109: Put Yourself in the Path of Pivot — My Big News and the Decision-Making Process Behind It

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What's next? This is a question we're all having to ask and answer more frequently. I'm Jenny Blake, your host of the Pivot Podcast and author of Pivot. The only move that matters is your next one.

For show notes from this episode, visit pivotmethod.com podcast if Change is the only constant, then let's get better at it. Here we go.

Hi friends. I am doing a solo episode today to share a big decision and personal Pivot update that may seem somewhat random, but I will unpack my whole Pivot process and how I apply the work to my own life. So in the spring. Earlier this year, I applied and got into Union Theological Seminary, which is a partner school to Columbia here in New York City. And starting in September, I'll be keeping my business running. I'm not going to change that too much while going back to school for a two year master's program. Huh? You heard me. Union Theological Seminary. I am going back to school for the first time in almost 15 years, since I did my undergraduate studies in political science and communications at ucla. So when I've told family and friends, at first the reaction is a little surprised, like, where did this come from? But then as I explain it, it starts to make more sense. Like I said, in this episode, I'm going to share how I go through my own Pivots and how I think about things, including intuition, following hits of curiosity, weighing pros and cons, and taking just the one next step at any given time.

In so many ways, I am the least likely candidate for divinity school, or div school, as it's called for short. I'm not trying to become a minister per se, but I am interested in studying the intersection of spirituality and work and the growing demographic who define themselves as spiritual, not religious, which now is a third of all millennials. Religion was not a big part of my upbringing, and perhaps that's one of the reasons why I'm so curious about it now. I've been able to come to it on my own time and in my own way, and when I was younger I really rejected being told what to think or what to believe and even what to say in things like the Pledge of Allegiance. So now as an adult, I find myself wanting to speak this language. In addition, during my big pivot years that I describe in the book 2013, faith was really something that pulled me through. My spiritual practices were crucial, and I developed them. At that time, I would say prior to those pivot years, I never really had to lean on something bigger than me. And I remember distinctly in 2013, there was a time where I was reading Tosha Silver's work on outrageous openness. And for the first time in my life, I said, I surrender. I turn this over to you. You, whoever you may be, Divine universe, God. I can't do this by myself anymore. And living in that way in the very rigid kind of beliefless, faithless life became too hard. I just couldn't muscle through anymore. And a lot of those practices didn't make it into the book. Some of them did. Many of them did. Like meditation and keeping my mind body system. Many of you have been here for years. Know that for a while, I've been talking about mind body, empathy business, but they were still very new. And I was writing a business and career book. I didn't want to overload it with too much of the spiritual side, and I was really still figuring it out for myself. But what I found, and especially now, the more and more that I talk to people, faith in something bigger is a huge part of the pivot process. And in many ways, it is the missing manual to pivot. It's the spiritual pivot, if you will. Also in this year, I have immersed myself in reading about bigger issues that we confront as a society, especially here in the States. Things like income inequality, addiction, criminal justice and mass incarceration, invisible privilege, and other topics at this intersection of faith, work and society. And there are many people that I've spoken with when I do work at the Bowery Mission or I work with people who are formerly incarcerated. For many people, faith is the thing that pulls them through. And I've been very inspired. You can listen to the episode with Jason Wang, who's working with Defy Ventures, teaching formerly incarcerated men and women to transform their hustle. Episodes like the ones with Elizabeth Grace Saunders on divine time management, Michelle Rigby Asad on her time in the CIA, and how her Christian faith pulled her through and led her to her next decisions and moves. Jeffrey Shaw on his spiritual practices. Penny Pierce. We've done now a whole series of episodes that I believe we've done six together. You can find those@pivotmethod.com PJShow because we affectionately call it the Penny and Jenny Show. And Dr. Thomas Andrew pivoting from the Morgue to the Ministry. Emily Bennington on A Course in Miracles at Work and How It Applies to the Workplace. And don't worry, I'll put all of these in the show notes. So just go to pivotmethod.com podcast.

And you can get all the links from this episode. All those conversations have inspired me to dig deeper. And this podcast, as I shared in episode 100, has been a really interesting exercise in almost being blindfolded and being guided by my curiosity. I don't even know where I'm going. I'm just following books and people and topics that are interesting to me. And the reason I say blindfolded is that I don't have some great master plan. But as I look back and I look in the moment, I can see who I'm really interested in talking to. When I was first working on Pivot, I remember that when I would tell someone the idea I'm talking about, when you hit a pivot point and it feels like a crisis. But how to figure out what's next? There were so many people who would say to me, oh, my gosh, that's me. I need this book. And I was surprised at how many people sort of came out of the woodwork. And I'm noticing now that the same thing happens when I talk about my interests in faith and work or spirituality and work, or just religious background of all kind. Once I start talking to my friends, I've been so surprised that they say, oh, wow, well, that's a huge part of my life. Or I grew up going to church every Sunday. Friends that I wouldn't think of as religious in any way, and maybe they're not anymore, but that they have this very strong background in the church or community of some kind. Friends of all faiths, all backgrounds, but we don't talk about it. And so I've noticed that as I start to talk or even as I do some of these interviews, the response that I get from all of you, not all of you, but some of you choose to write and tell me. I've gotten a lot of thank yous. I've gotten thank yous from people of all ages, all stripes, all backgrounds, saying thank you for bringing this conversation to the forefront. You might have seen that I shared in the episode with Elizabeth on Divine Time Management. I said at first I was Nervous to go in this direction because here in the states, we pride ourselves so much on the separation of church and state. But what about spirituality and business? What about how these inner practices, these beliefs in something greater? How do they shape how we work and moreover, how we treat each other? That's the context, but still doesn't explain how on earth school came about and me applying and getting into Union. And believe it or not, it all unfolded in about a three week span of time, from idea to acceptance.

Earlier this year, I had coffee with David Jula, who wrote a book called 50 Ways to Get a Job. And he's a prior guest on this podcast. And we were having coffee, just riffing. He's super interesting guy, has done all kinds of things, worked in nonprofit, now in recruiting, is starting a library that I had so much fun talking to him about on his episode. And he very casually in the entire conversation mentioned that his friend went to Union. Well, I hadn't heard about Union at the time. Of course I knew about Columbia and their, their partner schools, but I hadn't heard Union. But I knew that my friend Dori Clark, who's one of my closest friends in New York City, she had gone to Harvard Divinity School a few years ago. I didn't even know that was a thing. Growing up, I had never heard of Divinity School, and until Dori told me about it, it kind of planted this seed several years ago. Huh, that sounds really interesting. What would it be like to go study religion and theology and the nature of God in school? And again, me being the least likely candidate to go study something like this. But from hearing about Dory's background, it planted this seed and I was intrigued and, and I thought, well, that's cool. She went to Harvard Divinity School. And as I thought about applying, I just didn't want to move to Boston for two years. So I kind of left it at that. But as soon as Dev and I had this coffee and he mentioned that there was a school in New York, I realized that as soon as we said goodbye, I got on my laptop and I started perusing the site for hours. And I was pouring through, looking at the curriculum, reading the descriptions of the school, and I saw that applications were due in two weeks.

So this was interesting. I kind of. I realized I couldn't pry myself away from the computer. So here's a tip, you know, just following that curiosity, just this part of me that kind of went down this rabbit hole. I went into the zone. I lost track of time. Hours passed. I was just devouring all the information that they had on the site, and my brain started to light up with what if? And isn't this kind of crazy? But what if? So I slept on it. And over the next few days, I weighed the pros and cons of at least applying as my one next step. This is something advice that I give all the time if you've ever heard me give a pivot speech if you're in momentum. Listening to this podcast, I often talk about the one next step. And in fact the subtitle of Pivot is the only move that matters is your next one. Well, that applies to small next steps as well. And I'm a big believer that you don't have to know yet whether you will accept a job, a scholarship, getting into school before you apply. So as I weighed the pros and cons in order to apply, it required about a thousand word personal essay, getting my transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and a $75 application fee. Given those things, let's say I was 50, 50. In that moment, I was a little hesitant to ask for recommendations and put out my mentors, you know, take their time if I wasn't totally sure I would get in yet. But I decided that I'm sure they would be happy to do it and even if I didn't apply or get in this year, that they could use those letters in the future. And I, you know, I haven't applied to school or program like this, as I said, in almost 15 years. So I realized, okay, it's probably okay to ask. And writing the essay actually flew. I wrote 2000 words almost without realizing it and had the harder assignment of cutting it down. And then $75, I could swing that. So even though I had no clue what my decision would be, applying was part of that advice I shared in episode 100 of Put Yourself in the path of pivot. So then there were three things that I did in between applying and finding out whether I got in to continue testing my interest. So I looked on their schedule and they had an event coming up. It was a panel on confronting white supremacy. And I decided, okay, why don't I go up to the school? I'll see what the commute is like. It's in the Upper west side, near Columbia on 121st. And where I live in New York is essentially at zero. So it's about a 30 minute commute each way. But I thought, why don't I see what the commute is like, put myself in the environment and see if I get an intuitive hit of any kind while I'm there. And then I also. Part two of this is I got to see who was there and what were they talking about, what kind of philosophy did they share? Obviously everyone there has a different philosophy, but how could I pick up on whether it was for me or not? So I got there and it was really cool, actually, to be on a college campus again. And the event was in the school chapel. And I felt a sense, you know, always when I'm in a religious place, whether it's a temple, a chapel, Notre Dame in Paris, it's just a calm washes over me. And I was very impressed to see that the moderator of the panel and one of the deans of the school, Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, is a gay black woman, which I loved. You know, how many deans of how many universities fit that profile? It let me know that the school would be progressive and forward thinking and also that it was emphasizing current events and its place in New York City. I love New York. I love the melting pot ness of it. I love that when I walk down the street, it is chaotic and it is so diverse. And being crammed in with people on the subway and on the sidewalks is this front row seat to humanity every single day. So in attending this panel and hearing everyone's thoughts, and they didn't all agree with each other, but they were raising such important issues and seeing who was attracted. You know, one thing I realized when I was there is I'm interested in who is attracted to theological seminary, that it's kind of a special type of person who feels called to study at seminary. So that was another tick in the positive column when I mentioned this to Dorie. I'm grateful that she wrote one of the recommendations. She also said her friend Kamara Rose went there and maybe she could set us up, we could talk. And as you know, if you've read my work, I like to set these up as 30, 30s. So Camara was so generous with her time and she spoke with me for 30 minutes, by the way, she also has a great podcast called Everyday Change Makers that I'll put in the show notes. And then at the end of that call with Kamara, I was so grateful and I said, by the way, I'm happy to help you brainstorm next moves for 30 minutes. And we did. So it ended up being a really great exchange that I think helped form a friendship rather than just me extracting information from her. As you know, I don't like to say, can I pick your brain? I just so prefer setting things up whenever possible as a 3030 or some kind of even exchange to the extent that I can. Sometimes it's just sharing. Recently, I' was subscribed to somebody's newsletter and she said she's officiating a wedding later this summer. Well, when I did that for the first time last year, I created of course, a template, a process for how to do this. And I shared it with her and she was really grateful. So sometimes it's not always 30 minutes of time, but it's maybe 30 minutes or more of effort I've put into something that I can share. So that's just a side note. On friend tours and these informational interviews between going to Union and talking to Camara, this. This confirmed my decision to apply. And when each of the recommenders said yes, that was also such a great feeling and it made me feel increasingly excited and like this might really happen. And still it kind of was coming out of left field when I would talk to people. But like I said on episode 100, and some people have said in Momentum, like, we see exactly where you're going, you know. So even if I don't, even if this seems somewhat random, it does feel like an interesting next step.

The last intuitive signal was when I found out I got in. This was going to be a big tell. I was super excited, I was proud, I was pumped. It was a great day. Now, partly, it's just, I can't resist that happiness at approval, you know, I think no matter what the decision, it always feels good to get in somewhere. Oh, I forgot. One of the pieces I had to do was submit a resume, which I haven't done a resume in a very long time. And I did in fact leave my title as Chief Amazingness Officer as I shared in episode 100. And I didn't know if I would get it. I applied as like a Buddhist agnostic, you know, but I did. And so that was really exciting and I realized that this is something I would be proud to share with people. It's different. I. I'm still very early at talking about this next direction. I don't quite know how to put words to it other than the intersection of spirituality and business or the intersection of faith and work. But that's enough for me for now. That's my Venn diagram. These are the two subjects that I'm very interested in. And like I mentioned, this missing manual to pivot and we'll see what it becomes. But I do hope that whatever research I'm doing for a next book can be worked into my school assignments and vice versa. This is often advice I give who are thinking about grad school or going to grad school. How can you create some overlap between things you're doing in your real life? And if you are developing a platform of thought leadership, how can you apply that to school and vice versa? My friend Adam who is in Pivot, he was attending Parsons Design Business program when I was working on the book. And in fact some of you who've been with me a long time might remember when I worked on Lucent the meditation. Apparently, well, that was one of his school assignments that he turned into a real world project. And so when I was working on Lucent with him, it was part of his school process. He was at a two year Master's at the time. And even though we didn't continue with the app, we all learned so much about meditation, about building an app. And I also learned that I never want to build an app again. It's just too much going on, too complicated. I'm much happier sticking to this and not having bug fixes and design UI updates. And it's not for me too too many small details in maintenance mode. I love getting a vicarious degree with Adam at Parsons Design Business program. And then in 2016 I met Michael right about the time he was starting at SVA in a two year Master's of Fine Arts. So for the last two years I feel like I vicariously got an mfa. I did all the reading alongside Michael. I learned so much about the art world that I never knew before. I learned about contemporary art and why on earth we would call a urinal in the middle of a museum floor Art by Marcel Duchamp. Look it up if you don't already know. I learned so many things and it was such an interesting part of New York to get exposed to. So now I'm really interested in this new environment. And part of what cemented my decision to say yes and accept once I got into Union was thinking about how cool it would be to get to know a different neighborhood of New York. I've been here almost eight years by the time I start school in September, so getting to know a different neighborhood sounds really interesting. Getting to know a different group of people, more so than I might meet in the author or entrepreneurship circles. This is going to be a whole new group and one that I'm really excited to get to know. There's a concentration, so I'm doing a Master's of the arts. It's two years the master's in Divinity is three years, so I don't think I'm going to do that one. But you never know. And there's a concentration called Church, Religion, and Society. I'm particularly interested in the Society piece, how to open up the work that I'm doing and the conversations I'm having to more people, and also how to give back, how I can contribute after growing up with so much compared to how many people are positioned from birth around the world. Two of my favorite podcasts are Oprah's Super Soul Sunday and Krista Tippett's On Being. They're kind of my avatars for how I want to be as a podcaster and the conversations that I want to have and the topics that I want to get into. And like I said earlier, that's kind of all I know so far. There are a lot of unknowns and there always will be with a decision like this. When Dori and I had coffee, she asked me, she said, so what's the end game, jb? And I said to her, well, the end game is who knows.

That I am putting myself in the path of pivot? And that means that I don't know from here. I just know that saying yes felt right. And of course, I still have questions what will it be like to juggle school and running my business? Thankfully, I threw all the resources and practices I shared in my Delegation Ninja course, which I'll put in the show notes. I had gotten my business to about 20 to 30 hours a week of running, and I figured out many systems, how to automate things, how to simplify things. So hopefully my hope is that if I can put 20 hours or 30 toward the business, I can also fit in school. But when will I schedule coaching calls? Momentum Q and A calls? Podcasts? Not sure yet. Clearly I'll have to batch my time in some way. Even when I was an undergraduate, I always tried to make my schedule where I had three days of classes packed in and then two days off. So maybe I'll do something similar here. I even thought of ideas like maybe I can rent a room on the Upper west side through a company like Breather, where you can rent office space by the hour. Maybe I'll podcast that way. Or maybe I'll do my school reading while on the subway. 30 minutes each direction. Who knows? Another unknown is just what it will be like having a much busier schedule. But I feel ready to try. And one of the things that I'm so grateful is the reaction from friends and family and Everyone in Momentum who I shared this news with them first of saying, oh, we're so excited for you and we can't wait to find out what you're reading. Like, do you know your reading list yet? And so it makes me so happy that so much of my family and those nearest and dearest to me and again, those in Momentum were all like, we're so excited. We're so excited to kind of go through this vicariously with you, just like I've done with other people. And the fact that everyone's so excited about the reading list just makes me very excited. And by the way, if you do want to follow along kind of in the front row seat with this journey, I encourage you to join Momentum because that's where I'll be sharing the inside track of what I'm reading and studying. And we might even do a spin off book club within the group for those, those who are interested. So it's just $125 a quarter. You get three years of Q and A call archives. I do those every two weeks. Every course I've ever created, including Heart of Podcasting, which is coming up in August. For that, you can go to pivotmethod.com heart and express interest and then I'll let you know when it launches. And for Momentum, it's pivotmethod.com Momentum because I do want to respect that not everybody who listens to the Pivot podcast or reads my work is going to want that front row seat to Union Theological Seminary, but some of you might. So that's really where I'm going to share the behind the scenes. And that's also Momentum is also where.

I pilot all kinds of ideas. I ask for feedback. I'll ask things like, do you prefer when podcast episodes are numbered or not? I'll share that I applied to Union and see, you know, it makes me less nervous by the time I share with all of you, my bigger audience that I've started to get the word out and started to get a response. And so I created Momentum to be that, to be this very fertile, encouraging environment for fellow side hustlers and solopreneurs and just anybody with heart and generosity working on projects that they're passionate about. Earlier this year, we had an amazing workshop with Peggy Erkinoff on volunteering and service. And so I also try to pull in topics I'm interested about and do deeper dive workshops. So anyway, if you want to join, I would love to have you. That's pivotmethod.com momentum.

That's all I know so far. So in summary, how I arrived at this very interesting next pivot move for myself is following curiosity rabbit holes. Taking the one next step before making a major decision. No need to decide before it's time. Connecting with friend tours like Dory Dev Kamara.

Doing the what would I be proud to share test. Assuming if I got in, would I be proud to share this next direction? Paying attention to intuition, Putting myself in an environment to get a body reading, the physical location of a next move? The people I might be surrounded by for a next move? Looking into the risk reward, Is it worth pursuing even with remaining unknowns? Even the risk reward of applying. Was it worth applying even if I didn't know yet if I wanted to get in? Absolutely. Developing expertise so part of this is to further my growth and development based on my strengths and interests. Not just my interests in spirituality and faiths of all backgrounds, but also reading. I love reading. I just love it. I already read 10 or so books a month so I don't feel like school will be too big of a pivot from my reading schedule. We'll just be attending classes and I'll probably be I said it Momentum. The worst one in the class just because I I have so little religious training or background or studies. But then Caitlin corrected me and said she doesn't think so. And finally just the overlap, the figuring out that Venn diagram of personal interests and then areas for development or greater expertise. If I do go in the direction of faith and work or the spiritual pivot, this will help me better speak the language of faith and religion. Whereas up till now I just have 15 years in business. Just I mean that's not nothing but my main focus so far has been in tech startups, Silicon Valley, self employment. So I look forward to rounding out my my apps, my if you think about your career as a smartphone, which I've talked about for many years, it's like how do you want to uplevel? I always ask this in my pivot workshops. What would you be excited to be the go to person for a year from now? The last thing I want to say is just thank you as always for being here and being on this journey with me. It is nerve wracking to share the next moves simply because there are so many unknowns. But like I said, I'm going to do my absolute best to keep the podcast running, my weekly pivot list, newsletter, speaking engagements and probably fewer one on one coaching clients I would imagine. But we have an amazing team of six Pivot coaches who can help you out if you're looking to map your own next moves. With that, thank you all so much for being here for listening, and I look forward to sharing updates along the way.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Pivot Podcast. Make sure you don't miss an episode or my insider tips and templates by signing up for Pivot List, a curated twice monthly newsletter where I share the inside scoop on what I'm reading, watching, listening to, and the latest tools I'm geeking out on. Sign up@pivotmethod.com pivotlist get show notes from this episode@pivotmethod.com podcast and connect with me on Twitter @jennyblake.

Remember, build first, then your courage will follow. Hasn't it always.