Unlock Your Inner Elvis: Embracing Positive Disruption and Thinking Differently for Success

Are you ready to unleash your inner Elvis and embrace the power of thinking differently? Join me as we dive into the world of positive disruption, with 3 book recommendations and 5 tips that will inspire you to create something original and outside the box. We'll explore how leaning into the things that make you feel most alive can help tap into the curiosity we often lose as adults. Together, let's start a movement that embraces our weirdness and unlocks new doors!

Discover the secrets of Richard Branson's disruptive mindset as I share five takeaways from the book Virgin by Design. Learn how playfulness can lead to profound achievements, and how the smallest details can create an extraordinary experience. Listen closely, and you might even catch a clue about next week's exciting guest. So, let's embark on this mini adventure together and show the world that being different is the key to success!

Chapters

• 0:00 Positive Disruption and Thinking Differently
• 9:07 The Power of Thinking Differently

Transcript

Zoe Greenhalf: 0:00

Hello, it's Zoe and welcome or welcome back to the Mischief Movement podcast, your weekly inspo for people looking for more hell yeah in their life. Consider this you're one way to get out of mid-life mediocrity towards fun and positive impact via playful disruption. Wouldn't you love to wake up and feel like a total badass? How about breaking some rules, throwing two fingers up to society and doing more of the things you love? I'm talking full on freedom, adventure and those meaningful connections I know you've been craving. Stop waiting for your amazing life to happen and go get it. I'll be picking the brains of some true game changers and mischief makers so I can share what I find and hopefully inspire you to shake things up, do more of what makes you feel alive and boldly rebel against the ordinary. I have no idea what I'm doing, to be honest, but I've got a mission and I'm here to start a movement. This could be quite the adventure. Care to join me? Okay, here goes, hello, hello.

Zoe Greenhalf: 1:05

This week I wanted to jump back in and chat to you. There are so many things racing through my head right now, and I've had several really insightful and inspiring conversations with podcast guests this week, all of which have had a really positive impact on me in some way. I'm not surprised, because when I started this podcast, my main goal was to bring more fun into my life. Having felt stifled creatively as an unintentional stay- at- home mum, I wanted to feel energised, inspired and to meet like-minded people, especially when they love finding ways to positively disrupt and go against the grain as much as me. Don't ask me where this comes from, because I don't know. I've yet to figure it out. When I meet someone doing that, i just can't hide my fascination and admiration, because it requires thinking differently and being bold and rocking the status quo. So this episode I thought we'd have a little chat about that about thinking differently. So I want to give you three books to inspire you with this, five tips for creating something original and outside the box. And if you listen to the end, you'll also have a cheeky clue as to who next week's guest might be, and I can barely contain my excitement. So you're not going to want to miss that Now, unless you're my friends and family listening to this. I don't know how you found me or what made you decide to tune into this podcast, but I'd really like to think that you share some of these same feelings around, wanting more fun in your life, or you're looking for the inspiration to go against the grain yourself.

Zoe Greenhalf: 3:12

And the more I delve into the podcast and embrace my guiding North Star of mischief, the more I'm convinced that it's exactly the path that I've always needed to find. When I think about the things that light me up, it's stumbling across a brilliant new idea that's going to change the world and finding out more about the people responsible for it. It's learning something new that then gives me a different perspective. It's multifunctional products that have been designed so well you can use them in several creative ways, is multifaceted people that pivot and play with their whole armory of skills rather than slotting neatly into a predefined box. It's those who are taking a stand for something and creating a stare, without necessarily calling themselves anarchists. These are the things that I refer to when I talk about mischief, and the more episodes I record, the more I'm feeling this pull towards helping people think differently and championing positive disruption. I think disruption is a word that sometimes gets a bad rep, a bit like rebelling, but the actual definition of the word disrupt is to cause radical change by means of innovation, which I love because it means someone stopped to question the way things have been going and is willing to rethink the solution to their own benefit, which will then often benefit everyone else.

Zoe Greenhalf: 5:01

If you like the sound of a little bit of rebellion in the most positive, impactful sense, of course then let me recommend you a brilliant book called Do Disrupt - hange the status quo or become it, which is published by the amazing team behind the Do Lectures, and it's written by a creative genius called Mark Shayler. I really need to get him on the podcast because he would be amazing, but anyway, that's an aside. Anyway, it's basically a mini workbook about having ideas that will change the world and then delivering them, and I think one of the reasons I love it so much and I just keep going back to it and rereading it is because it just makes me want to think bigger and believe that I can really make a difference. There are loads of brilliant quotes that I've copied out of this book, but on the subject of going big, this one's my absolute fave, right? "Elvis didn't want to be a singer, he wanted to change music. If you're going to have a dream, have a bloody big one. We all have a little Elvis in us. Time to let him out. How good is that? Don't you just want to like, type that out and stick it on your wall?

Zoe Greenhalf: 6:25

What I've learned recently my quest to sort of lean into the things that make me feel more alive is that sometimes all it needs is the curiosity to start the ball rolling, and as a society we're not really encouraged to be curious adults. I think children are pretty inquisitive on their own, but as adults we often need help. We need reminding that the way something's always been done before doesn't necessarily mean it's the right way to keep doing things, and we need pushing to ask more questions, because we're often too scared to speak up or rock the boat. Most of us are really comfortable just turning the line and doing what's expected of us and ticking the boxes, you know, until one day we wake up and realize we're living a life that's nothing like the one we'd imagined for ourselves. I've even heard of people having this like total meltdown moment when they realized they've lived the same year twice, day in, day out, working in the same coffee shop, not stopping to work on any goals, just living, which you know I mean. It's fine if you don't want to dream big, fine.

Zoe Greenhalf: 7:39

Not everybody wants to make those kind of changes And, believe me, i totally get it, because comfort is so nice. There's no shame in wanting things to stay the same. But personally I'm looking for a bit more growth. So this idea of living a rinse and repeat life twice over, i don't acknowledge that really as living. I just kind of call it as existing. If you want to build a life on your terms which, if you're here, i really hope you do then you've got to start getting curious about yourself and your circumstances.

Zoe Greenhalf: 8:15

I think knowing yourself is the first step towards creating any sort of change, and then feeling comfortable in your own skin too, and then feeling back yourself when you make these bold moves. And, above all, i think it's time to ditch the idea that you've got to label yourself as this or that or put yourself in a category. Choose a socially acceptable name tag. It's time to embrace all the random parts and, you know, lean into the quirky bits and the seemingly unrelated hobbies, the passions that we didn't pursue, and also the ones that we did. I think the more varied the better, because they give us a unique perspective of the world.

Zoe Greenhalf: 9:07

I've probably already told you this, but for the longest time I felt like a total misfit because I called myself a jack of all trades when everyone around me looked like specialists and I kind of felt a bit ashamed about it. You know, if you want to hear more about that, you can head to episode 12, where you can hear me talk about working as a footwear designer but simultaneously training with the British Army reserves, driving trucks and shooting rifles and doing battlefield first aid and stuff. But I finally get it and I hope that the message is starting to land with you as well. You know, to quote another hero of mine, James Victore, "the things that make you weird as a kid make you great today. And Mark Shayler adds to that. Find that weirdness and amplify it, because bland is dead.

Zoe Greenhalf: 10:10

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Zoe Greenhalf: 11:09

Now back to the show, and thinking differently to me feels like the key to unlocking so many doors. It's the thing that allows me to continue being creative, even though I'm sort of taking a bit of a break as a designer. But I love nothing more than to read about brands who disrupt the status quo on a regular basis. Can you think of any? There's one, a really well-known one. It's red and white, but it's not Coca-Cola. It's way more cheeky and creative. It's Virgin, started by Richard Branson from a humble record store and now spanning so many industries, bringing playfulness and personality to all these different sectors. Now, if you're a fan, i can totally recommend their book, which charts the past 50 years, and it's called Virgin by Design.

Zoe Greenhalf: 12:14

So I thought for this episode, i would share with you five little takeaways that you can bear in mind if, like me, you fancy being a little bit disruptive. So here we go. Number one they're proud to be a bunch of outsiders who don't play by the rules. Now, this is something that I'm embracing more and more recently, and whenever I do something that feels a little bit out there or uncomfortable for me, i remind myself that it's not even about breaking the rules. There's no bloody rulebook. So stop trying to keep other people happy because they're used to doing it one way, and don't feel as though you've got to stick to a method because one dude on Instagram says it's the only way to be successful. Not playing by the rules will be way more fun anyway.

