"You cannot pursue greatness and comfort at the same time . . . How do you set in motion a course of action that will allow you to unleash your best, most valuable work while you still can?"
—Todd Henry, Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day
Many people want to avoid thinking about death, let alone talking about it—not to mention writing a book with "die" in the title. Not Todd Henry. True to the concept of memento mori, reflecting on death to be more present and grateful in life, Todd believes contemplating death helps us fully explore and realize our creative gifts. I absolutely loved this conversation and Todd's thoughts on how to "die empty" without feeling pressure to do it all; how to minimize minutiae and pursue great work while also riding out natural dips in creativity, transition, or clarity.
Todd says, "I want to know that if I lay my head down tonight and don't wake up tomorrow, I have emptied myself of whatever creativity is lingering inside, with minimal regrets about how I spent my focus, time, and energy." This week's podcast will illuminate how you can live this way too.
About Todd Henry
Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of three books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, and Louder Than Words), and he speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.
His book Die Empty was named by Amazon.com as one of the best books of 2013. His latest book, Louder Than Words, is about how to develop an authentic voice that resonates and creates impact. Bestselling author Tom Rath called it "One of the best guides to living a meaningful life I have ever read.”
Topics We Cover
Why the most valuable land in the world is the graveyard
How to "die empty" without regret
How to take decisive action to make steady progress
Escape mediocrity and daily ruts
How success can also lead to fear and resistance
The importance of taking strategic risks every day
Ask, "Am I surprising myself as I'm working?"
What he's learned from ten years of podcasting
Resources Mentioned
Books:
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.
Are you tuned into radio station WRRY, playing your "downer mind's" favorite hits? If so, Jeffrey Davis is here to help you shift from worry into wonder. Today we're talking about his new book, Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed with Productivity (Sounds True, November 2021).
Ask yourself instead each morning: What am I devoted to? What am I curious about today?
Casper ter Kuile is helping to build a world of joyful belonging. He is the author of The Power of Ritual and the co-host of the award-winning podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Casper is a Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and the co-founder of startup Sacred Design Lab - a research and design consultancy working to create a culture of belonging and becoming. He also co-authored “How We Gather” and collaborated with Holstee on his new Ritual Life Planner.
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📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned
Hi Friends! I’m back with another “staycation” solo episode on what I’ve been up to. It’s a quick take on systems to support seasons of retreat for creativity and rest, my favorite books of the year so far, and a peek into my forthcoming projects.
Key questions:
What are you ready to let go of? How can you say no to “good” to say yes to what’s next?
For your new projects, ask: Who Not How? (Strategic Coach, Impact Filter PDF)
How can you design systems to support cyclical work? (Check out Stefan Sagmeister’s TEDx Talk on 7-year sabbaticals)
📘 Books Mentioned: Pivot, Wintering, Who Not How, Clockwork, The Power of Full Engagement
💸 Enroll in the complimentary Free-up Founder Time mini-course before the price goes up
❤️ 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
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📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned
When discussing fraught, divisive, or high-stakes issues it's so easy to get defensive, triggered, and hurt—sometimes even doing irreparable damage to relationships we hold dear. Communications pro Bob Gower returns to Pivot to help us understand something crucial before we engage in our next argument: is this discourse or a debate?
He outlines the difference between the two in his fantastic piece, Rules of Engagement: 5 Steps to Better Arguments: "In discourse, the goal is to eventually align. Debate is discourse's more flamboyant cousin where people with opposing views intend to remain that way at the end of the conversation.”
In this wandering conversational stroll, we explore what it means to be a “good person,” when "agree to disagree" does and doesn't work, intent versus impact, when not to "poke the bear," releasing the urge to have an opinion on everything (or enter into an argument with every person in the first place), why Bob shut-down several of his social media profiles, and how he boils this all down into his day-to-day practices and intentions.
As longtime listeners know well by now, awkward is the name of the game for subjects as tricky as these! For intrepid listeners, our hope is that by hearing us work through (in real-time) some of these more challenging aspects of tough conversations, it will give you a chance to explore where you stand and what approach you want to take—knowing there isn't always just one "right" answer.
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
❤️ 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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📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/staycation
![[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54414faee4b03de3b679d82a/1518802175302-07RF5VNCG9WPVBNRCIB3/Audiogram_NoGuest.jpg)
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.
Named by Fast Company as one of the 100 most creative people in the world, Ayse Birsel is giving us a special preview of her Deconstruction + Reconstruction process to Design the Life You Love at this crucial inflection point of halfway through the madness that is 2020.
In this Momentum Book Club (a live Pivot podcast taping with my private community for heart-based business owners), Ayse walks us through two key exercises: identifying your superpowers and kryptonite, then mapping what to keep and let go of across four key areas as we enter the second half of the year.
📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/244
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💬 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
🎧 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
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
💌 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
🎧 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
What do you wish you had that doesn’t exist? Whether it’s a podcast episode, an article, or a physical product — innovation requires pausing the “infinite stream” of passive content we consume in receiver mode, and intentionally pausing to ask the question: how can you create what you need?
Your magnet means something . . . pause and pay attention to it.
This episode ties into topics covered in 142: Creative Economy Lessons from “The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV” and episode 219: Swimming Upstream—A tale of two platforms.
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
Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at
This is one of my favorite conversations in five years of podcasting — AND I made the silly error of not checking my inputs when switching over to Zoom for this one! 🤦🏻♀️ Forgive me, and I hope you’ll bear with the audio on my side to hear the many priceless gems from CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke, two instant friends who I know you will love as much as I do!
We talk about why conflict is necessary to move past mediocrity, tools for tough conversations, calming ourselves when triggered and tempted to use familiar (unhelpful) coping mechanisms, and why courage = vulnerability + curiosity.
Get full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/240 »
🎙Last call to join us! My 3-hour live (He)art of Podcasting Masterclass is tomorrow, June 25 at 10am ET. Register for the live masterclass here »