How to Focus your Energy

A lot of us are very multi-passionate people - we’re interested in tons of stuff and we like doing lots of lots of things.

This could put us in a tricky place when starting or growing a business, because there are many ways we could potentially help people, and get lost ‘following our bliss’. 

Here’s a three-step process I’ve developed for deciding how to focus your energy as an aspiring entrepreneur:

Step #1

Spark Joy…

Hands down, the top thing that has helped me prioritize my interests and my life is (surprisingly, and unsurprisingly) that little book you may have heard of by now called: “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo. It’s a pretty short book and an easy read, although the process is quite impactful. They do NOT call it ‘The Life Changing Magic’ for nothing.

Anyway, I’m not here to give you the low-down on the entire Kon Mari Method, but here’s what you’ll want to know based on my experience:  

• Organizing and letting go of things based on how much joy I feel in my body when holding or thinking about those things is the fastest and most efficient method I’ve personally found for navigating my life. 

• I recommend going through this process with physical things first, but this method can also be applied to business ideas too. What I personally love about the Kon Mari Method is that it’s a somatic process, so it really helps me bypass the thinking mind, and instead helps me focus on what my body is truly saying yes or no to. 

It can be very easy to justify keeping things in your life with the mind. But let me tell you, the day I FINALLY decided to let go of plastic tupperware was one of the absolute best days of my life. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I chose to keep plastic tupperware during Spring Cleanings before finally letting it go after doing Kon Mari. 😅

My mind would say, “But, I already have this tupperware and I don’t want to spend money on new tupperware” or “But it’s not sustainable or zero waste to buy new versions of things that I already have." or "It's superficial to want more aesthetically pleasing tupperware.” 

So season after season, I kept the awful plastic tupperware. But when I finally went through the Kon Mari Method and said to myself, “Thank you plastic containers for getting me this far - now GET TF OUT OF MY LIFE - I felt 10000x better immediately, on the daily.  

Side Note: (In the Kon Mari Method, you always thank things for serving their purpose before you let them go).

Exercise #1

On a blank piece of paper, write down everything you may be interested in doing for your business.

At this point in the process, keep everything that brings you joy, even if it doesn’t make much money or even if the things don’t really go together. 

For me, this looks like: ‘photography, vegan chef, website design, music DJ, marketing, branding, sustainability, fashion design, travel’.

Notice that none of these things are specific products or services - but rather, are categories. If you have specific things you offer, pocket those until Step 3.

Step #2

Find Your Shape

Once you have all the things listed that you may want to spend the rest of your life doing, reflect on which areas you have the most expertise in - or the areas you want to spend a lot of time learning about to eventually grow expertise.

Next, with a line, connect categories together that are related or supportive of the things you have the most expertise in. (See drawing below) ⤵

Now, get a new blank piece of paper.

If there are categories on your first piece of paper that you totally love but don't really care to become an expert at, let these things go by drawing them as cute little clouds on the top of your new paper. 

By drawing them as clouds, you are representing the idea that these passions will float in and out of your life. They will always be there, to be enjoyed by you, your family, and your friends. But you are not going to focus on developing deep roots for these things.

Let’s be honest - it may kind of suck to demote a part of your life to a smaller capacity, with intention.  Especially if you've already invested a bit of time or energy into that interest. For example, what about my amazing vegan Ice Cream? 🍦 I’m pretty sure the world has to taste it! I have already done taste testing of 12 different plant based milks to forward this endeavor! ( focus, Nenah, focus ) 🤦‍♀️

Ultimately, I've realized there is so much enjoyment to be found in exploring interests just for myself, or sharing interests just with close friends, without needing to become ‘the best’ at those things. I've let go of the idea of being the next vegan ice cream biz wizard, for now. And I'm okay with that. I repeat to myself: “I'm choosing to focus.”

Maybe one day I will naturally dye and sew some of my clothes too. That doesn’t mean I need to dye clothes for everyone, nor do I need to totally shift culture with my music taste and DJ skills. I can be completely fulfilled with these things, without relying on them as core pillars of my business. 

Core pillars are strongest when they are focused on where you want to grow your expertise, and when they relate together and support each other.

Exercise #2

Organize your interests by depth of expertise

Decide which interest you have the most expertise in, or would like to learn most about throughout time. Under your clouds, draw a vertical line with an arrow downwards to represent the amount of expertise you would like to grow in this area. Place your other related interests on the left or right sides of your primary interest, alternating and evenly distributed. At this point, you will have one of three shapes: 

• A Horizontal Line
  This occurs when you are competent in many interests but you don't have a depth of expertise in any of them. This means that you are a generalist! Generalists are super useful in start-up environments. They know a little bit about lots of different things, and can hop from one task to the next. There is no problem with being a generalist. It means that you will likely find most fulfillment in working for someone else, at smaller companies, while helping with all sorts of stuff. 

• A Vertical Line
  This occurs when you only have a few interests, but you are deeply competent in each them. This means that you are a specialist! Specialists are perfect puzzle pieces for larger companies. You can have peace and ease knowing everyone else is handling all the stuff you don't want to do, and you can just focus on getting better and better and better at that thing you LOVE.

• A T-Shape
  This occurs when you have many things you're competent at, and a couple things you have deep expertise in. I'm T-Shaped. I have a deep interest in Photography and Website Design, and I'm also pretty competent in branding, marketing, and sustainability - which support my T-shape. T-shaped individuals are well-suited to start their own businesses, so I'm guessing that many of you aspiring entrepreneurs reading this may have a T-Shape as well.

