Lead by purpose
Letting ourselves be vulnerable enough to try and fail opened up the capacity to try and succeed
We’re three months into the launch of Meshin Movement and never could’ve imagined this would be the picture of today. Never could’ve imagined *this* because we moved forward with no exact plan other than to be vulnerable and open. By doing so, we were afforded the—sometimes terrifying—freedom to expand in areas beyond anything we could have planned in advance.
We imagined this first blog post for some time, writing and re-writing it many times. It was all about intention. We had an idea to start something purpose oriented, with the goal of uniting and connecting people around a table and meal experience. We told ourselves the world is so divided, but mealtime is a level-setting unifier. We had no plan backing that idea. We had a vision in our minds and ideas of potential funding, but we were lacking scalability and an actual business model. (We’re still discovering!) Accordingly, we had to be vulnerable and brave enough to know it may not shape out how we hoped. We asked ourselves, how will we know unless we try? Failure was a complete possibility, but so too was the reality that we could be among the few that chase a dream even if it is just to try.
And so, without research or plan for this connecting meal experience idea, we needed to back up our vulnerability with openness. Openness to uncover if there was merit to our vision. Openness to put ourselves out there in the world and talk about our intention even though it wasn’t fully fleshed out. Openness to hear honest and candid feedback to help us put the shape to it that it was lacking. And we did ...
As for our original idea, here’s what we found.
People are receptive to random outreach when you have good intentions and share them with love and kindness. People thrive on connection and shared values. And so, the heart of our idea is spot on. Nearly everyone we spoke to said they would love to be part of a test experience.
The business behind connecting around the table is nearly impossible for people to latch onto until the experience presents itself. And in fact, it may never be a viable and scalable business model, but rather a principle and practice—a social movement shared among people (still figuring this out!)
Not failing—finding openness
Our biggest learning was our purpose. We started with the vulnerability of not having a definitive product/service plan for this new idea, which meant leaning into our roles as a marketing strategy consulting team. Families to feed! In doing so, we had to define who we were as a team and what we delivered to the world through any one of our offerings, be it our consulting services or this social-movement idea to connect people around a table. Surfacing connections that move people in unified spirit is the core of who we are. Whether that manifests for marketing clients, or humanity at large, we are always looking for those opportunities to connect that will create progress and movement.
Capacity to succeed
So many people have told us they don’t see a business model in our meal experience idea. In fact, one savvy businessman told us that we are very intelligent, talented people and as such, people are afraid to tell us the truth. (He also said he could see merit in such an idea for his family coming together around the dinner table.) Rather than walk away and think, we don’t have a business idea, we thought, maybe it will always be a social cause as an extension of what we do.
Three months in, and now with our defined purpose as our guide, we’ve been able to adapt, flex and find new levels of success by living our purpose, rather than being constrained by a pre-defined end state.
We’ll see where tomorrow takes us.
