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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123: Peeking Out from the Plateau — My Latest Pivots (and Why Plateaus Actually Signal Progress!)

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123: Peeking Out from the Plateau — My Latest Pivots (and Why Plateaus Actually Signal Progress!)

I’m baaaaaack! Did you miss me? I sincerely apologize for (unintentionally) ghosting out on you. I hit a (Pivot) point of total overload and overwhelm with some BIG personal updates on school and my love life (you’ll have to listen in to get the full deets!).

All while mid-way through second semester at seminary, buying and moving to a new home in Harlem, and traveling every week for speaking busy season this spring. Spotting burnout potential (I know it a mile away), and after hitting a clear decision fork-in-the-road, I gave myself permission to pause on non-essentials. Unfortunately that included the podcast and #PivotList newsletter!

But what looked like a plateau from the outside (seeing as I haven’t released a new show in six months) sparked a mega-business renaissance on the inside. On Friday, July 5 I celebrate my eighth (!!) year of solopreneurship, and I’m getting ready to take things up to a whole new level of joy, revenue, meaning, momentum, and systems-ninjary.

In fact, I’m re-naming what I do Solo+preneurship — putting the plus into my support structure by expanding to a core team of three (part-timers) + podcast production. This will free my time to do more of what I love, such as getting this show out on a regular basis while still honoring Momentum members, and my consulting and 1:1 clients.

Listen to this week’s show (I’m dusting off the rust, so pardon any awkwardness!) for more on all these updates, and how you can become a super special Podcast Insider to geek out with me behind-the-scenes on the latest books, topics, and tools that come up during the episodes. I’ll also talk about why plateaus — at least ones that look that way from the outside — are a good thing, and should be celebrated as a sign of progress.

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122: Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport

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122: Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport

What are the hidden costs of digital clutter? How can we counter screen addiction and phantom phone vibrations? We explore these topics in this episode with Cal Newport as we discuss his new book, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.

Cal Newport is a familiar voice on the Pivot Podcast and back by popular demand! On our first episode we discussed deep work—the increasingly important deliberate practice of focused work, especially in a world of cognitive junk. Now we turn to digital minimalism: applying a just enough mindset to our personal technology, freeing ourselves from the overwhelm, distraction, and “fear of missing out” side effects of the always-connected world. Or as Cal quotes Bill Maher from May 2017: “Likes is the new smoking . . . Philip Morris just wanted your lungs, The App Store wants your soul.” 

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121: Raise Your Game (and Ditch Compare-and-Despair) with Alan Stein Jr.

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121: Raise Your Game (and Ditch Compare-and-Despair) with Alan Stein Jr.

Nobody knows the daily grind of competition and mental game better than athletes and coaches. Today I’m thrilled to share a conversation with basketball and performance coach Alan Stein Jr. on how we can apply these hard-fought principles to building better businesses.

Alan first blew me away with his networking skills — he joined a private group we’re both part of and quickly became an integral member, after I’d been mostly wall-flowering as the hidden introvert that I am. We talk about his strategies for building relationships and ditching unhelpful compare-and-despair for mindsets that are far more helpful and empowering.

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120: Mantras in Motion with Erin Stutland

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120: Mantras in Motion with Erin Stutland

What’s the difference between affirmations that feel fake and those that actually work? How can you move your body in a way that also transforms your mind? What falls under the category of spiritual bypassing versus actual transformation? Join me for a conversation with one of my favorite New York friends, Erin Stutland, as we discuss her new book: Mantras in Motion: Manifesting What You Want through Mindful Movement.

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[Best Of] Deep Work: Ditch Cognitive Junk Food with Cal Newport

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[Best Of] Deep Work: Ditch Cognitive Junk Food with Cal Newport

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union Theological Seminary, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation I loved with Cal Newport from April 2016.

When was the last time you were in the zone?There’s nothing I love more than working with time flying. The sun rises and sets and I barely notice because I’m so engrossed in my work. Cal Newport calls this deep work, and says that contrary to what many assume, it is a skill, not a habit. That means it takes deliberate practice, and is a cognitive muscle that can atrophy with disuse—something we are all prone to as we get sucked into network tools like social media and email. I loved this conversation and I know you will too! Enjoy 

“At the exact point that deep work is becoming increasingly valuable, it is also becoming more rare.”

—Cal Newport

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[Best Of] Live Fiercely, Study Deeply . . . While Earning a Living — with Jonathan Fields

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[Best Of] Live Fiercely, Study Deeply . . . While Earning a Living — with Jonathan Fields

"Uncertainty may bring unease, but it also brings a vital energy, the exhilaration of creation. Without uncertainty, there is no possibility." —Jonathan Fields

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation I loved with dear friend and mentor Jonathan Fields, from October 2016.

