March 27, 2025 • 13 mins
In this episode, host Rachel Foster pauses her vacation to inspire you to evaluate your personal toolkit for growth and progress on your journey. She offers practical tips for quick improvements and introduces the 'Phenomenal Five Challenge' to empower listeners to identify and harness their most effective tools and habits.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Welcome to Imperfect Genius, the podcast that provides technical advice on effectivelynavigating the business development journey and offers advice on building successful
careers in the tech industry.
I'm your host, Rachel Foster, a tech professional, educator, and entrepreneur.
Hey everybody.
I am actually supposed to be on break this week and very nearly forgot that I needed toput out a podcast episode.
(00:36):
I'm celebrating the achievement of a big milestone last week.
achieving one of my goals and taking the week off this week.
But as I mentioned, I forgot that I had to put out a podcast episode this week.
So I'm gonna keep this episode short and straightforward.
The theme in the community in the Phenomenal Journey by Imperfect Genius community thismonth is equipping yourself for the journey ahead.
(01:04):
And we touched on this topic a little bit in the last episode with Ryan Fortman when wetalked about
taking advantage of free resources that might be provided to you if you're in corporateAmerica by your company and using those resources to upskill, to improve your skills, gain
new skills, take care, use professional development resources to improve your, to makesome progress on your personal growth.
(01:30):
So again, we touched on this a little bit in the last episode, but today we're gonna do atoolkit check-in.
So whether you're,
navigating a career in tech or you're running your own business, it's always a good ideato take stock of where you are.
And what we're going to do today is we're going to take stock of the tools, habits, andmaybe some small tweaks that you can make in order to have a big impact on your progress.
(01:57):
Because progress is not about perfection.
It's about momentum.
So you ready?
Let's dig in.
Let's start by
thinking about what's in your toolkit right now.
And it may be helpful to think of these in terms of groups, because if I just say, okay,what's in your toolkit right now?
(02:18):
I know personally, I would just draw a blank.
Like, I don't know, what are you talking about?
Give me some examples.
So it might be helpful to think about these in groups.
So let's say mindset tools would be one group.
So affirmations, journaling, morning rituals, something like that.
Things that help you.
set your mind, clear your mind.
(02:39):
In the Phenomenal Journey by Imperfect Genius community, we have a work-life balance habittracker that folks can use on a daily basis to just sort of make sure that they're getting
their mind right for the day and they're setting aside time for important work and they'rehaving some time to do a little bit of digital detox at the end of the day.
(03:00):
So what tools are you using?
What mindset tools are you using to make sure that
You're staying focused on your goals.
Another category, obviously, that being that this is a tech focused podcast, I'm going tosay tech tools.
And obviously that's a hugely broad topic.
So again, if somebody were asking me this, would be like, that's just too broad.
(03:23):
Give me some examples.
I'll give you some examples of tech tools that were heavily used by me in the last monthin order to achieve that goal that I mentioned.
So they were Canva, Grammarly,
ChatGPT, Riverside FM, and iMovie.
And you might think, wow, okay, that's a pretty weird mix of tools.
(03:44):
But they, again, I was achieving a particular goal.
was writing a course on writing and recording a course that's gonna be published.
It's in beta test right now.
It'll be published publicly soon.
So more on that in maybe a future episode.
But so yeah, so those were the tech tools that were
(04:04):
helping me to achieve my goals in the last month or last couple of months.
So what tech tools are you using?
What are the tools that are most important and they're helping you meet your goals?
Just something to think about.
And again, right now we're just assessing what's in your toolkit right now.
Another grouping that you might consider are community tools.
So are you a part of mastermind groups, networking groups, co-working spaces?
(04:27):
Do you have a go-to accountability partner?
Are you a member of Phenomenal Journey by Imperfect Genius?
So what community tools are you using to help keep you motivated?
Because community is an important part of achieving your goals because there's a lot youcan do in isolation, but you can't do everything in isolation.
having a community surrounding you to support you is an important part of the journey.
(04:51):
So I want you to pause and jot down what's actually working for you in your toolkit rightnow.
And so like say out loud, or if you're a community member,
post this in the community, what's one tool or habit that's keeping me grounded or growingthis month?
That's what I want you to think about.
(05:13):
All right, so next up, I'm gonna give you a couple of five minute level ups to thinkabout.
So these are gonna be like many moves that you can do to shift your momentum, especiallyif you're feeling stuck or tired.
