We solopreneurs are CEOs of our business, but that stands for Chief Everything Officer. We are responsible for everything from strategic planning to marketing to sales to accounting to – oh, yeah – whatever it is that we charge our clients for.
As I plan out my day every morning, I make sure my most strategic self is showing up. Since I’ve found that my most creative time is in the morning, I schedule my Business Analyst persona for uninterrupted time from 9 until to noon most days. After lunch, my Accounting alter ego may appear to handle invoices and bills, or the Writer will come on the scene to queue up some blog posts and a newsletter article. Some days I need my IT skills to troubleshoot the video editing software, or my Marketing self to work on a new outreach effort for AIIP.
If I approach each day’s tasks with the question “who is the best persona for this job?”, I am more likely to be operating at my peak. If I am dealing with a technology issue, I marshal my forces — my Troubleshooter, Creative Problem-Solver, and We Can Do It personas step up to help me figure out a solution. If I have to conduct some primary market research on my own business, I call up my Explorer, Listener, and Open-minded personas to enable me to find out what I don’t know I don’t know yet.
When you tackle something, particularly when it’s not tapping into your strengths, run an inventory of your internal personas and see which ones you can bring to the job.
Love this posting – got a good giggle out of a couple of the ideas. Often my strategic self is a night owl and shows up at 2 AM! No amount of cajoling makes that “me” appear on demand.