Without conscious reframing, launching can quickly tip toward stressful. Writing and launching a book is a privilege, so I hesitate to harp too much on how hard it can be. Whenever I feel stress climbing, I remind myself to find the joy and ease, to reconnect with gratitude for that exact stage of the process. That said, launches still have a way of snowballing stress! Today I’m breaking down seven reasons why, and five strategies for reducing the inevitable stress at the edge of a major—and maj...
Mar 18, 2022•37 min•Ep. 76
Have you fallen out of love with something in your business? Something you want to be doing in theory, like sending newsletters, but you’re hitting a wall of resistance? In this episode, I'm coaching a long-time friend and founding BFF community member, Wade Brill, through the Free Time Framework. Wade is also featured as the kick-off story for the Align stage of the book. More About Wade: Wade Brill is a mindfulness coach who helps people experiencing stress and overwhelm be more present, produ...
Mar 15, 2022•44 min•Ep. 75
If the thought of success sometimes feels more stressful than exhilarating, you’re not alone. Many business owners are interested in scale only if they’re not scaling stress and headaches at the same time. In fact, some even subconsciously hold back from earning more, fearing that any more income might bring with it increased headaches. The early days of every business are scrappy. You’re building something out of nothing, and that means doing things that aren’t sustainable long term. Today’s ep...
Mar 11, 2022•34 min•Ep. 74
What if this is the moment that changes everything? That question can be exhilarating or terrifying—or both. And there are going to be moments like that in your business: crossroads where you have to make a choice. Today’s guest, Pat Flynn recently made one of the biggest decisions of all, to step aside as CEO of his company, while still playing an active role, so he could devote more time to the creative work he loves. More About Pat: Pat Flynn is a father, husband and entrepreneur who lives an...
Mar 08, 2022•44 min•Ep. 73
Going from “zero to one” on a big creative project can be intimidating. If you want to write a book or create a course, where should you begin? Hint: grab a pen and paper and a stack of index cards, not your laptop. Key Takeaways: Start big projects by asking: what is the key transformation I am hoping to inspire? There is magic to the number 3: it fits in with how we understand the world. When shaping the main pillars of the transformation you’re creating, see if you can break it down into 3 ke...
Mar 04, 2022•22 min•Ep. 72
Did you know that we can predict a leader’s charisma based solely on five seconds of exposure? That nonverbal signals account for 65 to 90 percent of our total communication? Today we’re talking about cues, specifically the formula for charisma (hint: a combination of cues that project warmth and competence). As a self-described “recovering awkward person,” Vanessa’s secret sauce is combining the latest research, real-life case studies of success, and fascinating examples of notable figures (lik...
Mar 01, 2022•35 min•Ep. 71
Do you fret about why your own work never seems to be as good as what you read, watch, or listen to? Today’s episode is an important reminder for all of us: Don’t compare your first draft to someone else’s finished product. Rarely is a finished product created by a single genius working alone. Far more often, great work comes from collective effort, and our rough drafts are just the first tiny chip away at what ultimately becomes a finished carving. ⭐️ Permission: To hire a professional editor t...
Feb 25, 2022•22 min•Ep. 70
“If you don’t have a system…you are the system.” That’s just one of Allan’s brilliant gems from this conversation on creating a “marketing oil well” for your business. Income comes from assets, and there’s one area right under your feet that’s ripe for reinvention: your email newsletters and welcome autoresponder series. Listen in for the 5-minute tip that changed my business life, and tons of other juicy tips and ideas to make your business easier and more profitable. More About Allan: Allan Di...
Feb 22, 2022•45 min•Ep. 69
Every interaction with your customers offers an opportunity to be warm and welcoming. It's also easy to make them feel alienated or put off. Where in your business are you being unintentionally grumpy? Key Takeaways: Some rules come across as cold, particularly if they are reflections of the worst customer experiences you’ve had, rather than the excellent ones you are cultivating. What tone do you want to set? You can be clear and precise while still kind and friendly All of the touchpoints you ...
Feb 18, 2022•13 min•Ep. 68
For founders who value freedom, one question looms large: How do you keep overhead low while still generating abundant revenue? That’s what Elaine Pofeldt, self-professed “data nerd” is sharing with us today based on her new book, Tiny Business, Big Money: Strategies for Creating a High-Revenue Microbusiness. More About Elaine: Elaine Pofeldt Is an independent journalist specializing in Entrepreneurship. Elaine’s previous book is The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, where she looks at how en...
