The New Way to Work - Chapter 5: Get Paid To Exist. Not Just For What You Do.

There’s a version of you the world loves.
Put-together. Polished. Professional.

You’ve done it your whole life:

The high achiever at school.
The responsible one at work.
The "wellness" version of you that still overworks, just with green juice in hand.

You shape-shifted into what the world rewarded.
Because they pay well. They applaud the clarity.
But only when the mess, the softness and the truth are hidden.

And so, without meaning to, you start performing.
Until one day…
You forget where the role ends and where you begin.

Eventually, you try to escape the mould…
You build a business.
But something still feels off.

It feels like a machine.
But not the kind you built.
The kind that built you.

You've created something "successful."
With systems that run smoothly:
You pitch, perform and produce.

But your spirit feels caught in the gears.

Because somewhere between launch and scale,
you forgot that the most valuable asset in your business
isn't what you do.
It's who you are.

This is the performance trap.
It’s subtle. It’s praised.
And it’s burning you out.

Not from simple exhaustion.
But from identity exhaustion.

You’ve confused trust with perception.
You’ve mistaken demand for alignment.
You’ve over-delivered on who you think you need to be
and under-nurtured the part of you that actually built all of this.

When your self-worth is tied to your role - the coach, the consultant, the creator - you live in fear of what happens if that role changes or disappears.

If your identity is your resume, then who are you when the bullet points fade?

This isn’t a philosophical question. It’s a practical one.
Because the moment your role shifts, your foundation shakes, unless it was built on your being, not just your doing.

Here’s the part no one says out loud:

Most people aren’t burnt out from doing too much.
They’re burnt out from being someone they’re not.

Not just in their personal life.
In their business.
Their brand.
Even their "dream career."

They created success around a persona.
And now they feel trapped inside it.

But isn’t that just what being professional means?

Not quite.

Let’s be clear: professionalism isn’t the problem.
The problem is the unspoken pressure to abandon parts of yourself in order to be taken seriously.

It’s not that you can’t handle the work.
It’s that you’ve made yourself smaller to fit the work you’ve outgrown.

That’s why it feels heavy.
Not because it’s hard.
Because it’s misaligned.

You are not what you do.
That’s the myth we’re all taught.
But what you do can become an honest reflection of who you are.
That’s the work now. That’s the real alignment.

You didn’t leave your job to become a more anxious version of yourself.
You didn’t become a founder to lose yourself in a different kind of cage.

The problem isn’t your business model.
It’s that you’ve made your model more important than your being.

But Nora...tell me, how does performance actually look like?

From experience:

• Saying yes to clients who drain you because your brand says “I help everyone.”

• Pricing your offers based on what others charge, not based on your true value, energetic capacity, or desired lifestyle.

• Writing content that sounds more like your industry than you.

• Building offers that look good online but feel heavy in your body.

• Filtering every pivot, post, or product through the question: “Will this still make me look credible?”

• Launching even when you’re empty, because “consistency is key.”

• Creating a strategy because you saw it work for someone else, not because it feels true for you.

• Staying visible when you need to be invisible, because you’re afraid to lose relevance.

You’re not lying.
But you’re not fully telling the truth either.
And over time, that creates an energetic gap.
One your nervous system has to manage.

That’s the real burnout.
The constant negotiation between truth and perception.

That’s the unspoken fear.
That self-expression is indulgent.
That resonance is risky.
That you must trade your truth for trust.

So what’s the alternative, you may ask?

I respond with a question…
What if your aliveness was the strategy?
Your joy the magnet.
Your weirdness the differentiator.
Your lived experience the credibility.

Think of it this way:

When you stop performing,
You stop posturing.
When you stop posturing,
You start resonating.
And when you start resonating,
You get paid to be you.

Not for the mask.
Not for the marketing.
But for the clarity, safety, and liberation your presence creates.

Because presence can’t be faked.
And people can feel when you’re only giving them the curated version.

We’re entering a new economy…

One where people are done being impressed.
They want to feel something real, something AI cannot replicate.

And that means your most valuable asset
is not your polish or productivity.
It’s your presence.

The part of you that can no longer pretend.

This is the new edge of leadership.
This is how business becomes regenerative.
When you stop extracting energy to keep up appearances…
and start letting your essence lead.

Let’s look closer:

The most magnetic people in your industry aren’t the most polished.
They’re the most honest with themselves.
The ones who say what others avoid.
Who don’t hide behind “professional” personas.
Who’ve integrated their contradictions.

They don’t need to perform.
Because they’ve become someone they trust.
And we trust them too.

This is the new economy of trust.
And in this economy, performance is fragile.
Presence is power.

Most people don’t have clarity around what creates value in this new way to work.
And that’s okay. We were taught that output is the measure, not who we are, not the compound of experiences, failures, and insights that shape us.

They believe:
Working harder equals earning more.
Hours clocked equals money deserved.

But hours worked do not guarantee that anyone will care.

The labour theory of value has taught us to believe we should be paid for the amount of work we do. For the struggle. The grind. The perfection.

But that’s not how reality works.

The amount of money you make is directly tied to:
- The level of problems you solve.
- The results from the solutions you create
- Your ability to make people care about what you’ve built.

And that only becomes possible when you build from the inside out.
When the problems you solve emerge from your own lived experience, not just your learned expertise.

Here, your breakthroughs, pivots, and passions matter more than the frameworks you memorised at school.

And that’s where authenticity becomes leverage.

Because we don’t just buy products anymore.
We buy people.
We buy resonance.

Founders who struggle with positioning often tell me:

“I’m having trouble with my niche.”
“I don't quite know who my ideal client is.”
“I don’t know what makes me different, I'm just good at teaching marketing.”

The answer is simpler than you think: You are the niche.

Contrary to popular business wisdom, the most profitable niche isn’t a topic; it’s a person who’s done the inner work, who shares from clarity, who brings full-spectrum experience to the table.

Many entrepreneurs spend lots of time and resources researching the most profitable niche, never realising they’re standing in it.

That’s normal. We were taught to build businesses based on "what makes more money", not on what makes us come alive.

The MBAs taught strategy…
But they didn’t teach self-awareness, the greatest marketing strategy of all.

Self-awareness guides you to build solutions you care about, and when you care, others like you start to care too.
They aren't buying what you do.
They’re buying who you are.
Your clarity becomes their clarity.
Your alignment gives them permission.

Your personal algorithm.
Your unique way of seeing and navigating the world is the ultimate product.
It can never be replicated or replaced.

When you hate your work,
and it comprises one-third of your life,
and it drains your energy to enjoy the other third,
and you're asleep the final third…

There doesn't seem to be a higher priority than to reclaim your day.
To build a business that gives as much as it takes.

This is the New Way To Work:
Not just working less, but working differently.
Not scaling back, but scaling deep.
Not burning out, but burning with purpose.

This is where business becomes more than transactions and becomes transformation. For you. And for those you serve.

Most founders I work with are stuck in the survival or status level (pushing to make their business "work" or to be seen as successful), but there are higher levels waiting:

• Survival: Working to meet basic needs, operating on autopilot.

• Status: Working to be perceived as valuable, accumulating symbols of worth.

• Creativity: Breaking away from external dependencies, developing mastery.

• Contribution: Creating from a place of overflow, serving in a way only you can.

You don’t reject the earlier levels.
You integrate them.
Each stage is a layer.
And each layer becomes lighter when you stop performing.

Remember this:

At the start, you create to make money. In the end, you make money to create.

The New Way in Practice

Let’s bring this down to earth.
What does this actually look like?

A business that allows you to be paid for your existence isn't about doing nothing.
It’s about doing the right things, from the right place, for the right reasons.

Start here:

1. Audit your offers… Which ones feel like a costume you’ve outgrown? Which feel like a mirror?

2. Notice your language… Where are you hiding behind complexity or jargon? What would change if you told the truth?

3. Watch your energy… After you launch, write, or sell, do you feel more like yourself or less?

4. Test a truth… Say one real thing this week in your content or a conversation that you’ve been holding back. Notice what shifts.

You don’t have to strip your business bare.
You just have to start shedding what’s no longer true.
One layer at a time.

That’s how you unhook your worth from performance.
That’s how you build a business model that supports who you are, not who you think you need to be.

This is business built from the inside out.
Not from external metrics, but internal wisdom.
Not from competition, but from contribution.
Not from scarcity, but from sovereignty.

It’s not easy.
But it is necessary.

Because staying in performance mode is the real risk.
That’s what dulls your power.
That’s what makes everything heavier than it needs to be.

But when you let your essence lead… That’s when the work becomes light again.
That’s when clients find you by resonance, not reach.
That’s when money becomes a byproduct of alignment, not a reward for compliance.

Now, you stand at a threshold:

On one side: the familiar comfort of performance...ticking boxes, meeting expectations, trading time for money.
On the other end: the return to getting paid to exist...creating work so aligned with your essence that it doesn’t feel like work at all, even when it’s hard.

You might be asking… "But what should I do with my business then?"

I invite you to ask instead:

"Who am I becoming through my business?"

The first question keeps you in the cycle of doing.
The second question invites you into the art of being.

And it’s here - inside the art of being - that a new foundation emerges.

This is where I guide founders - using the Penta Capitals Model™ (Purpose, Profit, Impact, Simplicity, Freedom) - to build businesses not from personas, but from their whole selves.

Where they build a life they love, supported by work they enjoy. Where pricing reflects the value only they can create. Where their marketing feels like truth-telling, not persuasion. Where their systems serve their energy, not just their calendar.

If this feels like the phase you’re ready to step into, you can begin here.

When you get paid to exist, you don’t retire from work.
You retire from work that doesn’t matter to you anymore.

Let this question linger through the day:
If you stopped performing, what version of yourself would finally get to lead?

Until next time,

Nora