Jodie Cook On How To Create A Hundred Million Dollar Idea (#150)

[00:00:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: Welcome to the Deep Wealth podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth.

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg.

This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience.

When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life.

But unfortunately, up to 90% of liquidity events fail. Think about all that time and your hard earned money wasted.

Of the quote unquote "successful" liquidity events, most business owners leave 50% to over 100% of the deal value in the buyer's pocket and don't even know it.

I should know. I said "no" to a seven-figure offer. And "yes" to mastering the art and the science of a liquidity event. Two years later, I said "yes" to a different buyer with a nine figure deal.

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At the end of this episode, take a moment and hear from business owners like you, who went through the Deep Wealth Experience.

Jodie Cook is a Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneur in Europe. In 2011, Jodie started a digital agency that was later acquired in 2021. Alongside running a business, Jodie writes books and articles about entrepreneurship and powerlifting. Jodie's books include Stop Acting Like You're Going to Live Forever, Daily Me, and Instagram Rules. Jodie also co-wrote How to Raise Entrepreneurial Kids and the Clever Tykes storybooks.

As a social media expert, Jodie is a regular contributor for Forbes Magazine on entrepreneurship, as well as providing commentary to publications.

Welcome to the Sell My Business Podcast. And as usual, I not only have a terrific guest, but this guest is no stranger to the Deep Wealth Sell My Business Podcast. She's been on before, but she's back for round two. And for round two, all you business owners out there that have been fortunate enough to have a liquidity event, or even if you're thinking about a liquidity event, it's my favorite question to ask it's the now what question? And the now what question goes, something like this, we're gonna do a quick thought experiment before our guest shares her pearls of wisdom with us.

So imagine you've sold your company, whether you have, or haven't just imagine you sold your company, you're traveling the world. First-class luxury hotels, luxury travel, you buy all the toys. But you're now on a beach and you're having your pina colada and truth be told one beach looks like all the other beaches.

You don't even know where you are. And when you're back at the hotel, it's what city am I in? All of these hotels look alike and you're back at the beach again. And you're thinking, oh my goodness. Now what? What am I going to do for the rest of my life?

So all you listeners out there hang on to that thought.

Jodie, welcome back to The Deep Wealth Sell My Business Podcast. You need no introduction and again, congratulations on your liquidity event. And thank you for coming back with us. Have a very candid conversation of your thought process, your thought experiments after the liquidity event. So why don't we pick up from there? You had an incredible liquidity event now what Jodie?

[00:03:46] Jodie Cook: First of all. Thank you so much for inviting me back on and also thank you for the podcast itself. Since being on the show I've listened to so many of the episodes and actually one thing that struck me after selling my business was I hardly knew anyone else who had sold that business.

So just hearing the stories of other people who had added so much value and helped demystify that whole what's next to what now question, which is the question that is just in your head all the time after you sell. So in the last episode, I thought about how before selling my business, I journaled on the question, what do I want and how am I going to do it? And after I sold, I did exactly the same journal almost every day on that exact question on those two questions, I guess. And I think that what you said about going to the luxury hotels and being on the beach, and then realizing that all beaches look the same is so, accurate.

And I definitely went through that phase and I think I tried not to put pressure on myself as to what I was going to do next, but how I decided to approach the time. And it's been 14 months now since I sold since I handed over, what I tried to do is come up with different experiments and just running experiments and run it as a test to see what next could hold.

So I sold in March handed over in the middle of March, spent April at the beach, the beach stuff that you talked about. I spent May recording podcasts. And so I went into my inbox, found all the podcast invitations I had and just said yes to all of them, and recorded about 20 podcasts in that month.

June I spent teaching. So a friend has a entrepreneurial accelerator and he said, come and do some talking to these startup entrepreneurs about how to make their first a hundred thousand. I've got June doing that. July I spent writing. So I have a Forbes competition and I spent that month interviewing entrepreneurs and writing about their stories.

