We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Shuster recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

I was employee number one, when the business was owned by its founder, Carl Trent. We had worked together on his website, dadsguidetowdw.com for years and launched WDW Magazine as a way to monetize that site. I took a huge leap of faith leaving my day job to make my side hustle my full-time gig – that was back in 2015. Carl and I had worked together for 6 years at that point and instead of a formal interview, this was a natural evolution of my responsibilities.

We very slowly and cautiously added to our team. First, we found talented writers and photographers who were willing to trade their content to us in exchange for exposure and link backs while we were getting the magazine up and running. We started to pay them as soon as we were able and have grown those fees over the years to be competitive in the industry, allowing us to attract the best talent. As we needed more support on the admin side of things, our next hire in 2017 was our Communications Director, Tatjana Lazar, who took over our social media channels, customer newsletters, and marketing emails. In that case, we reviewed her portfolio and credentials to know she was capable, but in the interview process it came down to a fit of personalities, and she outshone the other candidates, so it was a gut decision for us.

Over the years, some of our team members have elevated to part or full time positions from their freelance roles with us, but since my husband Danny (he’s our Creative Director) and I took over the business in 2021, we’ve focused on investing profits in growing our team with specialized roles. That’s meant overhauling our search for talent, interview processes, and even our team onboarding. We’re still pretty small with about a dozen full time staff so it’s essential when bringing on someone new that they add new skills we don’t have, alleviate pressure or pain points for our team, and drive results.

The best hire I’ve made since that time was also the first major role we looked outside the company for: our Operations Director, Brydie Huffman. She’s fantastic at her job and has levelled up our accounting, HR, and industry relationships in so many ways, but it was a strategic decision to hire for that position first, because it meant our team would have the right support in finding, vetting, and hiring for future positions.

We do have some unique challenges in hiring for most of our roles. As a media company specializing in Disney travel news, advice, and lifestyle it’s essential that our team lives and breathes Disney. They don’t just have to like the brand: they need to be superfans who can quote movies, know with a mere glance where a specific photo was taken, navigate the theme parks with their eyes closed, understand how to separate facts from rumors when it comes to Disney history, and they need to be credible as experts in the subject matter. On top of that, they need to be experienced and talented in their specific role, whether it’s writing, graphic design, social content creation, product development, or even customer service.

So we’ve designed a 4-part application and interview process, customized to each new hire. First, we take applications where there are a few questions to ensure candidates meet the minimum requirements of the role – we review those as well as resumes and portfolios to assess skill. Second, we send a Disney Knowledge Assessment to selected candidates to determine if they are true fans, where there are knowledge gaps we’ll have to work on, and if they have the right understanding of our approach to sharing Disney magic with our fans. Third, we interview anyone successful in the second phase using a fairly normal interview approach, and try to assess how they handle critique or collaboration. Sometimes (usually for creative roles) we also conduct a fourth step where we provide a small assignment to see if the candidate can produce a piece of writing or design that is on brand and up to the quality expected by our readers. It may seem intense but it’s a time saver for us and the candidates so we don’t have multi-stage in person interviews or end up with the wrong hire only to start from square one.

This process has worked really well for us and I think we started it at just the right time for the growth of our business.

Stephanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

WDW Magazine is a media company focused on celebrating the magic of Disney travel – whether that’s dreaming of or planning for your next trip, cherishing memories of your last trip, or staying connected to the parks and other fans between trips. We aim to create a safe space for Disney super fans to come together with a positive tone, accurate reporting, and photography that will transport you right to your happy place. For me, when a customer says that we understand them and why they love Disney even though their friends and coworkers don’t, or when we’re able to help a follower plan their best trip ever by giving them tips and suggestions to optimize their time and money, I really know that we’re making an impact.

We produce a monthly print and digital magazine (WDW Magazine) that focuses on Walt Disney World in Florida, a quarterly print and digital magazine (DLR Magazine) that focuses on Disneyland in California, and an annual wall calendar full of gorgeous photos from the Disney theme parks. For 10 years we’ve been a trusted source in the Disney and tourism communities, and have been recognized with awards from the Florida Magazine Association, Delaware Press Association, and National Federation of Press Women. We also produce daily content on our blog and social media channels which covers all of the Disney parks, resorts, and cruise ships world wide, in addition to consumer products, movies and television, and company news.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

A few months into 2020 when the world was shutting down, the founder of the company told me he was ready to retire. It wasn’t entirely shocking as we’d spoken before and I’d asked him to give me a chance to buy the business before he sold it to someone else – but I thought we were a few years away and never considered making the leap during a global pandemic.

My husband and I talked about it and decided that our endgame was to work for WDW Magazine as long as we could and that we wanted to do it on our own terms, not with another owner we might butt heads with. After crunching the numbers with our accountant we decided to take the plunge. It took about 7 months to complete the sale and a LOT of lawyers were involved (we had informally agreed on terms but in order to make everything official it took serious time and effort, especially with a business operating in multiple states, at a time when in-person meetings were impossible). In the end, we knew what was most important to the other party, we had a lot of mutual respect and a desire to make the sale happen so we were able to have a fairly smooth process, although everything took much longer than we anticipated.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Three things. First, our photography. A picture is worth a thousand words, and to get people to read our words and learn about our product we captivated them with enchanting photography that let them escape for a moment to the place they dream about every day. Second, our customers. The ones who bought early on were so impressed with our quality they weren’t shy to tell their friends and family, comment on social media posts where others were asking if the cost was worth it, or encouraging us to launch more products. They were clear they wanted more, and others took note and decided to try us out. Third, our quality. Yes, I do mean the high end paper and printing of our magazine, but it extends to all we do – our writing is always accurate, reliable, and fun. Our customer care team responds quickly, compassionately, and resourcefully to compliments and complaints alike. Our social media posts are informative, engaging, and creative – not just reposts of other content. We give our all to everything we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: wdw-magazine.com
• Instagram: @wdwmagazine @dlrmagazine @dclmagazine
• Facebook: /wdwmagazine /dlrmagazine /dclmagazine
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wdw-magazine/
• Twitter: /wdwmagazine
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WDWMagazine
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/wdwmagazine/ https://www.tiktok.com/@wdwmagazine.com?

Image Credits
Photos courtesy of WDW Magazine