https://www.listennotes.com/e/1e29ca990e8a4ec6a3752537aee8fc2a

Hello and welcome to the Achieve youe Goals podcast, the show that empowers you to wake up to your full potential and achieve your biggest goals and dreams. I am your host, Hal Elrod, and I invite you to join us each week as we share actionable strategies to take your life to the next level, as well as interview world-class experts and entrepreneurs who have achieved extraordinary goals themselves. And we ask them to give you a peek behind the curtain and teach you exactly what you need to do to do the same. Ready? Here we go. hello, friends. Welcome to the Achieve youe Goals podcast. I am your host, Hal Elrod, and today we are talking to Jenny Wood. And I want to start by asking you a question. What if the traits you need to get ahead are the exact opposite of what you've been told? To be successful, my guest today says you need to be weird, selfish, shameless, obsessed, nosy, manipulative, brutal, reckless, and bossy. All nine of those traits and to be that takes courage. Her brand new book is Wild Courage. Go after what you want and get it. It is an energizing and empowering guide to embracing your ambition and chasing after what you want. And my guest, Jenny Wood, spent 18 years chasing what she wanted at Google, climbing from being an entry-level employee to a top executive and creating one of the largest career development programs in Google's history and helping to generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue. In today's episode, Jenny reclaims nine traits from their negative shackles and teaches you how to apply them in a savvy and sane way to supercharge your success. Whether you're trying to impress your new boss, snag a stretch promotion, or land a life-changing deal. And she knows her way around courage. You're going to hear some stories today about how she chased down a man on a subway because she found him attractive and later married that man. Anyway, there's a whole bunch of great stuff in store for today, but most importantly, you're going to learn how to overcome three big fears that hold us back and develop wild courage yourself. Before we dive into the episode, I want to take just a minute to invite you to check out the Miracle Morning app, Premium Plus subscription where you can get guided Sabers practices in the hundreds. So you can literally press play every morning and be guided through a unique custom morning routine that is based on whatever area of your life you want to work on at this time. You can journal in the app. There are guided visualization prompts, journaling prompts, exercise routines, affirmations customized for you. to help you achieve your goals, head over to miraclemorningapp.com or just go to the App Store or the Google Play Store and download the app for your phone today. Without further ado, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to my new friend, the one and only author of Wild Courage, Mrs. Jenny Wood. Jenny, it's so good to see you.

It's so great to be here, Hal.

Thank you. I told you, I've watched, I think, at least three podcast interviews with you on YouTube this past week prepping for today. And it's funny, like a friend introduced us and about 30 seconds into feeling your energy on the phone, I'm like, come on the podcast. You're awesome. And now watching interviews with you, like, I love your energy.

I love your sense of humor. Thanks. I love your authenticity. So welcome. Thank you so much. Isn't it interesting how We really do pick up on someone's vibe within the first 30 seconds, maybe the first five seconds, right? It's true. So, thank you. I'm honored.

You're welcome. Now, you saying that brought up for me what also is weird though, I've met people that I thought, and this is not to say anything to our vibe, right? You know, you mean people that are con artists have the vibe where you're like, Whoa, I like this person. They're so charismatic. Any thoughts on that? And then you're saying- and then you find out later that it's inauthentic and they were manipulating you, right?

In a bad way.

That's one of your- that's interesting.

I was like, Ooh, that is such a hot topic.

Yeah, you're like, Wait, we're gonna get to how to manipulate in a proactive, positive way. That's part of what you teach in your new book. But I'm talking about the kind where you're like, oh, they just were using me for something that wasn't in my best interest, right?

Yeah, I think that does happen too. So now I'm wondering like, how do you spot that?

How do you- that's what I was thinking. Like when you said that, I'm like.

Wait, I've been duped before by charismatic people.

Right.

I would offer, tell me how you feel about this. I would offer that like 98% of the time that vibe you get, you're probably spot on on your intuition and maybe 2% of the time you get burned, but yes, I think that's accurate.

Yeah. And I've operated that way through my whole life and I've gotten burned a couple times, but for the most part, I've attracted and nurtured relationships with amazing people like yourself. I believe it. I believe it. Yeah. So more often than not, it's right on. So there's so many places that we can go. Like I said, I've watched multiple interviews, so I know lots about you. And I think that the place that it makes sense to start, right, is you were a Google executive hired by Google in 2006. That's right.

Gosh, you've done your homework, Hal. I'm so impressed. This is the obsessed trait of the.

