Disney Magical Mindset Podcast

3 Things Walt Disney Would Say To Me (And Maybe To You, Too)

• Ruben R. Rios • Episode 15

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If you could sit down with Walt Disney for a heart-to-heart conversation, what would he say about chasing dreams, facing failure, and building a legacy? In this powerful episode, I imagine what advice Walt might give if we were sitting across from each other—dreamer to dreamer.

Drawing from his real-life struggles and iconic success, I’ll share three unforgettable lessons Walt would likely pass on to anyone pursuing something bigger than themselves. You’ll hear how Walt believed in Disneyland when no one else did, how he turned failure into fuel, and why he believed that wishing upon a star would only get you so far! 

If you need a spark of inspiration, a push to keep going, or just a little Disney magic to reignite your passion… this episode is for you.

🎧 Press play—and let Walt speak to your heart.
🌟 And don’t forget to share this with a fellow dreamer who needs it today!

Helping you silence the villain in your mind and become the hero of your story!

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Ruben Rios :

Hey pals, welcome back to the Disney Magical Mindset Podcast. My name is Ruben, your Disney Magic Mentor. I'm so glad you are here today because I get excited helping you unlock the magic within and bringing your dreams to life, even if you're miles away from the parks right now. I wish I was in a Disney park. I know you wish you were in a Disney park right now. Maybe you are in a Disney park. Actually, I would expect you to be listening to this podcast episode. If you're in a Disney park, have an awesome time. I just hope that if you're in Disneyland or in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, you have to at least head off to Neverland with Peter Pan on Peter Pan's flight, because, are you ready? Here we go.

Ruben Rios :

So earlier this week I shared a reel that showed Disneyland from 1956. It was super nostalgic, all the vintage vibes I mean. I just wanted to go back in time. We all do. There's something about looking at these nostalgic videos that make us miss for these moments of the past. I wish we had a time machine. This is something. Can we get the Imagineers? They're so amazing as it is super talented, creative. There's got to be some technology out there, I wish.

Ruben Rios :

Wouldn't that be crazy, amazing to just take us back into certain decades. By the way, if you had a decade to choose for Disneyland or Disney era decade, what would it be? I love the 90s because I grew up in the 90s, but would you want to go back to the 50s? 1955 is when Disneyland first opened the 60s. Would you take the 70s, the 80s that's also a cool time because, again, I actually was born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s or would you take a time after the 2000s? What would it be? That would be a fun podcast episode, wouldn't it? We're just looking at different decades of Disney. So much magic to look back on and to look forward to as well.

Ruben Rios :

Maybe that's something I've got a pencil in one of these days, but today, the reason I'm saying everything that I've said about this nostalgic video from 1956 is because in this video that's a clip from People and Places Disneyland, usa, 1956. At the very end of this reel that I shared, there's Walt Disney riding a horse alongside Fess Parker, who, if you know Fess Parker, davy, davy Crockett king of the wild frontier. It just got me thinking about how special it would have been to see Walt in his magic kingdom. I mean just, can you imagine walking down Main Street and there you see Walt Disney sitting on a bench? Or he's walking through the different lands, fantasyland to myself. Wow, how amazing would that have been to see Walt Disney in Disneyland. And since I never got the opportunity to see him in his park, of course I had this thought the other day what if I could sit down with Walt Disney? It just gets me excited thinking about that. Just me and him. A quiet room, maybe a bench in Disneyland, like the one where he first dreamed it all up. You know, that's where he dreamed up Disneyland when he would go with his daughter's daddy-daughter days and dates there in Griffith Park, at the carousel. And he was sitting on a bench and that's where he dreamed up Disneyland. So what would Walt say to me? They're on a bench, just me and Walt. What would he say to me? I let my creative imagination run wild. That's the thing about imagination. Right, you can go anywhere.

Ruben Rios :

And I came up with three things I truly believe Walt would tell me, and maybe, just maybe, they're the same things you need to hear too. So grab your Mickey ears or your journal and let's talk. I'm not just guessing here. I've studied Walt's life. I've walked through his office, which is amazing. If you've never done that, you need to make it happen at the Walt Disney life. I've walked through his office, which is amazing. If you've never done that, you need to make it happen at the Walt Disney Studios. I've read the stories, the setbacks, the breakthroughs. These three lessons are stitched into everything he lived for and everything he built, and I can't wait to share them with you. So Tink a little extra pixie dust today.

Ruben Rios :

Number one here's the first thing I believe and I imagine Walt would say to me if I was there with him, man, face-to-face, just talking to the dreamer, to the legend, to the goat Walt Disney. Here's what I imagine him saying to me in that voice of his. We all love Talking to the dreamer, to the legend, to the GOAT Walt Disney. Here's what I imagine him saying to me in that voice of his. We all love looking at me straight in the eye.

Ruben Rios :

You have to believe in your dream more than anyone else, because no one is going to believe in you and your dream. Like you. You can't wait for someone else's approval. You can't wait for someone else to cheer you on and to be there telling you that you're going to do it, because if you keep waiting for that, you'll never get there. You have to be the one to believe in this dream more than anybody else. He'd say Ruben, be your biggest cheerleader because you'll also be your biggest obstacle. Man Walt just hitting me with some wisdom and inspiration. One of them is going to win. Choose wisely. You're either going to be your biggest cheerleader or you're going to be your biggest obstacle. So not only do you have to be the one to believe in your dream, because no one else is going to believe in it quite like you, but you're also going to be the one who can possibly be the biggest obstacle. And we're going to talk a little bit about that because it's often those moments that we doubt ourselves, or we fall and we get discouraged, or we listen to the critics or the voices in our head that's telling us that we can't do this. So not only are you the one who has to believe in your dream big time, more than anybody else, but you also have to fight against yourself that wants to tell you that you can't do it. My goodness, it's too good. It's just the first lesson too. We're just at number one. This hits deep, doesn't it?

Ruben Rios :

Walt knew this from experience. When he pitched Disneyland, almost everyone do you hear me, just about everyone thought he was crazy. The studios didn't get it, the banks wouldn't back it. Even his own wife, his queen Lillian, thought it was crazy, that it sounded like a little too far-fetched. She told him why would you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty. But Walt, come on, walt, not even his own family was believing in his dream. See, I'm telling you, you got to believe in your dream more than anyone else. You got to believe in it because no one else is going to believe in it quite like you.

Ruben Rios :

And Walt knew that he wasn't just building an amusement park. He was building something special, something different, something that no one had ever seen before, a place where families could have fun together. And even when everyone doubted him, you know what he did he kept believing, he kept pushing, he kept dreaming, he kept knowing himself, knowing his dream, believing in what he had. He knew he had something special and he wasn't about to allow anyone else, not even himself, to stop him from fulfilling his dream. You see, you and me, we have to be like Walt, we have to be this kind of believer in our dream, in who we are and what we have to offer, and that vision for our future and the thing that excites us and gets us going, because no one else is going to be on that same level. And hear me, the moment you stop believing in your dream is the moment it starts to die.

Ruben Rios :

And one of the ways I've seen it happen, because I think we've all experienced it one of the easiest way to sink your dream and cause it to die is by listening to the critics, by performing to the critics. So I imagine Walt would tell me something like don't perform for the critics, because loud doesn't equal large and volume doesn't equal velocity. It is easy to assume that because those people who are criticizing or have something to say that we imagine falsely that that's what everybody thinks or that we envision something bigger than it really is. Listen to me. At the end of the day, those people aren't going to be the ones to tell you that you can do this. That seems impossible. It is those people that are going to try to freeze your dream, those people that are going to try to tell you you can't do it, those critics who often have so many things to say, but they themselves aren't even doing things in their own life. It is so easy to critique than it is to create, and that's not going to be you and me. So I'm not even going to give in to the critics, because Walt knew that those critics weren't going to be the ones to believe in his dream. So why waste my time on somebody that isn't even on my level? Just because someone else is louder doesn't mean they're right. Believe, focus, build, believe, focus, build. Let's do this. All right, I hope you're having fun. Here we go.

Ruben Rios :

Number two here's the second thing that I imagine Walt would say to me. He would lean in with that twinkle in his eye and say if you don't expect to fail, you'll never expect to win. At that moment I think I would just be silent, as I'm just in awe. First of all, that I'm with Walt Disney, but that he just dropped a powerful, magical truth over my life, because failure is part of the process.

Ruben Rios :

We often want to run from failure or we don't like failure. I know none of us do. We don't ever want to be in a position where we feel like a failure. So of course we want to run from it and avoid it. And I hear Walt saying hey, if you don't expect it, you can't expect to win, because those who win have probably gone through a lot of failures. I mean, walt knows a thing or two about failures. It's part of the process, it's not a flaw. So we have to shift our perspective and stop seeing failure as a flaw and seeing it simply as part of the process. In fact, if you expect to fail, then you're prepared for it. When it happens, and you know that you don't stay there on the ground in your failure, you pick it back up and you learn from the things that set you back, because setbacks are simply setups for your biggest step up in your life. It's all about perspective and I know Walt knew this. He lived it.

Ruben Rios :

He had so many failures before Mickey ever showed up. His first studio, laugh-o-gram, went bankrupt. He once lost the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. And not only did he lose Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but he lost most of his animation team in that same meeting where he was told he didn't have the rights to Oswald. That could have ended everything, but it didn't.

Ruben Rios :

And here's the secret to success those who achieve their goals, their dreams, who get to that other side, who cross the finish line. They're not afraid to fail. And when they do, they don't retreat, they press on, they keep going forward, they persevere, they don't let anything stop them, they don't give up. This is exactly what happens to Walt. He loses Oswald but in fact telegram back to his brother, roy, in Los Angeles and he tells him you know, basically, roy, everything's cool, don't worry, I'm coming back. And that was it. It was very positive.

Ruben Rios :

The tone was positive because Walt knew that nothing was going to stop him. In fact, he knew now he had freedom. He was no longer under any distributor, he didn't have to worry about anybody else he was working for. He was no longer under any distributor, he didn't have to worry about anybody else he was working for. He's like this, is it? And from that failure, guess what was birthed Mickey Mouse, there, on the train ride back to Los Angeles. Now he had every right. Walt had every right from New York to Los Angeles, to be in a place of discouragement, to not want to even talk to his wife, not do anything. But there, on the train ride, he didn't let anything stop him. Now he decided that he was going to press forward and create this new character that we all love today because of a failure. Do you see the power there? You don't ever know what can be birthed from something that seems so destructive and sad and sorrowful, that from this failure, guess what happens. Now we all get to experience the joy, the happiness that Mickey Mouse brings, because Walt chose not to stop his dream and not to revert back, and not to just press back but to press forward, because he believed so much in what he was doing.

Ruben Rios :

Failure is not final. Those with a dream, with a vision, turn failure into fuel for the future. They turn adversity into animation history. Thank you, walt. I love how Walt put it it is good to have a failure while you're young because it teaches you so much. Once you've lived through the worst, you're never quite as vulnerable afterward. And I imagine him looking at me and you and saying you'll never get to your Disneyland If you spend your life circling the parking lot. Take the risk, walk through the gates, stop fearing failure, because risks are part of the ride and the reward Guess what? That's what's waiting on the inside.

Ruben Rios :

Number three I don't want to say the final thing Walt would say to you or to me, because I know there's so much more. But I imagine that Walt would turn to me. As you know, he's got to run off and do his thing. I wish I could stay with him forever. But as he gets ready to leave he turns and he says dreams are powerful, but they're only the beginning. At some point you have to roll up your sleeves and build it. You can look at the orange grove all you want and it's pretty, it's nice, it smells good. But you can never get to the magic kingdom, to building your magic kingdom, by simply staring and wishing and hoping. I know Walt was all about wishing upon a star, but I also know he would tell me that wishing upon a star will only get you so far.

Ruben Rios :

For Walt, we look at his life and we admire him because every time you and me step into a Disney park, we know that it started with a dream. It started with someone who saw orange trees but saw something more. See, this is what these dreamers do. They have the ability to see beyond what's actually there. We see orange groves and Walt comes along and he says no, actually I see a magic kingdom. But he understands that the magic kingdom will never come if he simply stares and just looks out there and hopes that something's going to happen. He understands, he knows as well as you and me do that it's about doing.

