Pivot with Jenny Blake

As I round the corner into this ninth year of podcasting and after over 700 episodes, today I’m announcing a pause for both shows. Listen in to hear what factors helped me reach this decision across time, money, energy, depressing industry articles, the pace of both shows’ growth, and mix of additional business factors that make this an important moment to pause and regroup. You might also appreciate the even deeper dive with my longtime friend (and first coach) Adrian Klaphaak in Pivot episode 360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts. While I will be sad not to bring fresh episodes to your earbuds every week, I truly want to say thank you so much for being here. This only represents a small fraction of listeners, but I was genuinely touched receiving the Spotify Wrapped for Podcasters stats at the end of 2023, after I knew I would be pausing once all the episodes “in the can” went live. Among Pivot listeners: for 681 this show is in your top ten on Spotify, for 373 it’s in your top five, and for 65 of you, this is your number one show (again, at least in Spotify’s podcast player)! Among Free Time listeners: for 423 of you this show is in your top ten on Spotify, for 247 it’s in the top five, and for 57 it is your number one show in Spotify—the highest honor!! I was shocked to see even one, truly, with so much other incredible audio content out there. There’s one thing I know for sure: I will miss you during this break 🥹 🌟 ;TLDR/L (Too Long Didn’t Listen) Top Takeaways: In addition to pausing my private community, I am pausing both podcasts for a bit (duration TBD) so I can clear financial and energetic space to listen to what my broader business wants to become. 🎧 Stay subscribed to both shows: Pivot with Jenny Blake and Free Time with Jenny Blake so that you still get episodes when I release them, even if a bit more sporadically (for now); I may switch to seasons if/when I resume 📧 Subscribe to any/all of my three Substacks if you’re not already: I hope to experiment with live tapings with interesting friends and guests, ones that are for paying subscribers where we can go into even more nitty gritty detail behind-the-scenes. 📝 Permission Pause and regroup on any of your creative projects so you can create space to hear what’s next. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: 🏆 Time to Put the Trophies Away Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow . . . IF Rebuilding from Rubble 👟 A Strange and Wonderful Morning: Walking Photo Essay Dear 2024: A Letter and From 2024: A Reply What Works: Making the Content Math Work Edison Research: Podcasting’s Big Hits and Long Tail Adam Davidson: The Rise and Fall of Podcasting The Daily Beast: Malcolm Gladwell’s Media Empire is Being Torn Apart Podcast Production: One Stone Creative ListenNotes: Pivot, Free Time 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes SPARKED: Jenny in Conversation with Jonathan Fields (Spotify Playlist) BFF Bonus: Upcoming Quiet Sabbatical + Important Membership Updates Pivot: 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue 342: “Whatever Comes Through Me Comes For Me First,” With Nicole Antoinette 360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts with Adrian Klaphaak Free Time: 042: How I Run My Business Without Social Media (Pivot Replay) 203: 🎢 Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster of Launching with Natalie Lue 250: Do what you love and the money will follow . . . IF you meet at least 3 of these 20 criteria 🦧 What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client, Part One and Part Two 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/363 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Expectations are the enemy to the creative process. Sometimes you have to let go of the known to see the unknown.” Today I’m speaking with James McCrae, an author, poet, and meme artist based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of 🌻 Sunflower Club, a global school and community dedicated to conscious creativity. As a creative strategist, he has worked with top brands and startups. James is the author of Sh#t Your Ego Says and How to Laugh in Ironic Amusement During Your Existential Crisis, and today we’re talking about his new book, The Art of You: The Essential Guidebook for Reclaiming Your Creativity. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Life falling apart is an opportunity to surrender: we all have ideas of where we want to go and where we want to be, but sometimes our higher self has other plans that are better than the ones we can see. Set intentions, not expectations: It’s about orienting your consciousness in a certain direction. It’s about knowing your purpose and how you want to show up so that you aren’t just reacting to the external world. Expectations are the enemy to the creative process. Look for your golden thread of teachers: Each of your teachers was taught by another teacher that goes back through time. ✅ Try This Next: Find Your Creative Lineage Excerpted from The Art of You: Think back to the people who were influential on your creative journey. They could be a novelist, a musician, a poet, an artist, a spiritual guide, a teacher, or even a friend. Consider different types of guides. Who first inspired you to be creative? Who taught you the most about style and technique? Who helped to expand your cultural and artistic horizons? Who continues to push you to be better? Make a list of five to ten creative guides. Is there a common thread, either stylistically or philosophically, that ties them together? Now revisit their work with fresh eyes. Read their books. Listen to their music. Search YouTube and watch any talks or interviews available. See what you notice. What do you like? What don't you like? Write down what you learned from each guide in a few sentences each. 🔗 Resources Mentioned James on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Website: Know Your Meme Video: Interview with Danny Miranda—Creatives are Explorers 📚 Books Mentioned The Art of You: The Essential Guidebook for Reclaiming Your Creativity by James McCrae Sh#t Your Ego Says How to Laugh in Ironic Amusement During Your Existential Crisis The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes James’ show: 🌻 Sunflower Club Spotify Playlists: Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian Klaphaak SPARKED with Jonathan Fields x Jenny Blake Pivot: 85: Musician Trevor Hall on Karma, Healing, Soul Maps From the Stars + Fruitful Darkness Song Premiere 342: “Whatever Comes Through Me Comes for Me First,” with Nicole Antoinette Free Time: 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big Things 198: Book Club ✨ OUTRAGEOUS OPENNESS: Letting the Divine Take the Lead 003: Liberate Your Life Force with Christine Arylo ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/362 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good decision-making is not about omniscience or clairvoyance—it's more about resilience, according to today’s guest, decision engineer Michelle Florendo. “Decision-making is harder than ever before, and it's not your fault,” Michelle says. “People feel like they ‘should just know’ how to decide.” More About Michelle: Michelle Florendo is a decision engineer and executive coach who is passionate about teaching people how to make decisions with less stress and more clarity, from the small, consistent microdecisions over time that governs how you show up as a leader to the big macrodecisions you make about what direction to take next in business or life. Over the past decade, she has shown hundreds of driven professionals how to use the principles of decision science to grow their impact and fulfillment. She served on the inaugural coaching team for Seth Godin's altMBA, was a founding member of the Forbes Coaches Council, and helps train new coaches as a Faculty Coach at Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. Michelle helped redesign the decision-making module in Stanford's famous Designing Your Life course and has taught courses on decision making for Stanford Continuing Studies, and hosts the podcast Ask a Decision Engineer. 🌟 4 Key Takeaways Saying no to something “good” — What makes it good? How is it delivering the things you want? It might look good on paper to your peers or family or to society, but does it still work for you? Every decision has three components: objectives (what is it you care about?), options (what are you choosing among), and information (about how those options might play out). Intuition is the sum of our internal wisdom: It’s not separate; rather, it’s a quick synthesis of our inputs and rational processes. If you can’t explain a decision, remind yourself that “I just haven’t built the bridge . . . yet.” ✅ Try This Next Tune into multiple sources of data: head+heart+body. Pro-con lists tend to mostly activate rational thinking. As an alternative, try an attractive-concerning table. Draw a 2x2 with a column for each option. What is attractive about each option? What is concerning? Look for themes that bubble up. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Michelle on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Articles: Stanford Decision Engineer Shares 5 Mistakes People Make When Facing Hard Choices, DEAR SUGAR: The Ghost Ship That Didn’t Carry Us 15 Ways To Help Coaching Clients View Themselves Objectively Video: How to make a decision People: Stanford Professor Ronald Howard Stanford’s Life Design Lab Template: Michelle’s Decision Inventory Exercise 📚 Books Mentioned Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Michelle’s Ask a Decision Engineer My First Million: The Decision Register, Newsletter Woes and An Audience of One Pivot: 322: Tips for Making Tough Decisions — Solo Spotlight with Sarah Young 360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts with Adrian Klaphaak Free Time: 154: The Hard No ❌ 138: ⛵️ Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/361 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you make a big decision but still have lingering doubt, fear, and even despair? How do you know when a “download” from the universe is worth following, and what does test-driving a decision look like? What happens on the other side or when a pivot is taking far longer than planned? We’re unpacking all these topics in today’s twelfth and final (for now) conversation for the Pivot x Career Pathfinder series with Adrian Klaphaak. More About Adrian: Adrian Klaphaak is a coach, purpose guide, entrepreneur, and founder of A Path That Fits Career and Life Coaching. His coaching approach is holistic—a constant balance between getting results and a quest for meaning and fulfillment. He describes himself as “a deep seeker with a constant itch to make things happen.” ✅ Try This Next Examine your own relationship to rest and taking extended breaks. Ask yourself: What do I really need? How am I really doing? Where am I in the cycle of death, birth, creation, and rest? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adrian on the web, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn Course: Career Pathfinder (promo code PIVOT) Video: Finding Your Calling Substack: Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h Articles: 👟 A Strange and Wonderful Morning: Walking Photo Essay 🏆 Time to Put the Trophies Away Tools: Substack Song: You Can’t Rush Your Healing by Trevor Hall 📚 Books Mentioned The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Spotify Playlists: Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian Klaphaak SPARKED with Jonathan Fields x Jenny Blake Pivot: 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue 85: Musician Trevor Hall on Karma, Healing, Soul Maps From the Stars + Fruitful Darkness Song Premiere 342: “Whatever Comes Through Me Comes for Me First,” with Nicole Antoinette Free Time: 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big Things 198: Book Club ✨ OUTRAGEOUS OPENNESS: Letting the Divine Take the Lead by Tosha Silver 193: Sabbatical Planning with DJ DiDonna 252: Taking an Accidental Sabbatical with Mel Dizon 241: Finding Freedom and Financial Reciprocity through a Paid Newsletter with Nic Antoinette ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/360 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You can’t give what you don’t have.” That’s just one of the powerful lessons that Nataly Kogan learned the hard way seven years ago, after suffering a debilitating phase of burnout. As a former refugee from the former Soviet Union, she began her American journey in the projects and on welfare, then going on to build an impressive career as a finance and tech executive and serial entrepreneur over the next 25 years. Until she crashed at thirty-eight years old and needed to find a new way of moving forward. Today we’re talking about how she got through that tough burnout period, the ways she practices putting her full self into the world, why it’s never too late to start something new, and how to drop the self-care guilt when filling your own energy reserves. More About Nataly: Nataly Kogan, a leading expert on emotional fitness and leadership, is a dynamic entrepreneur, best-selling author, and sought-after international keynote speaker. Despite starting from challenging circumstances, Nataly achieved remarkable success in her career, reaching top positions at McKinsey, Microsoft, a venture capital fund, and founding/executing five startups and tech companies. Her influential books, including HAPPIER NOW, GRATITUDE DAILY, THE AWESOME HUMAN PROJECT, THE AWESOME HUMAN JOURNAL, reflect her mission to help others thrive. Nataly hosts The Awesome Human Podcast, recognized as a transformative "best-self hour." 🌟 3 Key Takeaways You can either spend energy talking about why you are where you are, or spend that energy taking steps toward where you want to go. Don’t try to be anything you’re not. Embody the fullness of who you are, boldly and openly. Part of the reason, Nataly says, is that “We don’t expect enough of ourselves; we are capable of so much. In some ways we don’t expect enough greatness from ourselves.” You can’t give what you don’t have. A holon is something that is both a whole in itself (like a bicycle wheel) and part of another whole (the bicycle; without the wheels, it can’t function). Get rid of the self-care guilt by recognizing the gifts that self-care gives you. ✅ Try This Next “Don’t let the leftovers of yesterday spoil the freshness of today.” Fill-in this sentence: I am an awesome human because: ______________. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Nataly on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Articles: Entrepreneur Nataly Kogan Discovered That Well-Being Is Key to Success 6 Science-Backed Ways to Improve Your Well-Being at Work Malcolm Gladwell's O, MG newsletter on being instrumentally difficult versus malignantly difficult when referencing this much discussed and debated New Yorker profile of Succession actor Jeremy Strong. Videos: TEDxBoston—Sharer of Joy: Nataly Kogan, Author Nataly Kogan Shares No. 1 Tip To Live A Happier Life Tools: Procreate for iPad 📚 Books Mentioned The Awesome Human Journal: A Tool Kit for the Tough Days, the Good Days, and All the Days in Between The Awesome Human Project: Break Free from Daily Burnout, Struggle Less, and Thrive More in Work and Life Happier Now: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Embrace Everyday Moments (Even the Difficult Ones) Gratitude Daily: 21 Days to More Joy and Less Stress Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Nataly’s The Awesome Human Podcast Pivot: 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding Pivot x Career Pathfinder Series with Adrian (Spotify playlist) 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue Free Time: 191: Structuring Free Time as a Single Parent while Grieving and Rebuilding with Karen Allen 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/359 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bravery requires being off balance. You will only find the courage to “cross the cringe chasm” by remembering that the risk of losing your identity is greater than the risk of losing approval. As today’s guest Henna Pryor writes in her wonderful debut book, Good Awkward: “The idea of releasing this book into the world without knowing how you’ll receive it makes me cringe. But it makes me cringe even more to imagine walking through life as a person who doesn’t write and release the book that matters so much to her because she’s worried how it will land. Either one is a risk.” The Approval Paradox that we all confront is that we are social, communal creatures; for most of us, what other people think of us does matter. And yet, we can’t allow others’ approval to outweigh whether we personally improve. Cheers to the real reel, and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! Awkward bits and all :) More About Henna: Henna Pryor, PCC is a highly sought after Workplace Performance Expert and an award-winning keynote speaker, author, and executive coach. Her clients call her their “secret weapon for impossible change,” an honor she wears proudly. She’s known for her science-backed approach to improving the performance, habits, and actions of hungry high achievers – in her fun, no-nonsense, no-jargon way – to move them from their first level of success to their next one. Today we’re talking about her bestselling book, Good Awkward: How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become The Bravest You, which received the rare Kirkus Star for excellence in writing. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Awkwardness is a social emotion (we don’t normally feel it by ourselves), and it’s one of discomfort: there is a momentary gap between our internal identity (the person we want to be), and the person people see on display. Awkwardness lives in uncertainty. Crossing the Cringe Chasm: Remember ICC—improvement comes after cringe. In these moments, if your self-improvement and even self-identity is more important to you than other people’s approval, it’s time to jump. There are two main kinds of stories we tell about ourselves: “All of our stories tend to focus on standout events, both good and bad, because those are the experiences that shape us, that our brain uses to make sense of our lives. People who are driven to contribute to society, embrace friction, and take braver risks are more likely to tell redemption stories about their lives—transitioning from a bad situation or downturn to good end result or upturn. The opposite of a redemption story is a contamination story, interpreting the situation as going from good to bad.” 