I was invited to my first Tennessee Christian Chamber of Commerce meeting, and not long after I walked in, I was introduced to Dan Miller, author of 48 Days To The Work You Love.

As someone who is always encouraging others to turn their passion into work, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask him a few questions!

First, he challenges others to ask the question, “What does it mean to be fully alive?”
If you have an extraordinary gift, you cannot expect to live an ordinary life.

Our gifts take legs in different ways, but you must create a model for turning those gifts into a vocation.

He used a stool with three legs as an example. Those 3 legs are: passion, talent, economic model. Too often, we think that just because we have the first two, God will automatically bring us money has a result. That simply isn’t the case. Passion and talent are simply not enough to usurp the need for a goal and a plan.

Another issue I struggle with, especially as a Christian, is that I often feel the need to give away my services for free.
There are two problems with this:
1. There is a problem if I am giving my services away, yet cannot provide enough income for my family.
2. We also need to stop assuming that just because people receiving your message are in need doesn’t mean thete’s not value in them paying for it. When you encourage others to assign value, they are much more likely to work harder to instill that in others.

A lot of people are living below their potential . We see things as black-and-white instead of looking for “and solutions”: a solution that will encompass the best of both worlds.

Ultimately you have to work at what you know. If you Structure something that has value for people, money will show up in unexpected ways.

Still, some have been raised to think if you have money, you’ve somehow taken advantage of someone to get it. Instead, when we sell our passion, we need to look at it as investing in a seed that can also explode others’ success.

Even if you’re amazing at what you do, you have to separate yourself from the crowd.
Steve Martin says, “Be so good people can’t ignore you. Be unique in what you do.”
It’s important to narrow down your niche and identify specifically what it is that will set you apart.

After all, if you don’t assign value to yourself, how can you expect anyone else to?

Thank you to Dan for taking the time to speak with me today!