Pivot with Jenny Blake

I'm so grateful to Brooke Siem for opening up and sharing her story with us this week. Not only is she a woman of many talents (ballerina! chef! Chopped champion! bakery owner! crossfitter! writer!), Brooke has spent the last two years sober. Sober from medications that doctors, the assumed authority figures of her life, had been prescribing for the last fifteen years and an estimated 30,000 pills...

It was love at first listen when I first heard Mandy Harvey perform at a fundraiser for Erik Weinenmayer's No Barriers summit coming up here in New York City in October. Erik, a previous guest on the Pivot Podcast (Turning Pain Into Purpose: Blind Adventurer Erik Weihenmayer on Kayaking the Grand Canyon, Climbing Everest and Building No Barriers), said Mandy was a must-meet, and he was right. Her...

Contrary to popular belief that trolling for a new job or client is the drag of all drags, a process that should be hurried through as quickly as possible, Dev Ajula believes our careers can be avenues for inquiry. His book, 50 Ways to Get a Job has a hidden curriculum that stretches so far beyond the job-search, and is relevant to everyone, including entrepreneurs. “Our careers and the questions...

Emily Bennington and I have been on parallel pivot paths since we first connected online in 2011. So imagine my surprise when I was searching on Google images for a visual depiction of the word "Grace." I downloaded my favorite and lo and behold, it was pointing to Emily's site! She had set-upa landing page informing readers about her new direction: teaching others to live and lead with grace, bas...

Amy Clover has a powerful story to share about pivoting her mindset from one of self-flagellation and control toward acceptance and flexibility in body, mind and spirit. After battling for years with eating disorders, depression and a failed suicide attempt in a fitness industry that grew increasingly oppressive, she now teaches people how to build strength from the inside out. In her own words: I...

Is pivoting just a way of rebranding failure as NYT writer Jacob Silverman would have us believe? I say no way José. In fact, pivots are often a product of our success. As I shared in the #PivotList newsletter I wrote in response to Silverman's somewhat snarky article, Silicon Valley start-ups do tend to talk about pivoting in response to their initial strategy failing. Or in the case of Ross from...

When exploring a branch of highly evolved animal consciousness that evolved in parallel (and completely separate) from our own, Sy Montgomery is sure of one thing: “If I have a soul, an octopus does too.” If you want even the tiniest dose of confirmation, try to keep your eyes dry while watching this octopus thank its rescuer in a two-minute video that has garnered 11 million views and counting: r...

This week marks a big milestone for the Pivot Podcast, as we celebrate the 100th episode! This has been more than three years in the making, from the show's early scrappy beginnings in late 2014 when I got the book deal for Pivot, to when I started publishing weekly in earnest in 2015. Podcasting is a labor of love, but the biggest surprises for me have come from the priceless benefits: connecting...

Although many of us aspire to rewarding morning routines (and enjoy geeking out on the best of what others come up with), on some days just getting out of bed is a victory. To this end, one of my favorite quotes from Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander's new book, My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, comes from Ana Marie Cox, a political columnist and culture critic. C...

Jason Wang knows a thing or two about being an underdog. Growing up as an only child of two immigrant parents living through poverty and abuse, he knows all too well the challenges of overcoming obstacles to transform generational legacies of poverty, crime, and violence. I had the great pleasure of meeting him earlier this year at a mentoring night for Defy Ventures, an organization that teaches...

Although it wouldn't be like him to take much (if any) credit, Fred Kofman changed the trajectory of my life. This week I got the privilege of thanking him, live on the Pivot Podcast.  A little backstory: In 2006, while working at Google on the training team under Sheryl Sandberg’s Online Sales & Operations organization, I was fortunate to participate in a three-day immersion called Conscious Busi...

I have always been curious about solopreneurs who choose to stay small, like me. Seven years into running my own business, I still deliberately choose not to scale in a way that requires hiring any full-time employees or buy too much added infrastructure, to support two of my biggest business values of freedom and agility. But that doesn't mean that I exclude higher earnings as a necessary byprodu...

