Written by Jenny Blake I have a slightly embarrassing confession: I went to bed last night while it was still light out! Although I felt a bit guilty for "wasting" incredible NYC weather and the European feel of sidewalk dining and twilight mingling, I was wiped out. June has been a pretty insane month for me—all great projects that I'm deeply energized by—but somehow they converged to happen all at once!
Now is the time for ample sleep and EmergenC so that I don't get sick while I wrap up the big push for my book proposal, Lucent (now in iTunes!!), and SpringUps (the hydroponic urban farming start-up I joined). More on each below, modified from updates I shared on the JennyBlake.me blog last week.
Life After College turns 9 years old this December*—thank you for being here, for reading and following along with my crazy solopreneurial adventures, and for supporting the entire team of writers whose genius I am fortunate to share here week after week: standing ovation for Melissa, Paul, Rebecca, Marisol and Davis!
*We are also looking for partners! We are going to be opening up one sponsorship opportunity per quarter, available to highly curated partners who have products and services we really believe in. If your company might be interested in this opportunity, get in touch and we'll send along our Media Kit.
Proposal for Book #2: The Human Pivot (working title)
My agent gave The Human Pivot proposal a green light! Read more about this in my Behind the Business newsletter—I'm revising the proposal and sample chapter as we speak so that we can submit to publishers later this month (with a big push after Labor Day). Start sending good juju for publishers to fight over who gets the rights to it. :) The crazy thing about the publishing timeline is that even with submitting now, the book probably wouldn't be out until January 2016!
I recently talked about pivoting with Charlie Poznek of Boomer Business Owner on a podcast called Learn How to Pivot Strategically as a Lifestyle Entrepreneur (embedded below). For those who prefer reading, download PDF of the Transcript.
I was also honored to be featured on Thomas Frank's College Info Geek podcast on Building the Skill of Adaptability. Thomas is a longtime LAC reader (5 years!!) and in this episode we talk about getting organized, staying open to opportunity, and the process behind my recent pivots.
Lucent Meditation App—Now in iTunes!!
Lucent, the meditation app company I co-founded, officially launched last week! We've been working on the app for 9 months now, and I have to say it's worth the wait—it is gorgeous! And fun — it makes a 5-minute morning meditation sticky and social, even if you have zero experience with meditation.
This is a beta version—we initially planned on testing our "Minimum Viable Product" (MVP in Silicon Valley parlance) with a small group of friends and family, but that group has grown to 350+ people! We're grateful for the support and patience as we build from something very simple to start, then evolve with early users' feedback to make the app more sophisticated over time. Over 200 people have downloaded the app so far the help us test this initial version, and we've loved hearing from people who meditated for the first time thanks to Lucent.
Where to learn more and stay in touch:
- Sign-up here to get behind-the-scenes Lucent updates and be part of future meditation challenges.
- Check out our brand new website!
- For beginner meditation tips and articles follow @LucentApp on Twitter and check out today's post on JennyBlake.me: Are you Meditation Curious? Try our 4-Day Challenge
- Click here to download the Lucent Meditation Getting Started Guide
Business Strategist Pivot: SpringUps Director of Operations
Although I still have a small set of 1:1 clients, I've pivoted from my usual business strategy coaching to take a hands-on consulting role as Director of Operations with SpringUps, an urban farming start-up in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It's a part-time role (~10 hours per week) that kicked off in June; I'm handling all of our internal systems and organization (weee!), brand strategy and website, communications, and community.
From the moment I met the co-founders John & Christian earlier this year, I was blown away by their vision, crazy smarts, and work ethic. And I couldn't help but chime in with my two cents over casual conversation! I love their big plans to revolutionize year-round local pesticide-free produce in New York City, and am honored and very excited to now be officially on board as the other third of the SpringUps brain!
After all these years of doing business coaching 1:1, I'm having so much fun digging in and getting my hands dirty again (farming pun intended!) as we build a big business like this from the ground up. Christian and John were formerly coffee and cotton traders in the open outcry pits on Wall Street, so we're all loving the big learning curve of pivoting to a new industry and making a positive impact on the broader community.
Where to learn more and stay in touch:
- Check out the recently launched SpringUps website!
- Would love for you to give our SpringUps Facebook page a "like" so we can keep you updated on crop giveaways (we bribe with basil!), recipes, and healthy living articles
- You can also subscribe to our insider's newsletter here
- Follow us on Twitter @SpringUpsLLC
Whew! That's it for now . . .
I hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!
About Jenny
Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.
Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.