654: Mom of 4 Goes from Civil Engineer to $300K Content Creator with Stephanie Fisher

Hello and welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast, the show that empowers you to wake up to your full potential and achieve your biggest goals and dreams. I am your host, Hal Elrod, and I invite you to join us each week as we share actionable strategies to take your life to the next level, as well as interview world-class experts and entrepreneurs who have achieved extraordinary goals themselves. And we ask them to give you a peek behind the curtain and teach you exactly what you need to do to do the same. Ready? Here we go. My guest today is a mother of 4 who is living her dream as a content creator. And get this, she just made more money in 1 month for her family than she used to make in almost a year as a civil engineer. In fact, a year ago, Stephanie Fisher was pumping breast milk at 4:00 AM, driving to CrossFit at 5:00 AM, and getting 4 kids under the age of 7 out the door before her workday even started. And all of that was while trying to balance her full-time career with making her dream come true of being a content creator. But she couldn't get her Instagram page past 100 followers. In fact, she failed 5 times to grow her channel and get her dream off the ground. One year later, she's on track to make 3 times her previous salary. Now today, you're going to hear how she did it. Why it's never too late for you to make any dream come true. And if you'd like to follow in Stephanie's footsteps and create time freedom and financial freedom, she'll give you the blueprint. Look, if you've ever told yourself it's too late, or that you've already tried and it didn't work, or you don't have time, this one is going to make that excuse or those excuses a lot harder to hold onto. It is my great pleasure to bring you this conversation with Stephanie Stephanie Fisher, it's such a pleasure to finally connect face to face.

It feels unreal being here with you, Hal. It was literally like a year ago around this time when you sent me a direct, like, voice note on Instagram, and I literally couldn't believe it. I told my husband, you need to record this moment right now, and it was just me freaking out listening to your voice note to me because I still can't believe that I'm here right now with you. So thank you for having me.

Well, now I gotta ask, why is that? Because you can't leave the audience hanging, and I'm even curious just to hear.

I can't remember. So I think I created a post where I shouted out your book and how it transformed pretty much my life, and you just sent like the kindest, kindest voice note on like how amazing I was, and I was just freaking out.

Yeah. So, what happened is, right, you recorded a video, I think, saying that you had read Miracle Morning and changed your life. And I was just so impressed. I was like, you're such a likable person. Like, you're just so authentic and you're personable. And I was like, what an awesome video. And so, yeah, I was like, I just sent you that quick voice text. So, all right. For those that don't know you, I want to start with like setting some context. So, you're a mom of 4, most importantly, right? For sure.

Yeah.

In fact, we were just talking before we started recording about everything revolves, of course, around that. but you're a former civil engineer who now makes a living as a full-time content creator on Instagram. How did that happen? That's where I want to start.

Like still saying those words is completely wild to me because it was literally last year where I'm still working full, like full-time as an engineer. And wow.

And did you get let go?

I got let go this year, this year. So I continued. So the reason I got started with content creation, it's something that I've always wanted to do, but I just really wasn't sure how. This is actually my 6th time starting an Instagram page. The first times I tried and quickly fell off. It wasn't things that I was like passionate about. And then also the season of life I was in, like most of the time I was either very pregnant, very postpartum, very busy with work, all the things. But then last year I started seeing more and more people on my feed talking about how content creation is like changing their life and how much money they're making on content creation. And specifically one of my favorite content creators was like, I just made $75,000 from working with one brand and they wanted me to make 5 videos for them. And she'd only been creating content for, I think, 2 years. And I saw myself in her so much. And I just asked myself, like, what sets her apart from me that I can't do something like this? And literally that week when I heard her say that, I was like, I need to start this Instagram page. My husband thought I was crazy and I didn't know what I was going to like talk about, share about. And I was just like, you know what, whatever, I'm just going to go for it. I'm just going to start filming my life. And at the same time, I was seeing like trends of like vlog style on the internet. And there was this like 20-year-old that came on my feed and he was sharing his routine as a 20-year-old with a 9 to 5 with no kids. And like, I saw that so many people loved his posts or also had like mean comments to say about it. And I just thought to myself like, yeah, people would probably get a kick out of watching my morning as a mom of 4. Let me start there. And so I just started kind of vlogging my mornings. And at this time I was very newly postpartum, still breastfeeding, getting up in the morning to do my like morning ritual before the chaos of the entire day. And very quickly my page just grew like wildfire.

