My passive income business is dying
April 20, 2021
In this episode, we talk about how a passive income is still tied to a founder's core identity and is subject to future issues if it's not congruent.
If you've ever heard me on Clubhouse and you've heard my vertical method talk, I emphasize how important it is for you to pick a niche that's congruent with your core identity. And the reason why this is so important because once you find your audience, that audience that you are actually going to stick with and you are not going to pivot, from the people you serve, everything feels like a hot knife on butter because your messaging feels tight, the people that you're hanging out with, it's really easy to nurture them because you feel like you want to nurture them.
So what I've been doing in my previous businesses, I have a website called unblockedmywebsite.com. It's making me pretty good passive income. However, for me to put mindshare on that business, it really isn't serving who I'm meant to serve and help the most and who are meant to help and serve the most are early-stage entrepreneurs who are essentially making the same mistakes that I was making when I first built my startup. And I feel like I built a time machine and I just went to the past and now I'm like stopping other me's from making the same mistakes and actually implementing the systems that I've learned along the way.
And a lot of these learnings or experience that I picked up was essentially building this one website from scratch was unblockedmywebsite.com. My first sales were organic, where I was actually reaching out to people and trying to make these sales. And I went out and I listened for their points of confusion, their false beliefs, their early objections, etcetera. And I learned how to sell it. And learning how to sell it, like I said in the previous episode, it really comes from that direct selling type of relationship.
Then after I learned how to sell it, I automated the entire process because the whole nurture process was very difficult. I mean I would try to find money, right? So finding money meant if I had people customers coming in and no one bought, then I would look through my email list and actually just reach out and say yeah, I noticed you signed up to my email list. Um is this something that you need help with? And I would do this organically and it took a lot of my time and I thought there has to be a better way.
So I started looking at automating everything and I automated pretty much the entire nurture process and the way that I did it, I used the friendship formula that I think I've covered in one of my other talks. Um if you can't find it, feel free to reach out and I'll share that with you. But yeah, so I built this website, I automated the entire thing and after automating it, I was able to walk away from it because now most of the job is done for me by machines, and really, I just have to do anything where there's any kind of escalated customer service and that it doesn't take me more than 15 minutes a day. And in fact, for the past couple months since December, I've actually hired someone to take over that whole thing for me.
But here's here's the issue, right? The issue is the customer set for that business, even though it is a bunch of entrepreneurs, it's not six percenter type entrepreneurs like you that are listening to this podcast that are interested in building these bigger tech type companies and vertical startups. So this is like my people, right? So I'm like in December, I decided that I was going to pivot away from this list and it's a little upsetting because I can't leverage the list that I've worked so hard to build already. And this is why it's so important to find that niche that's really congruent with your core identity. But luckily I found it in December and I started pivoting and now I'm building up my brand new list which isn't as difficult as it was before because now I know how to do it. I know the levers to push and pull for me to build this list and I'm growing the list at a much faster rate than the thousands of people that I grew on the unblock list. Right?
And one of these ways that I'm doing it, if you're curious, go check out my podcast that's on this podcast about the three different types of traffic. So you know exactly what to hit up for you to be able to start getting close to your people. So yeah, so now I'm building this new list. And the beautiful thing about this new list, is this list is congruent with my core identity, which means that any time I do have to pivot for one reason or another, it could be, you know, regulations change, the industry changes, there's interest lost in a product or service. The thing is I'm still serving those people that niche that's congruent with my core identity. So even if this product or service on this left-hand side or right-hand side or whatever, if it fizzles out, I can always create something new and leverage the list that I've already built for me to sustain in my business and for me to keep going.
And one of the reasons that I know this will sustain is because this is my niche and I will have that motivation to keep going. Unlike the motivation that I've been losing and unblockmywebsite and unblockmywebsite, brought in almost six figures last year, but in the past couple of months, traffic has been dying um which is something that I knew was coming right around the corner, which was, which was happening, but there's probably a lot of things that I can do if I wanted to go back and start digging in and on how I can improve the sales funnel and get it back working again. But I just don't have the mind share for it and I feel like it would be a waste of time, right? Because it's like, why am I spending this time, even though it's making me money, but building this list that I don't even want to really build when I could be spending my time building this list that I do want to build. Because I know five years down the road, 10 years down the road, it's gonna make me so much more happier. And the work that I put in now, it's going to have compounding success in the future. But if I'm just chasing really easy, low-hanging fruit, then it's gonna take my mind share away. And I'm doing something that's really not going to bring those compound returns in the future.
So business hasn't actually really been doing to for unblockmywebsite, which I'm not sure exactly how to feel about it. I mean, I knew it's something that's not gonna last forever and the last couple of months have actually been pretty bad. So I've been pivoting. But the thing is I'm really happy with my direction and I'm so happy with the amount of money that I've been able to raise through that business to be able to fund everything else, so I can pivot and I can keep going. So now I'm building a list of early-stage entrepreneurs who are driven, creative, smart, ambitious and they're looking to build their startups without having to rely on investors, your pitch decks or business plans or do it the traditional way and really empower themselves to put all the power in their hands and build their start-up on their terms.
And I can't wait for this journey because I just imagine myself having a long list of just different companies that I've helped build and grow using this system that is tried and true, that has worked for me for every new project that I've launched from everything from the Vertical Startup Summit to the Minimum Viable Mockup book that's coming out on November 29. I'm just using the vertical method over and over and I can't wait to start using it with these new people that are coming into my final.
So I thought I wanted you just wanted to share that. It's like a little happy news mixed in with some sad news, but I'm just keeping it real hair and yeah, I feel like that business, maybe I should've sold it three or four months ago when I was at the peak. But now it's kind of like fizzling out and regardless, I think I'm on the right path and I'm super happy that I am working with the niche that is congruent with my core identity.
So I hope this helps you whenever you're thinking about working with your new business, is this a list that you are actually going to be able to leverage five years down the road, 10 years down the road? And the way you know that is, is this a list that is congruent with your core identity? Are you gonna lose motivation? Are gonna want to deal with those people? For me, emerging founders, these are people that like it, like, I would almost work free. I definitely won't work for free, so don't ask me, but I would almost work for free. Doesn't feel like work for me. Like I just love getting around other founders and masterminding together and throwing ideas and pitching ideas. And to me, it's like working with Legos. So when I'm out here, nurturing these customers, it doesn't feel like work it actually, it's just something that I want to do. And I hope that you can find a business that does that for you as well. This is Robin Copernicus.
Boom. Bam. I'm out
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
So what I've been doing in my previous businesses, I have a website called unblockedmywebsite.com. It's making me pretty good passive income. However, for me to put mindshare on that business, it really isn't serving who I'm meant to serve and help the most and who are meant to help and serve the most are early-stage entrepreneurs who are essentially making the same mistakes that I was making when I first built my startup. And I feel like I built a time machine and I just went to the past and now I'm like stopping other me's from making the same mistakes and actually implementing the systems that I've learned along the way.
And a lot of these learnings or experience that I picked up was essentially building this one website from scratch was unblockedmywebsite.com. My first sales were organic, where I was actually reaching out to people and trying to make these sales. And I went out and I listened for their points of confusion, their false beliefs, their early objections, etcetera. And I learned how to sell it. And learning how to sell it, like I said in the previous episode, it really comes from that direct selling type of relationship.
Then after I learned how to sell it, I automated the entire process because the whole nurture process was very difficult. I mean I would try to find money, right? So finding money meant if I had people customers coming in and no one bought, then I would look through my email list and actually just reach out and say yeah, I noticed you signed up to my email list. Um is this something that you need help with? And I would do this organically and it took a lot of my time and I thought there has to be a better way.
So I started looking at automating everything and I automated pretty much the entire nurture process and the way that I did it, I used the friendship formula that I think I've covered in one of my other talks. Um if you can't find it, feel free to reach out and I'll share that with you. But yeah, so I built this website, I automated the entire thing and after automating it, I was able to walk away from it because now most of the job is done for me by machines, and really, I just have to do anything where there's any kind of escalated customer service and that it doesn't take me more than 15 minutes a day. And in fact, for the past couple months since December, I've actually hired someone to take over that whole thing for me.
