My Calling Snuck Up On Me
In the book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport argues that “follow your passion” is terrible advice.
Instead, he says the key to building a career you love is to become excellent at something valuable, so you can leverage that mastery to get what you want out of life.
That’s exactly what I did with my agency, Podcast Ally.
As much as I enjoyed finding the through-line in an entrepreneur’s life experiences and editing it down to a trim 300 word pitch, that was never my passion.
If you were to ask me what I loved to do, I would have pointed you to my volunteer work or told you about the weird and fascinating book I had just read. PR was something I was good at – a skill I could leverage to build an agency where I got to work more-or-less when I wanted, while I traveled the country with my tiny home office and paddleboard in tow.
Newport’s advice was easy for me to follow, because I never had anything resembling a calling.
But something happened while I was happily building my company out in the desert.
My calling snuck up on me.
It was there the morning a team member thanked me for creating a drama-free workplace, where everyone helped one another rather than competing and pushing each other down.
It sat patiently with me in the hours I spent creating automations to handle routine tasks that were dragging down the energy of the team.
It stirred during a 1-1 when yet another team member told me I’d modeled healthy boundaries for her with our interactions with our clients and our team.
When I finally admitted to myself that I wanted to close Podcast Ally, I was able to see that the company was the training ground where I learned a new skill set – one that I was as passionate about as I was good at it.
I am amazing at building and leading teams.
And beyond that, I think this work is incredibly important.
How can you create workplaces that serve the people in them? Could work build people up, rather than break them down?
I’ve seen firsthand the ripple effects this kind of leadership causes.
I watched as my own team members grew in confidence, healed toxic work habits that kept them in a state of fight or flight, and, yes, showed up to work each day able to tackle creative problems and contribute at higher and higher levels.
As I've been working this out for myself, I'm doing a lot of writing. I’m looking forward to exploring these themes with you.