Don't Be the Gatekeeper

What do you do when the industry tells you there's no space for you? You build your own.

In this episode, John Wang sits down with Don Michael "Don Mike" Mendoza, Broadway producer, talent manager, entrepreneur, and host of the podcast Producing While Asian, for a conversation about what it really takes to create opportunity when the door hasn't been opened for you yet.

Don Mike shares the one piece of advice that changed his life and career: don't be afraid to ask for what you want. And if you hear no? You're asking the wrong person.

He breaks down how he went from being told he had a limited future on stage to producing Here Lies Love on Broadway: the first Broadway musical with an all-Filipino cast and how the instinct to build was something passed down through his family long before he ever set foot in a theater.

They also get into what it means to be "the only" in the room, why crab mentality is one of the biggest threats to community progress, and how the most powerful thing you can do once you've made it through the door is hold it open for everyone behind you.

In this episode:

• Why asking for what you want is harder for first-gen and immigrant families  and why it's worth unlearning the shame around it
• The Kris Jenner rule Don Mike swears by when he hears no
• How he built LA TI DO from a basement bar underneath a sex shop in Washington D.C. into a national production company
• The phone call on 45th Street that landed him on Broadway — and how it started with befriending a writer named Zach and meeting his first management client, Vincent Rodriguez III
• Why authenticity and research are non-negotiable when you're telling someone else's story
• The real reason Here Lies Love is still relevant today

Connect with Don Mike: 

Instagram: @donmikemendoza 

Company: @dmhmendozaproductions Website: dmhproductions.com 

Podcast: Producing While Asian

Don Michael H. Mendoza, (Don Mike), is the Founder of DMH Mendoza Productions and the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of LA TI DO where through both entities he’s produced on Broadway (Here Lies Love), Off-Broadway (Hazing U), and hundreds of cabarets, concerts, theatrical shows, and events nationally since 2012. Concurrently, he is an international talent manager, and as an independent marketing professional, he served as the first Director of Marketing & Media for the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles and the Pennsylvania State Chair for Filipino Americans for Harris-Walz. Mendoza is an alumnus of the Commercial Theater Institute in New York City, and holds a B.A. in Musical Theatre & Journalism and an M.A. in Strategic Communication from American University where he sits on the Alumni Association Board. He also sits on the Board of Trustees for Winchester Thurston School, and the Board of Directors for New York Theatre Barn, and The Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh.

As always — when we rise, we rise together.