Yeah. And wasn't it one post that you almost didn't put up?

Yep.

That took off and has now over 8 million views or something? What was that post? And why didn't you put it or why were you not gonna put it up?

So the first like month and a half, it was just morning routine videos. A lot of them didn't even have like music or voiceovers. I was just like doing the bare minimum because I was still learning. And eventually I started getting better at like doing voiceovers, adding music, Making them a little bit more entertaining. I was still like under 100 followers. Like people were still not completely watching my content. But then one day, I typically like do all of my editing while my kids are sleeping right after getting them down. And that night I still had to make lunches. I still had to clean the kitchen. I told my husband, I was like, I've got the whole video edited. I want to do a voiceover, but I just don't have the capacity right now. I saw this trend where like this girl was putting on her makeup and her brother was doing a voiceover and making the video kind of funny. Oh, no way.

Yeah.

And I was like, it would be so funny to do this. And have my husband do it. And so I told my husband, hey, can you record a voiceover for it? And he's like, sure. And I was in the other room while he was doing it and just like hearing him say it, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be so cringe. I don't even think I'm gonna be able to post this. And I listened to it afterwards and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so good. I can't post this.

This is so good.

It's so embarrassing. But then the next morning, typically I made my post every single day at the same time, like right after dropping my kids off at school before getting to work, cuz I literally work 2 blocks from their school. I had like a 30-minute window where I would sit in my car and just like, that's my post for the day. And it was time to do like hit my post. And I was just like, I can't do this voiceover, but I don't have time to do another voiceover. So whatever, I'm just going to post it. I'm getting like 100 views on my videos anyway. It's not going to matter anyways. Like 100 people are going to see this video. And just in the span of a few days, that video went Mega, mega, mega viral. And the biggest reason it went viral is because so many people had negative things to say about my husband and him like not—

No way.

Yeah, him not helping me in the video because it was just like my page is about like motherhood and my morning routine and thriving on routine. And he was just like narrating what I was doing on the camera. And I never record my husband doing anything. He's just doing his own thing while I'm doing my morning routine. And so people are like, she's got a deadbeat husband, blah, blah, like all these negative things. And I was just like, don't let that get in your head. And of course it gets in your head a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

But that video is what like blew my account up and the right people found it. And so many moms, so many moms resonated with my content and it just started growing.

Hey, it's Hal. If you are a dad or you know a dad, I have something really important to share with you. It's Front Row Dads. I've been a member of Front Row Dads for over 10 years since the very beginning, and it has transformed my life as a husband, as a father, and as a family man. And so if you are a dad, if you're a father struggling to balance work and family, feeling like you're not showing up at your best and you really want to be the best you can be for the people that you love the most, I highly recommend checking out Front Row Dads. Head over to frontrowedads.com/hal to let them know you came from this show. Again, frontrowedads.com/hal. .com/hal, and the theme of the group is to be a family man with a business, not a businessman with a family. If that's you, check out frontroadads.com/hal, and I'll see you there. Two questions: number one, what is your Instagram handle right now in case someone doesn't make it through this whole conversation? I hope they do, but like where can they follow you right now?

My handle is @Stephie Steph Fi with 3 underscores. And I know that's like a really odd name, but I couldn't find a good handle that matched my name. And that was like the closest thing I could get. So it's Stephie_3_.

All right. S-T-E-P-H-F-I_3_. So Steph, S-T-E-P-H, and then F-I for Fisher, and then 3 underscores.

Exactly.

It just goes to show, by the way, that I think right away eliminates one hangup like that some people have, which is like, oh, I can't get my name. I have to have a good handle that's easy to remember. No, it doesn't. Like once people are on Instagram, they find you, they share.

So many people get hung up on their handle and they literally get hung up on this for days and weeks. They never even start. And I hope people like hear this and remember, it doesn't matter one bit. And even people not even remembering my name, But people remembering I'm a mom of 4, I'm an engineer, I'm Colombian. When you type those keywords into Instagram, all 3 of them together, you are going to find my page no matter what. Your handle doesn't matter anymore. All of these SEO words.

Yeah.

That is what is important. And that's why it's so important. I tell people, what are your identifiers? What can people identify with? And typically, if people identify with one of those identities, you are probably going to have very similar values to that person. And that's why people Follow along and your name is like the last thing. Like, I have so many creators who are my favorite creators and I don't even remember their handle.

Totally.

Because it doesn't matter.

Yeah. Yeah. So walk us through your morning routine real quick because I remember I was like, you're doing CrossFit, like you're hardcore. You have more discipline, I think, than the average person, not just like mom, the average person. So like, what is your morning routine? Or even let's start with the morning routine that went viral and then have there been any changes to it? Let's do that.

Yes. It has changed since then.

Okay.

So at the time I was about 6 months postpartum and I was still breastfeeding. So I was waking up in the middle of the night and sleep was not great. But then if I woke up behind, I felt like all the kids would be attached to me and I couldn't do anything after the fact. So my routine was getting up at 4 in the morning and pumping first thing, pumping and leaving that bottle for my husband so that he could handle the baby if he woke up Anytime after 4. And so I would make the bottle, go leave it by his bedside, and then I would be off to doing the rest of my routine. While I was pumping, I would be journaling or reading or doing both.

Okay.

And then after that, I would leave to go to my workout class at 5. And so would drive to class, go to my 5 AM CrossFit workout class, and my workouts are about an hour long. And then I'd come back and Be like, our gym is also very close, which is very convenient. At like 6:10, I was doing my protein, getting my supplements, and then going, getting ready for the day. The little kids would be off to my parents. My husband would have to drive them, so they'd have to be out the door by 6:45. So it's like very, like very regimented routine where I'd get back, supplements, shower, get ready, and then go and get my kids ready very quickly. They typically didn't even eat breakfast at home because my parents feed them. Getting them out the door by 6:45 and then getting the older kids up after they leave and then making them breakfast, getting them to school. And that was my morning. It like literally flew by every single morning.

Dude, I wish that we could go back in time and I could give you the handle Super Mom Steph. I think that your handle should be Super Mom Steph. I don't know if they let you change handles, but oh my gosh, that's incredible. And your kids are That was only like a year ago.

That was like a year and a half ago. My kids are now just turned 2, 3. I have to think about it because, yeah, 3, 5, and 7. 7, 5, 3, 2.

7, 5, 3, 2. You have your hands full. So you would do all that in the morning, which, by the way, let's double tap on this for a second, right? So self-care, you didn't let that go. And I just want to, for anybody listening, right? I think most of our listeners, but they're going to have new viewers, new listeners, but Miracle Morning practitioners, like, they get it. They're like, yep, I wake up and I take care of myself first so I can show up at my best for the people I love and the people that I lead. Like, that's my mission statement, if you will, my motto. And so, people subscribe to it. But I think that most people, like what you're doing, the majority of people aren't doing that. And they use all the other things that I have 4 kids, I can't get up in the morning and take care of myself. I have a full-time job. I can't. All the external things. I can't. And you realize, no, Because I have 4 kids and because I have a job, self-care has to happen first thing in the morning before the rest of the day gets involved. So, let me ask this. For anyone listening that's like, Stephanie is not normal, meaning like, that's a level of self-discipline and commitment that I don't have. I would imagine a lot of folks, myself included, are like intimidated by your level of discipline. Where did that come from? Like, did you grow up in a military family? Like, when and how did you become disciplined like that?

No, what's funny is that like, when I had just my first child, if you had told me that I would be waking up at this time, I would not have believed you. Like, I dreaded sleep. Sleep was like the thing I dreaded the most as a mom. Our first daughter didn't sleep through the night for a whole year. Our son, our second son, it took him 4 No, I was like, I cannot do this again. I could not do a whole year of like getting very little sleep.

Oh.

I need to sleep train this baby. And so by like, by 6 months he was fully sleep trained. And then with our daughter, she continually got sick because she was born in the winter and all of our babies brought the germs home. So for 15 months she didn't sleep through the night. And then with our 4th baby, like I ended up After our second baby, this is like the pivotal moment where I knew something needed to change. There was like a morning where I snapped at my maybe 2-year-old. Like, I don't even think he was 2 at this time.

Yeah.

And it was having to do with like getting them changed. And our 2-year-old was like so opinionated, didn't want me to help them put their clothes on. I was rushing to get them out the door and I like snapped at them and like literally as soon as it came outta my mouth, I just like immediately stopped myself and I was like, this is not how I want to keep showing up in the mornings. Like mornings just felt so chaotic because I was waking up to my kids. They were already needing me right away. And I wasn't, I wasn't ready. I wasn't prepared. I didn't have their clothes laid out.

I didn't.

So I knew right away that something needed to change. And slowly that's when kind of my morning routine evolved. How can I become a better mom? How can I become have a better morning routine. And I did start becoming a little bit more disciplined with my morning. I was pretty disciplined throughout like the rest of my day, but mornings were completely overwhelming as a mom.

Yeah.

And it's funny you say, did I come from a military house? My dad was in the military for 27 years.

I was gonna say, that's ingrained. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And maybe there was a part of that where I saw my parents and they did have their schedules and Yeah. We're very, very strict.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that makes sense. Right. But it's like ingrained in your subconscious in ways you are, we're not even aware of. And was Miracle Morning, it was part of that. I'm curious, like, did you actually, did you read Miracle Morning or discover it in some way during that time?

So it wasn't exactly then that I discovered it, but a few months later I listened to a podcast. I'm like a podcast junkie and you were a guest on somebody's podcast and As soon as, like, I heard your story, immediately bought your book on Amazon and read the whole thing. And I was like, okay, need to implement some of these things here. And just became, yeah, just more, more intentional with my mornings. And it's been life-changing.

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Yeah.

So what would you say to somebody that maybe they've tried something new and it hasn't gone the way they wanted, or maybe they haven't even tried yet because they're afraid that they might fail. What would your advice be for those people in terms of their mindset, in terms of their practices, their approach? Like, yeah, you've done it.

Oh man, I think every single skill, no matter what it is, every single skill is a learnable skill. And If you go in with the mindset of you are a student of whatever that thing is, the only way that you're going to get better and learn is like literally putting in the reps, putting in the work. And the way that I like to think about content creation is I try to view it as a college degree and it literally takes 4 years to become like a professional and get like a license at a profession.

Yeah.

And if you took content creation seriously for 4 years, you would become a professional by that 4th year. I promise you that you would. And most people try it out for a month or 3 or 6 and they don't see any success. And so they want to give up, but you've literally just finished your first semester as a college student. Like you literally still don't know anything.

I love that analogy.

You have to put in the reps and eventually you will find what you are most passionate about, what resonates with people with the type of content that you share, what content you do enjoy sharing. Like, there is so much to learn and you're not going to learn unless you're putting in the reps. And so that is my biggest piece of advice.

Well, and your channel now has I've looked at your channel quite a bit. It's both the mom stuff, but it's a lot of— now it is like teaching others how to do what you did, right? You're like paying it forward going, hey guys, yeah, I now have freedom. I'm making more money than I ever have before. And I'm a content creator. Here's how I did it. So I think you're a great channel to follow for that specifically. And I know you have a course, right? Like, where can people find— I know, what's your course and where can people find the course?

Yeah, a little backstory on that. Like, so I just started creating like motherhood content. And because I was inspired to make my page from one of my favorite content creators who was sharing, like she shared transparently how much she was making, I think monthly. And I was like, let me start sharing my income. I literally made like $0 this month, but let me share, like I made $0 this month.

Yeah.

Then the next, like 6 months in, I was still making $0, but then on the 7th month I made like $100 or something. Okay.

I love this.

