# Follow Your Passion: Corporate lay off did not stop her from becoming a travel expert and Award-winning TV host.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 1 Oct 2024, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/eb0c01a6-c33f-4a53-820f-b20401503c00/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Denella Ri'chard. She is a well-known traveler, travel expert, and industry leader and hosts the award-winning travel show, Traveling with Denella. She has held senior positions at major travel companies, including Hilton Worldwide, Carnival Corporation, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. Originally from South Louisiana, she describes herself as a travel enthusiast, artist, wildlife and wine lover. She aims to inspire people to travel, experience different cultures, and embrace our shared humanity. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Master Class Denella Richard. Talking Points/Questions * 1. Tell me about your show “Traveling with Denella.” 2. How did you go from Cruise Industry Executive to Executive Producer and Host of the award-winning television series Traveling With Denella? 2. You also attended an HBCU: Southern University. Tell me what role Southern University played in laying the foundation for your current situation. 3. What are some of your favorite places you filmed and traveled to? 4. I heard you once say, you were in the travel industry before travel was cool for "Black People" and long before it was "trending". What do you mean by that? 5. You are also an entrepreneur of your own television production company, Soar Entertainment & Media. You, self-produce your own shows. Any words of advice for anyone who is considering going into entrepreneurship? 6. You have lived in Africa and Europe? Was travel always in your DNA? And what brought you to Africa and Europe? 7. You have a quote, you posted on Instagram and TikTok: "Look back on your life and say "Thank God" I had the courage to GO!!!! Expound on that.... 8. When people watch "Traveling With Denella Ri'chard" what do you hope they take away? 9. I hear you have two books coming out this holiday season? Tell me more about this. 10. I've noticed you never use the word "bucket list" to describe places you dream of going. You use this word "living list"...Expound on that... 11. Where can people watch and follow: Traveling With Denella Ri'chard? #STRAW #AMI #BEST #SHMS Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
[0:06] Speaker 2: I am Rashwan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:10] Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
[0:13] Speaker 2: stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I
[0:17] Speaker 2: interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and
[0:21] Speaker 2: ask them how they are running their companies, and speak
[0:24] Speaker 2: with god profits who are making.
[0:25] Speaker 1: A difference in their local communities.
[0:27] Speaker 2: Now sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets
[0:30] Speaker 2: to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, Hello, this is Rashan mcdonalk. I say hello
[0:38] Speaker 1: one more time. I am here our host this weekly
[0:41] Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that
[0:45] Speaker 1: this show provides are for everyone. As I tell you
[0:49] Speaker 1: every week, it's time to stop reading other people's success
[0:52] Speaker 1: stories and start living your own. I'm here to help
[0:55] Speaker 1: you reach your American dream. Just listen. Just listen. Listen
[0:59] Speaker 1: to my interviews, Listen to the tips I try to
[1:01] Speaker 1: give you everywhere I say the word try, because you
[1:03] Speaker 1: can give people information. Sometimes they don't want to accept it.
[1:06] Speaker 1: Sometimes they want to ignore it. Find out the hard way.
[1:09] Speaker 1: But if you want to be a guest on my show,
[1:11] Speaker 1: Please visit Moneymaking Conversation dot com and click the beat
[1:15] Speaker 1: a Guest button and they would information be submitted to
[1:18] Speaker 1: you and I will screen you and hopefully you submit
[1:20] Speaker 1: the information that's I feel fit to the show, and
[1:24] Speaker 1: I bring you on the show as a guest. It's
[1:25] Speaker 1: just that easy. My guest is ready to come on
[1:28] Speaker 1: the show. Is a well known traveler, travel expert and
[1:32] Speaker 1: industry leader and host the award winning travel show Traveling
[1:35] Speaker 1: with Danella. She has held senior position at major travel
[1:39] Speaker 1: companies including Hilton Worldwide, Carnival Corporation, and Norwegian Cruise Line holdings.
[1:46] Speaker 1: Originally from South Louisiana, she describes describes herself as a
[1:50] Speaker 1: travel enthusiasts all this wildlife wine lover. Her mission is
[1:54] Speaker 1: to inspire people to travel, experience different cultures, and embrace
[1:58] Speaker 1: our shared humanity. Please welcome to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[2:03] Speaker 1: Danella Rashad. How are you doing, Danella?
[2:06] Speaker 3: I am wonderful.
[2:07] Speaker 1: Rashaan, Hello, Hello, Hello, I got all that senior level
[2:12] Speaker 1: positions that made you try. Why why should somebody I'm
[2:15] Speaker 1: mess you off the problem? Why should somebody travel? What
[2:18] Speaker 1: is the what are the benefits of traveling?
[2:21] Speaker 3: Oh my god. The number one benefit to travel is
[2:25] Speaker 3: breaking down cultural barriers, you know, just getting out of
[2:29] Speaker 3: the same old, same old. Because when you get out
[2:32] Speaker 3: and you start to travel, and whether you're going to
[2:34] Speaker 3: different states or different countries, you start to interact with
[2:37] Speaker 3: other people, it opens your mind to a whole different level,
[2:42] Speaker 3: a different world of possibility. That's why people should travel,
[2:46] Speaker 3: so they can get out of the same own, same
[2:49] Speaker 3: own right and experience new things that help develop them
[2:53] Speaker 3: into better human beings.
[2:55] Speaker 1: Well, you know, I like you because I'm a person.
[2:58] Speaker 1: You know, I get caught up in the world, afraid
[3:00] Speaker 1: to lead the work, I might miss out on something.
[3:02] Speaker 1: So that travel, I'm assuming can take that stress away
[3:07] Speaker 1: or and that's why you advise it, or just a
[3:09] Speaker 1: new experience is what you're advising.
[3:13] Speaker 3: I'm just saying, I'm advising it as an experience, okay,
[3:18] Speaker 3: just to make us better human beings. Because the more
[3:22] Speaker 3: you get out and you meet people from different backgrounds
[3:25] Speaker 3: and different cultures, then it's going to help you evolve
[3:29] Speaker 3: as a person. It's going to open your mindset where
[3:31] Speaker 3: you're not going to be limited. So travel allows you
[3:36] Speaker 3: to do that. You know, my first trip was international Trips.
[3:42] Speaker 3: Was in nineteen ninety five, right, and I was a
[3:45] Speaker 3: student at Southern University and I went to study abroad
[3:49] Speaker 3: in Haurrari, Zimbabwe. And man, let me tell you, I
[3:54] Speaker 3: had no idea what I was about to experience and
[3:57] Speaker 3: go into. I knew that I had been studying about Africa.
[4:01] Speaker 3: I loved Africa and at the time there was a
[4:04] Speaker 3: new president. His name was Nelson Mandela. And while I
[4:07] Speaker 3: couldn't get to South Africa to the through the program,
[4:11] Speaker 3: the program did take me to neighboring Zimbobway and I
[4:14] Speaker 3: wanted to go, you know. And uh, it was that
[4:18] Speaker 3: moment that really changed my life when I stepped outside
[4:24] Speaker 3: of Louisiana where I grew up. Because I say, even
[4:27] Speaker 3: though I grew up in the capital city Baton Rouge,
[4:29] Speaker 3: my mom and my dad were from a small country
[4:32] Speaker 3: town called Apolusus, Louisiana. And I remember when I went
[4:35] Speaker 3: home and I announced Mom that I would go and
[4:37] Speaker 3: study abroad in Zimbabwe. Mom said, I don't want you
[4:40] Speaker 3: going to Zimbabwe.
[4:43] Speaker 1: Because they didn't know there was stereotypes. I'm sure was
[4:46] Speaker 1: like throwing fear in them. My daughter going to Africa.
[4:49] Speaker 1: What what the lions and tigers and all these elephants,
[4:53] Speaker 1: and I'm sure that, I'm sure that's what would put
[4:56] Speaker 1: them in that state, the stereotypes and the lack of knowledge.
[4:59] Speaker 1: And that's what you're talking a whut telling me why
[5:01] Speaker 1: travel is important because we need to educate each other
[5:05] Speaker 1: and share the reality stories. Now I'm gonna ask you this,
[5:08] Speaker 1: because you're black and African American and traveling for you,
[5:12] Speaker 1: did you run into stereotypes so perceptions that people have
[5:15] Speaker 1: about people of color.
[5:19] Speaker 3: I mean, sure you run into some. You know, when
[5:24] Speaker 3: I went to live in Europe, I'll never forget. So
[5:28] Speaker 3: I went to work for three years as an expat
[5:31] Speaker 3: in Brussels, Belgium, and I remember, in the process of
[5:36] Speaker 3: looking even for an apartment, I had brought along a
[5:39] Speaker 3: friend who was a black Arab girl because she spoke
[5:42] Speaker 3: several languages and they spoke French, they spoke Flemish. But
[5:47] Speaker 3: I brought her along to kind of help me translate
[5:50] Speaker 3: to get my apartment. And we were having some difficulties
[5:54] Speaker 3: and she told me, she said, Danella, I'm black and
[5:57] Speaker 3: I'm Arab. I got two strikes to go school. Okay,
[6:00] Speaker 3: said you at least black America she said, just talking English,
[6:04] Speaker 3: they believe Americans got money. You'll you'll get the part.
