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The Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur's Guide

• Najela

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Multi-passionate entrepreneur Najela Carter explores how to thrive with multiple interests in a world obsessed with specialization. Having succeeded at balancing a school psychologist career with three businesses, she shares her journey of monetizing diverse passions while maintaining her 9-to-5 job.

• Multi-potentiality defined as the ability to adapt skills across various occupations
• The dangers of overspecialization and getting pigeonholed in a single career path
• Breaking free from systems that keep you pursuing a "one true calling"
• Challenging the belief that work you love means you'll never work a day in your life
• Why online business advice to "niche down" and "burn all boats" often fails
• The benefits of being multi-passionate: generation, synthesis, experimentation, adaptability
• How to manage common challenges like analysis paralysis and feeling scattered
• Asking yourself whether a passion project is for you or for others
• Building a business model that accommodates multiple interests while maintaining clarity
• Reframing failure and removing "quit" from your vocabulary
• Using transferable skills from various interests to strengthen your unique offerings
• Defining personal success instead of accepting externally imposed standards

If you're a multi-passionate person struggling to embrace all your interests, connect with me at multi-passionate entrepreneur to discover how to monetize your passions with joy and ease.


Speaker 1:

I'm Nigella Carter and I'm a multi-passionate entrepreneur. I'm a school psychologist. I am an educational consultant. I consult with early career school psychologists. I'm a writer. I write fantasy of all kinds. I'm currently working on portal fantasy isekai, I think like sword art online type stories and I also run multi-passionate entrepreneur. So I have three businesses and I have my school psychologist job. I combine my unique skills and talents to help entrepreneurs discover and monetize their passions with joy and ease. I was able to do this for myself. I'm maintaining my nine to five. I love my job, but I also love a lot of different things that my job can't always provide me the opportunities to pursue, and so I started multiple businesses and that allows me to bring in a little extra money as well as fulfill my needs to others in a variety of different areas.

Speaker 1:

What does it mean to be multi-passionate? This term has evolved over the years. H Fredrickson, in 1975, noted these people as multi-potentialites, so they are able to adapt themselves and develop the necessary specific skills to perform well in a variety of occupations. Manpower needs, the geographic mobility of industry and automation all contribute to the importance of a need for vocational adaptability among today's workforce at all levels. That just means. You know, multi-passionate people are an asset in the world. Like we have so many different skills, we have so many different talents that translate across different industries.

Speaker 1:

What does it mean to be multi-passionate in a specialized world, for whatever reason? The idea of being specific and specialized is the one that took off Over the years. That's morphed into people having to find their one true calling in life. We've been taught that we need a job that we can tolerate. Do that job until we drop dead. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to do the things you love when you retire, if you can retire.

Speaker 1:

I know millennials we're, I don't know, but I went down this path, committing to being a supervisor for in-home therapy and then committed to being a school psychologist. The little cushy job I had as a school psychologist was actually in jeopardy when our district went on strike. I was a contractor at the time and if schools were shut down I didn't have any work. I have heard this story so many times of somebody has specialized in something and then all of a sudden that job gets cut, for whatever reason and because they specialize so deeply, which is not a bad thing. Unfortunately, it's so specific that you can only do that specific job, like a psychologist.

Speaker 1:

It's easy to be pigeonholed by being too specialized, like down the school psychologist path. And if I wasn't a multi-passionate person and I got tired of doing school psychology, there's nothing else I can do with my degree besides be a school psychologist, like, without getting more training, without going to school for a higher degree. I opened a private practice in my current home state because they won't let you unless you have a psychology doctorate, which I don't have, and I don't want to spend the money for Easy to get pigeonholed by being too specialized, again, my job being a school psychologist. But I could only be a school psychologist. There's no upward mobility in my field unless I want to spend more money to go into even more debt and to spend more time at school getting another degree, become multi-passionate and at the time I thought I was just like oh, I just can't figure out what to do, so I end up having like two masters.

Speaker 1:

Um, essentially, like, how many times, like I said, have you heard this story? Person spends their whole life chasing down one career path, staying with one company, doing that job for years, only to get laid off and unable to move forward because that was the only thing they knew how to do. I also couldn't see myself being a school psychologist for the rest of my life In my 30s. I started being a school psychologist at 29 after spending way too much time in the therapy field. I couldn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. It sounded kind of miserable, especially with, you know, the ticks and the culture wars and the school um dealing. I rate parents like I can't see myself doing that for 30 plus years. I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the systems that keep you from embracing your passion.

Speaker 1:

Briefly, about whether I was going to mention systems in our topic, a lot of people felt like they were broken or doing something wrong because they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do. I felt that way I would jump from. You know, I would see within the field, but I would jump from job to job, just kind of look the right fit. It's important that most people believe that so-called call to work. Personally, I put up with a lot of unethical and toxic behavior in workplaces because that was my one true calling themselves to the bone for this quote-unquote purpose. Um, our city doesn't want you to pivot to another job because I mean, what benefit does that have for a corporate business that has a constant rotating door? But that definitely speaks to a larger issue within capitalism.

Speaker 1:

But thing to believe your passion and pursue that passion. And then there's another thing to and do that passion believe that's your passion, but be mistreated or undervalued while you're doing that. The idea of doing work you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life um, that's a sentiment but it's not realistic. I remember having this conversation with my mom and she was like oh, wouldn't you just do your job for free? Don't you just love it? I was like, no, it's paying me enough to show up to work every day and sit in my office. I do, but I also would like to get paid a livable wage for that. But I also would like to get paid a livable wage for that.

Speaker 1:

The matter is to challenge a wide-held belief that our society and think about the systems that uphold it. You have to specialize if you don't want to. But a lot of the messaging you'll hear is like niche down. You need to be specific, you need to specialize, but I don't subscribe to that. Being multi-passionate doesn't mean you're flighty, flaky or indecisive. You might be overwhelmed and not sure how to prioritize pursuing your interests, but that's a common problem for anyone who's a specialist or a multi-potentialite and embracing.

Speaker 1:

I used to drink the pro marketing kool-aid for a long time. I came into the online business movement. At the same time, my job went on strike. In 2019, all the big gurus will tell you to niche down, burn all the boats and go all in on your dreams. That's probably why I didn't have a huge following. At this point, I don't have a huge following. I also don't want to be on social media. Media is draining, but I couldn't do any of the things that they told me to do.

Speaker 1:

Like, I have too many interests, too many unique strengths and viewpoints that I wanted to share with others, and I had too many passions to stick with one thing. For a long time. I experimented with a few things, but it felt really weird to charge people high ticket prices for services I wasn't sure I wanted to provide long term Like, for instance, I chose book editing because I'm like hey, I enjoy books and I don't want to talk about school psychology all day long, and I tested out a lot of different things. I did children's books, I did comic books and graphic novels. I did fantasy and turns out I hate editing other people's books Sorry, red, were fantastic. Like if I was a publisher publisher I would love to have those books on my roster, but editing them is not something that I want to do. Um, it argued that maybe I didn't charge my prices high enough until that I wanted, but I like I don't know you, but like I feel really weird charging like high ticket stuff, like there's nothing wrong with high ticket, but like if I committed, like I'm not sure I want to do that, I don't want to charge a lot of money for something I'm not even sure I want to do. Um you that if I had done you know what the marketing bros told me, I could have found success with editing. I could have probably charged thousands of dollars and probably ended up with the same conclusion, though I just don't like editing other people's books.

Speaker 1:

It took fantastic stories and I hope they make their way in the world, but it took away time for me to write my own stories. I did the online business Kool-Aid about the hustle grind, charged a lot of money. I believed I was a failure because I didn't like the thing I had chosen and didn't know how to pivot to something I did, like Much of my time specializing. I didn't have the brain capacity to think of something different at the time. A failure watching everybody burn their boats and sail off into the distance Well, I was still stuck at the safety of the shore. A different mindset about it, though and this is what I could teach you is not the. You just have to want it bad enough and discover your why and the pseudo-mindset stuff that's based on magical thinking, but an exploratory mindset about the things I was passionate about Somewhere down in our full educations, and me being a school psychologist and just seeing this everywhere got that exploration and fun part of ourselves beaten out of us.

Speaker 1:

I went to the quirky school that was ahead of its time. We had a unique opportunity to learn music, art, drama, science. We rotated classes, we had music every day. We had seasonal plays, we read opera like we created skits and dances. We had world fair for food and like we had young authors, we had ample time for recess. We learned spanish, like we did. It was such a fantastic school that no longer exists, unfortunately.

Speaker 1:

Um make is that like that exploratory and fun aspect of childhood um, beat out of us. You know whether you had teacher or just a bad school experience, like me as a school psychologist. You know watching the kids in class, all they're doing. You know it's a fault to the teachers, it's just this got. You got to do what you got to do. But like I go in there and I just see a bunch of kids on their ipads, like I don't see them being with each other, I don't see them creating anything. You know, I'm glad the school I work at has like the children's work just posted everywhere. But I just made failing unsafe for children and they. You know, and I'm used to this way where you thought doing something well and you get that red mark all up on your paper and it just crushes you.

Speaker 1:

Um, your multi-passionate nature is to make fast friends with failure. You also have to unlearn what society's definition of success is. Some of the same people who are doing the photo shoots with other people's lambos and making all the millions of dollars who burned their, but now slinking back tiny little juice slivers of driftwood, saying that scale at all class model is not sustainable. And I don't know if being multi-passionate, generation and synthesis, so taking a bunch of different ideas, combining them, remixing, throwing them out there, getting feedback. You know a willingness to experiment and adapt. You're willing to dive deep into a subject and you know just being persistent and having resilience to get up when you know you feel like you fail. Um, some of the come, and you might be in this area more so than the other, which is perfectly fine. Um, it happens to all.

Speaker 1:

So, analysis, paralysis, like I, options that you just get overwhelmed and you kind of just shut down. Um, you get too much things. But when it's time to implement, you're like oh, I need the next class to take what I've learned and implement it. But then next minute you know you've consumed a lot of material. You might feel overwhelmed and scattered with all the different projects and you can get sucked down rabbit holes and follow ideas that don't pan out Goodness. So, overcoming the cons, you can dream big, create a strategy, execute, delegate, automate and eliminate different tasks, see a project through to the end and remember seasonality. You don't have to do all of the things all the time, all at once, and be everywhere.

Speaker 1:

So, clay, is this a project for yourself or are you presenting this for others? You need to answer. Is this for me or for other people To get better at knitting. But I know I'm not nearly good enough to sell like blankets. Like I feel bad for anybody who gets a ask me for a blanket at this point, because I'm not. It's gonna be having holes in it, it's gonna be messed up. So if I happen to be at a level where someone wants to buy something for me, I'm not gonna be mad at me. Who's gonna turn down free money to do what you love? But I'm pursuing this passion because I find it calm and relaxing and it's something I want to do for me for. But on the other hand, like music is definitely something that can be for me and for others um, be in the giant symphonic orchestra or even make a career out of that. When I say for others, that means playing Christmas or Disney songs during the holidays and seeing if people recognize them, and that could also be a part of being in a large band or with the occasional solo, especially when I was in high school. That was more of what I did back then, but I don't need to do more on that.

Speaker 1:

I have included some myths that I realized just researching this topic was, I think, a big one is that it's a niche and have a client inventory, reframe that in a different way in a portfolio, and so what I mean by that is a niche. I can't argue for this one. I'm personally leaning more to not needing one. Um, you know, a lot of people are, um, that are multi-passionate, kind of put that under their personal brand, um, and I just got off a call um who someone convinced me to do a personal brand. I was going to brand is something different, but, um, a personal brand makes complete sense. So, uh, package.

Speaker 1:

So I know a big problem with being multi-passionate is choosing and committing to a niche. I know this was something I really got hung up on because I'm like, why do I I'm not sure, like I've never done this thing before for pay um, and I actually have no idea do this as a business until I actually start trying it? Um, editing piece again. Um, I can't imagine much effort into getting an editing certificate, finding clients charging them a lot of money for something I didn't really like to do Personally. That would be keeping my normal day job. Like, at least I love that and I think we all become entrepreneurs so that we can have some level of freedom, but we end up recreating the patterns that kept us stuck. Level of freedom, but we end up recreating the patterns that kept us stuck, and so I couldn't something I actually love to do to something that I was like I don't think for me and I don't want to charge people like that.

Speaker 1:

So be your lovely, multi-passionate self and just put that out there in the world. You'll attract other people who want what you have to sell. So, in order to make money off your various passions, all you really need like don't let someone else tell you otherwise, but you need an album, you need to create a solution to solve their problem, you need a way of getting the information out to them whether it's a video, e-book, course, whatever and you need a way of collecting payments. Um, some fiction here, while people get confused if you're all over the place. Being multi-passionate isn't about being all over the place. Um, is being about very, very intentional about your interests and pursuing your passions.

Speaker 1:

Marketing will tell you that people will get confused if one day you're talking about manifestation, next day you're talking about podcasting, but I don't think that's an absolute truth. It's also not respectful of your audience. Like, for instance, selling deodorant while neglecting everything else they sell. Sometimes ads you see will be about back to school. Other times you'll see them talking about sunscreen and pool toys. Other times it's about parents Like. The point of the matter is like people go to Target because they know what they want and they can get it there.

Speaker 1:

I'm not saying that you need to become an. They're sophisticated, they always have it. You need to trust your audience. You know you can talk about manifestation podcast. If that's something you're interested in could definitely make sure that things are clearly marked on your website who it's for. You could find your expectation. You say what problems you solve, how you do it and what transformation your audience can expect to receive by engaging with the product.

Speaker 1:

You don't need to overthink things Like that's the thing that kept me stuck is getting so stuck in my head of like, oh, I have to do this and I have to do this niche and I have to do my branding. You really don't need any of that. In fact, that probably more than anything, especially if you're a perfectionist and you're like I can't get my graphics to look the way. You know somebody to get my graphics to look the way. You know somebody with like 20 graphic designers on their team is going to look so, um, I think, complicated, with wow sales funnels and all the good things, but you don't really need that. When you first start out, I wish I knew that. I wish I found somebody who was teaching the most basic thing that you need, but it is what it is. You know, that's how you know being multi-pionate.

Speaker 1:

You come out from the other side and you're like, hey, I learned a lesson. I'm either going to take that with me moving forward or I'm going to leave it behind. Uh, fails. Won't it feel like a waste of time, money or energy? I used to think this way and I used to get so mad because there were so many things I could have spent my money on um, and I want to say I spent way more money courses than I care to admit, but part of it was just learning a new strategy. Part of it was thinking about that one course would have all the magic bullet that would solve all the problems, and I'm really susceptible, for all I went through were like fluff, vibes and smoke and mirrors, um, and some of them were truly all life-changing. I remember one course I spent like a lot of money on um and I got a one-on-one call with the course and she told me like hey, you know, your business doesn't need to be of the things you're trying to do too much. You're trying to solve too many problems for yourself by setting your goals too high. And I carried that with me. It was worth the price of the course alone because I don't think anybody would have told me that Everybody's always saying hey, you know, make more, make more, make more. Oh, there's nothing wrong with all to start Like we got to start somewhere. That doesn't mean I didn't learn those fluff and vibes courses.

Speaker 1:

Being a multi-passionate person means you know you can kind of take what you need from the course and leave the rest, um. But it also means having to in your level of discernment and intentionality. Better than most people want to learn all the things. And you know we, if someone shows us this shiny carrot in our face, you know we're gonna probably tip up on that offer and people's you know I was just got out with someone and some people's sales page are better than what they actually offer in the class. So just be mindful of that. Um, if you fail it doesn't mean your character or that was a waste of time. At some point you realize everything's the same. Everybody's taking the same idea and just presenting it in their own different way. But each time you start a new venture you're not starting from scratch. You come in with all that knowledge you learned in other fields and applying that to your new venture.

Speaker 1:

Um, and majored in neuroscience when I first started, and then I jumped ship and went to psychology and creative writing. I studied behavior. I got a credential on school psychology, um, but I don't like regret the time. I, as a neuroscience major even if I didn't finish the program I gained new skills and perspectives that are for my practice as a school psychologist, as a jack of all trades and a master of none. Let's be clear. The full quote is a jack of all trades, is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. To me that sounds like it's better to have knowledge in a lot of different things than to be specialized in just one Case. Sympathy is very highly specialized and it's a degree I can't do a damn thing with, unless I go to school for more. Like another six figures worth of debt, like who wants to do that? But, um, hey, if I just guess what skills I learned trying to start an online business. Um, that wasn't technically remotely close related to the field, so I had to learn to another stage in life. That's just how it is.

Speaker 1:

People don't just learn one skill at a time. As we pursue something we're interested in, we learn a variety of different transferable skills. And if you the big fail, this goes back to asking the question is this project for me or other people? Because that'll change your perception about the project. If it's just for you, does it really matter if the project gets finished or not? If you want to finish it, you should, but it's not a requirement If it's for other people. Is it for the masses or is it just for friends and family? Person who wants to write a children's book for their grandchild requires a different set of skills than someone who wants to do so commercially and with a larger audience. So stopping finishing things and engaging in any of these activities is not a sign of failure. I want you to remove the word quit from your vocabulary, not because of its actual meaning, but the connotation that is associated with quitting. Quitting isn't failure. One of the people in the back Quitting is not failure.

Speaker 1:

I was a kid, I wanted to do all of the things and I wanted to try cheerleading. There's nothing wrong with that. You're like what the heck? Why would you like? Like, girl, please stop. I don't know what I saw that made me want to do cheerleading. I don't know, it doesn't make any sense, but I wanted to try it. Um, I did all the things. I did the practical outfit. I sold the chocolates to get the pom-poms. Um, I gave it all my, gave it all during the city parade and I haven't been a cheerleader since. I have no desire to be a cheerleader. I wasn't very good at it. I tried it, I didn't like it and I never had to sign up again. I didn't fail because I quit being a cheerleader. It wasn't something I was interested in, so I stopped. Cheerleading was something I was interested in, so I stopped. Chilling was something I was interested in.

Speaker 1:

If you're doing something for other people to consume and engage with in some way, you're also allowed to stop. I stopped editing. I stopped putting stuff out there that I did editing. I take on people that I feel. You know, I took on an editing story because the author really wanted to work with me. Okay, you know I can do that, um, but I don't put there. Uh, I'm juxtaposing.

Speaker 1:

I played the recorder since I was in first grade. I played the saxophone for seven years. I played the trumpet for two years. I casually played the piano for two years and when I got to college I had to stop. Um, music, like opportunity. I was good at it, but I still stopped because my saxophone for, like, I guess I played it too hard and the keys fell off. I don't know, but like we didn't have the opportunity to fix it for whatever reason, and partly because life just got in the way it happens. We're human, we're not robots. Um, I've always had, or had, the opportunity, and it's literally because the place I lived in before I moved to washington didn't fix woodwind instruments. Um, and it was just and put it down because of a lack of opportunity to continue to engage in it.

