Piss, chips & passive income

I don't tell stories, and I certainly don't sell dreams, so let me give you the ugly truth. The unglamorous reality. The sh*t beneath the sugar...

Take it with a pinch of salt all you like, but when life pisses on your chips, as a serious business owner, it's time to talk passive income.

Over the last 10 years of freelancing and running a business on my own, I've lost count of the times where I'll have spent hours, days, and sometimes even weeks and months...

• ...on hold to a pretty useless our outright sh*tty 'customer service' team, who ate heartily into my sanity as well as my time
• ...waiting for clients to come back to me to sign things off - or move things on
• ...earning less than what I realistically needed in order to cover my outgoings that month
• ...wondering (and worrying) why my income was a fraction of what it was in the same month/quarter the previous year
• ...entertaining, educating, and generally trying to be a decent parent to my child every time there's a school holiday (13 b*stard weeks - yet they never felt that bloody abundant when I was a teacher...)
• ...getting smacked in the face with a huge and/or unexpected bill
• ...physically caring for, emotionally supporting, or actively advocating for a parent or family member
• ...fighting for my child's health, inclusion, or education
• ...suffering through a terrible loss or unbearable grief
• ...struggling with my mental well-being and trying in desperation to keep any and all forms of my shit together
• ...lying in a hospital bed (or curled up in pain on the sofa/ on the floor/ on an A&E corridor hoping to get into a hospital bed)
• ...being so exhausted and wrecked both physically and emotionally that I. Just. Couldn't...

I don't know if any of those scenarios resonate with you, but if they do, I feel for you. Maybe you've got more in common with this gobby, sarky, and outspoken copywriter than you first thought.

All of those things I've listed have at some point happened to me in my life as a business owner.

Some of them all at once.

Many of them are currently taking centre stage as I write this to you right now.

And you wonder why I constantly use my platforms to bang on about the importance of fellow freelancers and solo business owners having something set up in the way of passive income to protect them when times get tough.

I make no bones about the fact that the general online promotion of passive income is ick as f*ck, and so anything I promote in the way of it - and the help I can offer via my copywriting skills to get people on that pathway to passive profits - well, I don't do it because I want everyone to frolic in freedom or lap up a lavish lifestyle. I do it because I've been there in those times where, for whatever reason, I personally couldn't go out and physically make money by trading my time for it. Even when I did have the time, I didn't always have the capability, opportunity, or strength. Why? Because I'm human, and because life can be at best unpredictable - and at worst, pretty sh*t.

If passive income is something you crave so that you can go sit on the beach of your choice with a flute of fizz, whilst the person holding your phone progressively dies a little inside from their endless attempts at capturing the cringe on camera for your followers, then great. It's your money, and it's your life. But don't you think it's a little smarter if you can create passive income so that it takes one massive thing off your plate should you ever find yourself being served up a dish you didn't ask for?

So when you ask me why I practically beg freelancers to think about passive income, it's not because I want to preach it to you from a beach, or a yacht, or a rooftop bar, where I tell you that passive income and recurring revenue enables me to "live the life of my dreams".

It's because passive income and recurring revenue enables me to keep having a life at all when the nightmares set in.

Since 2020, my now best mate but then Business Strategist Joelle Byrne has been there to support me, after I came to the realisation and acceptance that my simple 'trade of time for cash' business model as a freelancer might work brilliantly for me on the days I could work, but wouldn't in any way be enough to hold me up if the sh*t hit the fan and I couldn't (for any reason) any longer make those trades.

And since 2022, Joelle's officially been working as my partner in part of my business to make sure that none of our clients have to worry about, well... the inevitability of life and business. Ideally, we both hope to god that your pipelines are always full and your plates are a long time balanced, friends - but none of us can predict the future, and none of us are immune to the plans that the universe has for us. It might be time to make sure that this consideration features in your business planning, don't you think?

As a parent to a defiant six year old, I've learned to always practise what I preach, so in this particular case, I'm making sure I'm adding to my own recurring revenue and passive income pursuits all the time:

• Products I'm proud of
• A membership community I adore
• An on-demand course coming for the Spring

And for the last 18 months, I've also been adding clients to my business via the Optimise programme, where together with Joelle in a 'jollaboration', I help clients in their pursuit of passive profits. Read the link, have a totally free call with Joelle, then if you want to work with us, I'll see you on my yacht.

Christ, I can't even joke about being so cliche or crass...

I'll see you on Zoom. Where I'll likely be on my sofa.