[6:11] Speaker 1: I mean, lad, But that's that's you had to ride
[6:13] Speaker 1: the stereotype. She said. Look, I'm really gonna hold you
[6:16] Speaker 1: back now. You need to ride with the black and
[6:18] Speaker 1: American and you're gonna be away for this translation get
[6:22] Speaker 1: translated a lot better in your situation than me actually
[6:25] Speaker 1: translating it correctly. That's that's but that's what we deal with.
[6:28] Speaker 1: That's what I've experienced. I've experienced places I've went. You know,
[6:31] Speaker 1: I would tell my family and I tell my friends
[6:34] Speaker 1: if when I went to Paris, France, if I had
[6:36] Speaker 1: to do it all over again, you know, I'd have
[6:39] Speaker 1: graduated from college and went straight to France because it
[6:42] Speaker 1: was just sort of the culture was just so eye
[6:44] Speaker 1: opening for me. And hey, I might have because I
[6:46] Speaker 1: because when it was being French for French, you know,
[6:48] Speaker 1: the language of French was being offered to me.
[6:51] Speaker 4: Uh.
[6:52] Speaker 1: In high school, I thought, why would I knew France.
[6:55] Speaker 1: I would never go to front why would I need
[6:57] Speaker 1: to learn French? And so now I realized that, you know,
[7:00] Speaker 1: my lack of knowledge, my lack of travel, really didn't
[7:04] Speaker 1: let me understand the I could go there and it
[7:06] Speaker 1: probably be the most comfortable place I would ever visit
[7:09] Speaker 1: in my life was Paris, friends exactly.
[7:13] Speaker 3: And I'll tell you Rashaan that you know, when I
[7:15] Speaker 3: went to study in Zimbabwe and I came back to
[7:18] Speaker 3: so I studied abroad. It was through a program with Syracuse,
[7:22] Speaker 3: but I was a student at Southern right and I
[7:26] Speaker 3: was in Zimbabwe. The first couple of friends I met
[7:28] Speaker 3: were from Atlanta, you know. They all went to Spelman,
[7:31] Speaker 3: you know, wow, And we just had this amazing experience
[7:36] Speaker 3: of living abroad. But I'll never forget when I came
[7:40] Speaker 3: back and I started interviewing for a job, and through
[7:43] Speaker 3: the course of my career, as I interviewed for jobs. Now,
[7:46] Speaker 3: my degree was in broadcast journalism, right, the important interview
[7:51] Speaker 3: And I'm thinking people are going to ask me about
[7:53] Speaker 3: my knowledge, my experience. They look at my resume and
[7:57] Speaker 3: see that I lived in Africa. Has my career involved
[8:01] Speaker 3: that I lived in Europe. All of a sudden, they
[8:03] Speaker 3: didn't care about my qualifications for the job. They wanted
[8:06] Speaker 3: to hear about Africa and they wanted to hear about Europe.
[8:09] Speaker 3: And it was those experiences that made me an intriguing,
[8:13] Speaker 3: interesting person who they also knew, didn't mind change and
[8:17] Speaker 3: would take risks right, and that's what got me those jobs.
[8:21] Speaker 1: Wow, now you have a very popular show, Danella Colle
[8:24] Speaker 1: Traveling with Danello. Tell us about that show, and then
[8:27] Speaker 1: we're gonna get into the history of how that show
[8:29] Speaker 1: came about. But let's first tell us about what is
[8:31] Speaker 1: Traveling with Danella.
[8:34] Speaker 3: So Traveling with Danella is a weekly television travel series
[8:39] Speaker 3: and it actually airs in Atlanta on Sundays at twelve
[8:44] Speaker 3: thirty and also five thirty pm the twelve thirty pm
[8:49] Speaker 3: in the afternoons five thirty pm on Sundays on WATL
[8:54] Speaker 3: And I take our viewers all around the world with me,
[8:58] Speaker 3: you know, interacting in the different cultures, meeting these people
[9:02] Speaker 3: and of different diverse backgrounds and personalities and trying the food.
[9:06] Speaker 3: So I'm kind of like your travel guys that go
[9:10] Speaker 3: you know, goes and takes you along on these experiences
[9:13] Speaker 3: with me, so that when you're ready to travel, when
[9:16] Speaker 3: you're ready to book your trip, you already know where
[9:18] Speaker 3: to go, you know, and what to do, and you
[9:21] Speaker 3: can feel safe and since're in doing it. So I'm
[9:24] Speaker 3: the one that goes in, checks it out and lets
[9:26] Speaker 3: you know what it's all about, so that then you
[9:29] Speaker 3: can then go forward and experience it as well.
