Passive income has a nice ring to it, but what all does it entail and how do you even get started? Brooke Michelle joins us to share how she built multiple passive revenue models in her own photography business based on her audience. In this episode, she shares the benefits of passive income, how to decide what to create, and how to get started in building your products: both digital and physical.
Building Passive Income in Your Business
We’ve all heard the buzz and excitement about passive income, because it allows you to grow your business and hit revenue goals in your business without having to work quite as much. Passive income streams give you freedom in and from your business, allowing you to build the life you want to have while still enjoying being an entrepreneur.
For Brooke, her first experience in building a passive income stream was through selling Lightroom presets that she already offered in her business. She started very simple, then her next phase of passive income was to explore merch.
Passive Income Through an Apparel Shop
Brooke realized that she had a large audience of people following her, yet there was no way her business could serve them all in a given year. After thinking through what she could offer he audience of high school seniors, young adults, and people planning their weddings, Brooke settled on an apparel shop.
She took the audience she already had and dropped them in a new funnel with this other brand. Her brand was based on that audience:
Launching the apparel shop and the other passive revenue streams that followed wasn’t an easy process for Brooke. There is a lot of up-front work that goes into building passive revenue models, along with a few areas that are easy to get stuck in.
Brooke found herself needing to brain dump into a Google Doc to make space for logistics. For example, the design process of creating a digital product held her up—so she outsourced it. It’s easy to let one step of the process hold you back from releasing what could be a really successful shop or product. Brain dump everything in your process so that you can pin point exactly why you’re not moving forward with an idea!
Selecting The Right Products for Your Audience & Business
There are a variety of options you can offer in your business with passive income, from courses to digital products to apparel. What items are your audience asking for the most? That’s where you need to start. Otherwise, consider what would be the easiest thing to get our foot in the door of passive income.
Every business is a little different, so you may end up niching to a specific type of product or audience or you may expand it. The important thing to consider here is what will serve your audience!
The hardest part is actually getting started. Once you’ve started, it will be so much easier to complete.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Selling Products
You may look at the products you want to sell and know that other people are selling them, think that it’s an oversaturated market, then give up on passive income. You have to overcome that imposter syndrome and allow yourself the opportunity to explore new revenue streams.
That imposter syndrome may also be accompanied by perfectionism, telling you that it’ll never be perfect. The beauty in products that you create is that you can build multiple versions of them, especially your digital products.
Unpopular Opinion on Passive Income
When it comes to passive income and education, Brooke believes that there should be a time cap on how long you can teach something after you’ve stopped doing it. Things are always changing and you should be in practice to know the industry you’re educating in.
When you are a creative entrepreneur, time management is the number one key to preventing burnout! Click to join the list and download my free worksheet.