200: 🎉 20+ Free Time Permission Slips for Small Business Owners (Part 1)

When it comes to gifting, everyone on your list deserves something special. Luckily, Marshall's buyers travel far and wide hustling for great deals and amazing gifts.

So you don't have to.

That means your mom gets that cashmere sweater, your best friend that Italian leather bag, your co workers unwrap their favorite beauty brands, and your nephews the coolest new toys.

Go ahead.

A price is this good, you can grab something for yourself too. Marshalls we get the deals. You gift the good stuff. Shop now@marshalls.com or find a store near you.

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

Welcome back Free Timers. We did it. Here we are at episode 200 just after two years of launching this podcast. For episode 100 we celebrated by sharing the top 10 lessons learned in 100 episodes of the Free Time Podcast. And for this milestone I am celebrating by giving you an abundance of permission slips from our brilliant guests. This will be a two part episode because I could not narrow it down to just 20. I like having some harmony with my numbers episode 200 but I figured why not double down? So you're gonna get 20 permission slips today that are about doing less, producing content in a way that's more aligned with your business and your zone of genius. Even permission to raise your prices and then stay tuned. Or even better, subscribe for next week because I think you'll love those permission slips too. Part two is all about the mindset for small business owners, the spiritual aspects of navigating a heart based business, and how to stay in the game even when you're feeling down or you're being hard on yourself. If you know a fellow small business owner who would benefit from the morale boost of getting 40 plus permission slips, I would be so grateful if you could share these two episodes with a friend. You can also comment and share either your favorite permission slip of anything you heard from this compilation or a permission slip you would give to fellow free timers if you hop over to Spotify and respond in the episode question prompt underneath every single episode. That's been kind of fun. I love reading those. We don't get very many yet because it's a relatively new feature, but you can always comment now per episode if you hop over to Spotify. And and while you're there, if you don't mind clicking the stars to leave a rating for the show, you don't even have to write a whole written review. That would be a super plus. Last thing before we dive into permission slips part one for celebrating episode 200, I want to give a few special shout outs first and foremost to you for being here listening. Without you there would be no show to our guests who have said yes to spend some of their free time with me, with you, sharing their wisdom with all of us. I couldn't do this show without them. And finally to one stone creative who has been such a brilliant partner in this process. There's no way that I could produce the 12 episodes that I do a month across pivot and free time without their guidance, their coaching, their feedback and their support. Last but not least, if you want to get a bonus episode every month that is not released to this public free time feedback, I would love for you to join us in my private BFF community. We've been going strong for over eight years now and it's the perfect place to get feedback, coaching, inspiration and ideas as you navigate the ups and downs of running a small business. I release a bonus episode every month to our private feed along with the recording from our all group Q and A call. We also have brilliant sparter live where we do small group masterminds, hot seat breakouts to work through one or two big challenges in any given month of your business. And we have a private forum for getting feedback in between any of the live action. Because at free time we're all about a low guilt community and doing things at whatever timing is good for you. So if you resonate with this show with these permission slips, I highly encourage you to join a group of smart, generous, creative, heart based business owners. We would be absolutely delighted to have you visit itsfreetime.com BFF and enter promo code PODCAST at checkout. That's itsfreetime.comBFF promo code PODCAST. With that, my free time guests and I would hereby like to grant you 20 plus permission slips. Let's dive in.

If you could give fellow small business owners permission to do something differently or drop something altogether, what would it be?

Ask a better question, get a better answer. You know I mentioned that I have a son that passed away. I have a brother in law that passed away. I didn't mention that I had three foster kids that came and went. We had them for years and it's so sad. We don't know where they are. And my wife had a stroke and lost her memory. I had a son get hit by a car and when he was crossing the street, he should be dead, but he's not. He's out doing these amazing things, riding big waves. My wife's memory is back. She's good. The thing is, what are you working for? No one, or at least very few people work for work's sake. What is the sake for which you work? Do that, then change how you work to support it.

Drop anything that drains your energy.

I would do an energy audit.

What sort of things are draining your energy and your business and give yourself permission to stop doing it.

Each day. Imagine you only have one hour you can work. How would you spend that hour? Like what's going to be the greatest value creating hour that you could possibly spend that's going to give you the greatest leverage and the greatest impact? I would say don't do more with less, do less, get more. Use this thought process of an hour a day and if you work more, fine. But if you really try to shoot for that one hour a day, it's going to focus your thinking.

Honestly, I would give people permission to.

Rebuild their business models from the ground up and actually look at the numbers, think about the systems, think about what they really want for their business, think about how they want to take care of themselves with their business and how their business is going to take care of them and to do it through the lens of the business model. And part of quote unquote entrepreneurship is solving the problem of what does this business look like? It's not just solving consumer problems, it's.

Also solving the problem of how can.

I offer this value to people in a way that makes sense?

And I just don't think enough people give themselves permission to actually look and.

Say, is this business model working? Does this business model make sense? Does this business take care of me? I would love for everyone listening to.

Really look at the numbers, ask hard.

Questions, ask big questions about the very foundation of their business and make some changes.

I would like to give business owners permission to keep some of the tasks in the business that they are very excellent at and bring in money for the business without feeling like you're making a lower level, non CEO type decision. Keep the things that you're really rocking at that make a significant difference to your business's revenue or that give you joy. As long as that trade off between the time that it takes from you to be able to do other Things is an okay trade off.

Drop a project that's not clearly related to something that creates cash flow for you, creates opportunity, or creates visibility. It might just be something that you're hanging on to that you thought you needed to do last year, that you don't need to do this year.

Definitely. A permission to significantly increase your prices, raise your rates is number one. Permission to expand your team, permission to hire that part time assistant or full time assistant or more, and then permission to quit social media or take a break. If social media is something that stresses you out or feels like it's hurting you more than it's helping you, I would say absolute permission to step away and take back your time, protect your peace, protect your mental health, take a week off, evaluate how you feel, and if you ultimately decide that you want to return to social media, but maybe use it differently, that's great. If you decide you want to quit forever like I did, that's great. But permission to do what is truly right for you.

I think there's this real illusion you have to be everywhere on all channels, like keeping all these balls in the air. I really don't think that's true. I would really just pick one place. We have so many options now. There's Twitter, there's LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube. Pick the one that best fits your personality, that best fits your style, where your audience lives, and just focus on that. Focus on really using that channel to express yourself, like putting art into it, putting creativity into it, which is what really makes you stand out, rather than trying to have a kind of anemic, mediocre presence across half a dozen different channels. I really see social media as a medium for creative expression. That's how I think of my Twitter. My Twitter, you'll find, is kind of random. It's kind of all over the place. That's because it's my studio, it's my canvas. I'm trying out different ideas. And Twitter has been, for me, not just a way to broadcast my thoughts, it's been a development. It's like my lab, it's my laboratory where I happen upon completely new ways of teaching and communicating and explaining things.

You do not have to produce a lot of content. Being able to flip the script from producing content to convening human beings towards a common goal is one of the most profound shifts any of us can make, not just in building communities, but in how we approach life, how we.

Build relationships with each other, how we.

Think about the relationship we have to social media. When I started seeing people refer to their documentation of things happening to them in life as their content. And like, oh, this will make good X kind of content or Y kind of content. I'm like, that's a thing. I don't think that's what we're supposed to be doing. I think that that would be the one thing I would give folks permission to do differently.

I really had, I would call it literally a revelation a few years ago because I was at a networking event, you know, sort of classic networking event where it's like too loud and too many people. And it was something that I really felt like I ought to do, I should do it. Because it was like a speaker's reception at a conference that I was speaking at the night before. And I showed up because I thought, oh, it's a speaker's reception, it'll be small, I can meet some other interesting people. But I get there and it's at this super loud bar and nobody's wearing name tags. So I didn't know who anybody was. Random bar customers were mixing with the people that I was supposed to meet. I'm like, what is this? It was just, it made no sense. And I stayed for a little while and at first I was forcing myself to go up to people and introduce myself. And then finally it was like an angel whispered in my ear, was like, you don't have to do this. And so I thought, wow, I don't have to do this. This sucks. And so I left and I just walked out and I felt so liberated. I am literally never going to an event like this again. And I haven't. And it's been wonderful.

