October 27, 2024 • 11 mins
Discover how to break through business plateaus and unlock your company's potential! Join us as we explore the compelling story behind Pixar’s Toy Story 2—a film that overcame near-disaster with only six months to go before release. With storyline issues and a lack of emotional depth in it's characters threatening the project, Pixar's leaders made the audacious decision to start from scratch, a move that ultimately paved the way for some of the studio's most beloved classics. Learn how their emphasis on collaborative problem-solving and an iterative creative process became key to their success and how these strategies can be applied to any business facing a similar crisis.
Tune in to Brightside Business to glean actionable business insights from Pixar's creative strategies, which encouraged teams to fail early and often. By rapidly testing and iterating on multiple ideas, they improved character arcs and created a more compelling story. Discover how you can challenge initial solutions, embrace patience, and be willing to test and iterate on ideas to transform your business. Whether you're stuck at a revenue plateau or simply seeking inspiration, this episode offers valuable lessons in innovation and perseverance that will resonate with entrepreneurs and business leaders alike.
Got Questions? Send them here and I'll tackle them on the show: joey@joeyhyoung.com
Follow me on Instagram, X/Twitter, and Threads for daily content on business strategy and high performance @joeyhyoung
Ready to scale your business? Book a free connection call here and let's chat!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Bright Side Business, where we talk to
online entrepreneurs likeyourself about how to grow your
business.
My name is Joey Young.
I help my family's professionalservices business go from the
low six figure in revenue toover seven figures in revenue in
under two years, and there's alot of fits and starts, a lot of
plateaus, a lot of problemsalong the way.
So we're gonna talk about thattoday.
(00:21):
If you're a business ownerfacing a revenue plateau, facing
a problem you keep banging yourhead against the wall about,
let's unpack how we can pushthrough that using the case
study of one of the greatestproject turnarounds in history.
That's the movie Toy Story 2.
Yeah, pixar ran into some majorissues creating this film that
got turned around to be not onlya film that succeeded beyond
(00:45):
the original's gross income, butalso was critically acclaimed
and allowed the studio to createincredible films we know and
love today, like Up and InsideOut and WALL-E and other
classics.
So what did this company do topush through one of the greatest
disasters in filmmaking historyand ultimately create a classic
(01:05):
?
Now I love Toy Story 2.
I'll be honest with you a lotof people like Toy Story 3,
whatever.
My favorite and always will beof all the Toy Story movies is
Toy Story 2.
And you can imagine theincredible pressure Pixar was
under when they starteddeveloping Toy Story 2, because
the first one was a success inits own right.
So there was a lot of pressureon them to deliver even bigger,
(01:26):
even better characters and setsand spectacle of the story and
visuals than the first film.
But the problem was six monthsbefore the film was slated to
release.
It was a complete disaster.
It was, for all intents andpurposes, a massive failure.
There were storyline issues.
It just wasn't reallycompelling.
The same way the were storylineissues.
It just wasn't reallycompelling the same way the
(01:46):
original film was.
The characters didn't have theemotional depth that Pixar films
were known for, and the wholeteam knew this.
And so there was this throughline of frustration at the
company because they knew theyweren't delivering at the level
they were able to.
So John Laster and Ed Catmull,the co-founder and president of
Pixar at that time, scrapped theentire script six months before
(02:10):
the release.
They made the whole movie nulland void because they were not
settling for something that wasless than what they knew they
could deliver.
So now they were on an eventighter deadline.
They had less funds, but theyhad to deliver a higher quality
product than the first film oreverything they had done to
(02:31):
develop the second film up untilthat point.
So how did they do it and howdid they turn it all around to
create a classic Pixar film?
Well, they reworked the storycompletely.
They pushed things forward likecollaborative problem solving
and the iterative creativeprocess, and we're going to
unpack each of those things now.
Each of these things again ledto almost a billion dollars,
(02:54):
adjusted for inflation, ofrevenue from this one film and
critical success.
The first thing that Pixar didis they really pushed an
iterative creative process, sothey pushed their teams to fail
early and to fail often.
Instead of having each personneeding their idea to work and
(03:17):
having their emotions and theiridentity and their reputation
tied up with a specific ideatied up with a specific idea,
they really said, all right,guys, we're going to test things
and iterate quickly so there'sless time in between a
hypothesis if this little storyarc or this scene is gonna work
and the test results being onthe table for us to review.
We're gonna shorten that gap sowe can try 10 ideas in the time
(03:41):
.
It took to test one ideapreviously, and that led to a
multitude of ideas being able tobe tested, as opposed to just
one or two, which ultimately ledto better scenes, better
character arcs and a betterstory.
And so, really, at ourbusinesses.
What we got to look at is, youknow, are we getting attached to
the quick first solution thatwe suggested because we had an
(04:04):
idea, or are we embracing aslower process when it comes to
problem solving?
Are we really able to sit downand say, listen, this idea is
not working, obviously.
So, instead of just doing whatI think is fun next, or is my
first idea, can I have thecourage to throw out what I had
before and test a whole newapproach to solve this problem,
(04:25):
or can I have the patience toiterate on an idea?
You know, I always say a greatidea is a bad idea in need of a
haircut.
Sometimes the seed of an ideacan be iterated on so much in
terms of a you know, a solutionfor a problem that we're facing
in operations or a new product.
Sometimes the seed of an ideacan be iterated on to the point
(04:48):
where the initial idea iscompletely gone.
But we have this one throughputof iteration that leads to an
idea that completely knocks oursocks off in business, and so
that's what we're trying toencourage.
It's like how can we test ideasrapidly, how can we embrace the
slow process of maybe throwingout ideas and trying new ones,
or on iterating a idea.
(05:10):
So that's the idea of aniterative creative process.
The second thing that Pixar didis they put together these teams
called brain trusts, and thesewere directors.
These were narrativestorytellers, people who weren't
directly related to the projectof Toy Story 2, but could
provide some reallyknowledgeable and specific
(05:30):
feedback to the narrativedesigners of Toy Story 2.
So what they did is they sat ina room and they would give
honest feedback to the peoplemaking Toy Story 2 about their
thoughts on different story arcsand different scenes and
characters, their thoughts ondifferent story arcs and
different scenes and characters.
So it was an environment wherepeople could be completely
honest.
There were no emotions in theroom, there was no offense.
(05:51):
It was just here's what theexperts think honestly about
this idea that you're puttingforward, and for us as business
owners, we need to have outsidevoices of reason when we're
thinking about going down path Aor path B.
We need to have someone who hasno investment in which way we
go.
They have no ties to point A orpoint B, but they can just give
(06:14):
us some honest, clear adviceabout like honestly, I would do
A, or have you considered, ifyou did B, what would happen
down the road?
Or if we're even justconsidering whether to take
advantage of an opportunity andwe're a little bit unsure about
it, do we, as business owners,have that team of counselors
around us who are going to speakinto us, who don't have any say
(06:37):
in what we do?
Obviously they're justcounselors, but they can provide
that outside clear voice ofreason.
That's really, really important.
The third thing that Pixar didis they built a culture of
psychological safety.
So new ideas and failures ofideas were not only accepted but
they were expected, because alot of people in the culture at
(06:58):
that time, before they made theshift, were afraid of making
mistakes.
Mistakes and failures were verymuch pushed down on and shamed
in that culture that they hadbuilt at their company.
So they had to flip it aroundand say, okay, we're not only
going to accept mistakes thatpeople make, but we're going to
expect them from our teams,because when we have many, many,
(07:21):
many mistakes, we can see thatwe're trying things, that we're
actually testing ideas, that'retrying things, that we're
actually testing ideas that maynot work, that we're actually
innovating here, that we'reactually taking calculated risks
.
So what happened was becausepeople were less afraid of
making mistakes.
In that culture they werebuilding.
Better work came out of itbecause they were able to work
faster.
They weren't so concerned abouttheir reputation.
(07:42):
They were able to create betterquality work.
And a culture where people arepsychologically safe is made up
of people who can say thingslike I don't know this concept
fully, can someone explain thisto me?
Or like, hey, I have an idea.
I'm not sure if it's going towork, but I have an idea.
Or it's a culture where peoplecan say things like hey, I don't
(08:05):
think that's going to work andhere's exactly why.
And they're not going to bepunished for that.
Or a culture where people canspeak up and say I tried this
and this and this and I waswrong.
I thought it would work and itdidn't.
We don't shame those things.
We don't push people down forspeaking up and putting their
two cents in the hat or fortrying something and failing
(08:29):
those cultural norms where it'sokay to make those mistakes, to
ask for help, to speak up.
Those things are expected fromthe team.
Aspect of healthy companyculture is when you have heated
discussions that are focusedaround discussing the right play
(08:51):
for the business to win.
So if your team meetings areheated discussions, meaning
people are getting a little bitemotional, there's a little bit
of tension in the room.
That's a good thing.
Again, it's not people fightingeach other.
It's not like people are angrybecause they're trying to
protect an idea and they thinkthat the person's wrong, but
(09:12):
they're emotionally invested increating the right play to make
the company win, make theproject win, and so they get
emotionally invested and thearguments get a little heated
when we're talking about what todo next.
So those conversations shouldbe taking place and that's when
you know you have a culturallysafe place to share honest
thoughts, when you can have alittle bit of heat in the
(09:35):
conversation and you can have alot of fun going back and forth
about what the right play is tomake the company win.
And the last thing that Pixardid is they took calculated
risks.
They understood that at sometimes it's better to swing for
the fences, even though there'sa chance of missing, than taking
the guaranteed first base witha line drive hit.
(09:58):
And for businesses all over allsizes gigantic corporations,
small startups there's a truismthat most of them, who are
successful and who grow steadilyover time, are able to double
down on their unfair advantages,which means they're saying no
(10:18):
to a lot of opportunities,they're saying no to a lot of
revenue, even right, or tocertain customer bases, because
they know here's what we're goodat, here's what we want to
double down on, here's where wewanna play our cards.
We wanna sit at this table andplay this game and we're gonna
say no to all the distractionsaround us and we're really gonna
(10:39):
double down on this thingworking because we feel like
we're really well positioned inthe marketplace because of the
team that we have, or thetechnology or the IP or the
systems of the team that we have, or the technology or the IP,
or the systems or the resources.
We feel like we can play inthis area and smash it.
And so calculated risk-takingis essential for a really
healthy company to grow.
So that's how Pixar turnedaround Toy Story 2.
(11:00):
And, of course, the resultsspeak for themselves.
Hopefully this has been helpfulfor you to think through how you
can break through your problemor your company's barrier right
now to growing revenue andsolving the challenge in front
of you.
And if you really like this,I'd love to hear your question
so I can address it here on theshow.
Shoot me an email, joey, atjoeyhyoung.
Just include the question andyour name and I'd love to
(11:23):
address whatever is on your mindfor your business to help you
break through and get to theother side of your problem.
You can also DM me on Instagram.
It's at joeyhyoung if you wantto shoot me the question there.
Also, if you're at this pointin the show, you must have loved
something you've heard, soleave that thumbs up.
Please Like, subscribe, hitthat five-star review.
If you're on my podcastplatform, wherever you're
(11:44):
hearing this, watching this,really appreciate it, really
helps spread the show aroundwith the algorithm and stuff.
And until next time, my friends, happy scaling.
Welcome to Bright Side Business, where we talk to
online entrepreneurs likeyourself about how to grow your
business.
My name is Joey Young.
I help my family's professionalservices business go from the
low six figure in revenue toover seven figures in revenue in
under two years, and there's alot of fits and starts, a lot of
plateaus, a lot of problemsalong the way.
So we're gonna talk about thattoday.
(00:21):
If you're a business ownerfacing a revenue plateau, facing
a problem you keep banging yourhead against the wall about,
let's unpack how we can pushthrough that using the case
study of one of the greatestproject turnarounds in history.
That's the movie Toy Story 2.
Yeah, pixar ran into some majorissues creating this film that
got turned around to be not onlya film that succeeded beyond
(00:45):
the original's gross income, butalso was critically acclaimed
and allowed the studio to createincredible films we know and
love today, like Up and InsideOut and WALL-E and other
classics.
So what did this company do topush through one of the greatest
disasters in filmmaking historyand ultimately create a classic
(01:05):
?
Now I love Toy Story 2.
I'll be honest with you a lotof people like Toy Story 3,
whatever.
My favorite and always will beof all the Toy Story movies is
Toy Story 2.
And you can imagine theincredible pressure Pixar was
under when they starteddeveloping Toy Story 2, because
the first one was a success inits own right.
So there was a lot of pressureon them to deliver even bigger,
(01:26):
even better characters and setsand spectacle of the story and
visuals than the first film.
But the problem was six monthsbefore the film was slated to
release.
It was a complete disaster.
It was, for all intents andpurposes, a massive failure.
There were storyline issues.
It just wasn't reallycompelling.
The same way the were storylineissues.
It just wasn't reallycompelling the same way the
(01:46):
original film was.
The characters didn't have theemotional depth that Pixar films
were known for, and the wholeteam knew this.
And so there was this throughline of frustration at the
company because they knew theyweren't delivering at the level
they were able to.
So John Laster and Ed Catmull,the co-founder and president of
Pixar at that time, scrapped theentire script six months before
(02:10):
the release.
They made the whole movie nulland void because they were not
settling for something that wasless than what they knew they
could deliver.
So now they were on an eventighter deadline.
They had less funds, but theyhad to deliver a higher quality
product than the first film oreverything they had done to
(02:31):
develop the second film up untilthat point.
So how did they do it and howdid they turn it all around to
create a classic Pixar film?
Well, they reworked the storycompletely.
They pushed things forward likecollaborative problem solving
and the iterative creativeprocess, and we're going to
unpack each of those things now.
Each of these things again ledto almost a billion dollars,
(02:54):
adjusted for inflation, ofrevenue from this one film and
critical success.
The first thing that Pixar didis they really pushed an
iterative creative process, sothey pushed their teams to fail
early and to fail often.
Instead of having each personneeding their idea to work and
(03:17):
having their emotions and theiridentity and their reputation
tied up with a specific ideatied up with a specific idea,
they really said, all right,guys, we're going to test things
and iterate quickly so there'sless time in between a
hypothesis if this little storyarc or this scene is gonna work
and the test results being onthe table for us to review.
We're gonna shorten that gap sowe can try 10 ideas in the time
(03:41):
.
It took to test one ideapreviously, and that led to a
multitude of ideas being able tobe tested, as opposed to just
one or two, which ultimately ledto better scenes, better
character arcs and a betterstory.
And so, really, at ourbusinesses.
What we got to look at is, youknow, are we getting attached to
the quick first solution thatwe suggested because we had an
(04:04):
idea, or are we embracing aslower process when it comes to
problem solving?
Are we really able to sit downand say, listen, this idea is
not working, obviously.
So, instead of just doing whatI think is fun next, or is my
first idea, can I have thecourage to throw out what I had
before and test a whole newapproach to solve this problem,
(04:25):
or can I have the patience toiterate on an idea?
You know, I always say a greatidea is a bad idea in need of a
haircut.
Sometimes the seed of an ideacan be iterated on so much in
terms of a you know, a solutionfor a problem that we're facing
in operations or a new product.
Sometimes the seed of an ideacan be iterated on to the point
(04:48):
where the initial idea iscompletely gone.
But we have this one throughputof iteration that leads to an
idea that completely knocks oursocks off in business, and so
that's what we're trying toencourage.
It's like how can we test ideasrapidly, how can we embrace the
slow process of maybe throwingout ideas and trying new ones,
or on iterating a idea.
(05:10):
So that's the idea of aniterative creative process.
The second thing that Pixar didis they put together these teams
called brain trusts, and thesewere directors.
These were narrativestorytellers, people who weren't
directly related to the projectof Toy Story 2, but could
provide some reallyknowledgeable and specific
(05:30):
feedback to the narrativedesigners of Toy Story 2.
So what they did is they sat ina room and they would give
honest feedback to the peoplemaking Toy Story 2 about their
thoughts on different story arcsand different scenes and
characters, their thoughts ondifferent story arcs and
different scenes and characters.
So it was an environment wherepeople could be completely
honest.
There were no emotions in theroom, there was no offense.
(05:51):
It was just here's what theexperts think honestly about
this idea that you're puttingforward, and for us as business
owners, we need to have outsidevoices of reason when we're
thinking about going down path Aor path B.
We need to have someone who hasno investment in which way we
go.
They have no ties to point A orpoint B, but they can just give
(06:14):
us some honest, clear adviceabout like honestly, I would do
A, or have you considered, ifyou did B, what would happen
down the road?
Or if we're even justconsidering whether to take
advantage of an opportunity andwe're a little bit unsure about
it, do we, as business owners,have that team of counselors
around us who are going to speakinto us, who don't have any say
(06:37):
in what we do?
Obviously they're justcounselors, but they can provide
that outside clear voice ofreason.
That's really, really important.
The third thing that Pixar didis they built a culture of
psychological safety.
