Episode 542: Idea vs. Execution and Why Most People Never Build Anything

People love talking about ideas. But ideas are cheap. The real difference between people who build things and people who stay stuck is simple: execution. In this Habits & Hustle episode, my foil Shani and I break down why execution always beats ideas, why overthinking keeps people stuck, and how ridiculous products like the Pet Rock and Chia Pet still turned into massive businesses because someone actually launched them. If you've been sitting on an idea, waiting until everything is perfect, or telling yourself you need more time to figure it out, tune in and start executing. What's Discussed (01:29) Idea vs. execution and why great ideas mean nothing without action (03:18) Starting before you have the answers and figuring things out as you go (04:29) "Ridiculous" ideas that made millions like Chia Pet and Pet Rock (07:21) How modern entrepreneurs test ideas using social media and digital ads (08:47) Partnering with people who fill your skill gaps to execute faster (11:50) Creating your own luck by putting yourself where opportunities can happen Thank you to our sponsors: Rho Nutrition: Try Rho Nutrition today and experience the difference of Liposomal Technology. Use code JEN20 for 20% OFF everything at www.rhonutrition.com/discount/jen20 https://rhonutrition.com/discount/jen20. Prolon: Prolon is offering listeners 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit www.prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN https://prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use the code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift. Therasage: Visit www.therasage.com http://therasage.com and use code JEN to get 15% off your order. Your skin deserves this level of care. Air Doctor: Head to AirDoctorPro.com http://airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE to get UP TO $300 off today! AirDoctor comes with a 30-day money back guarantee, plus a 3-year warranty — an $84 value, free! Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen http://www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Momentous: Ready to try supplements that actually do what they claim? Head to www.livemomentous.com http://livemomentous.com and use code JEN for 35% off your first subscription. Manna Vitality: Try it now by using the code Jennifer20 at www.mannavitality.com http://mannavitality.com. Amp fit If you're ready to make consistency a habit without sacrificing your sanity, check out www.joinamp.com/jen http://joinamp.com/jen. Find more from Jen: Website: www.jennifercohen.com https://jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen http://instagram.com/therealjencohen Books: www.jennifercohen.com/books https://jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements http://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hi guys, this is Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

• 0:09Jen Cohen?

  Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsor Momentous. When your goal is health span, living better and longer, there are very few non-negotiables. One of them, quality. And when it comes to supplements designed for high performers, nobody does it better than Momentous. Momentus goes all in on NSF certification, which means every single batch is tested for heavy metals, harmful additives, and label accuracy. And that's why they're trusted by all 32 NFL teams and top collegiate sports dietitians across the country. Here's the thing, they don't sell every supplement under the sun,

• 0:52Jen Cohen?

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• 1:33Jen Cohen?

  Hello, and welcome back to Solos with my foil, Shawnee. Hi Shawnee. Hello. Before we start and dive right into the next topic, you know, I have to do the same rigmarole speech I say almost every other time I do this podcast, which is, if you haven't subscribed, please do so. It makes such a big difference in other people finding the show. It helps the algorithm, and I just would really greatly appreciate you guys subscribing. So please click the button below, and that would be really great. Also, if there's topics, things that you are... Interested or curious to know more about, please let me know. Please leave it in the comments.

• 2:15Jen Cohen?

  And also with ever any episode we do, back and forth dynamic interaction really helps us and helps us know, engage where and what we should be posting about what event, current events, what topics, what things you are the most interested in. So please, I encourage everybody to enter along on the dialogue and let us know. With that being said, today, we're going to talk about a little bit of business stuff. We're going to talk about the idea of idea versus the execution. You know, we always talk about the same, like it's 99% perspiration and only 1% inspiration.

• 2:56Jen Cohen?

