Pink Goldfish: Defy Normal, Exploit Imperfection and Captivate Your Customers

by Stan Phelps, David J Rendall

Companies need to stand out in a crowded marketplace, but true differentiation is increasingly rare. Based on over 200 case studies, Pink Goldfish provides an unconventional seven-part framework for achieving competitive separation by embracing flaws, instead of fixing them. It explores the need to embrace weirdness and amplify weakness to differentiate in business. We reveal how everything we’ve learned about weakness is wrong. We’ll show how every weakness has a corresponding strength. We examine the seven reasons to embrace weirdness. The section ends with an explanation of our metaphor of the pink goldfish where we’ll share the symbolism of the goldfish and the reasoning behind the color pink. We examine the concept of being F.L.A.W.S.O.M. This is the idea of embracing your flaws. You can succeed because of your flaws, not despite of them. We use F.L.A.W.S.O.M. as our acronym for the seven types of pink goldfish. We share our flaunting matrix and each pink Flaunting, Lopsiding, Antagonizing, Withholding, Swerving, Opposing, and Micro-weirding. This section points out the ways to stand out by doing more of what makes you weird and less of what makes you normal in business. Here we share the process of finding your own pink goldfish. We delve into the four A’s. The first A is assess, and it involves understanding what makes you weird or weak. The second A is appreciate. Appreciation is accepting and taking ownership of your uniqueness. The third A is amplify. Amplification is the process of turning up the dial to bring your differentiation to life. The final A is align. Aligning involves looking at those areas of weirdness and weakness that resonate with your customer and create meaningful differentiation. "Don’t hide the weird and the wacky parts of your organization. Use them to stand out from the crowd. Forget about strengths (or set them to the side for a minute). Leverage your weaknesses into the unique qualities that set you apart. These are the core messages of this smart book... Think about it. All the other goldfish are, well, gold. Imagine how you might thrive as the only pink goldfish in the pond.”— Daniel Pink, author of WHEN and DRIVE "Packed with incredible examples, this book will have you spotting Pink Goldfish everywhere, and inspire you to breed your own, ASAP!" — Jay Baer founder of Convince & Convert and author of Hug Your Haters and Talk Triggers "Pink Goldfish offers a smart, powerful, and vibrant framework for any company that wants to stand out. Filled with fascinating case studies, this book shows how businesses can turn perceived flaws into strengths and connect authentically with their customers." — Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You and Stand Out , and adjunct professor, Duke University Fuqua School of Business

Genres: Business

206 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2018

Reviews

[Marcey Rader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Stan Phelps delivered, this time with co-author Dave Rendall of the Freak Factor. I've found myself telling stories at least four times in the last three days of companies who amplify their weaknesses as strengths. I've even looked for companies who do this and messaged the author! - Aviator Brewery and Dirty Dick's. This book isn't just for marketers but is a fun read for anyone, especially those who manage employees, to figure out how they can help their staff by maximizing what others would perceive as weaknesses. My favorite story is the software company who uses people with autism as software testers because what others would perceive as weak makes them excel at their job.

[Douglas Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turning "celebration of differences" to productivity

A very easy reading book, packed with real-company examples to prove the points around the idea that you do much better by being very good at what you're good at than by trying to copy what the most venerated institution is able to afford to do (but usually doesn't). For a small entity there are plenty enough potential customers to thrive by being great at your core offering and by turning less-effective elements into points of differentiation.

[D. Eugene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Embracing My differences

Truly enjoyed the book with great examples and stories about others with weirdness. I guess I’ve always tried to fit in and be like everyone else instead of being myself. This book shows that being yourself is the best and most honest approach to life, work and play. Thanks for the great advise and fun laughs......now I’m off to show off my weird!
Eugene Thompson

[Richard Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Pink Goldfish, Stan Phelps and David Randall provide fresh perspective on brand differentiation and team development. I love the F.L.A.W.S.O.M. framework and it pushes the boundaries of textbook principles. Also, they shared excellent examples to emphasize their philosophy on differentiation. Looking forward to reading Stan’s next book!