to seed an idea slowly & wisely
when the signals scream, "speed up and scale"
Dear Tracker:
We don’t often celebrate the ability to marinate and incubate a potentially good idea.
In a culture built on visibility, urgency, and scale, it can feel as if there’s little room for the kind of idea that doesn’t yet have a name or a market. You know, that idea that shows up as a tension in your chest, a phrase you can’t shake, or a question that keeps tugging at your attention in the middle of the night?
Maybe it’s not a “brand” yet. Maybe it’s not even a dream endeavor. You’re not even sure what container this idea should take - a book, a business offer, a new organizational effort, a podcast. It’s just something alive in you.
I’ve come to trust these slow-burn ideas.
They rarely arrive fully formed. It’s not unlike what fellow wonder tracker feels in her numinous state. But in my experience, both personal and with clients, these subtle, emerging ideas often carry more integrity and ultimately more impact than some of the quick-hit sparks that demand immediate traction.
Recently, someone from across the globe reached out to me with such an idea. It had been brewing for ten years. She wasn’t even sure what to call it. She knew it would ruffle some cultural feathers, so to speak. But she knew it wouldn’t leave her alone.
To shape this kind of idea often asks for a different kind of pacing that is curious, deliberate, even pattern-seeking.
That’s what I’m wondering about with you.
In this week’s Wonder Dispatch:
Jeffrey’s Main Wondering: a celebration of that kind of idea
An invitation to work together
On Jeffrey’s and Team TW’s Radar: Resources to stoke curiosity
Welcome to our many new community members - whether you came by referral, our Wonder@Work Assessment, from bbdevdays where I keynote this week, or discovery.
I want to step back and consider why “slow” or “deep” doesn’t always jibe with certain sub-cultures.
One of my accomplices-in-wonder
spoke with Yael Benjamin of Startup Snapshot. She shared findings from a broad survey of startup founders. Some of the stats revealed uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurs and founders:81% hide their stress and fears from others.
77% refuse to seek professional support.
Nearly half exercise less and spend significantly less time with family and friends.
The average reported loneliness: 7.6 out of 10.
This data might sound like a “founder problem,” but it’s often the backdrop for anyone trying to grow something meaningful in a culture that rewards certainty over inquiry and speed over depth.
Even purpose-driven creators, coaches, and entrepreneurs who don’t subscribe to hustle culture often feel the tug of similar patterns:
The guilt of not having it all figured out.
The shame of uncertainty.
The suspicion that if you’re not pushing harder and faster, maybe you don’t want it enough.
But here’s a subtle truth I keep coming back to: Some ideas are generous enough not to rush us.
They don’t instantly demand a funnel or a 10x plan. Sometimes they feel like a calling from love and openness. They ask us to listen longer and to let them shape our path even as we shape the idea.
In my work with entrepreneurs, writers, consultants, therapists, and mission-driven leaders, I’ve noticed that the generous ideas that we seed and grow with spacious pacing often are the ones that can shift everything.
They’re the ones that, over time, reveal a bigger why or lead to more regenerative models of work.
They often challenge us to work with our lives, not against them.
What does that look like?
Anne Ingersoll is founder of College Bound Associates that advises high school students and their parents on ways to take a mindful path to college. (What parent and teen doesn’t need this these days?) She loves the work but also hungered for something that challenged her in different ways and that especially put her in more direct contact with people.
She opened wide to possibility and embodied the wonder of her next chapter with creative resilience. We seeded numerous options and opportunities. She test-drove a couple. Most of those ideas didn’t instantly bloom, per se.
But our Tracking Wonder process did something perhaps more important, she said. She gained confidence, authority, and self-trust as a business owner who could make her own decisions and trust this process.
That confidence and renewed curiosity opened her up to entering a local pitch contest to fund a new small business idea. She entered and won second-place funding.
And even though her ideas related to her college advisory business didn’t instantly bloom, Bloom Macomb did! Anne now owns a brick-and-mortar shop that provides floral arrangements and more to her community.
It’s brought her a new way of being in person in her local community, bringing surprise and delight to people, while activating her creative intelligence in a new way.
Sometimes, we think we’re building an endeavor. But what else could be happening is that we’re being invited into a different way of working altogether.
That’s a different kind of creative intelligence. One that honors not just our ambitions, but also our rhythms, values, and genius character strengths.
If you’re in a season where something’s forming but you don’t yet know what it is, here are four small, doable practices:
Attune.
Foster wide-sky openness, wonder’s first facet. What tension, concern, or curiosity keeps showing up? Before you define it, just notice. What is this idea trying to tell you?Name the Wonder.
Instead of asking “What should I build?” try asking:
“What’s the deep curiosity, contradiction, or tension this idea is pointing to?” That’s the wonder at its core. When you name it, the idea gains dimension and becomes a conversation with the culture. What we call a hard-to-answer living question. That’s what keeps it honest and alive.Try this: “I wonder what would happen if…” or “I’m curious about why…” When you share the idea later, start there.
Converse.
Share it with one trusted person. At this early, slow, wise stage, you don’t need to pitch or “test” it. Maybe you just want to hear how it lands even as you say it out loud. Ask: “What does this stir in you? What does this make you think about?” This approach keeps you in a place of relational wonder instead of performance. And it tells you where your idea might meet a need.Externalize.
AT UNPLUGGED+UNBOUND, we enact four ways that the mind extends unbound beyond the brain. One of those ways includes Externalization. Give the idea a body. A sketch, a voice memo, a poem, a draft, a tiny prototype. Even 30 minutes of playful making can illuminate the next step.
These are invitations to stay in respectful relationship with your forming work.
And if you want to ask me a question about this or anything else that might merit a Canoe Talk response, fire away here.
Your Turn to Wonder:
What idea has been quietly following you around lately (or for a decade)?
You’re welcome to reply via email or share in this week’s HUB thread.
I read each one.
This Thursday, I want to elaborate on a case study/TW hero story of what such a process looks like. Be sure you’re on the list.
Reclaim Possibility
Strategist for Thoughtful Growth: Individuals
Some of you have asked. I have a couple of openings for private clients this season and quarter. We effect plans for business growth, more wonder in work and life, reclaiming focus and priorities. If you're curious about having at last a dedicated idea partner and strategic advisor on your side, complete this form. You and I will be in touch soon. Note: You don’t have to have your “ducks in a row” and have everything figured out for us to begin substantial work together.
Wonder Interventions@Work: Leaders, Teams, Org’s
Our in-person and remote talks & trainings change the way we connect at work. Complete our form here. I will reach out soon.
On Jeffrey’s and Team TW’s Radar
»> On Monsters & Miracles (TED Talk by Dr. Angus Hervey) - just a startling and wondrous perspective on our reality that reaches beyond simple binaries (h/t to Peg Syverson - thank you!)
»> The World Has Always Been on Fire: What now? (
| Culture Study) - an open exploration infused with curiosity not argument»> Fix the News (Journalist Dr. Angus Hervey) - “We report stories of progress” - a refreshing source of news (again, h/t to Peg Syverson!)
»> How to say no (
with psychologist Vanessa Bohns, Sherri Lu, and playwright Topher Payne | WorkLife podcast) - a nuanced take on boundaries and more
Well, I’m honored to work with you here, and I’ll see you soon.
Thanks for running with me,
• Hi Jeffrey, your article on emergent entrepreneurship resonated deeply. What occurred to me, alongside what you wrote, is this. Sometimes, when you have an idea gestating, you feel the connection to the idea, but you’re uncertain and unclear on the form/function. The conceptual integrity isn’t quite there. This was definitely me – I was in the in-between space for quite some time. When I would talk about my idea, it would sound lacking, or I might have sounded hesitant/resistant/held back because the ideas for my endeavour/topic were still forming.
• When I look at my own experience, longing initially presented as something different, but further research and experiments, and conversations eventually brought me to longing. I do remember a time where I badly wanted clarity on what I was offering. At one point this became unsettling. Then, one morning after a conversation something shifted. I realized the most honest step I could take was to surrender to the uncertainty— not in defeat, but in trust. And with that, a peace and freedom I hadn’t known settled in. It’s not that things suddenly became easier, but my mind stopped scrambling to figure things out. I accepted where I was at. I stayed open to what I could learn, reading, stillness, and wise conversations etc. What’s interesting is that to a large degree, I’m comfortable with uncertainty, but because I had been in this for too long, I pressed for clarity. When you press, it’s rarely coming from the best place (for me anyway). A part of me knew that I was waiting, but it was an active waiting. Something was unfolding, but not on my timeline.
When I read your article, I wanted to share this with you, as it spoke to me. These past few months have brought such a renewed energy and excitement for my work. The Tracking Wonder Inner Circle (TWIC), has been a huge part of that — and that feels like an understatement.
With warmth and deep appreciation,
Bernadette