Building Your Business With Disney’s Partnership Principles

00:00:01 Roberto Candelaria: Well, hey all.

00:00:01 Roberto Candelaria: Roberto here. And listen, I am at the time of this recording still in Orlando, still at Disney with clients. Got to spend some time with Ashley Jane Groom and the hockey McFadden with Liz Wilcox and just an amazing few days here at Disney being able to work in the morning, do some masterminding, have some client.

00:00:21 Roberto Candelaria: VIP days but also be able to play in the afternoon and hang out at Disney with clients. Oh my God, I love it. Y’all. It is fun. So yeah, you already know I love Disney. That’s not a surprise. I mean, it is. Maybe if you’re new here, but you know, being in the parks for me is always.

00:00:40 Roberto Candelaria: I mean, I guess it’s just like a great reminder for me that partnerships, the collaborations, they are all around us. And so as we continue this conversation around partnerships and around collaborations, I’m going to do it today with a little bit with the viewpoint of the lens from Disney. So yeah, let’s chat about partnerships.

00:00:01 Roberto Candelaria: All right. So as I mentioned still here in the Orlando area and let’s chat a little bit about the magic of partnerships, you know whether that be Disney and Pixar or going way, way, way, way back, you know, Disney and Technicolor, some more recent examples, we see Delta and American Express with like the Delta Sky Miles card we see.

00:00:21 Roberto Candelaria: You know Southwest Airlines and I believe it’s chase the now. It’s like the Southwest Airlines Chase rewards credit card. You know we see that big brands all around us are utilizing partnerships and collaborations to be able to grow, to be able to deliver more value to their existing customer, to be able to reach people that they want to be their customer, but we see.

00:00:43 Roberto Candelaria: So many small businesses, you know, online entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants.

00:00:49 Roberto Candelaria: Not always necessarily wanting to go forward and embrace the power of partnerships, but partnerships and collaborations, they’re not just for big brands, y’all, they’re for everyday people just like you, just like me. And so just like Disney stories, just like Disney movies like, they have awesome teams.

00:01:09 Roberto Candelaria: We can too. You know, we saw the teamwork between at least I did. Aladdin and genie. Oh, my God. Did y’all watch Aladdin?

00:01:19 Roberto Candelaria: In frozen, we see it between Anna and Elsa, right? And so all these Disney stories that we see, there’s these great Teamworks these great collaborations. Like I said, Aladdin and Genie and Anna and Elsa and Toy Story right, we got buzz and Woody, right? Even right. I would even say Andy and Woody and so.

00:01:39 Roberto Candelaria: There’s all of these stories and examples around us, but.

00:01:44 Roberto Candelaria: What about us? What about small business owners? Several years ago, I was just starting in business and I wanted to be able to connect with more people. I wanted to be able to get on more stages and so one of the ways that I personally did this is we created something called the relationships make money to her.

00:02:04 Roberto Candelaria: You know, looking back, it’s kind of fascinating that I never knew this would become the name of a podcast. I don’t. I don’t even really know if people were podcasting back then, but we did. The relationships make money to her, and I partnered with a couple of those speakers and consultants and said, hey.

00:02:21 Roberto Candelaria: You’ve got a base in Houston. You’ve got a base in Dallas. I’ve got a base in Austin. What if we did a Little Texas tour and did a series of one day events where the three of us spoke, and while we all promoted all three cities? Because you have a base in Dallas, you’ll help carry Dallas because you have a base in Houston. You’ll help carry Houston.

00:02:42 Roberto Candelaria: Because I have a babes in Austin Alcop Harry Austin help carry Austin and.

00:02:47 Roberto Candelaria: We all got to collaborate. We all got to promote a three city tour. We all got to speak in different cities. We all got to introduce our clients into other people that might be able to serve them in a way that we cannot. And you know, I mentioned in a training that I did the other day that one of the biggest mistakes that I see.

00:03:09 Roberto Candelaria: Business owners making is trying to be responsible for 100% of the transformation of all of their students, of all of their clients and all of the people that they service and someone actually sent me an Instagram message on.

00:03:22 Roberto Candelaria: That they were.

00:03:22 Roberto Candelaria: Like wow, I really needed to hear that too.

00:03:25 Roberto Candelaria: And so if you notice with this tour we did that, there are people like my friend, my client for Rita, who runs an amazing community and amazing membership that protect kids online movement that protect kids online membership where what she’s really doing is helping parents be able to protect their kids online.

00:03:45 Roberto Candelaria: And as she’s got her membership community, one of the things she did is she reached out to a company by the name of Snapchat. Y’all may or may not have heard of them, and she had a team member. I forget the title. I want to say it was a vice president from Snapchat come in to her membership community and say, hey, here are the things you can do with our platform.

00:04:08 Roberto Candelaria: To be able to protect kids online.

