Drop the Hustles and Focus on Craft

Become a thought leader by honing your Zone of Genius

Over the past 3–8 years, I have bounced between day job and side hustle. That was until I started consulting, when they became one. Well, in theory. That was the point where I should have merged these personas. But in reality, new personas have emerged. While this idea seems fine at first glance, I feel like it has been detrimental to me professionally, but even more so personally.

Jumping back a few decades, most people had a job at an office, store, or factory. When they came home, they were not able to do that work, so they became their personal self. Sure, you could talk about work or lament with family or friends, but most of that personality was left at the punch clock. In addition to proximity, knowledge was less accessible, and side-hustling was done by very few. There were only two versions of you—professional and personal.

Jumping back to the now, this is a rare thing. Not only are the physical lines of work blurred, but it is easy to learn new things and side-hustle your face off. I have talked about hustle culture before, so I won't go into detail about that. What I want to get into is the idea of going all in on one thing, only having your professional and personal selves. I recommend approaching the situation by focusing on your craft—more specifically, one craft.

Craft

If you asked me what I do, I would say I am a Management Consultant. The problem is that I also spend my nights and weekends learning about knowledge management, cognition, mental models, shapes of thinkers, methodologies, etc. Firstly, this means I am always learning and working, which is a lot to juggle. Secondly, it means I do not have focus. I am not focused on my craft of being a Management Consultant. How can we find our focus? Set constraints.

After a lot of self-reflection, I have defined the through-line, my actual craft. I have held this title before, and I guess I never let go of it. I am a Product Manager. How did I come to this conclusion? I tried to look for the work I was actually doing, rather than depending on the work I was broadly doing. I reviewed my client deliverables, my writing, and my notes. I defined my Zone of Genius. It ended up being that I am great at building human-centric systems and products that focus on a balance of simplicity and utility.

Zone of Genius

What is your Zone of Genius exactly? It is something that comes naturally. You can perform it at a high level, and you find fulfillment while doing it. You also provide value to others—learnings, mentorship, and insights. You don't have to do a deep analysis of your life to find your genius. You simply need to pay attention to what you shine in. It will be adjacent to your craft. A focused subset of it.

It started to stick out to me when I was taking a UI/UX Design bootcamp a few months back. I naturally fell into this groove of helping my classmates. I was the first to answer questions, I started receiving DMs from people, and I was told that I was more helpful than the facilitators. Your Zone of Genius is likely right in front of you; you just have to let it shine through.

Thought Leadership

Once you've identified your craft and focused on your genius, you should start to share your skills in any way you can. The best way to do this is through thought leadership. I don't mean you need to perform a TED Talk or become a guru on social—though that is one way to do it. I mean for you to share your genius of your craft in any way you feel comfortable. This might be through a newsletter, maybe LinkedIn, possibly a YouTube channel; you might even lean into 15-second videos on your favorite short-form platform. Regardless of how you share, you should share early and often. Not only will this show your peers and potential recruiters what you know, but teaching is the best way to learn. In turn, it will hone your craft further, enriching your Zone of Genius.

In a world that is overrun by choice, information overload, and side-hustle—finding your focus is not only healthy, it's essential. What does this mean for me, this letter, and my career? I am focusing on my craft, Zone of Genius, and expressing my thought leadership through the lens of a Product Manager that is focused on building human-centric systems and products. Not only does this make my role clearer to clients or possible recruiters, but it also gives me the constraints I need. Rather than learning about that new thing, I have a rubric to decide if that information is worth my time and energy. That means, when I am not honing my craft and sharing my thoughts, I can simply be me, not one of a dozen me's.