Unlock the financial freedom you've been dreaming of with our latest episode, where Beth and Christine discuss how to reveal the untapped earning potential within you. Discover how to turn your everyday talents into a steady stream of income that works for you, even as you sleep. Whether you're a busy bee climbing the corporate ladder or a stay-at-home parent, a seasoned real estate agent or a beginner real estate investor, our discussion will guide you through creating a life where your financial security isn't just a hope, but a reality.
Our journey through the world of real estate investment is an eye-opener, showcasing a wealth of opportunities from the sweat equity of fix and flips to the serene calm of collecting rent from long-term investments. Christine, with her wealth of knowledge, walks us through how to make smart choices in property management and reveals insider strategies for income generation that require minimal ongoing effort. If you've ever fantasized about earning money from your couch, this tour of real estate possibilities is your ticket to making it happen.
We wrap up with a rally cry to start that side hustle you've been pondering and mesh it with your passions, creating a joyful work-life balance. From leveraging your expertise to serve and empower others to understanding the art of imperfect beginnings, we offer practical advice that propels you from idea to income. So, get ready to be inspired, to learn, and most importantly, to have fun as you embark on your very own financial adventure with us.
Unlock the financial freedom you've been dreaming of with our latest episode, where Beth and Christine discuss how to reveal the untapped earning potential within you. Discover how to turn your everyday talents into a steady stream of income that works for you, even as you sleep. Whether you're a busy bee climbing the corporate ladder or a stay-at-home parent, a seasoned real estate agent or a beginner real estate investor, our discussion will guide you through creating a life where your financial security isn't just a hope, but a reality.
Our journey through the world of real estate investment is an eye-opener, showcasing a wealth of opportunities from the sweat equity of fix and flips to the serene calm of collecting rent from long-term investments. Christine, with her wealth of knowledge, walks us through how to make smart choices in property management and reveals insider strategies for income generation that require minimal ongoing effort. If you've ever fantasized about earning money from your couch, this tour of real estate possibilities is your ticket to making it happen.
We wrap up with a rally cry to start that side hustle you've been pondering and mesh it with your passions, creating a joyful work-life balance. From leveraging your expertise to serve and empower others to understanding the art of imperfect beginnings, we offer practical advice that propels you from idea to income. So, get ready to be inspired, to learn, and most importantly, to have fun as you embark on your very own financial adventure with us.
Welcome back to the Abundant Investor Podcast. I'm your host, beth Rooney, and I am so happy to be here today with Christine. We have another great topic in store for you. Today, we are going to talk about how to add passive income into your life and why that is so important. We started this conversation based on a podcast that we hosted about a month ago called how to Be the CEO of your life. This is really an offshoot of that. It's a way to really look at your income and how you're making money and asking yourself is this the way I want to continue earning income for the rest of my life, or would I like to add another opportunity to build a secondary income stream? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
I love this topic so much. I think everyone these days is talking about how to add different income streams. Revenue streams. Passive income is a big buzzword. I think we get to break that down a little bit today and talk about what's truly passive. Most work has some effort involved, so we'll be real about that. Also, I think that life we always talk about living your rich life it gets to be fun. For most people, that's a diversified life where they're not doing the same thing day in, day out. People want to always. People are always coming to us wanting to explore other opportunities. Some people say I think I want to change careers or I want to do something different, but I'm not sure what Today we're going to talk about also ways you can figure out what those things are. I think where there's interest and a will and you're willing to put some effort in, there's an opportunity to make life a little more interesting and make more money while doing so. We want to help break that down for you guys and show you that it's absolutely possible.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. I think in that last podcast around being the CEO, you talked about how millionaires typically have eight income streams. This is not about like, okay, I'm going to just quit my job and start a new career. This is saying, just like you're talking about, what do I love to do, what comes naturally to me? How could I turn that into an income stream to supplement what I'm doing? Of course, christine and I love real estate. Real estate investing is going to be a big topic here, but it's not the only way. If you're listening and you're a stay-at-home mom or you have a nine to five corporate job, this is for you. If you are a 1099, especially a real estate agent, who really is your only income stream right now is transaction oriented. Listen up, because there is a lot you can bring to the table to supplement that transaction income, especially in after years like 2023, where we saw so few transactions. There are lots of opportunities for you to supplement your income stream. Create some passive income that may last beyond your transactional business.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. I think that you can take something like real estate investing and make it as passive or as active as you want. Just speaking from experience, my first real estate investment was intended to be pretty passive. We ended up buying a fixer upper, and anytime you're buying something that needs work whether you're doing the work or you're hiring people to do the work there is some labor involved. For sure there's some effort involved in that it is somewhat active. There are real estate investors out there who are completely wanting to be passive. We have a client that we're helping who is closing on a property where everything will be outsourced and she will be paying other people to help her manage the property. She's found a great property and it's out of state and she's got the boots on the ground in order to manage that, so that it is a very passive income stream for her. Over time that real estate will appreciate. Initially, the cash flow might be a little lower if you're outsourcing all of these things, but maybe that's what you want. For some people, that's the right way to go. It really gets to be whatever you want.
