Mike Scopa Part 1: How Disney World Changed His Life
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Disney World is Mike Scopa’s passion.
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Listen to how Disney World turned Mike Scopa into a successful blogger and podcaster! We also discuss how he got started with running, and what keeps him moving!
Buy Illuminations: Reflections of Earth
Episode 13
Transcription
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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers share their stories to inspire
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you
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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who’s living their dreams
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yeah
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yeah
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yeah
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welcome to the dreamers podcast I’m your
host Joe part of and today I’m
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interviewing Mike scope was living
history by helping people around the
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world plan
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disney vacation as well as getting them
into a healthy lifestyle
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welcome to show mike and joe you know i
was thinking today as I was coming back
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from work he related to that game
announcer Don Pardo
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no unfortunately I’m not okay so that
prices right money is not coming my way
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ok no it doesn’t matter i’ll still agree
to be interviewed
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oh thanks that’s really very nice of you
who
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that’s what I do so let’s start by
giving already into a background about
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yourself
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wow how far back do you want to go do
you want to start with the healthy
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lifestyle or do you want to start with
the podcast ww today I mean I started
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out as a child
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Oh what can i say i always been into
sports and athletics a was never home I
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was always playing baseball or
basketball or whatever as I got into
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high school war and more sports it got
to the point where when i was 18 i was
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coaching my first baseball team not
playing but coaching and I coached from
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coach from 18 to i don’t know but i know
that in in merrimack New Hampshire my
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guess my hometown now are most of my
life I coach more baseball games than
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anybody in the town in the history of
the town coach basketball
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I know this sounds a lot different than
what my profile is supposed to be on w
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today but I’ve touched the lives of a
lot of kids lot of children to the point
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where I was coaching so long and I’ve
told the story a lot of people shake
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their heads that one of the first boys
that I have a coached actually coached
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my son in a tournament basketball team
because he I was coaching so long that
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the kid why coach he ended up growing up
into an adult and he started coaching
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boys to it was it was really funny but
that was a big part of my life try
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to shape values on these boys girls too
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there have been many times where I
caught the wrath of a lot of parents
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because rather than try to win a game i
tried to build character and was kind of
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tough to do but in the end I think that
I did the right thing so that was a big
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part when I got to college I started
running
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I’ve been running for 45 years do the
math and yeah 45 46 years and its really
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funny
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over the years how how things have
changed you know p ours and our thing of
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the past when I used to run six and
seven minute miles now there are double
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digits but that’s fine with me because i
have nothing to prove the whole idea is
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to stay healthy promote healthy
lifestyles so that’s basically where the
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running comes in the Disney stuff came a
lot later in life
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let’s talk about what inspires you um I
think what inspires me are special
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people because i think that one of the
things that we do in our life time is we
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observe a lot of things and we try to
emulate those people who are motivated
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us who make us tilt our heads and and
say hmm that’s that’s really good that’s
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really bad
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I think that when I see someone doing
something good it makes me think
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have I done anything good for someone
today so i think that i think that
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people make the world go around i think
that people inspire me to reach out and
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do at least one good day today so i
think that’s that’s very important
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so how did your running come about and
then we can get into how you know your
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disney obsession came about
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well what happened was that when I was
growing up I i was a fairly decent
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athlete pretty fast pretty pretty strong
and I decided to see what i could do
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with it and someone asked me to
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I was supposed to play football for my
high school team but problem was that I
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had an issue with the runningback coach
I was not the easiest
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easiest person to 12 coach and so I had
