I felt compelled to address this issue both here and in a video I just posted though Traffic Geyser. The issue is this. If you’re in business, are you selling freedom or bondage?

Selling bondage means using tactics designed to create some sort of dependency or addiction on the part of your prospects and clients. The most obvious example is a drug dealer, but there are many examples in “legitimate” business. McDonald’s puts extra sugar and additives in their food to make them more addictive. Many physicians withhold information from patients in order to make themselves more vital. They disdain a free flow of information, because if the patient had access to the information the physician knew, the patient would no longer need them. Some financial planners baffle their clients into submission. They create the sense that what they’re offering is too complex to be duplicated; therefore we have no choice but to surrender to their superior intellect.

Selling freedom means using integrity and transparency. In other words, what you offer, how you evaluate, where you draw your information, etc. are all an open book. You give information freely and without manipulation. Prospects choose you not because they have no choice but precisely because they DO have a choice, and since you’re honest, open, and forthcoming…you’re IT.

Ironically, selling bondage is easier than selling freedom. Most people are used to being disempowered and manipulated. They’ve not only come to expect it, but in some ways they’re comforted by it. So, it takes courage to be a seller of freedom. You have to sell to the higher part of your clients. You have to invite them to step up to the plate and think for themselves. And you have to help them understand that taking back their own power is ultimately in their best interest.

So, which are you; a peddler of freedom or bondage? I encourage you to be the former…fight the good fight…speak to the best in others, and have faith in the principles of prosperity that say that integrity is ultimately rewarded.