Episode 2: Interview with Dale Godboldo

SUMMARY

Dale talks about the challenges and lessons he went through during his early twenties and how a very simple statement from his father made a huge impact and sticks with him all the time.

Listen to the podcast here:

Podcast highlights:

00:14 – Coaching and Mentoring
01:57 – Dale Godboldo’s Background
03:46 – Build your own resilience
04:38 – Words from a Father
06:46 – Success and Making Mistakes
08:11 – Don’t be afraid to take a risk
10:28 – Protecting your integrity and intention
11:11 – Art is Important

Dale Godboldo – Actor/Producer/Investor

BIO

DALE GODBOLDO, has been working both in front of and behind the camera for over 25 years, and recently starred as ‘Dream Team’ attorney Carl E. Douglas on Ryan Murphy’s “The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story” – winner of the EMMY, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics Choice, and NAACP Image awards for Best Limited Series.

As an investor and entrepreneur, Dale has structured numerous large-scale entertainment-related projects, events, and distribution agreements with SONY, Arista, Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, and Clearchannel.

 

[Transcription]

Michael Silvers : Hi Everyone, my name is Michael Silvers. I want to welcome you all to the mentor studio. Again, as everybody knows, there’s a difference, and I’ve said this in some of the other shows, but there’s the big difference between coaching and mentoring and I try to make this as simple as possible. Coaching is that person who stands behind you and kicks kickster behind, so you get to where you need to go. Mentoring is the person who is already there. That’s the person that is either lived your life is where you want to be or it might not even be in your exact industry, but the great thing about that is not being in your exact industry. They can look at what you need from a different perspective, which means you can learn something new that you never thought of. As you’re building your wealth, your income, your health, whatever it is.

Michael Silvers [00:41] : Whether you’re going into acting, producing, directing, music, whether you’re a business and entrepreneur, whatever that is for you. There is still learning from every single person that we put on this show and for every single person that you’re going to run into at the mentor studio will change your life as long as you’re willing to, as we always say, listen and learn and that will make a big difference. So I wanted to welcome today. This is actually a gentleman that I’ve just recently met and I’ve already told them that I’m going to destroy his name along the way and I always say in interviews, don’t mess up a name right. OK. So I’m classic for doing this, but well known in the industry in that happens and that’s OK. So, and he’s got a part of the reason that he’s actually with us and he’s actually going to help us as faculty for the Mentor Studio is because it’s, this is a lifelong in a way. It’s a mission for him. It’s something that started very early and he’ll tell us a little about it and continues on and it’s now part of his heart and that’s what we want. We looked for the heart and all. So I wanted to welcome with the big thunderous round of applause. Mr Dale Godboldo. Did I get it?

Dale Godboldo [01:50] : Yeah.

Michael Silvers [01:51] : Yeah, I’m good. Is this too much? But. All right. Dale, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your background before we get rolling?

Dale Godboldo [01:57] : Sure. I’ve been a, an actor and a, an entrepreneur for about 25 years. I began my career in front of the camera on the all new Mickey Mouse Club with Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears and all those guys. After four, almost five years of that, I went on to continue my acting career, appeared in about a hundred and 30 episodes of television, about a dozen films from Thor, The Sum of all Fears, a couple of other films people know. But that was in front of the camera, behind the camera, I’ve also been an investor and I own several companies are interested in several companies. I’m a film producer as well. I got to bridge all of my loves by working on the city gala, which was also an opportunity to work with a good friend of mine, John Travolta, who I adjust the prior year, work with on the People v Oj Simpson, American Crime Story as an accurate. So, uh, that’s been sort of my journey over the last five years I’ve been working really in a social entrepreneurship and philanthropic world has really been my focus. I still act because I love doing it. But I think, would really gets me up in the morning, is having an opportunity to give back.

Michael Silvers [03:17] : Fantastic. I really appreciate you being on, you know, and taking the time and you’re going to take the time to be faculty, which means you’re really going to be there for the members and for those who are taking those first steps and really going through whatever that is, that transition for them because there’s a way with. It’s like being a new physician. You get beaten up along the way, and there’s a way to do it right in a way not. And also there’s a way that you need to build your own resilience and really look at the end in mind. So talking about the end in mind, is there any great, great phrase or motto or something that you live by that kept you going for this many years and actually keeps you going and loving what you do?

Dale Godboldo [04:04] : You know, I’ll be honest with you.Something that drives me to keep gets me up in the morning or something my father said to me, and it’s not that complicated, not that deep. It’s real simple and it just always respect me and it’s this. I was going through something in my early twenties, no, might have been in my teenage years. And he said to me, I said to my father, said, the man, this is so hard. I don’t know if I can keep going. I don’t want to do this anymore. And he said to me, simply “Son, if it was easy, everybody will be doing it”.