00:04:13 Roberto Candelaria: There’s my client, Ashley Jango. She’s actually with me here at Disney. Like I said, as of the recording of this, but Ashley’s partnering and collaborating with other coaches through her podcast, hiring coaches. And one of the things that she’s doing right is she’s partnering and collaborating with other coaches as podcast guest on her podcast on her YouTube.

00:04:34 Roberto Candelaria: Go to say hey.

00:04:35 Roberto Candelaria: How did you do it? How did you get your first sale? How did you get to your first six figures? Because as a sales and marketing coach for coaches, one of the things that Ashley knows is that there’s not just one way to get a sale and everybody has their own journey. Everybody has their own expertise. And so she’s partnering with.

00:04:55 Roberto Candelaria: Other high earning coaches to reveal how they did it y’all can catch my episode of that. I’m on Ashley’s show also. Be sure to check out Judith Catan, Lakendra Smalley, and Brig Johnson on Ashley show as well. Some of my favorite episodes y’all.

00:05:12 Roberto Candelaria: Well, but if you see right, like we’re all doing things, whether it’s myself with people that were at my level at the time all starting out, peers, Farida partnering with a major brand or Ashley also focusing and collaborating with coaches that are earning more revenue than she is.

00:05:33 Roberto Candelaria: Right. And she even says that, hey, these people are making more than I am at the time that I’m recording the episodes with them. And as I learn, you get to learn too. And she’s able to share the key takeaways that she’s learning from those stories so other people can also learn how to become a high earning coach.

00:05:54 Roberto Candelaria: And so I share that. So you can see that you don’t have to be a big brand.

00:06:00 Roberto Candelaria: Successful partnerships can start at all different levels, whether it’s with your peer, whether it’s with someone just a few steps ahead of you, whether it’s the next door neighbor or the next door business, whether that be online or offline, or whether it be a brand that’s several years and even millions and billions of dollars in revenue.

00:06:21 Roberto Candelaria: Ahead of you.

00:06:23 Roberto Candelaria: It’s possible, and so being here at Disney, I noticed a few things that I want to share through the lens of Disney that makes Disney’s partnerships so successful, and I hope that as I share these, you’ll be able to say, oh, I can see myself in that this is something I can learn. This is something that I can apply.

00:06:45 Roberto Candelaria: So the very first one is this.

00:06:48 Roberto Candelaria: You know, when you look at the brands that Disney collaborates, Disney Partners with that, there’s very much shared vision and shared values. And I think that as a small business owner, it’s so important that when we look at our potential partners that they share our core values and our vision for the future.

00:07:06 Roberto Candelaria: Sure, it now. I might also say this, they don’t need to have the exact same values, right? We want to make sure that they share our values, not that every single value is the same and that they don’t go against or cause us to, like, forsake our values for a for a check. We want to know that we.

00:07:28 Roberto Candelaria: Have a shared vision to the future and so Disney’s collaborations, when I look at them right, they’ve got this understanding of like, OK, here’s what we want to achieve.

00:07:37 Roberto Candelaria: And they get to decide what that is. Is it at that storytelling excellence? Is it innovation? Is it customer satisfaction, right. What they’re saying is, hey, with this alignment of vision and values, this is how we know there’s an opportunity for long term success, even if we choose to only do a one off partnership.

00:07:57 Roberto Candelaria: Or a short term partnership to be able to test something. The second thing that I really noticed that Disney does well is in their partnerships and collaborations is there’s complementary strengths.

00:08:10 Roberto Candelaria: And as a small business owner, we should be looking for partners who bring something different but also complementary to the table. Right. And so Disney chooses partners that can add value.

00:08:24 Roberto Candelaria: Whether that be unique strengths or unique resources or capabilities, they say what can be done to enhance what we do.

00:08:34 Roberto Candelaria: And so I invite you, as you look at partnerships to say, hey, how can working with this other small business owner? Like I said, whether it be in person or online, whether it be a group coaching program or podcast, guesting or content or any of the many ways that you can partner and collaborate, how can we come together and how can their strengths?

00:08:55 Roberto Candelaria: Implement mine so that we can create more powerful experiences like or I should say a more powerful combined experience to our ideal customers.

00:09:10 Roberto Candelaria: Something else that Disney is great is their commitment to quality.

00:09:14 Roberto Candelaria: I don’t know if you’ve been to Disney.

00:09:17 Roberto Candelaria: I realized the privilege and saying like, oh, I’m recording this while I’m at Disney, and I’ve also worked for it y’all I acknowledge that too. So I acknowledge being able to say I’ve recorded this here. I also acknowledge that I’m working and have worked for years to be able to do this. But Disney has a reputation for quality.

00:09:37 Roberto Candelaria: Whether that be a quality product or a quality customer service, the quality of I like to say their animation and they expect the same from their partner.

00:09:48 Roberto Candelaria: And so I want you to for a second right, like to think about like, what are my standards, whether it be for my product, for my service, for my customer experience, for my fulfillment, what are my standards to quality and how do I find partners that share a similar commitment to maintaining the standards?

00:10:11 Roberto Candelaria: That I have or have even higher standards that I have, because when there’s this shared dedication to quality right.

00:10:19 Roberto Candelaria: Again, it also helps making sure that the partnership is going to enhance or expand our brands rather than dilute them or rather than, you know, cause a blip in them.

00:10:30 Roberto Candelaria: Disney has.

00:10:32 Roberto Candelaria: Such an innovative spirit, it’s about innovation. Right? And so Disney y’all, oh, my gosh. Disney is known for pushing boundaries. They’re known for embracing innovation. They are known for when they come out with the technology or experience. People being like what?

00:10:48 Roberto Candelaria: And when seeking partners, I want to invite you to say, like, who are the partners that are also forward thinking who are also open to exploring new ideas that are open to exploring solutions just like you are? Because in my experience, a partners desire a partner’s willingness.

00:11:09 Roberto Candelaria: To be able to innovate, to be able to try new.

00:11:12 Roberto Candelaria: Things. It’s something that can really help you to adapt to the market changes. We saw this during the pandemic. We saw it when people were all in, off and on offline events, right. And the shift to online events in virtual summits, right, those that were willing to innovate and adapt first were those that were able to not only be a part of.

00:11:32 Roberto Candelaria: Driving the market change, but they were able to capture new opportunities faster and as a result, there’s so many businesses that grew in these times and so.

00:11:43 Roberto Candelaria: How innovative are you willing to be? How forward thinking are you willing to be? Are you willing to connect with people that are also willing to do that?

00:11:54 Roberto Candelaria: And then a bigger one and the last one I’ll share today is, is this cultural fit.

00:11:59 Roberto Candelaria: So beyond strategy beyond operations beyond like, oh.

00:12:03 Roberto Candelaria: My God, we love.

00:12:04 Roberto Candelaria: Each other like the cultural fit.

00:12:08 Roberto Candelaria: Between organizations, the cultural fit between you and another coach or you and another small business owner is going to play such a critical role in a partnership success.

00:12:21 Roberto Candelaria: You know, Disney places such a high value on working with brands, working with partners whose corporate culture, whose work ethic, whose team dynamics, who actually align with theirs.

00:12:35 Roberto Candelaria: You know, Disney has something called the five keys. I invite you to go look them up. Their safety courtesy show efficiency and inclusion, but these drive the the culture of the Walt Disney Company.

00:12:50 Roberto Candelaria: And a cultural fit between you and your partners is something else that’s going to make for a smoother collaboration. It’s going to make for a smoother partnership, but also right there can be this, like shared excitement of like, this is going to happen if you have similar cultures.

00:13:08 Roberto Candelaria: And so these are just a few things that I noticed this week being at Disney and that I would say I was reminded of being at Disney and I hope that you will take these into consideration as you begin to identify more and more potential partners for you, not only for like the immediate business need, not only for like I want to grow my e-mail list.

00:13:28 Roberto Candelaria: Today I want to get a coaching client. Today I want more consults. Today I want to, you know, get more students in my karate classes today. But as you think about your larger aspirations that you think about, oh, my God, where are we going to be 3 years and five years from now as you think about?

00:13:46 Roberto Candelaria: Man, what is my commitment to excellence?

00:13:50 Roberto Candelaria: Much like Disney has created successful partnerships over the years, I believe that you can too. I believe that small business owners can too and so I want to invite you to take action on this and take action on this and implement this today.

00:14:06 Roberto Candelaria: And so this week, when you think about the partners and you identify those potential partners, I want you to consider the vision and the values and are they shared. I want you to consider complementary strengths and what they can bring to the table that you can’t, but they can.

00:14:25 Roberto Candelaria: And I want you to consider a commitment to quality right, because that’s something that you should have, that you want to make sure that your partners also have.

00:14:34 Roberto Candelaria: And I want you to think about, you know, are you looking for partners who also share the same innovative spirit that you do?

00:14:43 Roberto Candelaria: Right. And last but not least, that cultural fit that is going to play such a critical role in the success of your collaboration. So that’s what I’ve got for you this week, y’all.

00:14:55 Roberto Candelaria: Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of partnerships and possibility.

00:15:01 Roberto Candelaria: If you’ve got questions, I’ve got answers, y’all.

00:15:04 Roberto Candelaria: Just use the hashtag partnerships and possibility. If you’re listening to this on a replay or if you’re here live today, and as always, it’s a pleasure to connect with you. I hope you have an amazing day and I will see you soon.