030: Love + Systems = Freedom

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This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host, Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

Hello my friends. Welcome back. Before we jump into this episode, I want to thank two reviewers. Christy dlc, oh my goodness, you discovered Pivot in an Airbnb and wrote the sweetest review for free time. And Danielle Alexandra from Canada. I just want to reach through your phone or wherever this podcast is playing from and hug you both your reviews, your messages are so incredibly sweet. I kind of told myself I wasn't going to get into the habit of reading reviews aloud on this show because I think that's more self serving for the podcaster. But truly, Danielle and Christy, thank you for being here. Thank you for discovering me and Pivot and this podcast for the kind words and it just means so much listeners. If you want to just leave a little love note, you don't have to. No pressure. Always an honest review is the best. If you have questions, if you have requests, you can do that at rate this podcast. And now we have a special format for today's show, so listen in.

Hello. Hello my friends. I am here today with a very special guest host, my husband Michael. What am I doing? I'm cheating a little bit because I was supposed to turn in an episode for Friday. It was the first time in the history of this podcast that I missed my Friday posting deadline. And that is for a good reason. I was finishing the final, final, final review of the Freetime book manuscript, looking for every last error before we send to press. And as a result of just the intensity of that and moving back home to New York City after being away for most of the summer, I have basically lost my voice. So I still wanted to get an episode in this week. I looked over at Michael and I said would you mind Interviewing me today just as a way to switch things up and see what we come up with. So without further ado, Michael, welcome to the new show.

Great being here. Hello. Hello. Hello, friends.

Hi everyone.

Thanks for your help today.

My pleasure.

The overall topic for today is a formula that Michael helped me see that is the basis for free time and so much of the inspiration for it. Will you share your observation of my formula for life?

Love and systems equals freedom.

And where does that come from?

Well, from your never ending. Pendants and hearts everywhere interspersed pendants that.

Say the word love that he thought.

Were so cheesy when he met emoticons and emojis and symbols and pendants and. Oh, what's that thing? What's that thing?

I have a ring. Oh. My friend Alyssa gave me a beautiful glass blown heart on my desk.

That's Pearl's.

That's right.

That's Pearl's gift. Right. So hearts everywhere. Look at this one. Good vibes.

Yes.

And love ring. Love ring. She had a love pendant when I first met her. But so love. Right. And I equate Jenny with good, effective systems thinking. One great example is come check out our library and bookshelf and you will. You will understand. So Jenny is a systems thinker, but she is also very loving. And that's why we're together, because she's super loving.

I asked Michael when I was working on the book, I did a little mini interview and I just asked if it's annoying to be married to me because of my system's obsession. You said that it's mostly helpful. You've learned things you don't. Like when I get obsessed with. When you need to complete something.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. There are some rules that are great rules of thumb. You know, when you first think of something, hop to it, do it. Streaks, for instance. Jenny has a streak obsession.

That's in the book. The new book.

It is. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. So there's a streak obsession that she puts to use very well. I see. I see it. I see her flourish by her use of systems. She's using it with peloton, for instance. And I am sleeping from nine to five instead of working from nine to five. And this, this system is getting me to wake up with Jenny and get my work done and find freedom in the morning.

That's cool. Welcome to the morning. It's a beautiful place to be. Is it?

We'll see. We'll see In a week. In a week. Once things settle.

Okay, so you are hosting now.

You don't have to like Use any of that stuff.

Yeah, use sparingly. Okay.

How would you approach the life of an artist who does not quantify love nor systems in order to give him even more freedom?

There's a lot of research that shows that a lot of creatives. The book Daily Rituals that we have in our reddish pink section, that actually some of the most prolific artists do have structure, but their art itself is not structured.

That's right.

For a lot of. A lot of you who are listening, systems may not be your passion. You might hear the word and feel that you have an allergy to the word systems or a term I love, operational efficiency that might just bore you to tears or intimidate you, make you feel like it's not something you're good at. At the same time. What I'm sharing on this podcast in the book is that with very simple systems that you really only have to set up once and very light maintenance, you're going to give yourself more unstructured freedom for the work that you want to do, rather than constantly having willpower, fatigue and decision, fatigue and uncertainty. And a lot of that creates friction that gets in the way of the creative process.

So here's my question. How can you commit then to these systems? Or let's say you have a system in place. What prevents you from breaking that streak or that system?

