40: Repeatable vs. Repetitive: The Secret to Continuous Growth

Have you ever skipped revisiting a course or concept because you thought, “I’ve already done that”? In this episode of Five with Fry, I unpack why that mindset might be holding you back.

During a drive back from Martha’s Vineyard, I listened to a course about repeatable intellectual property that totally flipped my thinking on what it means to “learn.” There’s a huge difference between something being repetitive and something being repeatable. The first feels like busywork; the second builds mastery.

Think about it like sports—athletes don’t practice a skill once and call it done. They repeat it hundreds of times, so it’s second nature when it counts. The same goes for personal and professional growth, especially when we’re talking about complex topics like identity and inclusion. Every time we revisit valuable material, we peel back new layers, connect more dots, and deepen our understanding.

Join me as I dig into how to make your learning repeatable—not just repetitive—and why going back to what you’ve “already done” might be the smartest move you make.

Follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and X @JenFryTalks or connect on LinkedIn at Dr. Jen Fry. And don’t forget to subscribe, share, and drop a review wherever you listen to podcasts!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Five with Fry

Transcript

Dr. Jen Fry: 0:00

Friends, welcome to Five with Fry, where five is the magic number, whether it's five minutes, five questions or anything that fits in five. I dive into the big topics that matter, sometimes alone and other times with a friend, from navigating sports conflict to family dynamics, travel, tech, hard-hitting issues and even politics. Nothing and I mean nothing's off the table. This is where curiosity meets conversation, and we always sit at an intersection. I'm your host. Dr Jen Fry of Jen Fry Talks. Let's get into it. Hey friends, welcome to Five with Fry. It's Dr Jen Fry your hostess with the mostess, and today we're going to talk about this concept of repeatable versus repetitive. Again, repeatable versus repetitive. And so I was driving from Martha's Vineyard this past weekend yes, martha's Vineyard this past weekend. Yes, moth is vineyard, and I'm not sure about you, but I absolutely love, love, love listening to podcasts and any like class thing that I signed up for. That I didn't get to, and I signed up for a lot of educational things, and so I had a long drive, probably a little longer than it should be, because I didn't plan out the time correctly and your girl got caught in that wonderful New York traffic. So I had a little bit extra time, and so my chief of staff, dawn, sent herself an email and, like most of the emails that she doesn't specifically say is for herself, I intercept and I was like, oh, this course that she was talking to herself about looked really fabulous, so I signed up for it, and so I was listening to it on the drive and it was essentially about repeatable intellectual property. It's called repeatable IP and it's by these three women, jenny, meredith and Lizzie, and we'll put a link to it in the show notes. But there was a part of it that really sat with me, and it was the idea about repeatable versus repetitive, and how kind of the idea is to create intellectual property or IP that people don't look at as repetitive, they look at as repeatable, and repeatable to them means that you're gleaning something off of it every single time, and so I really like this concept, because what tends to happen nowadays is people will take a course and say, if something similar of that same type of course topic comes up, they're like, well, I've already taken that course before, I don't need to take it again.

Dr. Jen Fry: 3:02

And the whole idea behind repeatable IP is this idea of every time you take the same thing, you glean more information, you peel back more layers, you understand more nuance, and that was an epiphany for me and makes complete sense. And so the reason I'm talking to you about this is that many times we're taking one thing and we check the box and that's it, and we don't understand the value of the repetitiveness to then make it repeatable for us, just like in sport, where sport is about repetitiveness. To make it repeatable, I'm going to hit a hundred balls in volleyball line so that I can repeat it when I am in the game, when it matters the most. And so I'm saying this to you is that just because you take a course one time doesn't mean you understand the nuance of it and you've peeled back the layers and you can talk about it more in depth, especially when things are related to identity. And you, because the first time you listen to it, you pull back one layer. The second time you pull back that layer and another. You listen to it, you pull back one layer. The second time you pull back that layer and another layer connected to it you didn't realize were connected. The next time you take it, you're now having those two other layers peeled back, and this third one now makes so much sense to you in a way it didn't before. Now makes so much sense to you in a way it didn't before. And so I'm saying to you that I need you to be willing to take something more than once so that it's more repeatable. And you're pulling back these layers. When you stop at one time and check the box and you're done, you're not giving yourself any opportunity to keep pulling back layers, and that's what you want to do, because the more layers you consistently pull back on yourself, the more you learn, not only about yourself, but all the things that interact with you, and you learn about them in such a different and beautiful way. But when you take something only once, you only get to see it at one level, not all the other levels or layers that can come with it. So I say this to you of don't just stop at one time, do things or take things a few times, and you will be in all of the things you learn about yourself and about others in relation to you.

Dr. Jen Fry: 5:47

Well, friends, that's it for this episode of Five with Fry, your dose of five insights, ideas and inspiration. If you love what you heard, don't forget to head over to where podcasts are played, to subscribe, share and leave a review. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop played to subscribe, share and leave a review. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop us a message. We'd love to hear from you. You can come follow me on IG, twitter, the TikTok at Jen Fry Talks, or join me on LinkedIn. Look for me at Dr Jen Fry. Until next time, stay curious, stay bold and keep the conversation going. See you on the next Five with Fry.