February 27, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode, we speak with Yusi Cheng, Founder and Entrepreneur. Yusi's company Magical Winter Lights (MWL), a holiday attraction and festival that showcases multicultural lantern displays, acrobatic performances, amusement rides, and live entertainment. MWL has become one of the leading holiday attractions in the U.S., winning the ABC network's "The Great Christmas Light Fight" in 2019 and attracting over 1.6 million visitors. Yusi is a graduate of the executive MSc in Social Business and Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), In this episode Yusi provides
- insight into her path of creating her own business.
- how she creates balance as working mother and business owner.
- advice for other entrepreneurs to help them be successful.
This is an episode that will surely make you smile and perhaps to inspire you to learn from Yusi's journey.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to ReFirement Life, the podcast for anyone navigating life transitions or planning
(00:06):
to make life transitions to ensure your next years are your best years.
Listen in for insightful, generous, and sometimes humorous conversation.
It's time to get fired up with Christine Zamuda and Muge Wood, your hosts for this
latest episode of ReFirement Life.
Hello everyone. Today I am very excited alongside with my co-host Christine to host
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Yusi Cheng on our podcast. You will find out that Yusi has a lot of amazing qualities,
which makes her an interesting guest for us today. First of all, Yusi is a dear friend.
She shares our love of tennis and she's a small business owner, magical winter lights.
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So she brings joy through her business to many during the special time in our lives,
during the holidays. And on top of that, she also has an advanced degree from London School of
Economics on entrepreneurship. So looking forward to hearing from Yusi today on her insights on
(01:17):
small business ownership, juggling life, and looking very good in the midst of all of that.
So Yusi, welcome. Could you share a little bit about your background, please, with our listeners?
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Muge and Christine, for having me on the podcast. I'm really excited.
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My name is Yusi. I grew up in China. I moved to the United States when I was 18 by myself to
attend college in the Dallas-Bottom-Earth area. And then I moved down to Houston,
spent about five years in a PR communications and marketing career. And I think growing up,
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I've always seen my parents working as entrepreneurs. So I think eventually I decided to become an
entrepreneur myself by starting a small business. I had a small PR consulting business that I still
kept until today. And then, interestingly, I had a client who wanted to produce a large-scale
(02:26):
lantern festival through my PR business, but I ended up creating the entire business plan for
this client. And they eventually didn't pull the festival because they wanted to do it in a
different market. So I ended up becoming in partnership with my family in China, becoming the
(02:46):
founder and executive producer of Magic Co-Mentor Lights, which is my business that I have run for
the past 10 years. So I have lived in Houston for more than 15 years and in Texas 20 years. So
I guess I'm a Houstonian now or a Texan. So that's kind of my background until this point.
(03:10):
Awesome. Awesome. Wow. So from China to Texas, giddy up.
Yeah, my dad didn't even know what Texas was like when I got accepted to my school. I think we had
very limited information. Internet wasn't available, but it was very slow. And I think it
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was very desperate to go study abroad and wanted to leave. So my college had pretty good marketing
back then. I was very welcoming of international students. So I just grabbed the opportunity and
went to Texas and have not left since. That's wild. That's wild. And 10 years to have a business is
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amazing. I mean, most small businesses, if you get through the, what, I think the first three years,
your odds of succeeding are much greater. But wow, what was that like to just start your own
business? What were some of the challenges and things that you had to address?
Yeah, I think for this festival business, it's large event production. We had one example
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from another city. Somebody from China has done this kind of large scale lantern festival. So
we kind of got a little bit of a, we kind of copied that festival a little bit. But other than that,
we started everything on our own. Of course, you know, I started a company here in partnership with
my parents' company in China. And because it is a large production, you know, we have to manufacture
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lanterns from China and bring about a hundred people, lantern artists from China to build this
festival. It takes up 20 acres of space. So we just kind of took on the challenge. I didn't have any
experience running a business, but I, but I was organized. I was, you know, determined to do it.
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So kind of learned everything from contract negotiation, venue selection, marketing, you know,
and managing finance at the county and everything to pull this festival together. Even though it's
a 50 day festival, you, we really spent a whole year, every year, you know, to put it on. So
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it was a success the first year, you know, we had a lot of people attending. Of course,
we're learning from this process, but no one said, you know, in my family said, we should just
stop, you know, let's, we have already, we had a very good start. Why not just continue it? And
the good thing is that you can take a little bit of break before the busy season, you know,
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it is a seasonal business. So I think that little break at the beginning of every year kind of gives
me an opportunity to recharge. So I don't feel like I'm in my business operating it every single
day, which can be very draining. I think that's a good, this type of business kind of helps to help
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your reset every year to keep me going every year. But there are times, there were times,
you know, the fifth or sixth year of our business, I was just like, you know what, I don't know if I
can keep going. But then I tell myself, it's, it's been five, six years, can I just keep going?
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You know, and then I'm just repeating, you know, I asked myself, but then I asked myself again,
you know, can I just keep doing it? You know, and then you think about all these people that you
have worked with, you know, a whole team from China and an event team here in Houston, and how can
you just pull out? You know, there's a sense of responsibility that keeps you going, of course,
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and you want to see how far you can go. Yeah, I think, I think there's a lot of grinding, you
know, and I, and I met many other business owners who are also grinding. So I really,
I really believe that, you know, if you're not, if you're not like a tech startup that can have
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overnight success with some kind of, you know, multi-million dollar, billion dollar exit,
a lot of business owners are just grinding, and then you don't see your business succeed
until after at least three, four years, you know, and just have to keep going. And then people will
recognize that you have become more established, and then they will come to you. It does take time.
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I really, I really, I really admire, I still learn from a lot of these small business owners,
you know, and that's, that's the core. That is, that is amazing. Inside, you see, first of all,
we probably don't understand or appreciate all behind the scenes work that goes into putting
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together such a magnificent production, but I can say this with certainty, you hosted us, a group
of us, I think a couple of winters ago at the magical winter lights in Houston. It is just
like the name suggests, it was magical. I have been to several of these things, but the show that
you put on was very special, very large-scale, detailed production with the festival aspect
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added to it. Now, I think the other dimension is you truly bring joy to many, and you don't even
know the people who are visiting the grounds, but many people come to expect and look forward to it.
So hopefully you keep going, because it's definitely an inspiration. You said something
interesting about the small business ownership piece. So, you know, as an example, I spent all
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my career in corporate America, large companies where you have the backing of a lot of corporate
functions, you know, the marketing sales, HR, IT, all of those things. When you're a small business
owner, you're kind of probably doing all of that, a lot of it on a smaller scale all by yourself.
