Get Gutsy Podcast Transcript – Where to Find Your Best Ideas
Hey, you all. Welcome back to the show. Jenny Fenig here. You ready? You ready to talk about ideas? Ideas, ideas.
Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about today, where to find your best ones because let me tell you, that is super-important. That is super-important.
If you are wanting to grow your body of work in the world, really do this thing as an entrepreneur, as a spiritual business leader, you got to keep coming up with cool ideas. I mean the world is moving so fast and things are noisy and crowded, and you’ve got to really be pushing kind of forward into this gorgeous terrain, this beautiful body of work that you’re going to put your stamp on essentially.
And ideas are so important for your quest. It’s so important for your quest to be a generator of ideas, okay?
So, I want to talk to you about ideas and then give you some ideas—that’s funny. I want to talk about ideas. I want to give you some ideas about where you can find your best ideas. Isn’t that funny? That’s so funny. Okay. Let’s talk about ideas first. I found some cool quotes about ideas.
“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” – Marie Curie
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Just take that in. Take that in. Why are your ideas so important? And what are some ideas that you have right now? Are you playing with some ideas? Do you have an idea for a book or a podcast or a course? Or a trip you want to take? Or a blog post? Or some kind of promotional campaign?
I mean what do you got? What do you got?
The definition of idea is:
- a thought
- a conception, a notion
- Any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness or activity
So, I often will think of ideas as divine downloads to be straight with you. I mean it’s been pretty amazing for me to experience these on a regular basis. They just drop it and if you have followed my business path at all or if you’re new to me, welcome. I’m really glad to be talking to you right now and I invite you to keep coming back to the show and really it’s because of all of you beautiful listeners that this show continues to soldier on and touch more lives and, you know, impact those who are meant to receive it.
So, I just get ideas. I just do. This is one of my strengths. I feel like we all get them and a very, very, very small minority ever truly acts on them from a creative sense. And it’s true. It’s true.
I see it a lot. I’ll see people who will come into, you know, different programs of mine and they don’t really do anything with their ideas. They’ll have them and they don’t trust them or they’ll put it out there just a bit. They’ll hit a roadblock and they’ll stop. They think “That’s it. I’ve taken a wrong turn. This isn’t right.” They start overanalyzing, getting frustrated either with themselves, with other people, with me, okay. And that’s really not how it works.
I mean you have to be so courageous as you take action on an idea. So, so courageous. So I want you to take that in. That ideas are fabulous and they don’t mean anything if you don’t take action on them. It’s just an “Oh, I have this idea.” “And what did you do about it?” You don’t have to take action on every single idea that you have. I don’t suggest that you do that especially all at the same time because that’s a lot. Right?
We have got to look at, “Okay, when is this going to go into place?” And, you know, working off of a strategic plan is quite powerful and effective, right? So, you can do this. You absolutely can do this.
As an entrepreneur, as someone who is putting value out into the world, that’s what you do. You’re solving problems as an entrepreneur. I mean make no mistakes about it. That’s exactly what you’re doing. If you don’t know what problem you solve in the world, then you’re going to struggle. So, you have to identify that problem.
And, as an entrepreneur, just so you know, because I was doing a little digging as I was preparing for this episode, you must be willing to take on more than average risk in order to grow your enterprise. I also see that very few are willing to do that and you’re not an entrepreneur if you aren’t willing to take on some risks. I’m not saying that you can’t continue doing your work, you know, as a freelancer or solo business owner, if you will. But it will only get so far if you’re not willing to take on a considerable amount of risk.
And I’m saying this honestly for myself right now because I’d taken on a tremendous amount of risk throughout my entrepreneur road especially this month. You know, you’ve heard me talking about Get Gutsy Coach Training School, taking on more risks than I ever have.
As we are promoting this gorgeous offering in the world, as we are training the next generation of coaches to make a difference and a great living like we’re just going for it, we’re doing it, we’re doing it, we’re doing it.
And, it can feel—it’s like there’s some intensity involved in it. You know, neither one of my parents were entrepreneurs, like the opposite—they’re the opposite of entrepreneurs. They were like, “No, we will not take on any risk in the business piece.”
My grandfather on my mother’s side was an entrepreneur and I very much feel like he is just looking at me right now saying “Jenny, you can do this. You can absolutely do this.”
So, yeah. Just so—I want you to just know that because I also feel it is my job to educate around this because I know—it seems like very sexy and like kind of fun. If you look at social media and things look a little bubble-gummy, you know, when you go into social media like “Oh my gosh, this is going to be like super fun all the time,” and kind of easy and you see these people—they’re just like fleeting around the world and especially coaching.
I’m talking about the coaching industry because that’s really what I’m helping to build right now, is bringing in like more just amazing, solid, authentic coaches who know how to market, who know how to use business systems to grow what they do in the world, which is coaching, guiding, supporting because there’s a lot of people out there who call themselves coaches and they’re not fully trained in this space and they’re kind of just making it look like this little cake walk and it’s not. It’s not.
It’s so nuanced. It’s so layered. So I want to make sure I’m putting that message out there that there is—there’s complexity to this. We can strip away unnecessary complexity to bring you back to, you know, the simplest framework for moving forward. And, if you’re not willing to take on more than average risk to grow what you’re doing in the world, then you really can’t call yourself an entrepreneur because it’s not going to work in the way that you hope it will.
So, I know, tough love from me. Tough love.
But, I got to be real with you. I’ve got to be real because that—I mean why would I be even doing this thing if I’m lying to you? You know, if I’m like sugar-coating the truth. I want to be real with you what it’s going to take, of what it’s going to take. But listen, you can absolutely do this. You’ve got to make a decision. You’ve got to make a choice. You’ve got to be willing to just walk forward even when you’re fucking freaked out. Okay?
And so what I do when I’m fucking freaked out is that mantra. You’ve heard me talking about mantra before? Exercise, talking to people who get it, talking with my coach. Kind of going back to that place where I can fill my cup and certainly self-care, moving my body, getting out in nature, getting out in the elements.
So, some of my best ideas are generated from me being outside, for me being around the trees, around the rocks. I live in a mountain community. It’s called The Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Many of my people have met with me here.
I’ve hosted my live retreats there for the last few years. My mastermind retreats, my VIP strategy retreats that I do one-on-one with clients. They’re here.
Sometimes if I’m traveling like I—later this month, very soon, I’m going to be meeting with an extraordinary client of mine. She’s out in San Francisco. I was doing a meeting with my coach out there, going to my coaches retreat and I said, “Hey, who wants to do a VIP Strategy Retreat with me out in Cali while I’m there?” And one of my most treasured clients stepped forward and she was like, “Me, me, me.” She raised her hand and so I’m going to do a VIP Strategy Retreat out there.
So, getting my ideas, so I’m outside. I’m outside. I love where I live. I grew up pretty much on the—you know, in an ocean community in Florida. And now I’m in this mountainy place. You know, we have skiing in the winter and in the summer people are outdoors. They’re biking. They’re hiking. They’re kayaking. They’re just out in this beautiful land that we have. It’s just—it’s nature.
And thank God it’s not overdeveloped and I hope it never becomes overdeveloped. I mean we just have this gem. We have this gem of a place. And so some of my best ideas I get as I am moving my body. I am out doing my hikes or going to yoga, quiet. I’m not in front of my phone. I’m not in front of my computer. I’m not doing any of that.
I have to say that most of my ideas are not gotten there. I mean straight up. They’re just not. I wish I could tell you the other way, but that’s not how it works for me. I’m curious how it works for you. For me, it’s like I am cruising, I’m moving. I have very limited technology that is in front of my face.
When I’m hiking, pretty much 100% of the time, I’m listening to a podcast. I listen to my own for sure like I listen to mine on the day that they’re published, but I have like a great rotation of other people’s podcasts that I listen to that help me stay on my game and stay inspired, allow me to channel the message, the idea that’s coming through me and so that I can take action on the best ones. Okay?
So, that’s how I do it. If you’re not listening—I mean obviously you’re listening to this podcast. If you’re listening to this episode, but there are some other great ones that you can check out as well.
I’ll tell you some of my favorites because I’m not like “You only can listen to mine.” I don’t really like that. If you only listen to one, listen to this one, okay? 😉
But if you’re open to some more and let me tell you, you can weave this into your life when you get creative. I listen to Joel Osteen’s podcast every week.
I listen to Rob Bell’s podcast. It’s called the RobCast.
I listen to the School of Greatness, Lewis Howes.
Ali Brown’s Glambition Radio. She got me into the podcasting realm, so big shout out to Ali.
John Lee Dumas, EOFire.
