Yasmine (00:00): Hello and welcome back to the eighth season of Pixie Dust and Profits. I’m Yasmine.

Nicole (00:07): I don’t believe that. I don’t believe it’s been eight seasons. I’m Nicole.

Yasmine (00:11): Yeah. Like can you believe it? Like, it’s been eight seasons of doing this and I just remember like a couple years ago we were at a retreat sitting a few people apart, you know, looking at each other, being like, gonna start our podcast this year. Yeah, we’re gonna start our podcast this year.

Nicole (00:27): And that was after we had started the idea for the part podcast. Like, I don’t know, a year earlier. Yeah.

Yasmine (00:33): Where we first met. Yeah.

Nicole (00:35): It

Yasmine (00:35): Took us a year to decide. We wanted to do a podcast where we could talk about Disney and business are two favorite subjects in the world.

Nicole (00:41): It’s, it’s been really fun. Gosh, we’ve gone through so much like it started out as just being really excited about Disney and business case studies and then we went through like the pandemic and now we have retreats in Orlando with female business owners who wanna get stuff done and have some magic in the background while they do it. And our next one’s in February if you didn’t know. So go ahead and check that out at pixiedustandprofits.com slash live.

Yasmine (01:10): And we are actually splurging on the ultimate Disney experience in this one. We are renting a three bedroom villa for the retreat. So if you attend with us, you can stay in one of like Disney’s biggest rooms that they offer on property, which we’re super excited about. And it’s, it’s probably gonna be like a, maybe a once in a lifetime experience for us too, because those things are crazy expensive. But we managed to make the numbers work for this retreat.

Nicole (01:39): Yeah, and you know what, talking about going to Disney as often as we have, which I feel like it’s slowed down, it’s probably once a year or so now, but it, you get to try something different every time. Right. And I tell this to people all the time, you know, sometimes it can be a little bit embarrassing when my kid’s like, we’re going to Disney and so i’s like, oh, have a great time. Is it your first trip? And then he looks at them and says this is like my ninth or 10th trip. And so as a mom you’re like, but you know, that’s where we spend our vacation money and the thing that we love about it is that we don’t stress about mm-hmm. hitting certain rides or having to do everything. And every time we find something a little bit more fun and magical, we’ve definitely talked on this podcast about like the scavenger hunt around Epcot.

Nicole (02:25): And I think the last time we were there something came up and it was one of those days where there was like a rainstorm and somehow we just started collecting all of the 50th anniversary trophies on the play Disney app. And so we actually ended up getting all of them because we made like a last minute 7:00 PM run to Magic Kingdom to just collect them all, you know. So yeah, this episode’s all about the things that Disney does to surprise and delight the regular visitor, but also those repeating visitors with limited time offers.

Yasmine (03:05): Yes. And this is one of my favorite things about going back to Disney. Like obviously by the time I tend to go back every year, there’s usually like a new ride. You know, they, on average they put out like one new ride a year at minimum. It

Nicole (03:20): Feels like that, especially

Yasmine (03:21):

With Nicole (03:22): Tron and yeah.

Yasmine (03:23): Galaxy’s

Nicole (03:23): Edge and I don’t even know what’s coming out next

Yasmine (03:26): Party’s the Galaxy Ride that we went on. Oh my God, that’s like my new favorite ride at Epcot. But in addition to that, Disney is really, really good with their limited time offers, like Nicole said, primarily in the areas of merch and snacks. And I think we’re gonna kick it off by talking about snacks ’cause

Nicole (03:47): That we can, but then you said merch and I started thinking about like the hundred anniversary a hundred years as their current merch line. Mm-Hmm. I don’t really love it as much as I loved like the purple colors they had for the 50th celebration. And it’s also really confusing to go from a 50th celebration to a hundred years. But, you know, Disney does their own way of making all of these things feel very limited time and very special, but for food. Okay. So food is like the easiest thing for Disney to make special and different. So you’ve got stuff like May the fourth for Star Wars and they start having like special popcorn buckets that only come out. Then I, this is making me think about the P bucket for Figment and Epcot where there were lines all the way to the front of the park waiting to get this figment popcorn bucket. I think when we started looking at some of the more recent ones, 6 26, so June 26th, 6 26 was stitches experiment number in Lilo and Stitch. So they had a special like blueberry lemonade, mose cake just for stitch and it looked like him. So I wanted to see like if there’s anything recent, and I just have to share this because I don’t even think I’ve shown Yasmin the picture yet, but Yasmine loves Dole Whips. If you don’t know I

Yasmine (05:05): Love Doll Whip, like

Nicole (05:07): It’s a special, I we were on pixie dust live and you had blisters all over your feet.

Yasmine (05:13): Yep.

Nicole (05:14): And the only thing you did, you walked to the Dole Whips, you got your Dole Whip and then you were like, I have to go back to the room.

Yasmine (05:21): Do not get your shoes wet on the first day because you’re walking in the rain and then proceed to walk around Epcot in those wet shoes because your feet will not like you pro tip.

Nicole (05:33): But the, the Dole Whip must have helped. But

Yasmine (05:35): I, I will suffer for Dole Whip every time. It’s so good.

Nicole (05:40): So if you don’t know right now it’s early October, this episode’s probably coming out early November. So, so the Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party is going on and one of the treats that they have right now, they like to experiment with Dole Whips and at Storybrook Treats, which storybook treats, which is right between like meeting the princesses and Winnie the Pooh. They have all these like limited edition ice creams and that’s usually the ice cream cone you see snapped on Instagram because it just looks so cool. I still remember the one that was like Rapunzel. But right now they have the Hades Cone and so it’s a dull whip that’s coated with like just some like blue raspberry shell. It’s super sweet. It looks like Skittles. But then they put some Totten sauce, no, like

Yasmine (06:29): Spice Spice

Nicole (06:30): On top of it and it’s the Hades cone. ’cause You know, he’s a little bit spicy, but he’s still cool. But yeah, they just do stuff like this all the time. So even if I am not an ice cream person, if I get a some ice cream, like my husband will eat it all in the house. That’s not, that’s not my vice. But it’s, they just look so fun. How can you not go and get the fun looking ice cream cone?

Yasmine (06:52): Seriously? It’s so good. The

Nicole (06:53): Cone is blue.

Yasmine (06:55): Yeah. And like I, I’ll be honest, every time I go to Magic Kingdom or any park, I totally overestimate the amount of snacks I can eat. Because I’m like, I have a list of like five things I wanna try and I get like two off of the list and I’m so full. And I think it has something to do with like the Florida heat. Yeah,

Nicole (07:14): Yeah.

Yasmine (07:14): I, it, I think it just like kills my hunger a little bit. But I’ve only been able to try a special edition Dole Whip once because I always have to get the original, like I have to, it’s, it’s a non-negotiable on my trip I need to get Dole Whip. But then after that I got like a seasonal Dole Whip and I think it was actually the Polynesian Oh

Nicole (07:34): Yeah. Who

Yasmine (07:34): Went together. I got like a, one of the special like float type thingies that they had at the time. And it’s so good. And like, that’s the thing about Disney, like you will constantly see Disney influencers or just people going to the park sharing these limited edition treats and you have to be there to try it because they’ll go away and I will like literally look up all of the fancy treats that they have before every trip because I wanna make sure I’m gonna try the one that they have villa at the time before it’s gone.

Nicole (08:04): So when we’re thinking about these like limited time offers, right? It really comes back to like our businesses. Mm-Hmm. Like what are you doing that’s for a limited time? And it could be the product that you sell, you are just having the doors open and close. It could be that you’re doing like a special, you know, I’m just doing this seven day program and it’s the only time that you can get it. ’cause I’m, I’m, this is what everyone’s feeling right now. So I’m leaning into that and we’re gonna do this all together. It could be if you’re a product seller, you know, just you see trends that are coming out and you’re like, limited edition, let’s follow in on the trend. And so Disney does this with everything. Like food is obviously an easy way for them to mix things up because it’s just food.

Nicole (08:48): You’re putting different ingredients together. But they do this even with like their credit card designs. Mm-Hmm. I just got a mailer yesterday that was like, we now have Avengers credit card designs, turn in your design and get a new one. I’m still holding on to my 50 year anniversary with the pretty gold sparkly castle, but my husband did just change his to Darth Vader. So, you know, they send these flyers out to like get a new card. So you’re excited about your credit card just to see that it looks different. And so you can think about this in terms of like drops mm-hmm.

Nicole (09:23): And just especially with merch, but you can do this with a service-based or a digital product-based business as well.

Yasmine (09:33): I mean, that’s like trial offers too. For example, having like the first month of your membership discounted to let people, you know, try it out for a limited time and then, you know, renew them on the regular price. It could be, you know, offering something up for free for a limited time and then charging for it. One of my clients, this is in October, literally just wrapped up a big summit. And Nicole, I know one of your clients is that too every year. And you know, we have the sessions available for people to watch for free for the first 24 hours, but after that, if they want to catch a sessions or watch them again, they need to upgrade to a pass, which is a very like, nominal fee that gives ’em access to a ton of value. But these limited time offers get people through the door by offering the sessions for free upfront. People get to like sample things out, see they like it and they’re willing to invest to get access to everything. So

Nicole (10:27): Especially these days where, I mean I, if you’ve been in this space long enough, you’ve probably bought a course from someone mm-hmm. That you didn’t need or you got into it and you’re like, oh, I already knew all of this. Or you get into it and you’re like, I can’t believe I was charged that much and the videos this quality or something like that. And so summits really give a great way of reviewing what you’re going to see inside and what you’re going to get. And so it’s definitely like limited time kind of puts people in a little bit of a pressure cooker to make a decision, but at the same time it also gives them a taste of something fun, something exciting something that’s different from the norm. I was actually talking about this recently with a client who, you know, has this course where she’s teaching people something about art and then from there she’s like, how do I do more of this?

Nicole (11:18): But not shortchange the people who were, who bought it already. Like, do I have to give them everything I make for the next two years for free? Like, no, like, I’m a gamer. Let me think about this in terms of gaming, you have a season pass to the content, right? So you’ve got the baselines that you needed to know and now we’re gonna do a seasonal drop. And for this season you, you’re gonna have all of these new things to learn and we’ll do all of that together. And you have access to it forever, but you’re, you’re only getting the season pass with these six new things that we’re teaching. So I think about it in, in content drops and season passes when it comes to things like I’ve been playing Diablo lately and season two’s coming up, right? So those are the things that you think about where, how can we take what they’re doing in other industries and kind of morph them in a way and use them how it works for our own businesses. But I love the idea of a seasonal drop. So it’s, it also makes your course more affordable because then you can say you’ve got these options you can add on. So once you’ve got the basics, now you can learn the more advanced stuff and you’re not trying to put people in, get access to everything for $2,000. And that’s really off-putting to someone who is a beginner or a novice and they’re just like kind of trying to dabble or it’s their current fixation for, you know, 30 to 90 days.

Yasmine (12:43): I know that give them

Nicole (12:43): The opportunity.

Yasmine (12:45): Yeah. And like the other thing that I love about that idea is we don’t put our customers in a position of information overwhelm, which has been the trend with courses I would say in the past couple years where it’s like, oh my gosh, that’s

Nicole (13:01): Everything. Yeah.

Yasmine (13:01): All this information for this like, price. And then it ends up being like so much people don’t know where to start. Right?

Nicole (13:09): We did the advice for so long was like, get that, that image stack graphic that has absolutely everything. And then you started seeing these ads on Facebook or Instagram that were like, it’s an iPad screen and a phone and then a computer monitor and on that laptop and then a digital like printed thing. And like it’s just the whole screen is taken up by these like mockups of what you’re going to get. And it was just, I think especially after the pandemic, people are like, I need to simplify. I need less in my space. I need to focus. Even if I don’t feel like I can focus, I just, I can’t handle giving me the kitchen sink ice cream from Beach Club.

Yasmine (13:54): Wholeheartedly agree. It ends up being just too much to parse. And I, and the idea originally was to show the value, like you’re getting all this stuff for this incredible price, but like, it, it’s sort of like buying something on sale that you don’t necessarily need. Just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to buy it, you know? And in this case, like you’re getting all these things that you might not need and you could be paying more than if you just got like that one thing you need. But how do you know? ’cause There’s so much to go through. So

Nicole (14:25): It reminds me of those promotions that are like, get to $50 for free shipping. Mm-Hmm.

Yasmine (14:30): <Affirmative>.

Nicole (14:30): And sometimes they’re good ’cause it’s like, oh, okay, I can get to $50. But when they’re like, get to $70 for free shipping and all of the things that you wanna buy, add up to $69 mm-hmm like, it feels slimy and it makes me abandon my cart entirely because I’m like, oh, now I’m not getting a discount because you’re forcing me to spend a hundred hundred mm-hmm., like, I’m willing to spend 75 mm-hmm.

Nicole (14:54): And so you just kind of feel like gross about it. And so I think there’s a balance to everything we do. And just like anything else in life, sometimes it goes a little too far in one direction and I think we’re swinging back in the opposite direction where it’s all about simplicity and then we’ll go back into the middle in another year or two. Like it’s just gonna, it’s a pendulum, it’s gonna keep swinging, but simplicity I think is key right now. So yeah, think about your business, how you can bring in this like limited time exclusive merge, just short term fun. Like how can you bring that into your brand? Maybe it’s in how you do your social media. It doesn’t even have to be related to your product. I think Nicole Yang does a really wonderful job with this. If you go look at her Instagram profile, she kind of has like a magazine where two, like six, it’s like a six block.

Nicole (15:46): So the first two rows of her Instagram show, like, here’s what’s going on. It looks like a magazine. It’s a different color from the month before. It’s fun. It’s like, it feels like, it feels like a content drop. It feels like you’re getting something new. So it doesn’t have to necessarily be about your products or sales or anything like that. It could just be in how you’re talking to your audience or where you’re showing up. Do a two week content drop by trying out TikTok and then go back to your original audience and say, here’s, I spent two weeks on TikTok. Here’s what I learned. It, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but it has to be fun.

Yasmine (16:20): So true. So thank you for joining us for our first episode back for season eight. We’ve got so many things to talk about this season, lots of ideas. So definitely stay tuned if you want to join. Nicole and I live at Disney World for Pixie Dust & Profits live in February. We still, I think we have one seat left, Nicole.

Nicole (16:41): Yeah, just one.

Yasmine (16:42): Yeah. And we don’t expect that to last for long. So head over to pixiedustandprofits.com/live. If you don’t follow us on Instagram. We are @pixiedustandprofits on there. And thanks again and we’ll see you real soon. Bye bye.