Nine traits of wild courage. I am very impressed. And I'm not even looking at my notes, by the way. That's actual memory, which I don't have a great one of us. So 2006. So almost 20 years ago, you grew one of the largest career development programs in Google's history. You're responsible for leading a team that contributed to tens of billions of dollars in ad revenue for Google. the perfect job, you've built a legacy, you've got an incredible reputation, you're earning great money, and then you decided to leave and to do your own thing, so to speak. And now you've, your first book, Wild Courage, go after what you want and get it is coming out. Walk us through how you got here. Google, why are you here? Why did you stop at Google? I'm just curious. It's like, why would you leave this amazing job that people would do anything.

To be in your position? I know it feels really counterintuitive, and I still Frankly, if I made the right decision, how? Like, talk about it, like let's be real. I mean, A, it was scary to make the decision, and B, I don't know that it was the right one. Only time will tell, right? Only time will tell. I left to basically be a starving artist. I left to be a writer, right? I am the breadwinner for my family. It's a massive, massive risk, but I am essentially betting on myself, which if I didn't do it, I would have been a fraud. Like the book is called Wild Courage. Go after what you want and get it. So if you think about step function learning versus incremental learning, I mean, it's Google. Google's I was incredible. And so I definitely learned stuff every day. But as I was realizing like the external appetite for the work that I did, I was like, okay, if I left to be an entrepreneur and a speaker and an author and a corporate trainer facilitator, et cetera, I would be experiencing step function learning, not just incremental learning every day. And I feel like I'm drowning, not in a bad way. I feel like I'm overwhelmed, rife with imposter syndrome, super anxious about all of this, living in tons of uncertainty, but I'm doing it and I'm here and it's really exciting too. And I will say like, What ultimately the catalyst for the change was I was driving my son Ari back from choir one night. We live in Boulder, Colorado at the base of the foothills. So we have some windy roads to get home. And I had so much going on, my executive Google role, being the founder and leader of this own your career program, which became this massive success at Google. All this external stuff happening with the book and speaking and also being a wife and a mom. I had so much on my plate, Hal, that I was frequently up from, let's say, 2 to 5 a.m. in the morning. And I was so sleep deprived that as I was driving Ari home from choir, I realized my eyes were fluttering closed. And I was like, what am I doing? What am I doing? And I had this great mentor, Julie, who said, Jenny, you can do it all, but not all at the same time. And I was trying to do it all at the same time. And I was like, Something's gotta give. So as terrifying as this move felt, I just did it. And I don't know if it was the right choice, but I'm having fun.

You're living what you wrote about, right?

That's the thing. If I stayed at Google, 'cause it was safe and it was comfortable and it was lucrative. And if I stayed there another 15 years, that's playing it safe. trait number eight is reckless, err on the side of action and take calculated risks and better to learn from your mistakes than spend all your time predicting the consequences of every decision. So, like, think fast and fearless. If you're on the fence, do it. And I was on the fence and I had to think fast and fearless. And I did it because I would have been a fraud if I didn't.

For a book called wild courage. Yeah. You mentioned a concept step function learning versus incremental learning, right? I'm not familiar with that term. What is step function learning and what is the difference between that and incremental?

Yeah, so incremental, think of it like a graph where you've got bar chart where you've got, let's say, month over month revenue, right? So incremental revenue would be every month it grows half a percent. So yeah, you just see these bars that are gradually growing higher and higher. But the adoption of AI, right? That's step function growth. Let's say 100 right now and then it's 300x the next month and then 700x the next month and then 550 000 X the following month, you know, so step function is like, it looks like stair steps on a graph. So when it comes to personal development and goal achievement, incremental learning is like, okay, like I have a new stakeholder at Google and like, okay, I have to figure out how to work with this new person. I'm learning a new style for them. But step function learning is when I'm in something that's so uncomfortable, some new project or goal or job that I have butterflies in my stomach when I get an email. Cause I don't know how to respond or what the right answer is or how I'm going to be perceived. Those butterflies represent step function learning. And so when you are attempting Something new or going after a new goal, look for those butterflies, which indicates step function learning. That makes a lot of sense. And that's where the growth, real growth.

And the real achievement comes from. Totally. It's jumping off the cliff and building.

Your wings on the way down, right?

That is step function learning or step function flying, I would say. I think about like back when I was in sales, when I was with Cutco, and it was when I accomplished to break records, to do things that no one had ever done before. It was so far beyond what I thought was possible. And so I had to get completely outside of my comfort zone. I had to try things I would never try. I had to reach out to prospects I would never know. Right? It's like the 10x concept. How do I 10x my sales, my growth, et cetera?

