Info (00:01):
Pixie Dust & 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.

Yasmine (00:26):
Welcome back to another episode of Pixie Dust & Profits. Today, we’re talking about the parks and the rides again, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. And more specifically, when you enter Disney, like you’re in a different world altogether. And one amazing thing is that all of your senses are engaged when you’re in the parks. For those of you, who’ve been to Magic Kingdom, close your eyes, and just imagine being there right now, as you walk from one land to another, obviously what’s in front of you changes, but so do things like the music, the smells and the experience overall is very, very unique. Disney has spent a lot of time and in fact, pattern in a lot of technologies that help them engage your, your senses and create a 360 degree unique experience. When you go to the resorts, each of them have a distinct smell, right. And a distinctive feel. And that,

Nicole (01:26):
That there are Kendall companies out there trying to replicate the smells so you can purchase them.

Yasmine (01:32):
And re-experience your vacation at home, right? Not a lot of places have really mastered that, or at least not to the degree that Disney has share. When you go to a hotel, it has like that generic hotel scent. But how often can you smell like, you know, something that’s a little like coconuty and think of the Polynesian.

Nicole (01:52):
So thinking about holidays and also given I close my eyes, I see the Polynesian lobby and the smells and the colors like that deep red wood, and yes.

Yasmine (02:04):
All right. And then when you think of like wilderness lodge, there’s that sort of like Piney, woodsy smell, again, like that makes you think of being back at that specific location. We think it’s so important to create these 360 degree experiences because they’re immersive. They transport you to a different place altogether, and they create such specific associations with that place or ride that it really stands out in your mind. And don’t want to do that as brands.

Nicole (02:34):
The interesting thing, and we could talk about this forever with Disney, because there are so many examples of how they engage you fully. And you know, when I did the behind the scenes tour, there were, they were very adamant about how everything that is visible from a guest eye, from the ground inside the park is themed. Specifically, once you go past that line where only cast members see, it looks very different from the other side of the park, they looked like warehouse buildings, and you would have no idea inside the park that it looked like that. And so they are so committed to this three 60 experience and it has evolved over time. And so I think one of the things that’s really important in your businesses, this whole take the three 60 approach to engaging your audience, whether it means in marketing speak, where it’s make sure that you have different forms of content long content, short content, video, audio, when it comes to your onboarding sequence, when you’re bringing in a new customer, see if there are ways that you can engage them in different ways.

Nicole (03:35):
So yes, we do a lot of our business virtually, but that doesn’t mean we don’t send gifts in the mail or a little note cards or celebrations or appreciations things that you can do to engage them holistically are going to keep them coming back for more, because it’s an experience and make sure to evolve with the times, because, you know, in the two thousands 40 was the new, like fun thing where there would be like a 3d show. And then they would incorporate, you know, in the show, Donald’s holding up an Apple pie and you smell Apple pie on the room, or it starts raining and you feel a little drops of water on you. And so that were raised to like, get you more engaged into the show and feel like you’re in it to today. We’re a rise of the resistance is the newest ride at Disney World. And I won’t spoil it for you, but while you are in that ride, you’re actually in the ride, you are a character in the story. You are a part of the movie that’s happening there. And so they’ve evolved from the point of, you know, this like external forces kind of forcing a three 60 experience to actually putting you in the center where R2D2 is right in front of you.

Yasmine (04:43):
You know, speaking of Star Wars, Disney is going to be opening up their like star Wars hotel in the future where you will actually get like a three-day. I think it’s a three-day or three nights stay. And you get costumes, you interact with like actors who are characters and it’s a truly immersive experience. And it’s something that they’re just continuing to evolve upon every single year by making it more and more immersive.

Nicole (05:08):
So in your business, what we really want you to do is take a look at the ways that you interact with your audience, with your customers, with your team members, anytime you have a human to human connection and your business, take a moment to say, am I hitting them in the ways that they want me to? What I really want to encourage you to do is to think about every single customer touch point you have. It could be in your marketing, it can be in your onboarding or off-boarding experience, any interactions you have with your team, every single human to human interaction you have in your business. You should sit in evaluate and think, am I talking to this person in a way that they want to be spoken to? Do they want to consume content as a video? Do they want to hear from me in audio form?

Nicole (05:55):
You know, here we have this and we do in an audio form and we get it transcribed to make it into an email or show notes. And sometimes the material inside is great enough that we turn it into an exercise or a workbook that we also send to our subscribers. So if you want any of those, I know, go to magic dot, fixing up some profits.com and you can get those too. But yeah, so I want you to take a second to look at every human to human interaction you have and find a way to make it special, to find a way to engage their entire self inside this experience with you. And it doesn’t have to be so crazy as putting them in the center of a Star Wars movie set, but making sure that they know that their business is important to you, that you know who they are, you’re using their name.

Nicole (06:45):
When you talk to them, you’re, you know, knowing what their business is. You took a second to look at their website before responding to their inquiry, to get a feel for who they are and what they do and saying like, Hey, you know, I noticed that you love the sustainability or recycling. And so do I, and taking that extra moment to make them feel like they are a person who is here for you here in your business, that they’re, that they matter, that they’re important and you know that, and that you want them here in your world. So making a world for them, that includes them.

Yasmine (07:23):
So Nicole also mentioned that, you know, sometimes we mail things to people to create that physical touch point. Well, what are other ways that you can engage with senses? One thing that I did a couple of years ago was I worked with an artist and candle maker and I actually made a unique scent that I felt encompassed everything. That was my brand. So I said that to new clients, every time they signed on with me and, you know, that was one way where they, they smelled something like not like Yasmine, Yasmine, but what Yasmine’s brand is, I loved it. Yeah. It, I think someone described it as like Christmas and fall and a candle, which is exactly what I was going for as a northerner who loves the woods.

Nicole (08:05):
I’m starting to think, we need to figure out what pixie dust in profits smells like and get some candles going. All right. So I hope that we gave you a ton of ideas for thinking about your customer experience in a different way and how to build a world for your brand that encompasses every cent taste flavor. That sounds awful. Okay.

Yasmine (08:28):
Oh no, no. I think, I think that’s magical, Nicole, but yeah, we hope we gave you guys some ideas and if you have any ideas of your own, please feel free to tag us on Instagram. We’re @pixiedustandprofits. If you haven’t joined our mailing list, where we release new tools that you can implement in your business, maybe some of them will have to do with creating a three 60 experience head over to magic.pixiedustandprofits.com.

Nicole (08:51):
Thanks for joining us today. And we will see you next week.

Yasmine (08:59):
[Inaudible].