When I first left my 9-5 job it was just over a year after my mother had passed away. I had been juggling a full-time job as a Marketing Director at a small biotech company while acting as my mother’s primary medical contact and caretaker. She battled cancer for almost three months – and they were the worst three months of my life. When you lose somebody so important in your life, your sense of time changes. It becomes life before and life after. After her death, everything changed. I lost my mother, got engaged, moved back home, got married and had my first miscarriage—all in the span of 11 months.
By the time I actually walked away from my full-time job, I was in a dark place. I was stretched thin from trying to do it all, burnt out from trying to care for everyone else and felt like my body had failed me in the most primal way. I knew something big needed to change if I was ever going to come out of the darkness.
In stepped the dream of building my own business. I felt that if I could be my own boss, I could create a schedule and work environment that could support my well-being. So I left. I needed change, I needed space, and most of all, I needed time. I knew there was no way I could find any of these things while working full-time in a 9-5 job.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes. This was the first step on my journey as an entrepreneur, but I didn’t actually become an entrepreneur. Instead, I had a few clients I did website and marketing work for and ultimately I ended up putting every ounce of professional energy and love I had into one organization. But, I don’t regret it. The company I worked with challenged me, supported me and helped me grow into an even better version of what I was back then.
I now know this is a perfect example of my character strengths in action. At the time, I didn’t have the language or knowledge to understand why I was willing to walk away from a good job to the unknown and why I became so invested in the company I joined. I just knew it was the right thing for me to do.
If you aren’t familiar with character strengths, it’s time to get familiar. Character strengths are the innate qualities, traits and capacities that each of us possess. The VIA Institute on character classifies 24 character strengths under six virtue categories, which are universal across cultures and nations. The cool thing is, we all possess each of these strengths in various degrees.
Why are your strengths so important? Well, our biggest strengths can be used to handle stress or support us through the tough times and they can drive us forward helping us become happier, build better relationships and feel more fulfilled.
I now know that honesty (my top character strength) runs so deeply in me that if I am working and living in a way that is NOT true to my needs and desires—I won’t be happy until I align myself with these needs and desires. In other words, to be happy, I have to be honest with myself not just in words, but also in action. This is why I stepped away from the 9-5. My needs were not being met, I was miserable, so I needed things to change.
I know that hope is a one of the strengths I can always rely on, even when things aren’t going well. I am one of those people who truly believes that things can always be better. At the beginning of my journey (and even now) I believed I could become successful and make a difference in the world. Even when I may not be seeing the results I want, I think I can still make them happen.
I know that curiosity allows me to try new things that I may not understand or know how to do, but that I am always confident I can learn along the way. This strength is what allowed me to connect so passionately to the company I joined, to learn and explore the industry of positive psychology and to realize it was the right space for me to ultimately tap into with my business.
And, I know love, my second highest character strength, allows me to give everything I have to those I care about. This meant that when I became passionate about the mission of the company I worked with, and I saw how it’s courses in positive psychology could change lives for the better, I became fully invested and gave it everything I could.
When the time finally came for me to move on again and really start my entrepreneurial journey, I looked back at how I had been using these character strengths. I realized that not only was I using them to support myself and build more happiness in my life, but I was also using them to shape my career. I decided to build a business that aligned 100% with my heart and to reach my goals, I needed to tap into my strengths.
If you think about it, when you are trying to build or launch a business, you are already looking for every way you can possibly contribute to make it the best it can be. How can you make your services the best possible? How can you create the best marketing plan? How can you make the most sales? How can you accomplish all your goals?
It only makes sense that you would also want to use the best qualities and traits you possess to help make your business the best it can be… these are your strengths!
So how am I using my strengths to build my business?
- I’m creating a brand that reflects my strengths.
Part of your brand is your authentic voice. This is the tone, attitude, and the overall feel you create as your audience gets to know, like, and trust you. Your voice should reflect and showcase your strengths, as these will help you stay authentic and differentiate your story, marketing efforts, and sales from the crowd.My voice is honest, heart-felt and hungry to help others build a business and life they will love. It reflects the same strengths I called upon at the start of my journey. My honesty, my love, my curiosity and my hope all shine through whenever I share my story, in the services I offer and in every interaction I have with potential and existing customers. - I am putting processes in place that support my strengths.
There are so many tools and processes out there that you can use to simplify and reduce the burden of work that does not light you up. Building these processes around your strengths will also create a more natural workflow for you that is less challenging and less time consuming.As a mother who is juggling a business and two toddlers, my time is limited. Rather than spending a ton of time searching for leads and battling for clients, I am building a process to automate this workflow so I can focus on using my strengths of creativity and perspective to generate content that is useful and powerful. I know that by serving information, insight, and expertise forward in creative ways I am establishing myself and earning the trust of my audience. When your audience trusts and respects you—they are more likely to become clients. - I have set goals that are tied to my strengths.
If you work toward a goal that aligns with one of your top strengths, achieving it will come more naturally than achieving a goal that aligns with a weaker strength. The cool thing is, if you do set a goal that relies on a weaker strength, it can serve as an opportunity to build that strength.For example, one of the most important goals I had set for myself recently is to create a 3-day workweek that allows me to be 100% present for my clients while working and 100% present for my family when not working. This aligned with my strengths of love and fairness but also has helped me improve my self-regulation. I’ve had to create boundaries and discipline around when I work (i.e. no more workaholic allowed!). This is an area I have struggled with for years, but once I stepped back, set the goal, and identified the strengths that supported it vs. where I was struggling—success!
Even when I didn’t know they were there, my strengths helped get me through the darkest time of my life. And, once I learned what they were and how I could use them to support myself, I began to shift my life and future toward the best version possible. They are one of the most powerful tools I have at my disposal to keep my life and my business moving forward toward my definition of success.
So, like I said earlier, if you aren’t familiar with character strengths, it’s time to get familiar. You can take the free survey to learn your character strengths here.