[9:32] Speaker 1: That's really amazing that you allow us to an entry
[9:35] Speaker 1: point because a lot of places that we consider you
[9:38] Speaker 1: kind of like kind of like going and be that
[9:40] Speaker 1: like the scout going and scout the area, scout the
[9:43] Speaker 1: good places to eat, the hotels to stay in, and
[9:45] Speaker 1: maybe even the benefits of the tickets to buy and
[9:48] Speaker 1: places to stay. But it didn't start out like that.
[9:51] Speaker 1: You was a very very successful senior executive. So I
[9:56] Speaker 1: want to I want people to hear what traveling with
[9:58] Speaker 1: Danella is. We know that now tell us about your
[10:00] Speaker 1: life as a senior executive.
[10:04] Speaker 3: So I had the pleasure of having an amazing career
[10:08] Speaker 3: working in the travel industry. So I worked for some
[10:10] Speaker 3: of the billion dollar brands. I worked for Hilton Worldwide,
[10:14] Speaker 3: I worked for Norwegian Cruise Line, and I worked for
[10:16] Speaker 3: Carnival Corporations, right, And it's interesting, you know, my career
[10:23] Speaker 3: has been a combination of television, but then it evolved
[10:25] Speaker 3: into travel because of my love for travel and really,
[10:29] Speaker 3: you know, working at that level, I had one dream.
[10:32] Speaker 3: I love working in the travel industry. And I looked
[10:35] Speaker 3: forward to retiring from the travel industry. But in twenty twenty, right,
[10:41] Speaker 3: I'll never forget. It was March thirteen, twenty twenty, and
[10:45] Speaker 3: we were notified that the cruise industry as a whole
[10:48] Speaker 3: that we were going to have to take a voluntary
[10:50] Speaker 3: pause because of COVID. At nineteen, you know, there weren't vaccinations,
[10:54] Speaker 3: and we really didn't know what this thing was, but
[10:57] Speaker 3: we knew that we were going to have to shut
[10:59] Speaker 3: down operations. And originally we thought a week, two weeks,
[11:02] Speaker 3: then we thought it was going to be a month.
[11:04] Speaker 3: Then all of a sudden, the harsh reality of country
[11:07] Speaker 3: shutting down, borders closing, the world is closing. You know,
[11:11] Speaker 3: we couldn't even go to church. You remember with KVID nineteen, right.
[11:16] Speaker 1: And some people were trapped on cruise ships, if I
[11:18] Speaker 1: remember correctly, right, they were.
[11:22] Speaker 3: We had to get passengers in some cases from Asia,
[11:25] Speaker 3: from South America, really from all over the world. That's
[11:28] Speaker 3: a whole nother story in itself to tell you what
[11:30] Speaker 3: we had to do to get passengers back home. But
[11:34] Speaker 3: we had to shook completely shut down global operations, and
[11:38] Speaker 3: for over a year we had no passengers on cruise ships.
[11:42] Speaker 3: During that time, I was leading a team of over
[11:44] Speaker 3: forty people. I had a team that worked at the headquarters,
[11:48] Speaker 3: at the corporate headquarters, and I had a team that
[11:50] Speaker 3: worked on board those ships. And I had to lay
[11:53] Speaker 3: off all of those people. And then no sooner than
[11:56] Speaker 3: I laid them off, my boss came in and he
[11:59] Speaker 3: laid me off. And as I started feeling sorry for myself,
[12:02] Speaker 3: he said, don't feel sorry for yourself, because I lost
[12:04] Speaker 3: my job too.
[12:05] Speaker 4: Wow. Wow, Wow.
[12:07] Speaker 1: The whole industry just was just just shut down.
[12:10] Speaker 3: Financially, we shut down, we shut down. And during that
[12:16] Speaker 3: time of lockdown, you know, I was just trying to
[12:18] Speaker 3: figure out what's next, What do I want to do
[12:20] Speaker 3: that's next? You know, I started sipping and painting, and
[12:23] Speaker 3: then you know, my friend said, I was sipping more
[12:25] Speaker 3: than I was painting, So I had to do something else.
[12:31] Speaker 1: You don't want to be a drunk painter. That don't
[12:33] Speaker 1: want to be a drunk painter.
[12:34] Speaker 3: Right, exactly, exactly. So I got a call from a
[12:39] Speaker 3: friend who had launched a streaming television station, who knew
[12:42] Speaker 3: me from days when you know, I used to do
[12:45] Speaker 3: some television things. He was like, look, I got a
[12:47] Speaker 3: new streaming station. I need some content. Why don't you
[12:50] Speaker 3: produce a show just like that?
[12:51] Speaker 1: Okay, now let's slow this down. Now, somebody just gonna
[12:54] Speaker 1: call you up. Okay, you were there sipping and trying
[12:57] Speaker 1: to paint in a state of shy. We're in the
[13:00] Speaker 1: middle of COVID and you can't you don't have a job,
[13:04] Speaker 1: and so somebody calls you with an opportunity. See this.
[13:08] Speaker 1: I always just slowed it down because so many people
[13:10] Speaker 1: at this point in life, when they in a state
[13:13] Speaker 1: of confusion and state of darkness, they have no path,
[13:15] Speaker 1: the way to success, no plan of action. But that
[13:20] Speaker 1: call came to you. When that call came to you,
[13:23] Speaker 1: what was your plan of action?
[13:25] Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[13:29] Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
[13:38] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
[13:44] Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
[13:48] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
[13:54] Speaker 3: You know, when the call came to me, I always
[13:57] Speaker 3: knew I wanted to get back onto television. I always
[13:59] Speaker 3: knew I wanted to produce and host my old travel
[14:04] Speaker 3: television show. So I was like, wow, you know, the
[14:07] Speaker 3: opportunity is here now. When he originally called I really didn't,
[14:10] Speaker 3: you know. I was like, I gotta think about this,
[14:12] Speaker 3: because I'll even go about doing this. And I'll tell
[14:14] Speaker 3: you the defining moment for SHN. It was COVID nineteen.
[14:18] Speaker 3: It's two o'clock in the morning. I ain't got no job,
[14:20] Speaker 3: so I'm watching TV and Kelly Clarkson comes on and
[14:26] Speaker 3: she's doing her show remotely.
[14:28] Speaker 4: You know.
[14:28] Speaker 3: It's kind of like that ghool stream format that everybody
[14:31] Speaker 3: was doing during COVID, right, and I swear to god,
[14:34] Speaker 3: it looked like she had rolled out of bed and
[14:37] Speaker 3: she needed a brush to her hair. But she does
[14:42] Speaker 3: her show, and I'm like, man, it looks like she's
[14:46] Speaker 3: doing that show from home possibly or wherever. But there
[14:49] Speaker 3: weren't studio audiences during Kobe and right right right, and
[14:53] Speaker 3: then I can produce this show right from home. So
[14:57] Speaker 3: I just decided, you know what, We're gonna produce this
[14:59] Speaker 3: show and do this travel show. And then I called
[15:02] Speaker 3: this guy who through the years, you know, who I admired,
[15:05] Speaker 3: I respected, and I was like, well, even if I
[15:08] Speaker 3: do the show, what am I gonna call it? And
[15:09] Speaker 3: I had all these little quirky, you know names, because
[15:13] Speaker 3: I was like, Noah, he'll he'll he'll tell me, he'll
[15:15] Speaker 3: advise me best. So I called this guy, good friend
[15:19] Speaker 3: of mine named Rashawan Nick Dun the kind of like, yeah,
[15:26] Speaker 3: I want to do a travel show, but I don't
[15:29] Speaker 3: know what to call it. You know, here are a
[15:30] Speaker 3: few ideas, and he said, probably traveling with Danella. All right,
[15:34] Speaker 3: I gotta go.
[15:39] Speaker 1: I wasn't that up fro. I didn't say it that quick,
[15:41] Speaker 1: did I?
[15:43] Speaker 3: You said it that click you're on the phone, and
[15:46] Speaker 3: that was this show. I was like, okay, so I
[15:49] Speaker 3: guess we're gonna call it Traveling with Danella.
[15:51] Speaker 1: Welcome back to money making conversations. Hosting an award winning
[15:56] Speaker 1: show called Traveler with Danella. She just told everybody how
[15:59] Speaker 1: she got them. She called me and then I just said,
[16:02] Speaker 1: call it traveling with Dnnell. I gotta go by. And
[16:05] Speaker 1: it's led to her traveling all over this world. In
[16:08] Speaker 1: the middle of COVID, she pursued a dream and I,
[16:12] Speaker 1: you know the thing about it, When people call me,
[16:15] Speaker 1: I don't just say things off the top of my head.
