Intro (00:01):
Pixie Dust and Profits is a podcast for small business owners who love Disney and want to sprinkle some of that magic onto their own businesses. Join your host, Nicole Boucher. And Yasmine Spencer as they explore the mouse’s $12.6 billion operation and break down exactly how you can apply these big scale concepts to your own.

Nicole (00:26):
Hey everyone, welcome to season three of pixie dust and profits. We are so excited to continue sharing our insights into different things that Disney does in their operations and business and showing you a way to incorporate that magic into your own small business. Today we’re inspired by reading Bob Iger, his book, the ride of a lifetime, and he talked a lot about all of the time he spent as CEO making Shanghai Disney world. And this park he kept saying was authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese. So today we’re going to talk about what that means and what a uniquely you business is and why it’s so important to this entrepreneur world that we’re in right now. It’s something we feel really passionate about, and it is how we built our membership program, which you’ll also find out more about this season, but we want to share why it’s so important to be uniquely you and your business to have a signature brand.

Nicole (01:26):
All right. So what Bob Iger talked about in the book was really fascinating about how they were able to marry the things that make Disney still incredibly magical that still make the park translate both to, you know, an Eastern audience, as well as the Western audience who would probably, you know, fly over and check the parks out. So we’re going to talk about three things that they implemented to combine the magic of Disney and make it distinctly Chinese. The first one being was incorporating the language into the parks. If you go to Shanghai, Disney, you know, things are in English, but they’re also presented in Mandarin. One example was on the seven doors, mine train, which is one of my favorite rides and magic kingdom. Personally, they actually rerecorded hi-ho in Mandarin, especially for the attraction. So, you know, the very popular, hi ho hi, ho it’s off to work.

Nicole (02:18):
We go, I will like a recording contract. Anytime soon, that popular song is in Mandarin. Now, how it goes in Mandarin. I don’t know, but I think it’s awesome that there’s that level of familiarity for people who speak bedroom in the parks. I think it’s also important that they made sure to highlight the culture there. And so many ways that you can’t find in other Disney parks. So for example, our Mickey hats that are super famous for having your name on the back, we have one at home that says my first haircut for our kiddo, cause he had his first haircut at the barbershop on main street. But they also allow you to get your name in either English or Chinese.

Yasmine (03:00):
And so that’s one way that they’re highlighting that we’re here, but we are not trying to bring our norms to you. We are incorporating your culture into the signature Disney theme.

Nicole (03:14):
So another thing that Disney did was they hired Chinese artists to incorporate Chinese art and architecture throughout the parks. One interesting project was the Fantasia carousel, which I guess the equivalent of in magic kingdom would be Prince Charming’s, Regal carousel. They had Chinese artists sculpt and paint the 62 flying horses. Additionally, throughout the parks, they would have Chinese artists sculpt Mickey mouse sculptures with various materials using their authentic styles and incorporating that into like the typical Mickey structures that we’re so used to seeing.

Yasmine (03:51):
Yeah. And they even incorporated Chinese artists to make the work. You know, they didn’t come over here with the Disney artists who typically, you know, create Mickey, right? Because they have trained artists in-house who do that. They brought their team over to train the Chinese artists on how they make Mickey, but give them that creative leeway to make their own version. So I think it’s really wonderful that they didn’t come over and tell people how to do things. They kind of brought over the training and inspiration and let them have their own interpretation of what was going on.

Nicole (04:27):
Yeah. And the strategy actually blended over into the entertainment in the parks. They would have Disney’s entertainment team who, you know, does things a very specific way come over and train like amazing top Chinese directors, choreographers and designers, to bring these stories to life in a uniquely Chinese way. They had Chinese acrobats perform the Tarzan call, the jungle show, which was choreographed by a Chinese choreographer. They had Chinese musicians and Chinese composers put together the golden fairytale fanfare, which presents spectacular moments in Disney stories. So again, they train them on how to do things in authentically Disney way, but gave the artists their creatively way to put their own spin on things. So it reflected their culture thoroughly.

