Welcome to the Jody Mayberry Show, and I am pleased to introduce to you Barry Jacobson. Now Barry, you're gonna like it. He's got a lot of great stories. He had thirty seven years at Disney, and he'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I think his last role there was GM at Golden Oak, which is a fun project that we'll talk about. But Barry is, I think, one of a kind because he has some just delightful Disney experiences. Hello, Barry. Welcome to the show. Hello, Jody. It's
so great to be spending time with you. Great to see you. Well, Barry and I have known each other for a few years now. I think you had just left Disney when we first talked. Right? Yes. I, retired in 2019. And so that's been about five years, and, we've chatted a couple times in between, but it's always great to reconnect and always great to stay up with you and the amazing podcast that you're delivering to so many around the world.
Well, thanks, Barry. And I think what you'll enjoy about Barry is his experience in luxury, and that's why I asked Barry to come and talk with us. I've been doing a workshop that Lee Cockrell and I developed called building a world class customer experience. And the idea there are sometimes we'll have people in the workshop that are, we've had car dealers, we've had title
companies, we've had restaurants. But every once in a while, not that those aren't luxury because you'll you'll hear as Barry talks, anyone can get into luxury. But every once in a while, the idea of luxury comes up. Because when you're talking world class, that luxury is a word that gets thrown in there. So that is why I asked Barry to come and talk to us. But, you know, with thirty seven years at Disney, he has a lot of
experience, a lot of stories. And I just found out moments ago, he started as a lifeguard, which is is fascinating because if you've spent any time at a Disney resort, you have run into a lifeguard. And it seems, Barry, it seems like that is can be a very tough job because this is just what I've noticed. You have to pay attention 100% of the time, and yet there's nothing really going on that requires your attention 98% of the time. Yes. You know,
as you know, one of the major tenants of Disney is safety. So as a lifeguard, you have a firm responsibility every day to make sure that our guests are safe, whether they're in one of our watercraft, renting one of our watercraft, swimming in our pools, or back in the day when we allowed them to swim in the beach, on the lake. So 7 Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. But, you know, for me, it was a entry level role with Disney when I started college
at the University of Central Florida. And it really was some of the great foundation years of the Walt Disney Company. Because back then and at Walt Disney World, we had three resorts and one theme park. So the Magic Kingdom was built, the contemporary, the Polynesian, and the golf resort, which turned into the Disney Inn and now is the Shades of Green. So it was a very small property, about
10,000, cast members. Well, I mentioned Golden Oak at the top, and that is a project that I don't think regular visitors, regular guests to Walt Disney World are familiar with because it's just not something you run into. So tell us before we get into the luxury part, tell us what Golden Oak is. So Golden Oak, is a luxury community, a residential community that's built on an old golf course, two golf courses actually that Disney had. They decided, let's build a a residential community. It's
anchored with a Four Seasons Resort. It is designed for people who love the Walt Disney product, and the amenities are specifically designed for people that are living in these homes. And the new thing about it, when I started, I was actually hired back to Disney. I'd been working, for the Dallas Cowboys. They had hired me away from Disney. And as I was the director of events, and then they hired me away to be, the vice president of special events. And that's a whole another story at at Cowboy
Stadium and did a Super Bowl. I came back when Golden Oak was in its infancy. We had about eight homes that were purchased, and now it's a full residential community with 350 homes, private clubs, a private club, amenities that include private transportation into various areas on the Walt Disney World Resort property. And we created something called Club Life, which was specific bespoke events and gatherings that allowed the members to connect.
