(upbeat music) - Hello, my name's Kamal Grant and this is You Don't Know What You Don't Know, the latest podcast on the Hope Cast Network, where I, Kamal Grant, go talk to leaders in the consumer package goods world because I need to know more things. I'm trying to launch a new brand called Magic Middle. And I want to get it on all the grocery store shelves. So I'm talking to leaders in the industry so I can learn from them so I can learn and let the world know. (upbeat music) - This is the Hope Cast Network. Stories and shows you actually want to listen to. (upbeat music) - Well, what's up, work advisors? - Yeah, my name's Brad. I'm the host who brings it on work advice for me. And today it has been brought. Dinner is served at the Magic Kingdom. Yeah, thank you for hitting play and listening, whatever you're doing, you're tuning someone out to hear me, which is more than a mis-work advice my wife would do. I realized I give my wife such a hard time, but I don't mean it. She's a great wife. She is the best wife ever that's ever walked face of the earth. So wives, if you listen to this, my wife is better than you. That sounded mean, but in my world, she is, 'cause she's my wife. I mean, she puts up with me. Hey, today's show is great. I mean, all our shows are great, but today's is great because I've always wanted to chat with people that make a career out of going to Disney. And lo and behold, Paula and Frank showed up on my Instagram. Now, how did I find Paula and Frank? Well, a few weeks ago on a previous episode, B and I talked about selling feet pics. I'm gonna leave it at the hat. You can listen to the chat because I'm gonna let Paula know how I found their page. It is funny. It is a great page. I encourage all of you to go on Instagram right now. Follow work advice for me, of course, but also follow Paula and Frank's page, the practically perfect family. They will show you tips and tricks at Disney to save money, what to do, what to expect. And it's January, so I know you're thinking about planning your summer vacay right now. Maybe you can listen to this and then book your Disney vacay or reach out to Paula and she can help you find a person to do it for you. She does say a travel agent is best when going to Disney. So anyway, good times talking to Paula and Frank, but before we get to Paula and Frank, I have a question. Love to read questions. You can send me a question or be sliding to the DM's own work advice for me on Instagram or you can work advice for me at gmail.com. This question comes from Emily in Orlando. Now, this is fun. She's in, what if she's at the magic kingdom right now? She's sneaking away and her husband's like, Emily, what are you doing? And she's like, I'm writing Brad an email. And he's like, what are you doing? We're trying to be, I mean, I love how I'd given Emily a husband now. Emily, if you're not married, I'm really sorry, but if you are, I hope this story played out the way in my brain it does. She says, Brad, I love, love, love Heidi Powell. I love the triple love. Does the triple love mean you love them more because my wife has only said, I love you. She's never said, I love, love, love, love, love, love, love you. Although five loves, is that better than three? I don't know. I always thought one love meant a million loves, but I love that she love, love, loves Heidi Powell. She says, Brad, have you ever watched extreme weight loss? And what does losing weight look like for you? Okay, you asked two questions. I'll answer them both. No, I have never watched extreme weight loss. I might have watched 10 seconds of it. Sorry, Heidi. I know you're a friend of work advice for me, but I've not watched much of extreme weight loss. And how does weight loss look for me? Well, it's quit eating little debbies. That's a big one, quit eating junk and doing some walking. I like to walk every now and then. I'll park at the back of a parking lot. If I go to Walmart and I'll walk all the way up, my son hates it. He's like, why are you parking back here, old man? And I'm like, I just don't want to get some steps in. So if you're listening, I encourage you to park at the back of the parking lot. Make sure you're under a light, though, if you're a lady. We don't want any weirdos and it's dark, right? So if it's dark, don't park in the dark, park in the light. But yeah, sorry Emily. I hope I didn't burst your bubble on the extreme weight loss. You probably are a big fan. But if you like extreme weight loss, let us know in the Instagram DMs. Don't forget, like and subscribe on iTunes and Spotify. Yeah, leave us good reviews. Not bad ones. We don't like bad reviews. Leave us good ones. Follow our show, follow Paula and Frank on a practically perfect family on Instagram. If you have a question for B or I, leave it in the DMs on work advice for me or you can always email the show work advice for me at gmail.com. So with that being said, I'm putting on my bunny ears and I'm gonna chat with Paula and Frank, enjoy. Okay, I have been looking forward to this conversation for the last week and I know I say this a lot, but thank you guys for coming on and spending a little bit of time with me, chatting about something that I find so fascinating and I love the idea of what you guys do. So thank you guys first and foremost for taking a few minutes to chat. Yeah, we're excited to be here. Yeah, thanks for having us. This is the first time people are getting a bonus. We have two people on the line. This is the first time I've chatted with two. So y'all are the first ever and I'm so happy for that. So if you hear two voices listeners, it's a husband and wife, Frank and Paula and we're gonna talk life and Disney 'cause a lot of people love Disney. First, tell me until the listeners what was your childhood like and whoever goes first can go first. Yeah, I'll start this one. So I think what we're probably looking for here is some relation to Disney and we grew up going to Disney and all this crazy stuff and although Paula had some experiences with that, I had not done that. I came through a very lots of brothers, sister, lots of kids in our family, competitive athletic household and kind of grew up through that and that led me in all of the meeting eventually in college through athletic. And I think that it was a dangerous combination because we're so very alike in some ways even though we're different in others. And one of the ways we're alike is we're both extremely ambitious. So we get on an idea, it's almost like an addiction and early in our marriage when we had a six month old or eight month old baby, we went to Disney World and I loved it. I loved that. I kind of had to drag him, like I'm not gonna lie, we, so when I was younger, you know, my dad was an electrician, my mom used to be tickets, they worked super hard and you know, going to Disney was a huge deal, right? Like it was, you save up the kind of money, it's like your big thing. So we had went like twice when I was younger. So once my sister, I had a sister. So once my sister and I got older, we were like, okay, we have to take our families now. So I had our oldest, he was six months or no, he was 18 months. The first time we went, our daughter was 18 months and my sister had two kids. So we're like, okay, we gotta get to Disney and Frank was kind of like, I'm not so sure about that. - Yeah, so we go and long story short, so that was only about 12 years ago, 11 years ago. And we've probably made 40-ish, maybe 50 trips there about now. - Wow. - Because that's what we do. We get involved, we get addicted. And it's not what people think. And I'm sure we can expand on that as this conversation goes on. And we're not things like crazy Disney adults. - I go. - Right, but there's so much to offer and so much fun and it has very little to do with Disney and just a lot to do with family and a lot to do with travel and experiences and stuff on. Kind of