Julie Couret

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Drop in Knowledge. We're at another episode here. And um today we're meeting with Julie. I think I pronounced that right.

SPEAKER_05 0:18

Nailed it.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Uh Corret. And I always want to put an L in your name, like I said earlier. So um and who uh has joined us today and has uh found herself in a very fun uh profession of um counseling businesses and being a business coach, but um has had a very interesting uh path to where she sits today. So we're very excited to have you. Thank you for taking the time.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

I'm so pumped that it worked out. You know, met randomly at some function of my sister's, and then all of a sudden we had this like polarizing conversation of wait, you're like that? That's like me. What did you do again? Tell me more. Wait a second. Like 45 minutes later, we're like, okay, we need to get back to socializing, but we're gonna talk further.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Oh, well, that's awesome. Yeah, that is pretty cool. I didn't know if you this was another Jim friend you had.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

No. Give us a little, tell us a little bit about um, you know, where you grew up and your kind of early, early life.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Sure. So born and raised uptown New Orleans, just a classic New Orleans family, went to Holy Name of Jesus Catholic school, and then I'm part of the Ain't Dare No More Club of New Orleans. So I went originally to Mercy Academy for high school, okay, which closed at the end of my freshman year. So my sisters had gone there, my mother taught there, my father was the track and cross country coach, so very embedded into Mercy Academy. And there was unbeknownst to us, there was this huge shift happening across the Catholic, the whole Catholic school region. And over Christmas break, the Archdiocese decided that I think it was maybe Holy Angels on the West Bank, another school in the another, two all-girls schools in the West Bank. Mercy needed to close, and not just that, Dela Salle High School was also on the chopping block. So a decision was made that Mercy and those two other Catholic schools would close and Dela Salle would go co-ed. So they would finish out that school year as business as usual, but um Dela Salle needed to outfit their entire school to fit girls, which meant changing the uniform, girls' bathrooms, girls' sports, everything. And then all of these juniors, not and all of us, right? Everybody that was going into sophomore and junior year needed to f and senior year needed to find a new school. So imagine you're a junior and you're thinking about your senior year, you're filing. You're at the top of the pyramid, and then all of a sudden, your school is not going to be there next year for your senior year. Oh, that feels so bad.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

And you so you were at an all-girl school.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

So Mercy transition to a co-ed.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

No, I did not go to De La Salle. Okay. Because I went to another girl school, it was a whole journey. So most of the girls from Mercy went to Dela Salle to stay together. There's more to the story. So over that whole two-week period of the holiday season, the my mother taught at Mercy. So the way we found out that Mercy closed is my mother got a phone call from the principal, and I remember her crying in the kitchen, and she told me what was happening, and she said, We're all getting a letter tomorrow in the mail, but they called this the faculty first. She said, You may call one friend and tell them, and that is it. That is all you may do because the letters are coming. And I called one friend and told her, and we are just devastated. I mean, everybody was devastated. My sisters were alum, and so they were saying it was really funny because my sisters are saying, Well, you don't have a right to be upset because we graduated from there. That's our high school, it's gone. I'm like, but I'm there just getting started. I'm a freshman. And um I really grew up around Mercy Academy. They had a summer camp. It's across the street from Holy Name of Jesus. So it was really like the Holy Name High School in the 50s and 60s, and then it separated and became its own. So during that two-week period of the holiday season, all of the Catholic schools and the ISAS schools, which are the Sagerdheart, the Newman, the McGee, St. Martin's, they had to come together and make an agreement of what are we going to do about all these now displaced students. So they had to create spin-a-days, they had to create an application system, and all I know is that every school had to have some sort of limit of what they were willing to accept. And Sacred Heart said we will accept two girls. We'll accept two seniors, two juniors, and two sophomores. That's it. That's all that's all we're willing to take from everybody who applies. So I wanted to go to Dela Salle because boys, because this gal was boy crazy. And my mom sent all of her daughters to single sex schools, all of her children to single sex schools. And my mom finally made a deal with me. She said, You need to pick another school first choice, but Dela Salle can be your second. And I picked Sacred Heart as my first choice. I'd um I'd never visited any other school. When it was time to go to high school, I didn't look anywhere else. But I visited Sacred Heart and it really just felt like home for me. And I was accepted. I was one of the two girls, or two girls from Mercy were accepted. And so there's only one girl that I went to high school for four years of my life.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

That's it. Just one because we both went to Mercy together. And um, so when it's Sacred Heart and I loved it and got fully immersed, and um, you know, I was sad to see Mercy get torn down. It got torn down this last school year. It was a it was um one of Loyola, Loyola bought the building when they closed. Okay. Real miss on Holy Name's part. And there was a lot of drama when that happened because if they would have bought Mercy, they could have expanded and they could have grown the school, and they would have had a gymnasium and access and all these things. It was across the street. I mean, they shared a road between them, just one little road, one little side street. And it was a huge, there was I hear you hear about the drama later. I was very uh self-absorbed at the time of my own life, but found out later and that there was a huge portion of the uh parish that was pushing for them to p purchase mercy. Like this is the only way we're gonna sustain, or we're gonna be in that chopping block one day if we don't do this, because we have too many schools in the city to sustain. So um they didn't, and Loyola purchased it and they used it as a classroom and classrooms, it went virtually untouched for all of those years. It was really great. I could just go back and walk the halls, and it was really neat. And then one day um I was driving down the street, going to drop my my girls went to Holy Name of Jesus, and I saw construction being set up and learned that they were tearing down and putting up a dorm. And it was happening fast. Like the demo job was like four days. And at the time I was working with the construction company doing some retained coaching, and I'm in the middle of a coaching session. I'm like, pause. Did you know these people? Because I want to get something from the school, like a relic. And I got a call later from the guy, and he's like, All right, they're putting aside two chalkboards for you and a locker, and you need to go get it. So this is this is such a crazy story. I'm I'm gonna have to eliminate some of it just because I don't want to get some in trouble. So um I and they're like, look, you need to get it immediately because the demo is happening like back to front, and they're not gonna there's you're it's gonna get in the crumble. Like they've got it leaning. So on the first day I drove by and I got the chalkboards. And my long-term boyfriend, Tom, he ended up getting all the chalkboards cut up and framed. Um, so my sisters and my mom, we all have part of the Mercy Academy chalkboards, which is really neat. But then there's the locker part of it. So they're like, look, if like Friday, you gotta get this. And it turns out they didn't pull a locker door for me. They pulled out the entire massive like row of lockers. I think he brought a couple out. So Tom is uh um, he's a contractor, and he yeah, I guess I can tell the story. It's there's nothing they can do about it now. So he's like, look, I can let him on a Wednesday night. So we come in and the um, you know, the yard shut down at six o'clock at night, and he's like, All right, uh, if I get my a ladder.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I'm envisioning like mission impossible. So he has to great music playing, y'all kind of creeping around.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah, so it's dark, and he's got the ladder. Um, like he kind of shoves it underneath the fence and he hops the fence, or like he climbs the fence. I take it, I shove it underneath there, and he's like, Okay, it's a giant locker. We're not gonna get this out. Um he said, I'm gonna get the door off. So he starts hammering, and it's silence except for boo, booing, boom. And and it's like that for a while, and I'm just I'm just waiting. And then all of a sudden, I hear scuffling, and he's like, get the ladder, get the ladder. And he, I think he throws the ladder over, he hops the fence, and he's like, the Loyola police are coming. He said, Did you hear that? And I'm like, No, I did not. He's like, they're coming. And so I get in my car to leave, and a Loyola police officer walks in front of my car, puts the flashlight up, and like waves it for me to stop. And I'm like, Okay. And by the grace of God, there was a light still on it, holy name, and the yard was still open. I don't know why. School had just started. And he's like, Hey, uh, what's uh what's going on? I'm like, oh, just uh here for a music class, you know. We had a, you know, back to school. And he's like, Yeah, you heard all that banging? And I said, Yeah, I wasn't paying attention, you know, I'm just distracted. And he's like, Is that truck with you? I said, Yes, that's my husband. We had to come here after work. You know how it is. Go, go, go. And he's like, All right. So Tom doesn't know that I'm having this conversation. So he's coming up with this whole story behind the scenes. But fortunately, he bought my story and I had to really butter him up a lot. And then we both drove off and then he called me and he's like, What happened? And I told him the story. So I've got an old mercy locker door um in my office behind my chair, and we've got some frames, and that's the story of the thing. That is so cool though.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

So is it just a quick question? When you do your resume, do you put locker thief on it or no?

SPEAKER_02 10:49

So Tom was so worried that technically she's not a thief, they said she could have it.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

He's like Julie, he's like, You don't understand. He's like, I'm a licensed contractor, and I have invaded somebody else's job site. He's like, you don't understand. With permission, though. Yes, that's right. They did know that we were coming. Right. And there you go.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

That's awesome. So you have two nice relics.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yeah, and and I did go um before that, and they gave it was so funny. There were so many Mercy alumni coming to get things that they put they started to put bricks on the side because they knew women were coming.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

To get something.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yes, because we were just stopping constantly going up to the to the fence. And so they were like, all right, y'all just save all this stuff. And then beautifully, Loyola did preserve. We had a beautiful crest in the lobby that you weren't supposed to walk on. Like when you walked there, you walked around the crest. They they preserved the crest and then um put it in some sort of like structure so it's solid and it's in the courtyard now of the new Loyola um dorm that's there. So that's the new new dorms. That's where the school was at. Yes. So the newest dorm for Loyola is in the corner of um right by the gym. Crondol uh sorry, not Crondolet, of Ferret um in Cromwell. No, not Cromwell, the other side street. And yeah, Ferret, it's Fred and Calhoun, excuse me. Yeah. So in the corner of Fred Calhoun's a brand new brand new dorm, and we've got our mercy.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Before we we move forward, I want to ask you a question.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

You said to tell stories that most people didn't know about, so there you go.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Well, that's something that that checks off one of the questions we were gonna ask you. Right. Something we don't know about you.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

So what do you think what was so special about mercy that um that not just not just the way you felt, but the way apparently a lot of these other women who went to school there felt, right? That wanted to go get the brick and thing like that. What do you think it was, whether you want to answer it personally or just from the broader perspective of why it was sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Well, I and I think I can speak to that really well, having two older sisters that went there and a mother that taught there, is that uh Mercy was a classic all girls supporting girls, having a great time, having all the lessons experience where they had these phenomenal talent shows that were goofy and funny. And you had your mean nuns that you know would get very angry and say, you know, probably terrible mean things that the girls bonded over, and um athletic teams that came together and a true, a true community where it was your your parents that were running the sports teams. There was no on-staff coach. It was like somebody's dad that was that was taking you. And there was so much fun, and they had they had a camp. So we had summer camp until all of the girls came back together over the summer and were counselors together. And you just felt like it was a second home, and how affable all the teachers were, but very knowledgeable and a sense of respect that you gave the faculty. And but then the girls go out in the hall. It was just big enough where there was a lot of um excitement, but like so about 65 girls per class, maybe 75, but close enough where you knew everybody and just so many community events with you know having um like a all the different clubs, they really did a great job of bringing girls together and watching that as a kid, because I went my mother taught there, every day after school I would go there.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

So every day after school, I went to Mercy every single day, growing up, every single day. So watching and seeing everyone bonding and laughing and telling the jokes and watching them grow up, it was just a part of who I was. And the girls that were there had the best dances, and they had father-daughter dances where instead of bringing your date, like you would take the prom photos, but with your dad, and you would dance with your dad. It was just these like classic community building moments.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

That is interesting. Well, I'm with you on that one because my high school ain't there no more. So I I feel it, like it's just sad. It feels like a part of you is just gone.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

And when the building got torn down, that was like the final.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Oh, I don't yeah. Fortunately, our building didn't get torn down. I went to Grace King and now is right, yes. Um is it Haynes Academy? It's now Haynes Academy. So but I remember like it was a big deal because they had people that had gotten their senior rings and all this, and all of a sudden the school's no longer there. Yeah. And I felt bad for those kids. Kind of sad. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

It's um there's also but just also there's a huge uh issue going on with uh the Orleans um Catholic Archdiocese school system because it's high, it's it's terribly cannibalized. Uh uh you've got the the two mega school, you've got Dominican and Mount Carmel, the the mega schools, and they're they're enormous, and then you've got Cabrini and Ursuline um small and struggling. Hang on. Yeah. And and and you can witness it, and I see it because I saw where the girls, my girls where they applied to go to school and what happened with them, and the girls that are my younger daughter where they're going into schools now. The first step of the demise was starting in eighth grade and high schools. That was the first step.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Mercy never had an eighth grade.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

So it started at ninth.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Mm-hmm. The holy name had an eighth back then. It just it's just they're ruining the grammar schools by having eighth grade and high schools because now these little grammar schools don't have those funds. They don't have that tuition. Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

And that was starting when I was in grammar school.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

So 1990, 91?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Uh no, earlier than that. Um I graduated high school. It's in the sixties. So not quite that long. Um when I was finishing um Catholic grammar school, the boys were leaving in eighth grade. So that eighth grade program started with the boys first. And none of the girls. So all the girls stayed for eighth grade. The boys I'd say eighty percent of the boys left for eighth. Okay, a small population that would stay. Uh, but it was it was small and it was declining every year. And then years later they converted where the high schools, the the female high schools started to take the girls too. But it was kind of fun because when the girls stayed, and then because it was kind of like you were like cooler because you got to go to a different school, and then you go back and visit.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

And you know, all the girls were always like intrigued, like, you know, what's high school like, you know. And of course, you know, we would probably tell stories like it was much better than it was, because when you're the eighth graders at a large all-boys high school, it can be a little rough on you sometimes. Um, but it was cool to be in the big kids' club, so to speak. Yeah. And um so you finished Mercy and a flip over to Sacred Heart, and then and then where do you go?

SPEAKER_01 18:00

I had a I had a very interesting journey, very non-traditional after that, which probably is uh now, you know, as an fully grown adult, very much tracks for my life choices of very unconventional. So I went off to college in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and was all set to do the traditional college experience and that joined a sorority. And then in um October of my sophomore year, Walt Disney World College program came to Southern Mist to recruit interns. And I still have to this day the cutout from this the student newspaper with the ad saying advertising the information session, which is crazy. I still have it because we had Katrina. So it's a lot of things have been lost. So it's wild that I that that happened to be a spot that did not get wet. And they came and did an information session and I was just smitten immediately. Just sold. Went to the interview the next day and was extended an offer to go to the internship in January of 1997, which was the second semester sophomore year of college. And I went with every intention of coming back, and I didn't come back. I then didn't move home for 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

So you stayed in Orlando working for Disney?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yes and no and yes. It was a whole nother journey. But it was Orlando. It was Orlando, Florida.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

What's interesting about this is you were there many years. And if you added up how many times Anna has been to Disney World over the last year, I knew you were gonna say that. She might be close. She might have gone with another. But she spent a large part of her life in Disney.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

It's probably the one thing I wish I would have done when I was younger, wasn't married, having kids, is maybe go work there. It just seems so interesting. It's such a it is, you know, exciting company. And I I love Disney. And I've I've heard of the the internships. I don't know if they still do them. They do, okay. Oh yeah. I used to recruit for them. And so they used to what they had like dorms and people would come in. Apartments, apartment complexes. So tell us a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

It's iconic. Okay. So um, so I go to work for Disney, and um it's uh I'm 19 years old, and I'm just completely signed, still, delivered, sold on what it meant to be a cast member. Some people joke and say it's like drinking the Kool-Aid. I'm like, gulp, gulp because gulp, gulp. Yeah, I love it. I loved the work ethic. I remember so I worked at Epcot at an exhibit that's no longer there. Which one? Innovations East. Okay. So Innovations is gone because technology just can't give up fast enough. And I demonstrated technology. And back then, technology was a giant machine that was um like a with a VA, virtual reality VR machine, a wireless keyboard, and a convection oven. I would bake cookies. So um I was one of my first days there, and this old man worked there, and he said, and I was very like Disney magic to write, very, very pixie dusted as we call it. And he said, You have a great attitude, do not let anybody here steal that. And I said, Well, why why would anybody steal that? And he said, Not everybody here is happy. And I was like, they're not. And he's like, No, they're not. He said, Don't let anybody take that away from you. He said, Because you have a great, just a great attitude on all of this. So keep it. And I never forgot that. Wow and I never I never let that go and but never let anybody take away my my pixie dust. So I did my internship and I loved it. And I came home for a summer and worked at Dela Salle's summer camp counselor and worked at Hagendas. I had three jobs because I I was determined to go back to Disney and went back and did a second internship that following semester at downtown Disney's now defunct, also Pleasure Island.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Oh, I remember.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

That's now Disney Springs. And I had I worked six to three p six p.m. to three a.m. Terrible shift. But I'm from New Orleans, so I was really used to being around. I handled myself great because I had a lot of drunk guests. And I got a lot of letters of commendation because they're like, Julie is so impressive. The way that she handled this guest who was I'm like, yeah, I'm from New Orleans.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

I may have been overserved there once or twice. Oh yeah. I had a I had a blast at Disney. I've been to Disney a couple of times. We had conferences there. And uh Pleasure Island had a big dance club.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Oh, yeah, several. They had several on clubs. Several clubs. And every night at midnight, they played the same song, um, some line dance song, and I did not like it. I had a Euro for the first time working at Pleasure Island, and and I loved it. So I'm told my parents, I'm like, this is it, I'm staying, and I'm going to work full-time. And I auditioned and was offered a job as a character performer.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

Who?

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Entertainment. And back then you were sectioned to a theme park. So I was hired at the everything's so old now. It was the back then it was the Disney MGM studios.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah, and I remember that.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah. And I was there at a very golden time of being there. It was really like at just right time, right place, just very lucky of me. But I wasn't going to school. I was just working as a character performer. And so I started taking like one college class here or there, but I mean, I was broke. So I worked as much as I could. Like there was no uh like, oh, I'm just gonna take several classes because I was like, I have to work overtime as much as I can. And but I looked around one day and I saw a lot of people in their 30s still as characters. So this idea I was a character is like a year and a half, so I'm like 21 years old. I looked around and I thought to myself, I said, oh gosh, um, I need to leave this department because I'm never gonna leave. There is this like fee, this like this feeling in Disney that they make you not want to leave, and they make you not want to leave your department even because they build in like these many societal structures of importance. So inside entertainment, there's like all of these classes of how important you are. So it could be seniority of being a character, it could be the show that you're in, it could be are you a coordinator? Are you a trainer? Are you a manager? Um are you cross-trained in certain shows? And but the difference between being a character and a coordinator is like 30 cents an hour, right? But at an entertainment, it's a huge difference. Not the 30 cents.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

No, the street cred.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yes. And you get and it really sucks you in because you're like, well, I want to be that guy. I want to be, you know, I like being a warmup coach. Right. So I became a warm-up coach because you're like, yeah, I get to do that. And you can easily get pulled in to, oh, but if I just wait three more years, I can be a coordinator one day. But if you step back from that and look at that, you're like, ooh, which I am not um poo-pooing on anybody's career choices at all because we need that. Just for me, I was watching myself and I'm like, if I don't leave now, I will get sucked into this and I will still be doing this and I'll be 30. So I didn't know I did this, but I started networking. But I didn't know what networking was because I was 21 and I didn't know anything. But I started calling people that I had met that worked at Disney and asked them if I could learn about their jobs and their careers, and um started shadowing, and I thought that I wanted to do certain things. So now today at Disney, you can't just go shadow somebody, but this was a golden time. Like you, it was the late 90s, you can do anything. I walked up to the front desk of the Polynesian on my day off and I was like, I'd like to shadow somebody here one day. And they're like, Great, you can shadow me. I was like, awesome, thank you so much. Like, you just can't, that's not how it works, right? But back then, I you could just had access to so many opportunities because I seized them.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

And I learned what I did not like, and I got interested in some things, and I started taking like these miniature professional development classes that Disney University offered for free. So I started to take some classes, small, low commitment classes, but still moving towards something. I didn't know what. Then one night I'm doing overnight rehearsals. All rehearsals for the shows happened overnight because you can't practice during the day because the guests are there. I mean, you can like in a in a you know, in a trailer, right, or a large break room, but to really rehearse a show, you need to be on the stage or in the street doing the parade.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

So I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Yeah. So we do our parade rehearsals at three in the morning. And I was learning a new parade or a new role in the parade, and there was a manager, one of our managers was there, and it was a manager that I didn't particularly know very well nor cared for, but he was in front of me. So I just said randomly, I said, Hi, um, I'm looking to leave this department and I'm don't know where else I'd like to work. And I'm was looking to network. And do you have any idea where you think I should go network? What department should I shadow? And now remember how long it hard it takes to become the next level of work at Disney, right? And and I had not finished college. And this man says to me, he says, bus operations is looking for managers, they're looking for leaders. We need to call Martha White because they're looking for young leadership. And I said, Oh, I know you don't know who I am. Um I'm only 21, I don't have a college degree, um, I don't think I'd be fit for me. And he said, No, no, they're looking for new leaders. Call Martha White tomorrow, I'll let her know you're calling. I'm like, great, thank you so much. So I get off work at six in the morning and I'm exhausted, but I'm like, I gotta call this Martha White woman. And so much serendipity happened because at Disney you're never at your desk because you're always out in the operation. But I looked up this woman's phone number and she was at her desk and she answers. And of course, the guy had not called her yet, and she was very lovely, and she said, Well, let me tell you what's going on right now on buses because we're going through a huge shift in how we operate. We're going to a hub and spoke model based out of theme parks, and we are doing a massive management hiring. So I'm writing all these little notes down, and she says, However, today's the last day to submit an application. Oh wow. And she goes, So if you're interested, you need to do it today. And I'm like, I'm on it. Well, so I had so I hadn't slept, and I also I don't, I'm not a printer. You kidding me? This is this is 1999, okay? And I make 725 an hour or something insane. So I drove over back to the Disney University, which is not near where I live, because Disney itself is like, you know, like what is it, like 26 square miles or something. So drove Disney University and I had with my floppy disc and I printed off my resume. Then I drove over to casting and waited in line, because that's how you applied for things at Disney back then, and got the application, filled it out, and they called me. I couldn't believe it. I'm like, I'm a nobody, and I have no real experience. And then I said, we'd love to interview you. And it was not so there was no phone screening. Mine is like a gallop phone call. It was straight into the heat of it. And I walk in to um like three rounds of panel interviews. I didn't own a suit. I wore the dress I wore through sorority rush. You're at Disney, you're you wear a name tag, but I never wore a name tag because I was a character. So I didn't even wear a name tag like an idiot. Like I'm going in for an interview at Disney. Like you always wear a name tag if you're ever not a character. My ass walks in in a dress and a purse with no name tag. And then this other guy comes in, he's got a suit and a briefcase. And I'm like, oh boy. I remember sitting next to him. I was like, oh, this guy's Can I borrow your briefcase? He's got a briefcase and a freaking suit. Well, that guy ended up being my coworker at EpCot. Um, I went in and I nailed it. I knew how to speak well, and they asked me what I've done to improve myself over the last six months. I was like, yeah, I've done these classes and I've shadowed these, these, these people. And they wanted young, fresh, pixie dusted people coming into buses. And I got hired at Epcot, and I had an amazing uh leader who came from HR. So thank goodness I had a very patient, loving manager. So my whole Disney career is a whole other story, but that's how it started.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Wow, that's pretty amazing. So wait, wait, before you go on, Chris, bus operations. What did you do for bus operations?

