Jenny Blake
363: 🌈 Taking a Quiet Sabbatical and ...

As I round the corner into this ninth year of podcasting, after over 700 episodes today, I’m announcing a pause for both shows.

Listen in to hear what factors helped me reach this decision across time, money, energy, depressing industry articles, the pace of both shows’ growth, and mix of additional business factors that make this an important moment to pause and regroup. You might also appreciate the even deeper dive with my longtime friend (and first coach) Adrian Klaphaak in Pivot episode 360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts.

Jenny Blake
362: Setting Creative Intentions Instead of ...

“Expectations are the enemy to the creative process. Sometimes you have to let go of the known to see the unknown.”

Today I’m speaking with James McCrae, an author, poet, and meme artist based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of 🌻 Sunflower Club, a global school and community dedicated to conscious creativity.

Jenny Blake
361: On Decision Engineering and Evaluating ...

Good decision-making is not about omniscience or clairvoyance—it's more about resilience, according to today’s guest, decision engineer Michelle Florendo. “Decision-making is harder than ever before, and it's not your fault,” Michelle says. “People feel like they ‘should just know’ how to decide.”

Today we’re talking about a framework more helpful than pro-con lists, tuning into your head, heart and gut; why the quality of your decision is not equal to the outcome—did good or bad things happen; keeping a decision journal to evaluate the quality of your decisions regardless of the outcome; and how to drop the guilt of “bad” past outcomes.

Jenny Blake
360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision ...

What happens when you make a big decision but still have lingering doubt, fear, and even despair? How do you know when a “download” from the universe is worth following, and what does test-driving a decision look like? What happens on the other side or when a pivot is taking far longer than planned?

We’re unpacking all these topics in today’s twelfth and final (for now) conversation for the Pivot x Career Pathfinder series with Adrian Klaphaak.

Jenny Blake
359: “You can’t give what you don’t have” — ...

“You can’t give what you don’t have.” That’s just one of the powerful lessons that Nataly Kogan learned the hard way seven years ago, after suffering a debilitating phase of burnout. As a former refugee from the former Soviet Union, she began her American journey in the projects and on welfare, then going on to build an impressive career as a finance and tech executive and serial entrepreneur over the next 25 years. Until she crashed at thirty-eight years old and needed to find a new way of moving forward.

As part of her healing process, Nataly began to paint when she was 40 by signing up for a painting retreat in Tuscony (that turned out to be for semi-professional watercolorists), and now her paintings are on the cover of her books—front and center as part of her bold self-expression.

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93: Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference with Kathleen Kelly Janus

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93: Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference with Kathleen Kelly Janus

You all know how I love serendipity—well, this week's guest, Stanford professor and philanthropist Kathleen Kelly Janus, and I met in one of my favorite ways! Sitting next to each other on an airplane. Kathleen was traveling to New York City to meet with publishers to try to get a book deal, Pivot was about to come out, and I had known her agent Lisa DiMona for many years (she represented Seth Godin at the time I met him). 

I'm thrilled to share that in the two years since we met, Kathleen's book, Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference, has launched! In this episode we dive into what makes fundraising for non-profits different from for-profit businesses, why so many hit revenue plateaus, why success is based far more on measurable inputs and small experiments than having a "genius" founder, and how to get involved with causes you care about if you find the vast array of volunteering and donating opportunities a bit intimidating. 

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84: Former CIA Agent Michele Assad Returns: On Transforming Insecurities Into Intuition and Faith

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84: Former CIA Agent Michele Assad Returns: On Transforming Insecurities Into Intuition and Faith

"Though trepidation has haunted me every step of this journey, I have a trusted force that I cannot see." —Michele Rigby Assad, Breaking Cover: My secret life in the CIA and what it taught me about what's worth fighting for

When faced with life-or-death situations on a daily basis, Michele Rigby Assad knew she had to turn to something greater than herself for support. Drawn toward international affairs as a child obsessed with reading National Geographic, she later spent 10 years working undercover in the CIA, interrogating terrorists while stationed in the most dangerous war zones across the Middle East.

