910: How to Build Consistent Monthly Income in Your Business (Even If You’re Brand New)

29:28This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money. Okay, I remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey, clients would literally mail me checks and then I would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them. It took me literal years to make things go digital. And I am ashamed to admit I still have a filing cabinet with paper contracts because I'm way too afraid to throw them away. But that's the beauty of growth, right? You learn what systems serve you and which ones hold you back. Mercury is one of those systems that just works, where traditional banking websites and apps are clunky and hard to use, Mercury is meticulously designed to make doing just about anything with your money feel effortless.

30:11And the best part is it flexes to fit all types of businesses. Ready to see what powerful banking can do for your business? Visit mercury.com to apply in minutes. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. For important details, check the show notes. You know, I only share stuff I'm genuinely obsessed with. And so when I kept seeing Bowling Branch sheets all over Instagram. I was like, okay, are these actually worth the hype? Drew and I have been using their sheets and duvets for over a year now. And honestly, our bedroom feels like a completely different space. The moment you touch these sheets, you'll get it.

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31:27Exclusions apply. when we were young we dreamed of castles and fairy tales and as we grow up those dreams might shift into building something real like starting a business you need a website payment systems a logo and a way to reach customers it can all be overwhelming and confusing but thankfully that's where today's sponsor shopify comes in shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all US e-commerce, from big brands to folks just getting started. They offer beautiful, ready-to-go website templates so you don't need design skills to look professional. Their AI tools help with product images, descriptions, discount codes, and more.

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32:56And I want to say affiliate marketing done well, okay? Because affiliate marketing done well can absolutely bring in more consistent and reliable income into your business. Now, here's essentially what affiliate marketing is, is that you basically just promote products, services, subscriptions, software that you love and use and adore to your audience and they handle the rest. Your only job is to market that product service or offer and the other person or company does all the deliverables. I love this type of marketing because you get to focus on just sharing authentically what you love about something and you don't have to go out and create your own skincare line and deal with manufacturing and bottling and FDA or all of that or you don't have to go out and build a software that already does the things that you love that it does.

33:53Inside of our company affiliate marketing is a huge focus because there are so many things that I use and I'm obsessed with. And if you knew me in real life, I am the friend that if we go out to dinner, I will be sending you a follow-up text message linking 10 different things that we talked about in our discussion, whether it's books, podcast episodes, the jeans that I swear by, this new hair product that works really good for Slickback Buns, the new supplement that I'm taking that actually tastes good and gives me energy. Like I love sharing the things that I'm learning that are working for me that I am obsessed with.

34:31It is just my natural tendency. I would suck as a gatekeeper. I just can't do it. Like that's not how I rock. And so affiliate marketing comes so naturally to me because I naturally just love to share what works for me. And so think about what you could recommend in terms of something that you genuinely use, that you genuinely love. 16 % of all online orders come through affiliate links. And the ones that work best come from trust and not someone being actively pushy, right? And so what if you were to sit down and say, okay, here are the three tools or products that I believe in, that I pay full price for, that I love, that I am an evangelist for, that I would talk about even if I wasn't getting paid and that align with your audience and their needs and their desires.

35:23Write those three things down and maybe take just an hour to explore. Do they have a partner program? Do you have the ability to get a friends and family link or an affiliate link? Can you commit to sharing about this product more than once to see if it resonates with your audience and it's something that your audience wants. You know, it's really interesting. Recently, I have just naturally been sharing about random things that I am obsessed with. Like, for example, there is this NAD supplement that I started taking. It's in our fridge and you just take a teaspoon a day. And there's NAD pills.

36:03There's NAD IV bags. NAD is like basically like helping your cells rejuvenate because our cells are dying every day. And I'm probably saying this entirely wrong, but I have been on different types of NAD supplements from doing IVs of it and taking pills. But I found this liposomal NAD supplement. And I swear to you, since I started taking it, I literally wake up in the morning with energy. For example, this morning, I woke up without an alarm clock at 530 this morning. I took our puppy Hank out and I got in a full workout before my family even woke up. Like Drew woke up and he's like, when did you get out of bed?

36:40I didn't even here, you get out of bed. Like I am energized and I've never had this level of energy. And I really had to like troubleshoot, like what changed in my life recently? Because I didn't have this energy. I used to be the person that would like sleep until the very last minute until I had to get up. And I swear it's a supplement. And I just started talking about it. I will link this supplement in the description for you because I know you're going to ask about it, but I'm just giving you an example of how I love to talk about the products and things in my life that are changing my life.

37:12And I would do it even if I wasn't getting paid, but heck they have an affiliate program. That's so cool. I bought five bottles of this thing before I ever once talked about it and used it for a month without ever telling anybody. And all of a sudden I'm like, wait, this is like absolutely amazing. I want to shout it from the rooftop. So this is just an example of that. So what would it look like if you came up with three product services, anything that you use and love that you could share consistently with your audience. And again, I'm not saying a one and done. Don't just put it out there once and be like, oh, nobody clicked the link.

37:47Okay, this must not work. I have shared this story before, but when I first started my podcast, it was right around the era of Drew and I were trying to figure out home life balance, entrepreneurial life. We were newlyweds and the argument of like, what are we going to cook for dinner would come up every single night. I mean, it's still an argument in our life. Thank God tonight we're having this quinoa Mexican bake. Can't wait. But that question used to spark a lot of arguments in our household. And I started buying HelloFresh. And at the time, it was a huge investment for us. Like it was not something that was super accessible.

38:20And I started talking about it on my podcast. And so many of my listeners ended up getting HelloFresh just off of my refer a friends and family link that we got free groceries for a year. That was life changing for us, right? Free groceries for a year. The boxes kept coming. We didn't have to pay because I was just naturally sharing about something that was working in our lives. So affiliate marketing, when it comes from your heart, when it is something that you genuinely use and love is an incredible way. Now, here's another thing to know based on what type of program or product you are affiliating for.

38:56Some of them have recurring revenue models. So a lot of times different softwares that you recommend will continue to pay you as long as somebody stays a member of that. And so if there are different softwares that you are using in your company that you want to tell other people to use, they might have a recurring model, which actually does unlock more reliable monthly income. It's absolutely amazing when it happens. And so look into programs. I have found that going deeper on an affiliate versus having 20 different affiliates that you're talking about all the time works so much better. In our company, we have four to five affiliates that we really prioritize the most.

39:38And then we have a bunch of other ones that are kind of on the fringe that we'll mention here and there. But really look into the different models. And if you're really dead set on more reliable income, look for affiliate programs that have that recurring revenue as long as somebody stays on the platform that you keep getting paid. That's an incredible way to bring in more certainty into your business. Okay, number five is VIP days or one day offers. So this is something that isn't necessarily scalable in the sense of, you know, you get to create something once and sell it a million times like an online course.

40:14But if you do a condensed high value service that can let you charge more for less time and deliver massive results quickly, this could be a huge game changer for you. So there are so many different ways you could structure this, but let's say you created one high ticket offer that you knew could cover all of your expenses for the month, right? Or let's say you don't even have high overhead because It's just you doing all the things in your business. Let's say you created a high ticket offer that could cover your mortgage or your grocery bill or your daycare bill or whatever is important to you.

40:51And if you could just get one of those a month, VIP days can be really efficient for you. And it can be super transformational for the people you work with. And sometimes when you get in the weeds with somebody else and help them experience a true transformation, it can unlock different ideas of other things that you could create for more people, right? Like if you can help one person, you can probably help many. And so I've often found that when I've done coaching and consulting in the past, which is something I haven't done basically since I became a mom, but when I've done coaching and consulting in the past, it is unlocked different ideas for me for online courses, for free resources, for blog posts, for podcast episodes.

41:32It really puts me in a really creative position. Over the last year, I've started doing a little bit more one-on-one coaching and it's actually something I'm exploring more thoughtfully as the kids start school in the fall. And for the first time in seven years, I'm going to have uninterrupted days to work, which is wild to think about. And so I'm considering this again is doing more condensed coaching or VIP days or things like that. But it can be an incredible cash injection. And it can also be a way where you don't feel like you have to constantly be marketing or playing the volume game. And so it's something to consider.

42:07And I also just think too, it connects you with your mission. It connects you with your brilliance. It connects you with the people that you want to serve and the people you can impact. And it helps unlock different ideas and ways that you could really scale that impact through different offers. Okay. Number six is kind of this like hybrid model. And here's what I mean by hybrid. So what would it look like for you in your business if you could almost mix a live and an evergreen model of business. And here's what I mean by this. What if you could blend the connection of having some sort of live experience and then blend it with the scalability of a digital offer?

42:50So whether that's like having a short live coaching series or some sort of group program or a live training or masterclass or something like that, what would it look like if you presented it, launched it live, and then you packaged up the recordings or the materials into an evergreen offer. So we recently just did this for kind of the first time in a way where I did this five day live Pinterest bootcamp. It was our first ever bootcamp. It was amazing. It was so much fun. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was this five day live experience. We had thousands of people join. I was in the Facebook group every single day serving people live.

43:32It was just phenomenal. And when it ended, I was like, I don't want for this to end, but also we just did a lot of work to pull this thing off. Is there a way to take all of the work, all of the content, all of the slideshows, all of the videos, and repurpose it into something that maybe doesn't have the live component, but that gets that information out there in a different way. And so this hybrid idea, I think is super smart for a bunch of different reasons. One, you get to test everything live. You get to work out the kinks. You get to see what worked and what didn't work. And then you can take all of those takeaways and package it up for a more evergreen offer.

44:08You get the energy of the live interaction, but then you can also encompass the long tail sales of a digital offer. So again, this is kind of marrying some of the earlier ideas that I had in terms of evergreen digital products or online courses, but it allows you to have that live energy and put in that live experience, but then repackage it up in a way where it's not just a one and done, it can live on. Okay. Before we wrap up with my final suggestion, I just want to take a minute to thank the brands helping bring this conversation to your ears. And when we come back, I'm going to share my last idea and the truth about passive income, the part that most people skip over and what I think really makes these strategies work for the long haul.

44:52All right, we'll be back in just a second. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about creating spaces where people actually want to be. So when we started hosting on Airbnb, it honestly felt like the most natural thing in the world. And it's turned into one of the best decisions we've ever made. Over the years, we've hosted hundreds of couples in our little spaces. We've had so many repeat guests come back and we've created this incredible community, not just with our guests, but also with the people who help us care for our space. Whether you've bought properties as an investment or have unused rooms waiting to be shared, hosting on Airbnb is a practical and profitable choice.

45:30And just think about it. If you've put a ton of time, effort and work into your home, someone out there probably would love to experience it while they're traveling. So next time you're planning a trip or want to make some extra income from your spaces, you should definitely host on Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. Okay, my final idea is one that I tossed in a little bit last minute. And it's this idea of rental income. Okay, now, we have been in the rental game for I believe, nine years, might be almost a decade. And I first just want to preface this and say, wow, what a privilege, right?

46:13What a privilege to be able to have a space that you could rent out. And I want to say you don't have to own a huge real estate portfolio to benefit from rentals. Like maybe it's a basement apartment. Maybe it's a small investment property. Maybe it's even renting out your gear or tools or studio space. But one thing that's been really unique for us is I feel like real estate has been a really meaningful piece of our personal income puzzle, not because we started with massive resources, but because we looked for strategic manageable opportunities that helped kind of align with our lifestyle, but also kind of worked with our long-term goals.

46:51And so are there any aspects of your life, of your property, or of your business that could be rented out, right? What could that look like for you? Could you explore that? I know there's an amazing photographer in Duluth here who has this beautiful studio space and she rents it out for events, for other photographers to use. And so she helps cover her overhead by renting out her space, right? It's just brilliant. I also have a friend that's local who they just built out these little artist studios in this building that they bought where they basically converted the entire basement into little studio suites so that more artists could have spaces to create and I am guessing and I don't know but I am guessing that that monthly income that they can draw from different artists renting out spaces could help cover a lot of the overhead of their building in totality and so it's just something to consider It might be a long-term goal, but it's something where it can bring more reliable income into your business and it can help cover some of your overhead expenses.

47:58So before I wrap this episode up, I want to cover a few common misconceptions because here's the thing. Reliable income, in my opinion, is not about luck or it's not about being in the right place at the right time. It is about being so intentional. It is about creating and marketing and refining an offer until it consistently delivers. It is iterating. It is figuring out how do I get this in front of the right people? I have such a problem with this idea of passive income because I have so many different quote passive income streams that are not truly passive, right? They require iterating. They require data mining.

48:44They require testing and experimenting and trying. And while passive income can be mainly passive, I don't think you can ever be hands off. And in fact, I think that most passive income opportunities require a build out that has a ton of intentional effort and thought so that as you are getting it built, it can run with less of you later. So here's what I'm saying. I do not subscribe to hustle culture, right? But I do believe that hustle is required oftentimes to get a dream off the ground. And if your dream is passive and reliable income, hustle is likely going to be required for a short period of time.

49:25Now, here's my argument. If hustle is the only way that the dream can be maintained, I would argue that that might not be the dream. But I have to say that passive income is not usually passive and that these different types of revenue streams are not built with luck. They're built with a lot of thought an intention. Okay. For me, reliable monthly income means that I have a life that allows me to run a business where I just launch four times a year. And basically four weeks out of the year, I am in launch mode. But in between those launches, I am so fortunate to earn a steady income that pays my team, that pays our bills, and it has unlocked a level of freedom that I didn't even know was possible.

