We caught up with Jody Carbiener Dreyer, Kentucky, our 1983 Sarah Ida Shaw Award winner and author of “Beyond the Castle: A Guide to Discovering Your Happily Ever After.” Get ready for Jody’s journey through Disney, Tri Delta and the extraordinary lessons she shares to help you find inspiration and a touch of magic in your life.
Jody, a natural connector and friend-maker, effortlessly spreads her magic wherever she goes—just like the Disney scarf she proudly wears. With an impressive 30-year tenure and 22 positions at The Walt Disney Company, Jody shares her wisdom around the mantra “Happily ever after is the magic happening all around you.”
In her book "Beyond the Castle," each chapter unveils a cleverly written account of the invaluable lessons learned from her Disney experiences. She discusses her reflections on branding to introducing the term "servitality” and takes you on a journey through her Disney keepsakes, with the most cherished treasure being her husband—with a love story that began at Disney.
Tri Delta isn't just a chapter in Jody's story; it's intricately woven into her Disney beginnings. Hear her insights on winning the Sarah Ida Shaw Award and the profound role Tri Delta continues to play in her life. For Jody, Tri Delta's bond is the perpetual gift that keeps on giving, and being chosen as a representative and spokesperson adds an extra touch of magic.
Join us as Jody shares the Delta Rho Chapter 100th reunion, her three key rules for following your passion, and the reason her podcast is called TrailMix.
Welcome to another episode of our podcast, Let's Talk Tri Delta. I am Mindy Tucker, one of your hosts for the podcast, and I'm joined today by a new co -host. I'm excited to welcome to the team, Lexi Leggs, Tri Delta's program development specialist. Lexi, welcome.
Thank you.
We're so thrilled that everyone has joined us here today as we welcome Jody Carbiener Dreyer from Kentucky. We've been featuring the past Sarah Ida Shaw Award winners on our podcast and Jody received the award in 1983. Welcome, Jody.
Thank you. 1983 as we like to say just vintage getting better with time.
I love it. We also featured you in our fall 2023 Trident magazine and an article about several of our past Sarah Ida Shaw winners. You've had this remarkable career, 30 plus year career with the Walt Disney Company and even wrote a book about your experiences. So excited to hear about that.
Lexi, you got some more here.
Yes. So today we're going to talk with Jody about her career journey, of course, her book, all the lessons that she's learned from her careers at the Walt Disney Company and of course her time with Tri Delta and as a Sarah Ida Shaw Award recipient. Well, welcome.
And it's interesting because a lot of that all mushes together, so it will be fun.
Let's start right there. I'm told that your foray into Disney actually came at Kentucky because of Tri Delta. Why don't you tell us the story?
Well, to back up just a touch further, so I the love of Disney and all things Mickey Mouse started my family, we would go on family vacations. And our favorite, we went twice growing up to Walt Disney World in Florida. So I always loved it. And of course, fond memories of running around with my brothers and sisters and just having a great time. So there we were at University of Kentucky. And sorority sisters of mine, we were going on spring break to Florida. And we all said, let's see if we can get summer jobs at Disney. So you know, when you're just like, in a million years, I would have never had the courage or the confidence or but when all of a sudden you're with the sisters, it's like, well, why not? Like, we'll just go, I mean, we probably thought we were going to run Disney or something. We were so like, what the heck? So we get in the car, we go down to Florida, we walk in and we're like, hey, we're here for our summer jobs. And that started a 30 plus year career. And Nancy, uh, my partner in crime that year that that went down to Florida, we, it was funny because she was a nursing, majoring in nursing. And her dad kept saying to her, and then my dad is a nuclear engineer. And they kept saying to both of us, now you have fun about you girls go back to school, you know, I think they were afraid we'd totally get pixie dust and never look back. So I'm happy to say Nancy in nursing, graduated, all good. You know, one of my first jobs was a can-can dancer and my dad kept saying, you will get to that age and you will not be able to kick your leg that high. So you make sure to get a fallback career. It was funny.
I love that story. Thank you so much for sharing. I also couldn't believe it when we learned that you held over 22 jobs or at least 22 jobs during your 30 plus year career at Disney. So can you talk us through some of those positions and some of the travel that you were able to experience too?
So I don't know if people didn't want me around very long. So, you know, after they, I would work there for a while, they were like, "Hey, will you take her?" I'm not exactly sure. but yes I did have 22 different jobs as a matter of fact what I thought would be the job that I really majored in ended up being the job I think I was the I was not great at it I didn't love it and so but each job led to another job which was so interesting. So some of those jobs, just to mention a few, like I said, started dancing, Can Can Dance, or entertainment, afternoon parades, worked in merchandise as well. And then when I graduated, I was offered a job in guest relations. And so I was in guest relations and tour guides and different, just learning really all about, you know, customer service and how to, you know, take best care of guests. And from there I was in marketing in many different jobs in and around marketing. And one of my favorites was I was the Walt Disney World Ambassador. Each year there's an ambassador for the park. parks, Tokyo, Disneyland, Hong Kong, Disneyland Paris, Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and we would train together and then you serve for a year. My older brother compares it. He said it's sort of like Miss America, but you don't have to look great in a bathing suit, have any talent, but you like to talk a lot. But everyone needs an older brother to keep them. them humble, right? And so I did that for a year. And again, I think one of the reasons that I was chosen to be the ambassador was because I had worked in so many different areas. And the job is really to represent the cast members for the year and to be a spokesperson. So I think because I knew so many different areas. And then--then ultimately I ended up at Disneyland Paris prior to the grand opening there and I, I don't want to bore everybody I feel like you know and in kindergarten I did so I guess just to circle to the end. Then ultimately in California at the studios and the corporate offices and the job that, I think, really summarizes the 22 different positions was a job in corporate synergy and special projects and that job was exciting because it was almost like being a traffic controller where I was in the middle of the company making sure you know looking for different opportunities for people to work together but then also making sure that there was weren't any, you know, kind of collisions, or we were all singing off the same song sheet. And that one I would specifically relate a lot to Tri Delt and different things, you know, working with a chapter and a team. And I think that really prepared me a lot for jobs of that nature where so many different people are coming together and you have to make it all work.
I'm going to go back. I'm sure that people wanted to work with you. That sounds crazy that people wouldn't want to work with you. You're so much fun. Also, you know, I've heard so many companies do that with their employees. They move them around like they just shift them around quite a bit, but it makes them better employees because they understand all the different facets of the business. It sounds like they did that with you and then it came together in that that position you just talked about where you brought it all together for them so I think that sounds amazing and you yeah I'm sure you were a very valued employee there all that like that you were able to do that to know all the different pieces and bring them together.
You've written a book called Beyond the Castle: A Guide to Discovering Your Happily Ever After. Who doesn't want to find happily ever after? You said it kind of wrote itself, and I can't imagine it was that easy. So tell us a little bit about how the book came about and what it was like to write a book.
Well, first of all, I'm not sure I should admit this, but I'm not a writer. I mean, I'm not one of those people that my whole life, I thought, oh, and then I'll write this novel and do this. But people would ask me to come talk about things, especially I... coined a word called “servitality,” and when people talk about guest service, they usually talk about either the service side, which is getting the job done, or the hospitality side, which is doing it with really care and attention for people. But the winning combination is really when you bring those two together. So... So I always called it servitality, and I coined that word. So people would ask me to come talk about servitality or synergy, getting teams, you know, to work together in the best way possible. And just how does Disney do what Disney does consistently, day to day with quality and, you know, bringing everyone together and making that magic. magic. And so when I was giving a talk about that, a gal that I had gotten to know came up to me and said, "Why don't you write a book?" And I thought, "Well, because I'm not really, you know, a writer per se." And then after I left Disney and my dad was not doing very well. And so I... I was hanging with him, but there were times when I was there. So I just started writing things. And I just started talks that I'd given or questions that people asked me or interesting situations that really taught me a lot about work and life and people. And I started writing that down. And then a dear friend of mine who knows my dad, my co-author, Stacy Windahl, we work together with Young Life, an organization that works with kids. And she is a writer. So she said, Why don't you just start sending me chapters? So I always tell people she pulled the book out of me because I would send her the chapter. And she would say, Oh, I want to know more about this, or I want to know more about that. And so then there was a book. But the interesting, I will give you a bit of a spoiler because the Happily Ever After, my passion really for the book and for people is that I think when we think of Disney, you think of Happily Ever After being someplace down the road. So it's further. Like it's Like if this happens, it will be happily ever after. Or if this, you know, circumstances. And what I really found with Disney as a backdrop for so many years was that happily ever after really starts today, right here, right now, in all those 22 different jobs, you know, just happily ever after is the magic that is happening all around you? And how can you be a part of that? And I use these different stories about my time at Disney as launching off points for each of the chapters.
Fun. Yes, I love that. I also, as a fellow service worker, also love the idea of servitality. And I think that's something that I think we know Disney to be is that magical place and part of that magic comes from the passion that you see from the employees. So I love that you coined that turn. I might have to steal that too.
Please feel free. Go with it. Yes.
So in the book, you also share some of the lessons that you've learned about creating magic in your own life and from Disney himself. Can you share a few insights from of some of those lessons?
Sure. Well, I'm not not old enough to have known Walt sadly, Walt Disney, who started Disney with his brother, Roy. But Walt's nephew, Roy Disney, who was Roy Disney's son, Walt's partner, I did work with Roy and he was on the board and heading up animation and working very involved in the company. Not just on the board but on a day-to-day basis. And so one of my favorite discussions with Roy was that throughout the company, I have to admit upfront, I'm not a huge fan of the term branding. Because I think a lot of people that talk about branding don't necessarily know what it means. And they think of branding as okay, get a new logo when people will contact me or have in the past about advising them about things. They'll say, I think we need a new logo or we need to look at the branding of our company. Well, so I was in a meeting with Roy and everyone around the company was talking. There was this real surge to think about Disney branding branding and doing some things that would maybe just take it to some different places and audiences that we hadn't necessarily marketed to. So people were saying, we just have to brand it a little different and then brand it this way. And Roy said to me, so we were in a meeting and we were talking about it and Roy looked me right in the eyes and I'll never forget it. And he said, you know, Jody, branding is something that you do to cattle. Branding is not something that can happen for Disney. Disney is Disney, it always will be, it always has been. It's at the core and branding is something that happens on the outside, but it's really about what's on the inside that will come out and that lesson has just stayed with me forever and ever about life as it pertains to life, as companies work, you know, personally, I mean, I think so often we're looking at everything external and we're thinking, oh my gosh, could this be better and this look and that look. But really, really, when we think about it, what is inside will come out. So, if I can indulge with one more story that kind of makes that point, is people like Beauty and the Beast.
It's one of our favorites from Disney.
It's my favorite princess movie and the animator of the beast. Beast is a dear friend of mine. He is such a creative, talented,
fabulous storyteller, and not to mention great animator. His name is Glen Keane, and he often talks about the transformation scene where the beast becomes the prince at the end of the movie. And he says, "I didn't analyze it." the transformation. I just unlocked the prince that was inside of the beast all along. And I think that's another example of the same thing. It's like the prince was in there, but through other people and relationships and that love that was unlocked and then he could become. the prince that was always in there. So anyway, that's my that's my branding note discussion for the day.