[16:18] Speaker 1: I see the talent, and she knows that. I always
[16:20] Speaker 1: saw her not being a corporate exec I always saw
[16:23] Speaker 1: her being on television doing things, traveling. She was traveling anyway,
[16:27] Speaker 1: and even as a senior executive, she was a great
[16:31] Speaker 1: She always spoke at events. She always got awards. If
[16:33] Speaker 1: they needed somebody to receive the award, they always sent
[16:35] Speaker 1: Danella to receive the award. And so so when she
[16:40] Speaker 1: called me, it was like, why are you almost not
[16:43] Speaker 1: saying why you bothered me when the obvious is the obvious.
[16:46] Speaker 1: I'm a marketing and branding person. Your name is Danella.
[16:49] Speaker 1: That's a fantastic name. You're traveling. Call it traveling with Danella.
[16:54] Speaker 1: And guess what it is? Stuck And she's been traveling
[16:57] Speaker 1: every since, correct, that is it?
[17:01] Speaker 3: Traveling all over the world. And Rashan, I'll tell you
[17:03] Speaker 3: another funny story. Now, this was around nineteen ninety nine,
[17:09] Speaker 3: two thousand, so I had been living and working in
[17:12] Speaker 3: Europe and I came back to the States and you
[17:17] Speaker 3: and Steve Harvey were doing his radio show and you
[17:21] Speaker 3: guys had auditions for the Angels right in.
[17:25] Speaker 1: Los Angeles and Los Angeles he was a co host.
[17:29] Speaker 1: If we called them an Angels they were co hosts
[17:31] Speaker 1: that we had on the shows, three of them.
[17:33] Speaker 3: There you go. So I actually auditioned to be an
[17:37] Speaker 3: angel that I don't remember.
[17:40] Speaker 1: I would tell you that right now. I don't remember that.
[17:43] Speaker 3: Years later, what was funny, So as Steve is interviewing
[17:48] Speaker 3: me live on the radio to be an angel, you know,
[17:51] Speaker 3: he's asking me, well, you know about my background, what
[17:54] Speaker 3: have I been doing? And you know, I had been
[17:56] Speaker 3: working in travel. I'd been a little disconnected from television
[18:00] Speaker 3: and radio, but I still had experience and background in it.
[18:03] Speaker 3: And you know, he asked me to tell him about
[18:06] Speaker 3: some of my travels and I remember telling him I
[18:08] Speaker 3: had just come back from the south of France, right
[18:10] Speaker 3: and had been at the French grown Frie And you know,
[18:14] Speaker 3: she was like, oh my god, you.
[18:15] Speaker 1: Know you kind of bulls right right, right right right.
[18:22] Speaker 3: My life, this is my experience. Well, needless to say,
[18:25] Speaker 3: I had a great time on the radio with him
[18:27] Speaker 3: that day. You know, I got a chance to share
[18:29] Speaker 3: a little bit about me. But lo and beho, you
[18:32] Speaker 3: guys did not pick me, No.
[18:34] Speaker 4: We did not.
[18:34] Speaker 1: We did not pick you. We was picked Shirley Nadka
[18:38] Speaker 1: and get the car lesson. She's gonna be mad that
[18:40] Speaker 1: I forgot her last name, but it was three Lazy.
[18:42] Speaker 1: If we picked they were off in the LA area though,
[18:44] Speaker 1: so I understand why they were selected. And Shirley was
[18:47] Speaker 1: like the Veteran Boys. And she's still on the radio
[18:50] Speaker 1: show with Steve Harvey today Shirley Strawberry and doing the
[18:52] Speaker 1: Strawberry Letters, which has now become famous and part of
[18:56] Speaker 1: pop pop culture. But you know, the thing about it
[18:59] Speaker 1: is that that's interesting. I don't remember that in nineteen ninety,
[19:02] Speaker 1: but I know exactly the timeline that you were talking
[19:05] Speaker 1: about because we changed so many lives with that morning show,
[19:08] Speaker 1: Steve Harry Morning Show. But now you're changing lives with
[19:11] Speaker 1: traveling with Danella. And the thing about it is that
[19:13] Speaker 1: you said that you started this travel show in the
[19:17] Speaker 1: middle of COVID, but you started traveling to different countries
[19:20] Speaker 1: doing COVID doing your show. Correct, we did?
[19:24] Speaker 4: We did?
[19:24] Speaker 1: How did you pull that off?
[19:25] Speaker 3: Because well, because I was already known in the industry,
[19:30] Speaker 3: because I was an executive. As borders started opening, I
[19:34] Speaker 3: started getting calls from you know, different heads of tourism
[19:38] Speaker 3: from different countries saying, Danela, come bring your film crew.
[19:41] Speaker 3: Let people know they can travel to the Virginis and
[19:44] Speaker 3: they can come to Jamaica. They can come all these places.