🔗 Resources Mentioned Henna on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Take the Self-Consciousness Scale: http://pryoritygroup.com/goodawkward Articles: HuffPo—How To Embrace Your Inner Cringe And Make Awkwardness an Advantage Research Studies: The Pratfall Effect, The Spotlight Effect Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: The Business Yips and 51/49 Henna’s TEDx Talks: Why awkwardness is your secret weapon for risk-taking at work and The new way to brag in the modern world - and feel good doing it Video: Vanessa Van Edwards interviewing Guy Raz—Successful People Can Be Awkward 📚 Books Mentioned Good Awkward: How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become The Bravest You Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding 056: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber and 112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? 275: Cues—On Charisma with Vanessa Van Edwards Free Time: 031: Eleventh-Hour Gremlins 246: The Unsustainability of Inauthenticity with Erin Weed 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/358 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holding space for thousands of others, primarily those who have experienced unspeakable trauma, is not for the faint of heart, nor should it be swept under the rug as simply par for the course of doing social work. Today’s guest, Dimple Dhabalia has written a forthcoming book that’s part memoir, part manifesto—Tell Me My Story—Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self—a must-read for humanitarian professionals. While working in the field in Zambia interviewing asylum-seekers from the Rwandan Genocide, she experienced autoimmune disease and recurring nightmares that she spent the last decade figuring out how to heal and solve for fellow service-oriented professionals. In this conversation, Dimple shines an important light on what it’s really like to serve in this capacity, and how to do it sustainably. Only by addressing the debilitating side effects of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma, can humanitarian workers heal themselves while so generously serving others. More About Dimple: Dimple Dhabalia is the founder of Roots in the Clouds, a boutique consulting firm specializing in using the power of story to heal individual and organizational trauma and moral injury. She is also a writer, podcaster, coach, and facilitator who brings over twenty years of public service experience working at the intersection of leadership, mindful awareness, and storytelling. Her first book, Tell Me My Story—Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self launches in February 2024, and you can find her podcasts Service Without Sacrifice and What Would Ted Lasso Do? wherever you listen. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways There are five nervous-system survival reactions: fight, flight, freeze, fix, and fake. Moral injury: making choices that go against our own deeply held moral beliefs. There is a five-step process for moving through service-oriented work more sustainably: shaping, surviving, seeing, shifting, and sharing. ✅ Try This Next Notice one moment of your day where you’re trying to push through. Allow yourself to stop and take three nice, deep breaths. Come back and see how you feel. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Dimple on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Substack: Dear Humanitarian Video: Leading Through Crisis—Human-Centered Leadership Article: Why selectively muting your pain isn't an option TV Show: Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ Kajal Dhabalia’s Wholesome Soul 📚 Books Mentioned Tell Me My Story—Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self Expressive Writing: Words That Heal by James W. Pennebaker Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Dimple’s podcasts: What Would Ted Lasso Do? and Service Without Sacrifice Pivot: 173: Beautiful Questions for Challenging Times with Steve Morris 172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce Free Time: 063: On Burnout and Business Intuition with Azul Terronez of Authors Who Lead ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/357 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you running a Franken-Brand? A quick, inexpensive logo here. And then someone a few months later tries to write the brand strategy. And then another junior hire adds in graphics and you don’t even know where they came from. Suddenly, you have this brand that is cobbled together, and no one on the team is feeling compelled. In part two of today’s Free Time crossover episode, returning guest Adam Chaloeicheep and I are diving into the four personas of clients who are ready to do brand work. 🌟 4 Brand Stages Blank Canvas—You have a business idea and nothing else. A branding exercise is helpful at this stage because you’re getting down, on paper, the core of what this business is and how it’s showing up in the world. It’s a really nice opportunity to align from the very beginning in a brand-forward way, from the name, to the strategy, to the identity. Jeckyll/Hyde—Your brand has only gotten you so far, and now it’s holding you back. You’ve got some traction, got something really special, but you are losing out on bigger opportunities and need that rebrand to launch your business to the next phase. Frankenstein—Piecemeal elements from different contractors, but no cohesive strategy. You have a brand that is cobbled together, and no one on the team is feeling inspired by it. It’s confusing, not inspiring and everyone hates working with it because there’s no clear way in how to use it. Tune-up—The foundational strategy is strong, now there is an opportunity to see what is out of date, what elements can be refreshed or tightened up. ✅ Try This Next Sit with one of the creative questions from Together Agency’s client intake/exploration survey: What texture is your brand? If your brand were a plant, which one would it be? A song? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adam on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Agency: Together, Instagram, LinkedIn Together Portfolio: Free Time Brand Strategy Substacks: Mind Brew, Re:Brand Articles: Free Time feature in Print Magazine, Activate Your Brand: From Idea to Reality, Missing Missy, Worst Client Comments Turned Into Posters Feature: Free Time brand on Behance’s Illustrator homepage Jenny’s Substack: Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, Rebuilding from Rubble Apparel: my favorite cozy cashmere sweats by Naadam Tools: Upwork, Behance, Canva, Working Not Working, ChatGPT, Substack 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes BFF Bonus: Certification and Licensing Workshop with Pamela Slim Pivot: 12: Belly of the Pivot Beast: On Bouncing Back from Zero with Adam Chaloeicheep Free Time: 005: Brand Obsessed with Emily Heyward 140: How to License Your IP (Intellectual Property) 186: Licensing 201 — Q&A (Part One) on Product Development, Attracting Clients, and Sales Process 187: Licensing 201 — Q&A (Part Two) on Pricing + Packaging, Train-the-Trainer, Delivery, and Legal ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/356 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do a flying money emoji, a stray takeaway coffee cup, and a heart have in common? Those were the starting clues I brought to Adam Chaloeicheep and his cofounder Marisol at Together Agency before starting work on the Free Time brand—as now expressed in my latest podcast, website, and book. This is a two-part crossover from the Free Time podcast; this episode originally aired in November 2021. We’re discussing the strategic thinking that goes into brand strategy long before the visual assets are produced, the biggest misconceptions clients have about the investment and process, and why brand is so important for a business. More About Adam: Adam Chaloeicheep is co-founder of Together agency with his wife, Marisol Dahl, who I had the great pleasure of working with for five years in the early days of JBE. Adam is a creative business leader with over a decade of experience in a variety of startup areas including product and service concepting, building teams, operations, and brand-focused design and digital solutions. He is one of my closest friends (12 years and counting!), and a creative business leader with over a decade of experience in product and service concepting, building teams, and brand strategy. Together Agency is behind every big brand I have launched into the world including Pivot and Free Time. ✅ Try This Next Sit with one of the creative questions from Together Agency’s client intake/exploration survey: What texture is your brand? If your brand were a plant, which one would it be? A song? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adam on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Agency: Together, Instagram, LinkedIn Together Portfolio: Free Time Brand Strategy Substacks: Mind Brew, Re:Brand Articles: Free Time feature in Print Magazine, Activate Your Brand: From Idea to Reality, recent feature on Behance Jenny’s Substack: Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h Tools: Upwork, Behance, Canva, Working Not Working, ChatGPT, Substack 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 12: Belly of the Pivot Beast: On Bouncing Back from Zero with Adam Chaloeicheep Free Time: 005: Brand Obsessed with Emily Heyward ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/355 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you “un-rut” yourself? If you want to say yes to exploring a pivot, what do you need to say no to? What's the secret dream? These are just some of the questions that recurring guest host Adrian Klaphaak and I answer in today’s live Pivot podcast taping. Are you looking for a little support and guidance on finding your purpose, or best next step? Check out Adrian’s Career Pathfinder Program and apply promo code PIVOT for a special offer on his group training. If you’d like to work with him 1:1, he just opened up a few new spots—book a free consultation here. More about Adrian: Adrian Klaphaak is a coach, purpose guide, entrepreneur, and founder of A Path That Fits Career and Life Coaching. His coaching approach is holistic—a constant balance between getting results and a quest for meaning and fulfillment. He describes himself as “a deep seeker with a constant itch to make things happen.” 💬 Quotes "But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!" —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?” —Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet—On Joy and Sorrow 🌟 Questions We Tackle Who are you ready to stop pretending to be? How do you know when you need to pivot versus chasing shiny objects? How do you measure and even define success when you go out on your own? How do you un-rut yourself when you’re stuck? ✅ Try This Next Let yourself be moved by genuine, embodied, resonant excitement. Put yourself in the room with your experiments. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adrian on the web, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn Course: Career Pathfinder, promo code PIVOT Video: Finding Your Calling Substacks: Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, Intuitive Writing School Articles: Taffy Brodesser-Ackner Tools: Substack, ChatGPT Song: You Can’t Rush Your Healing by Trevor Hall 📚 Books Mentioned Intuitive Writing by Jacqueline Fisch The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian (Spotify playlist) 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue 123: Peeking out from the plateau (put yourself in the path of pivot) 321: ChatGPT as Universal Intern and Permission Not to Be a Billionaire with Kevin Kelly 85: Musician Trevor Hall on Karma, Healing, Soul Maps From the Stars + Fruitful Darkness Song Premiere Free Time: 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big Things 244: Asking Better Questions and Designing Your Ideal Day with Claire Giovino 181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo 198: Book Club ✨ OUTRAGEOUS OPENNESS: Letting the Divine Take the Lead by Tosha Silver ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/354 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You have to condition your nervous system to feel free, to access and hold that state, no matter the context.” In this conversation, we talk about leadership advisor John O’Connor’s pivot from masseuse to executive coach. He shares strategies for listening to your true calling, which often emerges from friction and frustration, and how those manifest physically in our bodies. John describes how we can tune into yearnings in different dimensions such as health, finances, relationships, community, and business; and how to create portals for new opportunities while noticing who is already orbiting around you. More About John: John O’Connor is a leadership advisor to high performers looking to go deeper, find their calling, and align with their higher purpose. With over 10,000 hours under his belt coaching CEO’s, social impact entrepreneurs, athletes and post-exit founders, he is skilled at guiding people to uncover the things that are blocking them from creating a sense of freedom and fulfillment. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Calling often emerges out of friction and frustration, and can manifest physically. Reflect: what’s the desire under the frustration? Swap out the word purpose with: What is meaningful? And what is most important? What are the most meaningful, important dimensions of life? What wants to emerge? What wants to come through my life in each dimension? The Core Five: Health and wellness, finances, intimate relationships, community, business. In each of those, there is a calling—something that wants to come through, a yearning. ✅ Try This Next: When you find yourself complaining or irritated by something, honor how you’ve been, i.e. “The way this is happening doesn’t work for me.” That’s how it has been; then ask, “How would I like it to be different?” What are the three to five steps to make that happen? Write it down, and remember: you’re only a few simple moves away. 🔗 Resources Mentioned John on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn The ManKind Project 📚 Books Mentioned Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John Sarno The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield & Shawn Coyne Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 325: 10+ Conference Networking Strategies with Alisa Cohn 328: Accessing Your True Self Through IFS with Adrian Klaphaak, 332: IFS Part(s) Two—Understanding Our “Not Enough” Exiles with Adrian Klaphaak 72: BREATHE. From Burned-Out Bodybuilder to Yin Strength Trainer with Anders Varner Free Time: 196: 🍩 What Do Donuts, Coffee, Conversation, and Energy Cliffs Have in Common? (My Mini Daily Audio Diary from Attending TED 2023) ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/353 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a mistake to frame motivation as a muscle, according to today’s guest, Dr. Ayalet Fischbach. If you set your goals well, they will pull you like a magnet. In this conversation, we cover why numerical goals can backfire, the best practices for choosing a goal, how to monitor progress and cope with setbacks, and why social support is critical. More About Ayelet: Ayelet Fishbach, PhD, is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and the author of GET IT DONE: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. She is the past president of the Society for the Science of Motivation and the International Social Cognition Network. She is an expert on motivation and decision making. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways A powerful goal defines an aspirational state, not the means to get there. It’s a mistake to frame motivation as a muscle: If you set the goal right, it will pull you; it shouldn’t feel like a chore. There are three traps to watch out for: framing it as a means to another goal instead of the end goal itself; setting a goal that is too specific or concrete instead of an abstract goal; and setting a goal in terms of something to avoid rather than something you wish to approach. ✅ Try This Next Set one aspirational goal for the year ahead, emphasizing your ideal state (rather than the outcome, or what you’re trying to avoid). 🔗 Resources Mentioned Ayelet on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Articles: Ayelet’s OpEds Video: TED—4 Proven Ways to Kick Your Procrastination Habit 📚 Books Mentioned Get it Done by Ayelet Fishbach How to Change by Katy Milkman Ruff Love by Susan Garrett The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Ten Percent Happier: The Science of Motivation | Ayelet Fishbach The Tim Ferriss Show: Susan Garrett -- Master Dog (and Human) Trainer Pivot: 320: Sustainable Ambition with Kathy Oneto 327: 🐺The Wolf You Feed — On Addiction, Recovery & Codependency — and What We Get Wrong About All Three with Eric Zimmer 154: Two-Month Report from the Puppy (and People!) Training Trenches 60: How Emotionally Agile Are You? Strategies for Setbacks with Susan David Free Time: 181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo 190: 🐍 How the Cobra Effect Creates Perverse Incentives and Metrics Tyranny ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/352 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you falling into “accidental jerk” mode while mentoring others without realizing it? Today’s guest, Scott Jeffrey Miller, is sharing nuances of mentoring that you have likely never considered. What it means to truly validate someone (with an example that made me blush!), how to set boundaries with your time and expectations, the thirteen different roles mentors can play, and his delightful six-step process for closing out with mentees. More About Scott: Scott Jeffrey Miller is a sought-after speaker, WSJ-bestselling author, and podcast host. He currently serves as FranklinCovey’s senior advisor on thought leadership. Prior to his advisory role, Scott was a twenty-five-year FranklinCovey associate, serving as the Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President. He is host of On Leadership With Scott Miller, and today we’re talking about his latest book, The Ultimate Guide to Great Mentorship: 13 Roles to Making a True Impact. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways The 13 roles mentors can play (not mutually exclusive) are: The Revealer, The Boundary Setter, The Absorber, The Questioner, The Challenger, The Validator, The Navigator, The Visionary, The Flagger, The Distiller, The Activator, The Connector, and The Closer. Don’t be an accidental jerk: The session and mentoring relationship are not about you! You are not your mentee. Don’t dominate the sessions by talking too much, or lean too heavily on advice-giving. Scott’s 6-Step Close-Out Process: Revisit where your mentee started, share funny/tender learnings about their growth, re-identify and communicate go-forward commitments, resurface worthy concepts that were closed or tabled, celebrate the wins and learn from the losses, recap your confidence in them and outline any areas of potential support. There are important differences between coaches, mentors, managers, allies, champions, and sponsors: Coaching is a profession; you have a process and a pedagogy. Mentors are usually in a leadership position; marshaling their wisdom for the benefit of someone else; it’s mission-centric and pro-bono, a little more informal. Allies and champions know how trustworthy you are, can recommend you for roles. ✅ Try This Next Help your mentee clarify their goals of what they are really trying to accomplish. Be hyper-aware of what it’s like to be mentored by you. Bonus: Create a hand-crafted certificate of completion, from the heart, for the next mentee who closes out with you. As Scott writes, “I’m totally serious. Don’t download a certificate from some site. Draw one. With markers and crayons and illustrate what you’re certifying them in—what specifically you’re awarding them with.” 🔗 Resources Mentioned Scott on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Articles: Scott’s Inc.com column 📚 Books Mentioned The Ultimate Guide to Great Mentorship by Scott Jeffrey Miller The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham Your Next Five Moves by Patrick Bet-David The Advice Trap by Michael Bungay Stanier Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes On Leadership with Scott Miller: Your Next Five Moves with Patrick Bet-David Pivot: 026: Tame the Advice Monster with Michael Bungay Stanier Free Time: 057: You+ vs. You 2.0 with MBS ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/351 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A short-and-sweet solo episode for you today on the three little words that instantly shift my mood from heavy obligation toward light, joyful action. Every time I remember to say this phrase, it’s like opening a window in a stuffy room—suddenly, there's space, air, and light. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways See tasks as opportunities, not burdens: What within them are you grateful for? What are your reasons for doing them in the first place? This phrase helps with three things: stress reduction—viewing tasks as opportunities lowers anxiety; increased motivation—hen we feel fortunate to do something, we're more energized to do it; and a happiness boost, as gratitude is a direct path to joy. **If there is no possible way to shift, maybe it is time to stop doing that thing altogether. If certain activities are draining you, dragging you down, say no. If you can’t yet say no—at least not now—find the reasons you are sticking with them, and keep those top of mind. ✅ Try This Next What’s one thing you’re dreading, procrastinating on, or avoiding this week? What happens when you shift your mindset from “I have to” toward “I get to”? Does anything feel lighter or freer? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Articles: ✍️ Connect with me on Substack 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 348: How to Experience More Everyday Awe with Dacher Keltner 312: Are You Future-Tripping? 316: “Don’t Suffer Twice” 154: Two-Month Report from the Puppy (and People!) Training Trenches Free Time: 029: Funded By Source with Ksenia Avdulova 154: The Hard No 174: What Book Marketing has to do with Glass Blowing: Reflecting on Free Time’s 1-Year Bookiversary 🥂 120: Transform Your To-Do List into a Results List — Leanne’s Favorite Time-Saving System 090: Paying for Consistency and Accountability ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/350 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As relationship expert Ester Perel says, “Too many people bring the best of themselves to work, and bring the leftovers home.” This is one of several notions that sparked today’s guest, Simone Stolzoff, to reconsider his relationship to work. We’re talking about his unique approach to researching his new book, The Good Enough Job, interviewing over 100 primarily white-collar workers, but only featuring nine stories in depth. His goal is that you’ll treat this book—and our conversations—less like a textbook and more like a mirror. “I hope [it] prompts you, as writing it did for me, to examine your own relationship to your job.” More About Simone: Simone Stolzoff is an independent journalist and consultant from San Francisco. A former design lead at the global innovation firm IDEO, he regularly works with leaders—from the Surgeon General of the United States to the Chief Talent Officer at Google—on how to make the workplace more human-centered. His feature writing on the intersection of labor and Silicon Valley has appeared in The Atlantic, WIRED, The San Francisco Chronicle, and numerous other publications. Today we’re talking about his new book, The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways If all your needs were met, what would you do with your life? How might that inform the work you do to get paid versus the activities that nourish your spirit? Michael Norton at HBR asks millionaires two questions: How happy are you on a scale of 1 to 10? And how much more money would you need to get to a 10 out of 10? Regardless of whether people had $1 or $2 or $5 million, respondents all answered the same way: that they’ll be happier when they have two to three times more money than they have now. You may still experience grief even if you’re making a decision that can be a better path for you in the future. ✅ Try This Next Consider how your identity is shaped by the people you are surrounded by. Find communities that can reinforce an identity of yours beyond the commercial value you contribute to the world, beyond your professional life. What group/s can you join where what you do for work doesn’t matter to them at all? (Think intramural sports or even time outside with pets :) 🔗 Resources Mentioned Simone on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn Simone’s Substack: Simone Stolzoff Articles: NYT—Please Don’t Call My Job a Calling 📚 Books Mentioned The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work by Simone Stolzoff The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life by Paul Millerd Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot x RadReads: Conversations with Khe Hy (Spotify Playlist) Pivot: 341: Pivoting From Prestigious Consulting Jobs To The Pathless Path With Paul Millerd 321: ChatGPT as Universal Intern and Excellent Advice for Living with Kevin Kelly Free Time: 203: 🎢 Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster of Launching with Natalie Lue 205: Why Paul Millerd Turned Down a $200K Two-Book Traditional Publishing Deal ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/349 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The evolution of our species built into our brains and bodies an emotion, our species-defining passion, that enables us to wonder together about the great questions of living.” That’s just one of many illuminating conclusions that researcher Dr. Dacher Keltner discovered in his scientific studies of awe. In this conversation, you’ll learn about the eight wonders of life, how to experience more everyday awe (and take yourself on awe walks), and what’s behind our current crisis of meaning. As Dacher writes, “Our experiences of awe hint at faint answers to these perennial questions and move us to wander toward the mysteries and wonders of life.” More About Dacher: Dr. Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and the faculty director of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. A renowned expert in the biological and evolutionary origins of human emotion, Dr. Keltner studies the science of compassion, awe, love, and beauty, and how emotions shape our moral intuition. His research interests also span issues of power, status, inequality, and social class. He is the author of the best-selling book Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life and of The Compassionate Instinct, and today we are talking about his most recent book, AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. Dacher is also the host of the award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways 8 wonders of life: moral beauty (the strength, courage, overcoming, and kindness of others); collective effervescence; nature; music; visual design; mysticism (spiritual and religious); stories of life and death; and epiphanies. Everyday awe: In our daily lives, we most frequently feel awe in encounters with moral beauty, and secondarily in nature and in experiences with music, art, and film. The big idea of awe: We are part of systems larger than the self. “Awe is about knowing, sensing, seeing and understanding fundamental truths, and leads to epiphanies across the eight wonders of life—transforming how we see the essential nature of the world.” ✅ Try This Next—Go on an Awe Walk: Tap into your childlike sense of wonder. Try to approach what you see with fresh eyes, imagining that you're seeing it for the first time. Take a moment in each walk to take in the vastness of things, for example in looking at a panoramic view or up close at the detail of a leaf or flower. Go somewhere new. Each week, try to choose a new location. You're more likely to feel awe in a novel environment where the sights and sounds are unexpected and unfamiliar to you. That said, some places never seem to get old, so there's nothing wrong with revisiting your favorite spots if you find that they consistently fill you with awe. The key is to recognize new features of the same old place. What’s mysterious around me? What’s the deeper story of what I’m perceiving? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Dacher on the web and LinkedIn (No Twitter and IG accounts) Video: The Diary of a CEO—The “Happy Life” Scientist (YouTube Video) Articles: NYT—How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health 📚 Books Mentioned AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James Red-Tails in Love by Marie Winn Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Dacher’s podcast: The Science of Happiness On Being with Krista Tippett: Dacher Keltner on the Thrilling New Science of Awe Pivot: 292: Fun as the Ultimate Flow State with Catherine Price Free Time: 170: 🌈 “Imagine a World of Abundance” ✨ 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/348 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“By trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one,” writes Lisa Bragg. “Instead of broadcasting, think of narrowcasting.” The clue to today’s conversation is in her name, an idea she grew up grappling with: to brag (or not). “Hidden gems” are often told to work in the background or “be so great they can’t ignore you.” But the world is just too noisy for that now. Lisa is sharing how we can “shimmer with pride” gracefully, without veering into obnoxious braggadociousness (yes, I just made that word up). More About Lisa: Living with the name Bragg, Lisa has had to master the art and science of self promotion. She’s seen when being too humble has cost international deals and when bragging right has unlocked opportunities leading to untold fortunes. Lisa helps high-achievers of all sorts to be seen, heard and share their value with the world. Her book, Bragging Rights: How to Talk about Your Work Using Purposeful Self Promotion, launched in May. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Self-Promotion Myths: Your work speaks for yourself; cream rises to the top; and if you wait for it, you will be chosen. Bragging Rights Strategy: How are you? Who are you? Who do you serve? What do you know? Who do you know? Who knows you? What’s next? Own your knowledgeable authority: You can be influential by having a point of view and articulating it, either as a: knowledge broker (curating ideas with a central theme), expert (developing your own thought-leadership), and/or visionary (seeing around corners or into the future and communicating a distinct vision). ✅ Try This Next: Journal on the following prompts—When do you wish you had been bolder? Reflect on a time you were bold. What happened? Bonus: Start your brag book—capture kudos that you didn’t get, compliments you want, “keeper” emails people have sent you (a smile file). 🔗 Resources Mentioned Lisa on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn 📚 Books Mentioned Bragging Rights: How to Talk about Your Work Using Purposeful Self Promotion Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion Find Your Red Thread by Tamsen Webster Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Lisa’s podcast: Bold(h)er: Stories of and for Women Who Stand Out, for BMO for Women. Pivot: 293: Are You Saying Yes to Spaghetti-Throwers? and 013: Upside of Being Invisible with David Zweig Free Time: 196: 🍩 What Do Donuts, Coffee, Conversation, and Energy Cliffs Have in Common? (My Mini Daily Audio Diary from Attending TED 2023) ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/347 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“If it’s not a paradox, it’s not true.” So says today’s guest Marc Lesser, long-time mindfulness teacher and business leader. In his latest book, he considers what would happen if Homer Simpson, the Buddha, and Alice in Wonderland walked into a proverbial bar. How would each react to tricky situations? What would be the integrated way forward? We also talk about being asked to leave his previous company, Brush Dance, after fifteen years and how he navigated a new phase of his career as a result. More About Marc: Marc Lesser is a speaker, facilitator, workshop leader, and executive coach. He is the author of five books, including the Zen of Business Administration, and his latest, Finding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships, Thriving Workplaces, and Meaningful Lives. Marc’s podcast Zen Bones: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times features interviews, supportive tools for creating more meaningful work, and potent mindfulness practices to develop yourself, influence your organization, and change the world. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Humans have evolved to be anxious and dissatisfied (two distinct purposes of evolution to stay alive and to pass on our genes). During meditation practice, or throughout your day, ask yourself: What does it feel like, in my body, to be satisfied? To not need or want anything? “There are even gaps in our efforts to close all these gaps between what we want and what is. Very little goes exactly as we might want it to, and if it ever does, that doesn’t last long.” Wholeheartedness as the cure for exhaustion. As David Whyte says, “The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest. The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.” ✅ Try This Next The next time you feel anxious or stressed, try flipping your thoughts with these two prompts: “The story I’m telling myself is…” followed by “The story I want to live by…” 🔗 Resources Mentioned Marc on the web, IG: @marclesser, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Articles: Stop Giving Away Your Power, Cutting Through Frustration, Surprise Yourself, “The World is Its Own Magic” (a quote by Shunryu Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) TEDxPresidio: Leadership, Attention, Focus 📚 Books Mentioned Marc’s books: Finding Clarity, Know Yourself, Forget Yourself and Z.B.A: Zen of Business Administration Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Chaede-Meng Tan Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Marc’s podcast: Zen Bones: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times Pivot: 327: 🐺The Wolf You Feed — On Addiction, Recovery & Codependency — and What We Get Wrong About All Three with Eric Zimmer 309: Wayfinding and Developing Identity Agency with Ciela Hartanov 307: Pivoting from Google to Starting People Playbook with Tony McGaharan Free Time: 001: All-in on Heart-Based Business ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/346 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How are you holding yourself back? From the whispers of your soul, your deepest power and purpose, from your highest calling? That’s what we’re diving into in today’s tenth (!) Pivot x Career Pathfinder series podcast episodes with Adrian Klaphaak. You’re invited! Join us live for the next recording session on November 7 at 1:30 p.m. ET — ask questions in the chat or if you’re feeling brave, come off of mute to be in the coaching hot seat :) Register to join us here » Are you looking for a little support and guidance on finding your purpose, or best next step? Check out Adrian’s Career Pathfinder Program and apply promo code PIVOT for a special offer on his group training. More about Adrian: Adrian Klaphaak is a coach, purpose guide, entrepreneur, and founder of A Path That Fits Career and Life Coaching. His coaching approach is holistic—a constant balance between getting results and a quest for meaning and fulfillment. He describes himself as “a deep seeker with a constant itch to make things happen.” 🌟 7+ Ways We Hold Ourselves Back from our Calling Obligation, doing what we should Being overly practical Looking for perfection Fear of failure Doubting our abilities or undervaluing them Not having enough time Staying in our comfort zone What would you add? ✅ Try This Next Ask yourself: How am I holding myself back from finding my calling? Write about it, be honest about it. Next: What will you do differently as a result of this awareness? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adrian on the web, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn Course: Career Pathfinder, promo code PIVOT Video: Finding Your Calling Articles: Pulling the Thread—How’s the Wanting Going?, The Free Press—You Can Be Addicted to Weed. I Was When I Was Twelve. JB’s Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: The Business Yips & 51/49, Ignore the Odds Tools: Substack app 📚 Books Mentioned Write for Life by Julia Cameron Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian (Spotify playlist) Free Time: 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big Things (SPARKED Crossover) ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💬 We’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/345 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two-thirds of Americans say they’re unhappy with their work (70%), and three-quarters say they plan to look for new work over the next year—that’s 100 million Americans. Today’s guest breaks down what’s behind these workquakes; why they are happening more frequently; how he navigated a major “pile-up” in his 40s of death, disease, and financial disaster; ghost jobs; and the most powerful question you can ask yourself about what’s next. More About Bruce: Bruce Feiler is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, including Life Is in the Transitions, The Secrets of Happy Families, and The Council of Dads, and his newest book, The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World. His three TED talks have been viewed more than four million times, and he teaches the TED course How to Master Life Transitions. A native of Savannah, Georgia, Bruce lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Linda Rottenberg, and their twin daughters. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Workquakes happen every 2.5 years; 55% begin outside of the workplace; the average person goes through 20 in the course of their lives One of his favorite questions to ask work story subjects is, “Did you get a piece of advice from someone?” Three-fourths of people were given a variation of: listen to yourself. Do what you’re already thinking about doing, the answer is already within you. Give yourself permission to follow that. Conduct a personal archeology: “The happiest people don’t just climb, they dig.” Look at lessons you learned about work from your family (upsides and downsides), what you loved as a child, role models you had growing up, what your parents and grandparents did for work and the values they held around family, work, and money. ✅ Try This Next Write the rough draft of of the next chapter of your work story with Bruce’s template: In this transition, I’ve realized that I want to be the kind of person who _________. I want to do work that _________. I’m at a moment in my life when _________. I want to be in a place that _________. My purpose right now is _________. The best advice I have for myself right now is _________. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Bruce on the web, IG, Twitter, Facebook Newsletter: The Nonlinear Life Articles: ‘The Search’ Review: Rethinking the Rules of Success, The Stories That Bind Us, Narrative Psychology, New York Magazine—Gail Sheehy (from the archives) TED talks: The Council of Dads, Agile Programming — for Your Family, The Secret to Mastering Life’s Biggest Transitions Service: Our Story Bridge 📚 Books Mentioned The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life by Gail Sheehy Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes goop: Gwyneth Paltrow x Bruce Feiler: Are You in a Workquake? Pivot: 168: Penney on Pandemic Opening Our Collective Pandora's Box (Part 1), 169: Penney on Pandemic Opening Our Collective Pandora's Box (Part 2), Penney & Jenny 8: Embracing Liminal Space (check out the full Penney & Jenny Show on Spotify) Free Time: 138: ⛵️Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/344 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love celebrating big milestones here on the pod, so in honor of my 40th birthday tomorrow, I decided to do something a little different for today's solo episode. In lieu of a “40 things I’ve learned in 40 years listicle,” since I am only sure of less as time passes, I asked my husband Michael if he could think of four questions for me to answer. He threw in a bonus in the middle that nearly made me spit out my coffee :) 🌟 Michael’s Five Questions In this new world full of daily disasters, how do you find the courage to be vulnerable? Systems play a big role in freeing up your time. What is THE system you implemented that had the most significant positive impact on your life? Do you still love Tim Ferriss more than me? Why or why not? (See also: Michael’s googley-eyed book signing interaction at SXSW) What are you most looking forward to in this new decade of your life? Who are the 3 people, dead or alive you’d love to have on your podcasts? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Articles: Oprah.com—What is Your Happiness Formula? (Jenny’s guest post after Pivot launched!) and The Oprah Winfrey Show Finale. Quote mentioned: "I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common: They all wanted validation. If I could reach through this television and sit on your sofa or sit on a stool in your kitchen right now, I would tell you that every single person you will ever meet shares that common desire. They want to know: 'Do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you?’” Newsletter: Tim Ferriss’ Five-Bullet Friday Coffee: Tim’s and I also love my monthly surprise bag via Trade Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: Fearing the Other Shoe—Part One, Part Two; Getaway Car The Mount in Lenox, MA (Edith Wharton’s Estate) Loom Video: Walkthrough of Jenny’s Idea Collection bucket (Notion) Tools: Readwise, Notion, Done-for-you Free Time Operations Dashboard, Substack 📚 Books Mentioned Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke Three Novels of New York: The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes BFF Bonuses: 098: Moving Through Vulnerability Hangovers The Writing Practice That Changed My Life Free Time: 031: Eleventh-Hour Creative Gremlins 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte Pivot: 220: Protect Your Flame with Michael Karsouny + Adventure Meditation! 127: Live from the Vulnerability Hangover! Launching @LifeOfALebaneseArtist with Michael Karsouny 342: “Whatever Comes Through Me Comes for Me First,” with Nicole Antoinette 158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/343 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“So many things in my past were painful because I stayed on too long.” How do you know when it’s time to say goodbye to something, no matter how good it may seem or how hard it is to leave? For today’s guest, Nicole Antoinette, staying too long created a pattern of “scorched earth change,” where dramatic moves became the only way out. In this conversation, we discuss where she thinks the creator economy is heading, why she shut down her successful Patreon, and how she makes tough decisions about what to leave behind: whether it’s a romantic relationship, a job, a friendship, alcohol, or one of her biggest income streams. More About Nicole: Nicole Antoinette is a writer, long-distance hiker, and former indoor kid who never imagined she’d wind up spending months of each year pooping in the woods. In 2017, stuck in a loop of codependency and people-pleasing, Nicole set off to find her self-belief and inner resilience by doing something she did not for one second believe she could actually do. The results are two adventure memoirs, How To Be Alone: An 800-mile hike on the Arizona Trail, and What We Owe to Ourselves, and a weekly newsletter on Substack called Wild Letters. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Think of your creative light on a dimmer switch: Is your work helping you feel alive and vibrant? Notice when the dimmer starts going down. As Nicole says, “I start have a sense that the heat or light is leaving something, I am not as energetically pulled any longer.” Dig deeper to break the burnout cycle: While in a period of creative recovery, consider not just what a more sustainable business model looks like, but a more regenerative one. Just because you can handle something, doesn’t mean it’s what is best for you. “Over and over again, I have been shown that wanting to change is reason enough, wanting to walk away from something is reason enough,” Nicole says. “98 plus percent of the time, it's not that I don't know what I want, it's just that it's easier to say I don't know than it is to say, ‘I know exactly what I want, but I'm afraid that I can't have it, or I don't know how to get it.’” ✅ Try This Next: Break out of the all-or-nothing mindset. Give yourself permission to end things early, with grace—and no other “good” reason than you want to—before you reach “scorched earth” burn-it-all-down mode from staying too long. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Nicole on the web, IG: @nic.antoinette Substack: Wild Letters Adventure writing: Backpacking Books Patreon: Honest Conversation Club Coworking: Get Sh*t Done Club Jenny’s BFF Community 📚 Books Mentioned How To Be Alone: an 800-mile hike on the Arizona Trail Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Nicole’s podcasts: Real Talk Radio and The Pop-Up Pod Good Life Project: Ann Patchett | On Solitude, Writing & Indie Bookstores Pivot: 327: 🐺The Wolf You Feed — On Addiction, Recovery & Codependency — and What We Get Wrong About All Three with Eric Zimmer 302: Moving Beyond Burnout with Dr. Susan Biali Haas 338: Is Midlife Messing With Your Enoughness? With Mandy Lehto 305: Is What You Are Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis Free Time: 141: Process, Permission Slips, and Business Pivots with Tara McMullin 042: How I Run My Business Without Social Media 183: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt with Madeleine Dore 205: Why Paul Millerd Turned Down a $200K Two-Book Traditional Publishing Deal ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/342 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I was in the wrong environment, playing the wrong game . . . so I started self-sabotaging.” That’s how today’s guest, Paul Millerd, knew it was time to opt out of conventional thinking about his career, and turn slowly but deliberately in a new direction. In this conversation we talk about how important it is to define enough, develop an immunity to what other people are doing, and his mantra, “coming alive over getting ahead.” Be sure to listen to our Free Time conversation 205: Why Paul Millerd Turned Down a $200K Two-Book Traditional Publishing Deal, and our conversation for Paul’s podcast, Pathless Path on 156: Saying "no" to something good. More About Paul: Paul Millerd is an independent writer, freelancer, coach, and digital creator. He is the author of The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life, in which he explores the invisible scripts that constrain our lives. He is also the host of The Pathless Path podcast where he talks with the most interesting people on unconventional paths**.** 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Be wary of the achievement narrative: If you don’t define “enough” for yourself, it’s easy to default to more, which makes it impossible to understand when to say no. The trap of prestigious career paths: Instead of thinking about what you want to do with your life, you default to the options, norms, and desires most admired by your peers. Embracing the pathless path requires grappling with the feeling of being a bad egg ✅ Try This Next Paul’s process for new ideas: ship, quit, and learn. What small experiments can you set up that you can quit quickly? How can you take action in the next week, and design it for quitting? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Paul on the web, IG: @pathlesspaul, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube Articles: Paul’s Substack, essays, Ben Hunt’s Epsilon Theory—The Industrially Necessary Egg, Rad Reads—The $645,099 Business Pivot Reflections on Saying No to a Book Deal & Betting on Myself #219, Original Twitter thread, and From Blog to Book: How to Self-Publish on Your Own Terms Swag: StickerMule (Bubble Envelopes) Tools and Templates: Jenny’s Author Toolkit 📚 Books Mentioned The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes **The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd:** Ben Hunt on Industrially Necessary Paths & How To Live In The Now Free Time’s full Behind-the-Book Playlist (Spotify), 205: Why Paul Millerd Turned Down a $200K Two-Book Traditional Publishing Deal, 173: Cut Your Losses—Even While Pivoting in Public—with Khe Hy Pivot: Rad Reads x Pivot (Spotify playlist) ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/341 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are celebrating a very special milestone today—the Pivot podcast’s eighth birthday! It's a veritable third-grader by now. This podcast first launched in September 2015 as a teeny tiny scrappy side project to supplement the Pivot book while I was writing it. I had so much fun interviewing people and hitting record that by the time the book launched in the fall of 2016 one year later, the podcast had almost eclipsed it as the favorite thing that I do on a day-to-day basis. Now, thanks to you, we have over 2 million downloads and 340 episodes (not including another 230 on the Free Time podcast). There have been many ups and downs along the way, where I wondered if I should stop doing this podcast. Today, I'm sharing eight things that help me stay in the game. 🌟 8 Key Takeaways Ride out the inevitable dips and plateaus: Ask, how can I fall in love with this again? Keep the bar high—strive for jump-out-of-the-chair-with-glee-to-record level of guests and topics. (Re)connect with the even more meaningful metrics: Don’t obsess over download numbers or charts. They can be instructive, but they don’t have to be the one-and-only indicator of whether or not to continue. 51/49: My antidote to inexplicable nerves and overthinking: 49% fear and anxiety, 51% take one small step forward. Just tip the scale toward action by two percent. Eyes on your own paper: Don’t get lost in what other people are doing or how fast they are going. Remind yourself what’s in it for you, regardless of what “the competition” is up to. There may even be downstream benefits of having others in the same space. Keep up with new software, don’t worry too much about sunk costs: While you want to avoid chasing shiny software objects, don’t be afraid to jump from one lily pad to the next when it improves your systems and process. Hire help! To truly achieve consistency escape velocity, hire a team so that someone else owns the outcome and you can show up and do what only you can do. Go your own way: Be aware of diminishing returns on shiny shoulds that, if you were to chase them, would stop you from doing the creative thing you enjoy altogether. Keep experimenting—one might say pivoting! There is no there there. The project will evolve alongside you, even when you lose steam for a little bit. You will always find a new way forward. And if you’re so stuck you truly can’t see straight, it’s okay to call it quits too. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Articles: Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h—The Business Yips & 51/49 Tools: Substack app, Kajabi, Notion, Riverside.fm, Descript Loom Walkthrough: Day in the Life of a Podcast Episode 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 281: Feeling Impostery? Become a Qualified Curator Instead of an End-All-Be-All Expert, 346: Title with Marc Lesser (coming soon!), Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian (Spotify playlist) Free Time: 181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo, 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big Things (SPARKED Crossover), 180: 📉 Diminishing Returns and the True Costs of Shiny Shoulds, 138: ⛵️Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds, 196: 🍩 What Do Donuts, Coffee, Conversation, and Energy Cliffs Have in Common?, 130: Day in the Life of a Podcast Episode + How I Prepare for Guests ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated twice monthly PivotList newsletter ✍️ Connect with me on Substack: http://substack.com/@jennyblake 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/340 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“To live a rich, joyful, and connected life . . . achieve less.” That’s the counterintuitive path to MoneyZen that this week’s guest Manisha Thakor shares. For the first half of her life, money represented a scorecard of self-worth and a sense of safety. She says, “For a long time, the equation I operated on was net worth = self worth (which has no end in sight).” Even with abundant salaries from her financial services roles, Manisha fell into The Cult of Never Enough, often displayed in “the peacock feathers of possessions.” Listen to learn more about the powerful shifts she made toward joy-based spending instead. More About Manisha: Manisha Thakor is the author of MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your "Enough” and has worked in financial services for over thirty years, helping individuals of all ages to balance financial health and emotional wealth. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Societal forces are constantly telling us we should earn more, so we can buy more, in order to be more, “the peacock feathers of possessions” Buy few, but buy the best you can afford at that time MoneyZen (calm, confidence, clarity) = Financial Health + Emotional Wealth ✅ Try This Next Try joy-based spending. Take a piece of paper, and every time you spend money, write down the item and the amount. At the end of the week or month, highlight anything you spent money on that didn’t bring you joy, what Manisha calls money leaks. Bonus: Every day, eliminate one thing you no longer need from your life (either clutter around the house or even obligations or meetings you no longer want to keep). 🔗 Resources Mentioned Manisha on the web, IG: @manishathakor, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook Quiz: Are You Trapped in The Cult of Never Enough? Articles: What If You Already Have Enough Money? (The Cut), How Your Money Mindset Can Lead to Burnout at Work (Forbes), Stop Lying To Yourself About Why You Work So Much (Fast Company) 📚 Books Mentioned MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your "Enough” by Manisha Thackor Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 338: Is Midlife Messing with Your Enoughness? with Mandy Lehto Free Time: 028: When the Financial Tides Recede ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/339 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Legacy isn’t something you leave, it’s something you live.” These are just some of the wise words from this week’s guest, Mandy Lehto, who shares strategies for letting go of being a hard-o-holic, nexting, navigating mid-career pivots, and busting all manner of other “not enough” scams. More About Mandy: Mandy Lehto is a speaker, writer and coach with a Doctorate from Cambridge University and in her former career she was a director at a global investment bank. Mandy is the host of Enough, the podcast, a show for recovering perfectionists and overachievers. When Mandy isn't coaching leaders, she's parenting her two musical teenagers with her husband, or walking Herbie, her toy poodle, on Wimbledon Common. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways “Legacy isn’t something you leave, it’s something you live.” What if you embraced more of who you are, quirks and all, rather than trying to please or achieve? Not-enough scams are false beliefs, that once we play through them enough times, becomes automated. Our mind wants to automate as much as it can. Nexting is our compulsion to continue being dazzled by the mirage shimmering on the horizon that the next thing for sure will fill the void inside us. ✅ Try This Next Pick your inner critic that hogs the mic and name it, even something provocative (Mandy’s is Judgy Janet). And also name your inner champion, the wise voice that’s always rooting for you. Give them fun names so you don’t take this all too seriously :) 📚 Books Mentioned From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🔗 Resources Mentioned Mandy on the web, Instagram: @mandylehto, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest People: Arthur Brooks Articles: Jennifer Lopez article in Vogue Video: Mark Hyman’s podcast with Robert Waldinger 🎧 Related Episodes Enough, the podcast: 50: Is Middle-Age Messing with your Enoughness?, 36: Busting your not-enough scams, I’m burnt out but I keep pushing Pivot: 319: Who’s Sitting in the Board Room of Your Brain? with Adrian Klaphaak, 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue, 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding, 056: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber Free Time: 180: 📉 Diminishing Returns and the True Costs of Shiny Shoulds, 166: Crashing into Quiet Time ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/338 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” —Ernest Hemingway That’s the kick-off quote from returning guest Khe Hy’s recent pivot-in-progress big reveal, taking us behind the scenes of his business in a recent post titled, “The $645,099 business pivot.” Khe is the founder of RadReads and former Wall Street managing director. Khe returns to the pod today (as our first three-peat Free Time guest) to share his experience from the belly of the Pivot beast. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Khe’s earlier Free Time appearances, linked in the Resources section below and in this Spotify playlist: RadReads x Pivot x Free Time. This crossover episode originally aired on the Free Time podcast on March 21, 2023. More About Khe: Khe Hy is the founder and CEO of RadReads, an online education company that helps professionals lead productive, examined, and joyful lives. Khe is creator of the $10K Work productivity method and teaches the popular cohort-based course Supercharge Your Productivity. RadReads provides guides, trainings, and coaching for over 36,000 professionals to help them gain back free time, scale their impact and make their little dent in the universe. 🌟3 Key Takeaways: You’re not alone: Don’t feel bad if you caught a momentum wave during the pandemic that has vanished since. It can feel like you’ve captured success in a bottle, and it will continue just the way you’re experiencing it now, but the same circumstances rarely last. Borrowing other people’s goals can lead to chasing arbitrary success metrics and other people’s work-life balance. Instead, follow the fun! Ultimately, it will be much more sustainable. There’s freedom and surrender in openly sharing your process. Many entrepreneurs are not straightforward about how difficult it can be to maintain and grow a business, and being outwardly transparent helps you be inwardly honest about what you really want to accomplish. 📝Permission: To feel. To cry. To fully experience and talk about what you’re going through. Your humanity in the situation is not at odds with who and how you want to be as a founder and CEO—they are perfectly intertwined. ✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Get quiet: What is it that you truly want? What part of my business is driven by ego and “borrowing other people’s goals,” and what part is driven by the pure magic of it? For any friction area where you feel stuck or drained, take a page out of Khe’s business playbook and “follow the fun.” What would following the fun tell you to do next? 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers 🔗Resources Mentioned: Khe on the web, Instagram: @radreadsco, TikTok: @radreadsco, Twitter, LinkedIn Courses: Supercharge Your Productivity, $10K Work Accelerator, Life Operating System, Jenny’s Free Time Business Operations Dashboard Rad Reads: The Magic of Doing $10,000 Per Hour Work 🎧Related Podcast Episodes: Spotify playlist: RadReads x Pivot x Free Time 145: Tips for Training Part-Time Team Members with Kaneisha Grayson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You have to live spherically—in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm—and things will come your way.” —Federico Fellini This week’s delightful guest, Madeleine Dore, reminded me of this wonderful quote while reading her book, one that I know you will love as much as I did: I Didn’t Do The Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt. We talk about widening the measure and meaning of a day beyond our to-do lists, discovering the call of a new topic, shaping a big idea “blob of clay,” how she collects all the great quotes and stories for her book, why she sees herself as more of a guinea pig than an expert (and freelancer valuing independence even more than business owner), and how she decides when to sunset a project, rather than “maintaining something at all costs.” This crossover episode originally aired on the Free Time podcast on April 25, 2023. More About Madeleine: Madeleine Dore is a writer and interviewer exploring how we can broaden the definition of a day well spent. As a labor of love, Madeleine spent over five years asking creative thinkers how they navigate their days on her popular blog Extraordinary Routines and podcast Routines & Ruts. The lessons culminated in her first book, I Didn’t Do The Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt. Madeleine continues to write, speak and ask questions—but mostly tries to hold things lightly. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways We all go through creative phases of being a sponge vs. squeezing it: the former is a time to absorb the world and take in inspiration, even if it might look from the outside like we’re not doing anything. When caught in a deflating comparison spiral: Get up close, use it as a guide, return to what you want to do, and do it! Identify what is most important to you, and change the questions you ask as a result. For example, Madeleine’s decision to favor more time over more money means when considering a new project or direction, asking not “How much will this earn?” but “How much [free] time will this enable?” 📝 Permission: Stop measuring the day by how productive you were. Be curious and expansive when reviewing your day, including your internal accomplishments, moments of connection, or even moments of idleness. Instead of trying to optimize your day only through the lens of productivity, occupy and embrace your day for what it wants to be. ✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Identify one area of your business or creative projects that may be languishing. What would happen if you gave yourself permission to close it out completely to create space for what’s next? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Madeleine on the web, Instagram: @madeline_dore, Facebook Substack: On Things Madeleine’s podcast: Routines & Ruts 📚 Books Mentioned Madeleine’s book: I Didn’t Do The Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One 🎧 Related Episodes 2 Pages with MBS: How to Be Alive: Madeleine Dore [reads] Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life Free Time: 170: 🌈 “Imagine a World of Abundance” ✨, 169: Running a Goal-Free Business with Stephen Shapiro, 057: You+ vs. You 2.0 with MBS, 036: Shaping Big Ideas — Notion Walkthrough #2 Pivot: 287: Solving Pivot Puzzles with A.J. Jacobs, 305: Is What You Are Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One thing I love about Jay Acunzo is that his body of work is a love letter to craft and quality. We talk about mindset shifts and practices to help you focus more on resonance than reach; how to do work that matters to you so that your work can matter more; how he worked through his own existential creative crisis upon hitting the 200th episode milestone of his podcast; thinking like an explorer, not an expert; and “making the leap from what best practices say you should do to what your intuition is urging you to try.” This crossover episode originally aired on the Free Time podcast on April 18 2023. More About Jay: Jay Acunzo is one of the world’s most sought-after business storytellers and brand consultants. He’s worked in marketing for Google, HubSpot, and ESPN before launching his award-winning podcast, Unthinkable, and authoring multiple books on creativity. Today he helps creators learn to increase the power of their creative work, not just the volume, through his membership platform, the Creator Kitchen. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Reach vs. Resonance: Reach is how many people see something. Resonance is how much they care. No amount of reach will ensure that people care. As David Bowie’s says, “Don’t play to the gallery.” “Don’t be the best, be their favorite”: Create resonance with the audience relevance pyramid, starting with the base—how relevant you are in topic and theme. Moving up, your content should be enjoyable and entertaining, then impactful, where you are helping people reflect or take action. At the top of the pyramid is personal, where you (and your content) truly becomes irreplaceable. Jay’s Mastery 3 P’s: Posture, Practice and Process. Posture is how you see yourself in the world. Practice is the cadence you are creating and shipping on (aim for consistent and purposeful), then process emerges. 📝 Permission: Focus on resonance before—or even at the expense of—reach. Let go of the idea of adding more people until you have a small group reacting in a big way. ✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Define your Even More Meaningful Metrics. For example, Jay’s Unsolicited Response Rate (URR): When he publishes something and someone feels urged to respond in some way without being prompted, or Cackles Per Piece (CPP): points during the process of creating that cause so much joy he cackles out loud. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Jay on the web, Instagram: @jacunzo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium People: Andrew Davis, Hrishikesh Hirway TV Series: Song Exploder on Netflix Video: David Bowie on why you should never play to the gallery, and AJ Jacobs: The Importance of Self-Delusion in the Creative Process Article: The Surprising Thing About Expectations by Seth Godin 📚 Books Mentioned Jay’s Books: Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain 🎧 Related Episodes Unthinkable: Fine, I’ll Talk About AI; Song Exploder Exploded, Welcome to the Jumble Podcasts: Mike Birbiglia’s Working it Out, Song Exploder, Radiolab 2 Pages with MBS: Making What Matters Most: Jay Acunzo [reads] ‘Kitchen Confidential’ The Tim Ferriss Show: Managing Procrastination, Predicting the Future, and Finding Happiness with Tim Urban Free Time: 127: Protect Your Idea Factory, Build a Creative Flywheel, and Go Behind-the-Scenes of Book Publishing with Todd Henry, 014: Why It Matters to Celebrate Wins Pivot: 287: Solving Pivot Puzzles with A.J. Jacobs, 254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s it like to be at a conference with “fancy” people, when you’re the one feeling like you snuck in a side door as a seat filler? Okay, okay — that’s just my imposter monster talking. In today’s experimental episode, I’m taking you behind-the-scenes of the recent 5-day main TED conference in Vancouver, building on Pivot episode 325: 10+ Conference Networking Strategies with Alisa Cohn. In full-on morning voice with a travel mic, I do a daily check-in about what I was nervous about, spontaneous serendipitous invites, fan-girling my favorite authors and podcasters, falling off the energy cliff, what gave me FOMO and JOMO, and my daily quest for coffee. Always. Find. The. Coffee. This crossover episode originally aired on the Free Time podcast on June 9, 2023. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Identify when you’re at your conversation-sparking best: time of day and format (1:1, small group, big group; format vs. informal gatherings) Trust that less can be more: Fewer, deeper conversations can be just as powerful, if not even longer lasting than more, shorter ones. Resist the pressure to maximize every single element of being at the event. Put yourself in the path of people: Even when you’re not invited to the fancy formal events, place yourself in a central place — like the hotel lobby or a coffee station — to attract random conversation from other people who are also looking to meet someone new, but may be similarly unsure about how to break the ice of conversation. 📝 Permission: Embrace JOMO, knowing you’ll be at your best if you say no to situations that tend to bring out your worst. ✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Send a follow-up note to reconnect with someone you met in the last year. Bonus: schedule a small group reunion event over brunch or dinner (or Zoom). 🔗 Resources Mentioned Apply to attend the TED Conference in Vancouver Travel: Athletic Greens, TripIt Pro, Peloton, Tonal, my favorite Tumi carry-on bag People: Alexandra Franzen, Alisa Cohn, Jon Levy, Cameron Herold, Gina Bianchini, Amy Cuddy, Dan Harris, Scott Belsky, Krista Tippett, Jacob Weisburg Articles: Jon Levy Influencer Dinners 📚 Books Mentioned From Start-up to Grown Up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business by Alisa Cohn You're Invited: The Art and Science of Connection, Trust, and Belonging by Jon Levy Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belsky 10% Happier Revised Edition: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story by Dan Harris Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes The Sensitive CEO Show with Rose Cox: An HSP’s Guide to Podcasting with Jenny Blake Free Time: 043: From Start-Up to Grown-Up (and Coach to Author) with Alisa Cohn 166: Crashing into Quiet Time 🏝️ 126: Creating Time Buffer—7 Strategies for Spacious Scheduling 084: Sprinkling the First 1,000 Serendipity Seeds of a Launch 167: Transform Your Approach to Community-Building with Gina Bianchini Pivot: 325: 10+ Conference Networking Strategies with Alisa Cohn 298: Networking in a New Niche and Becoming Broadway Investors with Dorie Clark and Alisa Cohn 251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters 324: Six Golden Shadows of the Imposter Complex with Tanya Geisler 77: 21+ Travel Tips, Tools and Apps — with Jenny Blake 302: Moving Beyond Burnout with Dr. Susan Biali Haas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest, New York Times bestselling author Rachel May Stafford, confided to her friend that the fruits of her successful career were starting to sour. She had become stressed, depleted, and was feeling used—all of it contaminating her joy and sense of purpose. Her friend Shannon replied with a wise reminder, the way only our truest friends can: “Rachel, you’re a mapmaker, not a baggage carrier, not a tour operator, and not a travel agent. You are there to guide and accompany people through their own journey; you are not responsible for carrying stuff that does not belong to you.” The relief in releasing roles that were no longer serving her is one of many powerful Soul Shifts that Rachel and I discuss in today’s conversation. Listen in for strategies to drop self-judgement and the masks we wear for others, stepping more fully into authentic joy. More About Rachel: Rachel Macy Stafford is the New York Times bestselling author of Hands Free Mama, Hands Free Life, Only Love Today, and Live Love Now. Her new book, Soul Shift: The Weary Human’s Guide to Getting Unstuck and Reclaiming Your Path to Joy. Rachel is a sought-after speaker and creator of her perennially popular course, Soul Shift Lift. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Try shifting “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this today.” Accept where you are: It’s okay to say, “I’m not where I want to be.” Role Reflection: How do you want to show up in the world? Write your “I am not a ______” list. A few examples from Rachel: “I’m a connector, not an influencer,” and “I am an encourager, not an advice giver or problem fixer.” ✅ Try This Next: For a thought that’s causing you stress, especially one where you’re being hard on yourself, try Dr. Lisa Firestone’s exercise, starting with dividing a piece of paper in half. Write negative thoughts down the left side. On the right side, translate the same statement into the second person. On a second piece of paper beside the first, write a realistic and impartial view of yourself, your qualities, and your situation, using your name. “We have a choice each day. We can work against ourselves or for ourselves; we can push through life or ease through life.” 🔗 Resources Mentioned Rachel on the web Social: @handsfreerevolution (IG), Twitter, Facebook Person: Dr. Lisa Firestone 📚 Books Mentioned Soul Shift: The Weary Human's Guide to Getting Unstuck and Reclaiming Your Path to Joy Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice by Dr. Robert Firestone Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes The Tim Ferriss Show: 430: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Amazing Creative Toolkit: Saying No, Trusting Intuition, Seeking Awe, Bathing in Grief, and Index Cards (Full transcript here) Good Life Project: Ann Patchett on Solitude, Writing, and Indie Bookstores Free Time: 178: 📕Book Club — 3 Big Ideas from SAVING TIME by Jenny Odell Pivot: 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue 327: 🐺The Wolf You Feed — On Addiction, Recovery & Codependency — and What We Get Wrong About All Three with Eric Zimmer 320: Sustainable Ambition with Kathy Oneto ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/333 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re building on 319: Who’s Sitting in the Board Room of Your Brain? With Adrian Klaphaak . . . and 328: Accessing Your True Self Through IFS, full Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes (Spotify playlist). If you are looking for a little support and guidance on finding your purpose, or best next step, check out Adrian’s Career Pathfinder Program and apply promo code PIVOT for a special offer on his group training. If you’d like to work with him one-on-one, he just opened up a few new spots—book a free consultation here. More about Adrian: Adrian Klaphaak is a coach, purpose guide, entrepreneur, and founder of A Path That Fits Career and Life Coaching. His coaching approach is holistic—a constant balance between getting results and a quest for meaning and fulfillment. He describes himself as “a deep seeker with a constant itch to make things happen.” ✅ Try This Next: Be curious. Imagine your “not good enough” exiled part, and start a dialogue. At what age did it form? Ask: What do you want me to know about you? You can even journal around this, as if you’re writing a play. Ex: “Write from your core self to this part: I see you ____, and I can tell you’re feeling bad about yourself. Can I come hang out for a little bit?” Bonus challenge: 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adrian on the web, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn Course: Career Pathfinder, promo code PIVOT Video: Finding Your Calling TV Show: Couples Therapy (New Yorker profile on Orna Guralnik, The Therapist Remaking Our Love Lives on TV) 📚 Books Mentioned Introduction to Internal Family Systems and No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 319: Who’s Sitting in the Board Room of Your Brain? With Adrian Klaphaak 328: Accessing Your True Self Through IFS Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian (Spotify playlist) Free Time: 031: Eleventh Hour Creative Gremlins ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! 🗣️ Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/332 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Research shows that negative interactions take a significant toll on all of us, carrying as much as five times the impact of positive ones. And yet, most people don’t realize how much microstress they’re under. As today’s guest helps reveal, we’re not just affected by the big, obvious stressors, but by the little moments throughout each day rippling beneath the surface. Karen Dillon and her co-author Rob Cross call this an “unrecognized epidemic,” one that’s invisible and relentless—in this conversation you’ll learn strategies for reducing even just a few microstresses in your life that can have a profound impact. More About Karen: Karen Dillon is an author and former editor at Harvard Business Review magazine and the coauthor of three books with Clayton Christensen, including the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life? Today we’re talking about her new book, co-authored with Babson College professor Rob Cross, The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems—and What to Do About It. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Microstress comes at us quickly and in small moments: it doesn't set off the typical fight-or flight vigilance systems that help us survive other, more noticeable forms of stress. Our bodies experience the cumulative impact of the microstress, but the cause of that stress remains invisible to us. Secondhand stress: Our brains are highly sensitive to the emotions we pick up from others in our orbit. We become stressed or anxious because other people are. When our mind is consumed with this form of microstress, we worry, we ruminate, and we absorb the microstress and, in turn, pass it on. Ten percenters are the one-out-of-ten interviewees (of 300 high-performers studied) who successfully navigate their microstress while maintaining full and satisfying personal and professional lives, especially having moments of connection with others and maintaining vibrant, joyful movement routines. ✅ Try This Next: With dozens of microstresses coming at you daily, how do you know where to begin? Do what the ten percenters do: think small. Take a page out of The Good Life by Robert Waldinger: Reconnect with people you’ve fallen out of touch with by suggesting an 8-minute phone call (not Zoom!) — even setting a timer to ensure it doesn’t go over. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Karen on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn Article: Quartz—There's a kind of stress our brains don't notice—and it's burning us out Video: TED—Do You Have a Strategy for Your Life? 📚 Books Mentioned The Microstress Effect by Karen Dillon and Rob Cross Karen’s books co-authored with Clayton Christensen: How Will You Measure Your Life?, Competing Against Luck, and The Prosperity Paradox The Good Life by Robert Waldinger Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 316: “Don’t Suffer Twice” and 312: Are You Future-Tripping? Free Time: 184:🚂Train Tracks vs. Tightrope🩰 ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot course on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/331 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raise your hand if you love Reality TV! Now admit to that in public. Now choose that as your academic discipline—to study and teach sociology through the voyeuristically fabulous (and often fabulously fringe) lens of reality TV—and you’ve got today’s wonderful guest, associate professor Danielle Lindemann. If you, too, let these shows wash over you at the end of a hard day, binge-watching dating shows with increasingly quirky premises or even hate-watching famous families bicker and then make-up, you’re not alone. “We want to peek into the lives of these interesting people,” Danielle writes. “But it’s their similarity to us that keeps us riveted. We’re voyeurs, but part of what tantalizes us about these freak shows is that the freaks are ourselves.” More About Danielle: Danielle Lindemann is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University who studies gender, sexuality, the family, and culture – particularly as they relate to occupations. Her third book, True Story: What Reality TV Says about Us, is the topic of today’s conversation. She’s also the author of Dominatrix: Gender, Eroticism, and Control in the Dungeon, and Commuter Spouses: New Families in a Changing World. Her work has also been published in scholarly journals such as Social Science & Medicine and featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, CNN, Jezebel, USA Today, and Rolling Stone. 🌟 3 Reasons We Love Reality TV (Excerpted from True Story) Reality TV is couch-potato fodder, and we shouldn’t apologize for it! “Part of its allure, for many of us, is that we can switch off our brains and let the content rush over us in a relaxing and anesthetic wave.” Voyeurism and vicarious decision-making: “Yet, paradoxically, in some ways, we can more actively consume these shows than we can scripted TV. Their characters, often, are heightened versions of ourselves placed in more intriguing scenarios than we will typically encounter. You’re not just imagining yourself in the shoes of the ‘smart one,’ you’re imagining yourself in the shoes of the smart one sailing over Tuscany in a hot-air balloon as two men vie for your hand in marriage. The experience of watching these shows, like looking in any mirror, is interactive. We see ourselves, and then we groom ourselves accordingly.” Hyper-versions of ourselves seen through a fun-house mirror: “In following the contours of our own caricatures, we come to a greater understanding of the forces that society exerts on us—how we organize our lives around beliefs that stem from and reinforce entrenched social hierarchies. From debutantes to doomsday preppers, and from homemakers to hoarders, these programs cast a searchlight on the center as well as the nooks and crannies of society.” 🔗 Resources Mentioned Danielle on the web, Twitter Articles: NYT—Reality Stars Are Just Like Us, Inside the Pods With ‘Love Is Blind,’ the Reality TV Juggernaut, Modern Love: Marooned on Love Island; New Yorker—How “Love Is Blind” Transcends the Norms of Reality Television, Literary Hub—Reality TV Is Getting Boring Again– And Maybe That’s a Good Thing Shows: RuPaul’s Drag Race, Below Deck, Love Island, Love is Blind, Harry & Meghan, Vanderpump Rules, ROHNY, The Kardashians, IMPACT x Nightline S1 E29: Anatomy of a Scandoval: Our Obsession with Gossip and Scandal (Hulu), Farmer Wants a Wife 📚 Books Mentioned True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Danielle Lindemann Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Podcasts: We Have the Receipts, Decoding Reality, The Ringer Reality TV Podcast, It Was All a Stream Pivot: 142: Creative Economy Lessons from “The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV” and 209: On Seinfeld, Sensitivity, and Trend Spotting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As “recovering people pleaser” Natalie Lue opens her book, The Joy of Saying No, “Suppressing and repressing my needs, desires, expectations, feelings, and opinions to try to influence and control other people’s feelings and behavior was as natural to me as breathing. I thought it was normal to tell people what they want to hear (read: lie) to make them feel better. I believed I was ticking the boxes of being a Good Person by being kind, generous, hardworking, conscientious, loving, eager to help, attractive, and intelligent, and doing what others needed and wanted.” If you, too, are ticking “Good Person” boxes while making yourself miserable, this episode is for you. Natalie and I discuss the five types of people pleasers, what we continue to struggle with today despite decades of awareness-building, and how to build the skill of saying no. More About Natalie: Natalie Lue used to have very low self-esteem, a litany of problems including bad boundaries, toxic relationships with emotionally unavailable and shady folk, and a crippling immune system disease, but this all changed in the summer of 2005. Now, she is a recovering people pleaser. She’s the author of The Joy of Saying No: A Simple Plan to Stop People Pleasing, Reclaim Boundaries, and Say Yes to the Life You Want and for 8 years hosted The Baggage Reclaim Sessions podcast. Natalie helps people learn how to reclaim themselves from their emotional baggage and increase emotional availability through self-care, making a profound difference in their lives via her substack On Knowing Yourself. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways When “resentment enters the room” that’s a sure sign that you’re caught in people-pleasing. Natalie says, “People pleasing is code for I am (or was) anxious about something. It’s an anxiety-management habit that ironically keeps you locked in a cycle of anxiety because it’s hyper-vigilance.” Natalie’s five types of people-pleasing: Gooding, Efforting, Avoiding, Saving, and Suffering. Saying no, and finding the joy in it, is a skill: You can’t change what you don’t know, and until you know your no, you can’t know your yes. Remember, “Boundaries are not miracle workers.” You may still need to call it at some point with a toxic relationship and let go. love care trust and respect make d ✅ Try This Next: Check in with yourself when you feel pressure to be or do something in a certain way—is this a preference or is this programming? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Natalie on the web, Instagram: @natlue, Twitter, Facebook, Substack: On Knowing Yourself Take the Quiz: Are You a People-Pleaser? Video: Natalie’s TV Show appearance on How To Stop People Pleasing & Start Saying No With Author Natalie Lue! | Lorraine 📚 Books Mentioned The Joy of Saying No: A Simple Plan to Stop People Pleasing, Reclaim Boundaries, and Say Yes to the Life You Want Natalie’s earlier books: Mr Unavailable and the Fallback Girl, The No Contact Rule, The Dreamer and the Fantasy Relationship, and Love, Care, Trust and Respect: Reclaim your relationships from the jaws of pain, fear and guilt Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Podcast: The Baggage Reclaim Sessions with Natalie Lue Nat on Good Life Project: How to Stop Pleasing Everyone but Yourself | Natalie Lue Pivot: 338: Is Midlife Messing with Your Enough-ness? + Busting Other “Not Enough” Scams with Mandy Lehto 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding 56: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber 112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber Free Time: 54: The Hard No ❌ and 152: Do Less — On Entropic Bloat & Business Haircuts ✂️ 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/329 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“There are no bad parts.” That’s a core idea behind Internal Family Systems, a form of psychotherapy that helps guide hidden parts of ourselves to the fore so they can be acknowledged and integrated. Today, recurring co-host Adrian Klaphaak and I are building on episode 319: Who’s Sitting in the Board Room of Your Brain? by talking about how IFS can clear blocks when navigating change, and modeling the process with JB in the hotseat. Are you looking for a little support and guidance on finding your purpose, or best next step? Check out Adrian’s Career Pathfinder Program and apply promo code PIVOT for a special offer on his group training. If you’d like to work with him 1:1, he just opened up a few new spots—book a free consultation here. More about Adrian: Adrian Klaphaak is a coach, purpose guide, entrepreneur, and founder of A Path That Fits Career and Life Coaching. His coaching approach is holistic—a constant balance between getting results and a quest for meaning and fulfillment. He describes himself as “a deep seeker with a constant itch to make things happen.” 🌟 3 Key Takeaways IFS is a form of psychotherapy that says we’re all made up of multiple parts that serve to protect us and a core self—who we are beneath those protective mechanisms. Exiles, Managers, and Firefighters: Our exiles are the parts of us that experience anxiety, fear, and trauma (often when we’re very young); managers dictate how we interact with the world to protect us from those fears; firefighters seek to protect us by pushing us toward distraction to numb our pain. Unburdening: A process for helping an active, stuck exile rejoin the core, true self by reminding it that you have new tools now, compared to when you were a child. ✅ Try This Next: There is genius in our parts, and we can apply their gifts in our adult life. Try to identify how at least one of your manager parts and one firefighter might be stepping in to avoid feeling the pain of an exile (most likely formed in early childhood as an adaptive measure). 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adrian on the web, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn Course: Career Pathfinder, promo code PIVOT Video: Finding Your Calling Articles: Academy of Ideas—Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Hidden Power of Our Dark Side 📚 Books Mentioned Introduction to Internal Family Systems and No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pulling the Thread: Recovering Every Part of Ourselves (Richard Schwartz, PhD) Pivot: 319: Who’s Sitting in the Board Room of Your Brain? With Adrian Klaphaak, previous Pivot x Career Pathfinder podcast episodes with Adrian (Spotify playlist) Free Time: 031: Eleventh-Hour Creative Gremlins and 064: The Vulnerability of Launching ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/328 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At 24 years old, Eric Zimmer was homeless, addicted to heroin, and facing jail time. In the decades since, he has found a way to recover from addiction and build a life worth living for himself, while coaching others through his programs and award-winning podcast The One You Feed, based on an old parable about two wolves at battle within us (a story I also share in Pivot). We had the great pleasure of recording in person—while meeting for the first time! This was extra special because of how much Eric generously shares about his pivots through addiction and recovery, the deeper needs beneath destructive coping habits, how challenging addiction can be on friends and family, and what the literature often gets wrong about codependency. More About Eric: For the past 20 years, Eric Zimmer has worked as a behavior coach. He’s also a Certified Interfaith Spiritual Director, podcaster, and writer, who is endlessly inspired by the quest for a greater understanding of how our minds work and how to intellectually create the lives we want to live. Since 2014, he has been hosting the award-winning podcast, The One You Feed, based on an old parable about two wolves at battle within us. His story and his work have been featured in the media including TEDx, Mind Body Green, Elephant Journal, the BBC, and Brain Pickings. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Gabor Maté says addiction is often “a person’s attempted solution to a deeper problem” of connection and love. Giving up behaviors that comfort us, numb us, or artificially connect us is possible if we seek true assurance, acceptance, and real connection—those are the ingredients that lead to human thriving—but only in their true forms. Anxiety and trying to “fix” things takes a lot of energy. If you have a loved one who is stuck in a cycle of addiction, start by shifting your focus from worrying to discovering what you can control, and what actions will allow you to refuel, so you can take care of yourself and others. ✅ Try This Next: Sometimes, in the moment, there isn’t anything to do about it other than be upset, and that’s okay. When you’re in a dark space, recognize it and feel what you’re feeling, while keeping your mind open to change. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Eric on the web, IG: @one_you_feed, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Eric’s podcast: The One You Feed Articles: Behavior Change Components, Life’s “Dark Hallways”: Where Transformation Happens, Emotional First Aid: Uncertainty, Fear, and Anxiety, Fogg Behavior Model: What Causes Behavior Change? Video: TEDxColumbus: The Battle of Changing Your Behavior 📚 Books Mentioned The Wisdom of Anxiety by Sheryl Paul Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, When the Body Says No, and The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad) by Tracy Dennis-Tiwary Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change: A Guide for Families 🎧 Related Episodes The One You Feed: How to Create a Spiritual Principal Centered Life with Eric Zimmer Free Time: 077: Happy Launch Day! Antonio Neves Guest Hosts (Part 1) and 079 (Part 2) Pivot: 124: Penney & Jenny Show — Embracing Liminal Space (the In-Between) 317: “We are the Refresh Generation” — Shifting Out of Reality Escape Artist Mode with Paul Angone 92: Adulting to Win: Powerful Questions and Pivotal Plot Points with Paul Angone 305: Is What You Are Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis 316: “Don’t Suffer Twice” 312: Are you Future-Tripping? 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/327 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” —Anthony Weldon in The Court and Character in King James (1651) Are you an accidental fraudster? An unknowing victim? A righteous whistleblower? The possibilities are closer than you think. Today’s guest, forensic accounting professor Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope, is here to remind us that fraud can happen to—and be committed by—any of us. Among companies with over $10 billion in global annual revenues, 52% experienced fraud during the past 24 months. Since the pandemic hit, global online fraud has increased by 46%. Even worse, “We regularly miss the red flags that are swatting us in the face.” Listen in to this conversation to learn why business is a victim hallmark, what makes us susceptible to fraudsters or to committing accidental fraud, and how to get better at spotting red flags. More About Kelly: Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope is a nationally recognized expert in risk, forensic accounting, and white-collar crime research, and an award-winning educator, researcher, author, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. She is the Dr. Barry Jay Epstein Endowed Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Her TED Talk entitled "How Whistle-blowers Shape History” has been viewed over 1.6 million times, translated into 20 languages, and serves as a resource to help organizations and individuals embrace internal whistleblowing. She is the author of Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways There are three key players in the fraud universe, each with several sub-types: perps (intentional, accidental, righteous), prey (innocent bystanders and organizational targets), and whistleblowers (accidental, noble, vigilante, crossover). “Busyness is a victim hallmark,” especially among clients who are laser-focused on their businesses and not remotely interested in accounting. You might cut corners, miss details, review bills as thoroughly. The Fraud Triangle: Opportunity, pressure, rationalization (created by criminologist Donald Cressey in the 1950s). ✅ Try This Next: Sign up for an accounting class so you know how to read a financial statement, and can spot red flags more easily. Ignorance is not bliss! 📚 Books Mentioned Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One 🔗 Resources Mentioned Kelly on the web, IG: @kellyrpope, Twitter, LinkedIn Fool Me Once Fraud Experience (Quiz) Documentary: All the Queen's Horses (2018, Amazon Prime) TEDx Talk: How Whistle-blowers Shape History Articles: NYT—The Harvard Job Offer No One at Harvard Ever Heard Of 🎧 Related Episodes 84: Former CIA Agent Michele Assad Returns: On Transforming Insecurities Into Intuition and Faith 71: Finding Faith, Courage and Confidence as a Secret Agent—Michele Rigby Assad's Pivot from CIA to Author 148: Penney & Jenny Show—Pivoting From Toxic Situations Toward Self-Entertainment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Attending conferences can be overwhelming — even for the most excited extroverts among us—let alone the introverts who challenge their comfort zone in the registration process alone. Today, my friend Alisa and I do an in-person debrief of our recent week-long adventure at the TED global conference in Vancouver (my second time attending, her fifth). We cover conversation openers, the power of a genuine compliment, trying (and sometimes failing) to approach people we admire as a peer, handling the inevitable FOMO and big feelings that arise, when to call it quits (what I call “falling off the cliff”), and so much more. Be sure to also keep an eye out on the Free Time podcast (even better, subscribe!) for Friday’s episode #196, where I share a mini daily audio diary that I kept on each day of the conference, with some additional reflections at the end. More About Alisa: Alisa Cohn has been coaching startup founders to grow into world-class CEOs for nearly 20 years. She is the author of From Start-Up to Grown-Up, and hosts a podcast of the same name. A onetime startup CFO, strategy consultant, and current angel investor and advisor, she has worked with startup companies such as Venmo, Etsy, and more. 🌟 10 Key Takeaways Have a repertoire of different openers to approach people with. Wear a “talk piece” clothing item that invites people to comment on. Approach as a peer vs. fangirling (which might occur anyway!) Sit in a central public place to catch conference passers-by. Message people right after you meet them about something you spoke about. Text a “wish you were here!” selfie to mutual friends as a way to keep in loose touch. Prepare for the emotional ups and downs you’re going to feel when you’re in large groups. Embrace JOMO when you need a break, knowing when you’re at your best. Don’t be afraid to call it early in the evening if/when you’re feeling New Friend Fatigue. Follow up with connections after you return home by scheduling a dinner reunion. ✅ Try This Next: Alisa: Go and meet one new person—strike up a conversation with someone you wouldn’t normally speak to and see what happens. Jenny: Put yourself in the path of people. Is there an event, a book reading, even a bench in the park where you can encounter people you normally wouldn’t? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Alisa on the web, Twitter: @AlisaCohn, LinkedIn: @AlisaCohn Articles: Andrew Wilkinson on Medium (founder of Tiny capital) Video: Lizzo thanking Beyoncé at the Grammy’s 📚 Books Mentioned From Start-Up to Grown-Up by Alisa Cohn The Long Game by Dorie Clark The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin Presence by Amy Cuddy The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Other Shows: The Tim Ferriss Show — Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of “Pre-Mortems,” and the Three Selves (#539) Pivot: 298: Networking in a New Niche and Becoming Broadway Investors with Dorie Clark and Alisa Cohn, 285: Cultivating Influence with Jon Levy, 293: 🍝 Are you a Spaghetti-Twirler or a Spaghetti-Thrower? Free Time:192: 📲 5 Creative Ways to Better Organize Your Phone Contacts, 196: What do Donuts, Coffee, Conversation, and Energy Cliffs Have in Common? (Coming soon!), 043: From Start-Up to Grown-Up (and Coach to Author) with Alisa Cohn, 035: The Long Game with Dorie Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As today’s guest—imposter complex expert Tanya Geisler—notes, the global self-development industry is worth $41 billion as of 2021. She says, “That is a lot of money invested in making people feel terrible about themselves…and like they need to be fixed. (Think diet industry but for confidence.)” In this episode, we’re talking about the six ways imposter complex manifests, the ways that trying to eliminate it can paradoxically exacerbate feelings of unworthiness, and even more importantly: the six illuminating values behind imposter-y habits that can help you step into your fullest expression. More About Tanya: Tanya Geisler is a celebrated women's leadership expert, mentor coach, keynote and TEDx Women speaker, writer, and Ready Enough podcast host. After a successful career in advertising, she entered the world of coaching two decades ago and has worked with thousands of changemakers, innovators, and leaders to dislodge that not-good-enough feeling, perfectionism, procrastination, diminishment, people-pleasing, comparison, and leaky boundaries. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Six ways imposter complex manifests: perfectionism, procrastination, diminishment, people-pleasing, comparison, and leaky boundaries. The more we spend time in the six habits of impostor syndrome, the more like imposters we feel. When we identify and resolve one imposter-related habit, stay curious, as another related manifestation will often rear up in its place. Imposter complex arrives on the precipice of expansion: If you’re feeling it, you may be about to experience something new and meaningful. Think of it as a canary in the coal mine for your personal growth. ✅ Try This Next: Get curious about what is underneath your imposter complex: What beautiful value is it revealing? For guidance with this, take the quiz to discover your Iconic Identity. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Tanya on the web, IG: @tanyageisler, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest Free course: Five ICONIC Shifts Leaders Use to Overcome Imposter Complex Quiz: What’s your ICONIC identity? Video: Tanya at TEDxIsfieldWomen—Owning Our Authority, The Art of Being Yourself - Caroline McHugh Coach Training: Co-Active Training Institute 📰 Articles Mentioned Tanya: The 12 Lies of the Imposter Complex, What’s the Difference Between Imposter Syndrome and Imposter Complex, The Sin of (Out)Shining, Yes, I Saw the Article in the New Yorker on the Imposter Syndrome re: the February 2023 New Yorker article by Leslie Jamison, Not Fooling Anyone: The dubious rise of imposter syndrome (online title is Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It) Siri Liv Myhrom (referencing Caroline McHugh) To Be Yourself Completely: The Collective Grief of Losing Prince Tim Ferriss on 11 Reasons Not to Become Famous Concept: Tall Poppy Syndrome 📚 Books Mentioned The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Tanya’s podcast: Ready Enough Free Time: 039: Permission to Glow with Kristoffer (KC) Carter Pivot: 251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters 112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber 73: What's more important to you than perfection? With Jenny Blake 56: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber 188: The Pondering Method (for Rebels) with Michael Karsouny 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/324 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever considered teaching for a university? Even if you don’t take the path of Ph.D. student pursuing a tenure-track position, you can land adjunct roles after reaching a certain point in your professional career. Today’s guest Alex Budak—who happens to be someone I went to high school and college with (and someone who gave me hope that I could succeed in the earliest days of self-employment!)—is taking us behind-the-scenes of pivoting into a professorship. Alex shares how he got his foot in the door at UC Berkeley; going from googling “how to write a syllabus” to improving and curating his curriculum; how much time teaching requires; his process for revising materials after class based on how they land among students; and most of all, the “magic alchemy” rewards of teaching in a university setting even when the pay is lower than other opportunities. More About Alex: Alex Budak is a UC Berkeley faculty member, social entrepreneur, author, and speaker. At UC Berkeley, Alex teaches his wildly-popular course “Becoming a Changemaker,” directs the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program, and teaches in Berkeley Executive Education programs. Alex co-founded StartSomeGood in 2011, which has helped over 1,200 changemakers in over 50 countries raise millions of dollars to launch and scale new change initiatives. His book, Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level, has been endorsed by Nobel Prize winners, Olympic athletes, and most meaningful of all—his students. He is a graduate of UCLA and Georgetown University. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways The academic flywheel, as described by professor Morten Hansen at UC Berkeley: Teach a class, refine that material into a book, share it with a variety of audiences, collect new case studies, then repeat those steps so that each builds upon the one before it, improving the content that follows. Teaching can be all-consuming at the beginning, but it does get easier and smooth out over time, especially as you get specific feedback from each round of students. “One person teaches, two people learn.” The magic and serendipity of teaching is that every single class is different, due to the alchemy of who is in the room. Teaching can help you stay connected to younger generations, and stretch you to keep your thinking fresh. ✅ Try This Next: Write a list of three classes you’d be excited to teach—don’t be afraid to dream! Ignore the constraints of disciplines and what currently exists, just capture titles and a description of what at least one course could look like. Bonus: consider running it as a 45- to 90-minute virtual workshop to pilot the material. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Alex on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn Articles: NYT Magazine’s Interview with Laurie Santos, Inc—The Way We Count Our Time At Work Isn't Working: Instead of a 40-plus hour-per-week sprint, think of it as a relay race. People: Seth Godin, Allison Kluger, Morten Hansen, Jim Collins Jenny’s Pivot in the Classroom: Sample syllabi and case studies 📚 Books Mentioned Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smart by Liz Weisman The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by the Heath Brothers Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Podcast: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos 324: Six Golden Shadows of the Imposter Complex with Tanya Geisler 251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters 310: When the Career Grass Really is Greener — On Job Crafting with Rebecca Fraser-Thill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“When there’s a fork in the road, take it.” That’s one of my favorite Yogi Berra classics of paradoxical wisdom. Pivoting is defined by its own set of paradoxes and tricky decision points, so today I invited a special guest to the pod to share two of her frameworks that I fell instantly in love with, and that I know you will too! We’re also celebrating the one-year bookiversary and recent Audiobook release of Sarah’s wonderful book, Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments. If you haven’t already, be sure to listen to our earlier conversation in episode 277 on Spacious Scheduling, and subscribe to her fantastic Friday Favorites newsletter! It’s one of my favorite messages every week, always chock full of great resources and links—from yummy French cookies and lemon loaf tea to playlists for any mood or season :) More About Sarah: Sarah Young is the Founder and CEO of Zing Collaborative and author of Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments. She works with conscious and committed clients who want to elevate and expand their leadership capacity. She has a deep appreciation for nature, travel, sunshine, warm weather, paddle boarding, rescue dogs, cooking, coffee, and the precious hours of the early morning. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Grounding—Connect to your highest self. Who are you when you are at your best? When you are operating from love, versus fear? What would your highest self do? Exploring—Try on the different options. Imagine yourself there. What does each option feel like? What do you see in each scenario? What is happening, and how do you feel? Clean energy is clear and flowing, with a natural feeling of psychological safety. You aren't wasting time or energy thinking about whether something is off. You can simply show up and be in relationship with the other person. ✅ Try This Next: As Oprah says, “Your life is whispering to you.” Sit with this as an inquiry—what is yours saying about a tricky decision or relationship? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Sarah on the web, IG: @zingcollaborative Newsletter: Friday Favorites Playlist: Big Energy (Spotify) Apps for asynchronous communication Marco Polo, Voxer, Telegram (iOS, Android) Articles: Sarah’s blog posts on Tips for Making Tough Decisions and Clean, Clean Energy; Martha Beck on Victory by Surrender (clean vs. dirty pain), and Cheryl Strayed via Dear Sugar—The Ghost Ship That Didn’t Carry Us 📚 Books Mentioned Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments by Sarah Young Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed Finding Your Own North Star and Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 277 on Expansive Impact and Spacious Scheduling, 292: True Fun vs Fake Fun with Catherine Price, [Best Of] Penney & Jenny 9: Truth and Making "Good Choices" (July 2019) Free Time: 174: What Glass Blowing has to do with Book Marketing — Celebrating Free Time’s One-Year Bookiversary ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Cultivate 12 people who love you, because they are worth more than 12 million people who like you.” That’s just one of many gems from Kevin Kelly’s new book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier, bits of wisdom that he thinks of like handrails to grab when he needs a quick reminder about what is most important. In this conversation, we revisit our 2016 discussion about the power of human-AI partnerships, give you permission not to become a billionaire, help you lean into serendipity and embrace paradox, and encourage you to buy your time (through delegation) so that you can focus on doing the work that only you can do. As Kevin says, “Don’t be the best, be the only.” More About Kevin: Kevin Kelly helped launch WIRED magazine in 1993. He is a renowned technology and science writer, futurist, and thinker who has been at the forefront of digital culture for decades. Kelly's work explores the intersection of technology, culture, and society, and he is known for his thought-provoking insights on the future of innovation and the impact of technology on our lives. He has authored multiple books including The Inevitable, Out of Control, The Silver Cord, and What Technology Wants. His newest is Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier (May 2023). He lives in Pacifica, California with his family. 🌟 5 Favorite Takeaways from Excellent Advice for Living ChatGPT and generative AI tools are becoming the intern that everybody can have; you’ll still need to check their work, but you no longer need to start from scratch. You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person. Measure your wealth, not buy the things you can buy, but buy the things that no money can buy. Delegate what you can. Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone. Be generous. Give ideas (and compliments!) away, and even more will return to you. ✅ Try this experiment: You’ll get invited to an argument in the next week or two. Decline the invitation; don’t attend! 🔗 Resources Mentioned Kevin on the web, Instagram: @kevin2kelly, Twitter: @kevin2kelly, YouTube, podcast: Cool Tools Articles: WIRED’s Picture Limitless Creativity at Your Fingertips, NYT—Bing’s AI Chat” I want to be alive,” and A Conversation with Bing’s AI Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled Video: TED—The Future Will be Shaped by Optimists OpenAI’s ChatGPT 📚 Books Mentioned Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future and What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Pivot: 36: Kevin Kelly on Techno Literacy, Systems Thinking, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (July 2016) 305: Is What You Are Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis 264: Embrace Your Onlyness with Nilofer Merchant 61: Virtual Freedom: Overcome Superhero Syndrome and Start Outsourcing with Chris Ducker 270: Free Time Framework for Moving from Friction to Flow in 2022 Free Time: 153: Behind the Podcast — Increasing Serendipity Surface Area — Mic Flip with Matthew Thompson, 084: Sprinkling the First 1,000 Serendipity Seeds of a Launch, 017: Serendipity as Business Strategy with Leanne Hughes ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/321 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How ambitious are you? More importantly, how ambitious do you want to be in different areas of life and work? Today’s guest, Kathy Oneto, takes the long view on goals, especially for those of us who are naturally inclined to overwork until we burn out. Instead, we can be more intentional by toggling the dials of right ambition, right effort, and right time up and down as we move through different seasons. In this conversation, Kathy and I discuss managing ambition anxiety, how to know if you’re bumping up against what Gay Hendricks calls an “Upper Limit Problem” versus your “truest fit reduced ambition,” mapping energy vs. urgency, and how to know when ambitions or life seasons have truly shifted versus handling a short-term setback. More About Kathy: Kathy Oneto is a strategy executive and life-work coach who is passionate about helping people succeed on their terms at work and in life. She is the host of the Sustainable Ambition podcast. Kathy champions being consciously ambitious and crafting fulfilling work from decade to decade without sacrificing your life or yourself. She is the author of the Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook and Planner: Your Life plus Work Resilience Prescription and My Little Book of Curiosity: 26 Inquiries to Inspire What’s Next for Your Life and Work. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways For any area creating stress, ask "Is this an ambition I still want?" If so, how much effort do I want to put into it? What you wanted at once time might not match where you are now. As a result, you may need to dial the effort you are putting towards that area up or down. Sometimes ambition can clash with what you're capable of, and that can contribute to not feeling like it’s worth the effort. Add structure to support your ambition and current capabilities. Four areas to consider if it’s becoming harder to move along a certain path: Your vision for your life and your work, your core values, what you want to give and contribute in the world and your community, and what you love. ✅ Try This Next: Dial-in your ambition. For any given goal, task, project, or area of your life, decide: How good do I want to be? Good, very good, the best? How much effort do I want to put into this? Be discerning as you recalibrate your ambition and the level of effort required to match. 🔗 Resources Mentioned Kathy on the web, IG: @sustainableambition, LinkedIn, YouTube Kathy’s podcast: Sustainable Ambition Article: Reclaim Ambition on Your Terms Jenny’s private BFF Community for Heart-Based Business owners 📚 Books Mentioned Kathy’s book: Sustainable Ambition 12-Month Workbook and Planner: Your Life plus Work Resilience Prescription, My Little Book of Curiosity: 26 Inquiries to Inspire What’s Next for Your Life and Work Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation by Ayelet Fishbach Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One 🎧 Related Episodes Sustainable Ambition: 93 on Dialing in Your Ambitions with Kathy Oneto, 48. On Yes! to Free Time & High Net Freedom with Jenny Blake, 60. On The Success Factor: A Blueprint for High Performance with Ruth Gotian Pivot: Pivot x Career Pathfinder Playlist, 281: Feeling Impostery? Become a Qualified Curator Instead of an End-All-Be-All Expert Free Time: 181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo, 035: The Long Game with Dorie Clark, 143: Exploring Time, Money, and Energy Capacity with Tara McMullin and Charlie Gilkey (Replay), 141: Process, Permission Slips, and Business Pivots with Tara McMullin ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/320 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who is sitting in the boardroom of your brain? Who is sitting around the table, challenging your decisions, making noise, and offering critiques? Today Adrian and I are walking through one of our favorite coaching exercises by offering up (and coaching each other through) identifying and describing three of our current loudest board members and who we want to hire moving forward. This work connects to a therapy tool called Internal Family Systems which Adrian will share more about in our next episode together. We want to hear from you! Leave us a voice memo about this episode or to request a future topic for us to cover at http://pivotmethod.com/ask. Are you working on a pivot-in-progress? For guidance on reconnecting with what lights you up and creating an action plan to move forward, check out Adrian’s flagship Career Pathfinder Program and apply promo code PIVOT at checkout. More about Adrian: Adrian Klaphaak is a coach, purpose guide, entrepreneur, and founder of A Path That Fits Career and Life Coaching. His coaching approach is holistic—a constant balance between getting results and a quest for meaning and fulfillment. He describes himself as “a deep seeker with a constant itch to make things happen.” 🌟 3 Key Takeaways We all have parts of us that seem like voices in our heads speaking from different perspectives. When experiencing change, separating them out can provide powerful clarity. Ask questions and imagine (or write) the answers from each of your board members. What is each one's primary motivation? Their biggest fear? What are they trying to protect you from? What is the bigger vision coming from your more critical board members? For example, that you experience greater peace, success, time with your family, etc. ✅ Try This Next: Brainstorm your current board members, either on a piece of paper or together with a friend. Make a list of as many as you’d like, and build out the description by personifying them: What are they wearing? How are they acting? What is their primary fear and their primary motivation? What do you want to say to each one? Bonus: Who are the three board members you’d like to hire moving forward to help bring out your best self? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Adrian on the web, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn Course: Career Pathfinder, promo code PIVOT IFS Training: Internal Family Systems Coach Training: CTI Articles: Finding Your Calling by a Path the Fits Selfleadership.org 📚 Books Mentioned The Joy of Saying No: A Simple Plan to Stop People Pleasing, Reclaim Boundaries, and Say Yes to the Life You Want by Natalie Lue Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Previous Pivot x Career Pathfinder Playlist with Adrian 313: What’s the pebble in your shoe? Pivoting from Wall Street to RadReads with Khe Hy 292: True Fun vs Fake Fun with Catherine Price 303: What is Your Soul Path for 2023? Follow What’s Most Alive — With Adrian Klaphaak Free Time: 138: ⛵️ Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/319 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi Friends! I'm re-airing this announcement from the Free Time podcast as a friendly reminder that we made it to the nomination stage of the Webby Awards, the "Oscars of the Internet!" The Webbys celebrate the best and most innovative online content across websites, podcasts, games, apps, and videos. This nomination alone is a major achievement, putting us in the top 12% of nearly 14,000 projects entered. 📣 Between now and TOMORROW, April 20th: Please visit itsfreetime.com/webby and cast your vote for Free Time! We're up for best individual episode in the Business category. I did a double-take when I saw the other nominees, as we're by far the smallest show and the only indie that's not part of a larger network. So if you want to cast a vote not just for me, but for independent creators everywhere, I would be incredibly grateful if you could . . . ✅ Visit itsfreetime.com/webby and cast your vote for Free Time before EOD on Thursday, April 20! After that, you'll see the results of where we currently stand :) You do have to go through a small registration process (just a few questions), but after that you can peruse other categories and vote for your favorite show among those too :) THANK YOU!! For being you, for being here, and for helping Free Time stay afloat through accolades like this one :) I also want to thank the One Stone Creative production team for making both of these shows possible. Without them, there's no way we would have landed this nomination. They help the trains run on time, ensuring every single one of 12 episodes goes live across these two shows—Pivot and Free Time—every single month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“It’s OK to be a late bloomer as long as you don’t miss the flower show.” —Jane Fonda That’s a quote that today’s guest, Jenna Valovic, pulled to remind herself that not all of us are what she calls straight arrows when it comes to career paths, landing on a singular purpose early without wavering, and experiencing success and achievement from a young age. Late bloomers, on the other hand, can learn to embrace the winding road—at least once they stop shaming and blaming themselves for not having it all figured out yet. After all, as Jenna says, “Few things make you appreciate achievement more than waiting years to experience it. Consequently, many late bloomers find success to be even more savory when it comes.” Listen in to this week’s conversation for strategies on embracing the best parts of being a late bloomer, while having patience in the process of self-discovery and self-expression. More About Jenna: Jenna Valovic is a Certified Professional Co-Active Career Coach (CPCC) who brings an open mind and holistic lens to help clients build a life that feels impactful, aligned, and fully in integrity. She is one of our Pivot coaches, and holds a masters degree in leadership and organizational development, with a background in positive psychology, breathwork, and vinyasa yoga. We met many years ago through Google, where Jenna has worked for nearly a decade, most recently in executive recruiting. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Three qualities of late bloomers: They take a circuitous path; they tend to be experimental, rather than conceptual; and they are often misunderstood. Own your choices while still considering the soil you’re currently planted in: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you don’t fix the flower, you fix the environment.” Hindsight is helpful: Often the outcome of where you end up is so much better than what you could have imagined, so make a practice of reflecting on where you’ve been and the accomplishments that brought you to where you are now. ✅ Try This Next: Set up a small, low-stakes pilot (even at an hour a week) for something sparking your curiosity. Park your insecurities on the side while embracing a “willful suspension of disbelief.” 🔗 Resources Mentioned Jenna on the web, LinkedIn, Pinterest Work with Jenna as your Pivot Coach Articles: Jenna’s Lessons From A Late Bloomer: How To Uplevel Your Post-Pandemic Life and In The Wrong Career? Consider Planning A Pivot Now, New Yorker: Late Bloomers by Malcolm Gladwell Video: Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling | Emilie Wapnick Personality Tests: Enneagram, Myers-Briggs 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success by Dr. Dawn Graham The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self by Martha Beck Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement by Rich Karlgaard 🎧 Related Episodes 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding 56: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber 112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber 197: Should You Start a Podcast? "It's A Love Game" — Interview by Petra Kolber ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes at http://pivotmethod.com/318 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you feeling trapped by the infinite scroll of distractions? According to today’s returning guest, Paul Angone, we have all become cultural escape artists, what he dubs the “Refresh Generation.” Paul writes, “We are constantly getting a hit from our phone for the latest update. The iPhone is our cigarette, and too many of us are chain-smoking our phones." It’s time to get off the dizzying carousel of phone addiction, and relearn how to listen to ourselves and our day for aha moments instead. Paul believes that “the most successful and fulfilled people on this Earth are simply better at paying attention to what's important.” More About Paul: Paul Angone is one of the most trusted and sought-after voices in the nation to college students, young professionals, and those going through career change. Paul is the bestselling author of 101 Secrets for Your Twenties, 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties, 25 Lies Twentysomethings Need to Stop Believing, and today we’re talking about his new book, Listen to Your Day: The Life-Changing Practice of Paying Attention. He is also the creator of AllGroanUp.com and the All Groan Up podcast, and a dynamic keynote speaker at universities, corporations, and churches nationwide. He was previously on the show in April 2018, episode 92: Adulting to Win: Powerful Questions and Pivotal Plot Points. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways Create space to do your best work: Sometimes we do our best thinking when not actively working at all. Pay attention to what helps you get in flow, and engineer those opportunities for yourself. As Paul says, “I'm really learning that I do my best writing when I'm not writing.” Paying attention is the path to becoming an expert. “Experts focus on one thing through a lens that others are not willing, or cannot, see through.” What is your secret sauce? The unique ingredients you're combining to “create a substance that the world really needs, that the world is hungry for, that the world is desperate for.” ✅ Try This Next: Practice different ways of paying attention: How would a monk consider this problem? What about a farmer or an entrepreneur? 🔗 Resources Mentioned: Paul on the web, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest Paul’s podcast: All Groan Up TV Shows and Movies: The Last of Us (HBO), Chef’s Table (Netflix), Delicious (Amazon Prime), Searching for Sugar Man, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Articles: Paul’s Top five all-time blog posts 📚 Books Mentioned: Paul’s books: 101 Secrets for Your Twenties, 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties, 25 Lies Twentysomethings Need to Stop Believing, Listen to Your Day: The Life-Changing Practice of Paying Attention Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes: Tristan Harris’s Your Undivided Attention All Groan Up: I’m a failure! And why that’s a lie, Moment 92 - How to Find Out EXACTLY What You Want to Do in Life: Mark Manson Pivot: 92: Adulting to Win: Powerful Questions and Pivotal Plot Points with Paul Angone 250: Staycation in the City 254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin 305: Is What You Are Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/317 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s solo riff is on a three-word phrase that has helped quell countless waves of anxiety in the decade since I first heard it, wisdom passed from my friend Monica McCarthy's (aka MonBon’s) mom then to the pages of Pivot. Pardon the occasional panting (lol) and background noise—err New York City soundscape—as I recorded this one on a big hill at the park, running up and down while throwing a giant log for Ryder to chase. He chases sticks, I chase ideas! 🌟 3 Key Takeaways: Memento Mori, though it is by definition morbid, is a practice of reminding ourselves that we (and our loved ones) will die. As the monks at Wat Umong temple hand-wrote on a note posted to a tree, “Remember: In 100 years, all new people.” How can you allow this reality to inform how you engage in relationships without leading to excessive anxiety or worry? The Second Arrow: Notice when you are suffering because of a story you are telling yourself after a painful event, grinding the gears of a problem and making it worse long after the fact. Remember, “Worry is praying for what you don’t want.” Try not to worry for or about others either; it’s not a nice energy to project or to feel. ✅ Next Action: If you notice yourself worrying or anxious, try to remind yourself of those three little words from MonBon's mom: Don't suffer twice. 📚Books Mentioned Life After College Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead by Tosha Silver Change Me Prayers: The Hidden Power of Spiritual Surrender by Tosha Silver 🔗 Resources Articles: Many Animals—Including Your Dog—May Have Horrible Short-Term Memories, Memento Mori, The Second Arrow People: Monica McCarthy, Tosha Silver, Penney Peirce 🎧 Related Podcast Episodes Pivot: 312: Are You Future-Tripping? Jenny & Penney Show (Spotify playlist) Slow Cooked vs. Pressure Cooker Free Time: 170: 🌈 “Imagine a World of Abundance” ✨ 172: Free Time Isn’t Just for the Fun Days 138: ⛵️ Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes 🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/316 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would you do if you had more confidence? Today’s guest, Kelli Thompson, polled over 500 people with this question and received answers that were equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking. In this conversation, Kelli shares the story of walking down the aisle at her first wedding when her intuition was whispering that the relationship wasn’t right, but she didn’t yet have the confidence to listen. We discuss strategies for listening to that still, small voice within; how to stop “box-checking” for external validation; the flip side of the imposter monster: pedestal syndrome; and working through the “poop soup” of liminal space between major changes. As Kelli says, “You can’t criticize yourself into more confidence.” More About Kelli: Kelli Thompson is a women’s leadership coach and speaker who helps women advance to the rooms where decisions are made. She has coached and trained hundreds of women to trust themselves, lead with more confidence, and create a career they love. She is the founder of the Clarity & Confidence Women's Leadership Program and a Stevie Award winner for Women in Business—Coach of the Year. She is the author of Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck, which was selected as a must-read by The Next Big Idea Club. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways: Your intuition is going to tell you things your brain doesn’t want to hear, but it isn’t always loud. Those little nudges and questions are trying to get your attention and are worth spending time with. We often default to checking the boxes of what we, or our communities, think it means to be successful. Ask yourself: “Do I even want this? Does it feel good? Does this give me energy?” New job smell wears off. The problems we bring with us into new environments are going to come up again and again unless we deal with the internal issues—boundaries, communication, confidence—that cause them in the first place. Try This Next: Write down 3-5 things in your life that you no longer want. Where do you feel resentment? What is out of alignment? Choose one to have a conversation about or draw a boundary around as a next step. 📘Books: Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live by Martha Beck Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff 🔗Resources: Kelli on the web, Instagram: @kelliraethompson, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook People: Martha Beck, Kristin Neff, Marissa Knox Article: Growing Wings: The Power of Change by Martha Beck Book Club: The Next Big Idea Club The Life Coach School Episode 9: It Doesn’t Get Better Than This 🎧Related Podcast Episodes 52: Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send 282: The Honor Roll Hangover with Melody Wilding 251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters 281: Feeling Impostery? Become a Qualified Curator Instead of an End-All-Be-All Expert 313: What’s the pebble in your shoe? Pivoting from Wall Street to RadReads with Khe Hy 124: Penney & Jenny Show — Embracing Liminal Space (the In-Between) 164: Fix This Next (And Stop Keeping Up With The Entrepre-Joneses) with Mike Michalowicz ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :) 💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter 💻 Check out Jenny’s Pivot courses on LinkedIn Learning: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, and Coaching New Managers 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey ☎️ Submit a question or comment for future episodes **🎧 **Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/315 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices