Full Transcript: MOTM #457 How to Start Generating Passive Income Online

[Transcript starts at 1:02]

Hello, hello, hello my podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. I am in a great mood. Why? Because I actually just really love making these episodes. I am recording, obviously, if you're watching this on YouTube, thank you. If you're listening, thank you. I just really enjoyed doing these and uh, it's Monday.

It's my recording day and I am happy about it. Not happy about my back. I'm not gonna lie. This little back of mine is acting a fool. When I was, uh, thinking about this episode, I was like, should we jump right into things, should I give them an update? And today we're gonna talk about how to generate passive revenue online, how to start generating passive revenue online.

But like I said, I dunno maybe two or three episodes ago, I, I wanna make sure that I keep the, I don't know, the, the humanness of the podcast and not just be like super tactical. That's it. And then done. Like, yes, I could do that. But the reason I started this podcast, was to have fun, to stay connected with people, my audience, you folks.

And so right now we're gonna connect over the fact that my back is acting a fool. If you're out there and you, your back is doing the same. Well, I feel you. I feel you. I'm pretty sure I know what's going on. Um, I think it's actually a good thing to have, even though it's sucky. Um, I think it's secondary to actually hitting and swinging in volleyball.

Um, if you're watching this on video, you see me, I'm, I'm over here swinging. Um, don't worry, I don't drop my elbow like that. It will be up there. Um, but I think it's secondary hitting and, hurt my knee, that got better. It actually forced me to change how my, what's called, what we call the approach in volleyball, um, which now puts me in a better position where, so I can actually swing.

Before I had kind of had happy feet and so now that I can actually swing and make contact with the ball, what I think is happening is I'm still kind of sometimes underneath it, overrunning it, but I'm actually still able to put power through it. Not just getting it from my shoulder. I am getting it from my core, but I think I'm getting it from an extended position.

If you're a movement person on here, maybe this is your jam right now. But I think I'm in an extended position when I go to try and like lock down or brace my core instead of being more of that hollow body position. Uh, and so my SI joint is just like, what the fuck's wrong with you? So working on that. I got great people in my corner. Um, got my goal, Anna, I brought her on a bunch of times.

Or maybe be once. I don't know. Either way, I've spoken about her a bunch of times. Um, we can link that in the show notes. Anna, she's @movementrev. Got my girl Karen, I'm gonna go see her on Wednesday. Gonna bring her on the podcast. She's local to me so we'll do probably do an in-person episode for that. But got good people on my team taking care of me and helping me out and I will die on the hill that physical therapy is the best first career cuz now I know you know what to do and I don't have to freak out about this. Um, cuz back stuff is worse. You can't really rest it ever. You know, you need it for everything. Um, yeah, that's where I'm at. I'm able to play, but I can usually get through about half of the stuff and then my back is just like, chill out.

So I chill out. Um, but it'll get better. We're gonna make sure it gets better, but that's the update with that. Um, second update that has nothing to do with my back, but does tie into this idea of bringing that humanness to the podcast. I just started listening to a new podcast. It's called the Give It to Me Straight podcast.

Um, it is hosted by Alexandra Madison. I'm not sure what her last name is. And John Bouf. I don't know how to pronounce his last name. Either way. They are married. Maybe you follow them or just one of them, Alexandra I'm guessing, um, on Instagram or on, uh, what is it? Uh, TikTok. So funny and I just enjoy them.

Uh, sometimes it can be like a little bit. Of eh, listening to the podcast. I'm not gonna lie. They just brought it back. And sometimes I'm like, whoa, man. Bless you. Bless you, John. Um, but it's fun and I like that they bring that dynamic and it's just fun to listen to. And not everything in life needs to be a lesson.

Sometimes you just wanna walk and like listen to something and listen to people being people. And so that is a really good choice in my opinion, if you're looking for something. So that's the Give it to Me Straight Podcast. We will link all the things in the show notes. And actually one question from all of this.