[19:47] Speaker 3: So I said, oh my God, and borders are open
[19:49] Speaker 3: and we can travel, then let me get the film
[19:51] Speaker 3: crew together. We're doing more than this zoom streaming show.
[19:54] Speaker 3: You know, we're going to we're hitting the road and
[19:56] Speaker 3: we're going to broadcast television.
[19:58] Speaker 4: Right.
[19:59] Speaker 3: So first Miami WSSL came to the table. They wanted
[20:02] Speaker 3: to show weekly. Then the show went to Seattle NBC
[20:06] Speaker 3: King King five and calm to the show. Then you know, now,
[20:09] Speaker 3: like I said, we're on two times on Sundays on
[20:12] Speaker 3: WATL in Atlanta at twelve thirty and six thirty, and
[20:16] Speaker 3: we're in forty different cities weekly. But yes, when those
[20:20] Speaker 3: borders open, we started getting those calls and Rashaan. Since
[20:24] Speaker 3: twenty twenty, we are now filming season eight. We have
[20:28] Speaker 3: filmed over fifty different shows. That's how much we've been going.
[20:33] Speaker 3: So we have been in the space shows, we've been
[20:35] Speaker 3: in Tahiti, we have me oh my god, all over Europe,
[20:40] Speaker 3: all over the Caribbean. This upcoming season, as we're filming,
[20:44] Speaker 3: we're getting ready to go to South Korea. We're gonna
[20:48] Speaker 3: be filming Niagara Falls in Canada soon we are you know.
[20:53] Speaker 1: You know, it's so inspiring because this was not your
[20:58] Speaker 1: you know, you'd ready to retire as a senior executive.
[21:01] Speaker 1: That was your your pathway, you know, even though you
[21:04] Speaker 1: had the talent, you had the ability and the dream
[21:07] Speaker 1: of doing that. If this COVID situation would not have happened.
[21:11] Speaker 1: And we know it was not a happy thing that
[21:14] Speaker 1: happened for anybody. Your career as an award winning TV host,
[21:19] Speaker 1: a travel a person who's been vetted as an expert
[21:23] Speaker 1: in the industry, now hosting the show to talk about
[21:25] Speaker 1: the various places that an individual like me can travel to,
[21:28] Speaker 1: would have never happened.
[21:30] Speaker 3: Correct, that's correct, That's correct. The best thing that ever
[21:34] Speaker 3: happened to me was COVID nineteen because it allowed me
[21:39] Speaker 3: to release myself of the corporate shackles to voluntarily or
[21:44] Speaker 3: involuntarily it happens, right, and I found myself. You know,
[21:48] Speaker 3: I became an entrepreneur. I wasn't expecting to become an entrepreneur.
[21:52] Speaker 4: You know.
[21:52] Speaker 3: In addition to starting the television show, we launched our
[21:55] Speaker 3: you know, production company, Sort Entertainment and Media. And here
[21:59] Speaker 3: I am reducing my own shows. I have a business partner,
[22:02] Speaker 3: Don Wiggins, who you also know from the days of radio,
[22:05] Speaker 3: who's also a legend in his own right. And I
[22:10] Speaker 3: never imagine being an entrepreneur, but I wish I would
[22:13] Speaker 3: have did it years and years ago because.
[22:16] Speaker 1: You always had the spirit, the independent thought process. So
[22:20] Speaker 1: stepping out of the box, and that's what the entrepreneur does.
[22:22] Speaker 1: They step out of the box and they realized that
[22:25] Speaker 1: for that our week is traditional. But that doesn't mean
[22:28] Speaker 1: that I'm a traditional thinking person. But you do a
[22:30] Speaker 1: quote that I see a lot on your Instagram, your
[22:34] Speaker 1: TikTok accounts, is it look back on your life and say,
[22:38] Speaker 1: thank God I had the courage to go. What does
[22:41] Speaker 1: that mean?
