FLIP THE SWITCH

Our guest today is Drew Bedard, the Vice President of Marketing at Bristol Motor Speedway and Kentucky Speedway.  On July 15, 2020, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the NASCAR All-Star Race. The event had almost 30k fans in attendance, the largest attended event in the US since COVID cancelled sports in March 2020.  As sports & …

Today’s guest is Mike Crawford, the President and CEO at Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company. Previous to his current role, Mike held a number of leadership roles with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and The Walt Disney Company.  At 4 Seasons, he was the President of Asia Pacific and then Portfolio Management around …

This is second half of a two-part interview with Mike Millay. This part of the interview dives deeper into the behind-the-scenes stories at ESPN Wide World of Sports and explores Mike’s own revelations as leader at Disney.  Mike is the longest tenured executive in ESPN Wide World of Sports’ history. He’s also my Dad and …

This is first half of a two-part interview with Mike Millay. This part of the sheds light on the business model powering ESPN Wide World of Sports and explores how the cultures of Disney and competitive sports merged. Our guest today is Mike Millay, the longest tenured executive in ESPN Wide World of Sports’ history. …

Our guest today is Jahaan Blake, founder of The J. Blake Group.  We’ll cover two main topics in this epsisode. Creating infrastructure behind the scenes that allow your front-line staff to create genuine moments of connections with fansThe importance of coaching in leadership We spend much of the episode discussing her prior roles that led her …

Our guest today is Kevin Gober, the Sr. Director of Employee & Guest Experience for the Atlanta Hawks. Kevin and I worked together for a long time at Disney Institute, on what we informally called “the sports crew.”  Kevin was on the content and facilitation side of the organization, leading and designing massive customer service …

Today’s guest is Javier Martinez Garcia, a Senior Advisor for Manchester City F.C and former Disney executive.  We get into a number of topics, here are just a few:  1) How to get your senior leadership team aligned around a customer-centric strategy 2) Fan experience vs. match-day experience3) Making business decisions built around your unique brand …

Moon Javaid, the Vice President of Strategy and Analytics for the San Francisco 49ers, joins us.  We discuss two main topics on this episode:How the 49ers are measuring their customer experience.We cover specific tools, implementation strategies, and business outcomesHow the 49ers approach creating incremental and non-traditional revenue49ers Fit – health & fitness centers owned by the …

We sat down with Barry Jacobson this week to talk about the difference between customer service and premium service. In Barry’s 30+ years a Disney Cast Member, he oversaw some of the most premium experiences Walt Disney World had to offer. From the convention centers and catering to Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings, to his last role as head …

Jill Marchick, the Vice President of Customer Insights and Engagement for the Indiana Pacers, joins us on today’s episode.  This is an especially relevant episode if your organization is considering putting a survey out or gathering information for how your customers feel about your organization and returning to events. And it’s even more important that …

In today’s episode, we’re going outside the sports & entertainment industry. We’ll be talking about designing an entire business around customers’ deepest needs. Hopefully the wildly different context will give you new inspiration to become more customer-centric in your own organization.  Today’s guest is the CEO of a solar-agriculture company, based in Kenya. So while I do the usual …

Today’s episode focuses on leadership during crisis. Our guest is Doug Thornton, the EVP of ASM Global. Doug oversees all Arena, Stadia and Theaters worldwide, directing the operations and financial performance of this division.  We tackle questions like “how do you acknowledge your fears and anxieties without letting them weigh you down” and “how do inspire confidence in …

Our guest today is Justin Schneider. He’s the founder and CEO for Wolf & Shepherd, a rising footwear brand making high-end, performance dress shoes.  We wanted to have Justin on the show for a few reasons.  1) He was a former student-athlete himself. And he shares how that experience has impacted his approach to live …

Duncan Wardle, the former Head of Creativity & Innovation at the Walt Disney Company, now helps organizations around the world embed a culture of innovation into their DNA.  In our industries, we’re running from one to event to the next, and it’s easy to say  “we are too busy to think.” This episode with Duncan …

As a senior leader, coming into a new organization can be hard. You want to understand the current culture. You want to get to know the people. You want to assess the organization’s strengths and opportunities. You want to put your own stamp on “the way we do things around here” in the least intrusive …