  Again, same as idea versus execution because I'm a big believer that it doesn't matter how amazing your idea is, it's all about the execution. So even when I have something that I want to do that I'm working on, I don't mind telling people what that idea is because it always will come down to who executes on it better. So just having the idea means nothing, it does nothing. It doesn't guarantee any type of success or traction. All it does is say that, you know, you are, you have some innovative and creative great ideas. And if you don't do anything with them, it's just, it stays flat and nothing happens. So I really want to kind of really talk about this more because I want to get people inspired

• 3:41Jen Cohen?

  to not just have a good idea, but then to do things and act on them. So you can make that idea a reality. How's that sound?

• 3:50Speaker 02

  I love that. Things very important. I've always been a very big idea person and I think I need to definitely be more of an execution gal.

• 3:57Jen Cohen?

  Listen, I mean, I got to be honest with you. Like there are people that I talk to who are still telling me about an idea or a thing that they're working on now that they were, they had the same idea and thing that they were working on 10 years ago, even longer, right? But they get distracted, they're working on other things, they're procrastinating. And the truth of the matter is like, Again, I couldn't, I can't even stress this enough. You're never going to have all the answers. You're never going to know everything. The most important thing is to just start whatever that thing is and figure it out as you go. Don't get stuck in the minutia. Don't get stuck in the thinking what you don't know. Think about what you do know and kind of keep on moving forward and ask questions

• 4:40Jen Cohen?

  and ask people who know better than you as you go. Because otherwise, you're going to be stuck with this idea and it will never become anything. I promise you. I promise you. That's why it's usually the same people who basically ideate and succeed over and over again. And it doesn't matter if that thing that they're doing fails. They can fail a hundred times, but one thing will hit. Versus that person who's trying to like get this one thing off the ground forever and ever and ever. And some of these things are amazing ideas, but then, you know, it doesn't matter if it, if it, it falls because you're not doing anything for it. So let's talk about execution a little bit. Let's talk about some of the things actually that I thought were stupid things that had a good execution

• 5:25Jen Cohen?

  and a really great marketing plan and it became massive. Look at those pets that have like the Chia Pets.

• 5:31Speaker 02

  Chia Pets?

• 5:32Jen Cohen?

  Remember the Chia Pets?

• 5:32Speaker 02

  Of course. How could I forget? I love them.

• 5:34Jen Cohen?

  Who would have thought in a million years that would have ever been anything, right? Do you know much, how much money they made off of those Chia Pets?

• 5:41Speaker 02

  Do you know the number?

• 5:41Jen Cohen?

  I don't even know. I should, I should.

• 5:42Speaker 02

  Probably like billions?

• 5:43Jen Cohen?

  Look at it. No, like a Chia, how much did, just look it up. Chia Pet. I mean, I don't know, worth. I don't know. Let's see what comes up. They're sixteen dollars a piece and they made millions, millions of dollars every year. I mean, who would have thought?

• 5:58Speaker 02

  Over five hundred million.

• 5:59Jen Cohen?

  Over five, exactly. I mean, I can go over all sorts of crazy things. The Chia Pet, the kookiest thing I've ever seen in my life.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  Did you see the potato thing? Potato parcel?

• 6:08Jen Cohen?

  Uh, which one is that?

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Oh my God, it absolutely crushed. It was when they, they would write messages on potatoes. I think it might actually still be active.

• 6:15Jen Cohen?

  I do remember that.

• 6:15Speaker 02

  Yes, and they are still active. They kill it. It's so funny. It's such a crazy concept, but they crushed.

• 6:21Jen Cohen?

  They crushed it. How about also the Beanie Babies? Remember those?

• 6:24Speaker 02

  Oh my God, yeah. Beanie Babies. I forgot about those.

• 6:26Jen Cohen?

  Right?

• 6:27Speaker 02

  Baby.

• 6:28Jen Cohen?

  Baby, baby, the slink. I'm gonna name a couple of other things. And by the way, this the Chia Pet is on like every single list of the most ridiculous things that actually worked. Oh, the pet rock. Do you remember the pet rock? The pet rock was a big one, too. It was a rock in a cardboard box. It came with thirty six page about how to care. It came with a thirty six page manual on how to care for the silly pet rock. Um, it was made by creator Gary Dahl, who's a rich man. He sold more than 1.5 million pet rocks, which he bought for a penny. He bought each rock for a penny and sold each rock for $4.

