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Business Lessons from Frozen 2

How many times have I watched Frozen 2 in the last week? Maybe 25.

I smile-cry through the songs still. I get choked up watching my kids watch it.

It’s so good!

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t listen to this podcast yet… I don’t want to ruin it for you. It’s more important to me that you get the movie unspoiled by my podcast than that you listen to me talk about it, that’s how much I think you should watch this movie.

But since I assume many of the listeners have kids, and because I also assume that if you have younger kids you have probably been coerced into watching Frozen 2, I am going to proceed.

What happens when you watch a movie 25 times in a one week span? If you are me, you search for deeper meanings and larger life applications in the film. As hilarious as Olaf is, and as darling as the fire spirit, and as charming as the repartee between Sven and Kristoff, and even as fun as it is to go up and get it with Idina Mendel, at a certain point mama needs something more.

Buckle up, buttercup. These are the business lessons I am taking from the newest Disney movie, Frozen 2.

Lesson #1. You do not need to have special powers.

Anna is Maddox’s favorite character, not Elsa. And Anna doesn’t have “powers” to speak of and yet, she’s a total badass. Anna straight up owns that she doesn’t have “powers” and yet she still is a hero. We need to do the same.

What the world sees as powers might not be the powers YOU need. And what you already possess might not turn into a superpower until just the right moment, or circumstance, or problem to solve.

Lesson #2. Do the next right thing.

This is so good, you guys. There’s a moment in the movie where the little Troll fortune teller guy says that he can see no future. And if you can see no future, the only thing you can do is the next right thing.

How often do we get stuck because the problem we are trying to solve is SO big, or because we can’t see the 5-7 moves out that we feel like we need to see in order to make a confident move.

When you can’t see the future, you can still do the next right thing.

Near the end of the movie it all comes together in a GLORIOUS freaking song and this lyric is gold:

“I won’t look too far ahead.
It’s too much for me to take.
But break it down to this next breath, this next step, this next choice is one that I can make.”

In business, this could look like making a simple phone call. This could look like spending $20 on some social media advertising. It could look like posting a job to LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter.

Lesson #3. You are the one you’ve been waiting for.

When Frozen 2 was originally announced, Rachel Hollis got some flack on social media because she said something to the effect of, “Can Elsa meet a man?” I mean, she didn’t say THAT that, but she was rooting for Elsa to get a love story. Elsa DON’T NEED NO MAN.

YOU GUYS, just like Anna, we are a bigger hero than we give ourselves credit for. And sometimes the very powers that we possess, we might be ashamed about at first, try to hide, try to change. Elsa struggles with her powers, and views them as a curse. It isn’t until she chases after living fully into those powers that she realizes that she is the hero, not just for herself but for Arendelle. Her completeness is the answer to a lot of that little imaginary world’s problems.

In our own businesses, how many of us are trying to be something we aren’t? And I don’t mean aspiring to be something bigger or improving or becoming the best version of ourselves. because that’s different, lifelong work to live into who we are meant to be. I mean being inauthentic, or what we think somebody expects us to be.

YOU ARE THE ONE YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. And even if the only person who benefits from you living into that power is YOU, the world will be transformed.

You don’t need superpowers to start. Just do the next right thing. And you are the one you’ve been waiting for.

Stop waiting, live fully into your powers in life, AND in work, and you will change your world and your business.

WARNING: My vocals cannot compare with Idina Menzel or Kristen Bell. BUT I hope you’ll listen anyway.