Why I left my high paying corporate job to become a full time influencer

Since I was a kid, I knew I was not meant to have a boss. “You’re not the boss of me” is something I frequently thought, even as a pretty “good kid” and student. I have worked over the past 5 years to grow my social media presence in the hopes that I can leave my corporate job to be an entrepreneur. Here’s my stats as of Oct 2023:

• Instagram – 176k followers
• Blog – 70k monthly sessions on hanashappyhome.com
• TikTok -220k followers
• YouTube – 8.1k subs (new pursuit)

I wanted to be an interior designer. I vividly remember talking to my dad when I was about 14 years old. We were driving in the car. I told my dad I was going to be an interior designer. He looked at me and lovingly said “You’re too smart for that. Choose a different career”. I looked out the window so he wouldn’t see that I held in tears. This was a pivotal moment in my life. 

Looking back, I don’t hold any ill will against my dad. He was an immigrant. He moved from Pakistan at the age of 17 with $250 and a small piece of luggage. He wanted a better life for himself than he had back home. Him and my mother made countless sacrifices for our family. They made every decision with the best of intentions. He came for a better life for his kids. So of course, that would include my career choice. He didn’t steer me into a specific career per se, but there were a host of careers that I could choose from: medicine, engineering, teaching and business. To be honest, going into university, I don’t know of any other careers. 

I did what most kids of immigrants are told to do: I got good grades, was top of my class, went to a prestigious university, got a degree, worked, got married, obtained more degrees, had kids, and bought a house.

My early career and personal life

For me, stability was a huge part of my career decision. My parents stressed the importance of a “good job” with benefits, security and pension. My dad worked for the federal government. In those days, that was the best job an immigrant could get!

I can understand why stability was important to my parents. My dad needed an open heart surgery with valve replacement when I was about 8 years old, and again when I was in my teens. He wasn’t in the best of health. My dad’s job gave our family a lot of stability, and eventually he took an early retirement. We were able to stay afloat largely in part of the benefits and pension of his job. 

Let’s fast forward. In 2015 my husband, Avais, and I, booked our new townhouse. In 2017, it was finally completed. We had our first son and I was beyond excited to finally have my own home. My interior design dream was dormant for many years, but now, in this new home, I could finally start to make it my own. 

At that time, I followed a lot of Instagrammers, and loved watching them makeover their homes. I got so many ideas and inspiration from them and Pintrest. I decided I would start documenting my own journey. I knew nothing about social media. I just started documenting my little home projects. My first community grew organically. 

What set me apart

What set me apart was that I was one of the first South Asian women to fearlessly use power tools. My dad was a huge DIYer and I grew up around tools. My passion for interior design was reignited during my kids nap time. I started to make friends with other home and DIY bloggers.

My projects got bigger. I grew my confidence. I still remember getting my first gifted partnership. I was so nervous, but my friend Sumera urged me to ask the brand. She said, “What do you have to lose? If they say no, then at least you tried”. She was right. That philosophy carried me a long way through my influencer marketing career.

Learning about content creation

For the last 5 years, I have try to balance my corporate career, family and blogging. I have never once been able to focus on my content creation. I have learned so much about running a business, diversifying my income and that your job can be enjoyable. You don’t have to work to live.

I am glad that I kept my content creation as my side hustle. I never thought it could even be a career until 2021. That’s the first year that I made a sizeable income. But, I had a lot to learn about sustaining a business. I even shied away from calling it a business because I didn’t want the business side of it to kill my passion for DIY. I wish there was a manual, but since it’s a new industry, I feel like I’m the guinea pig and figuring it out as I go. Luckily, I have had help from a lot of bloggers who have monetized their passion as well.

What the last 18 months taught me

I have been on my 3rd maternity leave for the last 18 months. With younger kids, they depend on you. Every little thing needs a helping hand. I thought that parenting would easier as kids get older. Well, I can say that was completely wrong!

Now that my son is almost 8 years old, he can get ready, make his lunches and shower himself. But there’s a lot more that he needs: driving to his activities, talking about his day, emotional support, homework etc. I guess it never gets easier – it just changes.  

With 3 kids, and me being on maternity leave + blogging, our home functions so much better. My husband has a pretty demanding job. He is a team leader which means a lot of responsibility. He enjoys his work. He’s also a great father, husband and partner. I make dinner while he finishes work, but he helps out with other household activities like folding laundry, groceries after work. It’s a true partnership.

I started to re-imagine what my life would be like when I went back to work. We weren’t in a pandemic anymore. I would work 9-5, but that means either our older sons would have to go to before/after school or we’d have to duck out of work early to do school drop off/pick up. My husband and I would have to alternate days in office.

