Passive Income Is Neither

By Ken Hollow, digitally exhausted and financially underwhelmed

Let me preface this by saying I did everything “right.”

I followed the gurus. I watched the webinars. I took notes in Notion like my life depended on it (because, in a way, it did). And then I did the thing every creator is told to do:

I built “passive income.”

Four mini-courses, three digital templates, and a Notion bundle that was, according to one business coach, “exactly what the market needs right now.”

And after all that? After the sales page copy, the launch graphics, the late-night edits, and the endless SEO-optimized Pinterest pins?

I made $12.43.

Before taxes.

Let’s unpack the scam, shall we?

🔹 The Myth of Effortless Earnings

They sell it like this:

• “Make money in your sleep!”
• “Turn your expertise into a digital product!”
• “Let your content work for you!”

What they don’t tell you:

• You’ll sleep less than ever while building it.
• Your expertise becomes a commodity that dies in Gumroad limbo.
• The only thing working is your caffeine dependency.

✅ Passive income is not passive. It is work you do now, in exchange for money you may never see.

🔹 Building the Thing Is Just the Beginning

Creating the product? That’s the easy part.

Then comes:

• The sales funnel from hell
• Email sequences that sound like a robot trying to sell hope
• Launch copy that walks the tightrope between “inspiring” and “desperate”
• Setting up payment links, thank you pages, and a Zapier automation that breaks every third day

By the time you hit publish, you’ve aged six months and spiritually molted.

✅ Nothing screams “freedom” like watching your checkout page crash at 11:59 PM on launch night.

🔹 No One Cares About Your Canva Template

It hurts, but it’s true.

The market is flooded. There are 3,000 Notion planners for every mood, moon phase, and mental breakdown.

Everyone is selling a content calendar.
Everyone thinks they’re helping.
Everyone is trapped in the same cycle of low-effort value posts with pastel gradients.

✅ I once sold a “Client Workflow Hub” to someone who immediately asked for a refund because it “felt too organized.”

🔹 The Psychology of Pricing Despair

Charge too little? You look amateur.
Charge too much? You’re a scammer.

You settle on $27. Then run a “limited-time” discount. Then test $17. Then try $9 because maybe they just need a little nudge.

Result: Still no sales. Plus the emotional damage of watching 38 people click the product page and abandon cart like it’s a haunted house.

✅ I have changed prices more times than I’ve done laundry.

🔹 The “Evergreen” Lie

Your funnel is not evergreen. Your content is not evergreen. Your sanity is not evergreen.

What they mean by “evergreen” is “you’ll still be marketing this six months from now because no one bought it the first time.”

My evergreen funnel now exists as a graveyard of automated emails that trigger at exactly the wrong times.

✅ A funnel without leads is just a sad Choose Your Own Adventure no one clicks.

🔹 The Creator-to-Creator Economy

The only people buying these digital products… are other creators making digital products.

It’s a loop.
We are the market.
We are the target audience.
We are the scam and the scammed.

✅ I once bought a mini-course on passive income while building my own passive income course. It taught me nothing. I still thanked them in the DMs.

🔹 The Launch Spiral

I’ve done it all:

• Countdown stickers
• Pre-launch hype posts
• “BTS of building this for you” reels
• Email subject lines with [FIRST NAME FIX] still showing

And when it flops?

• The shame spiral
• The self-blame
• The “maybe I need a new niche” spiral
• The 3AM idea to pivot to drop shipping

✅ Nothing says self-worth crisis like watching your launch get one like… from your mom.

🔹 Final Thoughts (While Canceling My ConvertKit Subscription)

Passive income is neither passive nor income.

It’s a dream sold in carousel format. A hustle disguised as freedom. A funnel-shaped mirage.

Could it work eventually? Maybe.
Will I try again? Probably.
Will I cry into my Notion dashboard while doing it? Absolutely.

But for now, I’ll be here.

Refunding someone for a $12 template they downloaded and “didn’t vibe with.”

Ken Hollow, financially underwhelmed but emotionally branded