This could be daunting, but also liberating at times. So, how was that transition from your
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PR journalist career to small business ownership? What did that feel like? Because I think that's
something a lot of us think about and even fantasize about and say, okay, after my big career,
I want to start my own business. But we really probably don't understand what it takes and how
a time scary can be. Yeah, my last job, I was in the marketing department for a company here in
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Houston, and then I was already taking on some freelance projects from some clients, you know,
doing PR and marketing for them. Of course, the money was not nothing compared to my salary,
but I still decided that I, if I wanted to start a business, I really have to put 100%,
if not more focus on the business. I cannot have a side business. I mean, I know some people,
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you know, like you can have a corporate job and own like a franchise and run it as a side,
but you kind of have a safety net, you know, like if one thing doesn't work out, the other
still keeps you going. But for me, I had to put 100% focus on my business, which I did. I eventually
quit my job. I'm just going to start. I think every entrepreneur or small business owner had that
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moment where you just have to take the leap of faith. And I think being, having done marketing
and public relations here in the Houston market, it really helps me tremendously because I think
every business owner should be a marketer, right? And I think having worked in the industry and
the local market, the Houston market, it gave me very good insight on how to run my business as a
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marketer. So, but I learned very quickly, I cannot do everything, but I can, I understand how
everything works, but I have to outsource. So I think a couple of years into running magical
winter lights, I decided to partner up with a very good friend of mine. She also works in the event
industry here in Houston, and she's a very good marketer. So I just talked to her, I said, why
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don't you be my marketing and PR representative and handle all my media by? And then we, and I
hired a digital marketing company to do all of our online ads because they're the experts. But I
think every time when we have a kickoff meeting every season, we, I know what exactly, what kind
of questions to ask them. I don't know how to exactly run a Google ad, but I get it. And I have
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the capacity to understand what they're reporting back to me. And I think that's important. And I
think for marketing, I really created this brand and set up a very, like overarching messaging
for our magical winter lights being a multicultural festival. So these are, these overall messages
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really have to come from a business owner. Whoever does your marketing would do the work for you.
And they, as they get more familiar with their business, they will get better understanding
of your business. But the business owner has to be the one who sets the overall message of the,
of the business. So that's just one example of I started outsourcing pretty quickly after, you
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know, a few years of my business, first from marketing, because that's, that's my specialty.
And then, you know, from doing payroll or having a staffing company, you know, you, you basically
started many managing vendors and creating, managing all these relationships instead of having to do
everything yourself, which is very liberating. And, and I think to me, that's very important,
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because you have to focus on the core, what moves the needle in your business. You cannot drag yourself
to do every single thing. Nobody has that capacity. And I think I learned to that very early on,
because I started outsourcing marketing, then I started outsourcing everything else. But I'm
still like on the ground, I, you know, if, if my festival needs my help, I'm, I have done everything.
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I've sold tickets, scan tickets, picked up trash, cleaned everything. That keeps me grounded as well.
Yeah. Yeah. On average for our listeners, how, how many people visit the magical lights festival
each year? Annually, we have about 150,000 people each year. Yeah.
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On the 50,000 of your closest friends.
Yeah. Yeah. In a good year, I think back in the 2019, we won the great Christmas life fight on ABC.
They had a heavy, they call it heavyweight division, because it was like a competition between
amongst businesses, you know, that own light shows. So we won that. And much to my surprise,
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I thought people are going to fly to Houston from all over the country. But what's interesting was
most people came from Houston, the greater Houston area. They still haven't heard about us.
That just shows you how big Houston is. And then, you know, people travel, travel one hour to come
to our festival. But that was our best year. I think we had 200,000 people that year.
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That's amazing. That's amazing. That is awesome. Congratulations. So I think you say, I remember
you mentioning you were considering expanding to another location as well. I think you looked
at Macal in Texas, perhaps, as another site. Has that gone through? Are you thinking about
expanding it to other locations in Texas? Yeah. So back in 2017, we actually expanded to Dallas
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Fort Worth, you know, because I thought I was familiar with that market, sort of. So I had to
operate two festivals at the same time. I remember driving a lot back and forth. And
but it didn't really work out as I expected, because it's a very operational, heavy
kind of business. So I stopped. We went back to just operating in one location in Houston. But
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a few years ago, I met the city manager of Macallan at a conference. And I decided instead of,
they already operate a very, very nice holiday show and parade in Macallan. But they just wanted
to have a lantern attraction, something similar to us. And I didn't know that they were coming
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to our festival for years just to learn from us. So I started building this business relationship
a few years ago. And eventually, the city decided to purchase our lantern attraction.
And so we started, I think, last year, we started building a smaller lantern attraction for them.
So to me, it wasn't expansion for a magical winter lights, but it was a little bit of redirection
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of our business. We decided to supply a lantern attraction to other venues. So the city of Macallan
was a very good example. But it also showed me, you know, expansion is not easy. You know, I spent
two years building that relationship before I eventually won that contract. You know, there
was a lot of people skills involved. You know, you have to be patient. You have to explain to them
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why your lantern attraction was worth the price. And they will also have to take in consideration
of their budget planning of the city. So it takes a long time. You know, nothing is instant
and a gratification, right? But last year, when I went down to see our lantern attraction being
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completed in City of Macallan, it was an amazing feeling. Yeah. Awesome. That's awesome.
So congratulations. I think you touched upon another important point you see. I always think of it
as a light, holiday celebration festivities, but it also is a strong cultural element that is also
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far-reaching, fun and engaging. So shifting gears a little bit, I know you also have gotten your degree
in masters, executive masters in social business and entrepreneurship from London School of Economics.
And I've been impressed by that whole endeavor very much because you have also done it remotely.
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While you're in Houston, you're running a business, you're keeping up with your life,
and you're also completing this demanding degree from London School of Economics. So my question is,
how was that experience and how is it helping your business ownership?
So I've always wanted to go back to grad school, right? But I always feel like, I always felt like
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an odd ball in the business world because when people ask me, what do you do? It takes me a while
to explain what I do. What is my job? What is my job? It's like, Mikke, what do you do? And I
launch into this talk track, sustainability, carbon emissions, and by this time people are like,
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okay, thank you. So that's a universal problem, right? Explain what we do.
So, but again, I feel like, you know, being in Houston, you hear a lot of real estate or in gas
energy, right? And then if I go to business school here locally, I don't know if networking was
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beneficial to me. You know, can I find the people just like me or do, and then, you know,
people, business owners always say, you know, you don't need an MBA. You can learn everything
while running your business. But I still feel like it wasn't enough. But I was kind of leaning
towards something that's kind of an alternative to an MBA or an E-MBA. So it's not a traditional
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generic MBA, for lack of a better word. So I was looking online, but also, you know, I've always
had this global perspective. You know, I'm from China, I went to, you know, an international school,
I traveled, you know, growing up. So why limit myself in the United States, right? So, and then
I found this program at LSE London School of Economics, and I was reading the description of
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this executive master. It says, we have overseas part-time program for international students.
