Free Time with Jenny Blake Jenny Blake

As I round the corner into this ninth year of podcasting and after over 700 episodes, today I’m announcing a pause for both shows.
Listen in to hear what factors helped me reach this decision across time, money, energy, depressing industry articles, the pace of both shows’ growth, and mix of additional business factors that make this an important moment to pause and regroup. You might also appreciate the even deeper dive with my longtime friend (and first coach) Adrian Klaphaak in Pivot episode 360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts.
While I will be sad not to bring fresh episodes to your earbuds every week, I truly want to say thank you so much for being here. This only represents a small fraction of listeners, but I was genuinely touched receiving the Spotify Wrapped for Podcasters stats at the end of 2023 after I knew I would be pausing once all the episodes “in the can” went live.


Among Pivot listeners: for 681 this show is in your top ten on Spotify, for 373 it’s in your top five, and for 65 of you, this is your number one show (again, at least in Spotify’s podcast player)!


Among Free Time listeners: for 423 of you this show is in your top ten on Spotify, for 247 it’s in the top five, and for 57 it is your number one show in Spotify—the highest honor!! I was shocked to see even one, truly, with so much other incredible audio content out there.


There’s one thing I know for sure: I will miss you during this break 🥹

🌟 ;TLDR/L (Too Long Didn’t Listen) Top Takeaways:



In addition to pausing my private community, I am pausing both podcasts for a bit (duration TBD) so I can clear financial and energetic space to listen to what my broader business wants to become.

🎧 Stay subscribed to both shows: Pivot with Jenny Blake and Free Time with Jenny Blake so that you still get episodes when I release them, even if a bit more sporadically (for now); I may switch to seasons if/when I resume


📧 Subscribe to any/all of my three Substacks if you’re not already: I hope to experiment with live tapings with interesting friends and guests, ones that are for paying subscribers where we can go into even more nitty gritty detail behind-the-scenes.


📝 Permission

Pause and regroup on any of your creative projects so you can create space to hear what’s next.

🔗 Resources Mentioned



Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h: 🏆 Time to Put the Trophies Away


Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow . . . IF

Rebuilding from Rubble

👟 A Strange and Wonderful Morning: Walking Photo Essay


Dear 2024: A Letter and From 2024: A Reply



What Works: Making the Content Math Work



Edison Research: Podcasting’s Big Hits and Long Tail



Adam Davidson: The Rise and Fall of Podcasting



The Daily Beast: Malcolm Gladwell’s Media Empire is Being Torn Apart



Podcast Production: One Stone Creative



ListenNotes: Pivot, Free Time



📚 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


SPARKED: Jenny in Conversation with Jonathan Fields (Spotify Playlist)


BFF Bonus: Upcoming Quiet Sabbatical + Important Membership Updates



Pivot: 329: Five Types of People-Pleasers from The Joy of Saying No with Natalie Lue


342: “Whatever Comes Through Me Comes For Me First,” With Nicole Antoinette

360: 📦 Unpacking a Big Business Decision and Dissolving Related Doubts with Adrian Klaphaak


Free Time: 042: How I Run My Business Without Social Media (Pivot Replay)


203: 🎢 Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster of Launching with Natalie Lue

250: Do what you love and the money will follow . . . IF you meet at least 3 of these 20 criteria

🦧 What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client, Part One and Part Two



📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/270
Learn more

“I don’t get on the airplane—and definitely not the stage—unless all invoices are paid in full.”
When my friend and fellow keynote speaker Joey Coleman said this to me over coffee, I started drilling him for details: Really?! How do you have the nerve to say that to a speaking client?! How do you avoid caving in to make sure their event doesn’t fall apart if they haven’t paid in time? What about clients who work for highly bureaucratic companies that insist on their “standard” net-120 terms?
In this illuminating conversation, Joey shares his best practices for getting paid on time—every time by setting, stating, and upholding better boundaries (and contracts) with clients.
More About Joey: As an award-winning speaker for over twenty years, Joey Coleman works with organizations around the world ranging from small startups to major brands such as Volkswagen Australia, Zappos, and Whirlpool. His First 100 Days® methodology fuels the remarkable experiences his clients deliver and dramatically improves their profits.

🌟 4 Key Takeaways



“You should care a lot about what a few people think.” For Joey, it’s his wife, his children, his closest business advisors, longstanding clients. “I don’t want my creativity hampered by one person’s feedback.”


