Unlocking Bravery And Courage With Dawna Hetzler

 

Everyone is born with bravery within themselves. Everyone has the power to unleash it – all you have to do is dig deep within yourself. Brian Dewald sits down with speaker and author Dawna Hetzler, who shares how she tapped into her courageous self in the face of great danger. She talks about the importance of training yourself to be brave to protect yourself and stay motivated even in your lowest points. Dawna also talks about why you should seek mentorship to achieve profound self-growth, her plans to teach about women’s empowerment, and the beauty of keeping your hands and mind open at all times.

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Unlocking Bravery And Courage With Dawna Hetzler

In this episode, my guest is an author, speaker, certified badass, and great friend of mine, Mrs. Dawna Hetzler. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

We got some fun stuff to talk about. I want to know some of the things that make you tick. I want to know your famous story. I know you’ve got other things besides writing books and all of these other things. I want to talk about your bravery and your courage at some point a little bit. I want to talk about some of the books you’ve written and then generally what makes you such an awesome person and get people to know you.

I’m an awesome person. Thank you.

Introducing Speaker And Author Dawna Hetzler

Let’s jump in. A quick about BAM, it is what we call our show, Bad Ass Mavericks. You probably know this since you’ve got a pup named Maverick. A maverick is someone who is unconventional and independent and possibly doesn’t think or behave as others do. As I say that, do you relate to independence or unconventional? Do you think or behave differently than others?

 

 

No, not at all. I’m very in the box.

That’s exactly why you’re on the show. I’m always looking for people like you to be not like, “Buck the system,” but a free thinker and all kinds of fun stuff.

I’ve always said it’s because I’m Sicilian. My husband, David, who’s my high school sweetie, will always say to me the opposite of what he wants me to do. As soon as he says, “We need to do this,” I’m like, “Heck we do.” That whole independent thinking, free-spirited, and creative spirit. I also think of my dog Maverick. You were the inspiration for that. He’s a Husky. He’s a rescue. He had a rough start to begin with. We thought Maverick was a good name to get him rethinking about his freedom and independence and to let him be a Husky. Huskies will do what they want to do, and it’s got to make sense to them, too. When I’m like, “Come, boy,” he’s like, “Why should I come? Is there a treat?”

I know he’s super sweet. When I show up, he wags his tail. He lets me rub his ears or he rolls his eyes back.

You had the magic scratch, for sure. I do think of the two of us. We’re mavericks. Many other people are mavericks, independent, and not going with the herd. You have to think differently and be outside the box if you will. I also think of God as a maverick. I think of God as a mighty warrior. Is it Exodus where they said, “God is a mighty warrior.” He’s a maverick too. He created the universe. He said, “Let there be,” and there was. As business owners, we have to speak things into being too. We’re created in His image. Not that we could say, “I want to be rich,” and we’re rich, but what we say affects the outcome and the way we think. You have to follow the role of the Creator.

Secrets To A Long-Lasting Marriage

You mentioned David. I don’t know why this stuck with me, but one time, you called him your favorite hub. I was like, “Say hi to your favorite hubs.” I want to dive into this a little bit. You guys celebrated your 35th wedding anniversary. Congratulations.

This April 2025 is going to be 40 years of going steady.

That’s insane. You guys must have both been very illegal back then. I love learning from others. You know Annetta and I have been together for almost as long. We’ve been married for twenty-something years. It’s 23 this 2025 and we have been together for 31.

Can I give you an applause? That’s huge.

We started dating when we were 15.

I was 15 and David was 17, turning 18.

I love learning from others. You know this about me. I love learning from people that I look up to who’s got more experience. If I’m looking for business ideas, I want somebody who’s got a bigger business than me or something like that. From a relationship standpoint, do you have any advice for anybody, me in particular? When I do these, it’s to selfishly learn more, but the audience is tuning in. Anybody that’s in either a short-term, a long-term, or looking for long-term, give us a couple of secrets.

Marriage is one of the most beautiful things and one of the toughest things. When you get together with somebody, whether it’s a partner or you get married, bringing on that relationship brings its own set of problems, but it also allows you to grow in such a deep, rooted way through all those working out those problems. One of the best things that helped David and I is figuring out what is behind the argument, the attitude, or the dysfunctional cycle that we find ourselves in.

One of the best pieces of advice I got was to take a picture of David when he was in elementary school, and if there is an argument, look at that and go, “What is the great giant behind what is being said?” We can get in this dance of this cycle that’s not good. It’s not productive. If you can find what’s behind that. For example, when I was a kid, I got lost at a horse racing track. I have this abandonment issue. I couldn’t find my parents. Some strange ladies were taking me to try and find my parents. Those little tiny things, which I call childhood giants, can stick with you.

When having an argument with your partner, look at the great giant behind what is being said. Share on X

David knows that trigger with me. If I feel like I’m going to be abandoned, I want him to rescue me. I want him to come alongside me. He can see, “This isn’t what she’s saying or being upset about. The little girl in her is trying to figure out how to be okay.” He is using that language like, “You’re here. I’ve got you. I’ve got this. I see that you’re saying one thing but I think it’s this.” It’s like putting on your psychology hat a little bit, walking those tough spaces, and then seeing what’s behind the surface of stuff going deeper. Does that help?

Yes. I learned once to anything, whether it’s a goal, an argument, or something, the why behind the why. What’s the ultimate freaking why?

That can take some time.

A lot of times, we don’t even know what that is at the moment. I’ve had those experiences myself.

When you freeze or you’re like, “Gosh,” or something is sad, or you get upset, or whatever that is. I’m a processor. The next day, I’m like, “I see. It was this.” It takes time, but as you work on yourself and as you do this, you notice it quicker. It’s like anything with training.

Choosing The Right Target Audience

I like that. We’re shifting gears a little bit. I have no idea where this interview is going to go. I was at a church event. It was writing out some goals, aspirations, and ideas. At the time, I had a great 2024. It’s January 7th, 2025. I didn’t crush it financially or anything. We did fine. I had a hell of a year in terms of health, mindfulness, and these kinds of things.

You asked me when we were talking about this, “Who’s the audience for this?” and I didn’t know how to answer that. I was like, “Me.” I’m not all that creative, so I’m like, “What if I go talk to my friends who are ultimate badasses?” We can say bad words on our show. It’s my show. With that in mind, you asked who the audience was and I thought it was a very intriguing question. How does your mind work to even ask that? I know you’re working on some stuff. When you came up with your target audience, what did that look like? I’m curious as to how that popped into your head.

I run a nonprofit called Jericho Girls. We come alongside women and we support women in all walks of life. If you have no faith, you’re an atheist, you’re way down the road, wherever that looks like, we want to meet you woman to woman where you’re at. When we started doing conferences, and we being the board of Jericho Girls Ministries, we had this great brain dump. I’ve got all these creatives. Some are good at accounting. Some are good at coming alongside women. Some are artists, creating and drawing.

We all came together to figure out who is the one person. We were like, “If God dropped one person into that room for the conference, what would she look like, and who would we want to speak to at that moment?” When you think of that one person, the message can go to the masses. That one person was this very specific woman. We sketched out what she looked like down to the color of her eyes and her hair so we could visualize her. As we visualized her, we could speak to her. The Holy Spirit would touch everybody through that. It’s dwindling it down. It’s like in our business, too. Who’s our ideal client? Who do you want to work with?

Our friend, Mike Wood, talked about that.

He asked me and I was like, “My ideal client?” My mind is going, “Florida or Colorado,” because I sell both. I was like, “I’m still processing. Hold on with that, please because what I want to sell here is very different from Colorado. I want to sell waterfront properties and change people’s lives.”

That is an interesting story for the audience. We’re going to get into this a little bit later. I knew of you from Colorado. We’ve got mutual friends, the McGees, who said, “You guys have to connect with Dawna. They have a place there.” I’m like, “Interesting. Send me her number.” We started chit-chatting. Here we are, 2000 miles away from home, and got to be connected through our little paradise here in Cape Coral, Florida. It’s so fun that we get to hang out here in the wintertime. I always thought that was a fun part of the beginning of our friendship.

Who do you know that connects you to somebody else? We’re both connectors. To be connected like that was super cool and then to see how life is unfolding for us together and kicking butt in life.

Defining And Embracing Growth

That’s right. It’s fun. I’m a car guy. I have this theory about firing on all cylinders. It was a coaching assignment from my dear friend, Hunter, in California years ago. I still think about it. It was like, “Write a letter to yourself and do it.” I fired on more cylinders in 2024 than I had before in terms of personal growth, and professional growth because we were growing our company, spirituality, marriage-wise, and the dad stuff. My son’s 21 so he doesn’t need me that much, but I still like to grow where I can.

When I think of growth, if I’m not the best version of myself, I’m not the best friend, the best husband, the best dad, the best business owner, the best loan officer, and the best lots of things. I try to get all of them. I love shooting for everything at the same time personally. That’s what I think of when I think of growth. When I say growth to you, what does that look like? What do you think of it?

It depends on the season that you’re in and how you want to grow. There are times when I’m like, “I need to hit on all cylinders.” David, in a previous life, was a motorcycle racer. He did road racing. He has a line that he was always nervous before a race, but the minute he got on the bike, everything calmed. That’s the crazy part for me.

I’m like, “You’re going out on the racetrack with all these crazies?” We’ve been out racing in the rain with slicks because it would start raining while he was racing on slicks. I’m like, “Those aren’t good tires for the rain. You’re not nervous going out there?” For me, growth sometimes is, “I have to get on the bike today.” It is making me get on the bike and then get to work.

It depends on somebody’s season and where they’re at in life. I agree. You got to hit on all cylinders. You have to be all on it. One thing that has transformed my business is inviting God into my business. I shouldn’t even say that it’s inviting Him in because He invited me in. In 2008, we went from David being this high-end home builder, we’re traveling a lot, and he’s racing and doing all these things, and then the Great Recession hit. We were stuck with homes and real estate at the time. I was trying to revamp my business going from high-end home builders and working with custom home buyers and then going to investors and first-time home buyers. I was switching gears in business.

