Free Time with Jenny Blake Jenny Blake

Today I'm sharing five creative ways to better organize your phone contacts. I hope it’s helpful and time-saving toward a very important end: feeling less overwhelmed by relationships!
🏝️ Friendly Reminder: I’m opening up ten Voxer coaching spots to work with me 1:1 (asynchronously). I’d love to help you take a step back from the day-to-day operations of your business and set even more of your time free this summer! Enrollment closes when the 10 spots are filled or by EOD June 4, whichever comes first.
Learn more and enroll » (Apply promo code PODCAST at check-out)

🌟 5 Strategies for Better Organizing Your Contacts



Make notes about each person when you chat with them in their contact card within your phone: For example, ****spouse’s name, kids’ names, pets names, important milestones).


Identify your friendship circles and a cadence for each: 5, 15, 50, 150, 151+ Pin your favorites in texts and contacts.


Create a go-to moniker for your MIPs such as Keith Ferrazzi’s “Lifeline,” saving it as their middle name so you can search when you need a trusted friend to call.


Create collection buckets for cities, even if you don’t know their full address. You could even keep it mainly to people you’d want to see when you visit. If you want to separate these out, indicate their city as the company name or in notes. Ie: Visit Austin or Austin Travel


Add confirmation text phone numbers to your contacts with an emoji identifier, Either in first name field or by customizing the image. For example, ie 💊 Capsule Pharmacy, 📦Shipping Updates, 🐾 Vet, 👩🏻‍⚕️ Doctor, etc. This way they immediately jump out and stand apart from spam, and might even spark a little joy when you see them :) Here’s an example of Jenny’s »



Bonus: Keep a Notes note with your neighbors names and a 1-2 word description to jog your memory :)


📝 Permission: Not to create a full-on CRM or pay for expensive overly complicated software.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Spruce up your ability to keep in touch with people who are important to you by implementing just one of the ideas above.

🔗 Resources Mentioned



Get Jenny’s KIT template (CRM) and so many more in the done-for-you Free Time Operations Dashboard (apply promo code PODCAST for 10% off)


Submit your favorite Time-Saving System for fellow Free Timers at http://itsfreetime.com/ask



Articles: Why You Need the “Lifeline Relationships” (PDF), 5/25/150: The Secret of the Best Networker I Ever Met by Sean Johnson (via RadReads.co)


Video: BNET—Who’s Got Your Back? Book Brief



Apps: Notion, Google/Gmail Contacts, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Relatable



Books: Friends by Robin Dunbar and Who’s Got Your Back? by Keith Ferrazzi


🎧 Related Episodes

125: How to Create Your Own CRM with Alex Sherwood

083: Breaking through Buyer’s Remorse—Never Lose a Customer Again with Joey Coleman

120: Transform Your To-Do List into a Results List — Leanne’s Favorite Time-Saving System


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❤️ Join our BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners
🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit »
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“Small hinges move big doors.” That one thought helped Karen Allen pick herself up from the depths of grief after losing her husband in a tragic, senseless act of violence nearly a decade ago. Shortly afterward, she lost her house, her car, and then one year later — her job.
Getting fired followed just a few months after an intuitive hit that corporate wasn’t the best fit for her any longer was a blessing in disguise that precipitated the founding of her now-thriving business, one where she puts her son front-and-center as her North star.
In this conversation, Karen shares how she navigated overwhelming grief while parenting, structuring her business for free time as a single parent, and how her business has evolved as she continues gaining clarity about who she wants to be and how she wants to serve.
More About Karen: Karen is a super-mom, healthy eater, and keynote speaker. After experiencing the tragedy of losing her husband, she picked herself up and set out to thrive for her son’s sake. She is the founder of the 100% Human movement, helping others develop a mindset of joy and abundance through her community. She also hosts the In the Details podcast.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways



Gratitude helps balance out the negativity in our brain: Return to even the most simple acknowledgments, like having a soft pillow to lay down on at night.


“My intuition has been sharpened through faith.” There are beautiful parallels between the two; you won’t always see things working at first.


The universe rewards a courageous heart: look out for #GodHugs encouraging you to stay rooted in your values and what you know intuitively know to be true.


📝 Permission: Do what your soul is calling you to do, and create it in a way that supports you.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Identify your triad (or duo or quad) of life/work categories you want to be entirely present for; for example, time with family, for your business, for your community. Make sure each have their own dedicated (and inviolable!) space in your schedule.

📚 Books Mentioned


Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes


Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman


Deep Work by Cal Newport

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Life After College


🔗 Resources Mentioned


Karen on the web, IG: @karen.m.allen, LinkedIn, TikTok


Video: Use Your Tragedy to Change the World


Sarah K. Peck’s Startup Parent podcast and community


🎧 Related Episodes


Karen’s podcast, In the Details: Introducing In the Details (Karen’s Story)


Pivot: 29: Deep Work: Ditch Cognitive Junk Food with Cal Newport, 87: Penney Interviews Jenny—We Are Souls, 314: Doing Less, Focusing More After Taking a Two-Month Leave with Adrian Klaphaak



Free Time: 171: Discovering Your Divine Assignment with Melissa Hughes (while Building with Grace and Ease), 159: Time Blocking Together with Jess & Dave Radparvar, 027: Time Management for Mortals with Oliver Burkeman, 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte, and 131: Scaling Joy While Streamlining Business Overhead and Navigating ADHD with Kaneisha Grayson



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🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
📝 Check out full show notes and share it with

Hi friends! A quick in-beteween-isode to let you know about a special opportunity to work with me 1:1 :)
Back by popular demand, I'm opening doors again for my 1:1 Voxer coaching pop-up. Summer is the perfect time to take a step back from your business and set even more time free through smarter systems—while freeing yourself from screens and coordinating extra calendar entries.
We piloted this program last year with members from my private BFF community, and it was a big hit! It was so nice to connect asynchronously to help you focus on the big picture and make meaningful progress on the projects that matter most. 

✅ How it works:

There are 10 spots available, and enrollment closes on June 4 (or whichever comes first)

We kick-off our 12 weeks of coaching on June 5.

You'll submit one voice memo between Monday through Thursday each week with your biggest question (that part of the process alone helps create tremendous clarity!), then

I respond by Friday of each week with detailed ideas, guidance, specific templates, and resources that will help you save time and money while rapidly accelerating progress in any area.

You'll also get complimentary access to the private BFF community if you join, and lock-in your 1:1 Voxer Coaching rate for life (I do tend to raise the rates with each subsequent launch).


Learn more about 1:1 Voxer coaching and enroll here »
*Make sure to apply promo code PODCAST at check-out!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time- and money-based targets don’t always serve the purpose we intend. In fact, sometimes, they actively work against us. Today we’re spelunking into a few related principles like Goodhart’s Law, The Cobra Effect, and why vanity metrics are often no more than a hungry ghost lurking in the shadows of your business. I couldn’t resist sprinkling pop culture clips throughout to illustrate these concepts, so I hope you enjoy the ride :)

🌟 3 Key Takeaways:



Be mindful when implementing specific numerical targets. Consider how they may lead to behavior that doesn't align with your overall goals and values, sometimes even transforming into perverse incentives that beget negative actions.


Clarify your values. Make it clear to your team what values you prioritize (and ethical behavior more broadly) over short-term gains or “shoulds” based on what everyone else is doing.


Be open to feedback and willing to adjust your strategies. Goodhart's Law says that "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure," ****so take the pressure off by zooming out from overly focusing on any one measure of success to paint a bigger, more holistic picture. Define more creative metrics that indicate you’re living in alignment with your values, and resonating with your community, such as number of enthusiastic email replies per newsletter sent.


📝 Permission: Stop chasing the hungry ghost of vanity metrics in your business. Get clear on your more meaningful metrics and core values, and aim for a holistic picture of those instead.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: To more clearly see the tradeoffs you are willing to make, write your own “even over” statements, like the originators of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development have inspired many businesses to do. As in: “We value {important quality A} even over {important quality B}.”

🔗 Resources Mentioned


Articles: Manifesto for Agile Software Development, The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned, The Cobra Effect: No Loophole Goes Unexploited



TV Shows: Killing It — episode 4 “Carlos” (Peacock), Byron Baes, Black Mirror—Nosedive



Music Video: Dolly Parton’s classic, 9 to 5



Community: Jay Acunzo’s Creator Kitchen and Unthinkable podcast


Software: Referral Candy, HelpScout



Heuristics: Goodhart’s Law, The Cobra Effect



📘Books Mentioned

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work

Rework

The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich


🎧Related Episodes


097: How to Find Your Perfect Problem with Jim McKelvey, author of The Innovation Stack (Part One) and 099: (Part Two)


174: What Book Marketing has to do with Glass Blowing: Reflecting on Free Time’s 1-Year Bookiversary 🥂

169: Running a Goal-Free Business with Stephen Shapiro

181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo

189: 💡Jay Acunzo’s IP Development OS — Courtesy of Creator Kitchen


💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »
🌟 Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
❤️ Join Jenny’s private BFF community for Heart-Based Business owners
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☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
📝 Check out full show notes and share this episode with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/190
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 181: Be Irreplaceable, you heard from my creative coach, Jay Acunzo about how to prioritize resonanceover reach. I’ve been working with Jay for about six months now, and it has transformed the way I think about creating content.
One of the videos he shared with us in his new community, Creator Kitchen, is a walkthrough of his Intellectual Property (IP) Development OS: how he collects ideas, chooses which one/s to pursue, and decides which channel they belong in.
I loved it so much — and I know you will too — that I asked for special permission to share it here on the pod. Learn more at creatorkitchen.com and apply promo code FRIENDOFAFRIEND for $100 off your membership for life.

🎧 If you're listening on Spotify—or just want to pop over there to share your biggest insight—answer the question prompt at the bottom of this episode's page :)
💡 View the diagram of Jay Acunzo’s IP Development OS here »
💻 Jay’s IP Development Trello board has the following columns: Ideas, Chef’s Table (Community), Playing Favorites (Newsletter), Unthinkable (Podcast), Strongest Ideas (categorized as either Problems, Change, or Solution/s), Strongest Stories (Lead or Supporting), and Frameworks + Models (Diagrams)

More About Jay: Jay Acunzo is one of the world’s most sought-after business storytellers and brand consultants. He’s hosts the award-winning podcast, Unthinkable, and has authored multiple books on creativity, including Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work. He helps creators learn to increase the power of their creative work, not just the volume, through his membership platform, the Creator Kitchen. Jay’s grandest aspiration-slash-delusion is to be the Anthony Bourdain of workplace storytelling.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways



Stage 1 — Focusing — What is your mission? Seeing the world through a focused lens, through a mission, a message, one big idea that you’re exploring.


Stage 2 — Feeling — Interplay between frustration and curiosity: You're saying something is under-explored, something is broken. What is the status quo that you would like to change, to improve, to lead people away from? Curiosity is when you turn the frustration into something productive instead of destructive: Why is it this way? How did we get here?


Stage 3 — Thinking — Looking for ideas that feel exciting: What feels easy to tackle today? “If you're trying to knock over a brick wall, it's a lot easier rather than brute force your way forward to just start pressing bricks and see which one of 'em budges.”


✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Map out your own IP Development process. What does the life of a new frustration, question, or insight look like? How would it move across a Kanban-style content production board?

🔗 Resources Mentioned



Jay on the web, IG: @jacunzo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium



Podcast: Unthinkable



Book: Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work 


Community: The Creator Kitchen (use promo code FRIENDOFAFRIEND  for $100 off your membership for life)


People: Andrew Davis, Joshua Levy of Holloway



Tools: Trello, Notion



🎧 Related Episodes


Unthinkable: Leaving Expertville, Going Bananas, Fine, I’ll Talk About AI; Welcome to the Jumble



2 Pages with MBS: Making What Matters Most: Jay Acunzo [reads] ‘Kitchen Confidential’



Pivot: Feeling Impostery? Become a Qualified Curator Instead



Free Time:

182: The Challenges of Renovating a (Business) House While Living In It

181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo

127: Protect Your Idea Factory and Build a Creative Flywheel with Todd Henry

034: Organizing Research and Ideas

036: Shaping Big Ideas

038: Tracking Progress Toward Finishing a Book (or Big Idea)


🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review
☎️ Su

When today’s guest, Kelli Thompson, was overwhelmed by opportunity—a level of success she had been dreaming of and working diligently toward—she knew she needed a roadmap to better manage her time and energy, stat.
In this conversation, we unpack how she created an Energy Capacity Plan (a woman after my own spreadsheet-loving heart!), how to create yours, why it doesn’t need to be a detailed calendar grid sliced into specific 15-minute increments, and how that plan can inform your pricing.
In the second half, we also talk about masterminds — when to join, what to watch out for, and how to determine which one/s are right for you. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our conversation for the Pivot podcast on 315: Intuition-Building, Spotting Pedestal Syndrome, and Closing the Confidence Gap.
More About Kelli: Kelli Thompson is a women’s leadership coach and speaker who helps women advance to the rooms where decisions are made. She has coached and trained hundreds of women to trust themselves, lead with more confidence, and create a career they love. She is the founder of the Clarity & Confidence Women's Leadership Program, and a Stevie Award winner for Women in Business—Coach of the Year. She is the author of Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck, which was selected as a must-read by The Next Big Idea Club.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways



Kelli maps her month by giving each week an energy theme/allocation: High intensity (week 1), moderate intensity (weeks 2 and 3), and recovery (week 4).

“Success loves clarity”: When considering opportunities, before jumping to yes, ask if it aligns with your mission and business values.


Think of energy and entrepreneurship as levers you can pull: Sometimes, you need to push up or pull down when things are happening with your health, with your family, and/or within your business.


📝 Permission: Drop anything that drains your energy!

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Do an energy audit, and perhaps even create your energy capacity plan mapping out what each week looks like at a high level (day by day, rather than hour by hour) and the time-value of different types of activities.

🔗 Resources Mentioned


Kelli on the web and social: @kelliraethompson (IG), Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook


Kelli’s page of free resources (includes her Energy Capacity Plan template)

Article: Mitch Joel’s Who is Your Mastermind?


Apps for asynchronous communication Marco Polo, Voxer, Telegram (iOS, Android)

People: Mark Manson


Jenny’s private BFF Community



📚 Books Mentioned


Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck by Kelli Thompson

The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Life After College


🎧 Related Episodes

Pivot: 315: Intuition-Building, Spotting Pedestal Syndrome, and Closing the Confidence Gap


Free Time: 046: Time Margin—Are You Drowning, Treading Water, or Gliding?


175: Give Yourself a Raise with Erin Haag

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

143: Exploring Time, Money, and Energy Capacity with Tara McMullin and Charlie Gilkey (Replay)

078: Creating Transformational Mastermind Groups


💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »
🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review
❤️ Join our private BFF community
🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
📝 Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/188
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