The Free Time Facilitator: How you can lose the busywork, and love your business with Jenny Blake (Episode 201 #encore)
I quit Instagram for the rest of the year after having this conversation!
Welcome to an encore episode!
There is no one else I’d “open up” the podcast for, than the one and only, Jenny Blake. I shared this interview with the Booked Out Facilitator group, and I think it’s the perfect conversation to share with you today, as we close off the year and look to scheme + dream what we work on in 2022.
This is the first interview Jenny Blake has done to promote her fabulous (and much-needed) new book, Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love your Business. It’s a playbook to free your mind, time, and team for your best work. It is an invitation to reimagine how you run your business.
I want to share an excerpt about her book, so you get a sense of what you’re in for in today’s chat:
“Your time is far more precious than money. It is your presence, your memories, your quality of life. For many, growth fuelled by added stress is not worth the tradeoff. You have an urge to simplify and streamline. Ask yourself: are you consistently doing the work that you and only you can do? If you are burdened by busywork, the bottleneck in the way of your company’s profit and potential, this book is for you."
In this conversation, we also talk about choosing your niche, and how to build a business without social media. Jenny also takes us behind the scenes and shares how she uses Notion to capture and curate her ideas.
After you listen, ask yourself this question: “What do you need a permission to do?”
Jenny Blake is an author, podcaster, and keynote speaker who loves helping business owners move from friction to flow through smarter systems, powered by Delightfully Tiny Teams. Her third book, Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business, launches March 22, 2022. Jenny’s previous book, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, won the Axiom award for best business book in the careers category in 2016. Licensing clients for her Pivot Programs include Google and CHANEL.
About today’s guest: Jenny Blake
Jenny Blake is an author, podcaster keynote speaker heading up Delightfully Tiny Teams, Jenny Blake is passionate about helping business owners move from the everyday hustle to strategic smarter systems. Jenny has released two books: Life After College, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, which won the Axiom award for best business book in the careers category in 2016 and she is now set to release her third book on March 22, 2022, called Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business.
Free Time for Heart-Based business owners and Pivot with Jenny Blake are two podcasts that Jenny hosts with a combined one million worldwide downloads.
Since working at Silicon Valley startup, Jenny then did five years in coaching and career development at Google. In 2011 Jenny then moved to the Big Apple (New York City) to launch her own business and to this day as we know it, Jenny lives in Manhattan with her husband and her angel-in-fur-coat German shepherd. She loves yoga and buys too many books. Learn more and take the Free Time quiz at ItsFreeTime.com.
In this episode you will learn:
Solopreneurs can build their business without hustling
What nonlinear breakthroughs are and how they can help grow you as a person and your business
How to escape distractions
How to store and retain your ideas
Where you can start when it comes to licensing your IP
Here are some sample questions we asked Jenny on the show:
What is a nonlinear breakthrough? How can it serve us in our business?
How do we create “Hockey Stick” moments? We are told to focus on one thing. We are curious. Is it about asking and being open to it?
How do you build your business without being on social media when we live in a digital-first world?
How can we escape distractions?
Is there an opportunity for corporates to take on a non-linear breakthrough?
How do you push your book without social media?
How do you store/retain ideas?
Are there certain requirements to licence a program?
How do you know when pressure is motivating or debilitating?
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Amaze offer! Grab Jenny’s new book Free Time while you can Buy One, Get One, Gift One
Jenny Blake on Episode 74 of First Time Facilitator: Pivoting into Public Speaking
Leanne Hughes on Jenny Blake’s podcast: 017 Serendipity as Business Strategy
Quotes from the Episode:
“To be forgiving of ourselves and don’t allow the pressures to creep into the deep work time”
“When you are in corporate I think you have to put in private meetings on the calendar that are for yourself otherwise people take them. That is what is so tricky about corporate calendars people feel entitled to grab the time.”