The Story Behind Ghost Dog

JMS ep 373 Bob Weis

“Sometimes the best ideas don’t come from our successes. They come from the parts of our story we still feel.”

Every now and then, I meet people who remind me that imagination is a muscle that creative people never stop using. It’s not just for kids. Someone that excels at that is returning guest, Bob Weis.

If you’ve spent any time around Disney, you’ve seen Bob’s work. He’s led projects all over the world as president of Walt Disney Imagineering. Theme parks aren’t the only thing he’s had a creative hand in. He wrote a story during one of the quietest times in modern history.

During COVID, when the parks were closed and the world stood still, Bob sat down to write Ghost Dog. On the surface, it’s a fun, spooky story about a kid whose ghost dog follows him home from the Haunted Mansion. But it’s really about loyalty, loss, and holding onto the things that make us feel alive. It makes sense why it came together during a time of so much unknown.

Bob told us he’s had several yellow labs over the years, the kind of dogs that leave paw prints on your heart long after they’re gone. He poured those memories into Ghost Dog. The result is a story that feels whimsical and heartfelt at the same time. He even joked that he hasn’t been ready for another dog yet, but maybe that’s why this book exists. It let him stay close to them in a different way.

That’s what good stories do. They let us process life. The joy, the loss, the laughter, and the things we can’t always put into words. And that’s what leadership does, too. It helps others find meaning in their story by being brave enough to tell your own.

Bob could have written another technical book about design or engineering. Instead, he chose to write about a dog, a ghost dog, no less. In doing so, he reminded us that even the most imaginative worlds are built on something deeply human. If you’ve ever lost something or someone that shaped you, maybe there’s a way to turn that feeling into something that will also bring comfort to others.