Claire Vögeli | Forget about the niche and embrace your Multipotentialite

Welcome to this week’s episode of the OpenFrame Podcast with the all-round talent that is Claire Vögeli! Claire is and does many things — photography, coaching, cheffing. She likes to describe herself as a Multipotentialite. If you’ve never heard this term before, you’re not alone. Claire’s the one who helped us discover it.

We are all layered human beings with complex personalities. As creatives we often love to use different mediums of expression - so why do we limit ourselves down to labels and titles? Pursuing multiple interests at the same time or dropping unfinished projects because you realize they’re not for you anymore, is often considered a negative thing.

Think about the “Jack of all trades” quote. We are always told that finding a niche is the best way to do business. But is it actually? This episode with Claire Vögeli is about to offer you a fresh perspective. If you can’t or simply don’t want to zone in on a “niche” - you will find this information helpful and empowering.

Lean back and enjoy, you are in for an enlightening and challenging conversation. Here are some of the main ideas from this episode:

• Being a Multipotentialite has become more normalized in the last two years. During the pandemic a lot of us were not able to do our job.
  
• We all discovered that it was vital to pivot in our careers. Adding more avenues to our business and life suddenly became a necessity for many. While those avenues can be a source of income - they don’t have to be. It’s ok to pursue interests without turning them into profit.
  
• If you have multiple interests and find it hard to choose one career, one passion, the good news is — maybe you don’t have to.
  
• Claire speaks about the discovery of Human Design Profiles and how that can help us accept and leverage how we operate in the world.
  
• What is Human Design? It is a system that calculates your genetic design. This serves as a map to help you live in sync with who you truly are. There are five Human Design Profiles: Projector, Manifestor, Manifesting Generator, Generator and Reflector.
  
• Contrary to how our parents where raised, it’s not either/or: You don’t have to either be stuck in the rat-race or follow your passion. You can have both. Your job as a wedding photographer doesn’t have to be your identity. It’s not embarrassing to have a day job and do something you love without calling it "your business”.
  
• Your day job can provide stability and financial security, while you can explore what you love without the pressure of making money from it.
  
• The process of pursuing your passion is important. What are you learning? How does it make you feel? When we are too focused on the end result, we miss the lessons on the way. Because, as Claire states: “Moments of play are like therapy with yourself”. It’s not about the end product, it’s about what the process teaches you.
  
• People are afraid to pursue things because of what Mark Manson calls “the sickness of exceptionalism”. It's the belief that either you do something full force or you don’t. You can’t do it badly. It has to be amazing right away.
  But you have to be courageous when creating. You have to do stuff badly before you become good at it.
  
• Some tips on how to be organized when you are a Multipotentialite: It helps to work with files, with different stations in your room for different projects, with stashes for each of your passions. Or have a separate notebook for every project and an “idea book” for random thoughts. The options are endless and no one size fits all. You can explore what systems work best for you.

Did you know that the full quote of the famous “A jack of all trades…” is actually meant to be positive? Yet we rarely, if ever, hear the full sentence: “A jack of all trades, a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

When did it become so important to have a niche and zone in on one thing? Could it be connected to the fact that rigid systems want to stifle our creativity? If you also find it hard to choose one thing to work on, one business idea - and if you truly enjoy pursuing multiple passions, then you might be a Multipotentialite.

Follow Claire on her socials and look through her stunning Multipotentialite Eco System here.

This conversation is also available on Youtube. Don’t forget to subscribe to OpenFrame on your favorite streaming platform (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, etc) and share this episode with a friend who you think should hear it!

Books mention: Emilie Wapnick | How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up