229: How (and When) to Trust Yourself and Others with Ilise Benun

Written By Jenny Blake

When we say trusting ourselves, which self are we talking about? Which parts of ourselves can’t be trusted?

That’s what we’re exploring today with returning guest, Ilise Benun. We discuss how confidence is a byproduct of action, what made her so angry that she decided to start her own business 35 years ago, building tolerance for silence and small experiments, and why she puts her phone number in her newsletter, on her website, and in the “from” line of her emails.

If you haven’t already, check out our previous conversation in episode 165: Are your clients bringing out the best in you? Engineering the Evolution of Your Business with Ilise Benun and episode 467 of Marketing Mentor on How to Free Your Time.

More About Ilise: Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," three online courses via CreativeLive and Domestika.org, and The Simplest Marketing Plan – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. She has also been hosting the Marketing Mentor Podcast since 2008, with over 465 episodes at the time of this recording.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

  • Drop the belief that “I need to know” — what I’m doing, what my niche is, have all the ducks in a row. Approach life and business as an experiment. You’ll know what’s not working much earlier than what is.

  • Absence blindness: we don’t see what’s not there, but in the silence things are happening

  • Be careful about taking advice from someone who has too much at stake in terms of the decisions you’re making.

📝 Permission

To listen to someone else. Find someone you trust, and just try something that they suggest—then see what happens.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

Make a list of various selves; for example, the old self vs. the new self; rational self vs. the irrational self; the critical self vs. the compassionate self; the morning self vs. the afternoon self. Note who you trust most with business decisions, and which ones might be better to sideline.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

📚 Books Mentioned

🎧 Related Episodes

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📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/229

Jenny Blake

Jenny Blake is a career and business strategist and international speaker who helps people people organize their brain, move beyond burnout and create sustainable careers they love. She is the author of PIVOT: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One (Portfolio/Penguin Random House, September 2016). Jenny left her job in career development at Google in 2011 after five and a half years at the company to launch her first book, Life After College, and has since run her own consulting business in New York City. Find her on Twitter @Jenny_Blake and subscribe to the Pivot Podcast. 

http://PivotMethod.com
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228: The Burdensome B’s—Four Red Flags Signaling it’s Time to Make The Big (Delegation) Leap