How You Operate Makes the Magic

Foreign. Welcome to the Jody Mayberry Show. Last episode, we talked with the wonderful Donella Richard, and as we do on this show, she has come back to ask me three questions. I don't know what she's going to ask. It's new to me. I didn't tell her what to ask. I didn't ask her what to ask. I didn't suggest what to ask. It's going to be a surprise. So, Donella, welcome back. Thank you. Thank you, Jody. All right, I. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. What is your first question?

All right, Jody. So my first question to you is, so you know, there are a lot of people that use the term bucket list. Well, kick the bucket on that one. I don't believe in bucket list, but what I believe in is the living list of destinations, because it's all about living your life, right? And that's one of the things you'll see in the travel journal, is that you start to write down your living list of places that you want to visit in this

lifetime. So tell me one of your living list destinations that you want to make sure you visit in this lifetime. Oh, my goodness. That is a fun question.

And I'm going to build up to it because prior to 2019, I, honest to goodness, never intended to leave North America. I think the United States is phenomenal. Anything you want to do, anything you want to see, anything you want to meet is probably right here in our own country. It's so diverse geographically, culturally. And I said I could spend my entire life traveling the United States,

visiting Canada, and be completely happy. Then in 2019, I had an opportunity to go to Kuwait for a business trip. And I went. And I will admit, the first day, I hated it, but that was mostly jet lag. The second day, I thought it was okay. By the third day, I loved it. I got back from that trip and I thought, if Kuwait was that much fun, what else is out there? And then I ended up visiting Mexico, the

Bahamas, Dominican Republic. Loved them all. And then recently, I got the chance to go to Chile with the Juan Rivers, which was fantastic. So that's my buildup that if you had asked me this before 2019, I would have said nowhere. I just want to keep visiting the United States. But now I have two. You asked for one. I'm going to give you two. One is Australia, because that I always said if I go anywhere out of the country, that's the good first one, because they speak English, it'll probably

be easy to travel. And I just Think Australians are wonderful. And now Dan Cockrell lives there, so it's on my living list, my life list, to get there while he still lives there. So I have a friend I can get around Australia with. The other is Austria. And the reason Austria and not Germany is when I was in high school, I took German class for four years. I don't think I learned anything. I was a terrible student in high school. I did

just well enough to not get kicked out of the class. But my freshman year, the government in Germany and Austria and in the United States teamed up, and they paired up pen pals, freshmen in Austria and Germany with freshmen German students in the United States. And I got paired up with a girl the same age as me, Manuela Zeller. We wrote to each other all through high school, through most of college. It faded away. We eventually got back in touch

again, and now I'm all grown up with a family. She's all grown up with a family. And every once in a while, I have a zoom call. And I would love to, after meeting each other through letters when we were 13 or 14, it would be great to finally get to Austria and meet her in person. Yes, that's an amazing country as well. And like you said, Austria, Germany, I lived in Belgium once upon a time, so

chance to spend a lot of time in those countries as well, though. All right, so now question number two. So, Jody, as I talked about amazing people in this industry and why the people that we know are important, I met you through some amazing people, and they're my Disney clique. You know, they're all my Disney connections. So, you know, JJ And Jamie Eubanks, dejuan Rivers, as well as the Cockrells. That's my Disney clique. So tell me, what's so special about Disney? Why do you love Disney

and its people? Oh, my goodness, they know.

Lee Cockrell has a quote that I think sums it up so well. He says it's not magic that makes it work. It's the way we work that makes it magic. And one of my favorite things about going to Disney, sure, the attractions are great. I love seeing how they operate. It is phenomenal that you have that many thousand. I think they're up to 75,000 cast members at Disney World now. And sure, there are people that perhaps don't buy in,

but let's assume everybody does. How do you get 75,000 people to operate with the same purpose and make sure that when Donella's there, she has the best vacation of her life? And then when Jody's there. He has the best vacation of his life. It is just wonderful to watch how they operate in a manner that in that moment, there is nothing more important than to them than making sure Donnella is having the best vacation of her life. And I just love

being there and watching how they make that happen. And it's been really neat working with Lee for so many years and Duan for so many years to hear the stories behind what makes it happen. And it's not always easy. Lee. And to reference Lee again, he used to say, Disney World is the happiest place on earth or else you're going to be happy while you're here. There is no alternative because it's not about you, it's about the guest.

