Bringing Together a Multi-Passionate Business
About 9 months after starting my business, I felt like I was running four of them.
I’m great at a lot of things, and I couldn’t just “pick one” to run with because it felt like I would be limiting myself or missing out on all the others.
But running four businesses is EXHAUSTING.
I’d have one meeting with a branding client to discuss visuals followed immediately by a client who needed deep mindset help. After a quick lunch, I’d switch to a meeting with my cowriter for a financial freedom series I was running, and then I’d answer some questions about relationship trouble another client is having.
And how the heck do you market yourself when you do everything from business coaching to personal finance to tackling past traumas to teaching people how to love their partners and be loved in return? Like who the heck would want to hire someone that seems all over the map with their services?
I knew I wasn’t the only one. I’ve met so many amazing people who will casually drop something like, “oh yeah, I used to be a lawyer,” in the middle of a conversation about their web design business. We’ve got some stupidly talented people here.
Luckily, someone asked me a simple question that shifted my entire perspective on my business:
Out of all the things you do, which would you be the most sad to let go of?
Read that question again. It’s not, “which one makes you the most money?” or, “which one are you the most passionate about?”(if you’re a driven woman the answer to that will be ALL OF THEM anyhow). When I started thinking about it, I realized the question is, “if you got rid of each of these, which one would tear your soul out with it when it goes?”
For a split second, my brain went “pshhh, branding of course,” because that’s what I’ve got my degree in. That’s what I spent years of my life pursuing, and I didn’t know that in less than a year from that moment I’d be dropping the design side of my business entirely. I was just telling myself I had to use my degree. Once I let go of that I got the real answer.
“Oh shit, it’s the personal finance and business coaching side.”
THAT’S the stuff I can’t shut up about. That’s the work I do for free half the time because I get so excited I don’t even care if I make money in the process.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love all the other stuff that I do, but if I died tomorrow I’d be looking back at life disappointed that I didn’t get to help more people go charging toward their dreams and being financially independent. Realizing that changed my business. If my first instinctual answer of what I’d be most sad to see go was wrong, NO WONDER my business felt like 4 fractured parts.
That small shift in perspective showed me I’m not a Business and Brand Strategist. I’m a Business and Lifestyle Coach, and I get to do ALL THE THINGS I was already doing in my business, but this time it’s under a clear, cohesive structure where I get to use those skills to impact lives.
What part of your business would you be most sad to see go? Whatever the answer is, that’s likely what the core of your business is. Use that to your advantage and wrap the other parts of your business around it. You may find you have a more solid foundation as a result.
