This is a Guest Post By Ad Hustler Contributor: Kim Ann Curtin, Life Coach
Crush It Being Y-O-U
“The greatest crisis of our lives is neither economic, intellectual, nor even what we usually call religious. It is a crisis of imagination. We get stuck on our paths because we are unable to re-imagine our lives differently from what they are right now.” ~Marc Gafni
In Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It he talks about how many of us are slogging though our life in jobs that really don’t resonate with us. He feels that thanks to the internet we have a unique opportunity to monetize our passion. There are a number of ways he suggests this can be done and he lays it out succinctly in his informative and irreverent short book. The bottom line, he says, is that we now have the amazing ability to follow our bliss as well as make a living from it.
He also says we have the ability to understand our customer’s needs better than ever before. Thanks to social media we ALL have access to what our clientele is hungry for. We can see what they think and feel before, during and after they work with us. Which in turn means we can sculpt our offerings so they walk away satisfied each and every time.
Authenticity
Re the world of Real Estate Gary has this to say: “Part of the real estate game is learning to put some serious spin on a loser property, right? You pitch is as a “charming fixer-upper” or a gem “just waiting for some TLC.” Even the appealing properties get the rose-colored treatment. But what if you sat down in front of a camera and posted a series of video blogs telling people what you really thought of the homes or commercial sites or lots you were selling? What if you said something like, “I have got one ugly house to sell. Seriously, folks, you’ve got to see this one if only to take in one of the last surviving examples of red shag carpeting matched with faux-deer-antler, woodland-creature chandeliers. The sellers are super nice and I would love to get them the $360k they originally wanted, but I’ve talked to them about it and they understand that they need to set their sights lower because this sucker needs some serious renovations. I’m thinking you should take a look at it if you’ve got about $275k to spend, plus some extra bucks for a contractor. And bring your imagination, lots of it!”
Gary acknowledges that executing this might be challenging for a number of reasons and he is being extreme in this scenario but he asks would this kind of transparency hurt your business? In the end you would become the most trusted real-estate agent in town because everyone would know you shoot straight from the hip and never pull punches.
Today transparency is the name of the game – this is why now more than ever you want to bring your authentic self to the table and do work you enjoy. People have an accurate BS detector (aka intuition) and when they sense that someone isn’t behind what they’re talking about, they disconnect quickly. So you see it might not be the product that isn’t real but you and your lack of interest in the product.
Not Working at Your Passion?
Don’t worry you don’t have to quit your job tomorrow. But you do want to at least begin the inquiry of what you are passionate about. Begin to consider what you would do if you had unlimited money. Is there something you have always enjoyed immensely that you would do regardless of how tired you are? Maybe it’s been so long since you enjoyed anything that you find it difficult to connect to these answers. If that’s the case, start with identifying your basic needs. Marshall Rosenberg the founder of NonViolent Communication teaches us that by identifying our needs we begin the journey to satisfaction. Email me if you want me to send you his list of “Universal Needs.” As a coach I find a lot of people are not connected to their basic needs. Once you become more familiar with your needs you stand closer to getting them met. And if you do work that meets your needs then that’s when a day at the office feels as good if not better than a day at the beach.
Where You Stand
Challenging times make it imperative that you stand out from the pack. And it’s so easy to do because there is no one out there just like you! You are utterly unique and you bring to the table a combination of experiences unlike anyone else. You will find that people always resonate with authenticity above everything else and usually will come back for more if what you sold to them delivered.
The reason “…we are unable to re-imagine our lives differently from what they are right now…” is not only because of a lack of imagination but a lack of courage. Rarely does our culture and society endorse courage for oneself – for others yes – but we must begin with our self first. Finding out what our needs are and or what makes us truly happy is the first step. Investigating other ways to live ones life is best done with support. I invite you to find a friend, a coach or a group that does just this.
Ask if you can see yourself doing this for another 5 years? 5 months? 5 minutes? If the answer is, “Hell no!” then have the chutzpa to investigate what you might be willing to do instead -even if you have to do it alone. And for just a moment let go of the issue of finances. Let your imagination dream. Buy yourself one of those super large white tear sheet pads and start brainstorming. Dreaming doesn’t cost a dime. All you are doing is dreaming right now. And according to Gary Vaynerchuk, that dream just might lead you to more dimes than you could have every imagined.
I agree that the internet is a very unique place because it allows people to create businesses around their passions. There is nowhere else BUT the internet that allows for the kind of reach you need to create a successful business around small niches or unique passions.
