It excites you.
It motivates you to get out of bed in the morning—even when you’re sick, tired, or hungover from last night…
It’s bigger than you are.
And it has the power to fuel everything you do in life and in business.
It’s your passion.
Your passion can ignite your content and mark you as the expert you are to your audience.
Your passion is the base to your content and your business.
But these words mean nothing if you’re reading them and thinking, “Yeah, okay. But I don’t have a ‘passion’, per se. I like some things and I don’t like others.”
I get it. But, without that passion-induced motivation, your blog and business won’t go very far.
So, if you’re looking to boost your content journey, heighten your business and passion content, or help to set your work apart from others in your niche — then this post is for you.
A Niche [You Can Scratch]
In regard to your blog, a niche is simply the subject you write about.
You can have a niche that’s singular and taut — like, for example, a shoe manufacturer blogging about their product and brand.
Or, you can have a broad niche — like mine.
I focus on helping solo entrepreneurs create an informed, prepared, and strong business from the start. So, we tackle lots of topics from running a business to productivity and organization, as well as content marketing.
It’s singular focus is all about business foundation and growth, but, that has quite a bit of ground to cover. Hence why it’s a broader niche.
But, whether your niche is narrow or vast, they both have one thing in common.
Focus.
Narrow and broad niches both have an overarching goal and focus that powers it’s purpose. And its all fueled by your passion.
Dig Up Your Passion
Yes, there’s no profitability without a product geared toward solving your customer’s problem.
However, you have to love what you do and what you’re writing about to create and maintain a long-standing business.
Here’s where the whole passion part comes in.
Not to be confused with things of “interest”. Because interests are just that. Interesting.
I won’t go into the meaning of interest versus passion, however, one ignites a fire within you while the other plays with the match out of curiosity.
With that said, to truly find what your content passion is, you should answer a few questions.
Sure, they walk the line of interest, but they’ll help you to better define where your passion truly lies:
- What’s your favorite type of content—books, magazines, articles, blog posts—to read?
- What’s something you do that brings you absolute joy?
- If you were stuck in an elevator for hours upon hours, what’s the one form of entertainment you’d want to have with you? (This question can help you decide on your media type—blog, podcast, video.)
- What’s a topic you could talk about excessively?
- What motivates you to get up every morning?
- How do you spend your free time?
All these answers will help you to uncover a passion. Or a few, even.
But, the defining question for me was—you know, that type of question that inspires a revelation? Well, that’s what this question did for me:
If you could only do one thing for the rest of your life, no matter how much money you earn, what would you do?
I hope that stirs something inside you, or possibly opens you up to that “Aha!” moment like it did for me.
What Are You [Already] An Expert In?
You are an expert in something.
It could be mudding, cosmetics, hiking, painting, teaching children how to read—whatever it is that you’ve mastered—I can tell you, even if you’re in your early twenties, you’re an expert in something.
Whether or not you want to take your expertise and write, podcast, or blog about it is entirely up to you.
But, what I can tell you as a skincare expert turned business coach is that you don’t have to completely bail on past experiences to focus on something you truly want to do.
Meaning, for example, if you’ve been with me for any period of time, you know that I reference a lot on beauty and skincare as examples throughout my content.
It’s something I know well. So, might as well use that career as a professional example for others.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Just because you’re an expert in something—yet no longer want to pursue those interests—it doesn’t mean all that time, energy, and knowledge was for nothing.
You can use any experience to better your content, stories, and examples.
Nothing ever has to be wasted.
So, what are you already an expert in?
Think about things like:
- What you studied in school.
- What you excelled at in school.
- What your major and/or minor was in college.
- What you are currently practicing—law, serving, dental, etc.
- What interested you in school or thereafter? (Interests can still fuel passion.)
- What’s something you actively enjoy learning about?
And now, I want to bring this back around again. Because, to me, it’s that pivotal of a question if you really apply yourself to answering it.
SUGGESTED:
If You Could Only Do One Thing For The Rest Of Your Life. Regardless Of Your Monetary Earnings, What Would You Do?
Think about it. And think hard.
Because this question can help you to power your entire career. Even life choices.
I know it affected me like that.
The first question that changed my life was from my husband.
When I was in the beauty industry and struggling with the desire to keep throwing time and money at a problem I was quickly losing interest in fixing, he asked me:
“What makes you happier: A thousand-dollar party and two new team members, or when someone asks you to design something?”
The latter won. Hands down.
I answered so fast I felt like I wasted years of my life in cosmetics.
But, as I mentioned earlier, nothing is ever truly wasted unless you never use that experience or knowledge again. Even indirectly, your time and expertise from an abandoned avenue is valuable if you apply it elsewhere.
Just like lessons you take from other occurrences in life, a wrong career move can be turned into a wise life transformation. For more than just yourself.
(Especially if you stop sulking and take action, instead.)
