38: How to Activate Passive Income in Your Animal Business with Phyllis Burchett of Phyllis Burchett Photo

Kimberly Beer 0:00 The Business Animal podcast is proudly sponsored by WP Engine your resource for managed WordPress hosting and keep the premier CRM software for small business, head over to The Business animal.com for the best deals on these two amazing products. Hey business animals. It’s Kim here Cara and I have the most wonderful interview for you today with our very dear friend Phyllis Burchette of Phyllis Burchette Photo. Now, Phyllis has been in mind and Cara’s life for several years, and she is always a delight to be around. She’s an amazing photographer, her photography is absolutely stunning to look at. But she also has another superpower, and that’s being able to make money in her sleep. Now, wouldn’t we all like to be able to do that? Well, it’s called passive income. And although there’s a little bit of work, actually a lot of work that has to go into passive income and creating that type of income stream in your business. It is very realistic and very possible for you to be able to do that in your own business. So what we’re going to be talking about today with Phyllis is how she created that in her photography, business. And some ideas that even if you’re not a photographer, even if you’re a dog walker, or a horse trainer, or any other animal based business, that you can add passive income streams to your business and make money while you sleep as well. So as you’re listening through the interview, today, we’re gonna cover our big three with Phyllis. The first of that is to do your research about what type of passive income streams you want to add to your business, how those are going to look how it’s going to work, how much effort you’re going to have to put into it. Because do remember passive income isn’t passive and how to get it all set up. And that flows into the our second of the big three, which is to set it up and then set yourself some very good goals that you want to reach. And as always, I encourage you to stretch a little bit beyond your comfort zone. Remember that quote, if your goals don’t scare you a little bit, they’re not big enough. So when you’re setting your goals, keep that in mind. And then lastly, do remember, just as I’ve mentioned a few seconds ago that passive income isn’t passive. This still requires you to show up and work to network to market, but it can definitely be a benefit. And it always feels good to wake up in the morning and go check your email and see dollar signs in there that are coming into your bank account. So without further ado, here is our interview with Phyllis Burchette. Jaz 2:36 Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. settle up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you’ll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara Taylor Swift Kimberly Beer 2:57 Hey there business animals It’s Kim with Be More Business Cara Taylor Swift 3:00 and Cara with Fast Horse Photography, you all are going to have to just bear with us because Kim and I flew in on the craziest flights last night and got in around the middle of the night. And I feel so sorry for our poor guest that we have with us today. Luckily, she’s a good friend and is used to putting up with all of our baloney on a regular basis. So hopefully she’ll she’ll keep us rolling today. Kim, do you mind if I go ahead and introduce our guest today? Kimberly Beer 3:25 Absolutely not. You’re on a roll and Cara Taylor Swift 3:27 I’m half asleep but let me start by introducing First of all, I just have to say a dear friend, an amazing photographer, someone that started out to me as this amazing like famous person in the world of equine photography, and it went from me going to attend one of her workshops one day after hearing her on another podcast and then just kind of hanging out with her enough that now we’re good friend she can come and visit me and stay in my home and we co host workshops together and I just am excited for you guys to get a chance to hear a little bit from my dear friend and an amazing photographer Phyllis Burchette. Let me go ahead and go through the bio because you guys need to hear all of this but the truth is what we want you to know is that she someone would that we just adore so Phyllis Burchette a Phyllis Burchette photo prior to launching into photography Phyllis was a horse trainer and breeding farm manager. She primarily showed appaloosas where she won World and national championships. Along with several honor roles. She trained horses for youth and amateur clients who went on to win several titles. After her show career she managed an equine breeding farm where she was in charge of all aspects of the artificial insemination program from collection to breeding to foaling burned out from the business. She discovered photography as a way to help calm her mind. She has traveled the earth capturing the amazing creatures that inhabit the world around us. she found herself captivated by the birds, bears and stunning landscape of the United States and Canada, and all of the beautiful white horses of the Camargue in France and documented The horse fisherman a Belgian, depicted the Connemara pony of Ireland and highlighted the iconic landscape and horses of Iceland. As an enthusiastic hobbyist, she built her portfolio until she became a professional photographer. She was fortunate to be discovered by a very successful publisher of fine art and home decor. So she focused