As a creative entrepreneur, your time is literally your most valuable resource. From a business perspective, time is what you sell, because your artistic products require time to create. From a personal perspective, all work and no play makes you a miserable, starving artist (and it’s right there in the name of the podcast that we’re saying “NO MORE!” to the myth of the starving artist). One thing is for sure: time is valuable. But we don’t often think of time as a resource, something to use and manage to our advantage. Today, we’re going to look into what it means to think of time as a resource, and how that mindset can boost your creativity.

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Hello, thriving artists, and welcome to Episode 59 of the Starving Artist No More podcast. I’m so glad you’re here with me today.

Today we’re going to talk about how we think about our time and how that impacts our creative businesses, and we’re going to do that through a conversation with actor, narrator, director, and audio engineer Jennifer Blom. Jen has been a good friend of mine for years, and she’s going to be a faculty member at the Thriving Narrators Retreat that’s happening in Cincinnati in August. I’m thrilled to get to share this conversation with you.

But Jen is more than just a friend and a colleague: she is actually the reason I’m hosting a retreat for audiobook narrators in just over a month. In March of 2023, Arturo and I were in New York City to participate in APAC, the Audio Publishers Association Conference, and to attend the Audie Awards gala, which is kind of like the Oscars for audiobooks. After one of the events, Arturo and I headed out for a bite to eat with some of our friends. And during our conversation in the back corner of a little hole-in-the-wall New York restaurant, Jen asked me if I’d ever considered hosting a retreat or workshop for narrators.

I had thought about it. I was already coaching individually and in online group workshop settings, and hosting some sort of event did sound like something I might want to do at some nebulous point in the future. But until Jen’s question, it wasn’t something I had seriously considered. But out of Jen’s question, and the subsequent conversation with Gail Shalan and Neil Hellegers, who were also present that evening and who are also both going to be faculty members at the retreat, the Thriving Narrators Retreat was born.

I tell this story not just because I think it’s a neat story, although it is. I share it to give you a glimpse of Jen's perceptiveness. She has the beautiful ability to see potential and possibility when others can’t. I certainly didn’t see the beautiful reality that could be created if I took a leap of faith and committed to hosting a retreat for audiobook narrators, but Jen did.

And I think that’s part of what has made her so successful in her creative career. Jen never takes the status quo as an answer. If she sees something that could be better, or if she sees something that’s not working the way it should, or if she sees a beautiful possibility that could exist, she goes after it. She works to find a better way.

In the conversation Jen and I shared, and that you’ll get to listen in on in just a moment, she explained a bit about how she views time. Our time is precious to us. It is immensely valuable to us as creative entrepreneurs, and as a result, we can treat it the same way we treat any other precious resource that we have. Just like we are careful and deliberate with our financial resources, we can be careful and deliberate with our time resources. We can take steps that will allow that resource to last.

Viewing our time as a precious recourse involves making small tweaks that will help us be more efficient. We can all take small steps so that the non-creative parts of our work life are as efficient as possible, giving us the most time possible for our joyful creative endeavors. Jen has lots of examples in our conversation about how she automates tasks in her non-creative worktime so that those tasks take less time and are less likely to pull her focus away from her creative work.

But in addition to those small efficiency steps, the result of a mindset that views time as a resource will also include an attitude of care and intention in what we choose to do and when. It includes a willingness to try out a new skill or a new project or a new idea that has a possibility to help us grow, even if we’re not sure whether or not it will help. But if that possibility is there, we’ll give it a try, just to see how it changes things. Viewing time as a precious resource helps you to say “yes” to what your body needs on any given day so that you’re able to be your very best. It includes saying “yes” to what you feel you can do in that specific moment and valuing each moment in time for all its worth.

Viewing time as a resource is taking a step toward positive change, even if that step is scary. It’s a willingness to give it try.

Let’s take a listen to the delightful conversation I was lucky enough to have with Jen Blom.

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Jennifer Araya: I am so excited today that we have with us narrator, director, and audiobook engineer extraordinaire, Jennifer Blom. Jen, thank you so much for joining me for this conversation.

 Jennifer Blom: Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

 Jennifer Araya: I am excited to have you. So let's dive right on in. You work, as I already mentioned in the intro, you work as an audiobook narrator, an audiobook director, and an audiobook engineer, and it is entirely possible that you've got some other areas of work that I don't even know about. So I would love to know what led you into all of those various roles within the audiobook industry.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, so I guess it goes back to the power of yes, there was, you know, books about this and a whole like, movement, but basically just yeah, I don't know what I don't know. But I also am very up to learning things and understanding my whole industry completely. So when, um, it was like December 1st year and very close to Christmas and someone was like, oh, we have a last minute need for an engineer to edit this. And um, so they need to know Reaper. I'm like, well, I've only edited myself, but I guess it's the same thing. I'm like, sure, I have the time, why don't I help out? And that led to saying yes to other things to now, you know, working at Macmillan as a record engineer, director and those type of things. But it all started from that initial, let's not be scared about this. Let's just say, yeah, I have a skill set and let's use it in this new way that I hadn't thought about prior.

 Jennifer Araya: So tell me a little bit more about this, this power of yes, I know that there is a book and I will link it in the show notes so people can refer to it, but I've not actually read it. So for someone who's not familiar with this framework, tell me how you've used this in your creative career.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, it's it's basically the simplest way to break it down. Um, CliffsNotes version is just saying yes. When an opportunity presents itself in, uh, over time, you learn to do it in a way that doesn't hurt you as far as putting too much on your plate. But ultimately it is. Don't be afraid of saying yes. Most people that learn a new skill just said yes. You know more times than someone who has not learned that skill because I always quote, um, meet the Robinsons. Uh, and this is a quote from other things, but it's like from failure, you learn from success. Not so much. So, um, I really subscribe to that, to saying yes and being okay if I'm not excellent the first time. But I also make sure I don't make the same mistake twice by just learning from each little mistake that I make along the way.

 Jennifer Araya: Oh, that is a really good life concept and career concept and creative concept. I actually have a podcast episode that the title is The Price of Success is Failure. The point being that if you don't fail occasionally, then you'll never learn enough to eventually succeed.

 Jennifer Blom: Yeah. And there's there's schools of thought that are like, you have to fail a lot, right? Most successful people like if you look at, um, you know, people, there was a quote, actually by Roger Federer that I just shared with a friend group today, but it was I have won about 80% of my matches. I have lost about 54% of the points I've played. So like, that's tennis, uh, like, uh, you know, calculations for you, but the whole point still stands. Like he failed almost as many times as he succeeded as far as point by point, but as far as grand overlooking, you know, uh, big picture. He looks like a huge success. But there's all of those small moments and points of failure along the way that he learned and adapted and grew from.

 Jennifer Araya: Oh, wow. That's a really interesting concept and very much points out winning the war and not worrying about winning the battles, right?

 Jennifer Blom: 100%.

 Jennifer Araya: Now, you referenced maybe the downside of saying yes so often, which is that you then can possibly have way too much on your plate. So because you do work in so many different areas of audiobooks, I have to imagine that most of the time you have a lot going on. So can you tell us how you decide what you're going to say yes to which projects come your way? Are you going to say that's right for me? But that isn't what criteria do you use?

 Jennifer Blom: So I, I will say I have not always been great at it. And I think that is part of the journey of, uh, the saying. Yes. And the failure and all of that combined, because you learn more about yourself and what each one of those yeses cost. And then you can from there decide, you know, hey, which which yeses are worth it to me. I have found the ones that take the most time are sometimes. Times, the ones that I say no to unless it's creatively fulfilling. So what I mean by that is, if I am sitting in a booth and doing one thing versus the other, like let's say narration versus record engineering and not necessarily directing, but just record engineering, sometimes that takes on my list a little bit of a backburner to the things where I feel creatively fulfilled, and that the reason for that is when I'm creatively fulfilled, it also recharges me. Whereas, um, you know, just sitting there and being drained from both my creative perspective and also my just body getting tired, that just doesn't feel at the end of the day, like I've done anything for myself because I think money's money and we all love money, but we all need it.

 Jennifer Blom: We do need it. Um, but there is that point where it's like, but what am I willing to sacrifice? Just like, what am I willing to sacrifice for the yes's? What am I willing to sacrifice for the money? Um, and once, once I hit the threshold of like, I've made enough. To, you know, pay my bills to do this, to do that, then it's very much shifted from, okay, I have to say yes, just for the money to I'm saying yes, that because I have the money, because I've already said yes to things that I necessarily may not have had I not needed the money. But like now I'm saying yes only for my creative pursuits. The multi-hyphenate gives me the creative freedom to and the. Sometimes I need technical stimulation. So like there's a there's a balancing act. It's like, okay, which part of me needs more, uh, filling up at this point? And then I kind of use that as a guiding post as well. Yeah.

 Jennifer Araya: You want to have that variety in what you're doing so that you're doing something different every day. Why else be involved in so many facets of right industry?

 Jennifer Blom: I'm a multi-hyphenate, but I only use the one hyphen. I don't I don't know.

 Jennifer Araya: All right. So that is discussing sort of the project management deciding what to say yes to and what to say no to. And again, I've got another podcast about that, the working in your creative and financial sweet spot. And I'll link that one in the show notes too. But moving just from the project management side to actually the task management side, because again, I know that you've got a lot on your plate. So when you have all these different tasks, do you have any systems or what strategies do you use to figure out what you're going to do on any given workday?

 Jennifer Blom: So my system is to not get overwhelmed by thinking about too big of a chunk of my time. Um, so usually it is just what do I need to accomplish today? What is my must do's? What is my nice to have? Like very much like you would use a budget for your finances is my time, right? So like in the morning I'm like, okay, so I have a list of things that need to be done this week. That's all I focus on. I don't think about next week or next month or whatever because that's too overwhelming. Um, and sometimes my brain can't even handle all the stuff I have to do this week. So then I'm like, okay, what do I have to do today? Um, that.

 Jennifer Araya: Feeling, well.

 Jennifer Blom: It's like, you know what's coming up. It's not like I've forgotten it completely. But as long as I do the day the way I need to do the day, then everything else will, um, fall into place. I'm a I'm a big proponent of the domino effect. Uh, they talk about it in The ONE Thing. Um, what's the one thing I can do today that will, um, reach my goals? You know, this week, this month, this year is the TLDR version, but the book's really great. Read it all. Um, show.

 Jennifer Araya: Notes. There's going to be lots of links in the show notes for this one.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, but, uh, that specific concept is really enlightening because, uh, every time I feel overwhelm come creep in, it's like, okay, I get that today's feels overwhelming. What's the thing I can do in the next week, you know, or, sorry, the next minute or the next ten minutes or whatever to, uh, to get it done? Sure.

 Jennifer Araya: So much that small step taking the next right thing that you can do.

 Jennifer Blom: Right. Um, and I also, um, as far as systems that I put in place, I'm a huge proponent of the snooze function on email. I love snoozing it until a specific time or the next morning. I find it less intrusive than some of those. Like there's this do app that I do like for some things, but basically it just keeps alerting you every minute until you've completed a task. And I use that for some things. For some things. And like you can set how like every five minutes or whatever. But um, that is, is to some things it needs to annoy me enough that I do it like, uh, this is probably to whatever. I'll admit it. I am bad at invoicing, so sometimes I need that pester to be like, yo, you did this work like a month ago, and unless you decide to, I don't know, um, like, charge them for it, they're never going to pay you. Okay. Uh, that said, everything is kind of important. Yeah, which is why I'm always like, I need to hire an assistant just to be like, here's all the annoying stuff I do not like to do.

 Jennifer Blom: Which, uh, is, again, part of my efficiency thing like that. What do I need to do versus what can I outsource, which I know you've talked about before? Um, versus what? Um, like like what has to be me? What doesn't have to be me? Um, what can be automated, etc. there go on lists. And when I have downtime, if I ever have downtime, I work on the things that I can automate because I have a little bit of a background in, uh, programming. Um, and if I can't find a tool or a way to write it out, then I see, like, okay, do I just have to suck it up or do I want to spend the money? Um, and that's always that trade off, right? What can I throw at this money or my time and what am I willing to throw at it at this point, based on how much money I have coming in versus how much time I currently have available? And it's always that kind of a through line.

 Jennifer Araya: Yeah. Figuring out that calculus and. Again, we're just hitting like all of these podcast topics I've talked about in the past, there's an outsourcing podcast episode I've done, so I'll link that one in the show notes as well.

 Jennifer Blom: Basically, this is just a summary of all the things that you should put in your show notes. All of my episodes have covered all of these topics.

 Jennifer Araya: Not quite all of them, and I definitely am enjoying your spin on them. Jen. So you mentioned efficiency just a moment ago, and talking about some efficiency tips is something that you're going to be presenting on at the Thriving Narrators Retreat, where you're going to be a faculty member, and I'm thrilled to have you there, and I'm very excited. Can you give us a couple sneak peeks of some of those efficiency ideas that you've got to share?

 Jennifer Blom: Sure. Um, so it's a very, um, not one size fits all approach, but it's finding those, um, and I'll have plenty of suggestions, but with the caveat that everything will be based on what will make you thrive. So, um, for me, for example, uh, hotkeys in my DAW. Huge. If you think about all the little buttons you push to punch in every time, like, oh, I have to grab my mouse, I have to move the cursor. I have to then press the undo because I want to get rid of this. And then I have to click, you know, here and then I have to press record. And you've done 6 to 10 steps, like I've watched people do it when I've, uh, remote in to, like, help them with something. And I'm like, if you think about it for like one time, that's not a big deal. 6 to 7 steps. But when you think about the fact that we punch in, um, let's say a thousand times in a book, right? That is a thousand times 10s don't make me do math. But those are minutes. Those are whole minutes of your your time that add up. And so if you just have one keystroke which takes that ten second thing and makes it one second or less, that's a lot of time savings.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, and even if you're not good at math, I think you can math that enough in your head to be like, oh, what is smaller than ten? That feels like a good investment of time. Um, and over time, you figure out what things those are, like custom search engines, um, in Google Chrome, where you can just type in like, uh, for me, I type in Mar and then uh, tab or space and then type in the word I'm looking for. And it immediately brings up Merriam-Webster and the pronunciation, which, yeah, I know I can type in Miriam. It'll be on the list. I can click on it, I can then type it in or I can keep it open. But if I have that muscle memory of being able to just type in mar space and the name or word or paste it in, and if I've copied it, that saves time. Again, um, the copying and pasting to people, uh, sometimes, you know, don't realize how much that can save. So maybe it's useful to be reading off of a monitor as opposed to your iPad, because then they are all connected. So you can quickly copy and paste from the same script that you're reading on to where you're going to be looking stuff up, things like that. Um, so it's.

 Jennifer Araya: An idea of looking at the things that you do frequently and figuring out how can technology or anything help me automate this process so that it is one step, maybe two steps, rather than 1015 steps? 100%?

 Jennifer Blom: And that might be the tools too, right? Like so, um, I watched, uh, during the pandemic, everyone was kind of sharing their process, like on discord or whatever. And Andy Arndt was reading on there once, and she used a, um, like a magic tablet thingy in her booth.

 Jennifer Araya: Magic trackpad.

 Jennifer Blom: Yeah, yeah. Um, that's the name. I'm just going to call it magic. That is definitely the name. They should have gone with Magic Trackpad. Um, oh, is it not.

 Jennifer Araya: Called a magic trackpad? I thought it it.

