Welcome to the Jody Mayberry Show. And boy, do I have a treat for you. I have a returning guest who has not been on the show in, I feel, 2 years. He used to be a regular, and he just disappeared from your ears for a little while. And he's back. Jeff Knoll. Jeff, how are you? Hello, everyone. Hello, Jody. Hello, everyone. It is it is so awesome to be back on Jody's show and, and to have your attention for a little bit. And I'm here to help out Jody any way I can. Jody, greetings from Walt
Disney World Florida. Well, Jeff, you know what we're going to talk about today. The 5 things I tell myself every day, you know, I'm gonna give some background on this because we did not do this episode last year. Every year, I take 5 sayings, quotes if you will, write them on note cards, and then I keep them at my desk so I can see them every day. Well, I've done an episode about those with Geoff at the beginning of every year, only we didn't do it last year. I did the cards, but we didn't do
the episode. And someone reminded me and said, Hey, I look forward to that episode every year. Where where was it? And I said, Oh my goodness. We did. We missed it. So I had to invite Jeff Beck. Bring him out of retirement. Bring him out of seclusion so he can talk to us, and we're we're gonna go through these quotes. Now this is how it works, is I replace a couple every year. I rotate it. There was 1 year I replaced all of them. I think last year, I only replaced
1. This year, I have 2. So what I do is I say what my quotes are, and then Jeff and I talk about them. So, Jeff, you remember all that, I'm sure. Yeah. And it's always exciting because I have no idea what you're gonna say. And and then I try to quickly imagine if that word or that quote was that essence would would be something I would pick and why and and try and at the same time go, you know, that's perfect for Jody or that'd be perfect for anyone,
actually. And that's the fun and exciting part. This is a little bit like Jeopardy. You know, it's like the clock is going and here we go. Alright. Now I'm going to do these these cards now. I used to not do this, but a couple years ago, I think, I started writing the year they were added into rotation on the card, so I know. The first quote, Jeff, has been in the rotation, according to my card, since 2021. And it is from Admiral Payne. Do your best and forgive yourself.
That's another one that's staying. The first three I'm gonna give you, Jeff, they are staying in rotation, and that's one that will I think it's been in rotation every year except one. Well, that that is such a powerful mentality essence to if you're confident that you've done your very best, then you can't do anything better than your your very best. And if it doesn't work out the way that you had hoped or if it works out better than you hoped, then either way, forgive yourself for the the
extra work or or the success. Not not forgive yourself for the success. Forgive yourself for any extra work or worry that is on your mind about the result. I think that's that's amazing. Yeah. It is such a powerful quote and I took it out 1 year and just had to bring it back. I need that reminder. Sometimes you do your best and it doesn't work and you need to forgive yourself. Sometimes you do your best at the expense of other things and you need to forgive
yourself. I just like that one. So that one is staying in. The next one is staying in comes from Tony Robbins. Trade your expectations for appreciation. That one was added in 2,022. So that's it, Jeff. Trade your expectations for appreciation. Will you go a little deeper on what that means to you? Because I feel like I I might be able to interpret it more than one way, and I wanna make sure I'm responding in in the way that you intend. Here's what it means for
me. I think there's two levels to it. One is I added this because at the time, I was probably expecting things that didn't happen and then be a little disappointed it didn't happen. Well, this was a daily reminder and is a daily reminder for me that instead of expecting things to happen, just appreciate what does happen. Now that doesn't mean I'm not going to try my best to make certain things happen. But if we don't get there all the way, I'm still going to appreciate what
did happen. Another way to look at it, I expected I would get to hike with Jeff Noll in Glacier National Park last year. It didn't happen, but I do appreciate that we ran into each other once. We got to talk. We got to text. So there's another example. I could just have been disappointed we didn't get the opportunity to go hiking, but instead, I appreciate the talks we did get to have. Yeah. And you know how I'm
interpreting that, and I think it's I think this one's brilliant, too. I think your first one was about forgiveness, and I try and just carry that in in my heart and soul every day. And this one is to me, for me, the way I would frame it up is it's about surrender, surrendering, you know, the surrender prayer, you know, control what you can control and let surrender to what you can't control. And if you can do that, I think it really just helps you manage expectations.
You can have high expectations, but if whatever that expectation is, if it doesn't play out the way you want, live with it. You know, do something about it or surrender to the what you got if you don't have a second chance at it, and be grateful that, like you said, that you even had the opportunity to get anything out of it. Yeah. Wonderful, Jeff. Okay. This next one will be very familiar to you. Added in 2023, Happy Present Moment by Jeff Knoll. That is my favorite. Of all the ones that you've
ever written, that one's my favorite. Well, the reason I have this one in, I just wanted to give myself a daily reminder that, hey, I'm in this present moment. Okay. It's two sided, Jeff. 1 is to bring myself back into the present moment and not look too far into the future, not look too far behind. Just be here now and be happy about it. People will text you and say happy birthday. People will text you and say
happy anniversary, happy new year. Jeff Noll is the only one that will text you and say happy present moment, which I love, Jeff, because it's a reminder that, hey, I'm here and that's worth being happy because I'm here right now. Yeah. You know, Jody, you're first too. So if you are struggling with forgiving yourself and or others, you know, the fact that you're alive to have even think about having that choice, because if you
weren't alive, you wouldn't have you wouldn't even have that choice. And then with surrender into expectations and and all of that, again, you are alive to to be present. You're here on this planet right now, and to have the privilege to have feelings and thoughts and all of it. I mean, when that stops happening, then you're, you know, it's
over. Yes. So being present is reminder that we could take being present for granted, but there's a lot of people, you and I, and and all of you listening are we're missing right now because they're not here. Bob Allen was recently on the podcast, and he talked about it a little bit and said, there's a difference between talking with Jeff Noll. He didn't use your name. He used my name. I'm going to use your name. He said, there's a difference between talking with Jeff Noll and talking with Jeff
Noll and being present. And I've been thinking about that ever since because of course that reminded me. Yeah. Yeah. It reminded me of you because maybe Bob Allen might have you beat. I don't know. I spend more time with you than him. But there's no one else I know that works so hard to be in in the present moment than Jeff Noll. Yeah. And and just as a reminder, Jody, I worked really hard at the beginning, like juggling
or any other skill playing the violin. And after enough practice, you get pretty good at it without having to think too much about it. Okay, Jeff. We're going to move to the 2 quotes that I'm going to rotate out. But before we do, what have you been up to since you've been on on the show last? Let's see.
It's probably been about a year and a half, but the big news for me, the thing that really threw me and my life for a curveball was was that I was out in Glacier National Park with my wife like we do every summer, and we were coming home for a week and then we were going back out for another month or so. And we were just coming home for a week because we had been out there for 6 weeks already. We were just wanting to take a little break, and the day after I got home, I went out for a walk.
I'm home for, like, 24 hours, and I'm walking and I I went blind in my, one eye. My retinotor, there was no pain. There was no event. I just would walk in and all of a sudden my vision seems wonky, and I took my glasses off and I covered each eye with my hand and I couldn't see out of my left eye. And that led to a retina repair surgery, actually, that very same week. And I was coming back from that and then 3 weeks later at retore and I had to have a second retina repair
in less than a month. And then this past spring after that got all settled, I had cataract surgery that got accelerated just in the one eye. And then so I've had on and off issues, but the real blessing in that moment when I couldn't see out of my eye, in 30 seconds I said, you know what? I've had 60 plus years of being able to see out of
both of my eyes. And if I never get to see out of this eye again, I'm just gonna be grateful that I got what I got because there are some people that are not even they don't they've never experienced sight or they haven't experienced sight in a long time. I'm like, don't don't be an Eeyore because you might lose your sight. And, that's so anyway, that's the big news. But now I could see really good, and I'm, you know, I'm mindful
that there's it's an issue, and I've got to manage it. But I'm just so grateful for the whole experience. But it threw me because I couldn't exercise. That was the other part of it. Doc said, you gotta be a couch potato. And I gotta tell you, after 24 years of getting myself back into a place of physical vibrancy to not do anything and lose at all, that was tough. But I said, I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to
come back. That was probably longer than you wanted to hear, but that was, that that's it. I will tell you what was amazing about Jeff. You heard him say that he he would just accept it and be grateful he had 60 years with both eyes. But I I talked to him at the time and he actually meant it. And I I remember thinking I would be so stressed, I would be so panicked. And Jeff just went with it day by day and his got his sight back. It was just amazing, Jeff.
I I couldn't believe how well you handled it after the initial shock of what happened wore off, how you just rolled with it. Now, I'm sure that there were some down days and when it tore when you had to have the second surgery, I'm sure that was a struggle. But the way you handled it overall, I just was impressive. It for me, it was seeing everything that I heard you say over the years in action, and you're always such an inspiration, Jeff, that I just couldn't believe how
well you handled it. Thank you. You know, you've always heard me say this, especially when we hike in Glacier, that we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Because if you're out in the wild and something goes south, you have to have some sort of preparedness for and and the simplest thing I can think about is to having that, Garmin, the satellite access to send a
signal, because there's no WiFi or cell signal. So if you get, just always carrying a Garmin and always carrying bear spray and water and your water filtration, all of it, anyway. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm glad everything worked out, and I'm sure the mountains of Glacier look even better now than they ever have. Yeah. And I I cannot wait to hear what you're, taking off the table and and what you're gonna put on the table. I I'm really excited about these next 2. Okay. So here's one that is rotating
out, and it was just added last year. So Jeff never commented on this one. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. It's from Mike Rowe, who was the host of the popular TV show Dirty Jobs. I heard him talking about something about bad situations or things go wrong. And he said, imagine imagine the New Testament without Judas because it would be a completely different story. And I that inspired me at the time to realize, yeah, challenges end up making better stories.
Challenges are how you overcome things, and and it could be the start of something pretty incredible. So that was in for a year. I'll let you comment on that, Jeff, if you want, and then I will tell you why. Saying is I I love that. I have never heard that, and that is such a paradox of the way that we would think that we would wanna omit the worst thing about something.
And, to look at it, I don't know if he's seeing it up as a blessing, but that's the way I'm just gut reaction is that Judas was a blessing to the whole story even though we hated it. It wouldn't be much of a story if there wasn't that. Yes. Exactly. And and that's why I enjoyed that quote. I pulled it out. I I put it in. Part of the reason why it's coming out is something has to come out for something new to go
in. So that's a big reason. The other is I felt like sometimes it might have prompted me to look for the villain of a situation. And by villain of a situation, I don't mean a person. It could be anything. But I was like, okay. I I want better reminders. I don't as much as I like that quote, I just don't want a daily reminder that they're villains. Yeah. I think that's sound. I really think you that that's the perfect way to look at the reason why you would wanna rotate something else in its
place. Yeah. Good. Okay. The next one was added in 2,023, and it is from Lee Cockrell. I think the only Lee Cockrell quote that has been in here, it's don't get ready, be ready, which I still like that quote. But, also, something has to go out so something new can come in. I love that. And, if it were me, in my head, I would have this invisible asterisk that says you have to get ready to be ready. But at a certain point, you should always be ready.
And I think of procrastination as part of a theme to this quote, meaning we're gonna start exercising, or we're gonna start saving money or we're gonna start volunteering, you know, at the soup kitchen or whatever it is. We're gonna get ready to do it. And I think what the way I hear Lee's heart and voice in that and what I think your intention is is to just to get there. Do whatever it takes, get there, and then just stay there, and be that person always.
Yes. That's right. And that's why it was added to have that daily reminder. And where this quote originally comes from is when Lee was he saw it at Marriott. He saw it at Disney. But let's say at at Disney, he's the executive vice president, and he would hear stories of when he would visit particular areas, they would get ready because Lee Cockrell's coming. When he was at Marriott, people would get ready because someone important was coming. And the idea was, look, a a guest
is probably more important than an executive. You should already be at your best for the guest. Don't get ready because an executive is coming. You you should be good enough that if Lee Cockrell shows up, you didn't do anything different. Yeah. That should be your day daily standard, not when, the inspectors come in that yeah. You should your place should be would be an A plus inspection no matter who did it or when they did it, which is a high
standard, and there's nothing wrong with a high standard. We got habits all the way around, and so if we have habits that say every day's gotta be Super Bowl Sunday, then, you know, you you don't get ready for that. You get there, and then you stay there. So you are ready all the time. Yes. Alright. That excellent. And Good one. That's a great one. It's a great ad. It's a great one. And if I could keep quotes in, it would stay in, but something had to rotate out. Alright. You ready for the 2 new
ones, Jeff? I am. Alright. This this one was from a book I was reading. It unexpected because I was just reading a book. Wait. I you know what? I am so sorry. I thought the Lee one was, was new. So I apologize. I was treating it like you added it, but you were just you were reviewing the first two or the 2 that you've back to back that you're Yes. That's right. Retiring for now. Mike Rowan's So here's the new one. Lee Cockrell getting retired. This new one, I was
reading a book by David Roberts. It was about exploring in the Southwest. He writes a lot about cliff dwellings and artifacts and cultures of the American Southwest. And I got this unexpected quote in one of his books. He said, if it's worth doing, it's worth writing about. Wow. And I added this into this year's rotation because, one, I've never finished the book I was writing, so that's part of
it. A daily reminder about that. Also, just a daily reminder of I do a lot of stuff that I should probably write more about, podcast more about, talk more about. And if it's worth me doing it, then it's worth putting it out there and and talking about it, writing about it, recording about it. So that's what's behind it. But I'd love to hear what you think of this quote. There's part of me. I I'm I'm torn on this one because there's only so many hours in the day.
And, boy, I and I'm making an assumption, Jody. I'm making an assumption that we're only doing that you and I and and the folks listening in, theoretically, we're only doing the stuff that's worth doing. Because if we're not, I mean, why why are we doing the stuff if it's not worth doing? So if we are living a life that's full of stuff that's worth doing, that's a lot of rating. That is true. Alright. Well, we will see how it
goes with with this. Yeah. I can't wait. I can't wait to see, Jodi Mayberry's book on Amazon. Alright. This last one, I would say is unlike any other quote that I have done because most of them are mindset related. Although this last one, I think the one by David Roberts is kind of a prompt to do more, to write more, when most of them are mindset related. So I think the 2 added this year have
something in common. This quote comes from Ben Settle, and he said, if you don't offer them something, someone else will. And for me, that is just a daily reminder to keep putting things out there. With the Cockrell Academy, for example, Lee Cockrell and I have some fantastic products that can help a lot of people, the courses, the newsletters, the Cockrell Academy itself, the workshops we do, our other live events. And people are going to find somewhere to work
on becoming a better leader. They're going to find somewhere to find out how to be better at customer service. They're going to find somewhere to learn these things. And it it should be us because our work is really good. And the only reason Your work is to me, your work is the best that's that's available. Lee, you know, creating Disney, creating magic, ten common sense leadership strategies from a life at at Disney. I think that's the best leadership book I have
ever read. I don't think it is the best leadership book I've ever read because it's common sense, and it's coming from a person who was in charge of 40,000 cast members at Walt Disney World with the guests' expectations off the charts high, and so many diverse businesses and departments that he was in charge of, that he was able to apply these concepts across all of them, and then he
somehow found you. You 2 found each other, and your Midwest values, and your just your heart and soul, and your determination to help Lee get his message out there and your own message out there. I mean, honestly, if you have not looked into this, I don't think you are intending for a plug, and you've never asked me
for a plug. But, Jody, I'm just telling you, you and Lee should exhaust every everything that anybody could want because nobody's got more experience or better ability to tell a story than you 2. Well off my soapbox. I appreciate that, and you can go to cockroacademy.com to find out more. And, before I return to the quote, what Jeff said, Lee was
responsible for 40,000 people. I like to refer to when Lee and I are working together, say, well, Lee and I together were responsible for managing and supervising 40,007 people because he had the 40,000 and I had 7. So When did Lee retire? He retired in Like, 2016? 2006. No. It was sooner than that. Yeah. So I was there when he I was a leader at Disney when he was feeding all of us leaders. Like, 6, 7, 8,000 of us. He was feeding us literally every day with the resources that he was providing
us. I was on the receiving end of it as one of his way down at the bottom leaders. And I'll tell you that it made all the difference on the front line, dealing every day, working every day with trying to make people have them to help people have the best vacation of their entire lives and create a place that people wanted to come to work and that they could grow and develop if they wanted to. Yeah. It's the real deal. Well, hearing Jeff say that, that ties right into why I have this
quote. If you don't offer them something, someone else will. If Lee and I have content that good, if his books are that good, the courses, the newsletter, why would I not always put it out there in front of people? Because if I don't, they're going to go somewhere else and get their resources. And I feel what we have is really good, so why not put it out there? If I don't offer them something, someone else will. So that's what
is behind that quote, Jeff. Yeah. No. It's that's really important, and I think there's nobody better to do what you do than YouTube. Well, thank you. I'll give you one more what's behind it. Lee and I were on this speaking tour a number of years ago. We were in Nashville, and there were about 300 people of all levels of this company in the audience. And afterwards, someone was hanging back to talk to Lee. People
came, got booked, signed all that. And then this guy came up and said he had worked at the company for however many years, let's just say 14 years, and he said nobody ever told me it could be like this. And Lee said, really? What tell me more. What do you mean? And he said, well, I've worked here all this time and no one has talked to me about how I'm a leader and how I'm responsible for what happens and I can make a difference. And I think of that guy often. I don't know his his name.
I just know I met him that day and thought that's why Lee and I need to be urgent about getting our message out. There's a lot of people out there that don't know it can be like this, that don't know they can make a difference for themselves, for their coworkers, for the people they supervise. So that's also one thing that's behind this. Lee, if if we're not putting our offers out, that gentleman would have
never heard Lee's message. Yeah. I have every issue because it came in email, and then I would print it out, and I would save it. I would file it away. I have every issue that Lee published of the Main Street diary that came out once a week. It's it's that good. Anyway Yeah. The Main Street Diary is Lee has the window on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom, and it even says editor in chief Main Street Diaries. So that's
how important that was. It sounds like this leader that you talked to at the end of that session was there after Lee retired and whoever The the this this was at another company. He did not work at Disney. We were Oh, I am sorry. I missed that point. Yep. Well, I can guarantee that's I've seen it in my work with 100, not thousands of different companies that it is rare that leadership is a big deal.
Everybody just assumes that people will read a book or something, but to have a dedicated focus on leadership development, not leadership training, leadership development, which is different and leadership training is everything, you know, all the check boxes. Development is is growth, and it is uniqueness to that person's abilities and so
on. What's your last one? That was it. That's the last one because I only have 5. I got so you know, where I'm from, there's 3 kinds of people, those who could count and those who can't. Well, it gets confusing because some are staying, some are removing, some are Yeah. Yeah. Adding. So that's it. Those are the 5 things I will tell myself every day in 2,025. Can you review them from the top, all 5 of them? Yes. Okay, Dan. We have admiral Payne, who, if you don't know, is Lee Cockrell's
father-in-law, Dan Cockrell's grandfather. Do your best and forgive yourself. Tony Robbins said, trade your expectations for appreciation. And perhaps the most important of all, Jeff Noll said, happy present moment. David Roberts said if it's worth doing, it's worth writing about, which, Jeff, reminds me Elvis Presley once said if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. Wow. Alright. And Ben Settle said if you don't offer them something,
someone else will. Those are the 5. Stodie, thank you for I think this is a great tradition that you have, that you do for yourself. Whether you share it with other people or not is one thing, but the fact that you do it, it's important to you, and you do it every year, and you've got a system for it, and you've got your reasons why. I think that's
a great leadership lesson right there. I like what you said there, Jeff, because sometimes you have to have your systems, your processes, and your your motivations that no one else knows about. Now, I do share these once a year. I share these, but I do it every day. I don't talk about it every day, but it's there. And you you should see how tattered the card from about Admiral Payne is from 2021. It's not as crisp as the 2 new cards
that have been added because I see them every day. The reps behind this sorry. You're doing the reps behind the scene, and you're giving all of us the opportunity to say, hey. Here's what I do and why I do it. And it's an opportunity. It's a pretty simple exercise, but it pays you dividends every day if you follow if you do the reps
every day. Think about these things every day. Before we depart, Jeff, I wanna give a special mention to Levi Novi because had he not said, why didn't you do that episode in this year because he said it last year, I wouldn't have thought to bring it back. I wouldn't have thought to bring Jeff Knoll back to make sure we did this. No. Thank you, Levi, and thank you, Jeff, for being willing to come back after a long hiatus. And we're so glad that you are seeing the world. Yeah.
So blessed. All right, Jeff. Maybe this year we'll be able to sneak you back on from time to time because I just told someone yesterday, Rick Allen, who you know, I just told Rick Allen you we ended up talking about you, and I said, you know, I think the world needs more Jeff Noll. And he said, I agree. I'm not even gonna comment on that. Okay. I'm just gonna be grateful it was said and, whether it's believable or
not. That's for my mom to decide. Well, what we were talking about specifically was he mentioned how he had listened to all 100 episodes of If Disney Ran Your Life. And he said, oh, but it's in the vault now. And I said, yeah. Every once in a while, I try to get Jeff to bring it back out because the world needs more Jeff Newell. And he said, oh, yeah. Yeah. We do. Are you telling me that Rick Allen listened to all those episodes? That's what he told me. He has
never told me that. I had no idea that he even knew that I had a podcast. That's insane. And I see Rick on a frequency. We're neighbors here right behind Magic Kingdom. Not next door neighbors, but close enough couple miles. Oh my gosh. Wasn't that funny? Knew. You never know who's listening when you have something to say. So then I I recounted our adventures in Kuwait and Glacier and Oregon and Disneyland, all the cool things we've done together. Yeah. Oregon. We were at anyway, I'll
keep us out of the weeds, Jody. It was a world class place where we were at in Oregon. Yes. It was. Anyway, Jody, thank you so much for having me on the show, and let's have a great 2025, everybody. I can't wait. I'm already halfway into, January. Well, Jeff, I'm so happy that you came back. Thank you so much, and thank you for listening to the Jody Mayberry Show. His hair is shagging in his eyes. It's Sugar Jay.