The Stupid Simple 4-Step Formula You Can Use to Make $3,172.72 of Passive Income in a Day: Yes, It’s Possible

I made over $3,000 of passive income in a day while I was at an amusement park; here’s how I did it and how you can too.

In 2020, I was struggling with postpartum depression and feeling lost.

I had always dreamed of making passive income, but it hadn’t happened for me yet.

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If I’m being honest, I hadn’t invested that much time or energy into learning more about it and taking aggressive action.

Deep down, there was a part of me that didn’t think it was possible. 

I was skeptical.

“Making thousands of passive income in a day? Yeah, right!” I often thought to myself.

If you’re like most people, you’re probably skeptical about passive income, too.

The Turning Point 

In 2020, after studying positive psychology in grad school for years, I realized I had some foundational beliefs that were holding me back. After some reflection, I realized skepticism and a fear of failure weren’t helping me achieve my goals. 

Luckily, the tools I studied in psychology helped me get past those beliefs and really go after my goals while also leveraging my strengths.  

So, with a new perspective, I decided to get serious.  

I talk about the beginning of my journey here: How I Made $4,500 in Passive Income in Only 2 Months and How You Can Too. 

But that’s not the story you came here to read about.

So let me tell you about one of my best passive income days. The day I made $3,172.72 of passive income in a day while I was on an adventure day with my 4-year-old son at Knott’s Berry Farm (a Southern California amusement park).

If you’re anything like I was, you’re probably skeptical, so here’s proof:

Below The Iceberg

I’d like to tell you this happened overnight. 

It didn’t.

As I mentioned before, I invested in a course in 2019.

I worked on my mindset for years while studying positive psychology at Claremont Graduate University.

I studied.

I researched.

I grew as a person.

I failed a lot.

I learned from my failures.

I kept trying.

And then it happened. 

Real, No B.S. Advice

You can’t win if you give up and stop playing “the game.”

Rachel Jimenez

I’ve been in your shoes, so I understand how frustrating it can be when people tell you, “Just keep going and believe in yourself.”

That is true, to a certain extent, because you can’t win if you give up and stop playing “the game.”

But it’s also silly to keep playing the same way and expecting different results.

So let me give you some real advice.

1. Work on Your Mindset

This may sound woo-woo (remember, I’m a recovering skeptic, too), but I studied positive psychology because I was genuinely curious if any of the hokey inspirational talk stuff actually worked. And I found out (both from studying research papers and from personal experience) that yes, it does.

I doubt you want to read a 100-page blog post about positive psychology, so here are some interesting articles by positive psychology professors you can read related to my favorite theories:

The PERMA Model of Wellbeing by Martin Seligman

The Concept of Flow by Jeanne Nakamura and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Broaden-and-Build Theory by Barbara Frederickson

Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck

If you want a shortcut, I also created a free webinar that includes an evidence-based hack to literally help you boost your confidence and quiet negative self-talk in 5 minutes or less.

2. Learn

Part of having a growth mindset is believing that your skills can be developed and then putting the time in to develop those skills. There are people successfully doing what you want to achieve. Rather than thinking they have something you’ll never have, try asking yourself, “What skills do they have that I don’t?” and then work to develop those skills too.

The way I see it, we all have three options when it comes to learning.

Option 1:

We can have a fixed mindset, believe our skills can’t be developed, and stop learning all together. Why try if nothing is going to change, right?

Option 2:

We can spend our time learning everything we can by ourselves for free and try to figure out our blind spots alone.

Option 3:

We can have a beginner’s mindset, stay curious, and leverage all of our resources (including time, money, our network, etc.) to learn everything we can to develop our skills.

I’ve tried all of these options and option 3 has been the most powerful.

3. The Stupid Simple 4-Step Formula

Want to know exactly how I made over $3,000 in a day? Here it is:

1. I did keyword research
2. I found a hot keyword that was trending with high search volume and low competition
3. I made a digital product using Canva that matched that keyword exactly
4. I paid for ads to increase my traffic

By following those 4 steps, Google and Etsy sent me both paid and free organic traffic. Shoppers purchased because I solved a problem for them, and there was a match between what they were looking for and what I provided.

The Truth About Passive Income

Remember, none of this would have been possible if I didn’t do all the upfront work with no guarantee of a payoff. 

I had to invest time and money to develop a lot of skills to position myself to be in the right place at the right time.

I had to take a risk and spend money learning from people who knew more than I did.

I had to pay for ads with no guarantee of them paying off.

I had to make products that flopped, learn from those, and keep trying so that I could eventually get data on what worked.

Passive income gets a bad rap because people see the word “passive” and think the beginning of the passive income journey is passive. I can assure you that it is not. In fact, it is anything but passive.

However, the beauty of the passive income business model is that:

1. It allows you to leverage your time. The amount of return you get is not directly proportionate to the amount of time you put in.
2. Like a good stock investment, the time investments you make early on in your passive income journey can pay you dividends for years.

Final Thoughts

If you ever feel skeptical, remember passive income is possible, but it’s not passive in the beginning.

Passive income is possible, but it’s not passive in the beginning.

Rachel Jimenez

If you’re feeling defeated on your passive income journey, remember you can only win if you stay in the game. Try focusing on earning your first passive income dollar, and then once you figure that out, try to make $2, and grow steadily from there.

Still here?

Want a passive income shortcut? Check out my free passive income checklist to get started. 

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P.S. This post contains affiliate links, but I’ll never recommend a product I don’t think is awesome.