I just felt like it was calling me. I belong here. I belong here. And basically, the requirement is
that you just need to travel to London four times within an 18 month period. And every time you stay
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there for a week or two. And I was like, that's kind of manageable. So when I ended up going there,
I saw that most of the students are from other parts of Europe. So to them, you know, the flight
was an hour or two. But for me, my flight, my direct flight was 10 hours. So I was, I still
thought I was kind of crazy. But, but having that in-person experience, listening to lectures from
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the best minds in the UK, you know, it was amazing. I still remember one of my favorite professors was
Julian LeGrand. And he used to be the public policy advisor for Prime Minister Tony Blair.
So the fact that he was, you know, hanging out with us and I could ask him all kinds of questions
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about American politics and the UK's take on it. It was amazing. And it was funny too, you know. So
I just thought, you know, that was money well spent. And the thing is, when it comes to tuition,
this, the cost of going to the London School of Economics was just a fraction of a typical
ENBA here in the United States. So I thought I, I really, I really enjoyed that experience. It was
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well worth it. That's awesome. And you're affiliated with alumni like Mick Jagger. Mick Jagger went to
the London School of Economics. Right? And maybe Parv Spies. And you see, you know, my fascination
with the Royal Family. Maybe there's a connection there. Every time you see would say she's going
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to London and do her, we would all pester her. Well, who are you going to see? Who are you going
to hang out with? Take pictures. Can we visit you? So yeah, that's right. You're affiliated with some
royalty, I think. Remotely, right? Six degrees. Yeah. But I still remember one of my classmates,
because there are some classmates from London as well. And his wife used to be the personal
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assistant for Camila. So, but of course, that's all I know. And they must have signed a lot of NDA.
So I don't think we can gossip about her much. But just to be, wow, like your wife actually
worked for her, like was in her living room at some point, you know, it was kind of crazy to think
about. Moog is going to roll out her 100 questions. Yeah, that's exactly right. Now you're making me
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think maybe I should also apply a program of this kind somewhere. But so glad you see you went for
it. I personally found a lot of benefit in getting an MBA. That's a more traditional MBA early in my
career. Even though I'm not a, you know, business owner necessarily, I think there's just immense
value. Just being able to read a financial statement and, you know, not be intimidated by
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these terms. And, you know, it helps a lot in your personal life as well as the professional life. So,
so glad you went for it. Now, while you were there, we are going to dive into what you exactly did.
No, just kidding. But I do want to look at my grades. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, what was your GPA?
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No. So, but you did go to Wimbledon and we were all enamored by this, your tennis friends left
behind in Houston living through you. So how was that, how was that experience, the Wimbledon
experience? Because it's on my bucket list is yet to happen. So I get, we got to get some tips on
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navigation and fan engagement. Yeah, so I think Wimbledon was definitely the highlight of my last
trip to London, my most recent trip to London. And I just can't tell you how amazing it was,
just everything, everything was amazing. And, you know, before I was planning for Wimbledon,
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I was like, how am I even going to get tickets to Wimbledon? It just seems impossible, right? But
for some reason, I did some online research and found a broker, their office survived by
the small town of Wimbledon, you know, and they, they can actually sell you, resell your tickets
from what they call adventure seat owners, you know, people actually investing their seats at
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Wimbledon, but they resell their seats. So I spent quite an investment to get my seat and also
another seat for a friend. And we, we went and we, we tried to dress like everybody else appropriately
to Wimbledon and everyone, everyone was dressed the way you could see, you know, in the media,
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you know, very, very preppy, you know, lots of whites. Well, and watching David Beckham
sit, you know, in the stands with a full suit and a knotted tie, and he looks like he's not
sweating at all. What the heck? It was actually not too hot, you know, in June in London, actually,
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so I get the benefit of the doubt, you know, it's, it's like June in London is, it's kind of
interesting. It's actually kind of chilly, you know, so I think it gives people the opportunity
to wear a blazer, just like people watching, you know, and observing everyone. And of course,
watching the game itself is, is just, you know, I'm here, I'm actually here, I can't believe,
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I can't believe it. But I think it's a good start. And there's definitely other ways to go to Wimbledon
in the future. I think we've learned from the locals where you just take the tube and go to
Wimbledon, you know, the little town of Wimbledon, and just they call it Q, right? So you just Q
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there for your tickets of the day, you might not get in, get a ticket right away, get a ticket right
away, but you will get it 50% of the chance, you know, at the end of the day, and then you can watch
the last match of the day. And, but before that, you are still allowed to walk around the ground,
you know, and then there's, there's a lawn where a little hill where you can watch the matches on
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the big screen. I think Wimbledon is not just about seeing your favorite tennis players, right?
It's just a whole experience and you can walk around and just get the most out of it. I think at
the end of that day, both my friend and I felt like it wasn't enough, we should have, you know,
taken more advantage just to walking around instead of just sitting in our seats, you know,
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the seats that way spent a lot of money on, you know, so I think there is definitely less expensive
ways to experience Wimbledon and the key is just keep going back. Right, right. Friends of mine
did that Q that you mentioned and they had a brilliant time. They just totally enjoyed it and
saw, they saw a couple of matches. I think they queued like two, three different days
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and we're fortunate to get tickets every single day. Oh, wow, they're, they're really lucky.
I think when it's your first time, you probably try to get it right, make it perfect and have
a lot of certainty, predictability, but if you go subsequent times, you can, you can be more
relaxed about it and have even more fun. So I think the moral of the story is go to Wimbledon
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multiple times. That's the conclusion. So you see, I want to touch on one more thing before we wrap up.
So you are doing a lot of amazing things personally and professionally. You're also a
mother of two amazing young children. You're a very engaged mom. I see you take your kids to
art classes, tennis lessons, cultural experiences. And this has been a topic ongoing in all of my
(28:11):
working career along with Christine and everyone else, the whole juggling act. So what are your,
any tips, observations on just managing priorities, transitions to, you know, balance it a bit?
Yeah, first of all, I just want to say, I feel like women are just amazing. How much capacity we have
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to juggle everything. Like I haven't met a mom or just a woman who doesn't juggle so many things
all at once. You know, I think we have that flexibility. And for me, I don't think,
yes, when you, when you see everything that I'm doing, it's a lot, but I feel like I,
they're all a balancing act, right? I think for my business, now I got to the point where I've
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learned to be very hands off so that I can create a flexible, a flexible time or lifestyle for myself.
