Iâm kind of obsessed with mindsetsâwhich checks out when a lot of my work is focused on how people make decisions, especially when it comes to buying into a brand.
But this musing specifically isnât so much about that. Or maybe it is, just on the other side?
Letâs just get into it.
Iâve been navigating what it means to work in my zone of geniusâintentionally and unintentionally. Itâs been a â¨seasonâ¨Â (try 2-3 years?) of trial and error for me, navigating building offers that both fire me up AND help my clients. Sometimes itâs like every proposal Iâm reinventing the wheel, trying to to tie up the perfect solution with a pretty little bow⌠and I have, for sure, but when it comes to doing the actual work sometimes Iâm just not excited about it.
You feel me?
The combination of that 5-year-itch in business, navigating it with two kids, a cross-country move, and also my ADHD diagnosis have really thrown me for a loop sometimes about what I offerâŚ
So many of us slide into burnout not because we lack passion, but because we’re operating outside of our zone of genius in business. We get sucked into tasks that don’t align with our strengths, and that just creates a ripple effect into our client’s experience too.
My diagnosis was almost a blessing and a curse, because now I understand that that’s actually just how my brain works. The nice part: I don’t have to necessarily fight it to work a different way. There’s things that I actually am really fucking good at and enjoy doing, and if it doesnât fit into either of those, I actually donât have to force it.
tldr: doing work that doesnât align with how your brain worksâor what you truly loveâisnât sustainable.
There are so many options out there, so much space for collaboration, you actually donât have to have or be the solution for everything.
To that point, thereâs also so much noise on the Internet. If you need it, hereâs the permission to just â¨notâ¨. Just because another web designer offers Intensive Days, you donât have to. Someoneâs doing an online course about something you also are skilled about, but you hate group coaching? Donât.
The thing that makes people want to work with, buy from, support you is you guessed itâyou. Itâs your secret sauce, point of view, weird quirk or skill, what makes you do what you do in a way thatâs unique to you.
It’s all about understanding your zones: the Zone of Genius, Zone of Excellence, Zone of Competence, and Zone of Incompetence. These concepts can help you figure out how to align your business with what youâre great at and what you actually enjoy.
Your genius and excellence zones, great. The other two? Get rid of them. This is a signalânot of failure, but opportunity. It’s where getting smart with outsourcing or team support can free up space for more of the good stuff.
Can you outsource some of those things to free up your time? Can you just eliminate them all together? Put your proverbial blinders on. This is how you develop your brand, build trust, pop into peopleâs heads when theyâre asked for a recommendation. What do you do really fucking well?
This is also how you keep your work sustainable. If youâre constantly doing shit you donât enjoy doing, what is the point?? Youâre going to burn out, get overwhelmed, and throw in the towel. The key to surviving this ride is making it work for you.
When you’re constantly saying ‘yes’ to work outside your zone of genius, you’re building a business on sand, and leaving little room for business growth. Sustainable work starts with clarity about what’s yours to carry, and what you can confidently delegate or let go.
And sure, itâs not all sunshine and rainbows even when we enjoy the work, but do you think Bezos is questioning if he deserves his billions when heâs just sitting there on his throne of shit? Life doesn’t have to be HARD.
I fear this has become a tangent…
My point being: when you spend too much time outside your Zone of Genius, you get burned out, feel overwhelmed, or stuck. Been there.
I have hardcore people pleasing tendencies, and saying yes because I CAN do something has sometimes been to the detriment of my client experience. You could have an amazing time working with me on your branding, in a brainstorm session etc, but then weâll work together on something that doesnât excite me as much as those do and communication drops, timelines extendâand thatâs what you’re taking away from the whole experience.
When you let go of these things that are holding you back, you open up space for things that propel you forward, and those experiences that have people like âomg I know the perfect person for thisâ. Shifting from ‘I should do and know everything’ to ‘I should focus on what I do best’ is an entrepreneurial mindset shift that can be hard to learn, but one that will give you the momentum for long-term success.
To help you figure out how your current offerings align with your zones, Iâve created a worksheet you can download and brain dump into.
Go through your recent projects, tasks you did last week or do on the regular… What projects went well? Which ones didnât? Go deeper on that and see if the projects that didnât go super great were because they were the wrong zone for youâŚ
If you want help eliminating work that doesnât light you up, turning your zone of genius into a marketable offer, just getting aligned on what youâre doing dailyâŚ
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