Dale Godboldo [04:44] : It’s so simple, and it just sticks with me. So every time, I’m on that fifth or sixth call back or I’m trying to raise money for a project and I’ve had hundred investors shut the door and I just remember what I’m trying to accomplish. What I’m trying to accomplish is extraordinary. It’s special and if it’s not extraordinarily special, I haven’t been doing it anyway, so I believe that, so I’m on a path that I believe in and frankly if it was easy everybody would be doing it. So it’s just those things that helps me shake off my own, you know, my own bs and just say, you know what, that’s OK. No, it’s OK. Go to the next, you know, it’s a numbers games sometimes and it just helps me get perspective and that perspective I think is one of the most important things that anyone can gain when they’re pursuing their dream is just understanding where you are in all of this. Sometimes we get caught up in a, you know, our own little small issues or concern and we lose sight of the bigger picture of why we’re even doing this to begin with. Hey, if it was everybody would be doing it. So get over yourself. Keep going.

Michael Silvers [06:00] : That’s great. I love it. I love it. And sometimes it’s even just getting started. Yeah. Because sometimes what we do is we put so much in our way to just get started that it’s like, well, but I have to be perfect. Talk about protection a little bit.

Dale Godboldo [06:19] : Yeah. I’ve seen so many of my friends and loved ones that are completely paralyzed by the idea that they have to be perfect. All of the best advice I’ve ever received from anyone that’s been successful is just start. Just start. Because the reality is that you are going to make mistakes.There is no one out there ever that is not achieved some level of success without making mistakes. So you might as well make them quick, make a burly, learn something every day. So instead of just waiting to amass all of the knowledge that I need before I start something, I will just start and fumbled my way through it because the only way to really learn something is to actually do it. You know what I tell actors who trained forever, you know, it’s taught. Let’s talk the arts for a second. I can’t tell you how many actors have been in acting classes for a decade and they haven’t really spent any time actually trying to get an agent or do work, you know what I’m saying? They’re just training, preparing because we’re so scared to actually get out there and deal with the rejection or the actual work it takes to be a working actor. They just don’t do anything and they just get caught up in this world of training forever. Training is great. You should absolutely be training, but you need to be working. I gotta tell ya, I’ve never ever heard of a casting director hiring an actor because they’ve got a master’s degree in acting, but that’s irrelevant.

Dale Godboldo [08:00] : That is important for your craft, but I guarantee you, you’re going to gain as much if not more from actually doing the work to get out there and shoot your own projects. Get out there with their cell phone if you have to shoot your own theme right in your own scenes, just do it. So that’s what I would say. And that’s really the case with business in general. You know, I’m an investor. I’ve lost money and I’ve made money. There’s not an investor out there that hasn’t lost money, so don’t be so afraid to lose that you won’t take any chances.

Michael Silvers [08:33] : That’s great. Wow. Fantastic. You know, on that point, what has been, would you say your greatest failure obstacle that you’ve actually pushed past and how you push past?

Dale Godboldo [08:44] : Sure. There are no failures. Only lesson. We all know that. But I would say there was a project that I was working on about 10 years ago and we raised the money for the project and for some reason the investors backed up and refused to bring in more capital. Right. And I was stuck with a choice, do I just close up shop, you know, turn off my phone and just let everything die. Just quietly go away, and just never try this again or do I keep my phone on engaged with each and every person involved with the project and deal with it head on. It was about a year of hell. Fast forward several years later, the investors were so impressed at how well I stayed engaged and manage the fall, frankly, that they gave me more money to help me launch a company that I’m doing right now.

Dale Godboldo [10:03] : I think the lesson in all of that is, I don’t care what’s going on in your character and your intention will shine through when things are bad in particular, it is so easy to do the wrong thing to protect yourself, but if you’re thinking long-term, protecting yourself is in fact protecting your team, protecting your surroundings, protecting your integrity and your intention. Because when all the dust settles, everyone makes mistakes. But people that have integrity and have character, they will rise to the top. They will be given him another chance and they will learn from those experiences and build better relationships with some of the people that were dragged through the mud with him at that time. That was probably the biggest lesson I learned throughout most of my business career.

Michael Silvers [11:05] : That’s an interesting point too because whether it’s the entertainment world of personal development, which are very similar in many ways, or any entrepreneur, it’s realizing that it is a business and I think there’s the tendency of people especially who want to be in front of the camera or on stage and do all that. They lose that perspective of it’s still a business. And you very much caught. When did you catch that in your career? Realizing it’s a business.

Dale Godboldo [11:37] : Oh, that’s so important. For me. Fortunately, it was early on and I made my mistakes early on, but I tried very quickly because I understood that being an artist is that’s my art, that’s personal to your craft and your art is personal. But in order for someone to see it, you’ve got to understand the business of what you’re doing. When I was on the Mickey Mouse Club, I had so much to say, and I realized even at that time that I needed to get behind the camera. So they let me, I just asked and they let me write and produce the same song, which I did. They let me, write some of the sketches and choreographs sketches for me it was because I had so much more. But also I understood that I needed to learn these things if I was going to take control of my own career to fast forward a few years later, I had a dip in my acting career.

