Set your time free through smarter systems so you can do more of your best work. Free Time launched in 2021 and releases on Tuesdays and Fridays. It's a Webby-nominated business podcast and winner of three W3 awards for best show and best host. Join Jenny Blake, author of three award-winning booksâincluding Free Time: Lose the Busywork and Love Your Business and Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next Oneâto explore our guiding question: How can we earn twice as much in half the time, with joy and ease, while serving the highest good? Subscribe now so you donât miss an episode! Bonus: please leave a review and share with a friendâword-of-mouth is the most joyful way to grow the show :) Subscribe to theTime Well Spent newsletter at ItsFreeTime.com, and share this episode at pod.link/freetime. Check out Jenny's other podcast, Pivot with Jenny Blake, on navigating change at pod.link/pivotmethod.
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273: Navigating Time Anxiety, Reducing Inbox Dread, and Creating Ease Loops with Chris Guillebeau
Episode 270
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 ⢠Duration 50:18
đ Hello Free Timers! While weâre still not resuming the podcastâs regular publishing schedule, Iâm popping into your feed today to share a fun conversation with my friendtor of over fifteen years, Chris Guillebeau. Weâre discussing his new book, Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live â it was too aligned with Free Time not to share!
đ View full show notes with all resources mentioned at http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/273.
More about Chris: Chris is the author of several other bestselling books to help you live an unconventional life, think for yourself, see the world, and earn extra money, including The Money Tree, The $100 Startup (a global bestseller), and The Art of Non-Conformity, which was translated into 30+ languages. During a lifetime of self-employment that included a four-year commitment as a volunteer executive in West Africa, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his 35th birthday. Every day since January 1, 2017, his podcast, Side Hustle School, has offered a new idea, tip, or short story to help listeners create a new source of income without quitting their jobs.
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272: Seth Godin on Publishing Strategy, Missed Opportunities, Sunk Costs, Social Media, and Smart Risks
Episode 272
Tuesday, October 22, 2024 ⢠Duration 48:27
âHow do you decide who has the power to judge you? Who are you seeking to please? Is that validation directly in alignment with how you are rewarded and how you're organized?â
Seth Godin is back with a brand new book, This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans, and if you loved Free Time, I know you will love this one for geeking out on systems thinking!
We discuss how his author strategy has shifted over time, why heâs piloting a new type of publishing contract with this book, how he felt when asked to leave a weekly poker game for not taking big enough risks, and how The Innovatorâs Dilemma relates to companies like Google, NPR, and Netflix (he was in the room as NPR purposefully missed the boat on podcasting).
More About Seth: Seth Godin is a renowned author, entrepreneur, and marketing expert who has profoundly influenced modern business thinking through his blog, with over 9,000 daily posts and counting. Known for his innovative ideas on marketing, leadership, and personal growth, Godin has authored 22 bestselling books in over 39 languages. He is also the coordinator of The Carbon Almanac, which he calls âthe most important project of my career.â
đ 5 Key Takeaways from This is Strategy
Social media: Avoid projects where the system is organized to take all the value you create.
Building community: Create a strategy where the scale is the magic. Start by serving a small group of people who would miss us if we didn't exist.
Pricing: Price is a story, a signal, and a symptom of your strategy. âLow price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of useful ideas."
Decision-making: It's impossible to consistently have perfect outcomes. It's easier to imagine that we're able to make good decisions on a regular basis.
Ignoring sunk costs: All of your assets and experiences are a gift from your former self. You're welcome to leave them behind.
đ Permission
Stop seeking authority and start taking responsibility. Time is ours; sooner or later, the story we tell ourselves belongs to us. That doesn't mean it's easy. It just means that given the situation you're in, you could make something better and no one can stop you.
â Â Do (or Delegate) This Next
If you feel creatively stagnant, try switching up your environment. For example, Seth took train rides with no destination in mind to get into a writing groove. Bonus: Try asking Claude.ai to expand on a list or framework youâve created. What might you be missing?
đ Resources Mentioned
Seth on the web
New Book: This Is Strategy
Community: Purple.space
Udemy course: This Is Strategy
Publisher: Authors Equity
Seth's articles: Books donât sell and Firing the New York Times Bestseller List
Rolling in Doh: Is Kevin Bacon in His Flop Era?
đŹ Smoking is Essential for Your Success, They Said đ
If Your Business Could Talk, What Would It Say?
People: Shawn Coyne of Story Grid
Tools: Claude.ai
đ Books Mentioned
This Is Strategy
Song of Significance
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
Visit the shop to see all of Sethâs books . . .
