What is your current title and organization? Describe what you do.
I run my own residential real estate business, OMD! Realty, powered by Urban Nest Realty, here in Las Vegas, NV.
What is it you love about your work?
Well, I never thought I’d do anything other than sing and entertain, but you get older and one day you realize you’re not a young man anymore, ha! So, when I decided to ‘retire’ after 25 years in show biz, I decided to get into the family business – real estate! I have a lot of realtors in my family and it was always in the back of my mind that one day I’d probably get my license too. Turns out it’s a great fit for me. Real estate is a lot like my singing career – I have to audition each and every day – not for singing gigs but for clients. The show is different but the interaction with people is very similar. It’s all about connecting. That connection is very important to me. Connection is the key to being a successful singer /actor and it’s just as important in real estate. Plus, I get to create my own content for my business and in a lot of ways it’s like performing for me. It’s a great creative outlet for me. I’ve never had the 9-5 type job because of my singing career, and real estate allows for the same flexibility in my schedule and I love that as well.
What hobbies or other activities do you most enjoy?
I always enjoy singing and traveling. The number one reason I pursued singing in the first place was to travel. I figured out really young that my voice could take me places and I’ve never looked back. I moonlight as a country singer here in Las Vegas and my wife and I still travel as much as we can. I have one continent – Antarctica – and only a few countries left in the world to visit and I plan on getting to them all.
What else do I do?
I lead the singing at my church at Sunday mass, I volunteer in the community quite a bit, and I’m a big beer nerd. I still love my Nebraska Cornhuskers football team of course – even though they have made it hard to love them in recent years – and watch them every chance I get. We have season tickets to the Las Vegas Raiders (as long as we’re not playing the Chiefs, I’m a Raiders fan) and I love going to the new stadium for games and concerts. I love playing tour guide and showing people around town too, so let me know if you’re ever in Vegas!
What memories stand out to you about your time at Pius X (classes, activities, teachers, etc.)?
My favorite memories are all the musical and play productions I had the opportunity to be a part of at Pius. I never would have pursued show business if not for all the singing and acting I was able to do during high school. I was lucky in that our class, Class of ’93, had so much talent! We had a great group of performers! Looking back, we put on some pretty good shows in the LPAC.
How does your experience at Pius X impact you today?
Well, I met my wife performing, so I guess in a lot of ways my experience at Pius has directly impacted my marriage. Without the opportunities to sing, dance, er, to perform choreography, rather, and act that I had at Pius, I don’t know if I ever would have pursued it, thus maybe never meeting my wife. Hmmm…I’d never thought of it that way, but yeah, that’s pretty impactful!
Share a little about your family.
I already mentioned my wife above. We’ve been married going on 23 years now, lived a lot of places, sung a lot of songs together, and had too many adventures to mention over the years! Her name is Tracy, and she’s a Nebraska girl, having grown up in Columbus and graduated from UN-L. We met performing in Myrtle Beach, SC. The rest is history as they say. I always say that thankfully I was good enough to keep up with her and her show biz career because let me tell you she’s the one with the talent! She currently tours the world singing in a group, DIVAS3 (they’re really good!) and I run my business and hold down the fort here in LV, and take care of our little zoo – a dog and 2 cats.
My parents, Mary and Gary Dodd, along with my baby sister, Michelle, and her family, all live in Branson, MO now; my older brother, Jeff (class of ’91) passed away in 2008, and his family still resides in Milwaukee, WI; my other sister, Mary (class of ’97) and her family live in Chicago; and my little brother, Michael, still lives in Lincoln with his family.