So first I'm gonna say tidy up your digital workspace.
So clear up your desktop or your home phone screen in order to reduce decision fatigue.
(05:34):
Now, in addition to tidying up the actual desktop or phone screen,
I want you to also think about tidying up your notifications.
Do you really need to be notified when there's a new word that posted for the day or, youknow, I can't even think of there's the dozens.
I almost feel like I want to say hundreds, the dozens of unnecessary notifications that Iget or I used to.
(06:00):
I've turned most of them off.
The ones that I do want, they still tend to be a little bit noisier than I want like that.
I get them way more frequently.
than I feel is necessary.
I personally, my phone has, my phone and my computer have the capability of putting do notdisturb modes on and it's not just do not disturb generally, but you can set different
(06:22):
modes.
And I've got one for work time.
So during work time, there are certain things that I allow through.
And then I've got one for personal time, which is the opposite.
when...
When I'm done working for the day, I put my phone in personal mode, which means I don'twant to see a notification that I got an email about work because I don't want to have to
take away from my personal time to go think about that thing.
(06:43):
Like again, maybe even if I'm choosing to ignore it, it's not in my brain.
I've now seen the notification.
I've seen the first sentence or so, and now that's in my brain and I'm thinking about it Idon't need that.
have a weekend mode.
And you know what?
I'm going to be honest, I'm not going to swear out, even though this is an explicitpodcast, I have an F the world mode.
So there are times when I don't want anything or anything from anybody, including I havein that mode, my screen is dark and like it's almost like my phone is turned off, but it's
(07:10):
not.
just in case of absolute emergency or disaster, I will be able to get some information,but it's pretty much, it's almost like my phone is off.
So again, back to the point, tidying up your digital workspace.
So not just your desktop, but also
Think about your notifications and all the things that distract you when you're trying tohave focus work time or you're focusing on a specific goal.
(07:35):
So do that.
The next five minute level up I'm going to give you is to record a 60 second self preptalk.
You can use your phone, say your name, remind yourself why you started, whatever thejourney is that you're on.
Save it for those tough days.
I haven't done this exactly as I just stated it to you, but I do have something similar onmy phone.
(07:59):
I was reading Arlen Hamilton's book about damn time.
And at the beginning of it, she asked a question about whether or not it's about thinkingit's she's talking to potential business owners.
And she asked the question about whether or not you should keep going.
Like, when you're at a point and you're trying to decide if this thing is worth it andwhether or not you should keep going.
(08:21):
she asks.
to, she says, close out, paraphrasing.
I don't remember exactly how it went, but it was something like, close your eyes and thinkabout in five years time, this thing that you're working on, whatever this goal is that
you're working towards, this business that you're working on, whatever, think about thatthing not existing in five years time.
And are you okay with that?
(08:42):
And to be clear, it's not just that you didn't do it, but that it doesn't exist at all.
And are you okay with that?
And I did that and
I literally recorded my answer, even though I was just reading the book, but I chose torecord my answer as a voice memo on my phone.
the answer was I was not okay with it.
(09:03):
know, with the time I was working on launching Imperfect Genius and I was not okay with itnot existing.
I knew the reasons why.
I basically, and I said all that to myself.
And sometimes I go back and I listen to that because sometimes when I'm trying to realignmy goals or I need to pivot and I know things are not going.
the way that I want.
And I'm like, what am I even trying to do here?
And I go back and I listen to that voice memo to remind myself why I'm doing what I'mdoing.
(09:27):
So, you know, maybe that's what your your self pep talk looks like or whatever.
But, you know, just take 60 seconds and record something that you can listen to on ontough days to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing.
All right.
Last five minute level up that I'm to give you is to do a skill swipe.
(09:48):
So if you're gonna be on your phone anyway, doom scrolling, instead of doom scrolling orafter you're done doom scrolling, whenever that finishes, take five minutes to just scroll
and browse a new tutorial or newsletter or a blog post or something in your industry orsomething related to the goal that you're trying to achieve.
Because you know what, like a new insight can give you fresh energy.
(10:09):
So we're calling this a skill swipe.
So instead of swiping through whatever the current nonsense is that's going on,
Pick something, look, again, whether it's a blog post, a newsletter, a tutorial, whatever,just spend five minutes on the topic that you're trying to achieve, that's related to the
(10:30):
goal that you're trying to achieve.
Sound good?
All right, so just to recap, those five minute level ups were tidy up your digitalworkspace, record a 60 second self-pep talk, and do a skill swipe.
Okay.
finally, I'm going to give you a challenge.
We're going to call this the Phenomenal Five Challenge.
So I want you to choose five of the tools that you listed above or previously, five tools,habits, or people that are helping you right now.
(10:59):
So take a minute to list those out and write those.
Again, we're calling these the Phenomenal Five.
So write those in a notepad on your private journal if you're part of the PhenomenalJourney by Imperfect Genius Community and you want to hold yourself accountable, post
those.
in the community so we can hold you accountable.
So again, take a minute to think about that five tools, habits, or people that are helpingyou right now and list those out.
(11:24):
Then after you do that, I want you to ask yourself, what's one of these that I can usedifferently or more intentionally this week?
And I, I want to rephrase, I don't know, I don't know how I want to rephrase that, but Iwant to be clear that we're not, we don't use people.
We may use the help that they provide us, but we don't use people.
(11:46):
So when I say use, I mean it in terms of utilizing the, whatever the benefit that you'regetting from that person or that habit or that tool.
So again, you're going to list out five tools, habits for people, and then you're going toask yourself, what's one of these that I can use differently or more intentionally this
(12:07):
week?
Again, these are just,
quick little level ups to get you unstuck and out of your head when you're trying to makeprogress on your journey.
Because your journey doesn't have to be about more hustle and more hours and more time.
It can just be about being intentional, making sure that you're intentional with thelittle bit of time.
(12:31):
If you've only got five minutes, the little bit of time that you got, be intentional withthat.
Because small shifts
and your skills and your toolkit can lead to big moves in your momentum.
Sound good?
All right, I can't wait to hear what's in your toolkit this month.
Let's check in and keep things going.
you're part of the, again, if you're part of the Imperfect Genius community, thephenomenal journey by Imperfect Genius, then please share in the community so we can help
(12:59):
you hold yourself accountable.
If you're not a part of the community, you can join us at community.imperfectgenius.com.
If you're not really sure that we've got a sightseeing plan, that's a good way to to dipin and give it a look in that plan.
can take advantage of that work-life balance.
Have a tracker that I mentioned.
You can connect with me on social media at Ask Imperfect Genius.
(13:22):
If you've got questions, you can give us a call at 404-425-9862.
And until next time, this is Rachel Foster reminding you that while your journey may notbe flawless, it can be phenomenal.
Welcome to Imperfect Genius, the podcast that provides technical advice on effectivelynavigating the business development journey and offers advice on building successful
careers in the tech industry.
I'm your host, Rachel Foster, a tech professional, educator, and entrepreneur.
Hey everybody.
I am actually supposed to be on break this week and very nearly forgot that I needed toput out a podcast episode.
(00:36):
I'm celebrating the achievement of a big milestone last week.
achieving one of my goals and taking the week off this week.
But as I mentioned, I forgot that I had to put out a podcast episode this week.
So I'm gonna keep this episode short and straightforward.
The theme in the community in the Phenomenal Journey by Imperfect Genius community thismonth is equipping yourself for the journey ahead.
(01:04):
And we touched on this topic a little bit in the last episode with Ryan Fortman when wetalked about
taking advantage of free resources that might be provided to you if you're in corporateAmerica by your company and using those resources to upskill, to improve your skills, gain
new skills, take care, use professional development resources to improve your, to makesome progress on your personal growth.
(01:30):
So again, we touched on this a little bit in the last episode, but today we're gonna do atoolkit check-in.
So whether you're,
navigating a career in tech or you're running your own business, it's always a good ideato take stock of where you are.
And what we're going to do today is we're going to take stock of the tools, habits, andmaybe some small tweaks that you can make in order to have a big impact on your progress.
(01:57):
Because progress is not about perfection.
It's about momentum.
So you ready?
Let's dig in.
Let's start by
thinking about what's in your toolkit right now.
And it may be helpful to think of these in terms of groups, because if I just say, okay,what's in your toolkit right now?
(02:18):
I know personally, I would just draw a blank.
Like, I don't know, what are you talking about?
Give me some examples.
So it might be helpful to think about these in groups.
So let's say mindset tools would be one group.
So affirmations, journaling, morning rituals, something like that.
Things that help you.
set your mind, clear your mind.
(02:39):
In the Phenomenal Journey by Imperfect Genius community, we have a work-life balance habittracker that folks can use on a daily basis to just sort of make sure that they're getting
their mind right for the day and they're setting aside time for important work and they'rehaving some time to do a little bit of digital detox at the end of the day.
