Why creative and transformational entrepreneurs struggle to make money
If you’re a creative or transformational entrepreneur (a writer, coach, designer, healer, or someone doing work based on your passions), it can sometimes seem impossible to make a great living.
The problem is, these fields are flooded with people pricing themselves incredibly low—or even giving their services away for free—just for the privilege of doing what they love.
So how do you get past this? One key: Connect to your unique brilliance.
When you work from your unique brilliance, you give clients something no one else can offer. This is what attracts your ideal clients—and allows you to charge the rates you deserve.
Now, you may be thinking: but I don’t have a unique brilliance! I assure you that you do. 🙂 Everyone does.
Your unique brilliance
Your unique brilliance is not manifested in awards or industry recognition. Your unique brilliance is more than your talents or the specific work you do. It’s a special quality and skill that you call on when you’re at your best. It’s the part that comes through when you’re in “that golden flow”—when you lose track of time because you’re channeling divine creativity and intuition. It’s the part you’re drawing from when work feels like play and you never want the feeling to end.
Your unique brilliance lives inside your zone of genius. To give you a better understanding of that idea, let’s contrast it with other “zones” of work.
- Your zone of incompetence: These are the things you’re just not good at. (For me, this zone includes navigating to new places on my own—I have the worst sense of direction!)
The best way to handle activities in this zone? Avoid doing them! Get support, delegate, or find a creative workaround. (I let my husband or my GPS handle navigation. :-))
- Your zone of competence: You’re perfectly competent at these activities, but someone else could do them just as well. (My personal example: organizing office files.)
Many entrepreneurs spend too much time in this zone. Delegating or automating these activities frees you to find more clients, do more of the work you love, and do your work better.
- Your zone of excellence: This is the area where you excel. Most successful people have careers working in this zone. This zone can be seductive—you usually perform well, are highly paid, and reap a lot of social rewards (praise, promotions, professional recognition). But, this zone doesn’t feed your soul. You may wonder why you’re losing inspiration when you work in a field you love and excel at.
My personal example: When I worked in advertising, I was successful—I wrote great copy, constantly came up with new ad concepts, strategized about launches, helped win new business pitches, and managed a team of writers. I made good money and got promoted quickly. But, I wasn’t working with my deepest passions, and I wasn’t fully using my unique brilliance. Eventually, I left advertising to focus entirely on my own writing and my coaching business—both of which put me in my zone of genius.
- Your zone of genius: In this zone, you are using your unique brilliance. You do things you are uniquely suited to do—things that draw on your special gifts and strengths. (Other people may share your unique brilliance, but it won’t manifest in exactly the same way.)
My unique brilliance is connecting to the deep authenticity of a moment—to energetically encourage that authenticity to unfold and find expression. With clients, that means I can quickly take them to the truest vision of what they want to birth. And, when I provide guidance about business strategy and practices, I can easily connect clients to the blocks that keep them from actually implementing those practices—and help them transform those blocks into authentic and powerful action.
Why it’s so important to work from your unique brilliance
Working (and living) from your unique brilliance makes your life better in every way. You stand out from others in your field, do better work, and feel more joy. Being in your zone of brilliance raises your energy. It gives you a passionate glow that inspires and attracts others. Because you’re working at a higher level and giving your clients much more value, you’ll be able to charge higher rates and sign better clients. Most importantly, you’ll move through each day with passion, purpose, and deep pleasure.
