July 9, 2025 • 14 mins
"It's not magic that makes it work. It's the way we work that makes it magic."
Notable Moments
[01:10] – Living List travel destinations: Australia and Austria
[04:50] – What makes Disney’s people and operations so special
[09:29] – The quote I live by: “Do your best and forgive yourself.”
[11:10] – Pushing my limits: rafting in Chile with DeJuan Rivers
[13:18] – Final thoughts on bold moves and great stories
Denella Ri'chard returns with three questions that guide our conversation to conversation about dream destinations, life lessons from Disney, and pen pals turned lifelong friends. I share my thoughts on how operational excellence makes the magic, what Austria means to me, and why the quote “Do your best and forgive yourself” keeps showing up in my life. We also talk about facing fears, bold moves, and the surprising connection between theme parks and national parks.
Read my blog for more from this episode.
Connect with Denella Ri'chard
Order Traveling With Grace by Denella Ri'chard
Denella Ri'chard’s Instagram
Connect with Jody
About Jody - https://jodymaberry.com/about-jody-maberry/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sugarjmaberry
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodymaberry/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sugarjmaberry/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodymaberry
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
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
(00:21):
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
(00:43):
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
(01:05):
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
(01:27):
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.
(01:50):
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,
(02:13):
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
(02:35):
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.
(02:58):
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
(03:20):
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
(03:42):
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,
(04:03):
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
(04:27):
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
(04:49):
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
(05:11):
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
(05:33):
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
(05:56):
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
(06:19):
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
(06:41):
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
(07:03):
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
(07:26):
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
(07:48):
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,
(08:09):
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,
(08:31):
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.
(08:54):
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
(09:17):
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
(09:38):
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
(10:01):
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
(10:22):
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,
(10:44):
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
(11:07):
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
(11:29):
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
(11:51):
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,
(12:13):
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
(12:36):
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
(12:59):
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
(13:22):
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
(13:43):
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.
(14:09):
Well, that was just shonky. It's sugar J.
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
(00:21):
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
(00:43):
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
(01:05):
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
(01:27):
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.
(01:50):
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,
(02:13):
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
(02:35):
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.
(02:58):
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
(03:20):
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
(03:42):
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,
(04:03):
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
(04:27):
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
(04:49):
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
(05:11):
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
(05:33):
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
(05:56):
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
(06:19):
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
(06:41):
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
(07:03):
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
(07:26):
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
(07:48):
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,
(08:09):
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,
(08:31):
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.
(08:54):
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
(09:17):
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
(09:38):
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
(10:01):
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
(10:22):
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,
(10:44):
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
(11:07):
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
(11:29):
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
(11:51):
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,
(12:13):
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
(12:36):
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
(12:59):
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
(13:22):
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
(13:43):
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.
(14:09):
Well, that was just shonky. It's sugar J.
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