Hey yo, hey yo! I’m a little behind on income reports, so thanks for being patient, y’all! April was a special month for me, and here’s why: in both February and March I did e-course launches for a couple weeks, which meant that my income was generally a bit bigger because of the launches.

On the flip side, April was a pretty chill month. No launches. No new courses. And only one webinar. Yet, my income ended up being even more than it was in February (when I had launched a new product). So, what happened? And where is the money coming from? Let’s dive in.

First, here’s the breakdown of my income and expenses for the month:

April Income

• Passive Revenue: $18,804
• Monthly Recurring Revenue: $17,286
• Webinar Revenue: $12,257
• Affiliate Revenue: $7,710
• Ad Revenue: $159

Total Income: $56,216

April Expenses

• Virtual Assistants: $1,741
• PayPal + Stripe Fees: $2,663
• Zapier: $20
• MotionMail: $10
• Infusionsoft*: $505
• Affiliates: $430
• Stocksy: $50
• OptinMonster: $99
• Facebook Ads: $457
• Charitable Donation: $500
• Mastermind Program: $10,000
• Headshots/photos: $550
• Deadline Funnel: $37
• Bookkeeping: $1,129
• Google Apps*: $17
• CAOC E-Course Installment Payment: $97

Total Expenses: $17,305 (Anything with an * next to it is an affiliate link)

Net Profit: $37,911

No launches? Where is the money coming from?!

As you can see, passive revenue and monthly recurring revenue played BIG roles in this month’s totals. During the previous month, my passive income was $5,418, which means that it increased by over $13,000 in April! Say whaaaa?

I implemented a new evergreen sales funnel in mid-April, which ended up being ridiculously effective. (I show you how to copy this sales funnel in my course, Blog to Biz Hive, by the way). My goal was to hit $20,000 in monthly passive income by the end of quarter 2 and I was able to get pretty close to it in April (spoiler alert: I surpassed that goal in May!).

Another source of income was my monthly recurring revenue, which grew by about $7,000 this month. My monthly recurring revenue consists of the payments that I receive from students who opted to pay via a payment plan for one of my courses. This month’s is more than March because I recently re-launched my course, Pinfinite Growth, so I will continue to receive payment plan payments for a few months.

Payment plans are a doubled-edged sword. On one hand, there will always be some people whose cards are declined and who never make all of their payments. On the other hand, more people can afford your course and you’ll now have that consistent monthly revenue coming in…which is BIG!

I’m definitely a proponent of payment plans, but you have to be willing to follow up with people who default on their payments (or hire a Virtual Assistant who can do that for you).

I got a new website!!!

Okay, I know this is old news by now, but one of the most exciting things about April was rebranding my site, The Nectar Collective, to my own name, and adding a spiffy new design. You don’t see any website expenses on my income report because, miraculously, there weren’t any! I designed the new site myself and then worked out a collaboration with my developer to exchange our services together (making the development free).

Not to mention, the person who developed this site, Brian, is one of the best developers I know of (and a really nice dude). I definitely hit the jackpot on that one.

The new site was designed with a whole lot more intention than the last one, which included a lot of random features and clutter. This new design is meant to be a bit more simple and only includes things that help me accomplish my most pertinent goals, like growing my email list and selling my courses. I’ve certainly noticed an upswing in course sales and email subscribers, too!

Overall, I’m very happy with the decision to rebrand and change the design. Everything feels a whole lot more “me” and I’ve gotten great feedback from others, too. Yay!

What is this $10,000 mastermind thing?

In early April, I went to an event for students of a course I took part in. The event was like a mini conference for the course students, and I found it really valuable. The course’s teacher ended up pitching his mastermind program/event and I was very into the concept and decided to join. This was the biggest investment I’ve EVER made for my business, but I’m excited to see how it turns out.

The program is called 90 Day Base Camp (led by Todd Herman), and each quarter, starting in July, we’ll meet in New York City to discuss our individual businesses and to create a 90 day plan moving forward. So, we meet up to recalibrate, create a strategic plan for the upcoming three months, and gain feedback from other biz owners and Todd himself.

I’m excited that the program is in NYC (I live in LA), because I always find new inspiration when I travel to faraway cities — and New York is a new favorite after my recent visit in May. 🙂

The $10k investment fee is steep, but I’ve learned that there’s a point in business when you start to plateau if you don’t begin utilizing new strategies to get yourself to the next level. I don’t think I’ve “plateaued” yet, but I’m always looking for smart minds to learn from so that I can keep growing — both as a business and as a person. No matter how much I learn and grow, I love coming at each day with a beginner’s mind.

Here’s how you can take action:

Multiple income streams are important. But there’s something that’s potentially even more important: passive income sales funnels.

Think of it this way…

If you create an e-course and launch it to your audience, then you may get a surge of new sign-ups during your launch. But then what? Even if you keep the program evergreen (i.e. always open for purchase), you need to give people a reason to buy your course in order to continue making money on it.

In April, I launched a new evergreen funnel for one of my courses after putting it off for a looong time. But based on how well it’s been doing, I’m now kicking myself for not publishing my sales funnel sooner.

So, how does this apply to you? And how can you take action? I want you to plan to set up your own evergreen sales funnel THIS MONTH. It’s easy to put off, but I urge you not to. You may want to check out this article for some advice on setting that up!

By the way, even if you run a physical product or serviced based business, you can absolutely have sales funnels! They are not only limited to people selling online courses or digital products.

So, do your homework this month and add “Sales Funnel Creator” to your repertoire. 😉

Got any questions? Comments? Insights? I’m all ears! Let’s chat down below.

p.s. I also have a private Facebook group where I’d love to chat with you and answer your Qs! Click here to join.