It took me days to read this thread.
I will step in and revive this with my own experience.
During one phase of my life I studied
art in college. I had already attained professional status and though it was harder to compete in competitions and shows, I dutifully did so. It was actually NICE to drop to amateur/student standing (for three years). The person I studied under (we were on quarters) gave you one quarter 'free' then as an integral part of your grades, you had to go
sell your stuff at some show, sale, art fair, or even put up a cardtable in the student union and display what you did and let the great wide world sneer at your works. He said in four years you do your show, get your degree, and if you aren't making a living at it, you wasted your time, his time, and your money. You were there to learn to become an artist and do art. He made you face reality. I left after 3 years because he left, and the replacement was 'art for the sake of art' (he didn't care how it was made) and didn't care if nobody else appreciated it and if you were getting the idea of how to turn it into your living. He graded majors and non-majors differently and dictated what I should make if I wanted a grade (my style was not his style). In 11 years the only piece he 'sold' (fired clay) was a piece loaned to a show that got stolen while in the delivery trailer after the show. So the show insurance had to pay up for what he had it marked at. After the third quarter and the third intervention by the dean about grades, I left the program (I was at 'do my show' and graduate).
Later I did contract artist work, shows, fairs, etc. A third was fill the table/booth, a third was client contract (they told me and I made it) and a third was what I wanted to do. However I made a living at it. Not great and not a 9-5 job but I actually brought in money, paid overhead, health insurance and bills. I was in a tech and tourist town, and there was a foofle by someone that had a major blowout in media because they were doing things like a picture of Jesus crucified in a pan of
urine, and was furious nobody wanted to buy his 'art' or give him money to make his art. He went for an Endowment for the Arts from the government and was turned down so he had a hissfit all over the news. Someone wrote into the editor, not me, and said: there are numerous shows and street fairs and other venues year around, there are 57 galleries listed in the phone book. If you can't sell your art, then don't expect someone to support you and give you money to do so. It's not your given right, it's your privilege. Many artists and artisans live here and DO make a living selling what they make. Either make art that sells or quit making art. Or go work somewhere to pay your bills and continue to put pictures in pans of urine. I certainly don't want your art and nobody can force me to pay for your art (the endowment he couldn't get, paid for by taxpayers).
Back to permaculture. You may have the goods others need, but. If you aren't getting money for it, the money you think you deserve (and true, it may truly be worth it, but), then you may need to rethink your entire plan and your life too.
I am 'doing' some practices that can be considered permaculture, and I am reducing my NEED for income which is an easier thing to do, than to generate MORE income. I provide for myself, THEN maybe I can do and show others. I can build a product someone wants. If it's not selling then I either need to change my product, how I'm producing it, and/or my market and
marketing. Nobody owes me. I only owe myself. Yes I have a right to be paid for what I do. I have a right to make a living wage (however you define it) and I am in a country where I still can (despite some regulations, laws, ordinances, and neighbors) strike out and do so, or attempt to do so.
Nobody has to buy my art, my tomatoes, or my services. I sure want them to, though. That want and need to do so is what keeps me going. I will pay for good content, but. Sometimes it needs to be smaller chunks that are affordable to the one looking at it, or is so useful it is worth eating scrap soup for a month and putting another patch on the jeans to get it. (whether it is information, tools, seeds, etc)
And yes it's massively frustrating to get around some of the uninformed and clueless to provide what's needed while getting something in return. I had done many shows where I barely had enough to open the cash box and had nothing for food, lodging, or getting home...if I didn't sell I was starving and walking and sleeping under the bridge. I always managed. I also met many that were so business that they refused to do anything resembling a fellow merchant discount or anything less than full price cash. I always spoke 'barter' but not freely. Meet someone else that did, and it was usually the best dealings ever. Don't give away the store, but. I have many things that I use and treasure that I acquired that way and I hope they're still happy too with their half of the deal. Barter may not pay the rent but it did get me that slightly preowned and preloved tool that they didn't want, or food, or gas money (one event was very horrid weather and otherwise a bust and the fellow couldn't get home. I was local, so. I emptied my cash box, he sold me some stock he had, and he got home. We are still good friends a few decades later...)
We all want Permaculture to work for us, else we wouldn't be here. It's just making it provide for us that can be difficult. If your business plan isn't working you need to look at your business plan. If your market isn't there you need to look at your market and marketing as well as what you're offering. $3 a pound tomatoes aren't going to sell at the farmer's market when there are eight other booths with an abundance of similar product going for 50c a pound...
If $1000 classes aren't selling, you need to look for a different market, or offer a different sort of content, or look at the pricing. I have been known to be flat on my back in the ER, someone is sewing up my foot and the head end is talking to the nurses about the brooch on my coat they're admiring and handing out business
cards... and selling the brooch to one of them.
That's my ramble. We should all be able to do what we love, and make a living at it. Just that getting the two to mesh can be more difficult than you think. And yes, I've taken on 10-20 year projects that it will take my blood, sweat, tears, and starving to get the payoff. It's hard sometimes to keep at it long enough to get the reward. I agree, it stinks. It's what happens.