It’s one thing to decide you want to run your own business…and it’s something else entirely to know exactly what that business is going to be! Likewise, it’s easy to dream about “one day”, but picking a starting point in order to get to that destination is a little trickier.
At this stage, it’s really important to take some time to discover your WHY – your foundation, your guiding light, your raison d’être. Once you become clear on that, the next steps will take shape before your eyes. You’ll begin to see how your purpose, passion, and income can all come into alignment so that they can all fuel each other, and create the business of your dreams.
Your Top Talent
Together we’re going to explore what makes you unique and I’m going to help you define your top talent. I’m also going to suggest some resources for you if you’re really unsure about your direction and need some in-depth exploration.
Do NOT rush this stage of the process! It is far better to take the time and effort to define what it is you want in the beginning, than to set up a business and have to change it all later because you realize that’s not actually what you want to do! Or, that although you want to do X, or already are doing X, you haven’t come up with the best way to position yourself, or offer X to your potential customers.
This is not something that anyone else can do for you, or give you the template for! It can only come from you – your desires, your dreams, your passions and interests.
So grab a notebook and take some time to answer these questions as honestly as you can:
What do friends or family say about you – what do you often hear them repeating? (Note: If you can’t think of anything, go to 5 friends or family members and ask them: What are the 3 best things about me and what are the 3 worst things about me? Then write their answers down.)
What do people always ask you to help them with?
What do people often ask your advice about?
What are your top 3 interests, or hobbies – what do you read books about, take courses in, spend time doing, or really enjoy doing?
What could you talk about for one hour with no problem?
What do friends and family say you’re really good at? (Note: Again, if you can’t think of anything, go to 5 friends or family members and ask them: What are my top talents, what are the three things I do best? Then write their answers down here)
What do you wish you were really good at, or better at?
If money was not an issue, what would you spend your days doing?
Now go over your answers to all those questions. Look for any common or repeated elements. Which of those things leap out at you? Which things make your heart sing? Distill it down further into your top 3 talents, skills or interests. The top three things you have to offer the world, or are passionate about, or good at, or interested in.
Your Top 3 Talents or Interests:
1._________________
2._________________
3._________________
Turning Talents Into Income
Are you inspired and excited, or nervous and apprehensive, or a little of each? Now that you’ve nailed down what your top three talents are, you may be wondering: Fine, but how do I turn these talents into money? Or, if you’ve already built a business or blog around your top talent, maybe you need more ideas for how to monetize (generate revenue) from that talent, skill or interest…
I didn’t start out as a health expert – I lived the journey, and I shared as I learned (and still do!). What did I do to kickstart my business (though I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time)? I wrote a book. I wrote down everything I could remember about my intense, seven year recovery from Chrone’s disease, and I published it as an eBook. That’s all I had time for (I was raising kids and breastfeeding babies – I just wanted the information to be out there for whoever needed it). When, much to my surprise, the book took off in a real way, I started to build up more infrastructure to support it, and to answer questions from my reader. I began adding more eBooks & healing protocols; then I had to start selling other company’s products that I was recommending, because people were having trouble sourcing them. Eventually, I started formulating and manufacturing specific products that nobody else could make to my standards. I now have ____ books and _____ products in my health shop; I produce webinars and teleseminars, audio courses, how-to videos; I used to offer one-on-one consulting… the list goes on.
So even if you’re not ready to offer a million different products, can you see how your business will grow organically the more you work with it? All that started with one eBook back in 1997…
But what if you aren’t an expert on anything (yet)?
I’ve chosen this next example, using my own children, to illustrate that the concepts I’m teaching you here are nothing to be afraid of, or intimidated about. In fact, they’re so simple and easy-to-implement that even a child can follow them. Like my son Oscar.
When Oscar was 10 years old he started complaining of headaches and stomachaches at school. So we took a look at his diet, took him off wheat, started him on probiotics, increased his water intake, etc.
But what was definitely unusual for a kid, was the headaches. Before the advent of wireless technology, kids just did not get headaches. And they had recently installed a WiFi network in his school.
Oscar became very concerned about this, to the point that he did not want to go to school. Dad thought he was just looking for a reason to skip school! But what I suggested to Oscar was that he stay home for a week, let his body calm down and spend the week researching electromagnetic radiation (EMR) so he could make an educated decision about his body and his exposure levels. Since Dad was so resistant, I suggested he write his research report in the form of a letter to Dad.
Oscar’s story is a prime example of how your interests, or personal journey can lead to a business idea. And how, if there’s something you need or want, and it doesn’t exist… then likely there are others who need it too and would buy it from you. So back to the story…
Oscar and I soon realized that for him to research EMR was impossible, since all the information and experiments were written for someone with a university level education. So what we ended up doing (and I lost a week of my work time!) was I sat next to him and basically ‘translated’ everything we read into 10-year-old English.
Alright, here comes the business idea: What about all the other parents and kids in the world who were concerned about the effects of this technology? The kids who were now getting headaches, or heart palpitations, or nosebleeds at school and they too were listening to their body?