Step #3

Creating your Offer Ecosystem

There are a couple of key things I came to understand when starting my business. Beyond just your category of service (cooking, design, gardening), your specific offers can come in many shapes and sizes as well (meal plans, templates, courses). Most often, you are either a product-based business or a service-based business. Some businesses are hybrids. 

You probably started a business because you want to truly help people. Which means, all of your offers should be aimed at helping your ideal customer get from Point A → Point B. In marketing, this is also called a ‘buyer’s journey' or a ‘path to purchase’. You can begin developing a unique Offer Ecosystem by creating one offer that helps your ideal customer at the beginning of their journey, one offer that helps them in the middle of their journey, and one offer that helps them towards the later part of their journey. 

For example, let's take a look at my offer ecosystem. One of my business missions is “To Help Women Be Seen”, and my introductory offer that assists my ideal customer are my photography sessions.

Women who hire me for photography sessions do not have to have their lives or businesses figured out yet, and they don't need to be financially secure yet either. They just need to feel ready to be seen. My photography price points are affordable, and my turnaround time for delivering photos is quick. This means, I can make myself accessible to a lot of women in this way. 

Skipping ahead, once women are further along in their business journey, they can commission me for a custom website design. This is my Signature Offer, because this is where I can bring most value, growth and transformation to the lives of my ideal customer. 

Finally, I have my Designer Day Pass service - which is where women can add me to their team as a designer for one day at a time. So whenever they are ready to expand their business or website, they can add me on in a modular capacity. This is my supporting offer, which can help clients expand time and time again, into the future.

Exercise #3

➤ Decide who your ideal customer is.

Now, this subject could be an entire book. And it's probably one of the most important things you can spend time figuring out. But I've decided to go ‘light’ here, for now. 

Here's a shortcut: What kind of person do you want to spend most of your time with on a daily basis? Are they corporate or hippies? Do they move fast or slow?

I recently completed a copywriting course (called Site Series), and my instructor Sara sums up ‘Must Know Target Audience Details’ like this: 

• What does my ideal client need me for, and why?

• What is their TRUE WANT? The real reason they're seeking help

• How do I improve their life?

• What's their alternative to not working with me?

• Why am I, specifically, the right fit for them? 

Then, choose one thing you can offer to your ideal customer at the beginning, middle, and later parts of their journey. Map it out.

Okay so I'm not saying that you wanna make a million dollars because we're all pretty against capitalism here, (right)? But let's just pretend for a minute that you did want to make a million dollars. What would that look like? 

It would look like this:

Product

• 5,000 people purchasing a $200 product

• 2,000 people purchasing a $500 product

• 1,000 people purchasing a $1,000 product

• 500 people purchasing a $2,000 product

• 300 people purchasing a $3,333 product

• 100 people purchasing a $10,000 product

Subscription

• 5,000 people paying $17 / month for 12 months

• 2,000 people paying $42 / month for 12 months

• 1,000 people paying $83 / month for 12 months

• 500 people paying $167 / month for 12 months

• 300 people paying $278 / month for 12 months

This is a good starting place for getting your brain going on what kinds of products or services you may want to offer. Remember that if your ideal customers are brands instead of people, it may be easier to ask for the higher numbers above. 

And finally…

➤ Discover your Signature Offer

Okay, so we have narrowed down our interests, and now we've narrowed in on our potential offers. So how do we pick which one to focus on first?

The answer to this is: intimacy.

If you look at the numbers above, if I want 333 people to pay me $3,333 for a signature service (such as, a Custom Website Design) - I am about to become WAY more intimate with those people than I would be with, for example, the 5,000 people who are purchasing a $200 product. Statistics show that we only ever meet, on average, around 10,000 people in our lives total. So it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to form meaningful relationships with most people who purchase smaller-ticket offers if I’m planning to reach a large audience (breadth over depth).

On the other hand, the 333 people who may purchase a website from me in the next 20 years are about to literally become my best friends. 💁‍♀️ By the time I'm done working with these people, I will know more about their lives and their hopes and their dreams than most. 

I've already had so many women burst into tears during Strategy Calls with me because they simply didn't realize the depth and intimacy that's involved with having someone listen deeply to them - to listen to the story of where they came from, where they are now, why their work is meaningful to them, and where they want to go next. And beyond just compassionate listening, I also synthesize all that into an actionable road map that evolves clients into the next stage of their journey, helping them fulfill their life's purpose and actualize their full potential. 

When I was first creating my business, I personally knew my Signature Offer was going to be a high-ticket offer. And that's because I know myself, and I know that I truly value and enjoy intimacy. I want my clients to feel like friends. I want to become invested in their stories and their successes. I'd rather have a few, close relationships in my business than a large quantity of more shallow ones. But that's just me!

So now, I invite you to ask yourself, how intimate do you want the relationships to be with your ideal customers?

• If highly intimate, focus on developing a high-ticket offer.

• If you don't want intimacy, focus on developing a low-ticket offer that doesn't require much customization - one that you can sell over and over again.

• And if you're somewhere in the middle, focus on creating something with a price point that's in the middle. 

Once you've chosen a signature offer, put all your focus on it until it has become fully manifest. Get your one best thing profitable first, and then move onto developing other offers. 

And that, my friends, is how you discover where to focus your energy in your business this next year.

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