“You need to know how to ask for the money.” Gem from Joey’s dad growing up on the most important thing to know when running your own business, about having confidence when you state the price and terms of your services without wavering.


Don’t raise your prices just for the sake of raising them; however, as your expertise and capabilities and the cost of living and costs of running your business increase, there is a necessary understanding that prices will go up. Right before he hit send on a proposal, he would stop, go back to the original contract and raise the fee by ten percent.


Price is something you pay at the grocery store; investment is something you are going to do to grow your operation and make it better. You will invest with me to grow your returns, and it will continue to pay dividends. As a speaker, you need to be clear on the return on investment that you’re promising.


📝 Permission

It is unbelievably challenging to start and run your own business. Because you are so bold to do that, give yourself permission to courageously set your boundaries. The more clear and comfortable you are stating how to work with you and holding firm when pushed, the happier you will be as a business owner, and the longer you will be in business.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

Try Joey’s approach to sharing the investment for working together. List a range on your website, and the first time your desired client learns how much it costs to work with you should be hearing it from you, not reading a document.

🔗 Resources and Books Mentioned 📚


Joey on the web, X (Twitter), LinkedIn


Never Lose an Employee Again: The Simple Path to Remarkable Retention

Never Lose a Customer Again: Turn Any Sale into Lifelong Loyalty in 100 Days

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One


🎧 Related Episodes


Joey’s podcast: Experience This!



Free Time: 083: Breaking through Buyer’s Remorse—Never Lose a Customer Again


201: Never Lose a Team Member Again with Joey Coleman


Pivot: 155: Becoming a Successful Speaker with Grant Baldwin



📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/269
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What mysterious ingredients make a book launch successful? What number of first-week and first-year sales truly make a difference to a book’s longevity? What can you do to turn lagging numbers around?
In a flagship illuminating post for the industry, Todd Sattersten, publisher and owner of Bard Press, shared his findings in The Magic Number. In this behind-the-business conversation from October 2023, you’ll hear him generously talk me through how I could help Free Time get there—with a much-needed morale boost at the end.

More About Todd: Todd Sattersten is the publisher and owner of Bard Press, a book publisher that works with authors to create best-selling books in business, personal development and technology. Before Bard Press, Todd served as general manager of IT Revolution and president of business book retailer 800-CEO-READ. He is the author of Every Book Is a Startup and the co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (Portfolio, 2009). Todd lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Amy and their three awesome kids.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways



A book launch is a set of activities to engage people and create momentum, and there is no common blueprint for success. “Each book is different—in its approach to a problem and delivery of solution. Each author is different—in what they bring to the launch. And the world itself is different every time you bring a book into the world.”


The Magic Number: The data says is that if you can get into the 10,000 to 25,000 copy range for first year sales, you have a 42% chance of selling more than 25,000 copies in lifetime sales. If you get past that 10K mark, there is a 4 in 10 chance of getting beyond 25K copies sold.


Endorsements should triangulate the reader to think this book is for them. Who is the highest comp author? A practitioner (someone doing the work or even a related recognizable company), a reader who demonstrates utility.


📝 Permission

Put your ego down. Remember, you want your readers to be better, to improve their lives. Our job is to find more people to help, and there are still so many opportunities for that. You don’t actually have to stop promoting the book after it’s launched—there is nobody stopping you!

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

Send a survey out to your readers and community, ideally 90 to 120 days after the book comes out. Check out the one Jenny sent here—and please take it if you can at the same time!

🔗 Resources Mentioned



Todd on the web, IG, X, LinkedIn



Publisher: Bard Press



Take the Free Time reader survey Jenny sent here, whether you’ve read the book or not!


Bard Press Articles: The Magic Number and The Few, The Many, and the Reality of Power Laws



Net Promoter Score (NPS): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_promoter_score



Technology Adoption Life Cycle: Innovators → early adopters → early majority → late majority → laggards


BookBub and The Fussy Librarian for ebook promotions


Jenny’s Author Toolkit and Free Time Leader Kit



📚 Books Mentioned


The One Thing by Jay Papasan and Gary Keller


Atomic Habits by James Clear


Your First 1000 Copies by Tim Grahl

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Life After College


🎧 Related Episodes


Self-Publishing School: The Engineer Approach to Millions of Copies Sold with Todd Sattersten



Billion Dollar Creator: 018: How to Write a Book That Sells for Decades with Tim Grahl



Free Time: 249: Systems for Selling Over One Million Books and 012: Generating Personal MBA Momentum with Josh Kaufman

117: Tiny Marketing Actions with Pamela Slim


Pivot: 207: How to Develop Your Book and Big Idea (Part 1) and 208: Your Book and Big Idea (Part 2)


49: The (He)art of Book Publishing Excerpt: Land a Traditional Publishing Deal — Q&A with My Editor at Portfolio/Penguin Random House


📝 Check out full show notes and share: https://itsfreetim

Laura Mae Martin has a fascinating role as the Executive Productivity Advisor at Google in the Office of the CEO—one that she helped create six years ago (with big thanks to Jenny Wood for introducing us!). ****She coaches Google’s top executives on the best ways to manage their time and energy and sends out a weekly productivity newsletter that reaches over fifty thousand employees.
Today we’re talking about her forthcoming book, Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing. We discuss what the most senior-level executives do differently when it comes to time management (and what they still struggle with), five strategies for saying no, taming inbox stress with The Laundry Method, cozy corners, pairing activities with certain locations (hot spots and not spots), and what differentiates truly excellent executive assistants.
More About Laura: During her nearly fourteen-year tenure at Google, Laura Mae Martin has worked in sales, product operations, event planning, and now executive coaching. She holds a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and three children under five.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways



Laura’s 5 C’s of Productivity: Calm, Create, Capture, Consolidate, Close. Create a system that you truly trust: where new tasks get captured and where you know you will see them again. No matter when or where a loop comes from (i.e. on a walk), ensure you have systems in place for the entire loop lifecycle from capturing to closing.


Five Ways to Say No to Incoming Requests: ask more questions to better understand the time commitment and see if it aligns with your top three priorities; say you’ll think about it or don’t respond right away to buy yourself time and prevent a knee-jerk response; imagine two scenarios playing out for yes and for no (to help you decide); say no, but _______ (send helpful resources); say no, because _______ (give a little context).


The Laundry Method: Think about your inbox the way you think about your dryer. You would never process clothes one item at a time—whether drying, folding or putting away—and yet that’s how many people tackle email. Process in batches instead. Treat sorting, reading, and answering as separate activities. If you have only twenty minutes, pick one of those activities.


📝 Permission

Give yourself plenty of down time in order to have highly productive uptime; drop the guilt! Rest leads to better overall productivity.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

Stop wasting energy points! Eliminate any emails from your inbox that you don’t need to see: the unread, notifications, newsletters (Jenny uses SaneBox for this), and make sure you help the things you need to see stick out.

🔗 Resources Mentioned



Laura on the web, IG, LinkedIn



Articles: Business Insider—6 tips a productivity advisor gives Google executives to better manage their email, meetings, and workload


Google Blog—5 things I learned from Google’s productivity expert


CNN—She helps Google workers be productive. Here are her pro tips.


Video: Top 3 Google Workspace tips



Apps: SaneBox, TextExpander, HelpScout



📚 Books Mentioned

Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing

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: 019: Most Valuable Activities with Dave Crenshaw


154: The Hard No

027: Time Management for Mortals with Oliver Burkeman


Pivot: 289: Stealing Wi-Fi as Career Strategy with Jenny Wood


307: Pivoting from Google to Launching People Playbook with Tony McGaharan

318: The Beauty of Late Bloomers with Jenna Valovic

309: Wayfinding and Developing Identity Agency with Ciela Hartanov


📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/267
Learn

While the title of this episode, The Framework Framework™ is tongue-in-cheek, I’m pulling this out of the BFF bonus vault because it’s one of the community’s favorites.
I’m sharing the first steps to how you can set up a framework to help bolster your IP and your business; either by scaling through programs like certification and licensing, and to make your material more memorable and accessible to the groups you care most about reaching.
I shared this in June 2023 as a follow-up to the fantastic workshop that Pamela Slim did for us on Certification and Licensing. You can access over 100 bonus episodes and that workshop by joining Free Time as a paying subscriber. You’ll get instant access to Stephanie Huston’s How to Batch Create and Customize Your Annual Content Calendar, with an epic multi-tab template in Google Sheets. Be sure to also check out the resources below, including Wes Kao’s detailed LinkedIn post on how to turn your ideas into frameworks.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways of the Framework Framework™



Solves a problem (people know they have), answers a question (BookRx)


Action-oriented → Transformation Journey or Comprehensive (Whole body/self/org). Name your process


Memorable, concise name and stages (ideally 3 to 4 stages)

Bonus: Tie-in a metaphor, hook, and/or story


📘 From Built to Sell:



TED’S TIP # 3 Owning a process makes it easier to pitch and puts you in control. Be clear about what you’re selling, and potential customers will be more likely to buy your product.


TED’S TIP # 6 Don’t be afraid to say no to projects. Prove that you’re serious about specialization by turning down work that falls outside your area of expertise. The more people you say no to, the more referrals you’ll get to people who need your product or service.


🔗 Resources Mentioned


Here's a photo of my journal where I first started trying to piece the Free Time Framework together, brainstorming themes before eventually shifting from Mind/Time/Team to Align -> Design -> Assign :)


Articles: Martha Beck’s Growing Wings: The Power of Change


TED—The 7 types of rest that every person needs


Wes Kao’s detailed LinkedIn post on how to turn your ideas into frameworks



📚 Books Mentioned

Built to Sell

The Referral Engine

Finding Your Own North Star

E-Myth Revisited

The Power of Full Engagement

The Lean Start-up

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Life After College


🎧 Related Episodes


BFF Bonus Workshops: Pamela Slim’s Certification and Licensing


Stephanie Huston’s How to Batch Create and Customize Your Annual Content Calendar



Free Time: 189: Jay Acunzo's walkthrough of his Intellectual Property (IP) Development OS — check out the diagram here


256: Behind-the-Business: 1:1 Voxer Coaching Summer Pop-Up—Structure, Systems & Pricing

135: How to Rapidly Prototype a Course (Pivot Replay from Dec. 2019)

187: Licensing 201 — Q&A on Pricing + Packaging, Train-the-Trainer, Delivery, and Legal

186: Licensing 201 — Q&A on Product Development, Attracting Clients, and Sales Process

185: How Licensing Helps Serve the Queen Bee Role + Stop Keeping up with the EntrepreJoneses with Mike Michalowicz

140: How to License Your IP (Intellectual Property)


Pivot: 281: Feeling Impostery? Become a Qualified Curator Instead of an End-All-Be-All Expert



🌟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
💌 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
🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/266
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What do you do when you lose your biggest client? If you haven’t already, listen to part one for some answers—264: What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client— and save these links for a rainy day :)
The next time you’re going through something challenging in your business, remember: you are not alone! I hope you find comfort through the voices of some of my dearest friends, former podcast guests, and favorite Heart-Based Business owners who are speaking from experience about how they've handled situations just like this.
If you want the full scoop on what founding BFF member Leanne Hughes calls “business reality TV” on how I have been handling losing my biggest favorite client, I encourage you to check out the full series of posts at Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h. Thank you for listening, and huge thanks to our contributors to this series!

📝 Contributors & Permission Slips:



Stephanie Polen, founder of The Polen Group: “Give yourself permission to be emotional and recognize that that's your humanity - that is the thing that makes you special and the work that you do. And it's probably why that big client hired you in the first place.”


Khe Hy, founder of RadReads: “View these challenges not as a death of identity, but an opportunity to recalibrate your emotional resilience.”


Marisol Dahl, cofounder of Together Agency: “When you part ways with a big client, give yourself permission to take a beat so that you can reflect and digest on your own experience with this client.”


Chris Wilson, founder of Simplify Your Why: “Try more experiments with your business; give yourself the chance to iterate and fail (it helps if you live below your means!). It's rare that your first business model will work.”


Maya Middlemiss, founder of Remote Work Europe: “Give yourself permission to do something for yourself in terms of your interests and professional development. Don't let anybody own so much of your time.”


Check out the other half here, from Kelli Thompson, Kristoffer Carter, Pamela Slim, and Charlie Gilkey: 264: What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client (Part One)



🔗 Articles Mentioned

Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h

This is a Wonderful Day


An Honest Accounting: Part One, Part Two, Part Three



Am I Running a Zombie Business? Part One and Part Two



Ghost Self: Part One, Part Two, Part Three



📚 Books Mentioned


The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks (mentioned by Chris Wilson)

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: 264: What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client (Part One)


173: Cut Your Losses—Even While Pivoting in Public—with Khe Hy

Check out our full Rad Reads x Pivot Spotify Playlist


Pivot: 355: Building a Brand Strategy from Scratch with Adam Chaloeicheep of Together Agency and 356: Four Brand Personas with Adam Chaloeicheep



Future is Freelance with Maya Middlemiss: From Freelancing to Delightfully Tiny Teams: Embracing Automation, Empowerment, and Emojis with Jenny Blake



🌟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
💌 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/265
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices