Unlocking Dreams: A Journey from Disney Imagineer to Architect

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.862)
Welcome back to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. I’ve got a real treat for you guys here today. I got MD3 in the house and we’re going to be talking about a whole lot of different stuff today. We’ve got an incredible story on the docket for you. MD3 actually has basically worn every hat in the real estate space that you can imagine from contractor to architect to broker. He was an imagineer for Disney for over a decade.

And know we’re going to have an incredible conversation today. And it all starts with really his imagination. So before we get started, just remember at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their businesses, which allows them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. That being said, MD3, welcome to the show.

MD3 (00:52.94)
I’m excited to be here.

Stephen Schmidt (00:55.726)
I’m glad you’re here. Give us a, you know, I know we had a little bit of chance to talk in the pre show and I don’t think I’ve ever had a guest with as dynamic of a background as you so far to date and I record a lot of shows. So let me ask you this for our listeners sake. Can you give us a little bit of a background on what you do and how you got to where you’re at today?

MD3 (01:19.054)
Well, I’m excited to tell my story. And by the way, MD3 is short for Michael Joseph Donovan III, which is a formal name and too common. And so there’s too many Michaels in the world. So I go by MD3. so I appreciate you using that nickname.

I am, as I mentioned, I’m an architect here licensed in California, as well as a broker and a general contractor. And I do have a master’s degree from USC in real estate development. So I do cover all the bases and it’s exciting to bring that experience to my clients. my clients typically, sadly now are more victims of the local fires we’ve had in January. So people are coming to me to ask about what they should do about replacing their homes and or expanding in order to saying, you

Let’s sell it and move on and let somebody else deal with the wreckage. So that’s the sad part right now, but typically I like, with my background in Imagineering, I bring a lot of creativity and we can talk about that if you’d like.

Stephen Schmidt (02:21.732)
Yeah, 100%. I’d actually like to dive into that because we didn’t really have a whole lot of a chance to go into that further as far as like the actual creativity side of what you do in our pre-show conversation. So tell us a little bit about how that vision starts and kind of what you do with your clients.

MD3 (02:37.144)
Sure. Well, I was a super creative kid growing up and I was very advanced in building blocks and Legos and that type of thing. And then I got experience in actually drawing and designing and drafting. And I excelled at that at very early age and I won.

two for my architectural drawings of homes back in middle school. I won a series of back-to-back years of winning the California State Fair Award for best drawings of a house. And then also, next year, I built the house, a scale model, type five construction. And so I was learning how things come together and the second year I won again. And so I was launching my architecture career very young and I knew I wanted to be an architect before I even got to high school. But I didn’t want to be a traditional architect. I didn’t want to just build

rich people’s houses. I wanted to do projects that impacted the community and neighborhoods and so I was really set on becoming an Imagineer early in life. I grew up in San Fernando Valley in Burbank and the studios were just four miles down the road and so I’d see them and I knew all the creative people because they lived in our community and I knew I wanted to have that kind of special job where I can make a major impact. So after graduating from the USC School of Architecture top 10 program I was ready to take on the world and I applied throughout

my five years of architecture school to become an Imagineer and be an internship at least and every year I got rejected but I just kept thriving at that. That’s my only goal in life was to be an Imagineer and so finally six months after I graduated I got my first opportunity and that first interview led to me working on Euro Disney for the Paris project and later went on to design eight more theme parks around the world, mostly outside of America.

for companies like Universal Studios, Landmark Entertainment Group, Warner Brothers, they were all situated in the Schaffner Valley. So I didn’t travel very far to work on projects that were literally impacting and built around the globe. It was exciting for 10 years.

Stephen Schmidt (04:40.826)
You know, one of the things that you mentioned there is you kept trying not trying because you weren’t if you try something you don’t really do it right so you were you kept applying and applying and applying and that just shows that you have an incredible bent towards persistence and resiliency. How long did it take? How many years was that before you finally got accepted?

MD3 (04:51.555)
Yeah.

