Tag: Mid

This Reminds Me

This reminds me of what vacationing Disney Guests feel like.

My family and I are preparing for my very first Writer’s Retreat combined with an annual summer vacation to our favorite beach get-a-way.

We’ve calculated this is our 23rd visit in the past 21 years.

Same island.  Same accommodations.  Same Ocean.

Different owners.  Different management team.  Different emotions.

We are not sure this experience will be as relaxing as in the past.

Why?

Too much change perhaps.   Too much focus on the bottom line.  Too much heritage lost.

The last one, heritage lost, is the thing that worries me.

Now that our son is almost nine, he has really great memories of this place and looks forward to it even more than we do.  Our first Lab went for 12 years.  Our second Lab, now ten, has been going to this sunny place since he was four months old.

In fact, last October, we took him there, for what we thought was his last weekend on earth.  He obviously, and miraculously, survived – further cementing our emotional attachment to this special place.

We feel like owners.  Seriously.  I’ve never felt this unusual feeling of entitlement.

Because of our loyalty, we could easily daydream that when we arrive, the trumpets will sound as the red carpet awaits us.

This is what I’m absolutely certain Disney’s long-time returning Guests must feel like.

I hope the trumpets blare and the red carpet awaits them and their families.

What a huge responsibility it is to make people feel like Royalty.

What a huge privilege.

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Twitterdom or Wisdom?

Click below to read…….

Twitterdom or Wisdom?

This thought-provoking article is worth a few minutes of your time.

Oh, I almost forgot, you don’t have 180 seconds to spare.

I was at Starbucks on Friday and ordered a tall (which is really a small – too funny) cup of coffee.  They were out.  So if Starbucks has to brew a fresh pot for you – in 180 seconds – they provide it complimentary.

When he made the offer, I thought, “I don’t have three minutes.  I gotta get going“.

Then it hit me, “If you don’t have 180 seconds to spare in your life, you better go look in the mirror and ask why”, I said to myself.

It was amazing, in those brief three minutes, what I saw in the mirror.

I saw a man who has a difficult time fitting all life’s puzzle pieces together.  But a man who doesn’t give up.

I was sad and happy all in the course of 180 seconds.

After picking up my son at summer camp, we went to Gold’s Gym for an hour.

It was a great day, because I took even more time to reflect on what’s important, and then acted on it

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Noel’s Tree Service & the Hidden Disney Secret?

Noel’s Tree Service, and the hidden Disney secret?

Not exactly.

Last night I spoke with Noel (his first name and my last name – what are the odds) about trimming my palm trees, an annual event that I’ve done myself for the past 17 years.  We have about 30 sabal palms, the Florida State tree.

He can’t come out today to give me an estimate.  Bummer, right?  He’s got a fishing tournament.  Once every month, men from his Church go bass fishing.

I think it’s great that:

  1. He has a sense of community
  2. Has his own business
  3. Is so busy during these turbulent times
  4. Commits to time away from work to recharge
  5. He called me back at 7PM on a Friday night

An hour before I spoke with Noel, I spoke with my car mechanic, or should I say car magician, Randy.

Randy also has an interest in fishing.  Small world, eh?

Noel will be on a Central Florida lake.  Randy goes deep sea fishing.

Well, Randy doesn’t actually go fishing, he goes catching.

BIG difference.

The language difference that Noel and Randy use “to do the same thing”, makes all the difference in the world.

Same at Disney.  Same for me.

And while you may not realize it, it’s the same for you.  The question then becomes, “Are you maximizing your language to have a great personal and professional culture”?

Words must be leveraged to be great.

Let me say that one more time – must be leveraged.

You don’t have to leverage your language to become world-class; however, your chances of ever becoming world-class pale in comparison to those that harness this simple business strategy.

The choice is yours.  Always has been.  Always will be.  Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Google Study Tips

Google Study Tips

“You can observe a lot by watching”. — Yogi Berra

Google dominates search engine.   Disney dominates family entertainment.

I enjoy watching and learning from them.

They say, “To teach is to learn twice”.

As a 35-year business professional, including 25 year here in Central Florida,  I’ve become quite the Disney expert.

I really hadn’t noticed, until I started to do the math.

For the past ten-plus years, I’ve been a professional speaker, teaching world-class business strategies and business tactics – averaging four days per week teaching.

Assuming 46 weeks per year teaching, multiplied by four days per week, multiplied by 10.3 years teaching  – roughly 2,000 days of keynote speeches, multi-day workshops, etc.

Even more staggering, to me, is to roughly estimate the average audience size to be 250.   The largest group I taught was 3,000.  The smallest, ten.

Bottom line?

I’ve taught over one-half million people.

That’s 500,000!   Wow!  Who knew?

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