It’s Not a Bad Word
Why shouldn’t you be able to turn passion to profit if you want?
Fortunately, today’s creators are outgrowing the old mindset of “starving artist”. One thing required for that shift is to recognize that “profit” is not a bad word.
Money is simply a unit of energy. More energy means greater freedom and opportunities.
Earning from your creations (if that’s your goal) is a wonderful thing that supports your creative endeavors and helps you make more art and continue to grow and improve.
To have work… a job that pays the bills is a blessing. To be able to do work you love while earning from it, is truly a privilege and a blessing, and it’s one that you’ve earned.
The Pro Life and Mindset
Pro athletes get paid for their passion pursuit. Teachers get paid for their love of teaching. Chefs get paid for the love of cooking. It’s only logical that any creator of any genre of creativity should also be able to earn from their creations and creativity if that’s their goal.
The difference is your goals for your craft and its role in your life. Just as with the previous examples, not all who pursue those passions ever turn pro or wish to. The weekend golfer never intends to turn pro, nor does the cook who loves cooking for family and friends for fun but not a career.
So if turning pro is not your goal for your creative passion, this article may not be for you. But if you’ve ever wondered how to turn your passion to profit, so that you can do more of what you love, you’ll enjoy this article.
If we stop to really think about purpose and the meaning of life, it just makes sense to spend most of our time doing work we love. The ideal scenario for many creators is to be able to also earn a living doing the work that lights us up… to go turn our passion to profit.
Our creativity already brings us joy. That it may also sustain us is a worthy consideration if that’s your inclination.
Sure, you may have to bite the “job-job” bullet at first. For any destination, there’s the journey there and we can’t expect to arrive without taking the journey. Some destinations are farther and harder to reach, and yet, if we keep on going we will arrive.
Think You Don’t Have Time…?
An accurate generalized TV time statistic is hard to come these days. Besides the variable of using computers, pads and phones for viewing of favorite shows, there’s also streaming services like NetFlix, Apple, Amazon and YouTube. There’s also a wide generation gap where seniors over 65 watch significantly more TV than younger generations.[1]https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by-us-adults/
However, a general consensus on the average TV time per day is 4.5 hours a day for adults 18 and over. But it gets worse with an average of 3 hours for social screen time per day.
WHAT?!? That’s over 7 hours a day that could be use to pursue your dreams!!
Now if you track your time and are clear on how much time you spend engaged in these extracurricular activities, then plug in your own numbers. We’ve also written about that concept in this article with a similar theme: do what makes you come alive.
Bottom line? Most of us squander far more time than we realize. If your numbers are anywhere in the ballpark of 2-5 hours of recreational screen time daily, then you can put that time to work for you, creating versus consuming.
In today’s online world… the world wide web, it’s easier than any other time in history to pave a pathway from passion to profit. Today, it’s absolutely possible to not only do the work you love, but to earn a living from it.
Turning Passion to Profit
It’s still not easy. It’s just easier than most any time in history, (except perhaps if you got started at the beginning of the internet up through 2012. Those were the golden years of the gold rush of the internet.
Now, it’s a crowded marketplace but consider how very many still are not utilizing it. If you start now, what’s possible in a year… in 5… in 10…?
Versus if you don’t even start.
Today, it’s absolutely possible to not only do the work you love, but to earn a living from it. You just need commitment, determination, patience and perseverance.
You’re going to arrive in your future anyway. Better to arrive on the heels of effort that turns your passion to profit, if a creative career is your dream.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®
Table of Contents
- Audio Article: From Passion to Profit:
- Never Easy… Always Worth it
- Find Your Niche
- Do What You Love and Love What You Do
- Creative Ways to Build—and Grow—Your Business
- Social Platforms
- Multi-purposed Content to the nth Power
- Action Pierces Through Procrastination
Audio Article: From Passion to Profit:
The Star of Your Life
YOU are the star of your life… the main character (MC). If you’re not yet living the life you’ve imagined then treat each day as a rehearsal for what’s to come.
The cook spends more time prepping and cleaning than it takes to enjoy the meal. Olympic athletes train hard for four years after many previous years of day upon day dedicated to hard work. Same thing with soccer players, professional dancers, successful authors, actors, painters… successful anything.
The practice ever precedes the performance, and the practice is always longer, more arduous and enduring. So it is with the journey toward greatness… toward our own personal greatness.
For that is what we’re here to do. Grow more into all that we can be. Our own version and determination of greatness for us… what constitutes our life well lived for a great life, according to us for us. You for your life. Me for mine. As it should be, each to their own.
But when it’s your craft… your art… the work you love doing, you can enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
YOU are the star of your life. If you’re not yet living the life you’ve imagined then treat each day as a rehearsal for what’s to come.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
Never Easy… Always Worth it
You’ll still have to want it enough to work for it tirelessly day and night, likely for years. It’s just that it’s easier than any other time in history. It’s easier to create and easier to connect directly with your audience. And the thing about doing hard things…? We grow stronger, more resilient, confident, capable and… HAPPIER!
The journey may not be easy. In fact it rarely is. But the journey toward the life you want to live is always worth it.
If you embrace a spirit of adventure and a learner’s mindset, you will enjoy the journey as much as the victory.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®
Free to Pursue Work You Love
Your grandparents didn’t have that option. Likely your parents didn’t either, which is why they may not understand your determination to pursue work you love over just “getting a job” to pay the bills.
It’s different today. Opportunity abounds. What’s the same is that it still requires hard work.
Your grandparents did not have the freedom to follow their passions. You do. Don’t wait.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®
Find Your Niche or Create It
No matter how niched is your interest, there’s likely more than one way to earn a living from it. There’s one man who is earning a six figure income doing one simple task: teaching people how to jump higher.
I’ve lost track of that story with the guy’s name, but he had created so many videos on YouTube that sports teams and athletic departments around the world were hiring him to coach their athletes. Meanwhile, you can find another cool example of two school teachers significantly multiplying their income by packaging their expertise into online educational programs for teachers.
“The riches are in the niches,” as the saying goes.
The Long Tail
Seth Godin calls niches “the long tail“.
Working hard doing work we love is a privilege that wasn’t available to most of our ancestors even just 30 years ago. Now that’s astonishing to realize. Just 30 years ago. More than that, there are many all over the world today who still are not yet doing work they love. However, it’s more possible now than ever before.
What’s different today is the Internet. The Internet has leveled the playing field, and the rules are that anyone with a passion, a work ethic and an internet connection can play. It’s the “Flat World” concept popularized in the book with that title by Thomas L. Friedman.
Working hard at what we love is a privilege.
Working hard at what you love doesn’t feel like work.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®
Turning Passion to Profit
We get it. Unless your creative genius is being an entrepreneur, then you’re not likely passionate about the prospect of building your business. Most creators are not in love with the business building process. Okay, that’s fair.
However, if you had to go to work to do a 9-5 type job you don’t love, better to do that 9-5 business working for yourself, even when it’s doing some things you don’t enjoy doing. Most people like to eat, yet most people are not fond of cleaning the kitchen. Yet we do it because it has to be done in order to have a kitchen we can cook in and a home we can enjoy living in.
If you’re just not cut out to run your own business, no worries. There are other ways and means to go from passion to profit without having to do all of that, which we’ll touch on later. We’ve also covered the concept of focusing on your strengths, and how to love what you do when you can’t do what you love.
Success is a simple concept. The more you do the better you get.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®
Creative Ways to Build —and Grow — Your Business
When it comes to building your business, brand building is important, especially for creators making anything to sell. There are many fun ways to do that in today’s vast land of opportunity. Video helps do that more quickly than any other medium. The next is audio, such as podcasts—yours and/or as a guest on other’s podcasts—followed by social postings, followed by the written word.
If video isn’t your thing, don’t force it to be. There are so many other mediums and options to do video without you having to be on the screen. It’s a matter of deciding to do something based on what makes the most sense for you and then just starting.
One thing is certain, the more we do the better we get, so don’t be the person who says “I’m not good at…”, something you’ve barely even done. You were not good at your craft in the beginning either, but you know how you got better at it. That’s the purpose behind daily creation, and why it’s at the heart of iCreateDaily brand.
Don’t overthink things. Take action. Action generates perspective that leads to clarity and confidence.
~LeAura Alderson,