Hometown – Disney Brand Loyalty Keynote Speaker

Avoiding career trauma

Spring Grove, PA — At the bottom of Main Street, next to the railroad tracks and the Paper Mill is this Apartment complex (an old hotel) where i lived as a toddler.

The most remarkable workers are the ones who are irrationally passionate about being remarkable.

Being remarkable is doing the same work that others do, but in a way that is different, refreshing, and better. The better and different way is generally created by taking small risks to incrementally improve the traditional way. No one notices as it is being formed, until one day. These “changers” are called misfits, the crazy ones, the round pegs in a square hole, the dreamers.

To not perform remarkably, for them, would be trauma to their career.

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Where is Spring Grove?

Some recent Disney name tags.

Where is Spring Grove?

For decades, Disney nametags had two images.

Mickey Mouse and the Cast Member’s first name.

In 1996 at Walt Disney World, we began celebrating our 25th anniversary.

Tom Elrod, our Marketing VP, announced that our new nametags would include our hometown.

Why?

To increase Guest to Cast interaction.

“Where’s Spring Grove? Is that near Pittsburgh?”

“No.”

And at this point, it doesn’t matter.

What mattered was that a conversation had begun.

Hometowns became an icebreaker.

This was all done by design.

Note: The risk was in the breaking from 41 years of nametag tradition. It was one of the simplest and best ideas we ever implemented. As an unforeseen benefit, hometowns also increased Cast to Cast interaction.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HQ, click here.

If you want to stay on this site and read more posts from this Blog, click here.

Stories Make It Stick

Three things Lee Cockerell told me when I asked his advice on public speaking, in 1999:

Be passionate
Tell stories
Use personal examples

Here’s a fourth tip. Benchmark. Click here to do that right now.

Make your day GREAT. It’s up to you. Always has been. Always will be. Be inspired. Or not.

On Startups.com

OnStartUps. Ever heard of them? Click here to see a list of entrepreneurs that are changing things.

Many years ago, I found myself driving Ken Blanchard to the airport. We had 30 minutes to talk. And I was smart enough, even back then, to do most of the listening. One of the things that has stayed with me all these years was something very simple that Ken Blanchard said:

“You can watch the parade. You can march in the parade. Or, you can lead the parade”.

I think about hometown Halloween parades this time of year, with High School Marching Bands and Drum & Bugle Corps. Do you? Can you picture watching a home town parade? Ever march in one? Ever lead one?

Entrepreneurs change things. And they are leaders. Remember Rosa Parks. I’d like to testify that Rosa Parks was an entrepreneur. “I rest my case, your honor”.

How big are your dreams? How much courage (guts) do you possess? What are you gonna do today?