EP9: From Creative Spark to Profitable Product with Marcy Nelson-Garrison (Part One)

What if creativity isn't something you either have or don't have but a skill you can nurture, stimulate, and put to work in your business?

In this episode, Jennifer Britton welcomes Marcy Nelson-Garrison, product mentor, writer, artist, and founder of the Coaching Toys store, for a conversation about creativity and turning creative ideas into products that serve clients and generate revenue.

Jennifer and Marcy also explore what happens when creativity meets resistance. Marcy explains why creative resistance is a normal part of the process not necessarily a sign that you've chosen the wrong idea or should give up.

The conversation then moves from creative spark to product creation. Marcy encourages solopreneurs to trust their brilliance, listen closely to what clients actually need, and think about product development as a journey.

Whether you're trying to reconnect with your creativity, develop a new product, or find a more sustainable way to bring your ideas into the world, this conversation offers plenty of practical inspiration to get you creating.

In This Episode

• Why creativity requires openness, vulnerability, deep listening, and experimentation
• The difference between creative resistance and the inner critic
• Why creative resistance doesn't necessarily mean you're on the wrong path
• How finding the right pace can help sustain creative momentum
• Why solopreneurs benefit from creative partners, groups, and outside perspectives
• Moving from a creative spark to a product idea
• Trusting the brilliance and experience you already have
• Designing products around real client needs rather than creating products just to have something to sell

***Guest Links & Resources***

Marcy Nelson-Garrison is a product mentor, writer, visual artist, and founder of Coaching Toys. She helps coaches, consultants, and other heart-centered professionals turn their ideas, expertise, and creativity into products and programs that make a difference and make money.

Marcy's Image Prompts:
https://imageprompts.com/

Coaching Toys Online Store:
https://www.coachingtoysstore.com/

Marcy's Website Pink Paradigm
https://pinkparadigm.com/

The Product Idea Playbook:
Marcy's free Product Idea Playbook offers creative exercises and image prompts to help you explore and develop your next product idea. Link Coming Soon!

Card Deck Master Class:
Marcy also offers resources and mentoring for coaches and consultants interested in turning their ideas into card decks and other products. Click to Learn More.

***Host Links & Resources***

Quick Link to Substack

FlowFlexScale Substack: https://flowflexscale.substack.com/

***

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferjbritton/

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TikTok: https:///www.tiktok.com/@groupcoach

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:08

This is the FlowFlex Skill Podcast, your field guide to the Solopreneur Operating System with author and coach Jennifer Britton. Daily steps plus consistent action equals momentum. That's Jennifer's mantra, and it starts right here, right now, with you. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Hi, and welcome. I'm Jennifer Britton. I am the author and also podcaster behind FlowFlex Scale. And today I'm really excited to sit down with Marcy Nelson Garrison. I'm going to just give you a quick intro. Marcy's here to talk today about creativity and products, such an important topic. But here's a little bit about Marcy. She's a product mentor, writer, artist, and founder of the Coaching Toys online store, and most importantly, an advocate for creativity in service of transformation. As a product mentor, Marcy helps clients claim their brilliance and create powerful products and programs that reflect who they are, make a difference, and most importantly, make money. And I have to say, Marcy has been such an amazing mentor to me. And also I have known her for many, many years. In fact, Marcy and I, I think probably first met physically at some of the ICF Midwest conferences where we would always have this amazing coaching toys booth. And I can't tell you how many times I have referred your products that you showcase at the store at coachingtoys.com. Thank you, Marcy, for joining us today. And we're going to talk today. We're going to be have have you for two episodes. So today we're going to talk creativity, which actually is one of the flow flex scale activators, as I call them. And really, you know, we can be in flow, but we need to be activated by something, catalyzed by something. And to me, that's creativity, which may be different for each person. So talk to us a little bit about creativity and like what you think is important for us to know as solopreneurs.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Creativity is something that people get a little scared of because they think they relate it to art or they relate it to something like that. And it's really about putting things together in new ways.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Ooh, I like that. Putting things together in new ways. I mean, Reese's pieces, you know, it's peanut butter and chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I'm sure that's a really old metaphor, but it is. And creativity requires you to be open. It requires a little bit of vulnerability. It requires deep listening. It requires a willingness to experiment and fail. And in my mind, creativity really requires stimulus. Stimulus and permission are the two ingredients.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

So say a little bit, yeah, stimulus. What do you when you think stimulus? What could stimulate creativity?

SPEAKER_02 3:12

I think anything that gets you out of your head can stimulate creativity because it's not a thinking your way towards a new idea. You know, I love that. People often think that if they just think harder, they'll come up with a new idea. And sometimes you just need to bring something in. I use a lot of right brain tools and methods in my work. I know you've experienced the image prompts and other things I've done. And what that does is it bypasses our left brain sensor, which is incredible. I mean, we have an incredible left brain that likes to organize and analyze and strategize. But to create, we need to park it over here for a little while and really let our intuition and our right brain respond to something. And images, because they bypass that inner critic, images take us to a different place of association, yeah, where we can create metaphor, where our minds go to different places in response to an image. And then when you explore that and then bring it back to your original problem, you've got a whole new answer. You've got a whole new way of looking at something. So it's incredibly important. We need both. We need the left brain and we need the right brain. But creativity is what's going to help you stand out.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And for those who have been with us, you know, and and you conversation sparker cards have been out now for a decade, but Marcy's visual prompts are a little different, which I would really encourage. Is there a place that people can find your visual prompts? Yes, you can go to imageprompts.com. Imageprompts.com. I really want to encourage you to check that out because recently I took the your image prompts to our annual writing event and used them as part of a morning creative sparker. So people had been writing for about 48 hours at this point. Creatively, their juices were tapped. And so I had laminated some of the different ones and everyone had a sheet because we were in person. And it was amazing to just see the new energy that got emerged with that exercise. So definitely like check it out because I think in today's world, and I say this as a creative, probably if people had met me 20 years ago, I wouldn't have thought myself as a creative, but now I do as a writer. But I am a creative, but like as an experiential educator, right? Like we need sparks from so many different spaces. Right. And what you really hold the space for in the world, Marcy, is finding that spark and activating it, right? You take people through the process of finding where the spark is going to take them. And that's the that's the magic then of got this idea, have a metaphor. Now, how do I connect it to a product? So take us to a little bit about the product because that's a whole revenue stream for us.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

And I want to say something about something more about creativity before we go to products, because when you're starting to apply your creativity and starting to create products, there's some ways that you can nurture your creative process. And I call that flow, stay, love, and pace. Flow is when you get in the zone, you've got to make time to get in the zone. Whether you're creating a product or a program or a business or a marketing plan, these work. The second thing is stay, because inevitably, when you're creating, someone is gonna come along and try to naysay your idea or your own inner critic is gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Okay, so say a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

So creative resistance versus inhabitants. Whenever you're moving towards the project, they're gonna you're gonna have bumps, you're gonna have places where it's you kind of have a vision of what you want it to be, but it's not there yet. I think of it with in my painting a lot too, because you just you just hit a place and you I don't know what to do with it, and it's uncomfortable, it's creative angst. So then you go work on another project for a while and then you come back and go, oh, okay, I can move again. But it but resistance is normal. That's a normal part of it. It does not mean you're on the wrong path, it does not mean you should quit. Yes, it just means you've hit that place of creative resistance and you're gonna take the next step and get beyond it.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

I love it. And if I may, for personal purpose, because I'm working on a new book and I really feel like this last week I've been in a in the creative, if I reframe it actually, is this writer's block? It's creative resistance. My original idea is morphing, yet the next idea isn't quite there. So, what do we do in moments like that? What are opportunities to sort of shift, reframe?

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Well, first of all, recognize if it's resistance and stay. The other thing is love. Flow, stay, love, and pace. So love, yes, love is um really tapping into what you love about the project. What because we start thinking, oh, it's just another freaking thing to do on my list, right? Yes, and we forget that love and motivation that started us down the path, and so it's like, what do I love about this today? And bringing yourself back to that place that originally motivated you to move in that direction and create something, and then pace always matters. I know your pacing is usually barrel through for days, eat up, yeah, and then space and then barrel through and then space, but yeah, it's it's finding the pace that works for you that honors the project and honors you, but but if there's too much time in between working on something, you lose the thread, yeah, and then you have to spend so much time going, where was I?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

What was I thinking about? What was the energy? Like, and again to creativity, right? Creativity is not a static something, there's energy in a creative space, and every project might have a different creative energy, yeah. So, yeah, finding that and being able to hold on to it. I think that's why I love like these writing marathons, because I can just immerse for 72 hours into whether it's in a character's world or a nonfiction project, right? And it's it's there is it's its own rhythm. So walk us through flow. Flow and pace come together and do love and stay in there too. That's love, yeah. Love and like, yeah, truly, truly. You've helped me really reframe this project that I've been working on in the last few weeks. Thank you, Marcy.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

So, what else? What else is important for solopreneurs? Again, solopreneurs are working solo. What have you noticed that solopreneurs need in order to unlock, untap, get into their creativity?

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Prompts can help. Yes, different kinds of prompts, journal prompts, image prompts. Yeah. Brains AI can help some, but AI is not the best brainstorming partner. It's lore, it will generate a lot of ideas, but it's not like having a real life person that you can bounce ideas off. So I I think if you're going down that creative path to actually find a brainstorming partner, yeah, or a brainstorming group, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Like what you host is beautiful, right? Like people, different perspectives, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah, like what do you think about this idea? How would you consider this? And and help me think of new ways to approach this. So that helps just to not do it alone because we it can be a very lonely in that creative space, and it's juicy, it's exciting, but then sometimes you got to take your idea out to the world and play with it a little bit there, and you'll get new, you'll get new fresh info that then you can take back to your creative process, whether it's testing it with clients or brainstorming with a colleague or any of those things. You you kind of need some people, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah, definitely people are key, right? Like it's and it's that pressure test, right? Like I always like to say, it's hard to create in a vacuum, right? We need something to push up against. Yes. And at some stage it's us, but then we need to take the work out into the world and see how it lands, see how it resonates.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Amazing. So let's let's talk a little bit about products, right? What's the bridge between creativity and products?

SPEAKER_02 12:41

I think the first thing is just to recognize that you have brilliance to share. I mean, you know, people don't people go, oh someone else is the expert on that. I'm not. But it's really trusting that if you've been on this planet and if you've been working with clients, you have a wealth of knowledge and experience. You've seen what works with your clients, you've know what works for you, you've got all this information, and your clients do not want you to regurgitate someone else's stuff. I mean, they don't, they want you, and that's why they're working with you. So it's really the first deciding that you it's okay for you to create products and programs, but then it's like, what do my clients need? You know, because it's like you're not just creating a product for the sake of creating a product, you're really creating in service of your clients. It's like, what where are they? What will help them move to the next step? And if you can create that way, then you're building in a desire for the products you create, and talking to your clients about what they want is a helpful part of that whole process.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

It's a natural feeder, right? Like we want to design with our clients in mind. That's I think that's the easiest way to be successful as a coach, as a business owner. You know, it's the path that I've followed. Everything has been born from a real request or need, unfulfilled need, even is even better, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:32

The image prompts came about because I know that visual images get you out of your head. And I see my clients needing to get out of their heads in order to create every day.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

And so it was that need to serve them that is why I created the image prompts. It came out of that desire to be of service.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

And it's been so amazing because I use it for everything. I use image prompts around marketing, I use image prompts around money, I use image prompts around, of course, the creative process, but so many things through business.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

And what I would say is someone who has experienced that is every time it's different, right? And it and it gets you to something that you would have never imagined, right? You I think you said it this way, or maybe I'm paraphrasing, but like we can't think ourselves through things, right? And the same thing with complexity. We can't think ourselves through a wicked problem. We need to be creative, we need to innovate, right? And I think there's a in beyond just solopreneurship, but in today's landscape, creativity, it is one of the top five skills for 2030. You know, World Economic Forum has said it. And very few people know how to build it. So I want to spotlight that too. I really consider you one of the world's experts on creativity and unlocking creative thought, which in today's world is so important, Marcy. So yeah, I hope I want to spotlight the and I'm gonna do a little, you know, like spotlight imageprops.com. Check it out. Check it out, please. Yeah, so we have a few more minutes in this episode. You're gonna come back and we're gonna talk a little bit about flex in our next episode. But from a product standpoint, for a solopreneur, what's a good first step around products? That's a pretty broad question, but like what where's the starting point?

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Well, I I actually think of product development as um a journey. So you first you just where is your client right now? What is the immediate thing on their mind that if you could solve that one problem, they would be in love with you forever. Yes. Um, but it sometimes it's a lead magnet, sometimes it's a low-ticket thing, but it's giving them an experience right away where they can achieve some success, even some small success, and it opens them to what they need next because you you probably know that once you have a problem solved, right? It's like, oh, now I have a new one. No problem. And so it's always anticipating what that's gonna be for your clients, but I think you you don't always have to start in the middle. I think of the power of three with the low ticket and the mid-priced and the high price. You don't always have to start and go that way. You can start with what you've got material around and where you know your clients are right now, and some for some people that's the mid-range product, then it then you still want to think about the low-end product as a feeder into that. Um, because everything feeds everything else, so you and it's all a journey. So holding journey as your core directive is it's so critical.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

And meeting, I sort of heard you say meeting people where they're at right now, because today's need might be different than yesterday's need. Yeah, especially on a world change. Amazing. So, for more on products, what can people reach out to you around? You obviously you host the coaching toy store, which is an amazing virtual showroom of cool experiential products. Do you want to say a bit more about the coaching toy store?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Well, the stores actually I carry products by other coaches because I saw when I was going through training, I was having ideas and I wondered if other people were too. And I started to find them. And it's like we need a central place where we can find all these cool products. And I don't do programs, but I do do products in the store.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Um and I love, and I don't know if you still do conferences, but if if Marcy's ever at a conference, like it's really cool to find these products and buy them and go, oh, I could use this next week with my client on ABC.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

That's the joy of especially card decks. Card decks are so like in the moment and give people an experience just like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

And you're you're the queen of card. I do. I have a card deck master class that I teach every year.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Which is really it, Marcy helped me get multiple decks over the finish line, even as an experienced card deck creator, right? I had many out, but you helped me with the 90-day guide for success deck and one that I have on coaching presence, which is the superpower deck. Those were built for both physical and digital. And I've just heard the deckable is back up. Deckable is back up. I knew it was on its own. On hiatus, yeah. Yeah. Being rebuilt, but it is now alive again, which again, I think in today's world, right, we can have visual like virtual digital, we can have analog.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Good.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

There's options there. So anything else that you want to mention around creativity and products as we go to wrap up today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Um listen to intuition. Trust trust you, there are seeds of really wondrous things within you. And that your clients need. They need your way of packaging things, they need your way of sharing your wisdom, and they're waiting for you. So create.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Create. And now, Marcy, I know you've left us with an amazing free gift. So it's called the product idea playbook. Share a little bit more about how that connects to what we've talked about today.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Well, it really walks you through some very fun, creative processes to get your ideas going, to find something to create. So there are image prompts in there, and you know, just a lot of ways to come at creating a product. It's a very fun workbook type of thing. So it's not your typical dry read. This is going to be fun and playful.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Which is so important. And again, why do we want products? Because in today's world, you said it with your power of three, right? Someone might not have even the budget to do one-on-one work, but they might be able to buy an image product, which as a business person, yeah, products give you credibility, they give you opportunities to work with JV partners, they give you something new, like you say, to give your clients when they can't afford the big thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

And they bring in money.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

So multiple streams, right? I always go back to Andrea J. Lee's really wonderful writing of multiple streams of coaching income. Her pink spoon. Pink spoon? I forgot that. And you're the pink paradigm. So we'll come back. I'm gonna if we're Marcy and I are coming back in our next episode. We're gonna sit down, we're gonna talk a little bit about flex. But thank you, Marcy, for talking today about creativity and products and for being one of my creativity mentors.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

It's really made a difference in this business and with my love what you're doing with Flow Flex scale. So well, thank you. Let there need you.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

So, listeners, please comment, share, and you know, share this with someone who you think could benefit, whether it was the piece around creativity, products, image prompts, metaphors. We've covered a lot. And I hope that you'll come back for our next episode. Marcy and I are gonna sit down and we're gonna talk about flex and why that's so important right now. All right, we'll see you soon. Have a great week, everyone. Take care.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Bye.