Hold a Potential Party Instead of a Pity Party

By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment

The first quarter of 2026 has come and gone. Old friends and new came to Vegas to attend the Amuse­ment Expo show. The talk was full of uncertainty, lack of predictability, soft sales, and more. And yet, many I encountered showed signs of resilience.

I want to share a very special person with you. Nancy Starr (yes, two R’s because one was not enough for Nancy), was my chair at Vistage, a global executive coaching and peer advisory organization. I met her in 2008 when my company was so small I wasn’t even qualified to join a CEO group like Vistage. But when Nancy and I met, she saw something I couldn’t see at the time. She became my mentor and friend. She helped build the business coaching platform in our company and was very dear to me personally and professionally.

Her mission was to “pour jet fuel on potential.” Nancy passed away in August of 2020 and I think of her almost every day. If ever there was a time for someone like Nancy who had the amazing ability to see who could benefit from the kind of jet fuel she could pour on, now is the time. I share this thought with you today because it feels like the party mood in our industry, the country and maybe even the world is a bit stale. No one wants to go to a lame party.

It’s time to shake things up. Can we get a little crazy? Let’s look at the potential. What moves you? Why do people want to play? How can we help potential guests shake off the unpredictability and uncertainty of our lives today?

Maybe it’s grandiose, but I think, as “amusement” providers, we have some kind of obligation to figure out how to make the world a little more fun. If you think about the best guest experience you’ve had, what happened? Are you creating those kinds of moments at your location? What would need to happen to make that type of experience a real thing in your business?

Nancy was the best at asking all the right questions for my business and my life. Those two things are connected, believe it or not, and it applies to your team members as well as yourself. I hear a lot about people not wanting to work and how difficult it is to find and keep good help. Nancy would ask you why? And frustratingly she would ask why again when you answered. And again…and again…until you could figure out your part in the answer on your own.

There’s a lot of wisdom in finding your part in why you aren’t getting what you want. When I took the time to really answer, and own my part of the situation, that’s when I could see the potential for something different, something new.

In a “one thing” exercise during our company annual planning session, Candi Kelley, CEO of TrainerTainment and the GrowthPro Group, shared with me that my greatest contribution to the company was an ability to see the potential of anything we want to try. My best friend calls that “looking through rose colored glasses.” I know it must be something in between. Anyway, I credit Nancy for helping me understand how to do that very thing. I believe the ability to see potential accelerates what can be. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the what ifs. Sometimes we need to have a pity party, but I encourage you to limit those events to 10 or 15 minutes. We don’t know what tomorrow brings…
and we never have.

I’ll leave you with this: Pouring jet fuel on potential is a way to accelerate success in your business, with others, and in life. It is not blind optimism. Jim Collins gave us the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral James Stockdale was a POW in the Vietnam War for more than seven years. Stockdale maintained that resiliency was holding two contradicting thoughts together: 1. Confront the brutal facts of your current reality. Your situation may be desperate, and it’s important not to pretend it’s better than it is. 2. Never lose faith that you will prevail in the end. (My opinion is that the potential for survival and success is ever present.)

Stockdale maintained an unwavering absolute belief that he would be free at some point, even though he did not know exactly how or when. Can you bring yourself to that kind of party? Come on over to mine, I’m sharing jet fuel all around!

Beth is the Chairwoman of TrainerTainment LLC and the GrowthPro Group, a coac­h­ing company devoted to the family entertainment and hosp­ital­ity industries. Beth and her team are focused on helping the companies they serve make more money through sales, service, and leadership. Her company provides books, online products and courses, and onsite, online and ongoing training and business coaching to help teams and businesses grow. Beth is also president of AAMA, a sought-after keynote speaker and the author of People Buy from People. Visit her company’s website at trainertainment.com.