86: Grab Bag! Upcoming NYC Workshop, BookRx on Interviewing Tips, and the Upside of Awkwardness

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

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

Hi friends. Welcome back to the show. Quick grabag episode for you today. An announcement about an upcoming live podcast, taping and workshop in New York City, a new feature that I'm testing out or piloting called Book Rx and a theory on the benefits of awkwardness. Let's dive in. First, for those of you who live in New York City or can get over here on February 24th in the afternoon 4 to 6pm at coffee, my friend Monica McCarthy and I are leading a workshop for reluctant writers. This is part of her series called the Write Drunk, which is based on Ernest Hemingway's quote that it's best to write drunk, edit sober. We are going to be walking you through some structure things that have helped me. I consider myself a reluctant writer, so writing is not this romantic activity that just flows from my fingertips every single day as I sip on my tea luxuriously. It's more like I have ideas that I feel really strongly about, I know how I want to communicate or a certain message I want to get across. And then I will, somewhat reluctantly sit down to actually write. I made it through two books with this process and what we want to do is get together at this awesome new venue in the Lower east side called Caveat and bring whatever it is that's on your mind to write. Whether it's a journal entry, your LinkedIn profile, an about page, a wedding speech, even a character description for the first chapter of your novel or a thank you note. There's something important that's been on your mind or on your to do list that you have got to get out of your head and onto the page. And believe me, you do not need to feel like a writer to do it. So come to this workshop. The Write Drunk. We will help you loosen up, get tipsy on inspiration, and put some of those ideas on paper. Now, of course I'm not actually writing nor will I be facilitating this workshop drunk, but let's just say you can have a cup of wine in hand, meet cool people, and Monica and I will do some conversation and Q and A as part of the session. But most of all, I'm super excited that we get to get all of you. Amazing all of you. But those of you who can make it pivot, podcast listeners and community together in one room. You are some of my favorite people. I just get the best notes from you, those of you who are listening. And I'm really excited about the chance to finally do something in person together. So come to this workshop. You'll learn practical tips that you can apply immediately to writing, get something down on paper, connect with awesome people, and enjoy some wine and snacks. So again, that's at Caveat. If you want to sign up, you can go to therightdrunk.com or caveat nyc events caveat nyc events and scroll down. You'll see it's on February 24th. Doors open at 3:30 and we'll kick off at 4:00pm Quick note before we move on, use promo code rightnow for $5 off. Next up, I'm really excited to pilot an idea with all of you called BookRx, as in book Prescription. For many years now, as I devour hundreds of nonfiction books, I've probably read 500 at this point that I track in Goodreads. Though I'm always about 20 to 30 books behind, I am often the one who, when people tell me what's bothering them or what's on their mind, challenges or struggles that they're facing, I'm the one, maybe to a fault, that's saying, oh well, have you read this book and this book? Or I'll give what I consider a book prescription for what ails you. So why not take this public and give you a chance to submit a question? What is something that's on your mind that you want to send in? Something, a challenge, or you're just looking for the perfect book recommendation or two that I can help you out with. You can email me jennyvivotmethod.com either with a written question or record a voice memo on your phone and send me that. Ideally, keep it super short and let me know if you prefer to be anonymous or not. So to kick off this fun experiment, we have Leanne Hughes, who is one of our founding Patreon patrons. That's@patreon.com pivot and without further ado, I will let you hear from Leanne and her question.

Hi Jenny, it's Leanne, a huge Pivot fan from Brisbane, Australia, and my question is this. I've recently started a podcast and I did my first two interviews this week and that was really fun. But wow, I need to lift my game in interviewing. I. I was wondering if you could recommend any resources that I could look into that could help me with the art of the interview. I need to get better asap. Thank you. Love the show.

Awesome. Thanks, Leanne. Thank you so much for the kind words. You're so amazing. I've enjoyed our correspondence so much and I love what you're doing at first time Facilitator. Huge congrats. I think starting a podcast is one of the most rewarding things that you can do, and I know that sometimes it can feel discouraging and, well, I'll get to my riff on awkwardness in a moment. But I love that you're looking to improve your interviewing skills. I found that the podcast has been invaluable for connecting me to people I really admire and helping me do exactly what you're setting out to do, which is improve my presence, improve my listening skills, and improve my ability to draw out the most interesting conversation possible from the people that I'm speaking with. Before I give the three book recommendations, I would say one of the biggest things I've had to learn and my 10 years of doing career coaching has helped me with this, is to be present that it's so easy. I found for me, in the beginning, I was often doing interviews like a book report. I would just look at my notes and I would ask questions only from the person's book or area of expertise. And then I realized I was missing really rich sense of who they are now. What are they thinking about now? What has changed since the book that I read that got immortalized into paper and what's on their mind as they look ahead? So those are some of the things that I try and come to each interview with an idea of questions, but not an attachment to them. And the more I can stay present and listen to what they're saying, not just obsessing over what next question I'm going to ask. It tends to help the conversation flow so much better and allows me to kind of chime in, weigh in, build on what they're saying. In addition to your natural curiosity, there are three books that I read. I haven't finished all three, but the first one is called out on the the Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel. This is a graphic novel and she went around and followed a bunch of show producers and extracted what makes their interviews so successful and how they produce their show. I was dog earing every other page in this one and I found it super helpful and inspiring. Another one, on a related note, you could check out Sound, the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. That's basically what they've learned from producing all of these NPR shows over the years. And then two that I haven't finished, but I'm really excited about Waiting for the words to live by from the WTF podcast. That's Marc Maron and he's just a character and he's so authentic and in the moment with his subjects that I find him really fascinating. And he just doesn't care at all about creating useful content. He's really trying to be super present and in the moment. And then the last one is Terry Gross. So Terry Gross is just one of the the queens of podcasting. Her memoir is called All I Did was Ask Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists. She is really interesting. She doesn't talk too much about herself. That win beats Harry Gross style. But it is interesting to read the interview transcripts that she provides and see what follow up questions does she ask, where does she make bold moves? And then a bonus Leanne, for your question. There's a great podcast called the Turnaround and the host's name is Jesse. He jokes that it's an interview show about interviewers and how they interview or something like that. It's great. So he's interviewing interviewers about interviewing and getting their tips. And so I learned really great things from actually Terry, Marc Maron, Ira Glass, really interesting people. So highly recommend that podcast as you look to grow your skills as well. Thank you again, Leanne for the great question and pivot podcast listeners. You can all submit one too. For the next time I do this book RX feature, just send me a written note or a voice memo@jennyvivotmethod.com.

All right, now on to our third and final component of this grab bag episode, a quick riff on awkwardness. I just recently got a book in the mail from Portfolio Penguin, my publisher, and they're publishing a book called A Theory of Awkwardness from Melissa Dahl, which is really adorable little infant on the COVID making a cringe worthy face. And I haven't read the book yet, but it got me thinking about the last few podcast interviews that I've done, I hung up from Skype feeling so awkward. And I remember kind of kicking myself, like, oh, man, I always have such high hopes. And then I'm kind of bubbling or nervous. And this connects into the perfectionism episode that I did a little while back as well. And then I realized, you know what? If I'm awkward and I hang up feeling awkward, or I go into an interview feeling nervous and awkward, it means I'm doing something right. It means that I am picking the right guests that inspire something in me that I admire so much or that I'm so fascinated by, or that I feel their body of work. And WISD is so vast that I can barely kind of make it through the interview without totally losing myself in a sea of awkwardness. And I offer that to all of you as encouragement that instead of feeling like awkwardness is a sign that you're doing something wrong or that you should somehow fix it, that you're human. And it probably means you're tackling, whether it's interviews or projects, anything at all that are big enough for you. So I, for one, am celebrating awkwardness. I'm celebrating that it means that I'm choosing the right guests for me that are gonna spark something and hopefully spark something for you. I'm so grateful to those of you who email and say that you're enjoying the show or you're liking the new Directions. I'm really just following my curiosity and following someone, because my friend Theo, who's in Momentum, said early on, he's like, your podcast, it's like you're fangirling with everyone. But it's what I like about it. And I know that he's right. I know that. I don't try to put on airs about, like, how cool can I be? Or like, oh, your doesn't faze me. I'm. I just. I'm not shy about saying the impact that people have had on me, and it's led to some really great ongoing relationships that I'm grateful for. And I know the word authenticity gets thrown around a lot, but, you know, it's easy to be authentic when you feel totally graceful and put together. But I also think that awkwardness and just being imperfect is. Is a big part of it as well. So may you all feel awkward at something that you do or something that you're learning in the coming weeks. And please report back. Thanks again for listening to this Grab Bag episode. If you're in New York or you can get here, come to our Reluctant Writers Workshop. It's at caveat on February 24th and again you can register at Caveat NYC Events and submit Book Rx Question what's on your mind? What challenges are you facing that you would love book recommendations around? Email me that jennyvivittmethod.com, and if you love the podcast or even like it a lot and want to support it, you can donate a dollar an episode@patreon.com pivot and I'd be so grateful for your support. Thanks everybody for listening and I'll talk to you soon.

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.