Free Time with Jenny Blake

Creating online courses does not require a 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 rapidly, with frequent input from key stakeholders, not building so much behind the scenes that what you’re working on becomes out-of-date or out of touch with what your audience and potential future students actually need.This is one of the episodes I reference most frequently from the Pivot podcast (originally aired December 1, 2019), so I’m replaying it here for you today in case you’re newer to the JB universe! I break down all the details of how I love launching and creating courses, and you can also read a summary of the steps on this page of the Pivot website.🌟 3 Key Takeaways: Keep Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation in mind when designing evaluation strategies: smile sheet (did you enjoy this course and would you recommend it?), knowledge transfer, behavior change, and results to the organization Make sure you have pre- and post-surveys to further customize and improve the course with each subsequent launch 📝 Permission: To create courses that aren’t perfect or even polished; focus on delivering value for your students in real time.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: For the next big project you’re tackling, create a Know/Feel/Do/Refer To grid to map out the modules that will help your students achieve the transformation you’re looking to inspire.Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead and It's Not Your Money: How to Live Fully from Divine Abundance by Tosha Silver The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz Jenny’s LinkedIn Learning Courses: LinkedIn Learning—Figuring Out Your Next Move LinkedIn Learning—Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team Managing Introverts Coaching New Hires Coaching New Managers Resources Mentioned: Jenny’s private BFF Community Agile Manifesto & Principles (He)art of Podcasting (He)art of Book Publishing Pivot in the Classroom Rapid Prototype a Course Four Levels of Training Evaluation by **Don Kirkpatrick Alexandra Franzen Copy this spreadsheet and create a Know/Feel/Do/Refer Grid for your course Excerpt of the Pivot Workbook Pivot Toolkit here Descript for audio transcription (and magic one-click filler word removal) Related Podcast Episodes: 036: Shaping Big Ideas — Notion Walkthrough #2  072: How to Start Writing a Book, Course, or Workshop  060: Triangle of Tradeoffs  Pivot 128: Ultralearning with Scott Young  Pivot 196: Agile Original Public Thinking  💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/135 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My heart was thumping out of my chest as I sat at the front of the room for my first paid, in-person speaking engagement since February 2020—two and a half long years ago. Could I still do this? What if the content doesn’t resonate? I hope this goes well so it can help generate future work!I’m grateful to share that the event was a smashing success—with enormous thanks to my cohost, who brought me in. Today I’m sharing the strategies that help me prepare for high-stakes speaking engagements like this one.🌟3 Key Takeaways: Keep your slide deck in Google Slides, so they are easily accessible from any computer. When (abundantly!) pricing speaking engagements, include all travel expenses and one pre-event strategy session so that you minimize logistical back-and-forth.  Make sure to ask for post-session participant feedback from the organizer to help you improve for future sessions (if they don’t already have a survey, create one). 📝Permission: Not to prepare too far in advance. Trust yourself to receive what would be most beneficial for this particular group, at this particular moment in time, once it’s closer to the event. ✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: If you are part of a larger event and you’re not the kick-off keynote, ask to attend any/all sessions on that same day to help you weave key themes, stories, and language from that organization into your session.📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Confessions of a Public Speaker 🔗Resources Mentioned:  reMarkable Tablet, New Yorker feature Michael Bungay Stanier’s MBS.Works 🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  126: Creating Time Buffer—7 Strategies for Spacious Scheduling 123: “Pricing is Branding” — Anti-Time Management with Richie Norton 079: Behind the Launch with Antonio Neves (Part 2) Pivot: 155: Becoming a Successful Speaker with Grant Baldwin Pivot: 077: 21+ Travel Tips, Tools and Apps — with Jenny Blake Pivot: 065: Master Public Speaking and Performance with Michael Port Pivot: 276: 276: Behind the Free Time Pivot 💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe » 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners. 💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/134 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are the systems I share on this show and in Free Time just a “Jenny Blake Thing?” Rest assured, the answer is no! If you don’t see yourself as a tech geek or systems person, have no fear—Terri Trespicio is here to share her journey with implementing the principles and the difference she is seeing in her life and business as a result.More About Terri: Terri Trespicio is an award-winning writer, speaker, brand advisor, and author of Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life That Matters to You (Atria / Simon & Schuster, December 2021). Her TEDx talk Stop Searching for Your Passion has more than 7 million views, and Hubspot named her one of the Top 18 female speakers who are killing it.🌟3 Key Takeaways: Sometimes you need to hire before you can really afford to if you want to grow.  If you hire an experienced expert to take over some of your work and then “hop into help” you are as likely to disrupt their process or even offend them as actually help.  Be intentional about whether you want to productize your offerings or make them bespoke. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all-businesses solution.  📝Permission: Stop taking pleasure or pride in doing everything yourself. Delight in the fact that you need help and support to do your best work, and you can get it. ✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Look at how you’re spending your time and how that impacts your energy. Find one thing that makes you think, “I probably shouldn’t be doing this,” and either delegate it now or prepare to do it soon. 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life That Matters to You Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Terri on the web, Unfollow Your Passion, Instagram: @ttrespicio TEDx talk: Stop Searching for Your Passion Marketing Mentor: Ilise Benun Communities: BFF Community, Terri’s The Club  Design Software: Canva Recording Software: Riverside.fm Writer’s Training: American Writers and Artists Institute 🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  269: How to Stand Out When Everyone is Peddling the Same Sh*t with Terri Trespicio 294: Confidence Conundrums and Attention Budgets with Terri Trespicio 122: My Top 5 Sources of Recurring Revenue 104: Save Someone Next Steps 086: The Cyrano Strategy for Delegating Important Comms 054: Ten T's of Successful Delegating  💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/133 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a small miracle of motivation that you are listening to this episode. When it was time to record, I had just come out of a foggy, groggy week at HHQ: Hooky Headquarters. Hooky Headquarters is where you go when you need a break—and if you don’t take it, you might find yourself in full-on BIADM (Burn It All Down Mode), burned out and no longer working in a sustainable way. Today, I’m sharing five reminders to honor your need for deep rest when HHQ beckons.🌟 5 Key Reminders / Notes to Self: Your body and mind must need the rest. Take stock of all that you have been doing, any recent project sprints or travel, and consider any coming up. HHQ is likely recharging you in between.  Trust yourself to bounce back, but only if you rest enough. Martha Beck describes it as an infinity loop: rest until you feel like playing (ideally, you align your work to feel like play), and play until you feel like resting. Refocus on what is truly urgent. Give yourself permission to set the rest aside. Does it need to be done at all? Who can help if so? Rethink your approach to the work. Tackle items one by one, starting with what’s most urgent and important, perhaps with a different perspective. How would _______ (someone you admire) approach this task or deadline? Put down your quiver of second arrows–the Buddhist term for the feelings and stories you tell yourself about your initial feeling or current state. Give yourself permission to be where you are, and to need what you need. 📝Permission: Join me at HHQ when you, too, need deep rest! Without firing any second arrows at yourself: drop any guilt, shame, blame, or shoulds and have faith in the process.  ✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Create extra spaciousness in advance by blocking off a few extra “DNS” (Do Not Schedule) days in your calendar, even if you can’t think of an exact need for them at the moment. 99% of the time, you’ll be thankful when they arrive!📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All  The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal  A World Without Email: Find Focus and Transform the Way You Work Forever  Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World 🔗Resources Mentioned: Martha Beck’s Article: I Rest My Pace🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  002: Eliminate Email with Cal Newport 028: When the Financial Tides Recede 126: Creating Time Buffer—7 Strategies for Spacious Scheduling 046: Time Margin—Are You Drowning, Treading Water, or Gliding? Pivot: 045: Post-Launch Pivot Point + Visit From the Furry Rest Monster Pivot: 251: Listener Q&A on (Furry) Imposter Monsters 💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe » 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners. 💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/132 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would earning $1 million dollars in revenue this year solve all of your problems? It might, but it could also cause a whole set of new ones, inspiring you to scale back. That’s the story behind the business of today’s guest, Kaneisha Grayson. She shares how she built a seven-figure business, and why she later restructured to one that better honors her energy and goals. More About Kaneisha: Kaneisha Grayson is the founder of The Art of Applying, an agency that aids graduate school applicants get accepted into top-tier schools and achieve funding. She is the author of Be Your Own Boyfriend: Decide to Be Happy, Unleash Your Sexy, and Change Your Life and host of the Scale Your Joy podcast. Kaneisha is dedicated to sharing her journey with like-minded people who are ready to forge their own path, creating a life and business that brings them joy instead of suffering through the corporate grind. 