What type of business would you build if you no longer needed the money? After a life-changing exit from her previous company, Meet Edgar, Laura Roeder’s answer: a fun one. She is now more focused than ever on building a business that is bootstrapped, agile, asynchronous, joyful for all involved, and powered by part-time team members who love what they do. In this conversation, we discuss why Laura downshifted from a structure with 30 full-time employees to one that’s leaner, saying no to the Bu...
Jan 24, 2023•55 min•Ep. 157
I had high hopes for the first couple of weeks of the year, but I rang in 2023 in bed, completely uninspired by goals or ideas—anything beyond a desire to get healthy and feel human again, let alone any loftier business aims. Taking a (very loud) hint from the universe, I settled on the theme THRIVE as my focus to start the year. One of the most common replies to my “wave a magic wand and fix one thing in your business” question when people access the Free Time Toolkit is for help with idea gene...
Jan 20, 2023•29 min•Ep. 156
What’s the right thing to do, and how do we do it quickly? In this conversation with Strategy Sprints founder Simon Severino, we cover: Why you shouldn’t start with your ideal avatar; setting daily, weekly, and monthly strategy planning (and measuring) habits; how he scales his business through certified Strategy Sprints® Coaches; creating self-healing loops, and greater resilience by tying roles to revenue. More About Simon: Simon Severino helps business owners in SaaS and services discover how...
Jan 17, 2023•44 min•Ep. 155
As I shared in last week’s solo episode, Free Time isn’t about time management or productivity, or even simply doing work more efficiently. It is about setting time free. If our time is trapped like a bird in a cage, unless we break free of shoulds and obligations, there it will remain. We achieve this through smarter systems, and that includes getting better at saying no. My own tendency to say yes — in an effort to be liked, to please others, to be accommodating, or even to continue trying to ...
Jan 13, 2023•20 min•Ep. 154
Imagine my surprise when, on the Saturday before I was set to be interviewed on a podcast last summer, my phone dings. It’s Door Dash. Huh?! I didn’t order anything . . . Turns out it was a surprise delivery from the producer of that show, Matthew Thompson. Next thing I know, my husband Michael and I are enjoying iced coffee and yummy treats with our Sunday morning reading—I have never felt so taken care of prior to guesting on a podcast! That’s Matt, and he’s all class (not to mention a fellow ...
Jan 10, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 153
As I share in Free Time, nowhere is entropy more visually evident than in older homes or ones in nature. I remember staying at a cabin in the Catskills, where I could see right before my eyes all forms of plants and animals encroaching on the once-pristine house. Without upkeep, a dead tree teetered precariously toward the roof, weeds started overtaking the grass, spiders made themselves comfortable in bathroom corners, giant carpenter ants traversed the kitchen counters, and we spotted a garden...
Jan 06, 2023•25 min•Ep. 152
If life is a circus, then maybe there’s a way to get better at performing in it. As Laura shares in this conversation about ways to calm time chaos, “Nobody gets shot out of a cannon at the wrong time in a circus . . . it’s a miracle of precision.” In this week’s episode, you will learn how to shift from a sense of time scarcity to spacious serenity, how to overcome “horror vacui” and guilt when creating a more open schedule, the importance of margin and creating back-up slots (”rain dates”) for...
Jan 03, 2023•42 min•Ep. 151
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 :) This episode originally aired on January 7, 2022. 🎁 We're bringing back BOGOGO! 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—back for a limited time. Here's how it works: Buy One: Order the hardcover edition and submit proof of purchase at http://itsfreetime.com/bo...
Dec 30, 2022•20 min
"I never serve from my reserves" is just one of countless gems from one of my wisest friends, Christine Arylo. It is time for us to unhook from the over-culture operating system that produces burnout. Christine teaches us how to lead from the heart with a “pace of grace” by changing our relationship to time, energy, and flow (focus + fluidity). This episode originally aired on March 21, 2021. More about Christine: For more than a decade, through her transformation-based consulting company, Expan...
