Jenny Blake
363: 🌈 Taking a Quiet Sabbatical and ...

As I round the corner into this ninth year of podcasting, 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.

Jenny Blake
362: Setting Creative Intentions Instead of ...

“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.

Jenny Blake
361: On Decision Engineering and Evaluating ...

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.”

Today we’re talking about a framework more helpful than pro-con lists, tuning into your head, heart and gut; why the quality of your decision is not equal to the outcome—did good or bad things happen; keeping a decision journal to evaluate the quality of your decisions regardless of the outcome; and how to drop the guilt of “bad” past outcomes.

Jenny Blake
360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision ...

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.

Jenny Blake
359: “You can’t give what you don’t have” — ...

“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.

As part of her healing process, Nataly began to paint when she was 40 by signing up for a painting retreat in Tuscony (that turned out to be for semi-professional watercolorists), and now her paintings are on the cover of her books—front and center as part of her bold self-expression.

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71: Finding Faith, Courage and Confidence as a Secret Agent—Michele Rigby Assad's Pivot from CIA to Author

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71: Finding Faith, Courage and Confidence as a Secret Agent—Michele Rigby Assad's Pivot from CIA to Author

"Was it hard to be a CIA officer with all of the challenges and change that entailed? Yes. Scary? Of course. But if I was going to fulfill my life mission, I had to conquer my instinctual tendency to freeze in place. Fear would get me nowhere. Faith, however, would take me to places I could never have imagined."

—Michele Rigby Assad, Breaking Cover: My secret life in the CIA and what it taught me about what's worth fighting for

Grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in, because this weeks guest is a fascinating one, a one-of-a-kind woman I'm lucky to call a friend. Michele Assad was a self-described "sweet, faith-based southern girl" in high school, the last you'd expect to become an international undercover agent for the CIA, interrogating terrorists while stationed at war zones across the Middle East. But that's exactly what she did for ten years with her husband in a real-life Mr. and Mrs. Smith situation.

In this conversation we dive into what it was like to work as a woman in interrogation rooms even when everyone told her she'd only succeed behind the scenes doing paperwork; the role of faith in Michele's career, how she honed her skills around intuition and reading body language, and what it's like for her to "come out" and try to build a public-facing platform after so many years of being required to keep her entire life secret. 

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70: Build a Referral Engine with John Jantsch

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70: Build a Referral Engine with John Jantsch

"It's not enough to have a good solution. Buzzed-about businesses have a good solution draped in a total experience that excites, delights and surprises the customer." —John Jantsch

There a few classic books—and business concepts—that I declare must-reads for every solopreneur and side-hustler I work with, and The Referral Engine is one of them. Especially if you're someone who bristles at so much of the online marketing tactics out there like I do, referrals are one of the best ways to get new clients. There is already a foundation of trust established with the incoming client, and it means that you exceeded expectations enough for the referring client to authentically spread the word about your services. In this week's show, business master-thinker John Jantsch and I dive into exactly how to create delightful experiences and systems that will make referrals a key part of your business, not just a happy accident.  

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69: Worrier's Guide to the End of the World with Torre DeRoche

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69: Worrier's Guide to the End of the World with Torre DeRoche

Contrary to what she'd probably tell you herself, Torre DeRoche is one of the bravest people I know. When we first encountered each other online, she had just finished sailing the world for two years with her boyfriend at the time. Just the two of them . . . on the open seas . . . despite her deathly fear of sharks. I've been captivated by her story and her writing, under the moniker Fearful Adventurer, ever since, and I had the pleasure of meeting her in person for a meal in Chiang Mai when we crossed paths there in 2013. 

Fast forward a few years after that, and Torre found herself in a deep state of grief and loss. Her dad was dying of cancer, and her relationship of ten years was dissolving because of it. Her new book is the story of finding her way back to life — and this time without the worry that had plagued her since she was a child.

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68: On the self-help taboo of staying inside your comfort zone—when and how to reach with Andy Molinsky

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As Andy Molinksy writes in Reach, chances are if you've ever been interested in the topic of personal growth as it relates to risk, you've heard tropes like "life begins at the end of your comfort zone" and have encountered this meme-of-all-memes: 

comfort-zone-magic-happens.jpg

He says, "And then of course, there are the stories—successful and confident people who had the courage to go for it, and are now spokespeople for Comfort Zone, Inc., imploring us to do the same: Take the leap! Go for it! The only thing to fear is fear itself!" 

