Mission vs. Money: There Doesn't Have to Be a Conflict
Here's What to Consider
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Mission vs. Money Doesn’t Have to Be in Conflict
For the longest time I was deeply conflicted about how to earn money within my nline brand. No one tells you that having complete freedom to test out ideas, concepts and pricing would be endlessly confusing. Then, there were all of the other details that I was thinking about. Things such as the following
What types of goods or services were a good fit for my personality?
How hands on did I want to be?
Where to find my audience?
And even though we’re often given the advice to focus on your own brand and monetization journey-I often felt like my journey was different from other creators. Why was it so hard for me to figure out what would be a good for me and the community that I wanted to serve?
I’ve found that I’m not the only person who struggled working through and answering the following questions for my brand.
What is my mission? In my case, I’m focused on supporting creators designing brands or communities that focus on supporting underserved and underrepresented experts and creatives in the spaces that they are in.
Examples include:
Paulette Erato’s La Vida Más Chévre a space sharing (chosen) childfree Latina’s life perspectives and realities. She is holding space for this often complicated and nuanced conversation.
Dr. Asia Lyons founder of Black Educators Be Well-Who supports African-American teachers navigate the rigors and complexities of modern teaching in the US while recognizing and avoiding racial battle fatigue.
Sharnay Williams founder of the Black MoMPreneur empowering Black moms pursuing entrepreneurship while at the same time documenting and sharing the lives of Black women as one of her signature projects.
As for me, this year I’m documenting how policy impacts American women’s financial lives. With this type of work and focus I kept asking myself how do I monetize impactful work that wouldn’t happen if we didn’t embrace this type of work? What I didn’t realize was that I was navigating the tension between Mission and Monetization.
The Power Of Mission
For me, my mission is a core value that I cannot deviate from. It influences the content that I produce and share, the people that I want to work with and the vibes that I want to cultivate within my brand. My personal goal is to support creatives broadening the reach of impactful conversations, nurturing cool communities that do the same and make the world a better place. That’s a pretty huge mission. But, if you were to speak with the founders of the many businesses and spaces you find yourselves in they would likely have an organizational mission that they would direct you to.
Mission vs. Monetization
They do not have to be at odds with one another and I think this was my first lesson learned.
Lesson #1-Not everything within your brand needs to be monetized. I’m a multi-passionate online entrepreneur. One of the hardest lessons that I’ve learned is that not every project needs to be monetized. When you’re monetizing your work there are specific strategies and areas of focus that may go against what you’re trying to do when producing specific pieces of work. That’s why I’m now running a crowdfunding campaign for my personal finance podcast and have demonetized the rest of that brand. I was not interested in writing SEO content in order to grow the page views or get affiliate payouts. Instead, I wanted to talk about policy-something that I didn’t feel enough people were talking in their content.
Lesson #2-If it feels unethical to you, then it is to you. How you feel about certain parts of the sales process, especially with online facing brands is your truth. For me, I found myself really disliking high end coaching-even though I’ve paid for it. Let’s be clear, I actually feel like there’s a place in the market for this type of product. But, I also felt that…
High end coaching becomes (in-my view) boarderline predatory if there aren’t any other products available to consumer close to the price point that they can afford. There’s a reason why companies ofter different products. So that you can meet people where they’re at with their business or with their wallet.
What is the journey that a community can take with you? Have you thought about that.
The target audience should be at a point in their business where they could even produce some of the results that could happen after receiving high end coaching. It makes no sense to charge someone $3,000 for coaching but they don’t even have a website or audience that they’re working with.
Lesson #3-There’s more than one way to monetize your work and you don’t have to sell direct to your main audience. You can use those skills and sell to a completely different audience. How did I discover this? That time I wrote my first romance novel. I’m serious. I was writing all the time-freelance work, content for my websites and copywriting for my projects. I loved reading romances and decided to write and self-publish a romance and it made me thousands of dollars. The course that I published as a result of that experience and books sales that I made was a nice part of my income during COVID.
There’s nothing wrong with a great 9-5 job that you optimize your online skills with and grow your income.
If you love working with brands, those deals could fund your brand and business without passing them onto the community that you serve.
Inevitably, you may have learned how to write and sell ebooks, produce and sell a course, run a newsletter and other skills that you could package and sell to a different audience. Like I have.
Resource Shoutout: MeetHarlow
Are you looking for an invoicing tool, way to create contracts and general tool to help you keep track of your clients? MeetHarlow may be the tool for you. Women owned and founded, it’s a tool that I use and truly appreciate. I love how it helps me keep track of the clients that I’m working with, I can invoice them professionally and even track my time so that I can figure out how long it took me to do a certain scope of work. Use the Code: HARLOW10 to lock in a $10 a month plan.
The MINT Collective
Right now I’m running a test mastermind/membership community. For the next couple of weeks the doors are open until the first week of April to add an additional 20 members.
What is The MINT Collective?
As a content creator I’ve constantly looked for a community that offers group coaching at an affordable rate. The Mint Collective looks to provide an accessible resource for creators who are looking to gain guidance on how to grow their brands. It is a collaborative space focused on the following:
Maximizing your mission and scaling your income
Impactful connections with other members who support the work that you’re doing via feedback, strategy and more
Nurturing and kind space to share ideas, strategy and more
Timely feedback and support
Why The MINT Collective?
What’s up with the name?
Mint is a fragrant herb that takes over wherever it’s planted
The Mint is a place that (literally) prints money
I want t support you as you grow your mission and your money. The Mint Collective is a metaphor for the type of scope and reach I envision this community building.
Who Is this For?
Black/Brown and Allied Women making a difference with the work that we’re creating and communities that we’re serving with our brands.
You have been creating content and are looking to expand your reach
You need support and community as you scale your work
You’re looking for an affordable alternative to one off coaching and ongoing accountability and connection
What to Expect
Meetings are held on either a Tuesday or Thursday at 10:00 am MTN/12:00 pm EST (the members will decide each month)
Three Meetings in April (long month)
Two Meetings each in the months of May and June
One Meeting in July (social)
Two Meetings in August
Content Covered
Members will get the opportunity to discuss topics related to the growth of their brands. I’ve listed a few topics below.
Brand strategy
Monetization
Systems
Impactful Collaborations
Negotiations
Cost:
A one time payment of $500
Michelle will email you with 24-48 hours to confirm your payment and next steps
The price will go up in August during the official launch
Want to Learn More about Mission vs. Monetization
I share some additional context below.