quite a bit on making art out of her images in the past years, she’s come to have a huge respect for the western lifestyle and ranching way of life. She’s in awe of the ranch horse and there are many talents, willing attitudes and great minds. She loves sharing her passion for photography and art with other photographers. And she can frequently be found leading equine photo tours in Iceland and hosting workshops and retreats throughout the country from the beaches of Florida to the ranches of Montana, y’all please welcome Phyllis Burchette to our show, Phyllis tell us how you got started like How did this happen? I mean we know that you started that your horses have been a part of your life forever. But tell us how you got started in photography and why that’s so important to you Phyllis Burchett 5:57 Well good morning to you both I’m glad that you made it home safe and sound from the frigid wild west It Cara Taylor Swift 6:04 was a tough call there Phyllis Burchett 6:04 is hit or miss it was a tough go well I you know the only bad thing for me is that I wasn’t able to be there with you but I’m glad y’all had a good time. So anyway, how did I get started? Well, I guess in a way photography kind of found me when I was doing a camping trip in Canada and the guide had a that was a film camera back then and I was very interested in what he was doing with this camera and talking about composition. I was like what the heck is composition and you know, it just it just intrigued me and I got to see some of his pictures and it just went on from there and I shot film for a few years and then started of course when digital came out I had some friends Barb and john Gerlach that are professional photographers that I got to be good friends with and I did some trips into Yellowstone with them and I took several workshops they used to call me the workshop Queen I did so many workshops back in the day most of them to begin with were more landscape and wildlife and that kind of thing and then because I was just burnt out from horses I had done horses pretty much all my life and I was ready to do something else not realizing that all my friends were like why are you not shooting horses that’s what you know and I’m of course I’m full circle. Now I’m back to shooting horses. Because I do love and have a big passion for horses too, obviously. Cara Taylor Swift 7:21 Well, you can certainly tell that from your work. I mean that you have just such a passion for the horse and for the equestrian lifestyle. So Kimberly Beer 7:28 absolutely. So thank you Phyllis for being with us. And Cara’s kind of kind of talked about her relationship with you as far as getting to know you and I met you the very first time at powderhorn, which is where Cara and I just returned Cara Taylor Swift 7:41 from I didn’t know that’s where you guys met. That’s cool. Kimberly Beer 7:44 We met there and I had this avenue to do a winter workshop in Montana. And I had invited Carien at EPnet and Carien said, you know what you and Phyllis would do? Oh, why don’t you to see what you could do. And so right after I met Phyllis, we became business partners and did a workshop together in Montana, which we froze to death, I was negative 22. And we discovered Livingston, Montana is one of the windiest places on the planet. It’s always an adventure with photography, and it’s always an adventure with Phyllis. So I love that and I love the memories we did get to go to Yellowstone and getting to shoot wildlife photos with Phyllis is a true treat. Because she’s done some wildlife photography way beyond what I have. I mean, I used to shoot rock bands that was probably as close to wildlife photography as I’ve ever gotten. So welcome, Phyllis, thank you for joining us. And because we’re business partners, I admire your entrepreneurship because you are very good at something which our topic for today is passive income and I think you have done an outstanding job in your own business of creating an avenue so that your photography can support you where you’re not going out necessarily and doing portrait shoots that you’re using your passive income skills to be able to have a really successful career as a photographer in a very different avenue and that’s what we’re going to talk about today and although for our listeners although we’re going to be discussing this a lot in terms of photography passive income really relates to all of your businesses there’s ways to open passive income avenues and income streams throughout any type of business that you have. So Phyllis, let’s start out by getting to know what you do for passive income Phyllis Burchett 9:33 I’m just curious if first we should explain what passive income is Kimberly Beer 9:36 absolutely Cara Taylor Swift 9:37 That would be a great place to start. Thank goodness you are here keeping us in line. Oh my take it away. Just a reminder, you didn’t get to bed until after two o’clock in the morning. Yeah, just thank you Phyllis. Phyllis Burchett 9:49 Uh, well for me, because I’m a photographer. Of course I’m gonna speak from that point. But passive photography, income or any passive income is income that you work once We work on one time and then it sells itself over and over again without you having to put a whole lot of more effort into it’s what I would call the ultimate approach to diversifying your income. So it’s basically earning money while you sleep. Cara Taylor Swift 10:14 I can get behind I like that. Kimberly Beer 10:15 Yeah, Phyllis Burchett 10:15 can’t we all? Yeah, can’t we all and especially and especially in today’s times, I mean, we’re always looking at how to make money to make a plan for the future and because of you know, the way things are I mean, especially not being able to do a lot of one on one stuff for a lot of portrait photographers last year that was tough, but for me I had a good year because people were buying art even more than ever it seems, and that’s bringing me to what I do for my passive income. First thing I do of course is selling prints. That is something that anybody can well any photographer can do and any photographer should be doing and we can sell not just prints there’s different ways to do that you can sell on your own website you can fulfill your own you can sell through a website that does that for you just have to kind of be careful because they do take a big percentage of your profits. You know, do your research and figure out which one is best for you if that’s an avenue you’d like to do. Selling tangible goods is another one t shirt. Yeah, custom graphics are your images on T shirts, clothing mugs, wow. bags, greeting cards, postcards, calendars you can build your own branded products. I guess the big one that y’all are talking about for me personally is licensing your images for home decor. I guess that’s the biggest moneymaker I have for me personally is so I got super lucky years ago and was discovered by a small home decor business that I’m still with but then I have a friend and Alabama that set me up with a really big home decor that’s actually the largest reseller of home decor in the world. That’s who I am currently, mostly with at Circle Graphics. They also own Canvas on Demand which is a print company out of North Carolina and several other companies but their big thing is their home decor they licensed several artists it’s painters photographers, graphic artist anybody if that’s something you want to do besides the fact of me getting I got a lucky break because I knew somebody that knew somebody otherwise just find a company that you’d like to be licensed with and start emailing them and introducing yourself Kimberly Beer 12:21 I know you also sell stock imagery for like Cara does this as well, where you take some of the images that maybe didn’t make the cut for home decor or that were shot specifically to illustrate something and you offer those for businesses to purchase or for individuals who are looking to maybe post a horse picture on their social media and that kind of stuff. So that’s also passive income, isn’t it? Phyllis Burchett 12:46 I do sell some stock but I’m wanting to get into it a little bit more probably going to go with Adobe Stock personally just because it’ll be easier for me I know Cara has her own way I think you’re talking about doing your own website with a Photo Deck or somebody like that but for me personally that’s too much that’s just way too much work Kimberly Beer 13:05 that’s a that’s more active early work Phyllis Burchett 13:10 right? I think so as photographers is when they go to go shoot a job for a client to think about to train yourself to shoot extra shots you know to think about what your clients allow you to submit images to a magazine or stock agency if you’re shooting for a brand and you’re using a model you know ask the model to stay late and you know give them a give them a little something you know pay him extra and maybe do some more stock images sometimes stock images it’s a little bit more it’s not it’s not as glamorous as doing portrait photography or because it’s you’re doing what is it I’m looking Kimberly Beer 13:43 you’re showing how things are done like taking the bridle on and off the horse right right. It’s not a thrill Phyllis Burchett 13:50 ride. They’re not art. Most stock agencies want minimal editing done they just want I’m pretty much well not I mean you can do the basic editing but pretty much straight out of the camera with some basic editing done. They don’t want a lot of filters. They don’t want anything fancy. You don’t want it to look painterly. I know that I’ve even had a magazine company say that they loved my work, but they wanted to use some of it but it was a little bit more painterly looking that they wanted for their magazine. So that’s just something to keep in mind too is your artwork and your stock imagery are two different things. Oh another thing I do I forgot to mention is the book cover agency. I do sell and I think you’re doing some of this to Cara is licensed your images for book covers. I was approached by a company thank goodness it was a big company. I think they’re based out of France that sells book covers which is super easy for anybody to get on with all you have to do is have a website they will approve just about anyone but then on top of that you have to be able to your on your first submission you have to be able to have I think it’s around 100 images in your first submission. So think about that is that and for any of this stuff we’re talking about whether it be fine art sales, licensing images with a home decor, business or company or licensing your images for book covers is you have to have a very big library of images. Don’t think that you can just step out there and do that with 10 or 20 images. Currently I’m up to about 150 images or so with the circle graphics with the licensee for the home decor. Even though we call it passive income, you still need to update it, you still need to think like twice a year I tried to update images for the home decor company. And then I’ve been really bad about my book cover agency, but you really need think about updating those and, and adding fresh and new content as you can during the year but it’s still going to be those are images that they won’t be making me money otherwise they would just be sitting there on my hard drives. Cara Taylor Swift 15:52 Your equine based business has unique needs. 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Well I think that’s the biggest thing from the photographer perspective too is it’s like you’ve got all these images now how do you make them make money for you and you’ve given a pretty good list of the things that you use Kim, did we want to roll into some other options or do we want to kind of start through our big three a little bit Kimberly Beer 16:52 I think we need to kind of start into our big three because Phyllis has some really good wisdom to share with you guys about how to do this in your own business because I know we’ve talked a lot about the photography angle but the truth is is that we all have things to share even as a business consultant if I if I don’t approach it as a photographer I approach it as the business consultant I have intellectual property that I’ve earned and learned over the decades of my experience as an entrepreneur and I saw that I saw that as coursework I saw that as groups I saw that as all kinds of things and the courses are very much passive income so it when we’re talking about this, make sure you think about what it could be for your business out there as you’re listening to it. How could you take something that you already do, and to be able to package it so that it sells on its own and like Phyllis said makes money for you while you sleep or while you’re doing something else? So Phyllis, when we prepared for this episode, we talked about a big three and the first of that big three is doing your research. So how did you choose the avenues by which you are working with passive income right now? Or did they choose you Phyllis Burchett 18:06 they kind of chose me or sometimes that I think a lot of it is networking and having friends that are making money doing the similar things that you’re doing and finding out what’s working for them and I have a good friend in Alabama that that’s all she does is book covers she does do some stock but she specifically goes and shoots she’s even come to some of our workshops to get images for book covers like she’s done the beach workshop she’s done my workshops here in Georgia and she’s done very well. She does stock imagery to it doesn’t pay as well as the book covers do. But she works really hard she loves to travel so she works in to you know she goes to avenues down there she’s she gets to travel for her business, enjoy where she’s going and having a good time and getting to use your camera and get imagery for stock images. And when I say stock images, I’m including the the book covers as well. I think that’s the biggest thing is just do your research for whatever your business is, and networking and finding out what’s working for other people for your colleagues. Cara Taylor Swift 19:12 Well, the big thing is, will it make you money? You know, is it worth the effort that you’re putting into it right time and energy that you’re going to put into it? And is it going to make you money and sometimes it’s a matter of talking to other photographers to see you know, wow, it seems like you have a stock image site but is it actually making you any money you know, are you having to do a lot of work on it is the amount of work that you’re putting into it versus the amount of income that’s coming from it? Is it worth it? Phyllis Burchett 19:33 I think that’s where you have to be patient and let it work and you have to help it some you know, there are some things that you have to do to help at work too but with the companies that I’m with they do they do the marketing, they do the promotion, I don’t do that. Whereas you know, if you’re doing it yourself, then yes, you’re gonna have to work it a little bit harder. Cara Taylor Swift 19:51 That makes sense. And then there’s other things I think you have to think about in terms of doing your research like you know, is it going to cost you anything to get into it like is there an upfront cost for You know, do you have to buy into the program? Or do you have to pay to host it somewhere or, you know, have upfront costs associated with it? Maybe it has to be designed and you’re not a designer need to have someone professionally design your products, you know, but doing that kind of research, like, what’s it going to cost you to get into it? What do you have to have in place to actually go forward and make it work? And then like you mentioned before, Phyllis, you know, do you have that body of work to support it? So if it’s photography, do you have enough images to even be a part of the program and to be able to fulfill their needs on a regular basis? If you are like him, and you have intellectual property? Do you have enough of it, that you’re able to put it out when you need to update it. Phyllis Burchett 20:39 You know, it’s funny, because I know you’re talking about your business animal. So animal based businesses, I have a friend that’s a dog walker, and in Utah, and she has done little tutorials that she sells on walking dogs. And so I mean, everybody has some kind of skill set they can share and make money off of Kimberly Beer 21:00 I think that’s