Nothing gives me more joy than jumping out of bed each day to serve my clients. Why? Because I LOVE what I do.
It has taken me many years to get to this point – first I worked as a journalist (but it didn’t bring me joy), and then worked for other people (but I couldn’t stand the office politics) but I finally feel I’ve got to the point where I actually LOVE what I do.
But how have we built a business around doing what we love?
Discovering our passion
We’re often told to ‘follow our passion’ and ‘do what we love’, but what if we don’t know what that is?
One of the best ways to discover what you LOVE to do is to look back on your childhood.
When I think about myself as a kid, I always loved to read and write. I always kept a journal and from the age of nine, I told myself I was going to be the editor of Dolly Magazine. I also loved to play ‘schools’ where I would sit my long-suffering younger neighbour down and ‘teach’ her lessons.
Yep, I’m sure she loved me! 😂
I never aspired to be a traditional teacher in a classroom though. And yet, over the years I’ve discovered that I love to share my knowledge through workshops and e-courses, teaching what I know about writing, digital nomadism and even knowledge about pursuing what you love!
See how I brought my passions together?
I’ve also always been a ‘people person’ – I was heavily into drama at school and on the debating team. I’ve brought these aspects into our business through networking and marketing – two other skills I’ve loved to develop over the years.
So… what’s your passion? What do you love to do? What did you love to do as a kid? Start here and think about what truly lights your fire.
And then…
Start off small and gain experience
You’ve discovered what you love to do. Great!
But what next?
Before you jump in with both feet, it helps to keep the safety net of your day job going while you test the waters of your new passion.
Long before Red Platypus was founded, I worked for a creative agency so I could better understand how an agency was run.
I worked for years as an editor and journalist to develop my writing skills.
And I continue to regularly complete online courses in social media and marketing to hone my knowledge and keep on top of new trends.
You never stop learning. But it is better to start a business with some knowledge behind you.
Sure, you can launch a business with no experience, but it’ll probably be a bit harder than if you were to work for awhile in a similar business and learn whether you truly like it or not.
I recently met someone who wanted to open a cafe but they decided to train as a barista first. They spent six months working in a cafe and decided they hated it! Thankfully they hadn’t bought the cafe yet, otherwise they would’ve been stuck with a business that didn’t fufill them.
So dip a toe in the pool before diving in head first!
Do further research to define your market
Once you’re ready to launch, it’s time to prepare for business success. There’s a lot you need to do when launching a business, but perhaps the main thing is to ensure you RESEARCH your market and UNDERSTAND your customer.
This way you can market to them in a way that connects, which will ensure you draw customers and clients to you quickly.
Don’t forget to continue to evaluate what is and isn’t working, so that you can ramp up what works and stop wasting your time on things that aren’t giving you results.
(There is so much more I could write about this topic, and I plan to write further posts on this soon – let me know in the comments if this would be something of interest!)
Once you’ve done your research and defined your target market, it’s then time to…
NETWORK
Get out into the world! There’s no point hiding under a rock, even if the thought of networking scares the socks off you. If you want to be successful in business, you need to put your face to your brand and be ready to talk about what you do and who you serve.
Start by going to a few local face-to-face events and you’ll quickly make some friends.
Trust me, networking DOES get easier. It just takes some confidence, which you will build the more frequently you attend events.
I go to at least two networking events a week, and have seen our business grow drastically after I made a conscious decision to get out there into the world. Most of our business comes from word-of-mouth, which means the more people we know, the more work we’ll get.
I was even at a networking event this morning and had a lovely client sit next to me (Steph from WA Office Express) and rave about me to someone else at the table. I didn’t even have to sell what I do – she was doing it for me!
Love what you do and you’ll love your life
Being passionate about your profession really improves your quality of life. After all, you spend 40 hours a week at work – which is nearly 2,000 hours a year. Over your lifetime, this is a huge proportion of hours sitting at a desk – why waste it on something that’s not your passion?
We are big believers in doing what you love. If you’d like to learn more about how committed we are to creativity, catch us on our podcast, The Committed Creative, where we chat to committed creatives every week about doing what they love.
So what about you? How did you discover your passion? Are you doing what you love? Let me know in the comments!
