The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How Psychologists Can Build Passive Income (And Why You Should)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams, and whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional,

Starting point is 00:00:30 or in a completely different field, the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself, and if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you wanna know more?

Starting point is 00:00:49 Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. What do Netflix, Dr. Julie Smith, and Headspace all have in common? It's that they've all found ways of working with more people without just offering

Starting point is 00:01:10 one-to-one. They are able to offer valuable content which helps their audience whilst also creating sustainable income for themselves. Now what if I told you that you as a psychologist or mental health professional could do the same? You could earn money while you sleep, when you go for a run, or even when you're spending time with your family. You could even earn money when you are in one-to-one sessions.

Starting point is 00:01:33 No, this isn't a rainbow unicorn. This isn't something that's too good to be true. It's all about working smarter, not just harder. As psychologists and mental health professionals, we are often so focused on helping others that we neglect to set up sustainable income streams for ourselves. But what if passive income could give you the financial freedom to work fewer hours, reduce burnout and focus on what truly lights you up? Today we are diving into why passive income is not just for massive names and corporate

Starting point is 00:02:02 companies. It's a game changer for psychologists too. Stay tuned because by the end of this episode, you'll have a roadmap for how to get started and I'll also be inviting you to a free Passive Income Challenge where you'll be able to take the first steps to your financial freedom. Hi, welcome along.

Starting point is 00:02:19 I'm Dr. Marianne Trent. I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. If you've been following me for a while, Hi, welcome along. I'm Dr. Marianne Trent. I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. If you've been following me for a while, you will likely know that I'm passionate about supporting the needs of aspiring psychologists, but also qualified psychologists throughout their careers. But I'm also all about achieving work-life balance and financial sustainability. For me, that looks at writing books such as the Clinical Psychologist Collective, but also running the Aspiring Psychologist membership

Starting point is 00:02:48 and creating paid for courses and master classes on passive income for psychologists and mental health professionals. I want to show you how you can start to do the same. I know it might sound daunting, but I promise you it's not rocket science. I passionately believe that passive income is a must for qualified psychologists and mental health professionals and even if you are not yet qualified I still want you to take

Starting point is 00:03:12 notice because you could even start to create passive income streams from your existing expertise right now and that's because it's not just about professional skills you could create passive or recurring revenue from your personal passions too. For example, I know of one woman who made a stack of cash teaching people to hula hoop, and another who made loads sharing her love of the theater. So if you have knowledge or a passion

Starting point is 00:03:37 that others might find valuable, you already have a passive income opportunity. Perhaps you're feeling a bit hesitant, a bit wary about the idea of making money in your sleep or perhaps you think no psychology is a vocation, I didn't get into this for the money. I'd say that's probably quite a good job in the most part but it doesn't mean that you can't be wealthier, that you can't be more comfortable, that you can't have more time to focus on perhaps doing the really nice aspects of therapy like reflecting, like writing in your journals, like doing the formulation, perhaps depending on the medium that you work in by doing your

Starting point is 00:04:19 process notes, but earning more money which supplements all of that for you so that you're not having to take on so many one-to-one clients. I think sometimes we can have kind of deep-seated beliefs about money and how it should or shouldn't come to us. Some of us even have kind of money trauma as well from our experiences in growing up or in our relationships past or present. This can really affect the way we think about money but also about how we prioritise and manage our finances and our financial well-being. But the truth is building a sustainable career in psychology for me at least means thinking beyond direct one-to-one work. It doesn't mean that you need to stop

Starting point is 00:05:00 the one-to-one work. I love offering my trauma and grief therapy to clients. I never plan to stop. But by having passive income streams and recurring revenue streams, I have more time to do what I love without burnout. So today we are unpacking why passive income is essential for psychologists and mental health professionals, the biggest mindset blocks that stop you from getting started and the first simple steps to create income streams that really work for you and for your clients. Let's get started by talking about burnout. So many of us, regardless of the stage of our career, are juggling direct client work, paperwork, supervision, CPD and also trying to have a personal life too.

Starting point is 00:05:47 The emotional toll of therapy can of course be high, so I think without alternative income streams many psychologists and mental health professionals might well find themselves on a direct route to feeling exhausted, overworked and underpaid. Passive income really helps by reducing reliance on one-to-one sessions, by providing financial security to help transition tricky phases like parenting, maternity, paternity leave, adoptive leave, illness, career transitions or even helping to care for your parents. It also gives you the time and the flexibility to explore your other passions or just, you know, sit around more or go to a spa or get up a bit later one day a week, two days a week.

Starting point is 00:06:35 You know, it gives you the chance to really begin to think about how you thrive. For me, passive income has allowed me to do more things like media work, brand partnerships, to run this podcast which absolutely takes a lot of time, to develop my membership community and to spend more quality time with my family and friends. What are the blocks then that stop us all from immediately rushing out and doing this? I think for me the biggest blocks ironically are psychological, they are mindset. Things like imposter

Starting point is 00:07:09 syndrome, you know, who am I to create a course or write a book or start a membership? I think the guilt about earning more is a big one too because in my experience many mental health professionals can feel uncomfortable about making money beyond their client work. Feeling like you have a lack of time is another big one too. I'm already busy, I'm already at capacity, I don't have the time to build passive income streams or to figure out how to do it. And of course having a fear of technology. How would I begin to fathom how to make all of this happen? You might think I've got a great idea for a book or a course but I don't know how to get that out of here

Starting point is 00:07:49 and into some form where someone can pay me money for it. The good news is that you do not need to be able to reinvent the wheel. If you have knowledge and expertise, which you do, there's definitely a way to package it all up, to help others whilst also benefiting yourself. So what are our first steps for beginning to build passive income? Where on earth do you actually start? So I think it's important to think about leveraging our time for our money, but also leveraging what you already know. What options are there? Well, it's likely that you've read a few books in your time. Have you considered writing one? It might be a book, it might be an e-book. If you've ever considered it, just do it. My books, The Clinical Psychologist Collective, The

Starting point is 00:08:32 Grief Collective and all of the others, have been incredible sources of impact. People really like them but they've also earned me revenue too. How about online courses, webinars, master classes? You've likely attended loads of these in the past. You may even have paid for them. What do you know that you could create and package into a course? Memberships and subscriptions. Have a think about those that you already sign up to. Perhaps it is Netflix. Perhaps it's Amazon Prime. Perhaps it's Disney. Perhaps it's Pret a Monge, perhaps it's HelloFresh, Apple Fitness, think about what you get for your money

Starting point is 00:09:10 and actually what you need to be able to offer your clients might be less than you imagine. Perhaps you could create an online space or community, maybe even a membership too. Now, I know as a psychologist, I have a ton of self-help and mental health focused books. How about the resources that we accumulate along the way too? Workbooks, reflective journals, digital downloads can all be really simple ways of beginning to generate passive or recurring revenue.

Starting point is 00:09:40 Now I've got something really special for you. I recently had my first ever in-person recording of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast and it was in the home of the brilliant Lisa Johnson who is an expert in passive income. She agreed to talk with us about why passive and recurring revenue is so incredibly important for psychologists and mental health professionals and therefore why this could be a game changer for you. Let's dive in to my and Lisa's chat and I will catch you on the other side. Hi Lisa, thank you for inviting me to your beautiful home. No worries, nice to have you here. Oh thank you. So tell us a little bit about you for anyone who hasn't heard of Lisa Johnson

Starting point is 00:10:20 before. So the main thing I am is a mum of twins. I'm a travel lover. But the thing that I'm known for is I wrote a Sunday Times bestselling book called Make Money Online. And that book was just because, you know, when I started in business myself, I was 30,000 in debt. This was only eight years ago. So it feels like a long time ago, but it wasn't actually that long and in the last six years I've made 20 million just you know helping people use the knowledge that they have in whatever field they're in to make money online. I'm a psychologist and so I was really trying to go for the poker face but you just told me you made 20 million. Your poker face isn't that good. Yeah it's not that good, it's not that good but it's you know it's It's not that good. But it's admirable, really impressive stuff.

Starting point is 00:11:07 Yeah, it's been a wild few years and I didn't set out to become a multimillionaire, but I think that when you're trying to help people with something that you're really passionate about, money follows. I really believe that profit follows passion and I'm passionate about helping mainly women, but we help all sorts of people but women to have financial freedom and by doing that by helping people just use the knowledge in their head to be able to make more money that gives them that and so yeah it's been crazy. I actually love what you say there about what does someone always say oh could I just could have a word with you about this? I just wanna pick your brain.

Starting point is 00:11:46 And I think when psychologists are trying to think about a niche, it's probably, that's probably a really good place to start. What they'd feel comfortable having a 10 minute chat about in their passion. It doesn't have to be everything you know. It can be one thing that they think, this is the bit that I love helping people with.

Starting point is 00:12:03 This is the bit that I always see the difference when I help people with. So let's make passive income, recurring revenue really, passive income is a bit of an outdated word these days, but recurring revenue from that. So help us understand then what might recurring revenue, passive income look like? It can look like all kinds of things, so it could be a course. So most people, they trade their time for money. So if you are in any kind of therapy, you generally give someone an hour and you get back an amount for that cost. It doesn't have to be that way. And what we found is if we take that person who knows that information, and most

Starting point is 00:12:41 people are asking the same thing at some point. So you put the answer into a course, a workshop, an ebook, you know a membership even where people just want support and then you can charge you know times however many people. So instead of doing let's say a hundred pound for one hour you can still have the same hour but you could have a hundred people paying you a hundred pounds making a lot more money with that one hour. So you're leveraging your time and all passive income is really, is not trading time for money. People have kind of turned it into this unrealistic thing of money raining down on you when you sleep. That isn't really what happens. You do have a lot of work at the beginning. You

Starting point is 00:13:23 need to set something up that you can sell over and over again. But that's when it becomes really passive. I love it when I suddenly get like £48 drop in my bank and I haven't even mentioned it that day. It's just there. And it's just there, it just appears. And if you get a message like from Katra saying success or congratulations you made a sale, you're like, thanks, that feels good. What felt really good for me was I was helping people I was helping people one to one. I couldn't go on holiday. Because if I went on holiday, I wouldn't get money and I couldn't be sick because then I wouldn't make money for that like two weeks or whatever. So it's like there

Starting point is 00:13:56 has to be a better way. And so when I found passive income, what I love is we still can make a lot of money when I'm traveling. Like I don't work for the whole of July August and half of September But we make the same amount in that time as we do the rest of the year And I think that's really important because we don't know what's gonna happen to us ever and when we might be needed elsewhere Hmm, and I think for my audience of a psychologist and mental health professionals, that's really key Especially they've just got a small practice of themselves Then it's thinking, if I take two weeks off at Christmas, that's a really squeaky time in January.

Starting point is 00:14:31 Yeah, and they might decide not to take two weeks off, but if they get sick for a month or three months, that's a problem. And actually, it doesn't need to be because the world has changed. We do have the internet, email lists, social media. We don't need to work in the way that we did before. People always used to say, the harder you work, the more money you make. Not that I believe that you should work hard. I think it's, you know, I have a very strong work ethic.

Starting point is 00:14:56 I believe much more in working smarter than harder. You don't have to work quite as much to make more. It's interesting meeting you today because actually over the weekend, I was at a magic show and some there was a social media competition to kind of you know you like a bit of competition but another bit to kind of comment on this this chap's social media post of us in the audience yeah and I'd commented on it and then someone else in the audience came and found me and said oh oh you um talked to Marianne

Starting point is 00:15:25 Trent and I was like yes and she was like oh well you don't know me but I just wanted to say thank you because actually a couple of years ago my mum died and someone bought me your grief book and it's been so helpful it really helped me and I think that really obviously feels amazing yeah it's the impact and knowing that actually it's still okay for me to have made passive income on that, but it's still connect in a way that actually is a really valuable resource. And I think talking to this audience, it's really difficult because people think, well, maybe people will think badly of me. I get that. And actually we have that with most of the people that start something because they are helping others Because they want to make an impact in the world. They want to change the world

Starting point is 00:16:08 Sometimes they certainly want to change how people feel I think that's the hardest thing for some reason. I think more in the uk We have been brought up to believe that we can either help people or make money And I don't know why we think it's mutually exclusive We can do both we can help loads of people and we can make a lot of money. And there are plenty of people that we see online doing that. So yeah, I think it's a mindset thing that we do have to get our head around.

Starting point is 00:16:34 But, you know, people say all the time, you've changed my life to me. You've changed my life. I've made money, but I've changed their life. Why can't it be both? Such powerful food for thought. Yeah, absolutely. absolutely you know life should work on your terms and you should feel proud of what you do but also I think a word that feels really uncomfortable for lots of psychologists is the word wealthy and wealth and when

Starting point is 00:16:59 I first had a financial advisor and they started talking about those words and even having a financial advisor, you know, who am I to have a financial advisor? Yeah, log into your wealth account but you have to become more comfortable with thinking about that. You deserve to be recompensed for the really hard work that you do. And when we think about people like you, it's not like you've woken up one day and know this stuff. The amount of training and education and time that you've put, you know, you've had to put in to knowing what you know and experience as well.

