This morning I stumbled upon something that may well change my vision of myself ! I’m so excited.
Time to share a few things about me… and maybe you’ll learn a few things about yourself too ?
I’ve been designing crochet patterns for over 10 years now, and I’m quite passionate about all things related to WOOL: spinning, felting, dying.. and even sewing. But you probably already know that.
However, narrowing my personal interests to those items would not reflect the truth. There are many other things I’m super curious about and fascinated by (as those who follow me on Facebook already probably suspect...)
I am deeply touched by everything involving Recycling (I even worked at spreading the word about the new recycling bins at some point), Nature and DIY in general.
I love to camp, cook bread on a firecamp, feel the trees and the wind around me.
I dream of the day we have a house with a large orchard, and can grow our own fruits and veggies.
I’m always curious to learn more about sustainable living: how to make my own clothes, my own cleaning and beauty products, grow my own food… and ideally hardly ever needing to go to a supermarket any more !
Being french, I’m also fascinated by the english language and culture of anglo-saxon countries. So much so that I actually blog in english this very minute, and get to share every days with like-minded friends living at the other end of the world.. That I ended up working professionally as a translator of knitting and crochet patterns ! And that I spent 3 years travelling and working in all those countries I knew I’d love (US & Alaska, New Zealand and Australia..
But that’s not all. To me, managing a creative business is not a chore, it’s something I LOVE ! The first time I realized this, I was in Perth, Australia, and published ads in the local newspaper to do garderning and housekeeping. After a few weeks into it, I realised that I was having the time of my life finding new customers, booking appointments, deciding on what hourly rate to ask, or even which services I would be best at (let’s say I’m still not very good at gardening !). Even now, I love researching about marketing and creative business, and love it even more when I can translate what I’ve learnt into content that actually resonnates both with the readers AND my inner self. That’s the ultimate beauty of being in charge of your own business…
And on top of all that…
Of course like every body else, I also have tons of personal interests. I’ve always been an avid reader. I love all things related to India or Bollywood-style dancing. A few years ago, I discovered contemporary dance and it was a shock, to see how deep this resonates inside me. I’m also known for knowing everything about our local recycling centers…
Anyways.
During my school years, one of the hardest things was to choose. I just happened to love every field ! When it got time to decide on a major for University, I just couldn’t. Instead, I looked at all the different options, and chose a diploma which would allow me to keep as many different fields as I could: foreign languages + culture of anglo-saxon countries + economics and history + math (to which I added economics of sports, to include the Ski resorts I loved to hang out around in my studies..)
Once the time came to choose my career path, it didn’t get any easier. I started to do odd jobs in various directions: selling ski passes both in France and NZ, full-time mom, occasional translator on large professional events, creative writer and translator for various websites, webmaster of a large tourism website + writer of all the content of this site… plus a number of temp jobs.
Yet, at the same time I started to publish my own patterns, quite confidentially at first. Then I got more and more serious about it.. and the few small translation jobs I’d do for fellow knitters turned into full-on translations for book editors and yarn companies. So much so that all this has now turned into my “day-job”.
But every time somebody asks what do I do for a living.. I feel somehow embarrassed, and will reply depending on the situation that “I’m a translator”, or that “I’m a translator and… (insert small blank here) also design and sell my own crochet patterns”..
And then BAM !
Today this video was a huge revelation: Emilie Wapnick, “Why some of us don’t have one true calling” ?
This feels so spot on. YES ! I am definitively a “multipotentialite“. Curisous and passionate about so many different things at the same time: crochet and all things yarn-related of course, but also about managing a creative business, the web and social media, sharing knowledge through workshops and Fiber festivals, the english language and culture/people of all anglo-saxon countries, autonomy and recycling, sustainable living…
And YES I can totally relate and feel I also have those “superpowers“: Idea synthesis, rapid learning and adaptability.
And YES, I feel I’ll be soon ready to accept fully that whenever I put 100% of my energy into something (such as the recent release of my Pop boxy sweater), I then need to do something completely different ( = no crochet!) to regain my balance and happiness… or I would become insane.
This felt so liberating and at the same time, an opening towards so many new horizons and different ways to envision my business, that I even bought a Pack of tutorials and ebooks Emilie assembled esp. for us multipotentialites. It includes tons of ebooks from people I’m happy to discover,
and her “Renaissance business” ebook which I’ve already started and having a TOTAL BLAST with (you wouldn’t believe how spot on she is, and how hepful her exercises are to organise all these different things into something some sort of common theme. SO excited to keep reading !)
and also Mayi Carles “Life is messy “daily planners, which look so cute but are also full of insights (love Mayi’s blog)
PS – If you can relate to this whole Multipotentialite thing and want to explore it further, to grow your creative business, I highly recomment the Pack (priced at only a tenth of its total value, but available only 3 days starting May 17th) and if you purchase it using my link, I’ll receive a commission which will help paying my bills at the end of the month 😉
So how about you ? What is your “inner wiring” ? Are you a “Multipotentialite” or rather a Specialist? I suspect a number of my “creative circle” may be multis too.. 😉