Your First 1,000 Copies
The Innovatorâs Dilemma
Atomic Habits
Thinking in Systems
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Life After College
đ§Â Related Episodes
Sethâs podcast: Akimbo
Free Time: 092: Train the System, Then the Person
056: Set Your CompassâSystems vs. Goals
268: Strategies for Surpassing âThe Magic Numberâ of Book Sales, and 271: Todd Sattersten Part Two
Pivot: 254: The PracticeâOn Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin
đEnjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review
âď¸Â Check out Jennyâs personal business essays on Substack, Rolling in Dđ¤Śđťââď¸h
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter for access to the Free Time Toolkit
đ Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/272
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263: Finding Product-Market-Founder Fit and Launching Downhill Sales Snowballs âď¸Â through Relationship-Marketing with Michelle Warner
Episode 263
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 ⢠Duration 44:33
âI am great in the early, messy days and I know that about myself, so I designed my business around serving others in that stage.â
In this conversation with business strategist (genius!) Michelle Warner, we cover the three growth stages most relevant to tiny business owners, how to fix broken business models, validating product-market-founder fit, the difference between traffic-based versus relationship-based sales and marketing, borrowing aligned audiences, leading a free monthly Q&A to âcatchâ their interest afterward, imagining sales as a downhill snowball, and how to scale while still staying Delightfully Tiny.
More About Michelle: Michelle Warner designs tiny companies that are built to last. With an MBA from one of the worldâs top business schools and 15+ years experience growing small businesses, Michelle focuses on layering real world experience on top of classic business fundamentals to design businesses that are sustainable and scalable in the long term and resilient and adaptable in the short term.
Itâs the way she grew her first business to 7+ figures, and itâs what sheâs used to help 300+ CEO's create businesses that work for the important stuff: profit, energy, passion + time. Sheâs also the creator of Networking That Pays, the introvert-friendly, always awkward-free connection system that brings in reliable leads, consistent referrals and meaningful connections for your business - in 5 minutes a day.
đ 3 Key Takeaways
Three small business stages most relevant to tiny business owners (adapted from HBR): Validateâproduct-market-founder fit; Sellârepeatable and predictable marketing and sales; Foundationâprocess, team, culture)
Relationship- versus traffic-based sales and metrics: Relationship-based business are going for smaller reach, with ideally at least a fifty-percent conversion rate on sales calls. Traffic-based marketing aims at bringing in much bigger audiences, with smaller conversion rates for things like selling digital products (pushing a boulder up hill).
Three marketing stages: Awareness (imagine a snowball running downhillâpeople need to have a really big moment with you; youâve made 80% of the sale by blowing their mind during the awareness stage) engagement, and sales.
đ Permission
Focus on sequence over strategy: you can execute strategies perfectly, but if youâre doing them in the wrong order, itâs not going to do a thing for you.
â Â Do (or Delegate) This Next
Take five minutes a day to reach out to one person across any of these four themes: thank youâs (be specific!), connections, asks, and catch-ups.
đ Resources Mentioned
Michelle on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn
Articles: HBRâThe Five Stages of Small-Business Growth
Rolling in Dđ¤Śđťââď¸hâClimbing Down the Entrepreneurial Ladder, An Honest Accounting (Part One)
People: Margo Aaron, Pamela Slim, Jay Acunzo
Tiny + Strong Table Talk: Michelleâs free monthly Q&A if you need a good idea, fresh perspective or to get inspired by what others are thinking and doing. Register here.
đ Books Mentioned
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Life After College
đ§Â Related Episodes
Off the Grid: Leaving Social Media Without Losing All Your Clients â Relationship Marketing with Michelle Warner
Free Time: 042: How I Run My Business Without Social Media
181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo
117: Tiny Marketing Actions with Pamela Slim
261: Cringe-Free Launches and Evergreen Sales Considerations with Anne Samoilov
165: Are your clients bringing out the best in you? Engineering the Evolution of Your Business and 229: How (and When) to Trust Yourself and Others with Ilise Benun
138: âľď¸Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds
136: Why I Stopped Exploring Selling the Pivot Brand and Business
đ Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/263
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177: âDonât scale too soonâ â On Books and Mission-Based Business-Building with Readwise Cofounder Daniel Doyon
Episode 177
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 ⢠Duration 45:02
Iâm delighted to welcome Daniel Doyon to the pod this week, co-founder of one of my favorite software services, Readwise. Every morning while I have my coffee, I look forward to checking out the daily email roll-up of five serendipitous snippets pulled from my entire library of Kindle highlights.