Jonathan Fields' mission is to "live fiercely and study deeply." How does he do that while earning a living? That's what we unpack in this week's episode. According to Jonathan, "There are only two ways to earn a living: you're either solving a problem or delivering a delight. If you're lucky and creative, you do both simultaneously."

Jonathan—or "JF" as I like to call him—has been a longtime mentor whose pivots have inspired me and countless others at every turn: from lawyer to yoga studio founder to author of three books, Jonathan is now studying and embodying what it means to live a good life. We recorded this episode from his plush velvety couches at Good Life Project Headquarters (aka his apartment on the Upper West Side) — I hope you enjoy this off-the-cuff conversation as much as I did. Be sure to grab Jonathan's new book, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom, out this week! And his free recently released Unbusy Manifesto. 

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[Best Of] Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send

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[Best Of] Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation with one of my author superheroes, Martha Beck, who says “Suffering is a sign you are about to be woken up again.”

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. Martha is someone who blazes her own trails and has inspired me to do the same time and time again. 

I admire Martha for her tremendous courage. She's been through hell and back, from leaving the Mormon church despite getting death threats and her entire family disowning her, keeping her pregnancy after finding out her baby had Down Syndrome and her Harvard colleagues suggested otherwise, or following her body's signals to turn away from the academic life that was making her sick, and even saying no to Oprah when it didn't feel right to say yes.

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[Best Of] Rebirth: On Fear, Flow, Love and Magic with Kamal Ravikant

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[Best Of] Rebirth: On Fear, Flow, Love and Magic with Kamal Ravikant

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation I loved from January 2017 with Kamal Ravikant :)

What lies on the other side of our fear? According to Kamal Ravikant, magic. "That's the promise of the heart," he writes in an early chapter of his wonderful new book, Rebirth: A Fable of Love, Forgiveness, and Following Your Heart. This is one of my all-time favorite Pivot Podcast conversations: Kamal inspires courage in vulnerability, living with an open heart, and road-tested practices on loving yourself and living your truth. Every moment of talking with him was a delight, and I hope you enjoy this week's conversation on life's biggest topics as much as I did! 

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119: Off the Clock—Finding Time Freedom with Laura Vanderkam

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119: Off the Clock—Finding Time Freedom with Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam is a productivity tour de force: she has written four books in the last several years, launched a podcast, and given talks all over the country—all while running a household with her husband and four children.

I’d tell you that I truly don’t know how she does it, except that she already wrote a book to answer that question called, what else, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time. One of my other favorites was her runaway bestseller among the Fast Company crowd, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings--and Life.

The focus of this week’s podcast conversation is her newest book, Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done. Laura reveals the counterintuitive principles the most time-free people have adopted, and teaches mindset shifts to help you feel calm on the busiest days.

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118: Union Theological Seminary—Reflections on My First Month of Grad School

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118: Union Theological Seminary—Reflections on My First Month of Grad School

“Welcome to Holy Hogwarts,” my fellow first-year Ariel said to me with a smile, as I walked through the Union campus entrance into the school’s small courtyard for my first day of orientation. I was grateful for his warmth and levity, a brief reprieve from my nerves about what to expect from my classes and fellow students.

After those three days of orientation I felt like I was on a rickety, upward-climbing rollercoaster, ticking up toward a crescendo before the rush of adrenaline and momentum to follow from the big drop. Am I making a huge mistake? I wondered. Will I fit in here? What if I can’t juggle school, work, speaking travel, and the new commute? Did I really think this through enough?

But alas, I’m just over a month in, and absolutely loving the program. I’m working on a two-year Masters degree with a focus (for now) in Interreligious Engagement. I love the material, and feel so lucky that I get to study, talk, and read about some of life’s deepest questions all week long! Getting used to the firehose of reading, classes and writing assignments was a shock—but not in a bad way. More like taking a cold-water plunge: surprising and breath-taking, but incredibly refreshing and the perfect shake-up for entering my seventh year of self-employment (and living in New York). I am still struggling a bit with when to schedule meetings, podcast interviews, and outings with friends, but I know I’m still early in the adjustment process.

Listen in to this weeks (semi-rambling, sorry!) episode on impressions from my first month at school—what I’m learning, how I’m adjusting, and where “inner game” resources like self-compassion come into play.

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117: Activist Venture Capital and Teaching Yoga and Meditation at Rikers with Marcus Glover

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I had the great fortune of sitting behind Marcus Glover on a bus ride to Wallkill Prison for a Defy Ventures business mentoring day, and time flew as we talked about everything from him teaching yoga and meditation at Rikers, to criminal justice work, to his mission of funding minority-owned businesses through disruptive venture capital. 

I can’t wait for you to listen in on this conversation and get your own powerful dose of Marcus magic! You’ll hear about his passion for well-told stories, practicing empathy (rather than the misguided savior complex), cultural competency around dismantling privilege, and much more.

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

Enjoying the show? Get insider bonuses by joining the Pivot Podcast community at  Patreon.com/pivot.

More About Marcus Glover

Marcus+Glover.jpg

Marcus Glover is a Partner at Southbox, an early-stage investment fund focusing in areas of high-growth technology startups and disruptive content producers. He founded TEDxHarlem in 2010 and has also consulted entertainers and athletes including Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas, Kobe Bryant, Ray Lewis, Peyton Manning, Rihanna, Allen Iverson, Eli Manning.

Presently, Marcus is devoted to investing and advising early stage ventures. He also holds a deep commitment to social justice and criminal justice reform serving as a board member of New York Tri State Board of Directors for DefyVentures.org and LiberationPrisonYoga.org. Through his work with these organizations, Marcus has become a dedicated mentor to incarcerated men, women and youth and also volunteers as a yoga and meditation instructor leading juvenile programs at Rikers Island Prison.

Topics We Cover

  • How he got started teaching yoga and meditation at Rikers

  • Embracing his own brokenness, yoga as a platform for personal transformation

  • Why the goal of prison programs isn’t what most people going in might think

  • Our goal is to offer unconditional presence

  • His passion for well-told stories, telling stories that empower us versus disempower us

  • Own your story: the pieces that seem successful and the ones that feel broken - it’s the shards that we shy away from, but that’s what makes us more relatable, more human

  • How he ended up at venture capital to further his mission of conscious investing

  • Main critique of VC is cultural competency: as much as it has been pioneering in all these ways of technological discovery, it hasn’t done a great job of disrupting diversity and inclusion

  • Systemic biases that have been here for decades, but as a platform, VC has the power to continue to transform in all of these areas

  • His next frontier for social justice and venture capital: cannabis. For example, The People’s Dispensary - seeks to reinvest profits into communities that have been harmed by the War on Drugs

  • Focus on double-bottom line: people and profits

  • Activist venture capital means “making an investment and level the playing field in everything I do”; also, “protecting against the downside of privileged people coming in and owning all the wealth and communities of color owning all the despair”

  • Reciprocal dismantling of privilege - as a culture we need to develop that IQ around how we level playing fields

  • Privilege is in many ways the barrier to empathy, even though it’s something many of us enjoy

  • MLK: saw his job as to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable

  • Success is the greatest illusion there is. Can any entertainer or athlete say that their success is their own?

  • Secret weapon to try after listening to this episode!

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.

Want to support the show and become a founding member of the Pivot Podcast community? Join us on Patreon here.

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116: Caught in Internet Infinity Pools? Make Time By Setting a Daily Highlight and 5-Day Sprints

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116: Caught in Internet Infinity Pools? Make Time By Setting a Daily Highlight and 5-Day Sprints

Are you getting sucked into endless scrolling in Infinity Pools like email, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook? It's okay, we all do. We all know these apps are designed to be addictive. After all, tech is the only industry other than drugs that calls its customers "users." 

It's so easy to look back on the day and wonder, "Where on earth did the time go?!" We've drained ourselves of all energy and yet often come up empty, feeling we have nothing to show for it. At least I'll speak for myself and say that's how I feel when inadvertently taking a ride on what John Zeratsky calls the "Busy Bandwagon."

But what do we do about it? How do we "make time" without the same tired productivity principles that have only led to more exhaustion? John is co-author of a new book called Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day. We’re cut from the same corporate cloth—he worked at Google for 10 years at YouTube and Google Ventures, and has worked as a designer in the Bay Area for fifteen years before striking out on his own last year. I think you'll love this conversation for practical tips on finding more space and joy in work, and why the opposite of exhaustion isn’t necessarily rest.

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115: "People are People" — Exploring Neurodiversity with Mark Rufino

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115: "People are People" — Exploring Neurodiversity with Mark Rufino

Mark Rufino is a social worker and audio engineer, who works with adults with developmental disabilities and their families. However, even the term "developmental disability" or "intellectual disability" is becoming a misnomer. Mark is part of a growing movement of people who believe it's time we upgrade our old way of thinking "that we need to fix you to fit into our society."

The term neurodiversity is growing in popularity, and implies that there is no “normal” way of thinking and “autistic” way of thinking, for example; we are all wired to do different things. I think you'll love this conversation around exploring what's behind behavior, Mark's emphasis on deeper listening (in surprising and novel ways), and his reference to a book that states "the opposite of anxiety is not calm, it’s trust.”

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114: Illuminating Invisible Privilege with Karen Pittelman (and Why She Gave Away Her $3 Million Trust At 24)

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114: Illuminating Invisible Privilege with Karen Pittelman (and Why She Gave Away Her $3 Million Trust At 24)

This is one of my favorite interviews, and a conversation that is crucial for understanding and revealing the hidden influences that shape many of our views on society, wealth and power. I have heard terms like white privilege (which applies to me), but I hadn't thought to look into the notion of invisible privilege until earlier this year. You may think it doesn't apply to you (as I used to), especially if you're not in the "Top 1%."

But as a recent Atlantic article revealed, The 9.9 Percent is the New American Aristocracy, privilege is something that affects more of us than we might immediately self-identify with, particularly for many who see themselves as part of the "middle class." (A necessary note: some of you may be in the Top 1%—and you're welcome here!—and some of you may be struggling to get by, and  you're welcome here too).

After hearing it thrown around quite a bit in social change circles, I got curious. What does invisible privilege really mean? How does it affect me, and others like me? And how does it relate to broader social change? I'm so grateful for Karen Pittleman, who answers these questions with kindness, compassion, and clarity in this week's conversation. I can't wait for you to hear her story of giving away a $3 million trust fund when she turned 24 years old (now she's given over $13 million to activist-led funds), and her input on how we can all work together to redistribute wealth and power as we work toward a more just society.  

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113: The Seeker's Journey with Daniel Aaron

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So many of us are on a seekers journey—looking for greater knowledge, wisdom, healing, insight and transformation. And may even the ever-elusive holy grail of enlightenment, whatever that means. If you ask me, I believe we have three primary purposes on this planet: to learn, to love and to serve. And of course, to enjoy life along the way :) 

Daniel Aaron is a fascinating fellow seeker who describes his own journey as guided by a divine power, as he explores all variety of mystical and practical practices and shares them with thousands of others through yoga, sangha (community), and coaching. His mission is "to bring in a new era, where the new-normal is love and truth – kindness, authenticity and radiance – for all beings, of every species." I hope you enjoy the this week's conversation! 

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/podcast/daniel-aaron. Enjoying the show? Make my week by donating just $1 and episode at Patreon.com/pivot.

More About Daniel Aaron

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Daniel Aaron is a teacher, writer, and human potential coach with a half century of joyous seeking and more than 25 years of experience in yoga and personal transformation for thousands of others.

Creator of the world-recognized Daniel Aaron Yoga Teacher Trainings in 2005, Daniel also founded the Radiantly Alive Yoga studio in Ubud, Bali in 2012. He is a seeker of wisdom, mystical and practical, and how we can apply it to radically upgrade our lives.

From enlightened gurus to the deepest therapists, cutting-edge nutrition, fasting and cleansing Ashrams, centers and caves, Maine to Bali (with a few hundred vistas along the way), he has lived everything from an excruciating childhood (which was also full of love) to helping others find everyday, guaranteed joy and entrepreneurial brilliance (including his own massively painful lessons and mistakes). 

Topics We Cover

  • His chaotic childhood upbringing, a crucial realization at three years old: “There’s got to be more than this"

  • Being orphaned at a relatively early age amongst parents and siblings

  • How he pulled himself out of hopelessness and turned to a path of seeking

  • Discovering astrology in his twenties despite previously thinking it was ridiculous

  • Describing himself as “He is as ordinary as ordinary can be.”

  • We shine and are our best selves when we accept all parts of ourselves

  • What inspired him to start Radiantly Alive—and how he knew it was time to leave

  • Seeker’s mission: awaken, heal, discover, learn

  • Pain and difficulty as a signal to move on, no longer living his dharma (true path)

  • Creating a virtual sangha, or community, to amplify individuals’ vibrant lives - creates an energy unto itself

  • Buddhism, “It’s hard to awaken on one’s own”

  • Satsang: “Gathering of people in the name of truth” - it’s about our intention when we come together

  • To live a spiritual life in a way that is fulfilling and also contributing to the world

  • What’s behind his philosophies that “his religion is his life,” and his passion in studying "The real yoga of life, beyond the physical fitness practices”

  • Patanjali’s teachings of ahimsa, doing as little harm as possible (non-violence), and satya, or honesty and authenticity—the key to it is to live both of those at the same time

  • His mission is to bring in a new era, where the new-normal is love and truth – kindness, authenticity and radiance – for all beings, of every species.

  • "A world where an aberrant act of meanness creates a ripple of alarm that immediately engenders a response of love and understanding so powerful that it melts the pain and meanness and harmony is restored.”

  • What we are all needing to learn as a culture, the gifts of the darkness: we can’t afford to have division, what we need is inclusion

  • The Fantastic 4 of his daily rituals: The importance of daily practices to remember where he’s set his compass coordinates and stay connected to hope and positivity

  • The Sun Breath exercise and why it’s so powerful to raise frequency or vibration

The Seeker's Journey with Daniel Aaron

Listen below or on iTunes, SoundCloud, YouTube, Overcast, Stitcher, or Google Play Music:

Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe via iTunes, Google Play or SoundCloud, 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.

Want to support the show and become a founding member of the Pivot Podcast community? Join us on Patreon here.

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112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber

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112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber

I am beyond lucky to have the brilliant Petra Kolber as one of my best friends in New York City, and just delighted to celebrate her book launch this week!! It's been a long journey, and one that forced her to confront the very message of her book: overcoming the inner critic and imposter syndrome because "the world needs your voice, not your perfect silence."

As I wrote in the show notes for our first Pivot Podcast interview in January 2017, Petra just radiates joy and truly walks her talk. When she enters 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 struggled with the pressure to be perfect in looks, body, business, and beyond. 

As a two-time cancer survivor, she 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 follow-up show we explore her book publishing process ups and downs, moving past the mirror, the platinum rule (a favorite new concept!) of self-compassion, and much more. 

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111: Ten Thousand Buddhas and Unlocking Creativity with Artist Amanda Giacomini

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111: Ten Thousand Buddhas and Unlocking Creativity with Artist Amanda Giacomini

One of the best parts of having this podcast is who I am fortunate to cross paths with, and the ongoing surprise of who reaches out to me. Some of you may remember when I was falling out of my chair (or rather, the closet that doubles as podcasting studio) to interview one of my favorite musicians, Trevor Hall. Well, one of the best side outcomes was getting to know his team better, Tim and Isabelle at N3W LEVEL Management. We met in-person for the first time earlier this summer, and the hours flew by! Instant kindred spirits and friends for life :)

So I was every bit as excited when they mentioned another one of their artists' ambitious projects: Amanda Giacomini's mission to paint 10,000 Buddhas around the world. Amanda has been teaching yoga for over 25 years, and she’s been an artist for almost the same amount of time. Ten Thousand Buddhas is her worldwide, highly sought after art project—including large scale murals and fine art paintings—that she completed last year after five years of steadily working toward her goal. In this conversation we dive into what she learned, how it inspired her to break out of her typical shell (and artist studio), and naturopathic practices that keep her sane while touring with her husband MC Yogi. 

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110: Jesus, Mary and Joe Jonas—Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s Exploration across Religion, LGBTQ Equality and the Entertainment Industry

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110: Jesus, Mary and Joe Jonas—Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s Exploration across Religion, LGBTQ Equality and the Entertainment Industry

I love serendipitous podcast guest recruiting. This one starts over coffee with my longtime blog-turned-IRL friend Rachael King, who recently founded a company called PodPeople to connect new shows with creative teams.

When I told her about themes I had been exploring on the Pivot Podcast she said, "You HAVE to talk to Jonathan Parks-Ramage." She had just helped produce a new podcast for Medium where he read his article aloud, Jesus, Mary and Joe Jonas: A Journey Into LA's Hippest Evangelical Church. I was captivated by his story, and by his intention to research and write about topics at the intersection of faith, LGBTQ advocacy and the entertainment industry. A man after my own unique pivot intersection heart! 

I hope you enjoy this week's conversation on what it was like to come out with two parents who are ministers, the colliding life crises that sparked his decision to pivot from Sundance as a television executive to freelance writing, and his unique perspective studying the quirks of the entertainment industry and the religious institutions that crop up around it. 

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109: Personal Pivot Update—My Big News and the Decision-Making Process Behind It

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109: Personal Pivot Update—My Big News and the Decision-Making Process Behind It

This week I take you behind-the-scenes into my own pivot process around how I arrived at this decision—unpacking tools like intuition, following hits of curiosity, weighing pros and cons, taking just the one next step, and accepting remaining unknowns. As I shared in Episode 100, I have no idea where this will end up, but I'm putting myself in the path of pivot—immersing myself in a new environment and seeing where it takes me :) 

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108: Penney & Jenny Show Returns! On Spirituality and Small Business

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108: Penney & Jenny Show Returns! On Spirituality and Small Business

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 series 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 check for future episodes)—and for easier listening, tune in on our SoundCloud playlist.