[22:42] Speaker 3: Yes, that simply means, like I told you, Even when
[22:46] Speaker 3: I came home and told my mom, I've been accepted
[22:49] Speaker 3: in the Study Abroad program to go study in Zimbabwe
[22:53] Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety five, you know, and mom was like,
[22:57] Speaker 3: what the heck and why would you want to go
[22:59] Speaker 3: to Africa? Like he said, there were so many stereotypes
[23:02] Speaker 3: around that, and my mom had so much fear of
[23:05] Speaker 3: me going. But I said, mom, you know, said I
[23:08] Speaker 3: don't want you to go to Zimbabwe, I said, Mom
[23:10] Speaker 3: is zimbab Wade and I'm going, you know. And you know,
[23:16] Speaker 3: I look back on my life and I say, thank
[23:18] Speaker 3: God I had the courage to go, you know. And
[23:21] Speaker 3: then when the next opportunity came years later, and now
[23:25] Speaker 3: it was to go and live in Brussels, Belgium and
[23:27] Speaker 3: help launch a travel company there, you know, living as
[23:29] Speaker 3: an expat living in a Flemish speaking community first, then
[23:33] Speaker 3: going to a French speaking community and barely seeing, you know,
[23:37] Speaker 3: any other black people to only of the black people
[23:39] Speaker 3: were Africans that I met in the community, but certainly
[23:43] Speaker 3: actually the one American friend that I met who became
[23:46] Speaker 3: my best friend and she is still my best friends
[23:49] Speaker 3: till today was a Clark Atlanta University, and I met
[23:52] Speaker 3: her in Brussels, Belgium as well.
[23:55] Speaker 1: But you just could not get away from I cannot
[24:01] Speaker 1: the spell Atlantic and you would clock Atlanta University where
[24:04] Speaker 1: we broadcast our show every Tuesday, and Atlanta is on
[24:08] Speaker 1: the campus WCLK, it's home station that we broadcast from.
[24:12] Speaker 1: And then you, of course you went to Southern University.
[24:15] Speaker 1: But as we wrap up the show, I want to
[24:17] Speaker 1: ask you this, why is cruising so popular?
[24:22] Speaker 3: Oh my god. Cruising is just so popular because for me,
[24:26] Speaker 3: cruising is easy. I love it because you know, you
[24:30] Speaker 3: get on the ship, you unpack once it becomes your
[24:32] Speaker 3: home for the week or the period that you're on
[24:34] Speaker 3: the ship, and I love waking up in the mornings
[24:38] Speaker 3: and opening those curtains from my balcony and I'm in
[24:40] Speaker 3: a different destination, i am in a different place. You know,
[24:44] Speaker 3: cruising can take you all around the world. It's something
[24:47] Speaker 3: that you kind of have to settle into because people
[24:49] Speaker 3: who cruise one time two times you might not get
[24:52] Speaker 3: the hang of it. But by your third, fourth, fifth time,
[24:54] Speaker 3: and you kind of settle in and you start to
[24:57] Speaker 3: love it. And there's something I really amaze myself about
[25:00] Speaker 3: with Shawn. You know, I worked for some of the
[25:02] Speaker 3: big cruise lines, but once I started doing the show,
[25:05] Speaker 3: we started filming river cruising some of the smaller cruise lines,
[25:09] Speaker 3: and man, I fell in love with river cruising. And
[25:12] Speaker 3: that's one of my favorite ways to see Europe on
[25:15] Speaker 3: a river cruise because you know, we pull into whether
[25:18] Speaker 3: it's Amsterdam or Paris, and man, you're able to just
[25:21] Speaker 3: step off that street onto the sidewalk and keep it moving.
[25:24] Speaker 1: Wow.
[25:24] Speaker 2: So I just love it.
[25:26] Speaker 1: Wow. Well, you know, like I said, you know for industry,
[25:29] Speaker 1: because I've read many articles how to the cruise industry
[25:33] Speaker 1: is exploding, and you know, people launching bigger and bigger ships.
[25:38] Speaker 1: You see them on TV all the time, people swinging
[25:41] Speaker 1: off decks. They can they can, they can play golf,
[25:43] Speaker 1: play basketball, they can do They got many circus performers
[25:48] Speaker 1: on these It's really an amazing experience now. But the
[25:52] Speaker 1: bottom line is seeing your life has become an amazing,
[25:55] Speaker 1: an amazing experience, watching you go from a person I
[25:59] Speaker 1: auditioned for the Steve Harvey Morning show Angels on nineteen
[26:03] Speaker 1: ninety nine and two thousand to now hosting the award
[26:06] Speaker 1: winning show called Traveling with Danella. Congratulations, thank you for
[26:10] Speaker 1: taking the time to come on on my show. But
[26:11] Speaker 1: more important than you, understand the value of being an entrepreneur.
[26:16] Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Rashaan, I appreciate you always.
[26:20] Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
[26:23] Speaker 1: hosted by me Rashawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
[26:26] Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you o listening to
[26:29] Speaker 1: the audience now if you want to listen to any episode.
[26:31] Speaker 1: I want to be a guest on the show. Visit
[26:33] Speaker 1: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
[26:39] Speaker 1: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
[26:41] Speaker 1: your gifts. Keep winning.

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