Speaker 1:

Um, the problem becomes stopping doing things for other people. If you're exploring something new, you may want to start off small. If you're learning to write and that's not your forte, then writing some blog posts or short stories to share with others is likely to be easier than ask about writing and publishing, and you need to give yourself the space and the grace to keep it to yourself until it's ready and finished. That doesn't mean you can't share it a little bit, but you just want to be mindful of who you're sharing with. You know you can't share with just anybody, especially if they're looking at you thriving and you engaging with your passion. It brings up a lot of stuff for people. But, again, just save it and share it with, like a safe space or safe community. It doesn't have to be bigling audience, you know either. Um, stopping things.

Speaker 1:

There are plenty of projects that I started and never finished, but I didn't quit being a writer because of that. Said, I looked at the reason why I started stories and never finished them. So let's look at these reasons and see if any of these resonate with you. So I tried to tackle too much too quickly. I was too scared to put something out there. I got bored with the project and I tried to do my project based on what other people said, but that wasn't conducive to my writing style. So we'll tackle these more, reflecting on your multi-passionate journey. All these more reflecting on your multi-passionate journey. Um and this is reframing failure.

Speaker 1:

One of the most impactful conversation I've had took place during one of our school's equity team meeting again, multi-passionate, you take your one thing from something else and applying it to something entirely different. Um, this particular meeting was about grading practice and it was fascinating because they said the key takeaway from that was that success and failure is often defined by other people, their biases, their anxieties and their values. Our culture puts a high value on success and winning, and success is defined as money, fancy cars, big houses, et cetera, et cetera. Get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable about staying stagnant and stagnation. Develop yourself. Create an environment where it feels you know you can finish your writing session or your drawings, the painting session. You step back and be like you. I don't really like that and it's okay. You know I didn't fail. I just don't like the particular aspect of the project that I did um, build resilience and perseverance. So one of the that is just being persistent, trying to learn more, learn more about your process that you're trying to pursue. Um, and we select on what way. So that's again goes back to that other piece of being resilient and persevering.

Speaker 1:

I I think when you reflect on like, hey, you know, what responsibility did I have in this thing? What external factors happened, like, say you were painting a picture, you're like, oh crap, I ran out and the picture doesn't look the way I thought it was gonna look, was blue, like well, obviously what went wrong is that you didn't have blue, simple, simple explanation. But didn't have blue, simple, simple explanation. But next time have blue paint. It could be that simple or it can be more complex, just like, for instance, I lost the joy in writing.

Speaker 1:

Things happen and you know, learning to get the joy back, that resilience and perseverance like you don't have, get the joy back, that resilience and perseverance. Like you don't have to be get back on the saddle and meet the Mustang all the way to the town, like you can just take baby steps. You might have to ride the little cone circle for a little bit before you're ready to jump out and that's perfectly fine. Like it goes, like that's how you create passion. You know, if you feel like, hey, I really wanted to do this thing, but you know my grandmother was in the hospital or dog got sick, just acknowledging that and honoring, like, hey, you didn't have the capacity to do the things that you wanted to do, but you stuck with it and that's what mattered. And it's about adopting a journey mindset. So, knowing that you're like, hey, you know, my grandma was sick and I tried to do this thing and it didn't work out for one reason or another, but it's a journey, you're still on that journey.

Speaker 1:

What do you define as success and how do you know when you've reached your version of success? Is it when you have, like, a certain number of projects out in the world? Is it when you get a certain number of reviews, or like money in the bank? I don't think we as individuals get the right to judge people on whether their motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic. So intrinsic motivation is something that comes within, something you want to do, fulfill like a certain purpose in life, opposed to extrinsic motivation, where you're driven by external factors. I don't think we get to judge what people are motivated by, because, as long as they're doing things ethically and in the service of the greater good, getting to define those goals for yourself and celebrating those small wins and milestones along the way. I just wanted to share my thoughts about being multi-passionate with you and help you understand what it takes to embrace your multi-passionate life.