Beyond the Wick: Crafting Wealth Your Way "Built from scratch. Crafted for greatness
This isn’t your average business podcast.
Not Just Candle Talk is the unapologetic, unfiltered audio home for ambitious entrepreneurs, creatives, and side-hustlers ready to do business on their own terms — no fluff, no fake motivation.
Founded on real experience and raw truth, this podcast dives into the real-life challenges behind the candle business and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your empire, every episode is packed with lessons, strategies, and mindset shifts to help you build a business and a life you don’t need to escape from.
Hey, I’m Toni, and I know what it’s like to start from scratch.
When I launched my candle business, I had big dreams but limited resources — no investors, no fancy marketing team, just grit, Google, and a lot of trial and error. I built my brand from the ground up, burned out more times than I can count, and learned to pivot, scale, and get smart about what really makes money in this game.
Not Just Candle Talk was born out of my journey — the highs, the hustle, the hard lessons — and the deep desire to have conversations no one else is having in entrepreneurship. The stuff beyond the surface. The why behind the work.
This Podcast Is For You If…
- You’re tired of overnight success stories with no receipts.
- You want to make real money while staying true to yourself.
- You believe business can be both profitable and purposeful.
- You’re building your brand while managing your real life.
Beyond the Wick: Crafting Wealth Your Way "Built from scratch. Crafted for greatness
Hustle Hard or Hardly Hustling? The Path to Extra Cash
The modern financial landscape demands creative thinking beyond the traditional paycheck. As we explore the nuanced differences between side hustles and passive income, we uncover that while many use these terms interchangeably, they represent fundamentally different approaches to building wealth.
Side hustles demand your ongoing time and active participation—freelance writing, graphic design, rideshare driving, or selling handcrafted products. They generate immediate income but require continuous work. Contrast this with passive income streams that function with minimal intervention after initial setup—rental properties, digital products, investments, or dropshipping businesses. The magic of passive income lies in its ability to generate revenue while you sleep, creating financial freedom with less day-to-day involvement.
What's fascinating is how both paths can transform your financial reality, and how often they begin as simple hobbies that unexpectedly evolve into income streams. Whether you're actively trading time for money or building systems that work for you, both approaches have merit depending on your resources, lifestyle, and goals. The accessibility of information and resources today makes these financial strategies more attainable than ever before. What hobby might become your next income stream? Share your experiences with side hustles or passive income, and join us for a potential follow-up episode where we dive deeper into these wealth-building strategies.
Hello world, welcome back to Not Just Candle Talk. Today we're diving into the world of side hustle versus passive income. Many people use these terms interchangeably. Right, but are they really the same or do they serve a different financial goal? By the end of this episode we will have a little clarity. Hopefully we're going to give some examples of both and see you know where they're at. Are they different? The same? So let's let's get into it.
Speaker 1:All right, by definition, let's go into side hustle first. By definition, a side hustle is an active way to earn extra income outside of your main job. Ok, it requires ongoing effort and time invested. Examples of some side hustles a few side hustles freelance writing, graphic design, becoming a virtual assistant, ride share driving that could be a side hustle. Selling products, t-shirts, candles, those things. Even having an Etsy account that could be a side hustle. Social media management and content creation Some people do that as a side hustle. House cleaning, some of those services or things like that can become a side hustle. It can generate a good income as well. But they demand continuous work. Right, you got to be there, you got to be invested. But those are just a few examples of the side hustle and, like I said they are. They're great ways to generate income.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about passive income real quick. By definition, passive income is money earned with minimum ongoing effort After the initial setup. It often requires upfront investment in time, money or both. Examples of a few passive incomes are Having a rental property, earning rent from your tenant that could be a passive income. Creating digital products If you're a creator, if you are a writer, you can write eBooks, online courses, you can do photography that could be passive income. Or actually, you know, photography could be a hobby. I mean, photography could be a hobby. I mean, I'm sorry, a hobby or a side hustle. Affiliate marketing you can earn commission from referrals. Investing in stocks, stocks, bonds, buying CDs that could be a form of passive income. And, of course, everybody knows about having your own website and doing drop shipping or print on demand products. That could be passive income.
Speaker 1:It takes time to build with passive income, but you can generate a good amount of money and it doesn't require you to be actively working. You can make money while you sleep and I like that's a good thing. So Are they? Are they the same? Are they different? Are they the same? I guess it depends on where you're at in your life and your and your needs financially. Both can create a way, an avenue, for financial freedom, of course, if that's, if that's a thing that that that you think you can accomplish, that you think you can accomplish. Both requires work, right? Both require some type of your attention. Both can supplement your main income and help build wealth over time.
Speaker 1:And I guess, like I said before, like a lot of hobbies, can turn into either or, right, you know, sometimes you might have a hobby and you're not even thinking about making making any money. It's something that you enjoy doing and before you know it, you know someone sees it or hears about it. They say, hey, you know how much you charge. Or, you know, have you ever thought about doing this? You know to make income. And next thing, you know you have either or side hustle or passive income. And you know, everybody's not about neither. Some people, they just say I just want my paycheck and I'm fine.
Speaker 1:But I think, in today's economical world that we're in, I think it's something that people give thought to, because a lot of people say, hey, this is doable, it's doable. You know, a lot of times, years, years before, sometimes things were not as doable, or we thought that was the fact, that was the case. I can't do it because I can't. You know, I don't have any, I don't have an avenue to get to, uh, um, the resources for that, those things. But now you know it's, it's, it's a common thing, now it's talked about and and shared and viewed um, everywhere you look and go. Um, so for me, uh, I've done both. Like I said, I'm one of the people that, for me, is interchangeable. I've done both and it works out for me. I've done it since the beginning of time when I started actually making money. I have always been uncomfortable with whatever I was doing, so I had got out my comfort zone and, hey, let me try this, let me try that, but holding on to my main source of income as well. And you know it works, it works, it really does. Whatever, like I said, wherever you at in your life, um and what you, what you have going on is is is, uh, it's a, it's a good thing, it's never a bad thing. Um.
Speaker 1:So this one is just a quick overview because it's not too much to talk about so much information about these two topics. Side hustle is me, it's not, it's not a. It's really not a versus. It's what you can do where you're at and your resources, and if you're goal-oriented. Not everybody is, and that's fine. But I just want to touch on it real quick.
Speaker 1:Drop a few examples. I know a lot of people still to this day, a lot of people who don't know where to go to start, right. But you know, sometimes they're just doing something as, like I said, as a hobby and not realizing that they can actually make money from it. Send your kids to college or whatever, I don't know. But, like I said, I just want to touch on it real quick. If anybody have any thoughts, share your thoughts. What's your favorite ways to make extra money? I will do a part two if anybody want to come on and share where they're at and, and just you know, have a discussion about verses or one or the other. Always as always, thank you for listening and I'll catch you on the other end. Bye.