🌟3 Key Takeaways: Be mindful of what financial metrics matter most on the route to your broader business goals. What is more important: high top-line revenue, or profit and owner take-home pay? Facebook Ads can be a great fit for people selling high-ticket programs that later roll into a recurring revenue model; but buyer beware—they may not be your most profitable channel. Set up a “body double”: Kaneisha has learned that for those navigating ADHD, having real-time support and accountability, such as virtual coworking, makes a huge difference. 📝Permission: Ignore business advice that doesn’t work for you, or that—for whatever reason—you just can’t do. Stop internalizing failures you’re experiencing without further investigation about alternate routes.✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: What are you tracking to tell you whether or not you’re successful? Are those metrics aligned with what is making your life joyful? Re-evaluate the metrics you monitor and match them to what you value most. 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Be Your Own Boyfriend 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Kaneisha on the web, Instagram: @kaneishagrayson, LinkedIn, Facebook Kaneisha’s podcast: Scale Your Joy Flow Club Get it Done Zoom Sessions for ADHD women  The Flow Tribe Marie Forleo’s B-School 🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  The Get Paid Podcast: Kaneisha Grayson: Hitting 7 Figures and Reducing Your Revenue Goal Hello Seven Podcast: A Masterclass in Million Dollar Mindset with Kaneisha Grayson  053: Facilitated Focus with Jake Kahana Pivot: 115: "People are People" — Exploring Neurodiversity with Mark Rufino  💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/131 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Consistently creating high-quality content can be challenging. To practice what I call ongoing original public thinking, I am often brainstorming how to make the processes involved as smooth, simple, and searchable as possible. This episode originally aired as a Loom video for the private BFF community, where I walked through my Notion podcast production dashboard and content calendar. Here’s what I have learned (and optimized!) in these last seven years of podcasting. You can also watch the video walkthrough of this episode here.Want more where this came from? Set yourself up for even more abundant ease, joy, and time in 2023 by joining us in the private BFF community and Free Time Operations Dashboard with promo code PODCAST. If you join as a result of this episode, you will receive complimentary access to the full (He)art of Podcasting Course. Last but not least, if you’ve read the book, please leave an Amazon review if you haven’t already!🌟3 Key Takeaways: Use Amazon’s advanced search feature to find books that will be releasing in the next few months, when authors are most likely to say yes to interview requests. Create specific templates in your project management system for the different types of content you create so your team knows exactly what information to collect. If you use Riverside.fm: Create one recording studio or room for podcast conversations, so you don’t need to create a new event every time you record; just send a link to the permanent one. Even better? Turn that into a bit.ly or a vanity URL that redirects from your domain (i.e. yourdomain.com/riverside) 📝Permission: Stop tediously typing up notes! Use voice dictation, iOS’s Live Text feature, and Your Kindle Highlights to copy and paste key takeaways from books and articles more easily.✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Set up Readwise.io with a connection to import your Kindle highlights if you haven’t already! If you are a Notion’er, set up a Readwise export of those highlights to a Library database. 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling 🔗Resources Mentioned: Watch a video walkthrough of this episode (Loom) Free Time Operations Dashboard  BFF private community Pivot podcast One Stone Creative  Amazon advanced search for upcoming book releases,  Software: Calendly, Zapier, Your Kindle Highlights, Readwise.io, iOS—Live Text: How to copy/paste text from images (h/t Tim Ferriss), Dropbox, Riverside.fm, pod.link, Send to Kindle Chrome extension TEDx Video: Matthew Dicks’ Homework for Life 🎧Related Podcast Episodes: 121: How to Steer Through a Downturn and Stop Micromanaging with Annie Hyman Pratt 123: “Pricing is Branding” — Anti-Time Management with Richie Norton 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte 109: Winning the Week with Demir Bentley 062: Made by Monday On Content "Frog" Batching 124: JB’s 5 C’s System for Content Curation and Production 💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe » 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners. 💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/130 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think of your day-to-day work as fitting into one of four quadrants, as defined by today’s guest Khe Hy in a recent issue of his fantastic RadReads newsletter:  $10 Work is low-leverage, low-skilled work that you can do when you’re hungover. $100 Work is when you leverage the wrong thing – and get overwhelmed by meta-work. $10K Work consists of high-leverage skills that exponentially grow your business and bring you closer to your dream life. As Khe writes, “The quadrant people high-performers really get stuck in is the $1,000/hour quadrant . . . the domain of unique skills that have no leverage.” That’s what we’re discussing in today’s episode so you can learn strategies to stop struggling and do more of your best work.More About Khe: Khe Hy is the founder and CEO of RadReads, an online education company that helps over 36,000 professionals lead productive, examined, and joyful lives. He has been called Oprah for Millennials by CNN, is the creator of the $10K Work productivity method, and teaches the popular cohort-based course Supercharge Your Productivity. Before founding RadReads, Khe spent 15 years working on Wall Street and was one of the youngest Managing Directors at BlackRock. 🌟3 Key Takeaways:  $10K tasks combine skill and leverage, as well as unique IP. Getting good at just one or two promotional channels lets you leverage the power of constraints and align with the way you like to work. When you look at your business activities, do they fit into your long-term goals—or your $10K tasks? Make sure your effort is aligned with the outcomes you seek.  📝Permission: Stop the struggle; great things can still happen in your business without it. Remember: It doesn’t have to be hard to be worthwhile.✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Make a list of five $10K Tasks at the intersection of your unique skills, IP, and leverage. 📘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 Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Khe on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn, Supercharge Your Productivity (course) Articles: The Magic of Doing $10,000 Per Hour Work, How to be the Chief Unblocking Officer, High Performers Routinely Make This Mistake Newsletter: Stratechery Free Time Operations Dashboard Software: Substack, Medium, JustWorks, Notion 🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte The Nathan Barry Show: 026 Keh Hy - How You Can Do $10,000/Hr Work 108: How to Run a Scaled Coaching Team with Notion 088: Why I Moved from Asana to Notion for Task and Project Management 034: Organizing Research and Ideas - Notion Walkthrough #1 036: Shaping Big Ideas - Notion Walkthrough #2 038: Tracking Progress Toward Finishing a Book (or Big Idea) with an Essay Tracker - Notion Walkthrough #3 098: How to Build Your Minimum Viable Team (MVT)  💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/129 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nothing makes me more frustrated than poorly run companies that essentially steal time and money from the customers through bureaucracy and botching the basics. If you’re a longtime listener of this show, you might remember episode 83: Breaking Through Buyers Remorse, Never Lose a Customer Again with Joey Coleman. Today, I am sharing a tale of two contrasting customer service stories: one that devolved into disappointed buyer’s remorse, and the other that surprised and delighted my family and me, while creating memories of a lifetime.🌟3 Key Takeaways: Decide if you want to be a luxury brand or not; price and create processes accordingly. When you or your team makes mistakes—as everyone does—over-deliver and get creative to make it right. Respond even if there’s nothing you can do: The “table stakes” of customer service are to listen and empathize. 📝Permission: To make mistakes, so long as you design processes that help you and your team to apologize creatively and make it right.✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Review how you operationalize your company values. Are you aiming to provide a luxury experience or not? Are you pricing accordingly, and do you have the systems and processes in place to match? 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One  The Road Less Stupid: Advice from the Chairman of the Board Radical Candor: Fully Revised and Updated Edition: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean  Raving Fans: Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Itinerary App: TripIt Pro Travel Points Card: Delta AmEx  The Tea House at Los Rios 🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  083: Breaking through Buyer’s Remorse—Never Lose a Customer Again with Joey Coleman 068: Are You Running a Grumpy Business? 104: Save Someone Next Steps 💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe » 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners. 💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/128 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest is an expert in cultivating creativity — and in remaining consistent over the long arc of content creation. Todd Henry is the author of six books, and today we’re talking about how to stay motivated in the publishing industry, where the market reflects winner-take-all dynamics, and the long tail is verrrry long. More About Todd: Todd is the author of six books, including The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, Herding Tigers, and Motivation Code, and host of The Accidental Creative podcast and the Herding Tigers podcast. He empowers companies and teams to be creative, prolific, and brilliant in their work through his books, podcasts, and keynote speaking. He is the host of the 17-year-running Accidental Creative podcast, and today we’re going behind the scenes His new book, Daily Creative: A Practical Guide for Staying Prolific, Brilliant, and Healthy, encourages you to thrive as a creative through daily practice.