February 26, 2025 • 33 mins
"Luxury means that I'm going to have this innate ability to have intuitive service radar. It's going to allow me to understand you as an individual and to be able to ensure that your needs are met no matter who you are."
When most people hear the word luxury they think about dollar signs or exclusivity. For Barry Jacobson, luxury is about creating that absence of worry and making each interaction magical. Barry's career spans three decades in the hospitality and customer experience industry, including key roles with Disney. He joins me to explore what luxury truly means and how anyone can incorporate it into their business model.
Barry started working with Disney as a lifeguard, and worked his way to leading luxurious endeavors like Club Thirty-Three and as the General Manager at Golden Oak, Disney's first luxury residential community. He recognized the importance of blending personal touch and attention to detail to elevate ordinary experiences to extraordinary. For example, at Golden Oak, crafting personalized Thanksgiving meals with family recipes exemplified this elevated service level. Even the smallest detail is crafted for comfort and delight.
Barry knows that true luxury is in the details. That may be a thoughtfully clean restroom or a warm greeting as simple as a friendly hello. These are the markers of a business that cares deeply for its customers, regardless of scale or industry. We dug into how making customers feel special doesn’t take a big budget, just a deliberate approach. Whether it’s showing empathy at an orthopedic clinic or offering a little extra for restless children in a restaurant, it’s the human connection that leaves a lasting impression.
Barry’s insights affirm that any business, no matter if it’s a corner store or a massive resort, can offer luxury. The tools? Kindness, attention to detail, and the desire to create meaningful moments. Remember, it’s not only about lavishness; it’s making people feel valued and cared for in the simplest ways.
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https://www.barryjacobsonconsulting.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
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
(00:25):
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,
(00:48):
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
(01:10):
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
(01:32):
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
(01:55):
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
(02:17):
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,
(02:40):
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
(03:02):
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
(03:25):
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
(03:47):
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
(04:09):
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
(04:32):
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
(04:53):
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,
(05:17):
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
(05:39):
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
(06:02):
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,
(06:24):
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
(06:46):
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
(07:09):
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
(07:31):
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.
(07:53):
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
(08:14):
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
(08:36):
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
(08:58):
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
(09:20):
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
(09:43):
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
(10:07):
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
(10:29):
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
(10:51):
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
(11:13):
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
(11:35):
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
(11:58):
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
(12:20):
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
(12:42):
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,
(13:04):
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
(13:26):
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,
(13:49):
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
(14:12):
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
(14:35):
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
(14:56):
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
(15:19):
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
(15:42):
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
(16:03):
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
(16:25):
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
(16:48):
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
(17:09):
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
(17:30):
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
(17:52):
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
(18:14):
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
(18:36):
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
(18:58):
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
(19:21):
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
(19:44):
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
(20:07):
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
(20:29):
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
(20:51):
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
(21:13):
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
(21:35):
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
(21:57):
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,
(22:20):
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
(22:42):
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
(23:05):
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
(23:27):
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
(23:49):
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.
(24:11):
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
(24:34):
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
(24:55):
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
(25:17):
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
(25:39):
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
(26:02):
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
(26:24):
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.
(26:47):
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
(27:09):
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.
(27:31):
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
(27:53):
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.
(28:15):
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,
(28:38):
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
(29:00):
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
(29:23):
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
(29:45):
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
(30:07):
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
(30:31):
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
(30:52):
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
(31:14):
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
(31:37):
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
(32:00):
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
(32:22):
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
(32:43):
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.
(33:04):
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.
(33:26):
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.
(33:50):
He likes to narrate the cereal box. It's Sugar Jay.
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
(00:25):
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,
(00:48):
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
(01:10):
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
(01:32):
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
(01:55):
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
(02:17):
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,
(02:40):
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
(03:02):
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
(03:25):
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
(03:47):
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
(04:09):
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
(04:32):
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
(04:53):
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,
(05:17):
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
(05:39):
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
(06:02):
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,
(06:24):
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
(06:46):
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
(07:09):
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
(07:31):
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.
(07:53):
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
(08:14):
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
(08:36):
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
(08:58):
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
(09:20):
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
(09:43):
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
(10:07):
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
(10:29):
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
(10:51):
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
(11:13):
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
(11:35):
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
(11:58):
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
(12:20):
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
(12:42):
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,
(13:04):
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
(13:26):
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,
(13:49):
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
(14:12):
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
(14:35):
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
(14:56):
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
(15:19):
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
(15:42):
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
(16:03):
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
(16:25):
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
(16:48):
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
(17:09):
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
(17:30):
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
(17:52):
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
(18:14):
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
(18:36):
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
(18:58):
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
(19:21):
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
(19:44):
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
(20:07):
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
(20:29):
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
(20:51):
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
(21:13):
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
(21:35):
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
(21:57):
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,
(22:20):
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
(22:42):
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
(23:05):
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
(23:27):
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
(23:49):
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.
(24:11):
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
(24:34):
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
(24:55):
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
(25:17):
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
(25:39):
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
(26:02):
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
(26:24):
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.
(26:47):
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
(27:09):
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.
(27:31):
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
(27:53):
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.
(28:15):
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,
(28:38):
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
(29:00):
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
(29:23):
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
(29:45):
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
(30:07):
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
(30:31):
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
(30:52):
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
(31:14):
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
(31:37):
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
(32:00):
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
(32:22):
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
(32:43):
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.
(33:04):
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.
(33:26):
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.
(33:50):
He likes to narrate the cereal box. It's Sugar Jay.
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