

Free Time with Jenny Blake
Jenny Blake
Set your time free through smarter systems so you can do more of your best work. Free Time launched in 2021 and releases on Tuesdays and Fridays. It's a Webby-nominated business podcast and winner of three W3 awards for best show and best host. Join Jenny Blake, author of three award-winning books—including Free Time: Lose the Busywork and Love Your Business and Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One—to explore our guiding question: How can we earn twice as much in half the time, with joy and ease, while serving the highest good? Subscribe now so you don’t miss an episode! Bonus: please leave a review and share with a friend—word-of-mouth is the most joyful way to grow the show :) Subscribe to theTime Well Spent newsletter at ItsFreeTime.com, and share this episode at pod.link/freetime. Check out Jenny's other podcast, Pivot with Jenny Blake, on navigating change at pod.link/pivotmethod.
Episodes
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6 snips
Jun 2, 2023 • 33min
194: 🤖Top 10 Favorite Recent GPT Prompts for Creative Business Owners (BFF Bonus Replay)
Today I'm sharing ten more of my favorite recent GPT4 prompts and experiments for creative business owners.This episode originally aired as a bonus episode for the private BFF community, as a follow-up to a case study on how ChatGPT has helped me draft a few solo podcast episodes.Want more where this came from? Join us in the private BFF community and/or Free Time Operations Dashboard with promo code PODCAST.🏝️ I’m also opening up ten Voxer coaching spots to work with me 1:1. Enrollment closes when the 10 spots are filled or by EOD June 4, whichever comes first. Learn more and sign-up » (Apply promo code PODCAST at check-out)💬 As always, I'd love if we could crowd-source on this one! What are the most interesting GPT prompts that you've tried? Join BFF so you can share with us in the comments! 🎧 Or if you're listening on Spotify, answer the question prompt at the bottom of this episode's page :)🔗 Resources Mentioned
Video: OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman’s 2023 TED talk, The inside story of ChatGPT's astonishing potential
TV Series: Big Door Prize (Apple TV+) and Trailer (YouTube)
Tools: OpenAI’s ChatGPT (+ iOS app), Midjourney, There’s an AI for that, Zapier, Descript, TextExpander
Mighty Networks: AI Community Generator and Community Design Accelerator (course)
Download the Circle mobile app if you haven't already (for jumping into group discussions more easily)
📰Articles
Descript (audio and video editor): How to use ChatGPT to improve your creative process
NYT: 35 ways people are using AI and NYT Magazine cover image mentioned
Zapier: The best AI productivity tools in 2023 and How to use OpenAI's GPT4 to write emails
Ann Handley: What does AI Mean for Writers? I Have Thoughts.
Alex Berenson: Potential Perils of AI
🎧 Related Episodes
Pivot: 321: ChatGPT as Universal Intern and Permission Not to Be a Billionaire with Kevin Kelly
March BFF Bonus: Case Study—How ChatGPT Helped Me Write My Latest Solo Episode (join here with promo code PODCAST)
Free Time: 045: Behind the Free Time Brand with Adam Chaloeicheep
167: Transform Your Approach to Community-Building with Gina Bianchini
163: Leveraging Idea Kernels to Create Compelling Content with Khe Hy
124: JB’s 5 C’s System for Content Curation and Production
096: Book Sales Stats—One Month Post-Launch 🎉
190: 🐍 How the Cobra Effect Creates Perverse Incentives and Metrics Tyranny
💻 Prompts I share in the episode
A la Big Door Prize: What's {your name + descriptors} life purpose? Can also provide a list of interests and ask it to suggest potential revenue streams.
Brand Guidelines: Create a voice style guide, including brand emoji
Differentiators: What makes {your name + descriptors} unique? Based on Amazon and/or podcast reviews.
Sales documents: Make the case for why your IP has a competitive moat around it.
Email replies: Draft 3 warm, friendly potential responses to a tricky email, 3-5 sentences each in U.S. English.
Content planning: Quotes, stats, cite research studies, create case studies for that topic x Your specific audience
Content posting: Show notes and social shares, headline options; guest share email.
Negotiation Communications: Draft response with your outcome/s in mind.
Midjourney (image generation): Visioning for you or clients, i.e. ideal home. Create a mascot for your business.
Upload a CSV → analyze the data: Can you make some exploratory graphs? P&L analysis? Word Cloud? Etc.
Non-work related: Vet or doctor's test results, menu planning, and so much more!
✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Try just one of the ideas above!🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review❤️ Join our BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 30, 2023 • 46min
193: Sabbatical Planning with DJ DiDonna
The average American worker gets 11 days of paid vacation per year. Among those with unlimited paid time off (PTO), the average person takes 19 days off per year, yet 48% of Americans say they still check their work email while away.What about business owners? Although it seems like we have more free time, the reality is that life as a business owner can be a 24/7 unceasing, all-consuming task. Even if you’re not at the computer, your passing thoughts probably drift toward what you need to do, projects to tackle, revenue gaps to make up for.Today’s guest, DJ DiDonna, is an advocate for taking more abundant time off—ideally measured in months, not days or weeks. By DJ’s definition, sabbaticals should go beyond recovering from burnout; instead offering extended time to learn more about yourself in unstructured, even “unproductive” ways.More About DJ: DJ DiDonna is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches the required first-year course: The Entrepreneurial Manager. In 2019, he founded The Sabbatical Project to define, explore, and research sabbaticals. He is currently working on a book based on this research, called Time Off Well Spent: A Sabbatical Manifesto.🌟 3 Key Takeaways
DJ defines a sabbatical as: Measured in months not days or weeks; taken intentionally; no specific outcome in mind (i.e. not working or trying to achieve anything); where you are exploring and learning something new about yourself.
Three archetypes of sabbatical-takers: Explorer, Seeker, and Achiever. You might toggle between all three during your time off, switching modes from working holiday (passion project) to free dives (exploring the world), to more personal quests (existential discovery).
Sabbaticals ideally start slow, with extended time to heal: sleeping in, eating healthier, and reconnecting with family or friends. When sabbaticals serendipitously unfold from recovery to exploration to putting that learning into practice, they can “lead you to a really radical new self.”
📝 Permission: Take four to six months off, even if it’s two years from now to give you enough time to prepare. Entrepreneurs often grasp their role in their companies too tightly, and inadvertently create a business that will fail without them.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Look for the area of your business that would fail without you. What small step could you take today to bolster that area for the future?🔗 Resources Mentioned
DJ on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn, The Sabbatical Project
Quiz: What’s your sabbatical style?
Videos: TEDxEVHS—DJ’s Sabbaticals: Time [off] well spent, TED—Stefan Sagmeister’s The Power of Time Off, How Bug Soup Becomes a Butterfly, David Foster Wallace This is Water Commencement Speech.
Course: Sabbatical Basecamp
📚 Books Mentioned
Time Off Well Spent: A Sabbatical Manifesto (Coming soon!) by DJ DiDonna
Clockwork, Revised and Expanded: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz
Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferris
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
🎧 Related Episodes
SPARKED: How to Take a Life-Changing Sabbatical with DJ DiDonna and How I Took a Month Off to Write & Make Art (and what REALLY happened)
Good Life Project: Jenny Blake | How to Create More Free Time
The Tim Ferris Show: How to Reboot Yourself with Jerry Colonna
Free Time: 166: Crashing into Quiet Time, 146: New? Help Us Welcome the Next You (A Message for Your New Team Members), 044: Are You High Net Freedom?
Pivot: 124: Penney & Jenny Show — Embracing Liminal Space (the In-Between), 45: Happy Launch Day!! Pivot for the Podcast: James Altucher Interviews Jenny
📝 Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/193 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 26, 2023 • 20min
192: 📲 5 Creative Ways to Better Organize Your Phone Contacts
Today I'm sharing five creative ways to better organize your phone contacts. I hope it’s helpful and time-saving toward a very important end: feeling less overwhelmed by relationships!🏝️ Friendly Reminder: I’m opening up ten Voxer coaching spots to work with me 1:1 (asynchronously). I’d love to help you take a step back from the day-to-day operations of your business and set even more of your time free this summer! Enrollment closes when the 10 spots are filled or by EOD June 4, whichever comes first.Learn more and enroll » (Apply promo code PODCAST at check-out)🌟 5 Strategies for Better Organizing Your Contacts
Make notes about each person when you chat with them in their contact card within your phone: For example, ****spouse’s name, kids’ names, pets names, important milestones).
Identify your friendship circles and a cadence for each: 5, 15, 50, 150, 151+ Pin your favorites in texts and contacts.
Create a go-to moniker for your MIPs such as Keith Ferrazzi’s “Lifeline,” saving it as their middle name so you can search when you need a trusted friend to call.
Create collection buckets for cities, even if you don’t know their full address. You could even keep it mainly to people you’d want to see when you visit. If you want to separate these out, indicate their city as the company name or in notes. Ie: Visit Austin or Austin Travel
Add confirmation text phone numbers to your contacts with an emoji identifier, Either in first name field or by customizing the image. For example, ie 💊 Capsule Pharmacy, 📦Shipping Updates, 🐾 Vet, 👩🏻⚕️ Doctor, etc. This way they immediately jump out and stand apart from spam, and might even spark a little joy when you see them :) Here’s an example of Jenny’s »
Bonus: Keep a Notes note with your neighbors names and a 1-2 word description to jog your memory :)
📝 Permission: Not to create a full-on CRM or pay for expensive overly complicated software.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Spruce up your ability to keep in touch with people who are important to you by implementing just one of the ideas above.🔗 Resources Mentioned
Get Jenny’s KIT template (CRM) and so many more in the done-for-you Free Time Operations Dashboard (apply promo code PODCAST for 10% off)
Submit your favorite Time-Saving System for fellow Free Timers at http://itsfreetime.com/ask
Articles: Why You Need the “Lifeline Relationships” (PDF), 5/25/150: The Secret of the Best Networker I Ever Met by Sean Johnson (via RadReads.co)
Video: BNET—Who’s Got Your Back? Book Brief
Apps: Notion, Google/Gmail Contacts, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Relatable
Books: Friends by Robin Dunbar and Who’s Got Your Back? by Keith Ferrazzi
🎧 Related Episodes
125: How to Create Your Own CRM with Alex Sherwood
083: Breaking through Buyer’s Remorse—Never Lose a Customer Again with Joey Coleman
120: Transform Your To-Do List into a Results List — Leanne’s Favorite Time-Saving System
🌟 Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review❤️ Join our BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit »💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 23, 2023 • 52min
191: Structuring Free Time as a Single Parent while Grieving and Rebuilding with Karen Allen
“Small hinges move big doors.” That one thought helped Karen Allen pick herself up from the depths of grief after losing her husband in a tragic, senseless act of violence nearly a decade ago. Shortly afterward, she lost her house, her car, and then one year later — her job.Getting fired followed just a few months after an intuitive hit that corporate wasn’t the best fit for her any longer was a blessing in disguise that precipitated the founding of her now-thriving business, one where she puts her son front-and-center as her North star.In this conversation, Karen shares how she navigated overwhelming grief while parenting, structuring her business for free time as a single parent, and how her business has evolved as she continues gaining clarity about who she wants to be and how she wants to serve.More About Karen: Karen is a super-mom, healthy eater, and keynote speaker. After experiencing the tragedy of losing her husband, she picked herself up and set out to thrive for her son’s sake. She is the founder of the 100% Human movement, helping others develop a mindset of joy and abundance through her community. She also hosts the In the Details podcast.🌟 3 Key Takeaways
Gratitude helps balance out the negativity in our brain: Return to even the most simple acknowledgments, like having a soft pillow to lay down on at night.
“My intuition has been sharpened through faith.” There are beautiful parallels between the two; you won’t always see things working at first.
The universe rewards a courageous heart: look out for #GodHugs encouraging you to stay rooted in your values and what you know intuitively know to be true.
📝 Permission: Do what your soul is calling you to do, and create it in a way that supports you.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Identify your triad (or duo or quad) of life/work categories you want to be entirely present for; for example, time with family, for your business, for your community. Make sure each have their own dedicated (and inviolable!) space in your schedule.📚 Books Mentioned
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Deep Work by Cal Newport
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Life After College
🔗 Resources Mentioned
Karen on the web, IG: @karen.m.allen, LinkedIn, TikTok
Video: Use Your Tragedy to Change the World
Sarah K. Peck’s Startup Parent podcast and community
🎧 Related Episodes
Karen’s podcast, In the Details: Introducing In the Details (Karen’s Story)
Pivot: 29: Deep Work: Ditch Cognitive Junk Food with Cal Newport, 87: Penney Interviews Jenny—We Are Souls, 314: Doing Less, Focusing More After Taking a Two-Month Leave with Adrian Klaphaak
Free Time: 171: Discovering Your Divine Assignment with Melissa Hughes (while Building with Grace and Ease), 159: Time Blocking Together with Jess & Dave Radparvar, 027: Time Management for Mortals with Oliver Burkeman, 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte, and 131: Scaling Joy While Streamlining Business Overhead and Navigating ADHD with Kaneisha Grayson
💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review❤️ Join our BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a 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 share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/191 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 19, 2023 • 2min
🏝️ I'd love to work with you 1:1! Join us for the Free Time Summer Voxer Coaching Pop-up 😎
Hi friends! A quick in-beteween-isode to let you know about a special opportunity to work with me 1:1 :)Back by popular demand, I'm opening doors again for my 1:1 Voxer coaching pop-up. Summer is the perfect time to take a step back from your business and set even more time free through smarter systems—while freeing yourself from screens and coordinating extra calendar entries. We piloted this program last year with members from my private BFF community, and it was a big hit! It was so nice to connect asynchronously to help you focus on the big picture and make meaningful progress on the projects that matter most. ✅ How it works:
There are 10 spots available, and enrollment closes on June 4 (or whichever comes first)
We kick-off our 12 weeks of coaching on June 5.
You'll submit one voice memo between Monday through Thursday each week with your biggest question (that part of the process alone helps create tremendous clarity!), then
I respond by Friday of each week with detailed ideas, guidance, specific templates, and resources that will help you save time and money while rapidly accelerating progress in any area.
You'll also get complimentary access to the private BFF community if you join, and lock-in your 1:1 Voxer Coaching rate for life (I do tend to raise the rates with each subsequent launch).
Learn more about 1:1 Voxer coaching and enroll here »*Make sure to apply promo code PODCAST at check-out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 19, 2023 • 31min
190: 🐍 How the Cobra Effect Creates Perverse Incentives and Metrics Tyranny
Time- and money-based targets don’t always serve the purpose we intend. In fact, sometimes, they actively work against us. Today we’re spelunking into a few related principles like Goodhart’s Law, The Cobra Effect, and why vanity metrics are often no more than a hungry ghost lurking in the shadows of your business. I couldn’t resist sprinkling pop culture clips throughout to illustrate these concepts, so I hope you enjoy the ride :)🌟 3 Key Takeaways:
Be mindful when implementing specific numerical targets. Consider how they may lead to behavior that doesn't align with your overall goals and values, sometimes even transforming into perverse incentives that beget negative actions.
Clarify your values. Make it clear to your team what values you prioritize (and ethical behavior more broadly) over short-term gains or “shoulds” based on what everyone else is doing.
Be open to feedback and willing to adjust your strategies. Goodhart's Law says that "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure," ****so take the pressure off by zooming out from overly focusing on any one measure of success to paint a bigger, more holistic picture. Define more creative metrics that indicate you’re living in alignment with your values, and resonating with your community, such as number of enthusiastic email replies per newsletter sent.
📝 Permission: Stop chasing the hungry ghost of vanity metrics in your business. Get clear on your more meaningful metrics and core values, and aim for a holistic picture of those instead.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: To more clearly see the tradeoffs you are willing to make, write your own “even over” statements, like the originators of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development have inspired many businesses to do. As in: “We value {important quality A} even over {important quality B}.”🔗 Resources Mentioned
Articles: Manifesto for Agile Software Development, The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned, The Cobra Effect: No Loophole Goes Unexploited
TV Shows: Killing It — episode 4 “Carlos” (Peacock), Byron Baes, Black Mirror—Nosedive
Music Video: Dolly Parton’s classic, 9 to 5
Community: Jay Acunzo’s Creator Kitchen and Unthinkable podcast
Software: Referral Candy, HelpScout
Heuristics: Goodhart’s Law, The Cobra Effect
📘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
It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
Rework
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
🎧Related Episodes
097: How to Find Your Perfect Problem with Jim McKelvey, author of The Innovation Stack (Part One) and 099: (Part Two)
174: What Book Marketing has to do with Glass Blowing: Reflecting on Free Time’s 1-Year Bookiversary 🥂
169: Running a Goal-Free Business with Stephen Shapiro
181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo
189: 💡Jay Acunzo’s IP Development OS — Courtesy of Creator Kitchen
💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟 Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.❤️ Join Jenny’s private BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask📝 Check out full show notes and share this episode with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/190 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 16, 2023 • 29min
189:💡Jay Acunzo’s IP Development OS — Courtesy of Creator Kitchen
In episode 181: Be Irreplaceable, you heard from my creative coach, Jay Acunzo about how to prioritize resonanceover reach. I’ve been working with Jay for about six months now, and it has transformed the way I think about creating content.One of the videos he shared with us in his new community, Creator Kitchen, is a walkthrough of his Intellectual Property (IP) Development OS: how he collects ideas, chooses which one/s to pursue, and decides which channel they belong in.I loved it so much — and I know you will too — that I asked for special permission to share it here on the pod. Learn more at creatorkitchen.com and apply promo code FRIENDOFAFRIEND for $100 off your membership for life.🎧 If you're listening on Spotify—or just want to pop over there to share your biggest insight—answer the question prompt at the bottom of this episode's page :)💡 View the diagram of Jay Acunzo’s IP Development OS here »💻 Jay’s IP Development Trello board has the following columns: Ideas, Chef’s Table (Community), Playing Favorites (Newsletter), Unthinkable (Podcast), Strongest Ideas (categorized as either Problems, Change, or Solution/s), Strongest Stories (Lead or Supporting), and Frameworks + Models (Diagrams)More About Jay: Jay Acunzo is one of the world’s most sought-after business storytellers and brand consultants. He’s hosts the award-winning podcast, Unthinkable, and has authored multiple books on creativity, including Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work. He helps creators learn to increase the power of their creative work, not just the volume, through his membership platform, the Creator Kitchen. Jay’s grandest aspiration-slash-delusion is to be the Anthony Bourdain of workplace storytelling.🌟 3 Key Takeaways
Stage 1 — Focusing — What is your mission? Seeing the world through a focused lens, through a mission, a message, one big idea that you’re exploring.
Stage 2 — Feeling — Interplay between frustration and curiosity: You're saying something is under-explored, something is broken. What is the status quo that you would like to change, to improve, to lead people away from? Curiosity is when you turn the frustration into something productive instead of destructive: Why is it this way? How did we get here?
Stage 3 — Thinking — Looking for ideas that feel exciting: What feels easy to tackle today? “If you're trying to knock over a brick wall, it's a lot easier rather than brute force your way forward to just start pressing bricks and see which one of 'em budges.”
✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Map out your own IP Development process. What does the life of a new frustration, question, or insight look like? How would it move across a Kanban-style content production board?🔗 Resources Mentioned
Jay on the web, IG: @jacunzo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium
Podcast: Unthinkable
Book: Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work
Community: The Creator Kitchen (use promo code FRIENDOFAFRIEND for $100 off your membership for life)
People: Andrew Davis, Joshua Levy of Holloway
Tools: Trello, Notion
🎧 Related Episodes
Unthinkable: Leaving Expertville, Going Bananas, Fine, I’ll Talk About AI; Welcome to the Jumble
2 Pages with MBS: Making What Matters Most: Jay Acunzo [reads] ‘Kitchen Confidential’
Pivot: Feeling Impostery? Become a Qualified Curator Instead
Free Time:
182: The Challenges of Renovating a (Business) House While Living In It
181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo
127: Protect Your Idea Factory and Build a Creative Flywheel with Todd Henry
034: Organizing Research and Ideas
036: Shaping Big Ideas
038: Tracking Progress Toward Finishing a Book (or Big Idea)
🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 12, 2023 • 48min
188: Energy Capacity Planning, Pricing, and Finding Resonant Masterminds with Kelli Thompson
When today’s guest, Kelli Thompson, was overwhelmed by opportunity—a level of success she had been dreaming of and working diligently toward—she knew she needed a roadmap to better manage her time and energy, stat.In this conversation, we unpack how she created an Energy Capacity Plan (a woman after my own spreadsheet-loving heart!), how to create yours, why it doesn’t need to be a detailed calendar grid sliced into specific 15-minute increments, and how that plan can inform your pricing.In the second half, we also talk about masterminds — when to join, what to watch out for, and how to determine which one/s are right for you. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our conversation for the Pivot podcast on 315: Intuition-Building, Spotting Pedestal Syndrome, and Closing the Confidence Gap.More About Kelli: Kelli Thompson is a women’s leadership coach and speaker who helps women advance to the rooms where decisions are made. She has coached and trained hundreds of women to trust themselves, lead with more confidence, and create a career they love. She is the founder of the Clarity & Confidence Women's Leadership Program, and a Stevie Award winner for Women in Business—Coach of the Year. She is the author of Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck, which was selected as a must-read by The Next Big Idea Club.🌟 3 Key Takeaways
Kelli maps her month by giving each week an energy theme/allocation: High intensity (week 1), moderate intensity (weeks 2 and 3), and recovery (week 4).
“Success loves clarity”: When considering opportunities, before jumping to yes, ask if it aligns with your mission and business values.
Think of energy and entrepreneurship as levers you can pull: Sometimes, you need to push up or pull down when things are happening with your health, with your family, and/or within your business.
📝 Permission: Drop anything that drains your energy!✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Do an energy audit, and perhaps even create your energy capacity plan mapping out what each week looks like at a high level (day by day, rather than hour by hour) and the time-value of different types of activities.🔗 Resources Mentioned
Kelli on the web and social: @kelliraethompson (IG), Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Kelli’s page of free resources (includes her Energy Capacity Plan template)
Article: Mitch Joel’s Who is Your Mastermind?
Apps for asynchronous communication Marco Polo, Voxer, Telegram (iOS, Android)
People: Mark Manson
Jenny’s private BFF Community
📚 Books Mentioned
Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck by Kelli Thompson
The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Life After College
🎧 Related Episodes
Pivot: 315: Intuition-Building, Spotting Pedestal Syndrome, and Closing the Confidence Gap
Free Time: 046: Time Margin—Are You Drowning, Treading Water, or Gliding?
175: Give Yourself a Raise with Erin Haag
141: Process, Permission Slips, and Business Pivots with Tara McMullin
143: Exploring Time, Money, and Energy Capacity with Tara McMullin and Charlie Gilkey (Replay)
078: Creating Transformational Mastermind Groups
💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review❤️ Join our private BFF community🛠 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📝 Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/188 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 9, 2023 • 49min
187: Licensing 201 — Q&A (Part 2) on Pricing + Packaging, Train-the-Trainer, Delivery, and Legal
Today’s episode is the second half of an in-depth Licensing Q&A prompted by BFF Al Dea, host of the MBA Insider podcast. If you haven’t already, listen first to 140: How to Licensing Your IP (Intellectual Property), followed by 186: Licensing 201 — Q&A (Part One) on Product Development, Attracting Clients, and Sales Process.Al submitted a series of wonderful questions that span five categories; in this episode I’ll be addressing the latter three: selling and packaging, delivery (including Train-the-Trainer), and legal considerations. A caveat, as always, when it comes to this notoriously opaque arena: this is not the way, it’s just what I’ve learned along the way in nearly a decade of setting my mind to licensing as a revenue stream.📣 Join us in our private BFF community for a related workshop this week! We’ll be diving deeper into Certification and Licensing on Thursday, May 11 at 1pm ET. Even if you can’t make it live and/or if you’re listening after that date, you’ll get instant access to the entire private podcast feed with years of special content archives. In this special BFF bonus workshop, my longtime friendtor Pamela Slim—who taught me the early ins-and-outs of licensing—will walk us through: how to know if/when adding a certification or corporate licensing program to your business makes sense, the first steps involved in creating them, ways you can work with her team on build-out, and anything you can think to ask during Q&A! You can also hear Jenny on Pam's Widest Net podcast in episode 005: From Friction to Flow and Finding Joy in Systems.❤️ Learn more and join us at http://itsfreetime.com/bff (apply promo code PODCAST)📝 Permission: Start tiny. Plant a few little conversational seeds here and there with current and prospective training clients, and see what starts to blossom.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Create a page on your website that shows the path from one-off workshops or keynotes to full-on licensing and Train-the-Trainer, even if you haven’t fully built out your programs yet. And join us in BFF to learn (and develop your materials) alongside fellow Heart-Based Business owners who are also on the certification and licensing journey!📘Books Mentioned
Built to Sell: Creating a Business that Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
Inked: The Ultimate Guide to Powerful Closing and Sales Negotiation Tactics by Jeb Blount
Value-Based Fees, Million Dollar Consulting Proposals and Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss
The New and Complete Business of Licensing by Craig Battersby
One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs by Stephen Key
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
🔗 Resources Mentioned
Community: BFF (apply promo code PODCAST)
Article: NYT—‘Air’ and the Argument for Letting the Talent Share in the Profits