 Jennifer Blom: It definitely is. I am saying what I just called it was, uh, so much cooler and just flew off the tongue. Anyway, point being, that specific thing means that it doesn't make noise when I'm scrolling. It doesn't make noise, uh, because you can turn off any click sounds. Right? So I can just tap where I need to and still go, and it can let me scroll easily through my script if I'm reading off of my screen again, because that's what I've decided to do. Um, the other thing is there's things called, uh, better Touch tool, which means I can put certain gestures on this tablet that will do different things on my computer. Um, little things like that. And it sounds sounds super technical, right? Like it sounds like that. But, uh, arguably, even though tech is involved, it's just a matter of thinking through the steps you take every day and how you can make it more efficient for yourself. Once any of these solutions are put into place, the tech stuff goes away. You're like, okay, yeah, I put in place this really tech heavy thing. It was so hard to implement.

 Jennifer Blom: Yeah, but now it just works, right? Like taking the minute or two to set up. In Reaper, they do custom actions. It's basically a playlist of all those little steps I was telling you about. Once you have that set and it's attached to one little key press, you don't think about what that custom action does. It's like if you, you know, make a recipe, right? Once it's cooked and you're eating it, yeah, you know, you cooked it, but like, your brain's not usually going through. Oh yeah. I remember cooking this first I put the pan on the stove, then I turned on the heat. Like, you don't think about all of that. Like little minuscule detail, probably. I'm not saying like some people don't get enjoyment from that. Like, or uh, do think through it like that. But most of the time, once it's on your plate and you're eating it, you have moved on to this next thing that you're doing. So muscle memory will just kick in and you won't even think about all of that additional amazing time saving.

Jennifer Araya: Absolutely. I like that recipe analogy, because what we're wanting for these sorts of tasks, I mean, there are plenty of things where the process matters. Yeah, but for things where what you're looking for is that result or that outcome, and they're processes that you have to do over and over and over again. Anything that you can do to condense that recipe into here it is. It's already on the plate and it's done, is going to save you time and actually going to give you time back in your creative process. Because I don't know about you, but moving my mouse and getting it where it needs to be for me to be able to record again, is not part of the creative action of the worst.

 Jennifer Blom: Also, uh, it's interesting because those are those little sticky points, right? People are like, I don't know how to stay in the zone focused and get through the flow state, right. Like, and because you have all those little micro annoyances that your body feels that you don't necessarily, it's switching you out of the creative space into the technical space. I say, you can't see me, but I'm using quotes because it's not really a technical space because, like, you're just moving, you're doing meaningless task is basically what it becomes, right? Because once you know how your door works, it is just you moving stuff around. But you know exactly you know that you're just doing meaningless stuff. Point being, you want to remove all those little spots of friction so that it feels so seamless when you punch in or you do this, that, or the other that you can stay in the flow. Because I like to use sports psychology a bunch when I'm talking about this stuff. Not that I'm a sports psychologist, but when I hear sports, people talk about it specifically in tennis because it's uniquely well suited to what we do because we're alone in a booth usually, and we have to find it within ourselves to find, um, you know, what will help us. But in that sense, you have a lot of things that kind of play into it. Like, yeah, they're not thinking about, oh, I have to go get the ball from the ball, kid. And then I have to like, you know, walk to the line. All of that is part of it. But it's so second nature that at that point they're just internalizing what comes next, the creative part of serving that ball and then getting ready for the return. And they're able to use that time to creatively adjust, as opposed to being distracted by the meaningless part of their job.

 Jennifer Araya: Absolutely. Oh, such good ideas. Thank you. Now, you have been talking just a little bit just now about your creative process, and I'd like to know more. I mean, what routines and habits do you use in your workday so that your your creative best?

 Jennifer Blom: Uh, yeah. So, um, I listen to my body, uh, in the way that, uh, some days, uh, I need more of a warm up. Some. Sometimes I feel like in our in our industry, we get so used to. Okay, I have to do exactly the same type of approach to my day to start it with the same fervor or whatever. Sometimes your body doesn't need that. Some days your body, like your throat, is super tired and like you're like, okay, I need a full vocal warm up, and some days you roll out of bed in your like voice somehow just stayed warm overnight and you're just like, ah, I can talk and it's perfect. Um, I don't know what it is. I love those mornings though, but, uh, some days, like, I'm like, I very much sound like I chain smoked overnight, and I'm like, I'm not even a smoker. How is this possible? Anyway? So I do full work, vocal warm ups or, um, you know, movement or those type of things. So I spend a little bit of my time getting prepared, whatever that means. For example, some days my brain isn't ready. Like I can't, even though I want to creatively be in charge of it, sometimes it's hard to get started reading. It's the weirdest thing because that's what we do for a living. But I read this, uh, it wasn't for what we do, but it was for how to get in the flow state for reading faster.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, it was like a medium article. Um, and it was talking about what people like, have to read, like, huge amounts of text for their work, but which we do, but like they meant it more in research anyway. They're like, read the most boring thing you can find for ten minutes before you read the thing that you have to read to focus in on. So I have this book, um, series. How things work, I think, is what it's called. But it's just this like 3 or 4 like books that are in this series and like, they each have a page of how different things work, like how does they see work, how do temperature gauges work? Um, and I have it because someone mentioned it when I was a junior software engineer, and they're like, well, you need to think through problems and how things work to be able to find creative solutions. But so I, I started doing this a while back when I was struggling to get into the material. I would read one of those pages and like learn something, which I love. My brain's like, oh yeah, I learned something today. But also the writing is so dry that I'm like, okay, anything that I read is going to, like, feel like a Michael Bay movie, you know, like it's going to be so enjoyable because I just read the driest stuff ever with huge words I don't really understand.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, and it's street smart as I am and some technical knowledge. I am not a scientist, nor do I play one in most of my books. Although if you find my voice fitting for one, please do cast me. I'll look up the words anyway. Um, but that that's kind of how I get into it. A lot of it is also, um, I have a lot of improv background. So as far as when I'm in the moment, uh, that helps guide me through, like, prep is is great, but I, I love the organic feel of a scene. So, like, even if I've prepped it one way, like, people have, like an emotional journey that they're going to take you through. I just I don't subscribe to planning it out like that. For me, it doesn't work for other people. I've seen it work magnificently and I'm like, oh, I wish I was them. But for me it's like, yeah, but I just delivered that line slightly different, which means to be the actor that I am, I must deliver the line back slightly different than I originally conceived. Sure. Yeah.

 Jennifer Araya: I see that as the pantser versus plotter difference that writers talk about so much. Yeah, it would definitely be a plotter. And you would definitely be a pantser.

 Jennifer Blom: 100%. And a lot of my friends are definitely, uh, you know, plotters. And I'm just like, oh, but we could just do it by the seat of our pants. That's great. Whatever works. Uh, for the end result. Uh, the best is good. Sure. Um, the through line of my our conversation today is basically what feels good to you. Um, and that's usually the right choice.

 Jennifer Araya: I love that you are so conscious of listening to what your body is telling you you need on a specific day, which may be different from day to day, and also what your brain and your creative juices are telling you that you need on a specific day, which again, might be different from day to day. I mean, I'm sure there are days that you don't have to read the how things work in order to be ready to dive into the audiobook that you're working on, whereas other days you just need that dry stuff so that the audiobook feels really exciting.

 Jennifer Blom: Yeah, I mean, I, I think it's also just the fact that I'm like, I, I'm having a hard time focusing my brain on to something that doesn't feel intellectually stimulating. And I think that also plays into it. Uh, just like your circadian rhythm during a day will sometimes have a part of your day that is more constructive for the work you're trying to do versus, um, you know, not that is your your body usually wants that too, right? Sometimes it's like, okay, I want to just sit here and write for like an hour. Can I just do that? And like, honestly, the answer I usually give myself is yes, because the book will still get done the like, uh, all those little multihyphenates that I have. The reason it works is because I move things around very fluidly. Like I don't get stuck in a well, I said I was going to sit here for three hours and record this book. If my body's not being productive doing that, then I will course correct, switch it up and then revisit it later on. I'm very fluid when it comes to that and be like, okay, well, I tried and this is not that moment. Um, I also something I will talk about is, uh, Pomodoro and my obsession with, uh, that method of work.

 Jennifer Araya: You are the one who actually introduced me to the Pomodoro method years and years ago. And I don't use it all the time, but it is very helpful on those days when I am just not able to focus. So thank you. It's.

 Jennifer Blom: You're very welcome. Um, I wish I could take credit for it, but, uh, I, I love introducing people to it that don't know about it, but that my relationship with that is also very fluid. Some days I'm like, I can't even sit still for five minutes. This is part of I'm recovering from burnout. So it that was another reason I really became interested in, um, listening to my body. But the, um, the power of the Pomodoro is like, if I can't sit here for five minutes, my fight or flight is, you know, all over the place because my cortisol level is spiked. I can sit here for five, I can plan it out and I can see how my body feels after that. Once it has calmed into this routine, do I feel good enough for me to continue on? And the answer is usually yes. Sometimes, uh, they have this thing called the two minute rule. I don't know, they, they call rule everything rules. But like basically you set a two minute timer, you sit down to do the task. When the two minute timer is up, you make a conscious decision like, hey, how does my body feel? Oh, it feels good. Okay, let me start another two minute timer and then until you, like are like, oh no, I feel great in this two minute timer is interrupting my flow, and you get mad at the two minute timer for trying to stop you from working. You don't set the two two minute timer again, and you just work until you don't want to anymore. But like, that's another way to kind of give yourself the freedom to understand what your body is trying to tell you. A two minute timer is like nothing. Like I can do most things for two minutes.

 Jennifer Araya: I'm seeing a throughline in our conversation, or hearing a throughline in our conversation of small steps that if something is feeling too big and can be automated and reduced to a small step, then reduce it to a small step. And if something is feeling too big because there's just too much of it, pick one tiny spot and start there. And if something is feeling too big and is going to take too long, don't try to do all of it. Just do 2 minutes or 5 minutes and just always breaking it down. Breaking it down.

 Jennifer Blom: Yeah, it's like those penny jars of like productivity, right? Like, you know, like the penny jar where you just like, throw in a penny because you're saving up for a big, like, adventure. Sure. That's what you're doing when you are giving small amounts of time to something, it goes back to, okay, but that's two minutes I don't have to do later. Even if that's all I do today, I can be like, well, I got two minutes done and like, it still is good for your nervous system because you're like, but I got something done. I didn't just, like, let it defeat me like I did sit down and I gave it a valiant effort. My body wasn't here to play today, but I still did the thing, and that is enough on a lot of a lot of days, every day. That is enough. You showed up. Whatever you got done, it's enough.

 Jennifer Araya: Absolutely. Are words to live by for sure. Well, we are, believe it or not. Onto our final question, which is something that I ask most people that I've interviewed for this particular podcast, and you've already shared some of the tools and resources and things that you use. But I would love to know, is there one tip or tool or resource that you use and you love and it makes you awesome at the work that you do that we've not talked about yet today?

 Jennifer Blom: Oof, let's see. I liked that I've automated my refrigerator to turn off when I'm in record focus mode.

 Jennifer Araya: Oh my gosh, no. As a as a narrator, I mean, the creatives who do not work in the audiobook industry, who are listening to this might be like, what the ah, what are you talking about? However, okay. I mean, you can explain it, but that is brilliant.

 Jennifer Blom: Um, so. Okay, so. This works even if you don't work in the audiobook field. This works for a lot of things. Like some people are like, oh, I wish people would know when I was recording or doing this or that. You can attach a smart plug to any device, right? And like as long as that thing like a lamp knows that it's on usually, but unless it's the power plug tells it it's getting power, it won't be on until that happens so effectively. And then you can attach that to. This is very geeky, but you can attach it to your focus mode on your phone or on your Mac, and they can all talk to each other. So basically once I'm in record mode, it changes my screen to red. So I know like I'm actually in record mode. So for the next hour I'm recording. But it turns off the power to my fridge because my fridge is in the same like open floor plan in my apartment. So like I've noticed it just.

 Jennifer Araya: Be picked up by your microphone. Yeah.

 Jennifer Blom: So it it raises my noise floor a little bit. It's workable, manageable, whatever. But I don't like it. As the perfectionist I say perfectionist I'm not a perfectionist, but like as the like sound snob that I am. That sounds better than perfectionist. Um, I didn't want that noise thing. Sound snob. Sounds less pretentious somehow, I don't know. Um, but also it's achievable. You can in fact be a sound snob. You may not be a perfectionist, um, but. So that is a cool thing that I found works for me because I don't have to, like, pull my fridge out, unplug it, you know, or whatever, or find a power button that usually doesn't exist on a, um, fridge. But like, that was something I was like, okay, but I don't need to think about it, and I don't have to. I used to just go into the app on my phone and turn it off manually. Then I'm like, but if I'm in the focus mode where like, it only allows like a certain app to like annoy me and everything else will be quiet for the next hour. It's all attached to the same fundamental button push. Like I'm like, okay, I'm in focus mode, I know I am because I have a visual reminder and also it takes care of the fridge noise. I don't have to worry about it clicking on in the middle of my recording moment.

 Jennifer Araya: That is beautiful. And again, that kind of goes back to what you were saying at the beginning, that if you've got something that you do all the time that takes multiple steps, figure out how to make it one step, maybe to make this small for yourself. Make it a small step.

 Jennifer Blom: Yeah, a small incremental step thinks that like. And some people keep themselves in focus mode, like the whole day. So they never see their email notifications until the hour that they want to see the email notifications. You can do that on your phone. You don't have to be available at all times for people. So I guess if I was going to TLDR efficiently, allow yourself to be everything that you can be in this moment and nothing more.

Jennifer Araya: Again. Words to live by. Jen, thank you so much. This has been a delightful conversation with lots of amazing nuggets, and I know I'm going to be thinking about some of these things for a while. Amazing what I what I can automate, how I can shrink this down into easier steps for myself.

 Jennifer Blom: Easy now. It can get very like very exciting. And then you're like, oh wait, I haven't actually done anything besides make myself super efficient today. So.

 Jennifer Araya: But once I make the things efficient, then they work and I never have to worry about it again.

 Jennifer Blom: This is a you have my permission to spend a whole day on it, but then tomorrow back to work. Or at least on Monday, because.

 Jennifer Araya: You know, at least on.

 Jennifer Blom: Monday when we're recording this, it's Friday.

 Jennifer Araya: Exactly. Yeah. Tomorrow I will not be working because this weekend.

 Jennifer Blom: Well, it was a such a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.

Jennifer Araya: And I am excited to have you for the Thriving Narrators Retreat in August. It's going to be great.

Jennifer Blom: It's going to be amazing.

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Thank you so much for being with me today for this episode of the Starving Artist No More podcast. I truly value your time, and I will never take it for granted that you spend some of that time with me, listening to this podcast. And I hope you too value your time. A huge thank you to Jennifer Blom for joining me for this episode. Jen will be a faculty member at the upcoming Thriving Narrators Retreat in Cincinnati, which is taking place August 22-25, 2024. If you’d like more information about that event, you can find all the details on my website. As of early July, when this episode is being published, registration is still open for the retreat, and I anticipate that we’ll be able to accept new attendees through the end of July. I’d love to have you join us. A huge thank you also goes out to my husband, Arturo Araya, who is the audio engineer extraordinaire for every episode of this podcast.

When a potential new change is scary to you, don’t let that initial fear reaction be your last answer. When Jen suggested that I host a retreat for narrators, my first response was to be scared. But a mindset that views our time as precious is also a mindset that encourages us to do the most good in the time we have. We can tell ourselves that even though the thing might be scary, that thing still might be worth doing, and we can still give it a try. Say yes to what your body needs. Say yes to what you’re capable of. Value your time, and use it well. I can’t wait to see what you create.