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.

Mindset

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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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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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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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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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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.

50: Post-Election Pivot Point: Find Order in Chaos

50: Post-Election Pivot Point: Find Order in Chaos

Man oh man . . . what an epic pivot point for our country with this presidential election. Wild week for all involved, as half the country celebrates with relief and the other half navigates its grief.

In this episode I zoom out to take a macro view. Partisan politics aside, how do we navigate a world and economy where truly anything can happen at any time? Where all the smartest pollsters and predictors were wrong? How do we create order and opportunity from what often seems like chaos at first? It starts within, and today I'm sharing some of my strategies as we all move forward from a truly surprising twist this week.

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44: Want Nothing, Have Everything: The Happiness Equation with Neil Pasricha

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44: Want Nothing, Have Everything: The Happiness Equation with Neil Pasricha

"Be you. Be you, and be cool with it. There is nobody else you can be better. There is so much of you unique to the world. You are unique and complicated. You are different and dimensional."

—Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

Neil Pasricha's writing is like a cup of hot chocolate, or as he would describe it in Awesome Thing #119, like watching butter melt on a hot piece of toast. It is comforting and delightful. His latest book is about what he learned along his own roller coaster ride of reaching smashing success with his 1,000 Awesome Things blog and books, then realizing he still wasn't happy. We break down topics like The Saturday Morning Test, the three time buckets, and many more.

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43: Humans are Underrated with Geoff Colvin

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43: Humans are Underrated with Geoff Colvin

What can people do that computers never will? According to Geoff Colvin, that's the wrong question. It is futile to ask what computers will never be able to do, since they are accomplishing new, previously unthinkable feats at an astonishing rate. Instead, we must ask what it is that humans will insist continue to be performed by other humans? 

The answer lies in the shift happening as we speak: from a knowledge economy to what Colvin calls the relationship economy. We also talk about his first book, why talent is overrated (and the two qualities you can cultivate instead). I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did! 

 

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42: Are You High Net Growth?

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42: Are You High Net Growth?

Some people measure their lives in terms of money, orienting their careers around acquiring wealth and material markers of success. Those who have accumulated financial wealth are considered high net worth individuals. But for the vast majority of people I encounter, money is not the number one driver of purpose and fulfillment. It is only a partial means to that end.

High net growth individuals love learning, taking action, tackling new projects, and solving problems. They are generous and cooperative, and have a strong desire to make a difference.

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41: The Progress Paradox with Gregg Easterbrook

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41: The Progress Paradox with Gregg Easterbrook

According to Gregg Easterbrook, "The men and women at middle-class standards or above in the United States and European Union now live better than 99.4 percent of the human beings who have ever existed," including most of the royalty of history. And yet, we are no happier. How can this be?

We explore afflictions such as: choice anxiety, abundance denial, "call and raise the Joneses," collapse anxiety, the revolution of satisfied expectations, and meaning want. We also dive into their powerful antidotes: forgiveness, gratitude and optimism, as well as Gregg's earlier work on why talent is overrated (and the two ingredients to strive for instead).

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32: How Meditation Re-Wired My Brain + 5 Tips for Making the Habit Stick

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32: How Meditation Re-Wired My Brain + 5 Tips for Making the Habit Stick

Meditation has re-wired my brain. I don’t walk on clouds every day, but I do feel like a new person three years in to maintaining a daily practice (and 120 days in to a consecutive streak). I know, I know. One shouldn’t promote meditation as a miracle cure. But if you have an active mind, one that veers toward anxiety and stress like me, take a listen to this week’s Pivot Podcast.

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22: Success on Your Own Terms with Derek Sivers

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“To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point. When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line.” —Derek Sivers, Ask Me Anything

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18: How to Become a Robot Whisperer with Dr. Tom Guarriello

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Get your geek on! This week’s Pivot Podcast is all about robots, artificial intelligence, and automation. How can we become more agile in an economy that is increasingly transformed by these areas? What skills and mindset will best position us for success in the future? How can you become a “robot whisperer” like today’s guest, professor Tom Guarriello? I could talk with Tom about all this for hours, but we contained ourself (for now!) in keeping this week’s episode to one jam-packed 60-minute conversation.