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Now, when we first go out on our own and we're doing our own thing, we often have lots of different ideas about the things we want to do, and we've got lots of different interests that we want to explore. But often the advice we get given is try and focus on the one thing, it makes uh things a lot easier, you're talking about the same thing, and you'll get traction a lot quicker. But but sometimes it doesn't sit right with us. Sometimes we're like, oh no, but I actually is is there a way to do multiple things and how can I reconcile that? And that's what we're going to be talking about today is how you can use your values as a bit of a lens to figure out what your own ecosystem looks like. So welcome to the Values Lab, a podcast series for founders and portfolio career professionals looking to live a more values-their life. And I am your host, Viren, founder of Values Map and In the Game. And today's episode was inspired by my conversation with DPA, and I I really admire how DPAC has pulled together lots of different offerings and services in his own ecosystem. And there is a common through line there. Both his mission and his values come through in all of the different services he offers. So he's able to do multiple things without being scattered and still being quite focused. And I thought it's an interesting concept to explore because it's something I've personally grappled with throughout my seven odd years of running a business is you know, do I do lots of things? Do I do one thing? And what works better? And so perhaps that's where I'll where I'll start is you know, at the beginning of my own own journey, uh, I actually started by offering um a massive amount of services. I actually, as I shared in my episode with DPAC, I you know, I think it's a good thing at the beginning sometimes to just say yes to lots of stuff because when you're out on your own for the first time, uh, there's two benefits in saying yes to lots of things. You start quickly figuring out, well, you know, you try things out and you figure out what you like and what you don't like. So I think they're saying yes more is useful in that regard. Um, the other thing is it gets the kind of revenue coming in early. I think that's one of the challenges at the beginning is you need the cash flow coming in quickly, um, and being more inclined to say yes kind of opens up a few more doors. So for me, at the beginning of that first year, I remember I offered all kinds of things. I offered kind of service design, I offered bespoke tailored recruitment, I did team and leadership development, I did one-on-one coaching, I did so many different things. And our first year was great. And in fact, uh, that first year, still to this date, is the best year from a revenue perspective that I've ever had. Um, and it also made it quite easy for people to, you know, once I was in there with working with my clients, it was easy for them to refer me to their their friends because you're kind of doing a whole bunch of stuff, so they could just say, Hey, you've got a people issue, Virgin could probably help you out. And in those early days, yes, yeah, I could pretty much anything that was coming up from a people and culture perspective, um, I could jump in and help out with. The challenge became kind of after that year, is that on a kind of personal level, I felt pretty scattered and spread thin. Um, by saying yes to lots of things, I was actually doing doing things that uh were not great from an energy perspective, and I'd feel quite drained, so it was quite tiring. So after the year one, the rush started to kind of wear off a little bit, and I felt like I was kind of spread thin, I was getting tired, and then actually trying to then get traction outside that notework proved a little bit more challenging because I was talking about so many different different things, and so I wasn't known for any one thing, and um it became harder to kind of build a a brand around what I wanted to be known for. So I find you know, that first couple of years, yes, it was great year one. I learned a lot about running a business, um, and I learned a lot about what I liked and what I didn't like, but essentially I found you know um it was becoming a little bit too tiring. And so what's happened for myself over the eight-year period if at as a kind of high level, it's I've been narrowing down my focus and to the point of kind of where I was maybe last year, where it's like I was very much focused on like values is my thing, and up until last year, focusing a lot on organizational values. I kind of really drilled down to that that level. But then in the kind of last 12 to 18 months, I've started now to kind of expand things out back again. So I think I've got into a position um 12 to 18 months ago, I was quite happy. The focus was good, it was easier to get kind of um traction, and I feel like now's the time to go back to like I can I can probably broaden things out a little bit more, and so that's what I've been doing over the last 12 to 18 months because I I think there are benefits in doing multiple things. So I think for a lot of founders and portfolio career professionals, sometimes they like to play a little bit more narrow, and that's totally fine. But you know, a lot of people I speak to, a