I freaking love synthesizing ideas.
How’s that for nerdy?
I think my passion for bringing disparate ideas together started back in undergrad when I needed thesis statements for my essays. I learned very quickly that cramming too many unrelated ideas and examples into your paper = bad grade.
My attempts at writing essays on narrow topics, however, would invariably leave me with space to fill: Oh god, 600 more words left till I reach the required word count?! This would then lead to bullshi– I’m sorry, “redundant” sentences. I can’t write filler. It pains me.
I’ve gotten better at tackling a narrow topic, but only where word count is no issue. A 400 word blog post on one idea? No problem. Punchy, clear, I like it. But writing a book on that same topic? Yawwwwwn.
Nope, the deep dive approach into one specific subject is not for me. And so, out of defiance, I learned to bring many ideas together under one overarching thesis statement. After mastering that skill, my grades skyrocketed. It seems professors like this sort of thing (they just don’t teach it).
It began out of necessity, but now I actively seek out opportunities to synthesize ideas. Apparently I love challenges too, seeing as I chose to work with multipotentialites! How many interests ya got? Hells yea, let’s combine them. Bring it on.
I love the whole process of working with a multipod to combine many of their interests into one passion-based business. I love it. The brainstorming, the branding, the implementation. All of it.
Can idea synthesis be taught?
Most of the work I do with my students happens through intuition. Each student has a unique set of interests, which means that no two cases are alike.
Up until now, I never really considered whether there was method to my madness. We would just brainstorm till we came up with something. Sure, you can create an environment that’s conducive to brainstorming (and then do a lot of it), but is there a process beyond brainstorming?
Pondering this questions is what lead me to write my digital guide, Renaissance business.
What is a Renaissance Business?
A Renaissance Business is a business that allows you to combine many areas of interest and use many different skills on a regular basis.
In the guide, I took the process I go through with my students and systematized it so that other multipotentialites can apply it on their own. That seems like the best way to help the greatest number of people.
Three techniques to bring together unrelated interests
Here are three techniques to help you combine your interests in one business:
1. The overarching/umbrella theme
This approach is just what it sounds like. You spend a long time making lists of all your passions and skills and then you look for a pattern. Is there a common thread that runs throughout everything you do? Is there a particular way that you see the world?
Personal development and politics can be linked through the theme of “evolution” (both personal and social). Other broad themes that have been used effectively include: freedom, relationship, exploration and goal-setting.
These themes may sound broad and generic, but that’s okay for now. Finding a way to communicate your umbrella theme comes next, but that’s largely a matter of branding. For now, you just want to find one super broad umbrella theme so that you know what you stand for.
Tyler Tervooren’s blog Advanced Riskology is a great example of this approach. When I asked him about it, he said that the reason he can write about mountain climbing, traveling and business all on the same blog, is that they all have one thing in common: risk-taking.
2. Combine two broad interests
Can you bring together two seemingly unrelated, maybe even opposing topics? Social media + social change? Confidence + video games? Lifestyle design + multipotentiality?
What’s great about this approach is that by fusing two broad categories, you actually get to include more than two interests. Each topic acts as a “sub-umbrella”. For instance, Steve Kamb’s Nerd Fitness combines fitness with nerdery, but each of those categories is pretty broad.
Fitness includes:
- Exercise
- Health
- Nutrition
- Mindset
- etc.
Nerdery includes:
- Movies
- Music
- Video games
- Technology
- Travel hacking (hacking of any kind really)
- etc.
It may seem as though Steve has fused together two very specific topics, but he’s actually combined two sub-umbrellas, each encompassing its own array of topics. This gives him the freedom to throw almost anything into the mix.
3. The “through the lens” approach
This is a good method for multipods who have one identity or label that stands out above the rest.
One of my students loves music, art, nightlife, and personal development among other things. She also spent several months over the last few years living abroad in Iceland. We decided to take her identity as an expat and have that theme infuse all of her other interests. As an expat, she could write about everything, from becoming more confident and making friends to new music she had discovered while sipping tea in an Icelandic café. She can write about anything really. It’s just “an expat’s take on…” (fill in the blank)
Some other examples:
- Jodi Ettenberg is the legal nomad.