Kate Swoboda believes that "courage can absolutely be cultivated,” just as we improve other skills with habit-building principles in mind. The problem is that sometimes we apply the cue-routine-reward to our fears instead. We get triggered, fall into familiar patterns, then gloss over it with a reward that's a pale replacement for what our heart really wants. What's the alternative? Listen to this...

On a sunny, spring day in 2016 doctors told Keith McArthur his kidneys were about to fail.  Over the next 12 months they continued to break down, no longer able to filter toxins. Poisons built up in his body and brain. He began to feel sick and tired and confused. After a life-saving transplant from one of his sisters, and despite being a lifelong skeptic, Keith began "ingesting every self-help re...

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 God...

What is fear keeping you from doing? Is it worth it? Are you afflicted with an additional form of OCD, Obsessive Comparison Disorder? What are the pivotal plot points of your story, the triumphs and the tragedies? What sacrifices are you willing to make to honor your soul values? These are the powerful questions that my longtime friend Paul Angone asks and collects in his new book, 101 Questions Y...

When my friend Elizabeth pivoted from time management author and coach to divine time management, her faith-based practice of "trusting God's loving plans for you," and with the release of her new book in November, I wanted to have her on the show. But I was nervous at the same time. Is it okay to put faith forward in business? On the podcast? I'm not Christian—would that adversely affect the inte...

In Pivot I ask what your sliding doors career/s might be: in a parallel universe, if time, money and judgement from others were not a factor, what other career paths could you see yourself taking? I play this game with friends even while going about life in New York, calling out alternate reality careers when I see them. For example, in one scenario I’m a book-color-coding consultant for wealthy p...

"My father had been like a broom, constantly sweeping me out into the world, and my mother was like the dustpan gathering up the shattered pieces and rebuilding me, only to have my father sweep me out again."—Eric Weihenmayer, No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon This week's guest, Erik Weihenmayer, needs no introduction beyond his incredible life story and mission, and I c...

“Ultimate freedom would mean having just enough money not to have to think about money, and not to have to work all the time.”—Artist Seth Price, F*ck Seth Price *Language warning for this week's episode if you have kiddos around! Per the book title above :)* I am so excited about this week's guest that I was at peak awkwardness during the interview, so please forgive a few choppy edits here and t...

We're back! Penney Peirce and I continue our ongoing series based on her vast spiritual oeuvre—this time with the microphone tables turned. She's interviewing me as we dive deeper into past lives, alignment practices, saying no to "sexy shoulds," clearing one's personal field to contribute to collective energy healing, marketing and manifesting in an authentic way, and so much more. Be sure to che...

If you're based in NYC or know someone who is, come to my workshop for reluctant writers on Saturday, February 24! Register at http://caveat.nyc/events and use promo code WRITENOW for $5 off.  Introducing BookRx! Submit Your Question for the Pivot Podcast I read anywhere from 5-10 books a month, and probably to a fault, I'm the friend that is always throwing out book recs or "cures" for issues tha...

"Mama well she told me time / is such a wonderful gift / You're not running out / You're really running in."—Lyrics to You Can't Rush Your Healing, by Trevor HallI am absolutely elated to bring you this week's guest—one of my favorite artists, singer/songwriter Trevor Hall. Trevor's divinely-guided music is infused with soul and spirit, and lifts me (and so many others) up who crave connection to...

"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 af...

As soon as I saw this New York Times feature story, As Overdose Deaths Pile Up, a Medical Examiner Quits the Morgue, I knew I had to have Dr. Thomas Andrew on the show. A shift from our typical author guest, Dr. Andrew is working on an incredible career pivot-in-progress. Upset by how many opioid deaths he observed after 20 years as a forensic pathologist (he performed over 5,800 autopsies in the...