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Welcome to Part Three of the Keeping Your Sanity as a Solopreneur series. In Part One, we tackled mindset by busting some common myths about transitioning from employee to self employed, and in Part Two I shared some of my current tools and processes that help me run my business. Today, let’s discuss what happens when you think you have too many ideas (aka being multipassionate.)

What does it mean to be “multipassionate”? 

The term “multipassionate entrepreneur” was coined by Marie Forleo. As someone who has worked on Wall Street, as a dance choreographer and fitness trainer for Crunch Fitness, a life coach, and more, Marie knows a thing or two about having multiple strengths and passions that she’s turned into revenue streams.

I jokingly tell people that my business started as a blog. When I started blogging in 2011, all I cared about what sharing my opinion on feminism, reproductive justice, and women and girls of color. By the time I started entertaining the idea of working for myself, I had added more of my voice as a social worker, program designer and evaluator into my blog pieces.

I started following Marie and other influencers like Rosetta Thurman of Happy Black Woman, Rachel Rodgers of Hello Seven, social media coach and trainer Natalie Gouche, and more. I also looked into my inner circle to gain inspiration from my friends Chanel Jaali, Taja Lindley, Miriam Zoila Pérez, and Arielle Loren. I even joined Marie’s B School program, and had the chance to join a mastermind group led by web designer and brand strategist Kriss Rowly. Each of these people have built a name and brand around multiple passions.

I saw the most obvious benefit of being multipassionate: I can a business and life around the things I care about most. Also, having multiple passions can lead to generating multiple streams of income for my business. But what I learned was that, while the idea of being multipassionate was exciting, I felt a little all over the place.

So, I inadvertently created this process to help me to identify how to make it all come together (or do some downsizing):

Download the Multipassion Grid worksheet

What do I want to be known for?: When it comes to creating your business and brand, what do you want to be known for? When you’re not in the room, what do you expect people to say about you? How would they describe you? This is more of a mMultipassion Gridacro-level, broader view.

When I worked with Kriss, she took me through an exercise where I had to identify three business brands and list what comes to mind when I think of them. I chose Apple, Crunch Fitness, and MAC Cosmetics. Each business sis known for something different based on the services and products they offer, but each one represents something completely different. When I think of Apple, “seamless” and “aesthetic” come to mind. For Crunch, “fun” and “classes” came to mind as Crunch is typically known for its fitness classes. For MAC, “reliable” comes to mind, because I know that every time I use makeup and brushes from MAC, I can create beautiful, colorful makeup looks.

Focus more on nouns or adjectives. For example, when I think of Rosetta Thurman, “mentor” and “encourager” come to mind.

What roles can I serve in?: Now that we have our adjectives, identify the passions/business ideas per each noun/adjective and how they fit the adjectives in the first column. Think in and outside the box. Challenge yourself to think of at least 10 roles. When you think you’ve exhausted your list, push yourself to think of more. For more inspiration, look for people in your life or celebrities/influencers that you admire. What roles do they serve in? For “mentor” and “encourager”, I could list Rosetta as “life coach”, “speaker”, or “consultant”.

How can I get my message across?: Next, think of business ideas you can identify for each role. For example, as a speaker, Rosetta speaks extensively on women’s empowerment (and she has a list of amazing talks that she gives). She hosts a plethora of events related to creating vision boards, becoming an entrepreneur, and more, and she also has a podcast where she exposes her listeners to other Black women entrepreneurs. As a mentor and coach, Rosetta coaches privately and also has a private Facebook group that allows her to convene a community of Black women interested in mindset shifting, entrepreneurship, and positive thinking.

Where’s the alignment?: Sometimes we feel that our business ideas don’t mesh well together, and that’s ok. But it’s a great feeling when you’re able to find the similarities in some of those ideas. In this column, identify the roles that are  most aligned for you. What makes them aligned? Can you think of ways that aligning them can make your message more powerful?

Stayed tuned for Part Four 

This is Part Three of the Keeping Your Sanity as a Solopreneur series. If this is your first time coming to the series, be sure to read Parts One and Two. Come back next week for Part Four, where we’ll talk about how to get the support you’ll need as a solopreneur.

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