In this conversation, we cover: how Dan and his cofounder handled the famous âhug of deathâ from Tim Ferriss recommending their service in his 5-Bullet Friday newsletter; the perils of premature optimization and why you should do things that donât scale; what to do when you do slam against a scale ceiling; the benefits of running a mission-oriented business; how weâre handling the progressive atrophying of our attention for reading books, and our favorite page-turners that spark joy and as Dan says, âwhisk you to the end.â
More About Daniel: Daniel Doyon is the cofounder of Readwise, a reading tool that helps readers revisit the highlights from their ebooks by synchronizing and then sending a daily email resurfacing the best highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, iBooks, and more. He is also an expert in creative real estate acquisitions and partnerships, bibliophile, oenophile, and sailor.
đ 3 Key Takeaways
Be wary of premature optimization: Do things that donât scale without trying to predict how your systems will break. Only once you âslamâ against a ceiling should you work on solving for the next level of scale.
Hire from your user base: Youâll find the most passionate, mission-based people to work with from your own community, people who already love what youâre creating and what you stand for.
Minimize meetings by taking a page from Readwiseâs playbook: No more than 1.5 recurring meetings per person per week. That means one weekly, and one bi-weeklyâthatâs it!
đ Permission: Reset the expectations around whether or not you reply to inbound messages, and the amount of time it takes you to do so.
â Â Do (or Delegate) This Next: Sign-up for Readwise if you havenât already! Itâs a game-changer for carrying your favorite highlights forward from the books you read. Every day youâll get a round-up email of five random highlights and a sixth suggestion from an adjacent book that you havenât read yet.
đ Resources Mentioned
Daniel on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Danâs âwhisk you to the endâ book recs: Trader Joeâs Book, Doctor Dealer
Jennyâs favorite true story page-turners about large-scale drug ops: American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (on the DPR/Silk Road build-up and bust), The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff (verticalized prescription drug and arms kingpin), Dreamland by Sam Quinones (decentralized drug trade, âUber of heroinâ)
đ Books Mentioned
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
đ§Â Related Episodes
RadReads x Pivot & Free Time
111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte
084: Sprinkling the First 1,000 Serendipity Seeds of a Launch
017: Serendipity as Business Strategy with Leanne Hughes
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe Âť
đEnjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/177
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176: đŞÂ Whatâs the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in Your Business?đ
Episode 176
Friday, March 31, 2023 ⢠Duration 42:31
âBusiness, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple, and it's that hard.â âDanny Meyer, Setting the Table
Danny Meyer is a famous restauranteur responsible for founding some of my favorite spots, including Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, and the popular Shake Shack chain. He pioneered the philosophy of âenlightened hospitality.â
Thatâs the thing about engineering surprise and delight moments in your business. Like the example I share in this episode, while they may seem small or spontaneous, the best ones have intention and strong systems behind them.
Itâs not hard to design a system to do this repeatedly and consistently for the people you love working with, encouraging more word of mouth referrals in the process, and reducing your reliance on marketing strategies that donât align. Today Iâm sharing some examples of small gifts that make a big impact and leave a lasting impression on the people and clients you care most about.
đ 3 Key Takeaways:
Surprise and delight moments donât happen by accident; you can design them intentionally, and create systems to support them happening consistently in your business.
Consider meaningful (and even functional) ways you can support clients at the beginning, middle, and end of an engagement to build the relationship, and spark joy and word-of-mouth referrals.
Create a Gift Tracker if you donât already have one: Track the life of a gift from idea of giving one, to collecting any missing info, selecting the gift and writing a message to go with it, to placing the order, tracking and confirming it was received, all the way to archiving it for later reference.
đ Permission: To spice up the level of surprise and delight in your business. You can spend a little more than you think is reasonable, and trust that it will go towards building strong relationships, creating great experiences and a better, more joyful business.
â Â Do (or Delegate) This Next: Pick one person that you want to make smile: a team member, a client, a friend, and send them unexpected.
đBooks Mentioned
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin
The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch
đ Resources Mentioned
NYC Restaurants: Gramercy Tavern, Locande Verde, Eleven Madison Park (and their delicious Eleven Madison Park Granola that also makes a great gift!)
