4 Components to Eliminate Your overwhelm to Make Your Passive Income Ideas A Reality.
Pursuing your online passive income ideas is truly exciting … When you are starting everything can become too much… There is so much to learn and do! Discover 4 key components to eliminate your overwhelm to make your passive income ideas a reality:
The myth of online passive income ideas versus the out-front effort.
Your most precious asset to make your online passive income ideas a reality.
This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
The myth of online passive income ideas versus the out-front effort
The treasure so many want to find these days…
You have read it… and you want it.
Passive income.
The so-called 8-hour-a-week business. Sounds brilliant, doesn’t it? You want that, oh yesss!
So you get in to reading blogs that promise the system to achieve it.
Webinars to know more about how.
Even maybe online courses.
Many promise to get a 6-figure business super quick! The kind of get-rich-super-fast recipe.
You gather plenty of passive income ideas.
So off you go! After the passive income ideas dream! Exciting!…
But…
Your online business day-to-day feels very different.
Your online reality at this stage of starting your online activity is soooooooooooo different.
You work longer hours, during the week… and the weekend. Always with the phone engaging in groups, thinking about the next piece of content, watching Google Analytics so ever slowly increase your traffic…. Battling the puzzle of tool names you hear that sounds solutions to your headaches… but you are confused, because your are not into tech.
It is becoming overwhelming. The overwhelm when you start that not that many people told you about when talking about making passive income ideas a reality.
It is real. It is normal.
The out-front effort to set up your passive income ideas, to go through the learning curve and reach the other end without giving up can not be underestimated.
The 6-figure promise is real… but so is the overwhelm that you can hit when you start.
No, no, no, I am not here to sell you an online course about it (maybe one day, who knows?! 😉).
I want to share with you 4 key components that will eliminate the overwhelm of making your online passive income ideas a reality. The fact is that, at the beginning, you are bombarding your brain with all sort of new things, new techniques to learn and apply, new tools.
Everything is very new…
With these 4 foundations, you will have a structured way to eliminate your overwhelm to build your online dream.
1. Your purpose: Be clear about what you want and why
You quite certainly have online entrepreneurs that you look up to. They are your models. You want to be as successful as them… or even half of their success would still be fab!
That’s super normal. And a good thing. It creates inspiration and sets ambition.
But…
It is important that you think also about you. What YOU really want to achieve. What is your dream and what you will be happy with.
Trying to run before you have clarity of where you are going will make you lose time and specially focus.
Be clear about your goals & priorities
At the beginning of pursuing online passive income ideas, it is very normal to be trying to replicate some else’s success and not spend enough time considering your strategy, goals and priorities.
I get it. At this stage for you and your online business, it is only you. No big cross-functional teams to gather in the room. Still the point is the same.
When you start, you are probably eager to run into doing, for example getting your website done. Get it up and running.
Wait.
Just spend some time defining why. Why you are setting your website. What you want to achieve and how.
It is one of the best investments in time you will make.
No need for it to take long. You just need clarity.
Otherwise what you create, what you say will not have a clear purpose. Or worse of all, you will end up with plenty of rework down the line.
Spending too long just strategising is far from great too.
Some of us (yeapppp! I am one of them), love getting the detail right. The risk you run is to spend too much time in the planning and strategy phases before moving into action.
Obviously, I could write a whole blog on this subject. This is just a very quick summary.
In a nutshell, the more you have clarity when you start, the better, as you will have less rework and when you face challenges down the road, you have a purpose that guides you to keep on going. However, and importantly, get into action. Don’t wait for all to be super clear. It will always evolve. It is a balance.
If you want to know how to set up goals you will achieve, check out my blog post:
Be realistic
Starting something as exciting as online passive income ideas, always comes with big dreams, great expectations.
There is lots of marketing promising $1000s easily and quickly. You need ambition however, go into it with the knowledge that get-rich-quickly-without-effort schemes do not tend to come true.
It might take longer than you think through all of the reading around. It is very common to see new bloggers anxious about their traffic not growing in the first 3 months. Some of the online activities will take some time to reach the volumes you need and establish authority.
So don’t overstretch yourself or over-expect lightening fast success. This way you will not get demotivated too quickly.
Any business has a set up period. Online business too! Expect it and don’t over expect results. Progress is a great result.
On the online passive income ideas world there are 2 key elements that will take a bit of time to come together: community and traffic.
If you are so lucky as to already have a community interested in what you want to offer online, you have a great setting stone. If you don’t, don’t despair. You can build your community. Content is the best way to achieve it. It allows you to express yourself and build a community around you.
Don’t be shy. Even if you have not built an online business before it does not mean that you can not shine. You are a star in your area of expertise! Let it shine. Share your value. The more you do, the more you will drive traffic and community building.
Lastly on this point, here are two techniques to remain realistic and focused:
define a roadmap, a very high level plan of where you want to have done by when, and
get an accountability buddy.
There is no harm in saying it gain. Be realistic.
If you compare yourself with successful businesses and you allow yourself to get bombarded with get-rich -quickly marketing, you can despair before you have given yourself a real chance. Passive income ideas are not a 100m race, they are more an endurance one when you start. So don’t use up all your energy at the beginning to get demotivated and exhausted early on. Perseverance and focus are key.
With a clear purpose, your skills and a high level plan, you will get there.
2. Your processes: Work smart to make your passive income ideas a reality
Starting your online adventure is super exciting and a true new experience.
Every thing will feel new. So many things to learn and so many activities to drive.
There is one thing is very clear.
You can have 2 approaches to this: learning on your own or investing in courses that will guide you through the way.
One way or another, your to-do-list can grow fast and big very quickly. That’s where the overwhelm can come quickly.
Certainly the really good courses will help, specially by guiding you through the necessary steps and warning you of the time wasters.
You might reach points where you can’t see how to do it all. Moments where moving the needle of your online passive income ideas seems impossible.
Don’t give up! There are a range of methods you can apply to make it so much better.
Set up routines and workflows
As you start going through similar activities week after week, there is a certain pattern that will start to become clear. Those are workflows and routines.
What the above example shows you is that without being conscious at the beginning you regularly follow a certain pattern to produce a certain output.
This pattern is a workflow. The quicker you establish your workflows and schedule the tasks in your week, the less you think about what you have to do and the more you just get on with doing in it. The brain power does not need to wonder what next, you know it.
With routines for your online business you will feel more in control.
Whether you have established them yourself or you got them from an online course that has given you step-by-step systems to follow, schedule your routines in your calendar and summarise your workflows, so that you know what to do. I do all of this with Asana. I explain later on why, in the tools section.
Obviously at the beginning, you will be in learning phase and adapting some of your routines and workflows. That’s perfectly ok.
See what works and see what you think doesn’t and adapt it. That’s an ongoing learning curve, whether you are starting or have been implementing your passive income ideas for a while. Optimising is great.
Also, and I will touch on this later on in more detail, using tools to support you is great. And in this field of workflows and routine, there are great tools for free to use.
This will release a lot of overwhelm in your brain because it makes you feel in control. You know what needs doing.
The 3 basic rules of productivity
You know it, I have covered this a number of times, productivity relies not just on doing all you have in your to-do-list. In fact, I don’t like to-do-lists at all!
Your next steps in the path to reducing the overwhelm of making your passive income ideas a reality depends on 3 productivity rules:
Learn to say ‘no’ to others and yourself, and prioritise.
Delegate: you don’t need to do it all.
Automate: Use tools that remove the repetitive, time consuming tasks so you concentrate on spending your time on what you and only you can do.
Obviously, not everything should have a “no” as an answer, and that’s where the art of being an entrepreneur comes. However, specially at the beginning, dispersing yourself into too many fronts will very likely result in not achieving many.
This is where having your strategy, clarity of mission and roadmap come super handy. To stay focused.
I’ll cover automate a bit later with the tools. So suffice to say that this is an area where you have plenty of opportunity to reduce overwhelm.
If you want to get a full set of techniques to be focused and productive, don’t forget to check out my blog on The #1 Thing You Need To Be Productive:
Batch your work
Once you understand your workflows and have prioritised your work, you can take your ways of working one step up.
