Len Testa started TouringPlans.com Part 1: He left his career to help others vacation better

Dreamers Podcast: Business lessons from those who live their dreams!

Len Testa started TouringPlans.com https://youtu.be/MqgiflhJNyY Len turned his passion and love for Disney World into a career helping over 100,000 vacationers a year. With The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, Touringplans.com and Lines mobile app he continues his crusade to make vacations more fun. We also talk about his other vacation books about Universal Studios Orlando, Las Vegas, Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. Check out Part 2 Buy: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2014 Buy Queen and David Bowie's Under Pressure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWdLt3Afjrg Episode 11 Transcription 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,40 this is the dreamers podcast where dreamers share their stories to inspire 2 00:00:05,40 --> 00:00:06,298 you 3 00:00:06,299 --> 00:00:11,969 now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews a dreamer who's living their dreams 4 00:00:22,150 --> 00:00:23,750 yeah 5 00:00:23,750 --> 00:00:29,390 welcome to the dreamers podcast on your host Joe Carter and today I'm 6 00:00:29,390 --> 00:00:30,830 interviewing land tested 7 00:00:30,830 --> 00:00:34,940 who is living his dream of making a career out of visiting disney world 8 00:00:34,940 --> 00:00:39,410 welcome to the show land picture of Nijo how's it going it's going outstanding 9 00:00:39,410 --> 00:00:44,239 outstanding it's a borrow a phrase you should never heard that before my life 10 00:00:44,239 --> 00:00:49,400 but I think it's gonna catch on that I i think so i think it's right on the cusp 11 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:51,650 of going viral 12 00:00:51,650 --> 00:00:57,140 awesome so why don't we begin by giving our audience a brief background about 13 00:00:57,140 --> 00:00:58,370 yourself 14 00:00:58,370 --> 00:01:02,300 I Malatesta my co-author the unofficial guide to walt disney world official 15 00:01:02,300 --> 00:01:06,410 guide disneyland and if you're kinda disneyland paris that we have to do a 16 00:01:06,410 --> 00:01:09,890 book called the unofficial guide to be on disney which covers universal i did a 17 00:01:09,890 --> 00:01:14,750 book on British theme parks so i'm really invested in the in theme park 18 00:01:14,750 --> 00:01:20,210 research and I got that way because in graduate school I studied a certain kind 19 00:01:20,210 --> 00:01:25,639 of scheduling problem that lends itself to figuring out how to write a bunch of 20 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:29,540 rides into parks without waiting in line very long and then fame fame came 21 00:01:29,540 --> 00:01:35,90 naturally is that so in graduate school I a I got recruited by Bob challenger 22 00:01:35,90 --> 00:01:38,720 from an official guide to work on the guidebook and then it took a few years 23 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:44,179 but eventually became a full-time member of the staff so now I visit Disney is it 24 00:01:44,180 --> 00:01:47,930 anything park roughly every six weeks got a staff of people who do nothing but 25 00:01:47,930 --> 00:01:52,610 work in the parks everyday looking for things like you know what's changed or 26 00:01:52,610 --> 00:01:55,189 what's new one menus and things like that 27 00:01:55,189 --> 00:02:00,289 we run a website called touring plans com in addition to the guidebooks and we 28 00:02:00,290 --> 00:02:04,430 try to make people's vacations as good as as good as we can so it's it's it's 29 00:02:04,430 --> 00:02:07,399 really actually kind of identifying the really makes you feel good sort of the 30 00:02:07,399 --> 00:02:10,669 end of the at the end of the day or the end of the year to look back and see how 31 00:02:10,669 --> 00:02:14,750 many people you've helped have a good vacation at a disney theme park is a 32 00:02:14,750 --> 00:02:17,329 really good of course because i really like disney theme parks and I want other 33 00:02:17,