🌟3 Key Takeaways: Solve a problem that people know they have; frame your products and services in terms of how they accomplish a job that people need done. Your creativity is one of your most precious resources. Protect your Idea Factory and measure the quantity and quality of ideas you generate Set Wildly Important Goals; Todd’s are: quality, awareness, and revenue diversity. Every day you should be figuring out how your work will help you achieve them. 📝Permission: Practice pruning; there’s probably something you’re doing right now that has already served its purpose and run its course. You hereby have permission to drop it!✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Outline your business model as a flywheel. For help with this, read Jim Collins’ fantastic monograph, Turning the Flywheel.📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day Louder than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need The Motivation Code: Discover the Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't The Practice: Shipping Creative Work 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Todd on the web, Instagram: @toddhenry, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Todd’s Podcasts: The Accidental Creative podcast, Herding Tigers podcast Articles: NYT on the long tail of book publishing: Will the Biggest Publisher in the U.S. Get Even Bigger? Video: Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talks: Your Elusive Creative Genius, Success Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating   🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte 123: “Pricing is Branding” — Anti-Time Management with Richie Norton Pivot 051: Die Empty with Todd Henry Pivot 088: Artist Seth Price on Finding Freedom in Bad Ideas, Balancing Commerce and Creation in Business Pivot 254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin   💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit 💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/127 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“If you’re on time you're late.” That’s one of my favorite mantras that I picked up from my dad, second to, “These are the grrrreat times!” (no matter what is going on in his life or the world). My dad was always early for our meet-ups, something I experienced as a sign of respect and ease. This relationship to punctuality has stayed with me as an adult, and I’m not the only one. I once bumped into a first date who was killing time at the same west village park as me around the corner from the restaurant where we were set to meet fifteen minutes later, since we were both sticklers for showing up early!The bigger point—especially once you have time autonomy when running your own business—is recreating that early ease by building in spacious time buffers. This means you’re not skidding in or out of calls or meetings feeling crunched for time, the heavy clamp of time scarcity pressing down, adding pressure and resulting in scattered, frantic energy. Today I’m sharing seven of my strategies for building in time buffer. I’d love to hear yours, too! Send me an email at hi@itsfreetime.com or leave me a voice memo at http://itsfreetime.com/ask.🌟 7 Types of Time Buffer to Build into Your Calendar: Before your first call of the day Between calls (ideally 30 minutes, if not a full hour) Before and after weekends (either making sure Monday and Friday are unscheduled, or you could even consider a DNS block on Wednesdays!) Before and after holidays (federal days off and/or full holiday weeks) Before, during, and after work travel One night hotel before seeing family After a big launch 📝Permission: Block off way more Do Not Schedule (DNS) time on your calendar than seems reasonable or typical, and only make exceptions for what’s joyful once that date gets closer.✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Look out three months from now: What holidays can you create buffer around? What days of the week can you make off limits starting now? Bonus: update your scheduling software to incorporate these changes, and to include buffer time before and after meetings if you don’t already. 📘Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business  Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🔗Resources Mentioned:  Scheduling Software: Calendly, Clara Labs Private BFF Community Article by Jonah Lehrer: Why We Travel 🎧Related Podcast Episodes:  018: Workcation in the City 027: Time Management for Mortals with Oliver Burkeman 040: It's Not Free Time If You're Exhausted Pivot 045: Post-Launch Pivot Point + Visit From the Furry Rest Monster Pivot 077: 21+ Travel Tips, Tools and Apps — with Jenny Blake Pivot 097: Conscious Business, Superconscious Capitalism, and The Meaning Revolution with Fred Kofman: a Teacher Who Changed My Life Without Knowing It Pivot 250: Staycation in the City  💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe » 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners. 💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/126 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices