Episode 195: The Power of Resilience - Koura Linda's Triumph in the Film Industry

Founder & CEO of Space Dream Productions, Koura Linda grew up notorious for her elaborate crepe-paper birthday party decorations and painting murals on the walls of her bedroom.  She always loved anything creative, and started writing out character development and script ideas and shot lists in her composition notebooks as a kid and was working as an art teacher's assistant as soon as she could legally hold a job.

Fast forward about a decade, after stumbling in with an art department crew one summer, she quickly fell in love with production design and spent the next 10 years working on set and event design, eventually getting into full production design.

She never went to film school, or art school, or college at all, but she knew that production design entails more than just the set. So, she studied acting and writing and camera and lighting, working as a day-player where she could, eventually taking a 3-day rigging intensive to become a certified set rigger and later working with electric, rigging lights on concert stages across LA.

When she wasn't 50 feet in the air on a truss rig she'd helped build, she was studying design and make-up and wardrobe, eventually moving up to Art Director and then Production Designer then Event Producer for large private events, soon followed by work in various music videos, TV shows, and films.

Following a sudden and critical medical event, Koura was forced to reevaluate her life and decide how she was to move forward with physical limitations which inhibited most of her prior activities. Determined to continue in film, with such a strong background and familiarity across so many departments and tons of hands-on experience in business and film, it was a small jump to land back on her feet in producing and directing, eventually starting a small independent production company.

Since September 2016, just under 30 completed Space Dream Productions projects have received over 150 award nominations and have won 51 awards, including 12 projects nominated for or winning "Best Picture" categories at festivals around the world. Both Koura and her partner and husband, Spaceship, have been awarded Best Director for multiple different short films.

She has been recognized as a contributing artist to two Emmy Award winning projects through her work for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's open collaborative production platform, hitRECord. In August 2019, Koura was also awarded the Mico Award in Las Vegas for Innovation, Courage, and Excellence in her career thus far as an independent filmmaker.

You can find Koura on Instagram, LinkedIn, as well as her Website.

Remarkable Quote:

“You're only as good as the network that you have and of the people that you have surrounding you.”

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Transcription:

00:00:00
Welcome back to your next stop. This is Juliet Hahn. In this episode, I interview Koura Linda. We have a great conversation. Koura is the founder and CEO of Space Dream Productions.

00:00:11
You can find Koura on Instagram at Space Dream Productions. You can also find them on their website, space Dreamfilms.com or Space Dream productions.com. This is such a captivating, interesting story because I love when someone kind of goes off in a different path than maybe traditionally they thought they were going to go on. Koura has parents that are an attorney and then she also has one of her parents is in the medical field. So it is like fascinating to me that someone then goes off into the very, very creative world and we really dive into all of what Koura is doing in the business world of the side of her production company.

00:00:55
But then when she's directing and doing all the different creative things within her company, again, you can find Koura at Space Dream Productions. And so many awards. They've won so many awards. I'm not going to be able to list it. We get into it into the episode, but you do not want to miss this and we will see you for the next episode of Your Next Stop.

00:01:14
I help small business owners shorten the buying cycle and increase sales by using key parts of their story. By leveraging your personal and business unique story, you can build a relationship with potential customers on a deeper level and help them feel more connected to you. This can lead to a shorter buying cycle and increased sales. By taking your personal and business story and kind of intertwining them and connecting those dots, you're going to reach an audience on a different level. I have developed a strong intuition for understanding and relating and reading to people from a very, very early age.

00:01:50
I have perfected my skills over the last 20 years, starting in advertising and then pivoting into interviewing, podcasting and speaking. So what I help small business owners do is get comfortable, get confidence, get really comfortable in their story, sit in all their parts that are going to connect deeper with an audience. I help you pick those gold bits out of your story and really be able to articulate them so someone can understand and connect with you. If you're going out on the podcast circuit, if you're networking, if you're a public speaking, if you're writing a book, if you're doing stuff on social media, personal and business stories, really any part of your story that is going to connect deeper should be shared. And I teach you those parts that really need to be spoken about all the time or written about all the time.