Michele's journey is a fascinating one, and I loved our first conversation so much (listen here) that I asked her back for round two to celebrate her book, Breaking Cover, launching this week!! After a seven year journey with this project, we talk about finding courage in unexpected places, trusting that puzzle pieces are falling into place even when she felt stuck or blocked, and how allowing herself to "be shaped" has provided far greater blessings and guidance than she could have ever imagined.  

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

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

What happens after you pivot? In today’s episode I’m sharing the afterword I wrote for the paperback edition of Pivot, that I recently recorded for the audiobook version. That’s right, Pivot is on Audible, read by yours truly in case you want me to read to you as you cook, commute, clean, etc! 

In this short audiobook snippet episode, I share a little bit about the audiobook recording process, then dive in to two post-pivot stages that you might have missed if you read (or listened) to the first edition of the book: the pilot derby and surfing the void. I also share an approach that helps me better navigate both: Don’t-Know Mind, from the Korean Zen tradition. 

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76: On Plan Z, Creative Finish Lines and the Graceful No—with Alexandra Franzen

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76: On Plan Z, Creative Finish Lines and the Graceful No—with Alexandra Franzen

"Please remember that every person you love and admire—every author, every artist, every business owner, every luminary who seems to 'have it all together'—just remember that their story is filled with hundreds of awkward firsts, too."
—Alexandra Franzen

It was love at first read when I encountered Alexandra Franzen online, and it has been ever since. She's a delightful, talented, prolific writer and thinker who seems to always write just what I need to hear. I love how Alex has pivoted her business over the years, and she's someone I love looking toward for inspiration and insight.

In this episode we talk about opening a brunch restaurant with her boyfriend, why she finds it helpful to dive into details on her Plan Z, how she makes time for art (so she doesn't feel "squished and sad"), her best tips for getting clients over their creative finish lines, why she quit twitter, how she says a graceful no, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! 

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71: Finding Faith, Courage and Confidence as a Secret Agent—Michele Rigby Assad's Pivot from CIA to Author

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71: Finding Faith, Courage and Confidence as a Secret Agent—Michele Rigby Assad's Pivot from CIA to Author

"Was it hard to be a CIA officer with all of the challenges and change that entailed? Yes. Scary? Of course. But if I was going to fulfill my life mission, I had to conquer my instinctual tendency to freeze in place. Fear would get me nowhere. Faith, however, would take me to places I could never have imagined."

—Michele Rigby Assad, Breaking Cover: My secret life in the CIA and what it taught me about what's worth fighting for

Grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in, because this weeks guest is a fascinating one, a one-of-a-kind woman I'm lucky to call a friend. Michele Assad was a self-described "sweet, faith-based southern girl" in high school, the last you'd expect to become an international undercover agent for the CIA, interrogating terrorists while stationed at war zones across the Middle East. But that's exactly what she did for ten years with her husband in a real-life Mr. and Mrs. Smith situation.

In this conversation we dive into what it was like to work as a woman in interrogation rooms even when everyone told her she'd only succeed behind the scenes doing paperwork; the role of faith in Michele's career, how she honed her skills around intuition and reading body language, and what it's like for her to "come out" and try to build a public-facing platform after so many years of being required to keep her entire life secret. 

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63: Artist as CEO — with Jenny Blake, Michel Karsouny & Kerri Lowe

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63: Artist as CEO — with Jenny Blake, Michel Karsouny & Kerri Lowe

This is a special episode on Artist as CEO, featuring my guy, Michel Karsouny. My longtime blog friend Kerri Lowe, who helps produce a narrative podcast called ArtistCEO, came over to our studio apartment to facilitate a free-flowing conversation about all things art and business. Michel and I met over a year ago walking in opposite directions down a New York City sidewalk — how's that for the magic of serendipity?! Find out how we navigate the highs and lows of creative living, moving beyond burnout, and balancing the business side of art-making with opening up space for the unknown. 

