S2E348 A Minute to Think with Juliet Funt
It's a Good Life
Brian Buffini
4.4 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today’s world, busyness has become a badge of honor – but it’s secretly burning people out, dulling their creativity and damaging their client relationships. That is especially true for those in real estate, who often feel they must be “on 24/7.” In this powerful conversation, Brian Buffini sits down with Juliet Funt, the founder and CEO of an efficiency firm, as well as the author of the book, A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work, to talk about why we’re so addicted to activity.
Drawing on her decades of research and work with top organizations, Juliet shares advice on how you can build more “white space” into your schedule. She also explains the concept of “hallucinated urgency” and how the “four thieves of time” hijack your day. Whether you’re a perpetually “on” entrepreneur, a frenzied realtor or a leader trying to refocus your team, this episode will help you slow down, think clearly and show up as your calm, confident best self.
YOU WILL LEARN:
- What white space really is and why time “without assignment” is the missing oxygen that fuels your creativity, focus and long-term success.
- How to use strategic pauses and wedges to build brief but powerful moments of thinking time into even the busiest schedule.
- How to spot – and stop – the “four thieves of time” so you can reduce frenetic busyness, prioritize what matters and work with more focus and intention.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work by Juliet Funt
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“Why are we just doing every single thing as opposed to figuring out where our strengths are?” — Juliet Funt
“White space is simply time without assignment – the open, flexible time that used to live between things and let us recalibrate.” – Juliet Funt
“We all want to do every single project and plan, but we need to learn the gear of taking things out as well.” — Juliet Funt
“If you do start dialing down into the population, there's a lot of people in much more pain than I would guess you're in because every single day is a chaotic, fearful, reactive flow.” — Juliet Funt
“I have a practice all day long, I will stop and say, ‘What am I doing?’ And I just stop for a second and I'll see if the thing that I am actually doing is of value to my dreams. And a lot of times you catch yourself and it's not.” — Juliet Funt
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself |
| 0:08.2 | and your business. Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company, |
| 0:13.9 | Brian the Feeney. Well, the top of the morning to you, and it's great to be with you all today. |
| 0:21.0 | Rarely in the last few years have I had the privilege of actually sitting in a seminar. |
| 0:26.0 | I'm normally traveling around speaking at events, and it's hard for me to get to an event. |
| 0:30.5 | But this year, Beryl and I made the trek to Chicago, to the Global Leadership Summit. |
| 0:36.5 | And we heard a lady speak on stage, and my wife elbowed me |
| 0:39.6 | in those ribs that every man knows. When you get the rib shot, you better take action. And she said, |
| 0:47.0 | this gal is perfect for us. So we have pursued Juliette Font, and she is a brilliant woman. |
| 0:53.6 | She's a speaker, author, productivity expert. |
| 0:56.7 | And we're going to dive into her book a minute to think, which, by the way, I have just started, |
| 1:01.4 | and I'm like, I may be the poster charge for this book right now. So I was doing this for all |
| 1:07.5 | of you so I could do a good interview and it turns out this book is all |
| 1:12.5 | about how to reclaim your creativity, conquer busyness, and do your best work. And Juliet, I'm in |
| 1:18.7 | need of all of those things. Welcome to the show. I'm so delighted to have you here today. Thank you. |
| 1:23.3 | What a delight to be with you. So I got the rib shot because my wife recognized not only for myself, but the people we run with and then the company we lead, that everybody's addicted to busyness. |
| 1:35.4 | And somewhere along the line in American culture, business became the badge of honor. |
| 1:40.3 | In fact, we announce it when we meet one another. |
| 1:42.8 | I'm up to my eyeballs. |
| 1:45.2 | I've caught myself. Here's how many hours I worked last week. It's a badge of honor. In fact, we announce it when we meet one another. I'm up to my eyeballs. I've caught myself. |
| 1:49.4 | Here's how many hours I worked last week. It's a badge of honor. And that's what's happened in our society. Let's talk about this and actually how we need to probably think about this differently. |
| 1:55.8 | Yes. And I think for your community, maybe more than anyone, to see the threat of what busyness brings. |
... |
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