Today we’d like to introduce you to Lenn Millbower.
Hi Lenn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story is very long, so let me summarize. I was a childhood magician, then a professional musician. Ten years later, I hired on at Walt Disney World. My Disney career moved through a variety of positions: EPCOT Future World ride leader, Disney’s Hollywood Studios entertainment coordinator then supervisor, EPCOT Entertainment training lead, Disney’s Animal Kingdom opening crew, Disney University instructional designer, Disney Institute programs owner, Disney character training team leader, Walt Disney Entertainment Training point person. After 25 years, I left and am now in my 16th year working as an author, speaker, and organizational consultant.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t call it smooth. Being a solo entity requires you to learn all sorts of things you never thought about. You have to be your own boss, clerical support, budget analyst, IT specialist, website designer, paralegal, and much, much more. It’s a good thing I didn’t know what I would have to learn. I might not have started. I’m glad I came into it kind of naive.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The unusual thing about my career is that my former Disney leaders and my clients are the ones who identified and applied my talents. Someone would approach me and ask for help in an area I’d never considered before. Over a period of years, three streams of expertise came into focus: Learnertainment® training, pixie-dusted keynotes and workshops, and cultural transformations. Those focus areas continue to dominate my work.
Learnertainment® training – I recently presented a successful webinar session on Learnertainment®, my fusion of learning and entertainment techniques for The Trainer’s Warehouse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bTh-loF2Nk). Called Disney-Inspired Training Techniques, this session was drawn from my long history as both an entertainer and a trainer. Learnertainment® is an excellent fit for that organization, and my attendees see the value.
The Santa System – One major change since our prior interview is the publication of my book, The Santa System (https://www.amazon.com/Santa-System-Leader-Lessons-North/dp/B0DLMRWFFM/). It answers a question that I always wondered about. If Santa were real, how would he run his North Pole workshop? His enterprise identifies the naughty and nice, fills gift orders, and delivers them in one night. An organization that does all that would be massive and, as the children of the world can attest, Santa is highly successful. I wondered what those of us in the real world could learn from Santa’s experience. Although the book touches on the fantastic, it’s not a fantasy. It is, as much as possible, approaches the subject as if the workshop were real, and then identifies practical applications for real world organizations and personnel. Trainers, leaders, and consultants all tell me it helps them succeed. The reviews on Amazon.com, for instance, have been stellar.
Keynotes and Workshops – I recently delivered webinars for both HRDQ-U and the Training Magazine Network. For HRDQ-U, the title was Santa’s Holiday Wish: I Want Effective Leadership for Christmas (https://hrdqu.com/webinar/i-want-effective-leadership-for-christmas/). Training Magazine hosted Happy Elves Make Happy Toys (https://www.trainingmagnetwork.com/events/4230). Both sessions were ideal for leaders, human resource personnel, employees, and others seeking a different way of framing the challenges they face. And they were extremely well attended. Both sessions were recorded and are available from the hosting companies.
Cultural transformations – The other activity I’m heavily involved in is organizational culture transformations based on my book Care Like a Mouse. Most organizations are not truly broken. It’s just that there is so little time to think about larger issues. Solving the problem(s) of the day becomes the focus. Fire drills, if you will. The irony is that addressing five critical questions make the fires easier to put out and often prevents them for starting. Those larger questions?
1. Purpose – What higher purpose, beyond a paycheck, does the organization and its team members serve?
2. Priorities – What consistent parameters are used to respond in every situation?
3. People – Does the organization’s treatment of people—customers, employees, vendors—align with its purpose?
4. Presentation – Is the service offering effectively staged to communicate purpose?
5. Process – Do the organization’s procedures deliver purpose, priorities, people, and presentation?
There is real power in examining an organization though these filters. It’s magic really, and something I have applied to widely different organizations, including a 100-store grocery chain, a utility company, and a 2,000-person hospital system.
Happily, I’ve discovered that most organizations are not failures. It’s usually a case where different departments, functions, and employee levels lack unified expectations and processes. My job is to drill down to the organization’s essence and articulate its goals and expectations in a cogent manner that the entire organization will believe in and support.
For instance, one organization I worked with had a high employee satisfaction score. The employees liked their fellow employees, their work hours, and their leaders. Seems ideal, doesn’t it? It is … as long as those three things stay the same. But if the hours, personnel, or leaders changed, there would be no reason for those employees to stay. Almost universally, the employees described the place as like family, neighbors, community. They even called their customers ‘members.’ Based on their observations, I redefined their purpose as supporting the neighborhood. I whittled their existing twelve performance behaviors down to five and placed them in a neighborhood “WATCH” acronym. With their purpose and priorities then in place, the organization began revitalizing themselves to align people, presentation, and process with the neighborhood motif. It was a smashing success, and something that was already innate in the organization, but never noticed or structured before. That’s how big the fire drills were.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I’ve performed in 48 of the fifty US States and even spent a year performing on a cruise ship. Through all of my adventures I’ve learned one overarching message. Do what you love.
Life is too short and none of us know how long we have on planet Earth. Why waste time? During my visit to the North Pole, for instance, I asked Santa why he was willing to let me put his secrets in a book. He replied, “It’s simple really. We want to help. Adults need magic too. Think about the amount of time they spend at work—about a third of their lives! I’ve seen both nice and naughty children grow up to be stuck and frustrated in jobs or industries they hate. That’s a lot of time to be unhappy. Santa Claus brings joy to the children of the world. Why should adults be left out?”
He had a point. Don’t be left out. Do what you love.
That’s what I’m doing.
I’ll continue working with clients and I’m presenting Training Gone Wild: Lessons Learned Launching Disney’s Animal Kingdom at The Training Conference 2026. We’re also planning a summer 2026 webinar, Training Tools for Summer Blues: From Restless to Attentive to Engaged, for HRDQ-U, and there will be more webinars, keynotes, and workshops for internal groups. The goal is to help people be more, do better, and, borrowing a phrase from Santa, bring their unique joy into the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.offbeattraining.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lennmillbower/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/likeamouse
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennmillbower/
- Twitter: https://x.com/SantaSystemBook
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYfTAJKA544
- Other: https://santa-system.com
Image Credits
Al photos courtesy Lenn Millbower
