Beyond the Hustle: Building Wealth with Products, Merch & Books

"Your brilliance deserves to live on more than your calendar—it deserves a shelf, a tote, a book, and a storefront." — Nyara

Luna Matatas slew of products from her website

When it comes to sustaining and scaling your brand, especially in sexuality-focused or adult-aligned businesses, you can’t rely on service income alone. Whether you’re a coach, content creator, therapist, educator, or erotic entrepreneur, there’s power—and profit—in offering tangible (or downloadable!) products. In my experience, I've learned from one of the greatest people I know in this industry who always has an assortment of products to choose from - Luna Matatas. From on-demand classes to stickers to shirts to sex toy bags (and don't forget her legendary Peg the Patriarchy slogan), Luna gives you a range of products to choose from, which ultimately helps to diversify her income.

As a creative, you have the opportunity to implement your ideas and sell them in hopes that people will love what you have. And remember, if people don't take to them (after marketing them, of course), then you can move on and create something new!

From branded merchandise to signature books and digital products, let’s break down how you can expand your income by putting your brilliance on the (virtual) shelves.

🛍️ Why Diversifying with Products Makes Sense

Services are beautiful. They’re personalized, high-touch, and transformative. But they’re also time-bound, which can cause personal constrictions. When your calendar is full or your energy is low, your income can hit a ceiling. But not when you have an array of diverse income to pull from.

Merchandise and products help you:

• Make money while you sleep. Who doesn't like to make money in their sleep?

• Reach new audiences who want a piece of your work but aren’t ready (or able) for a higher-ticket service. This is a great way to keep your message accessible in product format with people who want to support you in some way.

• Reinforce your brand and keep your message in the hands, minds, and bedrooms of your audience. Just having a sticker alone can reinforce people of the work that you do every single time they see it.

• Create multiple entry points for potential clients to get to know your magic. Think of these as mini lead magnets that can spur your clients into action.

🧢 What to Sell: Merch Ideas

Merch can be fun, meaningful, cheeky, or educational—whatever suits your brand’s flavor, and whatever feeds into your creativity. Thinking about what you sell and how it can be useful to others is essential to being as impactful as you can.

Here are ideas that work across our various niches:

• Branded Apparel: Tees, hoodies, hats with bold messages, taglines, or affirmations.

• Stickers + Pins: Low-cost, high-impact, perfect for events or mailing lists.

• Tote Bags + Mugs: Especially great with sex-positive or empowering slogans.

• Art Prints or Posters: Think quotes, illustrations, infographics, or inclusive representations of intimacy and pleasure.

• Consent Cards or Affirmation Decks: Small items with big potential for education and pleasure. There are a lot of people that have these as really great low-cost lead magnets.

📘 Books & Digital Products

Books (whether self-published or traditionally published) solidify your authority. They’re also evergreen assets—once written, they can sell for years with the right strategy. The royalties are nice to have every once in a while and it's definitely worth the reference when you are promoting yourself.

Other digital products to consider:

• Ebooks or Zines: Bite-sized, beautiful, and educational.

• Workbooks & Guides: Great for niche needs or kink/pleasure education.

• Courses or Masterclasses: Pre-recorded and scalable. And also licensable!

• Templates & Toolkits: Offer your behind-the-scenes systems to other professionals.

🔧 How to Make It Happen

1. Start Small, Scale Up: Begin with one or two items that align with your audience’s interests and your brand values. See how they sell once you consistently market them and get people on the bandwagon.

2. Use Print-on-Demand Services: These reduce upfront costs and storage needs (e.g., Printful, Teespring). Make sure that you do thorough research to see about profit percentages and if the ROI makes sense.

3. Self-Publish Strategically: Platforms like Amazon KDP or Gumroad make digital sales easy. If you self-publish make sure that you think about whether you want to create another company for that. It might be more work, but people find that you have more authority when the publisher is not the same company as your own.

4. Bundle & Upsell: Combine products with services for extra value (e.g., book + consultation). Everyone loves a package deal, so create a bundle that holds value.

5. Ask Your Audience: Poll your followers on what they’d love to see or buy! And then create it to see how they take to it!

💡 Final Thoughts

Merchandise, books, and products are not just about making more money—they’re about expanding your reach, reinforcing your brand identity, and creating long-term sustainability.

When done with intention, product-based income isn’t just extra cash—it’s legacy work and that is how you build rapport and become successful.

Cheers to your professional sexcess!