But what if, as someone asked me recently at the end of one of my keynotes, you're actually (gasp!) happy in your comfort zone? Do you always have to reach? I'm excited to unpack this question in this week's episode—Andy and I talk about when to reach outside of your comfort zone, how to build a risk portfolio, and common pitfalls that get in the way such as fear of what others will think, insecurities about our own competence, and resentment, or "Why do I have to do this in the first place?"

More About Andy Molinsky

AndyMolinsky.jpg

Andy Molinsky is a Professor at Brandeis University’s International Business School. Andy helps people develop the insights and courage necessary to act outside their personal and cultural comfort zones when doing important, but challenging, tasks in work and life. His work has been featured in HBR, the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, NPR and Voice of America. Andy is the author of Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence and Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures and Not Lose Yourself in the Process
 

Topics We Cover

  • When is it okay to stay inside your comfort zone?

  • Managing your comfort vs. risk portfolio: when to reach and when to adjust so you don't enter your panic zone

  • Authenticity and remaining joyful in stepping outside our comfort zone

  • The vicious cycle of avoidance

  • The three C's to successful reaches: conviction, customization, and clarity

  • We tend to catastrophize stepping outside our comfort zone. Clarity helps ground our perspective

  • No matter the reach or their outcome, it is all a learning experience

  • Our reaches are also the ways we support people

Resources Mentioned

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.

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67: What Does Your Soul Know? Flow and Transparency with Penney Peirce

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67: What Does Your Soul Know? Flow and Transparency with Penney Peirce

“To know yourself as a soul . . . you must dissolve everything in the way. The clutter composed of fear, fixed beliefs, and unconsciously ingrained habits."

—Penney Peirce, Transparency: Seeing Through to Our Expanded Human Capacity

What does it mean to make enlightenment normal? How do you remove the filters that dim your soul's wisdom? How can you feel into what wants to happen and find greater flow in life and work? What does it mean to be so authentic and transparent that we live as truth with nothing to hide? Penney and I dive into these questions and many more on this week's show as we discuss her new book, Transparency: Seeing Through to Our Expanded Human Capacity, which I was incredibly honored to write the foreword for. 

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66: Create Multiple Streams of Income with Dorie Clark

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66: Create Multiple Streams of Income with Dorie Clark

Self-employed for eleven years, Dorie interviewed over 50 entrepreneurs, several who earn multiple six figures each month, to understand what specific tactics it takes to sustain a successful business. In her new book and on this episode, Dorie shares this gold mine of sage advice with us. We talk about how to build the courage and savvy to monetize your expertise and create multiple streams of income so that no matter what happens—the market shifts or you lose your biggest client—you can and will bounce back, and create your ideal lifestyle business in the process.  

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63: Artist as CEO — with Jenny Blake, Michel Karsouny & Kerri Lowe

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63: Artist as CEO — with Jenny Blake, Michel Karsouny & Kerri Lowe

This is a special episode on Artist as CEO, featuring my guy, Michel Karsouny. My longtime blog friend Kerri Lowe, who helps produce a narrative podcast called ArtistCEO, came over to our studio apartment to facilitate a free-flowing conversation about all things art and business. Michel and I met over a year ago walking in opposite directions down a New York City sidewalk — how's that for the magic of serendipity?! Find out how we navigate the highs and lows of creative living, moving beyond burnout, and balancing the business side of art-making with opening up space for the unknown. 

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62: Real Artists Don't Starve with Jeff Goins

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62: Real Artists Don't Starve with Jeff Goins

"Being a starving artist is a choice, not a necessary condition of doing creative work."

—Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don't Starve

Is it possible to do creative work and make a living? What does it take to thrive, not just survive? This week on the Pivot Podcast I'm thrilled to chat with bestselling author, keynote speaker, and popular blogger Jeff Goins. Listen on as we bust the myth behind the "starving artist," the return to creative patronage (and how you can become your own best patron), and why "exposure gigs" are out and charging for your work is in.  

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61: Virtual Freedom: Overcome Superhero Syndrome and Start Outsourcing with Chris Ducker

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61: Virtual Freedom: Overcome Superhero Syndrome and Start Outsourcing with Chris Ducker

When it comes to growing and scaling a business, the very superhero skills that facilitate your success may also one day become your biggest weakness. How can it be that you—the entrepreneur—might be the very person holding yourself back in the quest to move from employee-at-everyone-else's-whims to strategic business owner building a scalable operation?

This week's episode with serial entrepreneur Chris Ducker is a preview of what's to come in my new course, Delegation Ninja: Turn Frantic into Freedom, which kicks off on Monday, June 6. 