Feb 15, 2022•39 min•Ep. 67
Are you working in tasks or on templates? For anything you repeat, take a little time up-front to design a process that will save you time for future sessions. Books Mentioned: Eat That Frog! The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Resources Mentioned: Free Time Dashboard Beta Free Author Toolkit Related Episodes: Episode 34 Organizing Research and Ideas - Notion Walkthrough #1 Episode 36: Shaping Big Ideas - Notion Walkthrough #2 Episode 38: Tracking P...
Feb 11, 2022•13 min•Ep. 66
How do you decide what to delegate, and what to keep doing yourself? What are the best ways to build flexibility into our businesses for ensuring we have plenty of free time for family and creativity? This week's guest is Evan La Ruffa, a father and artist-turned entrepreneur who is passionate about shaping a better world through new solutions to big problems. He is the founder of IPaintMyMind.org, a nonprofit focused on art, equity, and impact. One of my favorite projects of theirs is matching ...
Feb 08, 2022•31 min•Ep. 65
When is good enough good enough? When is it important to stick to a creative vision, down to every last meticulous detail? Hitting publish means welcoming praise and criticism, and today I’m sharing the nerve-wracking feeling leading up to both, as well as an audio adventure to the book’s unboxing at the Rochester Warehouse! 📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting Wha...
Feb 04, 2022•37 min•Ep. 64
The mic tables are turned this week, with Azul Terronez, cofounder of Authors Who Lead interviewing me for his fantastic podcast. With so many mutual friends in common, it was such a joy to finally connect directly! I hope you enjoy this conversation on burnout, spacious work boundaries, delegating, and doubling down on business intuition. 📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One 🔗 Resources Mentioned: Authors Who Le...
Feb 01, 2022•28 min•Ep. 63
Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Brian Tracy adapted this for his productivity book, Eat That Frog! to say, "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first," and "If you have to eat any frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long." What if you turned this into a content batching template, and tackled all creative tasks in a Monday sprint every week? That's the experiment I've ...
Jan 28, 2022•19 min•Ep. 62
What's the difference between a lifestyle boutique and one that is built to scale and sell? Between a commoditized "body shop" and a unique boutique? There are approximately 1.47 million firms in professional services (industry code NAICS 54). Four thousand have reached scale, with more than 250 employees. This is one-quarter of one percent—these are the market leaders. The other 99.75% have between 1 and 249 employees; these are what Greg Alexander calls boutiques. Greg sold his professional se...
Jan 25, 2022•40 min•Ep. 61
As my dad (an architect) always reminded me when I was growing up, clients often want it all — quality, speed, and the best prices. The reality? Pick two. It's nearly impossible to optimize for all at once, so what do you want to be known for as a business? 📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham 🔗 Resources Mentioned: Article on the Project Management Triangle 🎙 Related Epi...
Jan 20, 2022•15 min•Ep. 60
What is the difference between uniqueness, talent, and onlyness? Nilofer Merchant is here to help us figure out how the room changes when we walk in, how to turn feeling othered or overworked into opportunities to help ourselves and everyone around us shine, and the powerful question that shifted how she leads others. More About Nilofer: Nilofer Merchant is ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the world's leading business thinkers. In 2013 she gave a top-ranking TED talk, "Sitting is the Smoking of Ou...
Jan 18, 2022•30 min•Ep. 59
Today's episode builds on 56: Systems vs. Goals. Now let's talk about how to build smarter systems by looking for measurable loops in your business, then split testing with small experiments. For some of you, this is automatic, especially if you're familiar with growth hacking principles. For others, it will be a helpful reminder for you and your team about how to simplify and systematize making improvements in your business. 📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business P...
Jan 14, 2022•34 min•Ep. 58
If it weren't for my longtime mentor MBS and our tiny sprints, sending each other daily check marks via Marco Polo to clock in our (minimum) 100 words of writing, the new Free Time book would not exist. In keeping with his new podcast format, in honor of his book launch (today!!) he gave me permission to replay a recent episode from his show. In it, MBS reads two pages of his new book, How to Begin: Start Something That Matters, and I ask him follow-up questions about the nitty gritty of navigat...
