176: Daily Pivots—Map What's Next [Workshop Replay]

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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.

As many of you who subscribe to my weekly Pivot List newsletter know, at the beginning of the year I scheduled a bunch of free sessions on Pivot, both how I teach Pivot to individuals in my Map what's Next for the Year Ahead workshop and Pivot for Managers on holding One on one career conversations with your team. Little did I know that when the dates of these workshops approached, we would be in full corona madness. I ended up keeping the sessions on calendar and pivoting the content to address the daily pivots that we're all experiencing the massive change and uncertainty. I decided to release these episodes here on the podcast without too much editing, so you might hear references to slides or to the screen and a little extra Q and A at the end. But I hope that you find the content helpful. Some of this will remind you of the Set yout Strategy episodes that I do at the end of every year to kick off, in this case, the new decade. What a way to start the decade. If you want to watch the full video version, you can go to pivotmethod.com watch this episode will cover Pivot Map what's next and in this case, I don't even think we can plan a year ahead, which is my typical recommendation. So you'll hear me adapt the content to how do we plan one day, one week, one next step ahead? I hope you enjoy and stay safe and sane. Everybody.

I come to you in the moment of crazy times for our country. I live in New York City in the us. Crazy times in the world, globally. We are all going through a massive shift. I've released now a series of almost daily podcasts pivoting around a pandemic. It is Crazy to think that when I record, when I scheduled these sessions, even a couple months ago, I had no clue what was going to be going on on the day of delivery. For all of you who are here live, I really want to say thank you. I know how much you have going on in your lives right now. We are all being asked to pivot daily, if not hourly. It's an emotional journey. It's an emotional roller coaster. Work is disrupted for every single one of us. Some in very extreme ways. You might have been laid off, you might have lost your job. You've gotten pivoted in a way, we've all gotten pivoted. You know, I think when the economy slows down and not everyone on this call is in the US and certainly not everyone watching the recording, but this wave is most likely gonna hit everywhere. Of course, it started in China and moved to Italy, and then Spain went on lockdown, and then the Washington and greater Seattle area went on lockdown. And now New York, we're being told pretty much, don't leave your house. So it is very, very serious. I don't have to tell any of you that I'm not here to scare you or make you feel bad, but thank goodness that you're here to talk about pivoting and to talk about how we navigate change and uncertainty and anxiety. That was my mission when I set out to write the book. In a way, I was thinking, you know, what can I share as we come to this workshop on this day, at this moment in time, in this moment of our global pandemic and global response, and for an event that will be unforgettable in all of our lives. This has really been a theme of the podcast that I've done with Dr. Consuelos, who is here.

And to shout out, Michael is here with us live on the. On this workshop as well. He's been such a great co host. We are going to be changed by this. This is unforgettable and unprecedented.

Before, when I was thinking about what to share, first of all, I had every intention of doing these over video where you would see me, I would have a really nice setup in my living room. Any of you have been on a workshop with me before or you've been through Free up founder time. I have like a big color coded bookshelf that's like my love, my favorite part of the house today. What am I doing? I'm in sweats, my hair is messy. I've been like scrambling to record podcasts every day. And the living room has turned into a jujitsu studio because Michael, my husband, was so bummed that he can't go to Jiu Jitsu. He had all this great momentum. So now the whole living room, half of it, is transformed. There's mats down, we have a dog gate blocking up. It's really crazy. So there's this. The video is not going to happen. And that's how things are right now. Things that you thought were going to happen are not for so many of us. And again, at varying scales and degrees of intensity and emergency, my hope is that you and your loved ones are safe and can stay safe and sane. And in this session, we're going to talk about what we can all do, even in the face of all this uncertainty. So, again, I'm glad you're here. And in a way, maybe it's perfect timing that we have this session today.

In a way, it's a blessing in a disguise, or a blessing in disguise. You know, even before, for many years now, I've been very fascinated by blessings in disguise. And I love asking people that question, what's been one of your biggest career blessings in disguise? And they always have these most beautiful answers of getting laid off or getting something that happened, not getting a job that they wanted, getting pivoted within their role or within an organization. And then they thought it was the worst thing ever. They felt like the sky was falling at the time. And then it was this beautiful opportunity, and they look back on their lives and they say, wow, I can't believe that happened. And if that hadn't happened, so much good wouldn't have come. It ended up being kind of the perfect thing at the perfect time, even though it never feels that way in the moment. One of my blessings in disguise is I had intense anxiety all through my 20s. And growing up, I just didn't know what to call it prior to that. I once wrote a blog post called 10,000 hours of neuroses because I felt that was the one thing I had mastered. If I had 10,000 hours in anything, it was being and anxious and worried and people pleasing. So that challenge of my life and my psychology led me to become obsessed with this question of how can I become more resilient? And as Nassim Taleb would say in his book Antifragile, which really inspired me when I was writing Pivot, how can I not just become resilient to change, but stronger from it? And that's what antifragility is. The glass, if you drop it, it breaks. It's fragile. The Tree. If wind strong winds blow and it stays standing, it's resilient. And the way he describes antifragility is like the hydra, the mythical creature that has two snakes growing out of its head. And if you cut one off, two more grow in that one's place. So kind of this exponential growth in a way. I hate to say this, but the coronavirus is somewhat anti fragile. It's like it just grows more and more. The more disorder, the more it grows. And so by so many of us staying home and isolating, that's gonna flatten the curve, the now famous thing. But it's gonna grow from packed in places like New York City. I mean New York City has not seen this kind of total and complete shutdown in a very long time, if ever.

So now is the time to talk about pivoting. I just got a head start on it because of my brain chemistry. So when I started writing this book in 2014, I.

And my business had been on the brink of collapse. Earlier that year, 2013, I called it Apocalypse Year. So for me, I've been studying these questions for a long time. How do we get better at navigating change so that we don't feel completely paralyzed in the face of it? When I give this keynote and this workshop within companies, I remind people that pivoting also doesn't have to be these massive changes. Sometimes a pivot is as simple as taking on new projects. You can grow within your role. You don't just have to rely on changing your role or getting promoted. That can be so frustrating and disempowering. So part of what we're going to talk about during this time together, I'm going to talk about pivot as a mindset and pivot as a method. A four stage framework to map what's next. You're all going to have time to reflect during this session, which now more than ever to have that space, that time to think with everything that is going on. I haven't even given myself that gift during this pandemic madness. So we are all going to get some time. I am going to walk you through some reflection exercises that are going to help you think through maybe not what a year from now looks like. Because in a time of day to day uncertainty like we have now, maybe a year is too far out. You know, I say ditch the five year question. Where do you see yourself in five years? I think we would laugh as well if someone said right now, where do you see yourself in a year? You would be like hahaha. That's impossible. I couldn't have told you where I saved myself a week from now given everything that's going on. And for me, you know, this session is meant whether you work within an organization. So if you're an employee or an entrepreneur. But I can certainly say as a small business owner, I mean, I don't know how I'll weather the storm. I don't know what I'll do if every organization I work with cuts their budgets and cuts me out of it, which is a non essential expense unless you count pivoting essential, which of course I'm biased and I do. But nonetheless, it's a time of tremendous uncertainty and some of my friends have already been laid off. If you work in a restaurant, if you work in a bookstore, you've been laid off. It's crazy, crazy times. And so now is the time to ask what we can do.

Before we go any further. I would love to hear from you in the chat. Please let me know what you would love to walk away with by the end of today's session. What brought you here today? Maybe things were crazy when you signed up, maybe they weren't. But those of you, especially if you're here live or even if you're watching the recording, you are taking time out to go through this material. What would you love to walk away with? And this is always something that I ask at the start of any session or coaching session. It's helpful if you're a participant, if you're we're all going to be attending so much virtually now. If you ask yourself what you'd like to walk away with, it helps us do a few things. One, you can ask me any questions you have if I don't cover it. And then it also is the first moment of coaching yourself to say, oh, what do I need in this moment? What would I like to walk away with in an hour from now? What clarity would bring me peace and even inspiration right now?

So great. I see a couple coming in approach for coaching people who might have been ready for a career pivot last week but now scared to leave their role. Totally understand tools for creating more clarity. Now plan for navigating career change within my organization. Great. Katrina says I'm halfway through the pivot but not reaching the heights I want. What I can do to think more effectively. Awesome. Pursuing offering pivoting offerings to truly serve people as their purpose shifts. Trying to figure out how to be compassionate with moving forward with my offer as a life purpose coach. How to just start when you Know what you need to do and where you want to go, but can't seem to gain internal momentum. Hit of clarity, start of a hum for my next step. Barbara says, I was unemployed before everything literally went viral, so not too much has shifted. Yeah, it does make you wonder even more what's next clarity about how to maintain momentum as changes come so rapidly. I need to start over again. Yeah. How to just start. Okay. Amazing. Thank you. Feel free to keep them coming as we keep moving.

In the book I talk about, pivot is really the new plan A. And oh, my goodness, is this more relevant now than ever when navigating a pandemic.

And, you know, it's funny because even when I started writing pivot in 2014, the word pivot was not yet in the zeitgeist in terms of a career pivot. It wasn't out there that everyone was saying it as normal as saying career change. Oh, I'm pivoting right now. Or I just pivoted. That wasn't a thing. So at that time, pivot was always meant kind of as plan B. If a startup was failing, they would pivot to stay afloat. If a project was failing or a business unit within a company wasn't working, they would pivot. And so pivot kind of has had had this connotation that something isn't working, so you need to pivot. Pivot is the new plan A means that pivoting is a proactive process that we're. Believe it or not, we're pivoting more often than not. When I started writing this book, and the more people I would meet and I would tell them what I was working on, and they would go, oh, my God, that's what I need. I'm pivoting right now. Or, oh, I just got out of a pivot. So what's funny is that we're all pivoting. If you are mid pivot, you are not alone now with the pandemic response. What's interesting about it is there is a collective pivot happening. Every single person is pivoting right now. And when I say pivot as a plan A, it also means that you can get pivoted. We are all getting pivoted as well. By coronavirus, by COVID 19. It is kind of as if COVID 19 was like, took the globe as a snow globe, shook it up, and Covid still shaken the globe, like, hasn't yet put down the snow globe. And when the snow globe gets set down the snow, it's going to fall. And settle and things may be in a different place. So, yes, we are all getting pivoted at the same time. Even if this weren't happening, there's always a situation where if you're really skilled and the best way to navigate uncertainty and even anxiety is to say what. What is working? And how can I constantly be looking at what's working? What am I enjoying? What am I best at? When am I in the zone, and how do I do more and more of that? And if you make this a regular, ongoing practice, then the individual pivot points don't feel so sharp and so jarring.

I love this quote from Heraclitus. No person ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and they're not the same person. Here again, this is true now more than ever as we're navigating this time. And now the slide advance and I It won't work to go back. That's so bizarre.

Well, I'll say it on a blank screen.

You don't step in the same river twice. And especially right now, every day the news brings different recommendations, different government mandates, different. Our health might be different from one day to the next. Every day we might wake up and be a little more anxious than the day before, a little more curious, a little more inspired. Some of you shared such great I asked at the beginning, what's one word to describe how you're feeling today or even in this moment? This can be hourly, hour by hour. You don't step in the same river twice. The world is moving. Even if you are pretty happy with your role or the context of your work, whether you work for a company or you work for yourself, every day you wake up, you're a different person. You're a day older, a day wiser. The economy changes, the company changes, your clients change, your community changes. So again, we're pivoting more often than not. And that doesn't have to be a problem or a personal shortcoming. I wasted so much time in my career when working at Google. When I left Google thinking that every single time I hit a pivot point, something was wrong with me. I must be one of those entitled millennials the media keeps talking about. Why can't I just be happy? I have a dream job or I have a dream set up, and I was. I just beat myself up. Rather than getting curious and saying, well, what does this mean? Well, it means pivots are more often a product of your success. In fact, it means you've outgrown your Previous career incarnation, and now you're ready for something new. This is especially true for people where money isn't everything. So you've heard the term high net worth. These are people who have earned or aimed to accumulate a lot of financial resources in their lifetime. It may not be the only thing that they do. But if you're a high net worth individual, you have a lot of money. And they're maybe doing a little safer right now in terms of pivot Runway, but watching the stock market decimate their portfolio. For so many people that I work with and speak to inside of organizations, with entrepreneurs, you are not just asking, how much am I earning? But how much am I learning? So I call you high net growth. All of you are here live or watching a recording about how to pivot during a pandemic. You could be curled up in a ball in the corner and even that would be understandable. But you're not. You're here to learn something new. You are high net growth. And if you are high net growth, it means you will take a pay cut. You will bootstrap a business, you will make a lateral move. You will take on volunteer work. Because money isn't everything. It's important, but it's not everything. And when your needs for growth are being met, you will also look to make an impact. I also refer to this group as impactors. For short. Impactors will not be satisfied. There is no pay raise that could keep you at a job where you're bored out of your mind. Maybe right now during a crisis, you would do that because it's financially prudent. But for companies like Google, where I worked for five and a half years.

They'Re hiring the best and the brightest. So it was interesting that when I started at Google in 2006, there were 6,000 employees and there was no career development team. And Google started to have this problem where, oh, they're hiring the best and the brightest. But then ran into this issue of how do you keep them? Because people were coming from all these. They had these brilliant minds and backgrounds and then they would come into a customer support role and of course they're bored out of their mind within a year or two. I trained over a thousand people in my first year at the company. And because I was such an early point of contact for people and their trainer, they would often come up to me, whisper to me in the hallways, Jenny, I'm getting kind of bored. I don't know what to do. So. And I myself was hitting a plateau. I myself was getting Bored teaching the same material day after day. I loved being in front of a classroom, but I didn't want to talk about how to place analytics tracking code for the rest of my days. And that's when I went to coach training, had the coaching session that changed my Life. Joined the 10% team to make drop in one on one career coaching available to any Googler. That became the career Guru program that's now available still to this day globally and cited as one of the programs that makes Google a great place to work. I'm really proud of that. And that for me was about giving everybody a chance to say, how can I grow? How can I make a bigger impact? And credit people for that desire to grow and make an impact rather than shame them for it. There's so much shame and blame in our media about entitled millennials or now fill in the generation that's going to get picked on. But even ret retirees are pivoting. All of us again, right now, we are looking. During this crisis, one of the most empowering things you can do is say, what impact can I make? How can I serve? For me, that's why I feel called to be podcasting almost daily. It's the one thing I can do is start to just have conversations and share what I know about the experiences I've had. Whether it's pivoting or working from home, maybe even facilitating virtually something like this.

Sometimes people will say, how do I know when I'm at a pivot point? So some pivots are large, some are small. But there comes a moment in time where you're going along your usual track and then you kind of hit a wall. You look out ahead of you and you feel a sense of plateau. A flatness works fine. It's okay. If you don't address that whisper that says there's more out there for you, you start to decline. So decline is where you're actively uncomfortable, you're getting sick more often, you're getting migraines at work. Decline is like your body starts giving you signals that it's really time to make a change. And so the opportunity is to pivot. And pivot can be pivoting your streams of income. It could be the projects in your pivot portfolio. It doesn't always have to be about the bigger moves, quitting your job or even changing roles within a company. But that's, that's generally how I think about a pivot point.

It's weird. Can someone tell me in the chat, are you seeing the text in the upper right hand corner.

It's so strange. And I don't know where it came from. I know. Isn't that so weird? I'm going to. Try to. Let me just close out of the presentation for a minute and then restart it. It's so weird. It's like stuck there.

Talk about pivoting. Okay, let me try this again. I swear I've been facilitating for. When did I start at Google? 2006. So someone else do the math. 14 years, and that's never happened to me in 14 years. So I guess you learn something every time. This is what I call the risk O meter. Whenever you're taking a next step or even taking on a new project, any one next step or any next project or role could fall into one of these different categories. Stagnation zone, is that the next step you're considering or the next project or the next role or the current one that you have? You feel bored, and that is actively uncomfortable. If you are an impactor. Boredom manifests in the body as much as stress does. High blood pressure. You are actively uncomfortable. Comfort zone is. Yeah, it is almost set it and forget it. And sometimes when you are going through a lot personally, you want to keep work in your comfort zone. So someone asked earlier, what if I was going to pivot before this pandemic started happening? And now. Or your client just wants to stay in place? Well, amidst the greatest economic uncertainty of our times in recorded recent history, yeah, you might want to stay in your comfort zone at work to just navigate the hovering cloud of uncertainty and anxiety that's existing every day now. So even for me, my family lives in Washington, California and New York, the three states that when you look at a pandemic map, the dots just get bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think about my family. And so there's that anxiety and uncertainty that's hovering. So during times like this or going through family moments, maybe you start a family or you're going back to school, you may want to be in your comfort zone. But in general, the ideal range for change is your stretch zone. That's where you feel a little hit of adrenaline. You're nervous, a little fearful, but excited. And that adrenaline, it's like you can kind of taste it. There's aliveness that you feel. For me with the podcast right now, I feel that I feel nervous to podcast so much during this pandemic, my perfectionism kicks in. What the heck do I know? I'm not a pandemic expert, although Michael Consuelos is. I'VE tapped him. But for me, it's my stretch zone. It stretches me to just launch and iterate, as we would say at Google. Get things out, not make it perfect. Do what I can, you know, just be in the moment. And that's stretchy. And even for me, tracking the news because I've been doing the podcast, it makes me less anxious because I feel okay, I'm going to read the news, I'm going to turn it into a podcast. So that, for me, as a stretch zone. Panic zone is where you're paralyzed. Any one next step or next move actually makes you feel frozen. You have analysis paralysis. You don't want to move you. Even if your mind thinks it's a good idea, something in your body is saying no. So let's say with all this uncertainty, if I said, now's the time, everybody, quit your job, start a business, you would look at me like I was insane. You would say, hell, no, keep your job. I would tell you right now, if you have a job right now, keep it, get paid. There are going to be massive layoffs anyway. And like I said, entertainment industry, sports players, restaurants, a lot of the freelancers within entertainment, like audio, visual, people who help with tours around the country. There are so many people who are going to get laid off right now. And again, I don't say it to scare you. I do hope that various governments can kick in with support, and maybe it's family members. But why on earth would you send yourself into a panic zone if you don't have to? So there's already enough near panic happening around the pandemic that the best thing you can do is smaller steps, take things back into your stretch zone. Katrina says, yeah, I work in entertainment in la, and it's scary. Yeah, it's so scary. Same for me with speaking. Every gig I had got canceled and now into the future, and it was my biggest, most consistent source of income. It's scary. So when you're already on the verge of a panic zone, we need to go smaller. And look at, well, what would put me back into my stretch zone. I've had two reactions to this graph too, by the way. I've had somebody say, well, Jenny, what if you like your comfort zone and you want to stay there, I say go for it. Stay as long as you're comfortable in your comfort zone, no problem. But the world changes so quickly that you'll probably get kicked out of the comfort zone at some point anyway. Or if you tip into stagnation, great. You're gonna know it's time to make a change. And then I had another person who said, I love the panic zone. If I'm not in my panic zone, I'm not alive. So he sees the panic zone differently. He sees it as, I love the adrenaline. So maybe there are certain people, let's say in the medical response community that are like a pandemic. Like, I would never wish this on the planet, but I've been preparing my whole career for this. Yes, I'm gonna roll up my sleeves. I'm gonna get shit done. That's great. Opposite reaction on the panic zone. I had someone say, jenny, shouldn't that yellow fill the rest of the graph? Isn't the panic zone a little bigger than this? I think he's right. I think I should have put the yellow all the way over to the other side, especially now. We'll just give the rest of the white part, call it the pandemic panic zone. But, no, I hope you don't hang out there.