I was hitting on all cylinders at that time, and then all of a sudden, everything came to a screeching halt. There were days when I was like, “I need to get on the bike. I need to do my thing.” Growth, for me, was, “What does getting on the bike look like? How does it look bringing David along this morning?” and then bringing more of God into my business.

I feel like I was very spiritual at the time. When you’re forced to pray, like, “Please, sprinkle the manna on the grass so we can eat,” it’s different. What I started doing at that time was inviting God into the business and saying, “You blessed me with New Dawn Realty. How can I be a good steward of Your business? Thank You for letting me be the CEO of what You’ve created with me.” It was crazy. I watched in a declining market my business ramp up. It was amazing.

The other thing I would say is to give a lot, which I know you do as well. You give your time. You coach. You do all these things. Give, especially when it hurts. During that time, I spent a lot of time giving away what we were bringing in. I was like, “If my faith is what I say it’s going to be, I’m going to test this and give it away.” That was huge. I was giving away a ton of money, which made my lip quiver every month because I’m like, “Now I got to make more.” It was such a good time that grew me in my faith and my business. I learned during that time how to be a strong businesswoman and to put on a different cap.

Give especially when it hurts. Share on X

Circling back to hitting on all cylinders, absolutely, but there are times when you’re going to get up and go, “I need to get on the bike today,” or, “I need to run this morning to get my mind right. I need to drink a gallon of water. I need to be on. I need to push myself to do this stuff.” You can do it. To whoever is reading, if you’re in that space where you’re having a hard time getting on the bike, get on the bike and everything else will come together. You got to get out there and do it too. You can’t sit on the bike and then rev it.

That’s one of the hardest things, getting on. The hardest part about going to the gym is getting in your damn car and driving there. The hardest thing about going for a walk is the first step. After that, it’s easy. I walked 1861.5 miles in 2024 and I hardly did anything. It’s a single step. That is the first one. There’s something to be said about getting on the bike. I love that.

You could get a Husky. You have to walk them every day even in the snow.

Especially two of them.

It’s easy here for me. Going back to Colorado in the snow, I’m like, “No.”

Jumping Into Real Estate And Getting Land Accreditation

We’re shifting gears a little bit. If you were to take a new course or class, what would that be?

Real estate is the first thing that came to mind. Are you talking personal or business or it doesn’t matter?

Yes, it doesn’t matter.

They all intertwine anyway. I do a lot of land out in Colorado, water rights, mineral rights, land sales, and big acreages, so I want to get a land accreditation. One thing on a personal note I’ve been playing with, speaking of our mind and getting on the bike and all that stuff, is NLP. Have you heard of NLP? It is Neuro Linguistic Programming.

The person who created this has classes. On a personal level, I’d like to take that more. It is more about the way you think and being able to mirror people in a healthy way and connect with people. You and I are very good at that, but I would love to sharpen that skill a little bit more. I’m a class person. I love to learn. I’m a lifetime learner. The other thing is I’d love to tactical train some more and get better at my fine-tuning and tweaking. We’ve had the opportunity to shoot together. You were amazing.

I wasn’t as good as you.

That’s not true. You and I had good groupings and we’re high-fiving, but no.

We were the only ones that got 100. I love the idea of learning more. It was interesting when you brought up the NLP. There’s another show that we did with a young lady named Dee Dee Woodman who’s a family therapist.

I read that show. It was wonderful.

She talked about neuroplasticity. It’s how your brain grows if you’re doing something to advance. I look at it as something hard. Something hard could be going for a walk at 5:30 in the morning when it’s cold out. Your brain increases in power when you’re doing that and the opposite if you’re not. It shrinks if you’re not feeding it the good stuff.

Making those pathways is part of being a badass maverick. If you’re expanding all the time and growing those pathways, you might come up to an opportunity in business, life, or whatever, and say, “I’d never thought of it that way,” because you are building those neural pathways.

Teaching Women About Empowerment

This one is fun. If you were to teach a class, what would that look like?

I’m big on women’s empowerment and getting women to believe in themselves and love themselves. It would be something along the lines of, “You were born for such a time as this. You were sent here for a purpose that only you can fulfill and that only you can do.” I would teach that to men too. Many times, we get caught up in our careers or being a father or a husband. We’re so super focused on that. We tend to lose sight of what we were brought here for and our purpose.

That scripture is from the book of Esther where she is asked to approach the king and she might die. The uncle tells her, “You might have been put here for such a time as this.” She says, “If I die, I die. I am going in.” I love that because only Esther could have done what she did in that specific time and place at that very moment. I feel the same about each of us that each one of us is so uniquely special and different. God can use various people to get His purposes done, but He would love to use your creativity the way He designed you for the purpose specific for you. I had never thought about it, but I’m like, “That would be super cool. You were made for such a time as this.”

Keeping Open Hands And Let Life Unfold

If you could meet yourself 10, 15, 20, or 30 years ago, what’s some advice you would give your younger self?

Keep open hands. Don’t grasp so tightly at things. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I do a word for the year. My word for 2025 is “unfold.” Let life unfold. I’m a doer. Tell me what to do and I will go do it. I am a go-getter but I tend to do too much sometimes. I often wonder, “God’s got this great plan.” Here we are on this journey and I’m like, “Over here, I’ll do that and I’ll do this.” I’m down the roadway ahead. I like to think of God as there’s this path and it’s not straight. He lets me do my creative stuff.

I would say, for me, to leave things with open hands. If I look back and say, “Hey, 45-year-old Dawna,” it would be, “Open your hands a little bit to receive. Let things play out. Do your part but live life so unattached to the world that you don’t need something to happen.” That has grown my business, too, because, in that time of 2008, we needed to make transactions happen. There were so many business appointments. I went on a listing appointment and would say, “Can you keep this property?”

Open your hands a little bit to receive and let everything play out. Live life so unattached to the world that you do not need something to happen. Share on X

I needed that listing but I was looking at a bigger picture of building a business for the longevity of it. I knew that that listing would be down 2, 5, 10 years, or whatever that was. I would tell that woman back then to even loosen the grip even more. I felt like I was doing it then, but there were still things like, “God, I did good at that. Did I do good? What can I hold on over here to make up for what I was open-handed here?” I would say let life unfold a little bit more.

I like that a lot.

I smiled when you said some fun questions because that’s my playground. I’m like, “Let’s have some fun. Here we go.”

Dawna’s Most Memorable Mentors

I have this theory on mentors. You and I have talked about it a little bit. I am looking for a spiritual mentor. I like a fitness mentor. I hired a personal trainer in 2024. I like to have a business mentor. I’ve got a coach and a marital mentor, somebody who’s got a fantastic marriage that I can look up to, or a therapist. I like somebody better at it than me. I want to learn business from somebody who’s got a bigger business than me. Does that ring any bells for you? Do you have any mentors?

I have tons of mentors.

Give me a couple of highlights.

I feel the same way. I used to be in a golfing league. I loved golf but I wasn’t great at it. One of my mentors is somebody in my field. She’s a big hitter. You play up to your golf game. For me, when I would be with comfortable friends and we were out there having a good time and having a beer on the golf course, my score was crazy. The score would go up. The goal is to get it down. When I would play with those in the league who were very in-tuned and good, my score got so much better when I was playing with them.

For people in the industry, I hang out with you because everything that you touch turns to gold. I also do therapy. I have a good therapist. David and I did marriage counseling as well. I have a spiritual director. I talked to you a little bit about that. I listened to a podcast and heard about spiritual direction and thought, “I want to learn more about that. I don’t know if I need it, but let’s see.”

She has been a spiritual mentor to me. It’s been fun to have her come alongside me and walk me through certain things I’m struggling with or what I’m dealing with. She brings me up to that next level. I thought, “I’m doing pretty good spiritually,” and then I met with her. Not that she makes you feel that way, but there’s so much work. We’re never done until perfection. I’m like, “Wow.”

One of the things that I’ve discovered is that I have a hard time trusting God. I’m like, “I wouldn’t have pinpointed that. Something’s going on.” Based on what I’m doing and how I’m reacting to stuff, she’s like, “Do you trust God?” I’m like, “Not as much as my plan.” She takes me up to the next level spiritually. It goes into business.

I have friends who inspire me who get to the next level as well. There’s one gal in the land arena that is super young and smart. She asks the right questions. She and I will meet to collaborate about land, who we’re connected with, and how we can put deals together. We do Mile High Exchangors, which are a bunch of commercial and land brokers or investors who come together.

We all come into a room who are very successful and say, “How can we make a transaction within this room so that we can promote our clients?” We don’t have to stick it into a system like LoopNet, CoStar, MLS, or any of those to promote the property, but we did it. We came, we showed up, and we’re going to put buyer and seller together, get this deal done, and kick butt. I have those types of mentors, too. I have all sorts of mentors like you. I have lots of people in my life.

It’s so wise to seek big people like that.

Different people, too. David is a mentor to me because he’s such a different thinker than I am. When he says something, I have to recalibrate and be like, “I didn’t think of it that way.”

How To You Get To Be Different

Shifting gears a little bit, I’ve been in lending for twenty-something years and I’ve met hundreds, probably thousands, of realtors. There are a few that stand out. This isn’t a real estate or lending show by any means, but I want to understand a little bit more. Don’t share any specific secrets by any means, but your approach is quite different than most when it comes to the real estate side.

I’ve worked with thousands of realtors throughout my career. There’s a small little handful like you that seem to have an edge or an advantage somehow. Don’t give away any big secrets or anything, but does that naturally come? Is it part of 2008 and kicking your butt through there? Is it your nature? Do you study? What makes you different? I know how you’re different. How do you get to be different?

I was like, “That could be a bad thing. How am I different?” I’m teasing you.

You get my drift, right?

Yes.

Keeping Open Hands And Let Life Unfold

Is it something that you set out to do daily, weekly, monthly, or annually? Is it an experience that you’ve got? Is it a combination of everything? You mentioned during 2008, you needed that sale. If you can’t let it go, you shouldn’t. That’s not a real common piece, especially for lenders and real estate agents given what we went through during COVID. We’ve fallen off a cliff a little bit. It’s not a real natural approach.

To backtrack a little bit on your question, I do talk to many real estate agents in our industry and stuff. I’m always open to sharing because I don’t look at it as someone’s taking a piece of the pie and the pie’s going to get smaller. I’m like, “We’ll make more pies.” It’s limitless what you can do in this business. If you’re worried about one pie, you’re thinking way too small. I’m happy to share.

My main thing is helping people, which sounds super silly and an easy answer. I was talking to your wife, Annetta, about this because I told her I front-load a lot of my business. I try to get a lot of my business done before October so that I can coast a little, come here, and enjoy. I still work but it’s not like I’m on all the time.

One of the things is sitting down with people, hearing their goals, and listening to them. “What is it? Why do you need to get across the state? Do you need to be across the country in a week? Do you have three months? How can I help meet your goals?” We tweak the marketing plan, the business plan, and all that stuff to meet their goals. If they’ve got plenty of time, it’s like, “Here’s what we’re going to do, but we’ll do it next year.”

In the election year when the market was slow, rates were high, and all the things, I had some people who had to come on. It was like, “We have to tweak that plan a little bit because it is a slower time. If we can wait until the beginning of the year, let’s wait until the beginning of the year.” I sit with people, talk with them, and try to match them. It’s about them. I put them in a position of strength and make them the superstars. From there, they have a great experience and they refer people. To me, it’s easy peasy.

Uncovering Wins And Lessons

I meet with my team every Monday and we talk about Ws and Ls, Wins and Lessons. I like looking at challenges not as failures but as lessons. Tell me about a challenge or something that you’ve learned something from.

I love how you do the wins and lessons. I always say, “Take a look at something, hold it up, look at it at every angle, and figure out how you can do it more skillfully next time. Don’t beat yourself up about it.” There are always great lessons that you can learn. I’m going to say the P-word, how to be more Patient. I hate the P-word.

When looking at something, hold it up and look at it at every angle. Figure out how you can do it more skillfully without beating yourself up about it. Share on X

I got to tell you something. Annetta is trying to get me to do this 21-day fast of something. We were in Best Buy. It took 8, 9, to 10 minutes as I walked through the thing to get up there to pay. Everybody was speaking to each other so they couldn’t understand. I’m like, “It took me longer to drive here.” She’s like, “That’s what you should do for your 21-day fast.” I’m like, “I’ll try.

Find your energy. That waiting and patience is tough. We live in such a fast-paced society. We got to get done. Attention spans are quick. We have to be efficient. Slow it down a little bit.

Help me learn here.

I cannot. I wish I could give you some wisdom but I am still learning myself. Take control of your mind like, “We don’t have to do this that quickly.” Slow it down. Sometimes, in slowing it down, there are so many things you can see about yourself and others. You can hear people when you slow it down and have patience.

Two words I don’t like are the P-word, Patience, and then the other one is the B-word, Budget. I don’t like a budget but I have to follow one. I can’t think of anything specific, but there’s always something that will drive you to be more patient. Here’s one. A lot of the time, I work with a certain type of person who talks very slowly and likes to cogitate with me and think through things.

I’m a fast talker. When I get a call from this type of client, and it’s their profession so I’m not trying to bash anybody, it’s a different perspective. This type of person will talk very slowly. They think about things. When we’re on the phone, there’ll be these long silences. I’ve gotten good at being comfortable in the uncomfortable silence with these people. When I get the call like, “Do you have time to cogitate?” I’m like, “I do.” Patience has made me a better business person and a badass maverick. When I am patient, I can be present with that person, I can listen, I can see what’s going on, and I can see the bigger picture of things. It does so much.

I need to get better at that piece, the bigger picture like, “What difference would it have made if I was home three minutes earlier?”

It will play a bigger role later down the road. That’s why I say you never want to ask for patience because then you get tested in it and it’s like, “I was patient in line. I’m good.” It’s some big thing you have to wait on for years and you’re like, “I don’t want to do this.”

Dawna’s Books And Writing Process

You’ve written some books in the past. When I thought about what I wanted to talk about, there were a few things that I wanted to touch on. You being an author are one of them. First of all, where can folks find your books?

On Amazon and some of the local bookstores in Colorado. It’s been a pleasure writing. I write for myself. It’s like your show. I’m doing it to put into words what my experience is and what I’ve done. I want to remember the growth and what I’ve learned. If someone buys it and is inspired by it, that’s awesome.

What compelled you to write it? Was it trying to get your thoughts and your feelings out a little bit?

Yes. The actual first book is called Walls of a Warrior. I wrote it but I had a group of women that we met as Jericho Girls, breaking down the walls of our hearts and getting together. I started putting this together in words and teaching it. Groups started to organically form that were like, “I want to be a Jericho Girl. I want to start a group. I want to do this.” I put this all together and I sensed that God was saying, “Put this in book format. Write a book.” Here’s my Sicilian index finger like, “You got the wrong girl. I got a science degree. I’m not an English major. Go find someone else.”

It was crazy. One of my dear friends was with me. We were at a social event. She came up to me and she went, “I have to grab you for a second and tell you something.” I hadn’t told anybody I was writing all this or putting it together. David didn’t even know. I agreed. I was like, “God, here are the stipulations. I’ll write this but nobody gets to see it and nobody gets to know. I’ll put it down for you.” I’m sure God’s got a sense of humor because He created me. He’s like, “You do that and then we’ll take the next step when you’re ready.”

My friend comes up to me and she goes, “You’re going to think I’m crazy. I was cleaning the house and I heard this voice in my head that said, “Tell Dawna to write the book.” She had no idea. I was shocked. I’m like, “That’s confirmation. I have to be receptive to this. I’ve got to do something with it.” I wrote the first one. The inspiration was to empower these women to break down their walls, have real meaningful relationships, get rid of the surface-y stuff, and get to this tough stuff. I know Annetta does a lot of that stuff. Your wife Annetta does some stuff like that in her women’s groups.

It was good. We found so much healing. We had these conferences. There were women who you would have no idea. They looked dressed and ready to come to a conference. They have all this stuff. Women would come up to me and go, “I was held in a cage.” These were 56-year-old women. They’re like, “I was held in a cage by somebody or by a trafficker. I had this addiction. I had this abuse,” and all these things that women would pour out. It was amazing.

To whoever is tuning in on your show, if you are thinking about writing a book, and I’m sure it’s going to someone specific who maybe is supposed to write a book, put it out there because you never know that one person or how many people. It’s the ripple effect. I know that there are plenty of people who tuned in to your interview with Dee Dee and some of your interviews that are like, “That moved me,” on that particular day. It’s so important to follow your creative talent. That was my inspiration for Walls of a Warrior.

Free to Receive is more about opening your heart to receive. It is a story about David and I in our journey. In 2017 when I thought we got over the hump of his lost identity, financial issues, losing our retirement, rebuilding, and all these things, we found ourselves in this space where we were very disconnected and disjointed. We were thinking, “Do we love each other anymore?”

I was dumbfounded because I was so busy running, leading, and doing my thing that when he’s like, “Something’s wrong here,” I’m like, “Heck no.” That is more of my journey. We got couples therapy. We reconnected in a whole new way. We figured out we’ve been together forever and we’re learning some inner stuff about each other.

Finally, we took this trip to Israel, which was a bucket list for me. We got to recommit ourselves to a marriage ceremony in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding ceremony. There was someone very famous who led the whole group. It was very spiritual, beautiful, and great. Free to Receive is that book. That’s my journey. How do you open your heart to receive? How do you also block it in a healthy way to not receive things that you’re not supposed to?

Healthy boundaries, right?

Yeah. Those are the two. I’m working on one. I’m hoping to launch it this 2025. I was hoping to have all this time to write, and then time escapes and I’m like, “It will be written in the time when it needs to. I have all the pieces. I’m trying to put it together.

Any little teasers without giving any spoilers away?

Yeah. I talked about it a little bit about how not to have such a grasp on life and how to be a badass maverick or a go-getter in life and yet still let things unfold. What is that dichotomy, pushing and letting off the accelerator? What is that? What does that look like? I’m still learning to articulate it in my head and then also how to put it from pen to page, what that is translated to in my life, and why it’s so good to do that. I’m working on it. It’s fun.

A Story About Being Brave

As we get close to wrapping things up here, I want you to tell our audience about a time you had to be brave.

You know my one brave story. Do you want me to talk about that one?

If you’re comfortable with it.

I have lots of brave stories but this one is crazy.

It’s wild. If you’re okay to talk about it.

I am.

I know you are. I don’t want to put you on the spot. I know you’ve got lots of great stories about being brave. Give us a couple of them.

This one might take the most time, so let’s start there.

We’ll have questions as we go, I’m sure. I’ve heard this story multiple times.

You’re talking about the one where I’m staring at a 12-inch knife.

I’ve heard that many times and I still get goosebumps.

I thought it was another average day, going out, doing my work, and getting my hustle on. I went to an open house. I was going to hold an open house or a listing. I had gotten there and gotten set up and there was a knock at the front door. I go and answer the door and a big guy, tatted on his neck, comes in. I’m talking to him. He goes into the living room and I turn left and go into the kitchen. There’s this island between us and we’re having a conversation. He’s asking all the right questions. He eventually wants to see upstairs and wants to see whether the rooms work for his roommates and what have you.

We come back to the stairs, which is by the front door. As we merge to the stairs, we get into this very tiny space together. It was awkward. At that moment, I decided to take the first step. I make the first step to go up the stairs. The minute I did, I said to myself in my head, “Dawna, you put yourself in a position of weakness. You never go in front of a stranger safety-wise.”

Was this the spidey sense and the hairs tingling or was this part of training that you’ve had in the past, or was it a combination of all of that?

