but don’t have access to the opportunities. I want to make opportunities accessible to others because it was a personal struggle for me to access opportunities in this industry, which is very subjective. It’s a lot about who you know or what you’ve done. I want to open up pathways to opportunities for those unable to find access, whether due to a disability, geographical limitations, lack of training or connections– so that more talented, passionate individuals can move forward with making their dreams come true.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The biggest lessons I’ve had to unlearn came from my time working in the industry before I became an entrepreneur. When I was in the entertainment industry, my last position was as the Production Manager of a popular reality television show. I oversaw about 40 people whose responsibilities ranged from crewing to locations to equipment. The mentality was either you nail it, or you fail. There’s no in-between, and no one will take the time to develop and nurture your skills to help you do better. You were expected to walk in the door knowing how to reach 100 percent, and if you only hit 98 percent, you still failed. That was the culture, and it burned me out.
Flash forward 15 years, and as an entrepreneur, I’m managing people again. But I’ve had to unlearn that management style. I wanted to avoid bringing that culture here. I wanted to create a family culture. Changing from that cutthroat mentality of, “That’s not working, you’ve got to go” to, “How can we make that better?” hasn’t been easy. I’m still constantly pushing for excellence, but now I’m trying to help my workforce grow by giving them the tools to improve. I’m trying to teach others how they can get better instead of just saying, “You don’t cut it.” I’ve had to unlearn the expectation that everyone will come through the door being the best, knowing how to execute and deliver and learn that I have to develop my workforce– so now I look for passion. I can teach you skills, but I can’t teach you passion. You could come through my doors with all the skills in the world, but if you don’t have passion, you’re not what I’m looking for. You bring the passion, and I’ll teach you the skills to reach excellence.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The biggest pivot of my life was when Scott and I left our successful, stable careers in Los Angeles to become entrepreneurs. Since then, our business has thrived on being open to mini-pivots, such as when we relocated from North County San Diego to Temecula five years into business and when we added our actors’ studio and launched our nonprofit, and in recent years when we had to transform DigiFest Temecula to a virtual format and then back into a live event because of the pandemic.
My latest pivot is Arts Across America/Arts Across California. With this initiative, my vision is to supply creative arts curriculum to those who want to teach it in places where they don’t have access to the arts. Right now, I don’t know all the steps to get there from where I am today, and I’m not going to try to plan them all out because I know that somewhere along the way, I will have to pivot. I’ve learned that plans change, and if I plan everything and follow a strict roadmap, I might miss an opportunity to pivot into something extraordinary. Thriving businesses are agile because business is constantly changing, and you’ve got to embrace that change to survive. To be successful, you’ve got to leave room to allow the pivot to happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://digifesttemecula.org/ https://jdsactorsstudio.com/ https://spiritofinnovation.org/news/ https://jds-productions.com/ https://jdsstudio.live https://jdscreativeacademy.org
- Instagram: @jdsproductionstudios @jdsactorsstudio @jdscreativeacademy @soi_newsinfo @digifesttemecula
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JDSProductionStudios https://www.facebook.com/JDSProductions https://www.facebook.com/JDSActorsStudio https://www.facebook.com/JDSCreativeAcademy https://www.facebook.com/SpiritofInnovation https://www.facebook.com/DigiFestTemecula
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianestrand/
- Twitter: @JDSProductions @JDSCreative @JDSActorsStudio @SOI_newsinfo @DigifestTemecu
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpiritofInnovationNews