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Creating Disney Magic

Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World, shares his wisdom and experience from his time with Disney, Marriott, and Hilton. Lee joins show host Jody Maberry to discuss how you can apply lessons in leadership, management, and customer service to create magic in your organization.
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Creating Disney Magic
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Now displaying: February, 2018
Feb 27, 2018

If your organization has not experienced a major disruption in the past couple of years it is coming. 

Technology changes so fast, you may not even see the disruption before it hits. Look at what Amazon and Uber did to other businesses in their industry. 

The key to being ready for these disruptions is to plan for them. Even if you don't know what the disruption is, you can plan on being disrupted. 

Get a group of people from your organization together. Pick a possible disruption. Work through the problem from start to finish. How will it impact your business? Let everyone share as you uncover unintended consequences. Talk about what could cause people to no longer do business with you. 

If you anticipate disruption you can prepare for it. 

You can download my Morning Magic Planner for Free HERE.

Feb 20, 2018

In my younger days, I had trouble talking about myself. They even called me "Low Key Lee" because I kept to myself. So you might not be surprised to hear I did not interview well. 

But as I became an expert and became more confident, I became better at job interviews. 

Looking back on my career, I realize there are three things to help you create magic in a job interview;

  1. Talk about what you are passionate about. There needs to be something you are so good at and so passionate about you can talk about it all day long. For example, I am passionate about Time Management. In a job interview, I would work it in as much as possible. 
  2. Know the company before the interview. Study all aspects of the company before you sit across from the hiring manager. 
  3. Talk about the human side of business. When you discuss the importance of a strong culture and the value of proper training it will show what you value most, which is the people in the organization. 

Here is a bonus tip...you get the job before you have the interview. 

At Disney, we often knew who we were going to promote when the job came open. Reputation and results are what gets you from one job to the next. 

Build connections and a strong body of work long before you go for the next big job. 

Feb 13, 2018

Many businesses are missing a big opportunity by not finding the right time to make incremental sales. 

Or you could call it situational selling. In the right situation, you offer an additional service or product to the customer. 

It is what we do in the hotel and restaurant business. We encouraged it and sometimes would create a friendly competition. 

Some people call it upselling, but it is more like upserving because you are finding a small way to serve the customer even better. 

At Disney World, guests will listen when a cast member makes a suggestion. If you use the situation to sell additional services or products that will help a customer, you are not serving them well. 

If I visit your store to buy a shirt and also come out with three ties, you served me well because now I have the exact ties to look good in my shirt. It saves me the trouble of looking for the proper tie later. 

Incremental sales through situational selling will add a boost to your bottom line. All those little additional sales add up. If only 10% of the people say yes to your offer it adds up to big sales over time. 

Feb 6, 2018

Many people set resolutions to start a new year. Most of those people don't follow through. 

Usually, by February, people have already given up on losing weight, reading more books, or whatever resolution they set. 

They key is to do things on purpose. Or, said another way, routines. 

Routines are systems to help you get done what you need to get done. Can you imagine FedEx or IBM or Disney doing what they do without systems? 

Your life is no different. You need the routines to keep your life under control and moving in the right direction. 

Routine may feel boring. But you don't want it to be exciting. You don't want fires breaking out all around you and each day to be unpredictable. 

My Time Management Magic course can help you develop proper routines and get more done every day. You can find out more here

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