SPEAKER_01 31:20

So I was a manager at Epcot. Okay. And I was in charge of ensuring that we had all the routes on time at Disney, that they were staffed, that if we had any issues from the guest perspective, that I addressed it, that we jumped in. So you don't ever do there's no duplicative service at Disney. So if a monorail goes down, bus service goes up. Uh right. So if there's a monorail that takes you somewhere, the bus does not do it. But if monorail goes down, then you know, activating bus service and um exiting the park and getting that's the last step is getting them out of the park, is clearing out the parking lot, basically. So I had um a team of coordinators that worked for me, and then the the frontline drivers. And the system is the buses go from Epcot to the resorts. That's like that hub and spoke model. And it used to not be that way. And so I was responsible for all the Epcot routes. When I started, I eventually went over to Magic Kingdom TTC buses. Okay, and then monorails and and other things after that.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

I love it. This is so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

And I'm sitting here thinking so much that you said, but one of the most interesting things is these rehearsals overnight. And there you were at 3 a.m. to six, and then home and getting ready for your next day and not making a bunch of money. And um you know and then you were talking about kind of maybe the psychological aspect of how they designed their uh their employee system. And it's almost like you'd really they needed that and you need the buy-in because I think about how many people would be willing to have those types of hours um and and and be paid quote unquote minimally. Now I know that was uh twenty-five, thirty years ago, but but still um it wasn't like you were killing it at the time, you were making a moderate wage. Um and I think about how many people would be willing to do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

So it's like you have to about a hundred thousand are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

But it's because of what they've built, yeah, right? Like that makes it that intriguing and desirable. Because if you know you asked someone to do that at another business, they would look at you like you were crazy.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Um unless they were were it was a great and it still is a great place to work.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, there's so many things. I mean, you walk around Disney and my experiences of you know, just how clean it is is mind-blowing to me at twenty-six square miles or whatever. That was always uh intriguing. The logistics of how people move, whether it's the buses or everything like that.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

That that's always been the greatest thing for me is like, God, how do they move all these people back and forth and just so it seems effort. Yeah, seamless. That's that's the better word. And then they keep adding different transportation stuff, the monorail, the skyliner, the boats. It's like all this.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Like skyline, I don't believe, is under transportation operations. It's not I think that is considered maybe um under attractions. I don't know if it's under, it may not be under attractions. It might be under I don't think it's the transportation. I think it's um a um like the parking lot operations. That or like a front desk. But it's isn't that funny? Real? So like the boat over at inside of Epcot, those little boats that go. That's not transportation. So transportation is buses, monorails, and watercraft. And watercraft are the ones that take you um across Bay Lake from Magic Kingdom and the large ferries, or the smaller boats that get you from um, you know, Polynesian to Magic Kingdom, right? That's watercraft.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Or like Fort Wilderness to Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Yep, that's watercraft.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Really, that's interesting because I would think transportation would be like I mean, like the skyliners are really I could be I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

No, you may be you maybe totally wrong, but I did not think that that was being run on transportation operations. I could be totally wrong.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

But you know, that's just the movement of people and and then what you think about the amount of food going through that place on a daily basis and then getting it ready for the next day. And then they do that after hours, so they with certain tickets and you can buy to midnight. So now you're talking about that window to reset for the next day is is just smaller.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Yeah, there's a huge overnight operation. It's just incredible. It takes two uh it takes about two hours to clear a park every night. Wow. So if the park closes at 10, then usually we have them out of the parking lot or out of the monorails by midnight.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

That's crazy. Well, yeah, and then imagine the nights where you do have those after parties, which I think go beyond midnight.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

I think it's almost one o'clock in the morning. And so overnight is when all the repairs happen. Landscape, if you work in landscaping for Disney, you're generally very much third shift because that's when they do all the um, you know, replenishment of the plants and and of course everything else that they do.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

It's crazy. And one of the most fascinating days for me is like that transition from fall, Thanksgiving, h Halloween to Christmas. Yeah, like overnight. You could go to the party at night, and the next morning you will walk in and it's Christmas. Yeah, it was that quick. It was cool working there. Like it was mats. I'm jealous. I I'm really, really jealous. That would be like the one job I wish I could have.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

I very much am happy with the choices I've made. That's I made a lot of bad ones. But those are really good.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

When you think about an experience like that in the amount, especially at a young age where you're you know, hopefully you're you're taking so much in, not just what's in front of you, but what's around you. Um that you know, to be able to work at a place like that and and see whether it's the operations, the logistics, the customer service, the the business model they're using internally, externally, it's like there's there's few places probably on the planet that offer as much to someone as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

And you know what's funny? As a as a coach, um, for like the first, I don't know, even still now, I didn't mention I work for Disney because I wanted to be that because there's like a there's a segment of people that left Disney and they used the Disney name as their platform. And I was determined to be successful because of who I was, and absolutely I learned a lot from Disney. But I that but also it was like ingrained and embedded with other lessons. So it was very important to me that I led with me. And then Disney was discovered as part of like my background versus leading on the Disney ledge. That was very important to me because I knew it was that good that it would open doors, right? But I wanted to become successful for who I was.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

So before we move on from Disney, what would you say was your biggest takeaway from that experience?

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Um standard operating procedures and great onboarding. Um truthfully, I saw very briefly the career path. So went buses as a leader. Then I was cross-trained as a traditions facilitator, which is basically corporate trainer. Everybody's first day at Disney, you go through a class that indoctrinates you to being a cast member. And that class is called traditions. You have to audition, it's a three-month audition process. You can only teach it for one year because it is requires that much magic to come out of you on top of working full-time. But I worked during 9-11. And after 9-11, Disney went through a hiring freeze. I was a traditions facilitator during 9-11. Like I had to do a moment of silence in the middle of my class, this whole thing. Because of that, because of the hiring freeze, they asked everybody who was salaried to please stay on and teach traditions for a second year. We were the only ones. So I was a part of very this the team got smaller. So we had more classes, and you best believe it got harder that second year. Because you're like, wow, this really this is a lot having to take out of my soul. Because you have to show up and be at a hundred and get these folks on the very first day that Disney pixie dust, that magic. There's there is a very um scripted, literally scripted way that that happens.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

And is there a high attrition rate?

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Um, I didn't know. No, not not particularly, but just um uh you have a lot of seasonal workers. So seasonality, right? Um, so is there so is there a high attrition rate? I think it's an appropriate attrition rate. You have seasonal workers and then their availability changes. You have a lot of retirees and they stop, they stop being retired and they stop working altogether.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Just because the the demands to have to train to maintain well, just the demands to to to maintain a role, whatever it might be, at Disney are pretty high, whether it's working overnight when you're in landscaping, right? Or it's the job you're talking about where you got to show up with your A-game plus every day for, you know, um, the demands are so high that it's interesting because if the attrition rates are lower than average, you so but you don't teach then the recruitment must be incredible to be able to identify and weed out on the front end.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

And I was a recruiter too. And you don't we don't teach traditions every day. That's not even an everyday, but yes, and also you have the college kids that are coming through that are also the international kids that have staff epcot, so you have to train them. So um the suffice to say, you were never a full-time traditions facilitator. You had a full-time job and you taught traditions about two to three times a month maximum. And you always taught with pairs to help with the energy, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:56

With the in but incoming class.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Exactly, right. So um, so I taught traditions and then I became a monorails manager. I left buses because monorails are cooler. So I made it known to the monorail team that I was very interested in leaving. They had an opening and they called me on my day off and they said, if you want it, it's yours. So um I was like, I want it. I was already leaving buses. I was interviewing to go work back at Epcot in attractions. I really wanted to be around like cool stuff. Buses is great and it's in my heart, but it's not cool, right? And I was 22 years old. So um I was either going to work in attractions at Epcot, I was in an interview for that, but Monorails called and they said, the spot's yours if you want it. I'm like, say less. So went into Monorails. And at that time, one of the leaders at Disney in transportation, Jose Mola, stopped me and he said, How are things going? And I'm like, it's going great. And he said, Did you ever finish college? And I said, No. And he goes, You need to go do that because Disney will pay for it. And you can get a bachelor's in in business, business management. You go to school Monday, Wednesday nights, six to ten behind Magic Kingdom in the training facility. And so that's what I did. And so I worked so hard because I um would go go to work at six in the morning till three p.m. and then go back and go to class from six to ten. And I had Wednesday, Thursdays off. I had those were like the poop days. Like if you're low on the totem pole, again Wednesday, Thursdays off, or Tuesday, Wednesdays. I always had terrible days off because I was still young and new. But it was one day off. Um I went to class from six to ten and it was an accelerated program. So I went back to college at night, got my bachelor's degree, then I left Disney altogether, quit. Like left because I wanted to see what else is out there because I saw all these people around me, and it was all is it was everything they knew is all they were. And I'm like, but what what else am I besides besides that? Like, what else am I besides a Disney cast member?

SPEAKER_00 42:52

That's my and the challenge also of being able to apply everything you learned.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Right, because then I'm just I'm just doing this, right? And my mother was so worried for me. She said, This is like, I feel like this is this the biggest career mistake of your life is quitting. Why would you quit? You're in your prime, you're one of the youngest female managers in transportation operations ever in the history of Walt Disney World. How could you leave? I said, I've got to see what else is out there, mom. And she's like, All right. So I have an aunt who lives in Seattle and a cousin who's my age, and they I visited them a lot. And I asked them, Do you think I could ever move here and live here? And they're like, Yeah, you can live here. We have a giant house. Come on. So I got a job working at Bath and Body Works. Oh, that's a huge change. As an assistant manager, and I moved to Seattle and I quit my job.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

And so this was just as a manager at a store?

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Like at the mall. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

At the mall. Okay. Became a store manager. I had four jobs in two years in Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

You wanted to test your customer service skills.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

I wanted to get a job. I applied. I almost got hired. I was this close to being. Getting hired as the director of waste management at University of Washington. But I didn't know what an RFP was because I was 23 years old. But they wanted me. They're like, we wish we could give it to you, but you need more experience. Like, we wish it was you. Anyway. So uh I went and I went back to school. So I went to get my master's at night as well. I was in the groove, I was young, six to ten. All right, let's keep going. But I had a bunch of different jobs. I was, you know, worked at admissions and I worked for Microsoft, got engaged to some guy. And then one day I was like, I don't want any of this. I'm like, I don't want to, I don't want your ring. I don't want to work for Microsoft anymore. I either am going to go back to Orlando and work for Disney or I'm going to go back to New Orleans. But that's what I want to do with my life. And I like took the ring off, called my mom, and she's like, all right, well, I'll get a one-way flight. I'll drive back down with you. I was like, let's do it. So came back, started calling all my Disney friends, and one of them called me back and she said, You're not going to believe it. I just got out of a meeting and we're hiring for a college recruiter that can live in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Wow. And one of the guys that was doing the hiring, we did that night college program together when we were when we were, and then the other woman in charge of hiring, she was my leader on the traditions team that I did the orientation class for. So they called me and they're like, Well, girly pop, we heard you want to come back to the mouse. And they're like, You want to have an interview? I'm like, hell yeah. And it was the longest interview process of my life. It was like three months. It was a like they kept calling me every Friday, apologizing that they couldn't tell me anything yet. And um after three months, but it was fine. Like I didn't have to pay to live, you know, was back home. So um I got the job and I was back. And what's amazing is that I always wanted to become a college recruiter at Disney. That's a very like elite job. It is one of the iconic positions there. And when I was a character, remember how I started shadowing people? I went and shadowed. Well, I didn't get to shadow her, but I met with one of the recruiters, and she told me it will take me five to seven years to become a college recruiter. And this was in 1999. And I became a college recruiter in 2005. And here's what's even cooler is I could, I could, I asked for a lot more salary than it would have if I stayed because I left Disney. I had a higher market salary and I had a master's degree. So if I would have stayed at Disney, I can I'll give the numbers. I got hired in 1999 as a manager making $30,000 a year. I thought I was, oh my God. I mean, I was I was broke. Um, I got hired at Disney as a recruiter in 2005, making $40,000 a year. To make a $10,000 jump at Disney would have taken forever.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

Forever. Forever. And I would have been in the same job. So they hired me back as a recruiter to live in New Orleans. They were doing this new expansion of regional recruiters and they wanted somebody. And they asked me, they said, if we hired you for the Atlanta market, would you take it? And I said, no. That's how much I knew. It was either New Orleans or Orlando. That was it. Like I was, I knew what I knew. And that meant that I might not have gotten a job. And they even asked me, I said, Do you are you entertaining any of the job offers? I said, No, all my eggs are in this basket. I've got nothing. I had applied for the jobs, but nothing had come out. Anyway, so they hired me. I did my training, and Hurricane Katrina hit seven days later.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

So I'll stop there. Let's pause here. You know, earlier you said something about you used the term lucky, and I'm I'm sitting here really enjoying the story. And I think that, you know, you end up with this uh elite position. And I'm sure that there were people in your circles who were like, you know, look how lucky she is, she got that role. And and I think about I think it was Colin Powell who said he didn't believe in luck, but he believed his definition of luck was opportunity crossing preparation. And that really stuck with me. I heard that probably 25 years ago. And I'm also not a big believer in luck. Um other than who you're born to, your parents and your children. But I call that the parent the parent lottery. Um and so when I listened to your story, all those decision points along the way and getting up and and making seven dollars an hour but at three in the morning and and finding the good in those things were all preparing you for an opportunity that was going to arise down the road after you know, heading out to Seattle for a while and thinking your life was gonna go down one particular path. Um and to me, just it's an awesome example of the preparation meeting the opportunity. Yes. And I think that's lost. Right now, a lot of people, I feel like, especially younger people, um, they maybe don't have as much of an appreciation for, you know, it's incremental steps along your way in your life and in your career. And that's preparing you for something.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

And you don't even know what it is, right?

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Right. Well, I don't think anyone knows. Right. We think we do.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

But but you took you took chances, right? I mean, you knew you were leaving something great, but you were like, but I'll never know if it really is great. And I'm so young enough.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

I knew if I failed to be okay, right. And I I I can't believe it's so funny for being such a dumbass, right? At 23, all some of the wisdom that I had at the same time is is pretty respectable. And I'd and I've not lost sight of that fact. And I'm I talk with my girls about that a lot, 13 and 15. About I know it doesn't seem like a big deal now, but I'm telling you, the choices you make now, the friendships you make now, the connections you make. It's like we just got uh grades from last semester in. And I'm like, look, I'm like, I'm not warred, I'm not concerned about the grade. I don't love this grade, but I'm not concerned about it. What I what I'm concerned about is what have you learned from it? What's lessons taught you? So, because this is about the discipline of the of your habits you're creating now, uh the ones you're gonna live off the rest of your life. And so I said to her when I was done, I said, tell me what you just learned from this conversation. Like I met, I I really hope that my girls are growing up blessed having me as a mom because of the conversations they're constantly around that I'm having in business, as well as like just this mindset. Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

That's and what you hope is that through is what is it called, osmosis, where things sick sink in. That sometimes it's direct, but lots of times they're not hearing they're hearing 20% of that. But the but by osmosis or you know, whatever they call it, super saturated. Yeah, I know um that you end up picking up a lot of those those things over time. And and I I would say I think your kids are in pretty good shape if I had to guess. And so then um so fast forwarding now to kind of current um you have been working in a business coach scenario for some time. Um so talk to us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

So closing the gap. So I became a recruiter for Disney, uh, got married, and uh loved everything. I was supremely happy, but I was on the road. And I couldn't be on the road and have a baby. Only one other person did that. And then once the baby was born, she transitioned into doing home interviews. Um, because it just you can't you what do you you could you could do that, but you'd never be with your child. So um made a decision that I wanted to start a family. I was 31. And so I told Disney that I'm I'm going to leave when I get another job because I need to start a family. And they said, Well, how about we bring you on as an interview partner after the babies? No, first that's not yet. So I said, when I get a job, I'm gonna have to leave because I want to start a family. They said, Got it. Got a job at Tulane University, working in the business school as a career counselor. And apparently I'm very fertile because I showed up pregnant my first day of work.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

And it wasn't the water then.

SPEAKER_01 52:11

Right, no. Okay, and you used to think it was the water. Right, it wasn't in the water. Yeah. So the baby or baby, the baby was born, and the whole time I was working for Tulane, people kept calling me for advice and asking me to speak at events. Because you did that when you worked for Disney. And when I told them I didn't work for Disney, they said, that's okay, you're smart enough, just you. You you come as you. So after she was born, I didn't want to be away from her. So literally, like daycare for five days in, I went to my husband at the time and I said, I'd like to go into business for myself. I don't want to be away from the baby. Um, people call me for advice. I think I have a gift. I want to work with leadership teams. And he was in school to become a nurse practitioner. And he's like, Yeah, but I'm in school. He's like, I don't make that much money. I work on the weekends, and I said, I'll eat ramen noodles. I don't care. And he's like, You have the health insurance. I'm like, let's do something else in. Because it really was like, I'm asking for your blessing, but I'm doing this conversation, which was the first of many of those. And um, so I had the baby, and two weeks later, we went to Tulane. Well, she went to daycare for two weeks. And after two weeks, I pulled her out. I put my notice in it, Tulane, and realized that I had this opportunity to train leadership teams. I I learned from Disney that it was very possible to have a positive workplace if your if your leaders and your people were trained well, that it didn't have to be a drudgery. And I started doing outreach to associations to do speaking at their lunch meetings because I knew that they needed speakers. And I was very open with them and like, look, I just started this business, but I got a lot of cool stuff I could talk about. I'm not trying to sell anything. I'm just looking to build build up my credibility. And I got hired to speak for the Apartment Manager Association at Five Happiness at one of their lunch meetings. And somebody in the audience worked for Tanti Properties and said, Oh, I'd love to have you come talk to my team. And just and it just started and it started and it started. And I had another child, and then I got a divorce and kept going and going and changed my focus, and here we are 16 years later almost, as a self-employed business coach with a waiting list, and I say no, and um that's it's a beautiful, beautiful, amazing, blessed position to be in, and not nearly done yet.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Wow. Anything that you would do differently, career-wise.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

Yes, yes, yes. Um I love where I've landed today. Um, I don't think I could have done it any differently because I needed all of the I needed the journey to unfold the way it unfolded. You know, I started a vestige peer group and then I closed it down. I don't regret starting it, I don't regret closing it. Um I I did a lot of um classes on customer service that I no longer do, but you know, I needed the exposure. I sat a lot of boards that I don't have time for now. But it you know, everything I did led me to today. So no, I'm I mean, I wish I maybe hadn't spent so much money on like different marketing, like, oh, go take this $10,000 class for this, you know, like some of the things that didn't didn't uh come to fruition, but no real no no regrets.

SPEAKER_00 55:52

So let's talk a little bit about when you were in the beginning of your business coaching. Um were you working with mostly small, mid-sized businesses or larger?

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Or was it a it was it was whatever sizes are in the in the region, right? So sometimes it was large hotel conglomerates like the Sheraton. Worked for the Sheraton a long time, Jim Cook's great. Um or it would be like a local pizza place. So it really ran the gamut. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:22

It was that's perfect for my question. So when you um when you're working with a small, let's say single or two-store pizza company versus the Sheridan. Um maybe share with us, you know, some of the the the challenges that they're seeing, and then maybe some of the that that are different. And then maybe some of the things that are similar.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

So what what is the struggle when you're coming from a large conglomerate is that you're coming down from large corporate initiatives, and you are just given things left and right that maybe don't make sense for you locally, that you've got someone another division that's four states over, no idea of your market, and is giving directives that just don't make sense and don't align. And I saw this with um a private client who I actually did not end up taking on. I can't say anything because it'll be so identifiable of who she works for, but it's a large conglomerate. And she called me just desperate. She's like, I just I'm drowning. And she's a high executive. And I sat down with her and I said, show me your email inbox. And basically what was happening is that other departments would come in with initiatives and be like, we need you to do this for us. And she wasn't able to say no. I'm like, why not? Don't you have your own set of parameters of what your goals need to be? And they just have to wait. And she's like, that's not how it works here. I'm like, well, the way it works is terrible. This is highly dysfunctional. And I said, and I can't fix this for you because I can't fix who you work for. And I said, um, and I'm I can't be a therapist on the sub. So uh call me, call me if you want to event, but I wish you well. So heart those conglomerates, no um no, no, no, just no just dysfunction in planning and prioritization because revenue hides problems. So large conglomerates have a ton of revenue, so um, they can hide the problems.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

To quote um a good friend of former business partner mine and good friend of ours, um, he once said we were at a meeting, a peer group meeting that we pulled together and just to do some best practices, we're all at a conference and we said we're all in the same business. So why don't we get a come in a day early, we'll get a conference room and we'll just do some benchmarking and talk. I love that. And um, he opened it up with he said, you know, he goes, When um, and is it a point where things were tightening up in our business? And he said, for all of us. And he said, you know, when we're posting 20 to 25 percent top line growth every year, we all we're all geniuses. And he said, and right about now, where it's flat or negative, maybe we need to do some benchmarking. And it goes to your point that um revenue and growth and acquisitions, which adds revenue, um, there's no doubt about it. It it covers um lots of lots of wounds.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

Yeah, lots of problems behind revenue. Owners hide behind revenue, and not even talking profit, which is no no no no top line. Yeah, they see the top line revenue and they're like, okay, what what are you keeping? What's the what's the profit?

SPEAKER_00 59:47

So So then go to the smaller.

SPEAKER_01 59:49

So right, so the small. So the so the biggest challenge with, and I don't work with small mom pops. My my the clients that I work with are merely mid-sized, you know. I I want to say 10 to 100 mil, but really sometimes they're five mil. Some of them really are. Um just because they're just very strong, very successful at five mil. But the small mom and pops, I did a lot of work with those, you know, the under one mil, um, just no rhyme or reason. That just live in it day by day. And I don't even mean like bootstrapped hustle. I'm talking like that just trying to keep the pizzas from getting burned. And it just it's a a struggle. They they know the product or the service, but the idea of people and process and hiring and job descriptions and proper interviews, just no concept of that at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

And yeah, I think it's a real challenge um when you're an owner operator trying to transition to pure owner. Um and um very, very challenging.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

So that's the work, all the work I do now is with organizations that are scaling and growing, and not just the owner what to do, right? But that whole leadership team and um getting that the functionality clear and how to prioritize and how to how to beat all the issues that are happening in their market. And very much getting if your CEO is a bottleneck, getting them out of the bottleneck. Because if the whole business depends on them running the business, then you can't scale that, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:29

But what do you say to because this is a I think this was a common I'm gonna call it a complaint and challenge. It's both. It was definitely present um in not only my former business, but I see it with others is you know, we're we're too busy to we create a strategic plan but uh we're unable to truly execute it throughout the year because we're so busy. Whether it's the lady you talked about earlier who's in that role where it's just all flowing her and she's just got uh she's got a hundred dollars of work a week and she's already working 70 and she's married, she's got kids and all this stuff, right? Um, or they're you know, death by meeting, there's too many meetings already, and all those things that create what if we were on a drawing board, we'd say this is clearly dysfunctional, right? This is not the way we would want it to be to be the most successful. And I think in the in the planning room, that's much, much easier. And then you go to execute it. So what do you say to a mid-size, small to mid-sized business that that recognizes that they need to do some of these things, but they cannot find the time. How do you handle that?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

So you have to change the structure, you have to strain, you have to change the way you execute, and you have to fix whatever is keeping your ability to execute. So your plan is garbage if it's not executionable. So you can't build a plan based off of like a wishlist world. You build a plan that you can execute based off of your own capacities. And if you need to expand capacity so that you can execute something, that means the goal for the next quarter is to hire somebody. Right. And so what I tell folks is, and the only people I talk to are the ones that want to hear what I have to say, which is kind of funny, right? So fortunately for me, I don't have to get in front of people that are not interested because it's a mutual fit relationship. And when we get together, it's we have to change the way we have the meetings. We have to change what you're doing in the meetings. We have to change some stuff, it's going to have to stay broken and on fire. You can't fix it all. That is just going, that's gonna have to go away, drop, or fail, or stay broken because we're gonna have to choose to fix other things. We can't have multiples going, you have to, we we just have to choose what needs to get done first.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

And we create a truly executionable plan that we aim for 80% completion. Can't aim for 100%. If you aim for 100, then you're gonna lowball your goals. That way you can say you did it, right? And also 80% because um bad things happen. Some stuff happens outside of your of your arena that you cannot control. But you shouldn't be able to be getting to 80% completion rate of your 90 of your 90-day goals.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

Do you find too often businesses if left on their own, meaning the subject matter experts are there and everybody's trying real hard, but if left to their own without guidance, that maybe sometimes they are they have too many goals?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:44

Some, right? So um there are a lot of successful businesses that don't have an external coach, that they've got that just right person internally on the team, whether they're CFO or they're the owner, they've got that right person who can lead them. And so they're able to manage the goals and manage the execution and be successful. But a lot of businesses, they only know what they know and they know how to deliver their rough, their, they know how to deliver their product or their service, and they know what divisions are necessary and they know their market. They don't know how to leverage that knowledge market. They don't know that they need to say no to certain things. They need to say no to things that they love. Then they because to scale. It depends what they want to do. If they want a lifestyle business, then you know, as long as you can keep the lights on, then it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:36

You know. But if you want to scale and grow and um, you know, have a profit margin while you're growing, there are things that they have to do that naturally would not come to somebody unless you're someone like myself who specializes in living, breathing, and being ultimately obsessed with efficiently run scaling businesses that have uh a positive workplace culture. And knowing that from the uh years of work that I do with companies, as well as being just a voracious learner and reader.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

So when you you've mentioned a popular workplace um or good good culture. And earlier you said, you know, look, a a place of work can be, you know, a positive place. Um and all too often I feel like our experiences are that it's not always, even though maybe there's some attempts to make it, but it does feel like just routine and rote and just too much work and all these things. Um so when you think about what are the top say two to three things that come to your mind that create a positive place to work?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

So um people like to be uh grown and developed. So people want to feel that they're always learning something, whether they're getting better in their own role or they are expanding their scope and their breadth of knowledge, but people like to be developed, they like to be recognized for the work that they're doing that's authentic, not every quarter or twice a year getting a performance evaluation, but they like getting a culture of feedback, positive and negative, hearing how am I doing, how am I how am I standing. And people want to feel that they're connected to a real purpose, that they can see that what I'm doing, that sitting here in the mail room, folding up these flyers, ultimately is having this impact in the community. People want to feel that they have a purpose. You have to you have to connect the dots for that. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

So purpose, development, and recognition. So those aren't just things that people write books about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

So no, the the studies show that there is um there was a study done of the Inc. 5000. Of the Inc. 5000, how many of those are um completely bootstrapped financially, which means there's no no capital investment, external investment, financial investment? Mine is like a line of credit from a bank, right? But there it's all their own money of the Inc. 5000, they've identified those that are um independently funded that have had double revenue growth year after year within five years. And of that, 324 companies were identified. And in that study, um, Pete Martin, he wrote the book, he pulled out what are the lessons of how these companies behave that make them so successful? Because if you're losing people, you're not doubling revenue year after year. Nope, right? That's not happening. So, how are you keeping people? How are you growing your customer base and doing it all on your own accord? And the average size of these companies, these companies are about 78 million. So these are not small potatoes. These are that's that was that was actually the mean, not even the average, that was the mean size with 78 million, with um about, I think the average of 115 employees. So these are these are significant organizations. And this is what the data shows us is that these people are developed, that they've got customized, ongoing performance management with good leaders, and people that and people feel committed and connected to their work.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:31

Certainly now when I think back at the Disney part, and I hear you say say that, right? The science behind it. And then now I think about what you were talking about with Disney, it was like check, check, check.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

They had it, hence their right.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:44

I mean, the the attrition that comes really just comes from the large numbers, you know, when you have 100,000 employees, um, seasonality, and then people retiring. You would say that Disney checked everything off.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:54

Yeah, they checked the boxes, everything right. The psych the the the science of creating a great place to work a great place to work, which leads to growth and revenue and profit. Right is it matches what you described earlier on just in your own experiences there, right? And you're one of, like you say, probably a couple million people who have worked there for years.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:18

No, you're you're good because it's like you're asking questions that are that are like in my head. But just to kind of piggyback off of what you're saying, I mean, I do think all of that stuff does become a a bit of a challenge in a smaller environment, at least like for us, you know. I keep like this is stuff I tell my husband. I'm like, we barely have turnover. I mean, we've had staff since we've opened. That's great. And it is truly a family business in that, you know, I have my nieces work there, Jeff has his cousin work there, my dad works there, my sister works there. I was like, but how do you keep them all wanting to stay there? Right. And each year we try to give someone something new to do. Uh like, hey, you want to become a technician. Yes, let's become a technician. Or how about you take on ordering? Or hey, how about you take on the the boutique side of the business and crossing training? Yes. I feel like it keeps people motivated and engaged and feeling like they're part of and they're growing.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:17

And they're growing. So you can do classes that aren't even related to the business. You could do a first aid class. You could come in and teach people CPR.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

You know, you can uh do a book club. It sounds lame, but these things, they don't have to even cost a lot of money to have people feel connected and growing. And at the same time, be really clear about what does this position, what is what positions do that does the company need at this stage of the organization and are the right people in it. That's another piece of this of the the successful businesses is they know when they have to transition folks out, that the position now demands and needs a different level of skill sets. And you have to be skill set focused, right? And also the study showed that CEOs that hire off intuition and gut are often wrong and they make bad hiring choices. That their gut is never right, that they need to have a structured way.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:13

One of the things I find intriguing here is that economics is not part of the top three. Certainly it's it's present.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:26

Oh, you mean with the compensation? So let's talk about that. So the study shows of the bootstrapped companies that in the interview process, they are very upfront that we are a financially independent organization, which means that we don't have this giant threshold of capital to fall on. So right now, you could get hired uh at a higher rate somewhere else. But what we can give you that they can't is autonomy with your position. We want your feedback. Just like this large conglomerate so that woman's drowning in her inbox. Doesn't matter what she says, it's never going to change. But when you have a company where the C you have a direct line access to the CEO, things can change. And we can start to get you incremental increases because we'll we will keep growing. You will grow with us. And that, and if somebody wants that, then you're attracting the right person. So also part of the success of the of any organization is attracting the right people and repelling the wrong. Because there's absolutely a culture to a company. And a smart company knows it, knows it really, really well, and put it puts it out there in their digital presence and during the um even just the job postings. That that personality and that culture is evident, and you're not vague. You're not speaking in platitudes when you're talking about your organization.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:50

Yeah, I'm a big believer in the culture, it's important.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:55

And it's it's so much of everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

I think it it helped. Um I think my focus on the culture, and because I'm a relationship person are more qualitative than quantitative. It helped me probably do things above and beyond what I probably would have been able to do had I not been so focused on the culture. Um and and you know, building and it takes a long time. And you know, not just focusing on a management team, but you know, engaging with everyone, as many people as you can.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:34

Everyone's everyone's the culture.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:35

Um, you know, I'm a big believer in, you know, managers should not be sitting behind their desk during the work hours. I mean, come in early, stay late, come in on the weekends if you need to, but you need to manage away from your desk. You need to walk around a cup of coffee, and you need to know that Anna just got to do haircut.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:55

Oh, it looks great.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:57

Um You know, you need to to identify certain things uh with people and you have to connect with them. And the more you do that, um I think it starts to it starts to get onto some of these things you're talking about, where it's like businesses are inevitably gonna hit tough times. Right. Um, and you're gonna need people to to be there ready to run through the walls for you. Yes. And in small to mid-sized businesses, it's oftentimes not because they're making more money than they could somewhere else, to your point.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:31

You know, you know what's so interesting about culture? That this study showed that it doesn't matter what the culture is, the company will be successful as long as the culture is clearly defined and they have the right fit people for that culture.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:47

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:48

So it doesn't matter if it's a hyper-religious culture, if it's, you know, work, work, work, if it's work out, be healthy, if it's you know, Christianity or Disney Magic.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:00

Done does it matter what the Well it's interesting you say that because one of the things I always think about, and now you've answered it for me, is I think about certain businesses that um you know just had a negative culture in my opinion. Top to bottom. And um look, I'm a realist, and certainly I think that dependent upon the years, we probably had a a better top-to-bottom culture than we had in other years, but I was always trying to fight the fight for it. Um but it ebbs and flows, unfortunately, I guess. Uh but I've experienced and seen these other businesses, and I'm like, man, it is just top to bottom. Like I would never want to work for that person, et cetera, et cetera. And now it makes sense. It's that, well, maybe I wouldn't have been a good fit, but there's a group of people who are a great fit for that cutthroat, hyper, competitive. Think about a lot of the Wall Street things we see that's stereotypical to a certain degree, but probably realistic. Wolf of Wall Street is a good example. And you're like, who could, man, I don't know. That just seems so negative. But there's a group of people that it worked for.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:09

So there's a uh another book um called The Science of Scaling. And there's no humanity in that book. It's a brilliant book, and I teach it to my clients because it there are so many fantastic nuggets around um getting very clear and not not doing as much, right? Do less and just do better with it. But it's also if these people are not right, you have to replace them. And if they're not the right fit, you have to let them go. And so there's just zero humanity around that. There's no like, what can we do to make that work because they are a great culture fit? Do we find a new it? It was it just it lacks it lacks all humanity because you other companies could scale even faster than they are now, but they would be cutthroat. And so some are.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:01

And I think the way to, and maybe this is how I spun it to make myself feel better about tough decisions. So you got you maybe what can tell me. Um but I I also over the years thought about it a little bit differently, which is you know, as an as an owner or leader or a manager of a department, whatever it might be, you have a certain responsibility, not only to the company, because the company feels like it is like this intangible thing sometimes and profit-driven deal. But you also have a responsibility to the team that you're leading. And when a bad managerial or ownership decision is made as it relates to perhaps someone who's not a good fit, um, when when you choose to avoid that decision for whatever humanitarian reason you want to apply to it, my response is, but you're actually doing the opposite to the team you're responsible for. Yes. Because I'm actually, on the one hand, doing this because I I feel better about it and I feel like I'm helping Anna or Billy. But the truth is, is by by doing that to feel better about it, I'm actually damaging the group. Yeah. And ultimately, the responsibility I have as a manager or leader is to the group.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:17

Right. And and so that was sort of, I think, as part of my maturation occurred. I would, I would often say to myself, look, I I've got to make a decision and I've got to make it not what I want to do, but what I feel like I have a responsibility to do in order to assure that the culture, the revenue, all these things are in a good place so that all of the people taking paychecks from this place can continue.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:42

Well, that's that whole classic, you know, like you're keeping the right person because their numbers are good, but they're such a jerk, you know. Um, and then there's the uh fast to hire, slow to fire, which is not helpful. So, you know, uh when it comes to running a business, there are there are really good um filters and guardrails and no hard and fast rules because there's the people component and it's people that create complexity. It's it's always people, and that's what um that's where everything boils down to. This the the you can't take the humanity out of it. And um I have I have seen like a very typical common stereotypical issue is when you hold on to the wrong person for too long. And it's usually not out of a humanitarian reason, usually it's because the uh owner is um just lacks the ability to do strong conflict management.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:42

So I see that a lot. I also see fear. And especially in businesses that are running quote unquote leaner from an operational standpoint. I found the fear factor to be oftentimes bigger than um the the critical conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:03

What are what do you see them afraid of?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:06

Well, if I lose Anna, who's gonna do her work?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:09

Who's gonna do her work?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:11

And and yeah, she's she's producing at a five out of ten, and I know I need at least a seven and a half, but who's covering the five? And um and I don't know, and and I guess maybe some people would say, well, and you may say this is you know, well, maybe you made some of those decisions, it was easier for you because a lot of times you weren't actually doing the work that that person you weren't gonna do with the aftermath of that on a day-to-day basis. Um I'm gonna deal with it in the PL and you all this other stuff, but it's not like touching the pan, it's hot. Yeah, right. I meet with Anna and go, look, you know, unfortunately, Jimmy's not cutting it, and Jimmy needs to go. And she's thinking, well, that's nice. Who the hell's gonna do Jimmy's work? Yeah, no, Adam's. It's gonna be me and Susie and and Billy.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:58

Um, so I was always cognizant of that decision-making position to the people actually executing it. But I do think that fear is a big, big problem in small to mid-sized businesses. Um my answer to the fear would be we've always overcome it.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:19

No matter who it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:20

You always figure it out. And my response to that would be if little Susie calls off or quits, we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:28

You figure it out. You know, you can't have one employee have too much power. Right. Right. So this is um like when I go in to organizations, there's a lot of things I'm assessing. And, you know, it's business continuity, is one of them around uh, you know, what role is held by one person, where's their choke point, who knows that information. That's why you know SOPs that are documented, and I don't mean just by paper, but like video rich and bullet point style documentation of SOPs that are easily followed and very thorough because you talk more than you're willing to write. So that way you've got you've got backups, cross-training. And if you that I I see this though all of the time, that folks um are unwilling. They because they've not gotten the process documented, that they don't want to let go of somebody. Um and I see that the issue becomes louder and more painful until we deal with it. And so I see these, I see these exits of individuals and it's very messy. And I see the train coming. It's just sometimes when you're in it, it it's it's just hard to act. That's the value of having a like a seasoned Well, another voice. Yeah, somebody that's knows and has seen this. Look, I'm telling you what's going to happen. When she leaves, we're not going to know absolutely anything. We've got to get these processes documented now. You've got to go interview her and get this captured. Because when she's gone, she's leaving with all this information behind her.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:06

This this can't get ick, institutional knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:08

Oh, look at that. So that's a different type of ick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:11

The ick is gonna disappear quickly, and then we're all gonna be scurrying to figure it out. Yeah. And we certainly have had our battles with that. Um so go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:22

Oh, well, I was gonna um ask her the question that we like to ask. Oh, um, how do you define success?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:30

And I saw that question in the packet. And I thought that was uh that that's a question that you can give um an easy check the box answer in your check the box answer. And I didn't want to do that. And I really uh sat and thought about it, about what does success mean to me? Because I'll tell you what, if everything I've built today is gone tomorrow, then I'm st I've still been a success. So I I for myself, a success is um setting out to do something and not just achieving it. It's it's bigger than that. It's it's like still getting through it. It's hard to articulate it because I could say success is building something and getting it done no matter what. Like that's easy, right? Uh I could say that success is uh creating something out of nothing, but I really think success is uh is is doing what you want in life and making that happen, period. And whatever that is, we'll just success is is setting out to to make something happen. And and despite that, doing it and it changes along the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:37

Uh I'm sure I could look back and say, well, success is raising two children that are contributing to society. But then again, that's not fair to say because if a s if a parent has a child with a drug addiction, that doesn't mean that they have failed and they're not successful as parents. That's not a fair definition either. And I guess I have to I success for me is living life on my own terms and what that looks like throughout.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:08

I love it though. I think that's a great, great answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:12

And it sounds selfish, but on my terms, all my terms include my kids having great lives, right? So it depends where your terms are if it's if it's selfish or not.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:21

Well, I actually think that people's definition of success at its core almost needs to be a bit selfish in order to identify what it is that how they want to define it. It's it's it's your personal definition of success. And it's like that old line if you're not in a good place, you can't help anyone. And so if you don't be I think there are certain things in life that you have to be a little bit selfish about, and I think you know, maybe the older you get, that changes over time. And sometimes we learn that maybe we had we were a little too selfish at points, right? Sure, yeah. But 100% you get to a point where you're like, you know, look, I've got to be selfish about a couple of things about my health, you know, whether that's my emotional or physical health. Um, I think about people who are like take time out if they need to go run. And a lot of people are like, Man, if I don't run for a week, like I'm I'm just not a good person. Like I feel it. And I would tell that person, and they say, but I feel guilty because I'm taking time away from my kids. And I was like, Yes, yeah, but you already told me you're a whack job if you're running. So on behalf of your children, I will speak for them. Please go run. They won't miss you for 45 minutes, I promise.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:30

Um, so I do think that it's okay to be selfish about that definition of success because ultimately that positions you to then not be selfish and to be selfless with your time, with the things you do. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:44

And it it's funny because when we ask that question, everybody has such a great answer. But I I agree, success changes, right? And it's not always the highest salary. It's not always flexibility. I think throughout your life, it's it's just gonna change. Right. Um but I like that that answer you gave. That was a really good answer.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:06

So we like to wrap up with um uh question that has nothing to do with anything we've spoken about.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:12

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:13

And it's just rapid fire, and she's gonna ask you, and then I have a follow-up. So okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:17

If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:21

Walt Disney.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:22

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:23

And where would you go have dinner?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:25

Oh, Galatoise.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:27

There you go. I love it. Um, thank you very much. I know you're very busy and um and really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:36

Y'all are incredible.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:38

Oh, thank you. Anybody we could do this for days with you. I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:41

I feel like we need a round two with you. That would be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:44

So stay tuned. Um thank you and happy new year. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:48

Happy New Year. Continue dropping the knowledge. There you go. Great job. Thank you.