Let's clear the room here. The word passion can be subjective depending on the person you ask. For the most part, passion is when you feel an increase in dopamine in the activities you are curious about and interested in. That's where all types of passions start.
You were curious enough to start that new hobby and you became interested in it once you felt that dopamine it has given you. That is how it all started for me when it comes to being a digital artist.
It started with me deciding to draw as a hobby. Sometimes, I draw every day, once every week or even once a month. Every time an artwork is completed, that dopamine is always there. It took me years to finally realize that I could make money from the artwork that I do.
That realization is how everything began for me. I found it easier to monetize what I create by converting it to digital art. I was always doing digital art in the past, but always for fun. I wouldn't have thought that digital artwork is the pathway I have to share my artwork with anyone interested in it around the world.
Your passion may not be art like mine, your passion could be knitting, photography, dancing, and so on. The good thing about the life we live today is that we could make money from doing almost everything we are interested in.
No matter what you do, what I would honestly recommend anyone to do is learn some form of marketing. What if you have the best product or service in town... but no one knows about it? This is where you'd have to step out of your passion a bit and learn other skills just for your passion can be profitable.
Some skills you should be familiar with are :
- Design
- Email Marketing
- Copywriting
- Lead Generation
- Sales
- Direct Response Marketing
Now let's talk about how to break down your passion into a niche that you could dominate. It is best to be a big fish in a small pond. Let's say your passion is fitness and you want to start your own fitness brand. Most people would start a very general, very broad fitness brand just focusing on everyone. This is one way you could get lost in a very big ocean full of other more notable brands compared to you.
If you are starting out small, you have to niche down. Let's stick with fitness but break it down to your business being about doing yoga for pregnant women in the New York Area. Become an expert in this field and if you want to expand on it, you can easily do that.
The key thing with passion, you'll have to solve a problem with your skill set in a specific interest area. That is how you stand out. If people have no need for your product or service, they won't buy. I make it known to the world that I am a digital artist.
Not everyone will need my product or service all the time. However, the moment they need to give a sentimental gift to a loved one or friend like a personal artwork, for example, I'll be first on their minds. A problem arises, and I have the solution for that problem that they have.
Here are some tangible things you can do to monetize your passions today:
- Freelancing ( Fiverr and Upwork are popular for freelancers )
- Coaching
- Consulting
- Blogging ( You can make money with ad revenue and affiliate links )
- Youtube
- Teaching
- Selling Digital Products ( You can sell digital items on places like Etsy )