I define a career pivot as a methodical shift in a new, related direction based on a foundation of your strengths and what is already working, whether you're pivoting in a big way or a small way. Pivot is not about saying, we so often tip into what's not working, what we don't want, what we don't have, and that can produce a lot of anxiety. So the whole notion of a pivot as it relates to career and business is to say, what is working? What are my strengths, and how can I leverage those? Think of a pole vaulter. You want to take your strengths, and that is your pole that you slam into the ground. That gives you leverage to catapult into a new direction.

Why am I doing all these daily podcasts? The podcast was already my favorite thing. It earns the least money, and it takes the most time in my business. But it's the thing that was working. It's a strength that I have is just to talk off the cuff. And my strength would not be on video, as I'm not here right now because I get allergic to it. I'm like, oh, well, then I have to go get ready and wear a certain thing and make my hair and makeup a certain way. I'm like, if a person could look scrappy right now, that's how I look. So podcasting fits my strengths better. I don't even feel like writing right now. Even though I've written two books. I don't really. The activity of writing doesn't put me in the zone. So you got to think about that. For you, instead of focusing on all the things that are going wrong, can you focus on the few things that do bring you joy that are working?

Thank you so much Jonathan, who says you're doing the Lord's work. I really appreciate that in the best sense. I'm just doing my part to share the love and pay it forward. And maybe you were speaking, you could have been responding even to someone else, which is amazing too. Jonathan said, using the tool of the masses Facebook to send love, light and intelligence. I love it. I would love to hear in the chat, I would love for you to reverse engineer a recent pivot that you've made. This could be pandemic related or maybe it's a recent career or business pivot. Try to connect the dots. What did the two things have in common? So I pivoted from doing coaching and career development within Google to essentially doing coaching and career development now as an entrepreneur for the last nine years and I still work with Google as one of my clients, which is so joyful for me. I love working with them. We think the same way. So much of pivot was baked at Google. So try to connect those dots and you can see how what I'm doing. I didn't start from scratch. I didn't pivot from Google to become a full time yoga teacher. Even though I went through yoga teacher training, I'm still doing large scale and now large scale pivot programs that I roll out within other organizations. Well, that builds on the strengths that I developed while working at Google. I pivoted from the startup company I was managing our Google AdWords accounts as well as being the office manager and the webmaster. And then I pivoted to Google to teach AdWords product training. So I gave you just two examples. Try to share in the chat. I would love for you to connect the dots. How have you already pivoted? And notice that when you pivoted, when you made a move, whether it was within your own business or within a company, if you're working somewhere else or the pivot that got you to the company you're at now, how did you leverage something that the previous role or job had in common?

I see. Andrew says I pivoted from a job where I was stagnating and burned out by taking a sabbatical, using the time off to sharpen skills needed to get a job or role that was a better fit. Awesome. And Andrew, do the two jobs have something in common? Once you, once you took that sabbatical, were you able to reconnect with certain strengths or aspects of the job that you did really enjoy.

Keep them coming. I'm not seeing too much in the chat, but I would love for you to share with each other and reflect for yourself of how you've already done this. Because one thing I want you all to know. You know how to do this. You have done this before. I am just going to help you today put language and words to it. Katrina says. I took my video production skills, knowledge of product management. Awesome. And desire to teach my employees and pivot it into learning and development. Amazing. At my current TV production company, Amanda pivoted from doing sales and consumer goods to sales enablement in tech by leveraging her strengths in translating strategy into tactics. It was so good. Relationship building and training facilitation. Hillary pivoted from a job where she couldn't make the changes needed to consulting with other organizations about how to make those changes. So good. So good. It's always the problems that we wish didn't exist or that we would want to see solved. Winnie pivoted from a headhunter to a client insights manager. Awesome. By building new connections via LinkedIn, lots of coffee chats, and your experience in corporate client work management. You know, being a headhunter, that's one of those meta skills because you meet so many people that by nature being a headhunter, you met so many people and expanded your network in such an incredible way.

Rachel says, I didn't leave my job as a pediatric physical therapist, but I started a bakery so cool. To fulfill my creative side. It's it sparked creativity at work which kept me more engaged. That is one of those Venn diagrams where how many people in the world are a pediatric physical therapist and a baker, a runner bakery. So cool. Like, you have this most unique vantage point and we all have that if we really start to unpack our unique skills and talents. The things that you think make you weird that you could like these two different things or be good at these two different things are actually your zone of genius and your zone of differentiation. Last one I'll read out, but feel free to keep them coming. Claire pivoted from a job at a humanitarian organization where part of it was focused on women and girls rights to a multilateral organization where all of my job is focused on that. I can't see last names, but if this is Claire in Ireland, omg I'm so happy you're here. And big hugs. And if it's not Claire in Ireland and a different one, you should know Claire you should know the other one. You guys should know each other. Thank you for sharing. I love hearing about your pivots.

