📈 Back to Business Basics for a Bit

“We work in the dark — we do what we can — we give what we have.
Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”

—Henry James, The Middle Years

As I’ve been reflecting on my theme for 2026, BOOKED & BOUNTIFUL, I have arrived at an important, albeit bittersweet, conclusion: it’s time to focus squarely on stabilizing my core business by making some tough time tradeoffs, including temporarily pausing new posts here on Rolling in Doh.

For paying subscribers: there is nothing you need to do—your payments are already paused.

It pains me to say this! And yet, I know it’s the right move for now.

One of the strange sensations of the last six years is never quite knowing what “right” looks like, beyond the faintest whispers lurking in the corners of my Flop Era. It’s like making decisions in an upside-down world: Is this right? Who knows! It only is. And then, as I say in Pivot, decisions are data. So I make the next set from the next vantage point, experimenting and failing and experimenting again—the life of a stubborn solopreneur sailing the rocky seas of uncertainty.

Rolling in Doh has been an incredibly rewarding, life-giving passion project for the last two-and-a-half years, with nearly 250 posts faithfully published at 11:11 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday. I love writing here, and I love all of you for reading, enriching my life further with each of your comments and replies.

Alas, as my business approaches its fifteenth (!) birthday in March, I am going to stop stealing my most focused time away to write, refine, and publish Doh posts (for now!), as much as I love it and gravitate toward it. Instead, I will do the Adult Thing™ by redirecting that energy toward rebuilding the core revenue drivers of my business; you know, to aim for rolling in actual dough for a bit.

Time to turn this ol’ balance sheet around:

📊 An Honest Accounting, Part Three

What does that look like in practice?

My business has two main “skis,” or focus areas: Pivot for anyone navigating what’s next, and Free Time for small business owners optimizing what’s now, setting their time free through smarter systems.

Within those two topic-tracks running in parallel, I aim to:

• Publish both of those newsletters consistently again, hoping to infuse even a modicum of the creativity Doh has inspired!

• Work on building up the Pivot keynote speaking pipeline (I’m grateful to have another thousand-person gig coming up in Las Vegas mid-February)

• Help refer 1:1 coaching clients to our two new wonderful Pivot coaches: Taku Noguchi, former Googler and BetterUp’er, and Laura Sheehan, who also runs career programs at Georgetown University.

• Open up new spots for my own Free Time 1:1 coaching, courses, and VIP days (My team member Faye and I are also piloting a new offering, Borrow My EA for a Day)

• Host free community calls; register to join in January for Pivot & Free Time, and

• Continue creative writing for personal essays in the background, without the pressure to refine and publish publicly (for now).

How long will new Rolling in Doh posts be paused?

I’m not sure . . . as long as it takes to feel confident that every week I am prioritizing action and income that will more comfortably (abundantly!) sustain the household, especially as we look to list our place again in Spring to find a renter. It’s wild to think that, if all goes well, I have no clue where we’ll be living six months from now!

That could mean I’m away for one month or six — I’m not sure yet. If you stay subscribed, you’ll still get surprises sprinkled here from time to time :)

Will I post at all here in the interim?

Maybe! If an essay is bursting out of me and insists on going live, I will hit publish. I just can’t promise the twice-weekly schedule, and I don’t feel right accepting payment for erratic posting while paused.

💌 In the meantime, stay in touch by subscribing to my other two newsletters, depending on your interests, Free Time with Jenny Blake & Pivot with Jenny Blake:

I look forward to seeing what this new year brings to all of us! Please do keep in touch — I love hearing from you, and I will miss you dearly during this pause :) 🙏¹

❤️

1. 👉 While I’m away, consider sharing your word of the year with us:

🪩 What is your word or theme for 2026?

. . . catching up on the Rolling in Doh post timeline if you’re new here:

New to Rolling in Doh? 🤗 Start Here: A Mad Lib (+ Template!)

🗳️ Weighing in on the reader survey, and

🎧 Listening to the Doh-themed podcast playlist + browse through 750+ episodes in the archives of the Pivot and Free Time podcasts:

👋 See you on the other side! 🍩 👀