So new ideas and failures ofideas were not only accepted but
they were expected, because alot of people in the culture at
(06:58):
that time, before they made theshift, were afraid of making
mistakes.
Mistakes and failures were verymuch pushed down on and shamed
in that culture that they hadbuilt at their company.
So they had to flip it aroundand say, okay, we're not only
going to accept mistakes thatpeople make, but we're going to
expect them from our teams,because when we have many, many,
(07:21):
many mistakes, we can see thatwe're trying things, that we're
actually testing ideas, that'retrying things, that we're
actually testing ideas that maynot work, that we're actually
innovating here, that we'reactually taking calculated risks
.
So what happened was becausepeople were less afraid of
making mistakes.
In that culture they werebuilding.
Better work came out of itbecause they were able to work
faster.
They weren't so concerned abouttheir reputation.
(07:42):
They were able to create betterquality work.
And a culture where people arepsychologically safe is made up
of people who can say thingslike I don't know this concept
fully, can someone explain thisto me?
Or like, hey, I have an idea.
I'm not sure if it's going towork, but I have an idea.
Or it's a culture where peoplecan say things like hey, I don't
(08:05):
think that's going to work andhere's exactly why.
And they're not going to bepunished for that.
Or a culture where people canspeak up and say I tried this
and this and this and I waswrong.
I thought it would work and itdidn't.
We don't shame those things.
We don't push people down forspeaking up and putting their
two cents in the hat or fortrying something and failing
(08:29):
those cultural norms where it'sokay to make those mistakes, to
ask for help, to speak up.
Those things are expected fromthe team.
Aspect of healthy companyculture is when you have heated
discussions that are focusedaround discussing the right play
(08:51):
for the business to win.
So if your team meetings areheated discussions, meaning
people are getting a little bitemotional, there's a little bit
of tension in the room.
That's a good thing.
Again, it's not people fightingeach other.
It's not like people are angrybecause they're trying to
protect an idea and they thinkthat the person's wrong, but
(09:12):
they're emotionally invested increating the right play to make
the company win, make theproject win, and so they get
emotionally invested and thearguments get a little heated
when we're talking about what todo next.
So those conversations shouldbe taking place and that's when
you know you have a culturallysafe place to share honest
thoughts, when you can have alittle bit of heat in the
(09:35):
conversation and you can have alot of fun going back and forth
about what the right play is tomake the company win.
And the last thing that Pixardid is they took calculated
risks.
They understood that at sometimes it's better to swing for
the fences, even though there'sa chance of missing, than taking
the guaranteed first base witha line drive hit.
(09:58):
And for businesses all over allsizes gigantic corporations,
small startups there's a truismthat most of them, who are
successful and who grow steadilyover time, are able to double
down on their unfair advantages,which means they're saying no
(10:18):
to a lot of opportunities,they're saying no to a lot of
revenue, even right, or tocertain customer bases, because
they know here's what we're goodat, here's what we want to
double down on, here's where wewanna play our cards.
We wanna sit at this table andplay this game and we're gonna
say no to all the distractionsaround us and we're really gonna
(10:39):
double down on this thingworking because we feel like
we're really well positioned inthe marketplace because of the
team that we have, or thetechnology or the IP or the
systems of the team that we have, or the technology or the IP,
or the systems or the resources.
We feel like we can play inthis area and smash it.
And so calculated risk-takingis essential for a really
healthy company to grow.
So that's how Pixar turnedaround Toy Story 2.
(11:00):
And, of course, the resultsspeak for themselves.
Hopefully this has been helpfulfor you to think through how you
can break through your problemor your company's barrier right
now to growing revenue andsolving the challenge in front
of you.
And if you really like this,I'd love to hear your question
so I can address it here on theshow.
Shoot me an email, joey, atjoeyhyoung.
Just include the question andyour name and I'd love to
(11:23):
address whatever is on your mindfor your business to help you
break through and get to theother side of your problem.
You can also DM me on Instagram.
It's at joeyhyoung if you wantto shoot me the question there.
Also, if you're at this pointin the show, you must have loved
something you've heard, soleave that thumbs up.
Please Like, subscribe, hitthat five-star review.
If you're on my podcastplatform, wherever you're
(11:44):
hearing this, watching this,really appreciate it, really
helps spread the show aroundwith the algorithm and stuff.
And until next time, my friends, happy scaling.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com