Interviews, New Economy
I’ve been following Sarah J. Bray since January 2010. Yes, I know the exact month because finding Sarah marked a huge shift in my business.
For me, Sarah represents the pinnacle of both digital honesty and unflinching ambition. It’s a beautiful combination and really points to the promise of the You Economy. If you can be both truly yourself and full of the passion required to make big, big things happen, how could you call yourself anything but a success?
I spoke with Sarah about her two latest projects, A Small Nation and Tour de Bliss. Both represent the elegant, iterative process that Sarah uses to generate work that is meaningful to her team and transformative for her clients.
Her ever-evolving process of finding work that meets that criteria is something I really wanted to dive into. Her advice was to “treat it like an experiment” and to not pretend that this is going to be what you’re doing for the rest of your life.
We often get so wrapped up in getting things perfect that we forget that learning is our chief job as entrepreneurs. Perfection teaches us nothing. Striving for permanence is foolhardy. Embrace a legacy of authentic, purposeful experimentation.
We want to find out bliss, our ideal life, but we always want to reach for greatness. The thing is we’re never quite sure about what either of those things are. Our ideal life & our great work, they are unknowable. We have to purposefully experiment to come closer & closer to knowing.
What’s truly beautiful about Sarah’s process is that its goal is always moving towards her ideal instead of moving away from what is unappealing. Move toward what compels you, not away from what repels you.
Find Sarah at A Small Nation, Tour De Bliss, and her own site. Follow her on Twitter.
Big Thinking
I hear you loud & clear: you don’t want to choose. You don’t want to focus on one passion over another. You’d rather celebrate the diversity of your interests that founder in homogeny.
I hear that you want to explore each of your passions separately, giving them each a name and a dollar sign.
My question to you is simple & honest: How’s that working out for ya?
I want you to be fulfilled & profitable, finding the truth of what you really have to offer while honoring the expansiveness of your gifts.
It’s not about focusing on what you do, but why you do it.
It’s not about limiting yourself, it’s about digging deeper.
And then owning – claiming – what you find down there.
I have always fashioned myself a Renaissance Woman. My interests & talents have been wide & varied. I’ve indulged myself here & there, always feeling guilty about moving on to something new, never knowing where I would turn next.
In my personal & academic life, I have been a musician, a scientist, a pastor, and a theologian. In my business, I’ve declared myself everything from a social media consultant to a copywriter to a web designer.
What I have realized is that my interests are a means, not an end.
My job title is not “Renaissance Woman.” Nor is it any of the titles I have mentioned above. My title is a representation of the result of digging deeper into these means. It’s an outward sign of much inward work.
That work wasn’t making a choice, it was realizing what I wanted my end to be. That “end” is the purpose behind my work. It’s the world-shaking change I need to make.
My purpose, the change I want to make in the world, is too big to be tucked neatly into my interests.
Interests grow & change. We chase new things like toddlers chase shiny objects. Your “end” might expand or evolve but you have a better idea of what you want than you give yourself credit for.
What expression of your gifts will best serve this great vision?
What method?
What work?
What product?
Which people need your work to help you realize this vision?
If you don’t know yet, that’s okay. Keeping looking. Keeping digging. Keep experimenting.
I’m working on a program to help with this – Really & truly! – for early fall. Think intimate, high-touch, high-concept group coaching. Think business as novel. Think the power of other brains plugged in to your brain (and biz). Want to learn more? Sign up here for backstage access.