Speaker 2:
A lot of people get into real estate investing and they start to build a portfolio that enables them to retire their W2 job. They might be working a corporate job and realize that they're just not as happy there as they used to be, and they want the freedom that comes from being their own boss. Now they've built up a real estate portfolio that allows them to do that. I think your point, beth, about this is something you can pick up on the side to begin with. Or maybe you're not working right now because you're a caregiver, as a mom or otherwise, and you want something to do to start to bring in some extra income. It's a great way to compliment what you're already doing and how you're spending your time. I think there are so many proven ways out there to make some extra income. It's very much within reach for anyone, absolutely, we're all I just want to say.
Speaker 2:
If you're listening to this podcast, you're full of gifts and skills and experiences that other people simply have not had that they're ready for you to teach them. You're sitting on a treasure trove of resources just based on who you are, what you've done, and I think sometimes we forget what's in plain sight. So it's really funny, beth, because right before we got on the podcast today, we started talking about a topic that I realized, oh gosh, like that's something I completely would enjoy running a course on or coaching on right, and it's just such second nature to me and I'm not gonna say what it is right now, but it's second nature so I thought like, oh, I forgot that not everybody can see that. So you have a lens on the world that is so different from so many other people.
Speaker 2:
So maybe you're awesome at making graphics in Canva and you can make templates like, like it's really fun for you. There's people that find that very painful and would be happy to pay you to make templates for them in Canva. So, you know, honing in on what are those things that are really fun or that you think could be fun for you, and starting to monetize those simply by letting people know that. I mean, I say simply and really. In the beginning it is the simple and there are ways to scale and grow, but in the beginning it's just letting other people know that you provide that service, putting a price on it and then putting it out there and offering it.
Speaker 1:
Right. So you just covered a lot. Let's break that out into some components, right, because that's really the crux of it. So let's talk about, let's dive into real estate investing a little bit and let's just talk about the spectrum of from really what's passive to really what's hands on. So let's take that and dig into that a little bit and then let's come back to this topic about you and your skill set and what could you offer the world if real estate investing isn't in your, in your, you know, short-term horizon?
Speaker 1:
So, starting with real estate investing, let's just talk about the spectrum, like, so you gave some great examples there, right? So I would say, from a hands-on standpoint, probably fix and flips are going to be your most hands-on. It's just something that it's even, as you said, like you're gonna outsource, obviously to contractors, but someone's gonna decide. You know what door handles to pick and what kitchen color. You know what color your kitchen cabinets are gonna be, and so I would say, having built a house from the ground up and got renovated a house, that fixing and flipping a home or building a home is definitely something that is not passive. You're really gonna be. You gotta be on top of other guys showing up, are they doing the work that they said they were going to do, all that kind of thing. So you have that.
Speaker 1:
I think next on the spectrum is sort of the in terms of involvement is maybe like the short-term, mid-term rental and let's talk about that a little bit. You've had a lot of experience with that. Would you agree that that's sort of? Next on the spectrum of moving from active to passive, that next would probably be vacation type rental.
