Are your marketing activities motivated by fear or love?

Being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding journey you can take in life but it can also be extremely scary and stressful. If you can see it as a journey of self-growth and discovery, even of spiritual growth and awakening, it becomes easier to see any obstacles as opportunities to grow and learn to trust life instead of seeing them as something that’s trying to destroy you and reacting to your circumstances rather than taking conscious action.

One of the lessons entrepreneurship teaches us is letting go of fear-based thinking and learning to trust life and operate from love instead. Because we have bills to pay and needs to fulfil we easily start to see our businesses as a means to make a living which leads to fear-driven behaviour such as creating offers in a panic to attract customers or posting on Instagram just for the sake of posting in order to get sales. Every entrepreneur falls into this trap at some point and everyone knows it is stressful, it takes the joy out of your work and the results are never as great as we know they could be.

Before you take any action, consider what is motivating you to take action:

1. Fear of consequences or love of what you do? E.g. If I don’t post I won’t get any sales and/or my audience will forget about me and go to a competitor, so I have to post even when I don’t feel like it. You’ll notice there is an underlying feeling of urgency and fear. Sometimes it’s very subtle and other times it’s overwhelming. Vs I love what I do and I love sharing it with others but I only do it when it feels good to me to do so. You feel at peace within and genuinely confident and good about yourself and your work (this is because you are being authentic). This will also shine through in your posts (as does the fear) so your marketing activities lead to results easily.
2. The need to get something or the desire to give and share what you already have? — E.g. I post in order to sell; I have to sell to pay my bills etc. The primary focus of your business is to make money for you. Like I said above, every entrepreneur falls into this trap at some point, after all, we live in a world where the primary purpose of life seems to be to make a living (even if we pretend it’s not!) vs I love to share because I love to help people and I know that if I give freely with an open heart I will receive what is mine. Again, this feels peaceful and there is no stress or sense of urgency or feeling of ‘I have to post’.
3. A belief in lack or the knowledge of unlimited abundance available to you and everyone else? Eg I live in a world where I have to make ends meet so I have to hustle to make sure I survive vs I know there is plenty to go around, all my needs will always be met and I never lack anything. We all say we know we live in an abundant world and blah blah blah, because that’s the right thing to say these days, you might even believe that but there is a HUGE difference between believing something and knowing it to be true and living from that place. If you really know it’s true, if you really know that the universe always provides for you then why are you stressed? Why are you scared? Why are you panicking when sales are low? We live in a world of lack and scarcity, we’ve been taught the value of money and hard work since we were toddlers, so letting go of that conditioning takes an awful lot of work. It takes more than just repeating a few mantras; you need to get to the core of those beliefs and you need to really face your fears. The good thing is that running a business gives you plenty of opportunities to face, and overcome, your fears, if you’re willing to do so!

Think about these questions carefully because you might say it’s all love and light and abundance but most likely the underlying belief is something different. E.g. the saying the belief that ‘I deserve to be well rewarded for the good work I do’ that’s often posted as a ‘mantra’, while it’s true, it often disguises deep insecurities and feelings of unworthiness. Because, think about it, if you knew that to be true, if you REALLY KNEW IT, then why the need to try to convince yourself? You would just know it’s a fact and get on with your life knowing that you will be well rewarded.

The best way to do this is to catch yourself in action — when you’re about to post or when you’re even just thinking about posting, stop and ask yourself ‘what is my motivation right now? Why do I want to post?’ Instead of thinking, try to let the answer arise for you. Observe your body, what emotions are present? That’ll tell you what is driving your behaviour. The more you do this, the more you probably notice how many actions are driven by a fear of consequences, in fact, most things we do are driven by fear of what might happen if we don’t do it — we live in a fear-driven world but it’s possible to break free from; the first step is awareness, so start here!