Pivot with Jenny Blake

Today’s episode is adapted from a workshop I teach within organizations for managers, mentors, and coaches on how to apply the four-stage Pivot Method framework as a 1:1 coaching framework. I’m sharing seven of my go-to coaching questions and practical tips to make rapid progress and generate memorable aha moments in any career coaching conversation.What’s your favorite strategy for accelerating aha moments? Share with me for a future follow-up podcast episode at http://pivotmethod.com/ask.If you’re interested in hosting a session like this within your organization, learn more at http://pivotmethod.com/companies.🌟 3 Key Takeaways: Breathe life into idea balloons: Pay attention to the little clues in body language and/or voice tone, then prompt them by noticing and inviting them to “say more about that.” You don’t need the most creative or original questions of all time—or even original at all. Simple is best: What do you really want to happen? What else? What’s important to you about that?  Ask for insights or aha moments: Invite your coachee to share what stood out most from your conversation, and what small resonant steps they want to take action on.  ✅ Next Action: Practice allowing awkward silence, especially when you ask a zinger like, “What does your gut say?” 📘 Books Mentioned: Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want mBraining: Using Your Multiple Brains to Do Cool Stuff 🔗 Resources Mentioned:  Coach: Adrian Klaphaak  Adrian’s Program: Career Pathfinder  Jenny’s LinkedIn Learning Courses: LinkedIn Learning—Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team  LinkedIn Learning—Figuring Out Your Next Move Coaching New Hires Coaching New Managers Managing Introverts Related Podcast Episodes:  273: Powerful Questions and Neural Pathways 177: Pivot Method as 4-Stage Coaching Framework 153: How to Create an Internal Coaching Program for Your Organization 26: Tame the Advice Monster with Michael Bungay Stanier  ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/279 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From cupcake tweetups to avoiding compare-and-despair traps, Jamie Varon is a long-time friend—the first person I met from Twitter back in 2008—who I always appreciate catching up with. Today we’re talking about her debut book, Radically Content: Being Satisfied in an Endlessly Dissatisfied World. More about Jamie: Jamie Varon is a writer, designer, course creator, and creative consultant. Her writing has been featured across the internet for over a decade, from Complex to the Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, The Liberty Project, and GOOD.🌟Key Takeaways: Recognize and choose not to play the unwinnable games like looking a certain way, or being liked by everyone. Mind the gap. Appreciate the time and space in between where you are and the outcomes you’re working towards for the joyful journey it is, rather than waiting for a finish line that might never come.  Have conviction in the work you create, and promote it confidently.  ✅ Next Action: Embrace non-conformity. It may feel like a flaw, but it is the source of your strength and creativity. Cherish it.📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want Radically Content: Being Satisfied in an Endlessly Dissatisfied World Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear 🔗 Resources Mentioned:  Jamie on the Web, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,  Jamie’s Course: Live with Intention Jim Carrey on Being Famous (Start at 18:25)  Related Podcast Episodes:  047: Live Fiercely, Study Deeply . . . While Earning a Living — with Jonathan Fields Work in Progress with Sophia Bush Podcast Ep 128 Free Time 031: Eleventh-Hour Creative Gremlins  ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/278 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does your calendar reflect your values and priorities? Do you pause before responding to requests, or are you saying yes to things out of fear, pressure, or obligation?I’m delighted to be in conversation with my dear friend Sarah Young this week on creating clear containers, clean vs. dirty energy, navigating “spiritual tornados of leadership,” handling inevitable criticism, and moving past people-pleasing toward acting in the path of highest integrity.Be sure to check out Sarah’s brand new beautiful book, Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments, and subscribe to her fantastic Friday Favorites newsletter! It’s one of my favorite messages in my inbox every week :)More About Sarah: Sarah Young is the Founder and CEO of Zing Collaborative and the author of Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments. She works with a handful of highly conscious and committed clients who want to elevate and expand their leadership capacity. Sarah runs retreats, workshops, and speaking events to help leaders further develop through an approach that blends corporate experience, research, mindfulness, leadership, coaching, and experiential learning. She has a deep appreciation for nature, travel, sunshine, warm weather, paddle boarding, rescue dogs, cooking, coffee, and the precious hours of the early morning.🌟 3 Key Takeaways: If you find it hard to create time for yourself, building time for personal projects and R&R right into your calendar. Ask to meet over the phone or while walking, instead of screen-fatigue inducing video calls. Use a decision filter before saying yes. Ask yourself: “is this fully in line with my values and priorities?”  Remember that you can do everything right to communicate clearly and with integrity, and sometimes it still may not work if the other person doesn't have the desire to meet you halfway.   