And so one of the tenants that we had when I took on this project was, how do we drive a sense of community and build the resident experience? And it's a gorgeous, community, separate neighborhoods, all specifically designed in mind with the Disney brand and Disney amenities. It's amazing to think of a living community, community with houses where people reside and go about their daily life, but of the level of what you would expect
as a guest to to Walt Disney World. And there's a couple other of your roles I wanna walk through. But let's talk about some of the biggest challenges or what you learned at at Golden Oak because this was the first time Disney had done something like that. So it's not like you're opening a theme park and you've got a lot of experience from other people to draw from or you've seen saw, Okay, we did did this at Epcot. This work, this didn't. Let's try this. So what was that like
doing something so unique to Disney? You know, Jody, everything, relates back to your mentors and how, you came about to get into this type of role. And I was fortunate enough to, work in several areas, but, really, I talk about my mom first, my first mentor who told me that hospitality was all about caring for another human being. And then at Disney early on, I was a a manager of special activities, which took on all the celebrities and VIPs and heads of states
who visited Walt Disney World. And I worked for a mentor at the time, a woman by the name of Jane Keer, who taught me about how to exactly take care of people at that level, those people with discerning tastes and, who may have seen many, many things in their life. But how
do you take their experience to the next level? I also left Disney at one point and worked in the private club business for ClubCorp, which is now known as invited, and another bespoke type private experience, and something that is luxury in nature, private clubs, country clubs, city clubs. And I did a lot of I was lucky enough to
have some extraordinary learnings there and training. Fast forward a little and come back to Disney, work in resorts, work in special events, work on a lot of projects that were, with people who, required a little bit higher level of handling. And everybody said, Barry, you're the best handler ever. But I had a team of people that handled me and made me look good. So I don't like to think that I was a great handler. I just had a lot of good people around me.
Go to the cowboys again. My job there was 347 suites, 11 private clubs, all the events on the field. If you know anything about the Dallas Cowboys or any high end stadiums that are being built today, the luxury suites and the private clubs are clearly an important part of those sports experiences. So when Golden Oak was being designed and built, I was working in Dallas. I got a call and, from the president at the time, George
Callegrides, and he told me about this project, Golden Oak. And he says, you know, I don't really know about much about it, but you could probably do this. So if you think about the back experience, because I've always been working with people of discerning taste and those who expect a higher level of attention. Not that our normal guests did not expect that at a Walt Disney World resort or at Walt Disney World
Park, but this is a little different. In the private club business or a private residential community, these people don't check-in and out. They're there all the time. So when you asked about what were those unique challenges, the training was one thing with our cast members. So we went out and selected some of the finest cast members at Walt Disney World, individuals who had extraordinary skills and whether it was culinary or food and beverage or concierge or guest services. And we had
to kind of retool that whole type of thinking. You know, Jody, from your experience and working with, you know, so many Disney execs and knowing Disney people, guest service is paramount at Walt Disney World. But now you take it to the next level where it
becomes personalized and customized. So the training that we had to do for the opening of Golden Oak was very exact in in helping our cast members, the ones we hired, to understand this was a little different, that you would begin to know these guests on a personal basis, these resonance, these club members, if you will. So completely different. And the expectation and you and I talked a little bit about luxury before this call. You know, luxury to me is the absence of
worry. Luxury means that I'm going to have this innate ability to have intuitive service radar that's gonna allow me to understand you as an individual and to be able to ensure that your needs are met no matter who you And, you know, obviously, everyone should be treated as an individual with dignity and respect. We believe that as a tenant at Walt Disney World, and I learned that very much from a
guy named Lee Cockrell, who you know well. But the private club business and this residential community called Golden Oak required taking Disney service up a notch, and that's what we did. And I could tell you countless stories about how we did that. And I do want to know some of those. I'm gonna bring up some other experiences, and then maybe we can thread all of this together in a luxury conversation. So Barry also was behind Club thirty three.
Oh, the Club thirty three openings in Walt Disney World, and he will be able to fill in details better than me. But this is Club thirty three, which Barry will explain more shortly, has been at Disneyland for a long time. They brought that experience to Walt Disney World to open one in each park. And so, Barry, I'm a I'm a little hesitant to talk about it because I've been to two of the club thirty threes at Walt Disney World and was
told in different words. So I was not told this exactly, but basically said, hey, don't really talk about what you see here. Don't talk about what's here. Don't know photos. Don't talk about who you see here. This is a private experience. And so I've been very quiet about Club thirty three. This is probably the first time I've ever even mentioned that I've been there on the podcast. So I feel like someone's gonna
might come and get me after just talking about it. But it's such a phenomenal luxury experience, and I know you're behind it. So I'm gonna I'm taking the risk and bringing it up here about what your role with Club thirty three. Well, during my time at Golden Oak, Club thirty three was in its infancy stages of being talked about and designed and, actuated in each one of the parks. And, I was fully aware of Club thirty three at Disneyland, knew the product and
understood it. And when they began designing and putting together these amazing clubs at Walt Disney World, 1 in each theme park, all in bespoke secret locations, as you know, Jody, you have to be a member to go inside. And, you know, I think there's really not a lot of secrecy to it other than it's a private membership club that you are able to join. There are people who are in these clubs, enjoy Disney. They love Disney, and there's amenities
afforded to them in each one of these clubs. But the unique thing about the clubs and, Jody, you visit a couple, but there's one in each park, and each one is uniquely different. Different China glass and silverware in each one, a different menu in each one. The club does, require an initiation fee and an annual assessment, but there's so many amenities that come along with, joining, and you can find that on the Internet. There's, you know, admissions that have come with it and VIP
tours. And, again, just like Golden Oak, the whole thought process be behind these communities was to get people together and to become friends. Because first of all, their common commonality is that they love Disney. But now how do we take that and make these individuals just be friends and know each other? And the cast members, again, the same thing, knowing about their families, knowing about their dog, knowing about, you know, their son or daughter graduating
college. That is the the uniqueness of these clubs. And then when you do dial down deeper to the why behind, oh, no photographs, and you have to be a club member is because each club has unique memorabilia inside from the Disney archives that unless you're a member, you cannot see. And so, for example, one of the clubs we'll talk about is, a club at Epcot. And that club is based on this guy named Walt Disney. Go figure. Right? But little did a lot of people know that Walt
loved cruising. Walt Disney actually took vacations, and one of his favorite vacations was cruising. So imagine inside this club an homage to Walt and photographs of him and Lillian and maybe some famous people just enjoying life. Imagine Walt Disney sitting on a lounge chair on a deck of a ship. No one sees that photograph, and that photograph is not in circulation in the population. You'd have probably have to dig on the Internet. I'm sure you could find one, but that's
the nature of Club thirty three. And then beyond that, the amenities associated to it besides being able to come in off of the the parks out of the parks and and be able to enjoy food and beverage. And there's the amenities of perhaps being able to buy a piece of merchandise before anybody else or go see a movie premiere. No different than we would do at Golden Oak. The only difference in Golden Oak is we had a, you know, 347 acres to play with. And so, you know, you take an event at Golden
Oak. We did an event called picnic in the park. So the you know, we all have a big old Thanksgiving in at Golden Oak and their families. And I'm gonna tell you one of the cool things we did at Golden Oak about Thanksgiving, but I'll get to picnic in the park first. Day after Thanksgiving, because all those families were in town, we had a recreation park, and we created a barbecue out there. Everybody's
full of turkey and stuffing and all that good stuff. But we would have a barbecue and we bring families together and we'd have all kinds of games and, you know, music and things for the kids to do. And it was terrific. And so you asked me earlier about this bespoke nature of Golden Oak and that private club experience. Here's here's an example of Thanksgiving. Here's how we would manage Thanksgiving. We'd create an amazing Thanksgiving meal for our club members to
enjoy. But here's the caveat, and here's where luxury is different. Here's the way we would think. Jody, you and your family would come in for Thanksgiving. We'd say, you know, Jody, for years and years, we know you're living here, and now you're coming into the club for dinner. But, you know, we know that your grandmother or, Jody, is there something that you would like on your table that's one of those traditional
Thanksgiving meal preps that you would do? One of these dishes that your wife would make or your grandma would make or aunt Tilly would make. And you say, you know, Barry, we have a recipe in our family for sweet potatoes and, you know, it's got this and that. I said, well, do you have the recipe? And you'd say, yes. I said, well, let's make it for your table. And I said, the only thing we don't have is that one ingredient from your family. That's called the love that your family puts into
it. So that's how we would take that level of experience and up it for that private club. Club thirty three, lots of beautiful, amazing amenities. And each club, like I said, uniquely different. One in Hollywood Studios, 1 in the Animal Kingdom, 1 in the Magic Kingdom, each with a different theme. The only consistent thing in each one of the clubs was a particular cocktail that was in every
club. But you'd have different wines, different cocktails, different food in every club, and then just trying to create that atmosphere of camaraderie and, community within those clubs. I think with both Golden Oak and Club thirty three, one of the draws is and I I don't know if this is part of a luxury experience, but one of the draws is you make the members feel like an insider. Like, you're in on something
really special here. I'm sure that was on purpose, but is that required to create a luxury experience to make someone feel like an insider? I think anybody, wants to feel special and, no different than at, Cowboy Stadium for a suite owner or Golden Oak or Club thirty three. Individuals have worked really hard to gain a particular amount of wealth. And, yes, let's just be honest, to get a luxury suite at a sports stadium is not expensive, nor is Golden Oak to buy a home or being a member of
Club thirty three. But people have worked hard for that. And so the expectation is taking their experience to the next level, and, yes, making them feel like they are part of the team or part of Disney and the magic of Disney. And, yes, to your point, an insider. So if there was a movie premiere that was taking place and we could get the director or an actor to actually show up at the movie premiere that we were hosting at midnight before, you know, let's say, Lion King, the
the live action one was coming that just came out. We would do a premiere of that, but we would, again, to your point, Jody, the insider. What did it take to do this? Or meeting, Kurt Russell at a dinner, the famous actor who was a child actor who knew who Walt Disney and listening to
his stories about being on the set with Walt. And now that Kurt is an adult and has a winery and, you know, those kind of insider stories, whether it's an imagineer that comes and says, let me tell you how we created the Star Wars attraction at Disney's Hollywood
studio. They love it. Just like in a sports stadium where, gosh, if you got to meet one of your, you know, childhood athletes that won a Super Bowl at Cowboy Stadium and Drew Pearson showed up in your suite to say hello and you were able to get a picture, that's the insider feel and the insider look that really is all about creating something that's luxury. And I like to say another, phrase that I say, you know, do what is meaningful, and it'll be memorable.
So taking those meaningful things that resonate with that person. What resonates for you, Jody, and someone else may be different, but, collectively, everybody loves Disney or everybody loves the Dallas cowboys or everybody loves the Toronto Maple Leafs, whoever it
is. But individualizing it, personalizing it, and making it special for Jody and his family because they live in the in Golden Oak or they're a club member at Club thirty three was how we wanted to make the experience to your point and the insider experience and then to the next level of
luxury. When I look back, I did two I've done a VIP tour at Disneyland, VIP tour at Walt Disney World. 1 thing that stands out at the one at Disneyland was the not only did we get the perks of a VIP tour, you get to do more attractions and whatnot, but it was the stories that she told. For example, when I think it was the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out. Johnny Depp dressed as Jack Sparrow and then was in the ride. People go by, think it was an animatronic, and then at
the last moment realize it's Johnny Depp. She told that story. She told some other stories. And I just got the feeling like, oh, I'm hearing some stories you're just not going to hear anywhere else. And, yes, a VIP tour will make you feel special like an insider, but I realized that those stories also made me feel special. Like, I'm not gonna hear these anywhere else, and I'm hearing them here on the the VIP tour. Yeah. You know, we we were able to create some
amazing things at Golden Oak. So we did these, dinners, Disney dreams dinners at Golden Oak, on a quarterly basis. I think we started out monthly and maybe they were monthly, but imagine you do a dinner that is, all about the Sherman brothers, the famous duo who wrote so many songs, but particularly you would know the songs from Mary Poppins. And you'd have someone there from the Disney archives talking about the Sherman Brothers. And then,
throughout the dinner, their music is being played. The menu is designed around each course around, you know, their movies that they wrote for. And then at the end of the dinner, you get a black and white photo with Dick Van Dyke standing around the piano with the Sherman brothers. Not only that, it's signed by Dick Van Dyke. Now we know he's a Disney legend, and he's a legend in theater and television. But that's the next level that you
can't buy. Money can't buy, to your point, those stories or, you know, when we did a trip to Disneyland with, Golden Oak folks or to with Club thirty three individuals. We do these travel trips, and you get to go into Walt's apartment at Disneyland. Not many people get to do that. So it's creating those experiences that are money can't buy, if you will, that are memorable, meaningful, and that will resonate with people for the rest of their lives. Well, I I've heard you say two things
that really caught my attention. Early on, you said luxury is the absence of worry. More recently, you've said do what is meaningful, and it will be memorable. And I wanna now talk about take those two things and talk about creating luxury experiences because someone might say, alright, Barry. Golden Oak Club thirty three, Dallas Cowboys. Sure. You can create luxury experiences because you have the budget to do things really special. But I'm a corner drugstore. I'm a small barbecue restaurant.
I don't have that budget. So how can a normal business that is not Disney because I'm sure you've heard that too, Barry. Sure. That works for Disney. That doesn't work here. How can a normal business start to rethink luxury and start to create luxury experiences? That's a great question, and I get that question a lot because, you know, my career, whether it was working with the board of directors or Michael Eisner, Bob Iger and others,
has always been around that. But, really, I'm an operator at heart, and I've worked in resort hotels and private clubs. At the end of the day, to me, people want to be, made to feel special, and those things do not cost a lot of money. So let's just take greeting somebody and taking a moment to interact with them and looking them in the eye. And, you know, one of my taglines with my business now is, you know, building a culture of excellence, one magical
interaction at a time. Businesses today have to slow down a bit. There's a lot of technology that's out there, but I think people on on a human basis want to be welcomed and they want to be made to feel special, and that's whether you're paying special attention to their children. So let's let's just take a restaurant. And we know, from raising children how rambunctious they can be. And, yes, this costs a very little
money, but it does cost money. But when children come into a restaurant and they're wired up and mom and dad haven't brought a snack in, good golly, have some Goldfish available and put them in a little dish and put them at the table. That's, to me, is the absence of worry for mom and dad. Oh my gosh. My little child now has something to touch and feel and eat, and we can look at a menu. Right? Or the coloring books. A lot of places have gone away from those
basic things. A drugstore. You know, if somebody comes in, they're not feeling well, luxury to me, or creating something special means, gosh, I'm so sorry you're not feeling well. Let's find let's get your prescription right away. Or if if you need something over the counter, that one little moment of interaction to make somebody feel like they're noticed and you care about them. So going back to my mom, you know, hospitality is all about caring for somebody.
The other things I think about is today, you know, listening is very important, and I call it guest service radar. And, you know, all of us wanna be taken care of. And I think if businesses can pay attention to their customers and train their team members, their employees, to understand that the customer is so paramount to the nature of our business. Without the customers, guess what? There's no business. We all know that. Right? So go that extra level of care or just be able to connect with
somebody. I worked with a orthopedic and spine center out in Denver, helping them with their patient experience. And one of the things we worked on was empathy, especially out in Colorado. People get hurt. They're very active out there skiing and biking and running. And if they come into the center and that team member or that, patient access representative says, oh my gosh. We are so sorry that shoulder's out of place. We got the most amazing docs here. They're going to take
care of you. Or to the next thing we trained on, which was not training. It was just intuitive. Again, going to that human basic human need. If I see that you're wearing a a Denver Nuggets shirt when you come in, hey. How are the Nuggets doing? Or one story I told, there was a elderly gentleman who, was walking through the hallway, and I noticed that he had these incredible socks on. And I said, oh my gosh. I love those socks. Now whether I love them or not, they were bright red. They had
design on them. And he said, you know what? My grandkids gave me those socks. You see how it just turns it up a notch by just recognizing something on somebody. I probably made his day. And when I talk to the regular I mean, to the rest of the team, I help them understand that that's what it's all about. So, you know, when I say luxury, I think luxury to me
is just being treated well. And for the business you're working with, for the people that you're hiring, for them to understand that it's so important to make sure they connect with the customer. This is great, Barry, because the way you laid it out is clear to see it doesn't matter what business you're in. You can offer a luxury experience. And, yes, there is a different level of luxury where you can offer something private like Club thirty three, but that doesn't have to be the case.