MD3 (05:05.375)
It was literally my first year at Darkest School and architecture programs are five years. So I applied and I wanted to get an internship there and throughout my five years, I got five years of rejection letters. I still have them. They’re my, you know, they’re my proof that what I had to go through, but I have a lot of grit and determination and I don’t accept the first no. And, you know, if it’s moral, ethical, or legal, I want to pursue it. And I think that’s one of

positive characteristics I have that I just don’t give up. I’m really focused on that. I believe in goals and dreams and not just dreams but actually writing things down and make it happen and it pulled off for me. So it was worth it in the end.

Stephen Schmidt (05:46.757)
You know, I think this goes to speak on another topic too that’s pretty prevalent in our world today where most people when they get told no, they just accept it. And even if they go back and try to get a second no, they also continue to just like give up at that point. What was it about like for five years straight that made you decide to do that? Was that just like the overall dream for you at the time and achieving it meant everything?

MD3 (06:10.016)
I wanted to be the best and I wanted to work for the most advanced projects and the most creativity.

didn’t want to get stuck in a job where I’m designing bathroom details for a single family house. I didn’t want to be that kind of architect. you know, I just, because I was so driven and goal-orientated, it came naturally to me to not quit. And I mentor a lot of college students these days and they make one phone call or send one email and they think, you know, I tried. And I’m like, you know, the world is not like that. You got to keep asking until they tell you no many times or go away. And that persistence paid off.

me and I think it pays off for lot of people if you’re focused and dedicated to what you want to accomplish.

Stephen Schmidt (06:52.026)
This might only be something that you or somebody that’s done a lot of personal development to even surpass the traditional self-help or personal development books, but how much of your journey was inspired by the book The Fountainhead?

MD3 (07:11.278)
You know, I’ve been asked that question a couple of times now, I think about it, and I actually never read it as a child because it was a big, thick book and there was a scholarship offered. If you read the book, you can… And I’m like, I never got around to that. And I more recently started diving into it and I never grasped, I never caught on to me that part of it. And I know most people outside of architecture know that book and that’s great, but it was other books that really, you know…

Stephen Schmidt (07:20.055)
Right.

MD3 (07:40.846)
Think and Grow Rich, all the wonderful self-help books that my father introduced me to. One of the things he really pushed on me was to keep your mindset right and be positive and don’t give up. reading all those books as a young, as a teenager, I think really made a difference because it locked me in.

Stephen Schmidt (07:51.162)
Mmm.

Stephen Schmidt (08:00.442)
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I like to ask that question anytime I talk to somebody with an architectural background because every now and then I discover it’s a gym question for them that no one’s ever asked. But you’re correct that a lot of people in business know about the book just because of all the principles that are in it that are applicable to life and business and everything else. So that’s cool. now you have all this experience. what is…

What does life look like for you now utilizing your imagination on these projects? What’s maybe one of your favorite projects you’ve ever done, if you’d be willing to share?

MD3 (08:36.59)
Well, I transitioned to finish the theme park story. The sad thing was happening when 9-11 happened, the whole industry went on hold. And so my dream career just kind of went away. I did have opportunity to.

build California Adventure theme park and moved Orange County to accomplish that because I wanted more experience getting my hands dirty. But again, 9-11 and I was in you know, this situation where what can I do now? So I, at that point, I reluctantly went back to USC and got my master’s in real estate development. So I covered that bit. That opened up lot of opportunities for me and I touched a lot of different projects. And with that, I could use my creativity, but on real projects and one of my favorite projects that

got built sadly was in the arts district of Los Angeles and it was this old great warehouse building about 26,000 square feet of how of square foot and two stories had great heavy wood timber roofing and rafters and had know brick veneer brick it was built in brick it was really it was three foot elevated off the ground so so the trains could bring produce or whatever to the to the floor.

and at a vault, it had one of those crazy elevators you see in the old movies where it’s like a room that goes up. It was a great project. We were going to convert this to artist lofts for sale. And I was all in on that project. you know, success is about timing as well. We had a great product, but we were getting to the point where we were outpacing the market in terms of the cost of the project. so that’s kind of when things went sideways and had to pull out of that project because it didn’t make financial sense anymore.

I still think about that project all the time.

Stephen Schmidt (10:24.216)
Why do you still think about it? What is it about it that that keeps you thinking about it?

MD3 (10:28.622)
because I know the building’s still there in the Arts District and nobody really did anything much with it since. It’s still mostly vacant building and our design was great and I worked with my mentor from my first architecture job and we had a great team and we had a very unique project that I haven’t seen very similar yet and it had a great, every unit had their own roof deck.

these great views of downtown LA and the Arts District was really, really vibrant back then. And so it was going to be a great project, a home run. it just kills me that we didn’t push forward.

Stephen Schmidt (11:13.092)
How long have you been collectively doing this for? If you put a number on it.

MD3 (11:17.656)
So I go back to, I’ve always had.

I would say my first year, 87, when I first set foot on campus at USC because of my experience prior to that and also I’ve always had an internship or projects that I did during the summer. So I was always working in the industry even before I graduated college the first time. So at least 33 years and it’s just a huge variety of project types that I’ve touched. I’ve done office, I’ve done retail, I’ve done resorts, multifamily, single family.

The only thing I haven’t done is really a hospital and I have no interest in doing that. So, know, you name it, I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I’ve got the t-shirt.

Stephen Schmidt (12:02.308)
So on that note, I’m glad you say there hasn’t been a whole lot that you haven’t done. What’s a dream project of yours that you haven’t had the opportunity to get to do?

MD3 (12:12.686)
Well, I haven’t been able to actually build a resort. I designed them and then they’re built. Typically the Disney model has been, and probably still is, is designed locally here in LA at the studios. And then it’s…

drawings are brought to a certain point, or design development, they call it. And then they’re given over to the country, the business that, like Japan or South Africa, wherever the project is to be, and they convert to their language and metric, because we still design a metric here in America, and then they make it theirs. They know how to build in the conditions of their country. So this what I want to do, and I’ve got an opportunity, hopefully, to do this in the country of Jamaica.

I have a contact I’ve been working with for six, eight months now and she has moved there now and she’s trying to acquire enough capital to deploy and to buy up existing assets and we’re going to renovate them and make them our own brand and there’ll be some new construction renovation of everything and I’m pretty excited about that opportunity if it continues to present itself. So if anybody’s got a hundred million dollars we’d like to talk to you.

Stephen Schmidt (13:24.024)
I love it.

With this extensive background, everything you’ve done, what are some of the challenges that you’ve faced along the almost 40 years that you’ve been in this game that you’ve learned your biggest lessons from?

MD3 (13:40.77)
Well, I think, you know, I do have this wealth of experience and I sometime come across as a know-it-all, unfortunately, and that has been backfired to me in the past.

You know, I’ve got to be humble to be in the same level as the clients. And when I was doing real estate in terms of sales, know, people, for example, didn’t care how much you knew. They want to know how much you cared. And I found out the hard way, you know, so it’s not, it’s not great always to be the smartest guy in the room because they don’t care about that. They only care about their needs and their wants. And so that’s been a humbling experience where I’ve just got to, you know, meet them at their needs.

the clients that is. And you know, think you me earlier about how I fit in and each project is different. If you lost your house, you need an architect, I’m going to bring that architect person to you. I’m probably not going to be designing it myself, kind of past that stage of my career, but bringing the right engineers, interior designers, contractors. I’ve got 14,000 plus contacts, mostly here in Los Angeles. And so I can get things done right away.

And that’s been exciting to bring those teams together. that’s what I bring. That brings me a lot of joy. I don’t need to be a guy to get all the credit. I don’t need to do all the work either. And I’d rather bring a team together that I’ve already worked with and I know would accomplish great things to the right clients. And so when people have a need and I tell them, call MD3 first. Ask me first what, know, who’s the right architect for you? Who’s the right contractor? Who’s the right engineer? Because I already know who they are.

I can bring them to you on your special project, whatever that might be.

Stephen Schmidt (15:26.298)
So looking towards the future because you’ve already had a very colorful career and several careers at that it probably you’re in a stage where maybe it’s not so much like an accumulation phase more so like a legacy play what does the future look like for you I mean obviously you’ve got the Jamaica build potentially but what is like the real big legacy play for you now at this point

MD3 (15:50.978)
Well, that’s a great question. And my simple answer is my academy. I created a called the MD3 Real Estate Development and Construction Academy online. this is

result of opportunity to teach a course at USC in real estate development. And when it didn’t happen, I still had the content. And so I wanted to deploy it. And I’ve already been invited to speak many times at USC, UCLA, Pepperdine University locally here on the topics of architecture, our construction, our real estate. And I really got a lot of joy out of that, of teaching people. And so the content, I put it online and I created these 18 videos.

and on various topics such as single family, multi-family, resort, office, manufacturing, how these projects are built, designed, and developed. And so that content is available online at my academy. And so the courses are up there. That’s my legacy. That’s what I’m excited about. I want people to come away from that saying, wow, you know, I really learned a lot. That was very insightful. That’s what I would like.

to happen.

Stephen Schmidt (17:07.448)
Now what do you really teach through that course? Like if you had to give us like a elevator pitch synopsis of it.

MD3 (17:13.582)
So again, 18 courses in every topic from how do you build a single family house? One the things I realized when I was lecturing was we all live in a house or condo or apartment or whatever, and we know the components of a house, doors, windows, roofs, but how does it come together? And so I found to kind of take a step back. And so I created this one of my courses, how to build a house from ground up. How do you prepare the land and compact the earth and start digging for your foundations and then pouring the

concrete and putting the rebar in the concrete and then putting

fasteners to attach wood to the concrete later on and for seismic issues that we have constantly here in California. So that’s one course going through and all the all the different from rough construction to finished construction and all the choices, how many sink options you have, how many light bulb options you have, all the different things to make people aware of what they’re going to get into, especially if you’re trying to rebuild or build a house from the first time. You as the client have many, many, many, many, many options and so

this one simple course which is like six an hour for me to present goes through the whole process and people come away enlightened and

That’s one course and everything from resort development, which I’m excited. That was a great accomplishment to complete that content because I’ve been able to present it to other fellow professionals. And I was always expecting to get a lot of feedback like, you missed this or you missed that. And you could have said, emphasize this more. But I’m getting a lot of positive feedback from my peer group, which I thought would be more critical. And so that kind of makes me feel that this is worth it. So I had every topic even, you know, how to deal with.

MD3 (18:58.544)
contractors, project management, sustainability, and again all the major food groups, office, retail, manufacturing, single family. So every component that I could figure out is there, the video it’s already made, and some of these are actual lectures that I did at USC or UCLA. And so you’re gonna learn from me and at your own leisure, you download it and you watch it and if you’ve got questions, come find me.

you

Stephen Schmidt (19:28.814)
And so who’s the perfect person to take that course? Like who would be like your ideal person that’s going through it?

MD3 (19:35.864)
So this would be like inspiring professionals that want to pivot or to, from, I don’t know, architect contractor to become development or even investors, people that want to better understand real estate and how it is constructed. So, I’m not the finance guy, I’m not appraisal guy, there’s many things I’m not, but I am design, build, develop guy. And I think I cover all those bases and with my licenses and degrees, I’ve proven,

know what I’m talking about. And so these courses are geared for people that kind of want to make a, investigate, instead of you stopping your life and going to graduate school like I did, why not just take a look at these courses and see if it’s for you? And it’s kind of just stepping in the shallow end of the pool and getting your feet wet and getting the right questions answered to see if this is a career opportunity or a side hustle, a side business that you want to invest in real estate. Well, I hit that.

topic as well. So, you know, I’m trying to, I definitely share everything I know from my 30 plus years. And one of my students said it was like drinking from a fire hose because I throw a lot of content at you. But again, you know, if my, in my, live ceremonies or my life, excuse me, presentations, then ask all the questions galore. But I do leave the opportunity for if somebody wants to learn more about a certain topic, they can, they can reach me. I’m easily found and

Again, allow me answer your simple questions. That’s my legacy, is sharing what I know while I’m here to do it.

Stephen Schmidt (21:15.762)
If you had to go back to the beginning when you first got started and I mean this could I guess theoretically go as far back as you know your childhood but let’s say when you really started in your career but you could take all of the lessons that you’ve gained over the last 34 years 35 years or so what would you do different and what would you do the same?