an issue with him and I decided that I
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didn’t want to deal with him and
unfortunately he was the varsity
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baseball coach so I decided that I was
going to play baseball for me that so i
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ended up playing baseball and properly
but one of my teachers was the track
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coach and he asked me to join the track
team to do some weights and everything
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and and I threw the javelin I paint
pretty close to set the school record i
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came within 2 feet 2 inches just a just
used to pick the thing up and throw it
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but it was also pretty quick so i would
i would actually train a train with with
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the velocity the jv’s and running and I
i got into running and you know didn’t
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do much now i do one mile two miles and
then I got into college I city let’s see
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what I can do and I started running
three miles and then for miles and next
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thing I know I was really hooked into it
and it was just one of those things
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where I just kept on you know running in
here and there but never really you know
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trying to develop it just it just felt
that was something that I enjoy doing it
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was the the the way to to be have some
solitude and to do a lot of thinking and
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then when I about 10 or 15 years later I
really started running in and you know I
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haven’t stopped yet
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along the way I’ve learned a lot I’ve
run with a lot of people I’ve known very
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fast ones that I’ve known very very
challenging runners who had to meet many
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odds and it’s it’s something that I feel
has kept me in decent shape for my age
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and allows me to get up every day and
and do the things i want to do and I
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think that it’s something that everyone
should should look upon as being you
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know a a piece of their life that could
improve their there at the quality of
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their life so how did your session that
Disney come into play
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I remember doing a report in 1964 when I
was in junior high school
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i did a report on the 1964 world’s fear
and I talked about a lot of things that
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a lot of people know about what happened
in the 1964 world’s fair with with Walt
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and General Electric and progress land
and audio animatronics and carousel of
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progress and all that good stuff i
remember when i was in college reading a
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Time magazine that talked about walt
disney world that there was 1971 and i
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was at raf I never get to go and it’s
just I just curious about everything I
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was always a big disney fan that grow up
with disney movies with disney on
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television my got to see Walt on
television live and all that then in 75
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i took my first trip I was really really
was amazed at the way that the park
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operated my career path
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what I’ve been doing business all these
years had a lot to do with it I was a
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very very much interested and motivated
by how they did things went back in
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nineteen seventy six and then with all
kids and mortgages and stuff like
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colleges and stuff didn’t get to go back
to nineteen ninety and ever since then
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I’ve been studying how they do things
I’ve been trying to figure out the best
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way of making the most of your vacation
when i was working for a large
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corporation I was one of the moderators
of a disney bored and I would come back
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from my trip and I would write these
very exotic trip reports and everybody
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loved them so every time I went I road
trip report that led to is to jump on a
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disney chat and AOL disney chat long
time ago it was on the second tuesday of
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every month on the first monday of every
month and i remember the host of the
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chat was someone named laura 237 and um
so we would they would have I don’t know
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how many people would be on it was a 0 l
and people would ask things and i would
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get very detailed ances so after one of
these chats i received an email from a
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certain person and he wanted to know
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how I was able to give such detailed
answers and I told him that well and one
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of a technical writer and I like to
write and I kept very detailed notes on
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the trips and when I came back I i wrote
out these trip reports so that I would
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remember what worked and what didn’t
work in and what would help people
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he asked me if I’d be interested in
sharing those notes with others and and
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I asked what are you talking about this
is what I’m thinking about thinking
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about putting together a website i said
sure no problem that turned out to be
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Brian Bennett and the website was dvc
planners to the planners website
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eventually that became with another very
small website evolved into what is now
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called most planet and brian bennett and
myself with the chief content providers
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for all things from walt disney world