I love it. There's so much truth to that and you know I'm thinking back to when Tri Delta did it's rebranding several years ago and really trying to get to the core of who we are. Right, not about the logo but who are we as Tri Delta so I think there's so much wisdom in those words that he's shared with you. I'm also giggling inside because this is a total side note, but I think you'll enjoy it. This summer I went to an event in Indianapolis, and there's a place there where you can hold an event. It was a dinner, and they literally start the dinner with the entire wait staff coming out, singing "Be Our Guest," and they do a whole production of them coming out, holding trays, and they walk around, and I thought, you know, know what a that's just one small nugget of like how Disney has permeated so many of our lives and there's just such a common like vernacular and understanding and music and to all of it that somebody they could do that and everybody in the room knew what it was and enjoyed it and just thought it was a hoot and right well because I think you resonate with those kinds of truths I mean it's entertaining which is how that's the doorway in because people want to be entertained. They want to celebrate and have fun.
You know, I don't think we spend enough of our lives celebrating and enjoying. And so people enter in that way, but at the very core is the truth of be our guest. You know, we wanna feel welcomed. We want to welcome people. There's something about being together and you're right. It's just ... just, I can picture everyone in the room smiling and being like, here we are.
Yeah, yeah, it was fun. So I hear you have a special piece of Disney memorabilia at your house.
Well, I have, okay, my sister calls me another made up word. We're like the family of made up words. She calls me a “hoardanizer” because I am very organized, but love like my treasures. So I, through the years, because, you know, I worked in, at Tokyo Disneyland and around Asia and in Europe and so I would collect things and when I was the ambassador, I would wear like I'm wearing one of my Disney scarves and so I just had had a lot of Disney goodies and Disney things. And so then people started being places and they would see something interesting Disney. Sometimes it was Disney sanctioned and every once in a while there's some that aren't licensed Disney products that they would find in crazy places and they would send them to me. So I had a lot of Disney stuff that I wanted to see. So I had a lot of Disney stuff that I wanted to see. So I had a lot of Disney stuff that I wanted to see. So I had a lot of Disney stuff that I wanted to see. So I had a lot of Disney stuff that I wanted to see. have all these Disney things but the one that I think you might be referring to is I have an Italian leather Disney purse that for one of my
very first Christmases, a woman Virginia that I worked with called my husband was like I'm here I see it she would love it so my best Disney treasure which is my husband who I met working at Disney um actually then conspired with Virginia and they had the purse from Italy that's like a handmade Italian one of a kind and it has these subtle kind of mickey ears on it but I can't carry it because it's so and then I also the other one I'm trying to think of the goodies so these are nice luxurious things. I have a Mickey faux fur that has Mickey ears all over it. That is pretty pretty fabulous, but then I have crazy things like from Tokyo always had the crazy. things. Some of them had to be shut down like when they did a whole line of Pooh perfume. And the company said, okay, that doesn't really seem like it works very well. So I have a bottle of that that is not sold anymore. So yeah, I have a random little bit of everything.
Wow, I love the word hoardanizer.
First of all, so fun. And we're gonna have to see pictures of the faux fur and the purse.
Okay, I'll model them. Next time we'll do a fashion show.
I love it, I love it. I wanna switch gears a little bit and talk about Tri Delta. So take us back 40 years ago to you winning the Sarah Ida Shaw Award and how you feel about it now. what that sort of meant to you.
Well, first let me back up and say, I pinched myself and even at the time, I thought, you know, I'm just humbled and honored and why me, but having said that, when the announcement was made and it's sort of unfolded, it has just played out in fabulous ways, is the same way that, Tri Delta has throughout my life. Where, you know, I now live in South Carolina. And, you know, the other day I connected and really struck up a great early friendship with somebody that I met. And we're talking about something and all of a sudden we realize we're both Tri Delts. And we're like, of course we are, you know, we're sharing this. this. And so we attend alumnae functions here. So you look at this bond in general, that just it's the gift that keeps on giving. So I think the cherry on top of that is that, again, that I was selected to kind of represent and to be a bit of a spokesman, spokesperson like I've been contacted where people say will you talk about your experiences in Tri Delt and you know I talk about Disney it started at Disney with Tri Delt and so it's just really woven throughout my whole life you can't really separate it which is the magic of a sisterhood that really is forever. And the second summer, when Nancy had to actually work in a hospital for nursing, my other, another dear friend still to this day, Syd and me, we went down the next summer and she even after graduation ended up working there for about, I think she was probably there six years or so. She met her husband. And so it's just, again, all these webs and people that are still a part of really important part of my life and some of my best friends.