00:02:34
If you guys are interested in learning more, I offer a free 30 minutes discovery call. You can email me at [email protected]. The other thing I help you with is if you are going out on the podcast circuit, I really help you kind of hone in on the important parts of your story that need to be shared every time, whether you're on a 30 minutes podcast versus an hour. So those are some of the things that I really help my clients get comfortable and confident in doing. Again, you can email me at [email protected].

00:03:09
Welcome back to your next stop. This is Juliet Hahn. You know, I say it every single time and this one is going to be no different, but I'm so excited to bring you someone that has followed a passion. Welcome, Kouralinda. How are you?

00:03:20
Hi, thank you so much for having me here. I'm really excited and thankful to be here. I'm excited and I think we connected on LinkedIn, am I correct? I believe that's. I think so, yeah.

00:03:29
I think we connected on LinkedIn. So you guys, I know that you love when I kind of give you where you can find Koura and a little bit of what she's doing, but then we're going to dive into her story. But you can find Koura on Facebook, so you can do Koura Linda, and it is K-O-U-R-A for anyone that doesn't have a great spelling gene like myself. And then Koura is she does Space Dream Productions. I mean, she is a film artist.

00:03:55
She and her husband work together, which is amazing. She's won all the kinds of awards that we're going to all get into. But you can also go on Instagram, Space Dream Productions, and then also Spacedreamfilms.com, you can also find their work there. And Koura, I'm so excited to get into this because I think there's so many people out there that don't always follow their dreams, right? They don't always follow things that light them up, their passions, their excitement.

00:04:22
They kind of just do the safe path, which I know you did not do. So if you can just give us a little background of who you are, a little bit of where you grew up, and then we'll continue into your story. Okay, awesome. Yeah. Well, I'm Koura.

00:04:36
That's who I am now. I'm just kidding.

00:04:42
I was born in Manhattan and I grew up in New York. And I have always loved anything creative. I was always writing stories and singing songs and making things and building things. And I was a little girl who told my dad for my birthday that I wanted a Barbie doll and a Tonka truck and he got me both so my Barbies would play with Tonka trucks. I had a very balanced upbringing.

00:05:12
I knew that I wanted to tell stories probably in my early twenty s. I was on a very corporate career path and I wanted to know everything there was about administration and business management and organization and all that stuff because that was just where I thought my passion was. And I ended up realizing that you can actually have a career as an artist which I did not know, or it seemed like one of those things that other people did, but I didn't know I could do it. I started chasing that dream. I had a very long story that I'll save you.

00:05:55
And in 2011 I got really sick and I had a little bit of a medical situation that left me as a wheelchair user for a little while. And coming out of that, figuring out how I was going to live my life, how I was going to manage as a person with a disability, how I was going to just figure it all out. I ended up starting Space Dream Productions. I thought it was just going to be like a DBA or like something I used. You see, filmmakers, it's like, oh, I'm the CEO of my production company and it's like cool and it's them and that's awesome, that's really important.

00:06:35
But I had no idea that fast forward ten years, I'd be the CEO of an actual company where we have people employed to work for us and contractors and multiple projects and where my salary? I wish I had a salary where my paycheck is coming through the company.

00:06:56
I'm going to pause you because I know you glazed over it, but I do want to kind of find out what happened that left you in a. Wheelchair without getting into all the medical stuff on it. The short version is that my body doesn't produce energy, like on a cellular level the way it's supposed to, which then limits my other body functions. I also sort of as a it's called a comorbidity, meaning it's something that exists with something else. I ended up with lead and mercury poisoning in my brain tissue, which can obviously create neurological problems, so my nervous system wasn't functioning properly.

00:07:36
I am a massive outlier in that I was diagnosed within a year, and most people are not. And I think it's within the first six years, whatever recovery you make that's said to be your max, like, you're never going to get better than you got within those six years. So I was very fortunate to be diagnosed very quickly and to be able to start treatment quickly, which enabled me to make a very drastic recovery based from where I was starting, which was fully unable to walk, unable to stand. I just want my listeners to understand, because a lot of times when someone is not on the right path and I believe it's God or the universe, I believe in God. But whatever you believe in, you can say sometimes things happen and it's like a little like someone I was just actually on a podcast and they said, like, a wink from God.