You can just approach how you operate as luxury. If you come through these doors, you are going to have a luxury experience because you're going to be noticed, you're going to know that we care, we're going to take care of you, and you're gonna go home and tell your neighbors about coming to our drugstore. Exactly. And and imagine as you're leaving that drugstore, someone says, thanks for your business. See you next time. Thank you. Really? Does that happen often? Not too
often. And I think, you know, just letting people know that you value and appreciate it, them coming in. I mean, today, you know, everybody it doesn't matter whether you're wealthy. We're all working hard, and we're spending our hard earned money on something. And if you can see that somebody, that there's value to it, and that value can be just as simple as somebody treating you with a friendly hello or saying thanks for your business. And you walk out of there and go, wow.
I think I'll come back. And that's what everybody every business needs to strive for. Right? That repeat business, that sustained profitability. And so when I'm out talking to a lot of groups, I talk about that a lot. The other thing, Jody, you know, is how are you today differentiating yourself from other businesses? So at the end of the day, to me, the the big differentiator today is service. There's a lot of commodities that are saying, You know, what's gonna make me go to this convenience
store between or another convenience store? You know, there's lots of them. We could name them if we wanted to. We know who started it way back when, 07/11, right, or Cumberland Farms or some of these early early on convenience stores? What's the difference? They all say sell the same thing. They all sell gas. They all sell bread and eggs and candy and chips and all of that. It's the people behind the counter. It's that intangible, but it's tangible. It's the, how am I treated?
Is the place clean? You know, nothing worse than walking into a convenience store and and it's dirty or has some unique smells to it or even if you have to use the restroom and it's not in good condition. Right? So all those little details matter, and I think that's where businesses today can think about it. You know, it's a luxury for me. If I've gotta get my kid into a store and I need to use a restroom for him and I walk in and it's clean,
Well, that's a differentiator. Don't see that too often. So I think to me, you know, all businesses can think, how am I answering my phone? What does it look like when they go to my website? It's so many little things that make a difference. And to me, luxury is about being treated well. Barry, this has been a wonderful conversation. Perhaps someday, we'll have you back to talk about creating that, for lack of a better term,
that club level experience. But I think understanding what luxury is, which is what we've talked about now, is a great place to start realizing what it takes to create luxury experiences. Barry's laid that out for you now. You realize you don't have to be Disney. You don't have to have a big budget. You just have to be deliberate, pay attention to the details, make people feel special. That's what it takes for luxury. Okay, Barry. So tell us where what you're up to now and where we can
find out more about you and what you're doing. So I have my own, consulting business, barryjacobsonconsulting.com. You can go to my website. And today, I'm out with a great, speaking tour. I I'm doing speeches for all kinds of organizations about building a customer of excellence from Main Street to your street. And I'm helping, you know, anybody who is working with customers and employees. I help them try to understand and deliver a culture that strives and sustains excellence every
single day. And, you know, the big word for me is consistency and how can you be consistent in delivering on excellence. Alright, Barry. It was wonderful having you here, and we'll have another talk in the future, but I've learned a lot from you about luxury. Thanks, Jody. It's great to be on and, always a pleasure to chat with you. And thank you for listening to the Jody Mayberry Show. Listening to the Jody Mayberry show. He likes to narrate the cereal box. It's Sugar Jay.