Evan Carmichael explains how to turn multiple interests into a business. Combine two or three passions into one unique niche, like fashion photographer Rich did by blending celebrity work with unschooling and lifestyle interests. The key: create real value and show your quirks to attract clients who get you.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm answering a question from one of our Facebook readers, Jonathan, who wrote in saying, Evan, I don't know if this is the right platform, but my problem is I have too many interests. I'm really confused about following a passion for starting a new business venture. He's got a lot of stuff here. So, "I'm a mechanical engineer by training, but I have interests varying from electronics, motoring, home design, landscaping, graphic design, and so on. What do I do to really find my true calling? Currently I own an advertising business." So Jonathan is all over the map, and that's very common for entrepreneurs. So thank you for the question. Your best bet as an entrepreneur, and it's great that you have lots of different interests, and we all do, right? There aren't many people who only have one interest in their life. And so it's great that you have lots of different interests, and you'll find that your best chance of success as an entrepreneur is to combine these different interests into one thing that makes you unique. So if you look at any of those things that you do, if you're into electronics or home design or motoring or any of those things, if you just did one of them, then you'll be okay at it. You know, you may be better than average at it because you're gonna put in the time and effort and the thought into making it work. But where you really have a lot of success is trying to combine some of those two things or three things together, because that's gonna be uniquely you, and you're gonna attract the the right kind of clientele who love seeing what you do. You're gonna be able to put a lot more passion and energy into it 'cause you're combining various skills and interests into it, and you'll eventually have a lot more success. So you need to find ways as an entrepreneur to stand out. You need to find ways to differentiate yourself. And the way to do it is to combine lots of different things that you're super passionate about and have skills at that nobody else can do. That's what makes you unique. That's what's gonna make you the expert in your field. A quick example. So a story, um, I met with a local entrepreneur here, a friend of mine. His name was Rich. He's a fashion photographer and he works with celebrities. He's done Lady Gaga, all sorts of different pictures for celebrities. And there's a lot of competition in that field too, right? How many photographers are there out there? And he was telling me about he has this passion for an alternative lifestyle, so he does unschooling with his kids and he is looking for natural ways to use deodorant. So he uses lemon instead of deodorant, all these funky things. And he's, he's an awesome guy, but a little off the wall. And so his best clients would be the ones who are a little bit off the wall as well. And he wanted to start this blog. He's coming up, how do I come up with content for my website? How do I create good content for my site? And he was trying to figure out a way to have this fashion photography celebrity, you know, photography business, but then also have this other blog, or not sure what to do with it, talking about the things that are of interest to his own personality and his lifestyle. And I suggested the best thing for him to do there is combine them, because that's where the real strength and power is going to be in making what he is unique. And you may turn some people off, you know, talking about unschooling. You know, if you're talking to parents who really believe in the school system, unschooling is not going to really be a good fit for them. Or if you're talking about how you use lemon as a deodorant, that might throw people off, right? That may be a little too off the wall for them, and they may not want to work with you. But those are not gonna be ideal types of clients, you know. So Rich works with celebrities, great. There's a lot of different celebrities out there. The ones who are gonna attract the best type of client for him are gonna be the ones who are a little off the wall just like him. And if he's posting content on his site that's talking about these things, even if it's not related to what he does as a business, but is related to his passion and that's coming through, then the people who see that, when they're making the decision who to go with as a photographer, and they see Rich with all these crazy interests that also kind of line up with what they're all about, then those are gonna be the people who will pick Rich over everybody else. So he's gonna attract people who are more interested in his way of doing business and in his lifestyle, and they'll be better clients. You know, the guys, even if he doesn't market himself as somebody who likes unschooling and using lemon as deodorant, the guys who are really against that who don't think differently, who are inside the box, they're not gonna get along with Rich that well. You know, it might be a good one-time deal that he does with them, but it's not gonna be an ongoing awesome client relationship that he's gonna have. So he'd rather have those strange kind of off-the-wall types of clients because he's a little strange and off-the-wall. And so by combining those interests, it's not, it's not a bad thing for your business, it's a good thing. And so it's finding the right clientele to niche yourself out into, be an expert in, and be able to grow your business from there. So hopefully that helps. It may be making yourself a little vulnerable and showing, you know, sides of you that you may not have wanted to show before, but it's gonna make you more real, more genuine. It's gonna attract a much better clientele, and you're gonna have much more success. So I'd look at that big list of things that you're interested in and try to find a way to combine the top 2 or 3 of them into one awesome business that's gonna add a lot of value to people's lives. You're gonna make a lot of money by adding a lot of people, a lot of value to people's lives. So it's whatever you end up doing, it has to help people. That's the bottom line. You know, if you're not helping people, then it might just be a hobby or something you're doing for yourself, which is awesome. But if you wanna turn it into a business and have success, then it has to be some way to combine your interests into one mega company, a product, service that's really gonna have an impact on this world and help a lot of people. So hopefully that helped. Maybe not the answer you were looking for, but that, that would be my best suggestion. And I'm really excited for you. I think there's an opportunity there that by combining those passions, you can really turn it into something special and that you can be proud of. So for those of you watching, thank you for joining me for another edition. If you guys like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. It makes me want to do more videos for you. And I'd love to hear what you have to say if you want to leave a comment under the video. When I wake up and I see the comments come in, it always makes my day. So thank you, and we'll see you on the next episode.