Jill and I have talked about doing a podcast called Business and Bullshit. It'll probably be, it would probably be business and BS cuz you can't curse in like titles of things, it makes it difficult to market it. But Jill and I are thinking about doing it, doing it both as YouTube and as a podcast. But, uh, I think I've asked in a previous episode, and I'm gonna ask again, cuz we'll likely do it anyway, but oh, I just hit the whole desk.

Sorry if you heard that or if you're seeing that on YouTube. Um, but would you be interested in that? Jill and I hosting a podcast talking about business and BS. I like the, the, I don't know, synergy, the, the both, having both parts there so we can get tactical, but then basically just be kind of like, uh, you know, listening in to the conversations that Jill and I sometimes have like when we're riding bikes or something like that.

And it's all always largely business, but then there's also the bullshit part, the life part. So if that would be interesting to you, let me know. Shoot me a DM @themovementmaestro, drop it below in the YouTube comments, or shoot me a text 3 1 0 7 3 7 2 3 4 5. It is me. 

So we're five minutes in the episode.

Let's actually talk about generating passive revenue. The big thing here, and if you follow me for any point in time, you know this, that I am very like anti this, this idea. I think that passive revenue is a misnomer. There's nothing passive about any of it. I think there's different degrees of how much you have to, you are included and how much work you're doing, but I think this idea of like, I'm gonna do nothing and make a zillion dollars, like that's just bullshit. It doesn't exist and no. 

Three things that I wanna talk about that can lead to a type of passive revenue, um, are gonna be number one, recurring revenue. Number two, and this is what I think a lot of people are, are actually kind of thinking about what I'm gonna call minimized direct delivery revenue or MDD revenue.

And then number three, investing. 

First topic, recurring revenue. This is not at all passive, but it does introduce more predictability to your business, meaning you have this amount of money that is coming in to your business account every month. This gets generated by ongoing offers or continuous offers, so continuities, things like a membership or a subscription model.

This could also happen with payment plans, but I personally prefer to not have the payment plan extend past along through the program. That's a personal choice. You can, by all means, run a six month program, but have a 12 month payment plan. Absolutely. But the point here is that you will have an ongoing, a recurring amount of money that gets deposited into your account monthly.

And there's nothing passive about this. You have to continue to deliver the service. Um, but like I said, it does introduce some predictability and I think what folks should be striving for, if anything, would be this model of having recurring revenue. What I have seen historically as people move through their businesses is that becomes the second step before we kind of get more of the, what we're gonna get to next, that minimize direct delivery- wow, minimized direct delivery revenue. 

So, second part here as it relates to quote unquote, passive revenue, and the fact that it's a misnomer, I think that what most people are thinking about is largely going to be what I'm calling minimized direct delivery revenue. And I literally, literally just came up with that name, pulled that outta my ass.

But I think that it explains what's actually going on, which is that you have minimized how much involvement you have in terms of delivering that offer, delivering that service, right. Fulfilling on that thing. Within this, um, we're gonna talk about three different types of avenues. The first one that I think everybody knows about and kind of thinks about and wants is gonna be that DIY product, right?

Do it yourself product where you sell it, the person does it on their own, and you don't have to have any communication or hold their hand or help them move through that. Super important that if you're going to have a dIY product, you need to actually be able to get people a result with that product. Yes, obviously they have to do it, but if they do the whole thing, they complete the thing and then they get no results, it's going to end there. 

I will, you know, I think all of us will contend that word of mouth is the best referral source. And so to that end, people have to do the thing and be like, I got a good result. So they will go and tell other people. Even better might be word of obvious as Kathy Sierra calls it. Um, and that's when people just notice that this person who's done something is now different and they're like, yo, I want that too. I want to be like you. What did you do? They ask, and then that person says, oh, I took this program with X, Y, Z. 