down the road mark gold paper joined us
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but and and we were in touch with most
planets so I am my blog if you call it
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on Mars planet was called scoping the
parks and it was every every other week
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and I wrote whatever I felt like writing
about what walt disney world one of the
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things that kind of propelled me into
another level was i think it was about
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10 years ago there was a contest that
walt disney company put out there and
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you may have heard about is called the
50-50 happiest password on earth contest
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and what it was was it was open to
annual passholders and they asked the
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disney company wanted to find out what
people felt about their company and why
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they felt they were one of the 50
happiest passholders honor
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so you know I saw the contest and I
think I talk to people about it but I
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never really took a lot of stock in it
then about two days before the deadline
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someone had sent out an email i think it
was one of the it was Mark ok but send
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out an email to everybody on mouse plan
saying hey just to remind everyone it’s
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two days away from the deadline so I
read that
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morning before I was going to go to work
I so let me just throw something
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together so I threw something together
and I remember walking out of the house
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and my sense of what’s in the envelope i
said i was this is a there’s a contest
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i’m going to win if I when we’re going
to go to 10 days just laughing and
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whatever so I mailed it in about oh I
don’t know a month or two later this
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package comes in the mail with a letter
attached to it
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I opened up the letter and it said you
want what’s that I opened up the there
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was a slipcase and in the slipcase i
opened it up and it was a three-piece
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prism i’d say about 10 to 12 inches tall
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it was in three pieces it was a prism
each part of the prism represented a
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castle from a distant from a magic
kingdom theme park around the world so I
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had become one of the 50 happy password
is on earth they invited me to walt
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disney world and for a media event was
the following you I think this was 2005
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in April and I I I got to see the
opening night for lights motor action
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stunt show so that was kind of neat and
so I i decided that maybe all these
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years of studying Walters the world and
what it means to me
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paid off so because whatever i wrote
i’ll keep that a secret
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whatever I wrote was was very touching
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so but then it took another step higher
about a year later house phone rang and
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I answered it and there was somebody
named Mickey on the other end not making
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mouse but Mickey hi this is Mickey from
walt disney world
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Mike we would like to invite you to come
to New York City for the announcement of
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a special promotion that we’re going to
do and I so what’s this all about
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we want you to represent all the pass
holders for walt disney world and i was
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just forward and I said is this on the
level he said yes you are going to so he
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said I’ve i will send you an email
following this conversation giving you
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information on how to book your flight
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we’re going to fly you to New York City
we’re going to put you up in this I
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think was the so hole someplace in soho
and we want you to attend
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a special presentation and we’re going
to interview you and oh one more thing
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we’re going to put your photograph in
the Mickey monitor i don’t know i don’t
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know what to say and and and so anyways
I was flown to new york city i had my
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own disney representative also a greg
and i forget his last name who writes
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the Mickey monitor we were my wife and I
we were taken out to dinner i was
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interviewed for four hours about what
walt disney world meant for me how I as
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a password that feels about feel about
how pass holders should be treated i was
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taken as a guest of honor to a special
convention hall whatever and it was
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disney at their best the ceilings were
painted blue there were clouds i got to
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see jay rasulo who was i believe i think
he was executive vice president charge
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of disney parks around the world got to
see a lot of famous celebrities talk and
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sing about the promotion the promotion
was the year of a million dreams which
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you may recall yeah do it was pretty
interesting it was there was a pretty
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big deal for me and I really it so I was
they were supposed to have brought
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someone to represent Disneyland but that
person never showed so I was it got to
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sit and and see some very interesting
things so that kinda was a world when
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year for me
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the following year or two I got a call
from Fred block you know
