Are you winding down the path of writing the wrong book? What does it take to create a marketing tipping point? What separates good books from platform books? Make sure you listen to part one of this conversation first, then dive into part two of this conversation with “bookitect” David Moldawer. More About David: David Moldawer spent over a decade as a book editor at a slew of New York publishing houses including St. Martin’s Press, McGraw-Hill, and Penguin, acquiring and editing bestselling no...
Jun 28, 2022•44 min•Ep. 105
So you’re getting good at saving yourself time; but what about saving other people’s time? How creative are you at reducing their next steps? The latter is a gift that keeps on giving. Visualize the final outcome, and work backward to envision how you can take the few next steps to save time and effort for fellow stakeholders. 🌟3 Key Takeaways: Take a few extra minutes to reflect before marking a task “done.” Do the work upfront of thinking about what someone will need next. What happens after ...
Jun 24, 2022•21 min•Ep. 104
What takes a book proposal past the slush pile onto a publisher’s deal sheet? How do you get the attention of literary agents who might also be looking for you? In the first half of this two-part conversation, I’m chatting with longtime publishing, editing, and ghostwriting maven David Moldawer about what makes a great “big” book idea. More About David: David Moldawer spent over a decade as a book editor at a slew of New York publishing houses including St. Martin’s Press, McGraw-Hill, and Pengu...
Jun 21, 2022•30 min•Ep. 103
Free Time for Your Future Self: For any area of your business that causes friction, run through these systems-thinking questions to inspire small steps today that will save time far into the future. This is from our BFF community’s private feed, with an excerpt from the Free Time book and toolkit. If you want to join a group of smart, heart-centered, generous and successful business owners who are committed to our “take a penny, leave a penny” Brilliance Barter philosophy, I encourage you to lea...
Jun 17, 2022•23 min•Ep. 102
How has Alexandra Franzen built two thriving businesses without social media? By delivering work with a quality I like to call “exquisite greatness.” She treats every marketing initiative like a tiny art project, something to get excited about rather than a draining chore to dread—and no, it doesn’t require social media. As Alex shares, according to a Nielsen study, 92% of customers purchase products or services because of a recommendation from someone they know. More About Alex: Alexandra Franz...
Jun 14, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 101
Dearest Free Timers: I can’t believe it, but this marks the 100th episode of this show since launching on March 21, 2021! Today I've given myself the tricky task of trying to pair down the top ten lessons learned this last year and a half. I wish I could’ve pulled an excerpt from every single guest, but alas! These are the lessons that stuck most, sparking new insights and ahas. 🌟 If you enjoy this round-up, I’d be so grateful for you to share in a review for Free Time: What insights have stood...
Jun 10, 2022•42 min•Ep. 100
Finding the perfect problem is like falling in love. You can’t always choose the when or the what, but when it happens, you need to be ready to take action. In the second half of this two-part episode with Jim McKelvey, author of The Innovation Stack, we dive into the ways that finding your perfect problem parallels falling in love, and why having a lot of money doesn’t solve all business problems; often it creates more. More About Jim: Jim McKelvey is a glassblower, father, entrepreneur, author...
Jun 07, 2022•42 min•Ep. 99
There is a Goldilocks quality to designing a Delightfully Tiny Team, a horseshoe of team happiness. Too small, and you are taxingly tiny: in many cases when you have fewer than three people, and certainly if you are entirely solo, the burden of moving the business forward falls entirely on you. It is hard to get the rest and recharging you need to do strategic work. On the other end of the horseshoe, if your team is too big, you may feel burdened by pressure and complexity. If you’re a business ...
Jun 03, 2022•40 min•Ep. 98
How can you find — and attempt the great feat of solving — your perfect problem? That’s what I’m talking about today with my guest, Square co-founder Jim McKelvey. His book, The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time, is one of the funniest and most engaging business books I’ve read. We met at TED through our mutual friend Jon Levy, and had the great joy of recording together in person at a studio in midtown Manhattan. In the first half of this two-part episod...
May 31, 2022•33 min•Ep. 97
Today I’m sharing the recording from our second-to-last book launch team Q&A one month after Free Time launched. I share post-launch stats, lessons learned, how I think about investments I’ve made, and share more about how helpful my “Author Support Group” (ASG) calls were with friends along the way. Save the Date: I'm excited to partner with Caveday (featured on p. 266 of Free Time!) for a deep-dive conversation about the book, followed by a guided work sprint, their specialty :) Think of i...
