Pete Blank talks roaches, leadership at Vestavia Chamber luncheon
The monthly Vestavia Hills Chamber Luncheon took a “creepy-crawly” turn today when Pete Blank of the Jefferson County Personnel Board took the mic.
“I’m going to talk about something not usually discussed at luncheons,” Blank warned the crowd, “roaches.”
Before long, Blank had both an image of a cockroach up on the projector and the crowd hunched over in laughter during his talk at the Vestavia Country Club.
Blank, the training manager at the Personnel Board, has been a public speaker and trainer for nearly 20 years. According to his online profile, Blank received his BA from the University of Florida and his MHR from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. After working as a sportscaster for CBS in Birmingham, Blank moved to Orlando where he spent 13 years working at The Walt Disney World Resort. There, Blank did everything from manage the front desk of a Disney Resort to lead leadership training for the park and resort’s 55,000 cast members.
His roach story, though perhaps unexpectedly, tied in what he learned at Disney to how he suggests business leaders operate on a daily basis.
“You’ve got to pick up the roach,” said Blank. “Leaders have to do the dirty work.”
At Disney World, he explained every employee is expected to also be part of the clean-up crew. To demonstrate his point, Blank shared a picture of Walt Disney picking up trash at one of his parks.
“I’ve been told this isn’t a staged photo,” said Blank, “plus, they didn’t have smart phones back then.”
The photo of the roach Blank shared was taken inside his current office building. Blank said he forced aside his Disney training and therefore his urge to pick up the roach as a test. Blank said he wanted to see who, if anyone, would take the initiative. He wanted to see what kind of environment he worked in.
Days went by and still, he said, the roach remained. Until one day, when he walked by and saw someone had put a sticky note next to the roach which read, “Please pick me up.”
The presentation a business gives, he said, is what Disney calls it’s “show.”
“You have to put on a good ‘show,’” he said.
And the show starts with a company’s leaders.
“You’ve got to clean up your act and pick up your roaches,” said Blank.
Blank also shared tips on “plus-ing it up,” the idea of giving customers a little extra something with no strings attached and “word up,” the importance of ensuring that anything printed either for your business or at your business looks professional, has no spelling errors and is an accurate representation of the company.
For more information, visit www.peteblank.com.