Gift Services: Goody, BoxFox, Giftology, Greetabl, SugarWish,
Gift Mic: Yeti Nano (travel mic)
Swag Services: Wizard Pins, Pens.com, Sticker Mule
Community: BFF (apply promo code PODCAST)
đ§Related Episodes
To Dine For â Will Guidara
179: Video-Free Business and Intuitive Writing with Jacqueline Fisch
068: Are You Running a Grumpy Business?
083: Breaking through Buyerâs RemorseâNever Lose a Customer Again with Joey Coleman
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe Âť
đ Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review Âť
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend!
https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/176
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175: Give Yourself a Raise with Erin Haag
Episode 175
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 ⢠Duration 46:00
âYou are making a choice every time you undercharge.â Howâs that for a splash of cold water to the face?! Bad pricing strategy puts your businessâand your bodyâat risk. As todayâs guest, Erin Haag says, when your prices are too low, âYou are choosing to work an additional 10, 20, or 30 hours per week to generate the income you need to survive.â
In this conversation, Erin shares what led to two hospitalizations from back-to-back stress-related illnesses, followed by her aha moment: doing the math to determine exactly what she needed to do to go from the brink of business collapse to becoming debt-free and selling her pilates studio for a 40x multiple.
More About Erin: Erin Haag is the creator of Pricing Overhaul and a self-proclaimed math nerd. Using her over 20 years of corporate experience working intimately with numbers and pricing metrics, she created the Pricing Overhaulâ˘ď¸ method will help people shift their mindset around money and math, overhaul their pricing for profitability, and make more money inside their business than they ever dreamed possible. Her upcoming book, Give Yourself a Raise: The Mindset and Math You Need to Get to Your First Million, shares her story of hitting rock bottom, pushing her to overhaul her entire business.
đ 3 Key Takeaways:
You can charge more than your competitors (and what you can afford.)
You can increase your prices without upsetting your best clients.
Space creates more money: âA hectic schedule and tons of stress creates less money. I promise you that.â
đ Permission: Give yourself a raise! And outsource everything you dislike doing.
â Â Do (or Delegate) This Next: Do the math to determine A) the monthly revenue your business needs to generate so that you have at least 30% profit (beyond what you pay yourself as the owner). âIn other words, the total amount of money your business needs to generate each month to cover all expenses, pay your team, pay yourself, AND generate a profit on top.â Bonus: Next, determine B) your ideal monthly client capacity (how many people you want to serve given your available time), and C) the ideal client value (by dividing target revenue (A) by number of clients (B).
đBooks Mentioned:
Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Give Yourself a Raise: The Mindset and Math You Need to Get to Your First Million (coming soon!)
đResources Mentioned:
Erin on the web, IG: @pricingoverhaul, Facebook, LinkedIn
Article: 5 Things You Should Do To Increase Your Financial Literacy
Tools: ClassPass, Bench (bookkeeping), Alexandra Franzenâs Get it Done publishing services and courses
đ§Related Podcast Episodes:
107: How to Know When Youâve Gotten Pricing Wrong with Jacquette M. Timmons
020: Pricing Psychology with Jacquette Timmons
122: My Top 5 Sources of Recurring Revenue
162: Should You Self-Publish? (Part One)
164: Letâs Talk Royalties re: Publishing Options (Part Two)
101: Run Your Business with Exquisite Greatness and Tiny Art Projects with Alexandra Franzen
Pivot 183: Cultivating Opposites and Checklists with Alexandra Franzen
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe Âť
đEnjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/175
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174: What Book Marketing has to do with Glass Blowing: Reflecting on Free Timeâs 1-Year Bookiversary đĽ
Episode 172
Friday, March 24, 2023 ⢠Duration 45:44
đ This week marks the one-year bookiversary of Free Time making its way into the world, and the two-year podiversary of launching this show. đĽÂ As I reach these milestones, a question looms: Has the book writing, launching, and marketing been a success, as I would define it?
In todayâs solo, letâs ride the mindset rollercoaster of launching something new into the world, and I share specific one-year sales stats for those who are curiousâsimilar to episode 096: Book Sales StatsâOne Month Post-Launch đ that I know many of you appreciated :) But first: there's an important detour that we need to take. Listen in to find out and join me for the journey.
đ 3 Key Takeaways:
Sometimes the âsuccessâ glass isnât half empty or half full; remember, you created a glass! Thatâs the biggest accomplishment, no matter the external results.
Be wary of the âbar is always raisingâ hedonic treadmill of business success. Constantly shifting your personal or business goalposts back can prevent you from enjoying the success you have achieved.
