I made $1 million from content creation. Here's what I learned.

0:00Becoming a full-time content creator is about more than going viral or growing a really large audience. It's about understanding how to manage money. I've been a full-time content creator for over 7 years now, and in that time I've collectively made over a million dollars. And that's profit, not [music] revenue. I don't have the biggest audience ever. I just have a few simple income streams, and work-life balance is very important to me. You don't need to be a massive influencer or hustle like crazy in order to make good money from [music] content creation. It's actually more simple than that. It's just about implementing a few key lessons that will

0:32help you make the money that [music] you're already earning as a creator go further. Starting with lesson number one, write-offs aren't free money. People who talk about business stuff love to talk about write-offs, and while I'm sure you already know that write-offs aren't just free money, so that's a write-off. Do you even know what a write-off is? You might still be missing some of the implications of what writing something off really means. To be clear, a write-off or a business expense is simply the cost of a purchase [music] that you made for your business being deducted from your overall revenue, which lowers your profit. And therefore, the money that you'll be

1:08taxed on. But some people become so obsessed with the idea of writing something off for their business that they'll change all of their plans and financial strategy in order to do it more. Okay, for example, when I first started posting about wanting to buy a new house and specifically [music] looking for one that has studio space where I can make my YouTube videos, someone commented in response, "Don't buy a bigger house, just rent a studio because then your rent is 100% a write-off." While that's technically true, I think it's kind of missing the point. First of all, I want to move to a new house just personally, not only for

1:42a business reason. And second, let's say I spent $1,500 a month on a studio rental. Yes, this would be a business expense, and therefore would reduce my business income and what I have to pay tax on. But if I just took this money and paid it to myself, that would probably end up being roughly a thousand dollars a month after the tax I pay on it that I could have used to pay my mortgage. And I'd be happier in a studio in my own house anyway. Or a few years back when I first got started, a fellow freelancer in this co-working group I was in gave me the advice when I was

2:15complaining about my computer, "Just buy a new MacBook, put it on your credit card. When you get a new client in a few months, you'll be able to pay it off." First of all, I would never advise buying something on a credit card that you can't pay off this month. That aside, if you need to buy a new computer, then great. You should buy a new computer. But, if I don't actually need one, then that's like $2,000 that I could have kept in my business [music] and paid to myself. Yes, I would have to pay personal income tax on that money before I am allowed to just use it on

2:46personal expenses, but I would be able to use it to [music] like buy groceries, pay my mortgage, or invest in my retirement, stuff that I actually need, unlike a random new MacBook. Ultimately, the big draw of write-offs is that it's money you can spend without having to pay income tax on it. You've kept it in your business, you haven't paid it to yourself. And in fact, it reduces your tax because it decreases your overall profit, which is what you pay income tax

3:15on. Obviously, this is a great benefit. However, the key thing here is the word business, okay? It needs to be stuff that you're actually using for your business. And sometimes, the money is just better spent on things that you personally need, like rent and groceries and whatever. Just because something is a business expense doesn't mean that you shouldn't carefully consider it before you spend the money. I know this can get complicated for creators and influencers in particular because truly, there are so many things that could count as a business expense or write-off, like even new clothes and makeup, for example. I swear, after every appointment, my hair

3:55stylist used to ask me, "Oh, like, do you want a receipt for this? Like, you can count this as a write-off, right?" And I think, honestly, there is an argument that could be made for a haircut for an influencer being a write-off, especially if you're making specific content about it. Uh but, for the record, I did pay for that on my

4:16personal credit card. This is going to be a question for your accountant at the end of the day, because truthfully, when you're a content creator, so much of your lifestyle is intertwined with your business that there is actually a lot of stuff that you can justify as a business expense. But, don't take my word for it. [music] Talk to an accountant. Lesson number two, you are not your business in a financial sense. You are not your business, and you need to separate yourself from it financially. [music] It stresses me the heck out when I hear about content creators just taking their brand deal or ad sets payments directly

4:51into their personal bank account. We need to get this sorted out. There are a few stages to this, though, so let me talk you through them. Okay, so the first level is sole proprietorship. This is what we call it in Canada, but I'm sure there's an equivalent where you live. In this type of business, your business profit is the same thing as your personal income. So, you simply pay your personal income tax on whatever your business profit was that year. This is the best place to start, and I personally stayed as a sole proprietorship up until I was consistently making more than 100k in profit a year. This is kind of the

