Knowing Your Strengths Is Only the Beginning

When I started planning today’s episode, I had a lot of really big GRAND ideas. I was on vacation at the time, and coming to the end of that vacation, so I was really rested, feeling recharged and ready to roll up my sleeves and dive back into this wonderful life I have built for myself, which includes this podcast. 

My plan was simple… 

Do a TON of research. 

ANALYZE that research in detail. 

Then share all of my findings with you… 

I had a list of strengths assessments, personality tests and other quizzes I was going to take in the name of research. I even took a few while sipping coffee on the balcony of my hotel room, with every intention of diving deep into my results when I got home. 

In this deep dive of research I wanted to analyze how each test was presented and the depth of the results. I also wanted to take a close look at the focus of each, and make my own recommendation for who I thought would benefit the most from each assessment. Once this was all done I was going to come here to the microphone and share all of those findings in today’s episode. I even thought about doing a series of extra episodes so I could go really in depth with all of my wonderful findings. 

Those results are still sitting in my inbox

The deep dive didn’t happened. 

And I realized that one of my strengths was in serious overdrive!

This my friends is my Achiever strength which when I am not careful, can become the OVER ACHIEVER strength which has led me down a whole lot of rabbit holes of busy un-productivity. 

Once I reigned myself in, I had to admit to myself that I am not a researcher… at least not in the sense of that being my main profession. I am a WEB DESIGNER and BRAND STRATEGIST. And this podcast is about real conversations with really busy small business owners, not a research symposium. Plus, that information already exists, so why was I trying to recreate it. 

That is one the flip side of strengths. They help us achieve our goals, but can also distract us from actually moving forward. Discovering our strengths is just one piece of the puzzle, and I would say an important but tiny piece of the puzzle. 

If we really want to make the most of our strengths we need to read the results, look at the flip side so we can avoid those well hidden rabbit holes, and use that knowledge to our advantage. 

That my friends is what I hope to help you with today… 

Before we get into all of that, let me take a moment to introduce myself to those who are new around here. I am Teresa Schlup, a strategic, achiever and activator who loves to learn and is always coming up with new ideas… and I do mean always… like every other minute. 

I use these strengths to build stand out brand essentials and websites through squarespace and WordPress for service based business, primarily the solo business owners like myself, who have a dream too good not to pursue. If you are thinking about upleveling your online presence in the new year, please visit my website at  caffeinecreative.io or simply email me at theperfectblend@caffeinecreative.io, and let’s schedule sometime to chat.  

And as always, thank you for tuning into The Solo Grind. I really love connecting with you through this podcast. 

Alright, let’s get back to our strengths. 

The first piece of the puzzle discovering our strengths… 

We are all, at least in my experience, our own worst critic, which means it is hard for us to take an honest look at ourselves and see clearly what our strengths are. 

For example, I have a really intuitive strategic brain. I can often see clearly potential outcomes down the road based on a simple choice to change something. I can’t always explain how we will get to those potential outcomes, and not all of them are fun to consider, but I am often correct in my predictions. 

In the corporate world, this was not seen as a strength by my co-workers. They saw me as a pessimist who didn’t trust their decisions. Heck I didn’t see this as a strength, because I felt bad poking holes into their plans, even when I knew the potential fallout could be huge, especially for my team who fielded all the customer calls.  

And then my friend and colleague Jeff suggested we take the StrengthsFinder assessment, now known as CliftonStengths, which helped us realize that I wasn’t being a negative Nelly, I was simply employing one of my strengths that could help us prepare for the worst case scenarios before they happened, and even avoid them all together. 

Which brings me back to the point I wanted to make… we don’t see ourselves clearly. Thankfully we don’t have to develop this skill, or become a researcher… 

There are quite a few assessments or quizzes out there that help us identify exactly what our strengths are. Some directly focus on strengths others focus more on personality, behavioral styles and even instincts to help you determine what your strengths are. 

You are probably familiar with a few of these, and may have taken one or two yourself, but just in case this is new to you I thought I would share a little about a few that are popular, or just intrigued me while I was making my list of ones to explore. 

Full disclosure, I did not do the thorough in depth research I had originally planned. I actually leaned on Claude AI to help me streamline the breakdown of assessments I am about to share. Thanks Claude!  

CliftonStrengths  

As this is the one I am most familiar with, I thought I would start here. 

What I love about CliftonStrengths is its focus on what you naturally do best, rather than focusing on weaknesses you need to fix. It is grounded in positive psychology, and comes with very detailed reports that include action steps to help you embrace your strengths. 

As I shared a moment ago, this was a really eye opening assessment for me, as it helped me realize that some of my greatest strengths, like strategic thinking, were the things I learned to view as a personality flaw in myself. 

CliftonStrengths is ideal for… 

This assessment is particularly popular in a more corporate setting, and is great for team building and career coaching. 

But it can read a little boring, and so the results are often dismissed. Don’t worry I will show you how to pull out the best of this report without having to bore yourself to sleep in just a moment. 

I have actually taken the CliftonStrengths assessment twice. Originally when I was still in the corporate world and then again to help me fully transition into the entrepreneurial life. 

While my top ten really didn’t change, the order of them did in the new assessment, and this helped me with shifting my world in just about every possible way. 

Kolbe A Index

This one I actually haven’t heard of, but it really intrigued me, and if you have any experience with this assessment, I would love to hear more about it.

The Kolbe measures your instinctive way of taking action, and how you naturally solve problems and get things done. 

Kolbe A Index is ideal for … 

Entrepreneurs who want to understand their natural productivity style and decision-making approach. Extremely popular for those who need to make hiring decisions, delegate, and understand why certain tasks drain you while others energize you. 

And yes, I pulled that straight out of Claude AI. 

What intrigues me about this assessment is the fact that it measures our instinctual nature, and I lean heavily on my instincts, especially when solving problems and facing challenges. 

Which leads me to the next assessment I want to share… The Enneagram.

Enneagram 

Enneagram is really popular, especially in the entrepreneurial world. If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me “what's your enneagram type” I could pay for another really fabulous vacation. 

I am sorry I cannot say with absolute certainty what my enneagram number is, but have been told I am an 8 or maybe a 3. 

I did a quick 2 question assessment and came up with Type 7, but in deeper discussions with my friend Emily 8 shined a lot brighter. 

Needless to say, I don’t have my official enneagram number, and while I am ready to dive down that rabbit hole and explore more, I realize that is the “learner” in me that has gone astray, and I have a lot of other things that need to get done. 

Here is what others love the enneagram for… it shares insights into why we think, feel and act the way we do. It helps us understand what motivates us, what we fear and how we can use this knowledge to grow. 

Enneagram is ideal for… 

Those who want to focus on self-awareness and personal development, and my personal belief is that it is much better suited to the small business owners than the CliftonStrengths, especially solo small business owners. . 

There are a lot of other assessments out there, a list of which I may include in my show notes… but I might not include them. I don’t want to be the one who invites you to hop down the rabbit hole  of unproductivity. 

Here is the one key thing I want you to take away from this episode…. Discovering your strengths is fun, interesting and a really great conversation starter, but if you don’t use that knowledge to your advantage, it loses all the power and potential it has to help you create the life of your dreams. 

As Emily shared at the end of our lively conversation about enneagram strengths… “the enneagram without growth is just self…. Aggrandizing” 

And I would say that is true for any assessment. 

Putting your strengths to good use… 

When we can recognize our strengths with clarity, and own them with confidence we can better see where we shine. We know what we are really good at, and what energizes us. 

Which also means we can see more clearly the things that we struggle with. From here we are able to choose if there is something new we can learn or work on, or if this is simply something we need to let go of and or hand off to someone else. 

Let me give you an example… 

One of my strengths is Activator. I make decisions quickly and I am quick to act. For the most part this strength serves me well, because I am also not afraid to pivot when new information comes forward and I need to make a new decision. 

But there are times when a little more careful deliberative thinking is necessary.  Deliberative thinking is not my strength… at all… but it is where my husband Todd shines. 

When we were building our house, we were looking for ways to save a little money here and there, and one of the things I suggested was to take the vegetable sink out of our kitchen island. I made that decision quickly because I knew I could live without it, and I could always add it later if I really needed it. 

But Todd actually put serious thought into that decision. Through his deliberative thought process, he knew how much this extra sink would benefit us, particularly me as I do most of the cooking. He also paid attention to the fact that to add it later would be a lot more expensive than simply adding it right away. 

This is just one example of how our strengths worked for us and complimented each other. Throughout the whole process of building our home we leaned into each other’s strengths, and now after 8 years in this home, there are few decisions we regret making. 

That is the power of knowing and living by your strengths. Intentional living with fewer regrets. 

So how do we use our strengths?

We take inventory. We don’t have to go deep and analyze every result from every angle. And we certainly don’t have to take a bunch of assessments to gain more clarity. In fact, that would probably muddy the waters more than anything. 

We simply need to look at what is presented to us, and how it shows up in our lives. 

The quickest way to discover this I have found from personal experience and in doing this with my master mind group years ago is to grab a highlighter and your “go to” assessment report and highlight the things that jump out at you as you read through the report. 

Once you have done that, spend a little time thinking about how these things already naturally show up in your life and how you can use that to your advantage even more. 

And again, let me share an example… 

In my CliftonStrengths, strategic is at the top of the list. This was true both times I took the assessment. When I read through the description here are a few of this these key phrases that jumped out at me. 

• You quickly discover what interests them (other people).
• You generate ideas quickly. 
• You draw clever linkages between facts, events, people, problems, or solutions. 
• You present others with numerous options at a pace some find dizzying.

Now here is how I use these to my advantage… 

• Because I can quickly identify what truly interests others, I’m able to see what people are looking for beneath the surface, especially when building their brand and website. Often, my clients don’t fully realize what they want until I help bring it into focus.
• Because I am able to generate ideas quickly and draw links between facts, events, problems, etc…. The million ideas I get are worth exploring a bit, especially I am able to take those ideas and link them to my clients. 
• And because I know ideas fly quickly, often at an overwhelming dizzying rate to those around me, I have learned to only share the ones that I feel will truly resonate with my clients, their story and their experiences. 

I did this with all of my results, and through that I have a lot more clarity on where I shine, and where I need to ask for guidance and support. 

Filling in the gaps 

We all need guidance and support at times. It doesn’t matter how clever we are, there are things that someone else can do better. 

To quote one of my favorite books… 

“When I counsel with myself, I can only make decisions according to what I already know. By counseling with a wise man (or woman), I add their knowledge and experience to my own and dramatically increase my success.” - Andy Andrews 

So what do you need help with? And who can you call on for support? 

The key here is not just to ask the people closest to you but to find the people who understand your goal, what you are creating and can support you best that that part of your life. 

For example, my husband is a very smart man, but he knows nothing about running a business solo, so I rarely if ever ask him for business advice, because his advice wouldn’t be aligned with what I am creating. But my mastermind group… Those ladies get what I am building here, and have been able to help me through some really big decisions for my business. 

Make a list! Putting Your Strengths to Work (Without Overthinking It)

First reflect on where you need support. Instead of asking “What else should I learn?”, ask “Where do my strengths stop serving me?” 

Next look for the people who balance your strengths. Who naturally excels where you struggle? These might be people who help you slow down, think things through, execute, or see what you can’t see on your own.

Look beyond your inner circle. Not everyone who supports your growth needs to know you personally. Books, podcasts, assessments, and mentors can all play a role when used intentionally.

Choose guidance that aligns with what you’re building. Advice is only helpful when it comes from someone who understands your goals, your season, and your reality. Alignment matters more than proximity.

Before we wrap up today, I want to leave you with this.

Discovering your strengths is only powerful when you use that knowledge with intention. When you stop trying to fix yourself and start working with who you already are, things get lighter, clearer, and more aligned.

Thank you for spending part of your day with me on The Solo Grind.