Turn Passions Into Profits

How do you put a price on something you love? If you want to make a living and don’t want to starve, you figure it out.

Entrepreneur and coach Carolina Millan has suggestions for those who want to monetize their passion, which she describes in her book, “7 Steps to Online Profits.”

Millan and millennial expert Chelsea Krost — a top-rated marketing and branding voice, speaker, consultant and LinkedIn instructor — took a deep dive during Krost’s #MillennialTalk Twitter Chat to look at how to turn your passion into an online business.

Those who want to monetize should have a vision and a plan to get there. That should lead them to see if there is a market for what interests them.

Krost recommends taking these preliminary steps:

• Define passion.
• Conduct market research and competitive analysis.
• Define if this is a layered offering to your current brand, business or separate side hustle.
• Who is your niche audience or customer, and where are they online?
• Create the offering, whether it’s a product or service.

“Everyone has those unique qualities and skills they can use to stand out,” Krost said. “You cannot be someone else. Your unique qualities are what you should highlight and build on. Authenticity is key.

“If you can’t address and solve people’s pain points, you aren’t going to be very successful converting them into customers or clients,” she said.

Without being complicated, Millan suggests keeping “three” in mind.

“Figure out what makes you stand out from your competitors,” she said. “What are three things that make you unique and different? What are your top three skills?

“Then identify who your ideal client would be,” Millan said. “Who would benefit from what you know? Who is the ideal person you’d love to work with?”

Problems and pain points

Gain a good grasp of needs and how to fulfill them.

“Identify the top three problems or pain points your ideal client has,” Millan said. “Then you can connect them with your solution.

“The more authentic you are the better,” she said. “Join the conversation already happening in your ideal customer’s mind.”

Millan has her top three strategies to start an online business based on passion:

• Generate content that positions you as an agent of value, someone who is out there to serve. Help people, preferably through video content. Then share it on the platforms your ideal client is most likely to be on.
• Create something of value you can give to people for free in exchange for their name and email address. That might be an e-book, web class or video series. Start building your email list so you can bring people into your own ecosystem.
• Think of the next logical step your prospects need to follow to achieve the result they want — after they get your free offer — and that could be your first paid product or service.

“Then there’s the paid way,” Millan said. “Build a funnel with a video and an application form so people can fill it out to talk to you. Let them raise their hand. Send paid traffic to said funnel targeting your ideal client.”

Krost and Millan continued their monetization conversation, including common mistakes to avoid when getting started, overcoming limiting beliefs, top business models, best social media platforms, using Facebook ads — or not — and the best ways to sell online. Catch all of that here.