276: Behind the Free Time Pivot

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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 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.

Hello, hello my friends. I could not believe it, but FreeTime is launching in a few short days. Maybe by the time you listen to this, the book will already be out. I can't believe it. If you've already checked it out, please, pretty please, would you leave a rating and a review? It goes such a long way toward helping generate early momentum. You can visit it'sfreetime.com Amazon and I know for now, Amazon is the number one place to collect these reviews. Bonus if you want to post a photo or a video of you or the book in front of something that represents free time to you. Somewhere that you love to spend your free time. Someone you love to spend it with. A furry friend. I am having such a blast seeing these photos of the book in the wild. This very podcast started just before Pivot was coming out. In fact, right after I got the book deal in 2014, I decided that if I were going to be interviewing experts for the book, then I might as well hit record. I didn't know what I was doing. I had no clue how to get the episodes into iTunes. This was 2015 when the first episode started going live, but it quickly became one of my favorite activities that I do. I realized that in all the free time frenzy of activity, I haven't necessarily directly shared my thought process here with all of you my OG podcast listeners about this Pivot to a new direction. Of course it's apt that this podcast and my previous book are called Pivot. That was intentional. Part of the reason that I decided to go all in on Pivot after I wrote Life After College and published that in 2011 was I was really thinking about what is an evergreen topic that I won't get sick of because admittedly, I had gotten a little tired of talking about life after college. I started that website in 2005. The book came out six years later, and I felt ready to move on. So as I was thinking about my next big idea, my next big body of work, I wanted it to be something that could be evergreen in the sense that it would never go out of style, or hopefully this is always the goal. We can never truly plan or predict that. I wanted to have something that I knew would be nuanced and also that I knew I could live the message. This is how I came up with the tagline for Pivot. If change is the only constant, let's get better at it. Because I wanted that for myself, and I wanted that for all my coaching clients and all my former friends and trainees at Google who were navigating changes internally within a company. I felt like the one thing I could guarantee for the rest of my career and even the rest of my authorial efforts or podcasting would be changed. That the only thing I could promise anybody would be that I would change, my ideas would change, and what I wanted to talk about would change. So that's kind of the origin story of Pivot. I was also asking at that time, I had read the Lean Startup by Eric Ries, and I became obsessed with this question, how can we be more agile? Because we were celebrating startups in the business press for how agile they were and intelligent and Eric's whole process, build, measure, learn as it applied to building a company. I just thought it would be so interesting if we could apply that to our lives and have these tools to not only be more resilient to change, but also to get clearer on this question. What's next? So I've been getting the question a lot as we're getting ready for the book to launch. I just can't believe it. A lot of people have said, what's the connection between Pivot and free time? Even more so from a business perspective, people are asking, what? Well, why not write a follow up to Pivot? And in fact, I probably would have gotten a book deal with the same publisher that I had if I had written something more along the lines of pivot 2.0. Not that I would have called it that, but I think they were more interested in me directly building and writing something for the exact same audience. So I saw that Annie Duke has a book coming out. Maybe I'll try to get her on this podcast called Quit, and it's about how to know when to quit. That could have been a logical next book from Pivot, how to make decisions. I've seen a lot of new books coming out that are, like, about decision making or when to quit or where should you live? Like, a lot of the questions that are very similar that a lot of people have in common when it comes to Pivoting. Yes, I could have taken the exact same concept, exact same audience, all of you, of course, and tried to go something directly down that path. But then a global pandemic hit, and I have to say, it's not really my style anyway to just write pivot 2.0. I really felt that I had squeezed that juice, you know, Like, I had said everything I had to say on Pivot. And between the book and the podcast, I felt complete. I felt whole. I felt like I created the Pivot method. There's not more I can say. The rest was going to be boring to me. I never wanted to be in the business of helping people learn how to write a LinkedIn profile or get better at the job interview process. That stuff just did not interest me. So on the subject of career change and mapping, what's next? I felt really solid. Just like when I reached into my creative coffers, there wasn't new things coming up right down that track. If you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, you know that even my interest started to unfold. I went to seminary school for a semester and a half. I interviewed Penny. We had a Penny and Jenny podcast series for 12 episodes on topics like intuition and frequency and transparency, A lot of her really big ideas. And so as I looked to expand, and then we have this pandemic hit and all my speaking gigs get canceled and I'm now staying home and doing less corporate work, I realized that the thing I'm super passionate about, and that is my obsession that I'm thinking about all the time, is how to stay in business and how to improve my business. I have been running my own business since 2011, and it is such a roller coaster. If you want to talk about change and evolution and figuring out what's next, you know, run a business, especially during a global pandemic, it is bonkers. So I'm very fortunate that I did have certain income streams that were still carrying me, including Pivot coaching and my private community. And I do have big licensing contracts with companies, but speaking was often 50% of my income in any given year, if not more. So when that all went away, it was this interesting moment for me to look at how I was Spending my time, but even more so, how was I spending my mind? It's kind of a weird way to put it, but where was my mind? My mind was always on how do I get better at this? How do I improve? How? My orienting question, how can I earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? And when I wrote Pivot, when I would speak to companies, I was always not hiding, but keeping a big part of myself behind the scenes. Because if I went into a big company to give a keynote, I'm not going to just talk about how to run your own business and create a delightfully tiny team. That's not what I'm there for, that's not what the company is hiring me to do, and it's not the opportunity that's in front of everybody in that room. So I was often talking about how to pivot and map what's next, starting from right where you already are. Once I gave myself permission to really explore, especially my love for systems. If you know me, you know me well. You know that I love systems and organization and tech and tools and how do we put it all together to be more efficient? My friend Laura Garnett walked me through her zone of genius exercise and she came up with this idea that I was an idea architect or a freedom architect, that I loved helping others by creating structure and providing solutions to things that I had struggled with. She's absolutely right. It is truly my passion. Like when I think about how I want to help others, if I can help unburden you or make something easier, make something less challenging, help you struggle and stress less, that is my greatest joy. Usually it involves me going through things the hard way. First, reading a zillion books and realizing that none of them quite offer what I need and then creating what is missing, sharing it back out with all of you. So as I thought about why am I so obsessed with systems and tools and tech, it's because when they're applied, well, it creates free time. And then there was a day just where I got the idea download the word free time. And it dropped into my mind. And I already started kind of playing with it in my mind, turning it over, that if systems and software and tools and efficiency and organization, you know, creating order from chaos, that is the means that the end is more free time. What does free time mean? Whatever you want. It can be free time to be truly present with yourself, with your loved ones as you go about your day. In another sense, free time to do more of your best work. That's something that I think so many of us who are passionate about work and passionate about our careers and making a big contribution, we genuinely want. We don't want to be buried in busy work and minutiae and bureaucracy. We don't want to be bored or bottlenecked. Those things are painful because we know that they're taking away from our opportunity to use our gifts and use our voices in the best possible way.