00:08:34
And I actually loved that. A wink from God, where you found those right doctors. Because that was not supposed to be your path, but that was supposed to be part of your story. It wasn't supposed to be where you ended up, but it was part of your story and what created you. So from there, as you said, you then started Space Dream Productions because obviously you couldn't go into an office, so your career had to kind of be put on hold is what I'm assuming.

00:08:59
And you just gave me chills with that story, by the way.

00:09:04
My aunt told me a story. I think it's an old Chinese proverb about the farmer and the horse. And I won't tell the whole long dramatic telling. I'll just say the Cliff Notes, which is a horse, comes on a farmer's property, and everyone's like, oh, you're so lucky. Here's a free horse.

00:09:22
And he says, Maybe, and then his son gets thrown and breaks his leg. And everyone's like, oh, that horse is so unlucky. And he says, Maybe, and then there's a draft, and his son doesn't get drafted in the war because his son has a broken leg. And they're like, oh, the horse is so lucky. And he says, Maybe, and you never know what's going to kind of bump you and how it's going to help.

00:09:44
You and what path. And that's why a lot of people don't and I shouldn't say a lot, but I've come across a lot of people that the path that they were on was not the path that God intended them to or the universe intended them for. And I never say there's a wrong path. There's never a wrong path, in my opinion. I think in every path that we're always on, we learn something and we can draw from it.

00:10:07
But if we're aware of the outside world, the outside kind of things coming in, and we are on a path that's not meant to be. Our ending the end path, if we listen and really kind of be observant. And when you start feeling things and hearing things so you're having a conversation and then you have another conversation, another conversation, and the same sort of things keep coming up, you got to think about those things. Like, you got to say, okay, why did that person just tell me I need to write a book? And why did that person just tell me I need to write a book?

00:10:38
And why did that person just tell me I need to write a book? Some people push that away because it's like a fear. I don't want to do that. And what I challenge people and the reason why I have this podcast is because I challenge them to explore that. Well, why can't you write a book?

00:10:51
Why are people telling you this? Look into it. Explore it. So when you were in the wheelchair, then you became healthy. What gave you where was it?

00:10:59
The Space Dream Productions. How was that born? Out of your situation? I also feel like sometimes you have to kind of realize that your dreams might not come true the way you expected them to, and you might want something, but you might need to go through something else to get there type thing. So for me, I was able to start working, and all of my background by that point was film.

00:11:25
And so I would day play on sets. I would work as a PA because that was easy work to get and easy work to succeed at, given that I was trained, like, everything. So it was easy to just be a PA and get paid for some couple of days work. And then I had the time I needed to rest because I still wasn't fully strong and someone who had actually basically interned with me a few years earlier. We ended up randomly connecting through a roommate ad that I had put out, looking for a roommate.

00:12:01
And they answered it not knowing that it was me who posted the ad. And they knew what I was capable of as a filmmaker and basically wanted to launch a company where I headed the sort of creative and administrative side. And they basically financed it. And so at first, it was going to be a partnership with this person financing and me doing the work. And that didn't totally work out, but it gave me the idea of having the company and of doing this.

00:12:38
And sometimes someone else coming along and saying, I see you, and I see what you can do, and I believe in it, is enough to make you go, maybe I can do this. Maybe this could be a thing. So even though that partnership didn't work out and I ended up not moving forward, I had already come up with the idea for Space Dream Productions and the name and kind of like, had everything ready to go. So I just moved forward with it. And we made our first film, Names on the Wall, which we got other funding in for.

00:13:14
That film is on Amazon now, so you can watch it. It's on Amazon Prime, which is very exciting. My first big directorial debut, and it just kind of grew from there. I never expected to have a company.

00:13:32
I just moved forward. Well, I knew my husband, but we weren't in a relationship yet. We started dating, then we got married and we would, like, do little projects and just kind of put it under the Space Dream Productions name. And then there was this girl that we'd been working with who was a production assistant with us a couple of times. And she sent me this email and she was like, I want to be your assistant, and I think I can do this.

00:14:00
And it was this really nice color coded formatted email. I thought she was just reaching out to different executives wanting to do this. And she told me later, she's like, no, I just sent that to you. I wanted to be your assistant. I didn't want to be an assistant.

00:14:15
And I was like so she started working with us. And again, it was somebody who believed in me, who saw something in me and felt like it could go somewhere. And over the years, she worked with us for years. She's actually back in school now studying animation, which I'm really proud of her for because she used to work, like, in retail and not in a creative space at all before she worked with me. And just having these different opportunities come where it's like, oh, maybe I can do that, maybe I should do that.

00:14:53
What would happen if and then drawing on the background that I already had with administration and business management and things like that, I was able to kind of just put it together until now. I have a fully formed company, which means all the obnoxious things that come with that. We run weekly payroll, we pay taxes, I have to do accounting and oversee contracts and legal matters and work with lawyers. And it's a lot running a company, but at the end of the day, everything I do is in the mission of telling stories. And apparently we are one of, if not the only, independent production company that thrives entirely in a creative, educational and activism space.

00:15:39
We do not do car commercials or shoe commercials. We don't sell anything. All of our clients, even if our clients have something they're selling, they're selling, like legal services. But it's a law firm that actually cares about people and is really helping them. Or they teach financial management or they educate people on how to be a homeowner, like things where at the end there might be a possible sale, but their content is all educational activism, raising awareness.

00:16:12
And then the rest of our stuff is just narrative and documentary films, which it's really cool to be in that space as a creative and be purely creative, right? No, that's cool. So I have to ask you, what did your parents do for a living? Originally? My mom and I led opposite lives.

00:16:31
My mom wanted to be a dancer and majored in dance up to a certain point and then went back to college later and went to law school. And she's now the partner of a law firm. My dad didn't go to college and continued in technical education later, and he's now a nurse. And I started on a business path, unlike my mom, and switched to being a filmmaker. But both my parents are incredibly creative.

00:17:03
When my mom was a dancer, she choreographed dances that were performed at Lincoln Center. My dad performed in one of them as a dancer himself. So, yeah, my parents are awesome. I could talk all day about that. No, that's wonderful.

00:17:18
Now, do you have siblings or your only child? I have a sister. And is she also in the creative world or what was her path? Not particularly. She does enjoy creativity.

00:17:31
We're not very close. There's nothing is she older or younger? She's younger. Okay. No, I just always get a little bit fascinated when someone has created something and then really created it.

00:17:46
Right. They created out of their mind, and then it just kind of morphed into something bigger where they kind of have that is it one of those things that it's innate? It's something that they were born with, or is it something that they saw? Because I think there's people can go either way. Especially I've had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of podcasts and talking to people in all walks of life.

00:18:11
There always is a little bit of a connection. Like, oh, yes, one of my parents was a creative, or my dad had a creative stint for a little while, and I just remember that that's why I loved that Time of Our Lives. That's what I was chasing my whole life. That's why I'm an entrepreneur or a neighbor or grandfather. Someone, they saw it, and that's what made them kind of follow it.

00:18:34
And it's interesting when someone doesn't have it in their family, right? If there's, like, no creativeness where, then we kind of draw out and figure out, where was it? What was that feeling? Was it a movie? Was it something they saw?

00:18:45
Was it something that they took a class? And it was like I just knew that that's what I wanted to do. I didn't want a traditional life. My parents lived a very traditional life. But it's fascinating.

00:18:55
It's about the stories, right? I mean, you're a storyteller as well. It's about the stories, and the stories connect us. And when you hear someone's story, when you hear where someone was, what they became, it's always a little insight, a window into someone's mind, which I find just super fascinating. So what role does your husband play in the company versus what you play?

00:19:17
I mean, I know you said you have to do a lot of the administrative stuff and that you don't love that, but if you could tell us a little bit more about the partnership that you guys have in the company. My husband is basically the executive vice president. That's his official title. So I largely manage the day to day running of the company and the strategic planning of the company and all of that type of stuff. The company is kind of twofold in that we have our client services.

00:19:50
Even though it is all creative, they're still clients. We still have to invoice and collect payments and all that stuff. So I oversee that. And then my husband does a lot of the actual creative work. We met through an online, open, collaborative production company at the time called Hit Record.

00:20:08
It's. Joseph Gordon Levitt has this creative platform now that we met on about oh, my gosh, over ten years ago. And my husband was a musician and singer songwriter and worked with Joe on a couple of projects as a lyric writer, as a musician or as a songwriter or providing music. And originally I connected with him from that post production side. But he's also a really talented filmmaker.

00:20:42
So in the actual running of the company, my husband's more like my partner in that we bounce ideas off each other. If I need counsel or advice or I can't make a decision or I kind of need to go over something with somebody or I'm presented with something and I'm not really sure. You're only as good as the network that you have and of the people that you have surrounding you. So he has the biggest seat at the table as far as our partners go, of who I listen to the most, we do have two other partners at the company, nick Gambino, who's a writer, and Brian Redhead, who's our vice president, special projects. And they have smaller holdings, and the four of us will coordinate.

00:21:33
But the main input comes from my husband. When it comes to our creative projects, he's both a writer and director and cinematographer. So depending on what we're doing on the project, if he's directing, he takes the creative lead. I might be producing it, but we believe that directors are the holders of the story. So the director makes the final creative choices.

00:21:54
I might have input as a producer logistically, but he has the right as the director to say, creatively, this is the direction I want to go in. And then like the film that we just shot a couple of weeks ago, he was a co cinematographer with me on it and camera op and helps with the editing. So, yeah, we're a little nontraditional. So I can't just be like, oh, he's the blah. We know anything.

00:22:23
One of the things I think is interesting is that taking it back to when you thought you were going to go into you liked the business, management and all of that. So the part that you're doing in your company, do you enjoy that or is it like, okay, I know I just have to do it because it's part of business, and I'm going to make that a twofold. Because there's a saying like, what about your business is your shit sandwich, right? And so everyone has a shit sandwich. And if you can eat your shit sandwich, you're going to be successful in the parts because that's like the part that you don't really like, but you're like, yeah, I have to do it.

00:23:01
But there's people that go into any kind of business, anything in the world, and the shit sandwich, they're like, no, I want nothing to do with that shit sandwich. So that's not the path they go down. That's the part of the business that they're like. No. With podcasting, there's so many parts of it that I absolutely love.

00:23:17
The editing, I do not. But I have someone that does my editing because I know that shit sandwich would be a deal breaker. For me if I didn't have the funds to put it back into the editing. That's not something I find relaxing. It's not something I enjoy.

00:23:33
I don't want to say that I'm not good at it because I don't want to sound like I'm putting myself down. But we all have our talents, right? We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Editing details, like little details like that are not I am not a detailed, oriented person. So that part I would not have.

00:23:49
My podcast wouldn't be where it was today if I wasn't like, okay, that shit sandwich I'm given to someone else that actually likes it. So for you, is that a truly shit sandwich or is there a part of you that enjoys the administrative part? So first I just have to say that you are not alone as a podcaster. A lot of the work that we do is for podcasters. Like, we edit and they hire us to do the editing.

00:24:16
And even for my own podcast, I don't edit it. My husband does. So, yeah, you are not alone in that feeling. So I will say that it's hard for me to answer that because there's a part of that with great power comes great responsibility. From Spiderman.

00:24:39
I'm totally just botched that quote. Please don't come at me. Superfans.

00:24:45
Yeah. So there's nothing more frustrating for me than when I see something on the news where some company failed or there was some big problem or like, there's a big me too blow up or whatever, where some senior executive is like, I had no idea. Male or female, maybe. I had no idea.

00:25:07
And I'm like, it's literally your company. How did you have no idea? Like, no idea. As a business owner, even though I don't enjoy eating it, I know and I sleep better at night. Being aware of things like where do our budgets stand?

00:25:27
What do our books look like, how are we doing on our invoices? Are our staff being paid on time? Are our taxes paid? Is our contracts are our contract standard? Has everybody signed the contract?

00:25:39
Are the contract terms being met? All of the things that anything legal, finance, taxes, that type of thing, that's the only HR. Those are the part of things that I don't think should be creative. You kind of just got to follow the rules on that. I don't enjoy it.

00:26:00
And we do have a position in our company that we've had filled at different times. It's not really a full time job right now, just with our size. So it's something that we don't have a designated person on. But I would like to fill that position in the future.

00:26:18
Even once those things were kind of handed off to someone else, I'm never not going to be involved with it. Even like, we have someone who does our books for us, but once a week, I check in with them. We go over it. I look at it. I make sure that everything that's there makes sense.