And then it slowly started to snowball. The 8th month I made $150 or it was, yeah, something like that. Like, and then it went to like $3,000 and then my 9th month I hit $10,000, 9 months in. Wow. And whatever, I don't know, that did something to my brain that I was like, I could really do this. And so many people, so many normal people can do this. Like I am, Your average, like, I didn't know anything about Instagram, about like growing, monetizing, any of that. Like, I just was figuring it out as I went. And there are so many things that I learned, so many things that I learned. And I kind of had to learn them all the hard way. Like, I feel like I could have known this much sooner and started monetizing much sooner. And then I've even known some creators that like have been doing this forever and still don't know certain things that I have figured out. And if I see them doing something where I'm like, you could be doing this and making this much more.

Yeah.

I tell them and then they'll come back and they're like, oh my gosh, that really made me like 10x my money on this thing. And so from that experience, I'm like, okay, I need to maybe think about a course here. And so I started sharing my income transparently online and then I was just like, my DMs were flooded with like, okay, how can I do this?

Yeah.

Yeah. How can I do this? And like, I would literally send people like 10-minute-long voice notes telling them like everything. And I was just like, this is not sustainable.

Not scalable. No.

Yeah. I cannot keep doing this. And I was doing this on top of my engineering job and on top of trying to create a video a day. It was like not sustainable. Yeah. Yeah, it was. I was not getting sleep that first year as a creator.

It's back to like, this is a repeating pattern for you not getting sleep.

Like not getting sleep. Honestly, I think moms with kids are a different breed. We just don't need as much sleep to function. My husband would literally die.

Totally. So would I. Yeah.

But yeah, people started asking me like, okay, like, what can I do? Give me the step-by-step. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna create this course, I promise. And for the next like 3 months, I like tried so hard to like fit it in, but I was doing this on top of my engineering job, on top of trying to stay consistent and post. Like the promise I made myself in the beginning is I'm gonna post 6 days a week for a year before I even Like, think about giving up. And like, I'm in this for the long haul. In a year after being consistent 6 days a week for a whole year, if I'm not seeing this go anywhere, I will stop.

Love it.

And so I gave myself a year and I was like, okay, no, people want to know like what I'm learning. And so I started putting it into a course, but I just wasn't, I didn't have enough time to like make it a thing. And then January came around and I got let go from my job.

Ah.

And it was a complete shock. I did not see it coming, but I was starting to gain so much traction with my content that I was like, let me talk to my husband. I'm like, let me go all in on content creation. Let me pause on engineering for a sec and see if this thing will really work. Like, can I make a living out of this? And so for the next 3 months, I treated it like a full-time job. And I would literally send my kids off to school and instead of going to my office, I would go to a coffee shop and I would be writing my course.

Amazing.

For the next 3 months, I wrote this, like, everything you need to know from the very beginning to like, what is my handle? What should your email address be? How to open my account all the way to this is how you edit a video. These are all the features that I use that are super helpful. This is how I script all of my stuff. This is how I come up with content ideas. And then this is how I monetize. This is everything I did, like literally everything laid out step by step. And then with each module, there's like a take action step. Like I don't want people to just like read all this information and now be like, okay, now what do I do? This is like so overwhelming. It's so much information. So I've tried to break it out into 7 modules and after each module, There's a video aspect and then there's like more text. They can read so much about everything else that I've learned. And then there's a take action homework piece. And then I even give AI prompts that can help you if you're feeling stuck. Like you can put this into AI and it will help you kind of like brainstorm and go back and forth with you. So that is my course and it's called Content Creation for Beginners.

I love it.

Originally I was like, this is going to be like $30, $40, something like that. But I literally ended up spending 33 months on it. And every person I showed it to was like, this is not $30. This is so much information.

