#96: You Probably Don't Need Another Idea
Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Jeweler's View. I'm Courtney Gray. I've spent nearly 30 years in this industry running schools, doing custom work, coaching, consulting, and working with makers at all stages. Over time, I've started to see the patterns, the things that actually move a creative career forward and the things that can quietly hold it back.
I built this podcast to cut through the noise. Less time in your head or down the research rabbit hole and more time building something real. Let's get into it
I have notebooks full of ideas, notes in my phone, screenshots voice memos, things I've emailed to myself because apparently I don't trust any of the other places that I've already saved them. And every so often, I stumble across something from three years ago and I think, "Now, that's actually a really good idea," one I'd completely forgotten that I had.
[00:01:00] So I don't think I have an idea problem, by any means. And if you're a creative person, I'm guessing you probably don't either. I think we have a deciding problem, discernment. Welcome back to The Jeweler's View. I'm Courtney Gray. Tomorrow, my friend, is evolving creatively.
I'll be spending the day with Holly Gage, Francesca Watson, Teresa Kiplinger, and hopefully a lot of you talking about creativity, vulnerability, resilience, and what it takes to keep evolving through different seasons of a creative life
Which means I'm potentially about to hand you a bunch more things to think about. So before I do that, I wanna talk about what we do with the ideas that we already have, because I'm increasingly convinced that most creative people do not need more ideas. We need to get better at deciding which ones actually deserve a yes, or
get our attention, like we talked about last week.
I'm living with this [00:02:00] myself right now. There is a lot I could build. Things for this podcast, for Transform, collaborations, teaching, speaking, jewelry, music, events like Evolving Creatively, and then there's everything that I want to do that has nothing to do with any of that work at all, including getting on my motorcycle and disappearing down a back road just for a couple hours.
Here's the thing that makes it hard: most of these aren't bad ideas. If they were, this would be easy. Hand me three terrible ideas and one good one, and I'll pick the good one every time. The hard decisions are between good things, things I'd enjoy, things I might be good at, things that might even make money where I still have to say, "Not right now." I've jokingly been told these are called Cadillac problems. They're good problems. They still require decisions. I could build a lot of [00:03:00] things. That doesn't mean I should build all of them, right?
Just because we can doesn't mean that we should. A good idea and a good idea for right now are not the same thing. I think creative people turn possibility into obligation embarrassingly fast. Someone's teaching and suddenly I should teach. Someone starts wholesale and suddenly maybe I should do wholesale.
A friend takes an enameling class and you're pricing kilns by dinnertime. Somebody mentions video is working for them, and now I really need to start making videos. You see someone succeeding at something completely different from your work, or maybe even it's similar, and it becomes the thing that you're now behind on.
Notice that shift. Something that interested you 15 minutes ago just became an obligation, a have to, a should. We always say, "Don't should all over us," because I should do [00:04:00] it and I could do it are very different sentences. Could leaves room for choice. We need more of that.
So when something interesting shows up, I've started running it through a few questions before I let it turn into a yes or a should. Question one, does this fit the season I'm actually in now? I know I talk a lot about the seasons that a business moves through and that we move through.
The same is true of a life. Maybe you're caring for someone right now. Maybe your kids just left and you suddenly have room that you haven't had in 20 years. Maybe you're learning jewelry at age 55 or 65 and still figuring out what you even like making.
Maybe you've done this for 30 years, and you're realizing you don't want to keep working the way that you always have. Maybe you lost that fire, that initial spark. [00:05:00] Those situations call for different decisions An opportunity can be genuinely wonderful and still show up at the wrong time.
That doesn't make the idea wrong or bad. It might just belong to a different season than the one that you're in right now. Question two: What actually comes attached to this yes? Oh, my gosh, my friend, this is one I have to constantly, I'm talking daily, review on every decision I make. What actually comes attached to this yes?
We tend to only evaluate the exciting part of an idea. I'd love to teach a class at this place. Great. But teaching a class is not three hours in a room sharing something that you love. It's designing the class, pricing it, promoting it, correspondence, ordering supplies, answering emails, and dealing with the one person who definitely did not read the supply [00:06:00] list.. A whole new collection or technique sounds exciting, and it can be. But attached to it is sourcing, prototyping, making, pricing, photography, descriptions, getting it all on your website, right?
And then actually telling people and explaining how it exists and where to find it. Starting a YouTube channel sounds fun Until you learn that YouTube would like you to keep making YouTube videos indefinitely. None of that means don't do it. It means, do you want the reality that comes attached to this, or are you really only into the exciting part?
That question alone has saved me from a few things, especially in the last couple years. Question three: If I say yes to this, what gets less of me? My friend says this well. She says to get something, you have to give something up. So that could be time, [00:07:00] it could be money, it could be whatever, you have to let go of something. So the question three: If I say yes to this, what gets less of me, or what am I letting go of?
We talked last week about attention being limited. Every yes is going to spend some of it, time, energy, focus, something. That doesn't mean every new thing requires some dramatic sacrifice, but something has gotta give. Something gets less. Maybe it's bench time, maybe it's another priority in the business, maybe it's your family, an unscheduled afternoon, or just recovery time that you need.
That counts, too, right? The rest is part of the work, and, it gets attention. Our capacity changes across our lives, and our strategy should be allowed to change with it. I think we sometimes build our businesses around what we were capable of five or 10 years ago instead of the life or [00:08:00] the capacity that we actually have now.
That's exactly where a good opportunity can turn into a burden, a time vampire, right? Something that just sucks your energy. There's a third bucket I think creative people need to get more comfortable using. , We tend to think in black or white, or yes or no. I wanna add not yet or not now.
Not now is not the same as a no. This one gets harder as we get older. There's that voice that says, "I don't have forever, so if I wanna do this, shouldn't I do it now?" And that brings a whole different type of urgency.
I feel that, too. It's part of why I finally bought this motorcycle I keep talking about, Silver Linings, after wanting one since I was 12 or 13 years old. More than 30 years of waiting was enough. But that doesn't mean everything has to happen at once. There's a real difference between deciding I'm not going to keep postponing what matters to [00:09:00] me and deciding everything that matters has to happen right now.
Those aren't the same thing. Not now can still be a genuinely useful answer.
It's perfectly valid. You don't have to kill the idea or release it into the universe. Just put it somewhere, right? The back burner. Keep the sketch, save the note, start an ideas for later file on Google or wherever you work. Give it somewhere to live that isn't the front of your brain. Now, some ideas get better after they sit for a while.
Some ideas that felt brilliant at 11:47 on Tuesday night look a lot less urgent by Friday morning. Both outcomes are useful. And you don't have to execute an idea to have honored it. Sometimes capturing it is enough.
This is part of what I want you bringing into evolving creatively tomorrow. Don't come trying to collect [00:10:00] 27 new things to do. Come curious. Listen. Just be observant. Maybe something Holly says catches you, or Francesca, or Teresa, or maybe it's a question from someone in the chat that you hadn't considered yet.
Write it down. But you don't owe every interesting thought an assignment. Just notice what stays with you after the conversation ends. That's what I'm gonna try to do, too. And if you're hearing this after the live gathering has already happened, the same thing applies to your next class, your next conference, your next podcast.
You don't need a whole new life plan walking out the door. Sometimes one idea is plenty. A surprising amount of what happens inside Transform is exactly this kind of work. Most people who join already have plenty of ideas, and I always tell everybody who joins, "If you leave here with one [00:11:00] shift, that's a lot."
Because one shift creates that domino effect, right? Everything else starts to fall into place. Sometimes it's just one little pivot the work is deciding what matters now. What actually supports the version of success that you're building? What needs attention?
What can wait? Strategy is not just choosing what you're going to do, it's also choosing what you're not going to do right now. Now, while I'm on it, October enrollment for Transform is open. I won't turn this into a pitch. You hear me mention it enough already. But if this kind of decision-making is something that you want support with, you can find those details on my website.
Now, I also do one-on-one coaching, so if you're not into the group environment or you have specific things you wanna work on, look at my coaching offer there as well.
Along with stories from my past Transformers, and coaching clients.
Go and listen. You're gonna find some [00:12:00] common ground about what actually shifted for them, what changed
Now, here's your bench note of the week. Find one idea that you've been carrying around for a while, something that you wanna make, learn, or change in your business. Maybe an opportunity that you've been sitting with or worried about stepping into.
Ask yourself, "Is this a good idea?" Then ask the harder question, "Is this a good idea for right now?" Don't assume that the answers have to match, and if it turns out to be a yes, I still love this, but not now, give it somewhere safe to live, somewhere in the back burner. Not now does not mean never.
Everything has to happen in its time. And you don't have to keep carrying it around in your head. If you're joining Evolving Creatively tomorrow, come curious. Bring a notebook. But don't feel obligated to fill every page. Listen for what catches. [00:13:00] And if you grab a VIP spot, you'll get the replay, so no need to, retain it all.
Notice what stays. Give yourself a little more time deciding what any of it needs to become. I'll see you there. Until next time, I'm Courtney Gray, and this has been The Jeweler's View. Onward and upward.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you're here. This path takes a lot, especially when you're building something of your own. If you wanna go deeper, I share key takeaways and additional teaching through my email list at courtneygrayarts.com. Keep going. This part matters. I'll see you next [00:14:00] week