lot of my friends that are in this space, they actually have this appetite for varieties. I think one that's one of the key things is you know, we end up doing our you know, leaving the corporate world to do our own thing. We don't want to be constrained by the same things that we were when we worked for someone else, so we don't have to just do one thing, we can do multiple things. There's uh varieties very appealing. I think, you know, the other aspect of being able to do multiple things is you get multiple revenue streams, so rather than having all our eggs in one basket, we can kind of play around with other other revenue streams, and hopefully, when things are not so good in one of those things, they can be good in another, another, and they kind of can balance each other out. I think it opens up a lot more room for experimentation, so we can try a lot more new things, whereas when if we've just got one offering, it can be a little bit difficult to do that. Um, I think also the growth that comes with running multiple things, we can play with different formats, with different audiences, with different approaches, and that can be quite appealing as well. So, all those things are really appealing to me. So I think the narrowing process was necessary for me, but now I've got into a position where I feel like yes, I want to I want more breadth in what I what I do. And so I think that this doesn't apply to everyone, and some people might be on the fence to go, I'm I'm unsure about this. And I think one of the things, one of the ways DPAC framed this, which I quite liked, is even if you're in a more traditional corporate job, you'll have multiple projects that you're working on often in in those jobs as well. So I think there's no harm in exploring this for us, especially if we've got a little bit of an appetite for that, just to have a little bit of a think about what does this look like. So if you're interested in doing multiple things or exploring doing multiple things, I think a useful way to look at it is how can it fit as part of a cohesive ecosystem. So, like in DPAC's example, he has three different offerings, and there is a connective tissue there by both the mission and his value of kindness. There's a connectivity there. So, what I do think is important when we're looking at different offerings, product and service offerings, that there is that connective tissue, and it might be a purpose mission connective tissue, or it might be a values connective tissue, it might be both. I did I think uh obviously being such a values person, I think the values connective tissue is is important. But then you could differentiate in a lot of different ways. So when you're thinking about the services you offer, you can service different customer groups, um, you can offer different products and services, you can look at different entry points, and you can look at different delivery mechanisms. So, actually, when we're looking at broadening out what we offer, whilst there might be this connective tissue there around purpose and values and mission, the what we do and how we do it can vary quite significantly. And so I'll go back to my own example here where, you know, as I mentioned, I've been whittling down up until kind of 18 months or so ago, 12 to 18 months, and now I'm looking to broaden back out again. So I've been whittling it down, and and my one of my common threads is obviously around values. So the work within the game is on organizational values, and over the last 12 to 18 months, I've been working on things like this podcast, which is obviously for founders and portfolio career professionals looking at understanding their values better, but also the newer product which I've got, which is values map, which is for founders, portfolio career professionals, and also kind of forward-thinking leaders to go through this whole process of understanding what your values are and getting a bit of an edge in the AI era. So there's a common theme there around values. All those products are like I've, you know, the difference between the in-the-game is servicing organizations versus these, you know, the values map and values lab are for more for individuals. The delivery mechanisms are quite different. In the game is more consulting and facilitation, whereas the products are more like audio products, they're interactive digital experiences, so they're quite different. And so for me, it's great because it's it's you know, doing the new stuff, there's a connective thread there to the theme. Um, but it also means I've been able to play around with a lot of different formats and do a lot of things, which is good for my growth and good for my value of creativity. But the other connective thread here is that all of these products and services are focused on two of my core values, which are growth and achievement. You know, and for me, growth is all about getting better and improving and being better than yesterday, and achievement is about having impact. And so there's a connective theme there, which is like we better understand ourselves, we better articulate our values. Either as an organization or an individual, we can have a better impact. We can have a bigger, bigger impact. And so values is just one way in which we can we can do that. And then the other key part is then how I deliver these services. I play a lot into the fun and creativity. I like these things being done in a fun, creative, and different way. So, you know, especially like if I look at the values map product, for me, yes, there's lots of books out there, there's lots of assessments you can do that help you understand your values. I don't I I think there's kind of other novel ways of of doing these things, and that's kind of what I've aimed to do with values map. So the values are coming in both in terms of what we're focused on, but also how we're delivering those services as well. So, something useful to try out now for your situation. So, let's say you've got multiple ideas in the moment and you're trying to reconcile them, or you've got some that you're kind of playing around with. Useful, just grab a like a piece of paper or do this mentally and just map out all those different ideas. What are they, and see if you can figure out what the ecosystem looks like. So, which of these products and services are core to what you do? The core might be the ones which are at present, you know, they may be the things that are the main revenue generator for you. Um, which ones maybe are you delivering at the moment that are on the periphery? And maybe which ones are new that you're kind of looking to bring in. And then look at the whole lot and see is there kind of a pattern here? Is there a common value that all these things share? Is there a common mission or purpose that these all share? And maybe ask yourselves some questions around are they serving different customer types or similar customer types? Is the delivery mechanism same or different across these? And is there a way to kind of connect all these things together into a little bit of an ecosystem? What are the patterns and in particular try and use your values if you can to provide a bit of a lens to go, what's the connection across all of these different things? And then a couple of other questions to ask. If you're kind of exploring about bringing something new on the mix, look at your own kind of energy right now. Are you feeling quite scattered at the moment? And if you are, is this really the right time to bring something new in? Or have you in a position where you're you know your core's working quite well and you've got headspace to bring something new in? Because anytime we bring something new in, it it is a bit of an endeavor. Um when we're evaluating the ideas, are there ones which are kind of more aligned and other ones which are less aligned? And if the ones there are ones which are more aligned, they're probably going to be easier to focus on bringing in. So, again, talking from my own experience, this podcast and the values map product, they were slightly easier ones to focus on than some of the other ideas I had because of the alignment to everything else that I'm that I'm doing. And another useful one, which is actually was quite useful for me last year in working with my coach, I was getting quite drained. There was a type of work that I was doing which was not super values aligned, it didn't really connect to everything else very well. So it's kind of felt like a little bit of a drag, but it was good for revenue. And then the question I had to ask myself, then, and it's thanks to my coach, is can I replace that type of work with something which is a little bit more aligned? So instead of just saying I'm going to stop doing this, um, which is dangerous because you're kind of cutting off a revenue source, it's kind of trying to go, how can I substitute this for another revenue source that is more values aligned? So that's something I've been kind of doing at the beginning of this year, is amping up a certain um offering that I've got around facilitation because that's more rewarding for me. It allows me to do things in a creative, fun, and playful way. So the other kind of work was quite technical. So just substituting work out. So I think it's quite useful to map out all your different revenue sources, products, new ideas, and then just try and evaluate how do they kind of all fit together in a cohesive way around my values, or when I kind of communicate in them outwards. So I think to wrap things up there, yes, there is this temptation to do multiple things, and I think you can kind of make a case for focusing more or doing more. As I said, in my instance, I went from lots to narrow down to now broaden it, broadening out. I think most people I speak to, there is an appetite to do more things, there's lots of ideas, and I think what I would advise is let's do that in an intentional way, using our kind of values and our mission and purpose as a bit of a lens to go, is there is there a way I can build an ecosystem which makes sense and makes it easier to manage my energy rather than being scattered and doing lots of different things. Um, and so hopefully it's been useful to kind of go through these examples and maybe evaluate your own own circumstances and think a little bit about how you might approach building your own ecosystem. Now, if you have any uh insights from this episode, um I would love to love to hear from you. Just uh ping me a message. Uh, if you've got questions as well, feel free to free to reach out. I'd love to hear from you and address any kind of questions or ideas for future episodes. Um, until next time.