Podcast appearances and mentions of laura baxter

In this episode of Skip the Queue, Andy Povey sits down with Jérôme Giacomoni, co-founder and Chairman of AEROPHILE, the world leader in tethered gas balloons and immersive aerial experiences. Jérôme shares the story of how AEROPHILE began with a simple idea, to “make everybody fly” and grew into a global company operating in multiple countries, including France and the U.S.Tune in to hear about the company's signature attractions, including tethered balloon flights, the innovative Aerobar concept, and high-profile projects such as how you can experience flying the Olympic cauldron in Paris. Jérôme also shares how AEROPHILE has leveraged its unique platform to explore scientific initiatives like air-quality and climate-change monitoring and how he Integrates unique revenue streams from sponsorship and advertising.Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden, with co host Andy Povey and roving reporter Claire Furnival.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on LinkedIn. Show references:  https://www.aerophile.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerome-giacomoni-3074b7/Jérôme Giacomoni is co-founder of Groupe AEROPHILE and Chairman of AEROPHILE SAS. Since 1993, he has led the company to become the world leader in tethered gas balloons and balloon flights, operating iconic sites in France, the U.S., and Cambodia, and flying over 500,000 passengers annually. He also pioneered “flying food-tainment” with the Aerophare and Aerobar. Jérôme is a member of IAAPA, serves on the board of SNELAC, and is a Team France Export ambassador, earning multiple awards for entrepreneurship and innovation. Plus, live from the Day 2 of the IAAPA Expo Europe show floor, we catch up with:Rheanna Sorby –Marketing & Creative Director,  The Seasonal Grouphttps://theseasonalgroup.co.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rheanna-sorby-seasonal/Sohret Pakis – Polin Waterparkshttps://www.polin.com.tr/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohretpakis/Thomas Collin – Sales Manager, VEX Solutionshttps://www.vex-solutions.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-collin-18a476110/Peter Cliff – CEO // Founder, Conductr.https://conductr.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-cliff/Laura Baxter – Founder, Your CMOhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-baxter-4a756466/Josh Haywood – Resort Director, Crealy Theme Park & Resorthttps://www.crealy.co.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-haywood-68463630/ Transcriptions:  Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, the podcast about the world's best attractions and the people that work in them. I'm your host Paul Marden, and with my co-host Andy Povey and roving reporter Claire Furnival, we're here at IAAPA Expo Europe. In today's episode, I go on a trip on Santa's Enchanted Elevator with the Seasonal Group, and Claire meets Peter Cliff from Conductr. But before all that, let's head over to Andy.Andy Povey: Good morning, everybody. I'm joined today by Jerome Giacomoni from AEROPHILE for our French listeners. I hope I've got that right. Jerome is the chief exec of AEROPHILE and has been the co-founder and president of AEROPHILE. And AEROPHILE supply helium-based balloon observation opportunities. I probably got the marketing on that completely wrong, Jerome. So please, can you share with our listeners what AEROPHILE is all about?Jerome Giacomoni: So AEROPHILE is a company I created with Mathieu Gobbi, my partner, 32 years ago, with a very simple idea, make everybody fly, you know, and we use a balloon to fly. So we have a tethered balloon. We have a huge, big balloon inflated with helium, a gas lighter than air. And we go up to more or less 150 meters high. up to 30 passengers. So we are linked to the ground with a cable, and the cable is linked to a winch. So you have to imagine that you have a winch that— when we go up—pulls when we go down. This is the exact opposite of an elevator because the balloon wants to go higher and higher. We have a lifting force of four tons.Andy Povey:Wow.Jerome Giacomoni:Yes, it's a big one. And so we need a cable to keep it. And thanks to this lifting force, we can fight against the wind.Jerome Giacomoni: And so the balloon can swing when you have some wind because the balloon is just pulled by the cable itself.Andy Povey: And trust me, listeners, they look absolutely spectacular. Just before we started recording, I was admitting to Jerome that I'm scared of heights. So I've stood and watched. The dining balloon, Futuroscope, never managed to pluck up the courage to try it myself.Jerome Giacomoni: This is another concept, Andy. So we have built two concepts. One is a tethered balloon, a real one with helium, with a cable, with a winch, and we fly by ourselves. The balloon flies by itself, okay? We did another concept 20 years after we created our company, so 10 years before now, in 2013, which is what we call the aero bar. It's a flying bar, and you have an inflatable balloon. to cover the gondola, but it's a fake. This is a real elevator, and you have a gondola with some winches and a metallic structure, and you go up and down. So what you saw in Futuroscope is not a balloon. It's a real elevator.Jerome Giacomoni: And the one you can see in Disneyland Paris, Disney World, Orlando or San Diego Zoo are a real balloon named a tethered balloon. So I'm glad you fell down into the trick. You caught me. Yes, I'm glad about that. But we have really two different concepts.Andy Povey: But the concept, the thing that the guest is experiencing, isn't really related to whether it's a balloon or a lift.Jerome Giacomoni: No. i think it's very different okay i think the aerobar is fun and you have the feet in the sky you feel the thrill of height and everything but you stop at 35 meters it's it's quite high for a ride but it's not a real flight And I think the balloon is a real flight. We have a balloon in Paris. We have a balloon in Budapest, Berlin. And you see the city from the sky at 150 meters high, which is very high. So you really experience a flight. With the aerobar, you have a ride, okay? So both of them are related to the sky, are related to the view, but one is really a flight, the other one is really a ride.Andy Povey: That makes absolute sense.Andy Povey: It doesn't reassure me on my fear of heights anymore, that I would like to go up three times, four times taller, higher than the one I saw first. Very interesting. So, listeners, we're often talking about technology and attractions. There's a huge amount of talk about augmented reality, about AI, about motion simulators. The reason, Jerome, we asked you to come and talk to us is because you don't do any of that. No—your experience is fantastic and it's new and it's unique, but there's no technology or very little obvious technology.Jerome Giacomoni: Yes, quite little. You know, it's amazing because we do this for now 32 years, as I told you. The first balloon was inflated in 1994. We have sold 120 balloons in more than 40 countries. And each time with the balloon, you have a magical effect, you know, because the balloon itself is very nice— because the balloon itself is a show from people looking at it from the ground. And because... The flight experience is amazing because you are really in the sky. You are really looking at the ground, at the landscape. You have no noise, you know, when you take a helicopter or plane. You have a lot of noise. You are in an enclosed airplane or helicopter. Here you are outside. You are on a balcony flying at 150 meters. And wherever we are, always we have like a magical effect of the flight. And with the flying bar, we decided to do something different— where we say, 'Why drink on ground where you can drink in the sky?'Jerome Giacomoni: So we add the drink to the ride, you know. So you are on a table and you have what we say in French conviviality. So we share a drink. We go at 35 meters and you have the thrill of the view of the height and also the conviviality of drinking. So this is another concept, but both of them are universal. And wherever we do it, we have sold 20 aero bars worldwide.Jerome Giacomoni: Everybody is very happy to have this kind of ride. I would say we are on the side of the main market. You know, we have two niche products. The balloon is a niche product. And the AeroBar is a niche product where we have another experience than a normal ride, like a roller coaster or a flume or a spinning coaster.Andy Povey: You say you're a nice product, but the balloon in Paris for the Olympics, where you lifted the cauldron, had phenomenal numbers of visitors watching. That wasn't something you could go on.Jerome Giacomoni: Yes, it was an amazing opportunity. You know, sometimes life gives you some presents.Jerome Giacomoni: And imagine that we were contacted by the Olympic Organisation Committee one day, and we believed it was a joke. And they said, 'We need to talk to you.' And then we discovered that instead of flying humans, they asked us to fly a cauldron. So the Olympic cauldron. And we have like one year and a half of design and manufacturing.Jerome Giacomoni: And then, at 11 pm, 25, the balloon has to fly in front of everybody. I can tell you it was a very stressful time. But so nice and so amazing to have experiences. So, yes, the balloon suddenly was visible by everybody. And that's back now in Paris, isn't it? Yes. First of all, the balloon has to stay only twice— 15 days. You know, you have the Olympics and the Paralympics. So we were open only 30 days in total. And the success was so huge that every night, you have dozens of thousands of people coming to look at it. That's why the mayor of Paris and the French president decided to keep it.Jerome Giacomoni: And just after the deflation of the balloon, they call us back and say, 'Jerome and Mathieu, we would like to have the balloon back.' So we work again with the city of Paris and the French presidency, and we agreed to put the balloon.Jerome Giacomoni: Three times, three months. So from June 21st, in France, this is a music event, you know, the Day of Music. To September 14th, which is a day of sport. So every year until the Olympic game of LA, we will operate the balloon for three months in the summertime. Fantastic.Andy Povey: So, Jerome, you operate in lots and lots of different countries all over the world. I think it's 14 countries that you've been.Jerome Giacomoni: No, we sold, but we operate only in the US and in France.Andy Povey: Ah, okay. Interesting.Jerome Giacomoni: We own ourselves, we operate ourselves, six balloons in the 120 we have sold. So we operate three in Paris region. One, the Parc André Citroën, where we have the Generali balloon since 1999. One in Disneyland Paris since 2005. So we are in Disneyland Paris for now 20 years. Time is flying. And the last one, the Cold Run, which is a very specific event that we operate now for one year and for the next two years. And in the US, we operate Disney World Orlando in Disney Spring since 2009, and San Diego Zoo Safari Park since 2005, and Irvine. South of LA since 2007. So we operate now six balloons for a long, long time, except the cold run. And we keep selling balloons.Jerome Giacomoni: We sell more or less five to six balloons every year.Andy Povey: And how do you find the differences between the French culture and you're on either side of America, so the differences between the different coasts of America and France?Jerome Giacomoni: Yes, we... We are in the US, but we are also in Mexico, in a lot of countries in Asia. In the Middle East, we have a beautiful balloon in Dubai. We have a beautiful balloon in Seoul. So we work a lot with very different cultures. You know, it's very interesting to sell the same product to different cultures. So I would say... The main difference probably lies in the contract. It's very funny when you make the contract. I would say a 'yes' is not the same 'yes' depending on the culture. But everybody is, you know, you... You love people when you work worldwide. You learn a lot, you discover a lot. You have to learn with different cultures. And I have the chance in my professional life to experience that and to meet people from all over the world. And, you know, my job is to go on site, and discuss with someone, and see if it's possible or not to have a balloon at this place.Jerome Giacomoni: So it's always a beautiful job because I travel in a lot of countries in beautiful spots.Jerome Giacomoni: We don't succeed a lot because, if not, I would have sold thousands of balloons. We have always constraints with local authority, with food traffic, etc. But always, it's a pleasure to meet people. And once... The balloon is accepted by the local authority when the customer has a finance for it. Then start more or less a one-year work together between installation, work on site, inflation, and training of the team. And after... They fly with their own wings, even if we have no wings with our balloons.Andy Povey: Very good. And I imagine that you don't put balloons into ugly places.Jerome Giacomoni: We did, sometimes for specific contracts. Ugly, I won't use this name, but not very obvious, logical site. But it has happened. Sometimes we do for small events or for specific needs.Jerome Giacomoni: But yes, most of the time, the sites are very interesting.Andy Povey: So there are other things you're doing with the balloons. So the air quality messaging that you have above Paris. Tell us more about your opportunities to influence in other areas.Jerome Giacomoni: Yes, you know, the balloon is not only a ride, a passenger ride, but it's also an amazing opportunity for communication and for advertisement. So in the city center, like Paris, Berlin, or Seoul, the balloon is used also as a giant advertising billboard. So you have two revenues. You have the revenue of the passenger, but you have also the sponsor revenue.Jerome Giacomoni: When we started the balloon in Paris, it was extremely difficult to get the authorisation to have a balloon in Paris centre. We are two kilometres south of the Eiffel Tower. But you remember, we had the famous Millennium, the Y2K. uh and and so the mayor faris was looking for a new idea and we propose a balloon And they gave us only a one year and a half contract. And the investment was quite huge. And we told him, OK, we can do it, but we cannot do it for only one year and a half. Except if you accept that we have a name on the balloon, a naming and a sponsor on the balloon. And the mayor say yes. And we start another business where we put sponsor on the balloon. And this is a very good business because it makes a... activity immediately profitable so we did that in Paris in 1999 and in 2008 the balloon was like 10 years old because when you fly you have your the balloon is huge we talk about a 32 meters high balloon we talk about like a 12-story building.Jerome Giacomoni: So everybody knows the balloon in Paris. Everybody can see it. And so, when we fly, we have 400,000 people who immediately see us. So we decided to give citizen aspect. And we start— pour changer le couleur de la balle selon la qualité de l'air. C'était en 2008. Et parce que nous l'avons fait, nous avons des scientifiques... coming to us and say, 'Hey, this balloon is a wonderful platform to measure air quality because you make like a carrot of the air from zero to 150 meters. Jerome Giacomoni:  Can we bring some scientist instrument on the gondola? And we say yes. And then we start to make science. And then we start to make scientific publications, scientific publications. And then we start a new business where the balloon is not only a tethered gas balloon for passenger, it's only... advertising billboard and now it's only a scientific platform and so this is very interesting and the last things we have done in 2024 no this year in 2025 is to use the balloon for global climate change. As you know, we have two main gas pollutants for the climate change, CO2 and CH4. And the balloon is a perfect platform to measure evolution on CO2 and CH4. So we are working with a European group named ICOS. gathering all the best laboratories in Europe, who are making a huge study on how CO2 and CH4 how they are in each city.Jerome Giacomoni: And Paris has been chosen as a pilot city. So we are very glad to work with them. And so now the Balloon is also working on climate change. And we will have big, big, big LED screen. So we make some technology sometime, as you said, to inform people on the temperature elevation in Europe and in the world. And the news are very bad, as everybody knows.Andy Povey: But that's fascinating. I love the integration you've been able to take from this unique proposition and apply it to different markets, different problems.Jerome Giacomoni: You know, Andy, I think we have to exit from the box. My message to... all people who are listening to us.Jerome Giacomoni: Okay, passenger rides is very important. It's a key market for many of us. But sometimes we can use... another way to find new flow of revenue, like advertising, and we can be also helpful to our other citizens, like working freely for scientists to make measurements on pollutants of the air. This helps with both air quality and also climate change.Andy Povey: It's a beautiful concept, Jerome. I love it. Love it.Andy Povey: So, final question. Your experiences are obviously very unique. What advice would you have for a venue and possibly a smaller venue that doesn't have the resources to be able to build something 150 metres high or put something 150 metres into the air? What advice would you give them on how to make a compelling experience for visitors?Jerome Giacomoni: I really believe that you have to stick on your roots, okay? I mean that people want authenticity.Jerome Giacomoni: And as you know, we are very keen on balloons, as you can imagine. So we make in our, you know, Paris, it's in Paris where you have the first flight. Yeah. In 1783. Montgolfier, brothers. Yes, with the Montgolfier brothers, with Charles, the scientist. So we really stick on our roots. And I think where you are in Brittany, where you are in Japan, you have to follow your own road and your own path. By feeling what could be the good idea, but also what is your feeling inside you. You need to have something different that you feel very confident with.Andy Povey: Beautiful final thought, Jerome, I like it a lot. So listeners, stay authentic and be passionate.Jerome Giacomoni: Exactly, the right word is passionate.Paul Marden: Next up, let's get some soundbites from the show floor.Rheanna  Sorby: My name's Rheanna. I'm Marketing and Creative Director for the Seasonal Group. We are curators of Christmas magic all year round. Wow, wow.Paul Marden: So you make Christmas special?Rheanna  Sorby: We're the Christmas elves.Paul Marden: Awesome, awesome. I can see you've got such a great set of stands. What have you got here that you're exhibiting for the first time?Rheanna  Sorby: We have Santa's Enchanted Express, which is a three-minute experience that transports customers and guests from a very festive train station to the North Pole in just under three minutes. So it's quite a Christmas miracle. And it also transports on nine pallets. So it's a great return on investment for customers there if it's 24 people on. We also have our elevator experience, which went viral last year. And then we have VR, animatronics, and a lot of our famous items, like the snowman here, just dressed as a little, it's some sort of operator.Paul Marden: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we don't have a lot of luck with lifts at the moment because the team got stuck in a lift yesterday for about 45 minutes. Stop it. We got rescued by the... Well, I didn't get in the lift. I walked because there wasn't enough room. But two of them had to be rescued by the fire brigadeRheanna  Sorby: Okay, so this might be triggering. Well, you know.Paul Marden: Oh, no, I found it hilarious.Paul Marden: I was hugely supportive on the outside, yelling into them.Paul Marden: But Santa won't let me get stuck in a lift today, will he? Absolutely not.Rheanna  Sorby: No, there's an emergency exit. Excellent.Paul Marden: So what's new and innovative then about the Santa Express? What are you bringing to market?Rheanna  Sorby: So a lot of our clients, we sell business to business. They're struggling to get people into shopping centres and we're finding that we need to create retail theatre. So that is something I see as a massive trend moving forward. People want nostalgia. They want an experience, something memorable. But also our customers need a way to return investment as well. So they hopefully will spend something with us and then ticket the experience. So that's something that we're pivoting our business towards. Trying to create a brand new experience every year. A lot of people are struggling nowadays, cost of living.Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely.Rheanna  Sorby: It's difficult, so we're trying to find a way that brings the Christmas magic to people's doors.Paul Marden: We are, where are we at the moment? We're in September, so we've still got a couple of months left before Christmas 2025, but that must be over for you.Rheanna  Sorby: No, the quality of the street is on the shelves. It's already happening. The install season starts literally on Monday for us. Really? Yes. When we get back, we land and then we start installing.Paul Marden: And so this is the busy time. So let's talk about Christmas 2026. What are the trends that you see coming along at that point?Rheanna  Sorby: Whimsical, whimsical. So we've got Wicked number two coming out. And we've also had all like the Whoville, that sort of style, the Grinch. So imagine pastels, furry trees, things that don't quite make sense, a lot of whimsical wonderland, I would say, trend-wise. But equally immersive experiences and how we can bring magic to you.Paul Marden: Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you ever so much. Rheanna, it's been lovely to meet you. Thank you for coming on the podcast. And let's go and visit Santa in his lift, shall we? Yeah, excellent.Paul Marden: And here it is. So we are surrounded by suites in an old-fashioned lift. And there's our doors closed.Paul Marden: Oh, how amazing is this? We're going up.Paul Marden: Ice like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Great Glass Elevator. This is amazing. We're up over the clouds. Just stunning. There's a train there. I think we're going to follow into the tunnel after the train. Yes.Paul Marden: Got cold, now we're underground. Now we're in the tunnel.Paul Marden: And I think this might be Santa's factory.Paul Marden: Let's get ready.Paul Marden: Merry Christmas. The big man's chair as well. Can I take a seat in the big man's chair? Ho, ho, ho.Sohret Pakis: Hi, Paul. My name is Shorhet Pakis. I'm the brand ambassador for Polin Waterparks.Paul Marden: What are you launching this year at IAAPA? What's new for you?Sohret Pakis:Last year, we have won two big awards for a themed water slide, which is... Stingray it was in Nantes in France and it was something big because you know it was like Europeans best water slide number one and I have a brass ring award winner about two million number one but last night in Porta Ventura Stingray has won the second time best water slide of Europe award. But we have something new about it. Last year when I was telling about Stingray, it was an eight-person slide. This year we have something new. Now the capacity went up to 10, especially when we're talking about all these queue management issues. So that's something wonderful. And also, you ask, what is new? This year, we have something very exciting. A parrot-themed stingray. It's the same slide, but it's parrot-themed.Sohret Pakis: It's coming to Dubai by January. It's going to be open.Paul Marden: So can I ask you, what makes that innovative? What's new about that?Sohret Pakis: Actually, it's a very specifically themed waterslide. You know that POLIN has been pioneer in RTM manufacturing and U-texture. It's kind of a composite material technology which we can make waterslides look.  Look like a character, actually. We are the company who did this first because we said that storytelling is very important. Yes, but you know, slides are just slides. So we just wanted the slides look like the characters in that story. Of course, behind that, there is huge material technology, composites technology, design technologies. Actually, that's the time when we introduced King Cobra years ago. And now with Stingray, we took it much further. So actually, the team looks perfectly like a Stingray, but at the same time, it's a water slide with so many features. It has two big towers and between the towers, there's a bridge. From each tower, two slides start with a very special mist roofing and very special bridge where you can just see what's happening all over the slide.Paul Marden: So the queuing experience is enriched so it doesn't feel quite so long and boring because you can watch what everyone is doing.Sohret Pakis: It is, yes.Paul Marden: Super impressive. So we have been asking everybody to think about what are their predictions for 2026?Sohret Pakis: Everybody is talking about AI. Everybody is talking about immersive. So AI, of course, will make a huge difference in operation, especially.Paul Marden: In what way?Sohret Pakis: Actually, in guest satisfaction, because personalisation is very important in our industry. Whoever comes to the park, they are the heroes at the park. And so actually, if the park can make them feel that they are the heroes, truly— if that's their birthday, if that's their wedding anniversary, so whatever. If the park can make you feel that you're special, and thanks to technology, now it's possible.Paul Marden: Absolutely. That's so interesting. Thank you so much for your insights and for joining us on Skip the Queue. Thank you.Thomas Collin: I'm Thomas, I'm from VEX Solutions, so we are a VR company at the start, and now we're going to the arcade with mixed reality as well. Okay, so that's a nice link. What are you launching here at IAFA? So here for the first time we are introducing VEX Party Dash. The Party Dash is a mixed reality arcade machine. So automated, people can go on it, play on it. You have two huge screens that are really highly interactive. You can walk on the screen, you can touch the screen. The goal is really to make you moving. So that's what we want to do with the Dash.Paul Marden: That's amazing, isn't it? So we're watching people at the moment. You can see lights up on the floor that they're stepping on and on the wall.Thomas Collin: What is really the key aspect of this product is that it's highly attractive. People, they just go around, they stop by it, they want to try it. Actually, we can say, 'Hey, come and try it,' because we watch you, we see you. So we can say, 'Hey, come and try it.' And people stop by, they play it. It's highly immersive, but also highly active. Yes. You're just not standing on an arcade, sitting down. No, you're really moving around. So, this is really good for kids and families. Absolutely. That's what we see.Paul Marden: So, where do you see this being used? What sort of attractions will take this?Thomas Collin: Actually, with this product, it can go either in the attraction side or either at the arcade side. So, you can play it as one game, and you can play a three-minute game like an arcade, or you can actually book for 15 minutes. Since there is not a single game, but multiple games, you can play different games, you can play different levels inside the main gate. So you have a high replayability. Because we want you to come back, we want to attract the gamers, and then make them come back.Paul Marden: 15 minutes with this much activity sounds like quite a tall order. It's a workout.Thomas Collin: It's a workout. It's a workout. Yeah, yeah, yeah.Peter Cliff: Hi, my name is Pete Cliff. I'm from Conductr. We're here in Barcelona and it's so exciting to be back at IAAPA. Now, what we're super excited about this year is talking about our collaboration with Norwegian Cruise Lines on Great Stirrup Cay. It's their new water park. It's a great project. We're excited to talk to people about it. It's also lovely to be back in Barcelona. It's been, I think, about six years since we were last back here, and it's always one of my favourite European cities for IAPA. It's great to meet with people from the industry, reconnect with old colleagues and friends, and really see what's happening. There's a huge amount of innovation and special projects that are launching all over the show floor. So yeah, great to be back, and can't wait to see what the future of the themed entertainment industry has to offer.Laura Baxter: My name is Laura Baxter. You may know me as the girl with the purple jumpsuit on LinkedIn. I am the head of marketing for Black Gang Shine, but have most recently just announced that I've gone into freelancing and I've launched your CMO.Paul Marden: And I have to say, the jumpsuits work because I was about 50 metres behind you earlier on and I spotted the Your CMO logo on the back of the jumpsuit, so well done for that. We've talked to a lot of suppliers with stands that are exhibiting. From your perspective, this is your first time stepping over to the dark side and coming to an IAPA. What's the experience like for you? What are you here to get out of the show?Laura Baxter: I'd say it's twofold. Mainly it is for networking. Obviously anybody who's anyone in the industry is here. But also, it's inspiration because I want to be able to talk about new and exciting stuff with... Potential clients that I may have and ideas still for Black Gang as well. So, when you walk around show floor, which is just so vibrant and there's so much going on everywhere—you turn, you can draw inspiration from so many of the suppliers here.Paul Marden: What have you seen that's innovative?Laura Baxter: There's a huge amount of stuff being done with tech and it's very interesting because I think that's where a lot of people are going to think that they need to go, because that's the way of the world now, and the next generation don't know life off of a screen and they're expecting to have these incredible digital experiences.Laura Baxter: I'm not convinced that is the way to go. But yes, it's still impressive tech. So for me, there are things that I stand back out and look at and I'm like, 'Whoa, that's really, really cool.'Laura Baxter: I'm not so sure it's potentially what consumers want, though, controversially.Paul Marden: It's really hard, isn't it? Because as a parent of young kids, you want them off the tech as much as you possibly can. But you need a hook. To be able to attract them, don't you? So there's been some amazing stuff here that bridges that gap between the real world and the tech world. So, summer season 2025 is over. What are your predictions about summer 26 and what operators should be thinking about right now?Laura Baxter: It's a really tough market, we all know that. Budgets are tight for households, so there is an awful lot more thought going into their spending and what they're doing and where they're choosing to take that little bit of disposable money that they do have. Therefore actually I don't think next year operators should be thinking about huge innovations or new attractions. I think they need to strip back to basics and nail their customer service. I think guest expectations now are so high. because they're parting with money that is a little bit more precious to them than perhaps if they don't leave at the end of that day having had a good experience they feel ripped off they're going to go straight to review platforms they're going to let it all out and actually you need to be focusing on making sure that every single touch point with that customer is bang on and we're talking pre-visit as well from the your website journey to buying it to the follow-up emails to the pre-visit emails to that first person they meet on front of house to the ride operators to the events team if you have that kind of entertainment on park if you are not nailing your experienceLaura Baxter: You are going to lose out well.Paul Marden: I think we should end it right there. That there is a nugget of gold.Paul Marden: So I am here with co-host Andy Povey and our good friend Josh Haywood from Crealy down in Devon.Josh Haywood: Hello.Paul Marden: It's the end of day two. What have you seen, Josh? What's blown your socks off?Josh Haywood: Good couple of days so far. We're probably into 40,000 steps, which is great. I think technology is the thing that struck me this week so far. Just the small changes that some of the operators and some of the manufacturers are putting into their existing kits. So, for example, I attended a seminar this morning about bowling. and normally temping bowling is temping bowling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But now there's augmented reality, and they've got features on the lanes, and it's not about just taking all the pins down, it's taking pin one and six out, and all those things they're trying to do to reinvent older, more traditional attractions, which I think I find really interesting. Yeah. I think some of the seasonality stuff, the Christmas and Halloween stuff has been really good. We sat on a train and went on a journey and the seats rumbled and the sound and the visual effects, they were great.Paul Marden: I saw that. There was no room for me to go and sit on that train. It was amazing.Josh Haywood: I thought that was really good. And, you know, I've been really impressed with generally the show. I think you can get around it all as well. It feels really friendly. I think the sun shining always helps as well. It's not too tough, is it?Paul Marden: I mean, the last time we were in Barcelona, we were all wearing face masks. Absolutely, yes. So it's really refreshing to be back here. And not have that.Josh Haywood: Absolutely. And not have to queue to get in as well. I think that was interesting on the first day.Paul Marden: Oh, did they see you and then just wave you through?Josh Haywood: Red carpet was up for, of course, award-winning theme park and resort. Paul Marden: Mr. Hayward. Did you say award? Winnie and obviously you're on the back of your two awards in the theme park awards last week. How was that? And then we've got some really exciting news from Creeley.Josh Haywood: I saw it at the press this morning. Yes, so a couple of things happened last week. So first of all, we had our anniversary 25 years of Maximus the Coaster. The Vekoma Coaster, 25 years. The first coaster in Devon. It was Devon's first coaster, over half a million riders later. It's done 2 million miles around the track. It's great. So we did a sort of event for that, and we used it to sort of make some announcements about future attractions, which I'll tell you about in a minute. But then we went to the Theme Park Awards last week at Wickste Park, where... We've been the recipients of a few bronze and silvers, and we go being little old us and hope for the best. And then the award I really wanted to win was one of two: the best for families and the best for value. And when the family award came up, they said, 'In bronze is such and such, in silver.' And I was like, 'Well, there you go.' That's all that's left for another year. And then when they said the win at gold was cruelly for best for families, we were delighted. I got a bit emotional about it. I think we would just work so hard over the years to be the best in the Southwest, certainly. And certainly since we put Sootyland in as well. We won the award for Toddlers.Josh Haywood: So it was a double wham. And within 10 minutes as well. It wasn't separated. Within 10 minutes, I just got my breath back from the first one. And then we were up on stage again taking that second award. Oh, it's tough, isn't it? Which was great, yeah. Multi-award winning. Multi-award winning theme parking resort. Devon's finest. Most right in Devon. We're just going to... absolutely bleep the hell out of this for the next 12 months because who knows we may not win it again so we'll just shout from the treetops about this and then we also won thanks to martin rose and rose events uh silver for best entertainment event for the city show It's still very popular, the legacy brand. People love the Sooty show. And as I said at the awards, we sell loads of those puppets. People love a Sooty and a Sweep. So it's been a really good collaboration for us.Paul Marden: We were at our first away day for our Merak team back a few months ago down at Creeley, and I found a little sooty puppet underneath the lectern. I was absolutely chuffed to bits. And there he was, just sitting at the front of the away day, watching everything going on with Sue next to him.Josh Haywood: He's still popular. We understood when we put Cityland in, it wasn't going to be Peppa Pig. world and we didn't think for a minute we'd even sort of get to those heights of Thomas Land at Drayton Manor but it certainly hit a chord with the older market certainly the nannies and the granddads who remember such from when they were kids and you know it's a legacy brand and it works but what we have done really well is sort of corner that market for younger children and toddlers and we Sort of took some comments over the last 12 to 18 months that we may be missing the mark when it comes to the 8 to 12-year-olds, which we were pretty good at five or six years ago. So we've decided this year that we're going to invest in some thrill attractions. So we've just launched news that we've got two new rides going in next year. One, I can't tell you exactly because we're still going under. Got some planning issues, but we're going to have the Southwest tallest ride and the Southwest first inverted ride. So a multi-million pound investment going in and hopefully that will give us another boost that we need to kick on again. We've still got new accommodation going in. We'll still be doing new events and shows for next year.Josh Haywood: So it's going to be a bumper year for Crealy. Absolutely.  I really look forward to that.Paul Marden: I look forward to you being on the launch ride.Paul Marden: Me down on the ground watching and videoing.Josh Haywood: What they have said, which is really interesting, we spoke to an operator, there's only one other ride like it in the UK, and that operator said, whatever you do, make sure when you put the ride in, you fit a hose pipe and a tap right in. Because you may be washing the seats down more than you would usually on your current ride. So, yeah, it certainly will add that next level of ride experience to our family market.Paul Marden: Yeah, I think that's super important, isn't it? Mr. Povey, what have you seen today that has blown your socks off?Andy Povey: I'm really looking for the place to go and get some more soft, comfortable socks. I've walked so much. I've stood around and listened to so many fantastic talks, had so many brilliant conversations. I'm done. My feet hurt. I need to sit down and have a beer.Paul Marden: Well, I hate to break it to you, but there's another day left. And there's still more interviews to do. Still more opportunities for us to get some interesting stories on Skip the Queue.Andy Povey: Look forward to that.Paul Marden: Gentlemen, I think we're about done. So thank you ever so much. It has been a joy. And Mr. Povey, see you back here tomorrow. Josh, wonderful as always.Josh Haywood: Maybe see you at OrlandoPaul Marden: Oh. Absolutely, yeah.Josh Haywood: We'll do it againPaul Marden: Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you liked it, leave a comment in Spotify or Apple Podcasts. If you didn't, let us know on hello@skipthequeue.fm. Today's episode was a team effort for Sami and Emily from Plaster, Steve from Folland Co., as well as Claire and Wenalyn from Skip the Queue HQ. We're back again tomorrow for more fun from IAAPA, including Andreas Andersen from Liseberg, one of Scandinavia's most visited parks. See you all tomorrow. The 2025 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsTake the Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

Book Vs. Movie: Don't Look Now The Daphne DuMaurier Short Story Vs. the Nicolas Roeg FilmRIP Donald Sutherland! (1935-2024)Due to the passing of actor extraordinaire Donald Sutherland, we are replaying our "Don't Look Now" episode. This week, let's talk about Daphe DuMaurier's short story "Don't Look Now," published in 1971 and adapted into a film by director Nicolas Roeg. The story follows a couple, John and Laura, as they cope with the loss of their daughter while on vacation in Venice. They meet twin sisters with psychic abilities who warn them about their son's safety. The film closely follows the story but is controversial for a suggestive scene between the main characters. Despite this, the movie is considered a horror classic known for its editing and acting. In this ep, the Margos discuss:The life of Daphne DuMaurierThe plot of the story in the original version versus the filmThe controversy around the movie and why it is considered a classic horror taleThe cast: Julie Christie (Laura Baxter,) Donald Sutherland (John Baxter,) Hilary Mason (Heather,) Clelia Metania (Wendy,) Massimo Serato (Bishop Barbarrigo,) Renato Scarpa (Inspector Longhi,) Giogio Trestini (Workman,) Leopoldo Trieste (hotel manager,) David Tree (Anthony Babbage,) Ann Rye (Mandy Babbage,) Nicholas Salter (Johnny Baxter,) Sharon Williams (Christine Baxter,) Bruno Cattaneo (Detective Sabbione,) and Adelina Poerio as the murderer.Clips used:Laura Baxter meets the sistersDon't Look Now trailer Christine drownsRichard almost fallsRichard searches for the “girl” in the red slicker/MacMusic by Pino DonaggioBook Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts. Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.comEmail us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.comMargo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.comMargo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/ Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram

Book Vs. Movie: Don't Look Now The Daphne DuMaurier Short Story Vs. the Nicolas Roeg FilmRIP Donald Sutherland! (1935-2024)Due to the passing of actor extraordinaire Donald Sutherland, we are replaying our "Don't Look Now" episode. This week, let's talk about Daphe DuMaurier's short story "Don't Look Now," published in 1971 and adapted into a film by director Nicolas Roeg. The story follows a couple, John and Laura, as they cope with the loss of their daughter while on vacation in Venice. They meet twin sisters with psychic abilities who warn them about their son's safety. The film closely follows the story but is controversial for a suggestive scene between the main characters. Despite this, the movie is considered a horror classic known for its editing and acting. In this ep, the Margos discuss:The life of Daphne DuMaurierThe plot of the story in the original version versus the filmThe controversy around the movie and why it is considered a classic horror taleThe cast: Julie Christie (Laura Baxter,) Donald Sutherland (John Baxter,) Hilary Mason (Heather,) Clelia Metania (Wendy,) Massimo Serato (Bishop Barbarrigo,) Renato Scarpa (Inspector Longhi,) Giogio Trestini (Workman,) Leopoldo Trieste (hotel manager,) David Tree (Anthony Babbage,) Ann Rye (Mandy Babbage,) Nicholas Salter (Johnny Baxter,) Sharon Williams (Christine Baxter,) Bruno Cattaneo (Detective Sabbione,) and Adelina Poerio as the murderer.Clips used:Laura Baxter meets the sistersDon't Look Now trailer Christine drownsRichard almost fallsRichard searches for the “girl” in the red slicker/MacMusic by Pino DonaggioBook Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts. Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.comEmail us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.comMargo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.comMargo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/ Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the annual benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends on 20th December 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter.  Show references: https://vectis.ventures/https://robin-hill.com/https://blackgangchine.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-wray-a1b52766/Dominic Wray is the Parks Director of Vectis Ventures, the parent company of the Isle of Wights two leading attractions; Robin Hill, and the UK's oldest theme park, Blackgang Chine. After 7 years of running Blackgang Chine as the Park Manager, he stepped into his role as Parks Director to play a vital position in the planning and execution of the longer term business strategy. Having been in this role for around 15 months, he has led on some big changes and transformations within the business, as well as navigating what has been a challenging year for the leisure industry as a whole. Dominic attributes much of his success, and enjoyment of his career to the people in it. Sitting on the Management Committee for BALPPA, he is a huge advocate for industry networking and enabling peer to peer learning opportunities. He then uses this platform as a way to the develop the team that he is so passionate about, allowing them to flourish into the industry known experts of their fields. Transcriptions: Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. On today's episode, I speak with Dominic Wray, Parks Director at Vectis Ventures. We talk about Blackgang Chine, the 180 year old attraction, and Dominic shares his three top tips on transforming processes and developing superstar people. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue. Welcome to the podcast, Dominic. It's great to have you on today. Dominic Wray: Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it. Kelly Molson: Everyone says that at the start, and then I give them icebreaker questions, and they hate me. But this is how the podcast always starts, so you have to do them. Right. If you could enter the Olympics for anything, what would you be Olympic level at? And we're not talking it doesn't have to be sports here. It could be like baking or Olympic level complainer. Anything goes. What's your Olympic level at? Dominic Wray: I think I would actually answer the sports based question answered that. I always, when I was growing up, wanted to play in the NBA. Basketball was a big passion of mine. So I'd say I'd want to enter the Olympics as a basketball player. Kelly Molson: Okay. And do you play now? Is this something that you are actually good at? Dominic Wray: Not so much now, no. I don't want to use the old adage if I got injured, but I did. Kelly Molson: Oh, no. Dominic Wray: We'll never know if I could have made it or not. Kelly Molson: Good one. Have you ever been mistaken for someone famous? Dominic Wray: Yeah, actually, yes, twice. Someone once said to me I look like Joel Dormot. I think he's a comedian. And some of the team seemed to think I look like Mark Wright. Kelly Molson: I know this one. So I saw the picture that Laura Baxter posted of your LinkedIn. I have to say, I did a second look, Mark. Dominic Wray: Yeah. I mean, I'll take it. I think Mark Wright's the right looking chap, so could be worse, I suppose. Kelly Molson: Okay. All right. A final one. What one thing would you make a law that isn't already? I've got a good one for this. So if I could be in charge of laws, I would make it a law that nobody could just stop in the middle of the pavement and look at their mobile phone, or walk upstairs with their mobile staring at their mobile phone, not actually looking where they're going, because it just makes me want to swipe people's legs away. Because they just stop in front of you or they walk really slowly up the stairs. That would be one of mine. Dominic Wray: I'd go with, everyone needs to learn how to go through security at an airport. There's nothing more frustrating when you get there and the person in front of you isn't aware of how to go through and then there's a bit that delays the queues. Kelly Molson: Good one. That's a really good one. They get quite shouty, the security people now, don't they? When you're queuing up like, they're shouting at you about your liquids and your jackets and you take your belts off, and I'm like, "If I take my belt off, my trousers are going to fall down. I'm not even halfway there yet." I like that one. Okay, what's your unpopular opinion? Dominic Wray: My unpopular opinion is that motorists ruined the road for cyclists. Which I'm sure will be incredibly controversial. Yeah, that's my unpopular opinion. Kelly Molson: This is going to be a controversial one and I really want to know what you think about this one, listeners. Yeah, I don't agree with you, but you are a hardcore cyclist. I'm going op guess.Dominic Wray: I do pay my road tax, drive a car myself, but yeah, someone that very much enjoys road cycling. Yeah, that is definitely my viewpoint on other motorists. Kelly Molson: I think there needs to be made room for both on the roads. There's not sufficient cycle lanes in areas where there should be sufficient cycle lanes. Although I live just outside Cambridge and Cambridge is pretty good for cyclists. If this was me, I would ban cyclists from cycling through the city centre of Cambridge, because the amount of times I've nearly been run over by cyclists in the city centre is quite a lot. Dominic Wray: I will say. Not every cyclist is respectful of most receivers. It is a two way street, quite literally. Do you understand that? Kelly Molson: I like this. Right, okay, listeners, what do you think about the unpopular opinion? I feel like I've just got myself in hot water with all my Cambridge cycling friends as well. Dominic Wray: They're all going to be kicking off. Kelly Molson: We're all in trouble. We're in trouble together, Dom. It's fine. Right, tell us a little bit about your background, because you have come into attractions not from an attractions background, and I always find this quite fascinating, how people end up within the sector. You've come from banking, right? Dominic Wray: Yes, yes. I started off my career when I left school selling houses, and then I moved into banking after that. I used to work for Lloyds Bank and one of my clients was our current HR director here, lady called Paula, and I used to see her every year. She'd come in, talk about this great place that she worked and all these fun projects she was working on and how magical it was. And I remember sort of sat there thinking, "Gosh, your job sounds really interesting and you're working on these varied projects and you're getting to experience loads of cool things." She was talking to me about fireworks events and dinosaurs and cowboys and pirates. I was thinking, "I'm saya, talking about savings accounts and loans and boring stuff that comes to banking." Dominic Wray: And then one day I saw an advert in our local paper on the island for a Park Manager role for Blackgang Chine. Which is the park that Paula worked at, and I read through it and I thought, “Okay, yeah, I can do this. It sounds like I've got the skill set to do this.” Not really knowing anything about running a visitor attraction at all. So off I went to the interview, got my job and I thought, “Oh, great, yeah, if I can sell houses and I can run a bank, the only I could run a visitor attraction.” It's just taking those skills and applying them across into a different sector. Dominic Wray: Eight or nine years later, still here now and lot of a big learning curve along the way, but yeah, not a traditional route into it, but Blackgang on the island is a very iconic visitor attraction. All the children on the island have been there, had very fond memories of coming here as a child and I just thought, “Wow, what an opportunity to wake up every day and go to work in a fun”, magical place that's the complete opposite from the confines of a bank. So I thought, “Yeah, I'm going to back myself and go for it and do it.”Kelly Molson: How weird is that? Knowing that you went there as a child as well and now you actually run the place. That's massive, isn't it? Dominic Wray: Yeah, when I'm walking around, there's lots of areas of the park that are still the same and happened for many years and they carry great sentiments or walking through certain areas and they hear certain sounds or certain smells in the park and it takes you back to being a kid every day. So it's quite a magical place to work. Kelly Molson: That's really sweet. And so what was that transition like? Because I've just got this vision of you kind of like rocking up on the first day and going, "Where do I start?". Dominic Wray: Yeah. So on day one when I arrived, the gentleman who was doing the role beforehand had left. So I had a laptop set of keys and they sort, "Off you go.. And I was like, "OK, I've got to have to work this out", which I did. I was lucky enough to go to IAAPA in Orlando and I went on a week long training course, management course there around Park Management of Visitor Attractions, which I think was really interesting, really useful, gave me a great insight into the attraction space. And then I've worked through that by learning about the various different departments and functionalities of the business along the way. But it was a big change for me to go from working for a large corporate company to moving to a family owned company. Dominic Wray: Blackgang Chine has been owned by the same family for 180 years, which is the Dabell family. So it was a big shift for me from having multiple layers of people and it taking weeks to get a decision to just having to go and speak to one person as long as they say, "Yes", you're on your way. So it's enjoyable working for a much more dynamic organization where you can pivot more quickly. And that was sort of one of the surprising things, having come from a bigger company, how quickly things can move and change. But I think that's a real positive fallout. Kelly Molson: Yeah, definitely. I love that you did like a crash course, you did like your crash course, your driver's course, you didn't do those week intensive course, you did your weeks intensive course of being a park manager and that was it into the job. So what does your role cover then? Because I know you operate across two parks at the moment, so you've got Blackgang Chine, you've got Robin Hill. What does that look like for you in terms of your role? Dominic Wray: So my role sees me overseeing the parks and the strategic position. So I look after the business of the group as a whole. I was previously the park manager of Blackgang and then over the last twelve months transitioned to a new role, Parks Director, which sees me overseeing the group from more of a strategic position. So everything from opening calendars, pricing strategy, events that we're running, health and safety, you name it, all falls under my room within the business.Kelly Molson: I love that. I guess all of those things must have been the steep learning curve from banking where you clearly are very senior role, but probably not juggling quite so much in a day.Dominic Wray: Yeah, I liken it to running lots of micro businesses. We've got a retail business, food and beverage business and events business, health and safety compliance element of the business. So yeah, lots of micro businesses within the big business as a whole really. But yeah, the regulation from banking around strict processes and procedures does translate quite nicely into business and also into health for safety as well. Kelly Molson: Yeah. And there's some of the things we're going to talk about today. So we've got three topics to cover which I'm really interested in. We've got processes and systems, we've got peer learning that we're going to talk about and then we're going to talk about people and team development. So what you just said there about what you've brought, that's one of the things that I'm really interested in terms of the processes and systems because you've been through quite a transformative process in your organisation with kind of people and process actually. What have you been able to bring from banking into the attractions world that's kind of helped you with those processes and systems? Dominic Wray: I would say I learned a lot from working in a bank. One of the things was how not to do things, I'd say. In terms of life in a bank is very black and white. It's almost sort of a computer says no culture. And that really taught me that actually in real business you've got to operate a bit more in the gray. And it's much more around how can we actually make things happen and how can we do things rather than actually that's not possible. So I always say to feeling, great, well, how are we going to work around that? How are we going to make that possible? So, since I've joined the business, we've gone through quite a large transformation. Dominic Wray: It was fair to say that when I joined, the business was very much running in a sort of historic, family orientated way of we've always done it that way. That was a phrase I heard quite a lot when I first started this. I know we've done it like that because we've always done it that way. There's sort of a lot of, "Okay, explain to me why we've done it that way and what's the approach to that?". And then over the years, we've moved into using far more digital systems. So I'm big on making sure the team can see at the various levels of the organisation, the bigger picture. And I think that then helps them understand exactly what's going on in the business as a whole. And I think that through digital optimisation of systems and processes, that really helps them do that. Dominic Wray: So, for example, on the ride side of the fence, we bought in Mobaro, which is quite a well known safety system for our daily inspections. And that just gives far better visibility right the way from the ride operator, the person checking the rides, to the duty manager, all the way up to our owner if he wants to go in on a day and see what's gone on at 10:00 before the site opens. So it's really been around pivoting the organisation into becoming early adopters of technology and systems and processes. Dominic Wray: We've also recently joined the LEAP scheme, which was quite a big jump for our industry to move away from a historical scheme that had been in place for a number of years. And were some of the first, well, one of the first parks to join that scheme.Kelly Molson: For our listeners, what is the LEAP scheme? What does that mean? Dominic Wray: So we have our rides basically inspected by an independent inspection body. And LEAP is the scheme that then oversees and checks off the regulation of that inspection body in a sort of basic format. But it had historically been done by a different organisation and LEAP have come into the marketplace. And taken a different approach to how that is done, which gives far more transparency to the operators and also the customers that are coming into sites to visit as well. But it was quite a big thing for us to say, "Okay, we're going to move away from that historic way of doing it into a newer way of doing things.". But I think as a company, because we can make decisions quite quickly, we don't have a big gain of sign off to go through as a team. Dominic Wray: We can move quite quickly on things such as that as well. Kelly Molson: I really like that kind of transparent approach that you talked about because it feels like that would help with kind of unifying the kind of organisational culture as well because people have a bit more visibility about what's going on behind the scenes, so to speak. Dominic Wray: Yeah. And I think giving people the most amount of information you can give them within their job role and position within the organisation, that level of transparency just allows them to do their job better. Because if they understand what the key metrics that they're working towards and how they're performing and actually how decisions they make on a day to day basis impact the bigger picture of how the attraction performs over a 12, 24 month ongoing period, that makes them feel much more empowered. Because then they can see, actually, I've made this change over here, and that made an impact onto the bottom line over here. Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. It gives people that sense of ownership about what they're doing as well, doesn't it? Dominic Wray: Definitely. Kelly Molson: So what do you think have been the biggest transformations that you've been able to make over that period? Dominic Wray: I would say collaborative working. The organisation used to very much be I look after food and beverage, I look after retail, I look after operations and we don't talk to each other. That's my lane. Kelly Molson: So those little micro companies just kind of like they worked in their little silos and didn't really talk. Dominic Wray: Yeah, exactly. Whereas what we've done across a number of years is change the structure of the way the parks run on a day to day basis. So each of the heads of those departments do take turns of doing duty management shifts. So that gives them the opportunity to experience the park as a complete 360, interact with different departments, understand how other departments work and function. Most importantly, that gets them in front of customers in different areas of the business as well, then that helps them understand, okay, in retail or operations, we're allowing people into the park in this way. If we do this is a domino effect that then actually knocks onto something that could happen in food and beverage later on. Dominic Wray: So I think again, that goes back to giving them that bigger picture of what's going on in the company and for them to think that actually we are all one team and what someone does in one department does have a knock on effect and impact onto other departments as well. And I think that's really taken place by opening the business up a lot more. Historically, were quite closed off as an organisation, and I've been very big on getting the staff out, seeing other attractions, going, speaking to other people in other attractions, finding out how things work in other parks, other businesses. Dominic Wray: And I think that's really then enabled us to open up a lot more and we've done that also through being members of BALPPA as well, which has been quite a key point of being able us to open up the business a lot more and experience the team, to experience things outside the company as well.Kelly Molson: Yeah. So peer learning is one of the things that I'd love to explore a bit more, because I think just going back to what you said about those organisational visits, you've got a few team members that are really active on LinkedIn, so I see a lot of the things that you do as an organisation, and it's really impressive. So you do strategic team visits to other attractions to look at how they're operating, how their attractions are running, what events. You even go to some of their events and see how they've been put on. And that comes back to this whole thing about the sector being really supportive and collaborative with each other, because that never used to happen in my world. In agency world, we are far more open now than we ever were. Kelly Molson: But I couldn't imagine ten years ago me rocking up to someone else's agency and going, "Could I just sit in on your team while you work through this project and see how your project management process works?". Piss off. I would be able to do that to a number of agencies that I know there. They'd be really happy to share, but it feels like it's kind of always been that way in the sector for attractions. Is that the case? Dominic Wray: Yeah, 100%. I mean, that was one of the biggest things that shocked me coming into a new career, was actually you can go and ask people for help and ask them how they do things and they're more than willing to share the challenges and issues that they have, but also sharing the solutions to those problems as well. I mean, when I worked at Lloyds, I can't imagine ever walking over the road to Natwest and going, "Hi, can you explain to me how you do this?". They'd say, “Bugger of.”Kelly Molson: You all will have exactly the same problem. So working together to solve that problem surely helps the greater good, rather than. Dominic Wray: Everyone has the same problems. They just have it on varying scales of economy, so we might have it on this scale. You go to a bigger park, they've got the same problem, just magnified by ten. Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. But you mentioned BALPPA, which I know is an incredible organisation that you're members of. How has being kind of a member of that organisation what's it brought to the attraction and to yourself? Dominic Wray: I think it's really been transformational for the attraction, myself and the team. I think having an organisation that these business and individuals completely immerse themselves in from a learning standpoint is so valuable to me. I think it's almost like a black book. It is a black book of other attractions that you can gain access to for their knowledge, experience, processes and procedures. And as someone that came into the industry having not worked in it previous to that, I found the organisation so valuable in terms of my own personal learning and the learning of the site as well. So as an attraction, we've massively benefited from being members of BALPPA. We hosted the summer conference this year, which was a big deal for us. Dominic Wray: So everyone BALPPA came to the island and they spent a day at Blackgang Chine and Robin Hill, and we hosted a gala evening dinner at Robin Hill, which was fantastic. And that was great to show it off to peers and people within the industry and for them to kind of understand about what we do. Because obviously I go along to a lot of events with a lot of the other team and we're all sort of banging the drum about the company. But it's great for people to come and experience that firsthand as well. So I think it's helped broaden the profile of the business and also the individuals within the team as well. I think that's been brilliant for the team's personal development, but also really for their learning. Dominic Wray: The fact that there's people in the organisation that you can go and talk to about everything from ticketing strategies through to mechanical issues you've got on rides, or the fact that people are so open that you can ring them up and say, "Hey, I've got this issue with this, how do I fix it?"  I'll bring this chap, he's the person you need to go and call about this. Or, I'm a bit stuck for this spare part. Yeah, phone this person, they'll be able to get it to you quicker." And everyone's so supportive and willing to help each other. It's quite amazing to see, as I said, coming from a space where that is the complete opposite of that. It's brilliant to be involved in an organisation where if all the attractions are winning, the space is winning and the industry is winning. Dominic Wray: And I think everyone's mature enough to realise that we've all got our own individual niches and we're not all competing against each other. So actually, by helping each other and people having amazing experiences across all attractions, it just benefits the industry as a whole. Kelly Molson: Yeah, completely. It just comes back to that whole working in partnerships and not in silos again, doesn't it? You mentioned about people, this is the other thing that I really want to talk about, because you've got brilliant people that work at your organisation and you call them superstar people, which I really love. I guess BALPPA is one of the things that you've put in place to kind of help them because like you said, other team members, not just yourself, can go along to these meetings and they can benefit from the peer to peer learning that you get at those events. And actually just the networking, not even just I've been to a BALPPA event. And what struck me about it was the knowledge that was shared at that meeting. Kelly Molson: And what struck me about it was the knowledge that was shared at that meeting, it was so authentic and so transparent, actually, that you got a lot from just the talks, but actually you get even more from just networking from people that are in the same position as you, at a different attraction again, have those same kind of challenges and same kind of things that they need to talk about. And being able to just have them on speed dial is so beneficial. What else have you kind of put in place to help develop some of your superstar people there, though? Dominic Wray: So, as you mentioned, I think the team going along to BALPPA events has been a big thing for them. I think when you're doing your day to day job, you're running at 100 miles an hour, it's quite hard to sort of benchmark yourself against other people in the industry. And I've noticed that when team members have gone along to BALPPA events, they sort of come back with a sense of,” I could hold a conversation with someone from a bigger park. I'm competent at knowing what I'm doing”, which I know that they know that, but I think that helps reinforce confidence within them as well. And I just think they're fantastic spaces for developing the team's personal confidence and, as you said, their wider personal network as well, and knowledge and understanding. Dominic Wray: I mean, we've seen some of our team members, Laura, who's one of our superstars in our marketing team, she did a keynote speech on Christmas, at the BALPPA marketing conference. And it was so good. I was so proud to see her go there, deliver that, she'd been in the office working hard on it, and then just to stand up and absolutely smash it and see people's reactions to her explaining about that piece was just brilliant. And James, who oversees our site and services, he's due to do a talk on the install of our new rides at the latest BALPPA for Health and Safety Conference that's coming up as well. So I think it's brilliant for the team to be able to be on that platform and develop themselves as well. Dominic Wray: Other things that we do in an organisation as well. I think I'm really big on giving the team space to be able to do their job safely. I think it's good to allow them to give them the space to they're the experts in that area. I very much see my role is overseeing that and making sure all the pieces are coming together. But quite often I will say to them, "Guys, what do you think about this particular thing? Or how should we approach that?". Because ultimately, they're the experts within the business, within their chosen fields, and I'm big on giving them the opportunity to be the experts in those areas. I also think it's great to take some time out to learn more about them as individuals and their roles and their interests within those roles as well. Dominic Wray: So, for example, when Laura joined the business, went on a two day marketing course together. It was a conference that she wanted to attend, but I said, "I'll go with you. I'm keen to learn more about the in depth elements of marketing and I think it'd be a good shared experience for us.". And I think that then just enables the team to feel, actually I'm interested in their department and how they work and operate. And I think there's always something that you can learn from everyone that you meet and interact with. So I'm big on doing that. And then the final thing I'll say is really let them be a star in their area and promote that. Dominic Wray: I mean, the example of Laura with the marketing conference talk was brilliant. It was great to see her on stage representing the business, but also the spotlight was on her and it was about her in that moment, which was fantastic. And I think that's really good when the team feel like they can be superstars in their own arenas of their chosen fields. Kelly Molson: I love that. I remember that talk really vividly. It was really heartwarming, actually. And there was a really personal element to it as well. And you could see how much she was connected to the subject matter that she was speaking to as well. This is something that we talked about prior to coming on today, about how you've kind of supported your team as well as they kind of move through their careers and they move through what they're doing at the attractions. And one of the things that you've really helped them start to develop is their personal brands. Such a hot topic. It's one I love talking about. Kelly Molson: It's something that I've really tried to do as best as I can over the last kind of I think just prior to the pandemic, actually, I kind of started to think about what is it that I want people to remember me about, what's important to me? And if I've got a platform, how am I going to use it to talk about the things that I think are important and that other people should hopefully find as important as me. Kelly Molson: And I think what you've done there is kind of facilitate that for your team, which is really lovely to see because everybody, like you said, is working for the whole of the organisation, but they all have their own kind of individual specialisms. How have you kind of helped people or encouraged people to develop their personal brands? What are the kind of things that you've done there? Dominic Wray: I've encouraged them to get out there, engage with other people, engage within different networks. I think LinkedIn is a great tool for that as well. I think the team all do lots of amazing things every day that we all see and know that they do. But I'm big on encouraging them about, shouting about that. I think as general British people, we're quite sort of we don't like self promotion too much, don't like talking about ourselves too much. And I think having Laura, to be fair, join the team earlier in the year, who's big on her LinkedIn content and big on talking about what's going on out there, has really helped the team and pushed everyone forwards with doing that. And I've really encouraged them. Dominic Wray: You might not think anyone's going to take value from the content you're putting out or discussing that, but actually they will because there's probably someone somewhere looking at that thinking, "How do I overcome that problem?” Or “I've got a similar ride to that we're just in the process of refurbishing, maybe I can reach out to them and find out how they're doing that." So really believing in themselves and that they really are superstars in their area and they should be promoting that and talking about how great they are in the businesses that they work for. Kelly Molson: Have you seen that encouragement kind of help with some of the team's own self confidence as well? They're kind of braver about putting themselves forward for certain things. Dominic Wray: Yeah, yeah, massively. James, who oversees both of our sites from the site and services viewpoint, started off within the maintenance team one of those sites and he's worked his way up through the business. Now he's responsible for health and safety across both of them. He oversaw the install of our new ride which went in at the beginning of the year as well and it's been fantastic to see him grow and his confidence grow and develop within that. And now he's been asked to go forward, as I said, to do a talk next month about that ride install going ahead, which will be his first sort of public speaking gig, and I'll be very much there to support him along with that as well. So it's been great to watch the team develop and grow along with that and their confidence as well. Kelly Molson: That's really lovely to see. Well, I think in the past, people probably haven't wanted to highlight certain people, do you know what I mean? If we put these people out in the world, other people might steal them from us. But I think you have to develop your people and you have to let them shine in the roles that they're in because they'll just get better and better and better. So it's really lovely to see that you're encouraging that. I think it's such an important part of running a successful organisation now.Dominic Wray: Yeah. And I think the team are happier from that. I think if you give them the freedom to go out and experience other attractions and speak to other people at various different levels of organisations, they feel happier where they are. I think if you kind of constrain them and say, "Oh no, we can't allow you to go and speak to these people. We can't allow you to go and visit them because they might poach you or they might offer you a different job." Then they're going to be thinking, "Actually, maybe the grass is greener on the other side.". Kelly Molson: This is not the company for me after all. Dominic Wray: Yeah, exactly. And I think there's nothing wrong with them being having their own personal brand within the wider brand of the business. I think that's good for them. Kelly Molson: Yeah, I think so too. It's really brilliant to see what you've been developing there. Right. I would love it if you could share some top tips for our listeners. We always get our guests to share top tips. Three top tips on processes and people development that you'd encourage other attractions to adopt. Dominic Wray: My first one would definitely be, and I've already mentioned it, but get your team out visiting other attractions. Can't express enough how much they'll learn from those experiences. I think if you set it out in the right position to say, "Okay, guys, we're going to go and visit this event, this is what we're going to be looking for. This is what I want us to take back from that. When we come back, we're going to have a clear debrief to go through key learnings of that and how we're going to implement that into our business. You can still obviously have a great enjoyable experience."Dominic Wray: That's one of the best things about working in this industry is going on an R & D trip, but getting to go on a couple of roller coasters and get scared, go to the scare mazes or whatever else you're going to be doing. I think it's great team building as well. It's great for the team to go and see that. And what I find amazing is it can be anything from the way a site manages its waste or the layout of a queue line or actually I liked on the way in how this person upselled this ticket for me. There's so many things you can gain from that. Dominic Wray: I think when you're going into an attraction, looking at that from that perspective, I just think it's brilliant and there's no kind of training course that you can send anyone on that will deliver that value that they get from going and experiencing it firsthand. Kelly Molson: I'm just laughing at the excitement about waste as well like, "Yeah, we could see how they process their waste." That is exciting. Dominic Wray: That would be something that James would probably come back to say to me. But that's what I mean. Everyone of the team's interested in different things, so it's good. Kelly Molson: On this topic of the visits, do you always go to places that are quite similar to yours as well? Or do you do visits that are in complete contrast to what you do as well? To see the difference. Dominic Wray: We'll do a bit of both. Probably a good example is when we set up our Halloween event over October, when we very first did that, went to visit Tully's Farm, which was sort of, in our eyes, as the gold standard of scare attractions. The first time went there, we just went to see what is it as an attraction? How does that concept work? The overview sort of headline of that. And then over the years, as we've developed Terror Island, which is our Halloween event, which we run here, over October, we've been back to Tully's on numerous occasions. We've had Stuart, who runs that, come down to the site as well, and we're then looking at that from a different perspective. Dominic Wray: So then we moved on to, "Okay, how do we look at improving through, how do we look at improving guest experience? How do we look at upselling F&B? Where are the entrance and exit points of the mazes in relation to the broader site? How's the actual site laid out?". So we're then going back and looking at it in a sort of more detailed layer of that. But no, as a team, we'll go to much larger parks, much smaller parks, because I think there's things you can learn from all different sizes of attractions. We went to Hobbledown last year, which was an interesting experience, and we saw their water pillow there, and we actually put one of those into Robin Hill this year, which was one of our most successful attractions. Dominic Wray: So the guys there were fantastic at explaining about the pros and cons of that attraction, which then enabled us to make an informed decision as to whether to purchase one of those or not. But, yeah, I think there's things to be learned from all different types of attractions. If people are going to them with the right mindset of thinking, “What am I going to learn?”Kelly Molson: What's the objective here? What's the takeaway? Okay, great. So that's top tip one. Dominic Wray: Top tip two would be celebrate personal wins for the team and then let them be stars in that moment. I think when someone in the team does something really well and they've achieved something, it's really important to broadcast that to everyone, let everyone know about that and let them shine in that moment. And for it to be about them as an individual, not so much about the company as a whole. It's them in that moment, and you want to make them feel valued and positive about whatever the experiences that they've achieved. Kelly Molson: Nice. Good tip. Dominic Wray: And then my third one would be let people make mistakes in a safe manner and learn from it. I think in a working environment, people are quite often aware when they've made a mistake or something's gone wrong. They don't leave someone jumping up and down. Yeah, exactly. You know, when you're like, "That didn't work. I know it's not worked well," but I think allowing them to make mistakes in a safe, controlled manner that they can then learn from, because I think quality people understand when something's gone wrong, and they equally understand how to fix it and put their hands up and say, yeah, that's happened. But we're quite quick to acknowledge that and move on to how we're going to resolve it and not allow that to occur again. Kelly Molson: Excellent tips. Okay, as an organisation, what's your biggest opportunity and also your biggest challenge as we head into the winter months? Because I think you're coming to do you close over the season? Do you close down? Dominic Wray: Yes. So Saturday is our last operating day, and we close from November and we open in March. Kelly Molson: Wow. Gosh, you really are coming up to the end of the season. Okay, so what's your biggest opportunity and your biggest challenge as we head into that time? Dominic Wray: It was quite a big challenge, and opportunity for the company is that we made a difficult decision to put one of our sites on the market and we're looking to sell Robin Hill. So that will be the biggest challenge and opportunity for the business in recent years, to be fair. I think it presents a great opportunity for the business to double down and invest further into Blackgang, which is 180 years old this year. So it's a big birthday year for us. Kelly Molson: Incredible. Dominic Wray: And I think that will enable us to be here for another 180 years. Not that I might still be around at that point in time. Kelly Molson: You certainly won't look like Mark Wright at that point. Dominic Wray: No, look like a very aged Mark Wright. But I think it's the biggest challenge for the team and myself personally as we reshape the business and pivot into a new direction, but I equally think it's an exciting one to see what will come out on the other side of that as well. Kelly Molson: It is exciting, isn't it? I can imagine that having two parks to oversee can be a stretch at sometimes in terms of resource and also in terms of strategy and how things work, because I guess that they work similar but different. So, yeah, I can see that as a huge opportunity and something to I guess it's kind of a nice thing to focus on for the start of the new season as well, that's kind of progressing. And then you've got this really big opportunity to focus on this one thing and make it as the very best it could possibly be. Dominic Wray: Yeah. And the team have really taken to it. They're really passionate about driving Blackgang forwards and are very excited about the changes and the plans we've got for the next year and coming years as well. So it's been well embraced by them. Kelly Molson: Good. And I guess you're ending the season on a high as well, because we talked a little bit about your Halloween event, but it has been a really successful Halloween event this year, hasn't it? Dominic Wray: Yes, it's gone down really well. We made the sun top ten events for Halloween attractions. So yeah, it's been really well received. It's a personal favourite of mine. Absolutely love it. It's been a complete passion project for the team, and the team are always up for every event we do, but this is one that they really get behind and are in every possible conceivable bit of detail. And as someone that never used to like horror films and hated being scared, I now absolutely love going through scare attractions and love scaring other people even more than that. Complete 360 for me as well. So you don't know what you like until you try it. Kelly Molson: Exactly. You just never know where you never knew where this role was going to take you, did you? When you started this, Dominic, you never knew you were going to end up as a horror fan. Dominic Wray: Yeah, exactly. Now I'm like, "Oh no, we need to make that person over there look more dead. Or how loud we need the chainsaw louder, or that guy doesn't look scary enough." Way more interesting than ices and loans. Kelly Molson: I love it. A massive learning curve and 180 years old. I mean, that is a phenomenal achievement. There can't be many other attractions that are coming up for that age. So this is really incredible. I think you've had a really brilliant year. Can't do this podcast without talking about Radio One as well because I've been aware of Blackgang Chine for quite a while, but I think it maybe isn't on the radar of many people because it's Isle of Wight, it's not on the mainland. But I was driving back from the gym one morning and I listened to Radio One. Kelly Molson: I listened to the Greg James breakfast show on Radio One in the mornings and they were doing this thing where they had to find one of the presenters and all the presenters were hidden up and down all over the country, and they were talking about the Isle of Wight and they kept saying, Blackgang Chine. And I was like, they're talking about Blackgang Chine. Let Laura know. I need to pull over and let Laura know. Obviously she already knew that you were being talked about, but I think how many times did he say Blackgang Chine? It was a lot. Dominic Wray: It was a lot. I think it was over 50 times. I mean, my phone was going mental, mate. If you've got the presenters because it's because we have an area called Area Five with large animatronic dinosaurs, and they thought we'd hidden them down there and they were like, "God, you're really good at keeping a secret. I can't believe you haven't told us this.". And I'm like, "No, honestly, they're not here.". I don't want to actually believe me. Well, clearly no one did. Kept ringing up Radio One to talk about it, but that was a great bit of brand profile for the business and I guess sort of showed that people were associating the element of dinosaurs to the park as well. So that's obviously positive for us. Kelly Molson: It was really good press, even if we didn't have the presenter there. It was absolutely brilliant. Dominic Wray: Yeah, it was fantastic. And then everyone was almost like, they should have been here. Kelly Molson: They should have been here. We should, we need to get Greg James back over, don't you? I mean, he said it enough, so you should get him there for a visit soon. Dominic Wray: Greg, if you're listening, come down. Kelly Molson: I mean, I'd love it if Greg listened to this podcast, but it's highly unlikely. But if you are, Greg, would you like to come on? I'd love a chat with you. I'm just around the corner of Bishop Stortford. That's where you were born, right? We could be friends. Dom, thank you for coming on the podcast. It's been brilliant to chat today. We always end the interview by asking our guests to share a book that they'd like to share with their listeners. So something that you love can be work related or it can be personal, whatever you fancy. Dominic Wray: Well, I was going to think about saying the Highway Code so people can understand how to overtake cyclists, really, but I won't. My favourite podcast at the moment is a podcast called the Big Fish that's presented by Spencer Matthews. Kelly Molson: What? Hang on. Dominic Wray: Oh, sorry, my second favourite. My second well, obviously ones that I listen to after yours. Kelly Molson: Thank you. Well recovered. Dominic Wray: Once I've listened to the latest episode, I move on to Big Fish after that. Kelly Molson: Sorry, say it again. Big Fish. Who's it by? Dominic Wray: Big Fish by Spencer Matthews, who used to be on Made in Chelsea, I think, and now owns a company called CleanCo, which is a non alcoholic brand, which is quite interesting. But I like it because he interviews lots of CEOs and business owners. It's got a bit of a sports mindset focus to it, but it's also very much around the culture in those businesses, how they've built the businesses and the challenges they face within them as well. So it's quite an interesting one. Kelly Molson: I like the sounds of that. I listen to quite a lot of podcasts like that. All right, I'm going to put Big Fish on my list. Well, there you go, listeners. You can't win a copy of this podcast because I can't give it away, but I encourage you to go and have a little listen. Maybe it'll be your number two podcast as well, who knows? Dom, thanks for coming on today. It's been lovely to have you. Congratulations on 180 years and best of luck with everything that comes next. I think you've got a really exciting new chapter that's about to start and maybe you'll come back on in a year or so and tell us how it's all gone. Dominic Wray: Yeah, sounds good. Thank you very much for having me enjoyed it. Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Upon entering a new job, there's a palpable eagerness and optimism to contribute meaningfully to the organization. Yet, with the passage of time, this enthusiasm dwindles, tainted by strained relationships with supervisors or higher-ups. This all-too-familiar story exposes the harmful consequences of toxic leadership, transforming dedicated employees into disengaged onlookers who actively oppose their own company. How can we disrupt this cycle and cultivate a workplace culture that prioritizes the well-being and sustained productivity of its employees? In this episode, I have Laura Baxter, Founder of The Voice for Leadership, who has helped individuals enhance their voice, body language, and connect with the audience effectively. During our discussion, Baxter talked about her journey from coaching to publishing to becoming an opera singer. Moreover, she discussed cultural differences in leadership and decision-making, and superficial breathing. --- Listen to the podcast here: Addressing Toxicity in Organizational Hierarchies with Laura Baxter Welcome to Action's Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. I want to tell you about a story that I've both lived and heard countless times. This is a story of someone who starts a job and starts a job actually quite optimistic about it. They're excited to do something, they're excited to join whatever organization that they're joining, but then, somehow, over time, they become really jaded, usually by problematic relationships with their immediate supervisor, with their boss or someone in a higher leadership position. And there's so many complicated reasons why that happens but the story has happened so many times that it is definitely something that we need to address because I've seen so many people suffer through some sort of situation where they normally would be good productive workers but, as a result of whatever's going on above them, they just don't care and sometimes become actively disengaged, which are the employees, they're actually rooting against their own company, which happens almost a third of the time. Quite terrible. And my guest today, Laura Baxter, is not only an opera singer and a book publisher but she's also a speaking and leadership coach. ---   Hi. Thank you, Steven. It's great to be here.    So you have a lot going on. You have a lot of different endeavors, which is always wonderful. How do you manage all of that? How do you bring it all together?    Good question. I was gonna say don't sleep much, but, I actually get enough sleep. I think the clue is that, really, I love what I do, and all of it, both of the coaching people on the presentation or giving talks or also helping people with publishing their books or whatever it has to do with helping people find their voice. So although it may seem like it's a lot of different aspects of that process, it really comes together with just helping people get their voice out there, be it their physical voice, that kind with presentation coachings, their ideas in a book or in a talk, it really has to do with finding their voice.    And, of course, singing opera, you're using your voice?   Absolutely, absolutely. I don't do opera anymore. That used to be my life. I do still do concerts, though, and I wouldn't give that up. I love that. There's something, some depth with music, so, yeah.   And so do you think that's something that most people are looking for in this life as people try to think through, okay, what job do I want, what do I want to do even in my social circles, personal life, family life, is people looking for a voice?    Yes, I do, actually. And it can be something relatively small or seemingly insignificant, just like wanting to have some recognition for what you've done in your job or being able to share your ideas and your opinions on your job and your everyday life or it can be on a larger stage.

HNN's Trevor Simpson spoke with Laura Baxter, director of hospitality analytics in Canada for CoStar Group, about how hotel occupancy has been affected by record-high area burned by wildfires in Canada this year.

On this program Benson Gregory has a long overdue conversation with Laura Baxter to catch up with all that has been going on in her ministry in Honduras over the past two years. Laura tells us a little about life during the pandemic and how God has led her to be a missionary to missionaries and their children. We talk about some of the unique challenges she's faced, how she's adapted and how you can help her serve those who serve. Joanna Ministries, Inc. seeks to work with churches and other ministries to reach teens who have been abused and may be at risk for life on the streets as well as being trafficked. We go into one of the local hospitals to talk with teens who are pregnant. We want to be available to them and let them also know that there are safe places they can go. In opening a pregnancy crisis center, we hope to reach teens who have been abused and have become pregnant. Sharing pre and post-natal care along with seeking to help heal their hearts in the process. Because of Laura's own experience in an abusive relationship, God has given her a heart for girls who have been abused; to be able to share that there is hope and healing through a relationship with Christ. Learn more about Joanna Ministries, Inc here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/423127991554349 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/benson-gregory/message

Book Vs. Movie: Don't Look Now The Daphne DuMaurier Short Story Vs. the Nicolas Roeg FilmIt's October, and the Margos are feeling excited about watching spooky movies! This week we talk about the ever-amazing Daphe DuMaurier, and her short story Don't Look Now, which was published in 1971 and later adapted by director Nicolas Roeg and starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. The story and film are considered classic tales of horror for the tale of parents dealing with the loss of a child while on vacation in Venice. John and Laura are on holiday trying to escape their grief from the death of their daughter, who died from meningitis (in the book), when they meet identical twin sisters who are older and have psychic abilities. One of the sisters is also blind. They warn the couple that their son, Johnnie, has “second sight” and will be killed if they stay in Venice. The movie has many of the same beats as the original story but is controversial for a sex scene between the leads that may or may not be “real.” The movie is considered a classic in horror and a “must-see” for its editing and acting. This episode is sponsored by Kensington Books and A Ghost in Shining Armor, the novel by Therese Beharrie.ROM-COM WITH A TOUCH OF MAGIC: This Cape Town-set rom-com is the second in a duology about two South African sisters who were separated as children when one was adopted, and the other went into foster care. After reuniting as adults, they learn they've each developed unique abilities. The previous book focused on the sister who can manifest her dreams. This book revolves around Gemma, who can see and communicate with ghosts. FOR FANS OF: This #OwnVoices romantic comedy is ideal for fans of authors who have found success blending romance, comedy, and more weighty real-world issues, such as Jasmine Guillory, Abby Jimenez, Helen Hoang, & Alisha Rai. Readers who enjoy authors bringing new perspectives to the world of romance, such as Talia Hibbert and Erin Sterling will also be pleased. Once haunted . . . Gemma Daniels has never been quite the “down to earth” woman her adoptive parents raised her to be. She even has a unique gift: she can see ghosts and likes helping them settle their unfinished business. But the hotter-than-hot stranger she impulsively kisses on a bet is not only a phantom; he's determined to help her. And the only way Gemma can explain his presence is to pretend they're a real-life couple. Twice shy . . . Levi Walker lived—and died—to save his sister. Now he's got a second chance at life if he assists Gemma in reuniting with her long-lost sibling . . . and then never sees Gemma again. But as he starts to enjoy her irrepressible personality, he's finding it hard to abide by any rules at all . . . Gemma is thrilled to be getting to know her sister, but it causes a family rift she may be unable to heal. On top of that, she's falling for a ghost with a dilemma. Levi must decide what loyalty—and living—is truly all about. Gemma and Levi must risk being real with each other to fix their mistakes if they are ever to claim true love.Visit her online at Therese Beharrie and on Twitter @ThereseBeharrie.In this ep the Margos discuss:The life of Daphne DuMaurierThe plot of the story in the original version versus the filmThe controversy around the movie and why it is considered a classic horror taleThe cast: Julie Christie (Laura Baxter,) Donald Sutherland (John Baxter,) Hilary Mason (Heather,) Clelia Metania (Wendy,) Massimo Serato (Bishop Barbarrigo,) Renato Scarpa (Inspector Longhi,) Giogio Trestini (Workman,) Leopoldo Trieste (hotel manager,) David Tree (Anthony Babbage,) Ann Rye (Mandy Babbage,) Nicholas Salter (Johnny Baxter,) Sharon Williams (Christine Baxter,) Bruno Cattaneo (Detective Sabbione,) and Adelina Poerio as the murderer.Clips used:Laura Baxter meets the sistersDon't Look Now trailer Christine drownsRichard almost fallsRichard searches for the “girl” in the red slicker/MacMusic by Pino DonaggioBook Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts. Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.comEmail us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.comMargo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/ Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine.

Book Vs. Movie: Don't Look Now The Daphne DuMaurier Short Story Vs. the Nicolas Roeg FilmIt's October, and the Margos are feeling excited about watching spooky movies! This week we talk about the ever-amazing Daphe DuMaurier, and her short story Don't Look Now, which was published in 1971 and later adapted by director Nicolas Roeg and starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. The story and film are considered classic tales of horror for the tale of parents dealing with the loss of a child while on vacation in Venice. John and Laura are on holiday trying to escape their grief from the death of their daughter, who died from meningitis (in the book), when they meet identical twin sisters who are older and have psychic abilities. One of the sisters is also blind. They warn the couple that their son, Johnnie, has “second sight” and will be killed if they stay in Venice. The movie has many of the same beats as the original story but is controversial for a sex scene between the leads that may or may not be “real.” The movie is considered a classic in horror and a “must-see” for its editing and acting. This episode is sponsored by Kensington Books and A Ghost in Shining Armor, the novel by Therese Beharrie.ROM-COM WITH A TOUCH OF MAGIC: This Cape Town-set rom-com is the second in a duology about two South African sisters who were separated as children when one was adopted, and the other went into foster care. After reuniting as adults, they learn they've each developed unique abilities. The previous book focused on the sister who can manifest her dreams. This book revolves around Gemma, who can see and communicate with ghosts. FOR FANS OF: This #OwnVoices romantic comedy is ideal for fans of authors who have found success blending romance, comedy, and more weighty real-world issues, such as Jasmine Guillory, Abby Jimenez, Helen Hoang, & Alisha Rai. Readers who enjoy authors bringing new perspectives to the world of romance, such as Talia Hibbert and Erin Sterling will also be pleased. Once haunted . . . Gemma Daniels has never been quite the “down to earth” woman her adoptive parents raised her to be. She even has a unique gift: she can see ghosts and likes helping them settle their unfinished business. But the hotter-than-hot stranger she impulsively kisses on a bet is not only a phantom; he's determined to help her. And the only way Gemma can explain his presence is to pretend they're a real-life couple. Twice shy . . . Levi Walker lived—and died—to save his sister. Now he's got a second chance at life if he assists Gemma in reuniting with her long-lost sibling . . . and then never sees Gemma again. But as he starts to enjoy her irrepressible personality, he's finding it hard to abide by any rules at all . . . Gemma is thrilled to be getting to know her sister, but it causes a family rift she may be unable to heal. On top of that, she's falling for a ghost with a dilemma. Levi must decide what loyalty—and living—is truly all about. Gemma and Levi must risk being real with each other to fix their mistakes if they are ever to claim true love.Visit her online at Therese Beharrie and on Twitter @ThereseBeharrie.In this ep the Margos discuss:The life of Daphne DuMaurierThe plot of the story in the original version versus the filmThe controversy around the movie and why it is considered a classic horror taleThe cast: Julie Christie (Laura Baxter,) Donald Sutherland (John Baxter,) Hilary Mason (Heather,) Clelia Metania (Wendy,) Massimo Serato (Bishop Barbarrigo,) Renato Scarpa (Inspector Longhi,) Giogio Trestini (Workman,) Leopoldo Trieste (hotel manager,) David Tree (Anthony Babbage,) Ann Rye (Mandy Babbage,) Nicholas Salter (Johnny Baxter,) Sharon Williams (Christine Baxter,) Bruno Cattaneo (Detective Sabbione,) and Adelina Poerio as the murderer.Clips used:Laura Baxter meets the sistersDon't Look Now trailer Christine drownsRichard almost fallsRichard searches for the “girl” in the red slicker/MacMusic by Pino DonaggioBook Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts. Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.comEmail us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.comMargo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/ Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine.

Zum Redner - Profil von Laura Baxter: https://www.expert-marketplace.de/redner/laura-baxter-leadership/ Bestellen Sie jetzt kostenfrei unsere Top 100 Kataloge und finden Sie den perfekten Referenten für jeden Anlass: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/service/katalogbestellung/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mehr Informationen zu Speakers Excellence unter: www.speakers-excellence.de Abonnieren Sie unseren Kanal für weitere spannende Impulse: https://www.youtube.com/speakersexcellencetv Folgen Sie uns auch auf ... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/speakers.excellence/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakersexcellence/ dem Speakers Excellence Blog: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/se/blog/

(00:00-7:23): Why are some Americans choosing to stay in Afghanistan? Brian and Aubrey talked about this and discussed Jen Oshman's Gospel Coalition article, “The Americans Staying in Afghanistan.”  (7:23-16:40): Kate Shellnutt, Senior News Editor for Christianity Today joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about her articles, “Colorado Christian School Faces Shutdown Threat Over COVID-19 Response,” and “Max Lucado Diagnosed with an Aortic Aneurysm, Asks for Prayer” Learn more about Kate at kateshellnutt.com and connect with her on Twitter at @kateshellnutt (16:40-24:02): Brian and Aubrey unpacked Laura Baxter's Gospel Coalition article, “Can I Get My Hair Cut Under a Rainbow Flag?”  (24:02-32:47): Brian and Aubrey shared their thoughts on Vaneetha Rendall Risner's Christianity Today article, “How Should We Pray When We Suffer?” (32:47-42:23): Brian and Aubrey shared their TOP FIVE Board Games. Aubrey's #1 pick was Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition and Brian's #1 pick was Yahtzee.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Was kann eine „Diva” uns beibringen? Laura Baxter, die in Deutschland lebende amerikanische Opernsängerin, Regisseurin und Performance-Coach, beschäftigt sich seit rund 25 Jahren mit der Wirkung der Stimme und des Körpers. Präsenz ist für sie ein wesentlicher Schlüssel zu mehr Erfolg – auf der Bühne, bei Präsentationen oder im Umgang mit anderen Menschen. In ihren Keynote-Vorträgen und LeaderAbenden® verbindet Laura Baxter Musik und Gesang mit Führungsthemen. Sie war Dozentin an der Duke University (USA) und ist seit 1999 Dozentin an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen. Als Regisseurin hat sie mehr als 30 Musicals auf die Bühne gebracht. Sie ist Preisträgerin des begehrten Louis Sudler Award for the Arts von Emory University (USA) und des German Speakers Association Newcomer-Casting Awards 2011. Sie ist Autorin des Buches „Dealing with Divas und anderen schwierigen Persönlichkeiten” auf Deutsch und Englisch (Castle Mount Media), Co-Autorin von „Impulse: Präsentieren und Aktivieren” (Jünger Verlag) und „Die besten Ideen für mehr Humor” (Sabine Asgodom, Hrsg. GABAL Verlag). Zum Redner - Profil von Laura Baxter: https://www.expert-marketplace.de/redner/laura-baxter-leadership/ Bestellen Sie jetzt kostenfrei unsere Top 100 Kataloge und finden Sie den perfekten Referenten für jeden Anlass: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/service/katalogbestellung.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mehr Informationen zu Speakers Excellence unter: www.speakers-excellence.de Abonnieren Sie unseren Kanal für weitere spannende Impulse: https://www.youtube.com/speakersexcellencetv Folgen Sie uns auch auf ... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/speakers.excellence/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakersexcellence/ dem Speakers Excellence Blog: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/se/blog/