- Srini Rao is a surfer who “rides the waves of personal development”.
- Andy Hayes is “that travel guy” who writes about entrepreneurship.
3(b). Using an artistic medium as your lens
The “through the lens” approach works especially well for artists. If you use a particular medium to express yourself, that medium can act as your lens:
- Hugh McLeod explores creativity, business and the meaning of life through the lens of business card doodles.
- Arsene Hodali looks at identity, society, sexuality and love from the perspective of a dancer.
- D.J. Billings (aka Sparky Firepants) is an illustrator who writes and draws about positivity, their favourite/least favourite movies, and all kinds of other weird and awesome topics.
- Mark Powers writes about traveling, productivity and social entrepreneurship as he pursues various percussion-related endeavors.
Can you think of any other approaches?
How else could you bring together many unrelated interests? If you have your own Renaissance blog/business, which approach did you use to bring your disparate interests together?
If you’d like to learn more about turning all of your interests into one business, check out my digital guide, Renaissance Business.
Hmmm… seems they’re only unrelated ideas until you can discover the relationships. 🙂
To me this is about pattern recognition. And sometimes we can’t see our own patterns very well, which is why it’s important to work with others: they’ll see patterns you don’t.
I agree. It’s always helpful to bounce things of a friend (or coach.. 🙂
I think it’s also a skill that can be honed with practice. The more you try to find patterns, the easier it’ll come.
Thanks for the comment Michael.
Yes, I have recently discovered the pattern/similarity behind making art, especially gestures on a page/canvas made by a human hand and using my hands in healing/energy and manual practices such as reiki, shiatsu and myofacial release. It is as though the energy paintings or drawings have moved from inanimate material to the human body. One could also go back and make energetic drawings of facia or what you feel and post it in your office for example or incorporate color somehow into therapy, but I am not sure yet how to go about doing that.
Emilie this is great stuff! And I completely agree with your outlook on synthesizing ideas… best approach out there for us Scanners! Its a win win all around! And so many options… how could we ever resist!
For me personally, my biggest things are travel and all that comes with it from language to culture to seeing ridiculous things that would never ever ever happen in your country to beautiful destinations and views | personal development in terms of truly LIVING our lives | entrepreneurship-passion projects-lifestyle design
… So I’m really trying my best to follow your your lead here and embrace all of these things that really captivate my mind.
Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to do ALL THREE of what you listed here.. maybe that’s not the best approach?
Anyway, I love where you’re going with this and I’m looking forward to learning some more lessons form you in this area to help me get this right!!!
– LAUR 😀
Hey Laur,
Yeah, you fit into all 3 (depends how you look at it), but I’d say you fit into category #1 the most: overarching theme. When I think of The Mad to Live, I think “enthusiasm for life”, and that carries over into all the topics you mentioned.
It’s funny because I think I met you after you had already arrived back in the States, so I didn’t think of your blog as a travel blog at all. I think that’s good though. By branding your site as something broader than just the standard “digital nomad” blog, you end up having multiple audiences.
I’m going to write a whole section of the book on multiple audiences actually. It’s something I’ve starting to explore myself with Puttylike.
Thanks for the feedback Laur. Really appreciate it!
“Symphony,” no–bringing disparate pieces of the world, and making something beautiful. Kamb’s life has become an unfolding “unexpected heroic journey” in real time.
Makes me wonder if blogging is not an aesthetic genre, an electronic performance art, or something slightly more than “citizen journalism.”
I feel an art-buzz w/all these examples.
Best,
M
Wow, beautifully put. A symphony. Electronic performance art. I love that. I certainly feel like “blogger” is an incomplete term to describe what we do.
Much to think about.
Great post!! 🙂
Well, I’m still struggling with this myself… My first blog (unmonetized) was just my name, writing about stuff I was doing.. Surprisingly, some people found it interesting 🙂 hehe..
Another blog I started was ‘specific’ (eco, rather general in name, wanted it to be more ‘anonymous’), left it unmonetized too.. (haven’t figured out yet how to monetize it in an ethical/eco way and maintain privacy..) Some people liked reading both.. 🙂 I still blogged about some other things/interests that were connected to eco/lifestyle endeavours..