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60: How Emotionally Agile Are You? Strategies for Setbacks with Susan David

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60: How Emotionally Agile Are You? Strategies for Setbacks with Susan David

Turns out there's good news about bad moods—contrary to what it may seem in the moment, they can actually facilitate more creative, out-of-the-box thinking than when we're sailing along on autopilot during happier times.  

Discover the difference between brooding and venting, what types of writing are most helpful for processing difficult emotions, and how to "unhook" when you're in the grip of overpowering feelings. 

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59: Captivate: Secrets from Viral TED Talks with Vanessa Van Edwards

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What makes a person captivating? How can some instantly connect with an audience, while others fall flat? 

This week I'm thrilled to have one of my kindred spirits on the podcast with me. Vanessa Van Edwards is a professional people watcher, self-described "recovering awkward person," and author of the new book Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People. 

Listen on to learn how Vanessa bootstrapped her Science of People research company, the best place to stand at a networking event, and the top secrets to make your TED talk go viral. 

More About Vanessa Van Edwards

Vanessa Van Edwards is a published author and behavioral investigator. She is a professional people watcher—speaking, researching and cracking the code of interesting human behavior for audiences around the world. Vanessa’s groundbreaking workshops and courses teach individuals how to succeed in business and life by understanding the hidden dynamics of people. Vanessa is a Huffington Post columnist and Penguin author. She has been featured on NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show and USA Today. She has written for CNN, Fast Company and Forbes.

Topics We Cover

  • Pivot blessings in disguise

  • How Vanessa bootstrapped Science of People and why she decided to pivot away from her original passive income business

  • How to avoid reinventing the wheel—especially "broke down rickety wheels"

  • Why conducting original research makes your work more viral

  • How Vanessa started a research-based company without a Ph.D. in social science

  • Secrets from the most successful TED speakers: on hand gestures, how you share your message, why smiling makes you seem more intelligent, and the difference between memorized vs. internalized content

  • The most strategic spot to stand at a networking event for making the best connections

  • How to recover from social awkwardness

Resources Mentioned

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.

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(Originally released May 2020) Why are so many of us allergic to the word innovation, solving the wrong problems, and experiencing idea-fatigue? Because, as Stephen Shapiro brilliantly shares in his book, Invisible Solutions: 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems, what we’re really aiming for is relevance.

How can you apply the 5D’s of disruption to solve difficult problems? We dive into that and so much more during this conversation—one I can’t wait to listen back to at least twice more to absorb all the powerful pivot-related concepts! I’ll tell you one thing: you’ll never brainstorm the same way again . . .

Check out full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/215

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254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin
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"The marketing-industrial complex has been on a tear for a hundred years to make almost everyone feel inadequate, because it's the single best way to sell you something. If that game isn't giving you joy, don't play that game.”

My next guest needs no introduction — though he deserves one nonetheless! Seth Godin is an inventor, thought-leader, contrarian, mentor, mensch, and an ongoing inspiration to so many of us. He is the author of 19 bestselling books, and this week we are celebrating his latest! The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, one that inspired me to get back on the mic after a two-month hiatus, to record this interview in early September.

Listen in as we celebrate our (almost) ten-year friendiversary and discuss a range of topics for those in the business of playing with ideas: shipping creative work even when tired, generosity and building with word-of-mouth in mind, choosing which information “rooms” to hang out in online, Tik Tok and social media tourism, and speaking to (and selecting for) the yearning of the people you seek to serve.

Although I’m at my awkward finest when interviewing my biggest heroes, Seth chief among them, I hope you enjoy this conversation on all things leadership and creativity :)

Links Mentioned:

❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter at http://pivotmethod.com/pivotlist

💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey at http://pivotmethod.com/survey

🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts: https://pod.link/1054817076

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/254

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251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters
251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters

Solo episode on a sanity-saving strategy for #2020 on the perks (and quirks!) of staycationing in the city you live in . . . especially when hotel rates are at record lows :) Pardon the mic noises — it’s a travel mic and therefore part of my #PerfectlyImperfect audio that gets the episode out at all.

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HotelTonight: Use my code JBLAKE9 to get up to $50 back after your first HotelTonight booking.

Heart-Based Business Owners: Join us in the private Momentum Community

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📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/staycation

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250: Staycation in the City
250: Staycation in the City

Solo episode on a sanity-saving strategy for #2020 on the perks (and quirks!) of staycationing in the city you live in . . . especially when hotel rates are at record lows :) Pardon the mic noises — it’s a travel mic and therefore part of my #PerfectlyImperfect audio that gets the episode out at all.