But here's here's the issue, right? The issue is the customer set for that business, even though it is a bunch of entrepreneurs, it's not six percenter type entrepreneurs like you that are listening to this podcast that are interested in building these bigger tech type companies and vertical startups. So this is like my people, right? So I'm like in December, I decided that I was going to pivot away from this list and it's a little upsetting because I can't leverage the list that I've worked so hard to build already. And this is why it's so important to find that niche that's really congruent with your core identity. But luckily I found it in December and I started pivoting and now I'm building up my brand new list which isn't as difficult as it was before because now I know how to do it. I know the levers to push and pull for me to build this list and I'm growing the list at a much faster rate than the thousands of people that I grew on the unblock list. Right?
And one of these ways that I'm doing it, if you're curious, go check out my podcast that's on this podcast about the three different types of traffic. So you know exactly what to hit up for you to be able to start getting close to your people. So yeah, so now I'm building this new list. And the beautiful thing about this new list, is this list is congruent with my core identity, which means that any time I do have to pivot for one reason or another, it could be, you know, regulations change, the industry changes, there's interest lost in a product or service. The thing is I'm still serving those people that niche that's congruent with my core identity. So even if this product or service on this left-hand side or right-hand side or whatever, if it fizzles out, I can always create something new and leverage the list that I've already built for me to sustain in my business and for me to keep going.
And one of the reasons that I know this will sustain is because this is my niche and I will have that motivation to keep going. Unlike the motivation that I've been losing and unblockmywebsite and unblockmywebsite, brought in almost six figures last year, but in the past couple of months, traffic has been dying um which is something that I knew was coming right around the corner, which was, which was happening, but there's probably a lot of things that I can do if I wanted to go back and start digging in and on how I can improve the sales funnel and get it back working again. But I just don't have the mind share for it and I feel like it would be a waste of time, right? Because it's like, why am I spending this time, even though it's making me money, but building this list that I don't even want to really build when I could be spending my time building this list that I do want to build. Because I know five years down the road, 10 years down the road, it's gonna make me so much more happier. And the work that I put in now, it's going to have compounding success in the future. But if I'm just chasing really easy, low-hanging fruit, then it's gonna take my mind share away. And I'm doing something that's really not going to bring those compound returns in the future.
So business hasn't actually really been doing to for unblockmywebsite, which I'm not sure exactly how to feel about it. I mean, I knew it's something that's not gonna last forever and the last couple of months have actually been pretty bad. So I've been pivoting. But the thing is I'm really happy with my direction and I'm so happy with the amount of money that I've been able to raise through that business to be able to fund everything else, so I can pivot and I can keep going. So now I'm building a list of early-stage entrepreneurs who are driven, creative, smart, ambitious and they're looking to build their startups without having to rely on investors, your pitch decks or business plans or do it the traditional way and really empower themselves to put all the power in their hands and build their start-up on their terms.
And I can't wait for this journey because I just imagine myself having a long list of just different companies that I've helped build and grow using this system that is tried and true, that has worked for me for every new project that I've launched from everything from the Vertical Startup Summit to the Minimum Viable Mockup book that's coming out on November 29. I'm just using the vertical method over and over and I can't wait to start using it with these new people that are coming into my final.
So I thought I wanted you just wanted to share that. It's like a little happy news mixed in with some sad news, but I'm just keeping it real hair and yeah, I feel like that business, maybe I should've sold it three or four months ago when I was at the peak. But now it's kind of like fizzling out and regardless, I think I'm on the right path and I'm super happy that I am working with the niche that is congruent with my core identity.
So I hope this helps you whenever you're thinking about working with your new business, is this a list that you are actually going to be able to leverage five years down the road, 10 years down the road? And the way you know that is, is this a list that is congruent with your core identity? Are you gonna lose motivation? Are gonna want to deal with those people? For me, emerging founders, these are people that like it, like, I would almost work free. I definitely won't work for free, so don't ask me, but I would almost work for free. Doesn't feel like work for me. Like I just love getting around other founders and masterminding together and throwing ideas and pitching ideas. And to me, it's like working with Legos. So when I'm out here, nurturing these customers, it doesn't feel like work it actually, it's just something that I want to do. And I hope that you can find a business that does that for you as well. This is Robin Copernicus.
Boom. Bam. I'm out
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
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