There are only two “master” emotions — love and fear. All other emotions are under those two.
Love-based emotions includes love, hope, joy, gratitude, peace, faith, trust, confidence, happiness, connection, forgiveness, openness, passion, freedom, harmony, honesty, beauty, compassion, self-love, self-appreciation, respect, acceptance, understanding, etc.
Fear-based emotions include fear, anger, grief, shame, guilt, bitterness, judgment, jealously, frustration, doubt, insecurity, etc.
A lot of what we consider traditional business is built on a foundation of fear (actually a lot of traditional things are built on fear). The reason this happens is because in a lot ways fear is easier. Many, many folks live their lives being controlled in some way by fear-based emotions. Either consciously — they’re angry/depressed/grieving/judgmental/fearful/worrying/unhappy/etc., or it’s unconscious — when they feel an uncomfortable emotion, they run away from it, bury it, hide from it, etc. (Think about all the things that happen when someone get upset — they start a fight, take a drink, overeat, go shopping, gossip, etc.) So, if fear-based emotions are controlling your behavior, it’s going to be very difficult to build anything love-based.
Now, just to be clear, love-based doesn’t mean you don’t feel fear-based emotions — on the contrary people who have embraced love-based businesses and lives in fact DO fully feel all emotions, whether love-based or fear-based. There IS definitely a place for fear-based emotions in our human existence, so rather than fight the fear-based emotions, you feel them and let them move through you. Feelings just want to be felt after all.
And, because folks who have embraced the love-based way do feel fear-based emotions, it also means they aren’t controlled by them. It’s when you try not to feel the fear-based emotions are when they control you.
The bottom line is that you have a choice.
You can choose to build your business on a foundation of love or you can build your business on a foundation of fear.
So, what does it mean to build a business on a foundation of love?
That’s the question I explore in my Love-Based Business series of books. For myself, I feel like if you want to have a love-based business, then every aspect of your business should be love-based — including and especially your marketing and your copy. How you bring your clients into your business really sets the stage of the future relationship not only with those particular clients but also future clients. (Also, note that part of being love-based means not only are you inviting your clients in with love-based emotions but that YOU also love what you created — you love your marketing, your copy, your business, etc.)
And when you do bring in your clients with love, I feel that over time you’ll create a stronger brand than a business built using fear-based tactics. When you bring people in using fear-based emotions, even if they didn’t consciously know, they felt it. Now for some people it won’t bother them, but for others that uncomfortable feeling will stick, and they may never feel completely comfortable with you or your business.
Also, fear-based marketing and copy tends to create more refunds than love-based, so even if the gross sales are higher with fear-based, you may have a higher net with love-based because you’ll have fewer refunds. And with the higher refunds means you’ll have a larger pool of people out there who aren’t happy with your business — hence the slow erosion of a brand.
And, I also feel like there needs to be a strong dose of giving people space to make a choice, and being committed to them taking action but not attached to what that action should be.
Fear-based is all about control. It’s about “my way or the highway.” It’s about “if you don’t buy my product, you’re not only an idiot but your cat will die.” It’s about chasing after potential customers to wrangle them in.
Love is about choice. Love is about educating and then standing back and giving people a choice of what they want to do. Just like I am educating you about love-based and fear-based and then stepping back so you can make the choice on which business you want to build.
It really IS your choice. I’m simply here to educate you on your options.
(A note about fear-based — sounds super judgmental, doesn’t it? I don’t actually mean it to be, because I’m sincere about giving you a choice. But the problem is, fear-based businesses trigger fear-based emotions. That’s what is going on, and for better or worse, that IS its name.
As I mentioned earlier, as humans we’re a bundle of emotions, both fear and love. And, for better or for worse, fear-based emotions do play an important role in our lives as humans. Where we get into trouble is when we don’t feel those emotions because they don’t feel good, and if we don’t feel them then they tend to control us.
So, being love-based and having a love-based business doesn’t mean you never feel fear or fear-based emotions. It simply means you lead with love-based emotions and you don’t allow fear-based emotions to dictate your actions. You make decisions and take actions from a place of love. And you invite your ideal clients to do business with you by triggering love-based emotions versus fear-based.)
Now, in addition to marketing using the love-based philosophy, I also believe for your marketing to be truly love-based, you need to, well, love your marketing.
I want you to enjoy your marketing. Have fun with it. WANT to do it.
And, yes, I think that’s totally possible, even if you feel like you hate marketing right now. My Love Your Marketing Assessment will help guide you to marketing activities you truly love doing.
The more relaxed you are, the more fun you’re having, the more successful you’ll be. So, let’s get the party started with your marketing.
Love-Based Online Marketing means attracting, inspiring and inviting your ideal prospects to become ideal clients. It means you’re leading with love and giving your ideal clients a choice. Love-Based Online Marketing also means you love your marketing as much as your ideal clients do, which means enjoying and having fun with your marketing.