5:22tipping point where the extra accountant fees for filing your taxes as a corporation and as yourself starts to become worth it. Before this point, you might as well stay a sole proprietor. Even though your business is not a separate legal entity from yourself at this point, you still should separate your finances for the sake of proper bookkeeping. So, you're going to want to open a separate bank account. You're definitely going to want to track all of your expenses, and with that, make sure you're saving your receipts. [music] It's easy to neglect these things when you are just getting started, but it is all best practice. And when you have

5:52this all down, it'll make sure that you are prepared to go to the next level, which is a corporation or uh in the states they call this an LLC. This is true legal separation between you and your business. Your business is one entity that pays tax on the profit of your business, and you as an individual will pay your regular income tax. And there are various ways that your business can pay you as a person, but we won't get into that in this video. I talk about that in detail in this one if you want to check it out. So, the essentials of setting this up, you're

6:23definitely going to need a business bank account, and this is going to be under your business's [music] name, not you personally. And you might want to consider getting a business credit card. This way you can earn points on your business expenses, build credit as your corporation. And obviously, you don't want to be running your business expenses through your like personal credit cards. The other really important thing about this is it gives you legal protection. So, if your business gets sued, for example, your personal assets like your retirement savings or your home won't be at stake. The only thing your business can get sued for is assets

6:55your business owns. I know this might all sound overwhelming, but you don't have to do it all at once. If you're just getting started, you could open up a separate bank account at the bank where you already [music] bank personally, like the same way you might open up like an additional savings account for a specific trip or home renovation. So, it can still be under your personal name [music] when you first get started, important to be separate, so then you can put all of your creator earnings into that account,

7:20and any expenses can come out of it. That way you at least have a clear paper trail of all of the money flowing through your creator business. And as your business grows, you can make a more separate system for yourself. Lesson number three, don't depend on social media alone to make money. While social media platforms are the way that we connect with and grow our audiences, you can't depend on these platforms alone to actually make you a living. AdSense or creator fund payouts are just not going to cut it. You're going to want to diversify your income streams, and building yourself a website is a great

7:54place to start. So, thanks to Hostinger for sponsoring this segment of the video. Your website is like your online home as a content creator. You actually own it, so you're not at the whims of the algorithm. It helps you be seen as credible and professional, especially by brands who might want to work with you or by your audience and potential customers. Speaking of customers, with a Hostinger website, you can sell digital products, like a course or templates, or physical products, including print-on-demand merch. You don't need to

8:21know how to code to make a website. Hostinger has a really intuitive drag-and-drop interface, plus a ton of designer templates to choose from. And as your business grows and gets more advanced, you can make use of their built-in SEO, analytics, AB testing, [music] and email marketing tools. There's so much in there. And what I think is super helpful for creators is with your Hostinger website, you also get a dedicated link in bio site with your plans. You've got everything you need with one subscription. So, what you're going to want to do is go to the link in my description and select [music] the business plan for 48 months. That's

8:53going to be the best deal. And I think [music] Hostinger has some of the best features for creators who want to monetize because they've got 0% transaction fees, so you can keep all the profit from your digital and physical products, and built-in email marketing tools so you can reach your clients more consistently. You can search for the domain name you want, and if you're starting an e-commerce site, I would recommend grabbing the dot shop domain name. Finally, make sure you add my coupon code Katie to get 10% off your entire order. As a creator, you want to build a sustainable business that's going to continue earning you a living

9:22in the long term, and building a website with Hostinger is a great place to start. Lesson number four, your rates should be value-based, not time-based. [music] Your brand deal rates should be based on the value of your content and not on the time that it takes you to create it. As someone who went from having a job with an hourly wage to freelancing, I was really comfortable with quoting a client based on how long a project would take me. That's how I used to do it as a freelance videographer, and eventually I did switch to project-based [music] pricing, but before that, when I started getting my first brand deals, that's also how I

9:58would come up with quotes for my brand deals, which is crazy to think about now. Basically, I thought about how long it would take me to make the sponsored content that I would add into my videos, and then I would charge the brand accordingly. But the thing is, your time is not actually what brands are paying for. They are paying for access to your audience, your good reputation, the strength of your recommendation, and your sway with your audience. All of these things are otherwise known as your influence. So, chances are if you are basing your rates on an hourly wage, you are drastically undercharging yourself as a creator. So, how much should you

