Welcome to The Spark Show! In this episode, I'll be talking about the five ways to monetize your influence.

Let's Talk About Money

Before we talk about monetizing, which is the art of making money, let's talk about money. When I say the word money, people already tense up or feel anxiety because money is a sensitive topic for a lot of people because money has a lot of emotions attached to it, and even trauma around it. I could still feel that anxiety about thinking back when I wasn't making that much money, I was wondering if my credit card would get declined or how I felt when I'd have so many overdraft fees.

I didn't know if I was ever going to get out of debt. So everyone has money stories, money drama, money trauma, all of that. This is why I share my stories about wanting to make money because I've been in that situation and what I can tell you is that I didn't start making the money that I wanted to make until I started really thinking about money differently and I started becoming aware of the relationship that I had with money.

The thing is, if you don't like to deal with money, then your money issues are going to keep coming up. Some people say, "I never dealt with my money issues." And then that was it, even though they wanted to make more, for some reason there was like a block. It was a mental block that they couldn't get over. And so if you want to make the money you really want to make, unapologetically make, and not feel shame around it or guilt about it, then you really have to look at money in a different way.

I started thinking about the beliefs that I had about money and I really had to sit down and be like, "Okay, what do I believe about money? What did I learn growing up about money?" For me, it was money is hard to make, you have to work really, really hard to make money and that's the only way to make money. And, if you want more money, it's greedy. If you want more, I always wanted more, and it was like, you're greedy and you should just be grateful for what you have, and rich people are evil. That was one that I would hear over and over again from family and it just stuck with me.

All the messages that we receive growing up, it sticks with you, and it's not until you're in the 20s or 30s and you realize, is that even true? And so as I wanted to create a business, I started struggling about the feeling of, Oh, I want to make money because I want to have a profitable business. So, I started to really think about are those actual facts or are those beliefs? Is money hard to make? Yes, it can be hard to make, depending on how you do it. But I know there are people who put their money somewhere and it grows, like investments or stocks. So, is that really true that money is hard to make? Or is it just depending on what you do? Maybe it's hard work? If you work in the farm or you're a laborer, yes, it can be hard to make that money. But if you find a way or a system to make that money without working and letting it grow and invest it, there are ways for it not to be hard.

And then I picked apart "if you want more money, that's greedy." That's one that everyone says - money is the root of all evil. It's kind of like - rich people are evil, those are kind of all in the same belief system. And so I thought about it and was like, Okay, if I had a billion dollars, what would I do with the money? Would I just buy myself designer purses, shoes, and bags? Yes. And I would also give it away. I would give it to my brother, my sister, I would have some for my stepdaughter. I would make sure if something happened to me, my loved ones were taken care of. I would want to donate money to causes I care about. I want to invest in women entrepreneurs. So, does that make me greedy for wanting to have more money, because I want to do that?

And also, I want to have a profitable business because I want to create jobs and hire amazing people and pay them what their worth is and their value so that they can provide for their families. Does that make me greedy? And so you have the choice. There are evil people in all money brackets, but you get to decide what kind of person you want to be. I think sometimes if we think that's what's going to happen, we start to block ourselves from making that money because in our mind, subconsciously, we think rich people are evil and so we don't want to be evil people. So then, we stop ourselves.

Self sabotage is when we stop ourselves from doing something we really want because there's an underlying belief that we have not really dealt with and shifted. And so the more you shift these beliefs, the easier it's going to be for you to monetize. Because if it is hard for you to monetize or ask for a raise or get out of the money hold that you're in, it's usually because there are money beliefs that are in your mind that are stopping you and causing the self sabotage.

Because self sabotage, it comes up for you and sometimes if you're not aware of it, it happens all the time. And so, this is why even though I want to talk about monetizing, I want to talk about that first, because you cannot monetize or build the business you want to build, if you don't get over and stop and prevent and overcome the self sabotage.

You have to come to terms with that before the money comes in. Because if you have that block, the money won't come in. And so you're wondering, Why can I never catch a break? Why does this not ever happen to me? Why are all these influencers getting paid brand deals, they have less followers than me, and it's still not happening for me? And so, if you see that pattern, I do believe that has something to do with your way of thinking, because if you think you can't do it, you can't. And, if you think you can, you will, and it does happen.

That is what I want you to work on, even before you start thinking about monetizing. And if you're already in the middle of that journey, take a step back and think about what are your money beliefs, and dissect that first, rewrite new ones, work on it every day, and I promise you things will come faster. It's the same experience I've had, the first year was hard and then I started working on my beliefs and my mindset, and then things started happening. I can't tell you all the amazing things that's been happening just in the past three months, things have accelerated, you gain momentum, then things start coming in, then still things start building on top of each other and then it starts to become easy.

That's another thing about the idea that making money is hard. Yes, it could be really hard in the beginning, but if you set up the right systems and the right team in place to start helping you, it becomes easier. Or, there's another challenge that you can tackle. Because that's what they call like new level, new devil. For every level, there's a new challenge. So it's not that it gets easier, it's just you get better. 

I've been in business for how many years now, it gets easier, like pitching is hard in the beginning, and then after you get your groove on and you kind of know what to expect, you start getting some wins, you can handle failure better or handle rejection better, and then it starts becoming easier. And so, that's kind of the experience that I want to tell you that there is that other side, but you have to get through it.

Okay, so let's talk about monetization. And so the thing is, if what you want to do is run a business, you got to make money because you're not running a hobby or a nonprofit.

Have a Monetization Plan in Place

The first thing you need to have is a monetization strategy. You cannot just cross your fingers and hope that the money will come because if you don't have anything that you're putting out there, if you don't have an offer, money is not coming in. Think of it like a store. You go into a store and there's nothing for sale. How do you expect to make money when there's no products and services to sell? So what are your products and services to sell? So, I'm going to talk about the five ways that influencers make money.

#1. Advertising

This is about the most common type of income for influencers and this is brand sponsorships. This also includes if you have ads on your website, or if you have a YouTube channel, they run ads on your YouTube channel, so then you make money through AdSense. Now, the thing is, if you think about the most successful people in the world, they don't just have one revenue stream, they have multiple revenue streams. I've heard the number seven revenue streams, I read an email yesterday that said they have 21 revenue streams, I'm like, okay, that's a lot because that's a lot to manage. So revenue streams, you have to choose them. I recommend focusing on one at a time, setting it up and having a system in place before you start the other one.

#2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission on products and services that you recommend to people. So one thing is if you have a blog, and then you have Amazon links, you make a percentage of anyone who clicks on your Amazon link and buy stuff on Amazon. Now, the cool thing is that you don't just get that product, you get the commission on the entire shopping experience.

I would choose the best affiliate partners for you and sometimes those are the people who give a higher commission. You have to be more intentional about your content and making sure you take the time to put in those affiliate links. I know a lot of influencers that make a lot more money on affiliate marketing than brand sponsorships, but it also depends on your niche.

#3. Products

There's a lot of influencers and entrepreneurs who sell their own products and this could be physical or digital products. So, digital products and physical products are the two types of products that you can sell. Physical products are like merch, if you have a T-shirt line, some influencers have a beauty line, some influencers I know launched health lines like they have vitamins and supplements, like fitness influencers have supplements. Some influencers that I know have a physical planner. 

Now, the good thing about having products is that while you're waiting for brand deals to happen, because you don't have brand deals everyday, and you sometimes don't know how many you're going to have every month, you can create this alternate or additional revenue stream in your business. Now, digital products is similar to what I sell. This could be an e-book, a course, a membership, a tool kit. I sold the brand deal toolkit. With digital products, I feel like they are a lot easier to scale, especially because you can create one and sell 1,000 of them, and you can sell a million of them and it only took you the same energy to create that one.

#4. Services

Similar to number three, you can sell services. This could be something like a photographer, a copywriter, a social media manager, a fitness instructor, or if you have a coaching program that can be considered a service as well. And so, also coaching and consulting or if you want to do speaking services, and you want to speak for corporations or you want to speak at events, that's a service.

It's great to start as a service and then get testimonials so then you can build a digital product that's easier to sell, because you've already proven that you can get results.

#5. Events

So as you know, a lot of physical events were canceled, but a lot of them went virtual. And so there was a huge uptick on Instagram lives or Facebook lives and then people started to do virtual summits. This is something that you can think about. Think about what are the events that you can either host, and then some things that some of my students have done is work with brands, because some brands sponsor events, and they need speakers or they need hosts, so that's another way to create revenue in your business.

So those are the five ways you can monetize your audience. To recap, it's advertising, affiliate marketing, selling products, offering your services, and then hosting or appearing at events.

Thank you so much for tuning into The Spark Show and I will see you in the next one!

Listen to the full episode here: 

Watch the Masterclass

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Check Out Previous Episodes: 

Pitch Like a Pro

Let's Bust These Influencer Myths

5 Questions to Ask Before Partnering With Brands

5 Ways to Get Unstuck

Money Mindset for Influencers

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