That is a great question. How do you commit? I believe that a good system is intrinsically valuable, meaning it's harder not to use the system than it is to use it. In the book I share one of my favorite favorite chapters is what's your wifi password? I shared a little snippet of this in a previous Free Time episode. But essentially whenever I go, stay with a friend as their guest and I ask, what's your WI fi password? Usually what follows is a series of text messages about how to get set up in their home, especially if they're not going to be there at the same time. And I'll ask, would you like me to set up a Google Doc to capture all this information so you. Because I just imagine them with 10 text messages trapped in my phone that they can't then give to their next guest and the one after that. Once I've created this Google Doc, they can't not use it. They can't imagine next time a guest stays. And I was surprised knowing that years later somebody said, oh, like the Google Doc you made for Julie. Because Julie, of course, I didn't know if Julie ever used it again, the one I helped her make. And this is in the book, but it's way harder not to use it. So I think a good system is not one that requires willpower. It's one that.

Creates so much relief around whatever your process is that you actually. I can't imagine not using it. And I guess this is partly my disdain for busy work and minutia and bureaucracy. These are things that just grate on me so much. You know me, I don't get mad very often. I don't get, like, rage fully angry. Except when we've dealt with logistical snafus for deliveries where I have to keep calling maybe 10 times, and I don't get answers. And the customer service is horrendous, and they're giving me form replies, and they won't escalate to a manager or use individual discretion, and it ends up wasting so much of my time. That gives me rage. So part of my passion is that I don't want any of you to have to be mired in minutia. Like, that just makes me sad. Time is precious, and I don't want any of us to have to dwell in those tiny things unless it's something you love. Like, sometimes people love doing really tiny, tedious things. Like, you know, I collected a bunch of glass shards right at the start of last year or this year, 2021, off the Hill where Ryder plays. I have hundreds of glass shards, and every morning I would just pick up 10, maybe 15.

Check it out. Your operational system here is, I'm gonna make an art piece out of these glass shards so that I can a clean the space and not have glass shards underneath my feet.

That's true, but the art piece came only weeks in.

What I'm saying here is that you're giving yourself a reward to create an art piece by cleaning up the space and making a system out of it of picking up some shards every day every time you go. Is that what you mean?

Well, this is also love and systems, because I think, if I hated picking up every shard, if I was doing it with resentment, why is there so much broken glass on this hill? Then? It's not enjoyable. So there has to be intrinsic value. I actually found it oddly satisfying. I felt this weird, small sense of accomplishment. I mean, this is my love of creating order out of chaos as well. Because the grass on this one hill is just covered in glass shards, broken bottles, over many years, and the parks department doesn't clean up there. It became very rewarding, intrinsically rewarding to every day feel this micro sense of accomplishment. I would Leave a dog bag stuffed with shards under a tree, and to see that bag grow and grow and then have to start a new bag. And it just became a meditative act in a way that even beyond what I would transform it into. So that's the love piece, I think, as well. It's so important to find systems that you can enjoy the process a little bit so that you're not just gritting your teeth through some of this stuff.

Yeah. As an artist, my love piece in this is that you're gonna end up with mosaic glass.

Mosaic heart of glass.

Heart of glass. Wow. So even if I didn't like picking up the glass, knowing that the reward, the love part for me, in this case, the art piece and love for.

Ryder's little paws, of course.

Of course, comes first. One interesting thing that happened on that hill is that since the bag was there, since the game was set up, somehow, other people liked the idea of cleaning the space and started picking up their shards of glass and putting them in these bags that Jenny left out. And here you go. Communal process through love and systems.

Yeah. And then people were really happy to notice, oh, wow, we can bring our dogs to this little patch. And then I felt that was the love aspect as well, was that.

And I made friends. So good friends. Ryder made friends.

And I felt so happy knowing to be able to tell other dog friends, hey, just so you guys know, this patch is clear. That's really satisfying.

It definitely created a lot of joy all around.

So what else. What else should we discuss for our lovely listeners today?

I think the listeners are a little ahead of me because you've got some episodes in the books that I haven't heard. I'm still very excited about the book coming out and the individual concepts, but maybe I'm still wrapping my head around the main idea. Okay, so I get the concept of free time and freedom equals love plus systems. I was wondering if there was an overarching thesis or overarching idea that you can build on.

Well, you brought up this morning that when you think of free time, you think of sailing at the sea.

I think of free time as a series of shutterstock videos and photos. You know, like the sunsets and the hammocks and the running on the beach and riding the horses and.

Right. You know, like stock photo montage.

All of the stock photos that you would see in bank commercials and insurance commercials and maybe vacation commercials, things like that.

I'm glad you brought that up, because I am pivoting the concept of free time a little bit first of all, it's for business owners, so already we're carving a slice within all the stock photography.

Okay.

But I define free time as the freedom to do your best work.

We'll be right back just after this.

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There's the research that shows people view their work as either a job, a career, or a calling.

Okay.

