Today we’re talking about growing a business when you’re always jumping from one thing to the next. The challenge is, that you can’t build a sustainable business and actually grow it when you’re always jumping from one thing to the next.
Listen to the full episode here on Spotify
Building (and Podcasting) Without a Script..
I don’t necessarily plan my episodes out very thoroughly. I’m not one of those people who writes down a full script word for word and then reads it off a piece of paper (nope).
I usually just have an idea, a question, or a challenge that I want to share with you- something I’ve come across and want to help you with. Because if I struggle with it, there is a big chance YOU do too. Usually I write down a few bullet points because my brain jumps quickly from one thing to the next, and this feels more natural to me. I keep a log of these ideas.. usually when the download is quite strong, I record the episode right that day.
It feels easier for me to have a few talking points, to stay calm in my body, and to let it flow- to go with what comes to my mind in the moment about these subjects.
So here we go with..
The Challenge of Being a Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur and Mum
Today, I want to talk about solving the challenges of being a multi-passionate entrepreneur and a multi-passionate mum.
Sometimes I realise I’m working my head so much to come up with the best setup for this podcast — the right talking points, the right topics, the right SEO descriptors — because I’m a marketer and I know it’s all about strategy if you want to reach the right people.
But trying to make everything perfect can hold us back quite a lot.
I’ve realised that.. being multi-passionate, being multi-hyphenate. Because I don’t just love different types of work like creative work, strategic work, implementation, mentoring – I actually work in different areas too.
I’ll share more about the difference between being multi-passionate versus multi-hyphenate or multi-potentialite in a different episode. Today, I just want to bring you along with the challenges I face when building a business this way.
And it’s not easy. It’s really quite challenging.
When Talent Across Many Areas Starts Working Against You
I’m constantly looking for solutions- how I can help myself and you out there if you’re multi-passionate and interested in different topics and areas of work, so that we can struggle less.
And it’s not just an internal struggle. It can hold us back in very real ways.
If you’re talented across different areas of work, people expect a lot from you. They see you working across many disciplines, and they don’t understand why it’s so hard for you to break through and make it work.
But it is hard.
The passion we have for many different topics can hold us back because we’re interested in so many things. We could jump from one topic to the next every single day. I don’t get tired of it. I love learning new things every day.
Just Because You Can Do Everything Doesn’t Mean You Should
I can work across many disciplines really well. I have a marketing background, and I chose it because marketing is so multifaceted. It can be very strategic, very creative, with a lot of implementation and operations — and I love all of it.
But I’m also skilled at building websites. I’m quite good at it. I do it fast. I can design my own logos. I can create my own flyers. I can do everything quite well. I set up a new project tool for you I have never worked with. I even think it’s fun. I love the novelty and I love optimizing processes, teams, output.. streamline operations.
I can do it so well that I’ve been paid for all of these things in the past.
The problem is that you can’t build a sustainable business and actually grow it when you’re always jumping from one thing to the next.
Why Sticking With One Thing Is So Hard BUT Necessary
My struggle is building Mama What’s Next and the agency business I’ve built alongside it- a content production business- to a point where they can actually grow.
And to make something grow, you have to stick with it.
When you listen to successful entrepreneurs, business coaches, and career coaches, you quickly realise that to grow something sustainably, you need to work on it for years.
Why Niching Down Doesn’t Work for Everyone
Over the last months and years, I’ve tried to streamline my ideas and build them under a brand umbrella. Because when you’re a multi-passionate entrepreneur and a multi-passionate mum, you can’t easily niche down into one thing.
It doesn’t work- or you’re working against yourself.
I strongly believe that over the long term, this makes you unhappy.
What we need instead is an umbrella. Similar to branding, where you create a brand world and structure different things underneath a big brand umbrella.
How-to: The Brand Umbrella
I used to do this with Davidoff when I was working in Switzerland many years ago. We created an overall lifestyle brand, and underneath that lifestyle brand, we aligned different product categories.
We aligned leather goods, writing instruments, accessories, fragrances, and cognac.
We structured the lifestyle brand in a way that it could house all of these different categories. And it wasn’t easy.
It’s difficult in branding, and it’s just as difficult when you’re building a business as a multi-passionate entrepreneur and mum, trying to structure different categories of work and a portfolio of work under one umbrella.
I’ve been trying to do this for a few years now, and I’m still figuring it out. I thought it might be helpful to bring you along on this journey as I’m trying to solve it.
What Should You Be Known For?
I’ve been listening to people who teach in this area. One of them is Multipassionate Madison. Her handle on TikTok is @multipassionatemadison
She shares great insights on how to structure content as a multi-passionate entrepreneur.
When people ask what they should post about their business, she says the starting point should be:
What do I really want to be known for?
That’s something Seth Godin talks about as well.
That’s the question I’m wrestling with at the moment.
Because it should bring us back to the first point – what’s the something we can stick with for quite some time.
When Boredom Shows Up in Business
This brings me to another example. I’ve been listening to The Long and the Short of It, a podcast by Peter Sheahan and Jen Waldman. They both teach people how to speak and lead.
They often talk about leaders and entrepreneurs who come to them asking whether what they’re doing still has relevance and whether they should keep doing it. Sometimes it’s because they’re bored. They’ve been talking about the same thing for years. Have been delivering the same speech, the same keynote talk for years. They want a change. They wonder if their work is still relevant and effective or if they should just move on to something else.
They come to the conclusion that you need to ask:
What is it for?
Who does it help?
Is it still delivering value?
Are people paying you for it?
If the answer is yes, then this is your business – and being bored with it is irrelevant, unless you want to stop and build something completely new.
Why This Scares Me as a Multi-Passionate Woman
This scares me. It really does.
Because this has been my pattern. As soon as I’m not excited anymore or not learning as much as I did in the beginning, I tend to drop the ball and move on to the next thing.
And while I think that can be a strength, I also need to acknowledge that I’m not yet where I want to be with my business.
I can generate work and clients, but I’m not yet having the impact I want or reaching the people I want to reach.
That brings me back to the beginning. We need to focus on something for a number of years.
Can You Talk About This for the Next 10 Years?
This is the next question:
Can I talk about this for the next 10 years?
That sounds scary. It certainly does for me.
I think that’s why I’ve been sitting on this for so long — trying to find the perfect topic, the perfect perspectives, the perfect talking points.
But I’m also someone who believes it’s important to start. I’m good at starting things. I’m good at getting things off the ground.
I’m just not as good at sticking with them when things get hard — or boring.
Choosing One Topic and Looking at It From Many Angles
What we should be doing is picking a subject and looking at it from different angles.
For the next 10 years, the stories will change. The perspectives will change. We can tell different stories that all make the same point.
But we still need to focus on one core topic.
So what is it that you can talk about for the next 10 years?
What do you want to be known for?
Anyway..
I thought it was helpful to share this, to bring you along in my own personal struggles and the insights I’m gaining.
I’m much closer than I was one year ago — and much closer than I was five years ago. I’m confident we’ll make this work.
It requires discipline. And that can be harder for multi-passionate entrepreneurs and mums than for people working in more expert-driven models.
But I’m very confident that we can make this work.
Thank you so much for listening. I’m happy if you tune in next week.
Have a wonderful week.
