Big Big News!! Our company LifeSoap has been featured in Oprah Magazine! Here is a scan of the full article:

Just heard some great news. Our company LifeSoap has been featured in Denver’s 5280 Magazine. Our blurb appears in the Holiday Gift Guide as a recommended stocking stuffer. Pick up a copy and check us out on page 36!

Check out this video feature we had for Channel 9 News about LifeSoap! Click on the post title to view the video. Let’s Go!

“I Don’t Know If I Can Do This.”

The main objection that people have for turning their passion into a business is…they are afraid they aren’t good enough. Other excuses often are: “I don’t have time, I don’t have money, I don’t have enough experience, blah blah blah.”

The first thing to keep in mind is that the only thing holding you back is…you!

I can’t tell you how people I met last month with unique passions that fall into the excuse category I mentioned above.

Most people have a passion. Most people spend the majority of their free time engaging their passion. Most of them aren’t making any money from it.

In fact, they are actually losing money to participate in their passion. The return on their expense is happiness. Which is great! But most people fail to realize that they can actually make money from their passion and use that money to fund it. If they work at it and develop their skills they may be able to turn it into their main source of income.

The goal of this post is to expose you to some new ideas about your passion. It’s time to start thinking about how you can make money from your passion.

“Why do I need to make money from my passion?” you might ask.

1. The economy isn’t getting better any time soon.

2. You can supplement your current income with more money to do more things.

3. You clearly have a talent and you are selfish if you are not sharing that value with others.

4. You owe it to yourself to be compensated for your value.

5. Why would you not want to make money doing something you are interested in.

Okay now that we got the objections out of the way I want to share a few ways you can make money form your passion.

Blog

There are bloggers on the Internet right now who are making over six-figures per year in this economy (David Risley, Yaro Starak and many others –Google them).

If money isn’t your main motivation there are also bloggers like William Yan, who is passionate about fashion and started out taking pictures of fashionable people in the streets (even got some celebrities). Over the years he has risen to fame and stardom. He has built a brand for himself, he is working with the best in the business, and is continuing to grow his portfolio.

The best thing about blogging is no one can tell you what to think or say. You can build your own brand however you want. You can take any passion or hobby and turn it into a successful blog that makes money (with lots work of course).

Once you have the blog there are so many ways to get money it’s ridiculous. You can sell your own products, you can make money from advertising, you can make money from affiliate products, you can sell your services or consult…I could keep going but you get the idea.

The blog market is wide open for you to cash in on. There are a lot of blogs, but a lot of them don’t provide great content. People go wherever the most value is. If you have a passion for something, you can produce great content. Your followers will become your customers and you can make as much money as you are willing to work for.

Author/Expert/Consultant

Right now you can easily turn your passion into a book that shares your expertise, interest or knowledge of the subject. If you’re not a great writer you can hire a ghostwriter, or co-author with someone, or whatever it takes.

Don’t worry about getting published by some big name publisher. You can self publish instantly at CreateSpace, Lulu or Lightning Source and create your own brand and sell your own books.

The thing I discovered about being an author is that once you have a book…people start to take you seriously. You can become an expert on your passion by writing a book about it.

Once you have the expert status you can use that to sell books, become a consultant or get a better job.

You can sell a lot of books without a big publisher. Terry Woods is an author who became a millionaire by selling her own books. She got rejected 20 times by publishers. Instead of quitting, she sold books out the trunk of her car and eventually started her own publishing company. From there she sold one million copies independently.

Non-Profit Cause

There are organizations that will pay you to do the work that you love. If you have a passion for helping people you can turn that into a business, a job or a source of part-time cash.

Grants and other forms of funding are available if you have a compelling idea that provides great service to people in need. You can start your own non-profit organization and take a salary to support yourself while you do the work you love.

You can also turn your passion into an event that raises money and awareness about a cause. There are people who spend a year getting ready for a large-scale, annual event and run it like a business. They take a salary, hire employees and execute the event once a year, while giving to a cause they care about,

Entrepreneurship

Starting a business is not for everyone. It requires diehard passion and all of your energy to make it a success.

The beautiful thing about the living in the world today is being able to make money online. So many people go into business thinking that they have to be a traditional brick & mortar shop based business. That’s fine if you want to do that, but there are more economical ways to make money.

Immediately, you can start your business, get a cheap or free website, and start selling your products online. This means you can reach people all over the nation and all over the world. You can hire virtual employees for as low as $200 a month to help you grow your business.  You can get small micro-loans from agencies to help you with start up capital. You don’t need to wait for venture capitalists or lots of funding. Start with what you have and grow consistently. Check out these young entrepreneurs and you’ll see what I mean.

Last thoughts…

I hope that this opened your eyes up to a few possibilities. There are so many ways to get money in this economy that it’s ridiculous.

The first requirement to making money is to have something that you are insanely passionate about. The second requirement to making money is to have a ThriveOrDie hustler’s mentality. This means you are willing to put in the work, invest in learning and dedicate yourself to daily action and improvement.

Yes you can cash in on your passion! Start small and start right now!

ThriveOrDie!

-Aaron Madonna