Movie: Air (Trailer)
Attorney: Francine Love at Love Law Firm
📓 Examples of Certification and Licensing Programs
Pivot Programs: Rollout Options, Pivot Workbook, Companies (Overview), Pivot in the Classroom, and Pivot Programs Overview (Made in Canva)
Jenny’s LinkedIn Learning Courses: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, Coaching New Managers
Assessment Certifications: Sparketype, MBTI, Kolby, #lovework, True Colors, Gallup Strengths
The Energy Project: Licensing tracks—LeaderFuel and PeopleFuel
Others Mentioned: Box of Crayons and MBS.works, Getting Things Done Practitioner Certification, Duct Tape Marketing Certification, Profit First Professionals Certification
🌟 Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review »🛠 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 5, 2023 • 49min
186: Licensing 201 — Q&A (Part 1) on Product Development, Attracting Clients, and Sales Process
“A shoe is just a shoe until my son steps into it.” —Deloris JordanWhen negotiating Michael Jordan's famous shoe deal with Nike, his mom Deloris “made an additional demand: Her son must receive not only a $250,000 fee, but also a cut from every sneaker sold,” making her case with that mic drop moment above (as retold in the movie Air via The New York Times article ‘Air’ and the Argument for Letting the Talent Share in the Profits).That, my friends, is the power of licensing :) Today’s episode is the first of a two-parter — an in-depth addition to 140: How to License Your IP (Intellectual Property), thanks to a set of wonderfully thorough follow-up questions from BFF member Al Dea.Al is the founder of MBASchooled.com, author of MBA Insider, and host of the MBA Insider podcast. He asked a series of questions across five categories, and in this episode I’ll be addressing the first two: product development and client attraction strategies. A caveat as always, when it comes to this notoriously opaque arena: what I’m sharing is not the way, it’s just what I’ve learned along the way in nearly a decade of building out licensing as a revenue stream.Check out episode 140 if you haven't yet, paired with 135: How to Rapidly Prototype a Course, 016: IP Licensing with Lee LeFever, 185: How Licensing Helps Serve the Queen Bee Role with Mike Michalowicz, and 045: Behind the Free Time Brand with Adam Chaloeicheep.📆 Join us in the private BFF community for a related workshop coming up! We’ll be diving deeper into Certification and Licensing on Thursday, May 11 at 1pm ET. Even if you can’t make it live and/or if you’re listening after May 11, you’ll get instant access to the entire private podcast feed with years of special content archives.In this special BFF bonus workshop, my longtime friendtor Pamela Slim—who taught me the early ins-and-outs of licensing—will walk us through: how to know if/when adding a certification or corporate licensing program to your business makes sense, the first steps involved in creating them, ways you can work with her team on build-out, and anything you can think to ask during Q&A! You can also hear Jenny on Pam's Widest Net podcast in episode 005: From Friction to Flow and Finding Joy in Systems.❤️ Learn more and join us at http://itsfreetime.com/bff (apply promo code PODCAST)📝 Permission: To be overwhelmed. Even if you need to listen to this three times, even if you're still scratching your head, it will start to make more sense, slowly over time.✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Join us in BFF to learn more and develop your materials alongside fellow Heart-Based Business owners!📘Books Mentioned
Built to Sell: Creating a Business that Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
Inked: The Ultimate Guide to Powerful Closing and Sales Negotiation Tactics by Jeb Blount
Value-Based Fees, Million Dollar Consulting Proposals and Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
🔗 Resources Mentioned
Community: BFF (apply promo code PODCAST)
Article: NYT—‘Air’ and the Argument for Letting the Talent Share in the Profits
Movie: Air (Trailer)
Attorney: Francine Love at Love Law Firm
📓 Examples of Certification and Licensing Programs
Pivot Programs: Rollout Options, Pivot Workbook, Companies (Overview), Pivot in the Classroom, and Pivot Programs Overview (Made in Canva)
Jenny’s LinkedIn Learning Courses: Figuring Out Your Next Move, Holding 1:1 Career Conversations With Your Team, Managing Introverts, Coaching New Hires, Coaching New Managers
Assessment Certifications: Sparketype, MBTI, Kolby, #lovework, True Colors, Gallup Strengths
The Energy Project: Licensing tracks—LeaderFuel and PeopleFuel
Others Mentioned: Box of Crayons and MBS.works, Getting Things Done Practitioner Certification, Duct Tape Marketing Certification, Profit First Professionals Certification
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices