Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jodi Violette. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jodi, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In 2013, I was interning at the Boys & Girls Club of Duluth, MN. My mentee loved princesses, so I wanted to get a princess costume for that Halloween season. While searching for the wig, dress, and accessories – I discovered that there were professional princess performers across the U.S. I immediately reached out to casts across the nation to find out how they ran their businesses and what I needed to do to start one. Luckily, I had many great mentors.

I began by doing small, private birthday parties. After about a year, I hired college friends from the musical theater program to perform with me. Demand grew exponentially and we began hosting events across Minnesota. Fast forward 10 years and we travel the country hosting events every weekend in major cities. Last year we visited over 50 cities and meet tens of thousands of guests.

This business truly blossomed from a fun idea in college to a full-time, successful career.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve always had an appreciation for storytelling, theater, children, and fairytales. As soon as I realized how popular children’s entertainment could be, I knew I had to find a collective of like-minded entertainers. Thankfully, social media allows niche industry folk to find each other and learn from one another in forums, groups, and pages.

My business in particular is unique in the fact that we travel. Oftentimes, small businesses are stationary or online. Traveling poses many challenges, as every city, venue, cast, and audience is different. We’ve had to pivot ideas that work great in some locations, but not so great in others. We’ve experienced a pandemic that completely stopped our business and learned to create online entertainment accessible from home.

Our company primarily subcontracts, and I’m very proud of our ability to provide opportunity and paid work to casts I’ve grown to know and love across the U.S. We’ve paid out over $500,000 to other small businesses that we subcontract. I know that my business makes a difference to their difference. We build awareness for the industry itself and provide a fairly risk-free opportunity for performers to learn how to manage large group events. I personally find happiness working and connecting with other casts.

On top of the behind-the-scenes pride I feel, we are making magic for families that may not have the opportunity to experience the joy of “real life” fairytale characters in theme parks or otherwise. Parents love to bring their kid to something they’re going to remember. Pretty Princess Parties is that experience.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started, I ignored the importance of structure for kids. I was not a parent when starting my company, so I didn’t understand the need for control in chaos. Our events used to be very free-flowing, with gaps in instruction, and an emphasis on improv. While this works well for some in smaller settings – I quickly realized how much parents and children appreciate a plan. I have nephews and nieces and I’ve seen how a good routine helps them thrive! This practice has made its way into our event planning. Our events are always timed down to the minute. This might sound extreme, but children have short attention spans [and parents do too sometimes!] Guests really do want to know exactly what to expect and when. I owe it to moms and dads to be able to explain from start to finish what they are paying for and how they can best enjoy their time.

Not only is it good for guests, but it’s an assurance and safety factor to cast and staff as well.

I’ve attended many kids’ events outside my own that have yet to figure this out. I can’t help but remember how I used to run my business and how grateful I am now to have everything written up and planned to a T.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

10 years ago, social media was incredibly different. I was lucky enough to gain a bulk of our following during this time. There was a lot of curiosity and organic growth back then. Now we see a lot of saturation in all areas of interest – this makes it harder to get a high quantity of views/followers unless you have a viral moment.

My suggestion to those starting social media in 2023 would be to embrace small. Cultivate that social media family and make them feel involved in what you do! Not every post should be perfect – share plans, mistakes, polls, and more! Let them be a part of your story. The followers that stuck with us through the pandemic are our true fans. I know this because they gave us support and feedback as we navigated the unknown – and we were bold enough to share our fears and hopes with them during this time. I feel a very deep connection with our followers because of that.

All this to say, I would rather have a following of 100 interested and excited followers, than 70K bots that don’t interact with my content.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.prettyprincesspartiesusa.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prettyprincesspartiesmn
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prettyprincesspartiesusa
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7ff9KKyjcYGi6sNQYGciQ

Image Credits
Misty Pelican Photography [Duluth, MN] Two Luhns Photography [Spokane, WA]