Ram Daas, love him. Ram Daas. His aren’t published as frequently as the others, but it’s called Ram Daas Here and Now. Love. Oh my God, he’s so funny. He’s a spiritual teacher and he’s funny. So funny. Yeah.
So those are some of the top of my mind that are in regular rotation of mine.
Cate Stillman of Yogahealer. I think she calls it the Real Life podcast. And she interviewed me recently for Bring the Heat Week. She’s amazing.
So, there are some awesome ones out there. And listen, these—because even—you know, you’ll just hear somebody else talking and you’ll get ideas for yourself. You see?
So, yeah, and be doing it while you’re moving your body or while you’re, you know, in the car driving or while you’re folding laundry or doing the dishes or whatevs, you know, just figure it out.
Because the ideas, the things, it’s going to like take you to that next level for your promotional campaign or help you build out some kind of cool offering for a program or like, “Oh, I’m going to do this really cool bonus,” or “This is going to be the theme of this free webinar I host,” or “This is going to be the theme of my next podcast episode,” or “This is what my book really is about. This is the title.”
There’s so much that I know that you’re working on. We have quite a diverse listener base, and whatever it is that you’re bringing out into the world, I mean it’s really—it’s driven by an idea. And, you know, just write this phrase down or just kind of drill it into your head right now:
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to follow an idea.
Ideas honestly are a dime a dozen. They are. It’s what you’re willing to do with them. Are you willing to follow it?
If you were part of Bring the Heat Week recently which was my week of episodes, the week of May 23rd. If you missed any of those episodes, just go back that whole week. I interviewed—I was interviewed myself. I interviewed Fabienne Fredrickson, Angelique Rewers, Rachel Resnick and John Lee Dumas. There are some really great episodes there. That was our most listened to week in the entire history of the podcast.
And that was an idea. They just dropped in and I had the courage to follow it, you know.
Carved out a space, invited the speakers, got my team on board, got everything done, the logistics, all of it.
So, are you willing to follow ideas? Will you get outside? Will you exercise? Will you move? Will you take walks? Will you—whatever that you love, just get out there and do it and be ready.
And when the ideas come, make sure you capture them, you know. I have a great notes memo app on my phone. I have an iPhone. I’m sure even if you don’t have an iPhone, you have something else that you can capture them straight there in your digital device or keep a little notebook in your purse, in your bag and write them down.
I had an idea just the other day in the shower. So that brings me to my next place where you get ideas and the best place to get your ideas, in water—shower, bath, pool, Jacuzzi.
I get so many ideas in my shower and I’m very, very grateful that I have one of those shower doors, glass that fogs up during the shower and I sketch up my ideas there. I don’t get them every single time, but there are many times that I do and I sketch it and then I move—when I get out like I go direct to get my notebook and I write them down in the notebook.
Often the ideas are then going to be delegated to somebody on my team and so then I take the idea from the notebook into my project management software called Asana and I just basically detail the idea and I send it off to whoever on my team is going to action it.
I’m the ideas person.
Certainly I have other people on my team who have ideas and that’s happening more and more as I’m bringing in, you know, different team members to get on our gorgeous bus, the magic mystery bus of the Get Gutsy mission.
I’m bringing in more team members how have various expertise and they’re bringing in their ideas, which is awesome.
Because I don’t ever really want to be the person who only has all the ideas. That’s boring.
I thought that had to be me and now I’m like, “no, that sucks.”
I don’t want that to be just me. That’s too big of a responsibility. I want other people who have ideas give me ideas. What you got? And then from there, let’s see what we have to work with.
So that’s just a side note as you’re building your business.
Make sure you got people who can bring ideas too because at first, it’s like a novelty that you’re the ideas person. Over time, that gets old.
You’re like, “Dude, do you have—you have to have some ideas. Come on. Come on.”
About their line of work, not about what you do necessarily, but their expertise that they’re bringing in the door. You see?
So, back to the water.
Water is a powerful element. The ideas come there. Something that happens in your skin. There’s this gorgeous little thing that occurs inside your body and it’s like “Boom! The ideas come. The ideas come.”
I also get tremendous ideas when I’m around like-minded souls. Especially in a live environment.
So, why do you think I go to conferences? Retreats? Events? Workshops? Because I get great ideas there.
Why do you think I host them? Because my people get great ideas there. And I can really support them on a deep, deep level.
Before I started my business, I produced conferences. For 5 years of my life, I produced conferences. And so I put on events for people who come and exchange ideas and get their next big idea. Yeah.
So that is a very, very powerful piece in your puzzle. And if you’re not yet going to live gatherings, I really want you to. I really, really want you to.
If you’re a student in Get Gutsy University, you very may well be coming to our retreat this summer, which is here in the Berkshires. It’s going to be amazing! Amazing, amazing. And then certainly our students in Get Gutsy Coach Training School, we have a 2-day coaching master class going on live. Live, live, live.
So, that is the epicness of what is going down. That is the epicness.
And so I want you to have live events, gatherings, and they can be local too right now. That’s fine depending on where you live. You might have some really cool local stuff that you can check out. Start there.
And then be willing to get on a plane. Truly. Or car or train or a boat.
Yeah, it’s my willingness to have done that that really has drawn things for me.
I’ve seen people who are bonafide introverts. I think they border on almost like agoraphobia, meaning they don’t want to leave their house, which is a whole other discussion and I feel for them if that’s the case. These introverts pride themselves on never going anywhere and that’s a piece of their branding and their messaging.
And I completely don’t go down that road. No. No. No.
And it could be traced back to the fact that my mother worked for the airline for a lot of my life.
She just retired recently from JetBlue. I think she was there for like 15 years.
And when I was a kid, worked for Eastern Airlines so we were just always on planes and I love planes. Love them. I love to travel. I love it.
Oh my God, I get so much from that. I get so much juice. So much juice.
This month I’m heading out to San Francisco to work with my coach. A few weeks after that, I’m heading to Chicago for a really cool event.
I’m doing some traveling with my family.
And I’m hosting my very own retreat last day in July and then first few days in August.
Not everybody wants to travel and that’s fine, but I will tell you that there is so much that you’re going to get from it. You will go so much further if you’re willing to get out of your pajamas, get out of your yoga clothes and go to something in person.
You know, every single amazing person I interviewed for this show’s Bring the Heat Week, I met them all in person. It wasn’t just like we developed this relationship online. You only get so far online honestly.
It really goes to another level when you’re in person, when you’re body-to-body, eye-to-eye. It’s true. It’s absolutely true. Absolutely.
So, you know, test it out for yourself. Test it out for yourself and see.
Where do you get your best ideas? And then mark my words.
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to follow an idea.
How willing are you to follow your amazing idea, the one that you have right now.
I know you have something. I know I’m calling you out right now with love and courage, right? What idea do you have right now? And what are you willing to do to make it real? What’s the first step?
Once you take that step, the next step will emerge and then the next step and then the next step. Don’t get so far ahead of you that you’re looking at the 20th step and you’re freaking out because you’re like “how will I ever get there?” Oh my gosh, don’t freak.
I have to tell you. I completely freaked once.
You’ll get a kick out of this one. This is an example of like getting way too far ahead of yourself.
When I was pregnant with my first child—I now have 3 children. My first child—this is funny. I was at this art show, art festival with my mother and my mother-in-law. My husband was not there and my father-in-law was not there.
It was this little art festival and it was here in the Berkshires and this was before I even lived in the Berkshires, where I live now, Massachusetts. I lived in New York City.
But I was at this art show with my mother and my mother-in-law. And I was newly pregnant. I want to say it was like 11 or 12 weeks pregnant. And, you know, I’m super-excited, but it’s like totally new to me, right? Never done this before. And I was hot.
It was July 4th weekend and it was like hot, but it had just rained so I had like a rain jacket on because where I live sometimes the temperatures can drop because—I mean the weather is kind of really funny here.
And so I had this like rain jacket on. I think I had pants on. I don’t even know. But I was starting to get super-overwhelmed because I love my mother and my mother-in-law, but they’re different. They’ve very different from each other.
My mother-in-law was like looking at baby clothes and like, “Oh, if we knew the sex, we’d know what to buy.” And then I’m just starting to get overwhelmed.
My mom was kind of doing her own thing and my mom knows me a bit more than my mother-in-law does because my mother grew up with me, raised me.
And so I’m just like, “yeah, okay, okay” as I’m trying to manage those two energies, manage the fact that I’ve got this person growing inside of me.
The weather started getting superhot when it was like a bit chillier earlier. I was overdressed.
I was starting to get overstimulated and my mother had bought me a smoothie because I was thirsty.
And she got me a strawberry smoothie or something like that.
And I remember just starting to get lightheaded and really feeling like “I wish I had a seat right now. I wish I had a seat.”
And I was thinking, “There is one in the distance and I can’t get there.” It felt like it was like a lifetime away.
And then I turned my head and I saw this woman who was visibly much more pregnant than me. it looked like she was like ready to pop, you know, she was ready to have this baby come out.
And no one could even physically tell that I was pregnant because I was still—you know, I wasn’t even out of the first trimester yet, first baby, like you just didn’t even know.
And I remember this kind of slow-grade panic started taking over me going “Oh, my God, how am I ever going to stretch that big? How is that ever going to be me? How am I going to be able to do that? Me? What?”
And everything was a perfect storm.
The next thing I knew, I was laid out on the ground. I literally had fainted. Fainted. Fainted. Fainted.
I got way too far ahead of myself. I wasn’t hydrated enough. I was overheated and I was literally managing both my mother and my mother-in-law and I needed to say to both of them, “Guys, I need to sit down. You guys walk.”
And I just didn’t know how to advocate for my needs as much. And the next thing I know, literally I was like on the ground.
I had opened my eyes and I was in a state of bliss. I wasn’t terrified at all. Like—I totally just fainted. And I had never fainted before. So this was new.
I couldn’t recognize any faces around me. I’m looking around going, “Who are these people? They look very concerned yet I feel quite relaxed.”
And they’re all like “What’s your name? Can you remember your name?” And I’m like, “Yeah. Like I knew my name.”
And they go, “Are you allergic to anything?” And I was like, “Allergic,” you know, so—I went, “Well, I remember I do have an allergist. His name is blah-blah.”
I was trying to grasp at information. I couldn’t grasp at all honestly in that moment. I guess that’s what happens after you faint. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know all the intricacies of it.
But turns out I had what’s called a vasovagal response, which affects the the vagus nerve, which is the place where we manage stress. I just got super stressed with everything happening, but honestly seeing that super-pregnant woman in the distance, that took me over the edge. I was thinking, “Oh my God!”
And I have a history of like anxiety and panic attacks and things like that.
So, yeah. I was fine. The baby was fine. I went in the ambulance. Went to the hospital. Totally fine.
But I used that moving forward when I started getting a little anxious or like stressed, I would just say to the person, “Listen, this conversation is activating my vasovagal response and I need to relax. My vagus nerve is getting a bit too amped up and, you know, we need to chill.”
It came in handy when speaking to certain family members if you catch my drift.
So, it’s just a funny story that came up as I wanted to make a point of not getting too far ahead of yourself.
Stay grounded.
I know you’ve got an idea right now. What’s the next step? Once you get there, the next step will emerge.
Listen, I’m a big fan of strategic plans and I think you can build things out. And don’t freak out because you’re thinking “Oh, my God! At some point I’m going to need to do XYZ.”
Trust me, you’ll be good. Once you get to that point, you’ll be ready. Okay?
You don’t need to be ready for that point right now. Just focus on “Okay, here’s my next step.”
Okay, from there and then it’s that one. You’ll get stronger with every step you take. Every step you take will make you stronger or make you more confident.
And let me tell you, I have to remind myself of this all the time.
These episodes, thank you for allowing me to do them. I mean you’re allowing me by listening. If no one listens, then I’d be like “Whoa, what’s up with that?”
But you listen. You listen. These episodes are very well-received, I see. You know, I get feedback from you and it’s really, really exciting. And hey, if you haven’t left a review yet on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play, please go do that.
That means so much to keep the show growing really, really.
I create these episodes for you and, honestly, they’re as much for me as they are for you because it’s just a reminder for me. I have to deal with the same stuff that you do. I do.
So, we’re not alone. You’re not alone. I’m not alone.
And truly I always then come back to that higher power, that spiritual place. God has my back. The universe has my back. Fill in the blank with whatever feels good to you.
Say it with me:
“I am not alone. I am being guided. I am being led. I am safe. I’m here to do amazing work in the world. I am doing amazing work in the world. I’m doing it. I’m doing it. I’m doing it. The world needs what I have.”
Go out there and bring your ideas to life. Start today. Start today. Start today.
This is Jenny Fenig sending you so much love, light and faith as you get gutsy. I’ll see you next time.
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Enjoy!
xoxo
Jenny
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