Bill Wright, a senior executive at Hilton, Caesars, Station Casinos, and Boyd Gaming, describes a three-day leadership retreat Jesse Ferrell led that became a corporate best practice. Wright credits Ferrell's coaching and speaking ability with lasting impact on careers and teams across all levels.
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So briefly, tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to Las Vegas and the companies you work for.
I moved to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City to attend UNLV and started with the Hilton and was with the Hilton Caesars harrods for about 20 years and then spent three and a half years with Station Casinos, a year and a half with the Seminole Hard Rock and now most recently Boyd Gaming.
Great. So you and the companies that you have worked for in the past have done leadership workshops. We have with Jesse Farrell and Jess Talk. Where did you find value for yourself and those companies and the teams utilizing Jess Talk services?
You know, we've teamed up on a number of things, but probably the most successful one that we had was a leadership retreat, if you will, that we had put together for three of the properties that I was running and had met with Jesse to go through, you know, an opportunity to develop my younger leaders in particular. And so we put together this three day event that ended up just being, you know, knocked out of the park and became a corporate best practice for Harrah's Entertainment. He, Jesse ended up doing the keynote speech for that event and it was just the best that we, that we've ever teamed up on.
Did you get any feedback from the leaders in your company?
Yeah, I mean they, they continue to speak about that event. I mean, years after, I mean even this past weekend. One of the VPs that was working for me is now running his own company and just had Jesse come into his business and do something similar. So that's what, 10 years later? Something like that.
So it's not only impacted the companies that you worked for, but also the individual's self goals. What makes Jess Ferrell's speaking style unique from all others?
You know, Jesse has the ability to connect with the audience. So whether it's an entry level supervisor to the CEO, he connects with everybody within the, within the audience. The passion, you know, he brings inspiration, he brings humor, just everything. He just has a great ability to connect with people.
Yes, he does. How can other companies and senior leaders benefit from utilizing the best gifts and talents of Just Talk?
You know, I think no matter how you utilize his skill, whether it might be executive coaching, it might be public speaking, which he's great at, or it could be team building. I've used Jesse for team building, leadership development. So whichever way you choose to utilize his skills, you'll benefit from it.
Great. Do you have any lasting takeaway points from Just Talk speaking programs?
I think the lasting impression is just, you know, earlier in your question that what do people remember is just years after they may have seen him, they still talk about him. And just the way people connect with him. When we were doing that leadership development program, as soon as he was done speaking, just the people, you know, my team members just gravitated to the stage to connect with him personally. And he just has that. That way about him that connects with, with everybody.
That's great. Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, and thank you for being here at Just Talk.
