141: Process, Permission Slips, and Business Pivots with Tara McMullin

Written By Jenny Blake

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 business. As heart- and gut-wrenching as it was to make, it freed her energy for deep work that is even more aligned with her interests, energy, and identity of who she’s most excited to become. She gave herself permission long ago to drop the “expert/guru” model and focus on asking bigger, bolder, better questions instead.

More About Tara: Tara McMullin is a writer, podcaster, and producer. For over 13 years, she has studied small business owners—how they live, how they work, what influences them, and what they hope for the future. She’s the host of What Works, a podcast about navigating the 21st-century economy with your humanity intact.

Tara is also co-founder of YellowHouse.Media, a boutique podcast production company. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, The Startup, The Muse, and The Huffington Post. Today we’re talking about her first book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework To Change The Way We Approach Goal Setting.


🌟3 Key Takeaways:

  • Our society is obsessed with goals and achievement; try emphasizing the process instead. 

  • Break the content marketing mold by asking bigger, bolder, better questions. Let go of the need to be someone who has the answers.

  • Consider: Can you live with less? Can you be happy and thrive with less? Think about whether or not the work you are doing and what you are offering to the world aligns with what you really need to be happy. 

 

📝Permission: To rebuild your business model from the ground up. 

✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Design an “earning” sabbatical, even if it’s far into the future. What elements of your craft would you be excited to dig back into? How would you spend your time differently? 

📘Books Mentioned:

🔗Resources Mentioned: 

🎧Related Podcast Episodes: 

 

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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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