And then August I spent competing in powerlifting. So I had two compositions in that month. And when I got to the end of that time, I started to think, how did these experiments go? And what does this tell me about what I want to do next? And you might know, The Man on the Arena speech, the very famous address.

And it made me thinks so in May the podcast, that's talking about the arena, the teaching, that's kind of teaching other people in the arena and then the writing was writing about the arena and then the competing was, yeah, it's an arena. The powerlifting the stage it's an arena, but it's not the business arena.

It's a different arena. And what I realized is I just love the arena of entrepreneurship, but so many of us, like so many people listen, might have a business now, or they have just sold a business, but they probably are in the arena of entrepreneurship because they just love it.

And what I came to realize is that I know that I wanted to start another business, and I know that I love running a business. It just wasn't the one that I just sold. So that was my realization.

[00:06:56] Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know, Jodie, firstly, thank you so much. You're putting yourself out there. You are letting all of us into your private experiences, your private thoughts, that inner chatter that happens after the liquidity event, and for all the listeners out there, you will not hear this anywhere else. What Jodie is sharing is what you're going to go through.

You just don't know it yet. And for better or worse, your advisors can't really tell you about this, unless they've done it themselves. You're not going to read about this in a book. You're not going to hear it in a classroom. And so what Jodie just shared of her journey immediately following her liquidity event that's what's in store for you and Jodie so, in your case, you're doing things that you loved and you got some passion out of it, but it sounds like it started to feel like, well, kind of same old, same old. And I'm maybe talking about what I love doing. Why aren't I back there doing that?

How was that? When that realization came to you what happened next?

[00:07:52] Jodie Cook: The realization was really important because, before selling, I journaled about it, I've thought about what it might be like. I'd had a little idea, but I wasn't super sure. And I thought that I might just want to write books all the time, but the realization was that writing books and writing articles about entrepreneurship was interesting because it was taking all the mess in my head from running a business and it was the outlet for it.

But when you don't have the material. It's not that fun. And I really didn't feel like I wanted to be a full-time writer without having the material, the muse, the inspiration. So next I set about finding that next?

That next muse, that next business. My husband, when he tells people that we sold the business and then we're going to start a new one.

He says, well, Jodie wanted to start a business. I didn't want to start business. So we compromised and we started a business and that is really how that is really how it happened. I think I was very set that this was the plan and this was the only way forward. I couldn't imagine another year of not having a business to work on. So that was a really fun period of, okay. How do we come up with an idea for a new business? And that was when we came up with a load of parameters.

[00:09:06] Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know what? You have a very wise husband who said, hey, let's just start the business. You know what, Jodie yeah, let's go out there and let's do it. And now for this was out there who are thinking, okay, may I be so fortunate to have a liquidity event. Another business is not in the cards. That's okay, too, because the thought process that we're going to go through while we're talking about what went through Jodie's mind for another business and that clarity that she got from writing and journaling is that same process, the same best practice that you can apply for yourself, with whatever you want to do with your life after the liquidity event.

And so Jodie, what really inspired this episode, I am a fan of your blog and your articles. And for all you listeners out there in the show notes, there will be a link to her blog, please click on it and subscribe. And so you sent this email out and I just stopped what I was doing when I was reading it.

And I was like, she's a genius. Like I knew she was smart, but she's just off-the-charts genius because this is brilliant. And then I reached out and said, hey, this would make a terrific episode. So when you look back to what you had created in that article, The Hundred Million dollar idea, and you chronicled what your thought process was, if you can share some of your inner thoughts with the community, that would just be terrific.

[00:10:19] Jodie Cook: And once I decided that I wanted to get back in the arena, the next step was finding the business idea to enter the arena with. So together with my husband, we carried out two exercises. And, the first with where we defined the parameters of our future business. And the second was where we thought of ideas within those parameters.

Well, I feel like parameters are really important when you're coming up with your next idea is because without them you probably picked the wrong idea and if you've had a liquidity event, if you've had a successful exit, what you've got now is the luxury of choice and of time and of capital and probably freedom.

And so you don't need to rush into this. You can probably take the time to think about it properly. I think if someone rushed me into choosing a business idea, I would probably just open a gym. And I know that I don't really want to open a gym because it would tie me down to a certain location.

But if I didn't think about it out there, hey, that sounds like a good idea. And then I just borrow forward with it and do it. And then in a few years' time, I'd be like, oh, can't travel. Now I didn't really want to have a gym. So that's part of the reason why prompts are just so important.

[00:11:28] Jeffrey Feldberg: You know, Jodie if I can just jump in there because I think what's so important and you're very modest. I mean, for all of our listeners out there, Jodie is a successful founder and entrepreneur. She's a thought leader, a bestselling author, a powerlifter, and the list goes on and on. Jodie, every time we talk, I learned something new about you, but to your point, if you would have rushed it, I mean, maybe that month that you're doing powerlifting, you would have just said I love powerlifting so much. I'm gonna just go back into it and I'll be at the Olympics and beyond that and on and on we go. So the question for you is how did you not rush into it? Because as Type-A personalities and, you know, as entrepreneurs, we just jump in both feet. Let's go, let's do it, but you're a wise enough and smart enough to resist that and just slowly ease yourself back into the process.

[00:12:17] Jodie Cook: It was very difficult. I did it by setting rules and some of the rules, one that brings this out the one that stands out, especially is don't buy any domain names.

[00:12:29] Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that don't buy any domain names.

[00:12:31] Jodie Cook: Just don't buy any domain names, even if it's available, even if it's amazing, just don't buy any don't start anything don't set up any websites don't come up with any brands don't even think about any ideas. Definitely don't Google to see if the idea already exists. I think that's a really bad idea anyway, but especially if you're not looking to move forward really quickly, I guess it was just the thought that if it's the right one, we won't be able to stop thinking about it.

So give it the time to not be able to stop thinking about it. Cause I'm sure, yeah, Type-A personality entrepreneurs probably have a good idea every day, at least if not every hour. So, how do you know when you could roll forward with every single idea you think of? You have to take the time to let it settle and think properly. Think about it.

[00:13:13] Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know what, the discipline that you have kudos to you. I didn't have that. And yeah, I was a guy buying the domains and I was the guy out there searching, who's doing this. And I was the guy who was hopping in both feet. Ready, fire, aim into all these different things. And I did not have the discipline, which ultimately didn't lead to the best outcomes, but you did.

And congratulations, a virtual high five to you, Jodie, that's the way to do it.

[00:13:38] Jodie Cook: It's tough. It's really tough, especially where is it something to do with not necessarily feeling like you've got anything that you're really focusing on. And, I remember going to social events and being asked that dreaded question, what do you do? And being like, I have no idea. So I'm going to ask me in the gym.

And I said I was starting to have fun to that and say, maybe it's, we've rushed to answer that question. And then rushing to answer that question, we buy the domain names that will help us define ourselves. So, it's almost, it's masking a bigger, a bigger problem, which is that loss, that sense of loss of identity.

[00:14:15] Jeffrey Feldberg: And, you know, it sounds to me like you've been a journaler, if not all your life for a good part of your life. And it's perhaps second nature to you and you kind of gloss over it when you're describing, while I journaled that question and then I journaled it again and I took the same set of questions just in a different way in a journal that. So for our listeners out there who don't journal and maybe if they journal it's the digital type, as opposed to the good old-fashioned pen and paper, why should they reconsider journaling as opposed to not doing anything at all, or even a digital journal? What have you found in terms of the benefits for you and the differences that it made for you?

[00:14:53] Jodie Cook: Me, journaling is all about self-awareness it's all about knowing who I am. I think the more that you know, who you are, the more that you know, what you want, and the less that you get sidetracked by other people by the news, by what someone else thinks you should do. And the more. You live life based on your version of success and not someone else's say for me, it's just a giant lesson in self-awareness.

So I understand that the blank page could be daunting if you're not a journaler and if you're trying to get started. So I always try and start with a question and often it's just, what do I know for sure? And then you just free write and don't think too much about it, but you could do bullet points.

