WITH many families up and down the country feeling a huge strain as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, it seems that more and more people are looking for alternative ways to bring in cash.

Mum-of-two Lisa Johnson, 45, from Lincolnshire, is a woman who grew up on a council estate and found herself in £30,000 of debt, but has now made £10 million in five years, all of which started from a side hustle. 

Lisa now lives in Bedfordshire and has just released her book – Make Money Online. 

Now a Global Business Strategist, Lisa has worked with various celebrities and well-established entrepreneurs and works just 30 hours a month, but makes £4 million a year.

Lisa uses the internet's potential to create passive and semi-passive income streams, as she aims to help others achieve the same – to work smarter, not harder.

Lisa told Fabulous: “I didn’t make any money until I was 40. People always think that you have to start younger but I was in debt until I was 40-years-old.

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“I grew up in council housing and left school at 16 because I was bullied for being poor.

“I clawed my way up from an office junior earning £35 a week, to working in the City as a Risk Analyst so was doing ok for someone with my background.

“Then I got pregnant with twins and it changed everything. I was 35 at the time, I split up with my husband very soon afterwards so I was on my own with two toddlers and was trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get out of £30,000 of debt.

“I thought I would start a business so I first started a wedding side hustle and made all the mistakes and realised that I would need to learn properly if I wanted to succeed so I started to read every book on business, on self-development. 

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“I went to all the free webinars online and turned that wedding business around and from that side hustle I made as much profit as I did in my 9-5.

“Organically people started to ask me how I did it and I realised that I’d done it for a couple of years at this point, I had just hit 40 and thought, I don’t wanna be working every weekend and never see my kids again.”

I grew up in council housing and left school at 16 because I was bullied for being poor.

Lisa explained that she put her wedding side hustle to the side and started a consulting business, to encourage others to start their own businesses.

She continued: “So I started Lisa Johnson Strategy, to teach other people how to start their own side hustles and their own businesses.

“It went really well, I earnt £220,000 in that first year which was more money than I had ever seen in my life.

“I was able to pay off debt and that was great. But I was taking on one-to-one clients and was getting burned out because there’s only so much time in a day and I was trying to juggle parenting with kids and trying to run a business and everything that comes with that.

“After the first year I forgot to pick the kids up from school one day that I was supposed to and I realised that I had to change something. I had given up my 9-5 but was working from 6am to 11pm.

“I thought, ok, there must be a different way of making money through side hustles so that I can work less hours. I started looking up passive income, so things like memberships, courses – so basically, thinking about what you know and selling it online. I started to add that into my business and everything changed.

“In the first year I was working 80 hours a week and was making £220,000, but in the second year I was working 30 hours a month and was making £1 million. 

“Now, four years later, I work 30 hours a month and make £4 million a year.

“I only work a four day week. If we’re launching something I can work four hours a day, but other times I can work for an hour. Some weeks I won’t work at all, it varies and depends if I’m travelling or not.

“I don’t work for half of July, any of August and then half of September. I travel most of the time – I’m in Puerto Rico next week, then Miami and then Barbados.

“It’s been a crazy four years and that’s why I wrote the book to help people figure out what knowledge they have in their head that they can sell.

“I have clients who make over £1 million through their love of theatre, helping people through divorce, I have people who make thousands every month from hula hooping or teaching people how to potty train kids. 

“I’ve worked with 6,000 people now to help them pursue side hustles that become more profitable in less time than their actual job.

“I have a course that comes out every March, called One To Many, and in that course, it’s 12-weeks and I teach people how to make money online, using knowledge in their heads and through memberships, courses, workshops, e-books, that kind of thing.

“That course makes me £2million in a week. I made £1 million in the first hour, from the course, in 2020 when Covid hit. 

“I have a team of ten now that consists of my husband, my sister, my two best friends, all people that I know.”

That course makes me £2million in a week. I made £1 million in the first hour, from the course, in 2020 when Covid hit.

Lisa explained that for those looking to start earning passive income, courses and memberships are worth looking into.

She advised: “Courses are the one to go on. Courses, online workshops and memberships are the top three.

“With courses, you can sell something really small. It’s about volume – selling to lots of people instead of selling really high ticket items to one person.

“With courses, it’s about teaching something, so if you know how to play the guitar, or can tell people about how to get over heartache, or sex, or dating, or writing, you can do a course on that.” 

If you want to get started out but aren’t sure what to do first, Lisa recommends using her paper hack.

She explained: “The first thing to do is get a big piece of paper and write down everything you know. From whatever the job is that you do now, what are the transferable skills you have from that.

“Do you use social media all the time, could you teach people about social media? 

What job do you have now that you can teach people about?

“Then look at past jobs you’ve had, maybe you worked in customer services at a call center and so you know about selling and you could teach people how to sell well. 

“If you can’t find anything from those two things, go to hobbies and lifestyles. What life experience have you got that you can help other people with?” 

If you are looking for more information on how to succeed, Lisa recommends following her CASSH system.

She continued: “I have a system called the CASSH system – it’s the five steps of starting to make money.

“The first step is working out who you are going to help and what your knowledge is.

“The second is growing an audience online, whether that’s Facebook, Instagram or an email list.

“The third is working out what system you are going to use, there’s loads of easy and sometimes free systems to put courses on.

“Next is how to launch your course, and then how to keep your customers happy and keep going over and over again, because then it becomes really passive.

“Don’t think that you have to start massively and don’t believe that to be an expert at something you need to be the biggest guru in the world.

“You have to work out why you are doing it – you need to figure out what you want the money for.

“When I first started, my motivation was to get out of debt. And then once I did that I wrote a list of things that I really wanted in that year.

“I hadn’t had new make-up for six to seven years because I had kids and couldn't afford it, so one was to buy new make-up. 

“I wrote 20 different things down, ending in first class flights to New York and because I knew what I was doing it for, it was easier for me to motivate myself when things were hard. I got all 20 things in the first year. 

“The motivation is never the money, it’s what the money is going to do.”

According to Lisa, succeeding with a side hustle is all about working smarter, not harder.

People say that they don’t have time to start a business, but then they watch three hours of Netflix every night. 

She added: “When people normally work, they trade time for money. 

“What you could do is teach people your skills and instead of someone paying you each time for a job you do, there could be 1,000 people paying you at the same time. 

“And then you could record that, put it out next year as a course and it takes none of your time, but you will still get a lot of money. 

“It’s about thinking of ways to make money that don’t include your time. If we keep trading time for money, we will always hit a ceiling, as we only have so much time.

“Instead of working one-to-one, it’s about working one-to-many – that way you can make much more money.

Lisa further highlighted the importance of mindset and dedication if you want to succeed.

She concluded: “You have to have the right mindset to succeed. You have to believe that money is out there to be able to go and earn it.

“When starting your side hustle alongside a 9-5, you need to be really good with your time. Be really intentional about every single thing that you do. 

“People say that they don’t have time to start a business, but then they watch three hours of Netflix every night. 

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“When I started my business, I had toddler twins and was on my own so all I could do was 6-7am, my lunch break and 8-10pm.

“If you want something hard enough, you will do it.” 

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