• 7:07Speaker 02

  He couldn't just go to the street and get rocks?

• 7:09Jen Cohen?

  Listen, people want it for a penny.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  That's hilarious.

• 7:12Jen Cohen?

  I put, I, and he says, I put about $5 million of today's money in my pocket, blah, blah, blah. He talks all about it. So like, this is the thing, right? Like, no idea is too small. No idea is too stupid, too outrageous. You need to think really out of the box or just figure something out. There's, there's always a need for something like, I can go on about these things. Do you remember the Koosh Balls? Those kooky balls?

• 7:36Speaker 02

  You like the springy ones?

• 7:38Jen Cohen?

  I mean, yeah, those things. Guess how much that made?

• 7:41Speaker 02

  Honestly, like at this point, it's a crazy millions. Just, I'm assuming millions.

• 7:45Jen Cohen?

  They sold the company for $100 million.

• 7:47Speaker 02

  Jesus.

• 7:48Jen Cohen?

  The Snuggie. There's so many of these.

• 7:50Speaker 02

  The Snuggie is like half a bill, no? Or higher?

• 7:52Jen Cohen?

  The Snuggie was, I don't know.

• 7:55Speaker 02

  The last I took the Snuggie, but that was a few years ago.

• 7:56Jen Cohen?

  They sold more than 30 million of the body blankets called the Snuggie.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  They topped, oh, 500 million.

• 8:03Jen Cohen?

  They made more than 500 million.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  Crazy.

• 8:10Jen Cohen?

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• 9:31Jen Cohen?

  So, a lot of these things, you know what they did for execution? It was a different time a little bit. They did a lot of those made-for TV things. Like, a lot of like, they bought airtime on TV, and then they sold them on TV. That would be kind of, that would be the equivalent of doing like, social media right now, or digital marketing. So, my suggestion, if you're, if you have an idea or a product that you think is the next, you know, the next big thing, do small media buys, but do them in, in social media and/or do them in digital marketing. You can buy ads on podcasts. I'm not saying that to buy one of mine. I'm saying like, in general, that's how people are marketing their stuff right now. A lot of these big brands, what they're doing is

• 10:14Jen Cohen?

  they are buying ad space on podcasts, because that's the new medium where people's ears and eyes are, right? So, you go where, you follow the trend, you follow where the people are. Podcasts, you go on TikTok, you do Instagram, Facebook, all those obvious things, influencer marketing. You can also do, and you do those podcasts with media buys. But you start small. You know, you take a very small budget and see if it, if it moves the needle. You can do a lot of conversions. Like, I would recommend people Really learning about how to do digital sales and digital marketing if you have a product that you really believe in. And if you don't, try to find somebody that's really good in

• 10:58Jen Cohen?

  that space. And maybe what you can do is you partner with that person and you can do a barter exchange, or you can also, you know, give them a percentage of the business, like some stock, to do something that you otherwise don't have the ability or understand how to do. Find people where you are weak to basically to amplify your, your product, your business, and compensate for where you're weak with things that you're strong in. And to me, that's how you start. So you need to be super resourceful and find those people and make little, make baby steps in the right direction. So you can actually start on the execution.

• 11:39Jen Cohen?

  It's like a shame to me when I see people and I'm like, oh, my God, like, that's such a stupid idea. How did that work? And they're like, well, I just, I just started. I just did it. I don't know. Like, do you know how many times I hear, I hear on a daily basis, how the person had zero experience, zero talent, zero, zero, zero of everything. But the only thing that they did do was attempt. They just started and they started with the small thing that they could figure out. And then that thing steamrolled and led to something else and led to something else. And that's really the only thing you do. And that's what you do in execution, right? It's not, it's not about your idea. It's not about

• 12:20Jen Cohen?

  inspiration. It's literally about perspiration. It's about the work you put in. And if you fail, you just get right back up and try something different.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  A hundred percent. It's interesting, the correlation to this conversation and to how Bobby Althoff like took off. Because I was listening to her podcast about how she started everything and the theme.

• 12:40Jen Cohen?

  By the way, for people who don't know who that is, she's an ex awkward mom on TikTok.

• 12:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, no, she, yeah, so she started with awkward mom content on TikTok, but she started a podcast called The Pretty Awesome Podcast.

• 12:51Jen Cohen?

  Oh, is that what it's called?

• 12:52Speaker 02

  I think it's called, or The Pretty Good Podcast.

• 12:54Jen Cohen?

  Oh, I thought it was called Awkward Mom.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 12:57Jen Cohen?

  Okay, yes, yes, okay.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  And she interviewed obviously some big names. She's had Drake on, which is really crazy. And I, the theme of like what she said that I thought was so spot on was like, she didn't know what the hell she was doing. She just did it and she just sort of ran headfirst. And I think a lot of people are very cautious when they go into things like that. Like they wouldn't want to interview Drake right away because they're nervous that their interview style isn't good, that their production quality isn't good, that this, that, and the other isn't put together. They don't know how to run a YouTube or even get the audio up. But she didn't really care about any of that stuff. And I think the way that she just kind of went about doing it and just like trying diving headfirst, who cares? You know?

• 13:31Jen Cohen?

  Okay.

• 13:32Speaker 02

  I feel like is really cool.

• 13:33Jen Cohen?

  Let me just say something about that. I agree, of course, wholeheartedly with what you're saying. I mean, this entire podcast and everything I talk about is about not overthinking something and diving in headfirst, really, and being bold and trying something. There is an element to what happened with her, though, that's luck. And I think that we can't discount luck. But in my opinion, you've got to be out there to even make your own luck. That's the thing. She got lucky because she had someone else on. He, Drake so happened to see something that she did that he liked. And then he started to follow her. And then she was very smart and sure and took advantage of that opportunity and asked him to be on the podcast. And then the podcast blew up and the rest happened. But what I'm saying is you have to create your own luck.

• 14:16Jen Cohen?

  Yes, she was lucky that Drake saw that. Not all of you are going to have Drake in your back pocket or in your corner. But my point is you can create your own luck by putting yourself in places where opportunities can happen for yourself. That is what has to happen. So it's about networking. It's about talking to people. It's about asking a lot of questions. It's about doing these little things because as little as something may seem when you're doing it, it will lead you to something else and things compound over time and they accumulate. And that's how you find other opportunities and seek other different things. But none of these things happen when you're sitting there with analysis paralysis and thinking, how and what I don't do, I don't know.

• 15:00Jen Cohen?

  Nothing happens on your couch. You've got to get out there and you've got to start moving. And or else whatever you're working on, whatever idea, whatever concept, whatever thing that that thing is, it will never move without that happening.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  You should brand that line into merch. Nothing happens on your couch. It's a great line.

• 15:18Jen Cohen?

  Nothing happens on your couch. Well, some, something can happen on your couch.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  Things happen on your couch. It's just not, you know, the like, well.

• 15:26Jen Cohen?

  Listen. Anyway, the point is, that's the point. Okay? It's only, an idea is only an idea without any execution behind it, or action, or movement, or any of that stuff. And I know we say this all the time, and I repackage that, but it's because it's so important. And if there's anything that you get from my podcast, or any of the things that I talk about, it is the fact that it has nothing to do with talent or skills. It has to do with action, and being bold, and chasing what you want, and not just taking what's in front of you, and making shit happen for yourself.

• 16:08Jen Cohen?

  Because nobody is going to be a better advocate for you making things happen the way you want to than yourself. You need to design, you need to curate the life that you want, do the things that you want, spend the time doing things that you want, do the career that you want. But you need to do the work to get there. I like it. Like, follow, subscribe. Like, follow, subscribe. Have a great one, guys.