Crafting a “New-Paradigm” Business

This is a Guest Post by Steve Rice from Karmic Kappuccino.

There is a new paradigm in business. If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, if you are an “info-preneur” or internet marketer, you can’t afford to miss the shift!

We tend to treat our business like a job. That is the old paradigm.

Early in life we learn to separate our work life from our happiness. We take a job out of necessity, not as an extension of our happiness.

My first job when I turned 16 was a phone agent for a telemarketing company. I didn’t take that job because I was fascinated with the telesales industry. I didn’t take that job because I was driven by a passion for it. I took it because it was what was available.

The sad thing is that I never even thought about what I might want to do. I never considered what my natural skills might be.

What about you?

Have you ever found yourself wishing you could do work that mattered more?

Have you wanted a career that nurtured your spirit but instead found yourself trapped in a job that drained you?

Have you found yourself frustrated between the pull of the desire deep in your spirit and the incessant urgency of doing menial work in order to make a living?

You can have both!

You do not have to settle for what pays the bills in lieu of work that is fulfilling and feeds your soul.

 You need a paradigm shift!

Your business is part of you. Your work—your craft—is an extension of what you do most naturally.

It’s hard for many of us to think this way because we are so used to thinking about business separate from the talents that come to us effortlessly. We think that we can’t make money with what comes naturally for us.

Here’s the key—what comes naturally to you isn’t natural to someone else.

If you connect with a few hundred who do not like to do (or cannot do) what comes naturally to you, you are set.

That sounds easy enough, right?

Not quite.

It is difficult to change one’s entire frame of reference when it comes to business. The biggest challenge for me has been recognizing my innate skills because they are so natural to me. What I do well (and effortlessly), I often neglect to recognize as marketable because they seem so easy.

The second challenge then is positioning what I do best so to provide a service and value to the marketplace.

The Key To Profitability

The key to a profitable, spirit-nurturing business is to identify and recognize your natural skill sets and positioning them in a way that makes money!

The way to do this is to tell your story effectively.

What is your story?

Hint: It’s not about you!

Your story tells why your work matters.

When you tell a story about why your work matters, then you automatically infuse it with enthusiasm because you’re talking about what you are passionate about.

People sense passion and will respond to it. Passion will sell your product/service every time because people buy what they want not what they need.

You will be profitable when you can effectively show people why they should want your work.

What about your craft enriches and enhances the lives of others? Why is it important? Tell that story. Craft that narrative and add to it. A great story draws your market to you. This is the new paradigm:

Your passion + Your Story = Market attraction.

In the old paradigm we told a story of benefits and features in order to convince the market of its need of our service or product.

In the new paradigm, if you show them your passion and tell them a story, the ones who “get” it will be drawn to the story you’re telling. Those who don’t get it, won’t. That’s ok.

The old-paradigm mind is afraid to “lose” potential customers. The new-paradigm realizes that those who are aligned with the passion of the business will be drawn to it if the story is told clearly and consistently enough.

So…what’s your story?

What have you been telling the market?

Have you been boring them with details and statistics or have you been captivating them with tales of passion, courage and strength.

The passionate storyteller wins every time. So what’s your story? Go tell it!

Steve Rice is the editor at KarmicKappuccino: ADailyShotofInspiration. He is also the author of the breakout book AnImperceptibleSpark: FindingtheCouragetoLiveaLifeofJoy. You can follow him on Twitter (@stevenerice)

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net