Pivot with Jenny Blake

I have had such a blast talking with Penney Peirce about her Transformation Trilogy on intuition, frequency, and now perception. Talk about a dream come true! Today’s Pivot Podcast is our third in the series, and we dive deep into the nature of our holographic universe, the shift toward right-brain perception, why attention is the new intention (forget the law of attraction), how to find flow in projects, and how to navigate the void after major life or work phases are complete. 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/34 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m thrilled to share an interview with my good friend and business author doppelgänger, Dorie Clark. I interviewed Dorie while writing Pivot on the big ideas from her book Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It. When we’re not scrounging up interesting New York activities to try, we both love thinking about how to reinvent careers and the best way to develop and share ideas that make a difference in others’ lives. 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/33 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meditation has re-wired my brain. I don’t walk on clouds every day, but I do feel like a new person three years in to maintaining a daily practice (and 120 days in to a consecutive streak). I know, I know. One shouldn’t promote meditation as a miracle cure. But if you have an active mind, one that veers toward anxiety and stress like me, take a listen to this week’s Pivot Podcast. 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/32 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the key ingredients to leading a movement? How do you motivate fellow travelers to traverse the change process, within themselves and within your organization or community, even when all they want to do is quit? What happens when you hit a natural plateau in the growth cycle? These are the topics I explore in today’s show with Nancy Duarte, master of systems thinking, speech writing, and the subject of her latest book, Illuminate: How to Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols. 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/31 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dreams. Although we often laugh them away today (if we remember them at all), many ancient and tribal cultures treated the dream world as absolutely real and worthy of our respect, an extension of the waking world. As Penney Peirce writes in Be the Dreamer, Not the Dream: A Guide to 24-Hour Consciousness (previously published as Dreams for Dummies), “Everything we do in the dream world is real; it’s just happening at other dimensions of our awareness.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When was the last time you were in the zone?There’s nothing I love more than working with time flying. The sun rises and sets and I barely notice because I’m so engrossed in my work. Cal Newport calls this deep work, and says that contrary to what many assume, it is a skill, not a habit. That means it takes deliberate practice, and is a cognitive muscle that can atrophy with disuse—something we are all prone to as we get sucked into network tools like social media and email. I loved this conversation and I know you will too! Enjoy 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/29 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All big projects require trade-offs. Scratch that, all big life choices do. What trade-offs are you making right now? What are your non-negotiables while working on a soul goal? What are you willing to let slide a bit in exchange for intense focus? 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/28 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Intuition is an innate gift, one available to all of us, and a skill—a muscle that you can build with practice and attention. I am thrilled to bring you today’s podcast, an interview with intuition expert Penney Peirce, whose books have had an enormous impact on my life. Reading The Intuitive Way kicked off two years of coincidence tracking, intuition studying, and surrendering to serendipity—and completely transformed the way I go about my day-to-day life. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and stay tuned: we’ll be doing a follow-up on dream interpretation in a future episode! 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/27 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have all had the experience of sharing something that’s on our mind with a friend, family member, partner, or co-worker — then bristling in frustration or quiet defeat as they jump straight into trying to solve our problem with their brilliant advice. What’s the alternative? Curiosity and a few simple coaching questions. That what I dig into on today’s Pivot Podcast with Michael Bungay Stanier, whose new book The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever launches today! Not just for managers and coaches, today’s conversation will help all of us become better black-belt listeners. Written as a haiku, Michael’s message is: Tell less and ask more.Your advice is not as goodAs you think it is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is it so challenging to say no to something good even when we know we have outgrown it? The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. We often accept “the devil we know” for longer than we should out of fear. Hey, at least there is some security and safety in our current devil. Who knows what lurks on the other side! And what if we can’t find a better one? What if we regret our choice to leave this devil behind? What if we are being too picky in the first place? Is the grass greener on the other side or not?! These are the topics I explore on today’s Pivot Podcast. The precursor to every pivot is saying no to something. It could be a job, a relationship, a city, religion, social norms, habits, or even a perspective that is no longer serving you. We know that to keep our email inboxes clean we have to opt out when messages no longer resonate—but how do we do the same in major life moments? Check out the show notes at www.pivotmethod.com/podcast/opt-out Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I can hardly believe it, but the Pivot manuscript is DONE! D-O-N-E, done. It didn’t sink in until after I reviewed the copy edit and made my most recent round of changes. After I turned it in, my editor told me I wouldn’t be touching the Word file again. Huh?! Are you sure you don’t need me to take just oooooone more look? Says the perfectionist afraid to let go. Nope. The next (and final) time I get to review the book, it will be printed on 11×17 pages for hand edits before the advance copies get printed, also known as galleys. The relief started to sink in slowly, over several days, when I realized that for three years this project had taken up residence in a very large portion of my brain. Only when it was out of my consciousness did I realize how all-consuming it had been, churning in my sleep, my waking hours, my walks, and my showers. Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/24 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The effort to try to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable. It is our constant efforts to eliminate the negative — insecurity, uncertainty, failure, or sadness — that causes us to feel so insecure, anxious, uncertain, or unhappy.”—Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote I read Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote a few years after it came out, and it quickly ascended to the top of my all-time favorite books list. At one point during the most intense part of my tumultuous pivot year, I gave up on trying to be happy and focused on equanimity instead. Ah, the sweet relief! I no longer felt the self-imposed pressure to meet some benchmark of bliss every day, and instead surrendered into how I was really feeling: sad, confused, and tired. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/23 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point. When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line.”—Derek Sivers, Ask Me Anything My dad started a band called Mr. Gasoline that he ran for 25 years, and recalls uploading his Mr. Gasoline albums to CD Baby “back when Derek was still sleeping on a couch in the office.” I smiled when I heard that story—Derek’s dedication and humility are two of the traits I most admire about him, and what compelled me to follow his work more closely and start my own /now page. In his recently released book, Anything You Want, he shares the story and mindset behind the rise of his smashingly successful CD Baby venture, and the tough years leading up to his exit. What first attracted me to Derek was not that he built a $22 million business—but that when he sold the company, he gave all the proceeds to a charitable trust. Who does that? Someone who defines success on their own terms. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year Everyone!! Greetings from Tulum, Mexico where I’m taking a (solo) week of R&R with yoga, reading, and hanging out by the ocean. Gotta get myself prepped to head back to snowy NYC! I am also celebrating (and decompressing from!) ten years of running Life After College, and turning in the final draft of Pivot mid-December. After 14+ months of working on the manuscript, we are now moving on to a final copy edit and page layout this month. Read more and get my latest book and tool recommendations in my twice monthly behind-the-business newsletter. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/21 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the final countdown! Time to wrap-up the final days of 2015 then dream-and-scheme for what’s to come. I don’t set New Years Resolutions, but I do choose a theme for the year, do fun mind-mapping exercises, set quarterly targets, and hold myself accountable with mastermind groups. In today’s final Pivot Podcast of the year, I share practical tips to help you set a 2016 strategy by doubling-down on what’s working, and setting up small experiments to test what’s next. AKA, the Pivot Method! A quick favor: I can’t believe this is episode 15 already! If you have gotten value from the episodes so far, I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review in these early days of getting it off the ground. Thank you in advance! One of my top goals in 2016 is to continue bringing you awesome content, experts and ideas. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I woke up and the room was spinning clockwise. Am I wasted? No . . . I haven’t had a sip of alcohol in weeks. Is this some kind of immaculately conceived hangover? After an hour of laying in bed hoping it would pass, I stood up and stumbled. Grabbed for a nearby wall to prop me up. I felt nauseous. Do I have food poisoning? No . . . I haven’t eaten anything different this week, or any typical poisoning potential foods. Maybe I just need something to eat . . . a bagel. That will soak up these symptoms. It was hard to get dressed, I felt so nauseous, but I had no food in the house. I walked down the street, into a local cafe. Every step was a challenge. If a cop pulled me over for walking under the influence, I would not have passed his straight line test. I ordered my bagel. I don’t think I can even make it through this transaction . . . Before I could pay, I ran outside to throw up. Thank goodness for New York City and its trash cans on every corner. I crouched nearby the trash can for a few more minutes just in case. Two very friendly delivery guys got out of their truck and brought me a cup of water. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get your geek on! This week’s Pivot Podcast is all about robots, artificial intelligence, and automation. How can we become more agile in an economy that is increasingly transformed by these areas? What skills and mindset will best position us for success in the future? How can you become a “robot whisperer” like today’s guest, professor Tom Guarriello? I could talk with Tom about all this for hours, but we contained ourself (for now!) in keeping this week’s episode to one jam-packed 60-minute conversation. Tom Guarriello has a Ph.D. in psychology and have spent most of his career helping individuals and organizations to improve the quality of their lives and relationships. Fifteen years ago, he co-founded a consulting firm called TrueTalk, Inc., and in 2009, he became a Founding Faculty member in the Master’s in Branding program at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. Over the past few years, he became fascinated with the ways in which modern technologies, especially robots, were changing the psychological landscape, leading him to create a new platform and field of study called RoboPsych. 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. That’s the gremlin I hear behind the slight nerves I feel about sharing today’s conversation with my good friend Nicole Antoinette. As we both hit eight years of blogging this year (ten since I started Life After College), we decided to take an honest look at the social media fatigue that sometimes washes over a life lived online. These periods of being public versus private ebb and flow, just as any creative journey will. While blogging and social media are mediums we credit for countless blessings in our lives (including our friendship!), we also wanted to share openly and honestly about the pressure to write, blog, tweet, insta—you name it—regularly, for . . . well, who knows how long? I hope you enjoy today’s episode, and I look forward to hearing how you set yourself up for long-term success and sustainability around these topics in the comments! 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/17 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that just the way you sit might be causing anxiety? Or that by straightening your spine and scanning the horizon you can calm your central nervous system, just as deer in the savannah do? Stacy Sims, founder of True Body Project, is an expert on somatics, or how our physical and psychological bodies relate to one another. I had the great fortune of stumbling across her workshop in Bali when we were both there in 2013, and we have kept in touch since. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The explorer is the person who is lost.”—Tim Cahill I rode the high of hitting my 50,000-words-in-a-month NaNoBlogMo goal for exactly one day last week. For one day I was over the moon! I did it! I wrote almost every morning for one month, and came out with 50,000 words by the end of November. It was like running a mental marathon! Combined with my October practice of trying to write for 30 minutes each day, I had amassed 100,000 words of a book draft. For those who aren’t word nerds, that’s about 350 pages double-spaced. Definitely cause for celebration! 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy November! As I shared in my latest JB.me behind-the-business update, Pivot for Pivot, we have postponed the book launch from March to next September. My initial resistance turned to great relief as I realized I could actually enjoy some time off over the holidays! Read the behind-the-scenes recap for the biggest mindset mistake this move highlighted, and how I corrected course. While my editor Natalie reviews the latest draft, I spent the month of October furiously studying podcasting and audio editing. I am getting ready to take the Pivot Podcast “pro” by getting it on iTunes . . . with fancy intro and outro music and all that jazz. I am very close! In the meantime, check out the 9 existing episodes on SoundCloud. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/14 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“These days we are expected to live our lives at the same time we brand the shit out of it,” my friend Stacy said to me last year. That sentiment stuck with me, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. Selfies, Snapshat, blog posts, Periscope, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter—when do we get a break to simply live our lives and do the work? It can be a tough tradeoff to make—particularly to those of us who have chosen more public-facing careers—toil behind the scenes and risk obscurity, or obligingly participate in Social Everything to build our platforms? It was hard enough for me to deal with daily life during the roughest moments of my 2013 pivot, let alone think about what to blog about during that time. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/13 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When is it time to wipe the slate clean and start over when you hit a breaking point in your career? How can travel play a role in the reflection process? How do you bounce back from zero when you have wiped out your savings? What makes graduate school worth the time, energy and money? How do you build a business, even when you don’t love the initial work that is coming in? How can you embrace fear, uncertainty and failure? Today’s episode features one of my closest friends, Adam Chaloiecheep, brand strategist and founder of ABC Design Lab. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did! 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/12 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How often do you come down with a Case of the Mondays? It can be a strange feeling to avoid your to-do list on a big project when you run your own business or side hustle: if you are the one calling the shots on schedule and strategy, shouldn’t it be energizing much more often than not? However, for one reason or another, we often let fear and shoulds take-over (myself included) and suddenly find ourselves at a fork-in-the-road with projects we care deeply about. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HUGE thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful emails, tweets and comments about last week’s announcement for The Pivot Method. I think my emoticon-loving heart might explode from seeing so many exclamation marks in one week! As promised, I’ve recorded two very scrappy “podcast” calls for those who submitted questions. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yes, we—there is no way this would be possible without you here reading, and for that I am grateful beyond words. The Pivot Method will be published in hardcover by Portfolio/Penguin in early 2016, one of the top business and career imprints, and I could not be more thrilled! Their vision for the book blew me away, and I feel very lucky to be in such great hands over this next leg of the JB journey. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/9 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cyber crimes are increasing at a staggeringly multi-exponential rate. Ignorance about our devices and online security is no longer acceptable; cyber crimes affect over 1.5 million victims per day. That’s 18 victims per second, 556 million victims per year, and over 600,000 compromised Facebook accounts per day. [Source] The recent Sony hack was so sophisticated the FBI says it would have gotten past 90 percent of firms. This is not something we can afford to ignore, especially for those of us who run online businesses. Today I am thrilled to introduce you to my good friend, web strategist and performance expert Willie Jackson. As he says on today’s podcast: 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to find your Zone of Genius and stay there? What are the key ingredients to peak performance? What are the biggest barriers? If you think of your career as a car, what are the two biggest “headlights” that help you see clearly and do your best work? How can our challenges serve as fuel for opportunity? I had the pleasure of asking these questions to Laura Garnett, peak performance strategist for Fortune 100 CEOs, in a recent interview for my Pivot book. Our conversations were so inspiring and informative that I couldn’t bear to wait an entire year to share with you when the book comes out! I hope you enjoy as much as I did 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For those of you considering hiring a virtual assistant in 2014, I cannot recommend it highly enough — this is easily one of the best things I did for my life and business last year. And yet, control freak that I am, I did not go down without a fight! For YEARS I had read all the books (4-hour Work Week chief among them), and knew the importance of delegating and not being a bottleneck. But each time I tried to move forward with hiring someone, I got overwhelmed, discouraged and gave up. Who to hire? US or overseas? What should I delegate? How do I do it efficiently? Can I trust them? Thankfully I gave it another go by hiring someone in October, and I’ve been hooked ever since. After just four days of working together, she became indispensable to my daily workflow. 📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices