Episode No. 137 The Courage To Experiment

Jessica Lauren27min

Jessica Lauren

00:01

Hello and welcome to The Sunday Jumpstart Podcast. A weekly podcast helping #GoalGetters, ditch the excuses, do the work and make ish happen. My name is Jessica Lauren, and you are listening to episode number 137

Jessica Lauren

00:20

Hey, y'all. Hey, and welcome back to this week's episode of the SJS podcast. Baby, I hope that all is well, with you and yours on this lovely Sunday. Hopefully you're spending a day doing whatever the heck makes your heart feel good. Whether that's resting, cooking, kicking it or Netflix and chilling-- I hope you're having a good day. And I really appreciate you just spending a couple of minutes right here with me on the podcast.

Jessica Lauren

00:47

So what are we talking about today? Today we are talking about the courage to experiment. You know, a lot of us have a lot of goals and dreams and hopes and ideas that we want to see make happen, right? But a lot of times what we do is we're so focused on the outcome--" I pray that this is my one big idea or this date is my one true love." And a lot of times we don't give ourselves permission to just experiment and see if this might work out if this could be possible, right? We get so married to the idea that this has to be it that we don't ever allow ourselves to play and be curious and experiment and to fail and mess up and pick it up again and try again or pivot. So today we're talking about how to get kind of scientific with your goals and your dreams and not get so locked into them that you're disappointed when things don't go your way. So I'm excited about today's episode.

Jessica Lauren

01:47

But before we hop on into that, I just want to spend a couple of minutes thanking you my lovely listeners. Thank you so much for the time you take out to leave a five star rating and review in Apple podcast. This week's review comes in from Kristin Feaster. Hey Kristin girl! She says--"LOVE this podcast, I literally look forward to getting a notification once a new episode drops every week is food for the soul. And exactly what I need to set my intentions for the week. And I just love Jessica's spirit."

Jessica Lauren

02:21

Well, Kristin, thank you so much. That means the world to me. I'm so excited that the show has become a part of your spiritual habits, right that you like, Hey, it's Sunday. Let me get my intentions together for the week that makes me feel so happy. And I'm so honored that I get to be a part of that. Thank you so much for taking the time to write that in Apple podcast. Kristin. I really do appreciate it.

Jessica Lauren

02:45

Now if you could do me a huge favor and just press pause. It's okay. It's all good. And go ahead into Apple podcasts and leave a five star rating and review just like Kristen did leave your name and just drop a couple sentences about what you appreciate about the show. It really does help get our Make It Happen message out there. Also, I want to say thank you to Morgan Harper Nichols, y'all. The podcast was just featured on the Browse page of Apple podcasts and back was still up there. And that's a huge feat for a podcaster typically they only show heavy hitters shows I'm talking about how I built this, you know the how to podcast just huge podcast. And Morgan was asked by Apple to curate a list of podcasts that she likes and that, you know helps her creativity and she added the Sunday jumpstart to the curation so we are featured on the Browse page and I just want to say a special thank you to Morgan thank you so much first of all for listening and to sharing and for sharing and for opening the door up for me as well. That is so major and it means the world to me that you listen. And thank you for all the people that took note of Morgan's suggestion and came on over and listen to the podcast so we have a ton of new followers over on Instagram as well as new listeners. Thank you so much for joining in. I really appreciate that. So now that we have official SJS business all buttoned up, let's dive on into today's episode episode number 137 The courage to experiment

Jessica Lauren

04:28

So a couple of days ago I got the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Kristin Winchester. Kristin is a dear friend of the show. She's been on the podcast before, but she was coming on the show and we were doing our interview to talk about boundaries and how important they are. That episode should air in a couple weeks. So stay tuned for that. But Chris and I were talking and she's a brand new mom. In fact her baby boy is turning one next week and she was just on a roll dropping gems giving us all these tips about boundaries and why we need them and how to not silence your voice anymore. We were like on a roll. And then in the background you hear her little baby crying. And you can instantly see crispy you know, her face just melts like oh my god, I'm like, Girl, go get your baby as I know I am in my second trimester, I'm pregnant. So is that's gonna be me pretty soon on the podcast with a baby in my lap. I was like, Oh, get on, it doesn't matter. And so we're proceeding to do the podcast interview and baby boy is on ten like, he is full of energy and light and love. He's the cutest little baby, but he's like, tapping on the mic, playing with it and knocking it over. And finally, you know, I'm just like Kristin, I can edit. Maybe I've been doing the show for four or five years. I can edit pretty well. I was like, Don't worry about it. She's like, No, I'm kind of off my rocker. And I was like, Okay, well, let's reschedule, you know, like, hey, it's no big deal, whatever. She's like, okay, cool.

Jessica Lauren

05:53

So, we talked about rescheduling, and just her adjusting to motherhood. And I was just asking her for, you know, advice, because that's gonna be me come July, like, oh, chile. And she was just talking about like, how in motherhood, you had to really adjust your expectations about your capacity and how well you can perform and how much work you're going to get done and how productive you're going to be. And she was like, you know, when I look back at 2021, I had so many huge goals, but I didn't accomplish a lot of them. She was like, I did some things, but a lot of stuff was was failures. And I was so happy she touched on it, because I'm trying to you know, just kind of brace myself for that as well. Come July, I don't even come July, just during my whole pregnancy. You guys may or may not know, I have the morning jumpstart podcast, which is a live show that I do every Monday through Friday over on Patreon. We have a good time and I'm you know, motivated and just all ten to do it. But then I might wake up and have severe morning sickness and I can't perform like we've been doing the show for about three weeks now. And this past Thursday, I had to take the day off just because I was feeling sick. And I was beating myself up because it was just like, Well, that wasn't the plan I was supposed to show up, I need to show up. And Kristen now we're just saying like with motherhood and just any big life changes, whether it's having a baby or getting married or buying a house or, you know, starting a new career or going back to school or trying to start a business or whatever your thing is, it requires some type of tempering of your expectations, right? And so here I am, you know, pregnant and I have, this was my biggest like, I'm going to just slay year. But I'm just realizing like, I might not slay in the same way I would have wanted to right. And so then you know, just as I'm thinking about just readjusting my expectations and my goals for 2022. It got me back to thinking about the scope of my creative entrepreneurial career, right. I've been doing this since 2015 in some capacity, right, the podcast, the blog, teaching workshops, and speaking on panels and all of that jazz. And every single year I have some type of big project or something I want to launch. And sometimes it works out, you know, like sometimes it's a huge success, and I'm over the moon. But a lot of times it does not right. The way that I launched the ultimate podcast boot camp, I had these big numbers in my head, it didn't work out like that. The first time I launched the Goal getter sessions. The Sessions was actually supposed to be a collective in real life. And that did not work out like I got like two signups. And both the girls was I actually I can't do this, you know, and I used to feel like a complete failure. Just like that's it right? I'm a failure. I'm a terrible creative. I'm a terrible entrepreneur who do I think I am trying to make this business grow, hang it up flat screen like it's a wrap, right? But recently, I've been trying to unlearn all of that this is it mentality. This has to be my big break. This is the only way this is my one true path, right? We do that a lot. Like oh my goodness, I have this million dollar idea. It has to work out and it would be great if it did right. But a lot of times it just does not work out like that because life doesn't work out like that. Now if it does baby, you are lucky congratulations. God bless you. Like I said, some things do work out instantly for me. But others take some tweaking, take some refining. Take some going back to the drawing board. Take some let me drop this and pick this back up. Let me pivot let me refigure out my messaging like it takes some experimentation right. But a lot of times what we tend to do is if it doesn't work out on that first try if the person doesn't say I love you after the first date, if you don't hit a million dollars, you know after your first launch, if your YouTube video doesn't get 100,000 views on your first try, we'll stop like, Well, that's it. I'm a failure. I shouldn't do that I feel stupid. Everybody think I'm dumb. Like, we just turn it into this big thing. And recently I've been thinking like, Baby, What if this ain't got to be the end all be all? What if you get to play like a scientist? And this gets to be an experiment, right? I get to have fun with this. And it made me go back to middle school, right? Just thinking about when we first learned about the scientific method, y'all know, ask a question, research, come up with your hypothesis, you know that you're gonna experiment, do your data analysis and come up with a conclusion, right? And it was just like, huh, when we were doing that, in middle school or high school, it was like an experiment worked. And that was a celebration. If it didn't, you just kept it going. You just kept doing reiterations of it and trying again and talking to your teachers and classmates. We were fine with that process. But when it comes to our dreams and our goals, we like this don't happen now. This is it. But what if you allow yourself to put on a white jacket? Get your Bill Nye the Science Guy only poppin and let it be an experiment? Right? Okay, cool. That just opens up some freedom, right? I

