Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 171

4 Ways to Connect with A-List Bloggers

This is a guest post by Dean Dwyer. He is a former teacher who now makes a living online. You can read his blog and follow him on . If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

I have been pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to connect with some big hitters online. Aside from Senor Hyatt himself, here are a few of the others who have been gracious enough to give me a significant portion of their time.

Photo Courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/LattaPictures

New York Times best selling author Tim Ferriss of four-hour everything fame
International best-selling author Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project
Passive income guru Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income
Mark Sisson over at Mark’s Daily Apple who has a blog that rivals Michael’s with 325,000+ subscribers
Former professional football player turned LinkedIn guru and marketing genius Lewis Howes

How has some guy from Canada been able to accomplish such a feat and is it possible for you to begin doing the same?

The good news is that everything I have done is replicable and you don’t have to move to Canada to do it. I know you just breathed a big sigh of relieve didn’t you?

But before we get this party started, a few words of caution.

First, A-list bloggers get hundreds of emails every day from people who want something from them, whether it’s a product review, a joint venture or advice.

Stand out by giving rather than asking. Let them get to know you as the person who gives and then if an opportunity arises where you can provide tremendous value, then ask.

Second, the point of trying to connect with A-list bloggers should NEVER be because of what they can do for you.

My suggestion is to only reach out to people who you truly respect and look for opportunities to provide tremendous value.

Four Strategies

OK so lets get to the good stuff. Here are four powerful strategies I have used to connect with A-list bloggers.

Solve a problem.So Tim Ferriss had an unexpected problem arise. After Amazon agreed to publish his third book, The 4-Hour Chef , Barnes & Noble decided that they would ban the book from all their bookstores.

It seems that B & N thought that banning the book would hamper book sales and discourage Amazon from entering into the world of publishing.

So Tim took matters into his own hands and reached out to bloggers and agreed to make himself available for interviews. There was an application process and successful candidates would be notified if they had been selected.

I ended up being one of those chosen, much to my surprise, but upon reflection, I now understand why that was. I had a platform. And more specifically, I had a podcast that had significant reach. And I made sure to mention that fact in my application because I knew that was the problem Tim was trying to solve.

Your Takeway

Listen closely for problems. Podcasts are a great resource for uncovering them. So too are Facebook and Twitter.

And here is an added bonus. Sometimes A-list bloggers reveal a problem without even realizing they have revealed a problem.

I secured an interview with Rich Roll, who was voted one of the top twenty-five fittest guys in the world by Men’s Health because I heard him mention on his first podcast he had no idea what he was doing.

I immediately e-mailed him and told him I had been doing the podcast thing successfully for about eight months and would be glad to help out anyway I could.He immediately took me up on that offer.

Write a guest post.Hang on! Before you do anything, let me say that you have to be smarter than the average bear if you want to have any chance of success with this.

For starters, give, give—and give some more—before you ask.

Next, you have to find a unique angle that offers tremendous value to said A-lister. I did a guest post on Mark’s Daily Apple a few years back where I shared my success story.

But before I submitted my idea, I studied what others had done before me and I noticed a few gaps that could make me stand out.

First, most people simply told their success story, but didn’t provide the reader with any obvious lessons that they could immediately apply to their own lives.

Second, I also noticed that most didn’t respond to comments. So when I pitched my post idea, I made mention that I would provide the reader with immediate takeaways, and I promised that I would respond to every single comment.

The results speak for themselves.

That post launched my online career because at the time I had a grand total of thirty-three subscribers. A few weeks after the post, I was up over one thousand.

And there were about 180 comments in total.  I responded to each and every one over the course of the following few days. The total comments now sit at 372.

Your Takeaway

Guest posting is a lot like dating. Try to do too much too soon and you are going to get slapped hard. Be smart, be strategic, move slowly, and give a lot before you ever consider asking.

Invite them on as a podcast guest.I want to share the story of my very first podcast guest I ever had. In fact, it was before I had even started a podcast.

Her name is Sarah Fragoso. She is the best-selling author of Everyday Paleo, which also happens to be the name of her website as well.

I had followed Sarah’s work and loved what she was doing, and I really wanted to meet her and get her story. My problem was I had little to offer in the way of platform. This was a time known as the pre-Hyatt era.