Awesome. Okay. And I just saw Deanne. Oh, different Claire. Oh, my gosh. Okay. You have a lot in common with the other. We'll have to figure out how to make an intro. Let's now shift from pivot as a mindset. And again, you know how to do this. You know how to do this. But I'm going to give you a framework that can help you be even more agile in the moment and more strategic as you map what's next, even from one week to the next.

So let's get into the pivot method. Now is a good time to grab a piece of paper or a notebook and a pen, because I'm now going to give you quiet time for reflection. And this is very rare at the moment. I think there's so much news and alerts and conversations and everything. Now is a beautiful time to be doing this. So make sure you have a pen and paper, because it will activate a different part of your brain to write by hand than it will even if you're taking notes, typing notes on your computer or on your phone.

The first stage of the pivot method is plant. The analogy that came to me when I was trying to solve my own big pivots, and before I called it pivot, it always felt like a crisis. And I always heard people saying, I think I'm having a midlife crisis, or I think I'm having a quarter life crisis. You know what I said to myself? Why do I keep having one of these crises every two years? I am so happy now that pivot exists, and it is in the zeitgeist that we can all just say, I'm pivoting right now, that it doesn't have to be a crisis. So for me, it always felt like a crisis because I didn't have these tools. I didn't have them so clearly articulated. But the aha moment that came to me, that saved my business was thinking of a basketball player. When a basketball player stops dribbling, one foot stays firmly planted, and that's your strengths. That's your foundation. And then your pivot foot can scan for passing options around the court.

So the plant foot here is your strengths and what's working and your vision. You can set the timeframe on your vision. I typically teach this as one year from now, but again, I think that's even a little much right now. But the point is, think about even another metaphor putting in your Destination on Google Maps. You got to know where you're starting from. And you just think about generally, what does success look like a year from now? Just how do you want to feel? How do you want to learn? How do you want to grow? What kind of impact do you want to make? Big questions. You do not have to know exactly where you're going to end up, but having these two brackets sets the foundation for all that follows. And I will tell you, one of the biggest mistakes most pivoters make is skipping this stage. As soon as you get to a pivot point, you go, oh, I'm at a pivot point. What's out there? Who can I talk to? What internal job boards can I search? What other job opportunities are there? What new clients could I get? You're just. You jump to the external world rather than getting rooted. Who you really are and what success looks like for you. Not the sea of shiny shoulds, as I like to call it.

With that, it's also important to notice that when I say the word strengths, many of you may be thinking about competencies. So skills that you've learned, talents you've developed. This is often what we get praised for, whether in our education system or by your manager at work, is you're really good at this, but that does not necessarily mean that you like. Doesn't mean that that thing brings you energy. So there's areas that energize you, which are the things that actually light you up. You might be good at being a doctor, but you love baking. Or you might be good at patient care, but certain other parts of the job really drain you. So, so important when we think about true strengths are at the intersection of things that we are good at and what energizes us. So don't just we often again, we often get rewarded for what we are good at, but that may have nothing to do with what actually brings you joy and brings you energy. People tell me they like my books, they like my writing, and I am so grateful. But it doesn't energize me. Isn't that weird? It just doesn't energize me when it comes time when I have a really big idea that I feel passionate about sharing with the world. I will put in the work and I will create a book, but it doesn't energize me in an authentic sort of intrinsic way where I'm just writing every day with my tea bubbling beside me and it's so beautiful and romantic. That's never been me. I write as a Function to get the ideas out.

Time for you to reflect now. Take two minutes and I'll give you some prompts to write down as much as you can about what energizes you most.

So I'm going to set a timer and you don't have to share this with anybody. This is just for you. If you think you're done and you stop writing, keep going. It just means you've got down your most obvious ideas about yourself.

When are you most in the zone at work?

What are your biggest strengths?

Think about what people come to you for advice or help with most often. What are you the go to person for?

Whether at work or among friends and family?

What do you most look forward to? Think about your to do list or your projects for the month ahead. What are you actually looking forward to?

You can also consider this year so far. We're recording this on Wednesday, March 18th.

So far in 2020, what projects have energized you the most? When were you having the most fun?

Think about what you love to do as a kid and you can. I like thinking about this question in different age brackets. What would you do for play or for fun or imagination? When you were in elementary school?

What about in middle school? What did you do after school to keep yourself busy?

What about in high school.

Or college? University? What clubs did you join or create? What did you do for work that's kind of even a side hustle?

Okay, so that's time. I'm going to give you just 20 more seconds. What did you miss? Write down any last final thoughts. Your pen should hurt by the time we end this workshop. I want your hand cramping that you've written so much down. Okay, so 20 more seconds.

Part two of the plant stage is what's not working best? What does success look like one year from now? Let's pivot. Let's adapt this. What does success look like six months from now? You can do whatever timeframe you want. If you still want to do a year and let's just pretend everything goes back to normal, you can do that. You could also do this twice. You could do what does success look like a year from now? And then let's do like a pandemic Specific response. What does it look like six months from now? What would be a win given the circumstances?

When I think about what does success look like? And for some of you, by the way, you're in an imminent and urgent pivot. You might need to say one month from now or three months from now.

I see a Couple people asking if you have to run, no problem, we will send out the recording. And also, if you want more time with any of these exercises, I highly recommend watching the recording because two minutes is nothing. I've spent a month or more with some coaching clients on these types of questions. And the more time you can spend reflecting, especially on the plant stage, the better, the more efficient and resonant the rest of the pivot method stages will be. So don't worry, we will send the recording. All right, let's take a proper two minutes now and jot down what does success look like one year from now? And then I'll give you a one minute mark and you can shift to six months or three months from now, pandemic style. So who thought I would ever say that? When you think about this question, think about how you would be most excited to learn and grow. In a way, one of the blessings in disguise of this time is we are growing every single day, emotionally, mentally, our strength is growing. How do you want to grow? What is your ideal average day?

Who do you want to be surrounded by?

What types of projects would you be most excited to be tackling?

If you could become the go to expert for something on your team at work, in the broader community, maybe in the world, what would you want to become an expert at?

Consider what kind of impact you'd like to make.

Imagine a year or six months from now, you win an award, what would it be for? Or you even get a glowing thank you note. What would it say?

Been so grateful, you know, a few people writing about the pod, the recent podcasts, so it's like, okay, it's working. What would give you that feeling that whatever you're doing is working? What would that thank you note say?

