Zone of Genius
I have figured out a lot of the pieces in Education Walkthrough’s operations, yet I am still working on sales. With our emphasis on PLG and organic growth, finding the right fit of a person or an advisor to support us has been more challenging.
This week, I had multiple calls from various sales gurus, coaches, and consultants to try to figure out a solution. All of them blurred together except one. This guy talked about systems and processes, starting by looking at the business holistically and then matching you up with experienced operators (former entrepreneurs) to coach you. He was talking my language.
Halfway through the conversation, he said, “If we do our job right, then the result will be cutting down the time you are doing on sales and giving you more time in your zone of genius.”
My zone of genius. Interesting.
It stuck with me. I had heard the term before, but it had only been a while. I have been thinking about the concept since the call.
Where is my zone of genius? Where do I love to be?
For me, my passion is in product. It is abundantly clear to the people around me. I love to take a lot of information in from people, the internet, customers, videos, and what you have, then sit on it and synthesize it into insights, pattern matching, or actions. That is what I am good at and where my zone is.
I have learned that things don’t happen immediately in life, so I have learned to let things simmer in my zone, where I can do this process for a long time, then at each juncture when I have an insight, write it down immediately. I need to capture it so I can turn back to it and reflect or use it as a jumping-off point for the future.
This has become my superpower. My zone of genius.
If I really did not have to worry about sales or marketing and could just focus on this, would I be happy?
There is value in optimizing for your zone of genius while also spending time outside of your zone. Remaining uncomfortable is one of the greatest tricks of successful people. There is probably a balance here between being inside your zone and outside.
It’s funny what things stick with you from a random call on a Tuesday across all the other things you did during the week.