Side hustle alert: Make money from giving advice

In the past few weeks, has a friend sought your advice on something? Have you given him good recommendations, suggestions or solutions to his problems? Has it ever crossed your mind that what you have done is actually an opportunity in both making a difference and making a fortune?

Brendon Burchard’s book entitled “Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice” tells us that all of us have a story or a message to share. The experiences we’ve had and the learnings we’ve gathered in the creation of our personal narratives could actually impact the world and add value to other people’s lives. What’s even better about it is you can actually earn from it! We are all messengers and we can be millionaire messengers at that.

How do we become Millionaire Messengers? Burchard shares with us a 10‑step program to follow.

Know your message.

What topics are you capable of discussing and are passionate about? Which one of these will help or impart knowledge to other people?

Choose your message’s recipients.

Who are the people you’d want to reach? To whom will your message be relevant the most?

Understand your recipient’s problems.

What are the struggles and challenges your recipients have encountered or are currently encountering? Get to know their pain points and what obstacles are hindering them from what they want to do.

Craft your message.

Develop your personal story and identify what difficulties or challenges you share with your target audience. It is important that your story will shed more light to their stories.

Package your message.

What channels or media will you use in order to share your message and story? In what manner would you want to send your message—writing, speaking, consulting, coaching, online marketing, delivering lectures, seminars, webinars, etc?

Develop your medium.

Once you’ve identified the medium that will best suit your story and personality, start creating it. In our case, we’ve chosen to showcase our many messages and stories through our website, Lifestyle Upgrade 101, and our books, “I Wish They Taught Money in School” and “Money Grows on Trees.”

Sell your message.

Promote your message and let everyone know what it is you offer. Provide them with relevant and quality content. Let your audience know that your message is something worth receiving.

Boost your credibility.

Your recipients will need to know that the messenger is trustworthy. Get their buy‑in by providing them with free content at the beginning. Convincing them that you are worth their time will eventually push them to consume your content even at a price.

Promote your message with the help of others.

Get other people to talk about you and what you do. Tap other institutions, groups or individuals, who would expand your message’s reach into their respective networks. Make them your partners.

Repeat and expand.

The idea is to not only settle with one message but to keep on building your offerings as you go along. What other messages or products could you share with your audience? Keep revisiting your story and always find ways to build your message. Stay relevant at all times.

Right now, we are currently delivering our messages and stories through writing, speaking and marketing online. The journey to being millionaire messengers have been extraordinary and we look forward to doing more and more in the years to come.

Follow these steps and keep on working on your message. We’re sure that soon enough, you too will have books and websites to make a millionaire messenger out of you.

In the meantime, we await the arrival of your message.

Clarissa Seriña‑de la Paz and Sharon W. Que are financial literacy advocates and the bestselling authors of “I Wish They Taught Money in School” and “Money Grows on Trees.” Check out their books at www.lifestyleupgrade101.com.