10:36charge? Well, it's very difficult for me to even give you estimates because brand deal rates vary drastically [music] depending on the niche you're in, the demographics of your audience, and the brand who's looking to work with you. For example, tech and business-adjacent channels like my own tend to get higher brand deal rates than channels that are in the lifestyle or like gaming niches, for example. When you have a highly specific audience, especially one that has money to spend, advertisers will pay a lot to reach [music] them. If your audience is more general, then your rates will reflect that. I can attest to this personally because I noticed a huge

11:15difference in brands who reach out and what they're willing to pay depending on how highly focused their product is. So, if a brand that is specifically trying to reach content [music] creators or like social media managers or online business owners, if they reach out, then they're willing to meet my rates because they know that I have that very specific audience. But, when brands like VPNs or like meal subscription boxes, like the more generic ones, reach out to me, they are willing to pay me like 10% of what

11:45those other brands are willing to pay. And that's cuz when your product is general, you're just looking to reach a high volume of people, not a specific subset of people. And so, their rates are going to reflect that. Recently, Alex, an Instagram friend of mine, pulled her audience, which happens to be a lot of creators as well, and asked them about what their follower count was and how much they charged for a sponsored reel. So, you can see the range that she shared on screen here to get a sense of what people of different audience sizes are charging. But, even in this video, she notes that there was

12:17a huge range here. So, I think this is pretty interesting, but ultimately, it's just a quick sampling. If you're interested in creator stuff, though, you'll probably also like Alex's content, so you should check her out on Instagram. But, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the best way to find the correct rates for you is just to start negotiating with brands. Put a number out there, see what the response is, and over time, you'll figure out what rate you can charge. Lesson number five, lifestyle inflation is a wealth killer. So, lifestyle inflation is when your income increases, but your expenses increase in tandem with it. Basically,

12:51you start making a bit more money, and then you think to yourself, "I can spend more now, right?" In my opinion, the key to feeling rich is the gap between these two lines growing. So, avoiding lifestyle inflation would look like this. This is what I aim for. You can see the gap has grown. Our expense line here has not stayed flat. I'm not saying that you can never increase your lifestyle expenses, that you can't allow yourself nice things. But, as much as you can, if you can maintain the same lifestyle that you had before your income increased, this is the key to building wealth. Because you can use the

13:28money in this gap to save or invest or to pay off debt. I really [music] think that this is the recipe for financial freedom and early retirement, which I'm going to talk more about in just a second. But all along this has been my strategy. Keep the lifestyle as close to the same as possible, increase the income, and then use this money for strategic purposes. I think content creators and influencers in particular are very susceptible to this for three reasons. For one, your income tends to grow slowly. Compared to say for example, if you had a salaried job and you got a big raise, it would happen all

14:05at once. Like one paycheck is normal, the next all of a sudden a lot higher. That allows you to kind of like be more conscious of it, think about it, and plan for it, and maybe decide that like hey, a certain chunk of my paychecks now I'm going to put towards retirement savings or debt payoff. There's such an obvious milestone to kind of trigger that thought process for you. But for creators, it tends to more climb little by little month by month as you slowly grow your audience. Your AdSense payouts start getting bigger. Brands are starting to pay you more for brand

14:34deals. It can really creep up on you. Hence the idea of lifestyle creep. And so it's just really easy to start spending a little bit more money every month and not really think about the fact that you're doing it. The second big reason why a lot of creators get into this is because we are so chronically online and we all know that

14:52social media is terrible for comparison. So as creators, we spend a lot of time looking at what other creators are doing and we can let that like seep into our brains and convince us that we also need to have fancier clothes, nicer looking skin, a better car, a better house. In a way that like if you just spent a little less time on the internet, you might not be so influenced to feel that way. And I think the third reason is when you're a creator, there's this kind of pressure to have an aspirational lifestyle or to make yourself appear successful. This is especially true if you're in a niche

15:24that like talks about business or even certain like luxury lifestyle niches. I feel like there's just this pressure to [music] really prove your expertise or like your value through your like material goods. I honestly feel this a lot and I have actively tried to fight against it, but there is this voice in the back of my head that's like, "Why would anybody listen to your advice, Katie? You live in a 500 square foot apartment and drive a 10-year-old car that's rusting out at the bottom." And while those things are true, I also have

