Bringing Your Ideas to Life with Chrystal Evans Hurst

Hey there. My name is Chrystal Evans Hurst, and you are watching me where I do something new and different with my hair on every week. I'm glad you're here. If you are here for the first time, welcome. Be sure and let me know in the comments that you have arrived. I'm here because I want to talk to you about how you can manage your innovation in life, your ideation in life, all those good ideas. Let's get into it. Hey there. I'm here because every Monday morning I'm going live with my inner circle, sharing all the things. And I'm happy to share a part of that conversation with you. One of the questions that I got this morning was, how do I manage innovation? And you know what? I have a lot to say about that. And so I thought, and this is a little bit of an extemporaneous talk because I did not plan on this this morning. I thought I would share what has actually become my process for developing and managing the innovation that I have. But I want you to also know that if you're here and you need more, you can always check out the Inner Circle membership. Thesistercircle.com/innercircle, because I'd be happy to have you connect for more of me, for more of my friends, and more of the foolery. I have a Moleskine notebook right here. I have walked around with a Moleskine notebook for years. In this Moleskine notebook, I write down all the things. This is gonna look like a little bit of beautiful brain, but this is me and my brain on steroids. I try to write everything down. I do use Apple Notes as well. I try to capture the things that appear in my head. I have Aqua Notes in the shower. It's waterproof paper with a waterproof pencil because my best ideas come to me in the shower. I am always thinking of things to create, things to do, things to build, things to share. It just comes to me. But it is a problem if every single idea that comes to me or every single new thing I want to try starts in motion the day that I receive the idea. Why? Because then I would always be starting and never finishing. I would always be learning and never actually teaching. I would always be trying and never actually creating a process that's successful that I can share with other people. I would always be starting over. Because innovation requires that starting from the beginning, it's called a beginner's mindset that you come to something new with the willingness to learn, with the willingness to ingest the things you didn't know. Even if you know a lot to say, if I were starting here, what could I learn? A beginner's mindset always keeps you in the place where you can learn new things. But if you never switch out of I'm beginning to actually know a few things, or I have some skills or I've developed, then you would constantly constantly be excited. You'd be a Jill of all trades and a master of none. You'd be highly distracted, maybe a little bit ADD, and always starting and regularly stopping, never finishing. So ideation is the first part of living with innovation. But you have to do something with all of those ideas so that you put them into a structure where they're actually actionable, where they can turn into other things. And the process that I use, which I— so many things that I do in my life, I have to be honest and tell you, I don't even think that there are process until someone asks me, and then I'm like, oh yeah, this is how I do it. And if I basically do it the same way all the time, then guess what that is? It's a system. The reason why I even have a 90-day planner is because I think of my life in like 90-day sprints. The reason why there's a framework for operating is because I created a framework in a Moleskine notebook, and someone then said to me, Chrystal Hurst, how do you get all the things done? And I said, well, I can't show them my brain on paper, that beautiful mind. I have to put it in a format where they can digest it. And this was born. So I want to tell you a little bit about the process. I'm going to give you 3 words. Are you ready? Inhale. Exhale. Rhythm. Inhale. Exhale. Rhythm. Rhythm. Inhale. Exhale. Rhythm. While I am putting my thoughts on paper, I consider this to be inhaling because I actually am only able to put things on paper that I'm receiving. My brain is attaching to an idea that I've seen in the world, or I watch what someone else does, or I'm watching TV or I'm on social media and I get a great idea, or We live in a world where we are in an environment where we get to see with our senses, with our eyes, hear with our ears, touch with our fingers, experience in community. We are constantly receiving, and that receiving connects with something in you which allows you to inhale and generate ideas. Just like when you inhale, take in food, it generates energy. The mitochondria in your cells are fast at work. I'm in the middle of biology with a homeschooled 14-year-old. Can't Can you tell? The mitochondria in your cells, their job is to convert what you've ingested into energy that your cell can use. But you have to take the food in first so that the mitochondria can do the work. So, when you take in, when I read books, when I listen to sermons, when I watch motivational videos, when I watch how-to videos on YouTube, I'm constantly ingesting. Those things come into my body. And the way my mind is designed to work, I take them and my mind resonates with some things, not with others, and they become ideas. I am constantly trying to manage my ideas. I constantly actually have to put a muzzle on it because if I were to share every idea that I have with my team, with my family, with my husband, with my children, they would be sick of me. You want to know how I know that? Because they told me they were sick of me. And my family would see me coming and my dad would be like, oh, Chrystal Hurst, what is it now? My husband is like, I can't, I can't take no more. My children, their eyes look glazed over. My team looks at me in a meeting when I start ideating and they're just looking at me with fear in their eyes like, oh God, is she going to make us do this this week? That's how I know it's too much. I think anyone can innovate. I don't think you have to be team too much to innovate. And everyone, whatever ideas you get, you need to incubate them. You need to have somewhere to put them. I'll never forget when a business coach said to me, some of your ideas are just for you. Every idea is not to be shared at all, and every idea is not to be shared right now. What you should do is make sure you capture them. Now, I capture with my Moleskine notebook because I believe that writing it down sears things in your brain. But I also capture with my Apple Notes. I read somewhere that I should have a note called fleeting notes, like fleeting thoughts. And I put things there until I can put them where they go, till they can be filed away. If it's an idea that's actionable, I will put it in my project management software, or maybe I will put it in my notebook if it's to do today, or maybe I put it in my planner if it's to do this month or in the next 90 days. Sometimes I capture ideas in Evernote, but I am constantly inhaling. But here's the thing, then you have to exhale. You have to make decisions about what you are actually going to say, what I am actually going to share, what I am actually going to put into this 90-day framework or into this year or into this week. I have to exhale by making decisions and prioritizing of all the things I thought of that I need to do. And this is not about business. This is about what I want to cook for dinner this week. This is about, oh my gosh, I forgot I need to take that to the cleaners. This is about, oh, I want to call this friend and take her to coffee. It's everything. Exhaling says, I'm going to decide what I put out there in the world. I'm going to decide, does this innovative idea fit in my 5-year plan or does it fit in this week? I'm going to exhale and decide, does this new way of doing something go into my next 90-day plan or do I take action on it today? You have to make that decision in exhaling. It's almost the equivalent of if I inhale, you can do that anywhere and any, any time. But when you exhale, you need to think about watch your breath. You understand what I'm saying? Like, you need to think about, if I just blow out right now, am I blowing in someone's face? You shouldn't do that. When you exhale, if you didn't brush your teeth this morning, you shouldn't blow out in somebody's face. It's like yawning. It's like when I finally yawn— oh, if you did that incorrectly, people would be like, hello? You'd say, excuse me. You turn your head because you realize that you have to be protective of your exhale. You have to be intentional about where you put it. Exhaling says, out of all the things that were in here, I'm going to decide what comes out around people, what comes out in the next month, this week, the next 90 days, the next 5 years, because everything can't come out and everything can't come out where you're standing. It can't come out in this week. It may not be able to come out this year, but if it came to you Then the question is, between your exhale and inhale, or your inhale and your exhale, what are you doing? You're being a good steward. The breath that you breathe in goes to work. Your body needs oxygen in order to function. Your brain needs oxygen in order to think. And breathing in gives your body what it needs so that you can exhale. Because what goes in is different, you know, than what comes out. What goes in? It's oxygen mixed with some other things from the periodic table, 'cause I've done chemistry now 6 times too. But what comes out is carbon dioxide. It's totally different. It has a different structure. Exhaling is bringing structure to all the things that you scribble down on your piece of paper. That's why there's structure here. But spiral notebook, Moleskine notebook will do. You still have to decide what lives where, what lives in this week, what lives today. What am I giving to my team? What am I giving to my children? What am I talking to my husband about? What am I talking to my accountant about? And in between is rhythm. Because if I only inhaled for 3 months and then exhaled for 5 minutes, I wouldn't be alive. If I only inhaled for 5 minutes but exhaled for 5 years, I would have nothing to give. The structure that you create in your exhale is supported by rhythm. So every day I capture all the random thoughts. Then the rhythm is Every weekend I decide, I look at all the random thoughts. Where do these things go? Are they today? Are they tomorrow? Are they this week? Are they this month? Are they 3 months or by the end of the year? I do that for all the little things weekly. I do that in a bigger way monthly. And then every 90 days, I think it's the third quarter, it's the fourth quarter. What am I gonna achieve? That is the structure, the rhythm of regularly looking at your life. What in the world did I write down? What in the world did I write down? I mean, I have a brain dump from September the 24th. Girl, review the notes from the Women's Conference. Prepare for your meeting. Underneath that, change the sheets in the guest bedroom. Underneath that, clean your office. Underneath that, Restart BSF. Underneath that, here comes the dreaming. Are we doing interns for 2024? All right, I'm going to talk to a team member about what's going to be required for that. Oh, don't forget, you need to finish putting your presentation together. Now, each one of those things will be actionable and they'll go somewhere. Here's the dream that I have for this position that I need this week because these are all pain points and I don't have anybody here to do it. So these need to go on the job description the next time you hire. Those are all the things that came out of my brain. And then the weekly rhythm, the monthly rhythm, the 90-day rhythm helps me to make sure these things are actionable. And every idea that I have, I can't do. So once a month, I'll go back and look through my pages and look at the things that I wrote down that I did and that I didn't. And then I figure out where do these things go or have they aged out? Sometimes the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling, the ideas that you received versus what you're gonna do and what timeframe, the structure versus the rhythm of looking at your life, sometimes they're not for you. Sometimes they are supposed to fizzle and die. Sometimes you can't get to them because you have limited time and resources, and that's okay. But the key to living with an innovative mindset is to always start the process by inhaling. You cannot exhale if you haven't inhaled. You cannot have rhythm if you haven't inhaled. You can't have a month plan or a week plan or a 90-day plan or 3-year, 5-year plan if you don't even first— God, what do you want for my life? You can't have any of that if you don't inhale and travel and go see the world and meet new friends and read books. You can't exhale or put structure if there's nothing coming in. So the way I create an innovative mindset is by reading, connecting with other people, learning, watching YouTube, going to school, living my life, getting outside. That's inhaling. Exhaling is, when are we doing it? How much is it going to cost? Do I have the team? Does it fit within my current schedule? And the rhythm says when I come back to look at it all. We are all created in God's image. We are creative beings. This means you have innovation to some degree. Doesn't mean you're a graphic designer. Doesn't mean you're a video producer. But you were created with the ability to inhale and get God ideas. The question is, when you inhale, are you then exhaling it? Actually putting it back out into the world? Does it have structure? Do you have a rhythm for coming back to it? People ask me all the time, how do I stay consistent? Rhythm. How do I finish what I start? Rhythm. How do I know what to do? Inhale. How do I know when to do it? Exhale. If you'll just receive and trust that the Holy Spirit is always guiding and directing. And if you're willing to do, and if you're also willing to be disciplined, the inhale and the exhale and the rhythm will take you far. I've said it once, I've said it a million times, I throw spaghetti at the wall. The Lord says, "Hey, gave you an idea. You gonna do it?" I'm like, "I don't have the people." "Are you gonna do it?" "I don't have the money." "Are you gonna do it?" "I don't have the time." "Are you gonna do what I told you to do?" Okay, and then he shows me, that's the exhale. Breathe in, Chrystal Hurst, I'm downloading. This is how you do it. There's the exhale. Breathe in, Chrystal Hurst, I want you to come back to this every month, or deal with this in 3 years. When you listen, God will speak. He'll impress upon your heart the importance of what you're doing, and Give you the grace to do it. So if you have innovative thoughts, everybody not supposed to hear all your thoughts all the time. Some stuff is just for you and Jesus. Write them down. Give them structure. Plan them out. Wherever your planner is, whatever you're doing for planning, plan it out. And then keep coming back to it weekly, monthly, quarterly. Innovation, it begins and starts with you. Receive it, use it, and watch God work in your life. If you want to hear more about writing it down, you can go right here to hear more because I talk a little bit about that in another video. And I would love to know what innovative ideas are coming to you. Tell me in the comments, what are you needing to inhale more? Because it's already there. You just haven't been making the space to receive it all and write it down. Or maybe you're needing to exhale. I have all these ideas in a notebook. I'm not doing anything with them. If that's you, what are your ideas? What are your next steps? Maybe it's rhythm. Chrystal Hurst, I'll write it down, but I won't come back to it for another year. Okay, well, you know what the problem is. Where are you inhaling, getting ideas? Where are you exhaling, putting those structure on those ideas? And where are you being consistent? I hope this has been helpful, and I will see you next week.