Since Oscar was already taking a week off school, I saw this as an ideal opportunity to teach him how to set up his own website. His sister Zara also wanted in on the deal. I wanted them to really get a hands-on feel for the process of setting up their own site, but I also knew they would not be able to write ongoing blog posts on this topic (so I didn’t choose WordPress for them).
I chose a static website template site for them to use (GoDaddy Website Tonight) that did not require blogging. This also gave me a chance to test how a template site would fare in search engine rankings vs. a WordPress or PHP programmed site (more on this later).
Oscar used his “Dear Dad” letter as the basis for the site and the kids wrote everything in their own words. They chose the domain www.RadiationEducation.com:
I taught them how affiliate links work and how they could use them on their site to make money. Affiliate links are basically images or text that links to another site or product for sale. If a person on your site clicks that link and then purchases something, you receive a commission on the sale.
They also decided to do T-shirts; which they designed themselves. We searched for an online T-shirt service where all they had to do was upload their t-shirt designs, and the company would handle everything else; production, payment, shipping, returns and customer service inquiries. The kids would just receive a commission on every sale. We found and used Printfection in the U.S. and Wordans in Canada to handle this. I then sent their designs to my graphic designer in India to output.
In addition, I taught Oscar and Zara the value of having an opt-in offer to build a list of people’s names and emails. So they came up with an opt-in offer called Radiation Education Action Pack and they now have over 300 names on their list:
That means they have 300 people who are interested in their topic, like what they’re doing and would be open to hearing more from them. So if they upload a new, helpful video, we can email the video link to their list (more relationship building). If they find a fantastic product (for which they would receive a commission on sales) they can shoot a video demo of the product and email it along with a purchase link (and perhaps timed coupon offer, “10% off coupon, valid for 7 days”) to all 300 people.
Since the site launched, the kids have received emails from people in other countries asking to translate their material into different languages. A group in San Francisco used Oscar’s ‘Dear Dad’ letter as part of their package to lobby for a bill on mandatory SARS ratings on cell phones – which they got passed.
Here’s something else noteworthy: Since the kids launched the site (total of 2 weeks work), they have done nothing else with it, yet they earn about $200/month. Their work was all in the set up and they haven’t touched it since. They’ve agreed to receive a percentage of their monthly revenues in cash and the rest goes into their education savings account.
Sure they had me guiding them every step of the way, but they did all the actual work themselves… hmmm… sound familiar? Yes, I’ll be guiding you every step of the way, but you’ll need to do the actual work – from the emotional work, to the physical work, to the organizational work. Of course, you’ll also need to do a bit more work ongoing than my kids, because it’s likely you’ll want to earn more than $200/month!
Your Turn
So now that you’ve learned exactly how three other people turned their top talent, skill, or interest into a business (or two!), it’s your turn to do the same! Let’s go back to the process where I asked you to distill down your answers into a list of your top 3 talents, interests, or skills, or desires….
Your Top 3 Talents or Interests:
1._________________
2._________________
3._________________
NOW…For each of these three options (these are 3 things you are interested in and passionate about – and either have the skills to do something with, or are committed to developing those skills), use the space below to list out your ideas for how you could turn each of these into a new business, or use them in your current business. Don’t worry about how “good” your ideas are, or whether they’re way out there, or impractical. This is a brainstorming session! So just write down whatever comes to mind. Let your thoughts roam, brainstorm with friends, ask for dreams before you go to sleep, do whatever it is that connects you to your soul and/or a higher power. And if you have further thoughts later, maybe you do some brainstorming with a supportive, or wise person in your life, then come back and add more ideas.
How I can turn my Top Talent #1 into a new business, or expand my existing business:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
How I can turn my Top Talent #2 into a new business, or expand my existing business:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
How I can turn my Top Talent #3 into a new business, or expand my existing business:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
At this point, don’t worry too much about how viable your business ideas are, or fret about the details of turning these ideas into a new business, product, or service. Remember that you’re on a journey and these points are all a vital part of the process!
Is there one idea that really makes your heart sing? Or are they all exciting possibilities? Now that you have some ideas, I bet you’re wondering, “but how do I choose my best idea…and build a real business out of it?” …click to find out!
L
Use this same process whenever you feel fear arising. Even just allowing your fear to run through your body – instead of tamping it down, boxing it up, or willing it away – will have a profound effect on how you experience your life. Allow yourself to feel around the edges of that fear and maybe you’ll be able to feel how excitement is hovering there too.
If you use dozens of keywords, just to make sure you don’t miss any, then this will have the reverse effect – because you’re sending search engines the message that you are trying to manipulate them and don’t actually have anything of value to offer! Internet marketers who tried to trick Google this way quickly got slapped for ‘keyword seeding’ and their sites were either dropped down in rank, or blacklisted.
Hashtags look like this: #. And they are simply placed in front of keywords so that things like photos, graphics, on short posts (one or two sentences) can also be optimized for search engines.
Because he was English, her Dad called this bait, “boilies.” So his whole site talked about boilies, all his metatags, keywords and site copy listed boilies. But when Lisa-Marie took a deeper look, she discovered that 90% of his site visitors were coming from the USA. And in America, they called this bait, “carp bait.” No one in America even knew what a boilie was!
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