15:54the freedom to travel as much as I want. I shipped my camper van to Europe and I keep it over there so that I can spend months at a time traveling. I've got a healthy retirement savings and I saved up enough for a down payment on my dream home without having to sell my condo first, and that's all from content creator earnings and strategic financial planning. But all of those things are more hidden than like fancy cars or designer handbags, and social media loves ostentatious [music] displays of wealth. So, I think there can be a pressure to perform that, but if you can deprogram that from your brain and

16:26actively avoid lifestyle inflation, that's going to be your [music] best strategy for building wealth as your income increases as a content creator. Lesson number six, stop saving and start investing. [music] Before I explain this point, I just want to illustrate why it's so crucial. Last year, I decided to slow down a bit on [music] brand deals and work in general in the second half of the year when I went on a four-month-long trip to Europe. I knew that my income would decrease [music] because of that cuz I was doing less work. I basically worked

16:59like half time for a third of the year. You can see here that my revenue from my overall income streams went down a little bit from 2024 to 2025. However, I actually ended up having a higher profit last year compared to the year before, and that was because of investments and lowering [music] my expenses. This is what I mean when I say investment income is truly the only form of passive income. [music] All I had to do was put money in an account and get my financial advisor to allocate it appropriately and I earned money for just chilling in my van in Europe. As you start making more

17:36money from content creation, instead of setting it aside in a savings account, I really want to encourage you to consider investing [music] it. I know it can feel scary, especially if you're risk averse like me, but trust me, if you don't do it, any money that you leave sitting in a checking or savings account is actively losing its value at the rate of inflation. So, if you're nervous, you might want to start by looking into high yield savings accounts. These are accounts that will typically give you a relatively small interest rate of

18:06return, but [music] they are very safe. You know that you're not going to lose value with your money in there. You could also look at investing into ETFs, [music] which is basically like a big basket of stocks and bonds, which is also quite low risk because it's like a bunch from a ton of different companies. While it's still low risk as far as investments go, you're going to get a

18:25better rate of return than with an HYSA. [music] What I would not suggest doing is investing in individual stocks, like, you know, Apple for example. That is so risky and like guys, we are content creators, not day traders. So, you don't have to do all of that to invest. It can be a lot simpler than that. And especially if you're young and you have a long time horizon, like, you got to

18:50get that money into investments, okay? Don't let it languish in your checking account. I really want to emphasize this because it's proof that you don't always need to hustle more, get more brand deals, do more work. I feel like especially when you're just getting started and you're in this growth mode, it feels like the line is always going to go up. And while that can feel great, it's also okay to reach a maintenance mode. I'm going to be honest, since 2024, I have somewhat plateaued. Like, 2025 is quite similar. 2026 is shaping up to be the same. It's not the huge jump that I had from 2021 to 2022. And

19:26I'm fine [music] with that. As time goes on, I will make more interest off my investments cuz it just keeps compounding. And I don't have [music] to grind as hard as I did back then because, trust me, like, I [music] was working like crazy to make this jump. If you are in the early stages, like, at this point on the graph, and you feel like it's going to be a grind forever, you you can make it that if you want. I mean, like, I'm not the highest earning YouTuber ever. You could go off the charts further than me. But, if you feel satisfied with what you're making,

19:55you're also allowed to step off the gas a little bit and make strategic choices. So, even when your revenue goes down a little bit, your profit can still go up, and you don't have to push yourself so hard. And ultimately, that's why investing is so important. Ultimately, I work with a financial advisor that I trust, and that's probably my biggest piece of advice for you on that front because they can help guide you through this with your own specific situation in mind. Content creation is the ultimate mix of business and art. You need to be creative if you're going to come up with good ideas and create content that people actually

20:29want to watch, but you also need business skills if you're going to turn this into a career that actually earns you a living. Most people tend to naturally excel in one [music] or the other, but generally not both. So, if you're a creative person here watching because you want to develop the business skills to make this into a career for yourself, I just want to encourage you and let you know that you've already got like the hardest part to find of that formula. I personally think business skills are a lot easier to learn than creativity. And look, you're in the right place because I have got a lot of

20:59videos where I've broken down my income and my business model over the years. So, you might want to watch this one next if you want to learn more. In it, I talk more about the difference [music] between sole proprietorships, corporations, how to pay yourself, all of that good stuff. And make sure to check out Hostinger if you want to build your [music] own website. As always, thank you so much for watching. I hope you're having adventures and following your dreams, and I'll catch you in the

21:19next video. Bye.