And I really think for those of us who view our work as a calling, we feel so passionate about creating meaningful work that impacts people's lives and that leaves a positive legacy, whether it's for our own name after we go, or for our kids or for our families. So this freedom to do your best work, it requires being more strategic with how we use our time and how we free up time. And not even. I don't even mean it in how to be more productive sense, which is a lot of the business literature is, like, how to crush your goals or, like, meet your metrics, Be more productive, do more with less. I actually want us to just work with joy and ease. So free time in the book title and the podcast title has two meanings. Freeing our time to do our best work, and also free time as a verb. So together as a community, let's keep looking for easeful, joyful ways to free more of our time.

Okay, that's super clear.

And then, you know what? And then. And then with a robust, abundant business, because of all these systems, you can go out and have your stock photo dreams.

Okay. Yeah.

You know, actually, you and I had many days, and, you know, we had many days we were out of the city over the summer, and there were days where we would go on random adventures in the middle of the day.

Absolutely.

Or I would have my family visiting.

And.

And that's free time. Is that the business? You're not chained to your desk and you're not even chained to your calendar or to your devices. I don't like working off my phone and I don't like working once I sign off in the afternoons, I don't want to work at night. I get too anxious. Last night as it was, I dreamt all night. My nightmare in quotes was hyphenated words that split across two pages.

Oh my God.

And I woke up at 2am Just panicked that there would be a word somewhere in the book that I didn't catch that was con dash. And then on the next page says tinued. You know, And I went this morning.

Should be on a T shirt.

That way I know the con on the front and then tiny on the back. And like I'm this meticulous that I don't want readers have to turn the page to finish a word. And that's a typesetting principle. I didn't make it up. I care about that kind of stuff. So I'm not supposed to be editing too much at this point. But today I did a review of only scanning the right hand side of 300 pages looking for a broken. Broken hyphenated words that could easily just be pushed to the next line.

Fun times.

Oh, a super fun time. I did that from 2 to 4am.

So you should get an honorary publication designer diploma.

I should be so lucky. I've had so much fun apprenticing under Jessica, who's the typesetter and learning how she does. I mean, I don't even know half of how she does what she does. You know, this is the love part as well. I have great love for the finished product and for readers. And I, I know that no one will probably notice the things that I'm addressing at this point. Like I doubled the size of the index because the index is so important to me. It's a functional resource that documents the whole intellectual landscape of the book. And the index I received was just, it just wasn't complete to my liking. And this is something I spent 15 hours updating and doing a control F to find the number of use cases of each phrase. And why did I do that? Well, partly that's the systems piece and I just want things to work.

Yeah, it's a prime example of love and systems and index in general. And I see how much it excitement and effort you put in, in developing it and getting it to where it's at right now.

I guess part of this is highlighting, putting, you know, design thinking, like empathy interviews, putting yourself in the reader's Shoes or listener shoes. If someone's reading free time on Kindle, they could do a control f easily or use the search feature and find what they need. But for those of us old schoolers, book nerds who love to get the hardcover, and by the way, the hardcover is gonna be gorgeous. I know, because I'm paying double what I should be paying per book because I want gold foil and all these.

It's got all the bells and whistles.

It has every bell and whistle. I've gone way overboard. This is a book I've lost my damn mind. But I'm like, this is my third book. I'm going to all glitters.

Literally glitters.

So bottom line is that why did I talk about the. Oh. So if you're going to get this collector's edition hardcover, you can't just do a control f or use a search feature. You want to find what you need. And the thing about systems, especially broken systems, is if someone goes to the index to find a very central topic and it's not in the index, you can't even trust the index anymore. The index doesn't work.

It's a little bit as functional as possible.

Yeah. And you need to be able to.

Trust your systems serving the highest good.

Loving the reader through a stellar system that allows them to access the information and transmit the full message of the book.

Another example is that the book is going to have a ribbon. So Rohit, the publisher at Idea Press, one of the very first questions I asked him before we even agreed to work together on this, I said, can I have a ribbon? Because a ribbon to me is the most functional part of so many books. But not very many books have them. And in this case, little behind the scenes info. It's going to be about a dollar extra per book to include a ribbon in terms of printing costs. But I cannot live without it. And people have said, oh, business books don't have ribbons. Well, this one should, because by including a ribbon, I'm saving you a dog ear. I'm saving you the need to get a bookmark, dog ear, all that you want. I love seeing books that are marked up and loved and well read. You do that, Michael. You mark all over them. But a bookmark just saves your place. It's the most eminently functional, practical, physical way to give someone a shortcut.

And it's a great colored bookmark. And it's very luxurious because it's fat and nice.

I don't know if it will be fat.

No, I don't think so.

Really? That Costs more.

Oh, my God.

Either gonna be red or neon orange. We should run a poll.

I think neon orange is gonna work, especially if you know what color we're talking about. It's this fluorescence.

So hot.

Oh, it's really nice. It goes well with the. With the.

With the colors, the stock photos of people cavorting on the beach.

It goes well with the. With. With the whole branding of the book and how it falls in line with the concept. It's. It's joyous. It's a nice. It's a nice little detail.

You're right. It is a joyous color, though, the neon orange.

Yeah. It makes you giddy. It makes you.

That's true.

Yeah. The other one's the COVID as does the whole.

Yeah. Thing.

The vibe. The vibe.

The other ribbon color, red is more the brand color of the heart. Uses a certain color, Red, as you can see on the website, poppy red.

But. But the other one is just.

That's true, though. Sparks joy.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

One thing I want to mention. You said something about having purpose or.

Having job, career calling.

So something I want to point out is that there's a. There's a big kernel. Maybe it's a prerequisite for this book. And it's about having a calling, knowing your why before you tackle the systems. And I'm wondering about that. So if you don't have a calling, does this book even make sense?

Even if you have a job, you probably don't want to be buried by busy work at that job. So I definitely think it can help. And listen, there's no judgment and nothing wrong if you see people who see it as a job. Basically, you work to provide for your family, and it almost doesn't matter the job, because it's playing a functional role. Career is. You have ambitions and you have a certain set of goals that you're striving toward. And then calling is that you just feel this inexplicable draw to be of service in some way. I mean, you could have a calling to be a farmer. You have a calling to be an artist. I was drawing since I'm three years old. It's the one thing I'm going to do. And I don't care what anybody says or who disapproves.

Tough stuff.

So I think any one of those categories can benefit from easeful, joyful, smarter systems. What I don't address in the book is I don't say, here's how to find your calling. That's really what pivot is more about.

How do you find your calling? Yeah, how do you find your calling?

How do you figure out what's next?

So pivot brings you to this point where you have found your calling now, hopefully. And free time is the manual that gets you to soften the load by making everything easeful because it's in a system.

I would even say not all pivoters will read free time because some people who are pivoting are pivoting into another job. And I hope that people can apply free time within companies. But I wrote free time for business owners, so I think there's a good handful of people who pivot into self employment. And especially after the pandemic, so many people were shaken up in all kinds of ways and realizing I just want more autonomy over my time, I am finally ready to take the risk and bet on myself and become an entrepreneur or a small business owner, a founder. However, there's no one label solopreneur. And a mistake that I made early on was doing everything myself as a solopreneur. And that's very, very stressful because you become the bottleneck for earning, earning money and providing for yourself. It's very scary. Free time is for people who have pivoted into running their own business and now there's a whole new set of stress and pressure that comes with that. So this is for those pivoters who are ready at this stage and running a business and really have autonomy over their time now.

Great. Thanks.

Cool.

Thank you for coming up on the show. Jenny, this is great having you. Great activity, exposition of concepts.

Thanks for. Thanks for all the great questions. Thank you for filling in as host on a day where I'm pretty wiped out from the final, final, final book edits. Mile 26.

Yeah. Wait, here we go. Wait.

Mile 25.5 of a 26.

So close.

So close.

Yeah. It's been a great journey.

Thank you.

Seeing you putting it together.

Thank you for putting up with me.

That all the concepts you laid out. Maybe you wouldn't have the time to finish that book within a year, you.

Know, six months really of working on the manuscript.

There we go.

Thank you.

So proof is in the pudding, as they say, right?

Thank you.

Makes a lot of sense.

That's true. And it was the most fun I've had.

And you freed so much time to a point where you figured out a book.

And I've never solid book with a husband and a doggy before in six months time. Usually I could just hole up and not have to like, you know.

Well, I would like to believe that the husband and the doggie are great, great catalysts for productivity and inspiration and thriving and joy and love, et cetera.

Turns out to be true.

That's true.

I always worried, as my single self used to worry, how will I ever write a book again once I have more commitments? And you've proven me that not only did I write one, but I did it faster and more joyful.

Amazing. Can't wait to apply these concepts. Maybe I'll call.

Thank you, darling.

Maybe I'll edit the book and call it free.

That's it. Free.

Free.

Wow.

That's the sequel. Actually, Michael would be the perfect person to write that sequel. As I've said, he is no longer plugged into the Matrix.

Good job.

Yes.

Our follow up will be free.

Free or F.

No cover, no title. It's just blank.

Edit that F out. In Reddit terms, F is failure.

Oh, no. Yeah, well, we could redefine failure.

No, no, no. Okay. Just edit it out.

So, yeah, Free. Free. Wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

To be written or not. That is the question.

Conceptualized or not. To be lived or not.

Okay, okay.

All right.

All right. Okay. Thank you, darling.

You're welcome. I did well.

He did great.

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