What Do Flamingos Have to do with Business

So where did this Flamingo idea come? If you've watched some of my videos, you'll see behind me on my wall in my office that I've got a whole collection of flamingos. Including our books Faith Like Flamingos: the Christian Guide to Walking out Your Faith in Bold Color and our more recent Flamingo Advantage book.

By the way, you can get free copy just pay shipping and handling over at freeflamingobook.com?

Flamingo Advantage: Where Did It Come From?

Both of those books came to me after my family and I spent some time in tropical Mexico, where we live, visiting flamingos in the wild. Now you may have seen flamingos on TV or you may have seen flamingos in a zoo situation. But let me just tell you that seeing them in the wild is an amazing experience.

We chartered a fishing boat. We put our whole family on there, went out around through the ocean and into up into this river. All of a sudden, we rounded this curve and there in front of us was this expanse of blue sky, blue water, and green vegetation. But what stood out were these pink fluffy clouds of flamingos.

Advantages in the Wild and Business

It looked like pink cotton balls had just been dropped on the horizon everywhere it was incredible to see. I was so excited and the closer we got to these birds the more exciting I thought it was going to be.

It really was a giant letdown because they were not surprised to see us. Their feathers didn't get ruffled as we approached. They were just completely non-plus that we were even there, it was almost like we were invisible.

Showing up as a Christian in the Marketplace

It just made such a huge impression on me. How could this be their natural habitat that we are invading on this loud motored boat? They don't even care, it was as if we weren't there. They just continued to do what they were supposed to be doing.

Some of them were standing. Some of them were resting and some of them were eating with their heads down in the water. They didn't care about us and didn't care about the potential for crocodiles in the same river which is consequently why we never got out of the boat on that trip.

What Inspired the Flamingo Advantage?

But they were just doing what they were created to do. It was so fascinating to me that I began to research when we got back from the trip. I started researching flamingos. I'd never given them two thoughts before. But the more I researched, the more unique aspects about the flamingos I found out, the more the Lord started showing me the analogies or the similarities between a flamingo in the wild and a Christian in business.

That is where that first book Faith like Flamingos came from. As I began to get these lessons and put them down on paper, the Lord just kept bringing out to me over and over and over the different lessons about the flamingos.

Marketing in a Tough Market

I started to see how it applies to me specifically and my clients as believers who have businesses in a secular Marketplace to be able to show up and be authentically us to do the work that we were created to do. We can do this in spite of our surroundings, in spite of the potential dangers in our field.

It was just amazing. So as that book became bestseller, people started saying, "Oh, Katie's the flamingo lady." They started sending Flamingo gifts to me.

The flamingos sort of adopted us. So as this continued over the next couple of years. I started thinking more in terms of marketing. That was where the second book The Flamingo Advantage came from. Which has now become the basis of this podcast, and the framework for things that we teach in our programs.

Best Business Book for Christians

It really became something where the flamingo chose us. We use the flamingo analogies every day in our business to show our clients, those that we work with in our programs in our Consulting calls and our VIP days how to show up and be authentically you in the marketplace.

I believe that doing exactly what God created you to do is your best worship. When we transitioned into ministry, people said how can you do that?

You're called to minister yes and the marketplace gives me so many more opportunities to minister to real people out there. Now this can become a problem if you're just one who thinks that every business is a transaction only.

Business Transactions that Impact the World

Every transaction you make in your business has a real live person on the other end. That real live person needs your light in this world. Your Flamingo Advantage is learning what's unique about you. You can leverage it in the marketplace to be bold, to draw attention to what you do and to market yourself better.

You can be relevant to what is going on in the atmosphere around you so that you can make an impact on your ecosystem in the marketplace and ultimately change the world. So as we dive into this particular podcast the episodes that are coming, the guests that we'll be having, we're going to dive into your unique advantage in every single episode.

How to find it, what it looks like, how to leverage it in the marketplace for greater impact, and how to embrace your God-given gifts, talents, and quirky uniqueness as a plus in your business. Your Flamingo Advantage is a positive asset that you can use to grow the work that you've been put here on Earth to do. I hope that you'll join and you'll share this with your friends, because you, my friend, have a message that matters and we can't wait to help you leverage it for more change.

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