Life Lessons from Anthony Esparza’s keynote address
The 6th Annual Prayer and Networking breakfast was held on November 17th, 2022 during the IAAPA convention. Former Sea World and Herschend executive Anthony Esparza gave the keynote address to the delight of a packed audience. Anthony Esparza told the story of his career along with key life lessons from his journey.
Takeaway #1: You are wonderfully made.
Esparza started by asking the profound question, “When I go to the (IAAPA) show floor and I look around, how can I be so special when there are millions, fact, billions of us in this world?” He then showed a graphic of ten, filled Rose Bowl stadiums with an arrow pointing to a single person indicating what it truly means to be just one in a million people.
Esparza then highlighted Psalm 139, which says that each of us are
“Wonderfully made, dearly loved, and precious in God’s sight.” These were his encouraging words from the Old Testament book.
“I grew up as a Catholic, but when I met my wife she took me to a different kind of church, a non-denominational church.” I felt there was more spirit, more warmth for me, and an ability to get involved.”
“Don’t work for Disney”: Key advice from Marc Davis
After graduating from UCLA and marrying his wife, Anthony Esparza was able to have lunch with one of Walt Disney’s “nine old men”, famous Imagineer Marc Davis.
Marc Davis told Esparza, “Don’t work for Disney! There’s a new industry coming. A lot of people are leaving Disney because of the change and are beginning to form little companies that are starting to serve some of this industry.”
This turned out to be the right decision because as thousands of Imagineers were laid off after the completion of the EPCOT theme park, Esparza was able to land a job in an up-and-coming company, Landmark Entertainment.
“I was employee number 14 out of about 300,” he said. Initially hired as a model builder at Landmark for many attraction projects including early concepts for Islands of Adventure, he said, “Everything had to go through the model shop. Every problem was found by my little team.”
Said Esparza, “It was the best education I could have asked for because we got to see the entire process and learn all of this stuff.” Eventually, he was loaned out to Caesar’s palace in Las Vegas to help develop their casinos.
Rendering to Caesar
Esparza was invited to sit in on Friday meetings with Caesar’s leadership, to help take notes of their brainstorming meetings and to bring back his findings to Landmark.
I would have my Fridays with the head of all the projects at Caesar’s palace. “The head of projects knew I didn’t know a thing,” joked Esparza. “My only gift was that I was organized and I could make good lists.” My contribution — to shine my light — was in how to put the list together. I would put things like, “Let’s make the exterior better” at the top of my list which would de-emphasize the gambling aspects of Las Vegas. “I was able to influence things in my own microscopic way. Which would lead to more exterior development. This allowed us to grow in ways that didn’t violate my faith,” he explained.
Take Away #2: Use your gifts and talents to make positive choices. Large or small, shine toward the light.
“We all have the power to shine our light.” Esparza said, “We have the ability to nudge. If there’s a pendulum that sometimes swings toward God, and sometimes away from God; my lesson is to use your gifts to make positive choices. Shine a light large or small in a way that is pleasing to God.”
Headed to “Mayberry” (North Carolina)
After ten years at Landmark Entertainment Group, Anthony Esparza left for a new job at Paramount Parks. His job was to integrate the Viacom brands into the parks in a logical way.
“We took some of the smaller brands and turned them into coasters. In the end, we were able to create some new experiments for the industry. But there was something missing. “What I learned as a leader was something called Servant leadership,” he said.
Esparza explained, “At Landmark, we were lone rangers. But [Paramount] we needed to have a team, so we started to build an internal version of Walt Disney Imagineering. What I learned most was that I needed help. So I put together a team that helped take our gifts and magnify them.”
Takeaway #3: The power of “we” — Care for and nurture a circle of encouragers (and companies) to help you touch the heart of your guest, customers, or clients.
As a leader, Esparza learned two key points of leadership: “The two things that I would focus on were 1) What are the logs in your road that I can take away from you? 2) And what is the wind at your back that I can put in your sails? As a leader that’s all you need to do because it puts the emphasis on who you’re serving,”
Later after Paramount Parks were sold, Esparza was able to find new work and new purpose at Herschend parks, the owners of Silver Dollar City and Dollywood theme parks.
The Good Guys Always Win
The culture at Herschend was different than Las Vegas. One project they developed was a roller coaster, initially with a concept about outlaws in the old west. However, after the pitch meeting, a Herschend family member came up and said, “I’m not sure about the name.” At Herschend, they celebrate the positive, the people who are doing good. They would always emphasize glorifying the good guys and those who serve the community like firemen and policemen.
So at Herschend at this attraction, they developed the motto, “The good guys always win” And it grew and grew into the culture surrounding the Outlaw Run coaster.
After this successful project, Esparza continued the idea by having his team develop Fireman’s Landing, a similar venue that emphasized those who serve others.
Takeaway #4: Build (or find) a culture focused on doing work with a purpose; building and finding those companies that help you do your work with a purpose.
Sea World: They Hated us
Anthony Esparza left Herschend along with Joel Manby to join Sea World. It was a dark time because CNN had just aired their hit-piece film called Blackfish. In order to salvage the company image, Esparza helped identify the good things they were doing but weren’t talking about. Drawing on success at Herschend, Esparza’s changes came in the form of new attractions and new campaigns that emphasized animal rescue and the purpose they had at sea world. Esparza was also instrumental in forming Deep Blue Creative, a Sea World version of a group much like Disney’s Walt Disney Imagineering.
“We had to make hard decisions,” Esparza said. “We had to change the shows. Stop breeding killer whales and stop riding on top of dolphins. We had to tell them the story of why rescues were important.”
Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that Sea World’s purpose was to become a “jet pack” to inspire their park guests to change the world.
Carnival Cruise – They do fun!
After a management change at Sea World, Esparza was once again out of a job. And to make matters more complicated, Esparza was unable to work in the theme park industry due to a non-compete clause. But he was able to find a role with Carnival Cruise lines. Carnival was interesting to him because it had a corporate culture that emphasized all the different ways that you can have fun. His final takeaway reflected back to the spirit of the prayer breakfast event which said:
Takeaway #5: Create Joy and what is pleasing to the Lord. Trust the Holy Spirit to lead your way.
The annual IAAPA prayer and networking event features keynote speakers from across the attraction industry. This free event is open to convention participants.
Join us
Comments