Key questions: What makes your soul sing? What is most important to your spirit? Remember, Radical Reimagining means everything is up for grabs.

HotelTonight: Use my code JBLAKE9 to get up to $50 back after your first HotelTonight booking.

Heart-Based Business Owners: Join us in the private Momentum Community

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📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/staycation

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247: Cultural Appreciation and Remote Team-Building with Chris Littlefield
247: Cultural Appreciation and Remote Team-Building with Chris Littlefield

(Recorded July 2020) Thanks to Chris, we’ve got a new term for 2020: “Coronavating” — a portmanteau of coronavirus and innovating. Chris is an expert in employee appreciation, recognition, and workplace culture, and I think you’ll love this episode on how to build trust and teamwork even in virtual (and often chaotic) settings. He is the founder of Beyond Thank You, and author of 75+ Team Building Activities for Remote Teams – Simple Ways to Build Trust, Strengthen Communication, and Laugh Together from Afar.

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/247

❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call with Jenny: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

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246: What is Your Job Today? (You Decide)
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What’s your job today? It might not be what you think . . . and you get to decide anew every day, especially for sanity and health preservation in #2020. In this solo episode, I’m riffing on perfectionism, streaks, and combinatorial questions to create possibility.

Peloton—If you're in the US, Canada, or the UK, use referral code 7ED7VQ to receive $100 towards accessories at purchase.

❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call with Jenny: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/246

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[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 2: Dreams and 24-Hour Consciousness (May 2016)
[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 2: Dreams and 24-Hour Consciousness (May 2016)

Happy summer, friends! I’m taking a short break to pause and design what’s next for the podcast content-wise. Please enjoy this series with Penney Peirce, released M/W/Fri in keeping with my latest experiment.

Penney is consistently named as a listener favorite when I get feedback notes, and after our first interview together we jokingly started naming these follow-up conversations “The Penney & Jenny Show.” Until now, these interviews were spread out over the last four years — now they’ll be bingeable as a consecutive series :)

🗣 Want to help shape what’s next? Take the listener survey if you haven’t already! http://pivotmethod.com/survey »

📝 View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/penney2 »

***

Original air date: May 8, 2016

“At night, the soul is rejuvenating the personality. All dreams are data about our own personal process of growth and evolution.”

—Penney Peirce

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.”

So what’s going on in that noggin’ of yours in the (hopefully) 8 hours of the day that you’re not on your feet? In today’s show we talk about the fascinating and ever-elusive subject of dreams: how to better remember and even program dreams, how to interpret them, and much more.

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241: Get Off Autopilot & Be Your Own Benefactor with Antonio Neves
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What happens when you find yourself on autopilot, even with a perfect-on-paper role or business? It can be hard to admit—even to oneself—not being 100% #grateful, #blessed, and #fulfilled.

Longtime friendtor Antonio Neves and I talk about how to find the courage to boldly go your own way—to be your own benefactor—even when your next direction isn’t a proven Pivot yet. You’ll hear about Tony’s aha moment that helped him kick a secret coping habit, and starting taking authentic steps in a new direction into a new phase of life and work where he’s betting on himself.

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/241

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237: 16+ Software Tools Behind the Pivot Podcast
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Software geeks, rejoice! In today’s show I’m sharing every tool I use to produce the Pivot Podcast. This episode builds on 233: Stepping up Systems—How I Shifted to Daily Podcasting (across five key areas: mindset, motivation, systems, skills, and software).

Both are in preparation (and to give you a head-start) for my upcoming LIVE (He)art of Podcasting masterclass! I have the ambitious goal of taking you from zero to show, because the world needs your voice, and we need it now.

I’m facilitating a 3-hour workshop on June 25 where you can ask me anything, get my best templates for visioning, interview prep, and post-production, and request walkthroughs of the most confusing aspects of podcasting and systems. Learn more at http://pivotmethod.com/heart »

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/237 and the full Pivot podcast archive at http://pivotmethod.com/podcastarchive »

I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey at http://pivotmethod.com/survey and submit a question for future episodes at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

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231: Vulnerability As a One-Way Ticket to Trust with Billy Anderson
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“Vulnerability is a one-way ticket to trust,” says today’s guest Billy Anderson, founder of The Courage Crusade and mutual friend of longtime friendtor Michael Bungay Stanier (two-time guest of the Pivot Podcast).

