How to Scale to 7 Figures by Adding Semi-Passive Income Streams with Lisa Johnson: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Creator Science. Today, we're pulling a timeless EO Fire episode from the archives so the giveaway may not be active. And we'll be breaking down how to scale to seven figures by adding semi-passive income streams. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Lisa Johnson and to EO Fire Studios. Lisa helps business owners add semi-passive income streams to their lives so they can work less but earn more.

0:35She's also a mom of eight-year-old twins and lives in the UK. And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about semi-passive and passive income streams. We'll talk about making mistakes and how to learn from them. And then we'll talk about building an audience as early as possible to help with this goal and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Lisa and our sponsors. Artificial intelligence has made a splash in the headlines and for good reason. The digital landscape is changing quickly and AI is a huge part of that. If you're feeling behind the curve, don't worry. HubSpot has got your back.

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1:49Find out more about how to use AI to grow your business at HubSpot.com slash artificial dash intelligence. Lisa, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know. Oh, hey, hey, you and hi, hey to Fire Nation. So the thing about, there's lots of things about me that people don't know. I'll just give you one. I went on a game show and won£28 ,000 because it's, you know, Britain on TV. Wow. Do you have that linked up on your About Me page? There's no way I would ever, ever show you it. Oh my God. I'm the exact opposite. See, I actually won a car on The Price is Right.

2:36And I linked to that on my About Me page. It's still linked there. Like that 11 minute clip of me winning a car on The Price is Right. So Fire Nation, many of you have heard that story before. But for those of you that haven't, you can just go to eofire.com slash about watch me win a car on The Price is Right. And Lisa, congrats. Did you put that£28 ,000 to good use? Yeah, I went on three holidays and bought a little smart car. Now, listen, I don't want to go too far down a rabbit hole because I like what you just shared there. Like you use it for experience and then something practical. But did you get a pretty big luxury tax bill at the end of the year?

3:15Because I don't know if the UK is the same as the US, but we have like a 60 % luxury tax. No, we don't have that. There's no tax if you win things. that's amazing see that's actually where so many people get so screwed like you're so excited when you see people win on game shows in the states you're like oh my god they just won a$75 ,000 yacht but then they get like a$45 ,000 tax bill at the end of the year and 100 you have to pay 60 tax on the value of it so I got a I got a bill at the end of the year for like$9 ,000 for my $17 ,000 car that I won like it was absolutely insanity because the car of course only worth like$13 ,000 or$14 ,000 as soon as you drive it off the lot.

3:56So I actually was considering doing an entire podcast episode about how the game show industry in the States is just an absolute scam. And I was going to actually like talk to contestants that won about how winning ruined their lives. Because it doesn't obviously ruin everybody's lives in the States, but it does for people that don't get prepared or can't handle that tax. But again, we're going down that rabbit hole. Well, big congratulations. I think you should be more proud of that and share it with your audience. I think they would actually really enjoy watching you win 28 ,000 pounds on a game show.

4:32But Fire Nation, as I told you in the introduction, we're talking all about how to scale to seven figures, not just with passive income streams, but with semi-passive income streams. So I really love how you added that word in and we're going to get into to that right now. So why, Lisa? Why do we need semi-passive as well as passive income streams in our life? Well, luckily, this year has shown people why they need it. I mean, I've been banging on about it for three years. When I came into the coaching industry, I was told, you know, do one-to-one, get as fully booked out as you can. So I did that.

5:11And I was really lucky. And, You know, I got six figures very, very quickly. And I got fully booked out with one-to-one spots very quickly. But it wasn't this success. It wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I was absolutely shattered. I was working from six in the morning to 11 o 'clock at night with these one-to-one clients. And people were saying, you know, take my money. I want to work with you. And I said, well, I can't. I've only got so much time in the day. And I knew that I was going to have to change. I've got eight-year-old twins. You know, I couldn't spend every minute working. and then I heard some people talking about passive income on a podcast and didn't really know what it was they were actually arguing on this podcast as to whether it exists um which I quite liked if anyone argues about anything on a podcast I'm listening to it and um started learning everything I could about passive and semi-passive income streams like courses and memberships and all these different dropshipping all the different things and started slowly adding passive income streams and semi-passive income streams into my business and it took me from working 60 hours a week and earning 220 ,000 a year to earning a million the next year on 24 hours a month and so I then realized how important this was and how so many people weren't utilizing what there was already out there you know going from one to one to going to one to many is a great example of a passive income stream, a semi-passive income stream, and started teaching my clients it and telling people, you know, you really need to be doing this.

6:42And I earned this nickname, the passive income queen, because of it. But it was only this year when this pandemic hit that, you know, a lot of my clients came from the wedding industry because I used to have a wedding planning business. And they suddenly had absolutely no business. But the clients that had worked with me and had passive income stream set up already, they were able to just glide through this year and still make money. Whereas the rest of them, you know, it was really hard for them. And so now people are listening. I really resonate specifically with the semi-passive income stream stance because I see it every single day, every single week, every single month in my business.

7:21I mean, we've been publishing income reports at eofire.com since it was October of 2013, I believe. So like 84 months at the time that you and I are chatting, we've done 84 monthly income reports. And I can tell you a hundred percent, we are getting passive income and semi-passive income on every single one of those income reports. So things that I did back in 2013, 14, 15, 16, 17, go on and on and on are still producing income. And I'm not doing anything except, and this is where I like that word semi, except I'm still out here producing great content on the podcast with you right now and social media and writing blog posts and emails.

8:01So I'm still building my brands, building my awareness, building my authority in different areas. So that is of course, contributing to that, um, income that I put in place years and years and years ago, but I'm not actually working on any of those projects that are still making money. So that is absolutely passive to semi-passive. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And that's where I think people get confused like pass I wish it wasn't called passive income really I wish it was called leveraged income because I think passive has connotations that you literally do nothing and we know that's not true you have to work really hard at the start but then it it makes you money over and over and over again and that's why it's a good thing it's not trading time for money anymore but I mean for me the reason that I love semi-passive instead of passive is because I was doing everything passive at the beginning because it seemed like the easiest way to do it so I would have a course for instance I would you know record all the modules have all the workbooks stick it on my website and people would buy it overnight so yes I would make money while I slept but they weren't getting the results I really wanted them to get because there was no accountability and so I realized that if I have 10 modules I could do something over 10 months and just show up for one hour a month deliver it you know everything was already done so all I had to do is is deliver it and then go away again.

9:21So that's still 10 hours worth of my work. Now, if I was going to do something one-to-one with somebody for 10 hours, I could maybe make, what,$20 ,000. If I do it like this, one-to-many, even though it's still only 10 hours worth of work, I can make$300 ,000 because I'm talking to more people. And it really made me realize that it's leveraged income. Is it, you know, this myth of it just happening for you? No, that doesn't work. But it's still worth it because you're making money time and time again. So if your integrity tells you that actually it isn't great for me to just be putting something on my website and hoping people buy it, there are ways around it.

10:00And semi-passive income for me is the way around it. I love that clarification of the word leveraged income. And I honestly think it should be shifted to that. Like the word passive, it just doesn't have the connotations that you and I and other people want it to have because we that are living it, that are experiencing it, we know that it's truly leveraged income. It's not passive because what we're doing is we're putting something in place, you know, we're building that income producing machine, and then we're doing all the right things to it time and time again, you know, occasionally once a week, once a month to make sure it's still running, updating it, tinkering with it a little bit here and there to leverage that one activity we did way back in the day to make it still an income producing machine.

10:43So let's get specifically about the types of passive and semi-passive income streams that are out there. Yeah, there's so many that you could do. And when I started, I was like trying them all because it was so exciting to me. So I was like doing a course and then doing a membership and doing some drop shipping. You know, there are so many things. I mean, the things that I like the most, the things that I think for most people that are already in the industry, already working with clients so that they could start making money quickly from passive income. I think the easiest ways is to go from one to one to one to many.

11:16So things like courses, things like a membership my membership has been going now for three years and it doesn't take me much time you know it's very semi-passive and it probably makes me around 300 ,000 a year things like affiliates so we see this on people's websites all the time you probably have this on yours where people say these are the things that I like to work with these are the people I like to work These are the systems I like to work with. And you put links for them all. And when someone clicks on one of those links, then you make a bit of money. And you're not doing anything for that.

11:52You're literally just using the audience you already have. So I think affiliates is great. I think e-books can be a really good one. I have clients that are all the time asked, hey, can I pick your brains? Can I take you up for coffee? Just ask you a few questions. No, but you can read my e-book. Exactly. They're going to ask the same questions anyway. say, actually, I've got an ebook all about that. You can go onto my website and grab it. And you've done the hard work. You've written the ebook. People can just like download it time and time again, and you will continue to make money. And here's one thing I want to add to that, Lisa, because I know that you have that membership site you were talking about.

