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A Transcript of  “From Behind the Chair with Alan Eschenburg,” radio show.  This show is so powerful, it will change your life by listening, and for those who don’t have the time to listen, here it is in print! (listen at WGRNRadio.com)

Alan:           Welcome, my name is Alan Eschenburg, From Behind the Chair(click here to listen) and today I have a very, very special guest.  Before I introduce this incredible guest, the reason I do this show is because I find the most fascinating things out about people just from standing behind the chair coloring and cutting their hair.  It reminds me of when I was in beauty school.  My beauty school instructor said, “Well now you don’t need to go to college to learn everything there is to learn in this world.  What you need to do is you need to stand behind the chair and you need to talk, talk, talk and listen, listen, listen,” and that’s exactly what I did.  I’ve been listening to people now for almost 30 years from behind the chair and I have collected some of the most fascinating information.  I’ve collected a most incredible guest list and clientele list and today I have Cynthia Harriss, that’s spelled H-a-r-r-i-s-s.  Quickly get your notepad out.  If you’re online, you want to Google that name and spell it right because you’re going to see pictures of her; you’re going to want to study more about her.  Cynthia, welcome, welcome, welcome to the show.  Are you there?

Cynthia:      I am and Alan, what an introduction.  I love it.  I have to add one more thing that your beauty school teacher probably forgot to add is that the ultimate that you become one of the wisest men there is.  So, you’ve gone certainly beyond humility a wealth of information from others have become such a wise man and such a good friend.  So I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to spend an hour with you and your guests.

Alan:           Thank you so much.  Wow, and why do I get goose bumps all the time is people like you.  I am always impressed, Cynthia, with how humble you are about everything and today I’m going to be asking questions that, you know,  kind of go outside of the norm when we interview people, typically because you know, behind the chair there’s something so intimate that goes on.  And I remember when I first start working with your hair, you came in and by the way, go ahead and Google it up right now, because you’re going to want to see some pictures of her from the past.  You’re going to see some short hair and you came to me with….you know, you’re a beautiful, gorgeous, stunning woman.  Your presence like walks in the room before you even get there and you had this hair that was breaking off and we looked together to create some miracles and magic and what I noticed about you is you had a plan.  You saw a vision for yourself and you trusted me to bring that vision together.  And you know, if you look at the pictures from say, the mid 90’s, which you’ll kind of tell by the styles of clothing and the backgrounds, you’ll see that Cynthia had one particular look and then you’ll see her new look which is hot.  You’ve got long, gorgeous, luscious hair and so, take a look at that and just keep those pictures up and of course you’re going to want to search around, all around Cynthia’s past.  But Cynthia, you know, you taught me something.  You came to me and you said, “I’m redesigning my life.”  And I was the fortunate person you chose to help you put that together.  Can you tell me about, you know, how you go about designing your life at this point?

Cynthia:      That’s a big topic, so first and foremost, I just have to give a commercial for Allen.  He does, he is a miracle worker.  And what I did visit Alan actually and probably worth saying, because so much of people’s credibility, and I think it ties right back into your topic, is the fact that you make your reputation every single day; regardless of how you’re choosing to design your life.  And the fact that I came to know Alan because he had done my sister; my sister, Shauna Clarke is an incredible woman who had an impressive career with the oil business.  They traveled  her around the world.  But periodically, that she would end up back in Texas and every time she was in Texas, she would find Alan.  So she’s the one that just said, “For your dilemmas here, I want to introduce you to Alan and oh, by the way, you two are going to become best friends,” which has currently all come to pass and in that fashion.  But I’ll just make a comment and I think we’ll let the conversation take it where it will.  But all of us, these milestones in our lives, and they are opportunities for us to pause and sometimes they are thrust upon us because they’re circumstances that we didn’t predict or whatever, but suddenly it looks like it may be scary or it’s something that’s extraordinary and looks like, boy, something that I don’t know if I can even tackle.  But those are the real opportunities for us to step forward and grow.  But most importantly, embrace it and make a choice that says I’m going to be a part of this and it will be extraordinary.  And I will say in the last several years that I’ve known Alan, beyond the fact that I have beautiful golden blond locks, that are gorgeous, but beyond that, many extraordinary things have come to pass.  And I think most importantly is being clear about your expectations, being optimistic, being positive, roll with the punches  and you know, be courageous in tackling new things.  So, I mean, that’s kind of it in a general sense.