So sometimes I go to tennis because I really want to play tennis. And that's
the best way for me to release stress and make friends and socialize like adults, you know,
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because, you know, you never know 10 minutes before I go to tennis, I was just picking up
dog poop and hearing my kids screaming before dropping them off at school. It is stressful
being a single mom with two children, you know, co-parenting. That's just a journey that I have
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to live with, you know, and that's why I was thinking earlier, every year, I'm thinking about
every, every journey and experience we have, I don't look at it as positive or negative, it's
just an experience, you know, sometimes it's stressful, sometimes it's not, but overall,
it's a, it's a balancing act, you know, if, if parenting becomes very stressful, then I have to
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find another channel to release that stress and then take care of myself. You know, I can put
everything that I'm doing on the resume and call myself amazing, I'm not, you know, I don't feel
like I'm doing an amazing job juggling everything, but I'm doing it and I want to get better every day.
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So, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good reflection, right? I mean, it's like, we all have imperfect days,
but, but what I'm getting from your, I don't know, okay, okay, perfect every day. But for you,
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see what you just said is so, it has so much wisdom in it to, to reflect on like, okay, you know,
there's going to be stress, but listen to your body when you're stressed, take care of it, don't let it,
you know, consume you, get out of hands, right? Because when you're, when you can recognize when
you're out of balance and then get yourself back in balance, that's, that's the trick for happier,
(31:17):
more productive life, right? Yeah, it is so much wisdom in what you said you see, and I really
appreciate it because two things, one, don't seek perfection because that only creates more stress,
accept the journey and have fun along the way every day, you know, have as much fun as you can,
it could be small, it could be big, but, but have fun. So that is, that is a great takeaway and the
(31:41):
essence of our podcast essentially, have fun. So, speaking of fun, can we close with fun?
We are down to our fun questions. Why don't you get us started, Christine? What are our fun
questions in our rep? So these are just some speed, speed round questions for you, UC.
(32:04):
Want to see what you would have to say about these. So if you could light up any famous landmark,
which one would it be? Light up any famous landmark.
I would say the Colosseum, that that's the first thing that comes to mind.
(32:25):
My husband would love that answer. I mean, I think all men love Colosseums for sure,
they just feel stronger and more powerful when they're in them. But that would be beautiful,
beautiful space to work in, right? Yeah, and it's very mysterious. So many secrets in it. I
didn't even think about a man being in it. I just feel like it's very...
(32:47):
All I could think of were Gladiators and Russell Crowe. So you light up the space you see will
bring the Gladiators to reenact the Roman times. I was thinking about bringing a concert there.
Yes, yes, that would be amazing. Now that begs the question. I want to do a little research,
(33:08):
like how do they use Colosseum, if at all, for this kind of thing? They must light it up for
different instances. Definitely. Events, like it's an event venue. Yeah, that's right. All right,
next question. This is a quick one. White lights or multi-color? What's the best choice?
White lights. Yeah. Well, there's something just so classy about white lights, right? It just looks
(33:33):
clean and pretty. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. What do you think, Mukai? Are you in that category?
I would like both in different ways. I really would like white lights, but a little multi-color
action for excitement could also be good. Now, on top of that, I like the ones that just
(33:54):
pulsating light, like a little action like that as well. Yeah. All right, best holiday song to
listen to while working? Or best song? Last Christmas. That's a good one. That's my daughter's favorite song.
(34:16):
Yeah, when she hears that. There are so many versions, right? So many different versions of it.
Yeah, I think my most recent version was from this DJ on YouTube, and they did their own
take on it. It was amazing. Yeah, that's very cool. My nephew is actually teaching English in
Thailand, and I have video of him teaching a couple hundred kids that song in a Santa suit,
(34:42):
singing to them, and they're singing back. It is one of the greatest little clips I've ever seen.
There's so much joy in it. Yeah. It's here to link with us. Yeah, I'll share the link. It's
super fun. All right, and I guess last, this is more just anything that you're reading or podcast
(35:04):
that you're interested in that you'd recommend to our folks who are listening. Yes, I'm reading
Mel Robbins, Let Them, The Let Them Theory. I also listened to her podcast. I listened to her a
lot recently. I never thought I would have a connection with her, but for some reason, her
(35:27):
voice is so captivating and it's so motivating for the current stage of my life and what I'm going
through. So I highly recommend Let Them because I think a lot of the times we should surrender
and let go of things that we can have control over and liberate ourselves. Yeah, she really
(35:51):
lives with a positive mindset, you know, eliminate the negative and embrace the positive.
Yeah, and she's very relatable. You know, she went through a lot of things as women,
and mothers go through. I never thought I would relate to her, but she does now, you know,
resonate with me. Yeah. Yes, yes. So you see anything that you want to leave our audience with?
(36:16):
I know like your festivals in Houston, is there a link or things that people should be aware of
in that area? Or maybe they will want to travel. I might want to travel. I think Mu Ghe will put me up.
For sure. The offer is evergreen at any time of the year. Magical Winter Lights period is one,
(36:37):
the rodeo is the second one. So absolutely. Yeah, so our business website is magicalwinterlights.com
or you can also search magical winter lights or holiday magical winter lights. Anything,
if you put magical in the search box, it will show up. So we'll still be here this year at the
(37:03):
Fort Bend County Farragrams this winter. Very cool. Very cool. That is close to me. I live in
Fort Bend County, so I can go multiple times even. Yeah, make another trip. Come see me. Make another
trip. Awesome. And it starts what, does it start in November or? In mid-November all the way until
(37:23):
after the New Year's. So we'll announce the exact dates when we get closer. Okay, great. Well,
congrats on all the success. Thank you so much. Yeah, I can't wait to see what happens next. It
looks like you're starting to think about maybe even doing your own podcast. So we'll keep our
listeners posted when that's available so that folks can tune in. Thank you so much. Yeah,
(37:48):
hopefully it gets on Spotify soon, right? Like you guys. That's right. That's right. All right.
So I guess we'll sign off, Mukay. Anything else? Absolutely. You see, it has been a pleasure to
have you as our guest. It's been a real treat. We've been wanting to make it happen for some time
and wish you the very best in all that you take on. Know that you inspire us, so keep going.
(38:13):
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. All right. Take care. Until next time.
(38:43):
Refirming Life using the podcast player of your choice always remember you are never too old to
to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.
Thanks again for joining us on this episode.
Until next time.
Welcome to ReFirement Life, the podcast for anyone navigating life transitions or planning
(00:06):
to make life transitions to ensure your next years are your best years.
Listen in for insightful, generous, and sometimes humorous conversation.
It's time to get fired up with Christine Zamuda and Muge Wood, your hosts for this
latest episode of ReFirement Life.
Hello everyone. Today I am very excited alongside with my co-host Christine to host
(00:35):
Yusi Cheng on our podcast. You will find out that Yusi has a lot of amazing qualities,
which makes her an interesting guest for us today. First of all, Yusi is a dear friend.
She shares our love of tennis and she's a small business owner, magical winter lights.
(00:56):
So she brings joy through her business to many during the special time in our lives,
during the holidays. And on top of that, she also has an advanced degree from London School of
Economics on entrepreneurship. So looking forward to hearing from Yusi today on her insights on
(01:17):
small business ownership, juggling life, and looking very good in the midst of all of that.
So Yusi, welcome. Could you share a little bit about your background, please, with our listeners?
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Muge and Christine, for having me on the podcast. I'm really excited.
(01:40):
My name is Yusi. I grew up in China. I moved to the United States when I was 18 by myself to
attend college in the Dallas-Bottom-Earth area. And then I moved down to Houston,
spent about five years in a PR communications and marketing career. And I think growing up,
(02:02):
I've always seen my parents working as entrepreneurs. So I think eventually I decided to become an
entrepreneur myself by starting a small business. I had a small PR consulting business that I still
kept until today. And then, interestingly, I had a client who wanted to produce a large-scale
(02:26):
lantern festival through my PR business, but I ended up creating the entire business plan for
this client. And they eventually didn't pull the festival because they wanted to do it in a
different market. So I ended up becoming in partnership with my family in China, becoming the
(02:46):
founder and executive producer of Magic Co-Mentor Lights, which is my business that I have run for
the past 10 years. So I have lived in Houston for more than 15 years and in Texas 20 years. So
I guess I'm a Houstonian now or a Texan. So that's kind of my background until this point.
(03:10):
Awesome. Awesome. Wow. So from China to Texas, giddy up.
Yeah, my dad didn't even know what Texas was like when I got accepted to my school. I think we had
very limited information. Internet wasn't available, but it was very slow. And I think it
(03:31):
was very desperate to go study abroad and wanted to leave. So my college had pretty good marketing
back then. I was very welcoming of international students. So I just grabbed the opportunity and
went to Texas and have not left since. That's wild. That's wild. And 10 years to have a business is
(03:53):
amazing. I mean, most small businesses, if you get through the, what, I think the first three years,
your odds of succeeding are much greater. But wow, what was that like to just start your own
business? What were some of the challenges and things that you had to address?
Yeah, I think for this festival business, it's large event production. We had one example
(04:16):
from another city. Somebody from China has done this kind of large scale lantern festival. So
we kind of got a little bit of a, we kind of copied that festival a little bit. But other than that,
we started everything on our own. Of course, you know, I started a company here in partnership with
my parents' company in China. And because it is a large production, you know, we have to manufacture
(04:42):
lanterns from China and bring about a hundred people, lantern artists from China to build this
festival. It takes up 20 acres of space. So we just kind of took on the challenge. I didn't have any
experience running a business, but I, but I was organized. I was, you know, determined to do it.
(05:04):
So kind of learned everything from contract negotiation, venue selection, marketing, you know,
and managing finance at the county and everything to pull this festival together. Even though it's
a 50 day festival, you, we really spent a whole year, every year, you know, to put it on. So
(05:28):
it was a success the first year, you know, we had a lot of people attending. Of course,
we're learning from this process, but no one said, you know, in my family said, we should just
stop, you know, let's, we have already, we had a very good start. Why not just continue it? And
the good thing is that you can take a little bit of break before the busy season, you know,
(05:49):
it is a seasonal business. So I think that little break at the beginning of every year kind of gives
me an opportunity to recharge. So I don't feel like I'm in my business operating it every single
day, which can be very draining. I think that's a good, this type of business kind of helps to help
(06:10):
your reset every year to keep me going every year. But there are times, there were times,
you know, the fifth or sixth year of our business, I was just like, you know what, I don't know if I
can keep going. But then I tell myself, it's, it's been five, six years, can I just keep going?
(06:32):
You know, and then I'm just repeating, you know, I asked myself, but then I asked myself again,
you know, can I just keep doing it? You know, and then you think about all these people that you
have worked with, you know, a whole team from China and an event team here in Houston, and how can
you just pull out? You know, there's a sense of responsibility that keeps you going, of course,
(06:55):
and you want to see how far you can go. Yeah, I think, I think there's a lot of grinding, you
know, and I, and I met many other business owners who are also grinding. So I really,
I really believe that, you know, if you're not, if you're not like a tech startup that can have
(07:16):
overnight success with some kind of, you know, multi-million dollar, billion dollar exit,
a lot of business owners are just grinding, and then you don't see your business succeed
until after at least three, four years, you know, and just have to keep going. And then people will
recognize that you have become more established, and then they will come to you. It does take time.
(07:39):
I really, I really, I really admire, I still learn from a lot of these small business owners,
you know, and that's, that's the core. That is, that is amazing. Inside, you see, first of all,
we probably don't understand or appreciate all behind the scenes work that goes into putting
(07:59):
together such a magnificent production, but I can say this with certainty, you hosted us, a group
of us, I think a couple of winters ago at the magical winter lights in Houston. It is just
like the name suggests, it was magical. I have been to several of these things, but the show that
you put on was very special, very large-scale, detailed production with the festival aspect
(08:24):
added to it. Now, I think the other dimension is you truly bring joy to many, and you don't even
know the people who are visiting the grounds, but many people come to expect and look forward to it.
So hopefully you keep going, because it's definitely an inspiration. You said something
interesting about the small business ownership piece. So, you know, as an example, I spent all
(08:49):
my career in corporate America, large companies where you have the backing of a lot of corporate
functions, you know, the marketing sales, HR, IT, all of those things. When you're a small business
owner, you're kind of probably doing all of that, a lot of it on a smaller scale all by yourself.
