Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / The Drift: Reconnecting with the Purpose Behind Your Business With Jennifer Ann Johnson
Transcript
- 0:37Jennifer Johnson: Today, I want to talk about something that hits close to home for anybody who's been on a journey for a while now.
- 0:44Jennifer Johnson: It's the slow drift away from the reasons you started in the first place.
- 0:48Jennifer Johnson: And you know what I'm talking about.
- 0:50Jennifer Johnson: You begin this path, whether it's your business or your career, with fire in your belly, and you had a clear vision that you wanted to create something and who you wanted to help or how you wanted to change your life.
- 1:03Jennifer Johnson: But somewhere along the way, life happened.
- 1:05Jennifer Johnson: You got into the day-to-day demands and you got caught up in the mechanics of actually running your business, like paying your bills and keeping all those plates spinning.
- 1:15Jennifer Johnson: And the urgent started crowding out the important somewhere along the way.
- 1:21Jennifer Johnson: And now maybe you find yourself going through the motions and checking those boxes, but you feel disconnected from the passion that started it all.
- 1:29Jennifer Johnson: You're making progress, but you're not feeling purposeful.
- 1:32Jennifer Johnson: I want to talk about how you find your way back to your why, not just intellectually, but emotionally, and how to reconnect with that original spark that got you started in the first place.
- 1:43Jennifer Johnson: Before we start talking about reconnecting, let's acknowledge something important that drifting away from your original why isn't a character flaw or a sign that you've lost your way permanently.
- 1:54Jennifer Johnson: It's a natural part of the journey.
- 1:57Jennifer Johnson: When you first start something, your why is usually crystal clear because it's born from pain and passion or possibility.
- 2:04Jennifer Johnson: Maybe you started your business because you were frustrated with the options available in your industry.
- 2:09Jennifer Johnson: And as you embark on your personal transformation, you couldn't stand where you were anymore.
- 2:15Jennifer Johnson: And that original why is pretty powerful because it's emotional, it's personal, and it's urgent.
- 2:20Jennifer Johnson: And it feels like it's a calling, it's a choice.
- 2:25Jennifer Johnson: But as you progress in your journey, several things happen that naturally distance you from that original motivation.
- 2:31Jennifer Johnson: Success brings new challenges that weren't part of that original vision.
- 2:35Jennifer Johnson: Time creates a distance between who you are now and who you were when you started.
- 2:40Jennifer Johnson: I experienced this firsthand about three years ago when I started building another business.
- 2:46Jennifer Johnson: I had started it because I was passionate about helping small business owners avoid those strategic mistakes that I have seen destroy others.
- 2:54Jennifer Johnson: And that's that was my why.
- 2:57Jennifer Johnson: It was so clear and it was so motivating.
- 2:59Jennifer Johnson: But as the business grew, I found myself spending most of my time on things that had nothing to do with that original passion.
- 3:07Jennifer Johnson: And the things that I was originally doing, that work that originally energized me, it became smaller and smaller percentages of what I was doing every day.
- 3:18Jennifer Johnson: And by most accounts, I was successful, but I felt disconnected.
- 3:23Jennifer Johnson: I was going through the motions of running my business rather than living out my purpose.
- 3:28Jennifer Johnson: And that's when I realized I needed to intentionally reconnect with my why and not just remember it, but remember how it felt.
- 3:36Jennifer Johnson: When you lose touch with your original why, it doesn't just affect your motivation.
- 3:40Jennifer Johnson: It impacts every part of your life.
- 3:43Jennifer Johnson: Your why really serves as your North Star for making decisions.
- 3:47Jennifer Johnson: When you're connected to that deeper purpose, choices are much clearer and easier to make.
- 3:52Jennifer Johnson: I noticed that in my own journey, when I started saying yes to projects that were profitable but didn't align with my original vision, and I didn't have that clear why to guide me.
- 4:03Jennifer Johnson: I was making decisions based on the money aspect rather than my mission, which led to working obviously with people that I didn't enjoy working with or projects that I really didn't enjoy doing.
- 4:16Jennifer Johnson: Your why is that source of sustainable energy for your work.
- 4:19Jennifer Johnson: When you're connected to your deeper purpose, you can find the energy even when times are challenging.
- 4:25Jennifer Johnson: And it's not about toxic positivity, it's or pretending that all work is fun.
- 4:31Jennifer Johnson: It's about having a deeper source of motivation that can carry you through those hard times.
- 4:35Jennifer Johnson: When you're operating from your why, you're naturally more creative and innovative because you're focused on serving your mission.
- 4:42Jennifer Johnson: When you lose touch with it, it's when you tend to default to safe and proven approaches rather than exploring new possibilities.
- 4:52Jennifer Johnson: Perhaps most importantly, your why is what gives you resilience during setbacks and challenges.