awesome. What I want to add to this is kind of that mindfulness moment to think about, you know, the thing I really admire about Phyllis is Phyllis does what Phyllis loves to do. And when you watch her work, when you watch her photographing, she is in this Zen state, and you can see the expression on her face about how happy it makes her to shoot those images and seeing just the right angles. And you guys are laughing, but she does. She’s in her she’s in her element, right? You can tell that she’s happy in that moment. And I think that this is one of the things that passive income if you think about it in your entrepreneurship experience, if you kind of back your way into it, what is it that you love to do? What is it that you are so passionate about that if you were to do it every single day, Okay, so here’s an example. Phyllis is not a morning person. We’ve been on a lot of a lot of photoshoots with Phyllis to tell you she is not a morning person. But shooting photos in the morning is really important, because there’s really good light. So we’re all up super early in the morning to get that perfect light. And she will be the first one out of bed and waiting at the door to go shoot and that beautiful morning light because she loves what she does so much it outweighs something that she doesn’t particularly like, like getting up in the morning. Phyllis Burchett 22:28 So you didn’t have to tell everybody that? Kimberly Beer 22:31 Well, we did. But it’s it’s an example of, of what I’m talking about here is when you find something that is that you’re so passionate about that you love. And that doesn’t feel like work, even the hard parts of it become easier because you do love what you do so much. And so when you’re thinking about doing your research about creating passive income streams for your business, think about what it is that you love to do if you could make a living doing that. And yes, I can hear people out there going well, I love to eat cheesecake. I don’t know. There you go create a creative podcast around cheesecake and I don’t know sell tutorials on eating cheesecake. But you know, I mean, you’ve got to find Cara’s going, Oh my god, Kim cheesecake. This is like the dog door thing all over again. Cara Taylor Swift 23:23 It doesn’t have to be it has to be something that you can speak to over and over and over again and for hours on end. And you can talk back and forth about it. I feel like that has to be the thing. Phyllis Burchett 23:33 You’ve got to have an audience that wants to buy into how you eat cheesecake too. Kimberly Beer 23:38 Sure, but that’s true. That is true. Phyllis Burchett 23:40 But do you know that selling online courses I read someplace was the number one best passive income idea of 2021 because of you know, well, in large part because of the pandemic because we could all thankfully still get on the internet. You know, I think that’s something that people need to think about is whether you sell it on your own website. I mean, there’s people selling how to crochet on Udemy or Skillshare. There’s there’s so many big websites out there that you can go in and pay one fee and get access to all these different classes on how to learn things, whether it be photography, to walk in your dog or whatever it is. Kimberly Beer 24:20 Absolutely. So find what you love and turn it into money. That’s the great thing Phyllis Burchett 24:25 and it doesn’t even have to be a whole course it could be a digital guide, a PDF ebook, a big confirm a photographer, it can be Photoshop and Lightroom actions that could be backdrops backgrounds, textures, there’s I don’t know how many companies are killing it out there selling actions. I mean, trust me, I know I bought them because it’s easier than having to do all the work myself. All this stuff can be sold over and over again, with no additional time or money investment from you. You know, you just put it up and it sells over and over again. Hopefully if you can write a book, that’s another one. I can’t write But but obviously you can count Kimberly Beer 25:04 Yes, well at least I can contribute a chapter to a best selling book. We found that out this morning that we’re on the number one bestseller list for women in business. Phyllis Burchett 25:12 Awesome. Congratulations congratulation. I can’t wait I think I just got a email that that it was up it was available so yes, yes make sure you download yes everybody go buy Kim’s book. Kimberly Beer 25:26 Hey business animals Kim here more women than ever are starting businesses yet so few are sharing how they do it. Why? Because being a successful female entrepreneur is hard work and comes with a unique set of challenges. That’s why I joined forces with 20 other women to write the female entrepreneurs playbook where we reveal our secrets to building a business that complements and enhances our lifestyle. Each chapter is written by a different female entrepreneur, including one by me who gives candid and advice field answers to empower women to lean into their zone of genius and create the business they love. Plus, if you preorder before October 12, your 99 cent copy will entitle you to over 15 $100 in entrepreneurial resources. those resources are delivered straight to your inbox as soon as you hit the preorder button. Get your copy now by searching the female entrepreneurs playbook on Amazon or heading over to The Business Animal website and clicking on the button under the deals for this episode. I’m sure everyone listening is sold on the fact that they need to have passive income in their lives and that finding their joy in their entrepreneurship Phyllis Burchett 26:37 I have some others too. Kimberly Beer 26:38 Oh goodness. Okay, well let’s work those in now. Go ahead. Phyllis Burchett 26:44 I’ll just tell you real quick I have a friend that’s a photography blogger. Well, you don’t have to be a photography bar, you can be a blogger for whatever your business is, but you can make money off of that blog you can become an affiliate cam knows all about affiliate marketing more than I do, actually. But I’m doing a little bit but not to the extent that you’re doing it. Maybe you should talk about affiliate marketing everybody can do that Kimberly Beer 27:06 everybody can do affiliate marketing. So yes, I do affiliate marketing through several organizations I started out my first affiliate marketing step was with a company called Constant Contact and they do email marketing basically, in any affiliate marketing, particularly the kind I do is called software a service. So what I do is I sell that product or service and I get a percentage of either the income that the company gets or I get something that a lot of affiliate marketers call a bounty so I’ll get a bounty for everyone that I refer and some affiliate organizations offer you both a bounty and recurring income. So the nice part about it is is that I sell email marketing I’m also an affiliate for keep which is a CRM software which does something similar but different than Constant Contact. So I compare that with my clients and then I get a small percentage it’s not a huge amount but over time and over the number of people that I sell that to I end up with a really nice monthly recurring income that comes into me every single month and and supports me in my business and I started with Constant Contact over 10 years ago and some of those clients are still on their service and I still get a monthly recurring income from that. And affiliate marketing is great, it works all over the place. There’s all different avenues to be able to do affiliate marketing maybe you get influencer marketing is a cousin of affiliate marketing so you know if you have pole and you have an audience and you have people you can sell it to becoming an affiliate with another organization is definitely a good passive income stream. Phyllis Burchett 28:47 You know, a lot of companies or brands will pay you to write article about their products sometimes to. Kimberly Beer 28:52 be an influencer. Phyllis Burchett 28:55 Yeah so there’s lots of different ways. You don’t have to be a photographer, others or even as a photographer, you can do that. But there’s so many different ways lots of people and different businesses can make money off of their blogs being an affiliate influencer, oh, YouTube, YouTube videos, you can even have a subscription program to your website where you provide business tools, or you know, or maybe videos or whatever on your website. And people pay a small subscription fee by the month to see those Kimberly Beer 29:23 Absolutely. subscriptions are really hot right now. Thank you to Hulu and Apple who got us all on the subscription train of being able to create content or something out there that people can subscribe to and be a part of on a regular basis. Yeah, that’s definitely and it’s a it’s a model that’s worked over and over and over again, and it’s definitely a good passive income stream. So Phyllis, let’s shift the conversation from different examples of passive income streams to talking about research this to make sure it’s right for you. Make sure that the That passive income stream is gonna work out for you. But the second thing that we talked about when we prepped for this episode was setting some goals for what you want this income stream to do. So talk to me a little bit about what you might consider when you take a look at different income streams, passive income streams, when they come into your business, what do you check those over for? Phyllis Burchett 30:21 I like that you asked me this question because you know, I’m, I’m a fly by the seat of the pants type of person. And I have I rarely set goals for anything. I just go do it. Kimberly Beer 30:33 Well, you know, that’s one way to Phyllis Burchett 30:35 so thank you for that question. Well, obviously, your goal needs to be not only that you’re going to have your expenses paid, but that you’re going to that you’re going to make money on top of that, I would set that goal high. I mean, you might not meet that goal in the first year. But like, in my case, I’m not having to do portrait work anymore, you know, client portrait work or being picky about who you do it for? Or like, I mean, I still do some portrait work for past clients, but I don’t actively go out there and advertise that I’m doing portrait work. I don’t work that end anymore. It’s just not something I’m interested in. Kimberly Beer 31:11 Yeah, cuz you’re doing what you love out there with with the cowboys. Phyllis Burchett 31:15 Yeah. And and it’s not just cowboys. I mean, well, I mean, obviously, yes, we all love cowboys. But we, we have to think about I mean, I guess for me, it was easy for me to diversify my portfolio with the home decor company, because I was already diversified. I had everything from landscape to wildlife, to horses, horses in the landscape, this company, the home decor company, rarely takes anything with people in it, they have taken some of my, my beach horses on the beat, and you know, running horses, with people riding the horses, I think more for maybe it could be for motivational companies or something like that, I think just being diversified. And what your work is, for me was a big thing for the home decor, my goal was that I didn’t want to have to do portrait work, because I it wasn’t something I overlay enjoyed. Cara Taylor Swift 32:09 And that makes a lot of sense. I mean, if you’re working your annual business, and you’re, there’s a part of it that you’re really struggling with, or you’re starting to get burned out on and, and you are sitting down thinking about, okay, what are some other things that I can do to bring in some income so that I can step away from this portion of it being able to sit down and say, Okay, I’m going to try this. And I know, these are the upfront costs of that. And it’s going to take me this a timeline to get that set up. And I hope to have this ready to go to the public and making me some level of income by this date, and then being able to say to yourself, you know, I hope that this can become 10% of my income, and take away from some of that other stuff that I don’t want to do. So you joke about how you don’t have goals. But the truth is, is that we know when you’re sitting down and you’re saying to yourself, portrait work is something that I want to do a little bit less of, and maybe just choose the clients that I want to take. But in order to do that, I have to do more workshops, I have to do more home decor, I have to do book covers, I have to do these other things to make up for the income that I’m going to lose for that and having the ability to create passive income and to really diversify that has allowed you to do that and all of that you’re setting goals, I’m sure so Kimberly Beer 33:17 even if you’re not writing those goals down, yeah, even if you’re not writing those goals down, you are setting goals. And I do think you have to at some point measure, especially with passive income, your energetic input into that passive income stream and what that passive income stream gives back to you and I’m a big proponent that you can shift that equation enough times to be able to get it to work the way that you want. But if you’re you know, if you’re selling stock images on micro stock for $1 an image and it costs you I don’t know $6,000 to go to a place to be able to get your stock images, that’s a lot of stock images you got to sell to cover your expenses. So I do think you have to be able to have a goal Phyllis Burchett 34:00 if it was a trip you were taking anyway and you just happened to be able to grab some shots while you’re there or if it was a vacation it could have been a vacation you went on but you were able to grab some shots while you were there. And you know they’ll work for stock images don’t think that that stock image like you said that’s because the license fee on those is totally different. Even my home decor I get 10% and different companies offer different I think it’s anywhere from three to 10% so basically the one company I’m with like they had a big metal print of one of my images at one of their shows in Vegas years ago. And it sold for $3500 I got $350 and people are like oh that’s awful. I’m like I don’t know where I could have sold that. I wouldn’t know that’s $350 i don’t i don’t have in my pocket that I do have in my pocket now Cara Taylor Swift 34:49 and the image is sitting on a hard drive doing nothing right? Phyllis Burchett 34:52 Exactly. You just have to be patient because it’s not it may not pay off this year, but in five years. It did is Like being in the stock business I mean like I’m talking about the stock exchange Kimberly Beer 35:04 yeah Wall Street Phyllis Burchett 35:06 oh you have to know what that stock yeah Wall Street you had to be in it for the long haul Don’t you have to be patient don’t put your money in it and get upset when you know it doesn’t bring you 100% payback in 30 days. Kimberly Beer 35:20 Absolutely Absolutely. But keeping track of that is it is important from a business perspective and and as much as I know Phyllis says that she doesn’t set goals I agree with Kira I think you do I think you set goals for yourself and I think you reach them and extend them beyond that another thing that we discussed and I think this is probably the most important takeaway from this entire conversation is that passive income is not passive because obviously we’ve talked about doing research we’ve talked about goal setting we’ve talked about all of the effort and activity that it takes that for Phyllis to be able to create the images that she sells to the home decor folks and and I’ve watched her in photoshoots take a look at what’s going on and in the shoot and seeing how she could maybe arrange that a little differently to work for one of her passive income outlets So talk to us a little bit Phyllis about what you know about the fact that you you aren’t necessarily passive when it comes to passive income Cara Taylor Swift 36:21 Yeah, I don’t think anything you’ve talked about today sounded extremely passive like you’re not setting it and forgetting it you’re setting it and maybe kind of forgetting it or setting it and having to work it and rework it and and keep working it you know, Phyllis Burchett 36:34 I think the home decor I could if I stopped right now and never uploaded another image to them that month, I’m still going to get quarterly checks from them. Yeah, you know what I’m saying? Yeah, so yeah, that’s very passive. So that would be one when I was researching something about this podcast, I was led to understand that progressive passive income is when the earner expends little effort to grow the income so yes, that would be my home decor would probably be the progressive passive income because I could basically stop and I’m still gonna make me money whether I ever put another image in it or not. But if I want to grow that income and make more money than Yes, I have to update it I have to work it I have to make sure that it’s it’s got new content especially with the book cover agency those images are they’re making you money but if you want to make more money if you want to keep your content fresh then you need to update it you need to keep adding work to it and even with some of your digital goods that you might sell sometimes you’re going to have to update it you know it might be current for a while some of it is always going to be current like there may never be another way to put your shoes on if you did a a book on that. Well I don’t know there could be several ways to do that too. But Cara Taylor Swift 37:52 but it’s but it’s true like when you’re talking about the educational pieces that you’re putting out there potentially like that stuff has to be updated there’s going to be new tech that comes into the industry there’s going to be new ideas there’s going to be new resources there’s going to be new information and it has to be updated you don’t want to be having a product out there that that’s not updated and you’re in it’s not useful to people anymore. Kimberly Beer 38:11 Well and even with the affiliate relationships like I was talking about even with my affiliates I have to one I have to actively promote it otherwise people don’t know I’m affiliated that company but even for my people who are currently on it, like my keep folks I work with them on a regular basis. I mean I actually I earn that income by answering questions or being available to them if they need a new campaign dropped in or something like that. So even on some of these affiliate programs, you’re going to be working over time with those folks and and earning that money to a certain extent in an active way. I truly believe in entrepreneurship. There really isn’t anything that is passive income because you Can’t you at least have to be out there promoting it or thinking about replenishing it in some capacity if somebody else is doing the promotion So know that even though it’s making you money while you sleep, you had to do some work to get to that point. So Phyllis, do you have any other words of wisdom around passive income for our listeners, Phyllis Burchett 39:16 speaking as a photographer, I guess just remember that Be sure to have that the more images you have placed in your libraries, whether it be stock images, whether it be home decor, selling for home home decor, actually or for book covers, that the more images you have placed in those libraries, the more chance you have of selling them and that should be the foundation for any kind of approach to how you diversify your photography, income. And kind of the same thing with any kind of income for passive income for any business, not just a photographer, do your research, set your goals and then work it Kimberly Beer 39:53 work it work it baby work it. Cara Taylor Swift 39:57 Phillis pretty much summed up our big three there. You know Do your research determining will this make you money How much is it going to cost to get into it? You know Are there going to be upfront costs around hosting it? What do you got to do to make it work and then setting it up and setting your goals so you know what do you hope to do with this you know, how far do you want to go? How much can you do in a year? Is it progressive you know, really kind of setting that up for yourself? And then really understanding that yes, it’s passive income but it’s not really passive because you have to continuously update it, work it especially if you want to grow it so I would love to hear from our listeners you know, what are some other ideas you have around passive income? What are you loving right now? What are you thinking about trying but maybe you’re unsure if it’s something that will generate an income for you? Or maybe that is it worth your time to start doing something we’d love to hear from you guys. In the meantime, Phyllis. I know folks are going to want to if they don’t already follow you online and see your work and the beautiful images that you create they’re going to want to after this episode, can you please tell folks where they can find you online Phyllis Burchett 40:59 on my website is PhyllisburchettePhoto.net. And then on Facebook and Instagram is just PhyllisBurchettPhoto no spaces in between. It’s all run together Cara Taylor Swift 41:12 Excellent. And we will have links in the show notes on how you can directly link to Phyllis and see her work. And she’s always got great photo opportunities coming up that she either does on her own or in partnership with Kim and I and other photographers. She’s got a lot of great opportunities out there. So definitely go check her out. So Phyllis, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Phyllis Burchett 41:33 Thank you guys, I enjoyed it. Jaz 41:35 Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn more. Find us at TheBusinessanimal.com we’d love to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well trained with The Business Animal Transcribed by https://otter.ai