Jessica Lauren

11:16

used to do that when I was dating, you know, you hate to admit it, but it'd be like, Okay, I like this guy. He cute. You know, I'm saying we get along well via text or whatever. We're gonna go on a date this Friday. Like, I'm a playCool. I'm look cute. I gotta keep it easy. But in the back of my head, I be like, Oh, my God, please let this be. I'm tired. And I get it. Because I tired and if you're tired you're tired! But it was so much pressure there for it to be my one true love. Lord, let this be my husband, right? Child was 20, 23, 24. Baby, I ain't find my partner until I turn what 35 36 It took some time to get there. Right. And so I'm going on these days. And I play it cool. But deep down inside, I want things to be fireworks and instantaneous and all of this jazz. And you know, we kind of keep talking. And he goes on second, third, fourth date. And I'm kind of realizing like, I'm even really like him. I'm kind of getting red flags. But I want this to work. Because this is my one last hope. Right? And it's just like, maybe you won't even like yo like this that and why are you doing this to yourself? It's because we're married to this idea that we only got one shot and Eminem, Eminem voice, right? You only got one shot, do not miss your chance to go.

Jessica Lauren

12:33

Baby life is a shot every day that you are breathing and living in hoping and dreaming is a new opportunity to try again, there is no one final shot, you get chance and chance and chance again, every time you're alive. Right? I listen, Google Maps, they got to cut me a check. Because I always use this analogy, right? When you get in your car. And you got on Google Maps, right? And it says, you know turn in 500 feet, right make right but you like I think this 500 ft and you make a right to prematurely. Google Maps is not gonna shut down and like see, I told you y'all never listen that said like, I ain't even gonna get you know, more directions. You might as well go like, just go back home. It's like, Oh, snap you. Jess, you made a wrong time. That's okay, I'm gonna recalibrate. You might take a couple more seconds, might you might have to get on the freeway and pay a toll or do whatever. But you can't get back on the right track. Right?

Jessica Lauren

13:27

Have some courage to experiment? It doesn't have to be the end all be all right? So if you have this new idea, in your business, or this new way of living you want to try out in your life or just anything that's new, a big idea. An aha moment right? Give yourself the grace to play around with it and not put so much pressure on it. To have to be right to have to be the final, the only, you know, I'm saying give it room to breathe and grow. Right? If you go back and listen to episode one. It's terrible. Right? I'm talking for three minutes. You know, the music loud is scratchy. It took me this long up until February 2022. to finesse the show. Right. I can do summer 2017 I know what I was doing. I could have quit them because I was just like you it sounds gross. But I was just like, No, I'm experimenting. I'm being curious. I'm having fun. I'm being creative. And each week, things got better. I found my groove. I'm still learning things. I still feel like I'm not a master. And um, I only got this far because I'm just like, hey, we're playing around, right?

Jessica Lauren

14:40

So let's say you're in your business and you're like, oh my goodness, I think you know, I'm in a space where I want to open an online store. Let's walk that dream through the scientific method just like back in the day. So first things first, you want to ask a question, Who could this store serve? Right? That's the first thing you have to do, who are who are my customers? How is this coaching program? Who is this for? What is this new you know, service or podcast or course that I'm launching? How is that going to help? Right? Figured out? How just ask a simple question, you know, we make it seem so hard, like, what is your ideal client avatar and chat? Just ask what who can I serve? Why do I want to do it? What's the purpose? What's the reason? Okay, step two, you're going to do some research. Just figure it out. Okay. Ask your Instagram followers. Hey, I would like to see mugs and T shirts to go along with my YouTube channel. Hey, everybody, I get a lot of DMS about you know, fashion. Would you guys like a quick webinar? Hey, everybody, you know, like, just do some research. If you have an inkling. Oh, my goodness, I want to start investing, go research it. Oh, my goodness, I want to open up a brick and mortar, go figure it out. I'm having this fantasy of opening up my coffee shop just like it has been beat me down. What if I'm annoyed just going on YouTube? Just watching the Danah life of a cafe owner? You know, just figuring those things out? Am I trying to do it tomorrow? No, but I'm just researching. So go ahead and conduct some background research on your people. Right? You got your Bill Nye hat on you goggles, it just being a scientist right now you're playing a role. After that come up with a hypothesis, right? That could be your course I think this class could really help women. You know, learn how to sew, I think this class could help you know, people in debt, get out of debt. I think this webinar that I want to do, can help people learn how to become a full time blogger, I think me you know, taking pictures and being a photographer can help boost someone's self esteem, right? Whatever your hypothesis is, start doing it, start building it out, right? Then after that comes the experimentation, right? Start launching things soft launching things, testing base, Hey, I just want to you know, this is just a bait around my first iteration. Actually my second iteration of the Goal Getter sessions, I said it Hey, guys, this is a beta round. I don't know what I'm doing. I just want to try it out. If you're down, sign up, and people were like, okay, cool. You're not with me, say, Hey, I'm just filling this out, right? And then after that you do your data and an analysis, right? This is when you're starting to get feedback. Oh, wow, I released a podcast episode. And, you know, I got 100 downloads, and I got five, race and reviews on Apple podcasts. And they were all positive. That's some data that maybe it's time to keep going. Oh, my goodness, I'm looking at my Google Analytics. And it looks like over 1000 people visited this blog this weekend. Oh my goodness, maybe this is a sign that I should keep writing. You know, when I got on Instagram Live and I was just sharing my experience about how to get out of debt. I got 17 DMS it doesn't have to be huge data analysis. Just look at the feedback, right. Oh, I hit publish on that a nobody read it. Okay, what does that data telling me? Maybe I need to work more on my marketing, right? It doesn't have to be Oh my God, nobody listen. Oh my god. Nobody was Oh my God, nobody downloaded why I'm a terrible person. I'm a terrible business person. I'm not I don't have a creative bone in my body. Nobody bought anything, right? It doesn't turn into that because this store this course this launch that newsletter in that painting is not the end all be all like it used to be right. I have to sell this in order to feel like a bonafide boss. Now you're like, I mean, coolness I'm gonna show up to this thing. I'm a show off my pants, I'm gonna talk about my courses, I'm gonna tell them about my services, if they sign up, awesome, but I'm coming at it from the angle that this is just an experiment I am having fun, make the stakes a little bit lower, so that you can keep going when the stakes are too high. Or I gotta have a million dollar launch or I need to have 100,000 followers or I have to you know this, this video has to get 50 subscribers after my Patreon needs to have you know, my goal is 500 Bebi the stakes might be a little too high and that can be a long term goal, you know over the course of two years. I want to have 200,000 downloads we better in this age that we live in two years girl I'm trying to get this in two months. What if you gave yourself enough space the appropriate amount of space to open a cafe to leave your job?

Jessica Lauren

19:36

Okay, all of us some of us want to leave these jobs. I mean, it's only my job and you could but maybe I want to feel better if you left after a year you don't saved up and put some money in some stocks and got some you know, some residuals back if you don't like give it space to expand and and for you to tweak things right. It is all information the failures Every failure that I've had, I've had to suffer it publicly. In fact, I did a whole episode about failure. I'll be sure to link it in the show notes. Just go to the Sunday jumpstart.com and click on today's episode, episode number 137. Where you can listen to that one where I tell all my business, I fail publicly, and it hurt. And I cried to my mama and wrote in my journal and ask God God, is this Is this legit? Sign up? It is no, no human is like, Hey, guy, guy. Hold on, hold on. I was over there passing out paying. Can I get fun? How? Oh, god, wait, hold on, hold on. I see you over there passing out embarrassment. Can I have some, none of us will sign up for that, right. But it's always teaching me something as a failure is always teaching you some of the successes too, right? But we can't be so afraid of failure that we don't do anything. When you don't get a download, maybe it's telling you hey, showing your message. When you don't get you know, the clients. Maybe it's like, hey, the course is too long. Maybe make it two weeks instead of the toil. You know what I'm saying? When you when you don't get the customers? Maybe you know, you didn't do the right. SEO and it's not popping up on websites. Okay, cool. On Google, rather, let me go take a class about SEO search engine optimization at a podcast episode about that. Tomorrow, I'll be sure to link that in the show notes. Failure is feedback. And you're allowed to be hurt, embarrassed, ashamed by it. But after that, maybe get back up and get back into experimentation mode. And then from that, you can tweak things and pivot, and then decide whether you want to let go all entirely is nothing wrong with that, right? But get, let it breathe, let it grow. Try. Don't just give up just because it ain't working right now. Or it didn't, you know, blew up the way you thought it was give time time, right? So think about it that way. It is all just an experiment. It gets to be fun. You get to mess up, you get to be bad, allow yourself to be bad. I know. It hurts and it sucks. And it's embarrassing. Who wants to sign up to be bad. But when you allow yourself to be bad to be embarrassed, sometimes you're actually doing yourself a service because you're allowing yourself the opportunity to grow. When I look back at the first morning jumpstart episode that was live and this on camera, and I'm you know producing the show as all these bells and whistles. And I'm just like, Oh, check out watch the first episode The first day I was like, Okay, I know what to do now. And the next, you know, day it was 100% better, right? It's just information is not nothing. Personal. You know, failure isn't out to attack you is actually just trying to sharpen you up, toughen you up,

