Conventional job title choices on traditional business cards are less common as we hurtle head-on into 2019. The old saying ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ has long lost any relevance and ‘multi-tasking’ is no longer seen as a super skill but an obstacle to mindfulness. You’d be forgiven for being a bit confused. Ordinary roles and ways of making a living seem passé while mysterious (sometimes incomprehensible) job titles de rigueur. To be multi-passionate has been cool for a few years now. Although the word ‘cool’ is potentially very ‘uncool’ and ‘major key’ is more relevant and preferred.
For some having multiple jobs to keep themselves afloat is par for the course but professions and their official titles have become far more creative in the last decade. Eg. Wet Leisure Attendant (Lifeguard) | Senior Kindle Evangelist | Beverage Dissemination Officer (Barperson)| Fake Mourner |Conversation Architect (Marketing Manager) | Hairapist | Genius (Sales Assistant for Apple) | Professional Sleeper | Snake Milker |Rollercoaster Tester | Ice Rink Hand Holder | Education Centre Nourishment Consultant (School Dinner Lady) | Bike Fisherman | Everyone with access to the internet who interacts, whether working or otherwise is a Content Creator and Provider.
If you were a part-time freelance firefighting, roller coaster testing, zombie and expressionist painter could you get that across on or offline as a coherent brand message or proposition?
Those are just a few of the 100 oddest job titles compiled by Coburg Banks from actual CV’s. In primary schools when kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up, they could choose anything from a regular postperson, firefighter, doctor, domestic technician, ghost blogger, vlogger, princess or zombie, anything in between or a combination. Apparently, Zombie’s can earn around £30,000 per annum at the London Dungeon. For a multi-passionate Zombie, the possibilities for career advancement could be exponential.
famous multi-passionate people past and present Da Vinci and Branson
Some of the most revered in history were multi-passionate, albeit maybe not in their actual lifetime did they become millionaires or know the lasting impact they would have on the world. For example, Leonardo Da Vinci was an inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, musician, mathematician, engineer, writer, anatomist, geologist, astronomer, botanist, historian and cartographer. Imagine the views on his YouTube Channel if he were alive today. Mind-boggling. He’d be up there with Ariana Grande as top people to break the internet with zillions of fans rushing online within five minutes of his new video being uploaded.
Possibly one of the most well known multi-passionate entrepreneurs in more recent times is Sir Richard Branson. British music manager and label founder; Business magnate who birthed a Virgin that’s branded everything from airlines, islands, hospitality, mobile technology, digital services and financial institutions with more than 400 companies in its group; Philanthropist; Racing driver; Sailor; Balloonist; Space pioneer; Adventurer; Knight; World record breaker; Party person and loyal family man. Unlike Leonardo, in 2018 Sir Richard’s net worth was estimated to be a tad shy of $5 Billion US Dollars. That’s almost £4 Billion UK pounds. In Indian rupees (with 70 rupees to 1 dollar USD) that’s a number too big for my calculator to display. Safe to conclude here that being multi-passionate didn’t do Old Beardie’s bank balance any harm. Verdict: Not flaky or indecisive and clearly quite focused.
So what do two experts at the top of their game have to say about the multi-passionate entrepreneur?
“Truth Bomb! You’re not multi-passionate you’re indecisive… The more you try to fuse random passions into one, the more confusing it becomes to explain to your prospects – and therefore the HARDER it is to actually make it profitable.”
Kamila Gornia
Kamila Gornia is a digital marketing strategist who built her first website age 12. Inspired by Japanese manga she built a community and translated manga comics into Polish quickly gaining 40,000 views with no social media yet available. In 2009 her professional photography freelancing gained most of its clients from social media and in 2012 she founded the health and wellness blog ‘Sensual Appeal.’ With 100,000 plus monthly views and 45,000 monthly readers, Kamila sold the blog at auction. Read her full story here.
“Here’s the deal: You just have to pick something and GO WITH IT.”
Kamila Gornia
Kamila’s advice from her website is: “You’re fooling yourself if you think you can take all of your passions and just stick them together to create a business like that *snaps fingers.*
You’re fooling yourself if you think bringing in every single interest to create this weird hybrid “THING” will be easy to sell.
You’re fooling yourself if you think that once you figure out what that business will look like, finally figure it out, you will be happy because it will feel so good. I’m sorry but it’s true. I know because I TRIED DOING IT MYSELF.”
Erin May Henry has a slightly different approach to those who are multi-passionate with their business goals and ideas
“I think being multi-passionate makes you a better entrepreneur and a more successful personal brand. Being multi-passionate is more powerful than having one niche or talking about only one topic or concept.”
Erin May Henry
An Australian, since 2014, Erin May Henry has built a business and personal brand and successfully surpassed a six-figure income. She has created a community of over 75,000 people across her YouTube channel and Social media. During a break from studying for a business degree, Erin says she received possibly the most game-changing advice that changed the course of her life forever. “A marketing guru from the UK gave a speech about the future of entrepreneurship and advised that if you want to create your own path, the one thing to do right now was to get online and start building an audience. I took this incredibly literally… I went home that night and started a YouTube channel.”
Ms Henry’s podcast on the subject of multi passionate entrepraneurs expresses her opinions and advice which includes:
- Being multi-passionate makes you human and like Kamila Gorian, Erin agrees that every person on the planet is multi-passionate and not linear in what they connect with emotionally.
- Whether service based or personal brand ‘you’ are the product and by showing parts of yourself outside the core business can make you more attractive, relatable to your audience and create good rapport,
- Having a wider range of influences and interests can help you come up with innovative ideas to inspire your own content and provide more opportunities for growth. Listen to the full podcast here.
so is being multi-passionate negative or positive for your own aspirations and goals?
As in all things whether being multi-passionate is good or bad for entrepreneurs, it’s a matter of perspective and context. Both experts are right – accepting that in truth nothing is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ but a different experience. A different journey towards ideas and goals. Something both Kamila Gornia and Erin May Henry are united on is to FOCUS on one thing at a time in terms of your digital marketing strategies. Ensure a clear message and route to conversion. Clean, easy to understand offers and propositions. That’s a given and at the WHOLE_istic Media Coach HQ we hold space and enable our clients to prioritise, find their own inner marketing guru and make choices that spark joy. Our manifesto includes ‘do what you love and love what you do.’ Whether that’s as someone with a single idea or a multi-passioned person with several services and strings to their bow. Our bottom line is, if it doesn’t spark joy, don’t do it.
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