Billy is the author of Your Comfort Zone is Killing You: Finding the Courage to Be You. In this conversation we cover finding the courage to move past others’ expectations toward greater authenticity, transparency, vulnerability, and self-expression.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/231

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58: Monetize Your Ideas with Dorie Clark

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58: Monetize Your Ideas with Dorie Clark

What's the secret to becoming a recognized expert? Once you are well-known in your field, how do you monetize those ideas (without being sleazy) to build a successful business?

This week I'm bringing my good friend Dorie Clark back on the podcast to share her best road-tested tips for reputation- and business-building. She’s the author of two fantastic books that I mention in PIVOT—Reinventing You and Stand Out—and the New York Times has called her an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.”

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57: What's a Silent Meditation Retreat Like? Sweet Sound of Silence (Part 2)

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Silent meditation retreats always intimidated me. What would it be like? Would I get bored? Antsy beyond belief? So uncomfortable I can't stand it anymore? Could I handle something like that? Do I even want to try?

At the end of 2016 I released an episode called the Sweet Sound of Silence (Part One)—on the powerful calm and insight that stillness has brought into my life—before heading into a five-day silent meditation retreat for New Year's to ring in 2017. This week on the Pivot Podcast I share what the experience was like.

And here's a haiku that came to me at the start of the retreat that I incorporated as a mantra to help me drop more deeply into meditation—try repeating it while releasing all the tiny muscles around your eyes, and any tension in your jaw, face or body:

Melt, soften, release
your grip. Open hand allows
space for everything.

Topics We Cover

  • What goes on at a silent retreat?

  • Releasing our grip

  • Gratitude and living with our inner truth

  • Soul speaks in stillness

  • Reentry to the world

 

Resources Mentioned

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.

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This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes. Next up: We’ll be kicking-off the new year together on January 13 and I’d love for you to join us!

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249: Self-Defense Strategies with Sensei Ando Mierzwa
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“Your smile is your shield and your sword.” That’s just one of many wisdom gems from today’s guest and longtime Pivot advocate, Sensei Ando Mierzwa. He’s sharing many of the principles from his free self-defense basics course on turning intuition into action, the importance of projecting (and feeling!) confident, ignoring social niceties when it comes to making “bad guys” uncomfortable, and how to maintain a zen state even in tense situations. I hope you love this conversation as much as I did!

Ando’s Free Course: Self-Defense Basics

❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/249

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[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)
[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)

Happy summer, friends! I’m taking a short break to pause and design what’s next for the podcast content-wise. Please enjoy this series with Penney Peirce, released M/W/Fri in keeping with my latest experiment.

Penney is consistently named as a listener favorite when I get feedback notes, and after our first interview together we jokingly started naming these follow-up conversations “The Penney & Jenny Show.” Until now, these interviews were spread out over the last four years — now they’ll be bingeable as a consecutive series :)

🗣 Want to help shape what’s next? Take the listener survey if you haven’t already! http://pivotmethod.com/survey »

📝 View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/penney7 »

***

Original air date: July 15, 2018

I'm delighted to bring you the seventh (!) episode in a side series of this podcast we affectionately call the Penney & Jenny show :) It's a growing set of conversations with one of my dear friends and mentors (friendtors), Penney Peirce. We had so much fun during our first interview together that we added a second . . . which became a third . . . and so on, until it was a regular feature on the Pivot Podcast!

This week we're riffing on the intersection of spirituality and small business—how we apply intuition, transparency, non-physical realms, and personal practices toward business-building, attracting clients, and earning a living in a way that feels easeful and joyful. You can check out all of our interviews here, and for easier listening, tune in on our SoundCloud playlist.

Read more →
242: Nahko—Take Your Power Back + "Love Letters to God" Live
242: Nahko—Take Your Power Back + "Love Letters to God" Live

Nahko is an artist, a seeker, a storyteller, and a medicine man through soulful music. I love that his music sits at the intersection of deep personal introspection with social justice activism.

Although we didn’t discuss it in this conversation, Nakho was born as a result of human trafficking—his birth mother gave him up for adoption when she was fourteen years old; he was nine months old, then raised in Oregon just 20 minutes away. You can learn more about that in these conversations with Untangled: Take Your Power Back and with Rachel Brathen: Believe In The Good Things Coming.

Nahko and Medicine for the People has provided the soundtrack to everything important in my life these last five years: solo journeying, writing and then launching Pivot, meeting my husband, getting married, and navigating the 2020 coronacoaster.

🎵 Listen to the end for a special acoustic performance

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/242

🎧 Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

Read more →
194: Deep Souls with Kathryn Haydon
194: Deep Souls with Kathryn Haydon

Pivot Insider and creativity expert Kathryn Haydon is back to discuss her emerging studies of Deep Souls, building upon her background in education and creativity. As she describes in her article, 7 Strengths of Deep Souls: The Thinkers We Need But Rarely Understand:

"Is Everyone a Deep Soul? The underlying traits that fuel deep soul strengths are universal characteristics of creative thinking. Research shows that nearly all of us have an intense combination of these strengths in early childhood, but they get dulled over time—especially during our school years. Deep souls, however, have resisted this dulling. They can't help it. The intensity of their ability to think differently cannot and will not be stopped.”

Listen in as we discuss the seven strengths, and how to best support and encourage the deep souls around you in life and work.

View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/194

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

Read more →
🦠172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce
🦠172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce

If you ever feel like a sponge for the energy (and moods) of people around you, particularly during times of massive change or crisis; if you feel flooded by emotion, overwhelmed with empathy, more sensitive than usual to sights, sounds, and media; and/or hit with powerful bursts of intuition, this episode is for you.

Sarah Santacroce and I recorded a two-way conversation for Pivot and her podcast, Gentle Business Revolution (be sure to also check out the PDF of her manifesto, Gentle Business Revolution Manifesto).

View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/172 »

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask »

Read more →
158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour
158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour

This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes. Our next session is coming right up on Wednesday, March 11 — I’d love for you to join us!

Read more →
[Best Of] 91: Divine Time Management and Putting Faith Forward in Business and Love with Elizabeth Grace Saunders
[Best Of] 91: Divine Time Management and Putting Faith Forward in Business and Love with Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Originally posted March 2018 — part of a “Best Of” series as I get caught up from a round of travel and puppy-adjusting :)

When my friend Elizabeth pivoted from time management author and coach to divine time management, her faith-based practice of "trusting God's loving plans for you," and with the release of her new book in November, I wanted to have her on the show. But I was nervous at the same time.

Is it okay to put faith forward in business? On the podcast? I'm not Christian—would that adversely affect the interview? Would it be divisive in any way for listeners? Our culture prides a separation of church and state, but what about spirituality and business?

In the months since Elizabeth's book launched, I have been sloooowly finding the courage to talk about these topics more prominently on the Pivot Podcast. And believe me, coming from an atheist-turned-agnostic, this was not an easy or obvious choice. But my soul's curiosity and passion for finding deeper meaning in our work says YES. I am grateful to now be exploring people and philosophies of many ranging faiths on this show.

With that, let's dive into this week's awesome episode! I love Elizabeth's advice on loosening the reigns of control, paying attention to inner stirrings, and her vulnerability in sharing how she has surrendered her timing around finding love. 

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/podcast/divine-time.

Read more →
152: Glowing in the Dark with Kristoffer 'KC' Carter
152: Glowing in the Dark with Kristoffer 'KC' Carter

This week’s episode is another one of my favorite formats, just two new (soul) friends shooting the breeze in what we’ve dubbed a “podcast tango” :) Given that we both have podcasts, we decided to just hit record and do this joint conversation, neither of us officially interviewing the other. I hope you enjoy this conversation jam with insta-BFF Kristoffer “KC” Carter (shout-out to our mutual mensch mentor Jonathan Fields who introduced us!), whose new podcast This Epic Life is one I know you’ll also love. We deepen our budding BFF-ship and discuss the BIG topics of life—including death, dips, permission to shine, business pivots, his yogic and meditation practices, and much more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/152.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes.

Read more →
143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha
143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha

“I don’t even care if we talk about the new book,” Neil said as we started our Skype call, while I thumbed through dog-eared, underlined, and marked-up pages of the You Are Awesome galley. Ooh, fun!

Knowing I have a tendency to focus too much on the paper artifact in front of me while interviewing authors, rather than what’s True and present in the moment, I decided to chuck all my potential questions and just shoot the breeze with a longtime blog-friend (February marks our ten year friendiversary!).

Neil was on the Pivot Podcast in the early days (check out 44: Want Nothing, Have Everything: The Happiness Equation with Neil Pasricha), and that episode has been a long-time listener favorite. I think you’re going to love this unfiltered, unplanned conversation every bit as much!

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/143.

Read more →
, ,

56: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber

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56: Perfection Detox with Petra Kolber

Petra Kolber radiates. When she walks into a room, it lights all the way up with her positivity, passion for life and joie de vivre. But that doesn't mean she hasn't wrestled with her own dragons, particularly around perfectionism (as have so many of us). Coming from decades in the fitness industry, Petra wrestled with the pressure to be perfect—looks, body, business, you name it. 