📝 Permission: Skip the comment section. You don’t need to engage where the energy doesn’t feel right. Sometimes people are just waiting to pounce, and you don’t have to provide the opportunity.✅ Do or Delegate This Next: Pause. Find a moment in the day where you can pause before you respond to something, reflecting on whether it connects with your values and how you want to engage in the world. 📘 Books Mentioned:  Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too) 🔗 Resources Mentioned:  Sarah Young on the web, Instagram, LinkedIn Sarah’s book: Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments Articles: 999 Problems, Why I don’t have Comments by Seth Godin, An Ex-Google Career Coach Tells Why Pleasing Everyone Will Never Help You in Your Career Quiz: Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Related Podcast Episodes: Free Time 077: Happy Launch Day! Antonio Neves Guest Hosts (Part 1) Pivot Episode 132: The Making of a Manager with Julie Zhuo  ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/277 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the Pivot ecosystem and this podcast aren’t going anywhere, when my speaking gigs stopped during the pandemic I gave myself permission to also branch out and start talking about something new. Specifically, doubling down on and digging into my passion for businesses powered by Delightfully Tiny Teams — and helping other heart-based entrepreneurs do the same. This week I am taking you behind-the-scenes of launching the Free Time book and podcast.Reminder: through end of March If you order a hardcover you can get a free audiobook - go to ItsFreeTime.com (Once you’ve read it, please consider leaving a rating and review on Amazon - it’s a huge support!) 📘 Books Mentioned: Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business, Life After CollegeThe Lean StartupQuit (Annie Duke)Find Your Zone of Genius (Laura Garnett)🔗 Resources Mentioned: Penny and Jenny Show ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/276 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that we can predict a leader’s charisma based solely on five seconds of exposure? That nonverbal signals account for 65 to 90 percent of our total communication?Today we’re talking about cues, specifically the formula for charisma (hint: a combination of cues that project warmth and competence).As a self-described “recovering awkward person,” Vanessa’s secret sauce is combining the latest research, real-life case studies of success, and fascinating examples of notable figures (like Oprah and Britney Spears) with practical strategies you can start using immediately.More About Guest Vanessa: Vanessa Van Edwards is a speaker, researcher, and national bestselling author. More than 50 million people have seen her engaging YouTube tutorials and in her viral TED Talk, You Are Contagious. Vanessa is Lead Investigator at Science of People. She is the bestselling author of Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People, translated into 16 languages. Today we’re talking about her new book, Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication. Key Takeaways: Your all-important first impression starts at the very first moment of an experience with someone: when you walk into the room, or when the camera flips on, and not with the first word you speak. We all have patterns for when we feel awkward and out of place, which are not the ingredients for charismatic communication. But we also have patterns for when we are at our most confident and natural. Tracking those and taking advantage of them to give yourself more comfort and ease in your communications can immediately increase your charisma. It’s extremely hard to lie with your voice, so spending time (and creating the best environment) for your body is going to make your competence and warmth much more evident in the subtle cues of your voice.  ⭐️ Permission: Skip the happy hour! Drop the scheduled phone calls! Think about the times and places where you feel the happiest and most confident, and engage with people then, instead of sticking to the ‘normal’ times and places you feel you should.⭐️ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Practice “I see you” acknowledgments when you first start talking to people in person or over video. A wave, a nod, or a smile all show the people you are talking to that they belong. 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business,  Pivot,  Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Vanessa on the Web, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn Charisma Diagnostic Cues Bonuses Learn the Secrets Behind the Best Shark Tank Pitches of All Time  8 Powerful Ways to Tap Into Your Intuition (That Work!) http://pivotmethod.com/274 The First Year of Parenting—What I Wish I Had Known Related Podcast Episodes:  Pivot Episode 59: Secrets from Viral Ted Talks with Vanessa Van Edwards Pivot Episode 155: Becoming a Successful Speaker with Grant Baldwin Free Time Episode 11: Pitching Shark Tank with Sarah Apgar  ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/275 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a big decision you’re facing: What if you could suspend judgment or disapproval from others? What if you didn’t have to make anyone else happy? Would that make it easier to follow your heart? It might - and you can! Using the steps in the Pivot Process: Plant, Scan, Pilot, and Launch, you can separate the decision you need to make from the fact that you need to communicate it to others. This gives you the space to be clear and honest with yourself about what you really want to do.In this episode you’ll learn how to separate the decision itself from the pressure to communicate it to others, giving you space to be clear and honest with yourself about what you really want to do.Key Takeaways: Often what keeps us stuck in decision fatigue is worry about how it will impact others - you can create a sense of psychological safety by making the decision itself a separate task from talking about it.  You can try on a decision like an outfit, just to see how it feels. Everything else related to the decision; acting on it, and communicating it, can come later. If you’re feeling conflicted about a decision, take a moment and ask yourself three questions: 1) What does my head say? 2) What does my heart want? And 3) What does my gut say? Your gut is often the referee between the others.  Books Mentioned: Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Resources Mentioned: Pivot Coaching (Use code PODCAST at checkout) ❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/274 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you ask someone a question they’ve never heard before? Today I’m answering a question from a listener about what questions do to our brains and exploring the magic of neuroplasticity: the property of our brains that allow them to physically change to encourage creative thinking and new knowledge.Books Mentioned:  Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work  The Coaching Habit Resources Mentioned: Pivot Coaching (Use code PODCAST) Neural Pathways - Wikipedia What Effect Do Questions Have On Our Brain?  How Experience Changes Brain Plasticity  The Neuroscience of Asking Insightful Questions  Related Episodes: 177: Pivot Method as 4-Stage Coaching Framework [Workshop Replay]❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/273 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it time to break up with your work? Samantha Clarke is a happiness consultant, TEDx & Keynote Speaker & author of Love It or Leave It: How To Be Happy at Work. She is on a mission to help individuals decide whether to LOVE IT or LEAVE IT and get to the crux of what it means to work and live with real meaning, purpose and intention. Books Mentioned: Pivot, Love It or Leave It: How To Be Happy at WorkResources Mentioned: Samantha on the web, Instagram: @Samanthaand_, Love It or Leave It, Be a ChangemakerPodcasts: Love It or Leave It and How to Be a ChangemakerTEDx: Are You Ready to Break Up With Work?Related Episode: Take a Stand with Antonio Neves❤️ Enjoying the show? I'd be grateful for a rating and/or review! Even better? Share this episode with a friend :)💌 Get my curated weekly(ish) PivotList newsletter💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Pivot listener survey🗣 Submit a question or comment for future episodes🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to ‘casts📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/272 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is anyone else exasperated by too much time working from home? If so, you are not alone! Whether it's the level of distractions or monotony, many of us are ready for a break—even if we still aren't interesting in returning to an office full time.In this episode I'm answering a listener question from Omar who says, "It's getting to the point where I just extremely dislike it."Resources Mentioned: Books: Free Time, Pivot Pivot Podcast: 🦠163: 25 Favorite Tips for WFH (Working From Home), 246: What is Your Job Today? (You Decide), 250: Staycation in the City Free Time Podcast: 018: Workcation in the City, 052: Perceived Capacity vs. Actual Capacity Websites: WeWork OnDemand ($29/day) App: HotelTonight — Use my code JBLAKE9 to get up to $50 back after your first booking Amazon: Foam Door Hangers if you live with others, for indicating what type of meetings you're in, whether you're open to interruptions or not 🎉 Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business launches on 3/22/22! Give the gift of free time to yourself and others in the new year by participating in our Buy One, Get One, Give One bonus.Here's how it works: Buy One: Preorder the hardcover edition and submit proof of purchase at http://itsfreetime.com/bogogo Get One: Within one business day, you'll get early access to the audiobook and brand new Free Time Toolkit with over 15 new templates to free your mind, time, and team! Give One: You will get details on how to gift early audiobook access to a friend :) Thank you in advance for your support! I can't wait to hear how you start freeing up time, and what you do with it :) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎉 Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business launches on 3/22/22! In this episode I'm walking you through the Free Time Framework—Align, Design, Assign—so you have a technique to move from friction to flow in any project or area of your life and work in 2022.Resources Mentioned: Books: Free Time, Pivot, Who Not How Podcasts: Free Time #052: Perceived Capacity vs. Actual Capacity, Centered in the City with Wade Brill Websites: Agile Manifesto for Software Development 🎁 Give the gift of free time to yourself and others in the new year by participating in our Buy One, Get One, Give One bonus.Here's how it works: Buy One: Preorder the hardcover edition and submit proof of purchase at http://itsfreetime.com/bogogo Get One: Within one business day, you'll get early access to the audiobook and brand new Free Time Toolkit with over 15 new templates to free your mind, time, and team! Give One: You will get details on how to gift early audiobook access to a friend :) Thank you in advance for your support! I can't wait to hear how you start freeing up time, and what you do with it :) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices