Stan Phelp's Blog

The Goldfish Chronicles

Sharing insights on customer experience, employee engagement, and brand strategy.

Snowbird is not afraid of exposing itself

Last week, the Pink Goldfish 2.0 Book Launch Tour visited Snowbird in Utah. The ski mountain resort is not afraid of exposing itself. A recent ad campaign featured one-star reviews such as “Too Advanced” and “Disappointed.”

The trails at the mountain are difficult. Some may see that as a flaw or weakness, but it’s a badge they wear with pride.

David Rendall and I featured Snowbird in our Chapter about Exposing in Pink 2.0. The E in the FLAWSOME framework is about honesty, transparency, and authenticity. You have to be willing to reveal, instead of conceal; declare, instead of deny; disclose, instead of disguise; confide, instead of hide.

This suggestion either seems obvious or ridiculous. It’s obvious that integrity and honesty are important. Almost every company includes something along those lines as one of its core values. But very few companies actually live up to those values. Most try to please everyone.

Snowbird isn’t for everyone. They are for advanced skiers and snowboarders. They decided to highlight their negative reviews, instead of hiding them. In a print and outdoor campaign with amazing imagery, they shared reviews such as:

★☆☆☆☆ NO EASY RUNS
“We felt like our lives were in our own hands.”
—Jeremiah, Manchester NH

★☆☆☆☆ POWDER TOO DEEP
“Are the people who operate the grooming equipment on strike or something? Was hoping for a little more corduroy to put my skis into.”
— Elizabeth, Dallas TX

★☆☆☆☆ TOO ADVANCED
“I heard Snowbird is a tough mountain, but this is ridiculous. It felt like every trail was a steep chute or littered with tree wells. How is anyone supposed to ride that? Not fun!”
— Greg, Los Angeles CA

In the words of Gerald Weinberg, “If you can’t fix it, feature it.” Take pride in your unique characteristics. Emphasize them, expose them, and openly display them like Snowbird.

Sometimes a Pink Goldfish is a one-star ski resort.

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Stan Phelps walks the walk. He stands out in the sea of sameness by modeling his own Differentiated Experience (DX) message: Differentiation isn’t just about what you say, it’s about what you do and, more importantly, how and why you do it. Stan leverages his unique collection of 5,000+ case studies on customer, employee, and brand experience to engage audiences with informative learning-based experiences. He believes purposeful DX wins the hearts of employees and customers, and differentiation ultimately boosts loyalty, retention, referrals, and results.

Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

Danny Meyer’s Restaurant Group will require vaccinations for both working and dining

Smart move? Danny Meyer and Union Square Hospitality Group are now requiring vaccinations for both working and dining. Starting on September 7th, both staff and guests will need to be vaccinated.

The founder of Shake Shack has taken a stand that is sure to antagonize. Antagonizing is the A in the Pink Goldfish FLAWSOME framework. Want to stand out and differentiate? One of the easiest ways is to repel some customers. Intentionally exasperate, irritate, provoke, aggravate, and instigate hostility. Go out of your way to rub some people the wrong way.

To be clear, the new policy only applies to the full-service, sit-down restaurants in New York and DC like the famed Grammercy Tavern. It doesn’t apply to Shake Shack which is now a separate publicly traded company.

Meyer broke the news on CNBC, citing the need to keep staff and guests safe. He believes the move will help to improve business, not hurt it.

In his words, “The vast majority of people who dine out, especially indoors, don’t want to see us go back to how things were…We know right now that the vaccine works, and it’s time to make sure that this economy continues to move forward. There’s no going back.”

This is surely a bold move by Meyer. Less than half of all Americans are fully vaccinated. Imagine a decision that can potentially alienate half of your potential customers. Or limit your pool of workers in a tight labor market.

Meyer is a leader in the hospitality industry. His book “Setting the Table” shares the lessons he’s learned from being in the business for decades. In the book, Meyer talks about the concept of agents or gatekeepers:

“In every business, there are employees who are the first point of contact with the customers (attendants at airport gates, receptionists at doctors’ offices, bank tellers, executive assistants). Those people can come across either as agents or as gatekeepers. An agent makes things happen for others. A gatekeeper sets up barriers to keep people out. In that transaction, did I present myself as an agent or a gatekeeper? In the world of hospitality, there’s rarely anything in between.”

So, here is the question. Is this policy a smart move? Is Meyer being an agent of safety or a gatekeeper for the unvaccinated?

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

Boerne .5k: The race you can’t lose

If you want to raise money for a great nonprofit cause, you should probably avoid the traditional 5k race. There are so many of those, you’ll struggle to get anyone’s attention, which means that you won’t get a lot of participants and you won’t raise very much money.

Last week, David Rendall and I visited Boerne, Texas on the Pink Goldfish 2.0 Book Launch Tour. Boerne (pronounced Bernie) is a small town with a population of fewer than 20,000 people outside of San Antonio.

They wanted to raise money for Blessings in a Backpack, a nonprofit that provides a backpack full of food for kids to take home from school to get them through the weekend.

Instead of the ubiquitous five-kilometer race, they invited people to participate in a .5k run. America is not on the metric system, so we’ll translate. Half a kilometer is .31 miles or 546 yards or 1,638 feet. Even at a slow walking pace, you could finish the distance in less than eight minutes. Some have called it “America’s Laziest Race.” Others claim it is “The World’s Shortest Road Race.”

One of their goals is to be a safe haven for all the underachievers who don’t want to wake up early on the weekend to workout or finish a race. And you don’t have to wake up early for the Boerne .5k. It starts at 11 am. They know their audience. You can sleep in and still get to the race on time.

When you arrive at the race, you’ll receive a pre-race beer. Don’t worry, if you finish your beer in the few minutes that you’re doing the race, they also provide a post-race beer.

But what about your needs during the race? What if you get tired or thirsty or hungry along the way? Are there aid stations on the course? Yes. There is an aid station at the halfway point, where you can get coffee and donuts. It also includes a smoking section, just in case it’s been too long since your last cigarette and you can’t wait another four minutes until the end of the race.

When you cross the finish line, just moments after you crossed the start line, you’ll get a finisher medal, race T-shirt, and a .5k race sticker for your car, so you can let all the other drivers know about your athletic prowess.

But maybe you don’t have what it takes to go the full distance. Maybe you haven’t trained enough. Maybe you didn’t sleep well. Maybe you just don’t like to move at all. That’s okay. You can be a VIP. Pay double the entry fee and you can get a ride in a vintage Volkswagen bus to the finish line. No running or walking is required. VIPs still get a medal, shirt, and sticker, even though they didn’t exert any energy.
This is ridiculous. This is outrageous.

So does it work? It does. The race is so popular that they sold out all 225 spots in their first year and raised over $20,000 for charity. The 2019 race sold out in only 37 minutes. During the pandemic, they pivoted and went virtual with 1,500 registrants.

Sometimes a Pink Goldfish is a race you can’t lose.

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

Ass, Gas & Fire: Chicago’s bitter rite of passage

“Ass, Gas & Fire.” That’s how the CEO of Jeppson’s Malort describes this badass, bitter Chicago spirit.

This concoction is so badass that it beat Prohibition. Made with wormwood, it has “medicinal” qualities. The founder sold it door to door as it was known to kill stomach worms and other parasites, in addition to your taste buds.

Why would you create something that tastes this awful? Turns out founder Carl Jeppson needed something strong. The cigar shop owner who immigrated from Sweden had killed his taste buds after decades of cigar smoking.

Malort has somewhat of a fan following in the windy city. Ninety percent of the stuff is consumed in Cook County alone. An estimated 10,000 shots are consumed each night in Chicago.

According to reporting by Thrillist, the company has leveraged a number of slogans submitted by fans in the past. In true Pink Goldfish fashion, they aren’t afraid to flaunt the bad taste.

Here’s my top 5 favorite fan slogans:

5. Malort, kick your mouth in the balls!

4. Malort, when you need to unfriend someone IN PERSON.

3. Malort, turning taste-buds into taste-foes for generations.

2. Malort, what soap washes its mouth out with.

… and the #1 slogan …

Malort, these pants aren’t going to shit themselves.

Early research by the company found that only 2 percent of customers would ever have a second shot of Malort. They have dubbed themselves the only two-fisted liquor.

Two questions:

1. Have you tried it? If yes, how bad is it and did you have a second?
2. If no, would you try it?

Summoning the Buckley’s taste test we wrote about in the book, you can be sure David Rendall and I will be partaking in some Malort as the Pink Goldfish 2.0 book launch tour rolls through Chicago in early August.

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

Amber Share takes real one-star reviews from national parks and illustrates them

“There are BUGS and they will bite you on your FACE.” This is an actual one-star review of Sequoia National Park in California.

Last week, David Rendall and I visited the park and were thinking about a story we shared in our new book Pink Goldfish 2.0. We wrote about Amber Share and her Instagram account @subparparks.

Amber takes real one-star reviews from national parks and illustrates them.

For example, she illustrated a one-star review about Sequoia National Park below.

“THERE ARE BUGS AND THEY WILL BITE YOU ON YOUR FACE.”

In the book, we share a review of the Grand Canyon. How could anyone say anything bad about one of the eight natural wonders of the world? But they did . . .

“A HOLE. A VERY, VERY LARGE HOLE.”

Subpar Parks has over 300,000 followers. Here are some of our favorites:

– For Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, “DIDN’T EVEN GET TO TOUCH THE LAVA”

– For Bryce Canyon National Park, “TOO ORANGE, TOO SPIKY”

According to an interview in Midwest Living, Amber created the account as a “snarky love letter” to the National Parks System. In her words, “When I discovered that there were 1-star reviews for every single one of the 62 national parks, I set out to illustrate each park along with a hand-lettered 1-star review as a way to put a positive, fun spin on such a negative mindset.”

Takeaway: Some people (and evidently some National Parks) are A HOLE. If you try to please everyone, you please no one. Why not have a little fun with the haters? Who is in your anti-target market?

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

“If you want more stories told about you, you need to be worthy of a story.” -Jay Baer

Are you STORYWORTHY? Dave Grohl is. “If you want more stories told about you, you need to be worthy of a story.” This is my favorite quote from the Foreword for Pink Goldfish 2.0 by Jay Baer.

Earlier this week, Grohl and his band the Foo Fighters released an “actual” album under the name the DeeGee’s. Yes – that’s Dave’s initials phonetically, but it’s an homage to the Gibb brothers and the legendary disco band the BeeGee’s.

The microweird name of the album is called “HAIL SATIN.” That’s satin as in the popular 70’s polyester, not an invitation for devil worship.

[By the way, I once heard a sad story about an evil dyslexic. It turns out it had a happy ending. He sold his soul to Santa]

The band provided a glimpse of their new disco diversion back in February for the BBC. They performed “You Should Be Dancing” for Jo Whiley’s “Sofa Session.”

The show asked the Foo Fighters to perform a cover, and Grohl explained that they chose the song after a discussion about a recent Bee Gees documentary. Not afraid to flaunt it, Grohl declared, ‘Let’s do it like the Bee Gees.’ He sings the lyrics in falsetto.

The album contains five BeeGee’s covers. The B side is five live cuts from their most recent album.

“Hail Satin” dropped on 7/17 as part of Record Store Day. In a classic withholding play, you can only purchase the album on vinyl.

As for antagonizing, the band performed earlier this week in California. No vaccine = no ticket. This of course pissed off the anti-vaccers who protested outside the venue. They called the practice “segregation.” Boo-Foo.

The Foo Fighters are flawsome. Dave especially. Six years ago the band was playing a concert in Sweden. Dave missed a ramp during the second song and fell into a pit breaking his leg. The doctor reset his ankle and he finished the show.

Did the band cancel the tour? No.

Did he hobble around with a cast? No.

Grohl and the band highlighted the flaw by creating a huge throne to sit on while performing.

He shared with Entertainment Weekly in an interview, “The shows we’ve been doing lately are some of our favorite shows we’ve ever done, and I’m not f—ing kidding. We talk about this after every show in the dressing room: What seemed like some sort of setback at the time has turned into this beautiful blessing in disguise, where this throne and these crutches and these audiences make us play longer and harder than we ever have. It’s this whole new energy in the show.”

The Foo Fighters understand something vitally important in business. In Jay Baer‘s words, they know that if you want, “To turn your current customers into volunteer marketers on your behalf, you need more than competency: you need something different, and distinct, and memorable. If you want more stories told about you, you need to be worthy of a story.”

Jay continues in the Foreword, “P!NK GOLDF!SH 2.0 is your instruction manual for unlocking and implementing your uniqueness, which becomes the plotline for those stories.”

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

Sometimes a Pink Goldfish is a red popsicle phone and no minibar

Have you ever been disappointed with a hotel stay because you didn’t receive a poolside popsicle? I now am.

Yesterday, David Rendall and I stopped by the Magic Castle Hotel in West Hollywood. We feature the hotel in Pink Goldfish 2.0.

When was the last time you had a popsicle? I bet not recently.

When was the last time you had a popsicle at a hotel? You probably haven’t.

Have you ever complained because popsicles weren’t on the room service menu? Probably not.

So why would a hotel create a popsicle hotline and why would anyone care? In their book, “The Power of Moments,” Chip and Dan Heath categorize the popsicle hotline as a “peak” moment. They argue that people value and remember small unusual moments more than larger, seemingly more important ones.

This seems to be true for the Magic Castle Hotel, the #8 rated hotel out of 405 hotels in the Los Angeles area according to Tripadvisor. “Out of nearly 3,500 reviews on TripAdvisor, 94% of guests rate the hotel as either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good.’”

But why are the ratings so high?

Wouldn’t people rather stay at a consistently luxurious property like the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Seasons? The Magic Castle Hotel doesn’t have an amazing pool or beautiful furniture or lovely rooms. It doesn’t have most of the things that you’d expect from a great hotel.

What it does have is a Popsicle Hotline. Here’s how it works. There’s a red phone on a wall by the pool. When you lift the handset, a popsicle specialist takes your order. You don’t have to wait long until an employee wearing white gloves brings your popsicles on a silver tray at no charge.

In addition to the Popsicle Hotline, the Magic Castle also has a 24-hour FREE snack bar menu. They offer full-sized candy bars, chips, and sodas in lieu of a minibar.

As the Heath brothers explain, “What the Magic Castle has figured out is that, to delight customers, you need not obsess over every detail. Customers will forgive small swimming pools and underwhelming room décor, as long as you deliver some magical peak moments. The surprise about great service experiences is that they are mostly forgettable.”

In other words, being micro-weird can be a very valuable differentiation strategy, especially when everyone else is trying to be good at everything.

The Pink Goldfish is micro-weirding is differentiation by experience design. An unexpected surprise that’s thrown in for good measure to achieve differentiation, drive retention, and promote word of mouth.

David Rendall and I sat down with Darren Ross to talk about the approach. Darren is the Chief Executive Freak of SERVICE FREAK HOSPITALITY, LLC. Darren has been at the property for the last 19 years. He shared the reasoning behind these signature extras. “We need to make it easy for our customers to tell stories about us.”

Sometimes a Pink Goldfish is a red popsicle phone and no minibar.

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

“We believe what’s different about us is worth celebrating.” -Imperfect Foods

“We believe what’s different about us is worth celebrating.”
This is a core value from Imperfect Foods, one of the companies David Rendall and I feature in the new book Pink Goldfish 2.0.

Not familiar with Imperfect Foods, here’s some background:

Each year millions of people struggle with hunger and food insecurity and each year millions of pounds of healthy and nourishing food are wasted. There are many reasons that food either spoils or is destroyed before it can be sold or used.

The first reason is just appearance. Odd or misshapen fruits and vegetables are rejected by grocery stores and, because of this, are usually destroyed or left to spoil by farmers.

Second, some foods are not the right size or shape for a specific use so they can’t be sold to a company to be used as an ingredient.

Third, sometimes farmers have too much of a particular item and there isn’t enough demand for it.

Fourth, when a company creates new packaging for a product, they stop selling the product in outdated packaging. These food products are often disposed of, even though there is nothing wrong with the contents, just the packaging.

Finally, some food can’t be sold to stores because they don’t want to stock items that are too close to their expiration date. To be clear, they haven’t expired, but the store only wants items that are a specified amount of time (like three months) from their expiration dates.

This is where Imperfect Foods comes in. They are on a mission to “eliminate food waste and build a better food system for everyone.” They purchase, organize, package, and sell a lot of the food that no one else will buy or sell.

As they explain on their website, “If food can be saved, we will save it. With every bite into a misshapen apple, short piece of pasta, or oversized egg we can shape our world for the better. We’re hungry for change and eager to reduce waste on the farm, at the store, and in the home.”

David Rendall and I love the way they talk about their work. They’ve “rescued” 139 million pounds of imperfect food. They have over 300,000 “imperfect” customers and 1,500 “imperfect” employees. Their imperfect company has sales of over $400 million and they won the Modern Retail Award in 2020.

One of their core values is “Be Imperfect.”

Shoutout to good friend and fellow speaker Marcey Rader who shared the picture below. Marcey is a devoted customer. She shared,

“Had to take a photo of my food delivery today. It’s a pink goldfish for sure! They take ugly fruits and veggies or things like bread that is a little too brown or foods that aren’t shaped right and sell them. They also will take back all their packaging, you just leave it at your door on the day of pickup. And it’s PINK!”

Imperfect Foods stands out in a sea of sameness and celebrates imperfections. Their flawed product makes them awesome.

What’s different about your company? How are you flawsome?

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

Lopsiding is the “L” in the FLAWSOME framework for differentiation in Pink Goldfish 2.0

“True differentiation is rarely a function of well-roundedness; it is typically a function of lopsidedness.”

Harvard Business School Professor Youngme Moon shared this truth in the book, “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd.”

Lopsiding is the “L” in the FLAWSOME framework for differentiation in Pink Goldfish 2.0.

This strategy runs counter to the norm. Most “normal” brands are trying to be balanced and well-rounded. It’s interesting to note that synonyms for balanced include: sane, right, normal, and stable. Those sound like worthy goals:

“Be the perfect amount of everything.”

“Be the best of both worlds.”

“Make everyone happy.”

“Eliminate flaws, minimize them, decrease them, diminish them, and lessen them.”

David Rendall and I think this is the wrong approach if you want to stand out in business. We advocate for Lopsiding.

Lopsiding is about being unbalanced, imperfect, unstable, and odd.

Let’s stop here for a second. Antonyms for unbalanced include: crazy, insane, and unsound. Those don’t sound like promising descriptions of brand strategy, but bear with us.

Lopsiding involves amplifying, not reducing, your brand’s flaws. We want you to expand them, magnify them, increase them, turn them up, exaggerate them, and then supersize them.

Brands who lopside are purposefully doing MORE of what makes them imperfect. This is flaunting imperfection at its best. You aren’t just proud of your weaknesses, you are expanding and extending them. You are doubling down to accentuate your flaws.

Lopsiding is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage to call attention to existing weaknesses. It takes even more courage to make those weaknesses worse, to exaggerate them.

What are you LOPSIDING?

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Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

“Why would anyone pick blue over pink? Pink is obviously a better color.” -Kanye West

Is Kanye correct? “Why would anyone pick blue over pink? Pink is obviously a better color.”

Are you on Team Kanye?

The French would disagree. In a study conducted in France, 17% chose pink as their least favorite color. Only brown was less popular than pink. Yet, 2% picked Pink as their favorite color.

There are even those who go so far as to argue that pink isn’t even a real color.

Robert Krulwich, a co-host of Radiolab noted that pink doesn’t occupy a slot in the familiar colors of the rainbow. There is a gap between Red and Violet. Your brain fills it in with the color pink. That’s why he believes that pink doesn’t really exist.

Barbara Nemitz, author of “Pink: The Exposed Color in Contemporary Culture,” suggests that “many people have little regard for pink.”

Valerie Steele agrees. In “Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color,” she argues that “pink provokes exceptionally strong feelings of both attraction and repulsion.” It is a color that is both “glorified and denigrated.” Steele describes pink as the “most divisive” and the “most controversial” color.

Pink is a perfect metaphor for a brand. You want to evoke strong feelings in a world filled with “Meh.”

Two weeks ago I met Nick Pellegrino in Nashville. The owner of the restaurant “Mangia” shared some advice he received early in his career from a mentor, “Nick, you gotta remember nobody gives a f*ck.”

You’ve got to be divisive in order to stand out. If are in the “middle of the road,” get ready to get run over.

People hate pink and they love it. They think it’s the worst and the best, awful and amazing, ugly and beautiful, weak and strong, imperfect and perfect.

Takeaway: Pink is the way it is and it makes no attempts to disguise itself. Maybe that’s why Kanye loves it. Is your brand like the color pink?

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

tan Phelps walks the walk. He stands out in the sea of sameness by modeling his own Differentiated Experience (DX) message: Differentiation isn’t just about what you say, it’s about what you do and, more importantly, how and why you do it. Stan leverages his unique collection of 5,000+ case studies on customer, employee, and brand experience to engage audiences with informative learning-based experiences. He believes purposeful DX wins the hearts of employees and customers, and differentiation ultimately boosts loyalty, retention, referrals, and results.

Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.

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Meet Your Presenter

Through keynote speaking presentations, hands-on workshops, and GOLDFISH TANK programs, I empower you to power loyalty and growth.

Hi, I’m Stan Phelps. I work with organizations that want to increase loyalty, drive sales, and promote positive word-of-mouth by creating differentiated experiences.

As an author, keynote speaker, and workshop facilitator, my in-person and virtual programs stand out in a sea of sameness because I model my own message of differentiated experience (DX).

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Stan Phelp's Blog

The Goldfish Chronicles

Snowbird is not afraid of exposing itself

Danny Meyer’s Restaurant Group will require vaccinations for both working and dining

Boerne .5k: The race you can’t lose

Ass, Gas & Fire: Chicago’s bitter rite of passage

Amber Share takes real one-star reviews from national parks and illustrates them

“If you want more stories told about you, you need to be worthy of a story.” -Jay Baer

Sometimes a Pink Goldfish is a red popsicle phone and no minibar

“We believe what’s different about us is worth celebrating.” -Imperfect Foods

Lopsiding is the “L” in the FLAWSOME framework for differentiation in Pink Goldfish 2.0

“Why would anyone pick blue over pink? Pink is obviously a better color.” -Kanye West

Find Your Best-Match Program

Meet Your Presenter

Every time we do business together, Something amazing happens in the world!

When someone downloads a GOLDFISH eBook, we give one brick toward building school facilities in Cambodia