Much of the time, female entrepreneurs get caught in one of two business scenarios: They either build a business that they don’t love, or they build a business that they love at first, but it ends up completely draining them. In both cases, it’s generally because they didn’t set the right foundation for their ambitions from the start. And that is usually because they haven’t built a business that centers on their unique zone of genius. The good news is, however, it’s never too late to find and utilize your zone of genius. It can help you create lasting financial growth and impact that spans much wider than you might ever have imagined.
What Is the Zone of Genius and Why Do Women Need to Find It?
Your zone of genius is the area where your skillset meets the problem, or problems, you’re passionate about solving. You take the issues that light your fire and drive you to want to change them and you employ your personal area of expertise to affect that change. This zone is where you’ll find the work that you really love to do, work that you could theoretically do for hours without even being paid for it. That’s why it’s so important to find this zone of genius, especially as a female entrepreneur. It allows you to create sustainable growth in your business and helps you to avoid the inevitable burnout of working on passionless projects.
Women in particular often feel a need to prove themselves in fields or areas that don’t necessarily bring them joy or excitement, simply because they think it’s what they have to do to succeed. However, building from the zone of genius naturally leads to success.
Discovering your zone of genius not only ensures your business is set up for long-term growth and impact—it also allows you to recognize what makes you uniquely talented. When you implement unique methods and talents into your work, you magnetically draw in more clients, collaborators and future opportunities. Plus, you uncover what energizes you and what exhausts you, so you can focus more on those things that give you energy—and that, in general, is simply a much more enjoyable and productive way to work.
How to Find Your Zone of Genius
One incredibly valuable exercise to find your zone of genius is to think of it as a Venn diagram. In one circle of the diagram you will have the issues you’re passionate about solving and in the other circle, you will have the natural skills you possess. The space these circles overlap on the diagram would be where your zone of genius lies—combining the problems you’re passionate about solving and utilizing your particular skills to help solve them.
Once you find this area and start operating from that space, it makes it easy to love what you’re doing. It’s natural—it takes the things that drive you and the things you already do and helps you formulate a plan of action around it. Notice the problems that need solving in the world that you’re passionate about and look at creative ways you can use your particular strengths to help solve those issues. That is your zone of genius. That’s where you’re going to be able to make the most impact and find the most success.
How to Use Your Zone of Genius to Grow Your Impact (and Income)
To not only find your zone of genius but to grow your impact, you’ll have to fully allow yourself to take up the space. Allow yourself to own your niche, marketing, messaging and confidence in your area. By unabashedly embracing your unique offerings, you allow your potential clients and customers to see the value that you have to offer in what you do differently. And this naturally contributes directly to your bottom line because you’ll create lasting client relationships and demonstrate your inherent worth to future and prospective clients.
But it’s not just about your monetary bottom line—it’s also about your impact. When you purposefully create and hold space for work that you’re passionate about, you inspire others, whether they are prospective clients or not. It gives other entrepreneurs the inspiration, opportunity and sometimes even the permission that they need to go and find their own zone of genius and create an impact on something they care about. It creates a ripple of impact that is almost immeasurable—and that itself is priceless.
Cait Scudder is a TEDx speaker, host of the Born to Rise Podcast and CEO of a seven-figure company—and she’s on a mission to reach and empower 10 million driven, bold-hearted women so they can uncover their zone of genius and use it to create profitable, purpose-driven businesses that change the world. You can follow her @caitscudder.