And if you want to shift, if you haven't yet shifted to, let's say, more short term, take the last 30, 45 seconds to jot down some notes.

And I also want to encourage you a lot of times when I ask this question, people stay in their comfort zone. They brainstorm a year from now of what's realistic, what would probably be happening a year from now. I would love for you to take 30 minutes and 30 minutes, definitely, if you have it after this session, 30 seconds and go crazy or go a little sideways. What would really be at the edges of your stretch zone? What would really light you up? What would be really incredible if that could happen? Or what's totally off the wall? It doesn't seem related to anything at all, but you just feel compelled to Write it down. So push it now. 30 more seconds. Go to your stretch zone here of what does success look like.

Again, I highly encourage you to come back to these two types of questions because they are going to set the strongest foundation possible for everything else that follows. Even in terms of just navigating day to day life. Right now you might want to think about what energizes you the most, what recharges you the most during times of stress, what's already working for you or others around you. And maybe you're just going to ask, what does success look like today?

That's it. Or this week? Just what would success be today? And as Lindsay said on the podcast that came out this morning, 162 how can you lower the bar a little bit? So maybe right now success looks like making it through the day or the week or connecting with at least one family member.

I'm going to keep moving. So the scan stage Scanning is now that you have your brackets set up for where you are now and generally where you want to end up. Now you can much more effectively bridge the gap. Scanning is based on what you just wrote down in the plant stage. So based on where you are now and generally where you want to end up, you can scan for people skills and projects. So again those that scanning a lot of people scan without a plan. They're not grounded in their strengths or their vision. But when you are, when you do have those things, you can be really targeted about who's out there, who's doing what you want to do, what skills do you want to build or need to build during this time? What projects can you start? So and I see just eats here. Yay. If you're self employed you might need an additional stream of income. If you're like me, I have 10. I just shared in the recent 10 Streams of Income workshop, but 10 is probably too many. But speaking got wiped out. I need to shift, I need to pivot and figure out which other streams I'm going to double down on. So I will look at well which income streams are already working. I will base that on the plant stage for you. Who's doing what you want to do? Who's a resource for you during this time? And skills. Maybe there are skills that you need in order to Working from home is a skill. Having if those of you who have kids and have to do school virtually is a skill. Working from home with your family, staying self quarantined, staying home all day with your family all day, every day, no end in sight is A skill skill. So we're all learning and growing. But you may also have technical or functional skills that you actually have the time to develop right now, given that you don't have a commute or you're not going into the office.

One thing that's important to note. So this diagram comes from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and who wrote the seminal book called Flow, about how to find a flow state, that almost state of ecstatic bliss where time is passing and you don't even realize it. The flow state can be found at the sweet spot of just enough skill and just enough challenge, and that so ties in with the pivot framework as well. So if you're an impactor and you have too much skill, that's not being used at work, so not enough challenge, you are going to be bored and apathetic. Similarly, if you have too much challenge and not enough skill, you're going to be worried and anxious. So wherever you fall on this right now, you can actually take that as indicative to say, well, then I might need to grow my skills. If you're anxious every single day, you might want to build a mindfulness practice. Build that skill, Build a breathing skill. Just three deep breaths can go such a long way. We're all building the hand washing skill. How many of us washed our hands three gazillion times a day before this all started happening? Challenge for all of us, the challenge bar just went all the way up. So how do you go from anxiety over to a flow state? We build our skills. We build them every single day and we lean on the skills we already have and say, how can I do more with what I already know? Katherine Hayden. I haven't interviewed her yet, but we were on a Pivot insider call. That's my monthly community for people who support the podcast. And she said, I never, ever thought I would say publicly that I homeschooled my child, but now I think I'm going to launch a mini workshop on this and I'm going to have her on the podcast because I see that I have a skill that other people need and that can be so empowering to tip the scales a little bit.

So let's brainstorm for scan now. Take one minute, a little bit shorter this time, and write down as many names as you can. Who do you admire and who can you talk to related to what you wrote down in the plant stage?

Who is doing what you want to do?

Who can you learn from, even from afar?

Could be authors, podcasters, people in the news people in the public eye.

Who'S already in your network that you could reach out to.

If you run out of ideas, just go back to the plant stage, see what you wrote down and build from there.

Who are some of your friend tours, friends who energize and inspire you and you can hold each other accountable. Or you you're inspired by seeing what they do.

Who has served as a mentor to you in the past?

And with the last few moments, write down three names of people in your stretch zone where it would be edgy but super exciting to reach out to them.

And then write down three names in your total comfort zone. Like aha, yes, I'm going to reach out to these three people this week and reconnect.

Saying that out loud just reminded me of somebody in that zone that I need to reach out to.

Part two of the Scan Stage what new skills interest you? So I'm going to give you another minute here. Try to write down as much as you can. Do not judge what you're writing. Again, you don't have to share this with anybody. So look at the plant stage. The whole point of pivoting is that there's a gap between where you are now and where you want to end up. So how do we close that gap? There's often a skill gap. What do you need to learn.

How Looking at your one year vision or your six month or three month vision, what new skills would most propel you toward that vision?

What are you genuinely curious about?

Think about what podcast topics when a new episode enters your queue, what topic makes you so excited that somebody's covering that topic? Or what books are piling up on your wish list.

You can think about this on a personal level too. I loved the example about starting a bakery. What personal skills interest you? Maybe it feels like it has nothing to do with anything, but you are excited to learn another language or take dance classes, cooking classes. What are you just wildly or weirdly curious about? And you don't even know why, but you feel a zap of energy around it.

