January 8, 2024
Kris: Hello and welcome. You’re listening to Design and Prosper. It’s episode 114.
Don: Before we dive into this episode, we wanted to let you know that we are literally days away from opening the doors to this round of the Academy. So for those of you who don’t know, the Academy is for designers. who are ready to build a sustainable business that works.
It’s the complete business course. We will help you create a business that suits you, your financial goals, and your lifestyle. That’s what it’s all about.
Kris: It’s the complete package.
Don: And we literally opened our doors on January the 11th, 2024.
Kris: Yeah.
Don: So close.
Kris: That’s right. So let’s get into it. It’s an Ask Krisand Don episode for you where we’re answering a designer question around tapping into your zone of genius. So we thought this was an interesting one. So we’ll read out the question. It’s from Yvette.
How would you advise going about understanding your zone of genius?
Kris: People talk about it a lot, right? You know, you hear it, you know, you’ve got to tap into your zone of genius and we say it as well. What is your what is your secret sauce? That sort of thing.
But if you’re not sure.
Don: And it’s okay not to be sure. Like honestly. Really? Yeah. It freaks people out to have that question asked of them. Because some people go, I don’t know. I just don’t know what my zone of genius is. So we’ve got some questions you out.
Kris: I certainly didn’t know when I started in business what my zone of genius was. I just didn’t know enough about myself. And I think I shared before I was interested in a fine arts career, but at that time, I didn’t know enough about myself then either to have a really interesting point of view. And so it’s perfectly okay. You can actually start a business without really understanding your zone of genius.
But ideally, you would want to know so you can really tap into it, really leverage it and leverage it.
Don: Keyword there everybody. Leverage it, I love that. Yeah, just want to say to you Yvette, it’s actually okay if you don’t know.
I honestly think we are programmed to think that we should know the answer to this and it should be just obvious to all of us and, and it just isn’t. And so doing this work will really help you. It’ll help so many of you out there, I think.
Kris: Yeah, put so much pressure on ourselves.
Don: I know, right?
Kris: so we have got some questions to ask you to try and eke it out, and you know, get it out into the world. And so you could journal on these, or you could just contemplate them in a meditation, whatever you like. Alright, so think about when you were a child, how did you spend your time?
How did you while away the days? What were you doing?
Don: Were you coloring in? Were you out on the roller skates? Were you, were you reading? Were you writing? Were you, was it about music? You know, what were you doing as a child? Because when we are at play, that’s when we are being our most authentic self. So if you can remember back to that, that will give you some really key insights into who you are.
Kris: It’s a really good question to ask, not even just for business and for understanding Zone of Genius, but just understanding play. And I love how Brene Brown talks about the importance of play. That it’s, it’s not something that we can just dismiss as like, I’m too busy for that, I’m too busy for play. We actually need to take it seriously.
Play is important. Whenever I ask myself this question and I reflect back on the kind of kid I was and for me it was, I was really I never was bored. I was busy, busy, busy all day long. I made up stuff all the time. I was always going down rabbit holes, you know, like not literal rabbit holes, but exploring this, exploring that, creating new projects all the time.
I was always like building things, constructing things. guess I didn’t have the label of it as an introvert then, but I was totally happy to just entertain myself, so that’s really interesting in terms of my adult self and how that applies to myself as a business owner, because I still like constructing things and I still like going and spending hours doing, doing something, going down like a rabbit hole.
Don: Yeah. Yeah. I was literally a tomboy and commando down that actual physical rabbit hole to see what was down there. with coloring in pencils in my back pocket, I might add. So a few more questions that you can ask yourself. And we, we are just going to give you the tip of the iceberg Yvette because this type of work we actually do in the Academy in our pre work. Now, having said that. We have a super special surprise for everybody.
A big gift, if you like. First time that we’ve ever offered this. If you would like to join the Academy for this next coming round, we are going to give you a sneak peek by giving you the very first module, which is the pre work, which goes into a few more of these questions we’ll give you in just a second, but it takes a deep dive into really discovering who you are and what your purpose is and why you are wanting to be in business, essentially.
Kris: It’s so good. It’s, it’s game changing. It really is. I know that phrase is overused, but this will give you the insights that you need
Don: It is illuminating, and we want to share that with you. And if you then decide. No, it’s not for me. Then that’s okay., it will be a taster. It will be a lovely taster of the Academy. But let’s continue to give you some questions for you to ask right now. But have a think about it. Have a think about it if you are not a part of the Academy and would like to be. We are offering Module 1 as a taster.
Kris: Yes, so to find out more about that you need to be on our mailing list. We’re sharing this with our mailing list so make sure that you are signed up to receive all our notifications and things coming through. You can do that just via our website designandprosper.co
Don: That’s a really good point, the only place that you’ll find out about this is on our mailing list. So yeah, so make sure you’re on it. So a couple of other questions for you to ask, Yvette, would be, what could you talk about all day long?
What do you talk about where you don’t wanna stop? That’s very, very telling because whatever you are really interested in and passionate about, you don’t wanna shut up about. That’s exciting, right?
Kris: Yeah. That’s it. That’s your zone of genius right there.
Don: Yeah.
Kris: Another question. What would you do even if money was not a factor? So if money’s not an issue, you take money off the table You wouldn’t get bored. You’d be in your zone of genius.
Don: Another one would be, what do you naturally find fascinating? Again, things that are dropping in organically and naturally, that are opening you up without you trying, that’s when you’re in your zone of genius.
Kris: Yeah, what things are really natural for you and really effortless? What things do you find? to feel like that. So, you know, and another kind of tangent question to this is, what sort of work makes time disappear? So you just get right into the flow, and time doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s like, yeah, you’re in the zone. You’re in the genius zone.
Don: Love it. Another thing, a final thing we’ll leave you with is to ask others. Ask them what they think your zone of genius is. What do they see as your superpower? It’s actually really validating to ask friends and family and when they give you some feedback, you’re like, Wow, that’s very cool. I didn’t know that you saw me in that light. And they may see things that you’re just dismissing as, Well, that just comes easily. Well, that’s the trick. That’s the key, right? It comes easily. But they’re seeing that as a zone of genius for you. So very cool.
Kris: I think that’s a really interesting point because I think a lot of people don’t recognize their zone of genius because it is something that is just so intrinsically part of them and it’s just so easy. And it’s like, well, I don’t have to try with that. That’s nothing special.
Don: Yes. Right. But it is. Yeah, it is. and that skill would be coveted by so many people. They can’t do what you do. And so they see it as a really special gift.
Kris: Yeah. So lots of thoughts to ponder Lots of questions to ponder.
So hopefully that helps you Yvette, to figure out what your zone of genius is, but like we said, we really go deep into this in the academy in our pre work, which we’re so excited to be able to share with you so you can have a trial run of it. That’s what we’re doing with this Academy launch that’s coming up right now.
So this episode is scheduled to be released on the 9th of January and I think we’re just a couple of days out then from the Academy launching and doors opening. But also around this time, if you’re listening to this, right on or around the 9th of January, we have our live masterclass happening as well.
Don: Jump in!
Kris: You don’t want to miss that one. They’re really fun. We love delivering the live masterclasses. And this one is all about creating a profitable business model for yourself. So it’s Pathway to Profit. We’re going to show you how to build a graphic design business model that really works. We’re going to show you five different business models, what they can look like. You don’t need thousands of followers to make this work. You don’t need like a huge business. It’s really about tapping into what your needs are and how you want your business to operate. And we’re going to show you how it’s possible.
Don: Yeah. All right. So with that beautiful Yvette, we’ll leave you with it. Have fun and be brave and we will chat with you all again soon.
Kris: Okay, everybody. Bye!
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