12:27So I get people that reach out to me all the time about podcasting questions in people that are already in podcasters paradise, my community, where we have that Facebook group specifically answer questions. They'll reach out to me one-on-one and they'll say, Hey, I've just have a couple of quick questions about podcasting, I'll always say, listen, I don't answer directions. I don't answer questions one-on-one because then only you benefit. But if you post your question in the Facebook group, everybody benefits. And I do that for multiple reasons. Number one, because it's true. And so when I answer their question in the Facebook group, everybody gets the benefit of the answer.

12:58But number two, it makes it more passive because guess what? Other people answer their questions before I even get to it. So it takes the complete work and owners off of my shoulder. So that is a great kind of way to look at what you're saying and just pointing people towards eBooks, towards your membership sites. And again, if people are asking me a lot of questions about podcasting, I say, Hey, I answer those questions when you join my membership site, when you join Podcasters Paradise, as you can do as well, Fire Nation, for your membership when you have that. So keep going, Lisa. I mean, you're so right in what you're saying.

13:29You can point them to something. And also it gives people that might not be able to afford to work with you in your maybe usual ways to be able to afford to work with you in a smaller way. So memberships are a great way for them, not just for you. Other things such as, I mean, there's the usual building an app, stocks and bonds, renting out a room. These are all types of passive income because you're not trading time for money. But for me, I'm a lover of memberships, workshops, and group programs. They're the three that generally with my clients, we put those in, they start making money a lot quicker than they were and leveraging their time so that they can stop working as much.

14:09Fire Nation, how can you go from one to one to one to many? Courses, memberships, workshops, group programs, affiliates, eBooks, apps. I mean, even through in real estate there. So, I mean, you can just think of a lot of different cool ideas and things for sure. And Fire Nation, one thing I've been really excited to talk with Lisa about today is her cash system that I did tease in the introduction. That's C-A-S-S-H system. And you're going to have to stick around during our sponsorship break to get the deets on that. We'll be right back. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

14:49Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship. One of Scott's recent episodes was with none other than Jack Canfield, where they discuss adapting to life's twists and turns. Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts. Lisa, we're back. And as I teased before the break, you have the cash system. Break that down for us. What is the cash system and how can we use it to keep things simple? Yeah, because I love simple. I love a bit of step-by-step. It's the easiest way of doing things.

15:23So I found that when I was adding these income streams into my business, I was doing the same thing no matter what product. And I was doing it in the same order. And then when I was talking to clients, I was telling them to do the exact same thing. And they were getting these great results. So I decided to trademark what I was doing so that I could teach it easily. So that's what the cash system is. I do wish it had one S in it, but we're going to have to go with it. I couldn't shoot on it in. It makes it more unique. I kind of like it with a capital S, the lowercase s. It just looks cool. It looks cool.

15:53So we'll go with it. So what it stands for is the first C is for client, because even if your passive income stream is going to be completely different to what you do in your general everyday business, you're still going to have to work out who you want to serve. So instead of thinking, okay, I'm going to have a membership or I'm going to have a course, don't worry about that bit at the beginning. Just think, who do I want to help? Who do I want to serve and work out who that person is so that's what the c is for you can then go on to the a the a stands for audience now that you know who you want to serve you need to grow an audience of those people and not just grow an audience of them you can do this using you know a funnel funnels are the the easiest way but there are so many ways now with social media to grow audiences um you need to nurture the audience as well you can't just grow them and have them sit there you You need to be consistently giving value.

16:43Like, you know, you're doing this all the time, so you know what I'm talking about. And then the next S is for structure and systems. It used to be that people would go, well, I can't do this because of the tech. The tech was always the thing that got in the way. But it's become easier and easier in the last few years. There were all these front end systems that are much easier to use than they used to be. So you just need to decide where you're going to host your course, where you're going to host your membership. You know, we have all these different ones. Carter, Thinkific, Teachable. There's plugins on websites, so many different things you can do.

17:16And then work out how you're going to deliver it because not everybody wants to do live video. I love live video. That's how I will always do my courses and programs. But some people don't enjoy that. So they do workbooks or they do audio. And you have to just decide what you're going to do that's good, not just for you, but for your audience as well. And the next S, which is probably the most important stands for selling in other words launching this is the bit that most people get wrong launching isn't just a case of hey guys I've got this thing come buy it which people sometimes think it is it's a whole strategy on its own and for me it takes six to twelve weeks to do a really good launch like having everything in place and making sure that people can see what they're going to get what value they're going to get from your semi-passive income product the good thing is once you've done one, you've got all the marketing to be able to repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

18:11And that's what passive income is about, right? Like continuing to make money from something over and over again. And then the H stands for happy because what I found is at the beginning when I first sold my first course, I didn't have any testimonials. And so I had to really do a hard job of selling it again. And the first time that you're doing any kind of passive income stream whether it's a course or whatever you're putting the work in you're writing it as you go along you're doing all the marketing you're writing the workbooks what where it becomes really passive is like the second time you sell it third fourth fifth six because it's already done and so you want to make sure you can sell it over and over again and the only way you can do that is to make sure your clients are actually getting the result that you promised so i think keeping your clients really happy is so so important and you know whether that means adding something in to your course that you didn't have account you know we added in accountability pods to our courses we added in done for you services like funnels because people getting stuck because it's really important you do absolutely everything you can to have people get results but if you follow those five steps client audience systems and structures selling and keeping your customers happy you will continue to make passive income over and over again.

19:28We're talking cold, hard cash, Fire Nation, clients, audience. That's the nurture and the adding of the value part of it. That structure, those systems. And then of course the selling, which is the most important. That's also known as launching. And I love how you broke that down, Lisa. Six to 12 weeks for a great launch. That's really setting solid expectations. You just can't come up with an idea. And next week, just think you're going to have this great launch. And then happy. Keep your clients happy. They're going to refer you business. They are going to stay longer in your program and they're going to make you happy because they are happy.

20:01And that's what it's all about. Now, despite all of this with your great cash system and everything that you've put into place, you've still made a lot of mistakes along the way. You know, Fire Nation is going to make a lot of mistakes along the way. I mean, we're human beings. We make mistakes. What are the biggest ones we can know and talk about right now to hopefully avoid in some capacity? Yeah, I've made loads. I think everyone has who goes from one to one to one to many and it's okay to make mistakes I want to make that really clear like if you haven't made mistakes you're probably doing something wrong you should be learning all the time and we can only learn from making those mistakes and then tweaking it so the biggest mistakes that I've done and that I've seen is the expectation of being able to sell something whether it's a membership or course workshop whatever without having an audience because we hear people say all the time you know create a course sell your first course you don't need an audience or you need a tiny audience and when we're being realistic about it it's a numbers game you do need an audience because otherwise you've got nobody to sell to and yes there are other ways around it like using affiliates and that kind of thing but it's so much better to grow your own audience so that they can really know like and trust you and we all have heard this no like and trust bandied around but it's so true um you know people want to buy from people that they like so they need to get to know you and they can do that and you can you can grow this audience anywhere it doesn't have to be like a Facebook group people are starting to not like Facebook groups so it could be on your list you know your email list you can email them every week you could do it on Instagram you can really do it wherever you like as long as you do grow that audience.

21:38So that's the first thing I see. The second is spending a long time, like six months or more, making something shiny. So like, I'm going to do this course, and I'm going to do these amazing videos, and they're all going to be, you know, amazing. It's costing me thousands to do it, and they do it, and it takes months, and then they put it out there to their audience, and their audience is like, no, that's not really what we wanted. I've been there. Yes, have I? We you'll have right um and so they waste all this time doing something that people don't want so ask your audience first and the big tip for me is don't actually write a word of anything until you've sold it and I know that's scary but I really believe that it's the best way to just you know write it as you go along the first time even if it means you're doing a beta version or something like that so they're the two biggest mistakes I see but actually the thing that stops most people from making passive income is mindset.

22:36There's two things that people say. The first one is I'm not an expert in anything. I don't believe that I'm a guru. And the second thing is somebody's already done that. And what I always say to them is if somebody has already done it, this is a good thing, not a bad thing. If nobody has done something, there's a problem there. There may not be a market for it that I'd be more worried about that than somebody having already done something so if there's already a market out there of course someone's going to have done it but it doesn't mean that people won't buy from you you're very unique you know you say things a different way you explain things a different way and so don't worry about that part of things but on the expert topic I think we've all been sort of raised in this coaching world and I've only been in it three years and people consistently talk about gurus and so we feel like we need to be one when actually we don't the definition of an expert is the person that knows the most about a particular subject in an average room not the world or the internet but an average room so we all know something more than others in an average room I could probably do an entire course on how to potty trained twins for example so like we can all do something and it doesn't have to be like people come to me and say yeah but my business is I'm an assertiveness coach I don't really know whether I want to do a course on that you don't have to like have a think about other things that you know like your knowledge is everywhere it isn't just the thing that you do now what about something that you may have done in an old job you know maybe you worked in a call center and you're an expert customer service or attention.

24:15Maybe you were a fitness expert, or maybe it's a hobby that you have. I have a client called Lauren, and she came to me and she didn't really know what to have her membership on. And so she made a membership for people that like the theatre, because she likes the theatre. And then she started buying up theatre tickets and selling it to them and she made 600 000 pounds last year from that membership and that's just a membership of a hobby you know there are people that have memberships in dating memberships about sex parenting memberships courses on caribbean cooking anything that you have a knowledge on that somebody wants to buy you can make money from so we have to get out of this kind of thing that we're telling ourselves this imposter syndrome of well i'm not an expert in anything because there will be something that wants what you know, somebody that wants what you know.

25:09I'll give you a hint on Caribbean cooking, Fire Nation, by a deep fryer. So that can get you started right there. So let's go over this real quick. You need an audience, Fire Nation. Don't kid yourself. You need an audience. That's why I'm so obsessed with podcasting. It's one of the great ways to build an audience. So if you want to check out freepodcastcourse.com, get you started there, get going on that. Don't write a word of anything until you've sold it. People vote with their wallet. Fire Nation, prove the concept first, pre-sell, pre-sell. And then mindset, not believing in yourself. Fire Nation, as long as you are one chapter ahead, just like your high school teacher in math, he was just one chapter ahead of you in math and algebra.

25:50She was just one chapter ahead of you in trigonometry. They were one chapter ahead. That was it. You can be one chapter ahead and you can teach people. You can be that expert in that average room by just having 10 % more knowledge, having that 10 % edge. And then if somebody's already doing it, that's proof that there's a market out there for it. If I had said, oh no, Cliff Ravenscraft, the podcast answer man, already has a course on podcasting, I never would have launched Podcasters Paradise. I would have lost out on over$6 million in course sales over the past six and a half years. So guess what?

26:24I said, oh, Cliff's proving that there is a market for a podcasting course. Let me go out and do my spin, my version of it, podcaster's paradise and capture a different and unique segment of that market. So Lisa, you've given us a lot of value bombs. What is one key takeaway from this audio masterclass that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets? Then give us the best way to connect with you as an individual, any call to action or gifts that you have for us, and then we'll say goodbye. The one thing I want people to take away is to just start, because if you don't start building an audience, then it's going to take you even longer.

27:01So even if you're really not sure right now what you're going to do as your passive income stream, start building an audience of the people you want to help. You can work out the rest later, but at least you'll be three to six months ahead by the time you do decide and you'll have an audience ready to sell it to. So start with that. And if you are not sure whether you are ready for passive income or whether you are halfway down the road to getting there, I have a quiz for you called the cash calculator that you can get from thecashcalculator.com. And in there, you can just fill in this quiz and it will tell you exactly what you specifically need to work on to make sure you're up to speed to start making passive or semi-passive income.

27:39Fire Nation, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with LJ and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And if you head over to eofire.com and type Lisa in the search bar, her show notes page will pop up with everything that we chatted about today, best show notes in the biz. And of course, get that cash calculator quiz under your belt, thecashcalculator.com. That's going to get you to the quiz, thecashcalculator.com. So Fire Nation, get over there, take that quiz, get into Lisa's world, learn more about her, what she has going on. And Lisa, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

28:22For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, Jill. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Lisa and successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big goals. I mean, big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step-by-step, Fire Nation, step-by-step, day-by-day. Visit thefreedomjournal.com, Use promo code podcast for a nice little$15 discount and a thank you for listening to my podcast. And I'll thank you there, but also I'll catch you there. And I'll catch you on the flip side.

28:59Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business startups, and entrepreneurship. One of Scott's recent episodes was with none other than Jack Canfield, where they discuss adapting to life's twists and turns. Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts.