018 - [Deep Dive] Your Zone of Genius & My 41st Birthday

Today is my 41st birthday! I had to make this a special episode. When I first realized that I would be releasing an episode on my birthday, I thought about sharing my tech stack with you and why I chose certain pieces of technology to complete my unique business puzzle… but then I thought that your business is different than mine, so how would an episode like that actually benefit you? It might showcase a few elements or techniques that you hadn’t realized before but not much more than that… so I pivoted this birthday episode towards something that I hope you’ll sink your teeth into. My goal, coming to you each week by way of this podcast, is to help lay the technology path that allows your business to grow for you to spend more time operating inside your zone of genius. And most episodes are designed to stand alone so that you can move forward on that path. Sometimes you’ll use the podcast a bit like a choose your own adventure – find what you’re looking for and implement it and then come back for more when you’re ready. Other times you and I will create a deeper relationship growing week over week while building the tech stack and foundation for you and your business. Last week was the start of a shift in the focus of the podcast, from here on out… I’m going to make sure that each episode is geared towards you and your results – no need to share software and technology simply for the sake of talking about software and technology… there needs to be a compelling reason for you to invest precious time, money and energy into improving, simplifying or augmenting your tech stack. Whether you’ve been listening since the start, found the podcast through a search or a friend’s recommendation – thank you for your listenership. I appreciate you and would love to connect further with you… so, officially starting today, I invite you to join the Tech of Business Community on Facebook. You can access the group by going to https://techofbusiness.com/community/ I’m excited to welcome you to the group – and will you invite friends along so that for my 41st birthday there will be at least 41 members by the end of the month? Today’s episode is digging into and finding your zone of genius. From there, we’re going to explore how inviting tech to have a seat the table can allow you to spend more time working within your zone of genius. The zone of genius is a term that gets thrown around a lot and most definitions are something like this… A venn diagram with three overlapping circles representing expertise, passion, market demand The overlap between expertise, passion and market demand is the sweet spot or zone of genius I don't love that definition because it feels like the zone of genius is a contained space Instead, I came up with the zone of genius as where your expertise or skills AND passion collide The zone of genius becomes an expanding space. The more time we spend in our zone of genius, the bigger the impact it can have. As part of my entrepreneurial journey, I spent a number of years in personal training and fitness. I've known for years that my passion is in helping others, so when I decided to become a personal trainer, I was working within my passion. However, I had a lot of limiting beliefs about being an expert in fitness and training. I didn't step onto the gym floor with my best foot forward because I believed that other trainers were more qualified to help the patrons achieve their goals. I was not working in my expertise. This resulted in my energy being drained, my stress level increasing and me not feeling fulfilled. I knew it was not sustainable and that when I switched my focus away from fitness and back towards computers, software and technology I was able to find my zone of genius. And just the same way as my switching my focus back to tech strategy and software implementation, the same holds true for this podcast… I was not working in my zone of genius the way that I produced the first 16 episodes. I’m not saying that I’m not proud of them, because I am and I had great conversations that shed light on tech that other businesses are using to grow and thrive, but because I wasn’t fully working in my zone of genius to share those stories. Going forward, you’ll find that I’m going to pop into the episodes more regularly with tidbits, suggestions, hindsight and so on, to make them all actionable and valuable to each and every one of you. Now, let me help you clear the fog away by showing how inviting tech to the table in your business will allow you to spend more time in your personal zone of genius. Businesses these days are easier than ever to start. And from the start, you’ve made tech decisions. These decisions could be big like investing in Infusionsoft, Thinkific or ClickFunnels or they could be small like adding the ability to do Zoom calls with your clients. But, does the actual software or tool you ultimately decide on actually matter? Doesn’t it matter more that the software is setup fully and operates in a way that moves your business forward and allows you to spend more time creating or doing work in your zone of genius. A lot of tech and SaaS – or software as a service – companies rely on fancy sales pages and video sales letters to convince us that we can do it with a techie on our staff. And there are so many great choices when it comes to software to help our businesses. When I started working with my chiropractor in 2016, she was pretty low tech. Scheduling involved a lot of text messages back and forth and payment was done with a square device on her phone. Sometime in the past few months, she decided to invite tech to the table to do more for her it was to streamline processes in her business. And then, she had a massive choice to make – invest in a system that was designed specifically for the health care space, or invest in a system that was robust, flexible and mainstream. The mainstream answer would have been to adopt something like Acuity Scheduling or Calendly. And then for payments, she would have integrated with Stripe which can get you setup as a healthcare provider so that you can accept HSA cards. Instead, she chose to go with Jane App which is full practice management software. This one piece of technology allows her to do the manual processes she was doing before as well as keep electronic patient records. If she were doing insurance billing it would make that far easier as well. She invited the best right tech for her business to allow her more time to work with her patients and have the systems in place to support her. In my chiropractor’s case, she chose to invest in a system that not only replaced the manual processes she was looking to automate but to further streamline her business. And that’s what tech can do for you. I want to leave you with one final thought for today – As the Chief Executive Officer, you are the visionary for your company. From there, you’ll bring in additional decision makers in the form of your COO – chief operating officer, CFO – chief financial officer, CTO – chief technology officer and CMO – chief marketing officer.