All right, let me ask you a question. How many apps are you using for your personal development? Maybe a meditation app like Calm or Headspace, an affirmation app like I Am or ThinkUp, a book summary app like Blinkist, a journaling app like 5-Minute Journal, a visualization app like Envision, an exercise app like 7 Minute Workout, and maybe even a habit tracking app To keep it all together. That is a lot to manage and a lot to pay for. What if you could replace all of them with just one app? Yes, it is called the Miracle Morning app, and it is essentially 7 apps in one. Hundreds of guided meditations and breathwork tracks, a full library of affirmations plus tools to create your own visualization prompts for 10 key areas of your life, guided workouts from 2 to 10 minutes long, book and audiobook summaries of top personal and professional development books, and a journaling tool with guided prompts, the Wheel of Life, or a blank page to write freely. It simplifies your morning, saves you money, and helps you start every day with clarity, purpose, and energy. And it's one of the only apps in this space with a 4.9 out of 5-star rating. Try it free for 7 days. Just search Miracle Morning in your app store or go to miraclemorningapp.com. To get started. All right, back to the show. We undervalue ourselves whenever we create something new. You're like, who am I to charge money for this? But it's like one of my mentors taught me when I was younger, he was like, you deserve to be highly compensated for your value, your energy, and when you invest time in what you're helping people with. Anyways, I'm a fan. Where'd you land?

Yeah. And so like when I was supposed to launch, I ended up not launching. I was like so nervous to put it out. I'm like, it's missing this, this, and this. I need to like, I still need to add to it. I kept adding on to this course. It kept getting way bigger than I imagined. And my husband was literally like, okay, no, this is the date that you have to publish or it's not happening. And I was like, okay, we're going to do it. And even the night before, I was like, it's not ready, but he made me launch it. It was going to launch that day. It was March 10th that it launched. And the launch like blew me away, blew me away with how well it did.

And people can find it in your bio, your Instagram bio?

Yeah. If you go to the link in my bio, I have a few things in there. So my course, the whole thing right now, it is $147. I launched it at $97 for the first week and then the price went up after that. And I'm actually revamping the course right now and adding even more from things that I've like feedback I've heard from people. And now it's been 7 months since I launched it. I've learned so much more.

Yeah.

And I'm also seeing my students in action and like, I have advice for them. So like, I want to keep adding onto this and making it like a one-stop shop. This is like everything you need to get started as a content creator. So it's getting revamped and the price is going up next month. And it's crazy. In March, not even a full month, in March, I made over $70,000, which is a crazy number because a year before, My favorite content creator was like, I made $75,000 from this brand. And a year later, I made $78,000.

One year later.

Yeah. One year later.

The you a year ago could have never imagined the civil engineer, you mother of 4, stressed to your max, like maxed out on time. I want to again, double tapping on something. You went all in for a full year. And most people won't commit to anything for a year or even a month unless they already see it working. They're like, oh, I know it's gonna work. What let you commit to something that you had zero proof would pay off?

Because I saw other women doing it.

Evidence from other people. Yeah.

Yes. They gave me permission to bet on myself. I was like, if they could do it, why can't I? And I just—

thank you.

I came in with such a fire because I saw them doing it.

Yeah. I love this. And so for anybody watching this or listening, obviously, if you want to be a content creator, Stephanie, you're a phenomenal person to model. In fact, I'm going to check out your course. Like, there's so much stuff that, like, I'm such a social media novice, and I have a social media gal, but like, we can do so much better. And like, I look up to you in that regard. You're phenomenal.

Thank you.

Yeah, no, I'm serious. I'm gonna show it to my daughter too, because she's starting to help me with my social media. So I think like the course, or what is it called for beginners?

Content Creation for Beginners.

Content Creation. Like, that's my daughter's. I think that'd be perfect for her. Amazing. If somebody though is like, well, I don't want to be a content creator, you're an example of it's never too late to reinvent yourself. You're an example of what happens when you dedicate yourself to something for a year to see what you are capable of. And like you said, if after— I'm gonna give it a year, I'm gonna go all in for a year. All in meant specific, I'm gonna post, what was it, one video a day, 6 days, or 6 videos a week, something like that?

Yeah, 6 days a week, post a video for 6 days a week for a whole year.

So right, like, it's a measurable commitment. And to your point, your success becomes inevitable.

