Hey Reader,

You’ve just opened one of the most strategic issues of this newsletter — your future self will thank you.

If you think passive income is actually passive, you’ve been sold a dream. (Here’s the newsletter issue where I already debunked that myth).

But there is something better than passive income: passive value.

What’s that? It’s the stuff you create once and keeps working for you — helping your audience, growing your brand, and (eventually) making you money.

I’ll tell you all about it after a quick word from today’s partner, my favorite platform to sell things through and host courses:
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The myth of passive income (or, how hustle bros lied to you)

Digital products, affiliate links, and automation can be great — but only if you’ve put in the work upfront. Most of what people call "passive income" is just delayed income from a ton of effort they don’t talk about.

Unlike interests or dividends, though, income from digital products needs ongoing work. When you stop promoting your course/community/cheat sheet, your sales drop.

I won’t lie: passive value requires a ton of work too. But it’s something that has the potential to actually pay dividends while you sleep.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon one of Jay Clouse’’s tweets: “I now have a piece of content I can send people whenever I get asked a question” (paraphrased).

That hit home.

I realized I’d built the same thing without even trying. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time someone has a question, I just send them content I’ve already created.

Let’s see how you can make that happen.

What the heck is passive value?

Passive value is my term for the content, assets, and resources you create once that continue to work for you over time.

Passive value means building useful, evergreen content and assets that:

• Grow your audience
• Position you as an expert
• Can be monetized later without starting from scratch

More importantly, passive value doesn’t mean instant money (sorry!) — it means building things that attract, educate, and nurture the right people consistently.

And eventually? Those people become paying clients, customers, or champions of your work.

How passive value works in my business

I’ve always treated my content like a product, not just a marketing asset, which allows me to do the following:

• Each issue of this newsletter gets syndicated to Medium, behind a paywall, which gets me both audience growth and (a little) money. I’ve written about this in detail here.
• I get 3-10 social media posts out of every newsletter issue. My take on content repurposing here.
• My strategy session clients get more than one hour with me. Everyone gets the Guided Strategy Framework as a bonus and, depending on their needs, I send them part of the Audience Accelerator course worksheet or one of my templates/frameworks or resources. Whatever their challenge is, I usually have something to send their way to help them solve it — and I don’t need to create it specifically for them.
• ​This newsletter issue was turned into a paid product, the Guided Strategy Framework, because my friend Michael suggested people would pay for it — he was right!
• I’ve run workshops and masterclasses for private communities on the back of several other newsletter issues. All I had to do was turn them into slide decks.

Bonus: take a look at the sheer number of links above. I could go in circles for another dozen bullet points. All because I’ve built a content ecosystem that’s relevant to my audience. These pieces feed off each other and allow me to help my clients and my subscribers solve multiple challenges.

So, how do you build strategic passive value?

The keyword is evergreen. Your assets need to be relevant for at least a year from now, so start by addressing the perennial questions your audience has about what you do.

For example:

• For a nutritionist: “The basics of a healthy diet” instead of “The trendiest diets this year”.
• For a CPA/financial advisor: “The tax checklist for eCommerce entrepreneurs” instead of “Recent tax changes eCommerce entrepreneurs need to know about”.

Don’t get me wrong, timely, news- or trend-bound pieces have their place — they help you grab attention. But to retain attention and to build passive value, at least 80% of your content needs to be evergreen.

Let’s go step by step:

• Step 1: define your content pillars and stick to them.
• Step 2: go granular — find the topics your audience cares about (here’s how in case you missed this recent issue)
• Step 3: publish your core content on a platform you control (I cannot stress this enough!). Email or blog are the most common choices.
• Step 4: syndicate and republish on as many platforms as possible to increase your digital footprint.
• Step 5: look for monetizable opportunities — did a piece of content you wrote land exceptionally well? This is your sign to turn it into a paid product.

4 key places where passive value can be created or fully leveraged

1. Evergreen content that works overtime

We already covered this: a great newsletter/blog post/podcast episode/even social media post can bring in people long after you publish it.

Bonus points if it’s easy to discover on your website, in search engines, or on syndication platforms.

2. A welcome sequence that actually does something

“Hi, thanks for signing up, would you mind replying to this email so that the bots know I’m a trustworthy sender” is necessary but, oh, so damn bland.

Besides that canned phrase:

• Use the welcome sequence to introduce people to your ethos and to get them to care about it.
• Deliver your best-performing assets to show them why they should stick around.
• Introduce them to your paid offers without being too pushy.

Not sure how to do all that? I’ve got you covered! I’ll be launching a plug-and-play welcome sequence next week with a drool-inducing bonus: how to deliver PERSONALIZED resources to your subscribers.

Want it? Click here and you’ll be the first to know when it drops.

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3. A go-to resource that you can plug everywhere

It can be a lead magnet, a free pre-recorded masterclass, an exceptional podcast episode — the world is your oyster, really.

You just need something that attracts people to your ecosystem.

Bonus points if you can tie it to your paid offers. For example, my lead magnet is a much shorter written version of the Audience Accelerator course, which allows me to softly plug the paid product when people download it.

4. A system/an asset that reduces your workload

Do you find yourself explaining the same thing over and over again to your clients? It means that you stumbled upon a very common problem.

It’s time to systematize the solution. For example:

• Build a client onboarding guide that answers FAQs and sets expectations before they ask.
• Create a template/a spreadsheet/a Notion doc that you can refer people to.
• Write an article/newsletter or record a video on each of the most frequently asked questions. Whenever you get asked that question again, you can simply refer people to that resource.
• Do you spend a lot of time writing your bio for various podcasts or conferences you speak at? Create a page on your website that has several versions of your bio, your pics, and links to your lead magnet, social media accounts, and so on.

The bottom line: if you do something more than thrice, it’s time to systematize it to make your life easier in the future.

It’s a long game

Building passive value is very similar to building an investment portfolio. In the first couple of months, it feels like you’re going nowhere: there are no dividends, no interest, nothing — just effort and no return.

After a while, though, you start to cash in on your first dividends. It can happen out of the blue – someone asks a question on social media and you’ve already answered it at length in an article, so you can send them to it.

Within a year or so, you will have enough resources to rarely need to start anything from scratch.

Just like investing, the sooner you start, the better.
​So, what’s one thing you can create today that’ll still be working for you next year?

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That's it from me today!

See you next week in your inbox.

Here to make you think,

Adriana

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