how we got to where we are. - Okay, let's circle back. I want to go back, Frank, to you said y'all met in college athletically. What was the sports y'all playing? - So I was a baseball player, she was a, she did track, so she was a hept athlete. - Uh-huh. - We were at the University of Akron in Northeast Ohio here and met each other there and-- - He heavily pursued me. - I, I, I. - You heavily pursued, what did that look like? I'm curious. - I pursued her no more heavily than any other girl I pursued at the time. - My quick side story is, you know, we were in the training room and he kept on, so I, we both were somewhat injured all the time at the end of like, so, you know, we'd both be in the training room getting something worked on and he would always be talking to me and asking me to do stuff. And I'd be like, "Oh yeah, sometimes, sometimes." And I remember one night, he texted me and he's like, "Hey, you want to get to Polay?" And I was so hungry and I didn't have any money. Like, my parents would give me like a set amount of money and when it was gone, it was gone. And I had no extra money. I already used my dining points for the day and I'm like, all right, like, I guess I'll give him a chance because I love to Polay and I'm sorry, right? - So, I remember-- - So it was history. - I remember-- - So Chip Polay. Okay, let's see how Frank remembers this. - I, I just remember it more and like, I was probably the best catch on the baseball team. - Oh. - I think you're actually pursuing me even though she'll never admit it. (laughs) - I like that. That's, and I like that y'all brought together by Chip Polay. That's-- - Right? - Don't, don't they advertise that their food is brought in fresh every day? Do y'all really believe that? - You know, so professionally, I get the opportunity to work with a lot of different businesses and I was actually recently talking with a person who runs several Chip Polay and the amount of sales that they do, I almost don't see how it can't be brought in every day. - Wow. The turnover, even more than you would imagine. So I probably, I would not have believed that, but kind of knowing what I, what I know professionally from what I get to do every day, I, I actually kind of do. Because the numbers were kind of astonishing, you know, at $8 a pop, right? - Yeah. - So something you're going to see really easily is I'm the creative mind and Frank is the logical mind. So when you ask the question, he's going to be the one that's going to give you the logical answer and I'm going to be like, no. (laughs) - Yeah, I can relate to that. My wife's more the logical and I'm more the creative in our marriage too. So I would play the Paula Roll, Frank. - Right. - Sure. - But Chipotle in my town, I like Chipotle. I think it's probably the best fast Mexican food you can get, but they're never that friendly. In my town, they're not that friendly. It's like, let's get you to the line. We just want to get you through. They're not, they're not that friendly there, but I do like it, it is good. Back to you Paula, the electrician part, that's a pretty cool, your dad was an electrician. So did you expect Frank to be able to put a ceiling fan up when y'all got married? - So the funny story, I actually knew how to put a ceiling down in and Frank didn't. So me and my dad had to teach Frank how to do it. So sometimes I'll still change out little known facts but we've moved a lot. So when we get a new house or you want to change out light pictures or anything, I'll be the one usually to be the one changing the light pictures. - And my dad was a doctor, I don't do a lot of things with my hands. - Oh, well yeah, I like that. I had to learn how to change lights when I got married and every time I'm up there, I'm always nervous. I'm going to get electrocuted. Like I'm always thinking that in my head because I'm a moron when it comes to the stuff. So I'm like-- - It makes me like kill the whole power because I'm with ya. I don't understand how it all shut itself off so we just kill the power. - Frank, you can't even be within 100 feet of a light flick. It's like, you need to be able to see everyone in the house and know where you are so if you know. - Exactly, I'll kill the power but in the back of my mind I'm like, man, I hope there's no charge left in this 'cause I could just get zapped and then my wife would laugh at me and I wouldn't want that. So yeah, y'all are together now. Y'all, excuse me, you said that you went to Disney, Paula, how many times has a child? I'm just trying to-- - You're like two or three 'cause admittedly and I would never barely admit this but when I was younger, Disney and Universal were interchangeable, right? Like when you went to Disney, like you went to Universal too or vice versa. So in a lot of people's minds still and it's something, the Disney community kind of joke about now is like if someone says they went to Disney and saw like Harry Potter, it's like a huge joke but admittedly that was me when I was younger. It was like, you went to Florida and it was either Universal or Disney but it was all Disney. - What time frame are we looking at right here? Is this like late '90s for you, mid '90s? What kind of Universal are we talking? 'Cause it's changed, right? - Yeah, so it would have been early '90s and mid '90s probably. So like when the original Tinkong was there and the jaws and there was no twister at that time. It was whatever it was before or maybe it was tricker. I don't remember but yeah, it was a very different Universal. There was no Harry Potter. - So that begs the question. I've been willing to ask you guys why? Okay, there's a lot of opportunity for what you both do on being influencers. I guess it's your influencers for people that want to go to Disney, right? That's probably who a lot of people watch your Instagram for, right? Am I wrong? - So it started out that way. So when I started doing it, it was an accident. I did not set out to be an influencer, not at all. Even saying the word influencer still feels so weird. - Okay, I will say it anyway. - So it was kind of, so okay. - I will say it. - But yeah, when I started, it was an accident. It was kind of, you know, everyone was going through COVID, right? And trying to find ways to cope and trying to find ways to connect. And, you know, we had been going to Disney forever. And I think with my sister who had said, like, you should make a funny video. And I had already like made some friends that did it. And I was like, oh, I don't know. So I made one and it did pretty well. So... - What was it? Do you remember? What was it? - It was something along the lines of like, am I okay? And no, because I'm not at Disney, kind of a thought. - Okay. - And so there's this other guy that's a coach on Instagram and he does this 30 day challenge where he's like, okay, post a reel for 30 days and, you know, see how it does. So every day for 30 days, I posted a reel. And I did Disney because that's what I love. And it just kind of took off. And so for a long time, we seared really hard into the Disney side. And then people really started to follow up the family. You know, when it started, it was more people just liked the funny content. And then quickly it became people liked the practically perfect family. They liked, you know, the girls. They ranked as like a whole character on there pretty much 'cause he doesn't smile. And then we really started branching out from there to like different travel, just different ways to bring magic into everyday life, right? Whether it be at home, you know, wherever you go, you can find a bit of Disney magic, it seems like. And so we really just from there been tracking all our, you know, adventures as a family all around. - Yeah, and, you know, kind of that's where like I enter. So, you know, I'm a CPA. I'm a partner at a CPA firm and I'm very analytical blind. So, so naturally it started to