What If Your Business Model Was a Pink Trojan Horse?
The Barbie movie made a billion dollars by destroying everything Barbie was supposed to represent.
Think about that for a minute. They took the most recognizable symbol of impossible beauty standards, wrapped it in even more pink than usual, cast the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, and then spent two hours systematically deconstructing the very beliefs their brand was built on.
And people paid to watch them do it. Enthusiastically.
That's not just good marketing. That's genius-level business strategy disguised as a summer blockbuster about a plastic doll.
The Trojan Horse Strategy
Here's what Mattel and Greta Gerwig understood that most entrepreneurs miss: the most powerful way to change someone's mind isn't to fight their expectations head-on. It's to use those expectations as your delivery system.
Everyone walked into that theater expecting pink, perfect, and shallow. They got pink, perfect, and a complete existential crisis about the impossible standards we're all trying to meet.
The brilliance wasn't in avoiding people's assumptions about Barbie. The brilliance was in leaning so hard into those assumptions that they became the perfect vehicle for delivering something completely unexpected.
People weren't ready for a feminist manifesto about impossible beauty standards. But they were ready for a fun movie about Barbie. So that's what they got—wrapped around a feminist manifesto about impossible beauty standards.
Your Business Assumptions
What assumptions do people have about your industry, your expertise, your type of business?
Maybe they think business coaching is all about hustle and grind. Maybe they assume human design is just astrology for entrepreneurs. Maybe they believe branding is just pretty colors and fonts.
Most entrepreneurs spend their time fighting these assumptions, trying to educate people out of their preconceptions before they can even begin to deliver their real message.
But what if you did the opposite? What if you leaned into those assumptions so hard that they became your trojan horse?
The Vehicle Isn't the Message
The Barbie movie understood something crucial: the vehicle isn't the message.
Barbie—the pink, the perfection, the dream house—that was just the vehicle. The message was about choosing humanity over perfection, authenticity over performance, real life over impossible standards.
But they didn't try to deliver that message through a serious documentary about gender expectations. They delivered it through the thing people already understood and were already willing to engage with.
Your business needs the same clarity. What's your vehicle, and what's your actual message?
Maybe your vehicle is business strategy, but your message is about designing life on your own terms. Maybe your vehicle is branding, but your message is about permission to be authentically yourself. Maybe your vehicle is productivity systems, but your message is about working with your natural design instead of against it.
The vehicle gets people in the door. The message changes their life.
The Billion-Dollar Destruction
Here's the most audacious part: the Barbie movie made money by essentially deconstructing its own product.
They spent decades building Barbie as the symbol of having it all—perfect body, perfect house, perfect boyfriend, perfect career. Then they made a movie that systematically destroyed every one of those beliefs.
And instead of alienating their audience, it made them more money than any Barbie product ever had.
Because people were hungry for someone to finally say what they'd been thinking: that the perfect life is a lie, that impossible standards are killing us, and that maybe it's time to choose being human over being perfect.
What Beliefs Need Destroying?
What beliefs in your industry need to be destroyed?
Maybe it's the belief that six-figure businesses are the goal instead of just the beginning. Maybe it's the assumption that you have to choose between money and meaning. Maybe it's the idea that successful entrepreneurs are always "on" and always hustling.
Maybe it's the belief that there are only three ways to build a business, or that you have to fit into predetermined categories, or that following your passion automatically leads to profit.
What if your business model was about systematically deconstructing those limiting beliefs while giving people something they already wanted?
The Pink Permission
The Barbie movie didn't just critique impossible standards—it gave people permission to stop trying to meet them.
It wrapped that permission in pink and humor and beautiful people so it went down easier. But underneath all the surface-level fun was a profound message: you don't have to be perfect. You can choose to be human instead.
Your business can do the same thing. You can use familiar vehicles to deliver unfamiliar truths. You can meet people where they are and then take them somewhere they didn't know they needed to go.
The Unexpected Education
Most people walked out of that theater having learned things they didn't expect to learn, felt things they didn't expect to feel, and questioned beliefs they didn't expect to question.
They thought they were just watching a fun movie about Barbie. They ended up getting educated about gender expectations, corporate manipulation, and the cost of perfectionism.
But because the education was wrapped in entertainment, because the medicine was coated in sugar, because the challenging message was delivered through a familiar vehicle, they were willing to receive it.
Your Trojan Horse Business
What if your business worked the same way?
What if instead of trying to convince people they need what you're really selling, you gave them what they think they want and smuggled the transformation inside?
What if you stopped fighting people's assumptions and started using them as your delivery system?
What if you built a business that looked exactly like what people expected on the surface, but delivered something completely revolutionary underneath?
The Real Revolution
The Barbie movie's real genius wasn't in the pink or the perfection or even the deconstruction. It was in proving that you can change the world by giving people what they think they want and then blowing their minds with what they actually needed.
You don't have to choose between being commercially successful and being revolutionary. You don't have to sacrifice impact for profit or authenticity for accessibility.
You just need to be strategic about your vehicle and fearless about your message.
Ready to Build Your Trojan Horse?
The question isn't whether you have something revolutionary to say. You do.
The question is: what familiar vehicle will you use to deliver it?
What assumptions about your industry can you lean into so hard that they become the perfect disguise for your actual message?
What beliefs need destroying, and what beautiful, entertaining, irresistible package will you wrap that destruction in?
Your pink trojan horse is waiting.
Time to fill it with revolution and roll it up to the gates.
The Barbie movie made a billion dollars by destroying everything Barbie was supposed to represent.
Think about that for a minute. They took the most recognizable symbol of impossible beauty standards, wrapped it in even more pink than usual, cast the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, and then spent two hours systematically deconstructing the very beliefs their brand was built on.
And people paid to watch them do it. Enthusiastically.
That's not just good marketing. That's genius-level business strategy disguised as a summer blockbuster about a plastic doll.
The Trojan Horse Strategy
Here's what Mattel and Greta Gerwig understood that most entrepreneurs miss: the most powerful way to change someone's mind isn't to fight their expectations head-on. It's to use those expectations as your delivery system.
Everyone walked into that theater expecting pink, perfect, and shallow. They got pink, perfect, and a complete existential crisis about the impossible standards we're all trying to meet.
The brilliance wasn't in avoiding people's assumptions about Barbie. The brilliance was in leaning so hard into those assumptions that they became the perfect vehicle for delivering something completely unexpected.
People weren't ready for a feminist manifesto about impossible beauty standards. But they were ready for a fun movie about Barbie. So that's what they got—wrapped around a feminist manifesto about impossible beauty standards.
Your Business Assumptions
What assumptions do people have about your industry, your expertise, your type of business?
Maybe they think business coaching is all about hustle and grind. Maybe they assume human design is just astrology for entrepreneurs. Maybe they believe branding is just pretty colors and fonts.
Most entrepreneurs spend their time fighting these assumptions, trying to educate people out of their preconceptions before they can even begin to deliver their real message.
But what if you did the opposite? What if you leaned into those assumptions so hard that they became your trojan horse?
The Vehicle Isn't the Message
The Barbie movie understood something crucial: the vehicle isn't the message.
Barbie—the pink, the perfection, the dream house—that was just the vehicle. The message was about choosing humanity over perfection, authenticity over performance, real life over impossible standards.
But they didn't try to deliver that message through a serious documentary about gender expectations. They delivered it through the thing people already understood and were already willing to engage with.
Your business needs the same clarity. What's your vehicle, and what's your actual message?
Maybe your vehicle is business strategy, but your message is about designing life on your own terms. Maybe your vehicle is branding, but your message is about permission to be authentically yourself. Maybe your vehicle is productivity systems, but your message is about working with your natural design instead of against it.
The vehicle gets people in the door. The message changes their life.
The Billion-Dollar Destruction
Here's the most audacious part: the Barbie movie made money by essentially deconstructing its own product.
They spent decades building Barbie as the symbol of having it all—perfect body, perfect house, perfect boyfriend, perfect career. Then they made a movie that systematically destroyed every one of those beliefs.
And instead of alienating their audience, it made them more money than any Barbie product ever had.
Because people were hungry for someone to finally say what they'd been thinking: that the perfect life is a lie, that impossible standards are killing us, and that maybe it's time to choose being human over being perfect.
What Beliefs Need Destroying?
What beliefs in your industry need to be destroyed?
Maybe it's the belief that six-figure businesses are the goal instead of just the beginning. Maybe it's the assumption that you have to choose between money and meaning. Maybe it's the idea that successful entrepreneurs are always "on" and always hustling.
Maybe it's the belief that there are only three ways to build a business, or that you have to fit into predetermined categories, or that following your passion automatically leads to profit.
What if your business model was about systematically deconstructing those limiting beliefs while giving people something they already wanted?
The Pink Permission
The Barbie movie didn't just critique impossible standards—it gave people permission to stop trying to meet them.
It wrapped that permission in pink and humor and beautiful people so it went down easier. But underneath all the surface-level fun was a profound message: you don't have to be perfect. You can choose to be human instead.
Your business can do the same thing. You can use familiar vehicles to deliver unfamiliar truths. You can meet people where they are and then take them somewhere they didn't know they needed to go.
The Unexpected Education
Most people walked out of that theater having learned things they didn't expect to learn, felt things they didn't expect to feel, and questioned beliefs they didn't expect to question.
They thought they were just watching a fun movie about Barbie. They ended up getting educated about gender expectations, corporate manipulation, and the cost of perfectionism.
But because the education was wrapped in entertainment, because the medicine was coated in sugar, because the challenging message was delivered through a familiar vehicle, they were willing to receive it.
Your Trojan Horse Business
What if your business worked the same way?
What if instead of trying to convince people they need what you're really selling, you gave them what they think they want and smuggled the transformation inside?
What if you stopped fighting people's assumptions and started using them as your delivery system?
What if you built a business that looked exactly like what people expected on the surface, but delivered something completely revolutionary underneath?
The Real Revolution
The Barbie movie's real genius wasn't in the pink or the perfection or even the deconstruction. It was in proving that you can change the world by giving people what they think they want and then blowing their minds with what they actually needed.
You don't have to choose between being commercially successful and being revolutionary. You don't have to sacrifice impact for profit or authenticity for accessibility.
You just need to be strategic about your vehicle and fearless about your message.
Ready to Build Your Trojan Horse?
The question isn't whether you have something revolutionary to say. You do.
The question is: what familiar vehicle will you use to deliver it?
What assumptions about your industry can you lean into so hard that they become the perfect disguise for your actual message?
What beliefs need destroying, and what beautiful, entertaining, irresistible package will you wrap that destruction in?
Your pink trojan horse is waiting.
Time to fill it with revolution and roll it up to the gates.
Do You Want to Know What is Missing?
When you feel like you are doing everything right - and business still isn't taking off....
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