How To Balance Multiple Passions And Stay Sane As An Entrepreneur with Naja Hayward
Feb 15, 2023
If you're feeling overwhelmed by your many interests or obligations, don't worry - Naja Hayward has some great advice for you in this episode of Cash In On Camera. Learn how to manage it all and love your life.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll hear…
▶️ [2:19] So it started with really this epiphany moment of where I said, I desired that. And I think we all start at that moment where we have this epiphany moment where we desire something different than where we are today. And so that started this idea of we were traveling so much, we were in Boston. I saw we went to a tea company, and when I walked into that tea company, I was like, this is it. This is it. I want to start the Starbucks of tea. That's what I want to create is the Starbucks of tea. Then I started doing some research, still had my job. And realized, you know, to start the Starbucks of tea would have required much more capital than I had. And so I really started playing with my business brain, which I have an entrepreneurial grandmother, an entrepreneurial mother, so it isn't a little bit in my blood. And I started playing with, well, how could I get this out there? So I decided to start a product to come up with a tea that I would sell in other locations, and then I would establish my brand. So then when we did end up having our brick-and-mortar people would know who we were. So I ended up building this company, I had nine people working for me, so I'm not multi-passionate yet.
▶️ [4:14] And so my multi-passionate, if you will, was really in full effect at this time. But I was, by no means was I an expert in managing it. And it really took its toll in a whole lot of ways. And so, my tea business ended up, I ended up shutting my tea business down in 2015 and really focusing on my consulting because we were booming. Things happened. In 2019 relaunched tea. Just before Covid, I decided to go straight to E-commerce because originally we were wholesaling to spas and boutiques all over the country. You know, we had some really big clients and really big customers but still doing my consulting. And so long story short, life happened in 2019 just before Covid hit. An engagement broke off. It was a lot of change in my life.
▶️ [7:02] I wanna, before you get to point number three, I just wanna dig back on something you said earlier, which I think is very poignant for people who desire to have their hands in a lot of different things. Okay, so we're gonna focus on, let's say your coaching and the T since those were the predominant ones that were brought up. And I know you do so many other things, but at what point do you transition from one to the other? Because I think there's something to be said for the focus of, like you said, digging in and being like, tea, tea, tea. I'm building this up, but to what level before you start branching off into the next thing, which is coaching? Do you jump into that before you think you're ready? Is it a certain revenue level, or a certain team that's in place? How do you know when it's time to bring on, let's say the other passionate thing that you have in your heart?
▶️ [9:59] I've never heard of it compared to the celebrity world or to the entertainment world quite the way that you just described it. And it makes perfect sense. Like, you know, I love Jennifer Lopez, for example, and yeah, I just love J Lo. , you see her doing a lot of different things, right? She is a singer, a dancer an entrepreneur, all these different things. But she became known as one thing to start, and then it branched off, and then it branched off and went into all these different things. Even though she would probably say and has said in interviews that she's always had this all inside of her all along.
▶️ [11:02] I've never heard of it compared to the celebrity world or to the entertainment world quite the way that you just described it. And it makes perfect sense. Like, you know, I love Jennifer Lopez, for example, and yeah, I just love J Lo. , you see her doing a lot of different things, right? She is a singer, a dancer an entrepreneur, all these different things. But she became known as one thing to start, and then it branched off, and then it branched off and went into all these different things. Even though she would probably say and has said in interviews that she's always had this all inside of her all along.
▶️ [14:33] The way that we can start to trust the process is to not be all over the place. Right? And so sometimes we think being multi-passionate means, "I'm gonna start one thing cuz I have this idea cuz we're entrepreneurs." We do not suffer from a lack of ideas. . No. And so we start that idea, then we stop, then we don't do anything else with that first thing. Then we jump to the second being that's not being multi-passionate, that is being at a level that can be one of two things. , you're in an exploratory phase, which I think is a beautiful phase and an important phase in the process. Or you very well may be confused and that's for you to identify. And I do some of that work with my consulting clients let's identify really what's the thing that you truly wanna focus on today. Cuz sometimes, we say, "I wanna start a coaching business." And we wanna start it because people say you give really good advice and everybody else is coaching, so I should probably start a coaching business. And then you're "Oh my gosh. You mean I actually have to like talk to people?" And then help, you know, I have to do this. These are Oh my, I don't like that. And so the more questions you ask yourself know thy self, then the more success you can ultimately have once you start to truly become multi-passionate and organize that process so you can stay safe.
▶️ [18:05] Yes and yes, absolutely agree with everything you've said. I don't know if I would have the stamina to do that 12 times and figure that over, over 12 times, but I do feel like there has been a certain amount of throwing spaghetti at walls in the course of my own business in order to get it to a certain point. and I only feel like maybe more recently, and I would say like in maybe the last year, two years or so, that things are starting to become more clear to me because there's this aspect of me that is very driven and loves technology and that wasn't always as prevalent for me in the first stage of my business. And now I feel very called to integrate that in. And so it's interesting, right? It's this whole process of understanding yourself and self-awareness. You mentioned understanding where to start, which is so, so important, and also not going it alone. So the piece around team building is that you get to a point where you're not going to build this entire business or businesses in isolation. If you want to travel for 15 months. If you want to go on a cruise in the Caribbean, you know that I just went on one recently. If you wanna do those things, you're gonna have to have some team members in place who can hold down the fort for you. And that's probably part of a whole other conversation, Naja. So you're gonna have to come back so we can discuss team building.
▶️ [21:24] So there are two things, and first I wanna just acknowledge something about you that I think is amazing, which will help you in every single business you have the most beautiful, systematic, structured approach to how you do your entire business. And I've seen it. In all of it. And so everyone should be hiring you if for nothing, for the systematic piece. I'm just like, she's a genius. So I think that that is a great way to continue your marketing efforts. Me, I have made multi, multi-six figures through social media. And that is primarily how I make my money. I don't pay for ads, and I don't do a whole lot of that, but I really nurture my community. I'm consistent. And so going live on social media, posting on social media, engaging on social media. Allowing people into your world that you don't know, stop making your stuff private. It's not private, you have a business. So open that up until that's one.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras sed sapien quam. Sed dapibus est id enim facilisis, at posuere turpis adipiscing. Quisque sit amet dui dui.
Call To Action
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