(03:00):
So what tools are you using?
What mindset tools are you using to make sure that
You're staying focused on your goals.
Another category, obviously, that being that this is a tech focused podcast, I'm going tosay tech tools.
And obviously that's a hugely broad topic.
So again, if somebody were asking me this, would be like, that's just too broad.
(03:23):
Give me some examples.
I'll give you some examples of tech tools that were heavily used by me in the last monthin order to achieve that goal that I mentioned.
So they were Canva, Grammarly,
ChatGPT, Riverside FM, and iMovie.
And you might think, wow, okay, that's a pretty weird mix of tools.
(03:44):
But they, again, I was achieving a particular goal.
was writing a course on writing and recording a course that's gonna be published.
It's in beta test right now.
It'll be published publicly soon.
So more on that in maybe a future episode.
But so yeah, so those were the tech tools that were
(04:04):
helping me to achieve my goals in the last month or last couple of months.
So what tech tools are you using?
What are the tools that are most important and they're helping you meet your goals?
Just something to think about.
And again, right now we're just assessing what's in your toolkit right now.
Another grouping that you might consider are community tools.
So are you a part of mastermind groups, networking groups, co-working spaces?
(04:27):
Do you have a go-to accountability partner?
Are you a member of Phenomenal Journey by Imperfect Genius?
So what community tools are you using to help keep you motivated?
Because community is an important part of achieving your goals because there's a lot youcan do in isolation, but you can't do everything in isolation.
having a community surrounding you to support you is an important part of the journey.
(04:51):
So I want you to pause and jot down what's actually working for you in your toolkit rightnow.
And so like say out loud, or if you're a community member,
post this in the community, what's one tool or habit that's keeping me grounded or growingthis month?
That's what I want you to think about.
(05:13):
All right, so next up, I'm gonna give you a couple of five minute level ups to thinkabout.
So these are gonna be like many moves that you can do to shift your momentum, especiallyif you're feeling stuck or tired.
So first I'm gonna say tidy up your digital workspace.
So clear up your desktop or your home phone screen in order to reduce decision fatigue.
(05:34):
Now, in addition to tidying up the actual desktop or phone screen,
I want you to also think about tidying up your notifications.
Do you really need to be notified when there's a new word that posted for the day or, youknow, I can't even think of there's the dozens.
I almost feel like I want to say hundreds, the dozens of unnecessary notifications that Iget or I used to.
(06:00):
I've turned most of them off.
The ones that I do want, they still tend to be a little bit noisier than I want like that.
I get them way more frequently.
than I feel is necessary.
I personally, my phone has, my phone and my computer have the capability of putting do notdisturb modes on and it's not just do not disturb generally, but you can set different
(06:22):
modes.
And I've got one for work time.
So during work time, there are certain things that I allow through.
And then I've got one for personal time, which is the opposite.
when...
When I'm done working for the day, I put my phone in personal mode, which means I don'twant to see a notification that I got an email about work because I don't want to have to
take away from my personal time to go think about that thing.
(06:43):
Like again, maybe even if I'm choosing to ignore it, it's not in my brain.
I've now seen the notification.
I've seen the first sentence or so, and now that's in my brain and I'm thinking about it Idon't need that.
have a weekend mode.
And you know what?
I'm going to be honest, I'm not going to swear out, even though this is an explicitpodcast, I have an F the world mode.
So there are times when I don't want anything or anything from anybody, including I havein that mode, my screen is dark and like it's almost like my phone is turned off, but it's
(07:10):
not.
just in case of absolute emergency or disaster, I will be able to get some information,but it's pretty much, it's almost like my phone is off.
So again, back to the point, tidying up your digital workspace.
So not just your desktop, but also
Think about your notifications and all the things that distract you when you're trying tohave focus work time or you're focusing on a specific goal.
(07:35):
So do that.
The next five minute level up I'm going to give you is to record a 60 second self preptalk.
You can use your phone, say your name, remind yourself why you started, whatever thejourney is that you're on.
Save it for those tough days.
I haven't done this exactly as I just stated it to you, but I do have something similar onmy phone.
(07:59):
I was reading Arlen Hamilton's book about damn time.
And at the beginning of it, she asked a question about whether or not it's about thinkingit's she's talking to potential business owners.
And she asked the question about whether or not you should keep going.
Like, when you're at a point and you're trying to decide if this thing is worth it andwhether or not you should keep going.
(08:21):
she asks.
to, she says, close out, paraphrasing.
I don't remember exactly how it went, but it was something like, close your eyes and thinkabout in five years time, this thing that you're working on, whatever this goal is that
you're working towards, this business that you're working on, whatever, think about thatthing not existing in five years time.
And are you okay with that?
(08:42):
And to be clear, it's not just that you didn't do it, but that it doesn't exist at all.
And are you okay with that?
And I did that and
I literally recorded my answer, even though I was just reading the book, but I chose torecord my answer as a voice memo on my phone.
the answer was I was not okay with it.
(09:03):
know, with the time I was working on launching Imperfect Genius and I was not okay with itnot existing.
I knew the reasons why.
I basically, and I said all that to myself.
And sometimes I go back and I listen to that because sometimes when I'm trying to realignmy goals or I need to pivot and I know things are not going.
the way that I want.
And I'm like, what am I even trying to do here?
And I go back and I listen to that voice memo to remind myself why I'm doing what I'mdoing.
(09:27):
So, you know, maybe that's what your your self pep talk looks like or whatever.
But, you know, just take 60 seconds and record something that you can listen to on ontough days to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing.
All right.
Last five minute level up that I'm to give you is to do a skill swipe.
(09:48):
So if you're gonna be on your phone anyway, doom scrolling, instead of doom scrolling orafter you're done doom scrolling, whenever that finishes, take five minutes to just scroll
and browse a new tutorial or newsletter or a blog post or something in your industry orsomething related to the goal that you're trying to achieve.
Because you know what, like a new insight can give you fresh energy.
(10:09):
So we're calling this a skill swipe.
So instead of swiping through whatever the current nonsense is that's going on,
Pick something, look, again, whether it's a blog post, a newsletter, a tutorial, whatever,just spend five minutes on the topic that you're trying to achieve, that's related to the
(10:30):
goal that you're trying to achieve.
Sound good?
All right, so just to recap, those five minute level ups were tidy up your digitalworkspace, record a 60 second self-pep talk, and do a skill swipe.
Okay.
finally, I'm going to give you a challenge.
We're going to call this the Phenomenal Five Challenge.
So I want you to choose five of the tools that you listed above or previously, five tools,habits, or people that are helping you right now.
(10:59):
So take a minute to list those out and write those.
Again, we're calling these the Phenomenal Five.
So write those in a notepad on your private journal if you're part of the PhenomenalJourney by Imperfect Genius Community and you want to hold yourself accountable, post
those.
in the community so we can hold you accountable.
So again, take a minute to think about that five tools, habits, or people that are helpingyou right now and list those out.
(11:24):
Then after you do that, I want you to ask yourself, what's one of these that I can usedifferently or more intentionally this week?
And I, I want to rephrase, I don't know, I don't know how I want to rephrase that, but Iwant to be clear that we're not, we don't use people.
We may use the help that they provide us, but we don't use people.
(11:46):
So when I say use, I mean it in terms of utilizing the, whatever the benefit that you'regetting from that person or that habit or that tool.
So again, you're going to list out five tools, habits for people, and then you're going toask yourself, what's one of these that I can use differently or more intentionally this
(12:07):
week?
Again, these are just,
quick little level ups to get you unstuck and out of your head when you're trying to makeprogress on your journey.
Because your journey doesn't have to be about more hustle and more hours and more time.
It can just be about being intentional, making sure that you're intentional with thelittle bit of time.
(12:31):
If you've only got five minutes, the little bit of time that you got, be intentional withthat.
Because small shifts
and your skills and your toolkit can lead to big moves in your momentum.
Sound good?
All right, I can't wait to hear what's in your toolkit this month.
Let's check in and keep things going.
you're part of the, again, if you're part of the Imperfect Genius community, thephenomenal journey by Imperfect Genius, then please share in the community so we can help
(12:59):
you hold yourself accountable.
If you're not a part of the community, you can join us at community.imperfectgenius.com.
If you're not really sure that we've got a sightseeing plan, that's a good way to to dipin and give it a look in that plan.
can take advantage of that work-life balance.
Have a tracker that I mentioned.
You can connect with me on social media at Ask Imperfect Genius.
(13:22):
If you've got questions, you can give us a call at 404-425-9862.
And until next time, this is Rachel Foster reminding you that while your journey may notbe flawless, it can be phenomenal.
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