As a two-time cancer survivor, Petra is passionate about waking people up to the precious gift of time. Her mission is to inspire people to move more and to fear less, so they can stretch their dreams, strengthen their courage muscle, and build an inspired life full of joy and gratitude. In this week's show we explore how to dissolve the pressure to be perfect so that you can do the same.

,

53: The Sweet Sound of Silence (Part 1)

,

Tomorrow I head out for my first 5-day silent meditation retreat . . . I have no clue what to expect! The idea of doing something like this used to terrify me, even just 24 hours of silence seemed almost impossible. Now, especially after all the book marketing commotion, I am absolutely craving it.

Silence has become one of the greatest luxuries of my life, and my love for this simple and abundant gift has only grown as I approach almost 365 days of consecutive meditation. Take a listen to this week's 20-minute solo Pivot Podcast on the Sweet Sound of Silence. I'll record another one after I get back from the retreat to let you know what this inner adventure is like :)

Topics We Cover

  • The gift that is silence, or when you're at peace

  • Creating a pocket of silence for yourself

  • Harmony is space

  • Stop censoring yourself

Resources Mentioned:

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.

Related Episodes:
[Best Of] Trip Report—Oprah's Vision Tour: Your Life In Focus
[Best Of] Trip Report—Oprah's Vision Tour: Your Life In Focus

Aired 3/8/20 — just before the pandemic hit! This is the last major event I attended live . . . replaying now for some thought-starters to help shape our 2021 new year visioning :)

This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes. Next up: We’ll be kicking-off the new year together on January 13 and I’d love for you to join us!

Read more →
249: Self-Defense Strategies with Sensei Ando Mierzwa
249: Self-Defense Strategies with Sensei Ando Mierzwa

“Your smile is your shield and your sword.” That’s just one of many wisdom gems from today’s guest and longtime Pivot advocate, Sensei Ando Mierzwa. He’s sharing many of the principles from his free self-defense basics course on turning intuition into action, the importance of projecting (and feeling!) confident, ignoring social niceties when it comes to making “bad guys” uncomfortable, and how to maintain a zen state even in tense situations. I hope you love this conversation as much as I did!

Ando’s Free Course: Self-Defense Basics

❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/249

Read more →
[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)
[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)

Happy summer, friends! I’m taking a short break to pause and design what’s next for the podcast content-wise. Please enjoy this series with Penney Peirce, released M/W/Fri in keeping with my latest experiment.

Penney is consistently named as a listener favorite when I get feedback notes, and after our first interview together we jokingly started naming these follow-up conversations “The Penney & Jenny Show.” Until now, these interviews were spread out over the last four years — now they’ll be bingeable as a consecutive series :)

🗣 Want to help shape what’s next? Take the listener survey if you haven’t already! http://pivotmethod.com/survey »

📝 View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/penney7 »

***

Original air date: July 15, 2018

I'm delighted to bring you the seventh (!) episode in a side series of this podcast we affectionately call the Penney & Jenny show :) It's a growing set of conversations with one of my dear friends and mentors (friendtors), Penney Peirce. We had so much fun during our first interview together that we added a second . . . which became a third . . . and so on, until it was a regular feature on the Pivot Podcast!

This week we're riffing on the intersection of spirituality and small business—how we apply intuition, transparency, non-physical realms, and personal practices toward business-building, attracting clients, and earning a living in a way that feels easeful and joyful. You can check out all of our interviews here, and for easier listening, tune in on our SoundCloud playlist.

Read more →
242: Nahko—Take Your Power Back + "Love Letters to God" Live
242: Nahko—Take Your Power Back + "Love Letters to God" Live

Nahko is an artist, a seeker, a storyteller, and a medicine man through soulful music. I love that his music sits at the intersection of deep personal introspection with social justice activism.

Although we didn’t discuss it in this conversation, Nakho was born as a result of human trafficking—his birth mother gave him up for adoption when she was fourteen years old; he was nine months old, then raised in Oregon just 20 minutes away. You can learn more about that in these conversations with Untangled: Take Your Power Back and with Rachel Brathen: Believe In The Good Things Coming.

Nahko and Medicine for the People has provided the soundtrack to everything important in my life these last five years: solo journeying, writing and then launching Pivot, meeting my husband, getting married, and navigating the 2020 coronacoaster.