So, okay, that makes sense.

Absolutely. Yeah. So you said, and this actually, I got this is on your website. It's that you said, if you were to go back 10 years, you were an ambitious person held back by anxiety. So how did you transform yourself from an ambitious or from an anxious and ambitious person to what I would call now courageous and wild. And I know you said before we started recording that anxiety is not gone. You just learned to manage it, to take action in the midst of it. So what does that look like for you?

So in the past, it looked like a lot of second guessing, a lot of being awake at night because I was worried about some typo in an email to some important stakeholder or my boss's boss or a client or I said, or you know too many times in a presentation to a key partner. And those things would just eat at me. One thing that I learned was something called the Spotlight Effect. It's a social psychological principle that basically says people aren't lying awake at night thinking about their own mistake. So if that's the case, then, like, if I'm never lying awake at night thinking about how, how you performed on this podcast, right? Which I guarantee I will not do tonight. Right? Yep. Yep. You would assume that you're not lying awake at night thinking about how I did on the podcast, nor is anybody listening, right? I mean, of course we want A great conversation that add a ton of value. But if that was the type of what I call lowercase A anxiety, that would just plague me. But then learning the spotlight effect, where people are way more concerned about themselves than about anybody else in the world, it gave me the relief, you know, that I can go out and be bold and make mistakes and take risks. And it's not like I have no anxiety now. I was just talking about this with my therapist three days ago, and we were talking about sort of how it has evolved over time, my anxiety. And I still have it. Like, I think anytime you try something new, which I referenced already, it Rears its ugly head, right? So I felt very confident at Google. I felt like it emboldened me to do a lot, to ask for a lot, to ask for money and budget and headcount and projects. And now here I am in this totally new environment as a first time author. One example, I sent out a bunch of advanced reader copies to people who might be able to bring me in for a keynote or do a bulk sale or something, and had 300 people I wanted to follow up with. So I sent out the first 200 emails saying, Hey, did you get the book? Have you had a chance to crack it open yet? Would you be interested in booking me for 2025 speaking? or consider a bulk buy, thinking how 200 out of these 200 people that I sent emails to would reply back immediately with the check half written, right? That's not exactly how it went. So after the ghosting and some rejection and some maybe laters and a couple of yeses, I just got so down on myself and so anxious that what I was doing wasn't important or wasn't meaningful. And it was really, really, really hard for me to send out the last hundred emails to get to the 300. And that's what I mean by, like, I still have that anxiety of, thinking, basically it's living in three fears. It's the three fears that wild courage helps you overcome. Fear of uncertainty, fear of failure, and fear of the judgment of others. In that case, for me, fear of uncertainty, what if I don't hear back from them? Fear of failure, what if they say no? Fear of judgment of others, what if they roll their eyes at me thinking like, oh my gosh, Jenny, like why are you pushing so hard? Like why is this book is no different than anybody else's, right? And I, I'm like so underselling this content. This book is amazing and I'm so proud of it. And I do think it's different because I don't think anybody has written a book where I encourage people to, in the right way, be weird, selfish, shameless, obsessed, nosy, manipulative, brutal, reckless, and bossy.

Goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning community, I just wanted to remind you or invite you to check out the Miracle Morning routine app in the App Store and the Google Play Store. It is free to download and comes with a robust assortment of features, including templates to create your affirmations, a built-in customizable timers for your Sabers. The Sabers 101 guided track where you complete your Miracle Morning in 13 minutes by simply hitting play, a Miracle Evening guided track to help you go to bed at night and a lot more. And then you always have the option to upgrade to the premium version, our most popular version of the app, which you can try for a seven-day free trial, and it gives you access to over 500 affirmations, a library of nearly 200 guided savers tracks so that you can click play and complete your savers in different areas of your life. You want to improve your mental health, you want to improve a relationship, you want to make more money. There are specific savers tracks guided or designed, I should say, for each of those outcomes that you want to achieve in your life. So you can again, literally click play and complete your miracle morning, plus over 200 journaling prompts and a lot more. and the app now has over 2, 900 reviews, averaging 4. 9 out of 5 stars. You can download the app now in the App Store or Google Play for Android users. Either way, I hope the app enhances your mornings and your life. Yeah. And where I want to get to those traits because I, I've read them and it's profound how you, and it's useful how you describe them, but you're a living embodiment of wild courage and what you just said. In fact, say it again. What are the three fears that this book helps you overcome?

Fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, and fear of judgment of others. And there was a moment in 2011 on the New York City subway where these all came together.

I'm about to ask you about that. Let's go.

Let's go.

All right.

So, I mean, this is how this whole thing started, how it's 2011. I'm riding the subway home from work, and about 20 feet away from me stands this really good looking guy. Like gorgeous blue eyes, thick brown wavy hair. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I really want to talk to this guy, but something holds me back. What if he's a convicted felon? Fear of uncertainty. What if he's married? Fear of failure. What if a hundred people stare at me on this packed train while I make a fool of myself, fear of judgment by others, right? And so I do nothing as the train passes stop after stop after stop, and as life passes me by. But I'm so taken by him that I say, all right, I'm going to make a deal with the universe. If he gets off at my stop, my stop, which is 72nd Street, then I'll try to strike up a conversation with him. And if not, then say, love you. Okay, so how he gets off at the next stop, not my stop. And all of a sudden, this wave of wild courage washes over me and practically pushes me out of my subway seat and pushes me off the train. So I chase after him to catch up with him. I tap him on the shoulder. I say, excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you. You're wearing gloves, so I can't tell if you're wearing a wedding ring, but in the event that you're not married, you are on my subway, and I thought, you were cute, any chance I could give you my business card? And then I wait for what feels like forever, as I think, Jenny, this was a terrible idea. And then he finally takes the card. A week later, we go on a date. Three years later, we get married, and we've now been married happily for 11 years with two little hooligans ages seven and nine.

And that article, by the way, went viral in the New York Times. How did the New York Times pick up the story, by the way?

I pitched it to them.

Oh, you did.

I did. Yeah. I was like, this is a love story everybody needs to hear. And I wanted to encourage other people to have this type of wild courage, whether it was for dating, for work, for life, for goals. And funnily enough, they called the article Serendipity one spreadsheet zero. And they called it that because I was a dedicated online dater, and I kept a spreadsheet of all my pending first dates. So in that moment, it was like, no, I thought with my heart and not my head and, like, forget spreadsheet, forget the columns, forget the rows. And it was just to keep me organized because I'm very, very analytical and a left brain thinker. But it was just like that day, I just like, I just went with this wash of wild courage that overcame me. And so that's why they called it Serendipity One spreadsheet.

But I still maintain that Serendipity isn't found. It's made. You know, you're an embodiment of what the book is about, of wild courage, right? From leaving your position at Google, right? Which took a lot of courage stepping into the unknown, the fear of the uncertainty, obviously. pursuing your husband on the subway like a stalker or like a crazy person.

Amazing. Totally like a stalker.

Totally. And then writing this book, all the things that you're doing, even what the story you just shared, which is that you're sending out hundreds of emails, you're overcoming the fear of rejection, you're overcoming all the fear of being judged by others, all of these things. And I think it's important, you mentioned earlier, it doesn't mean that you don't have fear, but you have abilities, you have qualities, you have traits to overcome the fear. And in the book, you teach nine traits that are counterintuitive. you would think some of these, like, selfish. I don't want to be selfish, shameless. I don't want to be shameless, manipulative. Right? Like, well, that these, these Ruckless, these sound bad, bossy. So break these down. Let's unpack these nine traits, because I think these are such a Crux of how the power of your book and.

How it helps people overcome their fears.

Yeah.

Thank you. So, I mean, yeah, these traits raise eyebrows. Let's keep it real. When I first ideated this with my editorial team, I was I don't know, guys. Like, I think this is licensed to get canceled on day one. So time will tell, but I have found it to be very refreshing for people, men and women, by the way, where people say to me, Jenny, these create the bars of an invisible cage that keep me small. They keep me quiet. They keep me following instead of leading. They keep me being a passerby of my own life as opposed to someone who has agency and takes life by the horns and achieves my goals boldly. So let's just look at a couple of them. So selfish is the to stand up for what you want. It's about being your own champion, right? Because if you give everyone a leg up at your expense, you'll end up getting trampled. So it's really just about having the courage to say like, this is what I need. This is what I stand for. Maybe it's asking, you know, if you're in a team of five people and if you all did equal work on a project, someone's got to present it to the client. And you know that the person who presents it to the client is the one who's going to get a lot of the recognition or you'll have a lot of the work attributed to you. Why not raise your hand and be the one to ask to present it to the client? Right? It doesn't in any way. this is very important. How we are not looking to redivide the pie, we're looking to expand the pie. Like, if you're a leader, there are ways that you can be selfish, but also up level your team. You can ask your boss for a big project that highlights your whole team. Right? And so you're selfishly asking for the big project, but you're giving the seven people under you an opportunity to shine. So we want to expand the pie here. So that's selfish. You know, another one you mentioned, Shameless, that's the courage to stand behind your efforts and abilities. This one's really just about kicking imposter syndrome to the curb and the, the I don't think people think of it as shame in their day to day, but more about like being awake at night thinking about that typo, right? That I mentioned, or beating yourself up about not getting back to somebody. Like those are little mini deposits of shame that you're putting into your system. And I want people to find their swagger because audacity or shamelessness is basically a survival skill. And sometimes you've got to articulate your wins to your boss or say something you're proud of or tell your partner that you did the dishes because they might not have noticed it. And it's kind of managing up within your home, right?

To do that all the time. I posted on social media a few months ago, I said, if a husband does the dishes and the wife doesn't see, does it really count or something like that?

That is hilarious. And like, I mean, I have been totally inundated with this book project for the last three years. And so when I started, I said to John, my incredible husband, that stranger from the subway, I said, John, am I gonna do this? is like, is our family ready for this? I was like, I don't think I'm going to be able to do dishes for the next three years. And he's like, Jenny, you've got this. I've got the dishes. It was such a sweet moment. And that's exactly what I say in.

The acknowledgment section to him on the last page of the book, is that that same quote. That is so sweet. I wanted to take one step back to the selfish piece. One thing that resonates with me is I've talked about for a long time, you can be selflessly selfish, meaning if you know that the best way to serve others is to be the best version of yourself, right? It's to like, if you are thriving, you can help other people. If you are playing small, you can't help other people, right? It's not just the self-care put your oxygen mask on first. It's actually the ambition. Like, how do you really go after your goals and dreams in a really, really big way? And then now you have more abilities, more resources, more knowledge, more wisdom, more energy, more qualities that you can bring everybody along with you. So. Absolutely. Yeah.

So I was playing Monopoly with my son Ari a while back, and he was crushing me. And this is a concept I call boardwalks versus baltics just to set the stage here. And he was crushing me because he was, like, strategically investing in the big stuff.

Right.

He was being smart and selfish about how he used his money and his time and his energy.

Right.

So he was, like, strategically investing in all the big stuff. And I was, like, meanwhile, buying all these little properties like baltics while on the boardwalks of Monopoly, you get like 200 bucks for a house or hotel or whatever it is. And on the baltics, you get like 60 bucks. So think about how are you spreading yourself thin across so many different, quote unquote, Monopoly properties in life.

Right.

So you could have a big project you want to accomplish. You talked about this in the Miracle Morning movie, right? You wanted to have your big first live event with 200 people. And that is a boardwalk. That is a big thing that you want to accomplish. Well, in order to do that, you have to be selfish and say no to the baltics. You have to say no to the 15 emails that came in on any given day for someone who just wanted to hop on a call for five minutes. You had to say no to doing a favor to somebody, perhaps because you were saying yes to the big, the boardwalks, and no to the small because all those smalls add up. So in a work context, what's small, what's a ball tick? Being the 18th person to reply all on the happy birthday Jimmy email, right? Going to every single meeting that's on your calendar, even if you add no value and derive no value, right? Just being selfish saying no to get, to get some real work done so that you can accomplish those boardwalks that ultimately serve more people long term, like a live event that you did for the first time for 200 people. That takes selfishness and intentionality and ruthless prioritization, which I also talk about in the brutal trade.

Yeah. The word that came up for me that you just used in that example is no. That's the key that unlocks the door to proactive selfishness, right? Which is like you have to say no to the things that don't move the needle.

Totally.

Right. In order so that you can say yes to the things. That do 100%.

Can I share a couple tools on that as well? Because I love getting practical and tactical. Okay, so two here. One is the agenda avenger and one is the power postpone. So let's say someone asks you for a meeting, right? Because like this happens all the time. Hey, do you have 30 minutes to talk about this? So the agenda avenger is you respond back to them. Happy to chat. Could you please just send me an agenda first of what you want to cover? Yes. Nine times out of 10, they're gonna realize Here's what would happen there. They're going to realize they actually don't need the meeting. They might send you the three bullets of the agenda and you can reply back in line real fast. They get what they need and you save the 30 minutes. You might realize that they've given you an agenda that's better served by somebody else. And you might say, oh, actually, given your three topics, I think that Mary's the better person to collaborate with you on this. And so that's the agenda adventure. Okay. Make saying no very thoughtful, very easy, very respectful. And then the other one is the power postpone. I can't meet right now, but I might be able to meet in April, right? And so that allows them to take you up on it. If it's just like a coffee chat and like, Hey, Hal, I wanna pick your brain. I'd love to learn from you. You're still saying, yay, open to doing it, but I can't do it right now. And then up to them if they.

