I was talking to a friend the other day who is ready to jump fully into entrepreneurship. We were talking about building businesses based on story, passion and heart and how you turn that into a successful, profitable and impactful business. 

It’s something many people have trouble navigating, especially for those of us who have a heart for serving others. We tend to give away our services for free! < I know many of you with a giving heart like myself just felt your heart beat a bit faster!

When I first started my business, I fell into this repeating cycle of giving away free advice, sending content to big brands for nothing in return, and offering huge discounts to my clients  way too much. I couldn’t help it though, I felt obligated, like it was my duty to serve others. And that’s true actually. I do feel like my purpose is to serve others. To serve you! Educate, inform, and equip people with the resources to live a healthier, non-toxic and hustle-free lifestyle. 

But what I failed to see was I could serve and do all of those wonderful things for people I cared about while receiving money in the exchange for my services.

You see money is just energy. We give energy and we expect energy in return. When you go to the grocery store, you don’t expect the cashier or store owner who’s your friend to simply gift you your groceries, right? You pay for quality ingredients. Paying for them also makes you value them more. When we receive goods and services for free, we tend to undervalue them. Maybe we forget we even have them. But when you pay, you’re investing in them and you see things through, you value them.

Now I won’t sugar coat it, turning a passion into a profitable business may seem glamorous, but it’s easier said than done. It’s HARD but the end reward is totally worth it. 

Reality is, where there is passion, there is purpose.

This transition can seem scary—I know if you are anything like me, you don’t want to feel like a sales person!  You have a million questions, thoughts and ideas whirling in your head, and you’d be lying if you said a tiny part of you wasn’t afraid of failure. Every human knows there’s a possibility of failure, but the difference between the successful ones and the ones who fail are the risk takers. You’ll never know if you don’t try! To help you get started, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned over the years on creating my passion into a profitable + impactful business.

How to Turn Your Passion into a Profitable + Impactful Business Without Losing Yourself in the Process

Know that passion doesn’t pay your bills

You know I’m a tough love sort of girl, so I have to get the hardest one out of the way first. 

Passion does not pay your bills. 

Stay with me here…

In my early days of business, I would give everything away for free, say yes to everything, accept a million PR packages from brands I didn’t even love and would waste HOURS putting together beautifully photographed posts for them with zero compensation. I would answer every nutrition question that came my way with a detailed nutrition plan, for free or little to nothing. 

Yes, I had passion, plenty of it, but I didn’t realize my value.

^^ You bring unique value into this world. That needs (and deserves) reward.

Passion only takes you so far…eventually you want and NEED to be paid for your expertise!

Know your worth. Know the value you bring to the table. Take that seriously and then create something that can channel your passion into profits!

Let me tell you about the messy years…years of business when I worked harder and longer than I do today with pretty much no financial reward. Not only did it leave me physically exhausted (literally hello adrenal fatigue!), but it also led me to not creating content that was true to myself and served my audience. And that doesn’t help anyone!

Once I channeled my passions and expertise into something that converted financially, not only did my passion grow, but my impact grew too! You know why? Because when people exchange money for a service, they are that much more likely to fully seek the benefits of that service. A nutrition plan someone handed you for free might sit in your inbox for months. BUT a nutrition plan you sought after, took the leap to invest in…now that’s life changing!

An exchange of money creates accountability and impact in your clients!

Stay true to yourself and your true passions

The world may try to sway you in a million different directions. There’s always going to be a new trend…always going to be someone out there telling you “oh you should do this”. But is that who YOU really are?

Trends come and go, but your unique passions will serve as your foundation.

Only you know your passions and what lights you up. At the end of the day, if you aren’t passionate about it, you aren’t going to do the work. 

You not only need to have a deep passion but also a deep WHY behind your passion. Why do you want this? Why are you passionate? Why are you willing to give this your all?

These are questions and thoughts we should come back to over and over again…and constantly re-evaluate with time! How we manifest our passions may ebb and flow through seasons and that’s the beautiful part of creating a fulfilling, impactful business!

Figure out how your passion can create sustainable income

This is where you have to get creative and do the work—this isn’t optional! Like I said before, passion can only take you so far. 

Figuring out how to monetize your passion takes time and much internal thought. How does your passion translate into a service or good? What does it solve for people? Can you package that into a product?

Maybe you need systems, like a content calendar planner that actually helps you plan and work towards those big, profitable launches. Or maybe you need to turn your Instagram inspiration into a paid course. Take one of your failures or struggles and create a workshop based on that—chances are you aren’t the only one struggling with this issue. 

Ideas to get you going:

• Do you find yourself getting super passionate about a topic on Instagram daily and your audience relates? Think about turning that into a paid guide or workshop!
• Are you interested in non toxic living and being an advocate for change? —> think about joining Beautycounter (best business decision I ever made by far)
• Do you have an idea for a launch or even have gone through a ‘failed’ launch and want to do better next time? Download our content calendar planner to actually create buzz before your launch and have a successful launch!

Embrace your failures

Let me ask you: what’s the worst that can happen if you “fail?” Is the fear of failure holding you back from the potential of creating a business you LOVE? 

Trust me, I’ve failed more than you can imagine. When I was writing my cookbook, I tried over 15 times and hundreds of dollars later to create sugar free and Paleo “oreos”…needless to say they aren’t in my cookbook, but I DO have a cookbook. There was also that time that I hired an agency to do some PR and advertising and literally wasted thousands of dollars with not true results. It took my hubby and I a year to climb out of that hole. But each of these failures taught me something, propelled me forward even more! 

Each failure lit my passion on fire even stronger. 

I choose to intentionally view these as learning experiences rather than failures. 

Take action to actually make it happen

You are the director of the orchestra here, you are in the driver’s seat. You could have the best 10 step business plan but unless you actually take action to make it happen, it never will. That’s something you can’t google, it has to come from your heart and determination.

It comes down to showing up day by day. Learning to work smarter not harder…little things like how to organize your day or batch work. Figuring out what your audience wants and how you can serve them in a way that benefits them but also you!

Do you have a passion you WANT (and need) to turn into an impactful and profitable business? Come over to Instagram and introduce yourself!

AND check out our just released entrepreneur resources to help get you started!!