And they shouldn't know about your troubles with your supervisor or your troubles at home because they're here for their vacation. And there's so much you can learn from Disney that applies everywhere else. I was a park ranger for many years, so that's still a big part of what I do. And I have a podcast for park rangers. I speak at park conferences or to. To park agencies. And there are so many crossovers between natural parks and themed parks. And it goes

both ways. Themed parks can take a lot from natural parks, natural parks can take from themed parks. And I think that that is it that the. The similar. Because I'm a natural park guy. As much as I love Disney, I almost hate to admit this live, but if you gave me the choice, a week in Glacier national park or a week at Disney World, I'll choose Glacier National Park. I'd go with you. I love it. Go with you. Yeah. So, yeah, both

places, though. Yeah. The experiences that people take home with them and the stories they tell after, there's just so many similarities. And I think that's what catches me is when you first talk theme parks, some people will say, well, it's got nothing to do with natural parks. And I don't, I don't agree. They are so aligned in so many ways. But unrelated but just an interesting fact, the only time I've ever got booed during a

presentation was at a park conference. And I started talking about Disney and someone booed me. Yeah, but at least it wasn't about me. I guess so. There is that. Yes. But I will say, you know, as you said, Disney makes everyone feel special. We had a chance to film on board Disney Cruise Line, and the way they bring you on the ship, like from the first step on a Disney cruise, they're like,

welcome, Jody. Avery. And there's Mickey in the balcony and Minnie's in the balcony and they're all, you know, and what an amazing moment for a kid, right, that everything stops and Mickey and Minnie are right there to welcome you. Like, hey, nobody does it better than that. Nobody does it better. I was blown away. Lee Cockrell, and this is a big statement coming from the man that ran Walt Disney World.

He went on a Disney cruise and said he was taking notes because the cruise line out Disney's Disney World, the cruise line is better at being Disney than Disney World is. And I have not done a Disney cruise yet, but I look forward to it. Yeah, you got to do one. Got to do one. Absolutely. Yes. All right, we've got one question left. Danella. All right, question number three. What is a quote, maybe even a favorite quote that you live your life by? That. So that's a good question

because I have five quotes that I keep in my desk and I'm opening my drawer so if you hear a racket, that's what's happening. I have five quotes and I do this every year where I write down five quotes to inspire me daily through the rest of the year. And one of them has been used more than any other. So instead of going through all the quotes, I will say this quote is by Admiral Payne, who is Lee Cockrell's father in law, Dan Cockrell's

grandfather. And he said, do your best and forgive yourself. And I think that is just a great quote to go by because if you've done your best, that's really all you can do. And sometimes you do your best and it doesn't turn out the way you hoped and you just forgive yourself and move on. Now here's a quote I have never mentioned when I talk about the quotes in my drawer. On January 16, 2025, you can see I have it written down, the date Lee Cockerell said. Jodi is

right. So I wrote that on a card and I keep it on my desk. I love it. I love it. Yes. Donnell, I want to tell you one thing as we wrap up here last episode, you were talking about all the things you've done that kind of pushed your limits and travel. And I had one of those moments and you made me think of this. I am not a good swimmer like it would be. It's just not good. I maybe could save my life. I'm not a great swimmer, but I do a lot of water. I

love canoeing, kayaking, rafting, and dejuan. And I went

rafting in Chile, through a national park. So beautiful. And the guide, it's just Dwan and I in the raft, and the guide convinced us to jump out of the raft and float through a rapid. And I do not swim. Donella and I did it anyway, and it was terrible. I did not enjoy it. I thought, okay, I'll jump in and I'll just float on my back. Through the rapid. No, the water is moving fast. I didn't realize as soon as I jumped in, it would pull me completely

underwater. I'm wearing a life jacket, so I pop back up. But it was terrible and terrifying, and I didn't like it, and I'm absolutely glad I did it. And it just. I think doing things like that, that push your limit completely changes how you think about things, because now I thought, well, I've done that. What else can I do? What other big, bold moves can I take? So I'm sure you felt that through travel.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I've definitely had those moments that, you know, where I've had to overcome some fears and. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I've been up in helicopters, and I don't really like being up in helicopter. Like, I tell you, I don't really like heights, but I've had to push myself to the limits, and I'm always glad I did. Sometimes we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone.

You know, in thinking about quotes, there's a quote in the travel journal in Traveling Grace, and that quote I wrote says, look back on your life and say, thank God I had the courage to go. Look back on your life and say, thank God I had the courage to go. I. Or had the courage to do it. Oh, that is wonderful, Danella. I like that quote because I think that will help you take the bolder steps, not the safer ones. And I always say, if you have two choices, pick the one that

will make a better story. And I think that's it. You just got to take the bigger, bolder moves. And if you're feeling comfortable today, maybe it's time to change that.

Mm, exactly. Well, Donella mentioned her travel journal. It is called Traveling with Grace. You can get it on Amazon and I. You'll. You'll love it. Last episode, she talked about that quite a bit. And if you want to get a taste of Donella's travels, follow her on Instagram. She's always active. She's always somewhere. Take time to check out the show and you can get in touch with her. At Traveling With Danella, There's. You'll find most of

her stuff. And there's contact right there. So, Donnella, thank you for being here for not one, but two episodes. It's. It's been so much fun. Thank you, Jody. It's always great catching up with you. And thank you for listening to the Jody Mayberry Show. Well, that was just shonky. It's sugar J.