So in my initial e-mail, I tried to do my best to make it clear what was in it for her (very important, by the way) and pointed her to a few YouTube videos I had. And I promised something unexpected? Laughs. Seriously, I promised laughs. I didn’t have much else to offer, so I told her I would make her laugh.

It took her twenty-six days to actually respond, but she agreed to an interview. And we just hit it off. It was like talking to someone whom I had known my whole life, but had not seen in years. In fact, we are still friends and that relationship is the primary reason I ended up becoming a published author.

Your Takeaway

Podcasts are great because on top of exposing your A-lister to a new audience, you have an opportunity to showcase your personality. That can go a long way to creating a lasting relationship that could change your destiny.

I can’t speak for Michael on this, but I believe the reason he allowed this guest post is because he got a great sense of who I am from our interview.

Again, having a platform landed me that interview. And that interview landed me this guest post.

Provide a testimonial.This is my best and most favorite way to connect with an A-lister and a secret weapon that few leverage.

So earlier I mentioned the importance of giving and providing tremendous value.  Well nothing does this better then being a testimonial for a product that your A-lister has.

Why?

It’s simple really. Anyone with a product is always on the lookout for amazing testimonials to further promote their product.

Let me share the details of how I did this with Amy Porterfield who is one of the top social media experts on the planet. The moment I heard her story I knew I had to find a way to meet this gal.

I was subscribed to her blog, and she put out a post where she talked about five strategies to increase engagement on your Facebook fan page.

I decided to combine all the ideas together and run my own experiment. Well, the post worked like gangbusters.  You can see the results below.  There were over 110 comments, 106 shares and 469 likes.

So I emailed her that very picture letting her know that her stuff really worked. She emailed me back to let me know how thrilled she was that I shared the results.

With a connection now made, I went a step further and offered to do a video testimonial. She loved the idea, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We have continued to stay in touch. In fact, I would go so far as to say she has become a mentor who has helped me tremendously with the building of my business.

Your Takeaway

Don’t simply sign up for products. Sign up with the intent of being the best dang testimonial your A-lister has ever had.

Putting It All into Action

Okay, so imagine that I am just starting in the online world or I have been around for a bit, but have yet to make any significant traction.

If I am going to grow my business then I need to find a way to attract the attention of A-list bloggers like Michael, for instance. So the first thing I would do is make sure I am subscribed to everything he has; podcast, blog, and YouTube channel and I would be following him on Twitter and Facebook.

I would devour all of his material, always looking for a problem he may have that I might be able to solve, so I can start giving. I would also be sure to take his advice and build my platform because I won’t get a second look from anyone if I have don’t have one.

Second, because that platform stuff is so overwhelming (trust me I know; it took me a year to figure out how to set up a podcast) I would sign up for Platform University to accelerate my learning curve.

Not only do I get to learn from a master, but I also have the opportunity to meet some other incredible people who are doing some pretty amazing stuff online.

And here is where I would have an edge over most everyone else who signs up. I would be looking to put all his advice to work with the sole intent to be the best darn testimonial he has ever had for Platform University.

If I can do that, I guarantee I would be able to attract his attention. And once you have someone’s attention, opportunities begin to open up like never before.

This guest post is proof of that.

Question: Which of these tips for connecting with A-list bloggers do you think you’ll try? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

How to Get Started Selling Advertising on Your Blog

I am frequently asked, “How can I begin to monetize my platform.” Of course, we deal with this at Platform University, but I thought I would tell you how I started.

Photo Courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/TommL

In 2008, my friend John Saddington convinced me to convert my blog from TypePad to WordPress. It was one of the best decision I ever made.

As he was finishing up the project, he asked, “Have you ever thought about running advertising on your blog?” At the time, I was averaging about 20,000 unique visitors a month.

“No, I really haven’t,” I admitted.

“You should,” he said as though it should have been obvious to me.

Surprised, I pressed further, “You think I have enough traffic for that?”

“Absolutely.”

So with that I decided to give it a go. I was soon making a couple of thousand dollars a month. After eighteen months or so, I was averaging $3,500 to $5,000 a month—not bad for something that had started out as a hobby.

I stopped accepting advertising last fall, simply because I have too many of my own products and affiliate relationships to advertise. However, I still think it is one of the best ways for people to begin monetizing their platform.

And, no, I am not talking about Google AdSense. I tried this for about a week. I hated the ugly ads. Plus, they didn’t really produce for me compared to what I am about to share with you.

Here are five steps for getting started and maximizing your advertising revenue. This assumes that you have at least 10,000 unique visitors a month. This is a somewhat arbitrary number, but it takes about this many to get prospective advertisers interested.

Launch a reader survey. When you are selling advertising, you are selling access to an audience—your tribe. The more you know about them, the easier it is to arouse the interest of prospective advertisers.I started with a reader survey. I asked basic demographic and psychographic questions. I used SurveyMonkey.com to collect the information. Here’s the last one I did. (Feel free to borrow or adapt.)

I even published what I learned as another blog post.By the way, this information will not just help you sell advertisers, it will help you better focus your blog’s content and write more relevant posts.
Setup an advertising page. I had a very simple advertising page that told people what to do if they were interested in advertising on my blog. This page is now obsolete since I don’t offer advertising, but I thought it would be helpful to show you a copy.

As you can see, I had the contact name and e-mail address my Advertising Director, a part-time mom to whom I paid a commission. I also had a download link for my “Advertising Kit” (see below).I had a link to this page in my main navigation. It looked like this:

I wanted people to be able to find it, so I put it first, after my about page.
Create an “Advertising Kit.” For years I worked in marketing, so I know how marketing directors think. They try to be as metric-driven as possible, so you need to provide the specifics.I included my site traffic, site rankings, reader profile (based on the survey I had done), audience details, advertising options and rates, examples, and how they could optimize their results.

I created the kit in iWork Pages. I then saved it as a PDF:

If you can’t see this document in your email or RSS reader, click here to view on my website.

You can download a copy of the original Pages document here. (Sorry, I don’t have a version in Word.) Feel free to borrow or modify it. I delivered this as a PDF, because usually the marketing director would need to copy it for a meeting. However, you could also deliver it on a web page.
Signup with an advertising service. I initially inserted the ads on my own using a plugin called WP125. However, I could only use 125 x 125 pixel ads. I also had to invoice the client and collect the money, which was a pain.Everything changed when I signed up with BuySellAds.com. They automated everything. I created the “advertising inventory” using almost any size I wanted, established the prices, and put it on auto-pilot. All I did was insert their code in my blog’s sidebar. (By the way, they have a faith-based division called BeaconAds.com)

Best of all, they collected the money up front and gave me the opportunity to approve or reject each ad. If I wanted the design of an ad modified, I could even do that.

Naturally, they take a commission (around 25%), but it was well worth it. The money they collect sits in your account until you “cash out,” which happens once a month.
Pitch an irresistible offer. To get started, I pitched some friends I thought could benefit from access to my audience. Here was my script:

Hi [name], I have decided to begin running a limited number of ads on my blog. I think your product would be a perfect fit.

But, to be honest, I don’t know if it will be beneficial to you or not. So, here’s what I’m thinking. How about we run an ad for 30 days and then assess the results?

If it generates traffic for you, you can decide if you want to continue on a paid basis. If not, no problem. We’ll pull the ad and still be friends. What do you think?”

The big advantage for you is that you don’t have a bunch of blank ads on your page, which translates to advertisers as “no one wants to advertise on this blog.” By putting some ads up, even if they are not generating money yet, you create the impression that your space is valuable because others are adverting.

I would always leave one blank advertising spot, so it looked like I had some inventory available. This would promote click-throughs and inquiries.

Obviously, you can adjust your prices as your demand increases. Don’t get greedy or too far ahead of the market. I found that I could adjust my prices upward about every six months. I let people know I was going to do this, so they had an incentive to lock in on a rate by purchasing multiple months.

Advertising is only one of many ways to monetize your platform, but, relatively speaking, it is one of the easiest, particularly if you have the traffic to make it attractive.

Question: Is advertising something you could see adding to your blog? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

2013 Leaders Conference [Event]

I will be speaking at INVEST Financial Corporation’s 2013 Leaders Conference in beautiful Palm Springs, California. I will be talking about “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World,” specifically tailored for people in the financial services industry.









Date:
April 25, 2013


Time:
09:00-10:00 a.m.


Event:
2013 Leaders Conference


Topic:
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World


Sponsor:
INVEST Financial Corporation


Venue:
Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa


Location:
Rancho Mirage, CA


Public:
Private


Registration:
Click here to register.


More Info:
Click here for more information.

My Father Suddenly Got Really Smart [Quote]

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”













Mark Twain

#049: The 3 Components of Job Satisfaction [Podcast]

You and I spend more time at work than any other single activity. Yet, I meet so many people who are unhappy in their job.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/milla1974

If we are going to experience true job satisfaction, we need to understand the components that make it possible. We’ll talk about this plus what to do if you hate your job.

Click to Listen

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in browser | Download

Here are the three components that must be present for you to experience job satisfaction.

Component #1: You must have passion.
Component #2: You must be competent.
Component #3: You must have a market.

If you have all three of these components—passion, competence, and a market—you experience satisfaction. Few things in life are more rewarding. However, you have to be wary of having only two.

Passion + Competence – Market = A Hobby
Passion + Market – Competence = Failure
Competence + Market – Passion = Boredom

So, what do you do if you are in a job you hate?

Many people feel trapped in a job they hate but don’t believe they can quit. They feel stuck and, as a result, their life is miserable. If this describes you, here are seven strategies for making work more tolerable:

Strategy #1: Be thankful you are employed.
Strategy #2: Put your work in context.
Strategy #3: Determine the source of your dissatisfaction.
Strategy #4: Find someone to talk to.
Strategy #5: Fix what you can fix.
Strategy #6: Use your job to polish your character.
Strategy #7: Encourage a co-worker

If you really can’t stand your job, and you have done through the above steps, you need to make plans for a graceful exit. Life is too short to stay stuck in a situation that makes you miserable.

Sometimes you don’t have a choice. But often, you do. You just need a plan and the courage to take the first steps.

Listener Questions

Brad Blackman asked, “How can you have a better attitude about the work you are doing”
Brent Dumler asked, “What would you say to a 20-something church leader who finds him or herself in the midst of an unhealthy church? When would you advise them to start looking for something else?”
Chandler Milligan asked, “How do I keep my job satisfaction high when I am striving for a position I am not even being considered for?”
Cindy Finley asked, “I love my work but feel the tension between job satisfaction and mommy guilt. What advice do you have for me and for other working moms?”
Mark Gredler asked, “How can I increase job satisfaction and influence things for the better without being perceived as a negative complainer?”
Raisa Lardie asked “How does debt relate to job satisfaction?”

Special Announcements

My business partner Ken Davis and I will be hosting the SCORRE Conference, May 6–9 at the beautiful Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida. We only have about a dozen tickets left.

Whether you are a professional speaker—or just want to be—this conference will teach you how to prepare with focus, deliver with confidence, and speak with power.

Bottom line: it’s a conference designed to maximize the impact of your speeches. If you are serious about becoming a better speaker, you simply must attend. You can get a $200 discount by entering the discount code HYATT when you register.
If you are considering launching your own platform, you need to start with a self-hosted WordPress blog. This is not as complicated as it sounds.

I have put together a step-by-step screencast on exactly how to do it. You don’t need any technical knowledge. I walk you through the entire process in exactly 20 minutes.

And, for a limited time, Bluehost—the hosting company I personally recommend—is offering an amazing deal to my listeners. You can get web hosting for as little as $3.95 a month.
My next podcast will be on the topic of “8 Leadership Lessons from a Symphony Conductor.” If you have a question on this subject, please leave me a voicemail message. This will be my 50th episode, so I want to do something a little bit special.

If I use your question on the show, I’ll send you a free autographed copy of my book, Platform. This is a $25 value. Plus it’s a terrific way to cross-promote your blog or website, because I will link to it, just like I did with the callers in this episode.

Episode Resources

In this episode I mentioned several resources, including:

Book: Good to Great
Podcast: 7 Actions to Take Before You Quit Your Job
e-Book: Creating Your Personal Life Plan

Show Transcript

You can download a complete, word-for-word transcript of this episode here, courtesy of Ginger Schell, a professional transcriptionist, who handles all my transcription needs.

Subscription Links

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe:




iTunes

Zune

RSS

Your Feedback

If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, e-mail me.

Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out! Thanks.

Question: What do you need to do to become more satisfied in your job? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2013 [Event]

I will be the host at the largest leadership event in the world, the Chick-fil-A Leadercast. I will be live in Atlanta, Georgia, with more than 125,000 leaders joining by simulcast from around the world. This year’s theme is Simply Lead.









Date:
May 10, 2013


Time:
09:00-04:30 p.m.


Event:
Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2013


Topic:
Main Stage Host


Sponsor:
GiANT Impact: CFA Leadercast


Venue:
The Arena at Gwinnett Center


Location:
Duluth, GA


Public:
Public


Registration:
Click here to register.


More Info:
Click here for more information.

Where Does the Fear of Death Come From? [Quote]

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”













Mark Twain

Something Even More Important Than Blogging Frequency for Building Traffic [Video]

Almost every time I speak on the topic of Platform, someone asks, “How often do I need to post on my blog to be build my platform?” The truth is, my opinion has changed over the years.

If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.

When I first started blogging, I was like most people—I blogged when I was inspired. As it turned out, that wasn’t too often. As a result, my blogging frequency was all over the map.



Sometimes I blogged twice a week. Sometimes twice a month. No wonder I couldn’t seem to build any momentum.

About four years in, I made a commitment to post three times a week—no matter what. My traffic increased dramatically. Then I decided to dial it up to five times a week. My traffic skyrocketed.

But over the last several months, I have changed my opinion yet again. I was inspired by Tim Ferriss’s concept of “minimum effective dose.” In this video I discuss how it applies to blogging frequency.

I reveal something that is even more important than frequency. Before you watch the video, take a guess at what you think it is and leave a comment below. Then watch the video (it’s less than three minutes long) and come back and tell me if you were right.

Question: What do you think could be more important than blogging frequency for building a platform? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

The Easy Way to Become a More Memorable, High-Impact Public Speaker

This is a repost of an article I wrote about attending my first SCORRE Conference almost three years ago. Honestly, no conference before or since has had such a dramatic impact on me professionally. I use what I learned every single day. At the end of this post, I will tell you how to get a $200 discount to our next conference on May 6–9. But you must act quickly. We have less than 20 tickets left.

I spent the summer before my sophomore year in college as a summer missionary in Galveston, Texas. Each week my team visited a different church in the area and led vacation Bible school. It was fun, rewarding work.

If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.

In addition, I was assigned to a local church where I lived with the pastor, his wife, and their two children. They were both in their fifties and made me feel right at home.



After I had been there for about a month, the pastor casually said to me, “Mike, Rhonda and I are going out of town next weekend. I’d like for you to lead the service on Sunday and preach for me.”

I immediately felt the color drain from my face. I was terrified. “But, I’ve never spoken in public,” I stammered.

“Don’t worry. You’ll do fine,” he chuckled. “There’s a first time for everything.” He then got up and walked out of the room. Evidently, not accepting the assignment was not an option!

I remember studying like crazy during that week. I read the Bible and poured over commentaries. I outlined the points I wanted to make. I then revised the outline, then threw it away and started over—several times. I couldn’t sleep. I dreaded facing the congregation on Sunday.

The truth is, I did fine—just as he predicted. My sermon wasn’t great, but I got through it. And with practice I grew better at speaking.

Since that time, I have spoken more than one thousand times. I have also appeared on more than twelve hundred radio and television shows. I have written seven books and over thirteen hundred blog posts. Communication is my life.

If only I could have done something to shorten the learning curve at the beginning. Yes, I read books on speaking and communication. Those helped. But it wasn’t until I attended The SCORRE Conference three years ago that I saw the potential of how getting the right training can accelerate your proficiency.

My friend, Ken Davis, invited Gail and me to attend the conference. He founded this conference, created the framework and the content, and has been faithfully teaching it for years.

We initially went as participants and were blown away. We learned three essential skills:

The SCORRE preparation framework. This is the outlining technique that enables the best communicators to communicate with power. Once you know the secret, you can apply it to any speech and hit a home run every time.
The SCORRE illustration method. This is a proven method for collecting compelling illustrations and communicating them in a way that is entertaining, effective, and transformational.
The SCORRE delivery technique. This is a collection of best practices for using your voice and body to enhance your message and connect with your audience. I can’t believe I hadn’t learned this stuff before.

But that was only the beginning. If that was all we learned, it would have been worth the price. And then some. But there was more.

What made this particular conference so powerful was we had to prepare and deliver one short speech each day. That may sound scary, but it wasn’t. It was the difference-maker that guaranteed we actually improved as speakers.

After we delivered each talk to our small group, a certified master coach evaluated what we were doing well and where we could improve.

In addition, he video-taped each of our speeches, along with his comments, so we could review them later. Honestly, the improvement was dramatic. Every student left better than when they came—many, dramatically so.