Dec 27, 2022•50 min
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...
Dec 23, 2022•23 min
What is your relationship to information? Scattered and chaotic, or clear and navigable? Do you have streamlined systems for saving, distilling, and crafting original thought-leadership from what you encounter and store, or are you stuck when it comes time to create order from the chaos? Our guest this week, Tiago Forte, is here to teach you how to develop a second brain—a mindset that transcends toolset—through information-wrangling habits that will change the way you think and create. This epi...
Dec 20, 2022•43 min
This best of episode is a replay of the 100th episode of this show since launching on March 21, 2021. I gave myself the tricky task of pairing 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. This episode originally aired June 10, 2022. 🎁 We're bringing back BOGOGO! Give the gift of free time to yourself and others in the new year by participat...
Dec 16, 2022•42 min
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. This episode originally aired on...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Just a few days after launch, Free Time topped 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 read the book and p...
Dec 09, 2022•40 min
“Stab the Hydra in the heart.” Cal Newport is not pulling any punches with his latest treatise on how we can combat Hyperactive Hive Mind with smarter systems for communication. Email has become a constant source of guilt and stress for so many of us — listen in for strategies to reclaim your peace and focus. This episode originally aired on March 21, 2021. About Cal Newport: Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He is the author of six books, includ...
Dec 06, 2022•53 min
What steps can you take now to free your time far into the future? Long-time listeners know this is one of the central questions and strategies throughout Free Time, my book that helps you build the muscle of continually freeing more of your time. Today I’m sharing three strategies to set your time free in 2023. For added accountability in freeing your time in the year ahead, I encourage you to check out the Free Time Leader Kit—you can work through the sections of the book with your team or in ...
Dec 02, 2022•23 min•Ep. 150
According to SignalFire, the fastest growing type of small business is one that revolves around content creation, also known as the creator economy. In this conversation, Kim Kaupe and I explore favorite tips and tools for designing our calendar to support creative work, strategies for staying consistent, paying for accountability, “fishing where your fish are,” batching to get more done in less time, and how Kim prepared for her successful Shark Tank pitch several years ago. Watch the full conv...
Nov 29, 2022•59 min•Ep. 149
Your creativity and entrepreneurial spirit got you here. Smarter systems will take you there. There is less friction in your operations and a greater focus on joyful work. There is a spacious calendar where you are free to dedicate time to your most compelling, strategic projects — the ones that best express your unique talents, powered by a Delightfully Tiny Team. It’s time to stop working full time and start working free time: by applying agile operating principles toward building smarter syst...
Nov 25, 2022•27 min•Ep. 148
If you’re a business owner thinking, “My platform is too small to land sponsors,” today’s guest will encourage you to think again. Instead of counting yourself out purely because of the numbers—consider shifting your mindset from how you can help brands to how you can serve your audience best. In this conversation, sponsorship coach Justin Moore shares his hard-earned wisdom on forming mutually beneficial partnerships between brands and creators. He shares tons of tactics on the power of specifi...
Nov 22, 2022•53 min•Ep. 147
There’s a missing chapter in Free Time that, over the course of editing, got condensed down into a single bullet point. When someone new joins your team, even part-time, those first few days, weeks, and months have potential to transform your manager manual—in ways that you would otherwise miss. I encourage you to share this episode with your new team members as they join! 🌟Key Takeaways for New Team Members: The business owner is up to their ears in responsibility. Improving onboarding documen...
Nov 18, 2022•19 min•Ep. 146
For many of us running Delightfully Tiny Teams, the ideal team set-up is one where no one works full time — including the owner. Today Kaneisha Grayson returns to the pod to share with her signature transparency her lessons learned about onboarding part-time team members, designing effective hiring and vetting processes, teaching sales skills, and scaling without breaking the bank. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our previous conversation in episode 131: Scaling Your Joy While Strea...
