Strategic Ruts, Subjective Feedback, and Summer Voxer Coaching Pop-up — Last Chance to Join!
Hi Friends,
Friendly reminder that we have a few spots remaining for this summer’s Voxer coaching—and enrollment ends Sunday!
We kick off our 12-week pop-up on Monday. Learn more and join us here »
+ Check out ’s wonderful write-up of the logic behind experimenting with a format like this. This is my third summer working with clients asynchronously in this way, and it gets more fun each time :)
Now onto this week’s round-up + Plus extra goodies over the paywall rainbow at the end . . .
📆 Upcoming Events
📘 New Yorkers: May 10 — First Round Design in Brooklyn: Together Agency co-founder will be delivering a presentation taking us behind the design process of the Free Time brand at the upcoming First Round New York conference. I’ll be there too, if you want to join us! In person and remote access is available—use code FR-NYC-TOGETHER for a 10% discount.
+ Pair this with my three Free Time podcast conversations with Together Agency co-founder
.💻 Paid Subscribers: May 15 — Office Hours hang: Ask me anything about a question or challenge in your business, and get input from fellow Heart-Based Business owners! 🔗 The link to register and attend is below the paywall in the footer of this email.
⚙️ Tips & Tools
Last week I shared 8 specific ways I set up Calendly event types—I find this much easier than delegating scheduling to an assistant:
This week, I’m passing the Tips & Tools baton to long-time Free Time bestie
who shares several detailed screenshots of exactly how she sets up focus modes on her phone to contain social media overwhelm:🎙 Revisit Related Episodes from the Archives
Although the podcast is paused, you can still browse the archives and subscribe here »
💬 Quote
I loved
’s recent take on handling bad reviews:“If your work is objectively bad, then that’s a you problem. If your work is objectively good and subjectively not somebody’s jam, then that’s a them problem, not a you problem.”
— via
See also, my related essay on one-star reviews:
💭 Questions
In what areas are you giving others’ opinions of your work too much power? Are you still stuck on one thing one person said long ago? If so, what elements are an actual signal for you? What elements are just opinionated noise?
As I shared with Russell in Substack notes:
I remember giving a keynote once to 1,000 people (by far my biggest) and while 100 people filled out the feedback form to say they loved my vibe, one replied saying she hated how laid back I was (LOL!) — that’s when I learned you truly cannot please everyone.
Doing something “right” will inevitably cause displeasure (even disgust) for someone with different preferences. In later years, I started to lean into the disgust-meter with my writing: will this actively repel the people who aren’t a fit? Then I’m doing something right!
📝 Permission
Try to repel someone with the way you share your next idea, invitation letter (aka sales page), or piece of writing!
🍩 Recent at Rolling in D🤦🏻♀️h with Jenny Blake
A fun prompt from the ever-delightful from :
Here’s to setting even more time free! 🥂
❤️ With Gratitude,
P.S. Extra Goodies Over the Paywall Rainbow 🌈💰
🔐 Thank you to our generous paying subscribers who help sustain Time Well Spent! Upgrade to unlock this week’s make-you-smile memes as a token of my gratitude ☺️