But the take home message from that, you have to be able to get a result with this thing. With this DIY product the, it's gonna require two, two parts here. Number one, which is the easier part is the creation of the actual thing.

So we see that there's nothing like fully passive about this. Like you have to make this actual product. Which I will say, I've said a million times is, in my opinion, the easy part. The harder part is gonna be the actual audience building and trust building. Ideally, you build the audience and the trust first, and then you listen, and then you create a product that they have expressed that they actually want, right?

They have, they've expressed a problem they have, and then you can solve that thing. But there's nothing passive about building that audience and building that trust. There's nothing passive about building that actual product. But that will be the work that's on the front end, and then from this minimized direct delivery approach, the backend, the actual delivery of this, or the second half of this will be, can be a little bit more passive on your end.

A nice way to create a DIY product, in my opinion, is to actually pull it from a live offer that you don't wanna run live anymore. I do really like going through something live, getting feedback on the thing, seeing what the questions are, seeing you know what you need to add so that people actually do this thing, and then you can turn it into a self-paced DIY product.

Of note, again, to really keep things transparent here regarding the, the passive nature of this, creating a DIY product, it will typically, once you've created it, rather, it typically will only sell when you're actively promoting it. Yes. You could also run paid traffic to this thing, especially if it's a lower ticket and that there's a kind of passive nature of that, right?

Where you have upfront costs and upfront, uh, active involvement from you and upfront active energy from you that's required, but then the systems can run. But either way, you have to be promoting this thing for it to sell, right? It's not just gonna fly off the shelves when you're not talking about it. So if you're gonna be going after that organic approach, then you still have to be promoting it.

And there's nothing passive about that. People think, oh, I'll make a course, and then people just buy it. And I'm like, okay, try that. And you're gonna see that's not how it works. 

The second part of this though, like I kind of alluded to, is like you could go all in on paid traffic and just keep dumping money into it.

So it's not so much about audience building or trust building where you're like really just going for, I create this thing and I'm gonna look to spend a shit ton of money on ads and try to refine the audience and refine the kind of the, the, the funnel, the pipeline that people go through so they ultimately end up buying this thing or something that puts 'em in the ecosystem and kind of, they can go through a nurture sequence, something like that. But either way, that's not passive. We hear how much work goes into that. In that case, a lot more money will also go into that. So there is something to be said about a DIY product in terms of it minimizing the direct delivery that's required from you.

Right, where you're just largely involved with selling, the creating the thing, and then selling the thing. You're not so involved with actually delivering the thing, and that could, for some people, feel a bit more passive. We can see, especially with like lower ticket items, and especially as your business grows, then there may be a bit more, it may be even, even more, a bit more passive, even more a bit more, it may be even more passive.

Because you've created this thing, you have this audience, right? You've done all this work on the front end, and so now you can have be running ads that, you know, go to the lower ticket item thing. So that does become a bit more passive. I do tend to get every now and again, get sales from my, my DIY courses that I have.

Um, but I, the point here being that it's not some like massive revenue generator. If you want, that you're, you're either gonna have to put in time to actually continue to be selling it, so it's not passive, or you're gonna be putting in money to run ads to it so there is awareness and you're driving traffic to it. Okay. 

The second part within this minimized direct, uh, delivery revenue stream would be hiring yourself out. Meaning hiring yourself out of your business, working yourself out of your business where you first, you do all of the work upfront. You build a service business. You have the trust, you have the audience, you have the referrals, you get the word of mouth, you have a phenomenal, phenomenal product, and then you hire people to actually deliver that service.

Perfect example from the world that I come from, physical therapy, right? Where you build a clinic and you hire clinicians and eventually you're seeing fewer and fewer people. Um, if you're looking for the cash-based model for this, you know, Danny Matta is always my recommendation. That's what he does. He helps people that want to have that cash-based model.

I got a new guy though. If you are looking for someone to help you go from that, and this is for physical therapists obviously, people that are looking to go from that: I currently take insurance, but I want to switch and move into the cash based model. Cause a lot of the people that I have seen be really successful in Danny's Mastermind, they kind of just go into that. They're not like necessarily transitioning the model. So if you're looking to transition your model and you have, you currently have a successful business practice, a successful business, um, and you're taking insurance, but you wanna transition that, that's gonna be my guy Chad Burnham.

He's @chat_burnham, B U R N H A M. We will link all the stuff in the show notes and I'll probably bring him on at some point. Um, I just got to connect with him again at the Raise the Bar Conference and I was just like, I love that dude. Like I freaking love that dude. He's also built with all, he's literally built like an action hero, like an action figure.

Dude is just next level on all levels. But he is the kindest man, or I should say, and he is the kindest man just ever. So two resources for you. What I will say here is you gotta be good to your people and create an environment that they actually want to stay. But yes, there could be a more passive nature to this.

You run a business, right, where you're not no longer working in the business, you're working on the business or right. You're outside of it and the thing just runs and it turns a profit and you get money from that. And yes, there could be a passive nature to that. But again, you gotta have to go through all the front loading of building a successful practice that that scales and you can, you know, bring people in.

And I, I'm, I'm gonna say you gotta stay involved to some extent as well. Again, if we have a better name for this, this minimized direct delivery revenue, it's very viable. 

The last part underneath this, the three different types of minimized direct delivery revenue, it's gonna be affiliate revenue. Uh, Pat Flynn makes big money off of this.

I say Pat Flynn like he's my bestie, right? But you can, we'll link him in the show notes. Um, but he makes massive money off of affiliate models. Again, it's not that it's so passive, it's that you're removed from the final delivery of the thing, meaning you are selling something for somebody else, right?

You're selling a product, a service that they offer. You get a commission for that, but you don't have to deliver on that thing. It's also really nice if you know you are an affiliate for like ConvertKit. I'm an affiliate for ConvertKit. I'm an affiliate for Descript. I'm an affiliate for Crowdcast. I'm an affiliate for LMNT.

We have, I actually have a whole entire page called the partner page if you can link that, Courtney, thank you. If you wanna check out the things that I actively promote and I support and I do get a commission. If you buy a product using my link or, or my code, you can check that out. Um, but again, you're very removed from the delivery of this.

You just have to typically, actively promote or sell it. So there is an active component there, but you're not delivering it and it's, you know, far less energy than if you are actively promoting and selling it, and then you have to go and deliver that thing. To that end, you have to actively promote it at least once.

I think probably the most like ideal model is this thing that, you know, in a world where you promote it once, you do like a YouTube video and it's like a, about this product and people continue to watch that, right? Cuz YouTube videos are, are evergreen. Same thing somewhat with podcast episodes as well.

Except YouTube videos are searchable. Um, but you go and you watch this, you know, people continue to watch this thing and they continue to use that link and you can continue to journ to earn or generate income slash revenue via that. Um, but again, there is an upfront cost, at least an initial upfront cost of you creating that content.

And I would contend that there is going to be ongoing continued cost, which is that you have to continue to create content so that people, so this thing is like actually alive and getting things, you know, getting. Getting, um, an audience or eyes driven to it. Like, yes, you could, you don't have to create a ton of content, right?

So this is probably the most ideal, is where you do, you do a YouTube video that does really well and it just kind of lives on. Um, but from what I'm learning about YouTube and things like that, like. You'd want to be at least doing, putting something on the channel. Yes, things can live on, but it is more helpful if you continue with that channel, um, and continue to add things with it.

So there is at least a small active component here, but we see that affiliate revenue model, it can be very nice. 

The last part here, right? I said kind of three things in general that we're looking at as it relates to actually earning any kind of revenue with this, which is one recurring revenue, which is not passive at all, but, um, a nice way to introduce predictability. The second one, which is minimized direct delivery revenue, which is what I think a lot of people kind of are actually referring to when they say passive revenue. And then lastly, investing. Right? I do think that there is a quite a passive nature to this.