Nov 15, 2022•47 min•Ep. 145
How do you define enough? Today, Jenny is sharing a bonus episode from the private BFF podcast feed where she’s talking about how to refocus on what enough looks like, and how you can celebrate exactly where (and who) you already are—in business and in life. 🌟3 Key Takeaways: Mirroring, or looking at others, can be motivating, but be wary of falling into the compare pit of despair. My friend Melissa shared a line from Brooke Castillo: “There isn’t better than here.” As Brooke often says, life i...
Nov 11, 2022•20 min•Ep. 144
Do we really all have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé? That’s our tongue-in-cheek title, pulled from Tara McMullin’s new book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting, for a recent Spotify Live conversation. In this replay, Charlie Gilkey, Tara McMullin, and I explore the nuances of calculating time, money, and energy capacity so that we don’t tip into boredom or burnout. We share strategies for saying no, and discuss the costs of saying yes when we shouldn’...
Nov 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 143
You’ve heard the term low-hanging fruit: the easiest thing you can do to make the biggest possible impact in your business. But not all fruit is created equal! Sometimes, those low-hanging fruits are modest peaches or distracting, underperforming pumpkins (in Mike Michalowicz parlance) that might not be worth pursuing. Other times, you’re so close to your own business that you can’t see the enormous, juicy, low-hanging watermelon you’re about to walk right into. 🌟3 Key Takeaways: Look for low-h...
Nov 04, 2022•18 min•Ep. 142
What do you do when your business model is no longer working for you? When your current income streams and activities are not just tiring but draining you to the point of exhaustion? My guest today, Tara McMullin, is someone I have long admired for her willingness to question dominant narratives about how things should be done, instead emphasizing what works for each individual person and business. In this conversation, Tara shares her journey of making one of the toughest decisions in her busin...
Nov 01, 2022•58 min•Ep. 141
Licensing your IP to companies can be lucrative and a tough nut to crack. Pricing is opaque, deliverables and tracking can get complicated, and companies with a smaller Learning and Development function may call it by another name (such as Train-the-Trainer). After many years working with a small handful of joyful clients—bolstered by many mentoring sessions, lessons learned the hard way, and a whole lot of experimentation—today, I’m sharing a few pointers on how to get started. I am not an expe...
Oct 28, 2022•44 min•Ep. 140
“Build an email list,” is business advice equivalent to “Make sure you breathe.” We all know it’s a best practice to communicate consistently with our communities, but coming up with something interesting on a regular basis is easier said than done! As is building out a paid newsletter subscription in parallel to the baseline missives. Thank goodness for our guest today, David Elikwu (also a fellow Notion nerd), who is taking us behind the scenes of his business to share how he organizes informa...
Oct 25, 2022•46 min•Ep. 139
Today I’m sharing a section from Free Time about one of the topics interviewers ask me about most: Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds. You’ll hear why I’m such an advocate for writing permission slips to do the things we really want to and dropping the things we don’t. 🌟Key Takeaway: If you want to dabble in something that might be a Shiny Should, treat it like an experiment. Set rules for engagement that respect your time, including firm start and end dates, then evaluate the impact on your ener...
Oct 21, 2022•18 min•Ep. 138
As you all may well know by now, I am a social media curmudgeon. But that doesn’t mean I’m not inspired by success stories of business owners applying these tools joyfully to create leverage in their business marketing! My guest today is one of my longtime IRL besties, Inna Aizenshtein, who has been successful at filling her coaching and hypnotherapy practice primarily with leads from TikTok. In this conversation, we discuss energy ebbs and flows and creating authentic content without letting ap...
Oct 18, 2022•46 min•Ep. 137
In the spirit of “truth while it’s fresh,” one of my core values for this podcast, today I’m sharing a truth that has been on a low simmer for two years but that I’ve never quite shared publicly. I’m taking you behind the scenes of my explorations around potentially selling the Pivot side of my business—and why I chose not to (for now, unless you know of any $5 million to 10 million buyers around! ;) 🌟3 Key Takeaways: I think about three types of knowledge workers: builders, maintainers, and op...
Oct 14, 2022•41 min•Ep. 136