Moving on the pilot stage, this is where things really start to get fun. So piloting is about getting moving. In the basketball analogy, you start passing the ball around the court looking for where you have the best opportunity to make a shot. A strong pilot will help you test three E's. Do I enjoy this area? Can I become an expert at it? And is there room to expand? Many of you know the story of the pivot podcast, but it started as a very scrappy pilot in 2014 when I started, I got the book deal for Pivot and I figured if I'm going to interview people, I might as well hit record. This will be some cute side bonus available once people read the book. In the two years of writing Pivot and before it came out, the podcast became the central thing that I loved. I realized by starting very scrappy that I enjoyed it. I wanted to get better at the technical aspects, audio editing, interviewing, presence. And there is a room to expand in my business. Can I make more time and space for this? Is there room to expand in the marketplace? And yes, there was. I started podcasting not super early, but earlier than even a lot of now celebrities or media outlets. And so there was room to expand and grow. And I will tell you, even if I had zero listeners, I would still do it because it's been a priceless activity for me. So think about for you. Look at everything you've written down now. What are some experiments you could run in the next month? And I'm going to adapt this again for the current pandemic situation. It might be the next week. It might be small experiments you could try this week that might energize you or bring you joy. And then what are some experiments you could do in the next three to six months? So based on your one year vision or your six month vision, what can you try?

Take 30 seconds to brainstorm, jot down some ideas.

Try to get a mix here of ideas in your comfort zone and in your stretch zone. So what are some teeny tiny next steps? You can attend a session like this. You could schedule somebody for a virtual lunch. Maybe it's not in person or coffee, coffee, virtual coffee. Chat over zoom. You could try creating something. I did a whole podcast episode on rapid prototyping a course. And you could go to pivotmethod.com rapidprototype that might be a bigger one that you do in the next six months. Three to six months.

Ultimately, the Pivot method boils down to just a few questions. So you, you reduce risk. The whole point is that by the time you get to launching and there's a big L launch, going all in on a new direction and then a little L launch, which is just one or two next steps. This is when you actually make the shot or you go for the basket. Launching is you've reduced risk by piloting and now you're more clear. So a metaphor I love for the pilot stage is racehorses at the Kentucky Derby. Your job is not to know who wins. You cannot know the Answer to your pivot up front. The same way none of us can know what anything is going to look like a day, a week, a month from now. But by piloting and experimenting, you reduce risk and you let your pilots show you which ones are going to take on momentum of their own. So the four questions that the pivot process boils down to, because it's not a linear one and done process, it's a cycle, is to ask constantly. You can ask every day, every week, every month, every year. You could say, what's working? What does success look like?

What's out there? What can I try? The whole thing boils down to what can I try? Especially now when we don't have any answers. Every day it's about asking, what can I try? What is one small experiment, one tiny step? I've now ditched the motto go big or go home. It's like, go tiny. Well, how can you go tiny today? What does that look like?

So as we start to wrap up, we have about 15 minutes, a little less for Q and A. First, I want you to go back, look through everything you've written down and circle the first five things that had the most energy when you wrote them down. What are the five things that stand out the most of everything you've reflected on? And then tell us in the chat, what's one small step you can take in the next week? And what one next step would make the biggest impact? You could ask yourself these two questions every week if you wanted, even every day. What one small step can you take and what one next step would have the biggest impact?

So I would love to hear your ideas in the chat. And part of the reason for that is that you're going to get ideas from each other. So by sharing what you're going to do next, you're going to give other people ideas they're going to think, ah, oh, I like that. I'm going to do that too. So I would love for all of you, if you're still here live, share at least one next step and even one insight or aha from today's session. What's an insight or resonant moment for you? Because that will also help us crystallize the learning together. And I would love to read that in the chat. And thank you. Ksenia said the rapid prototyping course was epic. Thank you. I believe it's episode 146.

So please share an insider Aha. And one next step in the chat and just want to let you all know where you can get more free resources pivotmethod.com toolkit if you don't have it already. And I did mention the podcast, but pivotmethod.com podcast or search in your podcast app for Pivot with Jenny Blake because there are many podcasts that have Pivot in the title, but that's how you can find mine. Although I have a feeling that most of you are here because you listen to the podcast. And then if you want to work with a Pivot coach, we have a great team. And of course the book, if you don't already have it.

So let's I'd love to hear what's on your mind. I'd love to open it up for questions, and I'm actually going to just leave it on this slide so you have the prompts right in front of you. What is on your mind? Is there anything that you wished we would have talked about that we haven't covered yet, or anything specific to what's happening right now in the world that you would find helpful? I would love to know.

I also wanted to address the question that came in right at the beginning around.

What if you had a client who was ready to pivot prior to all this happening and now is staying in place?

That could go one of two ways. And I always like to ask somebody, I always like to ask them, what does your gut say? We have no idea how many industry dominoes are going to be fall, basically. So even if they were ready to pivot, you don't know if you had an organization in mind or somewhere you were trying to go. You don't know if they're going to shut down all hiring right now while they have to pay employees and the business isn't running. The stores are closed. So I don't necessarily think I would voluntarily make a move right now unless my gut was telling me yes. I was not listening to my gut. I needed an event this extreme to kick me into gear, remind me that life is short and let me to go follow my heart and follow my true path. If you feel that strongly or your client feels that strongly, you got to go for it. But you know, I'm part of a group of professional speakers and somebody was kind of joking but not saying, well, there goes my dream of becoming a professional speaker this year or like really doubling down on speaking this year. So I also think, no, I probably wouldn't tell someone to quit their job and try to start a business right now because even the biggest businesses are going to be really tight on cash and the economy is already so volatile and may even freeze. We just don't know. So I think I wouldn't voluntarily pivot right now unless I knew in my heart that this was my opportunity.

What else I'm looking Insight. Claire's insight. Focusing more on what works rather than what doesn't. Awesome. One next step. Think through the three people I would like to learn from. I love it and reach out to one of them. Rachel said, Writing the list of what energizes me got me excited instead of just focusing on strengths. I feel like I have a lot of things to do since my city is shelter in place. I hear you. Lots more time on my hands now. I also like the idea of go tiny instead of go big or go home. I'm so glad. And Rachel said I'll be publishing my first podcast during this time off. Yay. That's so exciting for any of you who want to use this time to launch a podcast. I also have a course called Heart of Podcasting. It's a week long. You can learn more about that1@pivotmethod.com heart because it's called Heart of Podcasting.

Ksenia Said, what has the most energy to me is creating video content, being on camera out of my comfort zone. Awesome. Creating online spaces for people, conscious entrepreneurs, healers and creatives to have the tools and support to leap into their gifts and create successful presence and business. I love it. The step I will take is open up my online membership community. Yay Woke and Wired portal. This is such a good time to create community. I really believe we need that more now than ever and virtual is the only way we're able to do that right now. Deanne says. I've been going between launching my course, writing my book and then just sharing. I felt so overwhelmed. But this just helped me clearly focus on what would make the biggest impact. I'm so glad and excite me and support me the most and so something I wasn't thinking to play with for a long time now. Great to bring it forward because mothers and children need it the most. Clearly bring the good news and activities, sharing, parents doing amazing things and from your Instagram channel. Oodmorningloveproject oh that sounds so cool. I can't wait to check it out. Oodmorningloveproject.

Jonathan Said. I'm going to do an exchange with a client Trauma Informed coaching for vocal lessons. Super cool from a very empathetic singer with childhood issues that match mine something fierce. I love it. I was just suggesting to my husband that he barter. He's really interested in Jungian analysis and today we came up with this idea that he could try to barter. We're getting a Jungian analysis. They do often dream work and that he would then barter and paint the person's dreams. So the analyst would kind of coach or do therapy with him and then he would ask questions about the analyst's dreams and paint them and offer a painting by the end which kind of matches Jung's red book. Anyway, there's lots of bartering that can happen right now because everyone's home and especially people in the entertainment business. You're actually helping them out quite a lot to get coaching. Our friend is an opera singer and a lot of his gigs are canceled and we were already brainstorming with him. This is what's insane. We were already brainstorming with him that he should start a vocal coaching business because he's so trained with his voice that it would be, I think, a perfect thing right now, especially with so many people who are going to start podcasts now that you have time at home.

Jonathan says time to create an Instagram channel too. Thank you Stephanie for sharing all the links. I'm so grateful. I also have a private community for solopreneurs. I didn't mention it on this session because the session's not about that, but doors do happen to be open for enrollment right now. They close Friday. If you are a solopreneur and you're running a heart based business and you want support and community and very insanely practical tips and systems and you get all my courses for free as a part of that, I would love for you to join us. Check out Pivot Love Momentum or pivotmethod.com Momentum. Angus is going to get a website instafeed Tweetstorm going amazing for students who've been sent home but told they need to keep paying and studying. Not on campus.org super cool. Not yet up. Stay tuned. I heard of someone offering summer camp for all the kids as well. Virtual summer camp, Amanda said. Top takeaway is that acting on the things that energize can be just as valuable as working toward a specific end result. Yes, I love it. One small step will be listening to a podcast or attending a webinar on learning how to learn. Cool. I think you'll Love Tim Ferriss 4 Hour Chef if you haven't already. That is such great content on learning how to learn. Oh, and Josh Waitzkin's the Art of Learning that book blew my mind. It was so good. Amanda said, I have so many things I'm interested in and I want to understand how I can maximize my learning and minimize analysis paralysis. One impactful step will be to reach out to some of the people on my list of potential mentors. Friend tours. Yay. And Ksenia said, one of the skills that came up for me to learn is vocal coaching. So good. Yes. And we have a critical mass agreement about tiny steps, so that's awesome. Jonathan is asking if these notes are available afterward. Would love to capture some of the brilliance. I know, right? I told you the pivot community is friggin brilliant.

I have the unfair advantage of my vantage point, but they are brilliant. Yeah. Jonathan, just for you, we'll throw the chat in a Google Doc and I'm going to put it in the email that goes out to everybody who wasn't able to be here live because Stephanie's been such a superstar of posting all the links too. So I'm going to do that. I'll throw them in a doc. You'll have access to the chat as well as the recording.

Angus said, JB says plant. I always think garden. Totally. One of the pivot coaches, Lisa Lewis, gave a pivot presentation and she said she's talked about it that way. Like you plant and you get your seeds planted in strong soil and that becomes the roots and the foundation that then the flower can blossom. Isn't that beautiful? So yeah, I love it. I love that version of the plant stage.

Gonna put this up one more time. What else? Thank you, Stephanie, for maximum awesomeness. I so agree. That is Stephanie Houston. Stephanie was a founding member of Momentum and became a solopreneur one year ago and now we work together. She's the community director of Momentum and she's going through coach training and maybe Steph, I'm giving too much away, but she is so incredible and it's been so fun working together and seeing your journey. Stephanie and yowza. Now in year one of solopreneurship, you're here navigating the craziest waves of life and work and business. So anyone who's just recently started running their own business, I know it must be even more anxiety producing because I feel nervous and I'm nine years in, so I've had nine years of practice building the skill of navigating. No clue what I'm getting paid next.

It's a skill. It's a skill. But you know what? Let's be hopeful that it's a skill. We can all learn. We are all going to learn it. You are all so creative and resourceful and brilliant and committed. You're here. You're here on a webinar or watching a recording to learn how to pivot like you're. I'm not worried about any of you. You have what it takes. You are creative, you are resourceful, you can pilot things. You do not have to have any answers. Nobody does. Not even the most seasoned professionals can say how anything is going to play out right now. So you have as good a chance as any to get creative and test and test and test and launch and iterate. As we would say at Google, be scrappy. Just that's what the name of the game right now. Be scrappy. Be in the moment and serve. Just what can I give? How can I serve? And then trust. We didn't talk about it too much, but one of the books that's made the biggest impact on my life is Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver. I plug it all the time. I probably sell as many books as Tosha herself sells because I love it so much. But what can we do now? Surrender. Just surrender and say, show me the next step. Every day we could offer that prayer and show me the next step that's in the highest good for all involved. And I'll leave you there with that question to just surrender your stressors, surrender any anxiety of the unknown and try to just put one foot in front of the next. And when you get really stuck or blocked, give it back over. Surrender and simply ask, what's one next step?

Thank you all so, so much for being here. I'm really grateful. Thank you. For those of you who are watching in the future on the recording, thank you. It's so energizing for me to see you all here and have you in the chat. And those of you who even didn't make it live, I wish you all the best. Big hugs, light love, support from afar, as we're all pivoting every single day. So we've got this. We can do this together as a community. And if you want to join Future Q&As, check out pivot insider, pivotmethod.com insider and if you have any requests for the podcast or follow up questions, I didn't get to submit them. Pivotmethod.com ask or helloivittmethod.com and I'll cover them on a future podcast. Thank you again everybody. Have a beautiful rest of your day and may you navigate your pivots with grace and ease and joy to the extent that you're able, and with acceptance for all the rest. Thank you everybody.

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 PivotList, 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.