Yes, I think what I'm hearing as a common theme and some of your stories as you're telling is someone else saw greatness in you, that you can see that through the Sarah Ida Shaw Award, being your champion and we were talking about the person suggesting that you write a book. And I think that's just the beauty of these friendships that you create and the bonds in your story. So I just really love that they're helping you see that potential and reach it and seeing that tie in those stories. So really beautiful.
Thank you. To finish one thing on the Sarah Ida Shaw, I think the other thing that I feel in the best sense of the word, a burden, but I'm excited to is that I also feel to pass it along. Like, I think one of the things with the Sarah Ida Shaw Award is, let's continue the legacy that Sarah Ida Shaw started in Tri Delt, and make sure we don't lose that. So for instance, one of my sweet nieces, Jessica, is a Tri Delt. She's a Tri Delt at Baylor. She graduated a couple years ago. And so then through Sarah Ida Shaw Award, and talking about that, and then connecting with her through Tri Delt, and then talking to her chapter, and you just feel like if we can all take the very, very best of Tri Delt and keep passing that along, we just grow stronger women in the bonds and so again I don't say burden sometimes I think burden has a negative connotation so maybe it's the present or the joy that you get to keep, you know, passing along I think is what I want to take, not lightly. I appreciate it.
Love that. And that responsibility that you would feel as a Sarah, you know, I hadn't heard that put that way before. And you know, we all we all know the, the idea around, you know, when you get your new member pin, and they say, you know, this doesn't give you the ability to think larger of yourself, but it gives other people the thing that, you know, the ability to expect great things from you. It's kind of that same thing like where we have all these Sarah Ida Shaw winners walking around doing amazing things and they are carrying on the legacy of Sarah and her bold vision for us and what we might go do in the world.
So right, we never want to, you know, whether it's Walt Disney or Sarah Ida Shaw, you know, these people that really started something and you just don't want to be the one that, you know, lets it go. Or, so I think, you know, as I think about it, and when I was even contacted, okay, we're going to look back and, you know, look at some of our Sarah Ida Shaw, you know, I thought, oh my gosh, you know, I hope I'm carrying the torch, okay, I'm honoring my year doing it justice.
Lexi and I, I think would agree, you have, you have honored it for sure.
Okay I'll take it. Yes.
So you still get together with Tri Delta sisters I hear and you got a big reunion coming up for your chapter.
We just had it. I was there so it was so exciting the gals that I mentioned Nancy, Sid, me, the three of us three Musketeers we went back for the hundredth anniversary of Delta Rho, our chapter at University of Kentucky, and there was a big weekend of different celebrations and luncheons, and it was so great because, again, the generational nature of it, and we just weren't sure. The three of us said we are not going to miss it, but we had no idea who would, well, our our chapter advisors, Carol Elam and Marylin Lovingood, from the time we were there, they were there and just to reconnect with some people that we had kept in touch with and others that we hadn't, but to, I mean, time slipped away, we were back at the house, sitting outside our rooms, just, it's gone through some changes. The only only, I will say, the space that stayed primarily the same were the bathrooms and the showers. Other than that, we sort of had to get our bearings. There were like new hallways and there's an addition that's been added. So it's changed, but that's what's so fabulous because some things change and some things stay the same. and it was just such a great, great time of reminiscing and updating everybody and just being together.
