I still remember looking at those numbers at the end of 2022 and blinking a few times. Our business had officially become a seven-figure operation: $1.1 million in revenue by December 31. We really just squeaked over the finish line, but a win is a win.
Following your curiosity down rabbit holes and packaging it all up for other people to enjoy — that’s a surprisingly good way to build something real. And I think you might be surprised to see how our revenue and expenses actually break down. Hell, I was.
Where the money came from
Prior to being acquired by our parent company in January 2022, I was a solopreneur making roughly $250,000 in Year 2 (up from $0 in Year 1 — an infinite increase, mathematically speaking). The acquisition meant I could run the business with part-time resources inside a larger media company. So here’s how we made money last year.
Direct-to-consumer revenue: $663,048
This covers affiliate income, merchandise sales, our flagship digital planner, and educational products.
Affiliate revenue ($83,801). One of our streams is affiliate links for credit cards we recommend in travel rewards content — though it’s really our only source of affiliate income. I think of affiliate work like a quality-over-quantity game. It was more beneficial to focus on a small handful of high-value relationships that slotted naturally into content we’d make anyway.
Merchandise sales ($107,318). Our trademark sweatshirts, koozies, and the viral “Mom, I Am a Rich Man” line. We tested a lot in 2022 and learned that functional tools outperform branded merchandise every time. Our best products played off something happening in real time within our community — like a mug born from a cold DM where someone told me our branding was “off-putting.” I posted it to Stories, said I wanted it on a coffee mug, and it sold out overnight. Merch developed in a vacuum? Sat on shelves.
Wealth Planner sales ($407,750). This is the flagship product. In tech circles they call it “dogfooding” — using your own product to make it better. I’ve been using it since Day 1, which means I think of new enhancements almost every month. We try to keep pricing accessible without making it so cheap that it signals low value. The Wealth Planner is our single biggest revenue source and the line of business I’m most proud of.
Educational products ($64,179). An area we’ve invested more in since 2023. Our courses dive deeper into budgeting and tax-smart investing — aggregating all the tidbits scattered across blog posts, podcasts, and social media into a coherent curriculum. I’ll be honest: courses are tricky at the right price point. We tried a cohort-based course in early 2022 and it didn’t get enough sign-ups to cover expenses. Turns out people don’t want to air their financial grievances to strangers — which is totally fair.
Advertising revenue: $489,465
Ads sold across the newsletter, podcast, and social media. We tend to work with fewer, larger sponsors rather than a ton of small ones. A full sponsorship package typically covers all our properties.
Total 2022 DTC + advertising revenue: ~$1.15 million
There are also adjacent sources — corporate speaking engagements and seminars for large groups — bringing in $30,123 on the side. Not something I actively seek out; running the main business takes up most of my time.
The expenses (the non-fun part)
Merchandise costs ($31,280): When you sell physical product, you first buy physical product.
Delivery and production ($39,546): Software, tech products, and other production costs.
Salaries, wages, healthcare, retirement matching, contractors, payroll taxes ($502,113): By far the largest line item. In 2022 we were a one-woman show until May, when I made our first full-time hire — Henah, my executive producer.
Smaller costs like travel, office supplies, and licensing fees cumulatively don’t add up to more than $10,000 — about 1% of revenue — so they’re not included here.
$502,113 in people costs out of ~$1.1 million total revenue — roughly 44% goes to the team making it all happen.
The biggest investment isn’t software or ads. It’s the right person.
Three lessons that actually matter
1. Hiring well changes everything. Our first full-time hire came directly from our community, and her involvement made a world of difference when I was drowning on my own. It’s hard to overstate how crucial proactive competence is in the early stages — or how damaging it can be when you’re understaffed.
2. A creator-forward model has built-in risk. Your biggest strength as a creator brand — relying on your own personality and opinions — is also your biggest vulnerability. There are real scalability issues when the entire ethos depends on one person. Everyone could decide they think my voice is annoying tomorrow, and that’s the end of it. We’re actively working through how to address those vulnerabilities.
3. Doing too much is a trap. The entrepreneurial landscape constantly evolves, and I have to remind myself daily: focus on core competencies and what actually matters for the bottom line. Not virality on TikTok or rapid follower growth on Instagram — but producing an incredibly high-quality show every single week and delivering enough value to our newsletter readers that their time feels well spent. At the end of 2022, I realized I was falling into petty metrics (how many plays did that Reel get?) instead of investing in higher-ROI activities like researching and writing.
Looking forward
There’s a saying I keep coming back to: “What got you here won’t get you there.”
Pure obsession and one lucky hire helped us scale from $250,000 to $1 million in annual revenue. But to reach more people with better products — whether that’s the podcast, the Wealth Planner, or something entirely new — we need systems that support us instead of brute-forcing through every week.
It means making sure everyone operates in their zone of genius for most of their workday. And once we’re confident we can run our existing platforms like a well-oiled machine, we’ll explore four-day work weeks, new business lines, and more unique opportunities.
Is affiliate income the best revenue stream for creators?
It depends. For us, a quality-over-quantity approach with high-value relationships worked better than chasing volume. Affiliate can be passive, but only if you build it into content you’d make anyway.
How much should I charge for digital products?
The pricing of a digital tool is always the tough part. We’ve increased incrementally over the years as we invested more in development and made functionalities more robust. The key: don’t price so low that it signals low value.
When should a solopreneur make their first hire?
When you’re drowning on your own and the right person can multiply your output. We waited until May 2022 for our first full-time hire, and it was the single most impactful decision we made that year.
A note from Maya: Transparency isn’t just good business practice — it’s how I learn. Every time I look at a line item, I find something to rethink. What got me here won’t get me there, so I’m always paying attention.