Instead of doing everything in a serial way, batch activities.
Batching is a very effective mechanism to focus on one type of activity during a certain time and maximise the outputs.
It is scientifically proven that your brain takes some time to change from one task to another. Multitasking is inefficient because of this.
When you batch your work, you maximise what you get done once your brain is wired and focused on a certain type of work. Super productive!
The efficiency of batching also comes from all the time savers related to the logistics.
Batching might feel a bit strange at the beginning. Just give it a go with one of your activities. Social media posts are a good way to start.
You will get the hang of it and once you have tasted it, you will be more inclined to batch more things. Not everything can be batch though!
Repurpose your content
As a passive income online entrepreneur, you are going to put quite a lot of effort in creating your content regularly.
To maximise the impact of one piece of content, repurpose it. That means that from one piece of content you reformat it to be used in many different ways and platforms. This makes your content go so much further.
You will be able to increase the number of people you reach and your traffic from one piece of content.
Sounds great to reduce the overwhelm, doesn’t it?
If you want to discover many ways to repurpose your content, check out my blog on 41 Ways To Repurpose Your Content To Explode Your Blog Reach & Website Traffic:
Experiment
To finish with your processes and how to eliminate your overwhelm when you start your online passive income ideas, just don’t hesitate to experiment.
Sometimes you might have been operating in a certain way and a small change can make a real difference in how you feel or the results.
Sometimes you just need to try a completely different way to do a certain thing.
It is your business, It is your time. Experimenting is a great way to optimise. Changing constantly is inefficient, changing from time to time is optimising your ways of working.
There is never a one way to do something, learn to find the ones that work for you.
3. Your tools: Get the right set up for you
One of the things that create acute overwhelm when you start your online passive income ideas is all the new tools you are confronted to. So many choices, so many new interfaces, so many things people say you should be using.
You can spend a considerable amount of time just reading reviews and comparisons between different apps and tools.
Then you start doing the sums. And you may think, ‘wow, I didn’t know I needed so many tools! Not sure I have the budget for all of this!’. And then you spend more time reading and watching YouTube videos to decide what to use to minimise your costs. Feels familiar???
I know that I am quite a tech person, yeap, I will get into some CSS programming if needed (!!!) but I still feel the tools overwhelm from time to time.
So many systems to chose from, to master.
So how to attack the tools question?…
Your core business tools
To make it simple, there are generally speaking 3 types of choices:
the freebies / very low cost tools. You use these generally speaking when you can only start your activity with a very low investment and you decide to go down the root of all free as much as possible.
the best of breed for an individual functions but requiring integration, that frankly, when you start is yet another headache.
the all-in-one tools that may not provide the total flexibility of customisation but provide the simplicity of a one interface for many functions.
There are so many combinations. The above are just simple examples.
It is a very personal choice what to go for in terms of approach.
While it is totally understandable to start by minimising your costs by using mostly freebies, be prepared for limitations, headaches and quite probably complex migrations when you start growing and need to move to other tools with more functionality.
The best of breed for specific functions are great choices, although you might question whether you truly need that level in the early stages of your passive income online business. It also means that your analytics and data will be scattered in different platforms, not providing you a holistic view of your customer. You will need to integrate them plus each has different interfaces and ways of working, so your learning curve is longer.
The all-in-one (like Kartra or Kajabi) always have some aspects that will not compare as well as the individual best of breed for function when you start reading or watching reviews. They can be great though for a simple way to manage most of your complex tools. They also provide an invaluable single view of your customer journeys.
I personally use a combination:
Kartra is fantastic as an all-in-one customer-led tool (with landing pages with countdown capabilities, email list, automations, campaigns to define your funnels (upsells / downsells), memberships, e-commerce, video storage, calendar scheduler, helpdesk, dynamic pages and more.
I love Squarespace for their great design, so Squarespace is my choice for my website. I admit that you can develop your full website in Kartra too. I really like Squarespace website templates as well as blogging and SEO capabilities.
