Discovering your purpose as a business owner can lead to a passion that inspires you, but also your audience.
Today I’m diving into how to find that purpose and providing you with specific examples of how other business owners are using their purpose to inspire them.
IE 137: Discovering Your Purpose as a Business Owner
In episode 129, we talked about creating a vision for your business and making sure that whatever you want your business to look like connects to the vision you have for your life. Whether that’s more traveling, spending more time at your kids’ sports activities, etc…
If you haven’t listened to that episode, please take the time to listen to it and check out the worksheet that will hold you accountable.
Today’s episode is a natural follow-up to talking about your vision for your business and life and that is, discovering your purpose.
Missing Out On Your Purpose
In my coaching sessions with my clients, I often see that some of them are missing spark or connection that results in their business plateauing. They are often just going through the motions or even experiencing burn-out.
This normally happens because the client is doing all the things: listening to podcasts, scheduling to Pinterest, posting on Instagram stories, and on and on.
When you’re doing everything, it doesn’t leave any room for creativity. There’s no time to just shut your brain off and start to look at your personal growth and what your goals are.
The reason that this happens most often is that they don’t have a higher purpose driving them. But finding that purpose is the one thing that can really put your business into overdrive.
For some of us, our purpose might be spending more time with our kids. It could be making more money. It could be the promise of more vacations. Maybe you just feel in your heart that this is what you were meant to do.
Mastermind
If you are ready to scale your business and want the support and accountability to make it happen, you need to apply for my mastermind program. The fall semester will open soon and I am accepting applications right now.
In the mastermind, I put together a group of 6 women with different niches, so that you aren’t all doing the same thing. We all have a tendency to hang out with people who do the same thing as us, but in my mastermind, I want us to be learning from each other in a fresh way.
Depending on the program you choose, we will meet as a group and have two women on the “hot seat.”
The “hot seat” means these women come to the group with a specific question in mind – how can I grow my email list, how does my opt-in look, does my sales page clearly communicate what problem I am trying to solve, etc.?
Once those questions are asked, we go through and ask them more questions and give them direction on how to move forward.
Along with that, they receive a one-on-one phone call with me every month. This allows us to dive a little deeper into the question they had during their “hot seat” and any further questions they have about moving forward.
If you are interested in that type of accountability, be sure to fill out an application before all the spots are filled.
Finding Your Purpose
The idea for this episode was sparked by the recent US Women’s Soccer team win.
Megan Rapinoe is all over the Internet right now. Whether she is giving interviews, or at award shows, she is making it clear that it is not just about soccer for her. She has a higher purpose.
She is always talking about how we need to do better and be kinder. She could have just stood up and talked about women’s soccer and that the players want equal pay, but she has that higher purpose.
One of my clients, Deryn, from Running on Real Food, has a higher purpose of helping athletes with the food that they are eating. She knows that there is a struggle for being vegan and training all the time. She’s trying to problem solve for them in an area that she understands.
Another client, Rachel from Joyful Derivatives, wants to help families who are making home improvements. She knows how difficult and stressful this process can be, and because she has learned a ton from her own experience, she has a higher purpose of making the process as smooth as possible for others.
Jereann of Celiac Mama has put together a subscription box for children, with recipes that are completely allergy-friendly. Her spring box was an adorable mermaid cupcake recipe with all the ingredients. She wanted to provide a safe way for these children to get excited each month about a treat that they could safely eat and help prepare.
I have a client named Meg who blogs at Nourished + Strong, and she talks to women about their nutrition, especially those who have suffered from different issues as far as their nutrition goes. She wants to help them, whether they have experienced an eating disorder or are just working through guilt as far as eating goes.
All of these are higher purposes.
Sharing Your Purpose
Your higher purpose doesn’t have to be something huge, like Megan Rapinoe.
My higher purpose is that I want women entrepreneurs that don’t even consider themselves entrepreneurs to start seeing themselves that way. I want to provide them with information that will turn their “just a blog” into a business that they can confidently talk about.
Last weekend, we drove to Greensboro and took my husband’s grandmother out to lunch. She’s in her 80’s and the sweetest woman ever. During lunch, she asked one of my daughters, “What does your mom do?” She understands my job, but she wanted to see if my daughter did.
Riley, my 9-year-old, said, “My mom is an entrepreneur.” She knew this because we talk about it at home all the time.
We have to be clear on our higher purpose. If you can’t articulate your higher purpose well, it’s probably because you haven’t sat down and really thought it through.
Understanding Your Purpose
I have an easy way to begin to discover your purpose that I use with clients all the time.
Grab a stack of Post-it notes and then turn off all your devices, Now, use those Post-its to do a complete brain dump of all the ideas you have in your head. This is such an easy way to start to find your higher purpose.
Once you find that higher purpose, talk about it all the time, whether it’s on your blog, social media, or just to your husband and kids. If you are only working your business to make some extra money, that isn’t sustainable. You will eventually burn-out.
Think about how you want to impact your audience. Understanding your higher purpose will light a fire within you and give you the spark to keep moving forward.
I hope you will take the time to find your own purpose. Know what it is and share it with others and with me! Comment below or share it on Instagram stories and tag me in it. I love to see all the tags on IG and I share those with my own audience so be sure to tag me!
Action Steps:
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