Alan:           Well that, you’ve said it very generally speaking, but there are some particular things that I know you’ve said to me through the years that have just impacted me so greatly.  And you know, probably all the great thinkers and there’s a bunch of self-help books and continual videos and you know, all of that what-not on the internet teaching us these things, but you do something very, very practical.  I remember you told me, “Let’s just get a piece of paper out.”  And I was really shocked because, you know, your background is so incredible and you know, we want to get to some of those stories in just a few minutes, but you know, I expected you to have some kind of magic technology that was on the computer or you know, charts and algorithms and this and that and the other because what you’ve accomplished with so many different companies; it seems like miraculous and technologically impossible.  So when you said, “Let’s just pull a piece a paper out,” I was shocked, number one.  I still carry those pieces of paper with me because I refer to them still to this day and it’s been many, many years.  But you I remember said, “Let’s take a walk on the beach,” and on paper….

Cynthia:      Well, probably a note for myself about go be thoughtful and go be clear.  And my conversations about taking a walk on a beach started well before I lived at the beach and part of that vision was that someday I could, which I do.  But I won’t tell you…I will just use this as a means of  sharing it as a story about how I ended up coming to California.  I had been working for a firm based in the Midwest.  It was Paul Harris Stores.  It was a lovely company that I had grown up with and I had worked there in retail.  During the time I was going through with what’s next with me in life more than just in job.  And I recall going in and having that conversation with my boss and telling him that it’s time for me to leave and he said at the time, “Well, where are you going?”  And I said, “I have no clue and probably maybe it’s treacherous for me to share this with you at this point, but I trust you and we’ve worked together a long time and frankly, you’d know if I was looking for something else.  So I just wanted to let you know that it’s time for me to figure out what’s next in life because a lot of condition one, not only at work, but personally and frankly, as much as I grew up in the Midwest and have great fond memories of growing up there, I was always yearning to get to one of the coasts,” in particular to California, which is where I live now.  And I recall that he actually nudged me a little when he said, you know, “Go have one of your walks at the beach,” which is against code because when you live in  Indianapolis, Indiana, there aren’t many beaches around.  So but I took him literally on that and his comment was go figure out what’s going to be important for your life and it’ll all work out.  And I really do perceive that he thought that after my thoughtfulness, that I’d come back and say that I would be staying where I was because that was a great opportunity; which it was.  But I literally got on an airplane and flew to my favorite beach which is Laguna Beach, California which is where I live and this is many years before I moved here and spent several days and literally that’s what I did; is I walked on the beach and almost non-stop in just being thoughtful.  But what I did was I made a list of what was important for my life, not for my job.  And I can recall vividly, this was in 1992, that I had on there that you know, I wanted to work in a creative environment, I wanted to be in contribution, I wanted to, frankly, be in California and a variety of things that were important to me.  And I made my list and mulled it over, got back on the plane, came back to Indiana, made an appointment, sat down with my boss and I said, “You know, well, that was a fantastic suggestion that you had.  It was a great exercise.  Not only did I enjoy the sunshine and my favorite place, but I’m clear.”  And he’s like, “Okay,” and I said, “ And I’m definitely leaving.”  For sure it was definitely not what he wanted to hear.  I mean, we spent about four hours making conversation and just at the end of it he said, “You’re so clear you are ****.  I’ll be supportive.  Tell me what I can do to help you,” etc.  And literally I walked back in my office and I am not kidding, that literally within minutes I had a phone call from a **** for a job opportunity that changed my life, that was for an opportunity to interview for a position with the Disney Stores which were based in California, working for a creative company, working in a position that would give me an opportunity to contribute, to utilize my skills, and I could live in the fantastic place that I wanted to live.  And you know, six months later, I was living the dream.  And whereas I wish I’d remind myself to do this more often, it sounds just like everybody, everybody; I’ll get stuck and look at what I don’t have or what’s not working or wringing my hands about something that is unfortunate.  But the universe, I believe, always provides for us.  There is extraordinary abundance for us and frankly all it is is for us to get clear and the clearer we are, it shows up the way it’s supposed to show up.  I believe in, you know, the aspect that there’s a place on this earthy for a positive, extraordinary life and I perceive I’ve been fortunate to have lived much of that.  And like I said, every once in awhile when I get like, you know, oooh, oooh, oooh, *****, I actually just need to remind myself to get the notebook out and write down what is it that I have and be grateful for it which I think is first and foremost.  And when we look at all of that, then you’re like…gets you out of the…for me.  And then second of all, what is it that I want now and what is it that I can contribute now, and how could that show up.  And it does.  You know, beyond that, I will say it does take a little courage, once you’re even clear, to get moving and I will say the **** was the ****.  I did it, I got moved and it literally has changed my life for the better in many, many, many ways.

Alan:           Ha ha, well, I got to tell you, I don’t want to take a break, but we’ve got to take a break real quick and I’ve got to get a new pad of paper because I’ve got to take fresh notes again.  I mean that’s all there is to it.  We’ll be right back.

Alan:           And we’re back.   This is Alan, From Behind the Chair with Cynthia Harriss, H-a-r-r-i-s-s.  I spell it out for you because you’re going to want to Google that name so that you can see her gorgeous photos while you’re listening to us and also, you want to pass this recording and this on to your friends…all of your…if you have a sister, if you have a girlfriend, if you have a cousin who is interested in making the best of her life or his life for that matter, you want to listen to some of the magic secrets that Cynthia Harriss has to tell us.  And Cynthia, just a moment ago you told us that something changed your life after you took that walk on the beach.  You got a call from Disney.  Can you tell us about that story and how…what happened?

Cynthia:      When I went to the Disney Stores or…?

Alan:           Yea, when you started with the Disney Stores and here you are at the Disney Stores and you know, your life has changed.  You obviously said you wanted to alter your life as you took that walk on the beach and you said you needed to work with creative people.

Cynthia:      Yep, yep, yep.

Alan:           It sounds like you really did that, and then you did the Disney Stores, but then something else really happened and that was when you went to Disneyland.

Cynthia:      Yes, I was again incredibly fortunate.  At the time the Disneyland, which is the crown jewel of all of the theme parks around the world, was undergoing an incredible expansion.  The…Michael Eisner at the time, Chairman of Disney, had tapped Paul Pressler, who I had had the opportunity to work with at the Disney Stores, and they tapped Paul to lead that endeavor of essentially doubling the size of the resort.  Quite the challenge because of the fact that Disneyland is situated in an urban area, so this was, you know, an incredible maneuver of utilizing the current footprint of …the parking lot became a new park, then the parking structure was developed, so essentially it went from a park and a hotel to two parks and three hotels and a Downtown Disney and all of the infrastructure.  And Paul, when he asked me to join the team, we were sitting there and having the discussion about all the exciting things going on and who wouldn’t be intrigued about the chance to be a part of something historic as that…but I pointed out, just a minor little point that I had never worked at the theme park and in fact, because of that I had grown up in the Midwest, that had really grown up not going to the theme parks.  It was certainly a very special occasion for someone like myself to go as opposed to individuals that perhaps grew up in Florida or in California.  So, his comment which was very compelling was the fact that there were very talented individuals within the company that would be a part of building the new resort.  But the real challenge that we had before us was how to gracefully help and support the cast members, the team of individuals that operate Disneyland each and every day, to move from what was the way they had done business for almost 45 years; many of whom had been hired personally by Walt or had an opportunity to work with him, and much of those methods had been handed down generationally.  I call it tribal knowledge just as if you were living in a village with it.  But now that we were going to expand not only the physical plant of the resort, but in addition to that the number of cast members that we’d add at least a third more to the team and how to ensure those high standards of excellence, etc.  And at the end of the day everybody was going to get a new job just by the nature of the expansion in some fashion.  So, I enthusiastically said yes, and especially since he (Michael Eisner) said, “You can learn theme park business.  You’re good at helping to develop teams.”  And so I energetically came on board.  And I would say his words certainly came true about you can learn the business within a couple of days, as I recall sitting in the first meetings and feeling like I had gone to a foreign country and not even understanding the special language that was a part of the theme park, which every great culture has its own language and questions, etc., and I just said, “Okay, I’m going to have to learn this.”  So over the coming months and many months, I was excused from what would have been my daily duties in my role as a leader to have a chance to don the costumes which are the uniforms of the cast members and to do at least a shift or two of each of their jobs.  So I can count on my credentials that yes, I have operated Space Mountain and yes, you know, I’ve helped direct traffic out there and taken tickets, etc., with that.  But what I came away from that is certainly not an expertise…it’d take more than a shift or two to get to be the level of expertise that those great cast members are, but a huge and deep appreciation for what it takes to make magic and what looks effortlessly employed each and every day when you go to visit those wonderful experiences, takes a lot of time, effort and decision making each and every day with them.  But in addition to that, built strong relationships with many of the cast members that had helped us over the next six years as I continued there and when Paul moved into the Chairman’s role, I was nominated to be the President and help lead that endeavor through the largest expansion ever and for the grand opening of the new Disneyland resort.  But I’d have to say, it was really the success that I know that we had was due to all of the incredible cast members there and everyone working together as a team and just acknowledging with great respect that everybody’s role was so important there.  And just, I was, it was the first month of that little first-hand experience of getting out there and trying to do some of those things…and realizing it’s a big job, it’s a big job.

Alan:           That’s so incredible.  Now tell me this also.  It seems like you mentioned to me before that all this was going on…you got you know, the culture, you understood it or got an understanding that was the glue that helped everybody pull together to be the contribution that they are, but at the same time you noticed that some of the infrastructure of the park was really just kind of outdated, if you will.  You know, like the construction standards of the rides, and the theme park itself, you know, had been there for quite awhile and of course in great repair, but it was time to do something else with it, wasn’t there?

Cynthia:      Well, in total, this was a Genesis of Disneyland.  As I said, when I joined we were about 45 years old and during the period of time I was there, we celebrated the 45^th anniversary and what was clear is when I mentioned tribal knowledge…so much had been handed down from person to person about whether it’s operational standard…and when things are written down, etc. with it, but that was the mode of improvements, etc.  It was time for us to be a little more sophisticated with it.  And so we worked  upon creating at a structure that would support the resort in a more efficient way and so I started with what were the needs, what was the structure that was required, what were the people; and then frankly, how did we capture the best way to do each one of the tasks within the resort and embarked upon a pretty wholesale refinement, is probably the better word I would use, of how everything operated without high degree of appreciation for how we’d done it in the past, but then looking forward and saying, “Okay, we’re going to host maybe double the number of guests.  Is this going to work at this time with this?  What would be a better way to do this?”  And engaging the teams and there were, you know, work teams within each area that they are the ones that came up with it and worked with it together and helped refine that.  I’ll say another thing though that when you mentioned culture, I think that’s one of the things that in a company where there’s a company, a family, a group, or whatever, you can’t minimize how important that is.  It’s the glue that holds us together as families, as friends, as communities, and it has to be handled with great respect.  And when a new person or some change occurs, and change occurs always in our lives, you know, you don’t want it to be like pandering to this about looking at things that look on the surface without getting to the heart of it.  And I’ll use one example that to me really was one of the things that made the experience at Disneyland so incredible was the fact that we were challenging ourselves on a couple of things about how did we stay connected with the community in a positive way because if you’ve ever been to Disneyland, you know we’re right in the middle of Anaheim as a city, as well as other cities around it.  And during the construction it was very disruptive.  And so how did we reach out to the community in a positive way?  How did we…there were lots of issues we were facing that were relating to this, but another one was how did we…we were starting to add these new cast members, so all of a sudden you’ve got thousands of people that are new to the park, new to the hotel and how did they, beyond the formal policies, procedures and the training…how did they get engaged relative to this and get to have friends there?  And how did we keep the guests feeling, you know, good about the spirit of what was going on there?  And one of the things that we came up with as a team was building upon what had been a part of the heritage, which was contribution to the community.  Walt Disney himself had established the volunteers program.  And there was a very impressive, at that time, numbers of hours that were contributed, many, many, many dollars to the community.  And the many dollars to the community were much a part of the foundation and all of the great infrastructure was there.  But the hours of volunteerism really was, you know, engaging the cast member there.  We were doing an impressive about 25,000 hours and myself and a couple of folks got together with the team and said, “Well, what would it take if we used that as a way to really strategically reach out to the community as well as engage with the cast members, etc.?”  And we did.  We set about having much more strategic endeavors, so it was being involved with things that were involved with the community, like in Anaheim **** Anaheim, which is a fantastic program there, or with Children’s Hospital Orange County that affects so many people in the community.  Long story short, over the five years it went from 25,000 hours to 250,000 hours of contribution.

Alan:           Wow.

Cynthia:      And leaders got involved and really we were much more organized by it and it was fun.  It was lots of fun and we were able to build upon that great culture I think because of doing something that was true, it was with real spirit, it was a part of the heritage, but it was something everybody could be involved in and everybody could be proud of and a way where…you know, if you go out and paint a house with somebody, you do become friends with them.  Regardless.  So new cast members became friends and there was great part of the community, etc.  And that I think helped.  And I point that out because that helped during so much of the transition of just another aspect of saying we’re all human, we’re all in this together, we’re all building something tremendous and we’re all going to contribute to our community so that while maybe individually we had to learn a new part of our job, or something that was challenging, it made it a little easier or a little more helpful with it.  But it was an extraordinary time.

Alan:           Wow.  And you know, I love how you talk about it so humbly.  You know, it’s kind of like this thing you just did but, you know, you really disrupted the whole system that Anaheim had put in place during that time to rebuild this structure.  I mean, I remember the traffic, I remember the barrels on I5 that constricted lanes from time to time.  And here your whole organizing principle was to take care of those people and to really make sure that the environment worked for everyone and I think that’s part of, in my estimation, I mean I get that from you on a personal basis.  You know, I always know you to be interested in yes, you’re interested in your life, but I always notice that you have interest in my life.  You have interest in the people around you.  You’re always empowering people and it’s no accident I can say that, you know, that you were the one chosen for this.  Because, like you said, you really didn’t have expertise in that area, but you knew what to look for and I could say simply here that you distilled it down to making it work for everyone involved and it’s obvious that it’s working.  I love just driving down the roads on the outside of Disneyland, the park and California Adventure; it’s part of the park.  You’re already in that world, so to speak, and that was some of the magic that you put in.  There was also another thing that I remember you saying that you did inside the park was, you know, sometimes things don’t go the way the guests expect.  You know, they might have a disappointment, I know that I’ve been disappointed when maybe a ride was closed down due to something, or whatnot, and then people leave a note saying, or complaint saying something; didn’t you put in place a way of communicating with the guests afterwards?

Cynthia:      Well, a couple things.  And if I could…and I’ll get to that.  I want to just make a note of what you said.  I actually think, and so thank you very much for all the kind comments that you said, but Alan, I think that, you know, there is a part of each of us, our DNA, that is who we are. And frankly, finding the right canvas in which we can express ourselves is in part of our life’s journey.   And there’s a place in the world for everybody; it’s just not all the same place.  And many times I would just say, sometimes when we look at something and our lusting for it or wanting it, it may not be for us because it’s not a part of what would make us great.  I will say when I got a chance to join the Disney Company, I was very humbled by the fact that it was an extraordinary company and it was so big and part of the process that it took closer to six months before we finalized everything, was equally on their part of being very selective, which they are, but also on my part of not…I knew right away this would be great and fun to go work for Disney.  But spending enough time at the time was within stores, etc., to know that I could fit in enough and as I say, you fit in so you can stand out.  If you’re just off, you know, if your principles are not aligned, you know, it’s hard to shine.  And I think that that would be just something that has served me well and when it’s worked, it’s been incredible.  When it doesn’t and you know, like everybody else, I sometimes try to jam myself into try something that I’m intended for, it just doesn’t work out and shouldn’t be in that fashion.  But, to answer your question about that, and I think you said it very well, the core principle that I’ve had, frankly in every job I’ve had and what I do hold dear in my life, is the fact that I like service.  I like to serve; I like to see people happy.  I like to do, whether it’s personally entertaining at home, or being able to entertain the group at work and just viewing that in that fashion.  So I was a good match to the service culture there.  But one of the things that again, was again, how do you take a problem and look for the positive way to solve it.  I’m not a big one on, you know, giving people black marks.  It’s rather I’d like to give gold stars.  And in that, again, one of the things that when it was lots of experience in the company of Walt Disney Company, of opening big new parks at Walt Disneyworld.  Walt Disneyworld’s on 42,000 acres and over time each one of those wonderful new properties as they came on board, there were lots of lessons learned that were at our disposal to be able to help us crafting for our expansion.  But one of the issues was that typically the service standards would go down a little right before an opening of a park.  It’s everything from the distraction with the cast members to the fact that sometimes it was also even guess work…we’re anticipating what the new thing would be going on.  So either they would be more critical and/or, frankly attendance would sometimes fall off and those were all things that we were like, well we can’t have that happen.  And in addition to that, we had the extra challenge as I mentioned before, is that we were building this park literally which had formally been in the parking lot.  So it was literally steps from the front door at Disneyland, as opposed to really the reference point that we had at Walt Disneyworld where on 42,000 acres, each one of the new parks were built far enough away that they had, you know, a strong entry, etc., with that so it wasn’t quite as dusty and disruptive.  So literally, and I can attest to this, it was people having to walk through barricades, etc., to get to the park.  And we asked a lot of them.  So there was already ****.  The process of the guests could go to the city hall and make a complaint and write it down and/or send it in and at the same token, do a compliment.  And already that was in place and it was utilized as just a reference point of how well we’re doing.  As I recall, and it was broken down by each one of the areas, which was great so we could see how people…if you got complaints or compliments about the retail stores or did you get it about the parade or was it about a particular attraction or whatever.  Well, when we took a look at this and looked at it and said, okay it potentially get worse and yet there were some that 60% which went 60, out of every ten only six were compliments, so my advice was like, gosh, that’s four people walked away really disappointed…not good.  So what would it take for us to really raise that standard?  There was one group that had been, was much higher, and it was in the high 80’s and I said, okay let’s go that our standard will be 90% then, nine out of ten people that are going to stop and have a conversation with us or write something in are going to be compliments.  And you know, actually everybody said that’s crazy, and even my boss at the time said that’s kind of an awfully high standard I bet.  But we set out to do that and I said, “Okay, so how we’re going to do this is we’re all going to do our very best job, we’re going to mobilize our cast members to try to give them the confidence, the authority and the support to do whatever is extraordinary for the guest in having them have a great experience and oh, by the way, anybody who gets a compliment I’ll write them a note and then second of all, periodically, we will have a little gathering where we’ll have like lunch or something for the people that do this.”  And so what started out as a couple a week suddenly it had a really magnificent experience with it is that there were a couple of individuals that got more than one compliment and they got little handwritten notes from me about that and I got to know them and just by the nature of the fact that if somebody got two or three, I wanted to make sure that where I kind of generally knew everybody in the park, I wanted to make sure I found them and asked them why they were doing so well, etc.  And good news spread.  Over the next five years what happened was I think just a testimony of what is the power of positive.  The results got to be close to 90% which was I think it was 87% or something like that, which was great.  But the other part about it is on an annual basis, that I was writing 100,000 notes.  I will have to say is that whereas I signed every single one of them by hand, I had to actually….

Alan:           Wait a minute.  How many?

Cynthia:      100,000 of them that we had over time on an annual basis that really were…I had to have helpers to help me with typing them and getting them composed.  But I signed every single one of them.  And I will just say it helped create the culture and that was, as you can imagine, it ranged from individuals who were brand new on the job and had done something and got a compliment and that immediately reinforced  for them this is the way I’m going to do my job every day.  **** that that was great or people that had been there quite a while that suddenly had 20 or 30 compliments and they were going out of their way…it was almost like a contest to see…maybe if I do this someone will go and be excited about it.  And people who became famous within the resort because obviously we highlighted that in the newsletter and things like that.

Alan:           Wow.

Cynthia:      But it really was fun and it was fun…and it was a fun thing and it’s one of those things that makes me again feel good about the human spirit, that I do believe that given the opportunity to do something well, most of us want to do a good job.  And certainly if we’re recognized and if it’s appreciated, that we will and that what something that looked as simple as a note actually grew to be something pretty incredible.

Alan:           Unbelievable.  Cynthia, we’re going to have to take a break.  We’re going to be right back.

Cynthia:      Sure thing.  All righty.

Alan:           And we’re back from Behind the Chair with Cynthia Harriss.  Cynthia, that was most incredible.  You know, you caused like a viral positivity with the Disney culture with all those notes you wrote and you know, you probably have writer’s cramp from all of that.  You know, all those stories, I would love to sit here…in fact I got to invite you back because I’ve got to have you on the show again because there’s so many other stories we haven’t gotten to.  But one of my favorites is, you know, you have a past that…you know, I remember that when you told me your story about how you started in retail, I think that story is so amazing about how you just suited up and went to work.  Can you tell us about that, back in your hometown?

Cynthia:      Okay.  I grew up in Canton, Illinois.  Canton, Illinois is a great place to grow up in.  It’s a small town almost dab smack in the middle of Illinois.  If you’re looking at a map, it’s near Peoria.  It’s not…you might miss it.  And I think, you know, its hay day was something in the 12,000 to 13,000 people in its hay day.  So, growing up there and literally, it was and just the reference…it had the same kind of references of a little town square with the stores around the town square and in the middle of the town square on weekends in the summer they’d have little band concerts, etc.  So, growing up there I…there was one little department store…it was called Skip’s McCartney Company.  I think while I was there it celebrated its 100^th anniversary.  Certainly like most individually-owned stores, it’s gone to the wayside over the years.  But it was a two-story, and when I say department store, it was probably more general store, but it carried apparel and men’s and women’s apparel and then some household furnishings and things like that.  But they had the distinction of having the only elevator in town at the time and it was going from the first to the second floor and it was literally a manual one with the crank, that I know is clearly dating me.  But at the time, even when I was there, I thought it was an antique.  But that it was known that they hired one high school student a year to be on their staff and only one, and usually rotated each year.  And I, for whatever reason, decided I wanted that job.  Well I shouldn’t say for whatever reason, I had a clothes habit and I had a very, very, very meager allowance and I thought this would be the perfect job for me because you get a discount and you get to sell clothes and you’re around clothes all the time.  So what, what, you know, this could be the perfect job.

Alan:           Haha.  So, I’ve got to interject.  You were already taking walks on the beach there in Canton, Illinois.

Cynthia:      Haha.  You’re right, you’re right.  And the beach was I think the Big Creek Pool.  But, yes, you’re right.  I had just decided…because the other options were the more traditional jobs that high school students would get, which would be working in, you know, hamburger places and things like that, that just didn’t seem to have the same appeal for me.  So when I was, I think I was 14 I started applying for the job there and I can honestly recall getting dressed in my suit and high heels and gloves – hahaha …

Alan:           I love it.

Cynthia:      And going there to interview and obviously they told me to go away.  But I went probably five or six times, so by the time the following summer when I was not yet 16…I was 15…they, I think out of just getting a pest off their list, hired me.  And I ended up working there seven years.  And I worked there through high school and college and my first job was, because I was so young, was running the elevator.  So I would stand there on the weekends and crank it up and crank it down and listen to the customers come in and saying are you having your ups and downs today.  But honestly how I got to be, shortly, promoted to being able to sell, was that I found that to be kind of a boring job; even though it was fine, I was around it, is that if there were free moments and there were customers that were coming in and they weren’t being readily helped, I would run over and try to help them and just…that was fun.  You know, not knowing that….and later as years went on and retail is…sometimes it’s hard to motivate people.  They keep that activity going with the customers.  But I just thought it was fun.  I got to go in and talk to them and show them things and whatever and always on the elevator, I’d be like wow, have you seen this, this and this.  So shortly after that, I did get promoted to being in sales.  But I will say, it was a wonderful place and a wonderful opportunity to grow up, and my one comment when people say how do you get these opportunities, is just say yes when people offer you something.  And I can recall that, you know, I was in there selling and I remember once that they needed somebody to change a mannequin on the second floor which was the apparel, and I was like, “I can do it.”  And I’d never changed a mannequin before but I thought that can’t be too hard.  So, you know, started changing the mannequins and then I actually suggested, I thought their windows were, you know, not very creative.  I said, “I could do the windows.”  And they’re like and the guy that was doing the windows who I think ran the men’s department clearly didn’t want to do them and so he was like, “Great, you do them.”  And I suddenly started doing the windows, but what was fun about it was they actually gave me pretty much license, or maybe said another way, I didn’t ask permission.  But I would come up with these elaborate ideas and frankly, get my father, who was an engineer, to help me develop and rig up decorations, etc.  So soon my windows were getting…once, I think we did it once a month or once every couple of weeks…the little town would come and take a photograph and put them in the newspaper.  Hahaha.  My award-winning windows.  So, you know, it’s one of those where it was a fun place to start, but you know, you’re right, I had a mission that I wanted that job and I got that job and had it all during school.  And I think I got to do everything that you could do there because as it ended up, I ended up being a buyer there for my first kind of real official job before I jumped into working for a larger company.

Alan:           Cynthia, we’re going to have to take a break.  We’re going to be right back.

Alan:           And we’re back.  This is Alan from Behind the Chair with Cynthia Harriss, H-a-r-r-i-s-s.  And you know that story about how you got started in the general store is so amazing.  I heard something really fascinating and I want to wrap it up here because you really have done this walk-on-the-beach thing all the time.  I mean, Cynthia, do you realize that you started operating the elevator just like you did at Disneyland; you started operating each and every ride?

Cynthia:      Hahaha.  Well, you know, I have to tell you.  You’re motivating me to go take a walk on the beach today so that I can see what’s going to happen tomorrow, because I haven’t thought about these things for awhile.

Alan:           Well, me, too.  I mean that’s why you’ve been hearing ruffling of papers in the background probably, because I’m taking notes here, you know.  You’ve just made it so clear, for me, you’ve had it really clear that the point is getting clear; walking on the beach, whatever that is for you.  If it’s a mountainside, if it’s, you know, the pool, if it’s…but that you don’t have to be in that paradise place physically; you just have to be in that thinking space where you get clear on what it is that you want to give to your life and then have your expressions show up inside of that and you know, I’m making those notes and seeing that the other thing that you do is you have a complete appreciation.  I’ve known you for many, many years now, but I’ve never seen you without a kind of mysterious smile on your face; like you know something going on that nobody else does.  And you know, yet you’re distilling it for us right here.  I mean, I even hear it in your laugh right now, right?

