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.

Business

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82: Hunch: How to Translate Intuition into Business Ideas with Bernadette Jiwa

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82: Hunch: How to Translate Intuition into Business Ideas with Bernadette Jiwa

"Anxiety over being more innovative leads entrepreneurs to create solutions instead of problems. But what if you could use your intuition to identify an existing problem that’s begging for a solution?”

—Bernadette Jiwa, Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights Into The Next Big Thing

When Bernadette Jiwa’s little book that packs a big punch, Hunch, arrived in the mail, I immediately thought, “I wish I wrote that book!” But I’m thrilled that she did, because Bernadette’s beautiful heart shines through every page as she describes tools and stories to help you transform everyday insights into big ideas that make an impact.

In this episode you’ll learn how to tap into your innate curiosity to uncover better business ideas, why distraction and external inputs are the enemies of insight, and a deeper look at the formula for uncovering your best hunches: a combination of insight (patterns and practices) and foresight (potential and predictions). 

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81: Create, Serve, Receive, Be Prosperous: Soulful Business with Jeffrey Shaw

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81: Create, Serve, Receive, Be Prosperous: Soulful Business with Jeffrey Shaw

I had such a blast talking with Jeffrey Shaw for this week’s episode. He has been running his own photography and coaching business for over 33 years, including a podcast called Creative Warriors to help heart-centered entrepreneurs create, serve and be prosperous. We talk about how Jeffrey went from overlooked to overbooked, how to find, connect and speak to your ideal customers, and the energetics of business—how to tune-in to your intuition to guide strategy and next steps. 

In Jeffrey’s own words, we are entering “The new renaissance—a time when artists, coaches, designers, authors, speakers and other purpose-driven entrepreneurs will run profitable businesses, be highly respected for their talents and free to express their work across a variety of mediums.” I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did :) 

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79: Set Your 2018 Pivot Strategy with Jenny Blake

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79: Set Your 2018 Pivot Strategy with Jenny Blake

To help you kick-off the new year in style and soul-aligned next steps, I’m back with my annual Set Your Pivot Strategy episode—new and improved with the best resources and reflection questions I’ve got. 

I encourage you to get out a pen and paper for this one—yes, analog-style—and pause frequently to journal for as long as you’d like on each prompt. Go big! Go for quantity, not quality, and don’t censor yourself or worry yet about whether or not what you’re envisioning is possible—the time for that will come later. 

When you think you’re done writing, keep going! That just means you’ve gotten your most obvious ideas down. Pushing through the pauses is where you create breakthroughs, and every time you sit with a question you’ve never heard before, you are creating new neural pathways in the brain. 

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77: 21+ Travel Tips, Tools and Apps — with Jenny Blake

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77: 21+ Travel Tips, Tools and Apps — with Jenny Blake

As you board planes, trains and automobiles to head home (or adventuring) over the holidays, I'm sharing 21+ of my best travel tips, apps and tools—everything from preparing to booking to packing, to travel day and routines on the road. 

Keynote speaking is one of my favorite ways to earn a living, and this year I took about 30 trips, or one every other week. In today’s episode I share the strategies, routines, apps, and products that keep me relatively healthy, happy and sane while traveling, and that help me recharge when my batteries are running low but I’m away from home.

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76: On Plan Z, Creative Finish Lines and the Graceful No—with Alexandra Franzen

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76: On Plan Z, Creative Finish Lines and the Graceful No—with Alexandra Franzen

"Please remember that every person you love and admire—every author, every artist, every business owner, every luminary who seems to 'have it all together'—just remember that their story is filled with hundreds of awkward firsts, too."
—Alexandra Franzen

It was love at first read when I encountered Alexandra Franzen online, and it has been ever since. She's a delightful, talented, prolific writer and thinker who seems to always write just what I need to hear. I love how Alex has pivoted her business over the years, and she's someone I love looking toward for inspiration and insight.

In this episode we talk about opening a brunch restaurant with her boyfriend, why she finds it helpful to dive into details on her Plan Z, how she makes time for art (so she doesn't feel "squished and sad"), her best tips for getting clients over their creative finish lines, why she quit twitter, how she says a graceful no, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! 

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75: Become a Trend Curator + Non-Obvious Trends for 2018 with Rohit Bhargava

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75: Become a Trend Curator + Non-Obvious Trends for 2018 with Rohit Bhargava

"The secret to predicting the future is to get better at understanding the present."
—Rohit Bhargava, Non-Obvious 2018 Edition: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future

I've always been fascinated by futurists and trend spotters (turns out the latter is a myth). How do they see trends coming before the rest of us? What are they doing to sift through the noise to extrapolate a clear signal of where things are heading? Turns out, true to the Pivot Method, that the key to predicting the future lies right under our feet: we just need to get better at understanding how to spot ideas, capture them effectively, and sift through them.

Enter this week's guest, trend curator (What's that, you ask? You'll find out!) Rohit Bhargava. I'm super excited to help us all get a jump on the new year with a conversation about how we can all become better trend curators and apply Rohit's Haystack Method: gather idea hay first, then sit down to find the needles or key themes. We also had fun diving into 7 of his 15 trends for 2018 more closely; our combined list includes: lightspeed learning, approachable luxury, human mode, touchworthy, truthing, enlightened consumption, and manufactured outrage.

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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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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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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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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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45: Happy Launch Day!! Pivot for the Podcast: James Altucher Interviews Jenny

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45: Happy Launch Day!! Pivot for the Podcast: James Altucher Interviews Jenny

HAPPY LAUNCH WEEK!! 

One of my favorite authors, bloggers and good friends—James Altucher, author of Choose Yourself and the Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth—takes over the Pivot Podcast this week to interview yours truly. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the book launch—be sure to grab your copy wherever books are sold!! 

I also took over James' show today—if you don't already subscribe to his podcasts, get on it! They're my favorites that I listen to: The James Altucher Show and Question of the Day (with Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner).