Pivot with Jenny Blake

(Recorded pre-pandemic) I’m thrilled to bring you another one of my favorite friendtors, Mike Michaelowicz. He’s the author of several books that have dramatically improved my business: Profit First, Clockwork, and now this week we’re talking about his latest upcoming release, Fix This Next: Make the Vital Change that Will Level Up Your Business.

Mike was last on the show in episode 37, Surge: How to Spot and Ride Trend Waves.

This is also our second round of the live Pivot Podcast + Momentum Book Club, so you’ll hear a few Mo’ members ask questions at the end.

Reminder that doors for this round of Momentum enrollment close today! Join us here »

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/161.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While it can seem distracting and disorienting at first, working from home is an incredible opportunity to tune into your circadian rhythms and exactly how you work best. Even though your new commute may be from the bed to the living room to the office, you can still create rituals and boundaries that set you up for success when you start the day, and sanity when you end it. These are 25 of my favorite tips from nine years of working from home.

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

Background from our kick-off to this series, episode 159: With so much happening daily in the world and global economy around coronavirus, we’re all dealing with massive amounts of uncertainty, pivots at work, and for many—fear and anxiety that comes with not only the health concerns, but questions around how to maintain our livelihoods moving forward.

When Momentum member and pandemic expert Dr. Michael J. Consuelos reached out to offer himself as a resource to the JBE team and the MoMo community, I jumped at the chance to record a conversation for all of you as well, which has now turned into a full-blown series:

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/163

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While all of us have been adjusting to self-imposed social distancing and quarantine this week under new global guidelines, Lindsay Pedersen had a head start. She and her family live in the greater Seattle area, which was the site of the first major outbreak in the U.S. In this conversation with Lindsey and Dr. Consuelos, we talk about the emotional rollercoaster of the entire family staying home all day, and creative ways to infuse silliness, sanity, and connection.

Quick background on both: Lindsay Pedersen is a brand strategist and author of Forging an Ironclad Brand. Dr. Michael J. Consuelos is the Principal at MJC Solutions, a veteran-owned, small business that provides professional consulting and advisory services to organizations serving the healthcare sector. He has held several leadership roles in emergency preparedness and pandemic response since 1997.

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future COVID-19 conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

Background from our kick-off to this series, episode 159: With so much happening daily in the world and global economy around coronavirus, we’re all dealing with massive amounts of uncertainty, pivots at work, and for many—fear and anxiety that comes with not only the health concerns, but questions around how to maintain our livelihoods moving forward.

When Momentum member and pandemic expert Dr. Michael J. Consuelos reached out to offer himself as a resource to the JBE team and the MoMo community, I jumped at the chance to record a conversation for all of you as well, which has now turned into a full-blown series:

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/161

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just yesterday (after we recorded), the U.S. recommendation has gone from avoiding gathering in groups larger than 50 to groups larger than 10. Dr. Michael J. Conseulos and I are back in a “huddle” as we discuss what’s in the news now, and more importantly, practical tips and tools for as many aspects of this pandemic as we can cover.

In this episode, we discuss how all of us can stay safe, think through contingency plans, and have crucial conversations with our family members and others as we all practice unprecedented social distancing.

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future COVID-19 conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

Background from our kick-off to this series, episode 159: With so much happening daily in the world and global economy around coronavirus, we’re all dealing with massive amounts of uncertainty, pivots at work, and for many—fear and anxiety that comes with not only the health concerns, but questions around how to maintain our livelihoods moving forward.

When Momentum member and pandemic expert Dr. Michael J. Consuelos reached out to offer himself as a resource to the JBE team and the MoMo community, I jumped at the chance to record a conversation for all of you as well.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/161

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Don’t buy in to the fear / media hype” is something I’ve heard more than once this week. No matter how calm you are staying (or not) there is no doubt our lives are already significantly impacted by the spread and precautions around coronavirus, far beyond fear itself.

I feel an urgency to keep this conversation going, with real-time content that addresses what’s going on around us, particularly at the intersection of mind, body, and business (my website mission in 2013-2014 before I started this podcast).

Acting like nothing is happening and it’s all just “business as usual” strikes me as out of touch, and certainly not Truth While It’s Fresh (a JBE team value). It’s not business as usual for any of us, and I don’t have to tell you that. There are very real impacts we are all navigating daily.

For that reason, I have scrapped or postponed several already-scheduled episodes, and am going to release podcasts more frequently for this series, Pivoting Around a Pandemic.

This is something unique in most of our lives — the shuttering of broadway, sports, schools, businesses, — not to mention travel bans, self-quarantine, and the very real possibility our family members or we could get sick before year’s end. This episode is for solopreneurs, but I’ll be doing a range that speak to entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and parents throughout the series.

For full show notes from this episode, visit http://pivotmethod.com/160

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so much happening in the world and global economy around coronavirus, we’re all dealing with massive amounts of uncertainty, pivots at work, and for many—fear and anxiety that comes with not only the health concerns, but questions around how to maintain our livelihoods moving forward.

When Momentum member and pandemic expert Dr. Michael J. Consuelos reached out to offer himself as a resource to the JBE team and the MoMo community, I jumped at the chance to record a conversation for all of you as well.

In this episode, we discuss how entrepreneurs, leaders and organizations can transition from fear and anxiety toward calm, measured action and experiments. How can we know what actions to take? We can’t. These times require responsiveness, vulnerability, transparency, releasing perfectionism, and a willingness to be far more innovative and creative than we have in the past.

Michael and I talk about how to shift from victim to hero, how to quiet internal concerns, and small daily actions to focus on—as well as what organizations and entrepreneurs can we learn from each other during “Black Swan” events like these.

This is a wide-ranging, imperfect, in-the-moment response so we could at least start the conversation around how to maintain business continuity while Pivoting around a pandemic, primarily for people in information-based roles and industries — and both of us are open to an ongoing series on this topic if/as you find it helpful! Feel free to submit follow-up questions for a future episode at http://pivotmethod.com/ask.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/159.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What kind of company are you building (or working for)? Are you optimizing for chaos or for calm? One of my favorite books from recent years as it relates to company culture — even if you're a culture of one (or one+) — is It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy At Work, by Basecamp co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

Jason and David aim for a calm company, so every chapter (and business area) is about asking the question: How do we create calm? How do we choose calm?

This episode is preview lesson from my—totally free!—mini-course, Free-up Founder Time. I cover strategies for time blocking and content batching, and walk you through exactly how I set-up my schedule each week (knowing that life and work never go perfectly to plan).

After you listen, register for the course here — in 15 short actionable lessons, I cover topics like content batching, time blocking, getting ready for your big break, courage cookies, luck trucks, and a whole lot more. Each lesson as a combination of helpful tools, templates, podcast episodes, and book recommendations also available in audio format (most are 5-10 minutes long) for learning on the go.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/157.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m so excited to share this week’s Pivot conversation with one of my longtime friends and most important mentors, Michael Bungay Stanier. We talk about tipping points, preparing for TED Talks, and transitioning out of the CEO role from the company he founded nearly 20 years ago, Box of Crayons. We are also celebrating the launch of his latest brilliant book, The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious, and Change the Way You Lead Forever.

To enroll in free upcoming workshops on the Pivot Method as a coaching for managers, mentors, and leaders, visit PivotMethod.com/live. Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/156.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s episode was recorded while on the road, preparing to speak at the International Monetary Fund to help them kick-off new career programs for 2020 (an honor!).

Thankful for a quiet hotel room all to myself in the midst of puppy-training (semi)chaos, I stacked a call with my attorney for a licensing contract, then recorded this interview and two solo shows — true to this week’s topic of navigating life as a professional speaker!

Grant and I discuss guidance from his new book, The Successful Speaker: Simple Steps to Make a Living Off Your Message, on everything from pricing, to outreach, to navigating life on the road.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/155.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices