Issue #2: Finding Your Zone of Genius

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Today at a Glance:

  • Thought: What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?

  • Time-saver: Turning your employer into a client

  • Tactic: Discovering your Zone of Genius

Read time: 5 minutes

Thought: What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?

When I first started my consulting business I was charging way too little. One woman even said, “Wow, you’re cheap” after I told her my rates. Now, keep in mind that I offered Facebook Ad services and I used to work at Facebook. So I knew what I was doing, I was just afraid I would hear “no” if I said a rate that was too high.

Fast forward to this month. I heard a “no” on two projects valued at $80k and I’m happy about it! Why? Because I now realize every “no” gets me closer to a “yes”. I just pitched three projects worth $350k, and if just one of them goes through it will still be a big win for my business and my family.

Is it easy pushing the “send” button on emails asking for that much money? Not always, but I’m reminded of something else I learned during my days at Facebook. Motivational posters lined every wall, but my favorite boldly asked, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

Would you set your fees higher like I did?

Would you finally start that side hustle?

Maybe reach out to someone for help?

Or apologize to someone and repair a relationship?

That’s a thought for you to ponder this week, and I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Time-saver: Turning your employer into a client

As a business owner – especially when you’re just starting out – one of your biggest challenges will be to establish trust from prospects. Here’s an easy way to speed up the process: Turn your current employer or former employer into your first client.

That's exactly what Sarah Casterline (a brand designer who focuses on the creative and measurable business outcomes of her work) did when she left her job as director of marketing at HUNGRY.

"I positioned it not as leaving but as a transition of scope and a win-win: They were still getting the high value creative items from me, but at a lower cost, and I was getting a big recurring client and a more secure financial starting point for my business. The conversation went better than I could've imagined. My supervisor said, ‘I knew this day was coming. You're very good at what you do, and we're going to support you. Oh and by the way, you need to charge more.’”

You can leverage this same approach with previous employers, supervisors, or coworkers who have moved on to another organization. At the very least you’ll begin to activate your network and may get some referrals coming in.

Tactic: Discovering your Zone of Genius

Clarity is the precursor to confidence. In order to confidently grow your business you must be able to clearly answer the following question.

What do you do, and who do you do it for?

But to confidently grow a business and avoid being miserable you’ll need to answer a different question.

What activities do you enjoy doing, and who do you enjoy working with?

To answer that question the first thing you need to do is determine your Zone of Genius. This term comes from the book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks and I’ll walk you through the process of discovering yours now.

We’ll start by gaining a basic understanding of the various zones of competence.

Incompetence: You’re not good at these things and don’t want to be

Competence: You can perform these tasks but others can do it just as well.

Excellence: You can perform these activities extremely well but it may not be as rewarding as you’d like at times

Genius: These are the activities you enjoy and want to keep developing. You could talk about them for hours and never get bored.

Next, open up this spreadsheet and jot down in Column E all the organizations you've worked at. This includes jobs, volunteer activities, or any time you’ve been assigned responsibilities on an ongoing basis.

Once you’ve completed that, start jotting down all the major tasks and activities you performed at each organization in Column F. This also includes tools and processes involved with each role, and you can probably lift most of this information from your resume or LinkedIn profile.

Now it’s time to assign all these tasks and activities to various Zones of Competence. You’ll want to be extremely honest with yourself here. You may be a recognized expert at one task or another but if it drains you – as opposed to making you feel energized – you should put it in your Zone of Excellence, not your Zone of Genius.

In most cases you should have a handful of activities in your Zone of Genius, a few more in your Zone of Excellence, and even more in the remaining zones.

You can see the example from your worksheet below.

Although this person has held various marketing roles their Zone of Genius is centered around Facebook ads, explaining complex topics and developing campaign strategies.

With this clarity they could confidently launch a business with the following service offering:

“I help companies design and optimize their Facebook ads, and I explain it in a way that you can actually understand.”

Here’s where I want you to be careful.

It’s tempting – and sometimes necessary – to offer services that are aligned with your Zone of Excellence. In this case the same person could assist with both Facebook and Google ads. If that’s what you initially need to do in order to pay some bills, go for it. But as you start gaining traction, consider eliminating or outsourcing tasks that are outside of your Zone of Genius.

It’s a slippery slope and you may eventually find yourself providing services that are in your Zone of Competence, which leads to burnout and unfulfillment.

One last step. Now it’s time to determine the specific audiences or industries you want to work with. In Column G “Industries” jot down all the industries you have worked with or would like to work with. Then select one or two you want to focus on.

Disclaimer: If this is too challenging you can stick with a broad audience and niche down later.

In this example we’re going to select “ecommerce” as the industry and update the service offering.

“I help ecommerce companies design and optimize their Facebook ads, and I explain it in a way that you can actually understand”

That’s it. That’s how you get the clarity and confidence to start a revenue generating business that you’ll actually enjoy. So block off two hours this weekend and get it done!

And once you do, let me know what you came up with.

I hope you found this valuable (let me know!) and if you did please consider sharing it with a friend.

I’ll see you again next week!

Want to receive The Solopreneur's Shortcut every week? Subscribe here. We'll send one thought, one tactic, and one time saver straight to your inbox. No fluff, just proven techniques for growing your business.

Megan Dohm