be, well, if you're going to take this serious as, as what may become some day of business venture, you know, we have to stay focused. We have to have a plan. You know, we have to have a target audience and going through conversations like that. And it is less specific to the Disney. But, you know, it's the most visited theme park in the world, right? - Mm-hmm. - So, so there's a large natural crowd to that. And the people that love it, love it. But, you know, we all love escapism, right? I mean, even me and Paula, you know, we love watching YouTube of other people doing their travels. - Oh, I do that, Austin. - Yeah, it's something that it's not just like our kids generation or something like that. It's society, probably always love that because, you know, reality TV kind of bridge the gap between what we all used to watch growing up to this like escapism now to where we like seeing what other people are doing. And we like seeing what else is out there. And we love watching that stuff. And it was just kind of this natural growth into, we love watching other people's travels and other people's adventures. We were traveling and adventuring a lot, which is a major distinction. And then we turned it into kind of what it is now. And I say it's a major distinction that we were traveling and adventuring a lot because, you know, you can tell when someone's not genuinely getting involved into this world, like, we're just documenting what we were already doing and what we continue to do. And we're not documenting it as diligently as maybe, like, someone on YouTube or something like that. You know, it's through Instagram stories and these Instagram reels. And it's just kind of like a us planning, traveling. And then, you know, getting what we're calling the Disney blues after you get back, whether it's at Disney or somewhere else, just kind of like a now what's next, you know, that's over. But it comes from a place of, we were talking about the same day. We lost so much content on the front end of this because we were doing what we do now for years before it became something that Paula started doing on Instagram. And because of that, we lost a lot of content. But it just comes out of a place of us being genuine and doing what we like to do and just turning it into something that other people can kind of watch and follow along with us. - So going to Disney, you said you've gone with 40 times. Is that right, 40? - Probably something like that, yeah. - So you have an analytical mind. Do you go, when Paula comes and says, let's go to Disney, do you go, okay, we can go, we're going to fit it in, this amount of money per trip. Like we're going to spend this amount of money or do you set like a sandbox for y'all to play it? - So we've been very fortunate. We have a very fortunate existence. We have supportive families. We've had great careers in both of us. So we are fortunate and we understand that a lot of the travel we do, you know, may not be accessible to everybody at every moment in time. As things, as we've gained steam over the years, things have happened to where we've gotten lots of sponsored trips and lots of opportunities through whether it's being hosted or whether it's being paid to go or different things. That's allowed us to kind of accelerate that even more. - So let me first start it. It was definitely like the first time we visited, we stayed at a poverty time share and you know, then we would say at the, you know, we stayed at every single resort at Walt Disney World property. I think there's like 26 of them. - Oh, wow. - Everything from, everything from whatever, the least expensive baby. - Last year. - And maybe at my all-star resort, clear up to everything that Grandplory and the Polynesian and the contemporary. I mean, everything, we've done everything. - Best resort, which one's your favorite? - Riviera. - Riviera. - The Riviera. - Frank loves Riviera. I have to, I love the Polynesian, just the vibe so much. The only thing I don't like is that it's disconnected. Like we really like the big lobby like feel where the Polynesian has like the bungalows that are like in every, like the houses that are disconnected. - Oh my God. - Yeah, the long houses. But then the Grandplory and like you just can't, I know it's expensive and it's probably not even worth what you pay for it. But it's just, I don't know, it's so classic. It's classic Disney and I just love it. - But, but we love them all, different types of our lives. You know, we were just talking to a family who was going for, maybe young kids are going for the first time. And I think the best place to stay with young kids is our animation. Because there is these family suites, there's a reason, there's a place in it for everybody. - Right, there's Skyliner. - You don't have to go stay at the most expensive place. - Yeah. - They have the closest to the park. You just need to find what works for your family. And at different points of our lives, different resorts work for our family. And that's part of the reason we're about to experience them all. - What's your least favorite one? - One that you'd be like, yeah, if I don't stay there again, it's okay. - So for me, it's the big spread out one. Has nothing to do with the quality of the hotels or the rooms, but it takes like a Caribbean beach or something like that. The ones where it's like, you feel like you're in a giant condo complex or townhome complex where there's just, like, what feels like hundreds of buildings spanning over tens of miles. It's not that extreme, but where it just feels like it's so spread out, I don't like those. And as a family, those have nothing great for us, 'cause we are constantly doing something kind of family. We don't spend a lot of time sitting, watching TV or doing nothing, or relaxing, someone say. And because of that, having close access to pools, restaurants, transportation, that kind of stuff matters to us. So the big spread out ones would probably be the least favorite of ours. - Are these resorts, are they all just like a tram ride or a monorail ride to the park? Or do you have to still drive within the park to get to the park? - It varies between, like, resorts. So, like, you have your basic ones that are on the monorail, so those ones have that monorail, or you can walk. Then there's ones that, they're, say, out of the new Skyliner, so there's just a handful that do the Skyliner and a handful. There's boats or there's buses, but-- - Every resort has-- - Every resort has buses, so-- - They do make it efficient. Part of the other reason we like going to Walt Disney World is we do feel like it's a very efficient vacation. We feel like you get what you pay for in the sense. There's efficient transportation, there's lots of it. We've always had good experiences with the people and then being nice and helping to resolve issues if they come up, 'cause, listen, it's travel, right? Issues come up, whether it's issues on our end or issues on their end, things happen even at places like Disney World. It's been some of the most tolerant and some of the nicest people we've ever worked with have been at Disney World to try to still make your vacation better, even when things aren't going right. But they do a really good job of moving people around the resort. - Right, they call it the Disney bubble for a reason. Like once you enter those gates, it's a whole different world. - And they incentivize you to stay on the property, right? So you can get early ride access. Don't they offer that early ride access and-- - Yeah, so you get in an hour early to any part if you're staying on property. And then they also have, like if you say it deluxe resort, they have select nights where you get extra hours at nighttime, that's only for like deluxe resorts. They definitely incentivize you for like the more money you spend, the more you get. - How many Disney parks have you been to? Do you mostly