50:18When I became a photographer, my dream was just getting out of a windowless office, right? There was no dream of this life that I currently have, but it means freedom that I can be present with my kids. It means that I can work in focused seasons. It means that I feel safe enough to experiment and be creative and take risks. And I'm afforded all of that because I have built in the structure to bring in reliable monthly income that unlocks that creativity and freedom required to continue to evolve and iterate in my business. If I had stayed in a model where I only got paid when I showed up, for me, my life would look entirely different.

50:58And beyond my life, motherhood for me personally would look so different. When I think about if I were still shooting weddings and I were still booked out a year or two years in advance, and I were still traveling every single weekend and editing all week long, my life would feel incredibly different. My experience of motherhood would be so insanely different and my business would be totally different. And so when I look back at my younger self, I just want to hug her because building these systems before I needed them gave me the freedom and the things that I desired without even knowing I desired them when my life changed.

51:38And I often look back and attribute our season of loss when I went through two miscarriages back to back when I was planning pregnancies around wedding seasons and showing up to shoot when I wanted to be in the fetal position when I was grieving the hardest thing that I had ever walked through. I attribute the life that I have now and the type of mom that I'm able to be a lot to the dedication to work in our season of waiting and to cling to the hope that that season of waiting was just as important as what it was that we were waiting for. And I look back at that time when I was willing to take the risk and I was willing to make less money in order to unlock time, time for life, but also time for learning, to learn a different way of moving through the entrepreneurial space, to learn a different way of doing business, to think of a different way that I could scale both my impact and my income beyond just my geographic area through these methods that I've talked to you about today.

52:43And so I know that what you are craving is more reliability. It is more safety and more security. And I hope that in this episode today, I gave you some things to chew on, some things to think about, some things to consider in your own life and business. Now, if you are stuck in the loop of always needing to do more, to earn more, I just want to say, I see you. Like I've been you. And I'm here to tell you there's a different way. And the strategies I shared today are all paths to consistent and sustainable income. But the one for me, if I could only choose one, the one for me that changed everything for me that continues to be the most scalable and sustainable path forward for me personally, was creating an online course.

53:31First, I was a student, then I was a teacher. And if you are someone who is listening to this, and you're ready to explore that path, I want to invite you into something that is phenomenal. That's all I can say. Brought to you by my best friend who was first my mentor and I was a stranger to her, a student of hers. And again, it's called the Course Confident Bootcamp. It's a live experience. It is designed to help you test out an idea for your course to make sure it's viable, to get people excited to pay for it, to figure out what you would charge for it and how to get it in front of the people to take real steps forward and make real progress in just a few days time.

54:08And so whether you're brand new to online courses or figuring out what to teach next, this bootcamp will help you get clarity fast and be in community with other people who are also striving for that. So if you are ready to join, go to jennacutcher.com slash bootcamp. You can learn more. You can grab your spot. If you are listening to this after the bootcamp has taken place, we will hopefully link up a few resources that can really help you or get you on a wait list. When you join, you'll also get a special bonus from me being valued at$27, something that I mentioned inside of today's episode that you can get access to.

54:42If you go to jennacutcher.com slash bootcamp, you can check out all of the information and join me and Amy live in her bootcamp. Let me just remind you real quick. You didn't start your business to burn out. I believe that you started it to build freedom and I want to be there to help you take that next step. I want to do it together. So whatever your next step is, I just want to say thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of this, if there is somebody that popped into your brain as you were listening to this, if there is somebody that you want to go through the bootcamp with, or that is turning their wheels and on the hamster wheel and always stressed or on the verge of burnout, send this episode to them.

55:19Let this be a gift from you to them. And just thank you so much for listening until next time, Gold Digger. All I want for you to do is keep on digging your biggest goals. Thanks for listening to the Gold Digger podcast. I hope today left you inspired and equipped with something you can put into action as you build a business that truly supports your life. If this episode resonated with you, here's how you can help the show reach even more entrepreneurs. Hit follow, share it with a friend who's building something meaningful. And if you're feeling generous, leave us a review. Those reviews help other listeners discover these conversations when they need them the most.

55:54This show has become so much more than I ever imagined. And it's because of listeners like you who show up and share. You are helping build something that will inspire entrepreneurs for years to come. For show notes, links, and resources, head to golddiggerpodcast.com. Keep digging your biggest goals. The world needs what you're building.

56:17Please note, this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements, and individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in the episode. your support through affiliate links or sponsored content helps us continue to bring you valuable content. Thank you for being a part of the gold digger community.