From a very young age, we’re taught that we each have a central purpose in life. Figuring out what you’re supposed to be is a struggle for everyone, but for multipotentialites? It can be heart-breaking.
Unlike the specialist folk who get to explore until they find something they love and then happily dive in to their hearts content, us renaissance kids display a very different pattern.
Multipotentialites explore, explore some more, think we’ve found our calling, lose interest, find our next raison d’être, light up with excitement, have that flame flicker out once more, and so on. Our curiosity is insatiable, as is the eventual restlessness that comes upon focusing on one thing for a long period of time.
The Multipotentialite Artist
If you’re a multipotentialite and a creative? Well then you’ve got even more problems! That whole starving artist thing? Eek forget it. You may as well call it quits now.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were someone out there who could help you come up with creative strategies to make a living through your art and through your multipotentiality?
Enter Michelle Ward, the “When I Grow Up Coach”
Michelle Ward fell in love with musical theater as a child. It was her life’s calling– or so she thought.
After completing a musical theater degree at NYU, she realized that she had lost interest. The spark was gone. She no longer wanted the dream she had devoted her entire life to, the dream she had based her whole identity around. It was devastating.
After a great deal of soul-searching and some unpleasant interactions with career counselors who gave her advice like: “maybe if you got a nose job, you’d be able to find more work as an actor,” (WHAT!!) Michelle finally discovered her love for coaching.
A Life Coach for Creatives
Michelle decided to become a life and career coach for creatives, many of whom are multipotentialites. She wanted to be the kind of coach she wished she had had, the kind of coach who doesn’t pressure their clients to specialize or tell them that it’s impossible to make a living through art.
Michelle is a whiz at helping people devise unconventional paths for their careers and helping multipods thrive by using their multipotentiality. Like any good scanner, she’s more than just a coach too. She’s a writer, entrepreneur, speaker, marketer, and yes, an artist of many forms.
Listen to the Podcast
I’m really excited to present this episode to you. If you’re a creative and/or multipotentialite who has struggled to find a way to “make things work”, you need to listen to this.
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Check out Michelle Ward Online at WhenIGrowUpCoach.com.
Your Turn
Have you struggled to find a path that works with both your creative and puttylike nature? Got any questions for Michelle?
What a perfect post — I’ve enjoyed you, Emilie, AND Michelle, separately in the past…so it was spooky to see you two UNITED! I’ve always called myself a scanner, and relate to Michelle due to the fact that I am transitioning out of a long musical theatre career & have thought of becoming an online based life coach. I’ve even been told to get a nose (and boob!) job by a career councillor who, by the end of the interview, was in tears confiding in me how much she hated her job, and how worried she was about her future.
It is wonderful to know I am not alone, and to see you all proving that there is a light at the end of the tunnnnnnnel:P
Wow, sounds like there are a lot of terrible career councilors out there. That story’s kind of sad though.
Congrats on following your heart, KJ! I’m excited for you. :)
And this world’s small. But I agree, it’s pretty awesome that Michelle and I were able to connect. We hung out a little at WDS, though I wish there were more time. She’s great.
Thanks for the comment and good luck on the new biz!
I wish there was, too! Next year I’ll definitely extend my stay, and we’ll have a meal together for sure!
KJ! Such a kindred spirit! So happy to see you here, and know I’m not alone in Career Counselor Hell. Seriously, I don’t mean to speak ill of ‘em, but my personal experience was traumatizing (no exaggeration), and I hate to think you had a similar one. Glad, though, that we’ve both found our calling now :)
I’m just wondering, Emily, if you’ve ever heard of the book, “The Renaissance Soul” by Margaret Lobenstein? It goes along EXACTLY with your “multipotentialite” stuff, and with your “Renaissance Business” thinking!
Yup. I’ve read that one and Barbara Sher’s “Refuse to Choose.” Both great.