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Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Embracing Inspiration and Acting on Ideas with Liz Hutson, Principal Consultant at EGH, LLC 6-16-25
00:13:08
This episode features Liz Hutson, founder of EGH, LLC, as she explores how to recognize and act on moments of inspiration. Liz shares her framework for managing new ideas, the importance of white space in our schedules,
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Transcript14 lines
- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business podcast. We're thrilled today to be joined by Liz Hudson. Liz is a brilliant leader, consultant, engineer by background. She consults with private equity funds with large companies and business lines and growth. She also talks, she's a public speaker and also is going to talk today about inspiration and and when to grab onto an idea and double down on it. Liz, take a moment and introduce yourself and then talk to us about the core subject of the day.
- [00:35]
B
That sounds great, Scott, thank you. My name is Liz Hudson. As you said, I'm the founder and principal consultant of egh. We're focused on healthcare, mostly private equity, and we've been at this for close to 14 years. And yes, Scott, you know, this is, this is something that certainly gets me up every morning. It's this idea of when inspiration hits ideas, they're hitting us all the time. You know, when we're walking around waiting for a kid to practice or if it's like me, it's like all the ideas come to me as I'm trying to fall asleep or in the middle of the night or as I'm waking up at 4:30 in the morning and a great idea hits me and it's just how do we process those ideas? How do we take that precious thing that hits us that is creativity. What do we do with them? And I think this first idea, Scott, is that we should be ready for it. I think inspiration should always be expected, but the timing of when it comes is unexpected. I'll just say that one more time because that was sort of a profound idea for me as I was getting ready for today is this idea that inspiration should be expected, but the timing of when it comes is unexpected. And so it's important that we make space for it. I think a lot of times, especially in our go, go, go society and the lives that we live that are busy and full and they move at a high tempo, sometimes we don't build in the margin to have those ideas, so it's okay to have downtime and I'm not always great at that. I think I over schedule myself, but I, I think it's actually really good to build in margin in our calendars and our schedules and have space where we're a little bored because I think this is the time sometimes when we're the most creative and if we over schedule or filling those gaps with mindless scrolling on social media or flip on the TV or whatever that might be, we're really losing precious opportunities for fresh new ideas. So one thing I like to try to do is keep a notebook and pen and pencil by the side of my bed. Because for me, that's when those ideas hit the most or the most frequent or sometimes I'll put. Not sometimes I do put a note app on my phone. I have a note where I keep all ideas that sort of hit me. So the first one is be ready.
- [02:58]
A
For it and talk about this issue. Because I think this is such a critical issue of this right level of balance and capacity so you have room to think about, you know, to think of ideas to be not so constrained that you actually be creative. But. But then the flip side is you're too slow sometimes, at least for myself. My mind's not working at the pace it should be and I don't come up with ideas. But talk about that issue of building a capacity and how you manage that.
- [03:26]
B
Yeah, I think. And it's. Again, I'm not great at this, Scott. I think I am one of those people who wants to jam pack my day from the moment I wake up to the time I fall asleep. And I don't really put in that white space, but I think in the last couple of years, four or five years or so, I've really been trying to be more mindful of that and carving out times of thinking or like having a little gap between one meeting and the next to process what just happened. And maybe an idea that hit me or I'm having a conversation with someone and really a great idea just kind of came from that and allowing time and space to just process that. Right. Write it down and you know, what am I thinking about that? How might that change what I'm doing or what might that turn into for me? So it was this very deliberate scheduling of it. That's one piece of things. But again, the other thing, and again all of us are totally guilty of it, is like we've got three seconds at the traffic light waiting and instead of just letting your mind wander, grab our phones and we start scrolling on LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever just to fill that space and we don't need to. And that's a habit that I've been really trying to very deliberately put aside and go, I'm going to just be okay with not filling that with more information, but actually letting my mind wander.
- [04:45]
A
Yeah, no, I think that that is just right on and something I am so guilty of, of not taking those breaths and having that space to think and just always trying to do, do, do, and then you're not as Creative. And then days were like the early this morning I had three full hours of freedom to write and think and then I end up being far, far more creative. And of course by this point in the day I'm shot. But talk about that and what do you do when inspiration or idea hits you? How do you sort of tax that or go with that?
- [05:18]
B
Yeah, so that is the second idea, Scott, is that when those ideas kind of hit you by surprise, right? You know, ideas are going to come to you. You don't know when they're going to come, but it's important, I think, when that idea first comes, to process it quickly. So that's the second topic, is process it quickly. Because when that idea first hits you is when you are most fresh and creative with that thought. And so when that creativity is high, you're also really excited about it. So I like to try to just flesh that idea out right away. Now that doesn't need to be like a day, a week, a month processing an idea. It could be 10 to 15 minutes, right? Just when it's fresh, when that idea strikes you, take some time, 10, 15 minutes, jot some bullets down. Maybe you're doing like a cloud map where you're sort of mapping those connections and, and just see what pops off the page or on your. I have a whiteboard in my office. I use it all the time. When an idea hits me, I jot it down and just see where my mind wanders with it. And you start to get a sense of its potential value, right? For yourself, for others, maybe for your business, for your personal life, whatever it might be. But it's at that time when the idea hits you first that you're able to process it very well. And I think the more time that goes between the inception of the idea and the time that you start to process it, I actually think you start to dwindle in its different directions of where it can go. I mean, for me, again, like I said, sometimes these ideas hit me in the middle of the night and I don't have the time to process. But I swear I have solved all the great problems of the world at 2 o' clock in the morning. And because I didn't write it down, I don't know what would have happened with all those great ideas.
- [07:01]
A
No, I think that's exactly right, that it's like that you, that you need to. In some ways, I think that point is so well taken. You have an idea, but from, from idea to actual execution, there is going to be more and more Loss in terms of energy and excitement if you don't jump on the idea fairly quickly. And then it's that fine balance between being careful not to jump on every single idea. So you're not, you know, jumping in a million different directions. But, but I think that you're exactly right. It is, it is far more important to really sort of like jump on ideas while you're still hot. Why you're still excited. This is true of so many things in life. Even if, you know, even if it does cause you to chase some ideas that might be not fully built out or baked out. I think that's exactly right.
- [07:57]
B
Yeah. And Scott, that, that really is an important thing that you mentioned and really kind of the third idea, which is when you're processing it quickly, you're doing the 10 to 15 minute, just get the idea down on PA so you don't lose it and you can see where it's going. But should you move on it? Right. That's a totally different question. Flesh it out, but you're not necessarily taking action on it per se. And I think this is an important third step that comes with this, which is see how it connects to what you're doing or it doesn't connect to what you're doing. Because your question is, should you work on it now, should you work on it later? Or maybe you never want to work on it because not every single idea demands your time, your resources, your energy. It might be something that you go, that's a cool idea. I'm going to shelve that. I may never come back to that. Or I might come back to it, you know, six months from now. Or it's something that I need to get on right away. And it's just a friend of mine that I met this year, Andrew Lux, talked to me about this idea of now next and never. When you have these ideas that you're working on in a business or in your personal life or whatever, think about it. Is it something that I want to do now? Is it something I want to do next, or is it something I want to do never? And I think that's a great way of prioritizing what things that are coming to you. So in the now bucket, I think of does this new idea, this new idea that hit me at 2 o' clock in the morning, does it connect to what I'm doing right now? Is it a logical extension? Is it something that can happen in parallel with what I'm doing right now without detracting from my current work? Are there Synergies, whatever. Or is it something that's actually even better than what I'm doing right now? So I'm going to bump what I'm doing right now and actually put this in instead. That might be in the now bucket, and then there might be things that are in the next bucket, which is something that's a good idea. But maybe it's not time sensitive. Maybe it's something that, you know, I'm going to get to later, after I finish what I'm doing right now that might be six weeks from now, six months from now, whatever. But you queue it up for your next bucket and then the third bucket, then of course is the never bucket. It's just not a good idea. It's a cool idea, but it's not a good idea for me or for right now. So I might still flesh it out, still document it, and if later on, maybe market dynamics change or my focus changes, I have this repository of ideas that I said I'm not going to. This is not something that I. It's not now. It's not next. It's in that never bucket. But that never might show up later. And that never five years from now, three years from now, that might become an interesting idea because things have changed. And so now I take it from that never file and pull it forward now it becomes a now idea. And so I think it's important to process them really well before. Before taking action.
- [10:42]
A
No, thank you. And give me those three buckets again. I got the now and the never. What was the third one? Because I love this concept.
- [10:48]
B
Yeah. Now next and never. Now next and never. And Andrew introduced that idea to me in January and I've been using it as if it's my own. But that's where credit is due.
- [11:01]
A
No, no, I absolutely love that. Now next or never. I just think that's fantastic. I have to tell you, I am. I am so thankful for you joining us today on the Becker Private Equity Business Podcast. Liz, let me give you one more moment. Anything else you wanted to add to that?
- [11:17]
B
One more thing I'll add, and it's a bit of reading. Most people would put this into the children's book category, but I put this into a business entrepreneur's category of books. And it is an author by the name of Kobe Yamada, Y A M A D A. And he writes a series of books that are, again, I think, targeted primarily for kids. But I have these books. I frequently pick them up and read them. One is called what do you do with an idea. Another one is what do you do with a chance? He has, I don't know, 10, 12 books along these ideas. But it's fantastic because it takes this very hard entrepreneurial confidence kind of an idea, puts it in the hands of kids. But truly, I think it has timeless, ageless concepts that are beautifully written and beautifully illustrated. And so that would be a book recommendation that I think goes right along with this idea of when inspiration hits.
- [12:17]
A
No, I love that idea as well. Again, Liz Hudson with us. Then, the Becker Private Equity Business podcast. Liz is one of our most listened to guests and just a terrific, terrific leader. Liz, thank you for joining us today on the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast.
- [12:32]
B
Thanks so much, Scott. Always a pleasure to talk with you.