Once I got clear that this idea was resonating and one can never know, I can never know with 100% certainty. Yes, this is what you should go all in on. Yes, put everything you have into this two word phrase free time. I mean, it's so scary at the beginning of a process of landing on a big idea and then deciding if that's the one or not and whether to keep going. But I knew that it had some zing to it, and as I talked to friends, they gave me really strong positive feedback. So then of course, the next inevitable question is, well, should I just rename the Pivot podcast and call it free time? And is it for the same audience? Do I rename my Pivot List newsletter? Ultimately, I decided no, and here's why. And this is really what I wanted to share with you in this episode is the logic behind creating a whole new brand and website and podcasts and newsletter and all the things that come with it. It's a tremendous amount of work. I don't know in hindsight kind of what I was thinking, but I worked really hard to make Pivot its own ecosystem prior to the book even launching. I wanted to have an A to Z experience that if you listen to the podcast, you buy the book, you join the private community, you get the pivotless newsletter every two weeks. For companies, they could hire me to speak, to do a virtual or in person workshop if that goes well. Maybe they want to license the material so they can roll out Pivot globally within their organization without me being the bottleneck to delivering those sessions. Even now we have a Pivot coaching team. So when I stepped back from one on one coaching, there's still a fantastic group of people who are offering one on one career coaching, helping people make all kinds of pivots to big name companies navigate the interview process. I'm so proud of what the Pivot coaches are doing and that was nerve wracking too, to step back from one on one coaching and trust a team to be able to do that. No one works for me full time, but they run their own coaching businesses and I help bring them new business through the Pivot umbrella.

We'll be right back just after this.