Speaker 2:
Yes, if you're going to be managing them yourself. Specifically, there is some work to get that set up. So there's the effort to set up the space, furnish the space, make all the decisions around. How are you going to rent it out? Where are you going to rent it out? We cover all of this in our A to Z Airbnb class for investors who want a vacation home.
Speaker 2:
There is quite a bit to think about. You can do that on your own. You could take the course, you could work with us for coaching. So, again, there's different ways to think about. How much am I going to roll my sleeves and learn this from scratch versus learn it from a coach? And I would say, since we both are big advocates of coaching and have invested in coaching ourselves, we know that by hiring a coach you get usually somewhere 10 times faster, right, exactly. So I'm going to try to figure it out yourself. So, yeah, there's definitely different speeds that you can move at, but I'd say, with the short and midterm rentals, there's also a range there. But, yeah, it is hands on. And even if you're getting it set up on Airbnb yourself and you're going to manage it for the first six months and then hire someone to co-host for you. There's still a good amount of getting it up and running.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's great. And then you're right. Then you know, within some of these asset classes there's a spectrum of hands on to hands off by hiring co-host and all that kind of great stuff. And then I think you get into sort of the long term rentals, which obviously you're only annually maybe, moving tenants in and out, and sometimes longer than that. And then you could again, you could property manager yourself, or you could hire a property manager that's going to get that phone call if there's something wrong with a property or what have you. And then I think from there you start to get into some of the more truly passive investing, like syndications or lending. A lot of people these days are using their assets to lend to other folks and then you know charging an interest rate on that. So, yeah, there's a, there's a, there's definitely so many. There's a wide spectrum of options and then within each option or asset class you can really decide how much you want to be involved in this or not.
Speaker 2:
Exactly and, I think, even just within the like. Let's just take the short term, midterm space, for example. There's a lot of opportunities for we talked about real estate agents or people that know real estate to pick up a side hustle here. So maybe you're maybe you're a great stager, maybe you're a great designer you could design people's Airbnb's. You could help them set them up.
Speaker 2:
There's a lot of people that want to invest and they know that they're going to get a greater return by setting up an Airbnb sometimes twice as much as a long term tenant but they don't have the desire or the skill set to go in and furnish a place. Maybe you want to have an Airbnb someday and you have. You know that you've got great client skills and you just don't have the, for whatever reason. You're not ready to invest yourself, you're not ready to buy the place. You could go co host for someone else. You can be their co host, manage all of their guests and there's that could be a whole separate conversation because that's a great way to build up your own profile on your BNB so that when you do get ready to start putting your own properties on these short term rental sites, you've built a reputation as someone else's co host.
Speaker 2:
So there's, there's all these opportunities within real estate investing for, I think, people with real estate experience but really anyone right like I was in client services in the tech sector that serves me well when it's time. You know, that serves me well in all of real estate, particularly when I'm working with guests who are staying at my Airbnb's. So you know, I think you know just think about what skill sets do you have and and what are you really interested in, and you can find ways to pick up work as a, you know, as a side hustle or, you know, in investing in real estate, you can find what's what's going to suit me best. Maybe I'm really busy and I own a business and I want to be very passive, but I want to start to buy properties and then have somebody else manage the tenants.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think that's, I think that's really, I think that's really the crux of what we're here to talk about really is the next. So we've, you know, moving on from real estate investing, sort of okay, you like, you're saying you may not be quite ready to be the investor, but what are all the the tendential businesses around real estate investing that maybe you could start today? And I think I think, breaking it down for our listeners, or what would be the first few steps for them to take, to say, all right, I'm in a, I'm in a job, whatever that is, and I'd like to start a side hustle, or I'd like to start thinking about a long term secondary income stream or passive. We were talking about this before we hopped on the call. I think the first thing for them to do is to think about what brings them joy, right. What are they interested in? What would they like to learn more about? What comes naturally to them, right?
Speaker 2:
What's fun, what do you want to dabble in? Because either you've done it before and you really enjoy it, or because it's something that you think would be really interesting to you. So I love that and I love leading people through exercises to get to that, to visualize what can you see yourself doing? What is your future self doing? I think it's a very limiting belief that work has to be a hard thing and it has to be something that we don't want to do Instead. I mean, I love that for the past five or so years, I've woken up and I'm just like. I love Monday mornings, I love getting back in. Yeah, that's great, you get to enjoy your work.