I would be stressed getting breakfast, lunches packed and everyone out the door on time. Just thinking about it and seeing my other friends in similar situations gives me anxiety.

I remember after my first mat leave, with 1 kid, this all seemed barely manageable. I didn’t get a lot of quality time with my son. Every day felt like a drill. My job was great. I felt smart and accomplished. But I felt like a disconnected mother. I always felt like I was behind in some aspect of my life. It wasn’t uncommon for my work to message/call in the evening to put in more hours, taking away more time. 

Why I love being a DIY content creator

With blogging, there is so much flexibility. I have always been DIYing during small increments of time, while my kids napped, or after dinner I would pop out to my workshop while my husband took them to the park. I have also put in late night hours after the kids have gone to sleep. Over the last 2 years, I have been so blessed to grow content creation financially through brand partnerships and ad revenue on my blog and YouTube. 

Content creation is also very satisfying. I get messages from women all the time telling them that I’ve inspired them to start using tool. Or that they saved hundreds of dollars by fixing a plumbing issue that I shared. Connecting with my community and sharing my passion is the best part of this job!

Imagining my life as a content creator

I have never been able to fully focus on this influencer career. I never even let myself think of it as a career. It was so ingrained in me that I would have a traditional career path. I mean, wouldn’t I be crazy to leave my corporate job with security, pension, benefits?

But I don’t know what the potential of being a content creator is. I might fail, but what if I succeed? I started working on my Youtube channel, which I recently monetized and this blog as well. My old friend, turned accountant, told me “Hana, you think so small. If you’re only thinking of making your corporate income, you’ll make that much. But what if you think of making $500k? Think bigger!” That has really stuck with me. I was limiting myself. I never once let myself think big. 

I have debated this, prayed for this, hashed it out with my loved one, etc. Before my dad’s passing, he always prayed for the day that I could leave my job to spend more time with my kids. I know he would be so happy that I could get to a place that I could do that. But I just didn’t feel like I could leave my corporate career to be an influencer. 

The reason I am leaving my corporate job

My friend Aminah who is a food blogger, recently left her career. After countless discussions with her, something finally clicked. I could not leave my corporate career to be a blogger. But I could leave my corporate job to spend more time with my kids, be present, and attentive to them. I could leave my job to pick them up from school, which is my favourite part of the day. You know when they gush to you all the juicy secrets?

I could leave my job to support my husband who is trying to grow his career. I could leave my job to have dinner on the table so we can talk about our day. I could leave my job to take my daughter to the library or swimming. I could leave my job for my mental health and stress and HAPPINESS. 

For many years, I discounted my happiness. I did what I thought I should do, or what was expected of me. I have just now, at 37 years old realized that we all deserve to be happy.

One of my best work friends said to me “you know, you were pretty unhappy at work” and I never once thought that way. I thought I was just working. But I came off as unhappy, mostly because of the situation that surrounded my work.

I also now have blogging compared to my corporate job. A creative person like me needs to flourish in the creative setting. My corporate job did not fulfill that for me. 

Even though I won’t be stay at home mom, I will get to spend a lot more time with my kids than if I had my corporate job. I will still make an income through my blogging, but it’s not the ultimate goal.

My goal is to find fulfillment in my DIY blogging, with my family and not be stressed. I don’t want that busy life. I want to find peaceful moments and not be rushing from one place to the next. 

It was hard to quit. I was working at this tech company for 9 years. They have given me a lot. With that career, I was able to fund my IVF, purchase our first house, and learn a lot of skills that helped me grow my blogging career. In the weeks leading up to my resignation, I was scared. I had a lot of doubt.

The 3 things that helped me resign are: 

• Knowing that no decision is final – If I decide to go back to work, if this fails or if it’s what I thought it would be, I am still employable. I have a lot of great skills and now experience as a business owner
• Not ONE SINGLE mother who I have spoken to who has left her career to be a SAHM or entrepreneur regrets it. They have found peace, happiness and blessings in their decision
• Preparing Financially – My husband and I have lived a modest life, where we live below our means. I have wanted to buy a bigger house for years, but a decision like that would force me to continue my corporate job. There is inherent risk with a new career. To hedge our risk, we will stay in our small starter home.

I am excited for this next chapter. I am so thankful for my Instagram community who believe in me. Many of you have been with me since day 1. It’s such a privilege to have people to connect with. You have let me into your life and be part of it. I truly believe I have the best followers. Thank you. 

I bet you have a lot of questions about how I made this leap financially, where I get my revenue from, etc. I will cover those in a future blog post, but feel free to ask in the comments below or send me a DM!

From the bottom of my heart- I appreciate every story you watch and words of encouragement. I especially will never forget how this community lifted me up and allowed me to grieve publicly after the passing of my dad, without judgement.
Love,
Hana