Dale Godboldo [12:38] : I had tools that allowed me to simultaneously launch my own record label and generate revenue there. And we had some successes there. I was able to start a graphic weapons are the company. So I was able to generate revenue there. I was able to give my services to other producers. I spent a lot of time studying finance, so I was able to make loan. I was able to get loans to start my business. So I had some financial literacy as well. So what I’ve found is that if I had only stuck to my craft and my art for Art’s sake, when the inevitable dip happens in any artist’s life, if you’re not prepared to support your life, I was going to say your lifestyle, but really your life, with other means of revenue than you may not get to that period where you’re actually going to have your success in your art.

Dale Godboldo [13:47] : And the other thing about that is how many stories have you heard about successful actors or actresses losing their money because they don’t know how to manage it. So it’s a business. That is another point I want to make. That is also something I’ve learned throughout this process. And again, this was on the Mickey Mouse Club. A short story. I was actually fired by Michael Eisner himself at the age of about 16 years old because the rule for mouseketeers was to not date fast. If production saw girls in the audience you weren’t supposed to be. I’m 16 and I’ve got little screaming fans come on who’s sticking to that rule? So myself and another mouseketeer, we set up these dates with these two girls and then we thought better of it the next day and we can’t put the date. Well, we had hurt those girls feelings so badly that and one of the mothers happened to be an editor of a major newspaper.

Dale Godboldo [14:56] : She had lodged a formal complaint that all of the Disney theme parks and had threatened to run a front page story, I believe in the Chicago Sun Times about how mouseketeers treat their fan. I was called into the office the next day and told I was fired. They let me go. They were, you know, Michael Eisner, I believe himself said Lucky fish, former complaints made we can’t have this kind of, you know, credibility issues with our brand. And I was basically sent home and then I was called back in the next day. It might, my executive producer of the show. She said, look, we worked it out, but here’s what you got to do. You’ve got to do 60 hours of community service. You need to write an apology letter with a signed autograph picture, and you gotta play your song. So we did all of that. I actually did 60 hours of community service.

Dale Godboldo [15:49] : I picked up the trash on the side of the street with convicts by the way. This was very serious. And what I learned about that, that I never understood, I only understood abstractly, but actually being punished and dealing with it at a very young age. The necessity understanding that being a mouseketeer was part of something far bigger than my own personal desires to get a date with a fan. You are part of a corporate branding institution, right? This is business. And there were, there was a lot riding on something that seems this small stock prices could be affected. This wasn’t just about me, this was about business. And it was in that time that I understood that in order for me to have the privilege of being an artist, I needed to recognize and respect the corporations that are backing me and supporting me and giving me that stayed institutional support to explore what I want to do. [16:53] There’s a reason Justin timberlake and Britney Spears and Ryan Gosling and Christina Aguilera and Keri Russell from the American grown up in it, one of the fingers of invoke these artists are so successful today. They understand that art is important. Art is what gets you there. Art is what you share, but you were part of a business and take care of your business.

Michael Silvers [17:20] : That’s what we’re going to let it go because that’s actually one of the stated that was phenomenal because that’s a critical piece for anybody moving out there and to realize that you are part of something bigger. You’re part of something bigger. You’re part of a team. You’re, as you said, you’re loyal that into your loyalty and integrity counts and people will look for that the whole way through. And what a great lesson you learned at a very young age, but they’re not always easy to learn. But that was a great lesson. So you know, it’s been great having you on the show today. What’s great is that you’re going to be taking these words of wisdom and it’s great having a faculty member, somebody who’s going to move forward with us, who has such a lifelong experience in the industry and that you’ve seen the ups and downs, the rights and the lefts and you’ve seen how it’s changed you and your career and how many careers around you you have changed because of opportunities you’ve given to other people who were coming up and willing to teach, and we’ll talk about it more another time when we talk and you’re writing a book and bringing again those people that, that piece of really what’s next, right? It’s that, that piece of that is critical for them and I’m telling you, everyone this is, this is the gentleman that you want to learn by because he’s lived the experience and it’s not always pretty and you’re still there and you love what you do.

Dale Godboldo [18:41] : Absolutely.

Michael Silvers [18:42] : You know, and that’s. I know it’s been, it’s been great. Any last words of wisdom before? I’ll let this go.

Dale Godboldo [18:49] : Keep shining. That’s my words of wisdom. Just shine, shine.

Michael Silvers [18:56] : Love it. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate you being on today. It’s been my pleasure at the mentor studio to have you on. We’ll be talking to you lots more through the next coming years, obviously as you’ll be one of the faculty and helping students and really a live call so you can ask questions. It doesn’t get any better. Dale, thank you so much again. Wherever you are in the world listening to this, whether you’re driving along or listening at home, you have an amazing morning, afternoon, or evening. Thank you so much. We’ll talk to you all soon. See you on the highway. Goodbye everyone.

 

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