This could be daunting, but also liberating at times. So, how was that transition from your
(09:16):
PR journalist career to small business ownership? What did that feel like? Because I think that's
something a lot of us think about and even fantasize about and say, okay, after my big career,
I want to start my own business. But we really probably don't understand what it takes and how
a time scary can be. Yeah, my last job, I was in the marketing department for a company here in
(09:45):
Houston, and then I was already taking on some freelance projects from some clients, you know,
doing PR and marketing for them. Of course, the money was not nothing compared to my salary,
but I still decided that I, if I wanted to start a business, I really have to put 100%,
if not more focus on the business. I cannot have a side business. I mean, I know some people,
(10:08):
you know, like you can have a corporate job and own like a franchise and run it as a side,
but you kind of have a safety net, you know, like if one thing doesn't work out, the other
still keeps you going. But for me, I had to put 100% focus on my business, which I did. I eventually
quit my job. I'm just going to start. I think every entrepreneur or small business owner had that
(10:32):
moment where you just have to take the leap of faith. And I think being, having done marketing
and public relations here in the Houston market, it really helps me tremendously because I think
every business owner should be a marketer, right? And I think having worked in the industry and
the local market, the Houston market, it gave me very good insight on how to run my business as a
(10:57):
marketer. So, but I learned very quickly, I cannot do everything, but I can, I understand how
everything works, but I have to outsource. So I think a couple of years into running magical
winter lights, I decided to partner up with a very good friend of mine. She also works in the event
industry here in Houston, and she's a very good marketer. So I just talked to her, I said, why
(11:21):
don't you be my marketing and PR representative and handle all my media by? And then we, and I
hired a digital marketing company to do all of our online ads because they're the experts. But I
think every time when we have a kickoff meeting every season, we, I know what exactly, what kind
of questions to ask them. I don't know how to exactly run a Google ad, but I get it. And I have
(11:47):
the capacity to understand what they're reporting back to me. And I think that's important. And I
think for marketing, I really created this brand and set up a very, like overarching messaging
for our magical winter lights being a multicultural festival. So these are, these overall messages
(12:08):
really have to come from a business owner. Whoever does your marketing would do the work for you.
And they, as they get more familiar with their business, they will get better understanding
of your business. But the business owner has to be the one who sets the overall message of the,
of the business. So that's just one example of I started outsourcing pretty quickly after, you
(12:33):
know, a few years of my business, first from marketing, because that's, that's my specialty.
And then, you know, from doing payroll or having a staffing company, you know, you, you basically
started many managing vendors and creating, managing all these relationships instead of having to do
everything yourself, which is very liberating. And, and I think to me, that's very important,
(12:57):
because you have to focus on the core, what moves the needle in your business. You cannot drag yourself
to do every single thing. Nobody has that capacity. And I think I learned to that very early on,
because I started outsourcing marketing, then I started outsourcing everything else. But I'm
still like on the ground, I, you know, if, if my festival needs my help, I'm, I have done everything.
(13:22):
I've sold tickets, scan tickets, picked up trash, cleaned everything. That keeps me grounded as well.
Yeah. Yeah. On average for our listeners, how, how many people visit the magical lights festival
each year? Annually, we have about 150,000 people each year. Yeah.
(13:44):
On the 50,000 of your closest friends.
Yeah. Yeah. In a good year, I think back in the 2019, we won the great Christmas life fight on ABC.
They had a heavy, they call it heavyweight division, because it was like a competition between
amongst businesses, you know, that own light shows. So we won that. And much to my surprise,
(14:11):
I thought people are going to fly to Houston from all over the country. But what's interesting was
most people came from Houston, the greater Houston area. They still haven't heard about us.
That just shows you how big Houston is. And then, you know, people travel, travel one hour to come
to our festival. But that was our best year. I think we had 200,000 people that year.
(14:33):
That's amazing. That's amazing. That is awesome. Congratulations. So I think you say, I remember
you mentioning you were considering expanding to another location as well. I think you looked
at Macal in Texas, perhaps, as another site. Has that gone through? Are you thinking about
expanding it to other locations in Texas? Yeah. So back in 2017, we actually expanded to Dallas
(15:03):
Fort Worth, you know, because I thought I was familiar with that market, sort of. So I had to
operate two festivals at the same time. I remember driving a lot back and forth. And
but it didn't really work out as I expected, because it's a very operational, heavy
kind of business. So I stopped. We went back to just operating in one location in Houston. But
(15:31):
a few years ago, I met the city manager of Macallan at a conference. And I decided instead of,
they already operate a very, very nice holiday show and parade in Macallan. But they just wanted
to have a lantern attraction, something similar to us. And I didn't know that they were coming
(15:53):
to our festival for years just to learn from us. So I started building this business relationship
a few years ago. And eventually, the city decided to purchase our lantern attraction.
And so we started, I think, last year, we started building a smaller lantern attraction for them.
So to me, it wasn't expansion for a magical winter lights, but it was a little bit of redirection
(16:19):
of our business. We decided to supply a lantern attraction to other venues. So the city of Macallan
was a very good example. But it also showed me, you know, expansion is not easy. You know, I spent
two years building that relationship before I eventually won that contract. You know, there
was a lot of people skills involved. You know, you have to be patient. You have to explain to them
(16:48):
why your lantern attraction was worth the price. And they will also have to take in consideration
of their budget planning of the city. So it takes a long time. You know, nothing is instant
and a gratification, right? But last year, when I went down to see our lantern attraction being
(17:10):
completed in City of Macallan, it was an amazing feeling. Yeah. Awesome. That's awesome.
So congratulations. I think you touched upon another important point you see. I always think of it
as a light, holiday celebration festivities, but it also is a strong cultural element that is also
(17:31):
far-reaching, fun and engaging. So shifting gears a little bit, I know you also have gotten your degree
in masters, executive masters in social business and entrepreneurship from London School of Economics.
And I've been impressed by that whole endeavor very much because you have also done it remotely.
(17:57):
While you're in Houston, you're running a business, you're keeping up with your life,
and you're also completing this demanding degree from London School of Economics. So my question is,
how was that experience and how is it helping your business ownership?
So I've always wanted to go back to grad school, right? But I always feel like, I always felt like
(18:22):
an odd ball in the business world because when people ask me, what do you do? It takes me a while
to explain what I do. What is my job? What is my job? It's like, Mikke, what do you do? And I
launch into this talk track, sustainability, carbon emissions, and by this time people are like,
(18:42):
okay, thank you. So that's a universal problem, right? Explain what we do.
So, but again, I feel like, you know, being in Houston, you hear a lot of real estate or in gas
energy, right? And then if I go to business school here locally, I don't know if networking was
(19:04):
beneficial to me. You know, can I find the people just like me or do, and then, you know,
people, business owners always say, you know, you don't need an MBA. You can learn everything
while running your business. But I still feel like it wasn't enough. But I was kind of leaning
towards something that's kind of an alternative to an MBA or an E-MBA. So it's not a traditional
(19:28):
generic MBA, for lack of a better word. So I was looking online, but also, you know, I've always
had this global perspective. You know, I'm from China, I went to, you know, an international school,
I traveled, you know, growing up. So why limit myself in the United States, right? So, and then
I found this program at LSE London School of Economics, and I was reading the description of
(19:54):
this executive master. It says, we have overseas part-time program for international students.
I just felt like it was calling me. I belong here. I belong here. And basically, the requirement is
that you just need to travel to London four times within an 18 month period. And every time you stay
(20:14):
there for a week or two. And I was like, that's kind of manageable. So when I ended up going there,
I saw that most of the students are from other parts of Europe. So to them, you know, the flight
was an hour or two. But for me, my flight, my direct flight was 10 hours. So I was, I still
thought I was kind of crazy. But, but having that in-person experience, listening to lectures from
(20:42):
the best minds in the UK, you know, it was amazing. I still remember one of my favorite professors was
Julian LeGrand. And he used to be the public policy advisor for Prime Minister Tony Blair.
So the fact that he was, you know, hanging out with us and I could ask him all kinds of questions
(21:04):
about American politics and the UK's take on it. It was amazing. And it was funny too, you know. So
I just thought, you know, that was money well spent. And the thing is, when it comes to tuition,
this, the cost of going to the London School of Economics was just a fraction of a typical
ENBA here in the United States. So I thought I, I really, I really enjoyed that experience. It was
(21:30):
well worth it. That's awesome. And you're affiliated with alumni like Mick Jagger. Mick Jagger went to
the London School of Economics. Right? And maybe Parv Spies. And you see, you know, my fascination
with the Royal Family. Maybe there's a connection there. Every time you see would say she's going
(21:51):
to London and do her, we would all pester her. Well, who are you going to see? Who are you going
to hang out with? Take pictures. Can we visit you? So yeah, that's right. You're affiliated with some
royalty, I think. Remotely, right? Six degrees. Yeah. But I still remember one of my classmates,
because there are some classmates from London as well. And his wife used to be the personal
(22:13):
assistant for Camila. So, but of course, that's all I know. And they must have signed a lot of NDA.
So I don't think we can gossip about her much. But just to be, wow, like your wife actually
worked for her, like was in her living room at some point, you know, it was kind of crazy to think
about. Moog is going to roll out her 100 questions. Yeah, that's exactly right. Now you're making me
(22:40):
think maybe I should also apply a program of this kind somewhere. But so glad you see you went for
it. I personally found a lot of benefit in getting an MBA. That's a more traditional MBA early in my
career. Even though I'm not a, you know, business owner necessarily, I think there's just immense
value. Just being able to read a financial statement and, you know, not be intimidated by
(23:07):
these terms. And, you know, it helps a lot in your personal life as well as the professional life. So,
so glad you went for it. Now, while you were there, we are going to dive into what you exactly did.
No, just kidding. But I do want to look at my grades. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, what was your GPA?
(23:30):
No. So, but you did go to Wimbledon and we were all enamored by this, your tennis friends left
behind in Houston living through you. So how was that, how was that experience, the Wimbledon
experience? Because it's on my bucket list is yet to happen. So I get, we got to get some tips on
(23:50):
navigation and fan engagement. Yeah, so I think Wimbledon was definitely the highlight of my last
trip to London, my most recent trip to London. And I just can't tell you how amazing it was,
just everything, everything was amazing. And, you know, before I was planning for Wimbledon,
(24:11):
I was like, how am I even going to get tickets to Wimbledon? It just seems impossible, right? But
for some reason, I did some online research and found a broker, their office survived by
the small town of Wimbledon, you know, and they, they can actually sell you, resell your tickets
from what they call adventure seat owners, you know, people actually investing their seats at
(24:34):
Wimbledon, but they resell their seats. So I spent quite an investment to get my seat and also
another seat for a friend. And we, we went and we, we tried to dress like everybody else appropriately
to Wimbledon and everyone, everyone was dressed the way you could see, you know, in the media,
(24:56):
you know, very, very preppy, you know, lots of whites. Well, and watching David Beckham
sit, you know, in the stands with a full suit and a knotted tie, and he looks like he's not
sweating at all. What the heck? It was actually not too hot, you know, in June in London, actually,
(25:16):
so I get the benefit of the doubt, you know, it's, it's like June in London is, it's kind of
interesting. It's actually kind of chilly, you know, so I think it gives people the opportunity
to wear a blazer, just like people watching, you know, and observing everyone. And of course,
watching the game itself is, is just, you know, I'm here, I'm actually here, I can't believe,
(25:42):
I can't believe it. But I think it's a good start. And there's definitely other ways to go to Wimbledon
in the future. I think we've learned from the locals where you just take the tube and go to
Wimbledon, you know, the little town of Wimbledon, and just they call it Q, right? So you just Q
(26:03):
there for your tickets of the day, you might not get in, get a ticket right away, get a ticket right
away, but you will get it 50% of the chance, you know, at the end of the day, and then you can watch
the last match of the day. And, but before that, you are still allowed to walk around the ground,
you know, and then there's, there's a lawn where a little hill where you can watch the matches on
(26:26):
the big screen. I think Wimbledon is not just about seeing your favorite tennis players, right?
It's just a whole experience and you can walk around and just get the most out of it. I think at
the end of that day, both my friend and I felt like it wasn't enough, we should have, you know,
taken more advantage just to walking around instead of just sitting in our seats, you know,
(26:52):
the seats that way spent a lot of money on, you know, so I think there is definitely less expensive
ways to experience Wimbledon and the key is just keep going back. Right, right. Friends of mine
did that Q that you mentioned and they had a brilliant time. They just totally enjoyed it and
saw, they saw a couple of matches. I think they queued like two, three different days
(27:17):
and we're fortunate to get tickets every single day. Oh, wow, they're, they're really lucky.
I think when it's your first time, you probably try to get it right, make it perfect and have
a lot of certainty, predictability, but if you go subsequent times, you can, you can be more
relaxed about it and have even more fun. So I think the moral of the story is go to Wimbledon
(27:43):
multiple times. That's the conclusion. So you see, I want to touch on one more thing before we wrap up.
So you are doing a lot of amazing things personally and professionally. You're also a
mother of two amazing young children. You're a very engaged mom. I see you take your kids to
art classes, tennis lessons, cultural experiences. And this has been a topic ongoing in all of my
(28:11):
working career along with Christine and everyone else, the whole juggling act. So what are your,
any tips, observations on just managing priorities, transitions to, you know, balance it a bit?
Yeah, first of all, I just want to say, I feel like women are just amazing. How much capacity we have
(28:33):
to juggle everything. Like I haven't met a mom or just a woman who doesn't juggle so many things
all at once. You know, I think we have that flexibility. And for me, I don't think,
yes, when you, when you see everything that I'm doing, it's a lot, but I feel like I,
they're all a balancing act, right? I think for my business, now I got to the point where I've
(28:58):
learned to be very hands off so that I can create a flexible, a flexible time or lifestyle for myself.
So sometimes I go to tennis because I really want to play tennis. And that's
the best way for me to release stress and make friends and socialize like adults, you know,
(29:20):
because, you know, you never know 10 minutes before I go to tennis, I was just picking up
dog poop and hearing my kids screaming before dropping them off at school. It is stressful
being a single mom with two children, you know, co-parenting. That's just a journey that I have
(29:42):
to live with, you know, and that's why I was thinking earlier, every year, I'm thinking about
every, every journey and experience we have, I don't look at it as positive or negative, it's
just an experience, you know, sometimes it's stressful, sometimes it's not, but overall,
it's a, it's a balancing act, you know, if, if parenting becomes very stressful, then I have to
(30:07):
find another channel to release that stress and then take care of myself. You know, I can put
everything that I'm doing on the resume and call myself amazing, I'm not, you know, I don't feel
like I'm doing an amazing job juggling everything, but I'm doing it and I want to get better every day.
(30:29):
So, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good reflection, right? I mean, it's like, we all have imperfect days,
but, but what I'm getting from your, I don't know, okay, okay, perfect every day. But for you,
(30:51):
see what you just said is so, it has so much wisdom in it to, to reflect on like, okay, you know,
there's going to be stress, but listen to your body when you're stressed, take care of it, don't let it,
you know, consume you, get out of hands, right? Because when you're, when you can recognize when
you're out of balance and then get yourself back in balance, that's, that's the trick for happier,
(31:17):
more productive life, right? Yeah, it is so much wisdom in what you said you see, and I really
appreciate it because two things, one, don't seek perfection because that only creates more stress,
accept the journey and have fun along the way every day, you know, have as much fun as you can,
it could be small, it could be big, but, but have fun. So that is, that is a great takeaway and the
(31:41):
essence of our podcast essentially, have fun. So, speaking of fun, can we close with fun?
We are down to our fun questions. Why don't you get us started, Christine? What are our fun
questions in our rep? So these are just some speed, speed round questions for you, UC.
(32:04):
Want to see what you would have to say about these. So if you could light up any famous landmark,
which one would it be? Light up any famous landmark.
I would say the Colosseum, that that's the first thing that comes to mind.
(32:25):
My husband would love that answer. I mean, I think all men love Colosseums for sure,
they just feel stronger and more powerful when they're in them. But that would be beautiful,
beautiful space to work in, right? Yeah, and it's very mysterious. So many secrets in it. I
didn't even think about a man being in it. I just feel like it's very...
(32:47):
All I could think of were Gladiators and Russell Crowe. So you light up the space you see will
bring the Gladiators to reenact the Roman times. I was thinking about bringing a concert there.
Yes, yes, that would be amazing. Now that begs the question. I want to do a little research,
(33:08):
like how do they use Colosseum, if at all, for this kind of thing? They must light it up for
different instances. Definitely. Events, like it's an event venue. Yeah, that's right. All right,
next question. This is a quick one. White lights or multi-color? What's the best choice?
White lights. Yeah. Well, there's something just so classy about white lights, right? It just looks
(33:33):
clean and pretty. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. What do you think, Mukai? Are you in that category?
I would like both in different ways. I really would like white lights, but a little multi-color
action for excitement could also be good. Now, on top of that, I like the ones that just
(33:54):
pulsating light, like a little action like that as well. Yeah. All right, best holiday song to
listen to while working? Or best song? Last Christmas. That's a good one. That's my daughter's favorite song.
(34:16):
Yeah, when she hears that. There are so many versions, right? So many different versions of it.
Yeah, I think my most recent version was from this DJ on YouTube, and they did their own
take on it. It was amazing. Yeah, that's very cool. My nephew is actually teaching English in
Thailand, and I have video of him teaching a couple hundred kids that song in a Santa suit,
(34:42):
singing to them, and they're singing back. It is one of the greatest little clips I've ever seen.
There's so much joy in it. Yeah. It's here to link with us. Yeah, I'll share the link. It's
super fun. All right, and I guess last, this is more just anything that you're reading or podcast
(35:04):
that you're interested in that you'd recommend to our folks who are listening. Yes, I'm reading
Mel Robbins, Let Them, The Let Them Theory. I also listened to her podcast. I listened to her a
lot recently. I never thought I would have a connection with her, but for some reason, her
(35:27):
voice is so captivating and it's so motivating for the current stage of my life and what I'm going
through. So I highly recommend Let Them because I think a lot of the times we should surrender
and let go of things that we can have control over and liberate ourselves. Yeah, she really
(35:51):
lives with a positive mindset, you know, eliminate the negative and embrace the positive.
Yeah, and she's very relatable. You know, she went through a lot of things as women,
and mothers go through. I never thought I would relate to her, but she does now, you know,
resonate with me. Yeah. Yes, yes. So you see anything that you want to leave our audience with?
(36:16):
I know like your festivals in Houston, is there a link or things that people should be aware of
in that area? Or maybe they will want to travel. I might want to travel. I think Mu Ghe will put me up.
For sure. The offer is evergreen at any time of the year. Magical Winter Lights period is one,
(36:37):
the rodeo is the second one. So absolutely. Yeah, so our business website is magicalwinterlights.com
or you can also search magical winter lights or holiday magical winter lights. Anything,
if you put magical in the search box, it will show up. So we'll still be here this year at the
(37:03):
Fort Bend County Farragrams this winter. Very cool. Very cool. That is close to me. I live in
Fort Bend County, so I can go multiple times even. Yeah, make another trip. Come see me. Make another
trip. Awesome. And it starts what, does it start in November or? In mid-November all the way until
(37:23):
after the New Year's. So we'll announce the exact dates when we get closer. Okay, great. Well,
congrats on all the success. Thank you so much. Yeah, I can't wait to see what happens next. It
looks like you're starting to think about maybe even doing your own podcast. So we'll keep our
listeners posted when that's available so that folks can tune in. Thank you so much. Yeah,
(37:48):
hopefully it gets on Spotify soon, right? Like you guys. That's right. That's right. All right.
So I guess we'll sign off, Mukay. Anything else? Absolutely. You see, it has been a pleasure to
have you as our guest. It's been a real treat. We've been wanting to make it happen for some time
and wish you the very best in all that you take on. Know that you inspire us, so keep going.
(38:13):
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. All right. Take care. Until next time.
(38:43):
Refirming Life using the podcast player of your choice always remember you are never too old to
to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.
Thanks again for joining us on this episode.
Until next time.
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