Augmented reality and virtual reality are transforming both the in-venue and at-home viewing experience. To understand how to incorporate these emerging technologies, we sat down with Steven King, director of University of North Carolina’s Blue Sky Innovation lab.  King’s work is rooted in human-centered design and this episode hits on some of the latest projects coming out of the lab and how to effectively use human-centered design for brainstorming and change management. 

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2:42    “Time Space” Storytelling at The Washington Post

4:32     Human-Centered Design Methodology

10:54   Testing Before Investing 

12:25   Change Has to Be Exponentially Better

17:40   Bridging In-Venue and At-Home Viewing

21:36   HoloLens Headsets

25:35   The NBA is Missing the Mark on VR Viewing

30:37   Change Management and Defining Success

35:53   Leadership’s Impact on Creativity

42:14   Key Organizational Players in Driving Change

46:53   Misconceptions 

48:13   Learning About New Trends

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For more information on topics covered in this episode, check out: 

UNC’s Blue Sky Innovation lab: Website | LinkedIn 

Connect with Steven on LinkedIn

Steven’s Go To Sources

Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Tech Crunch

On Steven’s bookshelf

The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt

It used to be fun to work in sports. But like so many other industries, responsibilities have increased, often demanding employees to achieve more with less. The result, according to Matt Huml, can be burnout, workaholism, disengagement, and resentment. In this episode, we dive deep into Matt’s two most recent research projects: “The Effect of Remote Work on Family and Work Dynamics Within the Sport Industry;” and “From engaged worker to workaholic: a mediated model of athletic department employees”. 

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2:43    Behind the Research

5:45    The Razor’s Edge Between Engaged Worker vs. Workaholic

9:02    What’s Wrong with a Team of Workaholics?

13:01  The Full Financial Impact of Turnover

20:03  Improving the Recruiting Pitch for Staff 

27:45  The Extreme Sacrifices

32:05  Evaluating Extreme Sacrifices on Your Team

41:09  The Radioactive Ring Around Coaches 

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For more info on topics referenced in this episode:

Read the Full Versions of Matt’s research – 

The Effect of Remote Work on Family and Work Dynamics in the Sports Industry

From engaged worker to workaholic: a mediated model of athletic department employees

Books highlighted – 

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Hear more about the outcomes from our workshop with Penn State 

Episode 96: How to Curb the Great Resignation in Your Organization

After more than 220 undercover interviews with 12,000 employees, Clint Pulver is known as the leading authority on employee retention.  In this episode, David and Clint discuss the key attributes of mentor managing and the 5 Cs of leadership that result in employees saying, “I Love it Here.”

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2:24     The Undercover Millennial Program

5:49     Behind the Book “I Love It Here”

9:24     The 4 Types of Managers

17:36   Assessing Your Leadership – The 5 Cs

21:43   Leading Through Transitions – Status Interviews

25:43   Finding Purpose

27:56   Advocating vs. Developing

32:06   The Power of Purpose

34:46   Individual Needs vs. Organizational Needs

42:28   To Don’t Lists

44:23   Be A Mr. Jensen

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To connect with Clint Pulver, check out his website or follow him on social: 

ClintPulver.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

Read Clint’s book I Love It Here 

For more leadership resources, check out Clint’s masterclass

In this episode, David Millay sits down with Vanessa Ward, Vice President of Event Service for the Phoenix Suns. Before joining the Suns, Vanessa spent time at Disney, launching the Guest Experience Center, and the Chicago Cubs, overseeing the Guest and Associate Experience.  Understanding that the employee experience directly impacts the guest experience, Vanessa shares tactics on communicating significant changes from event to event, making events unique for the staff and how to develop niche service programs.

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3:17    Takeaways and Key Learnings from Disney

6:09    The Service Recovery Toolkit

10:42  Building a New Service Recovery Toolkit 

13:25  Disney’s Guest Experience Center and Proactively Resolving Issues

20:17  Customer Satisfaction Surveys 

25:50  Newsletters and Themes to Drive the Seasonal Employee Experience

39:17  “Know Before You Go” Communications

43:12   Building a Niche Service Operation

49:15   Training Throughout the Season

52:21   Taking Risks

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Other podcasts referenced in this episode: 

Episode 35: Personalizing the Guest Experience w/ Brian Betts (Disney’s Guest Experience Center) 

Connect with Vanessa on LinkedIn or email

He’s considered a bit of a social media ‘OG’.  For seven years, Preston guided players on the PGA Tour to create their own brands and communities, an effort that grew the greater PGA audience from 20 million to 60 million followers in 5 years.  Now, as a co-founder of Golf Space Collective, Preston and his team guides golf properties on all things digital. 

This episode hits on why building a personal brand is important, the impact that personal brand has on team and league brands or any business and why human connection is critical to form a community over an audience.  

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2:50     A Social Media OG, @Preston

4:33     Launching Memphis Athletics accounts

6:56     Building a Following on the PGA Tour

9:31     The Incentive to Building Player Brands

13:09   Growing Players’ Social Media Game

16:16   Putting Emphasis on Human Connection and Personal Brands

21:28   Frameworks for Personal Branding – Just Get Started

29:07   Audience vs. Community and Creating Brand Advocates

35:05   Connecting with Younger Fan Bases

38:24   The Netflix Impact & ‘First Swing’

44:38   Showing Human Emotion and Personality

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For more information on the topics covered in this episode:

Netflix “First Swing” trailer

Justin Welsh’s LinkedIn course

Golf Space Collective 

GSC Instagram

To connect with Preston: 

Twitter | LinkedIn | Email 

In the second half of this two-part episode, we’re diving into why Disney uses portals, the principles of meta-modernism and why something is “cool” with Dr. Troy Campbell. Campbell is the Chief Scientist at On Your Feet and his research and career has centered around the intersection of scientific minds and artistic hearts and how to create and capture original and powerful ideas and make amazing things.  

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3:29    The Importance of “Portals”

11:19   The Science of “Cool”

18:12  How to Break the Norm

23:01  Meta-Modernism

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To learn more about Troy’s research on the intersection of Scientific Mind, Artistic Heart, check out:

Troy-Campbell.com

Start with Science – Netflix

Team Science: Building Better Science Activists with Insights from Disney, Marketing, and Psychological Research

Check out other topics referenced in this episode:

Metamodernist Manifesto by Luke Turner

In the first of this two-part episode with Dr. Troy Campbell, we’re breaking down the principles behind storytelling and what makes something “cool.”  Campbell is the Chief Scientist at On Your Feet and his research and career has centered around the intersection of scientific minds and artistic hearts and how to create and capture original and powerful ideas and make amazing things.  Part one hits on why Nike ads are simple to make and how brands like Disney borrow stories.

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3:52    Troy’s Career Thesis: “Scientific Mind & Artistic Heart”

6:11    Marvel Isn’t Appealing to Everyone

10:19  Egocentrism 

14:04  Nike Ads are Simple to Make

16:58  Borrowing Stories From Others

22:50  Multi-Narrative Storytelling

25:46  Defining Your Story to Tell Multi-Narrative Stories

31:20  The Destiny Narrative

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To learn more about Troy’s research on the intersection of Scientific Mind, Artistic Heart, check out:

Troy-Campbell.com

Start with Science – Netflix

Team Science: Building Better Science Activists with Insights from Disney, Marketing, and Psychological Research

Previously on Flip the Switch, Brittany Hodak shared her ‘SUPER’ framework that brands can leverage to increase loyalty and fandom. With her new book, Creating Superfans coming out today (January 10), David Millay welcomes Brittany back to the show to discuss new frameworks and models that small businesses and global brands everywhere can implement to convert customers and employees into superfans.

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2:29     Creating Superfans Podcast

6:53     SUPER Framework Overview

9:57     Ladder to Superfandom (Customer Apathy)

19:57   STORY framework

25:04   Getting to Know Your Customer’s Story

28:13   Digging into Customer Struggles

30:42   Pitching the Transformation

33:41   Simplifying Journey Maps

41:05   Measuring the Customer Experience (CSAT and EgR)

45:18   Prioritizing the Employee Experience

48:20   The Platinum Rule

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For more from Brittany on Creating Superfans, check out:

BrittanyHodak.com

Purchase Creating Superfans: How To Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates

Listen to the Creating Superfans Podcast

Subscribe to the Creating Superfans newsletter

Brittany’s Twitter | LinkedIn

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Listen to Brittany’s previous appearance:

Episode 66: Cultivating SUPER Fans

When it comes to identifying your purpose or purposes, it’s all about having a clear intention for your time, your talents, your energy and your focus. What makes you happy.  But more importantly, it’s about turning your purpose or purposes into something actionable and making them matter.  After helping thousands find their purpose through her companies Ning and Mighty and her Community Design course, CEO and Founder of Mighty Networks Gina Bianchini joins the show to discuss the frameworks to finding purpose and manifesting it as a future story from her new book, Purpose: Design A Community & Change Your Life.

4:04    What is Purpose?

10:01    Key Insights Around Purpose

14:53  The Purpose 30 Challenge

21:58  The Intersection of Purpose and Community

27:00  How to Host a Community

33:46  Design and Scale Culture, Not Just Community or Content

37:15  Manifesting Your Future Story

43:31  Identifying Ideal Community Members

49:37  5 Elements of Community Design

56:59  Building Community within an Existing Audience

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For more on topics covered in this episode:

To purchase Purpose: Design a Community & Change Your Life, check out Purpose.co 

Connect with Gina via email | Twitter | LinkedIn

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Other books referenced

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

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Join the Sports Learning Online community

Following a 20-year career at Disney, Dennis Snow identified 10 key lessons that all organizations could follow to achieve the same success in customer service and company culture.  Since leaving the magic, Dennis has spent the last 23 years inspiring organizations on how to adapt those 10 lessons and apply the core service principles to their operation.  

In this episode, we unpack the lessons from his two books, “Lessons from the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life” and “Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service”.

Show Notes

3:40     More Than a Summer Job

6:56     Empowering the Magic

10:33   Lessons from the Mouse

12:40   Everyone Has a Customer

13:35   Don’t Be a Customer Service Robot

19:14   Figure Out What Ticks Off Your Customers

28:01   Language Matters

35:04   Hiring vs. Coaching Empathy

37:41   Unleashing Excellence and the Service Improvement Team

41:29   Internal Improvements vs. External Training

44:38   Accountability

48:03   Drafting Job Descriptions

50:58   Onboarding and “Brag worthy” First Days

59:11   Define What the Experience Should Be

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For more information on topics covered in this episode:

Connect with Dennis

Snow Associates | Email 

Dennis’ books

Lessons From the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life

Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service