Discover the power of intuition and how it can enhance decision-making. Learn about the importance of intuition in building business skills. Explore receiving intuitive guidance and its impact on decision-making. Gain insights on accepting or declining podcast pitches. Discover strategies to enhance business intuition, including home frequency and muscle testing.

David Thomas Tao, founder of BarBend, discusses building and selling a profitable content-based business. Topics include hiring team members to avoid burnout, learning from mistakes in monetization strategies, navigating successful acquisitions, and the importance of niche marketing and organic search in building a profitable business.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” —Maya AngelouEarlier this summer, I arrived late one day to the podcast studio, laying on the floor in lieu of actually recording anything. Should I take that as a sign to reduce my creative output?Not necessarily.Aside from big one-off projects like writing a book, where I pour incredible time and attention to detail into (that I tackle every five years or so), I seem to do better with ongoing creative work by sticking to a stretch-worthy production schedule. These days I’m running a Delightfully Tiny media company that produces the following on a monthly basis: 14 podcast episodes across Pivot, Free Time, and BFF Bonuses ~14 essays or newsletters: 8 ‘Doh posts, 4 Time Well Spent newsletters, 2 PivotList round-ups, and 1-2 BFF mailers This does not include guest appearances on other people’s shows By stretching myself to show up in these ways, I have discovered that there’s not always an inverse relationship between consistency and quality—at least for me.🌟 5 Key Takeaways Check your assumptions about causation vs. correlation. For example, more time doesn’t necessarily equal more money (or higher quality); maybe less time requires firmer boundaries, smarter systems, increasing delegation Keeping up with a stretchy level of creative output doesn’t mean caving into the downsides of quantity: throwing in the kitchen sink to keep up with shiny shoulds or client demands out of insecurity Nothing needs to be forever: Trust yourself to be creative and resourceful in the moment if/when you need to slow down or take a break. Align your production schedule with what you will be proud to produce, and look for secondary benefits of each creative output such as networking, catching up with friends, reading books Do beware of burnout: Look for alignments to make things easier (cross-posting bits of the same content across multiple places), and put a Delightfully Tiny Team in place who can help take the pressure off. 📝 Permission Aim for consistency even over quality (knowing that “babysitting the work” doesn’t always help anyway), and permission to keep publishing even through energetic highs and lows.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next Look back at your creative history: do you do better work with more constraints or fewer? What’s your sweet spot? There is no right answer. Bonus: Put a team and/or resources in place to help bolster accountability, take responsibility off your shoulders, and that raises the stakes (in a good way) of missing a deadline.🔗 Resources Mentioned Articles: Emily McDowell’s Unqualified—Paid Subscribers: READ THIS! Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: Mutually Assured Rejection Part One, Part Two; Morning Rush, Afternoon Crushed, The Business Yips & 51/49, Love That! For You 🙄 Video: Ira Glass—The Gap Between Taste and Talent Podcast Production: One Stone Creative Apps: Substack 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes BFF Private Feed (with free preview): Substack Q&A with Linda Lebrun from the Writer Outreach Team Pivot: 123: Peeking Out From The Plateau — My Latest Pivots Free Time: 222: Why I migrated my three email lists to Substack (BFF Bonus Replay) 138: ⛵️Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds 060: Triangle of Tradeoffs 130: Day in the Life of a Podcast Episode ✍️ Check out Jenny’s personal business essays on Substack, Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/230 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ilise Benun, a returning guest, discusses topics such as confidence, starting her own business, tolerance for silence, and putting her phone number in her newsletter. They explore trusting oneself, the importance of action, building courage, understanding the magic money formula, staying visible on multiple platforms, knowing oneself, and the healing power of vulnerability.

This is a free preview of this month's bonus episode for paying Free Time subscribers. Listen to the full episode (plus 100+ in the archives) and join us for live Q&A calls here »***They say write from the scar, not the wound—but what do you do when you feel called to write or speak from the wound? Do you forge ahead, knowing you will wake up the next day with a raging vulnerability hangover? Or do you keep it inside, bottled up for a future sell-by date?Scott asks:I'd love to hear you talk about seeking recognition / validation from others. Yep, kinda personal, so a bit vulnerable sharing here in direct email, but I do wonder if it's something that lies beneath the surface for me.Possibly combined with an uncertainty about taking a step out of the corporate path about 5 years ago to go into full-time sports coaching and having a lot of pondering about that decision esp based on financial implications that came with it."Somebody tell me I'm doing the right thing / doing well / pat on the back" kinda chat would be amazing. Thanks again.💬 What helps you move through vulnerability hangovers? What helps you try vulnerability experiments in the first place? Join as a paying member or BFF to see the full show notes (related books, articles, and podcast episodes), then share your thoughts in the comments here » Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast, the hosts discuss the red flags indicating the need for delegation in business. They explore the zones of functioning and the importance of focusing on one's zone of genius. Additionally, they highlight the benefits of delegating tasks, focusing on strengths, and the negative consequences of not doing so.

John Ruhlin, founder of Giftology, shares strategies and mistakes when it comes to gifting. Topics include the power of thoughtful gifts, significance of human connections, importance of complete gifts, and gifting strategies and budgeting.

I used to refer to myself as a hot mess often in the early blogging days circa 2008, until someone scolded me saying it wasn’t a nice way to describe myself, that maybe it wasn’t the best self-image to curate. So I stopped. But I lost something in dropping the “hot” and the “mess” as I now approach middle age (and grandma-status in my soul).Today's post is a crossover from my newest project, Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: Divine disaster diaries from a bread-winning business owner living in New York city. This is a paid Substack where I share personal essays about the real nitty-gritty aspects of running a business, especially when sh*t hits the fan. My friend Leanne calls it “business reality TV.” My husband Michael says it's picking up where Sex and the City left off, but this time about money.You can follow me directly on my profile page at Substack to see what I’m publishing across ‘Doh, Free Time, and Pivot at http://substack.com/@jennyblake.📝 Permission To have messes in your business at the moment—even hot, complicated, gnarly messes. You are still here, and you are still learning and trying and troubleshooting; that’s all that matters.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next Take a day or two off! Celebrate the mess if it means you’re still in business :)🔗 Resources Mentioned Articles: Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h—Hot Mess NYT—Heat Singes the Mind, Not Just the Body View From the Wing—San Francisco Is A Mess, And The Owner Of The City's Largest Hotel Is Just Walking Away Apps: Substack 📚 Books Mentioned Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes Free Time: 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big Things (SPARKED Crossover) 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review✍️ Check out Jenny’s personal business essays on Substack, Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h❤️ Join our private BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter for access to the Free Time Toolkit💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey☎️ Submit a voice question or comment: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/226 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“A book is not about something. A book is for someone.” That’s the mantra that drives AJ Harper’s work, that includes ghostwriting over one hundred books (and working on many more one-off chapters and projects).In this conversation, she shares the “life of a book” process in her writing partnership with Mike Michalowicz (ten books together and counting!), what most authors get wrong when writing the conclusion, her favorite tried-and-true question to solicit “unexpected, delicious responses from interviewees,” and how to calibrate expectations for timing around the writing, editing, and creative process.More About AJ: AJ Harper is an editor and publishing strategist who helps authors write transformational books that enable them to build readership, grow their brand, and make a significant impact on the world. As ghostwriter and as developmental editor, she has worked with hundreds of authors, from newbies to New York Times bestselling authors with millions of books sold. She is writing partner to business author Mike Michalowicz, and together they’ve written ten books, including Profit First. AJ is the author of Write a Must-Read: Craft a Book That Changes Lives—Including Your Own.🌟 3 Key Takeaways Before you start writing, every nonfiction book needs three key elements: a transformational message, ideal reader, and a promise you can deliver on. AJ’s Reader Transformation Sequence: Readers will engage with a life-changing book in the following order: buy, read, finish, act on, tell. There’s a difference between story, anecdote, and case study: Stories have a beginning, middle, and an end and are told with suspense and often a transformational moment; anecdotes are smaller moments you capture as you move through the world (or from others); case studies are more detailed client examples that illustrate results. 📝 Permission: Abandon your timeline. Don’t overly obsess about deadlines, timelines, and where the book fits in your business plan.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: We can all take strange comfort in knowing that no matter how many books you’ve written or how successful you are in business, “No amount of experience or preparation can save you from being nervous about the work you’re putting out into the world.”🔗 Resources Mentioned AJ on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn Book Bonuses: WriteAMustReadBook.com Templates: Free Time Author Toolkit Work with AJ: Top Three Book Workshop, Must-Read Editing Workshop Articles: Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter Hallmark Movie: Unexpected Christmas App: Christmas Hallmark Movies 📚 Books Mentioned Write a Must-Read: Craft a Book That Changes Lives―Including Your Own Book Lovers by Emily Henry All In: How Great Leaders Build Unstoppable Teams ****by Mike Michalowicz Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College 🎧 Related Episodes JB’s Spotify Playlist: Behind-the-Book Free Time: 103: How to Land a Literary Agent and Publisher with David Moldawer (Part One), 105: “Don’t write the wrong book!” with David Moldawer (Part Two), 032: Courageous Marketing With Mike Michalowicz Pivot: 164: Fix This Next (And Stop Keeping Up With The Entrepre-Joneses) with Mike Michalowicz 🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review❤️ Join our private BFF community for 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: http://itsfreetime.com/ask🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/225 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacqueline Fisch, previous guest and BFF, shares tips on creating a 'See You Soon Kit' for clients. Topics include expressing sentiments, asking for feedback and referrals, suggesting ways to continue working together, and providing contact information. The importance of post surveys and surprise and delight moments for clients is also discussed.