Professionally I’ve held the titles of Account Executive, Business Development Manager, Relationship Manager, Key Accounts Manager, and Sales Engineer.   All those titles are just fancy words on a business card that mean I’m going to try to sell you something.  I spend all day going from place to place trying to convince people to use our product/service instead of our competitors.  Every day I meet with clients that I know so well that I invited them to my wedding and complete strangers who want nothing to do with me.  I log hours each day behind the wheel of my car to get to meetings, presentations, and cold calls.   I’ve experience the highest high of closing million dollar deals and the lowest low of being fired for lack of production.  At the end of every month no matter if I’m toasting success with champagne or failure with cheap beer I always find a way to put money aside for a Walt Disney World vacation.  Because I believe once you make the determination that a Walt Disney World vacation isn’t a once in a lifetime event you can plan it around getting relief from the things that drain you.  So I listed the three things that I’m not wild about in my profession and how I use my time in Orlando to escape.

Transportation –As I mentioned I spend a majority of my day behind the wheel of my car going from stop to stop day after day.  One of the great appeals of going to Walt Disney World for me is that I don’t have to drive.  We actually planned our last trip around being on roads as little as possible.  The only time we used transportation that involved roads was the Magical Express to and from the airport and bus trips to Downtown Disney and Animal Kingdom.  By staying at the Boardwalk Villas we used Friendships as much as possible and would walk through Epcot to get to the Monorail to visit Magic Kingdom.   I even refused to go on Tomorrowland Speedway because I was not going to do any driving all week.  I’m sure there are plenty of advantages to having a car on your WDW vacation, but I prefer to leave all the driving to Disney.

Communication – When I give out my business card to someone it has all of my information on it and I openly tell people to call, text, or email me at will.  My hours are no longer 8-5 but rather anytime the little light in the upper left hand corner of my phone is blinking.  If I don’t answer that email at 3AM I run the risk of my client finding someone that will.  I guess that is why my favorite part of Spaceship Earth are the scenes before mass communication was invented.   This is why once I board my flight to Orlando my phone gets put on airplane mode and stays on airplane mode I arrive safely at my house.  It’s my favorite function because it turns my phone into my camera and nothing more.  My wife handles all the communication with family, friends, and Disney and it’s a beautiful thing.

Rejection – In my line of work I get up every morning with the understanding that I’m going to be told no a lot more than I’m going to be told yes.  I understand I’m going to be told no through body language, via text, via email, and worst of all to my face.  The absolute best part of a trip to Walt Disney World is that you can go interact with thousands of cast members during your trip without hearing the word no.  They all go the extra mile to make sure that I’m having the best time possible.   When I’m at Walt Disney World I feel like I am the most important client that they have and that feeling is what keeps me coming back.

Once I was able to highlight the things I dealt with on a daily basis that I wanted to avoid I put together a great vacation plan.  I was able to return from vacation actually feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.  It doesn’t hurt that going to Walt Disney World is like going to a sales clinic because no one is a better salesman than Mickey Mouse!