What’s next for your career and creative projects? Pivot with Jenny Blake launched in 2015 to help us better embrace fear, insecurity, imperfection, and intuition as the superpowers they are while pivoting. Join Jenny Blake, award-winning author of Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, Life After College, and Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business, for intimate conversations with authors and friends on finding opportunities in unexpected places through practical tips and tools. Jenny’s motto? If change is the only constant, let’s get better at it. Subscribe now so you don’t miss an episode (released every Sunday) at pod.link/pivotmethod, view show notes at http://PivotMethod.com/podcast, and learn more about Jenny’s private community at http://itsfreetime.com/bff ❤️ If you're looking Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, visit https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/pivot. Check out Jenny's other award-winning podcast Free Time for Heart-Based Business owners at pod.link/freetime.
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363: 🌈 Taking a Quiet Sabbatical and Pausing the Podcasts — For Now . . .
Episode 363
Saturday, February 24, 2024 • Duration 20:55
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
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362: Setting Creative Intentions Instead of Expectations with James McCrae
Episode 362
Sunday, February 18, 2024 • Duration 33:36
“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
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353: Pain, Purpose, and Portals—Pivoting from Massage Therapist to Coach with John O'Connor
Episode 353
Sunday, December 17, 2023 • Duration 46:46
“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
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🎁 Give the Gift of Free Time! Buy One → Get Two Free (🎧 Early Audiobook Access)
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 • Duration 01:20
🎉 Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business launches on 3/22/22!
Give the gift of free time to yourself and others in the new year by participating in our Buy One, Get One, Give One bonus.
Here's how it works:
Buy One: Preorder the hardcover edition and submit proof of purchase at http://itsfreetime.com/bogogo
Get One: Within one business day, you'll get early access to the audiobook and brand new Free Time Toolkit with over 15 new templates to free your mind, time, and team!
Give One: You will get details on how to gift early audiobook access to a friend :)
Thank you in advance for your support! I can't wait to hear how you start freeing up time, and what you do with it!
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269: How to Stand Out When Everyone is Peddling the Same Sh*t with Terri Trespicio
Episode 269
Sunday, December 12, 2021 • Duration 40:13
How do you "stand out when "everyone is peddling the same sh*t"? That's what Terri Trespicio and I are talking about today—a deep dive into how her early experiences with poetry writing, jewelry sales, magazine editing, and stand-up comedy gave her lifelong career skills and taught her what it really takes to stand out.
More About Terri: Terri Trespicio is an award-winning writer, speaker, brand advisor, and author of Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life That Matters to You (Atria / Simon & Schuster, December 2021). Her TEDx talk, “Stop Searching for Your Passion,” has more than 7 million views and Hubspot named her one of the “Top 18 female speakers who are killing it.” More at territrespicio.com.
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Terri: Terri Trespicio
Instagram: @ttrespicio
Terri's book: Unfollow Your Passion
TEDx talk: “Stop Searching for Your Passion”
Books Mentioned: The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, The Long Game: How To Be A Long Term Thinking In A Short Term World, Sell or Be Sold: How To Get Your Way In Business And Life
Related Pivot Podcast Episodes: 264: Embrace Your Onlyness with Nilofer Merchant
Related Free Time Episodes: 012: Generating Personal MBA Momentum with Josh Kaufman, 035: The Long Game with Dorie Clark
❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a podcast BFF Insider and you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call with Jenny and private feed.
💌 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 from this episode with links to resources mentioned
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
268: Decoding Greatness with Ron Friedman
Episode 268
Sunday, November 28, 2021 • Duration 30:48
"For generations, we’ve been taught there are two ways to succeed—either from talent or practice." My guest today, Ron Friedman, shares a powerful third path: reverse engineering. In this conversation you will learn how to unpack others' success to spark breakthrough ideas of your own, with an original twist.
More About Ron: Ron Friedman is an award-winning social psychologist who specializes in human motivation. His first book, The Best Place to Work, was named an Inc. Magazine Best Business Book of the Year. His new book, *Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success,* was selected by Amazon's editors as one of this year's best non-fiction books.
❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a podcast BFF Insider and you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call with Jenny and private feed.
💸 Enroll in the complimentary Free-up Founder Time mini-course before the price goes up
💌 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 from this episode with links to resources mentioned
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Ron: Ron on the web
Twitter: @RonFriedman
Instagram: @Nilofer, LinkedIn
Videos: Susan Cain The Power of Introverts, Sir Ken Robinson Changing Education Paradigms, Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writing Masterclass
Related Pivot Podcast Episodes: 155: Becoming a Successful Speaker with Grant Baldwin, 207: How to Develop Your Book and Big Idea, 209: On Seinfeld, Sensitivity, and Trend Spotting
Related Free Time Episodes: 010: Batching & Boundaries with John Lee Dumas, 022: Become a Thought-Listener, 031: Eleventh-Hour Creative Gremlins, 034: Organizing Research and Ideas — Notion Walkthrough #1, 036: Shaping Big Ideas — Notion Walkthrough #2
Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and new tools I’m geeking out on.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
267: Tracking Wonder with Jeffrey Davis
Episode 264
Sunday, November 14, 2021 • Duration 44:06
Are you tuned into radio station WRRY, playing your "downer mind's" favorite hits? If so, Jeffrey Davis is here to help you shift from worry into wonder. Today we're talking about his new book, Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed with Productivity (Sounds True, November 2021).
Ask yourself instead each morning: What am I devoted to? What am I curious about today?
More about Jeffrey: Jeffrey Davis is an author, team culture consultant, educator, and CEO of Tracking Wonder Consultancy. For over 25 years, he's inspired thousands of change-makers, leaders, and creatives to unlock their best ideas through the pursuit of curiosity, innovation, and wonder. In addition to Tracking Wonder, he **is also the author of Obsessed with Productivity (Sounds True, November 2021), The Journey from the Center to the Page (Monkfish Publishing) the poetry collections City Reservoir (BarnBurner Press) and Coat Thief (Saint Julian Press), and other books. He lives with his wife and two daughters in a farmhouse in the Hudson Valley of New York.
❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a podcast BFF Insider and you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call with Jenny and private feed.
💸 Enroll in the complimentary Free-up Founder Time mini-course
💌 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 from this episode with links to resources mentioned
Resources Mentioned:
Jeffrey on the web: Tracking Wonder
Instagram: @JeffreyDavis11
Twitter: @JeffreyDavis108
Books: Tracking Wonder, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, How to Take Smart Notes, Bittersweet
Related Free Time Episodes: 027: Time Management for Mortals with Oliver Burkeman
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266: Are You High Net Freedom?
Episode 264
Sunday, October 31, 2021 • Duration 15:05
This is a special preview from my forthcoming book: Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business (launches March 22, 2022). I talk in Pivot about pivoters being high net growth; Free Timers optimize for another central value: high net freedom,
If you want to join the book launch team to get insider access and community leading up to the launch, sign-up at itsfreetime.com/join and you’ll be the first to know when that kicks off!
📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business, Pivot
🔗 Resources Mentioned: Join the Free Time Book Launch Team, BFF with Jenny Blake
❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a podcast BFF Insider and you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call with Jenny and private feed.
💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
🗣 Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/044
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265: Free Time Crossover — Eliminate Email with Cal Newport
Episode 265
Sunday, October 17, 2021 • Duration 55:33
Thank you for your patience as I've been in deep work hibernation mode behind the scenes! I launched my new podcast Free Time in March of this year, and I'm really excited to bring you a crossover episode, one of the early listener favorites with Cal Newport on his latest book, A World Without Email. I also *just* sent my next book to the printer, which I was honored to have Cal provide a cover blurb for! Free Time: Lose the Busy Work, Love Your Business launches in March of 2022.
Cal is not pulling any punches with his latest treatise on how we can combat Hyperactive Hive Mind with smarter systems for communication. Email has become a source of guilt and stress for so many of us — listen in for strategies to reclaim your peace and focus.
About Cal Newport: Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He is the author of six books, including Deep Work, which argues that focus is the new I.Q. in the modern workplace. His latest, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, is in many ways his magnum opus on the topic of technology and the workplace. Be sure to also check out his podcast, Deep Questions.
Key questions:
How can you approach email as a process observer (and architect), not a do-er?
What people or workflows can you put in place to eliminate email?
Where are you still reacting to the Hyperactive Hive Mind? What experiment can you run this week?
📘 Books Mentioned: Pivot, A World Without Email, Digital Minimalism, Deep Work, So Good They Can’t Ignore You
🔗 Links Mentioned: Cal on the web...and he’s not on Twitter! Or Facebook.
🎙Related Podcasts: 122: Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport, 29: Deep Work: Ditch Cognitive Junk Food with Cal Newport
💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! http://itsfreetime.com/episodes/002
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264: Embrace Your Onlyness with Nilofer Merchant
Episode 264
Sunday, June 6, 2021 • Duration 46:36
What is the difference between uniqueness and Onlyness? Nilofer Merchant is here to help us figure out how the room changes when we walk in, how to turn feeling othered or overworked into opportunities to help ourselves and everyone around us shine.
More About Nilofer: Nilofer Merchant is ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the world's leading business thinkers, and has personally launched more than 100 products netting $18 billion in sales. In 2013 she gave a top-ranking TED talk, "Sitting is the Smoking of Our Generation." Her most recent book is The Power of Onlyness: Make Your Wild Ideas Mighty Enough to Dent the World (2017). By centering on that source of all innovation, Onlyness, Nilofer Merchant enables you to create more value. Her cover story for Harvard Business Review (HBR) Magazine is a case study in the crucial role trust plays in creating scale.
❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a podcast BFF Insider and you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call with Jenny and private feed.
💌 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 from this episode with links to resources mentioned
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