Today's episode is dedicated to our beautiful pre-school children who are graduating and moving on to big school. Wishing each and every one of you the best of luck, it has been an honour to have you at Twizzle Tops, and we can't wait to see what mountains you go on to move. We are so proud of everything you've achieved and today's story is a little reminder that you can do anything you put your mind to. Oh The Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss Read by Laura Baxter from Twizzle Tops Head Office Find out more about Twizzle Tops Nursery at - https://www.twizzletops.co.uk/

It's Elmer Day! A day inspired by the star of today's wonderful Elmer, the patchwork elephant, which is written by David McKee to celebrate our individuality. Why don't you get dressed up and have a parade at home? Elmer, by David McKee Read by Laura Baxter, Nursery Marketer Find out more about Twizzle Tops Nursery at - https://www.twizzletops.co.uk/

Oh no! It's a GRUFFALO! Not that it bothers the brave little mouse. Are you feeling brave today? Why not have a go at something you're a little nervous of, just think of that courageous little mouse. The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson Read by Laura Baxter, Nursery Marketer Find out more about Twizzle Tops Nursery at - https://www.twizzletops.co.uk/

Publik talk with Laura Baxter

Laura Baxter tells us how God prepared her to answer a big call to leave a successful, happy life in Central Kentucky and move to Honduras to minister to women escaping the sex industry. She had very little financial support, knew very few people and barely spoke the language, but she knew this is what God wanted her to do. She left home for a life far outside the comfort zone for most of us. But helping rescue women from sex trafficking was only the beginning. When COVID-19 and then not one but two hurricanes hit, Laura stepped up her mission work to the next level by serving those who serve. Talking to Laura you get the impression God is just getting started with her. I can't imagine the amazing things she will accomplish in the coming decades. Joanna Ministries, Inc. seeks to work with churches and other ministries to reach teens who have been abused and may be at risk for life on the streets as well as being trafficked. We go into one of the local hospitals to talk with teens who are pregnant. We want to be available to them and let them also know that there are safe places they can go. In opening a pregnancy crisis center, we hope to reach teens who have been abused and have become pregnant. Sharing pre and post-natal care along with seeking to help heal their hearts in the process. Because of Laura's own experience in an abusive relationship, God has given her a heart for girls who have been abused; to be able to share that there is hope and healing through a relationship with Christ. Learn more about Joanna Ministries, Inc here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/423127991554349 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/benson-gregory/message

Independent researcher, Laura Baxter talks to the Voice of the Child about her research on children's experiences of contact with their birth parents during the COVID-19 outbreak. The research is the first of its kind in the UK.

Marketing into the public sector is tough.  We find out that recruitment marketing in the public sector is even tougher with Laura Baxter from Social Personnel.  She tells us about how storytelling (starting her own podcast) has positioned the business as true experts in the markets that the cover. Laura is committed to her own personal development as well and talks to us about her journey on the Google Squared course that has given her the knowledge and belief to put her stamp on things. A really fun episode which you'll have to listen to, to understand the reference to the naughty toys... Thanks to the team at Paiger for sponsoring this, and all of our episodes throughout 2020.

In the very first episode of The Social Work Tutor Interviews series, SWT speaks to recruitment experts Chris Griffin and Laura Baxter from Social Personnel about:  The social work recruitment crisis in the UK Why 1 in 6 social work positions are vacant Changing the public perception of social work The differences between permanent and agency work Getting paid with a pint of beer And loads more...

Laura has a one of a kind job in Recruitment which she absolutely loves which was very evident!   Speaking to people who genuinely love what they do tends to be a rarity in todays workplace so it was great fun to uncover what Laura does within a forward thinking Recruitment business.   What does your aftercare process look like?   I think more agencies should recruit people dedicated to ensuring their placed candidates are happy!

TweetThe post Ascended Masters At Work, 6/8/17 Guest, Laura Baxter appeared first on Maximize Your Wealth. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TweetThe post Ascended Masters At Work, 7/15/17 Guest, Laura Baxter appeared first on Maximize Your Wealth. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Laura Baxter- For over 25 years, Laura Baxter, the American Opera Singer and Performance Expert have studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership. Through her seminars, university courses and keynote speeches, she shares her research and experience not only with actors and singers but also with business and political leaders worldwide. She helps her clients to excel both on and off the stage! Ms. Baxter uses her stage experience to help business and political leaders to overcome stress and to excel in difficult situations. She also gives keynote speeches on the international stage, in which she combines musical theater and business themes into an entertaining, inspiring and informative event for everyone. In 2011 Ms. Baxter won the German Speakersʼ Association (GSA) Newcomer Casting Award with her Keynote Speech “The Power of Presence!” Ms. Baxter is also considered to be one of Speakersʼ Excellenceʼs Top 100 Trainers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition to her performance career, Laura Baxter was on the vocal faculty at the renown Duke University and has been on the faculty at the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, since 1999, and she co-authored the book Die besten Ideen für mehr Humor (“The Best Ideas for more Humor”, GABAL Verlag Top Speakers Edition, 2013).   Listen to another #12minconvo 

In this episode, I talk about Nicolas Roeg's 1973 psychological horror film, "Don't Look Now." It's about John and Laura Baxter, a British couple who have recently lost their young daughter, Christine, and are living in Venice, Italy when they meet two sisters, one of which is psychic and says she can see and communicate with Christine. The film is based on the Daphne du Maurier short story of the same name. I explore many things in this episode, including the horror of loss and the human longing to know what happens after a loved one dies. At the beginning of the episode, I also discuss the sexual assault and harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein and other men in Hollywood. I question if there will be institutional, systemic change. Consider making this podcast sustainable by supporting it on Patreon. Subscribe to the Her Head in Films Newsletter. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. Original artwork by Dhiyanah Hassan

This week, Sam welcomes coach and singer Laura Baxter. Laura, the American opera singer and performance coach has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years. In addition to her many stage performances, Laura was the singing voice of Faye Dunaway in the feature film A Handmade's Tale. Laura is coauthor of several German books, and her new book Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful Approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization released in May 2017! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-conscious-consultant-hour8505/donations

Would you like to know how to better handle difficult customer service situations? Shep interviews Laura Baxter, author of Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization!. First Up: Shep begins the show by discussing difficult customers. He briefly goes over his Five Step Process to dealing with customer complaints, and explains how some customers are more demanding or sometimes more unreasonable than others. Sometimes, we need to understand our customers’ personalities to resolve their complaint. That’s what customer service is all about – understanding who your customer is and trying to adapt to their personality. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview with asking Laura for her definition of “Diva.” Laura provides a bit of history about the word Diva, as well as her own definition. She then continues to explain how a Diva doesn’t have to be female. A Diva can be a man, customer, co-worker, or anyone you have issues with. Laura then discusses her new book, introduces the acronym D.I.V.A., and shares how to overcome difficult customers. They discuss the importance of how a Diva or difficult customer interaction must not negatively affect the rest of your encounters. You need to find your triggers and be able to reprogram yourself to react more calmly in tough situations. The key is to adapt to the difficult personality. Stop, look, and listen to discover the needs of the difficult customer so you can better assess how to take care of the Diva/difficult personality, and connect with them. Top Takeaways: • DIVA stands for: o D – Define the situation o I – Finding your Inner strength o V – Valuing yourself and the other person (understand them) o A – Associating with the Diva • Stop, Look, and Listen before dealing with the difficult customer. o Stop – Pause for a moment and make sure you are centered and calm in this moment. o Look – Watch what they are doing. Watch how they are, and what signals can you get from their behavior that show their needs? Perhaps even hidden needs. o Listen - Listen to the words they say and how they say it and mirror back what they are saying to you. • The Four Most Powerful Mental States - Try to master being in these states and you will be successful. o Love o Gratitude o Forgiveness o Play About: Laura Baxter is an American opera singer, author, and performance coach. She has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. She is the coauthor of several German books and sole author of her new book, “Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization.” Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quote/Excerpt: “This whole psychological side of performance is so important; it’s half the game – it really is. Knowing the techniques behind what you need is certainly very important, but the psychological side is just as important.” Today my very special guest is Laura Baxter, an American opera singer, performance coach and professional speaker who currently lives in Germany. In her coaching, she uses innovative approaches to help her clients master having a strong inner presence, while owning the room and exuding a dynamic and exciting outer presence. In her keynotes, she combines leadership and music together in such talks as the Karman Effect: A Strong Woman for a Strong Leadership. She has just released her latest book, Dealing with Divas: A Mindful Approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization, in which she helps the reader master two things: 1) to remain calm, centered and focused while dealing with difficult people and 2) to reach his or her goal. I really enjoyed talking to Laura and I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as well. Laura’s work with Presence My focus has become two things. With presence, a very strong inner presence. How do you remain centered and calm and focused and absolutely confident in situations where you know you might either be attacked or you know that it could be a difficult situation where it really counts. As well as the strong outer presence, so owning the room. How do you use your voice? How do you use the body language? How do you walk into the room and be noticed? That’s where my work has gone. How to develop your inner presence The main thing about that is you’ve got to be centered and focused. There are several different methods that are built into that, but one of which – and it’s probably the most well-known – is the deep breath. One of the most important, most valuable things about the deep breath, one of the things that disables us to breathe deeply is our posture. In saying that – I mean everyone says, “Oh yeah, you’ve got to stand up straight,” but the problem is if you stand up straight like a military standing at attention, you actually cut off your breath. The most important thing about the posture is being able to be in a more aerobic posture, as if you’re jogging, or as if you’re moving around because you can then release the abs to have a deep breath. The 4 most powerful states In the book I talk about having a strong physiology in order to be centered in focused, how do you bring yourself into a really strong physiology, how do you bring yourself into a strong mental state, how do you bring yourself into a very strong emotional state as well. The four most powerful states are the state of love, of gratitude – which is super important if you want to be successful – forgiveness and of play. How to own the room The HeartMath Institute in California discovered that every one of us has an electromagnetic field that we emit from the solar plexus of our body, from the heart area. Basically one of the things I train my clients to do is control that emotion or emoting of energy in the sense that you can make yourself very large, in other words, really little to fill the room with your energy, or you can make yourself small in order to be recognized, in order to have that outer presence. As soon as you walk into a room, one of the key elements is that energetic field.   Mentions Connect with Laura on Facebook and Twitter. Visit Laura’s website at Voice4Leadership.com Get Laura’s book here: Dealing with Divas and Other Difficult Personalities

Laura Baxter, the American opera singer and performance coach has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. In addition to her many stage performances, Laura was the singing voice of Faye Dunaway […]

Laura Baxter, the American opera singer and performance coach has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. In addition to her many stage performances, Laura was the singing voice of Faye Dunaway […]

Laura Baxter who is an American opera singer, performance coach, and professional speaker living in Germany.  She is co-author of several Books in German and will be realeasing her new (solo) book this Spring, "Dealing with Divas - A Mindful Approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization" in which she helps the reader master two things: to remain calm, centered and focussed while dealing with difficult people and to reach his/her goal.   For her, gratitude and love are the two most important emotions and I agree with her.    Become a supporter of this podcast:https://anchor.fm/the-gratitude-podcast/support

Laura Baxter is an American opera singer, trainer and international keynote speaker who has been rocking the stage in Europe with examples of how to take the stage and own the room! She lives in Germany and works with executives and speakers worldwide to help them exude presence. Laura is currently writing the book “Dealing […]

Laura Baxter is an American opera singer, trainer and international keynote speaker who has been rocking the stage in Europe with examples of how to take the stage and own the room! She lives in Germany and works with executives and speakers worldwide to help them exude presence. Laura is currently writing the book “Dealing […]