You know it’s going to be a good conversation when the co-author of a book titled Pink Goldfish makes a guest appearance at your Gathering Minds meeting. David Rendall is a well-known speaker who uses his years of valuable experience as a leadership professor, his captivating energy, and his pink persona to educate audiences on how to turn weakness into power.
Meetingmax has had the pleasure of working with David on numerous occasions with him being the keynote speaker at Unconvention 2016 and at Simpleview Summit. So when we spotted the release of his latest book we knew it was the perfect choice for Gathering Minds. Right from the start, we all knew this book was going to be an easy one to follow and adapt. The language is simple yet entertaining in the written version, and those who listened to the audio files appreciated the refreshing take on not editing out any narrator errors. It’s authentic and relatable, flaws and all!
The team at Meetingmax really connected with the main concept of this book, how to achieve being FLAWSOME – flaws that we turn into the ideas of taking something regular and flipping it on its head. We found the message quite timely as we tackle the task of planning 2020’s Unconvention. Meetingmax’s annual user conference is already “unconventional” so gathering a bit more insight to take it even further was just what was needed to get the creative juices flowing.
The book is filled with individual stories relating back to real companies that have taken the ordinary, the ‘flawed’, and flaunted it into something unexpected and outright genius. We all reminisced on the example of the Buckleys cough syrup that has been so cleverly marketed as the worst tasting cough meds which actually, makes it the best. Buckleys is truly unapologetic.
Here are a few other points that stood out for the team:
- In business, we want to do things to attract the right people and at the same time push away the wrong people. But how does one go about achieving this? Dave reminded us about the importance of putting PURPOSE first, being purpose driven. He also mentions that we need to clearly define who those people are that we don’t want. Next steps are to put processes in place that alienate the unwanted while attracting those that are the right fit.
- Don’t forget to keep an eye on your competitors!Understanding their weaknesses gives us an opportunity to go ahead and potentially turn those into our strengths!
- Be assertive and confident that what your brand/business is doing is the right way! Have your people feel like they are the ones missing out, they should feel like these people know something that we don’t know.
- Are there boundaries that we shouldn’t be crossing? Rather ask are there even boundaries, instead of where are the boundaries?
We make assumptions that there are boundaries or lines that we shouldn’t cross and nobody truly knows where the boundaries are. In fact, the more we start to push the boundaries, the more we realise those boundaries aren’t there in the first place. When we have a well-defined purpose we won’t cross lines that conflict with that purpose and the boundaries will naturally be defined by what makes us uncomfortable. If we are really off track our business will fail and there will be a need to reassess but if something is working then keep pushing.
The long and short of it is get yourself a copy of the book or follow Dave on Youtube (the talks on Pink Goldfish are all there) and take the first steps to make your business FLAWSOME.