Speaker 2:
So, getting clear on what it is that could be fun and then thinking about. So you asked what are the next steps? I think thinking about okay, what does your brand look like? You know, in a very simple way, you want to start to co-host for other people and maybe you have no experience and it feels like, well, how am I going to break into this market? Well, what past experience do you draw from that makes you a great co-host? Use that to write a description of your co-hosting services and start to put that out there and start to let people know that you're available to co-host.
Speaker 2:
Maybe you have some friends or family members that own an Airbnb or that are going to be buying one offer to do it and put a price on it that feels right to you. And if you're not sure what that is, then think about what your hourly rate is. What's your hourly rate been in the past? What feels right to you now? And put a price on it. And if no one's biting initially and you're having trouble, get feedback and find out why, and you might even offer to do the first one or two on a trial basis. But you've got to be willing to be flexible and you've got to be open-minded and you've got to believe that it's going to happen. So that's so important that you have to believe that if you've got the inkling to do it and you're starting to put yourself out there, you are meant to do it and you really do have to keep sending the message, verbally and otherwise and this is, in fact, how the first real estate investing client came to us is just putting the intention out there.
Speaker 2:
And really the first time it happened, there was no distinct offer in place, but I asked my potential client what is it that you want? We talked about it and we came up with a structure and a price that worked for both of us, kind of on the fly, and in the beginning. That's fine. You're testing, it's test and learn, test and learn. If there's anything I learned from being in tech startups that move at a very fast pace, it's constantly testing what people are responding to and how, and there's a lot of psychology involved in it and a lot of just, you know, seeing what sticks and what works. But I do think it's possible and you get to put yourself out there and offer the thing. Offer the thing that you know you can do and own it, be confident that you can do it really well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. And so what I'm hearing you say, christine, you know, start with what's fun, right, what do you want it, what are you interested in, what comes natural to you and what do people need in that space? So we just gave some really great examples, right? We gave an example, you know, earlier in this call, someone said someone owning an Airbnb or a vacation home that they want to rent out but being uninterested in being the person in charge of managing the guests. Well, for every yin there's a yang, right, and so there's somebody that loves to be managing guests and is and, like you said, is really exceptional at client services and is interested in that.
Speaker 1:
So so, thinking about you know what is interesting to you, what's going to, what's fun to you, what are people, who's your audience in that space and what are people, what does that audience need? And then how can you fill that need? And the other thing I heard you talk about here, christine, and you and I have talked about this a lot is don't wait to have a perfect business plan and to have everything buttoned up and go, take, you know, a year long class and you know, need this certification and that certification. Just start, like you're saying test, test it, see how it goes, start and and then improve. You've heard me talk on the show a lot about Kaizen.
Speaker 1:
It's continual improvement, but you have to start before you can improve you know, and I think I think a lot of people get into this analysis paralysis. I have to be perfect before I put anything out on Instagram or anything like that, and I think that you and I have been great examples of saying we know there's a need out there, we have a skill set to share with the world and let's, let's put it out there. And and I think that's that that's what we're encouraging here is for people to say, okay, I know I have a skill set and you can, we're talking about this in real estate right now, but you know, let's just. There's other examples fitness, for example. I see this a lot in the fitness industry, where somebody maybe is in a nine to five job, but they're an awesome fitness instructor because they love it, they're good at it, they're, they're great teachers. People are attracted to them, they love to talk about it, people are always asking about it and it makes it really easy for them to start a side hustle of helping other people with their health, whether that's, you know, fitness instructing or maybe through dietary.
Speaker 1:
There's lots of people that are really good with like how to create a really healthy, balanced diet. So there's there's lots of people even, like you know, maybe attorneys right, somebody that has this really great skill set that people are always asking. Maybe younger attorneys are always asking, like, how can I do what you do or what are my options? So being a mentor to other people is another really great way to to start. If you're a find, if you're finding this, is that this is something that's really important to note. I think if you're finding that people are always seeking out your advice on a certain topic, so you want to think about that a little bit and find out what. Why are so many people attracted to you and asking you about that all the time? What skill sets do you possess that is attracting that? And then how could that turn into a side hustle?