- 4:57Jennifer Johnson: When you're clear about your deeper purpose, temporary failures feel like data points in an experiment.
- 5:04Jennifer Johnson: When you're disconnected, they can feel really devastating.
- 5:08Jennifer Johnson: And that's why reconnecting with your why often involves some deep work.
- 5:14Jennifer Johnson: It involves digging back through layers of accumulated, complex things to rediscover why you got started.
- 5:22Jennifer Johnson: Start by literally going back to the beginning.
- 5:25Jennifer Johnson: When did you first have the idea to start this journey?
- 5:28Jennifer Johnson: What was happening?
- 5:29Jennifer Johnson: What were you frustrated with and what excited you?
- 5:32Jennifer Johnson: What did you hope to achieve or what did you hope to change?
- 5:36Jennifer Johnson: Most importantly, remember how you felt.
- 5:38Jennifer Johnson: What was the emotional state that drove you to take action?
- 5:42Jennifer Johnson: Was it the vision that seemed so compelling that you were willing to risk your time and your money and your energy to pursue it?
- 5:50Jennifer Johnson: Many, many powerful wise are born from frustration with the ways that things are.
- 5:58Jennifer Johnson: What were you frustrated with when you started?
- 6:00Jennifer Johnson: What problem were you trying to solve?
- 6:02Jennifer Johnson: And what injustice maybe were you trying to address?
- 6:05Jennifer Johnson: Maybe it was inefficiency.
- 6:07Jennifer Johnson: Think back to your first meaningful success on this journey.
- 6:11Jennifer Johnson: Not necessarily your biggest, but your first time that you really felt like, hey, I'm making the kind of impact that I originally thought I would.
- 6:18Jennifer Johnson: How did it feel?
- 6:20Jennifer Johnson: What specifically about that connected you to your original why?
- 6:25Jennifer Johnson: Who were the first people that you hoped that you could serve or impact?
- 6:29Jennifer Johnson: And what were their needs and their challenges or dreams?
- 6:32Jennifer Johnson: How did you originally envision helping them?
- 6:36Jennifer Johnson: Well, you're doing this deep work, you'll discover that some aspects of your original why are no longer serving you.
- 6:42Jennifer Johnson: And that's normal, that's healthy.
- 6:44Jennifer Johnson: You've grown and you've learned and you've evolved.
- 6:47Jennifer Johnson: The key is to figure out between your natural evolution and what I call accidental abandonment.
- 6:55Jennifer Johnson: So natural evolution just happens when your core purpose remains the same, but your understanding of how to fulfill that purpose is expanded or deepened.
- 9:30Jennifer Johnson: Maybe you originally wanted to help small business owners, and now you realize you're called to help women entrepreneurs.
- 9:37Jennifer Johnson: Evolution is really preserves the heart of your original why.
- 9:43Jennifer Johnson: Accidental abandonment happens when you've drifted away from that core purpose because it no longer serves you.
- 9:51Jennifer Johnson: And maybe it's not because it doesn't serve you anymore, but maybe it's because there were external pressures or circumstances.
- 9:58Jennifer Johnson: If it is something that no longer serves you, then you need to find and go back to figure out what your why is.
- 10:05Jennifer Johnson: Sometimes you'll discover that you've both evolved and abandoned.
- 10:09Jennifer Johnson: Some aspects of your original why still resonate, but others really evolved and others have been accidentally abandoned.
- 10:17Jennifer Johnson: The challenge is integrating all of this into a renewed sense of purpose that honors your growth while reconnecting with your passion.
- 10:27Jennifer Johnson: So understanding the importance of reconnecting with your why is one thing, but actually doing it as another.
- 10:32Jennifer Johnson: So I'm going to give you a few personal approaches that will help you bridge that gap.
- 10:36Jennifer Johnson: The first one is your story exercise.
- 10:38Jennifer Johnson: Write out the story of why you started, but write it in third person as if you're telling someone else's story, it creates enough emotional distance to help you see patterns and motivations that might be hard to recognize when you're too close.
- 10:53Jennifer Johnson: Start with there was a person who decided to what?
- 10:59Jennifer Johnson: What did they decide to do?
- 11:01Jennifer Johnson: Because, and then tell the story that completes it.
- 11:05Jennifer Johnson: What were their circumstances?
- 11:06Jennifer Johnson: What were their emotions?
- 11:07Jennifer Johnson: What was their vision?
- 11:09Jennifer Johnson: Reading your own story as if it's somebody else's can help you reconnect with that courage or that passion or clarity that you originally had.
- 11:19Jennifer Johnson: The other one I like is to have a mentor conversation.
- 11:23Jennifer Johnson: Have a conversation with someone who knew you when you started, or someone who's who has heard you talk about your original vision, and have them reflect back as to what they remember about your original passion.
- 11:37Jennifer Johnson: This conversation can be incredibly value because it get valuable because it gives you an outsider's perspective on your journey, and it can help you see the patterns that you're not going to see.
- 11:49Jennifer Johnson: You can also do an impact audit, looking for evidence of your original why showing up in your current work, even if it's not obvious.
- 11:57Jennifer Johnson: Sometimes we think we've completely lost touch with our why when actually it's still really there.
- 12:02Jennifer Johnson: We just express it differently.
- 12:04Jennifer Johnson: Then you can do the energy assessment.
- 12:06Jennifer Johnson: What that looks like is paying attention to the parts of your current work that energize you and what drains you.
- 12:13Jennifer Johnson: This assessment can help you identify what activities to keep, expand, or eliminate.
- 12:20Jennifer Johnson: And then creating that space for your why.
- 12:23Jennifer Johnson: Once you've reconnected with your original why, the challenge becomes creating space for your current reality.
- 12:29Jennifer Johnson: It usually requires making some hard choices as to what to eliminate and delegate and restructure.
- 12:35Jennifer Johnson: The purpose audit is what helps you cut through your current commitments and projects and activities and categorize them based on their alignment with your sense of why.
- 12:45Jennifer Johnson: You can create three categories: directly aligned, which contributes to your core purpose, indirectly, which is necessary to support it, and unaligned, which doesn't have any purpose at all and could be eliminated for that matter.
- 13:00Jennifer Johnson: It helps you see where your time and energy are actually going versus where you want them to go.
- 13:06Jennifer Johnson: Then you can do a gradual realignment.
- 13:08Jennifer Johnson: Most people can't dramatically restructure their entire work or life overnight, nor should they.
- 13:15Jennifer Johnson: Instead, focus on gradual alignment, making small and consistent choices that move you closer to your why over time.
- 13:22Jennifer Johnson: And then the why integration: look for ways to integrate your renewed sense of why into what you're currently doing.
- 13:30Jennifer Johnson: Sometimes small shift approaches emphasize or communication can dramatically increase the alignment between your current work and your original purpose.
- 13:40Jennifer Johnson: And then scheduling regular check-ins with yourself to assess your connections to your why.
- 13:46Jennifer Johnson: It might be monthly or quarterly or annually, depending upon your needs, but you can ask yourself: am I still connected to my original purpose?
- 13:54Jennifer Johnson: And how and why am I evolving?
- 13:56Jennifer Johnson: What adjustments do I need to make?
- 13:59Jennifer Johnson: And then keeping track of your impact to make sure that what you're doing is still aligning with your original why.
- 14:06Jennifer Johnson: It may be testimonials or stories or just observations.
- 14:11Jennifer Johnson: And then surrounding yourself with people who understand and support your why.
- 14:16Jennifer Johnson: This might be mentors or peers or team members.
- 14:19Jennifer Johnson: Just to make sure that you have people around you who can remind you of why.
- 14:25Jennifer Johnson: When you successfully reconnect to your why, something magical happens.
- 14:29Jennifer Johnson: Work becomes energizing again.
- 14:32Jennifer Johnson: Decisions become clearer, and challenges become opportunities.
- 14:36Jennifer Johnson: But most importantly, where you remember why you started your journey in the first place, you reconnect with the version of yourself who had the courage to begin anyway.
- 14:46Jennifer Johnson: That person's still inside you.
- 14:48Jennifer Johnson: That vision, it's still valid, and that's why it's still calling to you, waiting for you to remember and respond.
- 14:55Jennifer Johnson: So as we wrap up today's episode, I want to leave you with this reminder.
- 14:59Jennifer Johnson: Your original why wasn't just a moment of inspiration.
- 15:03Jennifer Johnson: It was a glimpse of your potential, a preview of the impact that you're capable of making.
- 15:08Jennifer Johnson: Life has a way of pulling us away from our deepest purposes, not through malicious intent, but simply through accumulation of responsibilities, opportunities, and complexities that come with growth in time.
- 15:22Jennifer Johnson: But that drift doesn't mean that your why is gone.
- 15:25Jennifer Johnson: It just means it's waiting for you to remember it and reconnect with it.
- 15:31Jennifer Johnson: So here's my challenge for you this week: do some digging, do some deep work on your original why.
- 15:37Jennifer Johnson: Go back to the beginning and remember why you started.
- 15:40Jennifer Johnson: Feel those original emotions again and then ask yourself, how can I honor that original vision while embracing everything I've learned to become since then?
- 15:49Jennifer Johnson: You don't have to abandon everything that you've built to reconnect with your why, but you do have to be intentional about creating space for that original passion to breathe and grow again.
- 16:00Jennifer Johnson: Your why is calling.
- 16:02Jennifer Johnson: It's been calling you all along.
- 16:04Jennifer Johnson: The question is are you ready to answer?