Thursday Press #153: I simply won't be doing that...
[10 OCT 2024]
“15 pasta-cooking minutes feels a lot longer than 15 sandwich-making minutes.”
That’s exactly what I told my dietician when we were brainstorming quick and easy lunches I could make in the middle of the workday.
Because as I’m sure you’re familiar with, even if you work from home, it’s still so hard to actually take a proper lunch break.
In fact, I’d argue it’s easier to pack a lunch box for the office than remembering I need to stop working 15 minutes before the hanger sets in…
Even though those 15 minutes are an objectively consistent length, I stand by what I said — it doesn’t feel the same.
After several more iterations of basically the same phrase, we managed to figure out the real sticking points that was making lunch feel hard:
I would rather heat up or put together than “cook”
If it has too many components or ingredients, I won’t do it
Typically, I’ll cook two HelloFresh meals for the week, one for lunch and one for dinner (not spon obvi because I have real complaints about their subscription model lol)
But if I don’t have that, all of a sudden lunch is an open-ended minefield of choices.
Heads up to my other ADHD pals — choice is the enemy of action.
So then I end up on Pinterest or TikTok, scrolling through endless saved “easy recipes” that AREN’T ACTUALLY EASY AT ALL.
I either don’t have the ingredients, don’t want to get out all the ingredients, or it simply takes too much effort or time to make it feel worth it.
That feel is important, because while arguably, spending time and energy on making a yummy and fueling lunch has objective value, sometimes that isn’t enough to motivate the hamsters running inside my brain to actually do the GD thing.
No, Jaycee-Ann, I don’t want to hear about how easy the 10-ingredient dense bean salad with a vinaigrette that requires an immersion blender is.
THAT’S NOT EASY!!!
No offense to all the Jaycee-Anns, dense bean salad fans, and immersion blenders of the world, that’s just not my journey.
It makes me almost as mad as the IG girlbosses telling you how “simple” and “easy” making passive income is…
SPOILER ALERT — Passive income is a MYTH.
Or at least it’s quite the misnomer.
Passive income is the dream everyone loves to sell.
But if you’ve ever tried to create a passive income stream for yourself, you know it’s far from actually passive.
Creating a passive income product requires a lot of active work.
And that work doesn’t stop once the cart opens or you launch your shop.
To sell anything, you need to be marketing actively.
Very actively.
Annnnnd all of a sudden that passive income isn’t so passive anymore.
So how do we fix it?
The key to making the myth of passive income closer to reality is Pinterest.
How to Make Passive Income from Pinterest
Now that we’ve cleared up the fact that passive income isn’t, in fact, 100% passive, let’s figure out what we can make more passive — your marketing.
Whether you’re selling one course or dozens of low-ticket digital products, the only way you’re going to get sales is by actually selling.
"Ewwww gross noooooo…" I know.
JK selling isn’t icky!!! But it is a lot of work.
Trying to balance building a personal brand, “providing value,” promoting my services, growing my email list, and equally marketing every single one of my digital products is a circus act I’m wholly uninterested in.
At least one of those spinning plates is going to drop and make the whole tent go quiet.
This is where Pinterest comes in.
While it won’t make your entire business passive, it can certainly lighten the load.
If you want to use Pinterest for passive income, here’s what you should focus on:
001. Optimize for Pinterest SEO
Ensure that your pins and boards are keyword-rich and aligned with what your target audience is searching for.
📂 From the Archive: How to Use Keywords
002. Pin consistently
Regularly publish high-quality pins that direct traffic to valuable content, lead magnets, and products.
📂 From the Archive: How to Stay Consistent on Pinterest
003. Set up a conversion-optimized Pinterest funnel
Create a sales funnel that captures, nurtures, and converts your Pinterest traffic into loyal customers, making sure to optimize every part of the funnel for your Pinterest audience.
📂 From the Archive: Pinterest Conversion Guide
01. EDITOR'S PICK
The Truth About Passive Income + Pinterest
There’s no legend more captivating, no reward more enticing than the concept of making money while doing nothing.
We don’t want to admit it, but it’s true — most of us spend a decent amount of brain power dreaming up ways to make more money while doing less work.
There’s no shame in it!
The shame comes later, when we’ve followed all the roadmaps and done “all the right things” and still don’t have oodles of cash flowing in to retire our husbands or sip bellinis by the beach.
(BTW, I’m not aiming for either of those things.)
But if you're also tired of being sold a gilded girlboss dream, just know you're not alone!
Your anti-girlboss, anti-gatekeeping, anti-gaslighting bestie,
Sarah 🫶