Speaker 2:
I love it. That's it's so true. It's so true. And we were just talking about how there's a couple of people who have reached out saying I want to teach people how to do this. You know someone just ask me what school do I go to do this? And I said, wow, that's so interesting, right? This person is looking for school To get better at, to learn how to coach people on this. Yet when I think about you know the topic that she's talking about I already think she's a pro Right.
Speaker 2:
So, like a lot of times, we think we have to go get the certification, we have to go back to get our masters right. And, yes, for some fields that is a requirement and for a lot of you know a lot of fields it's not, and I think you have to really like give yourself credit for everything that you've learned and everything you figured out on your own. There's things that you spent a lot of time doing, that you have the expertise in, to offer to others, and it's a gift to be able to offer that to other people and I actually love to spend it this way to. For the people that say, yeah, but who am I to go out there and show other, show new lawyers, for example, how to do law like a law, career, law path differently. Who am I to do that?
Speaker 2:
Not saying this person said that, but like, and it's like, who are you not to what if you don't do it? Think of all the people that you cannot help because you're not putting yourself out there and offering that to people. It's almost selfish, right. So we put ourselves in a position to be of service to other people. We're actually extending the olive branch and showing people how it's done and by them paying you, it's empowering them to take action and you get to receive that and continue to do it and build a business around it and whatever you want to do, you can do with that.
Speaker 2:
So I think that's so important to keep in mind and like it doesn't have to be like. I love your point, beth, about perfectionism. Please start imperfect. Please start imperfectly, because the world just needs you out there and you're going to learn faster if you start rather than if you try to button it up and make it look amazing, because Then you'll never put it out there. Then you put it out there and the energy behind it will be really diluted by that point that you just won't see the same results right, and can you see improvement?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love it and I think you know Thinking about. A lot of our listeners are real estate agents and I just I just wanted to. You know we just gave an example right of somebody that maybe, like we talked about Fitness or attorneys. But real estate agents also often times have skill sets that they don't even realize that they're so good at. I'm gonna give you two or three examples.
Speaker 1:
Some agents are really really good at networking with other agents, in getting referrals from agents outside of their area. Right, if you know you're really good at that and you had this track record of always getting three or four referrals from other agents in your network that aren't necessarily in your local market, why don't you teach other agents how to do that? Because everybody would love three or four transactions a year that they're getting, like you. You just think about what is it that you're doing to create that activity and then what could you teach another agent to do? You brought up Earlier canva.
Speaker 1:
Canva is a skill set, that is. You know many, many agents would love to pay somebody to handle for them, because it's probably not in there. You know, in general, having managed agents for a really long time, they're not necessarily the folks that are gonna be best at canva. But if you're an agent and you're really good at canva and it comes natural to you and you'd love to talk to people about it and show people how to use it, put your skill sets out there, because I'm telling you right now agents will buy it because they especially six agents that are busy with a lot of transactions Don't necessarily want to learn a new skill.
Speaker 1:
And if you have that skill, bring it to the table and make it really easy for them to find you and to hire you. And that means you have to put it out there, and instagram is the perfect place to do that. You know we have. You know it's not like you have to recreate the wheel here. We have All of these ways to get the word out there, and so social media is a great place to do that. And then crafting your offer that makes it really easy for people to understand what it is and how do they get it, and you're often running right exactly.
Speaker 2:
I love that and I love also going out there with this mindset of how can I serve other people and fit in need in the marketplace. That I'm naturally very good at. And if you've, if you master that, then you take it to the next level and you can make it even more passive. So let's talk about the canva example for a second. You start working on the side to help other agents or other people create templates so that they've got these awesome looking collateral that they get to put in front of their clients. Eventually, you start building templates so that people can buy your templates without you having to even be awake. So you wake up the next morning and you've got five hundred dollars in your store because overnight five people bought your hundred dollar template bundle. And off to the races. You just made five hundred dollars while you slept. Isn't that awesome. Like that is. That is so great.
