Love is the Key: The Success of HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” and “Flip or Flop’s” Internal Flip

Love is the Key: The Success of HGTV’s “Fixer Upper”
and “Flip or Flop’s” Internal Flip

Love is like a magnet. The more people see it and feel it within others, the more they are drawn to those who have it and exude it.

There is always some kind of resonance going on with everything in our lives. Resonance is one of the strongest of quantum techniques to help some situation or person that is out of alignment or not well get back into alignment by resonating with something that is in a higher and healthier vibration.

It’s part of why we are all naturally drawn to those who are charismatic and have high energy. And it’s why we are also drawn to those with kind and loving hearts and to those who like to have fun and laugh. It just feels better to be around people who are upbeat and who are enjoying their lives.

It’s why we are drawn to those who like to have fun and laugh. It just feels better to be around people who are upbeat and who are enjoying their lives. Photo by Joseph Mendez, 2014. All rights reserved.

Unfortunately, sometimes the opposite happens and you can get pulled down by the negative resonance of others and situations that don’t feel good. Usually that’s a sign that it’s time to switch gears and shed certain people, activities, jobs, habits or lifestyles that are no longer positive and appropriate.

At the heart and center of my work with people and with animals is love. In doing my healing work, I can literally feel myself dropping down into my heart and expanding it out to embrace whomever I am working with. I believe doing that intensifies and opens up the healing to more expansive possibilities.

In doing my healing work, I can literally feel myself dropping down into my heart and expanding it out to embrace whomever I am working with. Photo by Ronald Shuster from www.freeimages.com.

There are so many people whose hearts are in need of healing, either from dysfunctional family environments or other traumatic and dramatic life experiences along the way. When you sense that love is around and beaming from generous hearts, it is easy to open up your heart to them and to feel your own heart opening.

I think that’s why I fell in love, as so many others across the country have, with a couple named Joanna and Chip Gaines, who have a successful show on the HGTV Network called “Fixer Upper.” The show is about the work they do. He is a contractor who does major reconstructive work on older homes in Waco, Texas. She is a designer who decides just how best to reconfigure and upgrade the home and its structure, and even how to design its interior to make the new homeowners feel so at ease and so happy.

Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of the hit HGTV show, “Fixer Upper,” share one of many sweet moments together. Photo from www.today.com.

It is so much fun to watch the transformations that take place as relatively reasonably-priced homes with big renovation budgets are lovingly restored with care. In other HGTV shows, where homes are restored, I never like the design reconfiguration as much as I always seem to appreciate Joanne’s sense of style, beauty and design. It just might be that my taste is more like hers. But I suspect it is because everything she does and the choices she makes are done with love to provide her clients with a home they will love and appreciate. When she is working so hard on their behalf, I think she is probably anticipating the looks of delight she always sees on their amazed faces as she and Chip reveal their makeover masterpieces.

Joanna and Chip Gaines are pictured here in the midst of one of their big reveals for their excited clients. Photo from www.APoliticial.com.

All of that is wonderful. However, for me, even more fun than seeing those beautiful home transformations at the finale is to watch the love, laughter and fun that is always flowing among family members. Whether Chip is trying to make Jo (as he lovingly calls her) laugh, whether he’s pestering her, making fun of her or she of him, or whether they are both sharing their lives so sweetly with their beautiful children, the love, laughter and positive teamwork are always present.

Chip and Joanna Gaines, the delightful couple from HGTV’s “Fixer Upper,” are always laughing, smiling and fooling around. Their sense of fun is infectious and uplifting for their audience. Photo from www.HGTV.com.

Then there is the sweetness of taking their children with them on some errands or how the children show up the day before the reveal to support their mother with some delicious cupcakes before sauntering out the door with their adoring father who is so proud of his wife and the wonderful job he knows she will do. They are a team in all ways, in their work and in taking care of their children and their clients.

Chip and Joanna Gaines’ beautiful four children are often a sweet part of the show “Fixer Upper.” Photo from www.notey.com.

And if that weren’t enough to open your heart, then for those of us who are animal lovers, they live on a farm. Chip is the father that so many children would yearn for. Not only does he take them to fun places and play with them, always acting like a fun-loving kid himself, but he surprises them with new animals on the farm, from a basket of puppies to baby pigs and a new foal. When I see this, I am often smiling and thinking, “Would you guys like to adopt a much older child?”

Chip Gaines is feeding some of the animals on his farm that add to the fun and richness of the show. Photo from www.CountryLiving.com.

I had this same feeling when I was walking through the aisles of Costco and kept on meeting this charming California couple with their two young children. Down one aisle, the father had seated his young daughter in the lap of a giant teddy bear and was taking pictures of her as she laughed and beamed with joy.

This is the 93” plush bear the little girl was sitting on when I saw her in Costco. Photo from www.costco.com.

When next I met him, he and his wife were smiling and laughing as his daughter was riding on his shoulders. You could just sense a lot of love and fun. I stopped them and told them about the show “Fixer Upper.” The wife knew about the show. I shared that next to Jo and Chip, I would probably want to be adopted into their family that was having so much fun even in the aisles of Costco. They both laughed and appreciated what I shared.

Shortly before some news was revealed about another HGTV couple that renovates homes, I told my husband that I found a comparison of the two shows very interesting. The other show, “Flip or Flop” is about how a husband and wife team, Tarek and Christine El Moussa, buy homes and then renovate them to “flip” them for a profit. In contrast to “Fixer Upper,” the show is mostly about the home in question, what shape it’s in, how best to renovate it, the demolition of it, the problems the demolition uncovers and the home’s eventual renovation. It’s also about the most cost-effective way to gain the best profit.

Tarek and Christine El Moussa, the stars of the HGTV show “Flip or Flop,” work together to renovate houses and make profits. Photo from www.thewrap.com.

The focus is also on the budget, and usually it is Christine who opts for more expensive materials than her husband would like. Most often, he reluctantly agrees to what she wants.

Their two young children make only very sporadic appearances. And I have never viewed a show where the couple are hugging, joking with each other or having much fun. At best, they may laugh about how horrible a home looks before the renovation.

Even the homes they renovate, because they are in California, never have much space or much of an open feeling. They try their best to work with what they have and they do a great job. But the conclusion of their show, when their work is complete, falls short of the excitement and positive anticipation that builds as “Fixer Upper” approaches its client reveals.

With “Fixer Upper” the audience can feel so happy for the homeowners and uplifted by the work that Jo and Chip have done. At the end of “Flip or Flop” it’s just about making a sale and a good profit. And then it’s on to the next job. One has heart and depth and is in deep and personal service to its clients. The other is mostly about business and making a profit.

As I shared this comparison with my husband, I wasn’t surprised to learn not more than a week later that Tarek and Christine El Moussa had separated and were getting a divorce. There are now stories in the online tabloids that they are seeing other people and that Christine is planning to do her own spin-off show.

I don’t know if any of that is true. But what I do know is that you can feel it when the love is not flowing, when it’s all about business. You may enjoy seeing the makeovers, but your heart is never open and flowing the way it might be after you watch “Fixer Upper.” We can all only wish both Tarek and Christine all the best and hope for the best possible resolution for them and their beautiful family. It is especially heartbreaking to see the break-up of a marriage when there are children involved who are so young.

Love. We all need it and most of us want so much more of it in our lives. It is the most powerful and healing ingredient in our lives. It’s why I call my business Love Healing and Miracles. With love comes so much healing. And with healing come so many miracles.

Love is the most powerful and healing ingredient in our lives. Photo by Eng Chun Chia from www.freeimages.com.

It’s why I also wrote an e-book called 25 Ways to Attract More Love Into Your Life. When I asked friends and clients what they were most interested in learning about, it wasn’t about health, financial abundance or their careers. They said they wanted to learn how to attract more love into their lives.

This is Chip and Joanna Gaines’ bed and breakfast called The Magnolia House in Waco, TX. Photo from www.magnoliamarket.com.

Those who are the most successful often have a vision of love and service at the heart of what they do. It is love and service from an open heart that can generate more money, more viewers and more clients than any bottom-line marketing or budgeting, “turnaround to make a profit” tactics.

How are you cultivating love in your life? How can you open your heart to more love and get better at giving and receiving love? I also offer an “Angelic Love and Heart Healing” Package that can help you heal whatever blocks you might have to letting more love into your life. You can see what clients have shared about working with me here. I am proud to say that so many of them have felt the love that is at the center of my work with others.

My “Angelic Love and Heart Healing” Package can help you open your heart to heal and to give and receive more love in your life. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2014. All rights reserved.