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So you can see that in Jim Collins parlance, it's a flywheel. It's this ecosystem that any one input can generate momentum for other parts of the pivot ecosystem or that part of the business. That said, even though that felt really dialed in, I felt really good about all the offerings. On the pivot side of things, it's not necessarily the case that every pivoter is going to be a free timer. Here's what I mean by that. A lot of people pivoting, navigating what's next. I mean, that could really be for anybody. I say that pivot is for high net growth individuals. It does not matter what age, what stage, what's your bank account balance, where you work. Pivot is a method to map what's next. So anybody who's growth oriented can walk themselves through the pivot method and even check out the workbook, the toolkit. There are so many resources. I have LinkedIn learning courses. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff where you can navigate what's next and map your strategy for the year ahead, even within your current role. However, that doesn't mean that every pivoter wants to run their own business someday. We have been hearing all about the great resignation and they say that the employee quit rate peaked in 2021amidst this great resignation, that those between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates and that 67% of employees say they want to start their own businesses someday. So while the numbers are pointing in a direction of solopreneurship, or as I call it, solopluspreneurship, it's not the case that Every pivoter is running their own business. Or that my geeking out about business systems and structure and setup is going to be relevant. I think of it as a rectangle and a square. The rectangle is pivot. It's more expansive definition and then the square is a type of rectangle and that fits within. It's a smaller group in a sense. Although there are 30 million small business owners in the US and 25 million of them have no full time employees, those are called non employer businesses. So even though in my Venn diagram there's the pivot circle and then in my world of the pivot community of all of you, there's going to be a smaller segment who are running your own business where all that stuff I'm talking about on the free time podcast is relevant to you. That is ultimately why I didn't just rename this podcast feed. And it did take me. I had some growing pains and lots of learning moments of like how do I juggle this all? And I still don't know the answer to that. But I know that there's good stuff here for pivot and tons of interesting books coming out, authors I would love to speak with again. I still love exploring all the nuances of how to navigate change, especially the counterintuitive parts. You know, how do we navigate change with greater intuition. How do we embrace our insecurity and uncertainty and anxiety and awkwardness? That's the stuff I love to talk about. So I want to keep this as is, as I currently have. Maybe that will change. Maybe I won't be able to sustain two universes. And I say two, even though I have three books. Because life after college I don't do too much with. Here's why. Because life after college is a pivot. So back to the rectangle square thing. Life after collegers, once they read the book, they can easily plug into the pivot universe and benefit greatly, even though it's not as targeted to just straight up adulting when you're in your early 20s. I felt that they're not missing out if I don't have a separate life after college newsletter, podcast, et cetera. And it's just not where my interests are. So life after college they can plug in to pivot. Maybe many of you are here because of that OG website. And then Freetime really needed its own podcast feed, its own newsletter, because that is where I can share my best business insights, advice, quotes, books I'm reading, et cetera. And for many, many years I did not give myself permission to do that, I felt insecure and maybe at some point I was correct. Like I just hadn't been in business long enough. It really used to bother me, people who would leave a corporate job and then a year later they're selling courses on just business expertise, like as if they've been running their own business for 20 years. That didn't interest me. In fact, I created a course in 2012 which is a signal of my interest in this area. It was called build your business and people loved it. I was sharing what I had learned in the first year of solopreneurship. So in a way, I was a good person to share because I was brand new and I knew what I had just gone through and I knew what some of the hurdles were, but I just could not bring myself to relaunch it because I was feeling like a fraud and I was feeling like I just hadn't been through enough yet to credibly talk about it. To this day, I still have those imposter syndrome moments. Yes, I'm 11 years in, but where I would just be very hesitant and say, well, I am not earning millions of dollars in my business. Well, I'm not the best manager, I'm not the best delegator, I'm not the best systems thinker on ear. I'm not making the most money. And I would hold myself back because I was thinking I could always name a handful of people who were better at each of those areas than me. I could name people who were earning more money. I could name people who seem to have delegation and their team figured out better than me. Same thing with systems. And this is just the nature of my personality. I'm sharing it because maybe you feel this way too. Maybe you tend to put a ceiling on your own self or hold yourself back. And if you do, you're human and you're in good company. Not everyone I know is like this. Some people are just all out, don't care. Whatever they're interested, they go for it. I think it's kind of also a consequence I share in pivot, the Dunning Kruger effect, that the more you read or the smarter you are. I'm not saying who knows what level of smartness I have. Who knows almost the more insecure you feel because you know what you don't know. Because I read so many books and especially business books, and even my brother, he and I have our own little mini book club. I just know what's out there. I know what expertise looks like in so many different areas. But when the pandemic hit and my speaking gigs really cleared out and I had so much less client work, this was where my heart was. And in fact it was my private community for small heart based business owners that we kept each other afloat in 2020. That recurring revenue from that membership community was a huge boost for navigating 2020 for me and my business, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, financially. I just decided to take a risk that I didn't know and I don't know how interested companies are going to be in free time. I think there's a ton in the book that's relevant to them, but it's maybe a little edgy because just like it was with Pivot, I was nervous no one would want me to come in because they wouldn't want their employees pivoting left and right or pivoting out of the company. But then to my surprise and delight, a ton of companies did bring me in. And again, it was big in terms of my revenue pie. But also my joy is keynote speaking and working with companies in that way. So even though I am nervous about free time, I don't know who it's going to resonate with on the speaking side of things. I still felt like it was time for me to take a risk and go in this direction and talk about the things I'm really passionate about. The things that I just have to naturally obsess over every day because I am running my own business. Sometimes I hesitate because I don't want to create a pyramid scheme style business where like I make money by teaching you how to make money by then teaching others how they can make money. There's a little overlap there, but by focusing on operational efficiency, I'm kind of focusing on how to save time, free up time, free up money, make things more joyful and easeful. So it's not just a direct, hey, let me teach you how to make money online. And therefore that's how I'm going to make money online. You know, no shade to the people who do that. That's like a very, very lucrative line of business. I know for sure. Because what do people want to pay for? They will pay to learn how to make that money go farther. So if you can do it and you could do it well, I have no problems with that. What I don't like are the just the shenanigans where I feel that people are inauthentic or they don't really know what they're doing or I don't know, just this is where my love of heart based business comes in of just doing business like a little more consideration for all involved.

But alas, that rant is for another day. So this is what brings us to this juncture where now I have two very active businesses. Of course, the Pivot podcast is coming out every two weeks and freetime comes out twice a week. But that's just for now. The whole point of pivoting and being flexible and adaptable and not needing a five year plan is seeing what works. And that's the third stage of the pivot method. The first one is plant. Double down on your strengths and what's working, and that includes your energy strengths, as my friend Josh calls them. So that's free time for me. Business building was something I've done since I'm a little kid. That strength, that interest has always been there, and tools and technology always been there. Writing, always been there. In fact, I used to get out the little camcorder and record fake news broadcasts. So I feel in this moment, that's essentially what I'm doing sitting in front of a microphone. For all of you, Plant is also about one year vision. What does success look like a year from now? Scan people skills and projects related to the plant stage and then pilot. We cannot have the answers to our pivots up front. I say this all the time, and it is one of the biggest messages that I share when I'm giving a keynote speech. You do not need to know the answer to your pivot before you start. So as I sit here recording this with the free time launch around the corner, I have no clue if it's going to work. I really don't. The momentum feels really exciting. It feels like the most aligned book that I've done yet. As much as I loved Pivot, and I'm so proud of it, but I have no clue. I just have no clue how things are going to go. So all I can keep doing is putting one foot in front of the other. In a previous episode, I say put yourself in the path of pivot. You cannot know the answers. Sometimes you just need to put yourself in the path of pivot and then see what develops. So in this case, by me writing and launching a new book, I'm putting myself in the path of pivot. I'm seeing what's possible and I will know what to do once I get going down this path, but I won't know right up front. And every next stage is just an exercise in trust and having a little faith and trying to tune in and see what would be most helpful, most interesting listening to all of you, taking your feedback and then making the next set of decisions from there. I hope you found this helpful or interesting in some way. I know it's kind of just a rambler about my path in the last few years, but I get this question a lot. So I figured that maybe all of you here would find it interesting. And also to know that I don't have everything neatly tied up in a boat either. And here I am by living the message of Pivot. Yes, it has led to creating a new book and a new area of the business and I'm really curious to see what happens from here. Thank you so much as always for being here, for listening, for showing me the joy of podcasting. You started it by just being here, listening, encouraging, submitting questions, and now I hope for those of you that fit into the free time square or it's actually like busting out of the box and thinking about time and work and money differently. I can't wait to hear from you. I can't wait to hear what you think of the book. Check it out. You can still get the early audiobook for free if you pre order or if you order now. It's not I have to stop saying pre if you order the hardcover, just go to itsfreetime.com book and once you have read it, I would be super duper grateful for a rating and a review on Amazon. That's@itsfreetime.com Amazon thank you so much everybody.

Thank you 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 ennyblake.

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

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