I’m very newly out of the closet about something that people in my circle knew ALL along. . . .

When there is something that is so part of our being that it comes from our souls and permeates our being at a cellular level, we really can’t hide it.

I often coach my clients through an exercise that helps them get more focused about what they really love to do, because that is often where our TRUE BRILLIANCE lies.

But we often think of those things as a hobby, a part time thing, something we would love to do later in life when we have more time for fun.

However, there is often an opportunity to do more of what we love in our business.

For instance, a client of mine recently joined me at a two day retreat, and we restyled her business to include more of her passion for fashion into her health services. It was such an “aha!” moment for all of us who were there.

At the same retreat, we created a whole new signature talk and program for a client who is an actress, speaker and a natural on camera who wasn’t including ANY of her gifts and talents into her business strategy.

It was a theme of embracing in our business what we were letting hang out on the outskirts and not giving the appropriate attention to what was in actuality so deserving.

My closest friend helped me see that I also had gifts that I wasn’t unwrapping in my own business. My true love is creativity for the sake of creativity, and while I use it in my marketing, it certainly hasn’t been center stage.

What often feels like a passion is easy to keep on a shelf because we don’t believe that we can do what we love and also monetize it. That seems too easy and work isn’t easy, right?

Of course that is so, so wrong. Our natural born gifts, talents, skills, interests and passions SHOULD be shared. I have taught this for YEARS. Authentic marketing is what brings our most ideal clients to us because they see themselves in us. But if we’re hiding out, and putting the best parts of us in storage, and hoarding them away in a dark room, we are missing such a huge opportunity.

Your passion doesn’t have to and possibly shouldn’t be your entire business, but most likely there is a place for it to play a much bigger role.

Talk about, write about it, use it as a metaphor, integrate it into your services, and possibly into your brand.

Just let your gifts out of the closet, and see what happens. Our best gifts are the ones we always secretly wanted but never let ourselves believe we could actually receive.

What do you have locked away?