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yes I do and Fred said that someone dead
wells suggested that Fred contact me and
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tell me about something called magic
meets that fred has had put together the
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year before and asked if I’d be
interested in the keynote speaker so
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push comes to shove I said sure and I
went to the magic meets that he held in
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and I don’t remember where exactly was
it was someplace and acting was
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allentown at first year and moved to
harrisburg the the app so i was i
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actually did the first year I was
keynote speaker and
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and second year I think both Liu my
jello and myself were he had 550 people
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that was that was pretty cool and I got
to talk to a lot of people and and meet
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a lot of people and then of course you
go from there to mouse best and along
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the way something called wdw today
happened and I had no one left for a
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while we had done stuff a bit Bob solid
writing bob was thinking step Bob and
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always talked about is I did a i wrote
an article on I always try to do things
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out of the out of the ordinary didn’t
want to do your regular blog and on this
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particular blog i wrote how I had fallen
asleep behind some bushes up near the
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castle and I had awakened at two thirty
in the morning and i had written it on a
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friday night i started writing at around
ten o’clock and when i finished it was
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two o’clock in the morning I didn’t
realize it was two o’clock in the
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morning i had everybody believing
including land Bob that it was really
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happening and then it turned out to be
obviously a dream but you know then yet
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we had Mouse fest and then of course
we’ve got three today and then all ears
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and i joined all ears and then of course
we’ve got that the awliyas running team
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Michelle had talked to me about an idea
she had about a running team and you
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know so it all kinda it was like as a
snowball Joe you know it just kinda kept
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gathering and gathering and gathering in
and I’ve been very lackadaisical lately
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with blogs and stuff but my passion for
seeing people enjoy themselves is very
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much driving motivation because we work
so hard in our lifetimes and i guess i
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would guess that maybe only five percent
of our lifetimes do we really pamper
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ourselves and one of those moments would
be when we take ourselves and put
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ourselves on a plane or take our family
and put them on a plane and go down to
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walt disney world it’s expensive it’s
you and I are very fortunate in that
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we’ve got down quite a bit
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I mean I i think i’ve been to I i think
i’ve walked him into a Disney park over
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a hundred times maybe 300 times and
sometimes I have to pinch myself and say
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I’m very lucky there are others who want
so lucky they don’t get to go as
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fine as they would like to so when they
do save up when they do have the time to
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go I want to make sure that they make
the most of the time they make the most
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of their hard-earned dollars and I think
I speak for everybody on w today when
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when I say that so that’s a mouthful but
that’s basically where Mike’s polka came
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from that’s I mean that’s awesome i mean
that led me to you just a few short
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years later
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well like five years later from I mean
awesome things that you never mentioned
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to me before and I don’t mind knowledge
of ww today I don’t recall you ever even
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saying any of that stuff on the show
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no well we started discussing WWE today
in august of 2005 a lot of the stuff
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that i told you about me going to New
York and all that that happened prior to
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that and I did you know I it if it had
happened during the course of the
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podcast then obviously want to discuss
it but whenever it would come up
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something like that I’d mention it but
it’s it’s one of those things where
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sequentially it came before WB today so
that’s not that wasn’t part of ww today
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well I feel privileged to have had that
information divulged on my show so thank
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you
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yeah it’s pretty cool i think i ended up
giving that prism castle to deb wills to
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auction off for her avon walk for breast
cancer there are only 50 of those made
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and I think there are only 50 maybe a
hundred of those made in the in history
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and fifty went to the ww today
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Pass holders and fifty went to I think
the disneyland pass holders and you know
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to this day I mean I asked my disney
representative in New York City and why
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did you pick my my essay and she said
something like when we were looking at
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the essays yas kind of brought a lot of
tears to our eyes and made us realize
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that you knew all about you know what
Disney brings to everybody when I forgot
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to mention too is that one of the things
I
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had written in mouse planet was i I
brought along this this concept called
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the disney zone and the disney zone is a
state of mind that you develop it’s a
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subliminal thing that occurs when you go
to walt disney world and you begin to
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change in your mind things like
forgetting your worries things like
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forgetting what day of the week it is
forgetting what time it is not really
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caring and one of the most the the
proudest moments of my life was when one
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day I went on the Save disney website
which was Roy disney’s website and they
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put my article on it because it was one
of those things where and I’ve often
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thought we often hear about this joe
some people get it and some people don’t
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get it so that that was that’s another
story
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I’ve never even heard of the save disney
website yeah that was when there was an
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issue with Roy Disney was he was having
issues
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00:21:09,940 –> 00:21:16,779
well he and my Kaiser or battling out
and so Roy started this site called save
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disney and guess what was on it so it’s
kind of cool
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00:21:22,119 –> 00:21:27,699
unsurprisingly never hired you you know
I many people have asked but I like to
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work for Disney and and when I looked
for jobs they have been recruited to
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00:21:31,629 –> 00:21:38,649
have called me because of things I mean
I i wrote i mean i have contributed to
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00:21:38,649 –> 00:21:44,859
lens book have contributed to karagöz
berries book I wrote a tribute to wrote
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something on lose book on the back he
had on the back cover
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I was also one of 40 writers who wrote
contributed essays to 40 years of magic
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walt disney world
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00:21:58,359 –> 00:22:04,449
well the thing interesting thing Joe I
mean I I when I looked for jobs and I
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thrown my resume out there there are
certain things on the resume which some
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00:22:09,399 –> 00:22:13,988
recruiters kind of looked at and I’ve
actually had
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00:22:14,540 –> 00:22:19,70
several recruiters call me and asked me
if I’d be interested in working for them
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and actually when i was when i was at HP
hewlett-packard the area which I was in
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we developed training for outside
companies and one of the biggest
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projects was with walt disney world and
every other month the team would go to
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orlando stay at either the beach of the
a club and in and work with disney on
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00:22:41,60 –> 00:22:45,919
training and they asked me if I wanted
to be on the team and you know it’s like
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for a lot of people would be a dream
come true but what I said was and this
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00:22:49,370 –> 00:22:56,780
is my my little saying i said i really
would not like to work in my playground
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and I think I I that steps what I say
today don’t want to work on my
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playground
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I have a saying it’s called don’t poop
where you eat yeah same thing don’t poop
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on the dole whip so how was all this
received by your family
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well I think that everybody looked at it
is something to keep me I I never stood
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still
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00:23:21,80 –> 00:23:28,40
I was always was always playing ball or
coaching ball there was one year between
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00:23:28,40 –> 00:23:34,460
april first and sep tember first where I
had a calendar and there were only three
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00:23:34,460 –> 00:23:40,580
days between april first and sep tember
first in which I was not doing anything
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00:23:40,580 –> 00:23:47,330
I either was a coach softball I was the
commission of my softball e I played
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00:23:47,330 –> 00:23:52,100
softball and the same year i was in
those years that I was doing that I was
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00:23:52,100 –> 00:23:56,330
coaching a little league team was
coaching at least one babe ruth’s team I
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00:23:56,330 –> 00:24:01,820
was coaching my son’s traveling soccer
team and forget what else I was doing
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00:24:01,820 –> 00:24:06,950
but so from april through September and
i ended up coaching all-star teams to it
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00:24:06,950 –> 00:24:08,660
was just very busy
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00:24:08,660 –> 00:24:13,220
the only time I could run would be in
the morning or it would be during
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00:24:13,220 –> 00:24:19,40
lunchtime and I think what my family I
think everybody saw me as being just a
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perpetual motion machine it enabled my
family to become
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00:24:23,779 –> 00:24:30,889
like my my my daughter saw how I was
doing stuff and and my son my wife
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00:24:30,889 –> 00:24:36,709
tolerated me because it was it took time
away but you know eventually it worked
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out very well for the family because
they were perks that came with it that
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there were things that I found out about
walt disney world that allowed us to do
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00:24:45,259 –> 00:24:50,239
special things I knew the ins and outs
when we would go to walt disney world
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and I would go for two weeks at a time
the most time that I spent was prior to
