Passive Income...

Ever since starting my business, I've been given all sorts of advice and suggestions here and there from friends, family, and peers. One suggestion I've been given numerous times is setting up something that provides passive income.

​Huh?
What is "Passive Income"?​

​Passive income is, essentially, money you earn with minimal day-to-day effort after the initial setup. It's not tied to the rest of the daily job. Instead, you do the work upfront, and then it continues to generate income over time with little or no ongoing involvement.

​By passive income for consultants, like myself, we're talking about offering subscriptions for videos or recorded webinars that educate and guide artists on things like how to price your work, photograph it, how to approach a gallery... that sort of stuff.

I have seriously considering doing this. It would be great to have that information at anyone's fingertips at any time of day for a nominal price to get them started with the generalized tools they need.

In researching other artists, art figures, podcasters and even influencers in the art world that have their own form of passive income, the one thing that stands out the most is how there is so much noise and not a lot of substance to take from it.

Noise!

A lot of it reminds me of those 80's and 90's informercials of the guy on his yacht with all the girls in bikinis saying 'buy my video and become a millionaire like me.' 

(When I was trying to find this picture and the guy's name, I came across this youtube saying exactly what I'm conveying here.)

I recently started listening to an art world podcast that I actually really liked. The podcaster knew what they were talking about and had a lot of great interviews with people that offered all sorts of great perspective.

So, I signed up for their email newsletter and was going to pay for their subscription. But then... the emails started coming. And kept coming. Almost every other day emails addressed to me but giving off major Journey Marketing vibes. 

Ummm, Allison,
​what's 'journey marketing'?

​Journey marketing is a way to use automated emails to walk people through your brand story and encourage them to do what you want them to do — like buying your product or subscribing to your passive income subscriptions. It can be a great tool when used thoughtfully. It's just my opinion that journey marketing can be insincere and... noise. 

I don't want to contribute more noise just to make money. Not the way everyone else is doing it. So many emails. So many Reels 'buy my lessons...' I don't want to come into someone's Inbox and them think "Jeees, another email from her?" and then click... 

Unsubscribed.

It's not to say I won't one day figure a way to provide for more people in a way that isn't just one-on-one. But, I want to do it right and with more purpose than all the noise I hear and see that's out there. For me, I see workshops and Q&As in my future. Maybe a passive income opportunity will come from that. But, I want ways that I can still connect directly with people and learn who they are as they learn about who I am and what I can provide them.

So, if you sign up for my email list... 

Wait... I don't think I even have an email list to sign up for. If I set up an email list for a newsletter, I promise I won't bombard you with a lot of noise.