I think the issue that a lot of your run of the mill, miserable working people have is that they have no clue what their passions actually are. They go through life day to day with no real goals other than to make it to tomorrow and then the next day.
People need to ask themselves, “If I could do anything I wanted tomorrow instead of working at this job, what would it be?” It might be multiple things but when they come up with the answer, they need to start thinking about what steps they need to make that happen and start pursuing it.
No one is saying to quit your job tomorrow or to EVER quit your job for that matter however if your not pursuing your passions, what are you living for?
I think you have addressed exactly what it is finding something that you enjoy makes it easier to make money from it. You need to have passion and understanding to develop and monetise.
A lot of time people like Gary make it seem like you can take your passion and make money out of it. That is not realistic in some cases. My passion is to wake up at 11am, work for two hours, go flying for two hours, do some networking for two hours. Then go home and read a book. Can you tell me where in there I am going to make money? The passions are aviation because I enjoy it and do it for fun, and networking with other people to see how I can help them.
Hi Patrick:
I’m going to suggest that it might more be your “want” to wake up at 11 am and say read a book then a passion. Wants are different than needs. Passions are usually the place where our needs are met and when they are our wants start to disappear.
I’d say it sounds more like aviation and helping others are more the “passion” – and I believe there is a way to monetize that. How many aviation blogs are there out there? How many pilots are keen at networking? And are reading Ad Hustler? I doubt that many!
There are so many people that day dream about learning how to fly (me included) yet I wouldn’t know where to begin. I’d pay some sort of cash to tap into a knowledge bank and not have to spend hours researching myself what my area has to offer, what I do and don’t want to do in the process.
Gary loved wine but this didn’t mean he got to spend his days drinking and sniffing it. His passion for it meant he was willing to spend hours stocking it in the warehouse and doing all the grunt work involved in what a retail biz requires.
Finding your passion doesn’t mean there won’t be hard work involved. But when you love what you do – you have the wherewithall to do it no matter the cost.
Hey Patrick, how about you take along a video camera and film from over your shoulder you flying and doing specific things. Talk it out and make like an instructional video and give people a “flying experience in front of your computer” that they cant get without being in the cockpit seat.
Then start a Learn to Fly type blog where you give away your experience and preview videos and let people pay $19.95/6 months to get the insiders videos and instruction.
Where do I send my bill?
@Ken & Kim – Both very good, reasonable responses.
Thanks Kim and Kevin. All points read and taken to heart.
Now may I ask each one of you – what are you doing to tap into your passion and eventually stop doing any job that you don’t want to have any more?
I started a blog about getting diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. After writing on it for a year I decided to put some ads on there. It did well with adsense and I then did direct and affiliate offers. Before I knew it… POW!
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-blogging-success-story-diabetes-blog-earns-40k-per-year/5240/
So was diabetes your passion – or just something that had a major impact on your life you decided to write about?
Congratulations on the success BTW.
@Ken – That’s pretty inspiring. You took a negative and made it into a positive. Congratulations!
@Patrick – I’m sure diabetes wasn’t his passion but he took a small niche that he had interest in (although the interest was probably based out of fear for the disease). That’s the point here. Interests can be monetized.
Right Patrick, diabetes wasn’t a passion but it was something I needed to learn more about and I was already doing the reading and research. I got a dozen other blogs of stuff I like to do like “racing RC cars” and “train cats to use the toilet” Both are fun and gets lots of organic traffic but thats not why I started them.
I have another site that I started a few months ago about a sad time in my life that has gained LOTS of interest lately and I was interviewed for a TV spot and a few radio stations. I think it was the emotion I put into the posts that people got into.
A bit tougher to monetize but I’ll still write for the site to help me deal with it.
Patrick, when you saying flying does that mean you own your own plane?
Hey Patrick:
I became a life & biz coach – I do workshops & am a speaker. This is my bliss. I left the corp world over three years ago to empower people. Why? Because I was empowered and thought, “Holy Crow! If everyone knew could find the connection to what they are truly capable of and learn how to get their needs met – what an incredible world.”
Let me know Patrick – if I can help in anyway.
And Ken! You are really inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing what and who you are.
Ken – Not yet. I hope to someday.
Kim & Ken – Thank you for your experience and your words of wisdom. Hopefully I can find an interest that warrants monetizing that I won’t burn out on. It sounds like both of you are already there.