What do I know for sure? And it could be anything. And when I was younger, I used to journal, and then my sister would read my diary and we would, and that was a problem. But now no one reads your diary. It's just not a thing. You can hide it. You don't even have to keep the pieces of paper. If you don't want to.

It's just the safe space for you to write whatever you want. It helps insane self-awareness which I just think can never be a bad thing.

[00:16:03] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so it sounds like from the journaling that you did a couple of things came out of that. So number one, you're right. We have this tendency for, well, I want to be occupied. I don't want to just, I'm not comfortable not doing anything or with space. I mean, that's a whole other issue. That's a whole different episode that we can talk about.

But instead of to your point, listening to the news or mindlessly web surfing. It sounds like when you're journaling, you're keeping your focus on relevant thoughts to you. And if you want to change your life, change the questions that you ask. So when you journaled, and when I read that article, I can imagine that the article was first, really a whole number of journal pages that you then took and that whole thought process and put it into the article.

And so in the article, when you're talking about what you want in your life, and we're going to talk about it from a business side of what you wanted, but it just as easily could have been you asking the question, okay. From a non-business perspective, what do I want, what principles do I want to follow?

What values do I want to have in my life that have nothing to do with running a business? And you could have asked that question. You asked a different question. But you came up with seven really interesting. I'll call them best practices to help you make a decision. Did you want to talk a little bit about that?

[00:17:14] Jodie Cook: Yes, definitely. So these were the parameters for the next business that we were going to start. And it was within the idea generation phase, which I kind of affectionately think of as the summer of ideation, because it's real good, fun coming up with business ideas. But the seven parameters that they all had to fit within were as follows:

The first one was that it had to be location-independent. Because probably from journaling or just from living life this way, I know it was really important that the business didn't have a fixed location and it wouldn't require me to be in a fixed location to run it. So it had to be something that could be online or somehow location independent.

The second was that it must have the potential to become a hundred million dollar company. And I've really started thinking in dollars now it used to always be pounds, but I think since I've been traveling more, it's just dollars think in dollars. And the purpose of that one is so that the ideas had a certain scale to them. And that was the number that we chose.

[00:18:13] Jeffrey Feldberg: And I admire your courage because I'm sure a lot of people listening may be saying, well, not our audience. Our audience are forward thinking and we're risk takers. And they're thinking what a hundred million, you know, Jodie, why not a billion, but yet you had the courage with a hundred million.

But some people may be saying, wow, Jodie, you actually wrote a hundred million dollars. Like why, how dare you do that? What, what makes you think that you're going to get to the hundred million, but you had that confidence in yourself to put that down on paper.

[00:18:39] Jodie Cook: And we talked last time didn't we about intention and what you write down and how somehow magically some things just seem to manifest themselves. So this was me writing down Vic's intention and putting it out there for whatever would happen next.

[00:18:56] Jeffrey Feldberg: And then, so you spoke about the a hundred million dollar company, and then when you went on to the other ones, would you like to share that with the audience?

[00:19:03] Jodie Cook: So the third one was that it had to fit within both mine and Ben, my husband's zones of genius, and the zone of genius exercise is one that I really love. And it's a really good exercise to journal on as well because it kind of helps you find your purpose. It helps you find your mission. And so the exercise consists of a Venn diagram, a triple circle Venn diagram.

And in one circle, you write what I liked doing in the second circle. You write what I am good at. And in the third circle, you write what the world needs. And I would encourage anyone listening, who hasn't completed this exercise to complete it. And don't be humble when you complete it, because there's probably lots of stuff there that you might not say out loud, but for the purpose of this exercise, pop it into those circles.

And the intersection of those three circles is your zone of genius. It's where you are uniquely placed to serve.

[00:19:56] Jeffrey Feldberg: The zone of genius and you're playing to your strengths. What you're passionate about, but is not being naive enough. Oh, just because I like the whole world is obviously going to like it. It's okay. What's going on out there in the world. What's a problem, a painful problem that I'm passionate to solve.