Yasmine (05:14):
Now, if you’re wondering how this all plays into your small business, this is what we’re getting at the authentically Disney is that they have their own language and FOS and way that they do things. They have an approach to operations. They have an approach to drawing Mickey mouse. They have a storytelling approach. And instead of telling people to do it this way, do it the way we did it. You know, they did that at Disneyland Paris. And we’ve talked about that in past episodes and didn’t go so well because they tried to replicate Disney right in Paris. And there were a lot of cultural problems there that, you know, made it a little bit more difficult that that park was not profitable for a very long time. So they learned that there were less there and they came to Shanghai Disney with the approach of we’ll bring the town well, we’ll bring the learning and experience and the mission and values that we have as a company.

Yasmine (06:09):
But we will let it be translated by you culturally. So where this becomes important for your small business is that there’s a lot of information out there that tells you do this one thing, do it, how I did it, just replicate exactly what I did. And you will get the same results too. I mean, if you scroll on Facebook today, like seriously, pause this episode, go to Facebook and check your ads that pop up. I am sure that you will find at least one, that’s telling you the secret formula to doing X, Y, Z. And it doesn’t even have to be a business ad. It could be anything in this world, including like diets, right? So this is where this comes in. We want you to take all of that information. That’s flying at you. That’s telling you, you have to do things this one way and say, no, I don’t. That’s your way. That’s authentically you. And I want to be authentically me. So give me the tools and I will turn that into something that’s distinctly my own unique business.

Nicole (07:07):
We see this a lot in the education space. And what we’re imploring you to do in this episode is to think critically about the information that you’re consuming and how it applies to your own business. One thing that we are super passionate about, like Nicole said, is helping you create that uniquely you business. And we believe that the best way to do it is using tools. So this is very similar to what Disney brought to Shanghai. They did trainings, they showed them, okay, this is how we do it. These are procedures, operations, best practices, but they gave the artists the creative leeway to truly make it their own. And we want you to do that with your business. So the next time that you are taking a course, I want you to take a step back and think about how that information is laid out.

Nicole (07:52):
If you follow things step by step, there’s a couple of things that are happening there. One is you’re undergoing the assumption that your business isn’t an exact same place as the content creators. So you have the same audience, you have the same resources and tools, and maybe even product suite before you, in order to achieve a similar result. You know, their strategy might work perfectly for a handful of people, but it doesn’t apply to everyone because your situation is nuance. It’s uniquely you, right? So what I want you to do is look at that information and see if you can extract the tools that they use. So you can customize it to your own business rather than follow things. Step-By-Step look at it critically and think, okay, if I do X, Y, and Z, does that make sense for my audience? Does that make X, does that make sense for my business?

Nicole (08:49):
Does that make sense for how I like to show up? If someone is telling you to do 500 Facebook lives and you hate showing up on camera because it freaks the heck out of you. Sure. It might mean that you might want to, you know, get more comfortable showing up and presenting yourself online, but maybe diving into that many Facebook lives. Isn’t the road to success for you. Maybe it’s showing up in other ways with the content and looking at how you can, again, best leverage the end goal in the tool, but modifying it. So it works for your business. And the reason why we’re so passionate about this is because in our membership, which Nicole is going to go into a lot more detail about very shortly, we looked at the models that other course creators have put out, and it just didn’t make sense to us.

Nicole (09:39):
I mean, we don’t want you to build our business because our business is really different from yours. How I got to building like a six-figure business. Isn’t a path that I’m sure a lot of you want to take. It took over a decade, a lot of schooling, a lot of juggling, like work and studies and you know, putting myself out there and, you know, working in industries that I wasn’t like super passionate about, but that experience brought me to where I am today. And I don’t think that’s something that can be replicated for just anyone. So

Yasmine (10:14):
It’s, it’s one of those things that it’s like, yes, I can, I can gladly share my journey and how I got here. But the very first client I booked was from pending, like on LinkedIn. And it was my former realtor who had a business and needed some, some help and support. So that’s not something that you can replicate. I just told you the story exactly. Of my very first client, like go click, like on a LinkedIn post right now that doesn’t mean you’re going to get your first job from it. Right? Yep. So our journeys are completely different. Our educations and styles are completely different and they’re distinctly us. And so I’m going to talk more about the profitable and productive party, which is our membership program that we recently launched. And we feel that it’s completely different than other memberships. It’s a mastermind ish experience.

