“How do you decide who has the power to judge you? Who are you seeking to please? Is that validation directly in alignment with how you are rewarded and how you're organized?”

Seth Godin is back with a brand new book, This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans, and if you loved Free Time, I know you will love this one for geeking out on systems thinking!

Hi Friends! Although the podcast is still paused, I'm dropping into the feed this week and next with two very special conversations :)

Today is a bonus episode from February for paid subscribers with Todd Sattersten, publisher and owner of Bard Press, and next week features Seth Godin and his new book, This Is Strategy.

If you haven't already listened, check out part one here (episode 261) first. Todd is so committed to helping his authors succeed that he only publishes one book each year. Today he's sharing how to investigate and possibly reposition a book when a launch isn’t gaining traction, his three-sentence problem statement to attract ideal readers, and why the Table of Contents and first chapter are essential parts of the marketing process.

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.

“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.

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?

These vexing questions set today’s guest on a quest to examine a dataset of five years of book sales data across 6,775 titles in business and self-help to find answers—and he did.

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.

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.

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.

What do you do when you lose your biggest client? Today, I bring you part two of the What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client compilation. If you haven’t already, listen to 264: What to Do When You Lose Your Biggest Client (Part One) — 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.

What do you do when you lose your biggest client? That was my Spotify search query for podcast episodes on this topic in the summer of 2023. It came up empty—there was not a single podcast episode on this topic. Of course not. Who wants to admit out loud and in their archives that they've lost their biggest client. In the past, I probably wouldn't have fessed up to this either. Except for the fact that now it's what I wish I could see, read and hear. Today’s compilation episode is here to fix that!

“I am great in the early, messy days and I know that about myself, so I designed my business around serving others in that stage.”

In this conversation with business strategist (genius!) Michelle Warner, we cover the three growth stages most relevant to tiny business owners, how to fix broken business models, validating product-market-*founder* fit, the difference between traffic-based versus relationship-based sales and marketing, borrowing aligned audiences, leading a free monthly Q&A to “catch” their interest afterward, imagining sales as a downhill snowball, and how to scale while still staying Delightfully Tiny.

I first encountered the Apple billboard a few days after Christmas. I was walking down Fourteenth Street in the Meatpacking district, and there it was—an Apple ad declaring “Newphoria!” in enormous print.

“15” blazes like a beacon for the Apple Store below, luring and ensuring that passersby upgrade to the latest-greatest device. The ad features an intimate face-down photo of the newest iPhone’s somebody-tell-me-why-this-is-so-special camera. The lenses look like lily pads leading to the promised land of Newphoria.

If you’re anything like me, you may find conducting online launches for your programs or events exhausting and sometimes even cringe-inducing. Thankfully, today’s guest, Anne Samoilov, is here to help!

Anne is a long-time expert in the space who has helmed product launches for Laura Roeder, Marie Forleo, and Jonathan Fields. Today, we’re talking about why some of us find big, splashy launches so draining; how to set up automated or evergreen launches (and her take on the pros and cons of these); how to find non-cringey launch strategies; be willing to take on clients or projects that have nothing to do with your business.

“Whenever you have a choice of what to do, choose the more interesting path."

In honor of our upcoming Free Time x Long Game IRL event in Miami on February 1 and 2 (it’s not too late to join!), today I’m bringing you a favorite episode from the earliest days of the Free Time pod. In this conversation with Dorie Clark—aka “DC”—one of my closest friendtors, we discuss how she "optimizes for interesting," says no to good opportunities, builds relationships by following her "no asks for a year" rule, and when to call on trusted advisors to ensure you don't quit something too soon.

Before you post anything, ask: Why am I posting this? Is this within my brand guardrails? Even still, you may find yourself in hot water someday, and it’s important to think through how you will respond (and the pop-up team you will assemble to help) in advance. Today, we’re breaking down the tricky art of crisis communications and apologies with Aliza Licht, author of On Brand, who brings two decades of PR experience to the conversation.

What’s on your business owner to-do list? Here’s a peek at mine, full of items large, small, and existential. This is another crossover from Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, a recent essay that was an unexpected runaway hit—the most popular to date in the six months since I started on Substack.

I had no idea (as usual) whether it would resonate or not when I hit “publish,” until my friend Adam texted to say how much he could relate. “Your comments are blowing up!” he said, sending a screenshot of other people letting me know that I wasn’t alone in my itemized anxiety.

Enormous thanks to those of you who have already subscribed, read, commented, and shared—it means the world to me!

“We don’t want our time to be spread thin like peanut butter on a slice of toast. You will have greater impact when you concentrate your efforts on work that is closely tied to winning—however you define it.”

Are you working in a frustration factory? If so, it’s important to recognize that not all friction is created equal. Some is good, to slow down decision-making in crucial moments, and some is bad, getting in the way of progress. You’ll need to tap into your inner “grease” and “gunk” sides to address both.

I'm so excited to bring you a listener submission today from Renee Rubin Ross about my summer Voxer coaching pop-up. I've done these two summers in a row now, and I've learned so much every subsequent time. In this episode, I’ll share the structure, systems, and pricing that help me create a joyful asynchronous program that keeps our calendars free of “tiny boxes” (as my friend Sarah calls them).

“It wasn’t about being better than others, it was being ourselves, and true to our ideals in our work.” That’s just one of many gems from today’s guest, Birch Coffee co-founder Paul Schlader, who says, “I don’t accept anything less than absolute excellence.”

In this conversation, we talk about how he stands out in the New York City noise by hiring for kindness; getting bought out when the Gershwin Hotel closed and thereby ending the lease on their first location, then parlaying those funds into two new stores (and the growing pains that followed); and the moment he had to tell his entire team they were furloughed indefinitely when New York City delivered the shut-down order; losing four stores but bouncing back to 14 (when so many other coffee shops closed down).

Today is a crossover episode from the Pivot podcast celebrating eight lessons learned from over eight years of podcasting.

The Pivot podcast first launched in September 2015 as a teeny tiny scrappy side project to supplement the Pivot book while I was writing it. I had so much fun interviewing people and hitting record that by the time the book launched in the fall of 2016 one year later, the podcast had almost eclipsed it as the favorite thing that I do on a day-to-day basis. Now, thanks to you, we have over two million downloads and over 600 episodes across both shows.

“’Something I always say: at the very least, do it for the plot. Do it for the story. Be bold in life, mostly because not being bold is boring as hell.’ Margot tipped her head back in glittery laughter and I felt my chest expand in hope.”

That’s just one of many glittering conversations that the main character of Jamie Varon’s debut novel, Main Character Energy, has with her Aunt, a guiding light who helps her find her voice and pursue her publishing dream. In today’s conversation, Jamie and I go behind the book to talk about how fiction differs from nonfiction, working with a writing coach, the importance of giving yourself permission for a “zero” draft, moving past the mental machinations of envy and the desire for logical explanations for others’ success, and so much more.