My name is Jimmy and I am a Disney Nerd! Whew glad to get that out of the way. So this is my first attempt at blogging, and I am a little nervous. I have been a podcaster for a little over a year now but was raised a Disney fan and have been a certified Disney Nerd since about 2006. So lets start with a little back ground. My first couple of trips to Walt Disney World were really the first vacations I had ever really been on and back in the day it was a really big deal just to be able to go. After my first two trips in 1986 and I think 1987 I really loved the world but wasn't quite the nerd that I would some day become. I got to go on another trip in the 1990s with my extended family and that pushed me a little further to my nerdiness but I wasn't fully there yet, although I do come from a line of Disney Nerds in my mother Julie, her sister my nanny Vicki, and her daughter Michelle who is a huge Disney Nerd and even got a job at the Disney Store back then just to get the perks of being an employee.
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| Me in 2000 for me and Kims Honeymoon |
Fast Forward to the millennium, me and my wife Kim were to be married in February and she had never been to the world. So what better than a trip to Disney for our honeymoon, so with a little help and a couple of days of unused tickets from my nanny we were off. We had a blast and enjoyed all of the Disney Magic! As most young married couple experience we didn't have a ton of cash laying around so it would be a few years before we could make it back. By the time we made our next trip, which at that point both of our kids had made trips to Disney with my parents, we decided to take an adult trip in January 2006. We loved it so much we decided to do another trip with the kids in September. This is where the nerdiness begins! Feeling like I needed to learn more about Disney and how to plan our first real family vacation, I hit the web and read everything I could. Then I found a website www.intercot.com and their discussion boards, I was like a sponge soaking up all the info I could.
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| Me Kim and the kids 2006 |
After our first family trip we went at least once per year after that! I kept it up visiting sites like intercot and the such, and then in I guess about 2009 I found my first podcast WDW Today. I listened three times a week to all the new shows and even went back and listened to all the past ones! I felt enlightened! Through my listening of the WDW Today podcast and there constant teasing of this guy named Lou, I also found WDW Radio podcast. Now I was listening to two. After many trips to Walt Disney World I found myself as the go to guy when someone I knew wanted to take a trip to the world. After a couple of years of that and booking a couple of trips through a travel agent myself I decided to turn my passion into a small business. Me and my wife opened Once Upon a Time Travel.
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| Our Travel Agencies Logo |
Along came Ed! After I started the travel agency, since I booked a couple of trips with a travel agent based on Disney websites I frequented, I figured I needed to get with a site or podcast to advertise my new business. I knew I couldn't get in with or much less afford to sponsor one of these big established web pages or podcasts, I needed someone who was up and coming like myself. So after some internet searches I came across this great podcast called the We're Going to Walt Disney World Podcast with this guy Ed and his kids Quinn and Hope. So I reached out to Ed explained what I was looking for and we came to an agreement.
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| Me and Dakota gazing at Cinderella Castle |
By this point, although I am a novice (that's even a stretch) I was really into social media, mainly Facebook, I started a group on FB called Disney Nerds and it started gaining members fast! It was a great way to share information with other people who were passionate about Disney and I figured another way to get my name out there as a Disney travel agent. I am now listening to three podcasts and BAM I have an idea! I want to do a podcast, but I don't really know where to start. Who better to talk to than the guy who I already have some type of relationship with and whom I have talked to a couple of times, so I call Ed. Hey Ed, this is Jimmy. Do you wanna build a podcast? Just kidding! So I call Ed and test his interest, and he liked the idea of taking on another podcast (I am not sure why, I think he did most of the work on the one with his kids, and he does most of the work on this one. I just show up and talk! God Bless you Ed!)
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| The Revised logo for The Disney Nerds Podcast |
The Disney Nerds Podcast is born! So I reach out to a few people to see if they want to be on our shiny new podcast and we picked up Farrah and Tom, and off we went! We really enjoyed getting on there and talking Disney. So after a while schedules and such got in the way and me and Ed figured we would find other people to be on as well. It just so happened that I found this guy Sam on this Youtube page called Sam's Disney Diary and ireached out to see if he would be interested in coming on our show, and he was more than excited (if you listen to the show, you would know he is always more than excited) so we had Sam on as a guest and loved his passion! We have since made him a huge part of the show. Then we found Jennifer and her site For the Love of Disney and had her on. We really enjoyed her perspective as a female and her level headedness and she has been a great asset and recurring co host on the show.
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| The Disney Nerds Podcasts first fan photo |
One year later. So I wrote all of this to get to this point! After one year of me and Ed doing this podcast, with it culminating with myself, Ed, Jennifer, and Sam all meeting face to face in Walt Disney World just a few weeks ago and holding a meet, having fans of the show come out to greet us! It is so amazing, and I am so thankful to all who help us do what we do! So thanks to Farrah, Tom, Steve Barret, Logan Sekulow, Stacey J Aswasd, Shawn Kloth, Charlotte, Yehaa Bob Jackson, My Mom, My Nanny Vicki, Michelle, My Wife, Sam, Jennifer, Ed who I know I said it before but really does the hard tedious work! and every member of the Disney Nerds group and especially everyone who has ever listened to one episode of The Disney Nerds Podcast!
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