SHOW NOTES:

You have permission to change who you are at any time. Isn’t that crazy? You can determine who you are and what you want to be, along with how you approach situations. Ready to dive in? Let’s figure out what your 2021 personality is with this simple quiz!

Try Bright Pages today to kick off your journaling habit in 2021! Sign up at brightpages.com!

10 Questions to Decide What You Want Your 2021 Personality to Be (3:35)
1. Do you want to be a coach, player, or spectator? (3:42)
2. What people do you want to reach? (4:11)
3. How do you want to help those people? (4:34)
4. Where do you want to meet these people? (6:03)
5. What creative medium do you want to use to share your gifts? (6:30)
6. What do you want your look to be? (7:02)
7. How do you want to respond to challenges? (9:28)
8. Who is your alter ego? (10:33)
9. What are you not going to care about anymore? (11:34)
10. What’s the one thing that you’re going to care deeply about?(12:14)

One Liner: Remember, you’re a different person yesterday than you are today. Who you are as a person is fluid and dynamic so keep checking in with yourself.  (13:00)

Links
lindseyschwartz.com
brightpages.com

Review the Transcript:

Jess Ekstrom:
It is Jess Ekstrom, welcome back to Business on the Bright Side, and we are in full swing now of the U2.0 21 day writing challenge, but if you would like to join, you can still hop in. Head to businessonthebrightside.com and join our 21 day writing challenge and community for you to get clarity on who you want to be, and what you want to do, and in this episode, we’re going to help you do just that. This is going to be a quiz, so you can get a pad and pencil, or whatever you write with, and answer the questions that I’m going to ask you in this podcast. Let’s get started.

Jess Ekstrom:
What’s up, everybody. It is Jess Ekstrom, and welcome to Business on the Bright Side, the podcast where you can learn how to make a living and make a difference at the same time. Life is short, and so, is my attention span, so let’s get started. Let me start with this, you have permission to change who you are at any time. Isn’t that crazy? I mean, sometimes we feel like we have to be the person that everyone expects us to be, but we have permission to change who we are whenever we want. It’s funny, one of my good friends, Lindsey Schwartz, her podcast is awesome, Powerhouse Women, I’ve been on it twice, so definitely look for our episodes.

Jess Ekstrom:
I was with her a while ago. She was showing me some pictures, and I looked at it and it was only like a couple of years ago these pictures that she was showing me, and I said, “Lindsey, I don’t even recognize you.” She had longer, darker hair, different style, different vibe, and she goes, “Yeah, I totally redid myself one day. I hired a stylist.” And, she just completely redid her look and her vibe when she started her business, because she just wanted to step into a different personality, and just redo herself, and now she’s literally one of the most stylish people I know. She has this short blonde hair that she completely rocks, and she crafted her own look and feel as if she was designing her kitchen.

Jess Ekstrom:
I just thought it was such a cool reminder that you have permission to change who you are at any given point in time. You choose how you want to show up, and the new year, and this being a January is a perfect opportunity to do just that, but if you’re listening at a later date, you can really do this at any time. Sometimes it helps to get that slight push in the right direction of auditing who you are, how you want to show up in the world, and honestly, that’s what Bright Pages is all about. Bright Pages is my guided online journal for doers, so each day you have a different that forces you to think about what you want to create today. What is it that you want to do? How do you want to leave your mark? And, we even have prompt pathways where you can pick the goal, or the interests that you have, and you get designated prompts based on that goal.

Jess Ekstrom:
So, if you’re interested in learning more, you can head to brightpages.com, but for this podcast, I’m going to give you 10 questions, so permission to pause this podcast, grab a sheet of paper, or open up your computer, so you can decide what you want your 2021 personality to be. How do you want to show up in the world? And, let’s craft that right now, and I will be doing the same thing, so this is not just a one-way street. I feel like I need a little self-check as well. Question number one, do you want to be a coach, player, or a spectator? Do you want to guide people? Do you want to be in the game, or do you just want to sit back and watch for a little bit?

Jess Ekstrom:
It’s important to know what position that you want to play in your own life, because that’ll give you the confidence or give you at least the direction for how you want to show up today. Are you someone who’s going to lead people? Do you want to be the one in the game or are you going to sit back for a bit? Question number two, what people do you want to reach? Another way to ask this question is who do you want to serve? Who’s out there, who’s that specific kind of person, maybe it’s someone you actually know, or a group that you can think of, or maybe it’s something that you’re currently making up in your head, like an avatar, but who are the people that you want to reach?

Jess Ekstrom:
Question number three, how do you want to help those people? For me, I know that this specific kind of people that I want to reach are women who are trying to build something, women who are self-starters, and I actually haven’t been leaning into this group as much, because I was afraid that I was going to lose an audience that I had built through my Headbands of Hope platform, or through speaking engagements who maybe weren’t women who have dreams or ideas that they want to build, and so, I almost wasn’t catering to that community, because I was afraid that I wasn’t going to be checking all the boxes for the people who were currently following me.

Jess Ekstrom:
But, sometimes it takes that little shift, that really honing in on this mission statement that you have a specific group of people, that you are here to help, and this is how you’re going to serve them, so now the people that I want to reach are women, and how I want to help them is by giving them the tools to position themselves as experts, whether that’s through Bright Pages to find their story, or through Mic Drop Workshop, to tell their story through paid speaking engagements, or through book pop workshop, to get a paid book deal through their storytelling.

Jess Ekstrom:
And so, it’s hard, but choosing a lane based on who you want to help and how you want to serve them is super important before you start creating anything. Question number four, where do you want to meet these people? What I mean by that is, where are these people right now? What platform are they using? What are they doing throughout their day? And, where can you meet them? Is it through a newsletter? Is it through a podcast? Is it through developing a different social platform? Is it through going on Pinterest. Figure out where these people are that you want to serve and where can you meet them to help them.

Jess Ekstrom:
Question number five, what creative medium do you want to use to share your gifts? What I mean by this is, how do you want to share this message that you have, or share this product that you have, or service to meet these people? Is it through speaking engagements? Is it through writing? Is it through coaching, or is it through some sort of startup or entrepreneurship? Is it through podcasting? What medium feels right to you to share the gifts with the people that you want to serve?

Jess Ekstrom:
Hey, real quick. Have you ever felt like you were made for more, but you’re just not sure what it is that you want to create? Or, maybe you have a ton of ideas bubbling over like champagne, but you just don’t even know where to begin? A blank page in front of you can feel daunting and overwhelming, so I wanted to create a guided online journal designed to give people the clarity they need to make the world just a little bit brighter. Bright Pages is a guided online journal for people who do. Here’s how it works. You have your own private journal with a designated login, and each day you get a daily prompt inside the platform, but it’s also emailed to you, and you can just reply directly to that email with the prompt, and it will save it into your journal. Technology, am I right?

Jess Ekstrom:
One of my favorite Bright Pages features are the prompt pathways. You can pick a pathway based on a goal that you have, whether it’s writing a book, crafting a talk, or maybe starting a business, or even just getting out of a creative funk, then you’ll get prompts delivered to you for one week based on that specific pathway that you chose. I mean, sign me up. Business on the Bright Side listeners get a special discount so head to brightpages.com and enter the code pod to get 20% off the annual plan, that’s brightpages.com and enter the code pod P-O-D.

Jess Ekstrom:
Question number six, this is a fun one. What do you want your look to be? I talked to you about Lindsey Schwartz at the beginning of how she totally redid her look to fit the person that she wanted to be. Now, you don’t have to change anything about who you are, or how you look in order to be your best self, but sometimes it’s fun to kind of toy around with this idea of dressing for the role that you want to have. I know for me, I’ve been super slack with the combination of living in an airstream and a global pandemic, I don’t think I’ve worn anything outside of yoga pants, and sweatshirts, and sports bras for about a year, so this year I want to dress up more, not really for other people, but for myself, because I know that my attitude and my confidence changes when I can kind of dress for how I want to feel, and so, what do you want your look to be?

Jess Ekstrom:
Question number seven, how do you want to respond to challenges? Let’s say, shit hits a fan. What is the response that you want to have? Do you want to be the one who’s yelling, fire drill, or do you want to be who calmly approaches the situation, assesses it, and determines the best solution? Because I know for me sometimes when I visualize how I want to respond to things it’s different than how I actually respond. Sometimes when problems happen, I am the first to be, “We’re going down.” Like, lining up the chairs on the Titanic and making everyone panic, but then, I am so blown away by people who have this calm sense about them when faced with an issue that I’m like, “Shoot, I want to be like that.”

Jess Ekstrom:
And so, the way that I want to show up this year is by responding calmly to challenges, and also, recognizing that challenges are just a normal part of the process. Question number eight, who’s your alter ego. With alter ego, it can be the opposite of your personality, but it could also just be a different personality. How you show up in a situation. Now, I’m always a fan of being yourself, but sometimes I think that it can be constructive to step into a role when you do something big, or when you do something scary, and you say, you know what? I’m going to show up as this person.

Jess Ekstrom:
Sometimes whenever I have a big thing that I have to do or a meeting, or something that feels heavy, I show up as my inner Sara Blakely, and Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx. If you know me, you know that I’m obsessed with her, and so, if I’m about to go into a big negotiation or something where I really just want to step up, I’m like, “Yeah, I’m Sarah. This is my show. I’m calling all the shots, and this is how I’m showing up today.” Who’s your alter ego? How do you want to show up?

Jess Ekstrom:
Question number nine, what are you not going to care about anymore? Starting today, what is something that you just going to let go, not going to care about it anymore. For me, the thing that I’m deciding to not care about anymore is constantly being available and accessible to other people. I would get such bad anxiety about constantly responding to Dms, or texts, or emails, and constantly being on someone else’s timeline, and now, I’m like, I’m going to get to it when I get to it, because I’m calling the shots, this is my day, and I’ll respond to things later. What are you not going to care about anymore?

Jess Ekstrom:
Question number 10, this is the last question, and probably the most important one. What is one thing that you are going to care more about than anything else? For me, this year, I’m going to care about joy, and I’m actually getting emotional right now, and I don’t. I’m going to care about joy because I feel like I’ve cared more about goals, and systems, and processes than I’ve cared more about my happiness, and if I’m having a good time, and quite frankly, so many of the things that I do every day are fun if I let them be, so the thing that I’m going to care more about this year is joy.

Jess Ekstrom:
I’ll leave you with this, remember, you’re a different person yesterday than you are today. Who you are as a person is fluid and dynamic, so keep checking in with yourself. Thanks for listening to Business on the Bright Side. I’m your host, Jess Ekstrom. For all the show notes head to businessonthebrightside.com and be sure to tell me what you thought of this episode on Instagram, and if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, subscribe and write a review, wherever you consume podcasts. See you next time and keep chasing the bright side.