“By getting crystal clear on your purpose, you give yourself clarity on where to focus your passions for growth and profits.”
In last week’s video, I shared with you how to get started with your side hustle with confidence. Today, I’m going to walk you through how to niche down your purpose and turn your passions into profit.
I believe that you should never follow your passion, but instead follow your purpose. Let me explain. First, let’s get clear on the difference between your purpose and your passion.
Growing up, I had the dream of a career in journalism, and my passion for that evolved into a thriving career. I went on to spearhead PR campaigns for dozens of New York Times best-selling authors and Grammy award-winning artists. I traveled the world with clients landing national press spots for them. I achieved things that I never thought were possible all as a result of what I thought was following my passion.
However, in the process I learned some profound lessons about passion. First, I learned that passion is fleeting, ever developing and can easily be changed. If you don’t believe me, just think about all the hobbies you might have been super passionate about years ago, but they don’t quite sit at the top of your to-do list anymore. It’s possible to be passionate about something one day and then want to move and grow from it the next.
If you had asked me a few years ago why I worked in PR, I would have said, “Well, I love people. I love the action and the fast-paced change of it all. I’m just so passionate about it.” But that wasn’t why I did it. No, you see, I chose a career in PR to empower, inspire and connect people. This is my purpose.
When I was able to make this distinction, it gave me clarity that my passions could actually change and evolve as I changed and evolved. It was my purpose that needed to remain the same. This gave me permission to go after new passions and led to the business that I have today, while keeping the same purpose.
Think about it this way: Your purpose is the difference and impact that you want to make on the world. This definition is what helps you niche down to your purpose. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself on how you can do that:
- Why do I want to get up every day and do the work that I want to do?
- What do I do that makes people feel great about themselves?
- Why is my dream important to me?
Now, your passion is how you grow and share that purpose to the world. Your passions come from your talents, personality, the timing in your life, education, experience, your strengths, your interests. Your passions should also make you feel a bit nervous because they are typically where new levels of growth come in. This definition is what can actually help you turn your passions into profit.
For example, my purpose is to help people empower themselves through connection and education, and the way I used to do that was through PR because that’s what I was passionate about. But then I became passionate about blogging, and then creating online education programs, and then public speaking and writing books, and then services like my podcast that I produce every week for my audience. Those are now my new passions.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when getting clear on your passions:
- What is that one big thing I’ve wanted to do for awhile that I just can’t stop thinking about?
- What do I have experience in already that could support what I want to do?
- What lights me up, brings me joy, and makes me feel excited and expansive and maybe even a little nervous to do?
By getting crystal clear on your purpose, you give yourself clarity on where to focus your passions for growth and profits.
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Then make sure to come back next week for our final video in this series, where Julie will share the three keys to consistent community growth.