MD3 (21:42.082)
Well, the downside of my career and what I’ve done is that you find out when you’re doing the sexy jobs like theme park designer, which is always great.

party starter, conversation starter and party, it’s not consistent and we don’t need theme parks. They’re nice to have. So the demand for my services has not been consistent and to this day, it’s not always consistent. So I’m constantly hustling to try to find new clients to help them with their projects. And if I would have done differently, I probably would have been doing something slightly less sexy, but more high in demand and stick with one genre.

say retail development or who knows designing.

Multifamily or whatever if I would have stayed in one lane versus what I did I I’m I’m the what he called jack-of-all-trades master of none. That’s kind of explain I’m Knowledgeable about a lot of topics, but I’m not the expert expert, you know, I’m very knowledgeable But I did not dig deep my roots in one particular silo and that’s what I that’s what I Share when I’m talking to my mentees USC students typically and explaining, you know, find your niche find your niche

and just keep digging being the expert at that you know and that’s not what I did and so the the trade-off is I’ve got great stories and wonderful but financially I’m not where I probably should be because I’m just bounced around way too much I think and did did a lot of different things for a lot of different folks so the people I know that are more secure and

MD3 (23:22.728)
better spot. focus on one thing and they’re bored, they’re bored to tears, but at least you know they’re living.

their life, whatever. I chose to be different. I don’t know if I’m necessarily, but I’m giving advice to other people. Find your niche, dig down and be the expert at that thing, whatever that might be. So, know, I’m rolled the punches depending on the economy. And right now it is a high demand for residential, high end residential here in Los Angeles with all the houses we lost, about 16,000 structures. And I’m part of the movement to rebuild those and bringing teams together. So I may not

Stephen Schmidt (23:42.382)
Hmm.

MD3 (23:59.892)
I’m probably not going be the architect and that’s fine, but I’m going to oversee the architecture that someone else creates and I’m going oversee the construction that someone else is going to hammer and put nails in the wall. And I bring the teams together and that’s what I enjoy doing because I’m definitely a people person and I’d much rather be one part of a team than the only guy doing a particular project.

Stephen Schmidt (24:21.368)
Yeah, that’s really great. A lot of stuff to glean out of what you just said there, especially that honing in and focusing on one thing and just building your or solidifying your reputation in that space. So I love that a lot. If people want to connect with you more MD3 or maybe figure out what you’re working on, maybe they want to look at having you help them with a high end project or whatever that might look like. Where should they go for that to connect with you?

MD3 (24:48.94)
I’ve got my website MD3 Property Solutions, that’s the of my company. And the Academy can also be found there. there you’re to see all my background, samples of my designs, projects, all the fun things we do here at Donovan House. I didn’t really hit on that topic much, but when it comes to, I just sent an email out recently, like, what do board former theme park designers do?

when they don’t do that design anymore. Well, I come up with all these crazy ideas for Halloween and for Christmas. I’ve got a Christmas train. I’ve got a Ferris wheel I built for my house. Halloween, I’ve got a 22 foot tall pirate ship that mounts to my house. I’ve got a dungeon door. I’ve got a sea dragon and Poseidon and the sea dragon shoots smoke out of his mouth.

I have all this come check it out. We’re upgrading the Ferris wheel this year and I’m very.

Since I live so close to the ocean now, we are very involved with boating community. So the yacht clubs have their Christmas boat parades. And so every time I get involved with that and put together a design and put on a boat and make it shiny and do crazy fun stuff, my team always wins an award. That’s the crazy fun stuff that I’m excited about doing. And I’m very Irish. I’m Michael Joseph Donovan III, so I have my own pub in my house, my backyard.

a site to be had. All this stuff can be found and shown on my website and I think you’ll get a kick out of what I’ve been able to accomplish with my family and community.

Stephen Schmidt (26:32.426)
super cool. We’ll go connect with them for more folks and hope you enjoyed today’s episode as much as I did. We’ll see you in the next episode.

MD3 (26:41.814)
Thanks so much, appreciate it, enjoyed it. Bye everybody, come find me.