The weather is awful here right now. Thunderstorms now. Hail earlier. Tornado warnings and sightings for the area as well. Flash flood warnings for the next hour or so. A couple of people I know without power. I hope that I can write this before the power goes out! I would have nothing left to do but to go to bed, and I don't want to go to bed right now. My cat doesn't seem to care about any of this. The weather isn't scaring him one bit.
A couple of weeks ago, I took one of the coolest personality tests of my life. It's called the Fascination Advantage Test, and it's pretty awesome (also a pretty penny, but worth it). I actually like personality tests because I like to read positive things about myself, but this one was particularly interesting because it evaluated how the world perceives you, versus how you look at the world. I thought that was neat and I really liked how this test told you what you ought to maximize in your personality to engage people and to make success a habit.
I am the Avant-Garde
The Fascination Advantage Test figures out which of the 49 archetypes you are based on what are considered your primary and secondary triggers. Each Personality Archetype has a “primary” trigger (the one that makes you most persuasive and captivating), and a “secondary” trigger (the one represents your second most persuasive strength). For me, I am the Avant-Garde, who is original, enterprising, and forward-thinking. My primary trigger is 'prestige', and my secondary trigger is 'rebellion'. I:
embody a fresh interpretation of the details, tweaking the game to influence direction. Customers and co-workers are fascinated by my ability to be tapped into the "the next big thing" in business and in pop culture.
Essentially, I am amazing. I am independent, edgy, entrepreneurial, uncompromising, focused, and ambitious. I would recommend everyone to take this test because if you are at all interested in building identity capital and/or building a business, then knowing these traits are important for branding purposes and for engaging people in your vision. Come to find out from this test that building a brand based on being the very best and providing value through higher quality is a key selling point for me. It's part of my prestige trigger. My secondary trigger of rebellion means that incorporating that with a sense of change, exploration, and new perspective maximizes my chances for success and for doing something big.
The Coffee Blog is Fated to Happen
In my inbox today was a Groupon for locally roasted coffee. To boot, it was coffee from a coffee shop that I never heard of, and that was located within good walking distance from my work. I see this as a good opportunity to get the blog started because I can't get some new, unique coffee at a good price. Also, in my initial research, coffee is an incredibly huge market that doesn't have a lot of coverage or a lot of people talking about what the little guys are doing or about coffee culture and trying new flavors. A lot of people drink coffee and spend money on coffee, but it's not easy for those people to find something new, something better, or even something different from what everyone else has or what everyone else is doing.
I also think that because of my archetype, and how I fascinate people, that I am in a better position for success in this line of work versus the content marketing agency stuff. I think the blogging and writing utilizes both triggers, while the agency really only utilized one.