We'll be right back just after this. Hi, this is Deechen Laichman and I am here to tell you Toyotathon is on. So stop by your local Toyota dealer for incredible year end deals on the cars, trucks and SUVs known for their legendary reliability like the stylish and efficient Camry.

The Ready for anything RAV4 or check out a rough and rugged Tacoma or.

Tundra, all with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers. Visit buyatoyota.com to find out more. Toyota let's go places.

When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive. Reach for a Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry and put your twist on tradition. A bold cranberry and winter spice flavor Fusion Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry is a refreshing way to shake things up. This sip and season and only for a limited time. Sprite obey your thirst.

If I give permission for One thing it would be electronic communication does not have to be a super important part of your work life. You can have a work life in which you do not spend much time at all sending messages back and forth and it feels heretical just because we got so used to it. But I'm trying to get permission to believe that it's really kind of arbitrary and no one decided that's a good way to work and it's terrible. And I think we're all going to move past it at some point. So you have permission to get out in front of that curve and say, my job is not answering emails. My job is not answering slack. My job is not keeping up on text messaging. It's producing stuff that's too good to be ignored and using as the foundation of a generally deep life. I want to give people permission to do that, to say, I am willing to try and construct something completely different than the way everyone around me is working.

Let go of the habit around email. Give yourself permission to no longer be the person responsible for it, knowing that you can still be involved with what you think is mission critical. The 5%, the 10%, whatever it is. But just imagine what handing over 90%, even like I said 80%, 70% of your emails would do for how much time you get, how much free time, which you could then choose to do whatever you like with, as I know your evangelist for Jenny. So it is, I think, the best productivity and time hack for any busy professional or entrepreneur or business owner because it's where we spend most of our time.

I'm not saying you should spend five figures that make you nervous if you're not ready. But look at how you are spending your time and check in with your.

Energy level every day.

Is what you're doing sustainable? And as you have said, what's one.

Thing that you're doing that when you're doing it? You're like, I don't have to be.

The one doing this because probably you.

Shouldn'T be doing it.

I think you should charge for your time. I think you should bill for your attention. I think you should do it for your email. I mean, I think you should monetize what you do. You seem like sort of a jerk. I charge people to meet with me. Now, I started doing this when I was at Square because all these wealth managers were calling me and they're like, can I take you out to lunch? And I was like, oh, cool, free food. And then after a while I was like, wait a second, I just gave this guy two hours of my life for, like, a $4 burrito. And then it dawned on me that I should be a good economist and charge a amount of money for that. So I started charging people to meet with. How do you do price discovery? And the answer is, I started off at, like, a couple hundred bucks, and the guy paid. So the next day I charged 1,000 bucks, and they paid. And at about 1,000 bucks I was getting, half of the people would pay, and half the people would drop out. Now, here's what happened. Someone would call and ask me to take me to lunch to tell me how they can help me. And I'm like, okay, if you want to talk to me, it's a thousand bucks. Do you still want to talk to me? And they'd say, well, I'm helping you. And I was like, be that as it may, I'm going to charge you 1000 bucks. And if you don't believe your product is so valuable that it's worth $1,000 investment, I mean, I'm going to give the money to a charity, but you're still going to cough it up. And he's like, can I give it to the charity? No, no, no. You're going to give it to me. And then I am at some point gonna choose some random charity that I want, and I'm going to give it them. And just listen to them squirm. Listen to them squirm and tell you how valuable their thing is. And, like, well, you clearly don't believe it's valuable enough for you to pay for my attention. So you're not gonna get any more clicked. And that is fun, and it's clarifying, and it's sort of a jerk move. And don't apologize. Tell him Jim sent you.

I think the permission slip I would like to offer is when it feels really scary and uncomfortable, that's probably the.

Price that you should quote and quote.

It, even if it means you won't get the gig. Because once you quote it once, you'll be much more comfortable to quote it again, Especially if you detach yourself from the outcome and just realize that it is an exercise of you actually saying it and getting more comfortable with saying it.

I'm switching the question from, can I squeeze this in?

To do I have what I need to do this as well as I want to. To do this in a way that satisfies me at a level of excellence that I expect for myself or for others.

So there's a great quote that I came across recently, and it is a slight misquote of an original quote. But I love the misquote better. And the quote is, you are born a thousand men and die only one. And what that speaks to is this, the infinite possibilities of life, and that you start with all the possibilities of the things that you can do, but by the end, you only have the path that you've already taken. Do you take the path of multiple newsletters? Do you do the paid newsletter? Do you do this? Do you do that? But I think the key of that quote is that you should kill the other things on purpose so that you don't kill them by accident. And I think you should be intentional about curating the possibilities that you leave open so that you don't kill them by inaction and lack of planning. Fear any of those other things, because very often you might be filled with fear, you might be filled with trepidation, hesitation, and you miss out on some of those other opportunities to take different paths. Whereas if you can intentionally decide which path you want to keep open, then you can ensure that those are always relevant and open to you.

There is a sort of cultural imperative in business that you're not doing it right unless you've done it the way it's been done in the past. Like business school.

Supply and demand. All the things that have been the cornerstones of business, I think still apply. But I think that I would give people permission to forget the way that things have been done in the past, that the Internet has opened up a million different paths, and that we all have new opportunities to choose a path that's not necessarily based on some academic perspective or some tradition or Jack Welch or whatever else, and find a path that actually matches the person that you are and the values that you have. And I think that's a hard thing because there's a lot of pressure not to do that.

I give you permission to not listen to business advice that either doesn't work for you or that for whatever reason, you just can't do. I look back now and I feel like 90% of the business advice that I consumed in books and in courses and masterminds was well meaning and effective. But not for me. Not for the way my brain works, not for my energy flows, not for my personality. And your book Free Time to me is one of the few books that combines systems with gentleness and flexibility for being a flawed, inconsistent human. I give people listening to the Free Time podcast permission to stop internalizing the failures that you're having to take action on the business advice, because that business advice just might not be the right fit for you, your brain or your body.

The most important area of permission is to focus on resonance before or even at the expense of reach. We can all reach some people today and if the some people we reach are not engaging, responding, subscribing, buying, sharing, I think our tendency is to go and find more people. But perhaps the problem is not a reach problem, it is a resonance problem. Because if it's not going to hit for the 5, 6, 7, 100 people who already know, like and trust you, why do you think getting in front of other people or more people is a good idea? Because the people who already are closest to you are signaling to you. This doesn't resonate. So solve that problem first. Put resonance first. Get a small number of people reacting in a big way to your work, not as a final stage, but as a signal that you're onto something. Because then you can invest with confidence. So prioritize resonance, overreach. Everything gets better and easier, including reach.

That wraps part one of our celebratory episode 200 with 20 plus permission slips for you. I hope you got something out of this today. Again, send me a note anytime hi time or leave a comment over in Spotify on this episode's comment prompt. I would love to hear from you. Hear what resonated the most, what permission you would give to fellow free timers. And don't forget, join us in BFF if you want extra coaching, feedback, emotional support and guidance. And don't forget, we would love to have you in the private BFF community. If you want even more where this came from, that's@itsfreetime.com BFF stay tuned for part two of the permission slips next week, the one that you really will want to bookmark for a day when you're feeling down and just could use a boost if you're not already subscribe to the show and the best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review or sharing this show with a fellow business owner who you know would resonate. Thank you so much for listening. Have a beautiful rest of your day.

If you've listened this far, you get a gold star. Thank you. Word of mouth is the most joyful way we can grow this show and it helps us land interviews with the luminaries and insightful guests that you would most love to hear from. Please send this episode to a friend who might find it helpful and for show notes and related links from this episode, visit itsfreetime.com while you're there. Make sure you're subscribed to the Time well Spent newsletter, you'll get instant access to my Tech Toolkit, a continually updated list of all the software I use, along with with the total monthly spend. To run my business where no one works full time Even me, visit itsfreetime.com join Remember, you are running the show. It's time for radical reimagining and everything is up for grabs. Let it be easy, let it be fun and build with love.