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.

Mind

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51: Die Empty — With Todd Henry

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51: Die Empty — With Todd Henry

"You cannot pursue greatness and comfort at the same time . . . How do you set in motion a course of action that will allow you to unleash your best, most valuable work while you still can?"
—Todd Henry, Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day

Many people want to avoid thinking about death, let alone talking about it—not to mention writing a book on the subject. Not Todd Henry. True to the concept of memento mori, reflecting on death to be more present and grateful in life, Todd believes contemplating death helps us fully explore and realize our creative gifts. I absolutely loved this conversation and Todd's thoughts on how to "die empty" without feeling pressure to do it all; how to minimize minutiae and pursue great work while also riding out natural dips in creativity, transition, or clarity.

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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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40: The Upside of Stress with Kelly McGonigal

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40: The Upside of Stress with Kelly McGonigal

"My heart is pounding because my heart is in it. Because I care. Because my body is getting ready to rise to this challenge."

—Kelly McGonigal, author of The Upside of Stress

Have you fallen into the trap of thinking that all stress is toxic? If so, you may be unknowingly compounding the effects of it on your body and mind—or at least missing out on some of the benefits and insights stress has to offer. Kelly McGonigal, a pioneer in the field of "science help" and one of my favorite authors, debunks a number of stress myths in the episode.