Yasmine (11:01):
It’s a very small group. It’s off Facebook. So you’re not being distracted by anything else. And we’re really there to teach you business tools. The things that we saw in the board rooms, in our corporate lives, the things that we learned in our MBA program, because you have a gift and you have a craft, you might be an artist. You might be a creative, you might be a coach. All of these things that you might be, but you were never taught business skills. You never, you were never taught how to analyze the profitability of a product or the roadmap for getting from one place to another in your business. So that’s what we’re teaching here. We’re not teaching you to follow. Step-By-Step what we did just this month. We taught everyone how to analyze their expenses. Just this month. We taught everyone how to analyze their expenses in terms of their revenue.

Yasmine (11:51):
So they can really start, well, why am I spending that much? Does this expense make sense? Why do I ha why is it this much percent of my revenue? So we taught that tool to them. So the way they understand exactly where their money is going. So that way they can understand if it’s making the investment that they want to be making right now, coming back around to the distinctly you business, it’s very easy to buy into a program or a course or a methodology that someone else is selling. And then think that because you spent all of that money and all of that time that you should implement it the exact same way, because that’s the only way to get results. And we don’t want you falling into that trap because Disney did that. Disney did exactly that. They brought their entire team to Paris and said, let’s remake Disney world here.

Yasmine (12:42):
And it flopped. But it was a huge success when they took their team, brought them to Shanghai and said, here is what it means to be Disney, to be distinctly Disney. Here is how we approach storytelling. Here is the color palette we use in our rides. This is how we engage everyone senses. I want you to translate that into how you see the world, and that’s completely different than saying copy the step-by-step formula. And it will get you the same result. It’s telling you, we have tools. We have an approach. We have a view and a look to us, but you need to make it yours. And that is what we are trying to do. And the profitable and productive party, we are giving you the tools to be the leader, the CEO of your business, to understand the whole picture of everything that’s happening.

Yasmine (13:39):
It doesn’t mean that you have to do the work, but we’re not going to walk you through something that Mike might’ve worked for us. Might’ve worked for our clients, but your business is in a completely different place. Your starting point is not the same as their starting point. So your next ending point, isn’t the same as theirs. And to think that we can just replicate something again and again, and create the same results. We know 2020 has taught us that we can’t live in a vacuum like that. Things will change. There’s a lot of variables. And this concept of making a uniquely you business is something that we want for you and for every business owner, because you are the owner and you don’t need to follow anyone. Else’s frameworks, you can take inspiration and teachings and turn that into action. That makes sense for you.

Nicole (14:27):
Yeah. And the reason why we’re so confident in this approach is because both Nicole and I have, I think every one of our clients makes at least six figures and up, right. Which, you know, is that shiny goal that everyone wants to achieve in their business. That might not be the right goal for you. And that’s totally okay. I just wanted to preface that, but we have taken these tools and repeated them across every single of these clients. And every single one of them has a distinct brand, a distinct audience, a distinct approach. And these tools are implemented in a way that makes sense for their business. And that’s how they find success. We’re not taking the same one, two, three, one size fits all cookie cutter strategy and implementing it across the board. Because if we did that, we would be creating competition amongst our clients, which doesn’t make sense at all.

Nicole (15:16):
And I kind of hate to say this. It might be a controversial opinion, but that’s kind of what you’re doing. Every time we follow a step by step program. I mean, look at Facebook right now. Like Nicole sent me, you’ll see a lot of ads that kind of all sound and look the same. And that’s because people are following step-by-step strategies and Hey, it might be working for some of them, but I can’t one size fits all is never the path to success because you don’t stand out that way. You just get lost in the noise.

Yasmine (15:44):
Yeah. And I mean, the simplest path is to just copy what’s right in front of you. Right. But we know that business can be hard work. We’re all about simplicity here. But if you’re just replicating something, it’s almost like taking the easy way out. You’re not taking the time to evaluate the idea and molding it to fit you and your audience, especially your audience. So many times I’m working for clients past clients and they will say, you know, I followed, so-and-so doing this, let’s do the same thing. And they come on, they give us like all of the collateral that they found because they were on that person’s email list or because they joined that person’s course. And it tells you exactly how to implement it all. And we’re the back office team or the management team. And we’re looking at this and we’re like, there’s some great ideas here, but we know that your people have responded really well in the past to X.

Yasmine (16:38):
And I think that we should mold this in a way that supports that because we know that your people loved it and they’ll love it again with some modifications. So that approach of taking inspiration and learning and molding it to exactly what you know, works for your audience means you one need to be in tune with your audience and to need to know when’s the right time to stop and say, Oh, am I replicating? Because this makes sense. Or am I replicating? Because this is easy. And it’s really hard when you’re in the trenches to make that distinction, to take that step back and be the CEO and say, wait a minute, this, this we need, we need to look at this. I don’t know if this is a good fit right now, the way it’s presented. And so we want to encourage you. If you take nothing else out of this episode, we want to encourage you to look at the things that you are learning from.

Yasmine (17:30):
Look at the things that you’re taking inspiration from and question it, say, what, how would my customer feel about this? That is always my default question. Think about your customer and wonder is this how they respond to things? If you’re over here chasing some strategy about Facebook lives like Yasmin mentioned, but you have data that shows your entire audience is over on Tik TOK and Instagram, then doing the Facebook lives might not serve you at all. So take the learning and apply it in a different way. Instead of Facebook lives. Maybe that means you need to go to Instagram TV. It all depends on the data that you have in front of you. What you know about your customers. What you know has worked in the past and not taking the simplest path forward, just because it’s simple.

Nicole (18:17):
So we did mention that our membership, if you do want to join us and again, no pressure, you can definitely seek all this out on your own and try to make those decisions on your own. We highly encourage you to do that, but if you want our support every month, we’ll share a new tool with you, not around bombarding you with information. We’re giving you a practical tool that we use in our clients’ businesses. You also get access to our insights in terms of what’s really working right now, what our clients are doing, what tools are helping them succeed. So you can take those and apply them to your business and keep up with current trends and best practices in the industry. And finally, you get two coaching calls with both Nicola and I. So we each host a coaching call. So you get different perspectives though. We are kind of brain twins. So our recommendations usually match up and they’re there to help answer your questions and give you guidance on taking next step. So again, you can take these tools and refine them. So they work distinctly for you. We also have your working sessions because we believe it’s so important to take time out of your week, day punk, and spend that working on your business, not serving your clients or creating products, but working on things that will help you forward. And that’s just a tiny bit of what you get.

Yasmine (19:36):
Yeah. And in between all of that, we have a private community, like I said earlier, it’s not a Facebook group, it’s its own membership network. And you can comment and ask for feedback and talk about a challenge you’re having or share exactly what’s going on behind the scenes, in your business with screenshots or videos. And not only get the group, think of everyone else in the community, but we respond to those as well. So you kind of have on-demand access to Yasmin and I throughout the week. And it’s the only way to work with us right now, because we are fully booked on clients homeschooling all of those things going on right now. So if you want to work with us, this is the best way to do it. And I just wanted to give you a little bit of a tease of some of the tools we have coming out.

Yasmine (20:22):
Now, this episode airs and October, 2020. And so if you’re listening to this later on, these tools will already be in the portal for you when you join and you’ll get access instantly. So, you know, we just went through and taught everyone about getting honest about their business expenses and coming up, we have three areas. You can always improve in your business, whether or not you have a dime spend. So this is going to teach you tools about ways to look for improvement opportunities in your operations. Then we have the quick and easy customer delight opportunities for you. Again, I’ve talked time and time about customer experience being number one to me. And this is the module and the tool that you’ll use to learn how to delight those customers nearly every time I can’t guarantee a hundred percent of the time. And then we’re also going to talk about how to empower your team because when you’re starting to outsource, and you’re a small business owner entrepreneur, and you’ve been doing everything yourself, especially those customer touch points that can be really difficult to outsource to your team. So we have some tools to help you manage better without feeling like you’re micromanaging, and also to make sure that you are hiring people that fit best for you. So those that’s a kind of a preview of some of the things coming ahead, and we would love to have you in the community. You can join at pixiedustandprofits.com/party. And when you join, we’ll send you something special in the mail.

Nicole (21:52):
Yeah. So we hope you’ll check us out or at least head over to the website to learn more. If you have any questions about the membership, if you’re not sure if it’s right for you, hit us up on Instagram, we’re @pixiedustandprofits. Thank you so much for joining us on this first episode. Back after our summer hiatus, we have a lot of exciting content and star with you, especially with all the changes that Disney has been going through. So stay tuned for more updates this season and we’ll see you real soon.