Dana Weyl

Written by Elizabeth McCabe | Photos by Lily Chris Photography

Ten months of physical therapy. Four procedures. One manipulation of scar tissue. Surgery. All from one morning ride on an e-bike took a terrifying turn when a Great Pyrenees ran after her. Dana Weyl knows how to overcome physical challenges that may have sidelined others. Why? She’s a fighter. She gets knocked down and gets up again.

And if you need proof, consider this: Dana has already gotten back on the bike.

“I’m still going to ride my bike,” she says. 

Apparently, keeping Dana Weyl down is harder than it looks.

A Love of Houses

A Tulsa native, Dana earned her real estate license in 2012 after spending 12 years as a stay-at-home mom. Before that, she worked for Williams Communications as executive assistant to the vice president of IT.

Once her children were older, she knew she was ready for something new. She also knew one thing she wasn't interested in doing.

“I was not about to punch somebody else's clock,” she says.

Real estate made sense. Dana had always loved houses and neighborhoods. As a teenager in 1986, she even created her own Christmas driving tour through Tulsa neighborhoods just because she enjoyed looking at the homes. Most teenagers weren't creating their own neighborhood driving tours. Dana was clearly onto something.

Today, she works with everyone from luxury clients and first-time homebuyers to investors and owners of distressed properties.

“I like that it’s just different every day,” she says. “Every property is different. Every person is different.”

Education has also been central to her success. When Dana discovered a real estate course geared toward helping investors, she immediately signed up to better serve her clients. There was just one side effect: she became an investor herself.

Dana convinced her husband to purchase a small Owasso property to renovate. The couple spent two years working on it during evenings and weekends. The project ultimately found an even better purpose. When Dana needed to move her parents closer, the house became their home. They've lived there since 2021.

Dana also credits early mentor Janet Vermilion with accelerating her career.

“When you're new, you're just new, and you don't know what you don't know,” she says. “It takes aligning yourself with the right people.”

That willingness to learn paid off. After finding a real estate coach in 2019, Dana says she revolutionized her business, embraced video marketing and broke through another level professionally.

Then life threw her a curveball, or, more accurately, a very large dog.

The Ride That Changed Everything

Dana and her husband had entered the empty-nester stage of life and were enjoying one particular benefit.

“We finally got the last one off our payroll,” she jokes.

They celebrated their newfound freedom by buying a boat and electric bikes. Dana had fallen in love with e-biking after riding in the Colorado mountains. On July 3 of last year, she headed out near her Collinsville home with her cousin, who visits from Louisville for the Fourth of July.

Dana was traveling about 20 miles per hour when a Great Pyrenees came running from a property and collided with her.

She went flying. Her helmet protected her head, but Dana broke five ribs, her shoulder blade and the top of her tibia. She spent three months in a wheelchair.

Even technology came to her rescue. Her Apple Watch detected the impact and called 911. And the e-bike? Not a scratch. “It fell on the dog,” Dana says.

There’s your silver lining.

Recovery, however, was anything but easy. Dana endured 10 months of physical therapy, multiple procedures, surgery and a manipulation to address scar tissue. Another planned surgery had to be aborted because of an unexpected illness. Bloodwork associated with her medical care also revealed that she had developed Type 2 diabetes.

“It’s like insult to injury,” she says.

Still, Dana found something positive. Having experienced gestational diabetes years earlier, she knew Type 2 diabetes was a possibility. “I got 24 years without it,” she says. “You’ve got to call it a win.”

Real Estate From a Wheelchair

Even a wheelchair couldn't completely stop her business. Dana listed and sold four houses while using one. Her husband suddenly acquired several new job titles: chauffeur, sign installer, lightbulb checker and general real estate assistant. He accompanied her to client consultations and handled physical tasks she couldn't manage.

The experience gave him an entirely new appreciation for his wife's career.

“He literally told me, ‘I don't know how you do that. I couldn't do that,’” Dana recalls.

Her response? “Well, that's why you're in finance and I'm a REALTOR®.” Point taken.

Today, Dana is walking normally, navigating stairs and continuing to work on strength and flexibility. She has accumulated enough physical therapy equipment to essentially create her own home rehabilitation center.

Her motivation includes keeping up with her outdoorsy family, particularly her husband. “My husband is kind of like a mountain goat,” she jokes. “I just try and stay fit enough to stay up with him.”

The accident also brought clarity. Dana recently made professional changes, ending a partnership and joining Tim Cochran at Cochran & Co. REALTORS®. “I just wanted to start over,” she says.

Giving Back

One thing that isn't changing is Dana's commitment to service. She has volunteered with local REALTOR® organizations and Backpacks for Kids, which provides hundreds of children with backpacks, clothing and hygiene supplies.

Since 2019, she has also volunteered with John 3:16 Mission's children's and family programming in North Tulsa.

She previously led a cooking activity but eventually reached an important conclusion. “Cooking is not my thing,” she admits. “I'm good at it, but I don't love it.” So she traded cooking for music. Now the children sing, dance, play instruments and get some much-needed “wiggle time.”

“Volunteering is just as important as work to me,” Dana says. “I think it's important to give back in any way we can.”

Getting Back Up

Away from work, Dana and her husband enjoy boating, Oklahoma State games, performing arts, restaurants, traveling and weekly date nights. They've been together for 35 years and married for 33.

And empty-nester life isn't exactly breaking their hearts.

“I love my kids, and I want them to visit all the time, but it's just nice, the two of us again,” Dana says. “It's like you're newlyweds again, but now you have money.”

After the year she's endured, Dana has earned the right to enjoy it. The accident may have slowed her down. It may have changed her plans. It certainly tested her. But it didn't get the final word.

Dana is walking. She's rebuilding her business. She's serving her community. And, yes, she's riding that e-bike again.