Finding our Zone of Genius lead to FriDate Italia
Last month, Rob and I read The Big Leap and Genius Zone in preparation for an interview with the author Gay Hendricks (listen to interview here). As we learned about the Zone of Genius, we realized that we had some brainstorming to do.
According to the author, your Zone of Genius is the zone where your natural talents and enthusiasms intersect. When you’re in your genius zone, you’re taking advantage of your unique abilities and doing what you love.
In his books, Hendricks suggests that we gain more fulfillment and happiness when we spend more time on activities in our zone of genius. And, we are all about finding that sweet spot between business success AND living a great life.
So, we grabbed a white board and headed onto our terrace to play a little game of Stupid Idea Time: Genius Zone Edition.
How We Found our Zone of Genius
Using the Zone of Genius formula, we asked ourselves the following questions and wrote the answers on the white board.
- “What do I most love to do? (I love it so much I can do it for long periods without getting tired or bored).”
- “What work do I do that doesn’t seem like work ?”
- “In my work, what produces the highest ratio of abundance and satisfaction to the amount of time spent?”
- “What is my unique ability?” (What can I do that others are unlikely to be able to do at this level?)
When we started this process, we had ZERO idea where we’d end up. But, by question #3, the picture was clear. Our Zone of Genius will have something to do with Italy. Let me break it down for you.
Question 1: What do I most love to do? (I love it so much I can do it for long periods without getting tired or bored).
If you watch ANY of our social media, you can see that we just can’t stop sharing about Italy. The food, the wine, the culture, the lessons we’re learning and we LOVE sharing it. Probably oversharing it for some of your liking but. It definitely checks the box of something we most love to do and don’t get bored.
Question 2: What work do I do that doesn’t seem like work ?
Talking about Italy and planning our upcoming Italy Experience does NOT seem like work. It’s a DREAM to share everything we love.
Question 3: In my work, what produces the highest ratio of abundance and satisfaction to the amount of time spent?
This is where things get interesting. When we talk about abundance and satisfaction for the time spent. Again… Italy checks the boxes. We are currently working on a guidebook series for traveling to Italy and have an Italy event planned.
Once the guidebook series is available and live, we know that we will see our guidebooks in the hands of tourists in the city… talk about satisfaction! And, with the value we plan to provide – the abundance of love and money will be organic!
For our events, we absolutely LIVE for the looks on peoples faces when they experience something for the first time. We love watching our guests drop into the experience and open up in a way they never thought possible from travel. Bringing that LOVE to Italy is a literal dream come true!
The Law of Compensation (from the book, Go Giver) states “your income is determined by how many people you help and how much you help them”. We know the impact of our experiences. We know how it fuels inspiration, connection, appreciation and innovation. The VALUE we provide goes far beyond your average travel experience. Our immersive experiences will change your life. As we build these Italy experiences, we don’t stress about the compensation, as we know that they’ll eventually there will be a wait-list, and we will be rewarded.
Question 4: What is my unique ability?” (What can I do that others are unlikely to be able to do at this level)
When I watch videos on social media, and the travel-influencer says “I spent two days on the Amalfi Coast, let me show you all the secret spots you must go to.” – I think to myself, “You couldn’t even scratch the surface in two-days, let alone find anything secret.” Most travel-influencers social media is copy-cat at best. They spend a day or two in a location, hit the already known spots, share beautiful videos and BOOM – thousands of views.
That is NOT what we do. It’s NEVER been what we do.
In 2006, Rob and I started a travel company called Jet Set Life. We traveled around the world, pre-social media, and shot our own travel show for YouTube. We also created digital travel guides. We did 20 destinations, had close to 3 million views on YouTube and hosted a video-travel podcast. We did this for almost a decade before shifting gears. It was so much fun to spend weeks, sometimes a month in one location and dive deep. And… even with all of our research, connections and treking… we still didn’t have a locals perspective. But, our lists were pretty damn good, and we’ve been in this travel game a long-as-time… like almost 20 years long. All of this experience has paved the way for what we are about to do.
So our unique ability that sets us a part from the rest? We have 20 years experience in travel curation, deep connections, we actual live in Italy AND we’ve written 20 guidebooks. I’d say we’re made for this.
What’s Next for FriDate Italia
The first phase of our new brand, FriDate Italia will be GROWTH through social media. We will be pouring out valuable and inspiring content, growing an audience of Italophiles that LOVE all things Italy, want to travel in Italy and are interested in our expat perspective on this beautiful country.
As we grow our audience and find our people, we’re busy behind the scenes writing our first 3 books that will be launched, most likely in 2024 on Amazon.
Then, we MIGHT start a FriDate Italia podcast, offer FriDate Italia workshops and a few other things we have ideas for… but nothing can happen without the audience! So before we dive into product creation, that’s our first step.
We hope us peeling back the curtain and showing you how we apply the lessons we learn to our life and business helps you do the same for yours!
P.S. If you play a game of Stupid Idea Time: Genius Zone Edition, please take a photo and tag us on Social media!