I was so impressed with The SCORRE Conference that I am now a full partner with Ken Davis. Whether you are a professional speaker, a pastor, a corporate executive, an author—or are just passionate about a message—you can take your communication skills to the next level by attending this conference.

The next one is scheduled for May 6–9 at the beautiful Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Ken and I will both be there, teach and interacting with our students.

If you register now, you can take advantage of my special Reader Discount that I am offering exclusively to my readers. This will save you $200 off the regular tuition prices. All you have to do is enter the discount code “HYATT,” when you sign up.

We also offer a MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. Here’s the deal: If you attend the conference, participate in all the learning activities, and are not completely satisfied that you got your money’s worth, we will happily refund your tuition. No questions asked.

I hope you will join us. I always look forward to interacting with our students on a personal basis. I hope I get a chance to shake your hand and get acquainted.

Question: What would becoming a better communicator make possible for your career or for your dream? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

5 Ways to Get Paid Multiple Times for the Same Work

When most people think about making money, they only think in terms of a job. You go to work, you get paid, and maybe—if you have a little surplus—you invest for retirement.

Photo Courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/GreenStock

If you follow this paradigm, you can succeed financially, but it is much more difficult. In fact, most people who take this approach end up living paycheck-to-paycheck and don’t have enough saved for retirement.

There’s a better way.

If you are going to get ahead financially, you need to understand—and fully appreciate—the difference between active and passive income. Most likely, this is not a new distinction for you, but it is an important one.

Active income is what you already know and understand. It’s what you get when someone hires you to do a job. You do the work; you get paid. But only once. In other words, the income is non-recurring.

In my world, this includes public speaking, hosting conferences, one-on-one coaching, and consulting. I do the work in exchange for a fee. I am essentially trading my time for a one-time payment. Currently, about 20 percent of my income is active income.

Passive income is just the opposite. It is what happens when customers pay you over and over again for the same work—work you only did once. In other words, it is recurring.

For me, this includes book royalties, affiliate commissions, course sales, and monthly membership fees. I am trading my time for an ongoing revenue stream. Currently, about 80 percent of my income is passive.

By the way, if you want to get technical, there is really no such thing as passive income. I still have to occasionally refresh the product, adjust the marketing, provide customer support, etc. It’s just a lot less work than active income.

When I launched out on my own two years ago this month, my goal was to create multiple streams of income. Or to be more precise, multiple streams of passive income. Currently, I have nine streams of income; six of them are passive. (I plan to write about these in another post.)

The key to financial success is to figure out how to transform your active income into passive income.

The good news is you can do this even if you have a job. In fact, it is imperative you do so if you are going to move beyond being Just Over Broke (J.O.B.) and get ahead financially.

Here are five ways you can move from producing active income to producing passive income:

Could you turn your expertise into a product? Yes, you are an expert. There are things you know or know how to do that you take for granted. You assume every one knows what you know. They don’t. Other people would happily pay you for your knowledge. This is what I did with my Writing a Winning Book Proposal e-books.
Could you turn a series of blog posts or podcasts into an e-book or book? People will pay for the convenience of having your content all in one place. Plus, you can incorporate insights you get from reader feedback and take the content to the next level. This is what I did with my Platform book. My blog was my “content lab.”
Could you turn your coaching or consulting into products? When you find yourself providing the same advice over and over again, it’s a candidate for turning it into a product or series of products. This is what I did with my Get Published Course and Platform University. I have a dozen more products like this on the drawing board.
Could you turn a speech into a product? You can record it on video or even audio then turn that into a CD, DVD, or online file you sell. You can add additional value (both perceived and real) by including a transcript and a study guide. This is what I did with my Why Now Is the Best Time Ever to Be an Author video. I plan to also do this with my Platform speech and a few others.
Could you turn a live event into an online training experience? Obviously, you will need to start by recording the event. Then you can turn it into modules with workbooks, transcripts, or other ancillary material and deliver it via a platform like Kajabi.com. This is what my team is doing right now with our SCORRE, Launch, and Platform conferences.

The reason passive income is better is because it scales. It works while you are doing something else—like sleeping! You are not limited by your available time.

While I still do both, I am always thinking about how I can turn my active income opportunities into passive ones, so I can get paid multiple times for the same work. How about you?

Question: What opportunities do you have to turn active income into passive ones? You can leave a comment by clicking here.