Wanna continue to put it on calendar or maybe move on to something else. I love, I love both those strategies. And two things that I love about your book is you just said it practical and tactical. You teach such practical, tactical, actionable, I'll throw that in there. strategies to implement. It's not just conceptual, right? Which a lot of us are.

Yeah, it's like the opposite of conceptual.

You're so good. You have such a gift, Jenny, with language and utilizing alliteration. And like, for example, you talk about there are truth and there are tales, right? In fact, explain that concept, because I love that one.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so in 2021, Google had just done their first time ever round of layoffs, a big reduction in force or riff.

2021, you said?

2021, yeah. January. No, I'm sorry, I'm getting that wrong. I think it was January 21st. I think that's the 21 I'm thinking of. Okay. I'm like, yeah, I feel like it'll be earlier. I think it was 2023, January 21st, 2023. Anyway, the date's totally arbitrary. It doesn't matter, arbitrary, yeah, yeah. But at some point that happened. So, you know, all of a sudden, like everyone was on alert and just like nervous, right? Including me, even though I'd been there a long time, was a super high performer, but still, again, go back to that imposter syndrome, that lowercase A anxiety. so I had my regular one-on-one with my boss every Tuesday. That week on Tuesday, she moved it to a Thursday. She never moved it. On Thursday, she moved it to a Friday. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm getting laid off. Wow. I started creating all these tales in my head. Okay, so truths are verifiable facts. Tales are the stories we create in our minds to make sense of those facts. But oftentimes they harm us because we believe the stories that we tell. So here's what happened in that situation. Here's what went through my mind. I haven't been pushing my team hard enough. I've been distracted by everything I'm doing externally. I haven't been performing at my best. I should download all of my personal pictures from my work computer to my personal laptop. Okay. But, and so those were, you know, tales, tales, tales. I get into the meeting and she says, oh, by the way, then someone texted me and she said, Jenny, I heard there are layoffs going on in your org. Like, I hope you're okay. I checked the HR person's calendar, and I see that there's a meeting at the same time as my new one-on-one with my boss on Friday. And I'm like, it's confirmed, right? Tales, tales, tales. And then finally we get into the meeting and my manager says to me, oh, thank you so much for your patience. I've been vomiting all week. Okay, so, like, what were the truths in that situation? The meeting got moved to a Tuesday and then to a Friday. And what was another truth? There had been layoffs at Google. But think of all the stories I created that were so harmful to me that week and totally killed my productivity, killed my creativity, killed my Innovation, killed my ability to lead because I was so focused. I was living in fear. Fear of Fear of failure and fear of judgment. And so there were some truths, right? But I created all these tales. And so the tool here is to rewrite your tale in at least a neutral way and, you know, in a perfect world, in a more empowering way, so that you are not stuck in this fear cycle because fear blocks so much.

How?

It blocks so much.

And first and foremost, enjoying the one life we've been blessed to live. Yes. That's the first thing that it blocks. And that's the right, like, it's like you're actually missing out on life as it was intended just for you to experience joy. And you're so right. And I actually, I have an affirmation that's around that and I use the word narrative, but I love that truth entails because again, you're so good with alliteration, it makes it more memorable. But I've reminded myself in my affirmations that like, I don't know what the future holds, so I might as well create empowering tales.

One is my best is yet to come.

I love, oh my gosh, that just gave me chills. It's actually from a friend, Eric. I didn't invent that, but my friend Eric Stranghoener, that's like his life motto. and he's the one that instilled that for me because when that's the tale that you tell yourself every single day, My best is yet to come, then A, you're in a state of optimism and joy and empowerment, right? And then you actually make different wild, courageous decisions. That's really a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe your best is yet to come, you live in alignment with that tale and you make it your truth, if you will.

So, okay, Hal, can I take a left turn here for a minute?

I would love a left turn. Let's do it.

Okay. So are you open to taking like a two minute interlude on whatever questions you had prepped for me? I am so excited about the Sabers and I'm new to your work. Like I am new to learning about the silence and exercise. I mean, a lot of it I do naturally, right? Like I love to hike every day, but to like thinking of it as a framework and the affirmations and the readings I was thinking about this a lot this week. Could we take a minute to help me think of some affirmations that could be useful for me? Because I've never in my life done affirmations. I've never said them out loud. Could we think of one right now together? This is so fun. I love that you're doing this.

And to anyone listening, this is totally sporadic. I mean, Jenny might have been thinking about it, obviously, but I did not know this was coming. So I was not thinking about it.

I was thinking about how excited I am to have affirmations, but I did not think about doing this live right now. But like, you're the expert and I don't even know the right way. Like, how do I know what to say for an affirmation? I'd love quick coaching and like maybe we can build an affirmation right now.

Simple three step framework, right? And I always usually start by the wrong way to do affirmations. Number one is they have to be in alignment with truth, right? You can't lie to yourself, which we're often taught. Like if you want something to be true, just affirm it as if it is already true. Like I am wealthy, but like if you're struggling financially, there's an incongruency and now it creates an internal conflict. You're like, I am wealthy and then like, I can't pay my bills.

What am I talking about?

Right? Sure. Totally. Number one, it's got to be rooted in truth. And the second problem is it can't be this flowery passive language that promises a magical result. Like I'm a money magnet. Money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance. So, the three steps, step one, affirm what you're committed to. And now that can be an outcome or it can be an activity. So, meaning you could say, I'm committed to losing 10 pounds. that's the outcome. Or you could say, I'm committed to exercising 10 minutes a day, five days a week. That'd be the activity, right? So, I usually focus on the outcome, but you can't always control the outcome and you can't always control when the outcome happens. So, with your book, this will be helpful. When I wrote the Miracle Mornings, you have a real life example that actually worked. Mine was, I am committed to change 1 million lives, which meant sell a million books. I'm committed to change one million lives one morning at a time, no matter what. There's no other option. So that would be the first, what outcome are you committed to with your book?

Okay. So like I have this sticky note on my monitor right now, but it feels to me focused. It says rock. We can talk about my framework for goal setting, which is rock chalk talk walk, but it says rock sell 15,000 U. S. Hardcover books of wild courage by end of March. it says March 25th, but that's actually my pub date, so it would actually be the end of March. To me, that doesn't feel as focused on the reader as I would want it to be as an affirmation. So can I try to tweak it?

So I would just say, get the book in the hands of 15,000 people or change 15,000 lives. Because it was, I mean, it was me selling a million copies of the book, right? But for me, whenever I frame it in terms of what it's doing for other, it's that whole Zig Ziglar quote. You can have everything you if you help enough other people get what they want, right? I don't want to tell you this. So one thing that I found is you make a commitment to something and sometimes your timeline is off, right? There's that thing where like God's laughing at your timeline because he has his own timeline or whatever. Yeah, yeah, totally. So at the end of that year, I did everything in my power and instead of selling a million books, I was 987,000 copies short of my goal. And so at the end of the year, I was like, okay, that's discouraging. I'm nowhere near my goal. I looked at my affirmation and it said, and I think I added the words no matter how long it takes.

Oh, I love that.

I said, I'm committed to changing 1 million lives one morning at a time, no matter how long it takes. And it took six years, right? It took six years to finally get there.

Okay. So I feel like I'm going to adjust mine real time. I actually don't even want it to be about a book sale number because to me that does feel like I want to shift it so that it's more about the people, the readers. So maybe it, but I do, I guess I do want a numerical. Okay. We are really, we're more, we're over our two minutes allocation here. Okay.

I'll bill you for the coaching session later, Denise.

I know, right? Totally. Okay. It's my shameless way to get free coaching.

No. Yeah, I like it. I know.

So maybe I'll just expand it. I want to help 500,000 people in five years have more wild courage at work and in life.

Yeah. Great. I love that. It's just you said, I want to, and in life we don't get what we want, we get what we're committed to. So it's I'm committed to helping 500,000 people embody wild courage in work and in life in the next five years.

Okay. I am committed to helping 500,000 people have more wild courage at work and in life in the next five years.

Yep.

I love it.

And I'm gonna go through the other two and you can do them on your own as homework since we have limited time.

Sure, sure, sure.

There are two more steps. Step number two is you gotta affirm why It's a must for you. So you've got to write down one, two, three, usually I say five max, compelling reasons as to why are you doing this? That's so meaningful and important to you that when you don't feel like it, but you read the affirmation, you're like, oh yeah, it's not even about me. I'm doing it for my husband. I'm doing it for my kids. I'm doing it for these 500,000 people. I'm doing it for humanity, right? Like you have five reasons that are so compelling. And then the third step is which actions will you take and when? And you affirm that every day. So now you're affirming step one, what you're committed to in terms of the outcome. Step two, you're affirming why it is a must for you. And then step three, you're affirming the actions that you're going to take and when you're going to take them. And that could be one hour a day from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. focused on book promotion.

I love it.

And that's it. And now you're programming your mindset, you're directing your behavior, you're reinforcing commitment and beliefs in alignment with the outcome that you want.

It's so fantastic. And now I feel like I have to talk about rock, chalk, talk and walk because Cause it's so perfectly aligned.

It's so perfectly aligned.

Rock, chalk, talk and walk. So this is my goal setting framework and it maps really well to this without even knowing it. So rock is like, what is the big thing you want to accomplish? Not I want to lose weight, but again, like getting specific, that's the analytical part of my brain. But, you know, I want to lose 10 pounds by the end of 2025. So that is your rocket specific. It's time bound and it has some kind of number in it. And it's ambitious, right? And then then chalk is you write it down. Like I just showed that I had my thing written on a piece of paper. So I see it every day. It's pasted to my monitor. So that's chalk, right? Chalk, like write it down. Then talk, you say it out loud. So you share it with people rather than just saying in your head, like mulling it around, like, oh, I should lose weight. I wanna lose weight. What can I do to lose weight? Like, no, you verbalize it. You tell your partner, you find accountability partners, you tell friends, you tell coworkers, whatever the goal is might depend on how broad or narrow you share it out loud. But you, people like to help, people get joy in helping others achieve their Like tremendous amounts of joy. I derive joy from helping people, coaching people to be better than they think they can be at Google. When I would have office hours and people would come meet with me and they'd always apologize and be like, I'm so sorry to take up your time. I just have a quick question. I'd love your mentorship. I'm like, this is the best 30 minutes of my week. Like, what are you talking about? So recognize that people derive joy in helping you. So that's why you want to talk. You want to say it out loud. And then walk. You walk the walk. It's like you just said, what's the one small thing you could do? So maybe if you're trying to lose weight, it's replacing your Big dishes in the kitchen with small dishes.

Right.

And so what is the one little micro action you can take right now that is a deposit into your overall goals? That's rock chalk talk walk. It is like we're clearly cut from the same cloth. How? And it's so fun to see how these things align together.

I love this. The, and, and it goes back to what I said about your way with words and alliteration. Right. Like that will become, I guess people implement that. Right. It will be, you won't forget it. You know, that will become a part of how you think about going just like the savers. People go through their savers every morning. People will go through This, they'll be analyzing their own internal dialogue with truth and tales. They're like, wait, is this truth or am I spinning a tale that is cultivating fear within me? That doesn't exactly.

Okay, stop, right? Okay, yeah, no. Totally. And to bring it back to the traits, rock, talk, chock, walk, that's what I call being obsessed. It's pushing, persisting, performing, right, in the best way possible. It's the courage to set your own standard because none of these traits will serve you well if you Learn to achieve your greatest ambitions. And this is the set of tools to achieve your goals, to achieve your greatest ambitions, to achieve your dreams and to realize your full potential.

I love it. And to overcome three fears that hold all of us back, the fear of failure, the fear of uncertainty, the fear of judgment from others. I could talk to you all day, Jenny. The book, everybody, is called Wild Courage, go after what you want and get it. It is universally applicable for every human being on the planet. planet because we all struggle with fears, we all struggle with self-doubt, and we all need wild courage so we can get what we want in our lives personally and professionally. And this is the book that will help you do it. Where's the best place, Jenny, for people to go grab a copy of your book?

It's available everywhere in hardcover, audiobook, ebook. If you're indifferent to format, the hardcover, I will say this shamelessly, as one of the traits, the hardcover helps the author the most. That's the one that helps authors make these bestseller lists. So if you're indifferent to pick up the hard coffee. I'd be so incredibly grateful, but it's available everywhere.

Yeah, and to me, a hardcover, it lasts, it's nicer, it's, you know, it's five or so bucks extra, whatever it is, eight bucks extra, like for me, it's worth it.

So.

Well, thank you, Hal. Jenny, it's been a pleasure. I'm excited for you. I do feel like we're cut from the same cloth. I have no doubt in my mind based on your courage, your wild courage that you are going to impact 500,000.

People and empower them.

To embody wild courage in their lives.

So thanks for the work that you're doing.

Thank you, Hal. You too. All right, Goal Achievers, I love you so much. Go grab a copy of Jenny's book, Wild Courage, and I will talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to learn more about the Achieve youe Goals podcast and to get access to today's show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Hal Elrod. Visit hal-elrod.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us.

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