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45: Post-Launch Pivot Point + Visit From the Furry Rest Monster

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45: Post-Launch Pivot Point + Visit From the Furry Rest Monster

What happens just after you pivot? Can you sit at the edge of uncertainty around what's next—and its ensuing discomfort—and not try to fix it? After two very exciting weeks launching PIVOT, I returned home and immediately got sucked into The Void.

The need for rest was all consuming. I was tired to the bone, and not just physically. It was the vacuum created by the energetic release of three years of hustling on a legacy project. The Void is a natural part of the creative process, and yet surfing it still feels disorienting every time. My mantra for this round: faith in flow. Trusting the natural cycles of building and release, hustle and flow, grit and grace.

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27: Intuition and Frequency with Penney Peirce

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Intuition is an innate gift, one available to all of us, and a skill—a muscle that you can build with practice and attention. I am thrilled to bring you today’s podcast, an interview with intuition expert Penney Peirce, whose books have had an enormous impact on my life. Reading The Intuitive Way kicked off two years of coincidence tracking, intuition studying, and surrendering to serendipity—and completely transformed the way I go about my day-to-day life. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and stay tuned: we’ll be doing a follow-up on dream interpretation in a future episode!

ABOUT PENNEY PEIRCE

Penney Peirce is a gifted intuitive empath and visionary, and one of the pioneers in the intuition development movement. She is a popular author, lecturer, counselor, and trainer specializing in intuition development, “skillful perception,” transformation, and dreamwork. She is the author of The Intuitive Way, Frequency, Leap of Perception, Dream Dictionary for Dummies, Dreams for Dummies, and The Present Moment: A Daybook of Clarity and Intuition.

Penney has worked throughout the US, Japan, South Africa, and Europe since 1977 as a coach to business executives, coaches, psychologists, scientists, other trainers, and those on a spiritual path. Peirce’s work is open-minded, practical, and sophisticated, synthesizing diverse cultural and spiritual world views with many years’ experience in business as a corporate art director with such companies as Atlantic Richfield and American Hospital Supply Corporation. She is extraordinarily attuned to the intricacies of the mind and the dimensions of human awareness, blending a deep understanding of natural laws with a designer’s skill in structural patterning.

Penney emphasizes the practical aspects of intuitive development and transformation, helping people apply “direct knowing” to increase natural efficiency and their enjoyment/participation level in life. Her work assists people and organizations in uncovering life purpose and action plan, understanding and easing transitions, alleviating burnout, and finding accurate answers to pressing questions. She believes that life functions according to innate natural principles, and when we live in alignment with these truths, things work smoothly and effectively.

TOPICS WE COVER

  • Intuition as a tool for accessing information through “direct knowing”

  • How to develop your intuition and learn to trust it

  • The difference between gut instinct and intuition

  • Question and answer come at the same moment

  • Intuitive writing and journaling; many creative projects get done with intuitive help

  • Moving from the Information Age into the Intuition Age; how to embrace transformation

  • Navigating change in relationships

  • The creation cycle: going from inspiration and vision in your right brain, to transferring it to the left brain for planning, to the physical work and manifestation

  • Placing attention rather than intention

  • How to avoid being an energy sponge, and shift back into your home frequency when you get off-balance

  • The importance of dream journals—even if you don’t remember your dreams

PODCAST: INTUITION AND FREQUENCY WITH PENNEY PEIRCE

Press play on the embedded player below or listen on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast:

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and new tools I’m geeking out on.

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22: Success on Your Own Terms with Derek Sivers

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“To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point. When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line.” —Derek Sivers, Ask Me Anything

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12: Belly of the Pivot Beast: On Bouncing Back from Zero with Adam Chaloeicheep

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When is it time to wipe the slate clean and start over when you hit a breaking point in your career?

  • How can travel play a role in the reflection process?
  • How do you bounce back from zero when you have wiped out your savings?
  • What makes graduate school worth the time, energy and money?
  • How do you build a business, even when you don’t love the initial work that is coming in?
  • How can you embrace fear, uncertainty and failure?