Pivot with Jenny Blake

I’m so excited to share this week’s Pivot conversation with one of my longtime friends and most important mentors, Michael Bungay Stanier. We talk about tipping points, preparing for TED Talks, and transitioning out of the CEO role from the company he founded nearly 20 years ago, Box of Crayons. We are also celebrating the launch of his latest brilliant book, The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curio...

This week’s episode was recorded while on the road, preparing to speak at the International Monetary Fund to help them kick-off new career programs for 2020 (an honor!). Thankful for a quiet hotel room all to myself in the midst of puppy-training (semi)chaos, I stacked a call with my attorney for a licensing contract, then recorded this interview and two solo shows — true to this week’s topic of n...

In this week’s solo episode, we have the two-month report from the puppy training trenches! Michael and I brought Ryder home December 8, our little angel-in-a-fur-coat — aka the pup-pup. Take one look at his 8-week old cuteness in the photo gallery below and you'll understand why! For inquiring minds, he's a German Shepherd—albeit a tiny one in the early photos, he has doubled in size in just two...

In 2007, while working within Sheryl Sandberg’s Online Sales and Operations organization at Google, I received a coaching session that changed my life. This was before the word coaching (and careers revolving around it) was ubiquitous outside of the sports arena. In this episode I share more about how that one session helped spark an entire movement that’s still alive within Google today: an inter...

This week’s episode is another one of my favorite formats, just two new (soul) friends shooting the breeze in what we’ve dubbed a “podcast tango” :) Given that we both have podcasts, we decided to just hit record and do this joint conversation, neither of us officially interviewing the other. I hope you enjoy this conversation jam with insta-BFF Kristoffer “KC” Carter (shout-out to our mutual mens...

Kelly McGonigal joins us this week to kick-off 2020 with a candid conversation on why movement is integral to our happiness and our humanity. Learn how to harness the power of authentic, joyful movement to create meaning and connection that goes far beyond the way we look or what the scale reads. And for those of you in the NYC area, join us this week, Thursday January 9, for Jumpstart Joy 2020: a...

This week’s episode is a special behind-the-scenes preview from my live monthly Pivot Insider community Q&A call. In our December call (last one of the decade!) I shared my favorite things Oprah-style, why I launch everything in an “imperfect,” incomplete state, my go-to workouts from home, and questions submitted from the group on side hustles and staying motivated. Enjoy more intimate conversati...

Laura Simms and I have been traveling parallel Pivot paths for a while now — nearly a decade of tracking each other’s work, but finally for the first time speaking live, 1:1! Of course we hit it off as fast friends, as we discuss ageism, passion vs. purpose, and working through insecurities when navigating career pivots. Laura is an expert in meaningful work who challenges conventional wisdom by a...

The Penney & Jenny Show is back! The latest installment (PJ Show #11!) answers a listener Q&A about pivoting out of toxic situations at work. Penny and I discuss how we evaluate when to stay vs. go, discerning normal ups and downs from true toxicity, and the highest emotional state that acts as a tuning fork and compass to pull you forward into a new direction and a new lease on life. Enjoying the...

To help you kick-off the new year in style and soul-aligned next steps, I’m back with my annual Set Your Pivot Strategy episode! New and improved with the best resources and reflection questions to help you explore a powerful vision for 2020 :) I encourage you to get out a pen and paper for this one—yes, analog-style—and pause frequently to journal for as long as you’d like on each prompt. Go big!...

Creating online courses does not require huge investment in time or money. Although they certainly can cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce, with professional video editing and branding, they don't have to. In fact, my favorite way to create and launch a course is with my future students! This follows agile design principles (check out the agile manifesto here). The goal is developing rapi...

If you’re attempting any creative or business endeavor, you know that it’s one of the great personal development journeys a person can undertake. Dips, mood drops, discouragement, disillusionment — these are all natural byproducts of forging new territory and taking on the vulnerability and uncertainty that come with creating anything new in the world. John Jantsch is one of my longtime business m...

We’re back with the latest listener Q&A! This round is on a podcast listener success story (and mentors-from-afar), as well as a great question from Mark on how to deal with so much sitting throughout the work day. As always, if you’d like to submit for a future round, leave me a brief voice note at PivotMethod.com/ask. 📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mention...

“We don’t even need to talk about the new book,” Neil said as we started our Skype call, while I thumbed through the dog-eared, underlined, and marked-up pages of the You Are Awesome galley. Ooh, fun! Knowing I have a tendency to focus too much on the paper artifact in front of me while interviewing authors, rather than what’s True and present in the moment, I decided to chuck all my potential que...

Given the “mutation of television’s DNA” that reporter Jonah Weiner describes in his fantastic New York Times Magazine article, The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV, there is much we can learn about where the creative economy is heading, how to stand out, and how to Pivot your own creative projects. This article is so juicy—so jam-packed with insights into where TV is heading that parallels publish...

I’ve been a big fan of Marianne’s writing, Be a Free Range Human, since my earliest days as a solopreneur; and in fact, she crossed my radar when my blog was just a budding baby side-hustle, but we hadn’t connected in real-time until this conversation. A longtime advocate for going your own way in life and work, Marianne shares where many solopreneurs go wrong: leaving a suffocating, one-size-fits...

What does horse whispering have in common with entrepreneurship? More than you might think; unless you are already running your own show and know exactly how fickle taming a wild new business can be! I loved this conversation with Eileen Kenney on her trials as a single mom building a business, her resilience in the face of dips and defeat, her obsession with horses, and how she navigates every ne...

Quick reminder! Doors close for Momentum Enrollment on Tuesday, October 15 — learn more and enroll at PivotMethod.com/Momentum if you’re looking for super smart systems and strategies to design your ideal six-figure business in 2020 and beyond :) This week’s episode is another fun Podcast Row conversation, and this time I got to geek out on two topics I haven’t talked much about publicly: one of t...

If you are a heart-based business owner, and you want to learn how to earn twice as in half the time, with ease and joy while serving the highest good, then I invite you to join us as an official Momentum Member! Visit http://PivotMethod.com/Momentum to learn more about my private community for side-hustlers and solopreneurs, and how we can support you with systems and strategies to build your ide...

Do you ever experience “design block” or personal branding BLEGH when you think about how to present yourself and your business online? If so, you are not alone! That makes at least two of us :) You are going to love this episode with brand strategist Kaye Putnam on authentic expression, the 12 brand archetypes, and why sometimes understanding our own brand is like reading a label from the inside...

Sometimes the Audio Gods just do not shine upon you, and that’s what happened during this super fun experimental interview with my brilliant friend Charlie Gilkey! My mic is “hot” (aka way too loud), but I hope you’ll forgive me and listen anyway, as Charlie shares SO. MUCH. GOLD!! We even go into “extreme coaching” mode together at the end, as we discuss topics from his new book, Start Finishing:...

We have a verrrry special guest this week in honor of his big birthday month, and that’s my dad—Jim Blake! He happened to be in town visiting on a day that I was participating in Podcast Row, an all-day podcasting extravaganza at Stand-up New York. My first guest had a last-minute emergency and had to bow out, so with no notice I pulled my dad onto the main stage and interviewed him about his book...

“When you witness a dark thought – you witness it, and love it. You love your dark thoughts. The witness is part of the soul, and the soul loves everything.” —Ram Dass from “Dark Thoughts” with East Forest In this episode, East Forest joins us to discuss his latest album, Ram Dass, and his time in Maui to record these exclusive new teachings from an enlightened master. After capturing Dass’ words...

How can I earn twice as much in half the time, with joy and ease, while serving the highest good for all involved? This is one of the central questions in my solo+preneur-based business, one that builds a habit (okay, okay, obsession) of looking for simple systems and strategies to help free our time, mind, and money. This episode is preview lesson from my new—totally free!—mini-course, Free-up Fo...

In her book, The Making of a Manager: What To Do When Everyone Looks To You, author Julie Zhuo takes us back to the childhood lemonade stand in a way that flipped a major “aha” lightbulb switch for me. As the founder of a budding business, you might be the best at making lemonade, or at least think you are, even as you hire helpers to (wo)man the stand. But if you only ever make lemonade you’ll on...