It's way outside of my zone of genius. Um, but index funds do quote unquote work. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're feeling overwhelmed with the idea of investing, my recommendations Personal Finance Club on Instagram. His name is Jeremy. Um, and Ramit, uh, is another account, another person.

Um, I recommend starting there. Keep it simple. Yes, it's active in that you have to initially earn the money, but you can from there if you want, you can automate investing. Um, I personally use Vanguard. I don't automate the investing. I like to move stuff around. Um, not within the fund, but transferring the monies in.

Um, but I use Vanguard. Um, and my recommendation as per always, if you need a finance recommendation, it's gonna be my, my lady, my woman, Sandi York, she's @FitMoneyCoach on Instagram. Um, and recommending her from a finance perspective, if you're like, I gotta get my shit in order so that I can actually like, have money to put into these accounts and to invest.

So if you need some help there, Sandi is my go-to. All that's gonna be in the show notes. Um, but the big thing we know with investing is that it will require time. 

So in summary, I think that this term, passive income, passive revenue is a misnomer. I didn't wanna just be aggressive and be like, it doesn't exist, even though it's like what I feel like in my heart.

Um, I wanna give you some action items. And so first is giving it a better name. I do think that everything requires some sort of effort. What I think people would be more apt or inclined to do is have that upfront or that front loaded effort. And that's gonna be largely that second thing that I spoke about, which was minimized direct delivery revenue.

Uh, the first thing I spoke about recurring revenue. It is not a type of passive revenue, but to have ongoing, ongoing or continuous revenue that's coming in can really increase predictability, uh, to your business and can be incredibly, incredibly helpful. And I don't wanna say it'll feel like passive revenue, but it can feel like it.

And uh, just even if it's just the calm that it brings you, like, I'm not just gonna gotta chase people for money every month. It's like, this is coming in, this baseline is coming in. Minimized direct- Wow. Wow. Leave it in Courtney, leave it in. Minimized direct delivery revenue, that's gonna be what I think people really largely think of as

passive revenue, and that's where we are going to front load the, the effort and we are going to pull ourselves out of the actual delivery of the service, remove ourselves from the delivery of the service, um, which can then kind of lend itself to a bit of a passive nature for revenue. 

And then lastly, investing.

It's outside of my, you know, wheelhouse, my zone of genius. But yes, I do invest. Um, and there is a very passive nature to that. Active that you gotta have the money and then put it into the accounts, but you can just leave it. Uh, and if you are willing to be patient, you can absolutely make some monies off of that.

All right. I do believe that is it. My suggestions as always, soft suggestions. Uh, as always, lean into what you want. Lean into what feels good. Lean into any of these things that may, you know, have resonated with you, but to quote the once great Britney Spears, you better work, bitch. You gotta work. All right.

That's all I got for you. As always endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. I will ask for something today. If you like this, you love this, you're picking up what I'm putting down, do me a solid and leave me a review. Why? Cause I just like reading them. The stars, the little blurbs. I just enjoy reading them.

It keeps me inspired to, you know, I'm gonna keep doing these regardless. But it's just like, it's like, yeah, this is freaking awesome. We're all, we're all in here, in this thing together. Um, does it help with the podcast getting found? Maybe, perhaps. But more than that, I like it. So if the spirit moves you and you got some time, drop a little review, drop a little stars.

I appreciate you. 

Until next time, friends, Maestro out.

Links & Resources For This Episode:

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People you should follow:
Alex and Jon: @alexandramadisonn @jon.bouff
Danny Matta: @dannymattapt
Chad Burnham: @chad_burnham
Pat Flynn: @patflynn
Personal Finance Club: @personalfinanceclub
Ramit: @ramit
Sandi York: @fitmoneycoach

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