The Real Truth: If You Do What You Love, Will the Money Follow?

We’ve all heard the idea that if you do what you love the money will follow. It sounds like good news, but is it actually true? As successful holistic professionals and coaches, we would say yes and no. Following your heart is the starting point if you want to pursue a life and career that resonate with your life purpose and reason for being. It is also one of the best success secrets around. Here is the formula we use for determining your life purpose. Your strengths and talents + your passion and heartfelt joy + your unique contribution = your life purpose. Many people use similar formulas and this is a good start. But it one of the best suc-cess strategies. Why not? Because by itself, this picture of living your purpose is in-complete. What’s Missing in this Formula? If you want to create a successful business, there are two additional strategic planning elements that need to be considered to bring your life purpose down to earth. These are essential ingredients for turning your passion and purpose into a successful busi-ness, so you can thrive. 1.) Offer your gifts to the world in the form of something people want. In most cases this involves easing their pain, particularly the things that keep them up at night. Offering people something that “sounds nice” is not motivational enough for them to take action. You need to provide something they feel they need now. 2.) Offer your products and services in forms that your potential clients and/or customers can understand. The most effective strategy here is to find out exactly what your prospective clients and customers want and offer it to them. We often see holistic professionals with tremendous gifts waiting for people to under-stand the value of what they offer. You can’t make a big difference in the world if people don’t understand what you have to offer. The fact is that it’s not your prospect’s job to understand you. It’s your job to understand them and to meet their needs. Our mentor Marshall Sylver puts it this way: “Give value to people in a way that is meaningful to them.” This often requires a change in thinking from offering people what you think they need to what they want. What a shift! A lot of people get stuck here. The fact is that people are not going to pay for something just because you think it’s good for them. You may be right, but that’s not the point. They are going to pay for something they want now. This demonstrates the critical importance of learning how to present and market your products and/or services effectively to reach more people and make a bigger difference. The Whole Picture The key here for business success is this: DON’T offer products and services because you know people need them. DO offer products and services because you know people want them and are willing to pay for them. Start with the life purpose formula, then combine it with providing people with some-thing they want, which is often something that directly solves their problems. This could be the key to your success, the missing piece that will allow you and your business to come fully alive and thrive.