PR Discovery: Does Love Make Money?

I can count on it.

An invitation to at least two parties arrives in my email box every Thursday around 5:00.

They come from a girl I used to know. Every week she invites me, and her fans, to party with her. I wonder if her mother gets these emails.

All I know is I’m part of the reason they keep coming.

Two years ago, I got a call from this girl. She’s the trustworthy 10-year-old I hired to look after a 5-year-old, 2.5-year-old and a baby – all at once.

Tall, determined and confident, Evita [fictitious name] fell asleep most nights before we got home. Once she tried to use our son’s toy truck as her shoe because she was so sleepy.

We all adored her and it almost broke our hearts to leave her when we moved to our new home over 20 miles away. Our three year love affair was over.

Today, she’s a singer bad-girl wedding planner who acts out in a band. Swigging what I hope is tea from a Jack Daniels bottle and belting out ballads, there’s no trace of the trustworthy 10-year-old in this sexy siren.

When Evita called she said, “Remember you told me to do what I love and the money will follow? Well, I did.” Then, she told me about her gig.

Ah, the power of words. Did I really tell her about that “Do What You Love and Money Will Follow” book? How could she remember and follow it 10 years later? What does her mother think?

After I read Liz Strauss’ post: 25 ways to love what you do so that the money follows, Evita immediately sprang to mind.

Liz says, “We all define love and success differently. Yet is seems that success comes more easily when we full-out do what we love and love every part of what we do.”

I’d say that’s true with Evita. I won’t send you to Evita’s MySpace band site or her YouTube video –you’ll have to guess at that. But I will tell you that her fans adore her, maybe as much as we did when she baby-sat for us. She’s making her living entertaining people who want to party every weekend. That’s for now, I’m sure there will be more to her story later.

Being in love with who you are, who you relate to and what you do does make a difference. Two weeks ago, I wrote a post about love letters as testimonials encouraging you to express your feelings to anyone who you love to do business with. Now, this post is coming up in searches for love testimonials. Hopefully, they’ll get the message.

What’s it like to do what you love?

Steve Jobs tells three stories in his Stanford commencement address about why you’ve got to do what you love.  “You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

That’s all familiar to Tony Hawk, a pro skateboarder who talks about his beliefs on NPR who says, “The only way to master something is to keep at it. Find the thing you love.”

Not sure what you love? Take a cue from Penelope Trunk. She says don’t do what you love, do what you are.

What Do You Think?

How do you know you’re in love with who you are and what you do? How does money factor in?