go to Disney World or are you a Disneyland? - Yeah, we're not flyers, we don't fly. - Okay. - So we've been to Walt Disney World and obviously all the parks in your Lando area. And we've done Disney Cruise. Other than that, we've had multiple times where Disneyland's been on our agenda and it's gotten crossed off for various reasons. Partially because we need to do a cross country train trip to make that happen, which we tested for the first time last year on what it was like to travel by train. And, but we don't fly. So the international parks, we will get there someday. We just gonna have to take a lot of logistical planning on how we're gonna do it. - Is it flying, do you not fly because you don't want to fly or because you got family or you just don't, you don't want to get in the airplane. - So I actually had a traumatic experience my senior year of high school. - Oh, okay. - Where my plane went into like a no dive and the mask came down and everyone was screaming. My dad blacked out. So it just, like when I say I have a airplane, it's beyond that. - That's real. - I tried, I even get nervous when I see airplanes in the sky, I put my palm surface wet. So it's something I'm trying to work on, but. - And I used to fly all the time. And then it would be like every time before I left, like did you write all the account numbers down? Do I have all your passwords kind of thing? And it's like, eventually that wears on you and you're like, you know, I don't think I'm gonna fly anymore. - Yeah, I'm just gonna give up flying. It's a hassle. I fly a good bit and it's just a pain going to the airport all the time. And it's, yeah, I totally get that. Now, back to the Disney. So when you go to Disney, do you love, what's your favorite park there? - So it depends on the trip and it depends on what we're trying to do. If it's us and the girls at this current state, like our girls are riders, right? So maybe like a Hollywood studio. They love, or F, Copper Guardians ride or something. They love big fast rides. So that's kind of where we're at right now. - But Magic Kingdom is the best, right? Like if you're going to one park, you have to go to Magic Kingdom 'cause that's just like so magical. And there's so many rides. Like, especially if you're like to have little ones and you need to hit as many as you want, there's just so many options at Magic Kingdom. It's the best. - Yeah, but like me and Paula didn't adults only trip in September and we did go to Magic Kingdom, but Epcot would probably be more of our focus on a trip like that. - That's, you know, we were there for four days. - Yeah, we were there for four days and rode four rides I think. It was, we just weren't worried about the ride. We were worried about other things. - Yeah, I was thinking, you know, as a kid, my family, we would go to Disney World. It's funny what you take for granted 'cause I think the first time I went to Disney World was in 1987, right? And we would go every year, every other year as a kid. I probably went eight, nine times, felt like that. And Epcot was always my least favorite part to go to as a child, but now as an adult, I look at what they have and that's my kind of park right there. You can eat very well over there. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And it's funny. We actually, our kids since they were little, Epcot's been one of their favorite ones, but we really found ways to include them in it, right? Like, so like as we're going around the world, there's little things called Kidcot. So you can stop and they'll, I don't remember what it is now when they were younger, it was bears that they used to decorate and they'd be represented from each country. That would show you how to spell your name or write your name in a different language. And when we got to Japan, the gift shop is so cool. So the girls would get to pick out some things from-- - It's like all the stuff they see on YouTube. Like all the, like, pokey or the different things. - So let's go find a food and buy it. You've never tried it, but you've seen a YouTuber try and, they got really interested in that and I think that that helped them. And now, of course, there's tons of rides in there, let's throw them in and run me. That's been kind of controversial with the Epcot thing. So I think Disney's done a great job of making it more kid-friendly. - Yeah, because when I was a kid, we would spend a day at Epcot and they had a ride there, I don't know if it's still there. It probably can't, it is probably not there. - Did you ever ride the land? - I'm living with a land that's still there and one of our favorite rides. - Okay, okay, as an adult, I think that's great. You're looking at all this different vegetation growing, right? But as a nine-year-old, it was like, oh my gosh, we got a waiting line to ride the land, yeah. - Our kids don't love it, but the cafe that's right outside of it has some of the, they always have fantastic dessert offerings and some cupcakes or whatever. And the kids know that when we're in that building, Mom's gonna get one of those drinks to grab stuff. So they don't hate it for that reason. - Okay, well, what about Magic Kingdom? What's your go-to ride in Magic Kingdom, the best ride? - I personally like pirates, probably, because it's like that classic kind of what Disney means to us, 'cause again, it's an amusement park, right? It's an entertainment facility, but there's a lot more to it, a lot more in the history of how it came up, how it was made, the technological advancements that were needed to get it to where it was able to open, right? And pirates is kind of like a culmination of a lot of those things. So to me, that's kind of like that classic ride, and I think Paula's favorite is another one that-- - Right, the high mansion is my favorite, so-- - And these used examples of things that like, basically didn't exist before they made them, between the animatronics, between the ride vehicles, but the way that they shut up people through them, and these things didn't exist, and these things were created, from our understanding, from support of things like the New York's World's Fair, and stuff like, I think it was 1964, like where the big companies were partnering with Walt Disney to create some of these ideas. And seeing that stuff still hold up in 2023 is amazing. The fact that it is even something, 'cause I'm sure that you've seen attractions or things that from when we were kids, and then you go back and visit, and you're like, "Wow, this is not cool at all." That doesn't happen at Disney, right, like you're riding rides that were literally made like in the 1970s or '60s even, and they still hold up to this day, with improvements of course, but not a ton. I mean, it's just amazing the stuff that they were able to do, and how it just still usable technology to this day. - What's the ride in Tomorrowland? I love it, it's from the World's Fair, where you see different times. - Carousel project? - I love that ride. That's such an old man ride though, but it's a good ride. - That's what people call an air conditioned ride. - Okay, I know I just interrupted a great conversation, but my name is Brad, and you may be listening to me or any of the other talent we have on this network at Hopecast. We wanna thank you for listening, but also, we want you to like and subscribe to the show you're listening to. So, when you're done listening, go on the iTunes or the Spotify and leave a great review if you like it, and follow the show on Instagram, and any other platforms that it's on. I think we're on TikTok, so follow us on TikTok. But make sure you leave us a review. We love good reviews here at the Hopecast network. Now, I guess I'll let you get back to your show. - I hate to interrupt what you're doing now, but something very important I need to let you know about. When you purchase serious coffee beans, we want you to try to enjoy each brew for two reasons. Number one, because you're a part of something bigger, making a positive impact around the world. And number two, 'cause we did not compromise on the quality of coffee, you're drinking some of the best coffee in the world. 100% of profits are donated to nonprofits that are fighting injustice facing humans around the world, while it's powerful. Generous is best known for especially coffee, but the heartbeat of generous is their hope to use for profit business for good. In 2024, generous is hoping to provide coffee to churches around the U.S. to spread a message within congregations that churches care about people even down to the coffee they are serving and the people they enjoy. I apologize for that extremely long run on sentence. If you have interest in hearing more about generous coffee, please reach out to their founder, Ben Higgins, at binhiggins@genresmovement.com. Thank you, and back to our scheduled podcast. (gentle music) Yes, yeah, okay. - But we love it. - Okay, first, I gotta ask you guys about this, 'cause this is big in the news right now, and I've been itching to find out your perspective on this. What is going on at Disney World where people are pooping in lines? - I saw that, I don't know if it's true or not. I've only seen it through Instagram and stuff like that. I've never heard of it in the park, but yeah, I'm seeing the things that you are. - I actually don't know what we're talking about. It might be a current events guide. I'm less on social media, more in the news, current events. - Yeah, they're saying like, played a path to put bathroom pathway through because it was a pretty big problem. - Well, because the lines are so long. I mean, it does, so one of the things that would, when they built the Star Wars land, all it was did is. One of the things that I thought was a really good idea for them financially and also for the guests experience was they put places where they sell snacks and drink some stuff inside of the line, which I think was for, I can't remember which ride. So there was actually a place like Midway Through the Line where you could buy food and drinks for your kids, which is amazing because every parent is trying to get their kids something to keep them quiet at that point in time, right? So they're gonna sell like a million items a day. So from their perspective, but also from ours, wildly convenient that if you forgot to grab a bottle of water or a Coke or something before you got in line, there it is. You don't have to get out of line to go do that. - Okay. - And I think there's probably just working on making things more accessible for the guests to improve the guest experience with you, my guess. - But we've been a victim, not a poop, but when our youngest was maybe two, we were in the line for what was the great movie ride, which was one of our family's favorite. Now it's Mickey and Minnie's run away railway. And my daughter's like, "Mom, I gotta pee. I gotta pee. I gotta pee." And I'm like, "Just wait. We're in line. We're not getting out of line. Just wait, just wait." And I sit around my lap and he couldn't wait. So we get off the ride and the whole seat's wet, the whole front of me's wet. And yeah, I learned my lesson that he wasn't kidding. - But it is funny, I'm reading the article right now. And employees say that people actually, instead of exiting, will poop in the line. - I feel like that would be an uncomfortable experience. I would not want to do it. - But where do you go from there? Like what's your after that plan? - Yeah, what's your in-game? - It's still on a ride. - Yeah, there's no ride. There's no ride at anything park that is that good. - No, no, if I have to go poop, I'm definitely getting out of the line and heading to the bathroom. There's no good in-game to pooping in a Disney line and then getting on Space Mountain. And it's Space Mountain a single or a double? Is it a single rider or a double? - It's a single at Walt Disney World, double at Disneyland. - Okay, so let's imagine you're on a double, but you're by yourself and you get stuck beside the dude that just used the bathroom. That's a nightmare. That's a nightmare. But I wanted to ask you guys about this, told my wife, so I'm gonna ask them about what's going on at Disney with the pooping situation in the lines. So Disney, the lines are always long. Is there a good month where you can go to Disney and go, I can pretty much only wait 20 minutes and get on good rides? Is there a time of year where that exists or does it not exist? - It used to, but honestly, now with the reservations and how things are, it's pretty much busy all the time. Honestly, the most important thing is planning ahead. So we hear, I just had someone call me like a few weeks ago and they're in the park and they're like, how do I get on time? And I'm like, well, you had to get a pass at seven o'clock this morning. Like it's too late, there's nothing you can do now. So Disney has really made it so that you have to really, really, really plan ahead. Like there are just no options. So one thing that we always recommend is using like a travel agent, 'cause travel agents are actually free. Not a lot of people know that, but so they'll book your trip for you and they'll take care of it and help people's dining and everything and that's like-- - Yeah, and when Paula says the reservation system, what she's referring to is like, so prior to COVID, you just kind of went to Disney World. Post COVID, there is like a park reservation system and I think eventually that's dropping off or something similar to that. You also use magic bands now and these magic bands from our understanding have these like RFID chips in them that they can kind of see where people are at at the park, right? 'Cause that band opens up your hotel door, you can make charges on it like at any paying kiosk. And from my understanding, they can kind of see where people are at. So if you think about it, if you ever played like one of those like amusement park tycoon games or one of those things when you were a kid, I kind of think they can see where groups of people are where supports needed, where they may need to open up some more stuff 'cause this park's busy today or there's just an expectation from their end. But it's also allowed them to level it out, I think, from a crowd flow perspective. So it's not that it's busier than it was, it's that it's never less busy, like have these down times like it used to 'cause it feels like with different promotions and different things they're doing, they're steering people a lot more evenly throughout the resort, throughout the year. - So what do you do if you are not a planner and you go, I'm just going to Disney for the day and y'all show up and you haven't, do you just not get on rides? - It could be tough, it could be challenging. That's why planning is so important. And you know, if I was a local, I could see how that could be annoying to the experience because it used to be something to where you can go kind of pull off a day with your kids that you didn't choose to do until that morning. That probably doesn't exist for those people anymore. And that's a little bit from our understanding more a Disneyland problem because Disneyland has a lot more of like a local crowd that attends it. So but at Walt Disney World, you know, it's like the biggest tourist destination in the United States or whatever. And it's so many people coming in from out of town constantly and that's probably their once in a lifetime or a few times in a lifetime trip. And because of that, I think it's for the greater good that some of this organizational stuff was put in place because it does probably improve the overall experience for the bulk of the consumers that are coming through their dates as opposed to just helping the locals or helping the out of town people or something like that. - So you kind of know going in, if you've done a great job of planning, you know how many rides you're gonna get to ride that day. - In a way, you still have to continue to make reservations throughout the day and do different things using their app and using GD Plus. It's one of those things where you kind of start the day with a clean slate and you can set yourself up to have a good day, maybe not a great day guaranteed, but a good day with rides and different things. But the lack of using it, you're pretty much setting yourself up for having a bad day. So we've become very spoiled because we lost the pressure of treating Disney World like a once in a lifetime experience. Like we're only gonna get to go today and we have to get on that ride. If we can't get on something, we just do something else. There are so many different things to do beyond rides at the Disney World Resort that we just always find something new and exciting and fun to do and have never had trouble kind of fulfilling ourselves from that perspective, even if we haven't gotten to ride all the rides that we wanna ride. And we keep low expectations. - And I think that's like one of the most important things like when going to Disney is not having too many expectations because I think like Frank said, everyone treats it as this one and done and it might be, but you can ruin your whole trip by setting human expectations where if you just kind of go with a flow and if you don't get to do the thing that you really wanted to do and still enjoy the magic, you could still have a great time. So just not getting caught up on the, you know, maybe one thing or, you know, yeah. It's just try to be flexible, but be prepared if that makes any sense. - What's your least favorite ride in Disney? That you do it, but you're like, yeah, I just ride it. - Barnstormer. - What is that? - The thing hurts your back so bad, my kids love it. - And that's in the magic kingdom? - When they were old enough, yeah. When they were old enough to finally ride by themselves, I remember just sending them off the ramp and sitting at the end and just waving at them and they just kept on going around and round and I'm like, have fun. - What about you, Frank? What's your least favorite ride? - You know, I don't know if I necessarily have a least favorite because I wouldn't, well, I've never ridden the teacups, I don't like things that fit. - I'm with you, I don't like going in circles. - Yeah, anything that spins, I generally don't ride. You know, there were times when the triceratops ride was just almost a standard carnival ride at Animal Kingdom where I would never pick that as a ride that I would A, ride or B, look forward to riding. I would consider that worse, but it was my kids' favorite at the time. So, you know, I'm a little- - Like getting to see them. - Yeah, I'm a little ride. - We got two girls, so they kind of get what they want and they know how to ask for it. And when we see them having a good time, I fall for that too easily. So, it could be my least favorite, but their favorite and I'll still go do it because that's just what Dad does, I guess. - I used to like the ride. - And I don't think it's there anymore. Is it, was it called Alien Encounter? Is it? - No, so that was the great movie ride. - Oh, it was? - Oh, it was? - Oh, no, it was. - I was talking about the one where the alien was in the middle and it like- - Yes, is that Alien Encounter? What was that called? That was a good ride. I liked that one. - And then it became, it then it became late weather stitch, like the one stitch. That was actually like back closed right around when we started going to Disney World. - Oh, okay, okay. - I think I got to ride it one time, maybe. - It was intense. It was more of a teenager ride than a kid ride. - Yeah, it felt more universal, it. - It did, it did. I did love Back to the Future at Universal. That was one of my favorite rides. - I love that too. And now, I think what the Simpsons took it over and that ride makes me so sick. - Really? - Yeah, the motion and the screens are kind of blurry. I can't even ride it now, so. - Yeah, it's changed so much. - What is, what are your favorite Disney movies? - Oh, wow. - I like the Indiana Jones stuff and I like Disney. - Does that count as Disney, that counts as Disney now, but I'm talking like. - Right, that's right. - I'm talking about Winnie Wish Upon a Star. - I'm talking about Winnie Wish Upon a Star. - Hmm? - Yeah, okay good. I remember growing up watching like. - You like, I know what your favorite is. - What? - So we grew up like in Disney Renaissance age, right? Where Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules. - Lion King. - Lion King, and then that one wasn't Disney then. Aladdin, but then like I know it wasn't Disney then, but like the Pixar movies, like the Toy Star movies, like that was the Toy Story movies. We were growing up during that. So those were like, we've seen all those movies a million times. Probably though, one of the things that we kind of got into during this process before we started doing Instagram stuff was kind of the history of the animation. There's some pretty cool exhibits that Walt Disney World and maybe like the Disney 100 exhibit where we've seen different things. And we started collecting animation art and we got hooked up with a pretty cool animation art dealer out of the Washington DC area and got to learn a little bit from him. And it really made us appreciate how animation is created. Not now with computers and technology, but how it was created back when like Snow White came out, which was the first feature length animated film. The process of that is unbelievable on how that works with the hand drawing, the hand painting or the photography. I mean, it's just crazy. So through that process and our collection of animation art, I think we became pretty big fans of things like Snow White, things like Sleeping Beauty, some of these old school animated feature films, less about watching the movie and more just a fan. - I love the art of Sleeping Beauty. I'm just a fan of the process and how they had to do it and the work that goes into that. - And Bambi, Bambi was good in Pinocchio. - Oh, I can't do Bambi. - It is sad. It's very sad. - I'm so sad. - It is. - Bambi and Dumbo, those two movies, I can't, I just, I start bawling. I'm a crier, so I usually cry at everything, but those are next level. I can't do them anymore. - I'm glad Disney reverse course and are CGIing the dwarves in the new seven, in the new Snow White movie, because you want to see what you remember as a child, right? And to not have the dwarves there, I think that, is that politically correct? I guess it's politically correct, right? - I mean, I don't. - Just say that? - I don't know. - I don't know. - But I know they weren't going to have the dwarves as dwarves, but now they're going to, I saw a photo where they're actually bringing them back. So they're going to look like the cartoon, which I think is a cool move. - Okay, I didn't know that. - Yeah, I think they're doing that. They said they're going to make them the dwarves again, because you want to see what you remember as a child, 'cause I liked Snow White as a kid, and gosh, that movie's so old. It is really old at this point, right? - Yeah, it was like 1937, maybe. - Did y'all happen to see the Disney short? I watched that at my house a couple of weeks ago, the Disney 100 short, where all the cartoon characters were together. We were actually at the D23 Expo in Disney World, and they premiered it there ahead of time. And when I tell you, there was not a dry eye in the room. There was a several minute standing ovation afterwards. I mean, I saw, that was truly magical. And I want to be clear for anybody who knows me that's listening, that my eyes were dry. - Okay, fine. - I was going to ask you to clarify that, right? - It was a very good show. - I was going to ask you to clarify that. I think I saw it here. - It was very good, and the people who created that were there and got to speak about it. And they were fantastic guys, and they were so honored from hearing them talk about this process on who they got to work with, and they got to animate some of these historical characters, and they got to meet some of these original voices and different things. - It actually came up with a concept kind of behind the scenes, and didn't even get it approved. So they pretty much came up with this idea, did it all, and was kind of like, hey guys, we did this. - And then it got green lit, and I think it got developed really from there, but it was really cool getting to see the making of that. So things like D23 really allowed us to see something like that. And just seeing that process, and then what it means to a lot of those people, 'cause again, we get it a lot from what I would consider, hate comments or whatever you call them, mean comments on Instagram of these Disney adults, and these people are crazy and different stuff like that. And it's so far beyond people putting Mickey Mouse ears on their head and walking through a theme park, right? - Yeah. - There's so much more to it. There's so much history. There's so much technology. There's so much innovation. And then there's also so many things other than rides. There's culinary experiences. There's these beautiful resorts, which have beautiful weather in Florida, right? There's other reasons to go there. And there's just so much. There's something for everybody when you're looking at something like Walt Disney World. And it's just like an entertainment giant. - First, the internet trolls are terrible. I don't understand why they would be that way. Look, you do what you love to do in life, right? And I find it fascinating that you can make Disney, we can live vicariously through what you guys do. At Disney World, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I actually like that. So yeah, the internet trolls, yeah. Who cares, right? - We enjoy it and we've always just done us. And that's kind of the one of our family mottos is we're gonna do what we like to do and how we like to do it. And we hope that people wanna follow along and if they don't, they don't have to. - Well, it's funny how I came across you guys. So we do a recap show. So we'll recap, my co-host, B and I, we'll recap every episode and we'll recap this. And we started talking about, in a recap, about how people will sell sweaty socks to people. - I was wondering if this video was gonna come up. - Yeah, and then B, she was like, you know, that people have foot, they sell their foot pics. And my wife was in the studio and I was like, you know, my wife's got pretty feet. And we were joking. But then the next day I get, she B sends me on Instagram, you're real. Of when you were at your foot there and I was laughing so hard. I said, I wanna get her own, the putt 'cause that's our kind of humor, right? We laugh at that stuff. And yeah, that's how I found you guys. And I'm so glad that we talked about feet and B sent me your reel that just happened to come up. - It's funny because the most hate comments I've got, so I've been doing this for two years now. And, you know, I'll get hate comments here and there, but the most comment that I've gotten hate is how ugly my foot is. - What? - And I never take anything personal, but for some reason, I'm like, I didn't think it was that bad. - To me, I wasn't even paying attention to the foot. It was more. - I didn't even say that it's a joke, right? Like, I didn't even look at my foot. Like, I didn't even think of my foot as being like, I don't know, that video has been went so far beyond me and like, what I would have even thought. I didn't think. - She posted it and I immediately texted her and was like, so we do a family approach, right? We try not to have any cutting, any negative connotation, anything that's overly sexualized or anything like that, kind of on the stuff that we do. She said that to me and I'm like, I don't know how I feel about that. I think it's, I mean, it's funny, don't get me wrong. It's like, Saturday, live funny. I'm like, I don't know if that's what we were thinking was gonna happen on the page kind of thing. And then fast forward it today and there's like 20 something million views on that video, right? It's actually been her biggest video ever. - Yeah. - I don't know what that says about society. I think it's like 50/50 of people that get it for the humor and that people, she's gotten a lot of weird requests that have come out of that video. - Oh my Lord. - Yeah, some, some professional people in my DMs. - That's a lot of nerdy facts. I didn't think, I didn't think the whole thing through what I do it again, I don't know, but. - Well, I mean, I'm glad you did it. 'Cause, I'm glad you did it. 'Cause it got me to, to, to see your page. I'm glad it, I'm glad you, so Bee's mind's in the gutter and she could see that. So then since me, I wouldn't have seen that. So, yeah. - It's funny 'cause I don't have a lot of guys that follow me. For the most part, it's women, but for this one, I think a lot of wives or a lot of husbands tend to video to their wives. Like, you better get on it, hun. Or, so it's definitely opened up the page to a lot more. - Those are husbands and wives and donors and how the algorithm works. There's a reason that popped up for them, right? - Yeah, yeah, like, why is it popping up for Bee? Is she been searching the heat picks? Or, you know, I'm gonna have to ask her that in the recap. You know, what's, what's with the feet picks, Bee? But it was ironic. Maybe, maybe the phone hears us talking about that, right? In the. - I don't think it sounds like that. 'Cause we literally were talking about it last week on a recap show and the next thing you know, she's sending me an Instagram reel of your foot. And, at the end of the day, the only one that needs to like your foot is Frank. And as long as Frank likes looking at your feet, totally cool, right? - Honestly, I don't know if I've ever looked at him. - Oh, he's been married for 15 years now, maybe 14 years? - Never looked. - 15 years before 15 years now. - She followed us all as not the math person. She just, I just said we were married for 14 years and she said I wasn't. - I also had a really good Disney math video that I did, so. - So, so y'all got married in 2009, is that right? - Correct. - Yeah. - I was married in 2010, so we're around at the same time. Yeah, that's really cool. I'm glad, I'm glad you're encouraging her to sell feet picks to go to Disney World. That's, let's really, let's put that in the show notes. I'm kidding, I'm. Yeah, Disney all around encompasses the world. I'm glad that you guys took some time to chat with me today about it. One more thing, so you talk about being a total nerd. What do y'all, what do y'all nerd out on outside of Disney? - So, we're a Harry Potter family. We're like, you know, Disney family, we're a Marvel family. We don't do a lot of traditional, like, I don't know, we don't have these real like fandoms or anything that we're involved in, like crazy. - We're just, we're like, not forced people. We both play, college, I thought it looks like we talked about, but like, I don't know. When the last time we watched the sporting event on TV. - Oh, wow. - We just watch. - We watch Loki as a family. We watch, we watch all the Marvel movies as a family. - Yeah, we watch other people travel on YouTube as a family. - Right, Indiana Jones. - We just, we just enjoyed that. - Can I ask you this then? 'Cause I'm glad you brought this up. I was talking to my buddy yesterday about Marvel. And I was talking to him about how I've been reading that Marvel movies are not tracking as well as they used to with people. Do you think, 'cause I'm not a Marvel guy, like, I watch them, I went and saw the new Thor, I love the new Thor, thought it was pretty good. I have my personal, the Black Panther movies, I enjoy those. - Do you think it's hard for someone like me who doesn't watch all the Disney shows to go to a movie like the Marvels that's coming out and understand what's going on if I haven't seen the backstory? - So, I think there is a certain amount of things that are happening in the Disney+ series. And in that setting up next episodes or the next movies and stuff like that. So, I don't think it makes it impossible. My guess is that the powers that be at places like Marvel and Disney are cognizant of the fact that they have to have a movie that follows a timeline yet can be standalone or almost never gonna be a billion dollar franchise again or a billion dollar movie again. But I would find it to be somewhat challenging. I mean, take like the Doctor Strange and that multiverse of madness without watching WandaVision, she would have probably been lost. - And I think that's a problem, right? They need to be more appealing to anybody, right? - I would say, I mean, kind of my view on Marvel at the current time is as great of a storytelling as it was and as an adventure as it was through that first like 25 or 30 movies through that first couple phases. It's gonna be hard when you don't have like the Robert Downey Jr's and the Chris Hemsworth and the, you know, those mainstream people that became so synonymous with those parts. Even though we do have some carryovers into this next phase without having a lot of those like actors and actresses that are absolutely just carrying it. I think it's gonna be hard because we are huge fans as you guys can tell. This is part of our livelihood, right? Like we're very much into the direction all the stuff that's going. We don't feel the same appeal over Marvel movies currently as we did when Endgame was coming out and Infinity War and all these different movies and the Thor movies even before that. And, you know, we still watch 'em but you just feel like something's lost. And I was reading something that maybe there's some talks happening with Scarlett Johansson and maybe some opportunities for some of the old characters to come back to be like these flashback movies or something and something like that would be amazing. And I think they would see immediate success. It's like watching Tiger Woods play golf. - Yeah. - He could play whatever golf every once in a play, everyone's gonna watch. If he doesn't play, everybody doesn't seem to watch. - Are you a DC fan at all or is it just Marvel? - It's really just been Marvel. And actually the superhero thing came late for us. We missed probably the prime of it. We were raising a family and we weren't as involved kind of in this. - There's a lot of princess movies going on. - We had a lot of princess movies going on. So we kind of missed like that and we've just never gotten into DC. Someday, I'm told that the Batman movies. - When I was younger, I used to watch Batman with my dad. - But not even, what's the dark night movie? - I haven't seen the new ones but the older ones. - The Michael Keaton movies. - The Michael Keaton movies. - Yeah, Michael Keaton, yeah. - Yeah, that's true. - We've not seen a lot of stuff. And I've always taken the approach. We have hopefully a long time to like to watch those and it'll be awesome the first time we see it just as it was when they came out. - A couple things I'll pitch to you guys that I've always thought. One, DC can't compete with Marvel. It's tried and it fails. What do you think about this idea? I believe DC should do the opposite of what Marvel does. DC should gear all their movies to adults. They should all be like R-rated superhero movies and do the opposite of the PG-13 Marvel approach where they wanna appeal to the 12 and 13 year old boys and girls who watch it. I think that might would help. I think that might would help DC a lot. Do more action, more violence. You know, whatever it takes, make it more realistic and gritty, I don't know. I think that second thing about the park that I wanted to bring up earlier, they always, we've seen the news, the park fees are going up. Like the rates, the day rates are going up, right? They're just skyrocketing. What if they let you park for free and just added some of that into the ticket? 'Cause how much does it cost to park at Disney if you don't stay on property? I think it could be $30, $40 a day maybe. It is and there's those things that again, that's why like working with professionals, like travel professionals and stuff can be helpful because hopefully people can save money 'cause it is pricing a lot of families out and that's a terrible for us. We're pretty involved in different charities and stuff locally where we live and our hope would be that all families get to have no financial hardship and everyone can do whatever they want whenever they want to do it, right? I know that's not practical. So it does suck to kind of know that there are some families that are never gonna get to experience kind of what we think is a very joyous thing to do and very fun for kids. It's such a limited window in your lifetime and unfortunately it's normally when it's hardest for families. When you're raising kids and they're young, when it would be the most fun. So that part's no good, but unfortunately for that innovation, for these new things that come up and for it to be competitive growing attractions that these parts have become, they got a charge money for it and they got a charge more money because everything's going up, cost materials, wages, cost of food, everything. So we get it but that's also wish that people, there was a little more mass access to it at the same time that most people can experience it. - Doe whip, you like doe whip? - We're back and forth, I hear the problem with doe whip. So everybody associates doe whip with Disney World. We actually live in a pretty small town generally speaking and there's a much smaller town which most people would consider to be a small rural town about 15 miles from us maybe and there's a dairy bar there, like an old school like 50 or 70 year old like roadside like dairy bar, like somebody would see on like Route 66 and they have doe whip and they've always had doe whip. So like we knew what doe whip was even before we started going to Disney World and they kind of rotate their flavors so. - And now like the yogurt places all have it too. - Yeah, so we've been getting doe whip pineapple doe whip for a long time, it's been available to us locally and we didn't realize how unique that was until we started getting pretty heavily involved in Disney World. - Well, hey guys, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to chat about Disney and all things Disney and I'm glad we got to nerd out a little bit on some Marvel. That's always fun. - Yeah. - Yeah, and we, you know, I hope I will be following your page. I know you said it's mostly women but you know what, I'm gonna follow your page. The foot pick had me, you had me at the foot pick. - Right. - You know, I'm there. So, and B is definitely there. So thank you guys and again, best wishes on your Disney escapades. - Yeah, thanks for having us on. - Yeah, thank you so much. - What about him? - Okay guys, now you are ready to book your Disney vacation, I'm sure, or at least watch a Marvel movie. One of the two you're gonna do. I hope you enjoyed our chat with Paul and Frank. Don't forget, follow them on Instagram at the practically perfect family. Follow a work advice for me on Instagram. Leave us a question if you have one. Work advice for me at gmail.com. Don't forget, like and subscribe on iTunes and Spotify. Leave us a good review. We don't like bad reviews. Hey, work advice for me is brought to you by Hookcast. My name is Brad and I'm going to Disney. I'll see you next week on work advice for me. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
