There are times when I feel like a walking, talking metaphor for entrepreneurship.

Balancing my business with the rest of life has always been challenging–it’s an act where you have to constantly juggle everything in order not to lose sight or patience over one thing for too long! On top of all this juggling comes another layer: trying to figure out how best to use your time so as not to neglect both family and business.  Being an entrepreneur and trying to balance a business with my family has always been a challenge. It’s always been a balancing act.  On the one hand, I’m trying to focus on my business but on the other hand, I’m needed to be there for my family. 

Bringing them together is like combining metaphors–being an entrepreneur and my sourdough bread hobby. It took me several years to learn those things about myself. But self-discovery is a process that never ends. The more I live in my zone of genius, the better I get at using and applying it to different work skills.

My Zone of Genius: From Laptop to Kitchen…

This loaf of bread didn’t just appear on my counter. It has its own life–it is sourdough bread made from sourdough starter. Sourdough Bread is a type of bread that has been around for centuries. Someone probably discovered it by mistake or through some trial and error. But since then, bakers have created a culture of cultures simply by saving some raw dough from their baking and adding more flour to it each day to keep it alive. As a result, this type of bread has a mouthwatering sensation of taste which probably was unexpected.

Entrepreneurship has evolved over time much like sourdough bread. It’s an odd metaphor, but in reality, they have many similarities.

Sourdough bread starts with a “mother yeast” which is called a starter. To make sourdough bread, you have to work with the starter and put in a lot of effort. The end result is a delicious loaf of bread that is almost like art. Your business requires time and effort to be successful. 

As an entrepreneur, you can’t just walk away from your business and not continue to feed it. You have to put in the work and be patient with it. Like your sourdough starter, you’re going to have to pay attention to it. Starter dough doesn’t start by itself and it can never be neglected. It might take you a while to get your business going, but once you do you need to take care of it constantly. That means feeding yourself (constantly learning and growing) and also turning that dough into a project.

Just like you will turn that starter dough into bread, you will also make dough from your business.

We want you to make sure that you are not just feeding your dough, but you are turning it into a product or service that you can sell. You should always be making offers to people. If you do nothing but keep feeding your dough, you’re just going to have a mixture of flour and water that’s sitting on your counter taking up space.

Just like your business will sit in your head taking up space until you turn it into a product, you need to start selling it or adding ingredients to make it more. What are you doing with your business? What are you turning it into? How do you want to shape it? How do you want to form it? What do you want to do to take a starter and make it your own?

Some of the sourdough cultures worked better than others. Bakers found this out through trial and error. They could keep the culture alive by saving some raw dough from their baking and adding more flour to it. This is similar to what happens in your business. Balance doesn’t happen overnight. It takes work and patience before seeing the end result, just like with sourdough bread and being an entrepreneur.

Are you ready to put in the time and effort required to reach balance in your business by tapping into your zone of genius? Sign up for my email list and I’ll send you regular tips on how to do just that!  Subscribe Here!