The all-in-one platforms remove hours of learning compared to using different individual tools. It saves you time and provides you an end-to-end view of your customers and your leads in one place. This is why they are CRM platforms (Customer Relationship Management platforms).
At the beginning you can be tempted to use what the big names in the industry use themselves. Their advice is super valuable. Just always bring it back to your circumstances. They may have teams or can pay for contractors who can help them with the tech and the integrations. If it’s only you, make choices based on keeping tech simple, both in terms of learning, integrations and on-going tools management.
Forget the paper diaries
Beyond the core of your passive income online business tools, you also need to think about what you are going to use to manage your workload.
Start by one thing.
Forget the paper diaries if you want to be efficient.
You have a range of available tools, the simplest of all being your phone calendar and notes.
My absolute favourite is Asana to schedule your tasks into different projects and having a single list of tasks daily, reflected in my calendar. You can use the free version which still provides great functionality in Asana’s case. You can grow with it as it will enable you to manage your team and contractors workloads. Neat!
You could also consider others like Trello. Having used both, I prefer Asana for a bunch of reasons I will not go into today.
You can reflect your workflows and processes in Asana and let the tool remind you what needs to be done when for you. Fab for peace of mind.
Using these tools help you remove the need to remember so many things. That in itself removes plenty of overwhelm.
These tools can all be tested for free and you are very likely to stay on the free version even on the long run.
One word of caution though. Once you start, you need to keep on using them for a while until you get into the habit of how they work. Trust me, at the beginning you might be tempted to go back to your simpler to-do-list on paper. Try a bit longer. You will get hooked! 😀
You will gain so much time and peace of mind that you will not want to go back!
Graphics design, photo & video editing tools
In today’s world of social media and digital marketing, graphic design, photo and video editing tools are essential.
There is a huge plethora of choice to pick up from. Some very sophisticated and requiring a lengthy learning curve. Others so easy to master it is unbelievable.
Content without great photos and some element of video comes short of today’s expectation for engaging content. You can do plenty with a phone these days. However, ensure that your images and videos look professional.
Alternatively, you can buy styled photos and templates or subscribe to a photo membership with a monthly commitment.
Let’s go through a few tools if you decide to do-it-yourself.
To design graphics, let’s say for Pinterest or social media, unless you are really into visual design, my recommendation is to keep it simple and use Canva Pro.
I find Canva Pro one of the greatest investment in my business.
With the Pro version, you can create video from your graphic designs with plenty of animation options, access professional graphics customisable, create png files with transparent backgrounds, share templates, access photos & videos and so much more. And you can always start with the free version.
You also have plenty of free apps to try.
If you feel that you would like to up-skill your photo skills and you need someone that teaches you without jargon and and get super quick results, the absolute master of photography skills is Serge Ramelli.
I have learned sooooooooooo much from him that it is unbelievable. His photography course are invaluable for anyone wanting to stand out of the crowds and look super professional with your photos.
Here are two of his offers:
His Zero To Pro bundle starts from the basics of photography, and moves to retouching, social media and more.
Alternatively, for a super complete bundle get the Photo Serge Complete Pack 2020, to learn how to shoot and retouch all of your photos. Learn Lightroom, Landscapes, Black & Whites, Portraits, Photoshop and much more. Plus his Signature Presets and Profiles are all included - 280+ presets and 80+ Profiles, to save you a lot of time by not editing from scratch.
Your other option is to watch his YouTube channel.
Needless to say, Adobe Creative Cloud is fantastic and I will recommend it everyday. It takes some learning, but don’t worry, Serge Ramelli will get you up to speed super fast. I use it daily and would not be able to live without!
You can easily start with Adobe Lightroom and develop great skills over time.
Use Adobe Rush for simple video editing on mobile or computer.
If it is all too much for you at this stage, never forget that you have plenty of options to buy photos, templates and video.
And don’t forget to get my FREE photos & templates collection if you haven’t yet!
Traffic booster tools
Impossible not to talk about tools to boost your traffic when launching your passive income ideas.
As you probably know, there are plenty. I am going to keep it simple here.
The best way to give your traffic a real boost is Pinterest. And to drive your Pinterest traffic, nothing better than Tailwind for Pinterest.
Tailwind offers Tailwind Communities, where you support each other by repinning content. It helps drive traffic significantly, whether you have just started or are very active in Pinterest.
It is one of my core tools. You can also schedule your pins in advance to batch your work and be efficient. In addition, you can design pins super easily. Canva Pro will give you more options for pin designs, while Tailwind for Pinterest will propose you designs in just a few clicks.
I have a full in-depth blog with video tutorials on how to extract maximum value for traffic with Tailwind: Discover My Secrets To Maximise Your Website Traffic With Tailwind For Pinterest And Be Super Productive.
Beyond Pinterest, SEO is your other avenue for traffic. SEO takes longer and might be more daunting. There are plenty of SEO tools out there. Many quite expensive.
In the spirit of reducing overwhelm, you can just start with Ubersuggest or Google Ads for free to research keywords. Further down the line you can get more sophisticated with SEO. You have a few free tools that enable you to do limited searches, like Ahrefs or Answerthepublic.
Expect hickups
Tech will always give some bad days, inevitably... don’t get frustrated!
I love tech… but I also have days when tech can drive me crazy! 😂
The best with tech when you start your online passive income online ideas is:
Keep it simple.
Minimise integrations between different softwares.
Complexity is the place for tech issues.
So start simple and move the complexity up when you have more in-depth knowledge, and only if you need to.
Use tools that offer 24/7 support and chats (check this before you buy).
Test, test, test before going live.
Anticipate what you do if something goes wrong. Do you have a back up plan?
Obviously, many times you get what you pay for. Freebie tools are tempting but may come with less support when needed.
When you hit an issue, be patient, reach to the tool support team and also to your community, to see if they can help you with their experience. And this bring me to the 4 pillar to eliminate your overwhelm to make your passive income ideas a reality.
4. Your communities: the most precious asset to make your passive income ideas a reality
Now that you have seen the importance of your strategy, your processes and your tools, let’s get into the most invaluable of your assets. One that will make or break your success with your online passive income ideas: your communities.
Your community of fans
In today’s world, your success is going to deeply depend in your ability to build a community of super fans. People who love what you do, who you are and your values.
Note that I am not talking about your customers. It is a wider concept than just customers. Some will follow your accounts or join your email list because of your content. Many may never buy from you. Still, they will recommend you to others and they become far more important to your success than an ad campaign.
To minimise your overwhelm to make your passive income ideas a reality, build your community as early as possible and look after it. Provide value and maintain consistent and regular contact.
The value of your community is fantastic. Your community of super fans can also provide you with insights before a product development or for testimonials.
So audience, audience, audience needs to be your motto. Where? Which platform? That’s entirely up to you.
Don’t overkill yourself with too many channels and social media at the beginning.
Support communities
As well as your audience of super fans, It is necessary to find support communities around you.
These are communities you can go to for questions, doubts, challenges, help…
You have various types of support communities:
Your close circle of friends and other close online entrepreneurs.
Free Facebook private or public groups.
Private paying communities you have joined through courses or memberships.
What is essential is to have people you can openly approach in moments of need.
Their help can be truly invaluable at crucial moments to make your passive income ideas a reality.
They are not your community of followers or email list. You should be able to reach for open feedback for instance. They can easily help with tech questions and so much more.
Nurture your support communities. For that give more that you ask for. Give value. Give value. Give value. When you will ask for support you will be more likely to get great value back.
So out of the 4 components to reduce your overwhelm to make your passive income ideas a reality, community is one that many forget and is essential. The balance of your time needs to be more on building community than anything else.
Community is also very relevant in the bonus tip below! So time to keep on reading…
Your BONUS tip: Your mindset brings it all together
So cool…
You know now how to approach the 4 components to eliminate your overwhelm to make your passive income ideas a reality:
clarity of strategy
simplicity of processes
the right set of tools for you and
strong, growing communities
So is that it?... Are you done with the overwhelm?
Wait… I still have one important bonus tip for you… because you are still very likely to overstretch yourself.
Remind yourself that you are running your own race. Set your own rhythm.