Speaker 2:
Last night I was in bed I went to turn my phone off and it said ding. Airbnb said you know so, and so is coming to your apartment and it's a five, it's five hundred dollar transaction. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 2:
I'm about to go to sleep and I just made five hundred dollars by when I turned off my phone right.
Speaker 1:
Yes, I love it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you want to think about for the long term. How do you scale these skills and scale and scale things? If that's truly what you want, is it for it to be very passive? I really see it. For most things, it's building towards a passive income, first by mastering the work, mastering your brand and getting yourself out there which again could be a whole other podcast and then we you know, we templatize things, whether it's literally creating templates or it's creating these packages of content that people can use so that they can get better. Or maybe you have a awesome referral system right, so that the referral system is just working for you in the background all the time.
Speaker 2:
But this is, I mean, I really believe this is the path to what everybody ultimately wants, which is freedom of time. Money is awesome, but really what we all really want is freedom of time so that we can go spend our time the way that brings us joy and the way that fulfills us. So maybe, with that spending time with family, maybe it's traveling there's so many things like maybe you just wanna, maybe you wanna be volunteering, maybe you wanna be training for an iron man, you wanna be buying time so that you can go then do the things that you really wanna do, and that's what building this other revenue stream, this other side, you know, this other income stream. That's what this is doing for you. So that's why we're such proponents and we really wanna help see more people do it, especially women, especially to build wealth, and it just aligns with what we're doing, what we, you know we see a lot of successful people doing these days.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. It's a great way to you know, if let's just go back to the example again with real estate investing if you wanna invest in real estate but maybe you don't have the you need to save, you know, an extra, let's just say ten thousand dollars a year Is there a way that you could take your skill set, that you have available to you today with a side hustle, to create that ten thousand dollars, put that aside and then use that next year to start investing in real estate or whatever it may be like? So this doesn't have to be like an all or nothing. One can lead to the other and and and can get you to that longer term goal of having that passive income. So, yes, I think, I think I'm thinking about this in, you know, one year increments, five year increments and even maybe ten years like where do you wanna go? And taking that time to take a step back, to say, okay, what can I start doing? How can I start taking action now? And and what can I do now to build to where it is that I wanna go in the future? And I think that you know real estate investing. If you're there and you feel like, okay, I'm ready, but I don't know where to start.
Speaker 1:
We have a great bundle available for people. It's the real estate Investor beginner bundle. It's up on our stand store will put a link to it in these notes, but it's a great way for you to start to say, okay, I think I'm ready to start investing in real estate. How do I analyze what you know? What's? What's it gonna take? We provide your workbook to give you some you know questions to ponder and some steps to take, and then we actually give you a spreadsheet so you can start to plug in some numbers and play around with, like what would it look like if I bought, you know, in a property that costs X amount and generated why amount in income what? How long would it take me to be cash flowing positive and what does that look like? So there's lots of, there's lots of ways for people to get educated and we love being part of that.
Speaker 1:
I think that's, you know, that's something that you and I are really enjoying, christine is is helping people see the possibility and then helping them get educated on it and then like, just like you said, we had a client this week that just got her first property under agreement. It's been so fun. We coached her on this. We work with her, was she? You know? She wish we helped her pick a market. And now here she is. She's about to be a real estate investor really, really soon. So she's had an offer accepted, so it's really, it's really exciting.
Speaker 2:
So exciting. So, yeah, I think that that's a great example, but then I think that a great way to start is with that bundle of people are curious about investing. It's really the entry way into getting started with us as well, and I just love this conversation and the opportunity that really anyone has to start building a passive income stream. So I would encourage anyone who has more questions about this or ideas and they want to just get thoughts we love hearing from you Right to us. Let us know what you're thinking about and send us any questions and if you aren't sure about how to really get started, really reach out we. We reached back out to everyone that reaches out to us and we'd love to be in touch with you. So I think that this is a good time to wrap up and to just say, if there's, if there's any more you want to learn, check out our store we've got some other resources in it and please go dabble, go find the thing that lights you up and start telling people that you offer it.
Speaker 1:
You'll figure it out along the way, absolutely and most importantly, have fun. Thanks everybody.