Jan 11, 2022•39 min•Ep. 57
Welcome Deep Questions with Cal Newport listeners! I had so much fun recording the "Help me do less!" episode — check it out here if you haven't already :) [ 01:49 ] 🚀 I'd love to invite you to the Free Time book launch team! Learn more and join us for a pop-up private community and 5 bonus AMA behind-the-book calls at http://itsfreetime.com/launch-team [ 04:12 ]🎙I'm starting a new featurette for the podcast called "My Favorite Time-Saving System." Do you have a cool little tip, trick, or sequ...
Jan 07, 2022•31 min•Ep. 56
Today I'm sharing an easy technique (and some of my favorite tools) for claiming your free time now for the year ahead, before everyone else haphazardly (even if unintentionally) fills in the cracks with scattershot scheduling. In taking my own advice, this will also be the last episode of 2021! My email autoresponder is live and my bags are packed—I'm heading to California to spend some quality time with family. See you in early January! 🎁 Give yourself (and a friend) the gift of Free Time as ...
Dec 14, 2021•22 min•Ep. 55
Early reviews are in! Kirkus calls Free Time, "An entertaining, instructive reading experience . . . an invigorating and informative time-management manual." In perfect timing, I read this just before recording today's episode: "All three parts of the book are well written, applicable, and actionable. Stylistically, Blake is a master of alliteration and rhyming; she’s also adept at employing numbered and bulleted lists." Hah! Well, I won't pick today to disappoint; in perfect coincidence, I'm de...
Dec 10, 2021•18 min•Ep. 54
🎉 Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business launches on 3/22/22! Give the gift of free time to yourself and others in the new year by participating in our Buy One, Get One, Give One bonus. Here's how it works: Buy One: Preorder the hardcover edition and submit proof of purchase at http://itsfreetime.com/bogogo Get One: Within one business day, you'll get early access to the audiobook and brand new Free Time Toolkit with over 15 new templates to free your mind, time, and team! Give One: Y...
Dec 08, 2021•1 min
What gets in the way of deep, intentional focus? Hint: the phone sitting right at your desk. Even though we know the apps blinking on screen are designed for distraction and shallow work—we don't always know how to best facilitate our own focus. Jake and cofounders at Caveday are taking a stand for social connection while carving out and facilitating group sessions dedicated to deep work. More About Jake: Jake Kahana is a designer and entrepreneur who teaches creative leaders the tools and skill...
Dec 07, 2021•30 min•Ep. 53
Jon Kabat Zinn says, "Overwhelm means life is unfolding at a rate that neither my psyche or my nervous system can handle.” Sometimes life (and work) is like a yummy buffet: it all looks delicious, but our eyes are bigger than our stomach. Today I'm sharing a few reasons our perceived capacity can be misaligned with our actual capacity: invisible roles, poor role fit, taking on new exciting projects without first cutting back elsewhere, and broader contextual seasons and collective influences. 📘...
Dec 03, 2021•32 min•Ep. 52
After building Box of Crayons for nearly twenty years, Michael Bungay Stanier hit a fork-in-the-road: he knew that for his business to continue growing, it would be wisest for him (and more energizing) to step aside. For two years he trained his successor, Shannon Minifie, then navigated the identity void of "standing in the valley of Box of Crayons" before launching into his new direction, including a new book and podcast. I hope you enjoy this week's conversation on navigating replacing what o...
Nov 30, 2021•41 min•Ep. 51
Metaphors are powerful drivers for our mind—they allow us to quickly convey complex information to better understand abstract ideas. How do you think about business-building? Are you building a machine, managing a house, running a restaurant, or something else altogether? In this episode, we are discussing helpful aspects of all three analogies, and countering the role of entropy in any organic system. 📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business — If you want to join the...
Nov 19, 2021•36 min•Ep. 53
"We don't write books, we craft spreads." Dr. Alex Osterwalder and his book co-authors pioneered the landscape, full-color, creative visuals format for simplifying complex business ideas. They consider every page of their books as a user interface, optimizing for simplicity, clarity, and fun. "Visuals don't become lipstick on a pig, they become an essential part of the reader's experience." There's good news and bad news today: the good news, I know you will love what Alex shares about simplifyi...
Nov 16, 2021•46 min•Ep. 49
After reflecting on last week’s episode, here’s how I’m reducing friction and designing smarter systems for ongoing content creation. 📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business — If you want to join the book launch team to get insider access and community leading up to the launch, sign-up at itsfreetime.com/join and you’ll be the first to know when that kicks off! Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Wo...
Nov 12, 2021•35 min•Ep. 45
