I changed a side hustle in $ 20,000 in a month-working part-time without a college degree

It is based on a conversation with an Oregon-based entrepreneur, who was out of college to pursue a career in the user-generated material (UGC). The 30 -year -old Rolkin broke six figures in 2022 with his UGC side’s uproar, earning six figures at the top of $ 160,000 in his full -time corporate role at one point. He has been since transition in creative strategy consultation to focus on building his business, UGC ProThis piece is edited for length and clarity.

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I grew up in a single-mother-father’s house, so it was my mother, raising me, my brother and my sister. My father originally left us in financial ruin because how the divorce was played. I was a free lunch baby who was going to high school. I knew that a four -year -old state college was not on the table because I could not tolerate it, and I did not want to take a student loan.

Therefore, in 2013, all my friends were excited when I was going to school where they were going to school, I was trying to be creative and find an alternative route. I worked in my senior year in my senior year, to bear the first semester of the Community College; I enrolled, but very soon it collapsed at me that I was just following social norms and was working so hard for some that I was not a passion.

I wanted to go to the content creation. Instagram was still very new. Stories and reels were not present. When I thought what I wanted to do, I had no words for it, but it was a user-generated material (UGC)-I wanted to work with brands on Instagram. I wanted to deal with a bore, where I did, where I would say, “Hey, if you send me this product that I want, but do not want to pay for it, then I can make a very good video about it, and then you can post it to your social people.” When I lived in Orlando, I did so for a long time working as a part -time tour guide in Disney.

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It was not till 2018, when I worked in a digital marketing agency, I realized that I was making UGC for these brands.

I really worked hard to create a portfolio between 2014 and 2015. In those early days, I charged around $ 25 per hour for my work. I was still staying at home. I will stay all night after my day’s job. Apart from this, when I decided to start making my portfolio, I did not tell my mother that I was not enrolling in Community College for another semester. I told myself that I will give it a year to do the work of composition of material.

In about eight months, I got my first contract with the Proctor Galaghar Institute. From Bob Proctor Secret My first customer was. He has since passed away since then, but it was an incredible first contract, and at that time, paid about $ 30,000 for that quarter of that year. This was the most money I ever saw in my whole life.

This gave me the luxury to be able to go to the West Coast. I wanted to go to Los Angeles to accelerate my learning state, real -life experience. I knew that if I do not have a degree to indicate, I would have to do a portfolio jam-pack with incredible work. In LA, I fell into the impressive world. I was creative direction, editing video. Essentially, I was creating a creative strategy – focused on how to stop scrolling and watch videos. It was like wild vest because many of those affected were not working with HR helmets.

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By the fall of 2018, I was ready to leave that world and go to the corporate. I wanted a work-life balance to an extent, and I could rely with health benefits to create a salary. Due to the real -life experience collected between 2014 and 2018, I got my first agency job in Mousix. I did not realize how much it was really an opportunity, but how would people say that they are pre-twitter or pre-matta, in marketing space, to say that you lift a lot of weight in pre-matix.

Even though I had mostly biological social experience till this point, thankfully he saw what I was able to do and translated my skills into direct reaction marketing. Then I came to know that the material I was editing for these brands is UGC, and I have been doing it for more than four years. I also continued UGC products as a side hustle while working on my full-time corporate role.

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I finally felt as if I was getting more financially stable. I had no longer had to rely on my credit card. I had the luxury to be able to pay my loans and start making money. I earned $ 70,000 in that full-time corporate job and took the UGC projects as they came, but it was not until 2020 that the side hustle became a consistent opportunity with the ability to make real money-and originally doubled my salary.

After Mutesix, I acted as a senior producer in a female clothing brand, but a week before the epidemic was a hit, I resigned from the situation because it was not a good fit. Without a corporate income stream, I started creating my UGC counseling services. Until the collapse of 2021, I took a job of another full -time creative strategy, but with everyone I was building my UGC side hustle business and continued to do so even when I started working as a creative director of another brand in 2023. At that time, I was making $ 160,000. I also went out of LA, but the company continued to pay my competitive salary. I also officially hit more than $ 100,000 in the annual revenue with the uproar of my UGC side.

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So I had this six-hearted side business that I worked 10-15 hours a week. It was a stable work with three main customers and topical uniform projects. Once I guessed that I would do more than $ 300,000 that year, it was understood that I should go to work for myself. The more money I can make for my customers, the more you have to benefit. I could select UGC projects ready to pay high rates. With just two or three contracts, I could work part -time to the salary of a full -time creative director.

This decision is over that I have ever made: When I am working for myself, I have never felt more financially safe.

I am currently focused on a contract perfectly. I never wanted to focus only on only one brand, but at this point, this is an incredible opportunity-the tach-hom is up to $ 20,000 per month. My rate per hour is $ 175, but if customers are committed for 10 hours per week, it falls to $ 150. I can focus on this creative strategy customer, take my UGC projects that I want to work and still have mental ability and energy to be able to create a UGC Pro.

UGC 2022 was never a thing on social media till summer, when everyone and their mother were talking about it. TikokokPage for you. It reached a point where people were talking about it in such a way that I was liking, Why does it look like an MLM? It’s strange, friends. It is a service like graphic design and video editing. You do not need to be an impressive. You should simply be good in the material construction. The UGC Pro was born when UGC went into the mainstream on Tiktok. Because of this, all the wrong information was floating that I created an account to reset the expectations and helped train the next wave of creators and strategists for performance marketing. Therefore, this business was systematically popped up as a manufacturer resource.

Even though there are more UGC creators than before, but it is still an incredible opportunity: more direct-to-consumer brands are pop up every single day.

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And the beauty of UGC is that you do not need to be a 20-beautiful golden haired girl to succeed. I have students who are General X creators who have produced six-agreed businesses and have now infected in Ticketkok Shop, and they will come to me and say, “Kelly, I am taking advantage of the best practices that you have taught me for the ticket shop” – And these creators are in the top 1% of the Ticketkok shop. They are now making six figures in a month.

When I decided to get out of college in 2014, it felt that such unwanted areas. With the exception of my mother, everyone asked me what I was going to do and thought without a degree, I would not make it. Even a family friend who was a serial entrepreneur, asked me what was my plan B. Proceed fast for today, and taking an alternative path that does not include college is more widely accepted.

If you are interested in taking a different path, it is very important to get as much real life experience as possible. Focus on strengthening your skill set and creating a portfolio that displays your abilities. It can all feel heavy; My journey was not easy in any way. There were a lot of obstacles in my career when I did not know that I kept moving it forward. But, eventually, if you put one leg in front of the other, you will see one day and will live, How did I get here? I don’t know, but I am really grateful that I never gave up.

This article is part of our ongoing female Entrepreneur® series, exposing stories, challenges and victory to run business as a woman.