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While I share money-making strategies, nothing is “typical”, and outcomes are based on each individual. There are no guarantees.
I don’t have a to-do list. At 54, I earn a six-figure income as a content creator with no employees and no task lists. Today, I want to share exactly how I built these revenue channels and, more importantly, how I stay in “flow” to get it all done. This shift was vital for me; years ago, I managed a massive business with over 100 employees. Back then, I was caught in a constant struggle, balancing the weight of managing people with the pressure of generating all the business myself.
Now, I found that when I paid attention to my own energy, one of the things that I found was that the people part of the business was making me miserable. For me, it was like I never felt good enough. I also never felt like my expectations of others were too high. It was a point of constant frustration and energy drain.
So, after my divorce, I spent some time restructuring, rebuilding. I mean, basically, we started over again. And I wanted to see what do I want my business to look like? I still had a real estate license. I did have a little marketing agency I had started, but it wasn’t making money at the time, which gave me the opportunity to really look deep and decide: is this something I really want to keep doing? And I was also doing a little bit of coaching. So, I kind of looked at those lanes and said, what do I want this to be?
And today—flash forward—it has been almost 10 years since my divorce. I’m still a licensed real estate agent. That isn’t my priority today. That might always come back as a priority, but today I spend all my time on content creation.
My favorite way to make money is with affiliate marketing. That is when I promote a product or service that is not mine, and I earn a commission. So this could be TikTok Shop, Amazon Influencer, YouTube Shopping; it could be software affiliate marketing; it could be posts I put on Facebook with an item, like “Hey, here’s the tool I use to turn my long-form videos into short-form videos.” All of those are forms of affiliate marketing, and there are many ways to do it.
Another way I make money is through digital products. I do—I am a writer. I produce ebooks. I have Substack subscribers. And when I say writer, I really consider myself more of a blogger, but it’s the same thing. I love writing personal stories and sharing success stories. And then I also love tech writing—like this is what I do and this is how I did it—just like I’m doing here on YouTube.
Let’s kind of go through—I’ll talk about the other ways I make money as I go through each item. Okay, so let’s take a look at the beginning of the day.
No to-do list. What that means is there are no tasks from the day before that need to be attended to. Nothing. I never have a to-do list. It just does not exist in my world. I operate off flow. Where is my energy? What am I feeling like today? What do I want to do today?
There are days when I love to get up, have my hair in a bun, throw on my leggings or whatever, and assemble cat trees for the day because I’m going to do an upcoming review. There might be a day like today when I say, “You know what, I’ve got some good energy. Today should be a video day.”
So, I’ll get up, do my hair, put on makeup, record a bunch while I’m doing things, make some more B-roll, make my YouTube video—kind of just do that all in one morning usually. And then after that, my hair’s back up in a ponytail, and I’m headed into the gym or something like that.
I never spend a whole day on camera in hair and makeup. It’s just not what I want to do. And honestly, I wish I had learned this in my 20s, 30s, 40s—I really didn’t get here until my 50s, to be honest with you. I didn’t really reach this level of “you mean I can make money just doing what I want to do, where my energy is, and it doesn’t have to be a have-to?”
Now, when you’re running a business, you have employees, you have clients, you’re dealing with a lot—it’s going to look different. I chose: I don’t want employees anymore. I don’t want clients anymore.
So, even in my real estate business—if we get a referral or a lead—my brother Jeff works with the client. I don’t. And then he basically gives me a kickback. That’s kind of how that works.
I do well with lead-generating, but I don’t want to have appointments on my calendar. I don’t want to be out there working with clients. So, if you’re somebody in that space—like real estate agents who’ve followed me for years—you can do that too. Generate the leads, partner with someone else who works with the clients, and split it. You don’t have to go out. You don’t have to put on hair and makeup.
At one time, I had like two dozen agents who weren’t on my team, but I was working with. I’d lead-generate, they’d close the deal, and we’d both take a piece. It worked really well.
In the morning, when I wake up, it’s coffee, computer, and my blankie. I have a $10,000 chair. I know you’re going to ask—it’s called an AltWorkstation. Unfortunately, no affiliate link, which is a bummer.
This chair reclines like a zero-gravity chair but also doubles as a stand-up desk. Most of the day, I keep it in a standing position, walking around and doing things. Then I’ll pop over, check something, make a quick Pinterest pin, or write a product script.
Morning is a quiet time. 90 minutes to 2 hours, usually. I get up early—before sunrise. My creative energy is highest in the morning. My physical energy, too. Nobody needs anything. It’s just a beautiful time to work.
So, I get up, and what am I doing? Blogging and Pinterest. One of my favorite morning activities is making new Pinterest pins for my blog. Or checking analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. I love doing analytics in the morning because my brain’s sharpest.
Most of the time, I’m not a repeat doer. I’m figuring out how to streamline this. How can I produce more, faster, without reducing quality?
For example, Pinterest used to be me writing blogs and making images in Canva. Now, AI does most of it. I’ve trained it to think, talk, and create like me.
Now I’m always asking, how can I move this faster? This week I started using Gemini Pro—it works with your browser, reads the page, executes commands. I batch AI image prompts into Google Sheets, download CSVs, and upload to Ideogram for image creation. Then I send them to Tailwind using a Chrome extension.
That change alone made my workflow 10x faster.
I’m not trying to teach Pinterest here—I’m teaching how I think. Every morning, I’m creating, optimizing, refining systems that free me from repetition.
That’s the key.
Pinterest is a big part of my income right now. Each stream—ebooks, Pinterest, Amazon, Substack—brings in about $ 1,500 per month. Add them together, and that’s a full-time income.
Then I make six figures from software affiliate marketing, digital marketing, and coaching.
If I wake up excited about product reviews, I do them. Right now, I’ve got boxes of cat trees everywhere. I bought the top 10 on Amazon—tax write-off—and I’m reviewing them all.
That feeds my Amazon, TikTok, YouTube, and blog—all at once. Each engine gets content.
That’s what I mean by flow.
, I work out—usually for two hours. No pressure, no deadlines, no hustle. Maybe I film some B-roll in my gym while using my elliptical or showing my Hoka shoes.
I don’t have to “plan content.” It just happens as part of life.
Then lunch—if I’m cooking, I film the pan I’m using, describe why I love it, and post it. Done.
Afternoons are my light strategy window—maybe writing my Substack newsletter, maybe editing this YouTube video in CapCut.
By 3 p.m., I’m in pajamas again. Done for the day.
If packages come, maybe I open them. Maybe not. Evenings are rest time. Sometimes I scroll TikTok, choose new affiliate products, engage on Substack, or organize B-roll clips.
That’s what makes me $300K a year.
Most days I’m in pajamas. I’m at the gym. I’m swimming. I’m creating content that feeds multiple platforms without pressure.
It’s all orchestrated by energy, not obligation.
No to-do list. Just flow.
And that’s the beauty of it.
The only thing on my schedule are two group coaching calls a month—two hours each—and I love them. They’re gold.
Everything else runs from alignment, energy, and ease.
Thanks for joining me today. Coaching is at BallenBlueprint.com.
Talk soon.