00:26:35
It's what I expected. I'm always going to be involved because it's my company, and everyone who works the company trusts me. Like, they're working for me in some form. So I don't enjoy it, but I do enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing that things are taken care of that I'm not. When the Silicon Valley Bank blew up, that was the bank that our payroll company used for payroll.

00:27:10
And all of my staff that week, any employee or contractor expecting a paycheck that week, it got pulled by the FDIC, and I was panicked, and I was, like, talking to them, making sure they were okay. They weren't getting it screwed because they didn't have their check. My assistant is one of those people, and she was supposed to go on vacation the next week, and I was like, were you counting on this money? Because I will advance you. You should have a nice vacation.

00:27:36
And it's stressful when something like that happens. So I never want to be in a situation as a business owner where the whole premise of Schitt's Creek is that the guy had no idea that his auditor was ruining his books. No idea. And there goes his entire family's fortune. I don't want to be in that situation.

00:27:58
Right. Your shit sandwich is kind of like a half shit sandwich. It's like, yeah, I don't love it, but I could eat a half a shit sandwich. Exactly. My great uncle used to say, do what's hard, and life will be easy.

00:28:11
Do what's easy, and life will be hard. I'm willing to take a couple of bites for that easy life, then, oh, crap. Later, right? No, I totally appreciate that. And I want to go into and I know that you guys have received over 150 award nominations.

00:28:29
You've won Best Picture for I believe it's twelve. And I have this all kind of in my head right now from what I read. So please correct me if I am wrong, but tell us a little bit about some of the awards that you guys have won and what they've meant to you and your company. Sure. So just to clarify, we have won 51 awards.

00:28:54
We have twelve projects that have either been nominated for or won Best Picture. I really should know how many have won Best Picture. I'm looking next to me is on my shelf, so I can count real quick. But the first award I won was Best Drama Short and an Award for Excellence in Filmmaking in a major genre. And I'm just looking at what it.

00:29:24
Says on the if you're watching this video back, you're like, what is she looking at? She's looking at her awards. They're like, literally right here on this wall behind me, wraps around so names on the wall. The first festival that we got a notification on as far. As acceptance was also the first one that we got accepted to.

00:29:48
It was also the first one that we got nominated at and the first one that we won. So it was very, like, kind of everything everywhere all at once. And winning an award for excellence in filmmaking, I had worked so hard on that project. I had worked so hard to educate myself. I didn't go to film school.

00:30:13
I never went to college. I technically didn't graduate from high school because I'm so old. That when I did I did my GED when I was 16, but it was before they had, like, computerized entries, so my information didn't get put in the computer. So when I went to look for my diploma, I was like, oh, I should take this college class. They were like, we don't have a high school diploma for you.

00:30:35
And I was like, that's cool. That's cool. I'm technically, on paper, I'm a high school dropout, but all of my education has been either self taught through experience, through actual internships and apprenticeships. So winning an award for excellence was really validating and really sort of fired me up to keep going. I was so disappointed that I didn't win.

00:31:01
I was nominated for best production design, and my background was production design. That was my biggest before I got sick, that was my biggest drive and passion and training. So we didn't win that one. And my husband was like, you won excellence in filmmaking. That means everything.

00:31:20
And I was like, but we lost production design. He was like, best short. Like, best short in the drama genre and amazing filmmaking.

00:31:34
So those were kind of like, the ones that stuck out the most to me. I then got nominated for best production design over and over and over over the last several years. And we finally, finally won it last year for my short film look to the Sea, and I almost cried. It meant so much to me to finally be awarded for my production design. And that film lost best picture.

00:31:58
We were nominated for best picture, and we lost best picture, and I was like, But I finally got production design. Right? As you said, it was your first passion. Right? It was your first passion, yeah.

00:32:10
The other award that means probably more to me than anything else is I was nominated for an independent film award called the Miko Award, and it is a group of filmmakers every year get shortlisted for it. That it's for people who've exemplified courage sorry. Innovation, excellence and courage.

00:32:38
Okay, I'm reading it. Innovation, courage, and excellence in the film arts. And it's meant to be like, a career reward, like someone who has a substantial career established, at least at the time when I was given it. And after I won, I had the opportunity to thank the person who had nominated me and who Mr. Miko, who the award is named for.

00:33:05
He had no idea that I had only been working as an independent filmmaker for three years. Like, my first film had been released three years earlier at the time of the award, 2019. So that award, not only was it incredibly validating because I get told so many times, nobody does that, or like, Wait, why are you doing that? No one does that, but no one does that. Why would you do that?

00:33:37
And I'm like, Just because no one does it, doesn't mean it's wrong. It just means that no one's doing it. I'm clearly successful. I know how to do something. And the things that they tell me about that are, like, giving feedback to actors after an audition.

00:33:54
Like, actors write in, they're like, I never find out why I wasn't cast. Thank you so much. And I'm like the notes are there. We have to process notes to figure out who we're casting. How hard is it to tell your PA, hey, can you take an hour and just email these notes to the actors real quick and tell them why we didn't cast them and wish them luck?

00:34:11
Yeah, and that's smart, but that also gives you a connection. And then once actors want to work with you more because they know that you actually really care, right, and you give them feedback. So I think that's amazing. I mean, I do care. I also have a lot of friends who are actors, and I worked as an actress for a little bit.

00:34:26
And actors are in one of the most emotionally vulnerable and psychologically damaging career paths because they're constantly putting themselves out there, pouring their heart and soul, and they never get a reply. Sometimes they don't even get told no. They just never hear back. Anyway, that's a whole other story. So when I got the Miko Award yeah, when I got the Miko Award, not only was it shockingly validating for not that I was shocked, I was validated, but the validation was such a shock to be seen at such an early stage of my career.

00:34:59
I also felt immense pressure when I heard that it's meant to be like, a career award that now I have to live up to it. Like, now that I have this award, it's kind of like sitting on my shoulder, and everything I do has to be worthy of that. I have to continuously exemplify courage and excellence and innovation in my career. So that one not only was very validating, but it also has sort of driven me and then, obviously, winning Best Director over and over is fantastic. Just nice, right?

00:35:32
No, that's amazing. And again, I want people to go, it's Spacedreamfilms.com, Space Dream Productions on Instagram, and you can also find Kouralinda on Facebook and also on LinkedIn. I just have to say thank you so much for joining your Next Stop. It's delighted to hear and how excited you are and where you are and seeing what's next it's honorable and I'm just excited that you were here. Thank you so much for having me.

00:36:00
And if I may throw this out there, I know our company name and all of our social media is based dream Productions. Word to the wise for anyone starting a business, register your domain name. Register your domain name. Tongue twister before you register yourself as a DBA or an LLC or whatever you're doing because apparently there are people who like web crawl for new businesses and they will park your domain. So I didn't know that when I started, I registered spacetream production.

00:36:33
Super excited. Was like, oh, we should make a website. And someone had parked me. So instead of paying them the exorbitant amount of money they wanted, we just created spacetream films for our website and waited. And the domain just got released and we just bought it.

00:36:50
So now bought it for the normal price. We just waited it out. So we'll be switching everything over. But if you're going to start a business, do that first. No one told me to do that, but it was also like 2013, so who knew?

00:37:05
No, I ran into the same thing. So I think it's smart people can follow me where I am. Juliet, hahn everything. That is my website, everything, because Juliet Hahn is a professor at the Citadel and has everything, and she's older than me and so she has my spelling and my last name. And I even went to look at like when my husband and I got married, I was like, I'm going to see what my website would look like because I feel like I'm going to go into business one day, see what happens.

00:37:34
I'm going to save this. And back then I was like, damn it, someone hasn't she's a professor at The Citadel. So I thought that was very ironic as well. But thank you again for joining your Next Stop. I appreciate it.

00:37:47
And you guys, you know what to do. Like rate review, go follow Koura, follow myself. You might be listening to this episode and it's like, oh, that's such a great story, but you don't know who needs to hear it. You don't know who right now in their life is kind of at a crossroads. You don't know who is suffering, who is sick in a wheelchair just like Koura was, and what can come out of it if you give them inspiration.

00:38:08
So send this and share this with as many people as you know and we will see you guys again for another episode of Your Next Stop. I hope you liked this episode of your next stop. Please subscribe to my channel, share with your friend and join in each week.

00:38:35
Our channel.