Meet Fiona Dawson (she/her) | Executive Producer & CEO

In 2010 I literally quit my job to make my dreams come true, and it’s all Oprah Winfrey’s fault. I had a great job in corporate social responsibility working for a bank in Houston, my boss was wonderful, and there was an exciting career path ahead, but it just wasn’t fulfilling my soul.

At that time, Oprah was launching her OWN network and had a competition to win your own show. I realized if I could do anything with my life it would be to host my own show sharing positive stories of people being kind and courageous in the face of adversity. We typically see the negative side in the news media — how horrific a situation is — and while that can’t be denied, we turn off feeling helpless and depressed. But those stories also have a positive view of the inspiring people doing things to make these situations better. Those are the people I want to meet and the stories I want to share, in order to spark more good in the world.

So I created the concept of my unscripted TV series “NOW with Fiona,” produced a demo video, and entered Oprah’s competition. I didn’t win but said, “Hell! I’m going to do it anyway!” In November 2011 I threw my belongings into the back of a 10-foot rental truck and drove myself from Houston to New York City to develop my media career.

After pounding the pavements for months and realizing how small I was in the Media Capital of the World, “NOW with Fiona” didn’t feel like it was gaining traction. I had lots of, “Wow! That sounds amazing. Keep going, and be sure to stay in touch!” And then crickets.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2012 I came to realize that transgender people were still banned from serving in the U.S. military. This might sound a little left field, but I’m a part of the LGBTQ community and have been advocating for our rights since 2004. As a lesbian (today I identify as bisexual) I’d given speeches on stages at large events and been interviewed in the media on the need to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” All that time we’d said, “LGBT” but little did I know that the law’s repeal would allow lesbian, gay and bisexual people to serve in the military, but transgender people would still be banned due to out-dated policy.

I felt ashamed that I had not known, irritated that we hadn’t finished the job, and I knew no-one who was telling these stories. I had many friends who were trans and several of whom were in the military or were veterans. It was obvious that the story of their work to end the ban needed to be documented and shared. So, I started the TransMilitary project.

Six years later, I’d earned an Emmy® nomination for my op-doc “Transgender, at War and in Love” commissioned by The New York Times, was selected as a White House LGBT Artist Champion of Change, and received the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2018 Best Feature Documentary Audience Award for “TransMilitary”. Not to mention a few other wins along the way.

Once “TransMilitary” was out in the world on iTunes, Amazon and many other platforms, it left me questioning, “Now what?” But I quickly answered that there’s nothing more I want to do than host my own series, “NOW with Fiona.” So in 2019 I went back into independent production and last year finished a proof-of-concept episode of the show.

This year I’m building my production company by pitching Season One to be filmed in Texas, producing animated explainer videos on LGBTQ terms (see this “cisgender” and “transgender” explainer here), hosting speaking engagements, and writing a book. I haven’t even asked myself if I keep going or give up, because the only way I would fail is if I stopped.

Yes, I change my action, but my belief in manifesting my vision into reality is as certain today as the grass is green. I’m just learning to surrender to the timing of it all, which still takes practice! Originally, I thought “NOW with Fiona” would get picked up by Oprah in 2010. Then I thought a company in NYC would pick me up in 2012. Then I thought “TransMilitary” would win an Oscar and my show would get picked up in 2019. Then in 2020 I said an overnight success takes ten years, so this would be my year. Today, I do my best to let go of predicting or trying to control the timing, and instead focus on my thoughts, beliefs, words, actions and emotions. They all circle into making your dreams come true.

It’s taken a lot of work to feel this powerful, and I’ve had to learn how to strengthen my physical and spiritual self to keep me going. Daily practices in the mental gym of meditation, affirmations, visualization, journaling, reading and running keep my whole being dedicated to living my passion in the present. Life is not a journey to a destination, as the destination already exists within us. That’s when you realize that you don’t need to give up because it’s already there. The Universe is just coaching us to live in integrity so as Martha Beck describes in her book “The Way of Integrity,” we arrive at our address of peace where everything we have asked for has been sent.

Another inspirational author of mine, Howard Thurman (1899 -1981), also sums it well up saying, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it! Because what the world needs is people who have come alive!” I’m lucky enough to have found what makes me feel alive, so I’d be letting the world and myself down if I give up now.

Oh gosh, this is a dangerous question to answer because it would be impossible to complete. There is an infinite number of people who have touched my life, and therefore influenced my growing success. Quite frankly, there are people who I don’t know exist who will have effected my journey. To ensure I don’t inadvertently miss someone, I will reserve shouting out most names for when I’m printing my book. However, I’d like to mention with gratitude my original team who got me going in 2010 of Robin Brown, Rob Alfieri, Reesa Hedrick, Kelley Cloud, and all the Kickstarter Campaign supporters from Houston who helped film the pilot. Today, my show’s Executive Producer Mindy Raymond is a God-send as is the person who introduced us, Sheila Grace. The amazing and hard-working friends at GLAAD like Jeremy Blacklow, Nick Adams, Rich Ferraro, Anthony Ramos, Mathew Lasky and the organization’s President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis are extraordinary champions boosting my work. I also shoutout my mother, father, sister and brother for the love and life they breathed into my foundation.

Some of the books that ignited my passion and enriched my travel are Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”, Eckhart Tolle’s “Power of Now”, Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret”, Mike Dooley’s “Manifesting Change”, Brené Brown’s “Daring Greatly”, Jen Sincero’s whole series of “You Are a Badass”, Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements”, Wallace Wattles’ “The Science of Getting Rich” Jamil Zaki’s “The War for Kindness” and Edie Windsor’s memoir “A Wild and Precious Life”.