Plucking Up with Liz Bohannon

About Plucking Up with Liz Bohannon

Do you ever look at successful people and get stuck in their highlight reel? We then look at our own mess ups and feel alone, broken and not cut out for the job. Hosted by founder and social entrepreneur Liz Bohannon, Plucking Up is a podcast that talks about failures beyond the platitudes and how celebrated authors, entrepreneurs, artists and leaders in their own field moved past mistakes and wrong turns, in order to build lives of purpose, passion and impact. Each week, Liz shares uninhibited conversations with guests including Elizabeth Gilbert, Arianna Huffington, and many more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Liz Bohannon

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

22 May 2020

Latest episode

29 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

15 of 149 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   29 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Stop Chasing Happiness: Baseline, Momentum, and What Success Actually Feels Like with Jason Feifer

   Host Liz Bohannon interviews Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, exploring how to build a career focused on momentum rather than happiness.

2. 

   30 Apr 2026

   The Twists, The Turns & The Training Years: Jon Acuff on Building a Career Worth Having

   This is a throwback to the classic Plucking Up format: real stories, real twists, real embarrassments. And there's no better guest for that than Jon Acuff. Jon is a New York Times bestselling author of 10+ books, including Soundtracks, Finish, and his newest, Procrastination Proof (https://jonacuff.com/procrastination-proof). In this conversation, Jon takes us all the way back to tap dancing, a graveyard of GoDaddy URLs, laser hair removal jingles, and traces the slow, deliberate path that led to the career he has today. He's honest, funny, and remarkably generous with what it actually took. This one is a gem. Key Takeaways Your day job isn't the enemy of your dream. The gift of invisibility. Never attach all your bills to your dream right away. Season-specific advice actually matters. Starting over after success is its own kind of hard. Know when to quit and Jon's three-question test. If you don't define success for yourself, the world will do it for you. "The growing is in the going." Timestamps [00:00] Cold open: overstimulated and under-challenged [00:16] Liz introduces Jon and the episode [03:37] Jon's origin story: Ipswich, MA, third-grade poems, and tap dancing [06:35] Falling in love with advertising and learning to write to move people [07:55] Six jobs in eight years — and why pouring into your day job matters [08:35] The first blog, the second blog, and Stuff Christians Like [10:41] The GoDaddy graveyard -Liz and Jon both have one [12:27] How to know if you've found the right thing: what can't you not do? [15:13] The Reverse Superman: vacation days, speaking gigs, and the slow build [17:02] The gift of invisibility and writing laser hair removal jingles [19:46] Never attach all your bills to your dream, the Elizabeth Gilbert connection [23:30] 'I wouldn't bet against Liz': season-specific advice and the hustle conversation [26:02] Don't use the phrase 'work-life balance' in your 20s — and why [28:22] Leaving Dave Ramsey: the decision framework and the ego hits that followed [30:02] Starting over after success, the thing we don't give enough credit [31:34] Liz on loving the new thing, not the thing itself [32:32] The peace of trying and failing vs. the weight of wondering [39:11] Jon's three-question test for when to quit YouTube as a case study [41:50] Liz's viral reel moment and why she doesn't care about the algorithm [44:04] High performers and negative self-talk, who are you actually running for? [45:04] Liz's 17-column success spreadsheet and defining success on your own terms [49:46] Jon tells Liz she's sitting on 10 books, closing thoughts [50:40] Jon on who he writes for and why he gives it all away Links & Resources Mentioned Jon Acuff Jon's website: https://www.jonacuff.com (https://www.jonacuff.com) Procrastination Proof: https://www.jonacuff.com/procrastinationproof (https://www.jonacuff.com/procrastinationproof) All It Takes Is a Goal: https://www.jonacuff.com/allittakesisagoal (https://www.jonacuff.com/allittakesisagoal) Jon on Instagram: @jonacuff (https://www.instagram.com/jonacuff/) Connect with Liz Website: lizbohannon.co (http://lizbohannon.co) Instagram: @lizbohannon (https://www.instagram.com/lizbohannon/) The Plucking Up Podcast: pluckingup.com (http://pluckingup.com) The Boho Beat: lizboho.substack.com (http://lizboho.substack.com) Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or share it with a friend who needs this conversation. It's the best way to help more people find the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   21 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT

   How to Process a a Friendship Breakup with Laura Tremaine

   Host Liz Bohannon interviews author Laura Tremaine about navigating the pain and coping strategies for friendship breakups.

Inside a recent episode

Stop Chasing Happiness: Baseline, Momentum, and What Success Actually Feels Like with Jason Feifer

Published 29 Jun 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] What are the categories and what are you putting down? What did you put in today or yesterday? Yeah. So the categories are how much time I'm spending on different projects that I'm working on, how much time I'm spending with my kids, how present I feel with my kids, my marriage, how much time I spent with my friends, my emotional state where I was mentally, my sense of creativity and And like fulfillment. So I have these like, some are just like hours. Like there's how many hours I spent with my friends. And then next to how much time I spent with my friends, it's like I code it green, red, or yellow, kind of based off of like relationally how... good or healthy or connected, do I feel? […]

Who has been a guest on Plucking Up with Liz Bohannon

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jason Feifer
• Emily Hickey
• Christie Tate
• Anna Goldfarb
• Jacqueline Olds

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

375 ratings

Contact Plucking Up with Liz Bohannon

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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