Trying too much too soon will really generate anxiety. One step after the other is much better. Steady and constant progress.
This piece is more mental than anything else. It is important to be happy with your own pace.
Yes! Your mindset will be your biggest helper to reduce overwhelm. So here are a list of great reminders to support a positive mindset:
Pursue a balanced life as online entrepreneur.
Create boundaries between your free time and your business. Don’t forget to take days off! Give yourself permission.
Fail fast, learn and move on. Move on from disappointments.
Celebrate small wins.
Dare to ask for help and support.
Don’t forget why you are doing it. That’s why your strategy and mission are soooooo important.
Be aligned with yourself. Don’t try to be someone else. This will help you have presence and build confidence.
And… enjoy the journey!
If you only have 5min, read this!
The myth of making-a-6-figure-super-fast with passive income versus the out-front effort can frustrate you to the point of not enjoying your online business.
There are plenty of things to do, to learn, to try, to adapt. Overwhelm is very normal when you want to make your online passive income ideas a reality.
So here are the 4 components to elimate your overwhelm.
1. Your purpose: Be clear about what you want and why
Be clear about your goals, strategy & mission.
Be realistic. Set priorities. Run your race.
2. Your processes: Work smart
Set up routines and workflows.
Follow the 3 basic rules of productivity: learn to say “no”, delegate and automate.
Batch your work.
Repurpose your content.
Experiment.
3. Your tools: Get the right set up for you
Choose your core business tools to meet your needs:
Go for free tools only if you can not afford anything else.
Go for all-in-one tools if you’d rather minimise tech headaches.
Forget the paper diaries.
Embrace productivity tools like Asana (or Trello).
Your graphics design, photo & video editing tools are essential for your online marketing. Decide whether you prefer to:
Buy it done-for-you.
Skill up to do-it-yourself.
Traffic booster tools are a must-have, as traffic is the golden word.
Invest in Tailwind for Pinterest to drive your traffic with the invaluable Tailwind Communities.
Consider SEO tools. Start with familiarising yourself with keyword research in Google Ads for free. Move to other tools as you feel more confident with SEO.
Expect tech hick-ups.
Tech always ends up driving you crazy at some point. Expect it.
Test, test, test.
4. Your communities: the most precious asset of your online business
Without communities, you are going to struggle to make your online passive income ideas a reality.
Nurture your community of fans with regular, consistent engagement. Show up. Be you. Interact.
Add value in your support communities, help others without seeking reciprocity. Rely on your support communities for feedback and advice as needed.
Your BONUS tip: Your mindset brings it all together
Your mindset is even more important than any of the other 4 component to release overwhelm.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
Run your on race to make your passive income ideas a reality. Pace yourself.
Pursue alignment between your values and your actions.
Enjoy the journey.
What next?
You got this!
The fact that you are pursuing your own online passive income ideas to make them a reality is a huge achievement. Feel super proud! Enjoy every moment, even the challenging ones!
Overwhelm is normal to feel. Now you have a structured framework to combat it and eliminate it.
And please, don’t forget to tell me:
Yet another HUGE thank you from me for being here until the end of this post.
I truly believe it is an absolute privilege to know that you read and find value in my blog!
Don’t forget to get your Free Visuals Collection if you have not got it yet to help you with free Canva templates as well as styled photos and video for business use*.
Hi! I’m Isabel
Visual content creation is my passion
The sea is my happy place!
For years and years I have created and produced content, in particular visual content. You can find me very often with my cameras and tripod out and about!
My passion: to help you with your online presence and drive business growth through my blog and visuals collections (marketing templates, styled photos & video).
Ah, I have also worked for 24+ in the corporate world, leading quite a mix: transformation, marketing, coaching, sales, productivity, programme management, investments and product management.
I love sharing all these skills with you in my blog.
I am also founder of Agavea Properties, our family holiday rental business. My husband and I lead it with the passion with one goal in mind: serving our customers to create a memorable holiday experience for them.
So there you have it, that’s me! Ah... I almost forgot, my happy place is by the sea.
Thanks for being here with me!
