What Do You 'Nerd Out' About?

A post about why I named the blog/podcast Business for Nerds & a smattering of business tips for you.

Who we are in our businesses is so important with helping us to continue our work

Why is this important? Because interest and motivation and love for the work keeps us in the fields we work in.

I learned this when I worked for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) for 8 years. I helped persons who encountered limitations to navigate around those limitations or to reach a higher level of functioning through connecting them with resources to help them through. I learned a lot in this job and I am grateful for the experience.

VR sometimes paid for vocational evaluations and if applicable psychological evaluations to help our clients make informed choices on the careers they wanted to pursue. Anyway, through my observing these evaluations and supporting people with searching for their careers, & working with them through trial and error, we discovered that what kept them in jobs was interest and discovering who they were at work. Those two concepts needed alignment.

Interest and who we are at work helps keep us in our fields.

Why interest? Well, often work is hard and interest helps keep us there when work is stressful and overwhelming. Seeing how the job fits into a larger picture such as calling or goals, was invaluable in helping them stay employed.

Being Part of Something Larger Than Ourselves or Calling

This worked in my own life too. Again, I value the experience at this job but it was not my forever job. I stayed employed at VR because it fit into my larger goals of becoming a therapist and eventually also a business coach.

When I felt overwhelmed, I turned to my mentors and supervisors and also reminded myself of my ultimate goals. And a paycheck helped too, lol.

Personality and Business

In my studies as a therapist and in my experience, I realize that every human is so unique! I love the variations in people and the unique talents that I see in each person I work with.

I think sometimes though people get stuck in jobs they dislike and lose sight of the larger picture in their lives and sometimes put their creativity or ‘nerd out’ activities to the side.

This can happen in self-employment too!

Through a whole lot of self-analysis, talking to mentors, friends, journaling, studying, research (and much more I cannot even express), I found out more about who I am at work.

This led me to set better business boundaries and learn how to build two businesses that I now look forward to working in.

Some concepts about me I now see: I finally understood that I am highly sensitive, & an introvert (who likes people but need time to myself).

I realized the aspects of life that fill me up and the aspects that take my energy. I had to find balance here.

I also did some more self-exploration in my interests, my focus and just who I am and I finally like myself.

Healthy, balanced confidence is not a bad thing.

I certainly am not perfect and have my not so great days and my not so confident days where I want to rip up my businesses and throw them out the window but…

My long term goals and interests in my work keep me here.

I found a way to bring who I am and my interests into my work. I had to learn how to be myself at work.

Better business boundaries (for me) involved:

• Setting work hours

• Setting time for creativity & bringing creativity into my work

• Balancing my professional self and my personal self to be authentic in business

• Setting self-care time

• Moving my businesses online

• Evaluating and ending contracts that no longer served me, my clients or my business well

• Reevaluating my fees

• Maintaining good emotional boundaries at work

• Making time for family and friends

• Making time for fun

• Nerding out personally and professionally (lol)

Now let’s turn this to you

1. What do YOU ‘nerd out’ about?

2. Do you like the work you do? Why or why not?

3. Are your work, life and interests balanced?

4. If not…in thinking about who you are at work, your ‘nerding out’ interests, your needs in business and in life, how can you start to realign this so work and life, interests and who you are are better balanced?

5. Then after contemplating the above, what are your business goals?

I get that these are big questions and will take time to answer them. Just let me know if you need help with this.

I am thinking about writing or recording a series about this so stay tuned.

If you are interested in a free resource about your marketing personality. Check that out here. We also have a marketing map resource where you can see my own marketing map and begin to build your own.

Happy ‘nerding out,’ business nerds!

Feel free to chat about the above in the comments or in our chat.