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00:24:55,909 –> 00:25:00,349
the trip making sure that I knew exactly
what we’re going to do and planted out
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00:25:00,349 –> 00:25:04,849
accordingly the running well running
helps because it kept me healthy it
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00:25:04,849 –> 00:25:12,619
really promoting a healthy life self
everybody and what about disney well it
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00:25:12,619 –> 00:25:18,949
got to the point where it was really
funny because if you live with me and
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00:25:18,950 –> 00:25:22,820
you hear me talk about disney then you
don’t have to read me and nobody in my
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00:25:22,820 –> 00:25:23,479
family
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00:25:23,479 –> 00:25:28,70
maybe my daughter but pretty much nobody
really paid attention to my blogs on my
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00:25:28,70 –> 00:25:37,939
my feature writing a feature stories for
molly is or anything like that when i
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00:25:37,940 –> 00:25:42,859
won the trip to new york city then
eyebrows were raised I think after a
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00:25:42,859 –> 00:25:47,509
while there was little complacency that
set in and I can understand that you
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00:25:47,509 –> 00:25:53,869
don’t have to read a dad Mike stuff
because he’ll tell you about it so it
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00:25:53,869 –> 00:25:59,269
was kind of funny but they let me do my
stuff they let me do the podcast let me
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00:25:59,269 –> 00:26:04,159
do the writing let me do the running let
me do the coaching by coached more games
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00:26:04,159 –> 00:26:09,409
without my own kids and then then my
kids so it’s kinda kinda funny but
317
00:26:09,409 –> 00:26:15,950
always been kind of like over-the-top
with everything and I think it’s the
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00:26:15,950 –> 00:26:20,29
only way to go Joe you only live so long
and you only get to do so much so it’s
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00:26:20,29 –> 00:26:25,669
sort of part of the dream that we talked
about getting back to dreaming my dream
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00:26:25,669 –> 00:26:31,759
my dream was to touch people in many
ways and touching people to get healthy
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touching people to help them enjoy life
of one of the things
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00:26:35,870 –> 00:26:41,479
that Deb asked me to do is do something
like a running blog i think was two
323
00:26:41,480 –> 00:26:47,420
thousand seven or eight i did that and
started talking about how anybody can
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00:26:47,420 –> 00:26:53,30
run and there were a lot of people who
sent me emails and I became friends with
325
00:26:53,30 –> 00:26:57,800
a lot of people people who lost weight
people who were able to get rid of the
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00:26:57,800 –> 00:27:02,899
diabetes people who were able to get rid
of the high blood pressure people who
327
00:27:02,900 –> 00:27:07,460
are able to have children afterwards
because of losing everything that was
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00:27:07,460 –> 00:27:13,760
preventing them from having children and
then just becoming healthy and really
329
00:27:13,760 –> 00:27:18,770
enjoying life so I mean I think that’s
what that’s what motivates me is if
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00:27:18,770 –> 00:27:20,690
someone says thank you
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00:27:20,690 –> 00:27:23,750
because of this then I’ve done my job
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00:27:23,750 –> 00:27:28,130
I think we’re all put on this earth to
help each other and and if you don’t
333
00:27:28,130 –> 00:27:33,20
reach out and touch as many people as
you can and help them then you know I
334
00:27:33,20 –> 00:27:35,870
don’t know what what does Drive you
335
00:27:35,870 –> 00:27:39,290
well Mike we’re going to wrap up right
here and we’re gonna pick you up on the
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00:27:39,290 –> 00:27:44,840
next episode of dreamers podcast I think
that’s a great idea job well talk to you
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00:27:44,840 –> 00:27:49,879
very soon okay i’m looking forward to
coming back and finishing up but we have
338
00:27:49,880 –> 00:27:53,450
just begun to tackle thank you
339
00:27:53,450 –> 00:27:57,950
you want to thank you for joining us for
this episode of the dreamers podcast
340
00:27:58,900 –> 00:28:04,720
follow us on twitter and dreamers
podcast join us on facebook at
341
00:28:04,720 –> 00:28:11,170
facebook.com slash dreamers podcast if
you or someone you know would like to be
342
00:28:11,170 –> 00:28:17,890
a guest on the dreamers podcast please
send an email to j and j parr . co this
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00:28:17,890 –> 00:28:21,940
podcast is copyright 2014 by j parr .
comb
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00:28:24,999 –> 00:28:42,969
my name is Elle and I’m Joyce and we’re
huge disneyland fans in fact we love the
345
00:28:42,969 –> 00:28:47,289
Disneyland Resort so much we host the
podcast dedicated to the happiest place
346
00:28:47,289 –> 00:28:49,599
on earth to share that passion with
others
347
00:28:49,599 –> 00:28:55,29
that’s right on our show tales from the
mouse house disneyland podcast we share
348
00:28:55,29 –> 00:28:58,809
current resort news some tips and tricks
we’ve learned over the years to help
349
00:28:58,809 –> 00:29:03,219
make your disneyland resort vacation the
most magical experience ever
350
00:29:03,219 –> 00:29:07,539
we uncover little-known and often
overlooked gems we like to call hidden
351
00:29:07,539 –> 00:29:11,589
treasures and even review the
attractions and places to eat and make
352
00:29:11,589 –> 00:29:16,599
the Disneyland Resort so much fun and if
that wasn’t enough we even share some
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00:29:16,599 –> 00:29:21,579
video episodes to help keep you in that
disney magic state of mind if you’re a
354
00:29:21,579 –> 00:29:25,719
longtime fan of the disneyland resort or
you’ve just recently discovered the
355
00:29:25,719 –> 00:29:30,129
magic this podcast is for you you can
find tales from the mouse house
356
00:29:30,129 –> 00:29:36,279
disneyland podcast at
www.lnscaptioning.com and in itunes and
357
00:29:36,279 –> 00:29:39,279
remember make it a Mickey day
358
00:29:41,10 –> 00:29:49,860
hey like walt disney world like insider
tips and tricks
359
00:29:49,860 –> 00:29:53,310
well what if i told you where you can
get the two together
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00:29:53,310 –> 00:29:58,470
head on over to walt disney insider.com
for latest news and tips from walt
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00:29:58,470 –> 00:30:01,320
disney world and tell him Joe part of
sent you
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00:30:01,320 –> 00:30:02,429
Joe part essentia
