80: What Happens After You Pivot? (New Paperback Afterword)

Hi, this is Charles Michael Davis. 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.

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.

Hello my beloved Pivot Podcast listeners. I hope your 2018 is off to an amazing start. I am doing something nice for my future self today. I'm recording this in December, knowing that by the time you're hearing it, I will have just returned from Beirut and Paris. I'm going to visit Michael's family, he's from Lebanon and then his best friend who just had a baby in Paris. So rather than try and scramble to record something the night upon returning, I'm recording this now and going straight to you in the future. Let me know how the new year is so far. I mentioned in last week's episode on setting your pivot strategy for 2018 that I would get back to you with my word of the year. So, so tentatively I'm going to go with Flow now. A couple Years ago in 2015 I had the phrase hustle and flow and flow was kind of this tack on to hustle, which was like, girl, get it done. I had just gotten a book deal in 2014 for Pivot, and I remember 2015 was just all about the grind. Writing the book, researching the book, building my business, trying to just claw my way back from what had been a very low point financially while I figured out what was next, which of course is what inspired me to write Pivot in the first place. And this year, Flow, my tack on is with Love. So I've been very inspired by my conversations with Penny. Many of you have heard them. We've done five now, the Penny and Jenny show for the Pivot Podcast. But Flow with Love is really about how can I continue to really go with the energy of the moment, the energy of my business, the energy of what projects are most compelling to me go with the flow in the moment, being present. And then this With Love piece is really what would love do in any situation? One of my favorite business questions or mantras is let it be easy, let it be fun. And the question form is how can I optimize for revenue and joy? One of my favorite books that I read last year is called Creating Money and it's all about how money is energy. So so part of Flowing With Love is also making business plans and choosing projects that feel really exciting and compelling. They're a resonant yes and that facilitate the highest good for all involved, whether it's me, it's you, it's anyone whom the work touches. So this is what I'm thinking about at the moment and I'm curious to know what your word is for 2018 or your theme, if you have one yet. I find this is really helpful. Even if I forget it a couple months in, it's always nice to check back in and see how it's going. And as I mentioned in the Set yout 2018 pivot strategy episode, it's also really fun to put your word or theme in the center of a piece of paper and do a big mind map. A big sprawling Let yourself go crazy. Do not censor yourself. Write as much as you can, fill the page mind map on everything that that theme has you thinking about, and all the aspects of your life and career that you would want to focus on through that lens. For today's episode, I'm excited to share with you the audiobook edition of the Afterword. So when the paperback of Pivot came out In September of 2017, I later in the fall recorded this afterwards. So once it shifts into me reading it, you'll hear me with like audiobook voice. It's a little different than this casual format. And, you know, I don't know what's better or for worse. It's funny, I was absolutely adamant about being the one to read my audiobook for Audible, but it's not a given. As authors, we actually have to lie. Like send in audition audio snippets in order to do that, and then there's no training at all. You can talk to fellow authors who've done it, but really you just kind of go into the studio and you're reading off of an iPad, and every time you mess up, the audio producer on the other side of the recording studio stops you and you redo and it takes about two days, I would say. Took me 10 hours total. So anyway, it's very tiring Actually, it's very tiring to look at an iPad screen and try and read a whole book flawlessly or with minimal mistakes. But I thought you would enjoy hearing the Afterword, partly because so many of you who are here were my Pivot book early adopters. You're the ones that bought the book in hardcover before there was an afterword. So if you have the paperback, this might be redundant for you, but it's just launching now, this Afterword edition for Audible. So if you haven't yet gotten your copy of Pivot, either by paperback or by audio, I encourage you to do so. It's a great way to think about how you want to grow this year within your current role, within your business, even within creative projects. On that note, I'm still doing my prototype secret beta launch of the Pivot Planner notepad. It's this 8 and a half by 11 notepad that I mentioned in last week's show that I'm going to sell at cost. Just the cost of production and shipping for any of you who want to try it out. And there's 25 sheets with the full Pivot method on each one to help you. I use this actually a lot when I was writing the book, whenever I'd get stuck on something or when I'm thinking of pivoting even one of my income streams like I know it needs, it has room for improvement, but I don't know the answers yet as to what that should be. So if you want to get in on this, the page will be live for at least one more month. Head over to pivotmethod.com notepad okay, now we'll get into the afterword and you're going to hear me talk about two of my post Pivot phases of what happens after you pivot the Void, surfing the Void, and the Pilot Derby. I hope you enjoy. Can't wait to hear what you think, as always, and just wishing you the most amazing start to 2018.

What happens after you Pivot? He was alone, he was unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart of life. James Joyce.

I wrote Pivot because for most of my 20s. I'm 34. At the time of this reading, I wasn't feeling very resilient in the face of change. Any setback, large or small, in my career or personal life made me anxious and afraid. I felt like I was in a raft on the ocean, getting rocked by every wave while everyone else was sailing around the world in a cruise liner. The question that sparked Pivot was someone asking me. So what's next? When my first book came out in 2011, although I didn't have the answer in that moment, the anxiety that arose when grappling with the question planted the seed that later became this book. I craved a better process for tackling uncertainty and determining next steps so that I could become more agile in the face of life's inevitable waves of change. When Pivot launched, I faced the same question once again. For three years, my career identity had been writing a book called Pivot. After it hit stores in September 2016, I wondered anew who am I beyond working on this project? What will happen next? How will my business evolve? As I enter my sixth year of full time self employment, readers also started asking me, what happens after you pivot? Just as with crafting a career vision in the first place, there is no one size fits all checklist. But in this afterward, I'll shed light on two post pivot phases that I experienced after the book was published, the Pilot Derby and the Void. They're related in many ways, and both are made easier by embracing what the Korean Zen tradition calls don't know mind. Although I studied career change for three years while researching and writing Pivot, I still can't predict what comes next, and that's what makes life exciting. By leaning on the pivot stages and creating just enough structure through routines and experiments, I feel much calmer now, more than I ever have in my career, as I surrender to the process and let life surprise me at every next step.

Have fun at the Pilot Derby. As a student of my own method, I prepared pilots for various streams of income prior to the book launch, setting up keynote speaking gigs, training a team of six Pivot coaches to help fulfill one on one career strategy session requests, growing my private momentum community for solopreneurs and side hustlers, and creating a one hour workshop in a box for companies interested in facilitating Pivot workshops. Among several other experiments, I started thinking of pilots as racehorses at the Kentucky Derby, line them up at the starting gate, then observe as objectively as possible which ones pull out ahead. I had no clue which of my pilots would take the lead, but I reminded myself that that was the point. We set up pilots precisely because we don't yet have clarity on what our next strategies should be. By running small experiments, we give pilots a chance to inform us about where to invest further resources based on which ones start picking up speed on their own. Now, a year later, I've been thrilled by the results of my business experiments, even the ones that failed A few examples of False starts I sold only a handful of the spiral bound Pivot workbooks I created to accompany the book and the free online toolkit. I neglected to partner with a Pivot podcast sponsor at the start of the year as I had intended, and I had no takers on the career conversation toolkit that I set up for companies. Not even a single email inquiry, though I'd been sure it would fly off the digital shelves. On the other hand, my keynote speaking has generated far more interest and income since the book launched. A pilot I couldn't be sure would take home the roses in Kentucky Derby speak. However, I sincerely hoped that it would, and I did everything I could to prepare for this possibility, given how much I love working with large audiences and despite the fact that I used to break out in hives and have heart palpitations when doing something as trivial as introducing myself in small group settings. Finally, there are business pilots that are building more slowly but have solid potential, like the Pivot coaching program and momentum. In the first three months of 2017, I had already earned the equivalent of my highest revenue year by following the Pivot process. But there's no way I could have told you prior to the book's publication where exactly that income would come from or even what will unfold moving forward now. If only post launch piloting were that simple. Not all conclusions emerge as clearly or in as linear a manner. Tempting as it may be to try to wrest answers from our pilots when we get impatient and feel like we should already know what to do next, sometimes the best next step is to take none at all, to wait and to rest. As the saying goes, nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Imagine trying to rush a flower. Why haven't you bloomed yet? All the other flowers in this patch of soil have. What is your problem? We wouldn't dream of it. If living on the east coast for six years has taught me anything, it is to appreciate the beauty of seasons, honoring the naked, barren trees in winter as much as the gorgeous cherry blossoms in spring. One thing that surprised me most after the book launched was the change in my own inner seasons. I had no idea just how much space and rest I would end up needing.

Surf the Void after two exciting weeks promoting Pivot, I returned home from the first leg of my speaking circuit and immediately got sucked into the void, that empty, feeling, liminal space after a big transition where you are no longer your old self but not yet the new one. Although I predicted the void might come, and although I maintained all my mind body practices leading up to the launch. It still caught me by surprise just how strongly the impulse to slow down asserted itself. I knew I would need to make room for downtime after experiencing such a big event, figuring maybe I'd lay low for a week or two before bouncing back and preparing for the next phase. But it turned out my body wanted much more time for deep rest. One morning I meditated for 20 minutes sitting upright. Yay. Then immediately tipped over onto my couch to go back to sleep. Checking email was overwhelming. I skipped several weeks of publishing my weekly newsletter and podcast. I was tired to the bone, and not just physically. There was a vacuum created by the energy released after three years of hustling on a legacy project that I love. For three years I was researching and writing a book while running a business, but my new post pivot energy level was so low that just coming up with a few pages for an early draft of this afterward overwhelmed me. It took me six months of pondering and psyching myself up before crushing it. Not quite. I asked for a one month extension on my original deadline instead. Overall, I was in a light and joyful mood, but in a writing sense, I was still completely spent. My career identity was shifting again and I had to accept letting go of my former writing a book self to make room for whatever might follow.

Empty spaces are inevitable after a major pivot or project. The void is a natural part of creativity and change, yet surfing it can still be disorienting no matter how adept you get at pivoting. My surfing strategies included keeping up with daily meditation, easing up on exercise, but still making sure I kept a regular routine and taking extra space by going on my first five day silent meditation retreat over New Year's. After the big marketing push for the book in the fall, I spent several months in maintenance mode, giving myself permission to get the minimum done to keep things afloat without the added pressure of creating anything new. My guiding principle now is faith in flow, a reminder that helps me trust the natural cycles of tension and release, hustle and flow, grit and grace. I listen for what's next, but try not to rush the answer. If the plant stage involves putting a pin in one's desired destination a year from now. Entering my post pivot rest mode was like hitting the current location button in a Maps app. It spun me back and helped me zoom in on where I was right now, not someplace off in the future where I should be. In the words of my friend and fellow author Mitch Joel, instead of only focusing on what's Next, we do well to reflect on the equally important question, what's now?

Embrace, don't know mind if you're heading into a pivot or just coming out of one, know this. You are not alone and you are not crazy. Contrary to how you may feel in the moment, disoriented, discouraged, and perhaps even delusional. Like I once did, know that pivots are much more often a product of our success than any mark of failure. If you've hit a pivot point, especially as a high net growth individual, it means that you have outgrown your previous career incarnation and are ready for something new. By their nature, pivots stretch us beyond our comfort zone. Spare yourself the mistake that I made before discovering the strategies I described in this book, berating myself by thinking that I should already have it all figured out somehow. It's okay to feel that the ground underneath your feet is shaky. Sometimes it is. It won't be forever, but this feeling will come and go in waves. And we do best not to judge any part of the pivot process, whether you're riding a surge of momentum, taking time to retreat, or honoring the space in between. When you encounter roadblocks on your pivot journey, stay curious. Stay open. Stay observant. You may not consciously choose your challenges, though in many ways they are perfectly chosen for you. But you can choose how you respond to them. Sometimes the biggest relief comes from accepting and admitting I don't know. At least not yet. What if you were to just admit that you don't know and let that be an acceptable status quo for the moment? In doing so, you can allow ideas for pilots and next steps to emerge naturally as you follow the clues that surface in each pivot stage. Celebrate progress large and small. Acknowledge the shifts and insights you're making every day, the muscles you build each time. You remember how to return to your strengths, interests and intuition again and again. When you get anxious, stay in your body and slow down. Perhaps the anxiety is a signal that the old way of working or being is not going to work. Moving forward, at least not right now. Breathe. Tune in to your intuition. Ask. Is there anything for me to know in this moment? Is there one specific next step to take? If I trusted myself completely, what would I do? Drop or delegate next? What wisdom would help me move through this day with a greater sense of ease? These are the practices that carve the pivot path toward freedom as you walk it, one purposeful step at a time, day by perfectly imperfect day.

I love when someone approaches me at a book signing after a Pivot workshop and exclaims, it turns out I've been pivoting my whole life. I always thought there was something wrong with me, but now I realize I'm a Pivot pro. Our new economic normal celebrates the crazy ones as the venerated 20 year Apple commercial begins, who are willing to bust out of the status quo and take smart risks. As disorienting as it can be sometimes, the beautiful thing about our new career and business landscape is that we all have the opportunity to become Pivot pros. And the change strategies we're learning in our careers are teaching us how to be more agile across all areas of our lives. So here's to your one next step and may the rest after that surprise and delight you.

One last thing before we wrap up if you are enjoying the Pivot Podcast, there are a couple great ways that you can help support the show. 1. Send this episode or another that resonated with you to a friend. That is an amazing way to help Spread the word. 2. Leave a rating or review in itunes or wherever you subscribe to podcasts that really helps let people know what they can expect by coming. And I love and read every single one. Or three. I invite you to become a founding member of the Pivot Patreon community where for varying levels of support, you get all kinds of amazing perks. Learn more about that@patreon.com pivot thank you all so much for being here for listening and for your ongoing support. This show would not exist without you being here to listen to it.

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

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