Things can get very specific too, some people like to read about that, some prefer funny unrelated ‘intermezzos’.. 🙂
It would be interesting to read any tips on maintaining separate ‘identities’ online and ‘offline’.. How to maintain privacy as a blogger/online ‘public’ person (Problogger and some others have had problems with that etc)
Some people have a lot of ‘niche sites’ (or careers/hobbies), or at least a few ‘separate’ identities.. I admit it’s easier to have and maintain one blog than a few, it depends on the level of commitment and continuity needed/wanted though.. (static ‘niche’ sites can be less work than a blog, I suppose..?)
PS I used to bring together unrelated ideas in Uni papers too, hehe.. A prof loved it: poetry and psychology; when I tried to bring together all 3 essay topics with another prof she didn’t like it so much lol.. I guess it depends on the person and how you do it, yup..
If people like some of your ‘underlying themes’ they may be interested to discover those other aspects of you too, and may even reveal or discover some of those aspects themselves!! 🙂
Hi Layla,
My friend Trever over at AxisofAwesomeBlog.com is a scanner who’s also really into building niche sites (probably the reason AoA hasn’t been updated in a long time, he’s been so busy). Having many specific sites is a great approach for multipotentialites who like to dive deep into one thing for a while, set it up and then dive deep into something new. It works less well for those of us who prefer to have many projects on the go at once. All depends on whether you’re more sequential or simultaneous in nature. But like you said, both methods work.
Interesting that you used your name as your first blog. I’m actually toying with this as a 4th category. What do you think of using a name as a way to bring all your interests together? A lot of people do this, but I’m wondering if it deserves it’s own category or if it could be lumped in with #3 or if I should even mention it at all.
The thing is, a name alone doesn’t inherently communicate anything unless you already have a reputation. But of course I encourage everyone to pour their personality into their blogs anyway… Also I think it depends on the primary purpose of your blog. If it’s self-promotional, like to sell freelance services or artwork, a name might be best. But for a community? I’m not so sure. Of course there’s huge overlap between the two!
So yeah, I’m still struggling with how to approach the name-based blog. I’d love to hear any ideas anyone has!
Thanks for the comment Layla. 🙂
Hey Emilie,
I think you need a special chapter on naming your blog-based biz 🙂
I’ve googled up some stuff on branding and blogs and such, when looking for ideas on how to name my site/s.. there’s some info online and there seem to be different approaches, yup: either to name the blog by theme/s, actual description or something easy to remember and possibly unrelated, or to go for name/name&surname combo, and create a ‘personal brand’ – I’ve actually seen too much of the latter, especially if people have names that are difficult to remember or spell, and not very clarified directions of where they want to go with the blog/site… If I see an interesting comment on another blog, I may be more likely to follow if there’s an interesting name behind it (and not like tons of other blogs!)
It depends on what you wanna do too.. I personally much prefer Rowdy Kittens and Puttylike cause it’s totally easier to remember… One Dress Protest is easy to remember too (and descriptive of what she is about) and smartpassiveincome is easy to remember and descriptive too…
If you wanna offer your services as a writer/speaker/freelancer to other people, or to ‘corporate biz’, a name+surname site or a more ‘serious’ name makes sense.. Though there’s Secret agent Jospehine too! (and I love her!:) (I don’t know if she markets to corporations though lol!)
Guess it depends on your target niche, it may be worth to check what other people in that niche are doing and what target customers might think 🙂
Merlin Mann has both 43folders and his merlinmann.com (where he also has links to his other sites/adventures). So this may be something worth considering too..
Also, if we’re talking about e-book ideas, international tax and law for micro businesses (or for blog-based/creative biz with affiliate and/or own i-products/services/downloads specifically) would be a great chapter and e-book too!! (in which country is it best to create a biz and how and when, there’s probably a reason why you chose Denmark etc.) Maybe later, after the move etc. 🙂
hehe I think I’d need to post this in my own blog post lol 🙂
Heh.. thanks for the ideas Layla!