So you capture all that and find your strengths, which is just terrific.

[00:20:15] Jodie Cook: And then the existence of the third circle, which is what the world needs that makes it a commercial endeavor. Because if you were just going forward with what you like and what you're good at, you could do that and not get paid for it. You could just sit on the beach all day or anything like that, but the world doesn't really need you to do that.

The world is probably not going to pay you for that. So it means it is a commercial endeavor, and that was the point of this exercise as well, because of number two, the hundred million dollar company.

So the fourth one was that it must be able to run successfully with a relatively small and close-knit team. I don't yet know what that relatively actually means because it could be five. It could be 20, it could be 200, but that's why relatively is in there rather than an actual number. Cause I thought it was a bit silly defining an actual number of employees.

[00:21:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know what, Jodie, I love how you're differentiating in and for the benefit of our listeners. So you've heard in the previous episode, which we'll link to in the show notes, Jodi talked a lot about intention. Oh, I think I'd like to Sell My Business. And then boom, a few weeks later you spoke to someone who sold their business and that led to the sale of your business.

And then as you're going along with that intention, You're writing things down and in some areas you're specific. I want a hundred-million-dollar business and I'm not going to complain if it's more, but in other areas, you're smart enough to say, you know what? I don't know what size of a close-knit business, what that means.

If it's five people or 500 people. But I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to put down the intention of close-knit company size and people and whatever was going to feel right at the time. That's just what I'm going to go with. So you really, you're not locking yourself in on the one hand when you shouldn't, but you're being specific on the other hand when you need to.

And it's great to see how you're able to really, between one and the other and know what to do and what not to do. So as a heads up for all of our listeners out there as you're journaling, as you're doing intentional journaling, what you can be thinking about.

[00:22:08] Jodie Cook: I think as entrepreneurs, we probably want to control everything and it's easier to define it than not to define it. But sometimes there's quite a lot of power in writing down. I haven't figured this out yet, or I don't know the answer to this yet, and leaving that blank space and being okay that you're going to surrender to someone else working this out for you or some other forces.

[00:22:28] Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And I can just see you, you're journaling, your thoughts and yourself and Ben, and you're going through this. And then you get to number five, which I think is incredibly regal of you. And it's wonder we need more of that. Why don't you share that with the audience of what five was and the inspiration behind it?

[00:22:45] Jodie Cook: Well, five is just, must be good for the planet. It's not like we were coming up with business ideas that weren't good for the planet, but it felt like it should be in there because we want to do stuff that contributes in some way. And I'm trying to think of ideas that we could have just come up with the would it be good for the planet, but would be good for us, but maybe there probably are some, you know, like things that are made of certain materials or things that teach a certain method or, yeah, there's lots that could have been in there, but we thought it was important to just have that in there.

As one of the premises. Six was must have a target audience of entrepreneurs. And that's probably because of my zone of genius and because all the writing I do and lots of the people I hang out with and the networks I'm part of that or entrepreneurs, sometimes I only hang out with entrepreneurs and then I forget that some people aren't entrepreneurs and that's okay, too.

So that one just made sense. And I think having a vague idea of a target audience is a really good idea because if you don't necessarily think of the idea straight away, you can just think of that audience, and then you can ask them about their challenges and their problems, and that might lead you to business ideas as well.

So having a target audience felt quite important, and that was probably the most useful parameter of all of them because it get it controlled the ideas the most. Cause the gym doesn't have a target audience of entrepreneurs, let's say, but all the ones we thought of did.

[00:24:10] Jeffrey Feldberg: You know, that could have been an idea, a gym for entrepreneurs, but I digress. I digress. And then you got the last but not least. And this to me was the most intriguing as I read through the list, I was like, okay. Yeah, check. Got that. Understand that. And then seven, I was like, oh, wow, what's this about?

So tell us about number seven.

[00:24:26] Jodie Cook: I think that everyone benefits from having their own personal mission statement. And the framework that I like to think of for someone's mission statement is how you live and how you serve. So my grandma had a mission state. She didn't know it, but she had a mission statement and it was just to raise a happy family.

And in that one statement is how she lived and how she served. And so I think that mine is discover what I'm capable of and help other people do the same. And so the idea is, or being within somehow within the field of human capability, which is the seventh parameter seemed to make sense. And if anyone listening to this is coming up with their own different ideas, they will be a topic that will be something that you just can never stop thinking about, and maybe it's come out.

And it was a genius exercise, but for me, it's human capability and says, that was the important thing that all the ideas must be within.

[00:25:23] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. So you have these seven brilliant insights that are really guiding you. And for our listeners, this is what moves the dial for Jodie and maybe this does that for you, maybe it doesn't, but the point is with whatever you create it, I really has to mean something to you. And Jodie, let me ask you this because in the last episode we spoke about intention, but we went beyond intention.

And we spoke about the importance of not just words on paper, but the feeling that you associate with what you're reading. So when you read through those seven items and you just went through them again with us today, and thank you for that for doing that just now, can you describe some of the feelings that you're conjuring up as you go through those seven that made a difference for you in going through the process of selecting the next idea?

[00:26:09] Jodie Cook: I think that having them on paper is one thing, but looking at them and feeling like that is the business that you run gives a whole new dimension to it. So however many parameters you might come up a bit. It's almost like imagine that you have that business that fits within those things that has the potential to become valued at wherever you want it to value that it almost makes you feel a certain way about it, and maybe you engage different parts of your brain and maybe that helps you think of more ideas, but I think it's, I think it's a powerful exercise for those reasons.

[00:26:43] Jeffrey Feldberg: And then, so when you came up with this and you got those good vibe feelings coming out of that, this was really not the end. This was just the beginning because then it was some of the heavy liftings where you now had to look at ideas, analyze them, see where that took you, what feels right, what doesn't feel right.

And I know we don't have time to go into the whole process and your article does an incredible job. There will be a link in the show notes, please click on that. You can read the entire article from start to finish, but coming out of that, Jodie, it seems like not to put words in your mouth, it was like a north star for you in terms of helping to guide you of, okay, what's working.

What do I want? What do I not want? What's this feeling that I want to achieve? Oh, I think I'm missing this here. Let me add this into the formula. Okay. Much better. Let's not move in that direction. So what happened after this?

[00:27:30] Jodie Cook: It was about coming up with the ideas that came with those parameters. But first, it was this realization that the business that fit within those parameters, we might not, we didn't know it, then we didn't. Maybe It wasn't even in our current minds, in that current state, we had to find inspiration and we had to be inspired from different places.

And humans are just creatures of habits. Even if you've had a huge pattern interrupt that is selling your business, you still probably were going to go to the same coffee shop. You're going to take the same walks around you and do a lot of the same things. So it was a huge realization that we needed to do things differently.

We went and explored new places. We mixed it by scenery. We tried out new activities. We've met new people. There's a rule in improvisational comedy that I left and it's called the yes and rule. And it's where if someone comes up with an idea or a sentence or some concept that they're saying as part of the show, the other people around them, can't just shut it down and they can't just say, oh, no, but what about this?

They have to say yes. And that it helps to further it. So if Ben and I had conversations together about business ideas, even if I said, well, it was really stupid. And he knew it was really stupid, but he'd say, oh, okay. Yeah, I can say that. And what else would it mean? And that was a really important way to keep the energy high and make sure that we were both just sharing just the random stuff that came into our brains.

[00:28:54] Jeffrey Feldberg: So it sounds like no judgment. Let's be curious and let's encourage the other person, even if it's a wacky idea. Oh, okay. That sounds like it could be interesting. And then now what, or what's next? and just getting that dialogue to go away in a creative kind of format.

[00:29:08] Jodie Cook: Yeah. And it's fun and because maybe If I had come up with a business idea before when I was running a business, I would say, no way, am I doing anything here? Now I am focusing. And so it felt really nice to have the freedom, just to talk openly about different business ideas. So we wrote them all down. We made a spreadsheet and the spreadsheet now has 27 different business ideas in it.

And they all fit within those seven parameters. And maybe one day I can share them all. And if anyone else wants to roll with the 26 that we're not rolling with. And they are very, very welcome. to but writing it down is really important because you'll, you might just forget about them if you don't write them down.

But also it meant that we could write down things like the target audience, the plan, the route to market, and just talk a little bit more about how it would actually happen in practice. Something really important is refraining. Well, firstly, refraining from buying domain names. Cause we've mentioned that and that's super important, but also I think refraining from research.

It's really easy to think of a great idea or what you think is a great idea. And then to log straight onto Google and see if anyone else has done it. And I don't think you win at all from doing that because you either see your idea already in practice. You see someone else doing it and you start to, it's almost like a separation thing that you start to see comparison and you think, oh, I could never do that.

Or, oh, they're not doing it very well. I could do it better. And neither of those are really useful at this stage. But then if you don't see anything, it's either, oh, I don't see anything. It can't be a bright idea cause there's no need for it or it's oh, I don't see anything. Therefore, I should do it right now.

So I've all the four possible things that could happen. None of them are really actually that useful. So that's why I think it's really important not to do any research at all. Leave it in your own head rather than involving Google.

[00:30:55] Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. So let it percolate don't do any comparisons is not going to take you down the best path. It's going to perhaps change how you feel about it or how you view it and then just work with it and see where it takes you and refine it from one day to the next until it gets to the point where yeah.

You know what, I'm ready to take this to the world and see how it's going to go and how I can change lives.

[00:31:16] Jodie Cook: Yeah. And then also staying in the ideation phase and keeping it going for the time period that you've already agreed on, which I think was a month or so for us. But it would be really easy to think that idea too was the one and then to stop what you were doing. But even now that we are rolling forward with one of them, we're still thinking about it and they're still going on the spreadsheet because you just never know. It's a useful exercise. Anyway, you just don't know what's going to happen in the future.

[00:31:43] Jeffrey Feldberg: And for our listeners, firstly, no spoiler alert here. This may be a different episode where Jodie comes back and tells us what the one is of the 26 or 27. But the question for the listeners and Jodie, I'm sure the idea that you picked, you will ensure that this thing just takes off and changes lives, and changes the world.

And you know, somewhere down the road, if you didn't want to do that anymore, or for whatever reason, it didn't work a bit of a rhetorical question of the remaining 26, you would think there'd be at least another winner in the 26. So you're really stacking the odds in your favor that of that list, something there is going to work or even if none of that works.

I just go back to the process, the ideation process, and just do it all over again and get yourself to a really good place.

[00:32:27] Jodie Cook: I think so that's a really interesting question because So, idea 22, no spoiler, but idea 22 is the one that we are going ahead with and the main reason is because we just could not stop thinking about it. It felt like a light bulb moment when we even talked about it. And then it was like, yeah, it has to be this.

And even though we kept on thinking of ones after and went up to 27, it was still, everything kept coming back to that one and we kept talking about it and we'd find, we'd go out for dinner and then I'd be like, oh, but what about this? But then you say that it didn't take off Or whatever happened in the future.

I wonder if the other ones would actually be on the table still. And maybe because they were second, they were always second to this one. So would we just have to do the exercise again and would the premises have changed and maybe we'd have new parameters and we start a whole new spreadsheet and hopefully out of shared the other 26 and other people would be making huge successes of all of them.

So they wouldn't even be on the table anymore. I don't know, but that's, yeah, that's a really interesting, it's just a really interesting thought to experiment.

[00:33:32] Jeffrey Feldberg: Or maybe Jodie in the multi-verse you are doing all 27 of them as we speak right now. And they're all fabulously successful. But the point is you've created a system which had been very generous to share. And thank you for that. I know we're starting to bump up against some time here, but you, your shared your inner workings, your inner thoughts of how you go about an ideation process, and whether you've had a liquidity event and you're going into version two, another business, or version three, whatever that is or it's not going to be in business. The same process still applies and it is powerful. This is from the trenches, from what you're sharing. So Jodie, two quick things here, and I know we're right up against time and you shared something with me at the start of the interview, or actually offline of what's going to be coming out in July, which is right around the time when this podcast is going to be released.

Did you want to share with our audience what's happening?

[00:34:23] Jodie Cook: Yes, absolutely. I have a new book out in July, July 2022. It's called a 10-year career. And I actually wrote this book in the first 90 minutes of every single day while my sale was going through because I was so impatient and I knew that I needed to stop being impatient and stop following up the buyer because that wouldn't work in my favor.

So I channeled all this impatient energy into planning out a book and making it happen and then got a publisher and a cover and all the exciting stuff that goes with it. And yeah, it's out in July and it's all about how to start grow. And sell a business that might mean that you could do a huge chunk of your career within 10 years and then have a whole new decision to make after that, which might involve doing work, or it might involve doing something else.

[00:35:20] Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. And you know what we'll do in the show notes, we will have a link for all of your books. And when that book comes out, it'll just automatically appear there. And our listeners can pick up a copy, which I encourage you to do. And so Jodie, as we wrap this up, I was really thinking, as we went into this episode, I can't ask Jodie the favorite question.

I ask every guest with the Back to the Future, going back to the past, but I came up with a variation of it. So why don't you run with me on it very quickly because we have this tradition and tradition is tradition, right? That's just how we are creatures of habits, as you said. So for the benefit of our new listeners, imagine the movie Back to the Future and you have the magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time.

So Jodie is tomorrow morning. You look out your window, the DeLorean car is there. The door is open. It's waiting for you to hop on in, but unlike the last question where you went back in time, you're now going forward in time. And the question for you is this. Imagine now it's the future, Jodie, and you're on the precipice of having your second liquidity event.

And I'm sure there's all kinds of lessons learned in the future. But sometimes as we progress in the future, we forget what we've learned in the past. So when you look at your magnificently successful first liquidity event, what advice do you have for your future self of lessons learned or life wisdom or, hey, Jodie, do this, but don't do that.

What do you think that would be?

[00:36:43] Jodie Cook: Well, this is difficult. I thought I'd got away with this from answering it last time.

So, something that I only realized in the last month or so, but I kept all the messages and all the things that the team put together for me when I did the handover and when I left and it was so amazing looking back, and now that I'm back in the United Kingdom for a month or so, I've met up with a lot of my old team members and that's been amazing.

So I would keep everything screenshot, everything that your team members say to you about our, thanks for this and things of that. And they give you feedback about things, keep them all, put them all in a folder and revisit them later because when you don't have a team around you, that's the stuff that you're like, oh, I really loved that.

And it reminds you of these amazing people that you used to work with, who made such a difference to your life when you had the business. And it feels like they really important people to keep in touch with because you've just been through so much together.

[00:37:38] Jeffrey Feldberg: Reliving those magic moments as I like to call them with people who are special in your life at that time. That's wonderful advice. Well, Jodie, a heartfelt thank you for spending some time with us. If our listeners would like to get in touch with you online, what would be the best place?

[00:37:54] Jodie Cook: Please visit jodiecook.com and feel free to message through the contact form there. There's a link to my blog there. I blog twice a week and then all the social media links are there too.

[00:38:04] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. We'll have all that in the show notes for our listeners. Well, Jodie, thank you for taking part of your day and spending it with us on The Deep Wealth Sell My Business Podcast and as always, please stay healthy and safe.

[00:38:14] Jodie Cook: Thank you very much.

[00:38:15] Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me.

[00:38:18] Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions.

[00:38:28] Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity

[00:38:33] Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

[00:38:39] Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix.

[00:38:55] Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately.

[00:39:17] Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended.

[00:39:28] Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

[00:39:41] Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even.

[00:39:59] Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

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[00:40:26] Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever.

[00:40:45] Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table?

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

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