Many students often ask me, “How to turn your passion into a career?” because they would like to earn a living from something they love. If you are reading this article, chances are you are wondering the same thing.
Given my professional journey, which began with a great passion for education, I feel compelled to give you some useful advice to transform this dream into reality and achieve the desired success.
Why turn your passion into a career
The journalist Katherine Whitehorn once said, “Find out what you love doing best and get someone to pay you for it.” She wasn’t entirely wrong, and I can attest to that!
But I ask you to carefully consider the quote, as it’s not just about what you love doing but also about what you excel at.
The concept of pursuing something you love is undoubtedly important to find happiness, but it becomes even more crucial if it’s something you are truly skilled at. Only then it will become a lucrative job.
Turning your passion into a career is a challenging journey that requires time and strategic planning. Don’t expect to figure it out in a week; you may need several months, even years, to focus on the various elements that can lead you to success.
The key is to be patient; otherwise, you risk choosing the wrong market, services, and tools. Take all the time you need to study both the subject you want to pursue and the strategy you want to implement.
Additionally, I recommend exploring all the possibilities that digital marketing can offer, perhaps by obtaining a certification like the Digital Marketing Certification.
In this article and the 4 videos above, I wanted to provide you with many points to reflect on, which I hope will be helpful to you.
Choose a target market
Let’s assume that you have identified a passion you want to turn into a job. In other words, a hobby or activity that you excel at, and you decide to start a business based on it.
First and foremost, carefully study the context in which you want to position yourself, that is the target industry. You’ll need to consider various aspects, such as:
- The sustainability of the chosen market;
- the demand;
- the competitors;
- the monetization.
This analysis will enable you to become aware of the earning opportunities and the potential risks involved, allowing you to develop the best business strategy.
Market Sustainability
Choose something where your activities can be sustainable in the medium to long term. Offering products or services is pointless if you don’t evaluate the potential life cycle of your market.
Ensure that it is not in decline; otherwise, your efforts may not be rewarded. Instead, opt for an emerging context that will allow you to position yourself more easily.
Demand
Another aspect you need to evaluate is demand, which refers to the quantity of goods and services requested by the market you want to enter. You’ll need to take note of and study some things, such as:
- The number of users you can satisfy;
- Their spending capacity;
- The frequency of consumption, i.e., how often they can purchase your product/service.
Competition
Of course, you can’t expect to be the only one operating in a sector. Often, the competition is high, and it’s essential to know exactly who you are competing against. The analysis will help you define your offer, price, and target users better.
What should you note about your competitors?
- The names of those who offer similar products to your target audience;
- the strengths and weaknesses of the products they offer;
- the selling prices and the structure of their offers;
- the channels they use for marketing and sales;
- the language they use to communicate with their users.
Monetization
The fourth aspect you need to consider is how you monetize, that is, how you turn what you offer into money.
You’ll need to find a business model that allows you to earn with your passion. You can choose to sell online consultations or info products.
Do you have a passion for digital marketing and want to turn it into a job? Discover which profession suits you with a fun test!
The second point you need to consider to turn your passion into a career is how to earn a reputation, thus becoming an authoritative reference in your field.
You must be aware that once you start your business, you will enter a context where other professionals operate, and you will deal with an informed audience. Authoritativeness is based on two key points: visibility, which helps you gain traction, and credibility, which enables conversion.
Visibility
Visibility is easy to achieve in the digital age. There are various channels you can leverage. Of course, their selection depends on your audience and where they are located. Some of these channels are:
- YouTube: where you can publish informative videos, tutorials, or interviews;
- A website containing all the information your customers need, perhaps by creating a blog;
- Facebook and Instagram: two essential platforms for marketing operations;
- Advertising.
In short, the tools for gaining visibility are not a problem, thanks to digital marketing.
Credibility
Credibility comes from your communication skills and the accuracy of the information you provide to your prospects.
In the materials you create and want to sell, you must be precise and professional. By this, I mean you should not make things up and write them randomly, but they should be reliable and verifiable.
To be able to create valuable content, you must study, practice, and bring real and concrete examples. Turning your passion into a career requires constant commitment.
The courses you attend and the certifications you obtain to specialize are essential.
They are also an authentic means to stay updated and competitive in the market. For instance, in the academy I created, I offer young people courses taught by certified professionals that become a way to improve their skills in digital marketing.
Some of these courses can help you become authoritative in SEO, Social Media Marketing Certification, or Copywriting.
Passion and work: a long-term project
The third suggestion I want to give you to turn your passion into a career is to aim for the long term. As I already mentioned at the beginning of the article, to create a successful business, it takes a few years, not a week.
Many of my students make the mistake of overestimating what they can do and achieve in a month or a year while underestimating what they can accomplish in 3-5 years. Unfortunately, this is counterproductive.
Dedicating your life to a job you love is a massive project. Since I have experienced it firsthand, I feel like telling you that if you start from scratch and want to become a market leader, things are not that simple. I’m not trying to demoralize you but to help you understand that it takes time and patience.
So, what is crucial to understand?
Even risking being repetitive, I want to emphasize that the choice of the market is crucial. Let me give you an example to be clearer: if you want to become number one in the field of telephony, software, or search engines, I advise you to stop.
Essentially, it’s because it’s a highly competitive segment, where the leaders are well-established and you’ll hardly be able to compete, even if you give yourself five years. Choose an emerging sector where you can play all your cards.
For example, you can opt for the artificial intelligence market as it is growing more and more. So, once you’ve chosen the emerging sector, focus on education. Perhaps abroad, where the topic is more developed, and you have the opportunity to learn new things to bring back to your reference area.
This will keep you updated and a step ahead of those who will try to compete with you. It’s good to aim high, but you don’t necessarily have to start with a business that already has staff or a physical office. Starting from scratch means starting from yourself.
Making your passion your job can be difficult at the beginning. You’ll struggle to gain visibility, subscribers, clients, and budget. However, if you choose the right goal, you’ll see that year after year, the results will improve.
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The importance of goals
The last piece of advice to turn your passion into a career is to set yourself an objective. It’s that thing that drives us, for which we give our best, and make a dream come true.
You’ll need to pursue two types of goals: the first one will be the main goal, achievable within the next 5 years, while the second one will be minor goals that contribute to achieving the primary one.
Regardless of the chosen time frame, what should your goals be?
- Clear: Knowing exactly where you want to go will save you a lot of effort and prevent mistakes. If you want to transform your passion into work, you need to learn to set precise objectives;
- Measurable: Once you’ve decided what you’re aiming for, you should figure out how to measure its progress. This will allow you to understand where you are and how you’re doing;
- Specific: Define in detail where you want to reach;
- Understandable: If you work with a team or a collaborator, the goal must be understood and shared by them too;
- Achievable: They must be realistic. Becoming a millionaire overnight is not.
How do I turn my passion into a career?
I like to share my personal story because I think it can help those who are starting out and want to succeed. I often do it in the classroom, and I want to share it here as well.
In 2012, I decided to create a venture that would allow me to pursue a job that I am passionate about. The significant goal I set for myself was to establish a leading academy in the digital domain.
Education and training have always been a great passion of mine, so I decided to leverage it. Of course, in those years, taking a bet in the digital realm was considered crazy, but it was a rapidly growing market.
Once I chose the main objective, I set some smaller ones. The first was creating a website. I studied and acquired the necessary skills to do it and involved professionals who helped me along the way.
After the website was created, I set monthly visit goals that I wanted to achieve and to reach them, I started a blog. When I reached the desired number, I set a goal for the number of subscribers who wanted more information, converted them into clients, and then generated revenues.
As the first five years of the business passed, I continued to set smaller objectives. The only difference is that today my passion has become the best Digital Marketing school in the market, and we have new classrooms in a more spacious office.
The journey has been long, and I continue to educate myself day by day. Once I achieved a leadership position, I didn’t give up; instead, I kept investing because maintaining such authority requires continuous effort over the years.
Finally, if you want to turn your passion into a career, I recommend checking out the new course I created to work for yourself online.
Don’t know where to start to turn your passion into a career? We can help you!
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I direct Digital Coach®, the professional training school, leader in training all professionals who work in the Digital Marketing & Sales field.
As a trainer, I have trained over 35,000 business professionals from over 300 large multinational companies and over 5,000 Italian SMEs.
I devised the “Digital Strategy Framework®” method, thanks to which since 2014 I have been helping companies to define and improve over time a digital strategy that maximizes the generation of turnover and online sales.
