In Diane's Words...
If you have a few minutes, let me take you on a short journey to here:
I feel like I've been in training for Lady Up America my whole life!
What I'm about to share with you has God's fingerprints all over it...
"I wouldn't trade my "valleys" for 1000 "peaks". The valley is where I learned the sound of God's voice and grew to know His heart." - Diane Canada
In the custody fight of my life at 20 years old, and with no college degree, I was waiting tables and in dire need of a better-paying job. I applied boldly for a management position I was completely unqualified for with Dr. Michael Press.
He was tickled when I showed up for the cattle-call interview and told him to send everyone else home...that "I" was his new Office Manager because nobody would work harder than me.
I worked there for a year and then an agency recruited me for a much bigger practice. The favor of God went before me and I was miraculously hired to manage an advanced dental practice of 11 employees in the heart of Buckhead in Atlanta:
Dr. Ventress, Dr. Carroll, & Dr. Andrews. At 22 years old, I was the youngest on the team.
I wish I could find pictures of all of the Doctors, but Dr. Andrews was the youngest and is still practicing today in Atlanta.
They were WAY ahead of their time, they had top Consultants come in every year just to spit-shine-and-polish us, and they taught me so much about the significance of building relationships within our team and with our clientele. It was an invaluable incubator for me to learn about how to properly operate a thriving business.
Somehow succeeding in this role for nearly 5 years, I was recruited by the female VP of the Consulting firm that was polishing our practice at that time.
She said to me, "Why aren't you working for me?"
I was flattered, but said, "I don't know how to be a Consultant."
She said, "I'll teach you."
So, with the full blessing of my Doctors, she took me under her wing and taught me how to become a Consultant; to heal companies in crisis.
While my day job was all unfolding, I was "discovered" one night while waiting tables. I was goofing off singing Karaoke with another waitress. One of my customers was a professional in the music industry.
He said, "You're green, but you've got something special".
He hand-walked me into the industry, groomed me for a professional music/songwriting career, and sent me on pilgrimages to Nashville to write with established Producers.
Another good friend of mind in the industry called an investor on my behalf without my knowledge. He convinced him to come and secretly scout me, which he did for several months where I was singing. I had no idea who he was, but we became good friends.
I was summoned early one Saturday morning to join them both for coffee. They revealed their little scheme and all of a sudden, out came a checkbook. onto the table. The investor said, "What's it gonna take to get you on the radio?"
He meant it, too. I was stunned. He paid me a salary so that I could quit my job and focus on music full-time. He paid my band to rehearse, he paid for studio time for my first demo, a nose job my manager insisted I needed, a new wardrobe, and then...
Tears streamed down my face as I watched him count out cashier's checks buying me Waylon Jenning's favorite bus; the one Waylon had owned for 13 years. The picture on the left shows Charles Young, my investor, in the black hat on the day he bought it for me.
Waylon sat me down backstage at a concert one night and gave me a good "talkin' to". He said, "Little girl, if you're gonna be runnin' up and down the roads in my bus, then there's gonna be some ground rules". He made me promise him I would NEVER sell out for the money. I have kept that promise to him to this very day.
I eventually moved to Music City with a major record deal in motion, which later fell through. Although losing the record deal was devastating in the moment, it proved to be a blessing in disguise as it opened an exciting door.
In another stroke of God's favor, a dear friend of mine who was a Producer at CMT personally recommended me to become the Assistant to the VP of the Grand Ole Opry, Pete Fisher.
Pete was the decision-maker of the talent that graced the legendary stage. I got to assist him and Gina Keltner (Director of Opry Talent) with the Artists and their management, the backstage flow, and all of the promotional dynamics that went into designing the weekly shows.
I learned so much and then went on to create an intimate songwriting show of my own, with an emphasis on songs that heal.
Nashville Unleashed toured for 7 years and was ultimately televised. It reached over 100 million households in the United States and syndicated in 3 countries, helping to heal hearts all over the world.
When the show ended, I opened a new Consulting Firm, specializing in women-owned businesses, and evolved into professional Speaking to empower women.
I wanted to focus more on the emotional and mental barriers women face in business. I held full-day women's symposiums called Lady Like Leaders and invited other strong women I knew to help me present enchanting events that women would love.
One morning around 5 am, I got the call that rocked my world...a call I wouldn't wish on ANYBODY! My little brother, a Special Ops Marine with tours in Afghanistan, succumbed to PTSD.
After the initial devastation began to ease, God started tugging strongly on my heart for public service. I was initially very resistant to running, with no previous history in politics, and a great aversion to entering into it.
But I ultimately obeyed the call and ran for the Tennessee State House of Representatives in 2020, campaigning to heal a broken system for veterans who suffer from PTSD.
As the underdog, during the shutdowns of covid, nobody thought I had a snowball's chance. I got very resourceful in reaching people on the campaign trail. but I was as shocked as anybody to nearly win, finishing with 46% of the vote.
What I didn't foresee was being canceled by my now adult son, who voiced very different political views than mine. I was caught completely off-guard by his animosity towards my platform and didn't know how to handle it at the time.
Many of my friends also encountered painful divisions in their families over politics. I became determined to find healing solutions.
Although I studied a LOT on the campaign trail, I wanted better context to the painful division in America. I felt it was super important to get out of my echo chamber and make an effort to truly search for common ground. I attended 22 schools growing up, so I've lived around most demographics, but I wanted to dig deeper.
I spent a lot of time with a Principal who was doing amazing ACES work in an inner-city school, spent time volunteering in underprivileged neighborhoods, had lunch with Democrat Legislators, Pastors, and voters to better understand their viewpoints, participated in a full-day Braver Angels workshop, and volunteered in the maximum-security prison for women.
I graduated from the Heritage Foundation's Political Leadership Academy out of Washington, D.C. and I hold a certificate from Hillsdale College in The Constitution.
I couldn't understand why God had called me to run for office if it wasn't His intention for me to win the seat. Not to mention at the extraordinary cost of my relationship with my son.
This coincided with Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, which hit me right in the gut. The betrayal of my brother's memory, the lost service members during the extraction, and those we left behind only fueled me.
After much prayer and reflection, and complete surrender to God's will, practical ideas started flowing.
God began to string together my life experiences to show me how my techniques that worked to heal businesses in crisis, the common ground in the human heart I discovered as a songwriter, as well as my unique style of empowering women, were a perfect brew for a healing movement.
The genesis of Lady Up America began to take shape.
My friend, Ming Wang, M.D. (Harvard), Ph.D. (MIT), is a world-renowned surgeon who teaches often on common ground and freedom after narrowly escaping the cultural revolution in China. Nobody appreciates freedom more than he.
A major motion picture has been made of his life, which co-stars Greg Kinnear, of You've Got Mail, Heaven Is For Real, and As Good As It Gets. It will be released very soon.
I went to him for some mentorship and he was immediately on-board with my ideas that were developing.
Dr. Wang became the President of my Founders Club and continues to be a strong mentor in this Lady Up America movement.
I'm convinced that in this spiritual battle in our country, rife with emotion, the most capable warriors are the moms. My painful experiences with my son were not wasted, but God has used them for good in developing this movement. It is my honor to come alongside you and share what God has shown me in the toughest political climate of our lifetime.