Disneyland has been a long-time inspiration for us at Cat & Cloud in terms of their inspiring ability to completely immerse their guests in an experience. To compound this: they consistently do it at scale. This is something that a lot of small businesses struggle to maintain as they grow and owners are forced to take a step back from the front of house.

This is what has brought us back, year over year, to the Disney Institute, professional workshops taught by Disney spanning leadership, culture, and service. On this episode, Chris, Jared, and Marc chat about their takeaways from attending the workshop this September: the aversion to feeling like you're being "sold" an experience vs. providing a "genuine" one, Disney's approach to evaluating successful experiences that don't have monetary data associated with them, and Chris & Jared's thoughts about the course having done it several times in the past.

Leadership Excellence @ Disney Institute 2026