A combination of all. I didn’t like the spidey tingling stuff, but the minute I did it, I was like, “The door’s down here. There’s no escape upstairs.” You know I shoot, train, and all that stuff. From that safety training, I’m like, “What in the world?” We learned things like yellow alert, to be on, to be watching people, to never give someone your back, and all those things. All those combined came together and I’m like, “I took the first step. Recalibrate.” I’m walking up the steps. Being Sicilian, I’m using my hands and talking as always.

You are a great storyteller because I don’t have to close my eyes. I can picture all of this almost in slow motion.

There’s a little landing and then it turns and you go up another set of stairs. As I’m going up the stairs, I turn to him. I look and I ask him questions. I’m talking with my hands and making sure he’s following me. As I was asking him some questions, he asked me about a VA loan. This is all happening quickly because we’re not even in the landing yet. He was like, “What are the interest rates? Can I get a VA loan?” I said, “You’ve served. Thank you for serving our country.” He gets shifty-eyed with me and he says, “Sure.” Intuition is in my gut. My gut tightens and I’m like, “He is not who he says he is.”

I can think of thousands of veterans and they never have that response like, “Sure.”

Nobody. It’s always, “My pleasure. It’s my duty. Yes, ma’am. I appreciate that,” or they’re very humble and don’t want to take the compliment. It’s never shifty-eyed and won’t look at you. I’m like, “This guy’s not a Marine. He’s not who he says he is.” We’re at the top of the stairs and my first thought with safety training is to make space. We go into the primary bedroom and I’m like, “This is not ideal because he’s got the door. He’s already behind me. I’m going to get on the other side of the bed and make enough space.”

As soon as I did, it all went down. He lifts up his shirt and he has this knife that was tucked in his belt. It was a 12-inch knife. He pulls it out and I’m like, “How did he conceal this knife?” He pulls out this knife and he has something tethered to his belt. He’s like, “This is a knife. This is bear spray. Take off your ring and get in the closet now.” They say that in those situations, either everything speeds up and goes fast or things go slow. Things got slower for me. I’m like, “Belly. Knife.” I’m trying to process, “I knew something wasn’t right but I didn’t think my life was in danger at that moment.” It took me a millisecond to catch up.

As soon as he’s like, “This is a bear spray,” and he’s making this action of taking something off his belt, the words “take off” triggered me, if you will. I was carrying a firearm on my ankle that day. The muscle memory of training with firearms was insane. Two months prior to this, I had trained with one of my trainers and it was for an hour-plus. It was, “Pull up the pant leg, come out, present, and back in.” I’m like, “I’m good.” They’re like, “Now get on the ground. What if your ankle is behind you? How can you get to your firearm? Do you have to shoot like this?” All these things I had practiced over and over two months prior to this.

It was so incredulous how I dropped down everything that I trained, pulled up the pant leg, and came out. Before I could even present, I’m coming out and he’s got the bear spray and sprays me. When he saw the firearm, his eyes got huge. He had no idea. I got off a round and it went right past him into the drywall. All this is happening with motion. He’s like, “Ah,” and I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” I get off a round.

He goes running down the stairs and I take a millisecond to be like, “I fired somebody else.” I composed myself as quickly as I could and I decided to follow him back down the stairs. You’ve seen those scary movies where the bad guy always comes back at you or there’s more, so I decided to follow him down at a distance at the ready. I see him go out.

At this time, it’s an oil-based bear spray so my skin’s burning and I’m coughing. I’m asthmatic so I’m like, “What if I can’t breathe?” I went into the kitchen and was like, “If he comes back through the door, I’ve got to be able to see.” I’m rinsing my eyes quickly. The firearm is right there. I called 911 and I’m still on. I’m like, “My name is. I’m located at. I have a concealed carry license. I got a loaded firearm. I have been attacked by somebody.” They were like, “Do you need police and paramedics? Go and lock the door. You’ll need to confirm when the police get here.”

The police showed up and 911 did confirm it was the police of that city. They rush in and the male police officers start coughing and gagging as they come in because that bear spray penetrated the first level. There was a female CSI agent who pulled me out and got me out of there. She started talking with me and stuff. It was a brave day. The cool thing about it is that he was caught a couple of days later. There’s a whole story to this. I don’t know how much you want to get into it, but he was caught two days later and is serving fifteen years in prison.

I take carrying very seriously. It is an honor to carry a firearm. I train. There are so many people who are like, “Thank God that you had a firearm with you.” I’m like, “It wasn’t the firearm. It was the training that saved my life.” By training, I was able to get on the bike. I got on the bike, showed up that day, and did it. Everything that they teach you, the mindset is, “Can you defend your life in a situation where your life is in danger?” You say yes and then the trainers bring out human-looking targets or real pictures in color. For a second there, I was like, “Could I do this?”

You’ve got to decide, “Can I do this?” If you can’t, it is not for you. Don’t carry a firearm. Figure out martial arts or carry your own bear spray or pepper spray. Figure out a way. Be on alert for all the ways that you can defend yourself. It doesn’t matter to me how you defend yourself. I chose a firearm because I’m a little gal. A lot of the time, there are situations where you need a firearm, like where we’re from in Colorado. In Walmart, guys come in with rifles. There are school shootings and all those things. We live in a time that’s very serious. We need to take our own safety into our own hands.

I’ve always said that our law enforcement is great. I do law enforcement appreciation parties for those who serve, but our safety is ours. It is up to us to take care of ourselves. It’s an honor and privilege to do that. I always say it was the training that saved my life. It was a brave moment for me. I have a friend in the Military who’s like, “I have Military friends that I trained with that couldn’t pull the trigger to shoot somebody.” That’s nothing against them, but he’s like, “You were able to do it in the face of danger and you did it.”

It brought out some type of strength that I didn’t know that I had. I always felt strong. I’m a strong personality, but it was a new level of strength where I’m like, “I can pull the trigger, not just in that situation but in life. I can pull the trigger on life.” Your hits and misses in life can be life or death, but being able to pull the trigger and do things in business and your personal life and being the person that you want to be in life is so important. You’ve got to be able to pull the trigger of life.

Get on the bike.

It could also be the race car, however you want to look at it.

That’s good, too. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that story either from you or secondhand. It gives me chills every single second. Thank you for being vulnerable.

That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying this very to the point, but days after, I was foggy. I was struggling with, “I wasn’t on,” but I can’t be perfect all the time. I can’t be on all the time. I’m constantly on yellow alert, watching. I’m not paranoid, but I’m paying attention all the time. I try not to beat myself up like, “I took that first step. I’ve trained for that.”

It’s like somebody who’s in addiction and they have a mess-up. They beat themselves up and they’re like, “I had that drink,” or, “I had that fix,” or whatever that is, and then they’ll stay in that spot. I would say to that person, “Get back on the bike. Pull the trigger of life.” It was one thing. I made the first step. I was able to defend my life. I got back into it. I was foggy for days. I’m not making light of addiction at all. I’m saying it’s the same mentality.

If you are a badass maverick, and so many are, we sometimes lose our way in life. There are things that weigh us down or we let them get to us. If you took that drink, that hit, or whatever that is, get back on the bike. You got this. You have rocked life. If there is one setback, you hold it up, look at it from different angles, and go, “I’m wiser now. I’m not going to do that again. I’m going to do that more skillfully,” and then kick butt in life.

Episode Wrap-Up And Closing Words

I was taking notes on a couple of things. The first two are similar to each other, but it’s the training piece, to have that in a life-or-death moment. You need the training to be able to protect yourself. It can be said for a life or death type of situation or with anything. There are a lot of metaphors in there, for sure. The get back on the bike was my second one. That will stick around. Every once in a while, one of us will say something and it sticks like favorite hubs.

Tell your favorite hubs, “Get back on the bike today. Get motivated.”

The other thing, and you and I agree on this, is to hang around big people. That was a big takeaway for me. Learn from and seek mentorship. There are so many people out there who love to help others, including you and me. There are others bigger than both of us that we can go seek and find. That is huge to have in there to hang around with big people.

We were created to be in a relationship. The more you hang out with people who will get you to the next level, teach you to help others, and train you, the more you can pay it forward. It’s like you. You’re coached and then you start coaching because you want to pay that back. You want to pour into people. It’s not even so much the payback for me. It’s the next step. It’s what I’m supposed to do.

We were created to be in a relationship. The more you hang out with people who will get you to the next level, the more you can help others and pay it forward. Share on X

Pay it forward. People who are successful, generally speaking, like to see other people succeed. There’s something we can do to help that.

We can share that.

I could go on for another three hours but I know you’re busy. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. How do people find you or connect with you?

You can go to my website, which is DawnaHetzler.com. I do a blog there. I’ve got my books there. You can connect on the real estate side if you want to as well, but mostly, it’s the conferences, what I’m doing, where I’m at, and what I’m struggling with. I do a lot of writing. I’m like, “What am I struggling with this week? How do I want to better myself?”

I’ll put out a blog whenever I feel inspired. I used to do it three times a week. I do about once a week now. It’s got to be something where it’s worth saying. I don’t ever want to do something where it’s like, “I’m doing this because I’ve got to hit three times a week. If it’s not impactful to myself, it’s not going to be impactful to somebody else.” You can find all sorts of fun stuff there.

DawnaHetzler.com. Go check that out. Thank you for taking the time. This is such an honor. I am very blessed to be able to do this.

Thanks for letting me collaborate with you.

This was so much fun.

You bring me to the next level, too. You’re a badass maverick.

 

Important Links

• New Dawn Realty
• Dawna Hetzler
• Jericho Girls
• Walls of a Warrior
• Free to Receive
• Resilience In Action: On Healing Trauma And Embracing Purpose With Dee Dee Woodman

 

About Dawna Hetzler

Dawna Hetzler is a sought-after speaker and author of Free to Receive and Walls of a Warrior. She is also the founder of the nonprofit, Jericho Girls Ministries, and the Overwhelmed Conference.

Even though she’s not a morning person, you’ll find her watching the sunrise with hot coffee in hand. Dawna collects seashells, dog kisses, and divine moments. She lives in Colorado with her husband, David, and her two rescue Siberian Huskies.