Cynthia:      Haha.  Well, first of all, thank you.  You’re actually being very generous in all of this.  But I do think, and if I could characterize it beyond the fact that frankly, this is helpful to talk about it because it does reinforce the fact about just even for myself, get clear, good things will happen, etc.  But there is also the other thing I’ll just point out and I think this is why you and I get along beautifully is that you, too, have a sense of optimism and the fact that whereas I do agree that, you know, there’s certainly challenging things in the world that we have to look at, that we have to be very pragmatic about, etc., but if it’s at your core belief, that your life is intended to be good and that you’re intended to serve or to give to others in some fashion and that that makes you happy.  Then there’s usually some way even in the most challenging and difficult situations where you can see, okay, there’s either the light that takes you from this and/or this is just…sometimes it’s just an adjustment saying you’re on the wrong path, so stop and we need to get your attention to stop.  But that at the end of the day, there’s something good out there, so, but thank you for saying that.  I do hope that every day I get to enjoy life to the fullest and I view it as lucky and to be with incredible people and you know, you’re right, that’s how it works.

Alan:           Well, you said something else to me that when I remember when you pulled those papers out and you said, “Let’s just put down on paper what it is that you want to do here; what’s good, what’s bad, what’s not working, what’s got the most potential.”  You made me put away something that has always been something for me that is inherent, I guess inherent with my personality, but I always look to my checkbook to see if I can afford it.  I always look to my calendar to see if I have enough time for it.  And you said, while we’re walking on this beach and we’re thinking this through and we’re doing these charts, put that aside.  Let’s just not have any limitation.  So I do remember and as I experience you from behind the chair, you always start talking about whatever it is you’re interested in doing as if anything is possible and everything is available for doing that thing.  Is there any comment you want to make about that?

Cynthia:      Yes, yes, yes.  And I actually think this is an important thing for all of us because if you look at the possibilities and you look at it with an optimistic eye, but also say…again it gets back to what would it be clear?  Because, you know, there’s stories about people who win the lottery and win millions and millions of dollars and then a year later are penniless because they actually didn’t have any point of view about if they had the greatest riches, what would they do with it?  They just went out and spent it.  So I think that to me is the correlation is that, you know, if you have the roadmap, regardless if you can afford it or if you have the time or whatever, but if you really, really know this is what it is, then all of a sudden your thinking changes to okay, well how can I get there?  Or maybe what seems like is going to cost a lot of money to do it, maybe there’s another way to get at it.  Or maybe it doesn’t even have to cost any money.  So it’s like if you really…you know, let’s say you’re thinking about it would make you so happy to have **** and then all you start thinking about, hmm, well maybe there’s a way that I can do it and tie it into work or is there a way that I can do this and tie it into something else.  And all of a sudden it may occur.  But I agree totally.  You start from the big picture and then frankly, break it down into manageable chunks of saying…each time keep asking yourself, what is it that you really, really, really want?  Because sometimes what you really just want is peace of mind or happiness and those don’t have big price tags on them.  They just usually mean changing an adjustment in life.  And much of the time we may talk about what we want in a more physical, tangible…but what we really want is something on the inside that we can have easily by just making an adjustment in our behavior or our life and at the end of the day, it’s our life and really get this one is the one that I am working on right now.  And you know, to make it the best that it can be.  You know, if it isn’t, there isn’t going to be later somebody that you can say, well it was your fault that I didn’t have a good life.  It’s…there isn’t.  It’s just…this is it, so.

Alan:           Wow.

Cynthia:      I would like to leave this with us that just my final, kind if I could wrap up my comments with it is, I have enjoyed first of all sharing this with you, Alan, as always, and you’re fun to get in these kind of conversations because you look at the possibilities.  And I do think that we’re all lucky, regardless of whatever walk of life that we have to be here and there are so many things that we can do to contribute and if we start from that premise of what can we do to contribute, what we’re going to get back is going to be, you know, so great.  And the clarity of purpose just is we’re not going to waste time on things that aren’t important to us, personally.  And it’s not easy to do, but it just takes a little level of discipline.  And then I lastly…be courageous.  And again, it’s our life, so if it’s whatever is going on in life isn’t working, take a step and take a step to another side and see if that works.  And sometimes that little bit of a change makes all the difference in the world.  And I hope all of your listeners have just an incredible day because I can tell you I’m going to go walk on the beach and have an incredible day.  Hahaha.

Alan:           Hahaha.  And same here.  Cynthia, thank you so much.  You’ve been extraordinary, enlightening; you’ve given us so many tools here.  Thank you so much and thank you to all of our listeners for listening from behind the chair!