Ruben Rios :

And Walt was a doer, he was a creator, he was a builder. He didn't just sit on that park bench in Griffith Park and daydream about Disneyland. I mean, I'm sure there was part of that. That's got to be some of it, right? We want to dream big and we have to have those moments that we daydream. But Walt didn't let the daydream steal his day. Come on Walt. What did he do? He ended up taking out loans. He sold property. He borrowed money from his bank using his life insurance policy as collateral from his bank, using his life insurance policy as collateral, he went to ABC and said hey, abc, I put together a TV series for you, I will host it, I will bring the magic. Just give me money for my Disneyland. He risked everything. He got to work, and every time you and me step into a Disney park Disneyland or any Disney park it is proof of what happens when you put in the work for your dreams. In fact, it was Walt who famously said the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Ruben Rios :

And when Walt got to work, he didn't just settle in doing. And when Walt got to work, he didn't just settle, he wasn't just going for average, because good is the enemy of great. He knew that he was going to go that extra mile. He was going to plus the experience and then he was going to plus it. Whatever Walt did, he was going to do it better. He wasn't just going to settle, he was going to say, hey, this is great, but how can I make it better? That's the mindset of a winner. That's the mindset of someone who, just going to settle, he was going to say, hey, this is great, but how can I make it better? That's the mindset of a winner. That's the mindset of someone who's going to chase after their dreams and make it happen.

Ruben Rios :

You know, walt is the one who coined this phrase plussing the experience, plussing the plus. He was never at a place where he was okay with simply just getting by. And that's how most people are. Let's be honest, most people are cool with just getting by and just being average. But you and I are not like most people. We're trying to be like Walt. And he constantly improved things, even after Disneyland opened, which is why every time you go to a Disney park and then you try to go somewhere else, it's never quite the same, because you know what it looks like to plus the experience. That's why you and me love a Disney park and the Disney experience, because they're always plussing the experience, giving you and me more.

Ruben Rios :

And you know where it started. It started from a dream from a man who believed that excellence was always in the details. Walt once said that Disneyland would never be completed. It would always change and be improving and growing and evolving. This was Walt's mindset. Because Walt wasn't content with just doing the same things over and over again. He was always looking at ways to make it better. And what would it be for you and me to carry that mindset into everything we do? It doesn't matter what you do and where you are and what you do for a living, if you're a parent, if you're a student, if you're on this job, if you are an entrepreneur. If you just have that mindset where you're going to plus the experience, you're always going to plus something and see how can I make it better, like Walt Disney.

Ruben Rios :

You know, before Walt walks away, I see him, turning to me and just with that big smile and saying if you've got a dream, don't just dream it, ruben, do it, build it, plus it, make it real. Then make it better, stop waiting, start building. So, to wrap up our time today, if I could sit with Walt, he wouldn't give me a perfect 10-step plan, he wouldn't promise it'd be easy, but I think he'd leave me with this Believe in your dream before anyone else. Don't let failure stop you, use it to fuel you and, for the love of the magic, make it real. And I would say, yes, walt, yes Walt, yes, walt, thank you, thank you, thank you. So here's my challenge to you this week thank you, thank you. So here's my challenge to you this week what's the one dream or goal that you've been circling around but never walked into? What's one step you can take to stop talking and start doing?

Ruben Rios :

You don't need a blueprint, you don't have to have it all in order or all together quite yet. You just need the bench, the belief and the bravery to begin, because Walt didn't just build a park. He built a legacy, and yours is waiting too. You get to create a legacy. Where do you want to be in 10 years from now, or in five years, in 20 years? What story do you want told about you?

Ruben Rios :

And you know what I believe about your story, about your book, the chapters in your book that the best ones have yet to be written. They're coming, they're there, they're already in the process. Maybe it's even right now. The best chapters of your life are coming. I believe in you and I'm cheering you on. Thanks so much for listening. My friends, I hope this episode encouraged you. I'd love it if you took some time to share it. It would mean so much if you'd write a review so we can get this magic out there, so everyone has a chance to create this Disney magical mindset. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep believing, let me add, keep working, keep doing and remember you are the magic, because the magic is in you.