Align + Attract

Are we in a Paradigm Shift in online business?

April 17, 2024 Kerry Rowett Episode 120
Align + Attract
Are we in a Paradigm Shift in online business?
Show Notes Transcript

It's no secret that there are many changes taking place in the online space and a number of people are experiencing an income plateau or dip as a result - not all of course!

So - are we in a paradigm shift?

We are seeing big changes in:

  • Social media
  • Launching
  • AI

How are these going to shape the way we work, create and sell moving forward?
And for your own work - do you need to evolve how you describe what you do and how you help your clients achieve their goals and solve problems in new ways to meet your clients and the market where it is right now?
If we ARE in a paradigm shift - are you going to:

  • Hold onto the past
  • Focus on details, quick wins or trends and create temporary changes
  • Do the deeper work to feel into what is needed now, the next evolution of your own work and how you might lead and thrive in the energies of today

Love to chat about this one with you, message me on Instagram to share what you're seeing: http://instagram.com/kerryrowett
Feeling all of this and want to start upgrading your work in the energies of today? https://www.alignandattract.com/private-sessions

Are we in the middle of a paradigm shift in the online business world? 

I am so excited to explore this with you today. And so I think we're all hearing about the number of changes that are taking place in the online business world at the moment. And it can be hard to know whether some things are temporary, or whether there is a deeper change at play. And then how can we find our footing within that or indeed, become a leader, even when some things might feel a little bit uncertain. So let's dive into it. 


So what actually is a paradigm shift? So it's when there is a major shift to prevailing beliefs, assumptions, and practices. So we'll have an established norm of some kind. And then there will be some trickles of changes. There can be questions that are asked that can be anomalies of just things that don't seem to be quite right. It's like, oh, you know, everything about the online space, oh, you know, that well known person had a great launch or hanging on a number of names and having not such good launches. So it's a bit of an anomaly. It's like, Oh, that's interesting. And then things can start to break that just not working like they did or not in a sustainable way. And then the new ways and urge and over time, they become the norm. 


The term paradigm shift came from an app called Thomas Kuhn, he wrote a book in 1962, called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. So that was the context where the term paradigm shift was first used in a science world. And so we can say, you know, an example of a scientific belief that went through a paradigm shift would be the world is flat. And of course, now, of course, like we all believe the world is very cool. And we've got all this evidence for it. But it had to go through that paradigm shift, and example in technology space, and there are many paradigm shifts speeding up because of technology, I believe. 


Think about when the internet first arrived. Like I wonder if you can remember the first time someone showed you the internet because I can. And I remember being pretty nonplussed like not particularly impressed by it. Single Yeah, that's cool, I guess. And you know, little did we know the, you know, how, how much that was going to shape our future work, and our future lives at that time. And we all know what happened to businesses that did not embrace the internet, they didn't necessarily have to be the first to embrace it. But if they didn't embrace it within a certain timeframe, then things became very difficult for those businesses. 


Now we bring this into the online business space, I can see three key areas where we can see some evidence of paradigm shifts, and number one, social media. And so I can remember those glory days or social media years ago, where I could post something on Facebook, and at least 50% of the people who are following me would see it. So it was very easy to reach and connect with your ideal clients and to get a lot of engagement and have a lot of connection and conversation and a sense of community with people who were following you online. And then we compare and contrast that with today. And the declining reach. And the reason why, you know, that's not just an individual issue, and it's broader and potentially in a paradigm shift is because it doesn't matter how good you are at social media, or how incredible your content of course there are, are outliers and people who still get really incredible engagement. But a lot of people who have historically had incredible engagement and big followings can still be experiencing these major changes at the moment. And you know, it's not that they're the quality of what they are sharing has declined and we know that there have just been ongoing changes to the algorithm, which is fine, but then at what point does it reach you to this place where it's not worth it for some businesses to connect in that While to put so much time and resources into that, that area. 


Number two, the second place, we can see this in the online space is in launching. So there have been so many big names over the last year or so that I have heard about who have launched in the same way that they have been doing so previously, and where that launch might have gotten this particular large outcome or result, like some people are saying their launch numbers are hard, or in some instances, even less, like really quite decimated. And that could be the market, of course. So is it just a temporary change? Or is there something else at play, and some of those launch strategies that in the past could be learned and taught and you could be following these particular processes. And if you had enough resources, time, energy, and you know, you had enough ability to be able to put that work into it, you really could over time expect to build out these increasingly large launches? Is that still the case? Well, this is the thing, when you're in a paradigm shift, you don't know if it's a permanent change yet or not. 


And then the third space we're seeing is in AI. And so we're still discovering once again, like what does that mean for content creation? I'm sure like you have already been experimenting with AI and how that can help you in your content creation can be really time saving, in a lot of instances, what does it mean for creativity? A lot of people are starting to say they're using AI for the non creative parts, and then keeping their creativity wet to us where it matters. What does it mean for accuracy? And what does it mean for specific careers, of course, lack of copywriting doesn't mean that those careers do not have their place. But that's an example of a Korea that's having to respond extremely quickly, to, you know, this paradigm shift, so they can still stay really relevant, and still have this really high value being able to be placed on their work rather than, you know, having this fear of like, oh, my gosh, my, my job is going to be entirely taken away, or this career pathway is going to be taken away. 


The other place, I'm also seeing potential evidence of paradigm shift is in the spiritual entrepreneurial space. So a lot of my clients, I would say, fall into this category of being a spiritual entrepreneur. And that might be that they are a healer, or a coach, or a teacher, or leader of some kind, or they might also have some kind of creative, or consulting business. Or they, you know, they'd have a kind of business where there is a spiritual aspect to it, or they weave some of their own, you know, spiritual beliefs and practices and tools into what it is that they do. And so for these spiritual entrepreneurs that have a specific way that they work with people, they have, you know, a specific approach, they might have a body of work. In some instances, people are feeling this real need to evolve that. So that may come about because their work is not really landing like it did, or they can feel the change. Or it can be because they're just feeling this impulse to, you know, really step forward into this new and really respond to the changes that they are seeing in the market, and in what their clients are needing the kinds of problems that their clients are having. And the goals that their clients are really still valuing. They're still happy to invest in. 


And so there is this opportunity I see for spiritual entrepreneurs who might be experiencing a plateau or a dip of some kind to evolve their work or evolve their messaging and really create new levels of specificity. 


So when we're in a paradigm shift, there's really three ways this can go. We can either stay stuck in the past, and just wish things were the way that they were. And we can see examples where big businesses might have done this. And some of those big businesses, Blockbuster, Kodak don't exist, they just were not able to move the market and move with the paradigm shift. And it ended up making them irrelevant and had to close their doors as a result of that. 


Or we can just try and fiddle around with the details. So that might look like jumping on new trends. Okay, well, I want to solve, for example, my reach issue. And so I'm going to use trending audio, I'm gonna learn some tricks, or Instagram wants this, we might hear Instagram just wants you to post a consistent number of times a week, I think was something I read the other day, it's like, okay, so that's what Instagram wants to exactly jump on that and feel like, okay, well, if I'm doing that, then that's gonna solve that problem. Or there's some new little detail that has come into the way that you might launch. So an example, from a year or two ago that I saw a lot of people doing was to use bonjoro videos. So it was just a piece of software where you could create a personalized video if you're not familiar with it. And so people were using it for people who engaged with their launch, to send them that personal reach out that personal touch just to engage with that person, invite them into a conversation or to check if they were interested in this, the program, maybe that we're launching. Another example of like a little tweak or detail is like when Instagram a few years ago, said, Oh, we're prioritizing reels, you might remember it and it's like, all of a sudden, it's okay, turn everything into a reel. So here's how to turn a photo into a reel, or here's how to make a reel, it's going to be really easy for you. So you can still thrive in this environment. So all of these little details, look, you might get a quick win, I'm not saying don't do these things. 


But if we're in a paradigm shift, like it's really just shifting around the deck chairs, right, it's like it's gonna make, it's gonna might have a small little uplift. But then a lot of those trending ideas or details, they come, they go, you know, by the time you launch again, it's like, oh, we don't do that anymore. Or, you know, we don't really put you know, music behind a photo on Instagram and call that a reel anymore, is that kind of you can just wash through pretty quickly. 


Then the third opportunity is to be a leader in the New Energy. So if your business is growing right now, then you're probably already doing this, you probably have been really responsive to your clients and to the changes in the market. And you probably have refined your work and your messaging to meet those changes that you are seeing. And if you are in more of a plateau, or a dip that I really say there is an opportunity to do that harder work now to figure out how to evolve your body of work, your messaging your offers. 


And if you are a spiritual entrepreneur that can look like actually creating a new body of work. Because what you've created in the past, you in some instances might be in an older energy. And what I'm seeing to really work at the moment in today's energy is a greater level of specificity. 


And so what does that look like? It's like really being able to name specifically what it is that you do, and how that process or approach specifically helps people to achieve a goal that they have, or to solve a specific problem that they are experiencing, and being able to move them or to help them to move through a process of some kind in a way that they someone can read it or hear about it, and they connect with it. And they can really have a sense of trust in that. And that's where I'm seeing that people are still really happy to invest. 


For me personally, this is the work I'm actually doing in my own business behind the scenes at the moment. And so I did not wait until I was in a plateau to do that work. My business is still growing. It has grown this last these past 12 months and actually has been growing the last few years. But even so I could feel there were changes afoot. And so this year has opened up this opportunity my children just slightly bit older, and I've got more capacity, and I really I wanted to dive into that, because I have had a body of work, which is around the align + attract brand. And this is a new evolution and new iteration of that. So it's not diminishing any of the previous work I've created. And I think this is really important to name this for you as well, the work that you've created, and the way that you have been working can still have been really wonderful. And you can still step into, like a really a newer way of seeing that work of exploring that work and putting new frameworks around it and new processes around it so that you have much increased clarity. And then also that clarity is able to translate for other people as well. 


When we're in a paradigm shift, who succeeds, it's those who can be agile, who can learn who can listen to your clients who can listen to the market, and respond to that. 


If you're really feeling this, if you're seeing this as well, it's a really great question to ask yourself, am I going to step back at in the app this important kind of juncture? Am I going to go into fear? Am I going to drop off the field? Am I just going to decide? It's too hard? There's too many changes. There's too many different things going on? Or am I going to be our leader at this time

and in this space? And am I going to step into that paradigm shifts really provide this opportunity for new perspectives for breakthroughs. 


We can adapt the way that we've been doing things, we can respond. And if you weren't early to new ways of doing things, you messaging, which is really birthed in the energies of today that can have big advantages for you as well. And you're more likely to be seen as a leader in the space that you work in. 


I want to go further into this and I've got some more things to share with you in up coming episode. For now, I would really love to hear what you are seeing and feeling around this energy of the paradigm shift. Please do jump across to carry route on Instagram, and share with me I'd love to get into a discussion with you around that. And I'm looking forward to talking with you next time.