10 Equity Sources for the New Generation That Can Support Mental Health & Daily Purpose
Updated: Mar 3
10 entrepreneurial endeavors that provide equity sources to create purpose, passive income, creative catharsis, and how they compliment a stable mental health.
An article by Andrew Kaminski, MFA, MSW candidate
Now, when I say "equity", I'm referring to sources of income that are scaleable. Meaning, you can expand your operation so you don't reach a cap with your profit or impact. It might feel depressing when you work for someone, and you have a cap on how much you get paid. It's actually a law that a corporation is built so that the executive board controls the wealth, and little ol' you are butted out of the decision making process. The stakeholders may be the company members, the employees, and the people being affected by these decisions, but the only policy makers for the internal affairs of that company, by law, are the people on top of this triangle. I don't want that. Do you? There're often a few people getting rich on top and exploiting the bottom majority. The companies that have a core principle of "fair equity at every level of the company" ARE out there, and they ARE amazing. Whenever you sign up to work for any organization, research what their core principles are, and you'll get an idea of if you have a chance of sticking with them. This article is for people who have that "start-up" energy. For the scrappy. The go-getters. The ones who need society, but also don't want to be measured by one reference and be locked into them. The marketplace is vast, and these methods are prone to you changing your point of view that that mistakes are actually learning moments. If one source of income doesn't like you, you are not beholden to them. There are an endless line of people that you are fulfilling a need for, and THAT is your boss. The general population is who you answer to. Finding how to channel your skills and convictions to fulfill a need of an endless pool of potential patrons is the game.
10. Recycling
In the US, the recycling facilities industry is worth $10.2B in 2023 (source). Globally, recycling is But it's not just recycling, it's getting people to recycle. It's then storing the recycling. It's sifting through the recycling, and then it's delivering the recyclables to the businesses that value them. Recycling is a simple business. There are items that can be reused by the companies that originally put them out into the public, and they have operations in their facilities in place to make it more cost effective to re-use those recyclables and channel them back into production, than it is to harvest the metal, petroleum, glass, or cardboard to create new packaging to contain the product that that company sells.
The purpose of Recycling...
Wars are started because a population inhabits a region that has resources that another nation or group of stakeholders wants, and they're willing to fight, or bomb that nation for those resources. To prevent war, and to preserve peace, just cycle back the resources. Also, the environment is poorly maintained, and looks disgraceful when there is mindlessly littered garbage in our backyards, throughout the street, and a place that once allowed natural processes of plant and animals life to not have to manage the co-existence of foreignly placed materials such as glass shards, plastic bottles, and metal cans.
So how do we partner with the mental health sector to use the purpose of recycling to help maintain healthy, beautiful, and clean eco-systems? Attached is a program logic model which illustrates the recycling industry, and there are gaps where Peers and people with lived experience can help.
painting Recycling bins, establish partnerships with local stores to hold a bin, collect and redeem returnables daily.
So, how can we provide equity for someone. What if we could give them $10 a day.
The candidate would have to live within a mile near a can/bottle redemption center. They also need 10 contacts that manage 10 locations within a mile of that can / redemption center. The recycling bins can cost $16.98, and be picked up a local Walmart (pick them up here). If the contacts were restaurants, and had consistent foot traffic, that would be best. The contacts can have a verbal agreement or sign this written agreement. I use "Andrew" as the artist's name, but this is a template for an agreement, and you as the artist looking to accomplish this can substitute this with your name.
The Artist's Recycling Bin Project
Allowing Andrew to store his art recycling bin here means you support a local Artist & Entrepreneur!
Every Wednesday, in the afternoon, Andrew will come to your location, and empty out the recyclables from this painted recycling bin.
In exchange, your business will be part of a network of locations that support an innovative strategy to better our community.
As he recycles, the artist builds not only his personal equity, but you support a relationship with this artist as he maintains a ritual of seeing you each week!
The hope is that because the recycling bin is also a work of art, more people will stop, and engage with the process of recycling in our society. Not to mention - appreciate the artwork painted on this bin!
This project is an experiment. It will teach us how to make recycling an ongoing source of income for artists.
Thank you for your support in allowing your space to be used to support the local artist community. As you help this local artist, another is hope is you will attract customers who appreciate your efforts to incorporate art into your space, customers will appreciate you, and customers will develop deeper loyalty for you.
Keep artists alive, moving, and engaging with the community of Albany!
With love and perseverance,
Andrew Kaminski, Entrepreneur / Artist
Follow me on instagram @andrewkaminskiart
or facebook @andrewjkaminski
Now, this recycling bin project will allow you to get a dollar a day, but it's also an "in" with local business establishments. You literally will have a "foot in the door" with places that allow you to have your recycling bin, but you also maintain a consistent stream of communication with them! You may also establish an "honor system" merchandise exchange, where you have a box, with a slit in it, chained to the table (you never know!), art merchandise on that table with price tags.
According to ChatGPT, The steps for creating a grassroots recycling program that would generate $100 of profit each day in Albany, NY, would include:
1. Researching the current recycling market in Albany, NY
2. Establishing partnerships with local businesses and organizations
3. Developing a detailed marketing strategy
4. Creating a budget for the cost of materials, labor, and other overhead expenses
5. Crafting an implementation plan for collecting and processing recyclable materials
6. Establishing pricing for the recyclable materials
7. Monitoring and evaluating the recycling program’s success
8. Making adjustments to the program as needed to ensure profitability.
9. Artist created. Artist themed rentals for AirBnB.
Imagine this - two artists transform a space together. As they transform the space, they build their friendship, partnership, and create an income source together that they'll split - as visitors will come. One artist can feasibly complete this project as well if they'd rather work alone. It can be a gallery, an immersive experience that visitors travel to, to experience what it's like - inside that artist's mind. This particular project may involve a team of people such as a contractor to make sure the basic necessities of the house meet state regulations. Regulations for NY State can be found here. Please make sure that wherever you decide to create your AirBnb, you make sure your property meets these regulations. If this is a long term investment, then a loan from a bank would be necessary, so a point person between the bank that would dole out the funds would be required to facilitate the deed be of the real estate property be transferred to the artist(s).
8. Murals -
Approach a business with a wall. Your pitch can be this:
"Do you have a logo? Can I paint your logo onto that wall outside for $100?
You can pay after I've completed it. If you don't like it, I can cover it up."
If you do a good job, why would they ask you to cover it up. Sure it's a risk, but if you want to paint a mural, take the risk. I never encourage artists to do anything purely for "exposure", but this surely beats being isolated in your house. The only startup costs are some primer to lay out on the wall. You'll want to do a few layers to make sure the potentially porous and none-white surface is thoroughly primed for whatever colors you'll need. Once you paint their logo - and they pay you - you essentially have your foot in the door with that business. You've established that 1. You're reliable. 2. They can do business with you. And 3. You do a damn good job painting a mural. You've also given them a tremendous value by giving them an advertisement. And you - as the artist - have continued to hone in your skills, while exposing your presence to all the passerby.
If you want to push the envelope, then design a mural that has your artistic and personal iconic imagery in it which will now INCLUDE their logo. I know.. I know... but their logo sucks and it's not as beautiful as my artwork - you may say - ok, it's a small price to pay to have your artwork shared commercially with your style for the whole world to see. Your style, your characters, and all the things that you care about can co-exist alongside their logo. Again, it beats just staying in your studio all day, without anyone seeing anything you've done.
Again - since the business will already have established a positive business transaction with you, they may be more open to having you do a more elaborate mural.
Another strategy is to do as many logos on as many walls as possible. You are taking a risk because if you paint the logo without getting any money upfront, they may not necessarily pay you. Chances are they will appreciate your work so much, that you can hold them to it!
A simple and short contract you can use is the following:
Mural Contract
Andrew, the artist agrees to paint a mural of your logo on the wall you agree to. After the logo is painted, the business agrees to pay him $100 if the business likes it. If the business doesn't like it, he can spray wash it away.
_______________________________
Artist signature
_______________________________
Business owner signature
If you complete 10 logo murals, in a week, you'll have earned $1000. You can use the recycling bin as an "in" from the previous strategy, and this will be the very first step and easy way to make an in with the business to do the logo, and since they already have seen your "mural" on your recycling bin, they may be eager to have you show off more of that style, instead of just their logo. You have to climb to the point where you are doing large scale murals.
7. Build a subscriber base for a personalized podcast
Do you have a special topic that you can talk about for hours? Or perhaps you want to talk about something different every week. What's your name? It could be the Tammy Weekly Podcast, or the Peter's Podcast. The trick with this entrepreneurial project is to solidify doing this podcast every week, or at least in a habitual routine. Once you get started, continue to develop it. Also, develop a marketing routine. Adjust your marketing routine to increase profitability. To monetize your podcast, create a subscriber option for people to patronize you with. You can simply drop your venmo handle if you want people to give you a one time payment. You can also have them be a subscriber through your patreon. You can get started with patreon here.
6. Gardening, farming, Compost management, and Food Production
As Vandana Shiva suggests, local farmers are the the greatest and most cutting edge revolutionaries. Get involved with your local urban farm, and learn the process. This is the greatest promise in entrepreneurship. From one seed can create an endless amount of crops, to be sold to restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, and CSA members. Believe in yourself! Grow food! Be part of the food revolution! For inspiration, check out the radix sustainability center in Albany. Study them. See if you can replicate their model. The more places like the radix center - the better. The idea is to keep all the resources of a community, within a community. We cannot control the oil embargoes happening throughout the world, or a shortage of apples from Pennsylvania, or the drug cartels seizing the avocado industry - we don't have control over any of that. However, we have more control over our backyard simply because of our proximity to it. We might as well invest into the growing our food right in our backyard, and help launch as many urban farms and gardens as possible so even if global trade coming into our local community ceases - we remain stacked with food sources - right around the block!
5. Artist Book Partnership Contract
Say you have one person who is great at illustration. Say you have another person who is well versed in working with people in addiction. If these two people who can expand their audience if they work together, partner, then they'll double their revenue because they'll be reaching twice the audience. Actually, there is a magic that can happen when two people come together on a collaboration, and their audience won't just double - their collaboration might be an alchemical combination that produces something that neither party expected - and therefore creates a result that more than just doubles their potential audience, but can resonate with people all throughout the world.
4. Animal care - Dog Walking, pet care
Taking care of pets can create purpose in life. If you don't have a dog, consider ways you can get yourself out there to let people know that you're willing to walk their dog, watch their cat, feed their cat, water their plants.
3. Loneliness Reduction
This idea emerged from knowing how harmful loneliness can be on the human psyche. To merge the presence of one lonely group with a group that is willing to spend time with them is a brilliant goal. The positive feeling that can occur from creating partnerships between a residence that has aging people, and a dog walker - this could be big business. Bring the warm, and loving energy of a dog into that of an aging home. I'd recommend getting the dog licensed as an emotional support dog, which is a procedure you can register with here.
2. Job Coaching for People with disabilities
People with disabilities are often dying to get hired, and find the right place to work. Pick up a position where you are a coach that makes those connections happen.
1. Artist mentorship
Some people may ask how I survived a life threatening neurological imbalance from a few years ago, and how I use zero pharmaceutical medications at this time. The answer is - I developed a system to focus my thoughts. What has set me a part from my friends that killed themselves or overdosed isn't only the societal privileges I've been dealt - as I know more privileged white men who killed themself through their own hands or through drug overdose than I can keep track of. I may rate high on the behavioral trait of 'openness', and this led me to open up to the 8 dimensions of Wellness used by Dr. Mary Ellen Copeland, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.
The 8 dimensions of Wellness are:
1. Physical 2. Emotional 3. Intellectual 4. Social 5. Financial 6. Occupational 7. Spiritual 8. Environmental
If one of the 8 falls, they generally all fall.
To prevent that, have a feedback loop in your head that reminds you to do 5 daily / weekly habits that address each of the dimensions. A feedback loop is a statement (or mantra) you repeat as often as possible.
For example, for physical - tell yourself - “My five habits are: get up at 5 am every day, be asleep by 10 pm (7 hours of sleep), Stretch each day, right before your run (which is an example of habit stacking). Run. Nutrition - have lemon water, celery juice, and a heavy metal detox smoothie (Medical Medium) every morning. Finally, use a sauna every day at the local Y if you can.
If at first you don't succeed, allow the mantra to repeat, until you have it down to an unbreakable ritual. You can do it! It just takes repetition and not giving up!
This is a meditation and method to focus in mental dialogue, as opposed to letting the mind wander and get you into trouble as the mind inevitably will if it’s not reigned in.