How do we invite Hispanic families into the magic?

The Walt Disney World brief landed in June with a question that made me nervous. I stared at it longer than I should have. Not because the assignment was vague. Disney had given us clear parameters, research, the works. But because I realized I was about to strategize for an audience I barely understood. No family stories to pull from. No cultural fluency to lean on. Just honesty that I'd need to listen harder than I'd ever listened before.

So I called my Hispanic friends. Not the polite "what do you think" calls, but the real ones. The kind where you admit you're in over your head and ask people to help you see what you can't. Their voices filled in gaps my research couldn't touch. The difference between data about a community and understanding one became painfully, beautifully clear.

Then there was the team...

I found myself in a role I didn't expect: the one setting meetings, checking in, pulling threads together. Not bossy. Just... aware when energy dipped, when we needed to zoom out, when someone's idea deserved more space. Project management instinct met strategy brain, and something clicked.

The work was hard in the way good work is hard. The kind that keeps you up not from stress, but from care.

"La Magia Has No Age." That's what we called it. A campaign built on the insight that Hispanic families don't see Disney as just for kids. It's multi-generational magic. It's abuelas and nietos. It's honoring the idea that wonder doesn't have an expiration date.

And we gather ourselves in New York

When we finally met in New York, the faces behind the late-night Brady Bunch grid felt like old friends. Schott and Lily took home Talented MAIP Member honors (deserved, both of them). And our campaign? Second place. Not just for the execution, but for getting it right.

MAIP didn't teach me how to crack a brief. It taught me that the best strategy starts with admitting what you don't know, and then doing the work to learn it right. That Disney magic isn't about clever taglines. It's about making people feel seen. That teamwork isn't about dividing tasks. It's about building something none of you could've built alone.