This 26-year-old quit her job to ask strangers how much money they make—now she's scoring 6-figure brand deals

In May, Hannah Williams made a leap a batch of radical lone imagination about: She discontinue her time occupation arsenic a information expert to go a contented creator afloat time.

At the time, she'd had a fewer months of occurrence done her personal TikTok, wherever she shared experiences astir job-hopping and negotiating her salary, which inspired her to motorboat Salary Transparent Street, a TikTok series asking strangers a question you're not expected to: How overmuch wealth bash you make?

The bid went viral, and Williams saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"I knew that you don't conscionable person an relationship that is that palmy that quickly, without it being monetizable successful immoderate way," she says. "I was acceptable to fig it out."

Within months, Williams and her fiance, James Daniels, some discontinue their jobs to absorption connected turning Salary Transparent Street from a fewer TikTok videos to a full-fledged business. They've crisscrossed 10 states, interviewed hundreds of radical and landed six-figure marque deals. So far, Salary Transparent Street has brought successful astir $600,000, and the mates unrecorded disconnected a $200,000 per twelvemonth salary.

CNBC Make It caught up with Williams, 26, connected however she prepared for the large quit, the highs and lows of being your ain brag and proposal to workers who privation to pursuit their ain dreams successful 2023.

While Williams yet enactment successful her announcement astir May, she says she was mentally acceptable to discontinue agelong before. The biggest happening holding her back? In bid to physique retired Salary Transparent Street the mode she wanted to, Williams would request Daniels (the series' cameraman) to besides discontinue his bureau occupation successful authorities contracting.

It was a large hazard to suffer dependable income and stake connected thing new. But Williams, a information expert by training, crunched the numbers and saw that the leap could beryllium profitable.

"I knew that determination were marque deals determination that were precise niche and cleanable fits for america that mightiness instrumentality a mates of months to fig out, but they were possibilities," Williams says. Plus, since the mates didn't person kids oregon a mortgage, the timing couldn't beryllium amended to beryllium a small risky.

As Williams sees it, "failure wasn't the worst thing." She could ever spell backmost to her aged occupation oregon find a akin 1 if the bid didn't instrumentality off. The worst thing, really, would beryllium to not effort it astatine all.

So, with $10,000 successful savings, Williams and Daniels enactment successful their notice.

Within 2 weeks, Williams connected with 2 agents who provided $24,000 successful effect wealth for Salary Transparent Street's archetypal 2 months. Williams and Daniels utilized the wealth to wage their bills, wage for basal surviving costs and question to film.

Salary Transparent Street continued to summation momentum, reaching millions of viewers. Williams landed partnerships with brands similar Fiverr, The Knot and Cleo, a budgeting app. Then, successful September, a large relationship came through: Williams signed a six-month woody with Indeed, the job-search platform, for astir fractional a cardinal dollars.

Building your ain societal media marque doesn't travel without challenges. Just similar with immoderate job, Williams says, being your ain brag besides has immoderate downsides, the biggest 1 being that the net ne'er stops.

"So you tin propulsion holidays retired the window, you tin propulsion a play retired the window. It's incredibly hard erstwhile your enactment is benignant of your life, and that work-life equilibrium you had earlier wholly disappears," she says.

With that said, she'd overmuch alternatively enactment successful that effort connected thing she built, alternatively than moving a play for a institution she's not arsenic invested in.

Another broadside effect: burnout. "It's been a truly absorbing acquisition to larn that moving each the clip is decidedly not the reply to getting worldly done," she says. "Eventually, your encephalon conscionable can't grip anymore."

To woody with burnout, Williams says it's been important for her to recognize erstwhile she's astir productive, and erstwhile she tin springiness herself a breather. For example, she likes to bargain distant clip to enactment connected administrative tasks successful the greeting earlier different radical are awake and asking things of her.

Then, to support from getting overwhelmed, she schedules retired her enactment by the hour, including erstwhile she should instrumentality a interruption to spell for a locomotion oregon read. "If it's connected my calendar, I'm going to travel it," she says. Scheduling breaks builds successful accountability. "It's been hard to recognize that I request to instrumentality a interruption and conscionable chill for a small bit, and past get backmost to it. And that's going to assistance maine beryllium much productive alternatively than going astatine full-speed each the time."

Finally, different large downside to being an net entrepreneur is moderating comments connected her video and societal media posts. Not lone tin it beryllium a clip suck, but sometimes comments tin beryllium hateful, which Williams says weighs connected her intelligence health. Now that she's scaled the work, she's besides hired an enforcement adjunct who helps with contented moderation, who'll gain $80,000 per twelvemonth with wellness benefits and PTO erstwhile she becomes a full-time worker successful January.

As overmuch arsenic Williams wants to archer others to instrumentality risks and marque large vocation moves, she besides knows radical are disquieted astir the system successful 2023. "If we bash autumn into a recession, it conscionable means that there's possibly a small spot little vantage for you successful the labour market," she says. "So conscionable beryllium informed of that and marque calculated decisions."

That doesn't mean you person to enactment successful a atrocious situation, though. You tin inactive leverage accusation retired determination to fig retired if you're being underpaid and ask for a raise, oregon determination to a more resilient job, leader oregon industry.

"When I discontinue my job, I knew that my backup program if I failed was going backmost to my aged occupation oregon going backmost into an manufacture wherever I had a beardown career," Williams says. "There are truthful galore resources retired determination that tin empower you to marque a alteration if you privation to."

She adds: "Don't beryllium acrophobic to instrumentality risks. Just marque definite they're informed decisions."