10 Feb / 2017

How I Make Money.
(The Honest Truth)

It’s a question I get all the time …

“How do you make money doing a FREE podcast?”

Well, uhhhhhhhh.

Honestly, the way I earn a living is so unconventional I seldom feel like explaining it. And when I actually do take the time to break it down to someone, they either think I’m lying, that it sounds way too good to be true, or their eyes glaze over about twelve seconds in.

But seriously, I feel like if more people knew how I earned a living, there might be way less people sitting in traffic every morning headed to jobs they hate. They’d have more time to spend with loved ones. And they’d be able to contribute to the world in the most remarkable ways.

I mean, if you really think about it, about 90% of the emails I send you have no product offer. No sales pitches. Just FREE content that helps people, without some kind of underlying agenda. It’s truly what I love to do.

But I also have to earn a living. Of course I can’t buy food or pay my mortgage with Les Brown clips and Bob Proctor interviews, ya know.

So let me pull back the curtain and show you how this whole thing works in 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Chances are, you stumbled upon one of my podcast episodes, YouTube videos, or online events at some point. You enjoyed what you saw or heard and then decided to sign up for a free something-or-other with your email address. This put you on my email subscriber list.

 (And if you’re NOT on the email list yet, scroll down to the bottom of this post and grab my FREE ebook.)

Step 2: A few times a week, I send you an email with new content I’ve created. Totally FREE stuff that you can put to practical use in your daily life. And from what I hear, the emails are slightly entertaining to read. Especially my dating stories. 🙂

Step 3: Every so often, another “online personality” who I love and trust creates a product or course that I think would be a perfect fit for my readers and listeners. So when the product is ready to launch, I’ll collaborate with him or her on a piece of content, usually in the form of a podcast interview or live webinar.

But when we do the interview or webinar, I’m always sure to NOT make it into an hourlong sales pitch. The focus is on providing you with tools and tips you can immediately put to use, without having to buy anything. If you feel like you’re ready to buy the product, we give you the opportunity to do that as well. And as an “affiliate” for the product, I earn a healthy commission for each sale.

Remember, I never had to spend countless hours creating the product myself. I just put its creator in front of the right people and earned a few bucks when any of my subscribers ordered it.

Make sense?

Let me give you an example. For three of the past four years I have helped Marie Forleo promote her online B-School program. It’s an incredible course that I enrolled in back in maybe 2012 and learned a ton about how to grow an online business. So of course it was a natural fit to get the word out about it.

The first time I promoted B-School in 2013, when my email list was relatively small, I sold 76 courses and earned $76,000 in commissions.

That’s not a typo.

In 2014, I sold 103 courses and earned $103,000.

In 2015, I sold fifty-something courses and earned fifty-something thousand dollars. This was the year that I wasn’t totally in love with Underground Wellness anymore. When you lose your passion, the numbers will go down.

In 2016, I sat out and focused on my transition away from UW and into something new.

So that comes out to just over $230,000 in commissions on a single product that I had no hand in creating. All I did was write a few emails, record a podcast episode, and connect people — people who want nothing more than to do what they love — with a proven course that could help them achieve their goals.

Step 4: Each year, I took my B-School earnings and rolled them into funding the production of our yearly online summit events like the Thyroid Sessions and Digestion Sessions. If you ever wondered why my summits were the only ones featuring on-camera interviews, it was because my B-School commissions helped provide me with the budget to hire the camera guys, book the plane tickets and hotel rooms, build the websites, etc. Affiliate promotions fund the dream.

Step 5: Launch one or two online summit events each year, help a ton of people, and earn enough money to live comfortably and create free content without worrying about my finances.

That’s really it. While a lot of bloggers and podcasters are annoying their subscribers with almost-daily product offers and pitches, I prefer to focus on giving as much as I can.

As Marie Forleo once said, “giving is a great business strategy.” It doesn’t make anyone feel slimy. It seldom turns people off. It doesn’t have any agenda other than serving others. It’s authentic. And everything seems to work out.

I’ve made literally millions of dollars in a dignified way helping people reach their goals and get the help they need. All from the comfort of my own home. With zero traffic. Usually in sweats and a hoodie.

For the most part, I read books and listen to motivational talks for a living.

Now I’m not revealing any of this today to impress you, but rather to impress upon you what’s possible. Because really, there’s nothing special about me. If I can do it, you can do it.

And you don’t even have to do it full-time from the get-go. I mean, imagine starting up a part-time online biz and earning an extra $20-30K a year by promoting other people’s products and services to your community. How much would that change your life?

I won’t lie and tell you it’s easy. There’s lots of hard work involved. But working hard for something you’re passionate about is completely different from working hard doing something you know your heart just isn’t into.

This post is getting pretty long, so I’ll leave you with this …

Yesterday was the first day of this year’s B-School launch. Marie has put together a FREE 3-part video training series to show you not only more of what’s possible but also how to DO IT.

Here’s what you’ll learn in Video #1:

– A simple 6 step roadmap to launching and growing your business online with class and smarts

– How to overcome the FEAR, doubt and hesitation that keep most new and evolving business owners stuck

– What you need to focus on first, second, third and so on to eliminate overwhelm and keep taking consistent action

Click the link below to sign up and watch today’s video.

www.freebschoolvideos.com

To be even more transparent … if and when you sign up for the video series you’ll be “tagged” as my lead. This means that after Marie loves all over you with the training videos, she’ll offer you a spot in her B-School course so she can love on you some more.

Since you signed up through my link, I’ll earn a commission for your purchase/enrollment. And as one of my B-School enrollees, you’ll also be invited to my yearly LIVE 2-day mastermind event here in San Diego on Labor Day weekend. More details to come. All I’ll say for now is that a few of my really good friends will be speaking. One of them is a long-haired fellow. Writes books. Smiles a lot. Hint, hint.

And if that weren’t enough, you’d be helping with the funding of a couple of online summit events I’ve been itching to film. I can’t reveal the topics yet — because some bloggers have no problem stealing ideas — but you are going to LOVE them. Guaranteed.

If you’re NOT interested in enrolling in B-School, enjoy the heck out of the video series! As always, you can unsubscribe at any time, or you can stay on Marie’s list and enjoy her free weekly video interviews. They’re really good!

Here’s that link again:

www.freebschoolvideos.com

I hope you enjoyed today’s behind-the-scenes look at my biz. I’m so grateful to you for being a part of it. Without you, none of this would be possible.

Now go watch today’s training video! 🙂

Thanks for reading,

SC

Sean