📧 PivotList: SponCon and Spectacular Failures

This week's round-up of what I'm reading, watching, listening to, and geeking out on

Hi Friends,

🥳 We’re celebrating the Pivot podcast’s eighth birthday this month!

It’s a veritable third-grader by now. Thanks to you, we have over two million downloads and 340 episodes (not including another 230 on the Free Time podcast).

There have been many ups and downs along the way and I wondered if I should stop—listen to episode 340 where I share eight things that help me stay in the game.

340: 8 Lessons Learned from 8 Years of Hosting the Pivot podcast

Now onto this week's round-up, with bonus goodies over the paywall rainbow at the end . . .

📆 UPCOMING EVENTS

🎙 Live virtual Pivot podcast taping with

Adrian Klaphaak

on November 7 at 1:30 p.m. via Zoom. Ask questions in the chat or if you’re feeling brave, come off of mute to be in the coaching hot seat :) Register to join us here »

🧡 Paid subscribers: Save the date! Our first group office hours Zoom hang will be on November 15 at 2:15 p.m. I’ll send reminders as it gets closer, and you can register in advance to put a placeholder on your calendar — scroll down below my signature for the registration link :)

Want to join us? Upgrade your membership here (including the option for a 1:1 call with me while availability lasts, to talk through a Pivot-in-progress).

🎉 FEATURED

Big thanks to

Katie Harbath

for including me in this round-up of favorite writers!

And to

Jessica Cording

for interviewing me for her Forbes piece on How To Spot And Address Burnout Before You Hit Rock Bottom.

📚 READING

Khe Hy wrote a thought-provoking article that starts as follows:

“It’s strange being rich.”

I was at a networking dinner with a 42-year-old SaaS founder.

He had just sold his company. For an eye-popping $70 million.

Yet he was busier than ever. 

Setting up trusts, implementing tax-loss harvesting and hiring a house manager.

But his biggest worry: “Will someone marry my kids for money?”

His kids are 10 and 12.

Continue reading Khe’s article on RadReads: The paradox of the “perfect life”

🛍️ WEARING & LISTENING

I just happily binge-ordered a bunch of book-related pins and magnets from My Secret Copy, with big thanks to

Marisol

for putting this shop on my radar!

Marisol is featured in Pivot for building a business before she graduated college through piloting; we met during her junior year during the Life After College days and she was absolutely indispensable to my Delightfully Tiny Team for five years — still is! As cofounder of Together Agency, she and her team do the brand strategy for my business, including the award-winning Free Time book and podcast design. Don’t miss her Substack

Mind Brew

.

I’m also loving

Nora McInerny

’s

Terrible, Thanks for Asking

merch, my new favorite sweatshirt that says I ❤️ TO READ:

And check out her daily podcast, It’s Going to be OK with

Nora McInerny

🍿 WATCHING

I loved Gran Turismo. Yes, it’s a big action blowout packed with sponcon (sponsored content)—as all big-budget movies seem to be these days, but still . . . what an inspiring tale, based on a true story of a kid with a big dream.

TV and movie critic Anthony Lane shreds the movie in his New Yorker write-up (I don’t care; still loved it—and I always love Lane’s sense of humor):

Not since “Wayne’s World” (1992), in which Mike Myers found the courage to declare, “I will not bow to any sponsor,” while deftly raising the lid of a Pizza Hut box toward the camera, has a film been so flagrantly unembarrassed by its commercial obligations. Salesmanship is both the subject and the purpose of “Gran Turismo.” (It makes “Air” look bashful.) . . . This is not a question of a movie selling its soul. The soul is in the selling.

And there is a soulful, true story at its core! Stay for the credits to see how the guy who it’s based on features in the movie in unexpected ways. Even if you’re not a car racing or video game aficionado, you will still be on the edge of your seat in some moments, crying in others. The last time I enjoyed a big-budget action flick this much was seeing Maverick with Tom Cruise.

🎧 LISTENING, CONTINUED

Wondery’s new show The Big Flop. I enjoyed the first episode dissecting the lightning-fast rise and fall of Quibi, which I also did a podcast on (link below):

219: Swimming Upstream—A Tale of Two Platform Pivots

These pair nicely with Spectacular Failures. For some 90’s nostalgia, check out the episode on Toys R Us going bust (due to private equity vultures):

⚙️ TINKERING

I keep a running list of all the recurring software services I use to run my business, but I’d love to hear from you: What’s a new go-to app or service you have been loving lately? Hit reply to let me know and I will share in a future PivotList!

🎙 PODCASTING

Pivot: 

• 341: Pivoting from Prestigious Consulting Jobs to the Pathless Path with Paul Millerd

• 340: 8 Lessons Learned From 8 Years Of Hosting The Pivot Podcast

• 339: Moneyzen: The Cult Of More With Manisha Thakor

• Subscribe wherever you listen here »

Free Time:

• 225: How to Write a Must-Read Nonfiction Book with AJ Harper

• 224: Create a See You Soon Kit for Clients — Jacq’s Favorite Time-Saving System

• 223: The Confidence Trap: Why You Don’t Need It to Do Big

• Subscribe wherever you listen here »

That's it for now . . . thank you for reading and listening!

❤️  With Love, 

---

P.S. Extra Goodies Over the Paywall Rainbow 🌈💰

🔐 Thank you to our generous paying subscribers who help sustain PivotList!
Upgrade to unlock this week’s make-you-smile memes as a token of my gratitude :)