🎵 Listen to the end for a special acoustic performance

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/242

🎧 Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

Read more →
194: Deep Souls with Kathryn Haydon
194: Deep Souls with Kathryn Haydon

Pivot Insider and creativity expert Kathryn Haydon is back to discuss her emerging studies of Deep Souls, building upon her background in education and creativity. As she describes in her article, 7 Strengths of Deep Souls: The Thinkers We Need But Rarely Understand:

"Is Everyone a Deep Soul? The underlying traits that fuel deep soul strengths are universal characteristics of creative thinking. Research shows that nearly all of us have an intense combination of these strengths in early childhood, but they get dulled over time—especially during our school years. Deep souls, however, have resisted this dulling. They can't help it. The intensity of their ability to think differently cannot and will not be stopped.”

Listen in as we discuss the seven strengths, and how to best support and encourage the deep souls around you in life and work.

View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/194

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

Read more →
🦠172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce
🦠172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce

If you ever feel like a sponge for the energy (and moods) of people around you, particularly during times of massive change or crisis; if you feel flooded by emotion, overwhelmed with empathy, more sensitive than usual to sights, sounds, and media; and/or hit with powerful bursts of intuition, this episode is for you.

Sarah Santacroce and I recorded a two-way conversation for Pivot and her podcast, Gentle Business Revolution (be sure to also check out the PDF of her manifesto, Gentle Business Revolution Manifesto).

View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/172 »

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask »

Read more →
158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour
158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour

This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes. Our next session is coming right up on Wednesday, March 11 — I’d love for you to join us!

Read more →
[Best Of] 91: Divine Time Management and Putting Faith Forward in Business and Love with Elizabeth Grace Saunders
[Best Of] 91: Divine Time Management and Putting Faith Forward in Business and Love with Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Originally posted March 2018 — part of a “Best Of” series as I get caught up from a round of travel and puppy-adjusting :)

When my friend Elizabeth pivoted from time management author and coach to divine time management, her faith-based practice of "trusting God's loving plans for you," and with the release of her new book in November, I wanted to have her on the show. But I was nervous at the same time.

Is it okay to put faith forward in business? On the podcast? I'm not Christian—would that adversely affect the interview? Would it be divisive in any way for listeners? Our culture prides a separation of church and state, but what about spirituality and business?

In the months since Elizabeth's book launched, I have been sloooowly finding the courage to talk about these topics more prominently on the Pivot Podcast. And believe me, coming from an atheist-turned-agnostic, this was not an easy or obvious choice. But my soul's curiosity and passion for finding deeper meaning in our work says YES. I am grateful to now be exploring people and philosophies of many ranging faiths on this show.

With that, let's dive into this week's awesome episode! I love Elizabeth's advice on loosening the reigns of control, paying attention to inner stirrings, and her vulnerability in sharing how she has surrendered her timing around finding love. 

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/podcast/divine-time.

Read more →
152: Glowing in the Dark with Kristoffer 'KC' Carter
152: Glowing in the Dark with Kristoffer 'KC' Carter

This week’s episode is another one of my favorite formats, just two new (soul) friends shooting the breeze in what we’ve dubbed a “podcast tango” :) Given that we both have podcasts, we decided to just hit record and do this joint conversation, neither of us officially interviewing the other. I hope you enjoy this conversation jam with insta-BFF Kristoffer “KC” Carter (shout-out to our mutual mensch mentor Jonathan Fields who introduced us!), whose new podcast This Epic Life is one I know you’ll also love. We deepen our budding BFF-ship and discuss the BIG topics of life—including death, dips, permission to shine, business pivots, his yogic and meditation practices, and much more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/152.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes.

Read more →
143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha
143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha

“I don’t even care if we talk about the new book,” Neil said as we started our Skype call, while I thumbed through dog-eared, underlined, and marked-up pages of the You Are Awesome galley. Ooh, fun!

Knowing I have a tendency to focus too much on the paper artifact in front of me while interviewing authors, rather than what’s True and present in the moment, I decided to chuck all my potential questions and just shoot the breeze with a longtime blog-friend (February marks our ten year friendiversary!).

Neil was on the Pivot Podcast in the early days (check out 44: Want Nothing, Have Everything: The Happiness Equation with Neil Pasricha), and that episode has been a long-time listener favorite. I think you’re going to love this unfiltered, unplanned conversation every bit as much!

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/143.

Read more →
, ,

52: Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send

, ,
52: Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send

"Suffering is a sign you are about to be woken up again."
—Martha Beck

This week we tackle a tiny little topic—enlightenment—with one of my all-time favorite authors and thinkers, Martha Beck. I have read all eight of Martha's books (two or three times each) as they helped me through some of my biggest transitions in life and work.