I was already planning on devoting a chapter to naming your business. I actually have this theory that every business needs both a theme AND a way of communicating that theme. What most people don’t realize is that these are two separate steps. Most people jump right to branding (communicating the theme) when they don’t even know what they stand for.
And when it comes to name-based businesses, this is an increased problem. It’s even more tempting to just use your name and skip over the whole “what do I stand for” process.
Also I believe that the title, tagline and design are what contribute to that communication of the theme. So if you’re going to have a title that doesn’t communicate much on its own (like a personal name), then you’re going to need to compensate with a strong tagline and design that communicate a lot about what you stand for.
Fascinating and inspiring post + comments.
I started my blog with my name, because I didn’t have a focus or specific lens. As my blogging has progressed, I’ve found some common themes, and was ready to get some advice from you about how to shape that into something.
It’s a work in progress as I am juggling life’s responsibilities, but I am enjoying every spare second I get to work on it (when I’m not cooking dinner, doing the laundry, gardening with my son’s preschool class or reading to his younger sister).
Funny how much I have fallen in love with blogging as a medium of expression, and a way for me to learn about myself – almost like an old school journal meets a technical canvass. My motivation to inspire and help others is actually tangible beyond pot-lucks where I used to show off my “healthy” recipes and ideas.
Holli,
I completely agree. I had no idea what I was getting into when I began blogging. It’s truly awesome, for all the reasons you mentioned!
Glad you’re having fun building your site (though all your other activities sound pretty fun too). It’s funny, we sort of started out looking at your blog with approach #2 in mind, and then incorporated some of #3 in with your photography. I guess we’ll know with time which approach it most resembles, but it doesn’t really matter. These exercises are really just a way to help you find a theme, which you’ve got. (Plus your site name is so good! 🙂
I’m looking forward to the launch!
It is cool to have worked through this morphing system then see it all nicely laid out here. Agreed: I was on track for #2 but more like 3 and now we just get to see it unfold.
My husband surprised me with a ticket to #WDS so that is my external deadline for launching (end of May)…I am excited and nervous:) I have been taking baby steps.
Nice! So happy to hear you’ll be joining us at #WDS. 🙂
Loved this. It inspires me that spinners and polymaths can find many ways to build successful businesses/lifestyles.
Good. That’s my deal- inspiring ‘spinners’. 🙂
Hi Emilie,
Not found my ‘theme’ yet! I may never, since I keep finding new and interesting things to do all the time (this week its fly fishing, after reading in the news that the sea trout are in close to where I live lol!)
From lath and plaster to off road driving in Africa. Living in Norway to being a house husband in New Zealand. I think the only pattern that I can see is that I might be, ever so slightly…..potty!
Damn days are never long enough either!
Hi Ian,
The funny thing is I think you totally do have a theme! Exploration maybe? Adventure? Living on your own terms? Shape-shifting? These all come to mind. 🙂
Your shape-shifting adventures makes for some really intriguing content too! I like your recent post about Norway. I felt similar pro/cons about Denmark, though we certainly had wind in Copenhagen! Heh.
I never thought about it like that! I guess if you keep moving all the time, that in itself is a pattern/theme.
Hmmm, interesting, need to give this some thought.
Copenhagen is lovely isn’t it, including dodging the bicycles!
I love this post, your excitement about synthesizing ideas feels like home. Well-written!
Two additional suggestions to approach this fine art:
1.THE HUB
I am starting to recognize a “hub”/core/heart/center pattern in the midst of the Renaissance wheel of interests and passions. One way to discover it is to ask yourself What is it what you are always trying to do, the why behind the why etc.? Stick with the question for a few days or weeks.
For me that core is “to liberate”. I am a lawyer, visual thinking partner, artist, mother, Dutch expat in USA etc. . (I happen to be born on the 4th of July) And since I have recognized this theme it even shows up in relationships, personal life, preference for certain sports and spiritual practices.
2.THE FORM
Is there a continuous theme or preference for a certain form beyond the ideas and content? For me that is “Visual”. All my creative businesses are created around visuals, visual services. For my son it used to be “spinning” (wool, jojos, talking). For someone else it might be movement or touch or story etc.
Very very interesting. I love the Hub and Form concepts. I’ve thought about these from different perspectives before, but I like your language and way of explaining it. Thanks for sharing Susanne.
I am interested in human evolution too, in all the fields. I had a lot of time to thing all the little particulars, and now a plan has risen.the picture look a lot like one of thoose fantascientific films of this days, something that reminds me of Cloud Atlas, for some reasons. Indeed the umbrella metod is my favorite.
May the wind uphold your wings!
Nitro
My first step away from my day job was doing Parenting Workshops with a faith base. I needed a website so they could learn about me amd my ideas.You can parent if you want to it is a “Grab Bag”. So It became Grab Bag Parenting.
I also Paint, glowing paint and wall art as accents even murals sometimes. I want is affordable so it can be painted over if needed. Creative World Wallart
Now I am dying to share my love and use for esential oils. I want others to understand how good quality ones can help eveyone in you familiy even pets. However, need to make some reguar income to get outta this day job…… I think people think I am a flake. I can’t be the adult teach of everything or the workshop lady!
I love to teach adults, crafts and kid ideas for gifts…. things that remind up life is good, even if we are a little off.
I can’t find my overarching theme….. What do you all think about “GrabBagology” ??? I made it up ; )
Ha I like GrabBagology. Has a nice ring to it. You’ll need to express the idea clearly in the tagline and About page though. And know who your audience is (not demographics, but psycographics. What values do they share?)
Hi Emilie,
I stumbled upon your TED talk and then on your blog.
I am a musician who writes. I love singing, reading, writing, and problem-solving. I cross-pollinate ideas from other disciplines and view them from a musician’s perspective on my blog.
I guess I might be a multipotentialite. I just didn’t know such a term existed until I saw your talk.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
Soumya
Hello Emilie,
thank you very much for sharing your ideas on that! Oh my god, your opening sentence /I get off on synthesizing ideas./ is so much of what I feel. Synthesizing is like juggling, like a very high natural talent that gets to life in that moments, in the sense of something quick, joyful, that is like a natural movement that has to be performed. I notice that it is hard to bring into words for me … I think I am a great in psychology (with people) and in materials (design), but how difficult to bring this attitude to financial life. Maybe hardest for me is to recognize in some sense of self-esteem, that I am best in a certain way I do things and not with certain things. uahh .. thats kind of hard to keep in mind or even understand fully.
Anyway, loved to read your blog and enjoyed very much your ted-talk, got the link from this wonderful institution called Impact Hub!
Thank you.
Eva
Hi Eva I feel the same ! I love human behaviour and anything to do with the mind and I love photography & design have found some way to blend these together feel free to reach out if you ever wanna chat
HI Emilie! These are all great! Going into the roots of many different subjects, then connnecting the dots and coming up with an entirely new model of thinking in a subject or even an entire new arena to study is another approach I use.
For example, this is how I came up with my model of the 4 Types of Anger which covers personal psychology, social activism, relationship tools, awareness practices and deep self-discovery work. Similarly with my mental model of the 6 Levels of Knowing Yourself.
In fact, “Connect the Dots” was my favorite game as a child! Lol.
I did an exercise brainstorming about how to combine all my interests before I knew about multipotentiality, and I looked for common ground between them or how they could combine or complement each other. Theater and Nature/Environment/Sustainable development, and as subtopics relating to both: Dance/Movement and Spirituality/Well-being.
I found that they had a lot in common and would combine into very interesting things: using somatics and movement to relate to nature in a spiritual way, using contemplative practice to find an emotional and spiritual connection to self and planet and promote environmental consciousness, and other already existing ones like dance-theater, trance dances, and dance or drama therapy.
The funny thing is, I found out much later that some things that seemed novel to me already exist: a dancer explores the relationship between Body & Earth, ecopsychology treats people by bringing them spiritually closer to nature, and arts-based community development uses the arts to build stronger communities.
My umbrella theme or common thread was the only thing I had clear before choosing a career: I wanted to help people through my work. Through time this narrowed down to: *personal and community well-being through arts and nature.*
And some other activities just for fun: cooking, ukulele, poetry, philosophy and reading about quantum physics.
And so I chose a career in Theater because the discipline is broad and flexible enough to explore all my interests “through the lens” of a theater artist and teacher. Theater involves body, movement, dance, creativity, spirituality, and can be very therapeutic. And nature relates to our bodies (we are part of this Earth) and to spirituality. And theater can be done in nature, be about nature, or use it as inspiration.
I somehow used all 3 of your proposed technique. Maybe a bit confusing but it somehow works (although I have yet to explore and apply all the interests mentioned above).
I somehow needed this post to have a clearer conscious understanding of my work. It makes me feel validated. It reminds me I’m not alone, “wrong” or “crazy” (just in a good way!).
Thank you so much for this!
That’s so cool, K. Thanks for sharing your example. Really neat to see it all play out. And it’s also very multipotentialite to blend ALL THE METHODS. 🙂
So glad to have found this community of people that makes me feel heard and seen!
I was always that kid in school who was involved in the most diverse of projects and was equally active in sports and academics. While during the initial years of school life this was a quality much appreciated by my parents and teachers alike, with progressing years I was expected to cut out on most of my interests and was presented with an either-or situation (where given my cultural backdrop; the collective preference laid towards academics), as a result I completely withdrew myself from all other activities/interests and focused solely on academic pursuits.
However, my inner multipotentialite wasn’t subdued for long as within academia I found myself deeply fascinated by subjects ranging from History to quantum physics to psychology to astronomy and philosophy. This varied nature of my academic interests made the task of picking one major in undergrad college almost tormenting, as making a choice was linked with giving up all other interests and committing myself to this one field of study for the rest of my life lol (or at least it felt so). Seeing everyone around me facing absolutely no difficulty in making such a decision and being resolute about their future career choices, filled me with self doubt and feelings of inadequacy. These feelings in addition led to impostorism, which made me feel as if I didn’t deserve any of my achievements or faked my interdisciplinary interests and ideas. It was as if no one understood me and there was no one I could share these feelings with who would empathize.
As I’m approaching the final year of my undergrad degree and thinking about applying for a postgraduate, it’s as if I’m again spiraling down this circle of idea that it’s necessary to pick one subject over all of my other interests to have a successful career in any field. Maybe it’s due to the ‘specialist’ structure that’s dominant and how most universities have modelled their academic curriculum. Thankfully, this time I have this community of people whose experiences are a constant source of strength and inspiration for me, letting me know that I’m not the only one who sees the world at intersections. Sending you all the love Emilie 🙂
My major interests are psychology, astronomy, history, quantum physics, evolution, philosophy, research, music and travelling. I feel one of the umbrella themes that runs across them is exploration and discovery. Most of my academic interests seem to stem from a curiosity to seek answers and solve complex problems facing the world at large.
Would love to hear your insights, and views on how can one pursue such varied interests within a specialized and specific field such as academia.
Once again so grateful for this!
I’m so grateful for reading your last article. I’ve been struggling all my life to find the over arching theme of my passions. In high school my answer became “philosophy”, so that was what I came to study at the university. But, and it should come as no surprise, academic philosophy is an inexorably niched subject, not at all all-inclusive as I had hoped. So after a BA I jumped into dance, art, architecture, set design, curating, editing, writing and finally education and educational theory… yes, I am putty like.
About 8 years ago I was quite desperate about not feeling fulfilled taking small bites of everything, so I really set my mind to finding the perfect synthesis. I went on to start my own (in a way renaissance) business where I combine architecture, education, and to some extent, philosophy; I develop, design, and analyze learning environments. However even this path has grown over and become somewhat too narrow. Where is the quest for better environments for everyone, not only in the learning context? Where is the understanding that education needs to change, not only its architecture?
So while I was diving as a dolphin through the internet, scrolling as a computer any field of research and academic program, in the back of my mind arose a lost memory of something called “the human flourishing approach” or the similar. Where did I hear that? Thank god for internet! Yes! Harvard university of course, and The positive psychology research guys. THIS is IT! It encapsulates all of me and all my passions in one beautiful theme. I think I’ll never be narrowed again??
Frida/Sweden
Emily I love this….
Do you offer coaching group or a one off one on one session ?
I want to bring my
Photography / design business and balkan sis podcast love for my heritage & culture together with my coaching business I’m already doing it and combing it but I want to streamline it a little better ….. I love the things you have pointed out and I will buy the course but would love to talk to the rest of the community if they can help ? my Insta is @ivanastrbacalfonso
Dear Emily,
I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to reach out and share my thoughts with you as someone who deeply resonates with your community.
Throughout my life, I have always possessed a multitude of passions. As a child, I was artistic and active, constantly exploring my creativity through various mediums such as dancing, writing, drawing, and more. Unfortunately, my journey began as a child refugee from the former republic of Yugoslavia, leading my family to seek refuge in Germany for 4.5 years before settling in Australia, where I have been residing on the Gold Coast for the past 25 years.
Over the years, I have gained valuable experience working in retail and hospitality, honing my people skills and problem-solving abilities. I take pride in my quick learning and efficient work ethic. At the age of 20, I made the decision to pursue photography, which allowed me to continue expressing my creative side. Now, 15 years later, I have my own podcast called “Balkan sis,” which serves as a means of staying connected to my heritage and roots.
One aspect of my work that I truly cherish is the opportunity to speak and mentor my clients, helping them improve both personally and professionally. Through my coaching, I offer packages designed to assist them with their branding and identity. This passion stems from my own struggle to fit in during my years in foreign countries.
Although I love what I do, I find myself struggling to streamline my various endeavors. Photography, design, coaching, and podcasting all require significant time and effort, and as a young mother, I often experience burnout. Recently, I have become particularly passionate about the theme of belonging, especially as I grow into my identity as a mother. I have a strong desire to write a children’s book about being a little refugee in Australia, dedicated to my son. I believe there is a niche for this type of book, but I am still trying to find a consistent way to monetize all of my gifts and talents.
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and feedback on my journey and the direction I am heading in. I am also eager to hear from your community, as I value different perspectives. Your TED talk was truly inspiring, and it is my dream to one day have the opportunity to speak on that stage as well. Thank you for creating such an incredible community, and I genuinely enjoy reading your posts.
With love,
Ivana
Thanks for sharing. I was actually successful with your methods, expanding them a bit. I created a 4-5 page long Word document with detailed descriptions of my interests, goals, ways of working, people I admire and else. Then I analyzed which keywords kept coming up. Then I provided your approaches and examples to ChatGPT4 and Pi.ai and asked them to come up with results for them given my personal topics. Then I did this not once, but roughly 50 times and used additional meta-pattern-analysis. I wrote those that resonated most on paper, iteratively, thinking about it, synthesizing myself and with the help of AI until finally an overarching topic evolved.
Hi Emilie!
I loved your last post so much about combing interests and how seamlessly you assist people. Any insights would be so appreciated! I am developing a business, and a non-profit. Here are the interests it encompasses- holistic wellness, nature connection, regenerative agriculture- food. The idea is that all of these things are connected. The wellness of our earthly environment correlates to the wellness of our own bodies- think forest bathing, earthing, how gardening and touching dirt helps depression and gut biome, organic produce benefits, exercising (in ways that might promote earth appreciation or restoration), etc… I also do functional blood chemistry analysis to help people identify underlying causes of illness- it’s kind of like the gateway for understanding what’s ‘wrong.’ Often there is imbalance in system which I see is correlated with how we as a larger society live out of balance with our natural environment. Additionally, there are many ways to heal that involve energy and are very effective and though actually proven with science might seem non-sciencey to many. Like energy work, Qigong, EFT tapping, etc… stress and stuck emotions are so tied up in it all and working at this level can bring profound healing. And to boot- I am an educator and see myself creative retreat opportunities and classes to assist people with optimizing health and want to do practical things like providing opportunities/ classes/ camps? to connect kids to nature through forest regeneration/ play/ gardening etc… restoring the balance!
You are so great at synthesizing, I’d love your input. To me it’s a process of seeing wellness from the earthly to energetic plane, and our happy existence hovering in balance between the two.
Thank you for your work and assistance!