May 27, 2022•49 min•Ep. 96
Do you feel like you are wasting precious moments just finding things? Today, I’m speaking with Nick Sonnenberg, CEO of Leverage, about the importance of optimizing your business for retrievability. Nick’s sweet spot is teaching companies how to reinvent the way their work gets done by focusing on building a culture of team productivity, instead of merely focusing on individual efficiency. More about Nick: Nick Sonnenberg is the founder and CEO of Leverage, a business efficiency consultant, Inc....
May 24, 2022•45 min•Ep. 95
It’s time to stop Franken-stringing software together. If you've read Free Time or been listening to this podcast, you know I am obsessed with software. Tools are my default go-to team member, given how much they do for my business. Today I’m sharing the top five tools that power my business . . . plus a few bonus “utility” tools that are always running in the background (I couldn’t resist). 🌟 3 Key Takeaways: A useful software service is one that directly replaces routine work that you or a te...
May 20, 2022•23 min•Ep. 94
Could you sell your business? Would you even want to once it’s optmized enough to make selling an option? Today I’m discussing the practical and emotional considerations of selling an online business with my longtime friendtor, Alexis Grant. More about Lexi: Alexis is the founder and CEO of They Got Acquired, a media company telling the stories of “small” acquisitions. She has sold two companies herself—a digital marketing agency to The Penny Hoarder as a full acqui-hire, and The Write Life to a...
May 17, 2022•52 min•Ep. 93
Stress, frustration, overwhelm: These are systems flags from your business asking for renewed attention on a bottleneck or inefficiency. In my case, it was repeating myself for the fourth time in as many months to different team members in answering the same small email-related process question. This is no one person’s fault (other than mine!). My aha moment: a strategy for training the system to get smarter first, then teaching the team how to better leverage that system, which makes their life...
May 13, 2022•20 min•Ep. 92
“I’m always stumping quarterly planning for business owners. It’s the Goldilocks horizon for strategy execution, project scoping, and team alignment.” Today I’m talking with Charlie Gilkey about why the quarter is an ideal time unit for strategic planning, how to apply his stepwise Momentum process to mapping projects and goals, and striking the balance between visioning and planning. Charlie also had an interesting response on why tracking metrics matters . . . and it’s not what you might think...
May 10, 2022•43 min•Ep. 91
There is a chicken-and-egg problem in the early days (and transitional moments) of any business: you need to earn more money in order to hire help, but hiring help is one of the only ways you can free your time to do the highest revenue-generating activities. Today I’m sharing the best investment I made in Q1 of 2022, even though it wasn’t a direct line to profitability (but pretty dang close). 🌟 3 Key Takeaways: Bet on yourself. You can easily become the bottleneck if you don’t invest in outsi...
May 06, 2022•21 min•Ep. 90
Don’t bother starting a {business, blog, podcast}, the market is already too saturated! That limiting sentiment gets thrown around a lot—not least of which by our own mind. But just as there is always room to make new friends, so too can you find your best fit audience. This week Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative and host of The Business Podcast Blueprint, takes over the pod again to share the benefits of podcasting, even within a seemingly-saturated topic. More about Megan: Mega...
May 03, 2022•15 min•Ep. 89
If you’ve been in business for more than a few years, you’re probably well-versed in the perils of switching costs and shiny object syndrome when it comes to trying new software, especially if there’s a high learning curve. Today I’m sharing more context on a conversation I’ve been having repeatedly behind-the-scenes with people who are curious about switching to Notion for their business operations, but a little hesitant to make the time and energy investment. I share three reasons I am gratefu...
Apr 29, 2022•23 min•Ep. 88
What are your business goals for your current or potential podcast? If you are like many business owners, you may not have set them set in stone before getting started. Today’s episode is the first of two crossover episodes from Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative, a podcast production agency, and host of The Business Podcast Blueprint. I asked her to take over the pod because I loved this advice so much! Listen in to find out what the three high-level company podcast archetypes ar...
Apr 26, 2022•23 min•Ep. 87
How valuable is your time? Are you conveying that value to your potential clients? In the first five years of running my business, I spent way too long thinking I was the only one who could handle important communications with current and potential VIP corporate clients. Taking inspiration from Cyrano De Bergerac, today I’m sharing a mindset and process that enables a team member to take on the heavy-lifting of client communications. There is only one week left for the Buy One, Get One, Give One...
Apr 22, 2022•18 min•Ep. 86
“If you build an audience, you can figure out how to build a business.” That has been the guiding mantra behind Brian Clark’s pioneering business-building throughout his career. He is someone I’ve long admired, from his early days founding Copyblogger to his many new ventures. Today, we’re talking about building the audiences that make it all possible. More About Brian: Brian Clark is a writer, traveler, and serial digital entrepreneur. He’s the founder of the pioneering content marketing websit...
Apr 19, 2022•46 min•Ep. 85
There's so much energy and attention that swirls around during a launch, and I cannot thank you enough for helping create the momentum that we did! I've talked a lot about launching with ease and joy, generating magic and serendipity, not muscling through book marketing. I’ve also talked about sprinting through the finish, and the overwhelm that comes from wanting to give a big creative project every last drop of energy to help it succeed.Today I’m sharing my strategy of sending the first 1,000 ...
Apr 15, 2022•30 min•Ep. 84
“Brain science teaches that even if a prospect knows, loves, and believes in a company’s offerings, after they become a customer, fear, doubt, and uncertainty will plague their thoughts.” That familiar feeling is buyer’s remorse—and if you’re not building systems to directly address it within customers’ first 100 days, you are far more likely to lose them. Regardless of where your business operates, what industry you work in, or the size of your operation, you are likely losing approximately 20 ...
Apr 12, 2022•47 min•Ep. 83
Today we have a favorite time-saving strategy from listener Liron on keeping a Mess Page at your desk to free your mind during deep work sprints. Now that Liron has kicked off this series, I encourage you to submit your favorite time-saving tip so that we can all continue learning from each other and freeing time together! You can record a voice memo on your phone and send it to hi@itsfreetime.com or visit itsfreetime.com/ask. 📝 Permission: To be messy while you work! Not to put pressure on you...
Apr 08, 2022•8 min•Ep. 82
Leadership and org design always involve tradeoffs. Which ones are you willing to make? Are you building traffic lights in your business or roundabouts? Do you want to maintain power and control, deriving identity from your role, or are you interested in exploring and creating a self-managing organization where there is no CEO? Today we’re talking about the new wave of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), bolstered by the blockchain, but something Aaron Dignan has been practicing for o...
Apr 05, 2022•50 min•Ep. 81
Just a few days after launch, Free Time is already topping many Amazon charts . . . although "making the lists" is not something I lose sleep over, it does go a long way toward raising awareness and generating lasting launch momentum. Here are some early category stats—I couldn't do any of this without you! #1 New Release in Time Management #1 New Release in Small Business #1 New Release Organizational Change #1 New Release Business Structural Adjustment Enormous thanks to all of you who have re...
Apr 01, 2022•40 min•Ep. 80
Thank you all so much for the incredible book launch support this week!! Because of you, Free Time is topping the Amazon charts! Here are some early stats: #1 New Release Organizational Change #1 New Release Business Structural Adjustment #1 Best Seller in Office Automation Business #1 Most Wished For in Office Automation Business #1 New Release in Office Automation Business #3 New Release in Systems and Planning Today my friend Antonio Neves hosts part two of our launch week conversation (liste...
Mar 29, 2022•35 min•Ep. 79
I love mastermind groups, and how they create the space to support and learn from fellow business owners. They come in all shapes and sizes, paid and unpaid, and illuminate ideas and questions we might not always find simply from reading books and attending conferences. Today, I’m sharing some of the forms these groups can take, and how you can initiate powerful small-group connections with other professionals. Key Takeaways: You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on mastermind groups — in...
Mar 25, 2022•20 min•Ep. 78
Today kicks off another exciting chapter of life and business because the Free Time book is officially out! There’s no one I’d rather hand over hosting duties to than my long-time friend, fellow author, and podcast host, Antonio Neves, to take the lead on this celebration conversation. We’re talking about creating art, investing in yourself, and the incredible journey of going all-in on something you’re passionate about. More About Antonio: Antonio Neves is the author of four books including Sto...
Mar 22, 2022•31 min•Ep. 77
Hi friends! Just a quick four-minute thank you message to celebrate the official launch day for my brand new book—the one that you've all been listening to! Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business. 📝 If you have a few extra minutes to spare, I would be super grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads today — these go such a long way toward informing future readers (and the Amazon algo') about whether or not Free Time is worth their precious time and energy :) Bonus...
Mar 22, 2022•4 min