Consider the creativeâs journey as an infinity loop on its side: As waves of energy that ebb and flow across four phases; starting in the bottom left: rise, ride, release, retreat. You may cycle through these many times, even within any one part of the process (i.e. while in âmarketing modeâ for your work, you experience quiet moments and bigger surges of output and attention).
đ Permission: Define success in a way that lifts your spirits, that helps you enjoy the vulnerable process of putting your creative work into the world.
â Â Do (or Delegate) This Next: Looking back on the last year, make a list to celebrate all the winsâlarge and smallâthat youâve experienced in your business (or for any one creative project). Bonus: when you hit a big milestone or busiversary moment, do something fun to mark the occasion!
Super bonus: submit your business and/or any products (like a book or podcast) for industry awards. Most of the time, they donât just fall from the skyâmy dad and I call these Gretskyâs, after hockey player Wayne Gretskyâs famous line that, âYou miss 100% of the shots you donât take.â
đBooks Mentioned:
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire, and How to Want What You Need by Luke Burgis
The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World by Dorie Clark
đResources:
Join the BFF Community
Free Time Operations Dashboard
Get help writing an Amazon review
BOGOGO promotion âBuy One, Get One, Give One
MasterClass: Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writing
People: Jay Acunzo, Charlie Gilkey, Tosha Silver
đ§Related Episodes:
138: âľď¸ Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds
170: đ âImagine a World of Abundanceâ â¨
172: Free Time Isnât Just for the Fun Days
084: Sprinkling the First 1,000 Serendipity Seeds of a Launch
035: The Long Game with Dorie Clark
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe Âť
đEnjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend!
https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/174
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173: Cut Your LossesâEven While Pivoting in Publicâwith Khe Hy
Episode 173
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 ⢠Duration 54:07
âHow did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.â âErnest Hemingway
Thatâs the kick-off quote from returning guest Khe Hyâs recent pivot-in-progress big reveal, taking us behind the scenes of his business in a recent post titled, âThe $645,099 business pivot.â 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 havenât already, be sure to check out Kheâs earlier Free Time appearances, linked in the Resources section below and in this Spotify playlist: RadReads x Pivot x Free Time.
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.
đ3 Key Takeaways:
Youâre not alone: Donât feel bad if you caught a momentum wave during the pandemic that has vanished since. It can feel like youâve captured success in a bottle, and it will continue just the way youâre experiencing it now, but the same circumstances rarely last.
Borrowing other peopleâs goals can lead to chasing arbitrary success metrics and other peopleâs work-life balance. Instead, follow the fun! Ultimately, it will be much more sustainable.
Thereâs 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.
đPermission: To feel. To cry. To fully experience and talk about what youâre going through. Your humanity in the situation is not at odds with who and how you want to be as a founder and CEOâthey are perfectly intertwined.
â Do (or Delegate) This Next: Get quiet: What is it that you truly want? What part of my business is driven by ego and âborrowing other peopleâs goals,â 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 Kheâs business playbook and âfollow the fun.â What would following the fun tell you to do next?
Â
đBooks 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 Womanâs Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers
đResources Mentioned:
Khe on the web, Instagram: @radreadsco, TikTok: @radreadsco, Twitter, LinkedIn
Courses: Supercharge Your Productivity, $10K Work Accelerator, Life Operating System, Jennyâs Free Time Business Operations Dashboard
Rad Reads: The Magic of Doing $10,000 Per Hour Work
đ§Related Podcast Episodes:
Spotify playlist: RadReads x Pivot x Free Time
145: Tips for Training Part-Time Team Members with Kaneisha Grayson
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe Âť
đEnjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.Â
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkitÂ
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/173
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172: Free Time Isnât Just for the Fun Days
Episode 172
Friday, March 17, 2023 ⢠Duration 16:37
Free Time. The phrase connotes, leisure, fun, time off, vacationâas if we're skipping through meadows with butterflies! đŚand unicorns!đŚ
But if youâre a long-time listener, you know that I think of free time as a verb. It is a skill, a muscle we can build. Freeing Time is something we can get better at. By creating smarter systems and taking small steps today, we can set our time free far into the future.
Todayâs episode is a reminder about why itâs important to leave abundant margin on your calendar, especially for the days when you need it most (what previous guest Laura Vanderkam calls a âtime emergency fundâ), without punting problems to your future self.
đ 3 Key Takeaways:
Avoid a cascade of cancellations in case of emergency (or the need to rest) by leaving more space than you think youâll need in any given week.
Create a time emergency fund by blocking days of the week, weeks of the month, and months of the year where you have nothing at all. Set these to recur annually (and indefinitely) so you only make exceptions as these open windows approach.
Before reflexively saying yes to a meeting, reflect: âWould I say yes if this were tomorrow?â Or replace it with a decision filter of your choosing, such as the classic question Derek Sivers popularized, âIs this a hell yes?â If not, itâs a no.
đ Permission: Build abundant free time into your calendar. What would it look like if you reduced your meetings by half, only filling up to 40% full in advance? Then you can wait until closer to the approaching day or week to add thingsâonly if/as they resonate in real time.
â Do (or Delegate) This Next: When youâre feeling low on energy (or time), if youâre going to say yes at all, transition requests to meet with you (especially for âpick your brainâ conversations) to asynchronous apps like Marco Polo, Voxer, or Vocaroo. After youâve fielded more than one on the same subject, consider creating a public-facing resource, such as the Author Toolkit. As I say in Free Time, every question lives three lives: the original request, saving your response in your internal documentation, then adding it to your website to help clients and friends answer their own questions even before they have to ask you.
đBooks Mentioned:
Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your BusinessÂ
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
đResources Mentioned:
Tools: Calendly, Marco Polo, Voxer, Vocaroo
Free Time Author Toolkit
Dr. Dalton-Smithâs Rest Quiz
đ§Related Podcast Episodes:Â
151: Calm Time Chaos with Laura Vanderkam
170: đ âImagine a World of Abundanceâ â¨
150: đ¸ 3 Strategies to Set Your Time Free in 2023!
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe ÂťÂ
đ Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.Â
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/172
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171: Discovering Your Divine Assignment with Melissa Hughes (while Building with Grace and Ease)
Episode 171
Tuesday, March 14, 2023 ⢠Duration 47:25
âWhatâs the highest level I can serve?â Thatâs one of the driving questions that todayâs guest, Melissa Hughes, helps business owners answer while building companies and making an impact on the world with grace and ease. She believes that the more of us who can shine our lights unapologetically, the better off we all are.
In this conversation, Melissa shares how she knew it was time to leave corporate, launching and later shutting down her brick-and-mortar spa business and the âblessing wrapped in sandpaperâ of declaring personal bankruptcy. She shares how she started rebuilding by leaning into intuition, her philosophy on giving from the overflow and backing it all up with practical systems that serve your values.
More About Melissa: With us today is Melissa Hughes, founder of Live Rich, Spread Wealthâa business (and movement) that is all about helping people live richer lives as a result of becoming their best selves. Melissa is a best-selling author, speaker, and master business coach who became a self-made millionaire by the age of 31. Known as The Guru of ImplementationÂŽ, Melissaâs success, and that of her clients, is a result of her practical, proven systems for business and life success.
đ3 Key Takeaways:
Work Yourself Out math: How much revenue does your business need to generate to justify hiring someone to do one of the task areas on your desk?
Finding and pursuing your Divine Assignment means being in purposeful alignment. When youâre there, you can use your gifts, be in flow and be of service to others.
Systems for the sake of systems don't work. They need to be designed to specifically support your (and your companyâs!) values and what youâre trying to accomplish.
đPermission: Understand that whatever you want wants you, too. It can be both/and: Look at whatâs working for you and lean more into that unapologetically. Allow yourself to explore new possibilities.
â Do (or Delegate) This Next: Take a page from Melissaâs reframe book. Instead of referring to exercise as âworking out,â she calls it âsnatching your sexy back!â Reframe (or restructure) something that feels like a chore by turning it into a life-giving system that serves you.Â
đBooks Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
đResources Mentioned:
Melissa on the web, Instagram: @IAmMelissaHughes, Facebook, LinkedIn, Live Rich Spread Wealth, YouTube
Documentary: Live Rich, Spread Wealth
Video: Join the Live Rich Spread Wealth Movement
đ§Related Podcast Episodes:
003: Liberate Your Life Force with Christine Arylo
108: How to Run a Scaled Coaching Team with Notion
120: Transform Your To-Do List into a Results List â Leanneâs Favorite Time-Saving System
Pivot 204: Radical Alignment: Getting to Hell Yes with Alex & Bob
đť Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe Âť
đEnjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
â¤ď¸ Join Jennyâs private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.Â
đ Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
đ Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkitÂ
đŹ Iâd love to hear whatâs on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
âď¸ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
đ§ Make sure youâre subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
đ Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/171
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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