How to build a business around your knowledge
I struggled for years to find my purpose. At times, I thought I was never going to find work that would fulfil me.
I spent a LOT of time building my knowledge about how I could design a business I loved, even if I didn’t have a passion to follow.
I studied successful entrepreneurs in many fields, and through my research I found the key to finding work that fulfils you is not by chasing a job title. It is through becoming great at what you do, and cultivating your own damn passion. This a four-step process:
- Start by choosing your niche. To do this, I suggest you try to discover the intersection of your experience, skills, knowledge, and interests. I developed a self-awareness exercise called ESKI and you can grab a downloadable playbook here . By doing this, I discovered I wanted to create content about business or education. It gave me a starting point. I also looked back through my journal because the Incited Media Journal Process I use involves capturing everything that inspires me, so I had a good idea of what topics floated my boat. I then completed the Nail Your Niche course to help me decide who I wanted to help and how I could help them.
- Embrace self-education. I figured out that once you know your zone of genius, you then have to master it. I started listening to podcasts, reading books, and learning more about topics I was interested in. I even went back to school to get a Bachelor of Communication, and I looked for further inspiration in the people whose work I admire. I also took a course in blogging, which helped me move from blogging as a hobby to blogging as a business. Self-education helped me to zone in on the area I wanted to work in, and to also develop my business skills.
- Design your business model. How will you make an impact by sharing what you know with others? Educating by creating courses? Running group masterminds or events? Coaching one-on-one? Or content creating? I became a freelance content creator in the education industry. My business model is providing a service to my client (creating content such as blog posts, newsletters, and digital information products) for which I get paid to do. I now, of course, have this website where I create articles and digital products to help people build and share their knowledge.
- Position yourself in the market as an authority. These days, no matter what your business is, you need to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. The best way to do this is by sharing what you know. Even if you are a beginner yourself, letting people know that you are self-educating will show you are becoming knowledgeable in a particular area. The more you learn, the more your reputation will grow as an authority. Even creating informative posts on your social media pages will help position you as a go-to person in your niche for people who don’t know as much as you. (I use Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest and Instagram posts)
Don’t forget, you can share the work of other experts to help your audience learn. Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, and many other entrepreneurs such as authors and coaches, are knowledge brokers who reference industry experts to discuss topics their audience want to know about.
If you want to build a business you love then sign up to get the Learning To Be Me questionnaire to get started and narrow down your zone of genius using the journal prompts (or scribble on the printable!). If you want to dive into finding the intersection of your experience, skills, knowledge, and interests (your ESKI), then grab The ESKI Playbook here. And, if you want some stickers to help make your journal spreads look more inspiring check out my printable packs here.
P.S. My aim is to inspire others to find work they love to do and to become a rock star at it using self-education and self-awareness. I like to use my journal to add some creativity to learning, business planning and developing content. Read more about The Incited Media Journal Process here.
