Update: I stopped pitching my side hustle as 'passive income' and my close rate doubled in 3 weeks
I run a small lawn care thing on Saturdays and for about 4 months I kept telling people it was 'passive income' because that's what every YouTube guy says. Last month a guy in my neighborhood actually laughed and said 'nothing about mowing is passive, quit lying to me.' So I dropped that word completely and just said 'I mow your yard every other Saturday for $45, you never think about it again.' I booked 6 new clients in 3 weeks after averaging maybe 1 every 2 weeks before that. Turns out people don't want passive income, they want to not think about their lawn. Anyone else notice the word 'passive' scares regular customers off more than it pulls them in?
Doesn't "passive" basically tell the customer that you're getting paid for nothing? That's a weird thing to brag about, of course it turns people off. What they really want to hear is that the work is off their plate, not that you barely lift a finger.