Jessica Lauren

22:49

make you think about it a little bit more, make you go back to your purpose and ask, Am I aligned today? Makes you go back to your research and figure out like, hey, maybe that was the wrong industry or the wrong Nisha, maybe my messaging was a little bit off. How can I fix that? It makes you go back to your hypothesis and think, like, well, am I serving the right people? Maybe I didn't get the right products. Right? Then you get to experiment again, like you try it again. Right? And here's the thing about all of this is that people are so caught up in their own little world that a lot of times nobody is watching as close as we think they are, right? You're thinking like, oh my god, everybody in the world is gonna know I failed or I messed up or I pivoted or I changed my name again. Some people may notice that, but majority not maybe because everybody is so caught up in their own cosmic universe that they don't even got time for that. And also the people that do notice are often inspired. I have a good girlfriend Her name is Nisha. She now changed her business life fat hands and each time is half times better. And every time I'm just so impressed that she won't care what we think that she's just like, I was speaking out I'm on to the next thing right. She was just just ringing that tau out and just trying to refine it and reshape the clay until it is finally what she wants and what she's envisioned. You're allowed to do that. And in the people that are tracking your losses and failures and blowing it up in your face, it might be time to cut them jokers off like if they just like I used to do his own lunch lbs and say fail them not to people. But the rest of us were actually rooting for you and we don't care we just like grow whatever we support you in whatever you do. Just do something and and have fun with it. It gets to be easy. You get to experiment get your Bill Nye the Science Guy on. This does not have to be it it right. They don't have to be the one this doesn't have to be yo yo your only business right is so many business owners owner's si oh yeah, this is my fifth business because the first two are messed up the third I sold you know, like, life is so vast and robust and beautiful and we are filled with so many beauties and complex complexities is that that is okay to just shake things up and do what the hell you want to do whatever makes you feel good and whole. Just be creative and have fun and and take the courage that you need to experiment. Right. So yeah, that is it for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. I mentioned a lot in today's episode, and if you did not get a chance to jot it down, do not worry, we got your back, just go to the Sunday jumpstart.com and click on episode number 137. Everything that I mentioned will be right there in the show notes if you'd like today's episode, and want to hear this type of stuff every single day Monday through Friday, in the morning. Join us over on Patreon for the morning jumpstart it is our live show. Our community is a lot of workshops and virtual co working sessions that goes on over on Patreon and to find that just go to our website this Linda jumpstart.com and click on Patreon and you can join us over there it is exclusive to Patreon there is a subscription small fee. But once you enter you in and everyone and we start the day off together by setting some intentions and just doing the same work that we're doing over here digital excuses making it happen together right? As always, I love you guys I'm rooting for you. If you want to hang out with me outside just the podcast. Be sure to follow along over on Instagram. The handle is at the Sunday Jumpstart. If you want to contact me the email is high at the Sunday jumpstart.com. I will be back here this Wednesday with a quick tip. And again over daily on the morning jumpstart podcast. Alright you guys you enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll see you here Wednesday, and have an incredible week. All right bye

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