Starting point is 00:17:34 Why should you be doing that for a small amount? You know, it's okay for you to earn now that you've learned all of this stuff and you're helping people. Yeah, so true. So I first started my degree in 1999. I qualified as a qualified psychologist in 2011 and I then started my private practice in 2019 and I was sobbing at my kitchen sink that morning on my first private client thinking I wasn't

Starting point is 00:18:00 enough. I didn't know enough. All that? All that. All that. And we do. You do know enough. And actually, you know, yes, you can use the psychology aspect and sell that. But what we found is we get lots of people that want to make passive income with us. We have a conversation with them. And it's not actually their profession that they end up using for their passive income, because they do know a lot, but they also have a lot of life experience. So we've had people who have been through, you know, divorces and worked out how to do it themselves, how to do all the forms themselves and save themselves money.

Starting point is 00:18:35 They now help other people to do that and they charge for it because anyone that's just a couple of steps further along than someone else, anyone that wants to pick your brain, you can sell that information. I remember the first passive income product that I bought was how to get around Disney and we 200 twos. And I was like, like, this is interesting that she's put this together, because she's been to Disneyland a few times. And I rang her and I said, I've just bought this product from you. It was like $10. I said, do you really make money from this? And she said, I make around a hundred thousand every month from it. Because I'm in every Disney Facebook group and it's like a military operation going to Disney and all people want to know is how do I get around this easiest? And so I just wrote it and she wrote it once. She updates it every now and again.

Starting point is 00:19:20 And then she just keeps making money from it. But there's so much money to be made in just the knowledge you have on all sorts of life experience. Wow. And I think especially with a lot of my audience being aspiring psychologists, you know, it might not be ethical to be putting out qualified mental health advice, but there's loads of stuff, loads of stuff they know. I know one of your audience made money selling people stuff on hula hooping. Yeah, she did so well. She was making like 20, 30,000 a month teaching people how to hula hoop. But we've had all sorts, growing cut flowers, potty training, just random things, dating, using internet dating. Yeah, anything you can imagine. Somebody has written a course or a membership on it because with a membership,

Starting point is 00:20:01 you don't even have to actually know your subject, you have an interest in it and you bring in other people who know the subject to teach, you are just the curator of the membership and so there is really a way to do this for everybody. Yes there is and you're running a challenge soon, very soon, Race to Recurring Revenue and you're always very upfront that you know when you've done this amazing free thing, there is an opportunity to work with you at the end if people choose, but there's no obligation to do that. And most people don't.

Starting point is 00:20:31 Like, if we're honest about it, I think about a 5% of people do come in and work with me. But what I love about this challenge is that the people that do it that can't really afford, they're not ready, they're not in a position to come and work with me, they still make money from it. We have people telling us all the time, I've now on 10,000 pound months because of your challenge.

Starting point is 00:20:51 That's how I sleep at night. If we're gonna make money from things, let's give some free value as well. And sometimes those people make a lot of money and then they come in the next year anyway. So it's a win-win. Absolutely. Lisa, thank you so much for your time it's been really really

Starting point is 00:21:06 lovely and I think this will be a really valuable chat for my audience. Oh no worries really nice to be here. Hope your challenge goes really well for you. Thank you. Oh how lovely was that and thank you so much to Lisa for welcoming me into her beautiful home. How inspiring it was to speak with Lisa, someone who has helped thousands of people to build sustainable income streams for themselves and their families. You can work with Lisa for free. She is running a passive income challenge which starts on Monday the 10th of February 2025. Lisa Johnson's Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge is a brilliant way to identify your best passive income idea, overcome imposter syndrome and mindset blocks,

Starting point is 00:21:45 and to develop a strategic plan to launch your income stream. If this episode has sparked your curiosity, I'd love for you to take the next step with me. You can do that by joining Lisa Johnson's Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge, scan the QR code on screen, or check out the link in the description or the show notes. Please also check out my content on passive income on my website which is

Starting point is 00:22:09 www.aspiring-psychologist.co.uk then go to the learn with me online learning tabs. Please let me know in the comments what passive income idea you are considering, who you are, what area you work in, please do chat with and support others in the comments too. If you resonate with what they're talking about consider subscribing and liking their channels too. If you enjoyed this episode please do like, subscribe, share, comment, do all of those good things. If you are listening on mp3 please do subscribe to the show it really is the kindest thing you can do for free for any podcaster

Starting point is 00:22:50 that you rate. Thank you so much for listening or watching to this episode I do hope you have found it helpful. My name's Yana and I'm a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner. I read the clinical psychologist collective book. I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one. And this kind of filled me with confidence that no, I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself.

Starting point is 00:24:03 So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How Psychologists Can Build Passive Income (And Why You Should)

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