Applying Your Authentic Personal Brand

by RDJ

The Life Cycle of a Passion-Based Business

Stage 1: Seeding

You speak to everybody about your new business, seeding different messages and information in different “fields.”

Stage 2: Cultivating

You notice which seeds have “taken root.”
You identify what activities you enjoy most.
You figure out what’s generating the greatest
number of positive responses, most frequently.
You choose your specialty.

Stage 3: Specializing

You work your specialty until it is deeply internalized and comes as natural to you as breathing.
You are confident and “know your stuff.”

Stage 4: Distancing

You have worked your specialty so intensely that you begin to get bored.
Everything your clients tell you—you have heard before.
You get frustrated at having to repeat yourself again and again, so you search for some way to generalize these repetitive elements so you don’t have to keep re-treading the same ground—over and over again.

Stage 5: Developing

You develop the products (books, programs, videos, etc.) that will take your clients through the repetitive parts of your process, so you don’t have to.
Your clients learn this material on their own or with another guide—someone at an earlier stage in their development (Stage 2 or 3) whom you license, contract or employ.

Stage 6: Promoting

Now that your initial products are developed, you continue to develop more.
You actively promote, market and sell your finished products through interviews,
publicity tours, speaking to groups, publishing articles and leveraging social media sites.
You continue to work with the select few clients who consistently inspire your professional/creative development cycle.

Stage 7: Contributing

Once you have a sufficiently high public profile (awareness) you begin contributing to groups that are related to your specialty. You may sit on boards or mentor other professionals who are in earlier stages of development. Or you might use your “fame” to establish a foundation or non-profit group that gives back to your community.
Your professional life includes an array of activities that range from creating to developing, from promoting and supporting, to mentoring and contributing.

Stage 8: Celebrating

Conclusion:

At the end of your career you have established one or several passion based businesses.
You couldn’t be happier or more fulfilled, as you’ve worked hard, made a lot of money, shared generously, and had a blast doing what you absolutely love.