Yeah, it really does. Yeah. I think if you make your goal an actionable goal where it's like, it's something that you can control, not like how many followers or how many likes, or like you can't control those things. You can control if you show up, you can control if you hit post that day. That is the win that I was checking off. I posted for today. I got my win. And so I try not to focus on numbers, which is really hard to say, like, people that are doing content creation, like, it's inevitable to go look at how many followers you have, how many likes you're getting. But for me, I just tried to think about like, okay, no, I got my post in today. This is my win. Now let's work on tomorrow's post.

I love it. Well, and it reminds me, I've taught for 20 years, the secret to success is to commit to the process without being emotionally attached to the results. And you are the living definition of that, right? Like, you committed— the process is post once a day, do it 6 days a week. And like you said, of course, you're going to check your numbers, but really to be like, I'm surrendering to the results. I'm playing the long game, right? I'm committed to this for a year and we'll see what happens. And I think that your success really becomes inevitable for anybody listening. Like, whatever you want to do, write the book, launch the career, start the business, become the content creator, whatever you want to do, You're living proof. I'm living proof. Like, when you commit to something over an extended period of time and you commit to that process and you don't freak out when things aren't going exactly as perfect or you compare yourself with other people. And I love your comparison. It's like, no, I compared myself to see if they could do it, so can I, right? Their success is evidence of what's possible for all of us. So, Steph, you are an inspiration. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Hal. This was so fun talking with you. And if you're listening to this and you have any questions for me about content creation or literally anything, I am an open book. And I think one of the reasons that I am also successful is because I truly care about helping other people get started. And people are in my DMs and I literally answer every single DM, every single comment, everything. I want to be of value to other people and I want to see other people succeed. One of the things I'm loving about social media is the bigger impact that I'm able to have versus just sitting in my engineering job and working on one project at a time. Yeah, it has been so rewarding.

Amazing. Amazing. Well, I'm so grateful that you are leading by example and you're inspiring so many people. And I love, by the way, that you do show your income reports. Like, that's one thing that I got over 10 years ago. Pat Flynn, I don't know if he was the first one to do it, but Pat Flynn, who's become a really good friend of mine, he used to run the Smart Passive Income podcast and he sold that brand, but he would publish his income report every month and he would show you where it all came from. And as an entrepreneur, you're like, oh, this is what it looks like. Right? So—

It's so interesting. And I feel like there's the people that find talking about money and how much you're making so taboo. Some people may think that you are bragging about it.

Totally.

But what I find from other creators, when they share those numbers, it becomes powerful because now I'm seeing what is possible. When I see that a creator is making $75,000 from a brand deal, I know that that is possible. And that is something that I can ask for and advocate for. If people weren't sharing those numbers, I would have asked for maybe $1,000 from that same deal. You don't know unless you know what's possible. And I love, love sharing, talking openly about those numbers. Like, it's crazy to me that I am on track to make $300,000 by the end of this year, less than 2 years into content creation, and I never made more than $100,000 as an engineer. That— Is so powerful to hear.

Totally. And you're your own boss and you have freedom and you get to be there for your kid.

Like, yeah, I just got like, literally right before jumping on this call, I was at my son's kindergarten class volunteering. I've now signed up to do it weekly. This is what I live for. Like, I'm so happy that I get to work for myself and also be a present mom and be there for my kids.

Yeah. Well, you deserve it because you earned it. You committed. To what you needed to do, no matter what happened for a year. And that's it. And so anybody listening, that's what do you want to do? What's your dream? What's your goal? What's the thing that you've been putting off that you doubt yourself or you don't believe in it? Because if I can do it, if Steph can do it, you can do it too. There's nothing that you can't do. And I encourage everybody, whether you are a mom, I'm not a mom, whether you're a content creator, I'm not really a content creator, go follow Stephanie on Instagram. It's S-T-E-P-H, Steph. F-I for Fisher with 3 underscores. And I still think it's so funny that, and another, just that handle shows you that if she can do it, you can do it too. All right, y'all, I love you and I'll talk to you next week.

Thanks so much.

Thanks for listening. To learn more about the Achieve Your Goals podcast and to get access to today's show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Hal Elrod, visit halelrod.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the Achieve Your Goals Podcast.