That is lovely. Thank you so much for sharing about that. I think that is such a beautiful example of lifetime sisterhood and membership and what we talk about when we are speaking to our collegians of what they can look forward to in Tri Delta and that is like the epitome of that experience. And so I really appreciate hearing that story. We also hear that you're consulting now and you've got a three key rule about the projects that you work on. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, consulting always makes me a little nervous. So another one of those words that scares me a little bit. So I like to say advising. And so the criteria for, you know, if somebody calls and says, "Hey, can you help me out?" I say, "I want to make sure I can add value to what they're doing and I have some experience in that area. So, I look for the three Ps and it's either people that I just am so excited to work with them, learn more about what they're doing, and just spend more time together. I mentioned Shelby, who I mentioned earlier. We met since I moved down here and we've worked together on a couple projects and so that would be an example of people. And then places, I think there are interesting places and just moments in time when somebody will say, here's where we are and we'd love for you to maybe give us some insight into that. So people, places, and then projects. If there's a project that just needs a catalyst to get it started, or I don't feel like I have, you know, the, as I like to say, you know, might not be the smartest person in the room, might not know as much as people that are reaching out to me do about the day to day of what they do. Thank you. but sometimes just a different perspective or I can take that time at Disney and really say okay are there some things we can pull from this or that we can connect to and then other times I mentioned earlier about celebration I'm a big fan of fireworks you know I think we don't often take a moment we're on to the next thing,
on to the next. So sometimes we just need to celebrate what is working and say, okay, let's really keep focusing on that. So those are my three P's. If I think I can add value for any of those reasons, then I jump in.
Love that. And I think it's very on brand. We love to do things in three. So definitely remember that.
It's our lucky number. Remember those three P's.
Triangles yes.
Well I know after this conversation our members are going to want to find you, buy the book, see what you're up to. How can people connect with you and where can they get the book?
Well the book is actually available anywhere books are sold so you can go online and there's a hardback it came out initially in hardback but then there's a people were saying, Oh, we like to get together with a book club, or with a group of people. And especially when I've done things with Tri Delta chapters around the book, there is a paperback. And at the end of each chapter, there are study guide discussion questions, just little thought starters, things that get you thinking about each chapter and each kind of experience Disney story that we talk about. So those two books are available, any bookstores, any, you know, online, any place. And then I also have a podcast with Mary Tomlinson, a dear friend that I worked with years and years at Disney. And her expertise is really around purpose and being on purpose, companies and individuals. So we do a podcast and another one of my little sayings is I think life is all about sorting. I'm kind of an anal retentive so I love a good organization and our podcast is called TrailMix but it comes from um if you read the book I talk about treasure, trash and trail mix and again our our lucky threes here. And so I think trail mix is such an interesting, obviously treasure are the treasures in our life, the things we keep that last forever. The trash are the things we sometimes drag around that we should let go. And trail mix is really everything else that we're kind of sorting through. And so Mary and I on our podcast, which is called trailmixpod.com. And so that's the podcast and it's available on all the podcast platforms. And there's different topics. So you can look through a topic that interests you and then listen. It's a short, you know, just about 15 minute podcast. And so that is another way to catch up on what's going on. And then through that, you can also reach out to anyone that wants to reach out. Happy to.
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing, Jody.
Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. We have loved talking to you and getting to know you. And I know our listeners are going to be excited about it. So we appreciate you joining us and just spending some time with us today.
Well, I really appreciate it. And again, I'm just honored and I hope that you guys have a happily ever after today as do all of our listeners.
Well, thank you. What a treat to get to meet women like Jody. And if you're interested in meeting some more incredible women, Tri Delta Women, you can save the date for Tri Delta's 61st Biennial Convention just coming this summer, July 11th. through July 14th in of all places, magical Orlando, Florida. So it's perfect to talk about that with Jody here.
Don't forget the fireworks.
We hope you'll join us for that. There's going to be a great opportunity to meet some some Tri Delta women there.
Right. And as always, we want to thank you all for joining the Let's Talk Tri Delta podcast. When you have a moment, we ask that you like, subscribe and rate our podcast. And while we do say we like things and in threes we would appreciate five star ratings instead.
So again I'm Mindy
And I'm Lexi.
Thanks for joining us and until next time Delta Love.