Zoe Greenhalf: 13:06

Number two you can leverage your smallness, because creativity and ingenuity will win over vast marketing resources any day, and I think there so often we buy into this idea that to be seen or heard, we've got to get to grips with Facebook ads and SEO and all the other marketing jargon, which I know play a huge role in increasing visibility. But all I'm saying is let's just not go there as default. How about we tap into our creative resources a little bit first? Virgin are brilliant at this creative thinking to get maximum media coverage at very little cost, and this book is full of examples where they've done just that.

Zoe Greenhalf: 13:56

Number three they use playfulness to achieve something profound. They love to have fun and relish the naughtiness. Here's a little example about that. Right, have you ever seen the London Eye, which is the sightseeing wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London? So at one point it was sponsored by British Airways, which were obviously a massive rival to Virgin Atlantic. So I'm just going to tell you what they did. Right, when the BA sponsored London Eye encountered difficulties being raised into position and was lying flat on the side of the Thames, virgin seized another opportunity for mischief, scrambled. Within hours, a bright red blimp drifted past the assembled press announcing "BA can't get it up. Most brands would be too cautious to pull such stunts, but we relished the naughtiness, says the PR director, jackie McQuillan. This was easy. We owned an airship company. We literally painted a sheet and stuck it on a balloon. We were nothing if not resourceful. I just think that's so good.

Zoe Greenhalf: 15:13

Number four little details add character and individuality And, when combined with exceptional service, create an extraordinary experience. So think red smeg mini bars in the hotels, and this is one of my favorite examples. So on the Virgin Atlantic flights they had miniature aeroplane salts and pepper pots in first class, but it was becoming really expensive replacing them because they were constantly being stolen. But rather than substitute them for something really bland with no theft appeal, they embraced it as a marketing opportunity by printing on the bottom, pinched from Virgin Atlantic, which I just saw was really cool. And number five part of being a cheeky brand is taking risks that others wouldn't and somehow getting away with it. So, yeah, i mean, just think about that Linda Knight example. Anyway, i'm in love When I read through this list, like mentally, i'm kind of substituting the name Virgin for the mischief movement, because this is exactly how I envisage it to feel.

Zoe Greenhalf: 16:25

I don't know how it's going to look and I don't know how exactly it's going to help people, but I'm certain that it involves reimagining what's gone before and turning something on its head to create an innovative, playful experience, and I'm so here for that. Finally, i'm also reading a great book called Be More Pirate, which is by Sam Conniff Allende, I think, but I'll link it to the show notes, but I've only just started it, so I can't pull any great quotes out for you. So here's a little bit of the synopsis and if you've read it, let me know what you thought right.

Zoe Greenhalf: 17:09

"Pirates didn't just break the rules, they rewrote them. They didn't just reject society, they reinvented it. Pirates didn't just challenge the status quo, they changed every fucking thing. Pirates faced a self-interested establishment, a broken system, industrial scale disruption and an uncertain feature Sound familiar. Pirates did for mischief, purpose and power And you can too. So I am so looking forward to jumping into that book and seeing what new ideas it sparks in me.

Zoe Greenhalf: 17:50

Anyway, i guess that's probably a good place to end the short one on the power of thinking differently. I think any change can be made less intimidating when we approach it through the lens of fun. Being cheeky and mischievous and coming up with new ideas and ways to change the game will always be way more interesting when we look for elements of playful disruption. Oh, but I did also say yes, nearly forgot. I did also say I was gonna give you a little teaser about next week's guest. No, right, okay, so it's a guy this time, and UK friends, you will have seen him on TV in several different shows actually, and he built his own floating home from a shipping container. How cheeky and exciting is that right? This is definitely, definitely my favourite interview to date, so I can't wait for you to hear it next week.

Zoe Greenhalf: 18:57

In the meantime, have a think about where in your life you could get more curious, do things differently or create some playful disruption. And, as always, stay well and keep making mischief, and I will catch you next week. Oh, my goodness, you made it to the end. You deserve a frigging medal for that. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. I'd love to hear what you think, so let's connect, either on Instagram at mischief and hide all by signing up to my newsletter at zoegreenhalfcom. If you did enjoy this podcast, please consider telling a friend or leaving me a review wherever you download your episodes, which will help my mission to inspire and empower more people like you to choose mischief over mediocre. Ciao.