Lillian Zhang, 25, brought in about $245,000 last year as a content creator.
Courtesy of Lillian Zhang
Gen Zer Lillian Zhang isn’t afraid of hard work.
The 25-year-old says that she works 60 to 70 hours a week, balancing a full-time job at a big technology company and working on her side hustle as a social media influencer. Today, she has over 260,000 followers across her various social media platforms where she posts career and personal finance content.
Her social media side hustle alone brought in about $245,000 last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. This income came from different sources such as sponsorships and user-generated content.
There is one popular financial concept that has helped her redefine how she thinks about hard work — compounding. Similar to how investments can grow over time through compound interest, being consistent in your actions can also lead to an outsized return in life, Zhang told CNBC Make It.
Having the discipline to work on her content every day on top of having a full-time job was key to her success in building a following and turning her side hustle into a six-figure business, she said.
“Consistent actions compound over time,” said Zhang. That means doing something even if you don’t want to because the constant repetition is more important than how you feel about it, she explained.
The Silicon Valley hustle
Zhang grew up in Silicon Valley as the only child to two immigrant parents.
“Living in [Silicon Valley] gives you a really warped perception of wealth,” said Zhang. “People think it’s a very … wealthy zip code, but my family didn’t really necessarily fit that bill.”
As a kid, Zhang noticed that while many of her friends’ parents owned multiple properties and nice cars, her family could only afford to live in apartments.
“Money was definitely something that my parents held a scarcity mindset about. They didn’t really talk about it with me directly, but I would hear them argue about it, and I just remember it being a negative thing … and that we could run out of it one day. That was the main fear,” said Zhang.
“That really impacted me growing up, and so I knew that … after graduation, I didn’t want to live in that kind of financial anxiety anymore, and I wanted to … give back to my parents,” she added.
Lillian Zhang went to UC Berkeley for college.
Courtesy of Lillian Zhang
Motivated by this, Zhang earned her entrepreneurial chops early on. Along with balancing school and extracurricular activities, in middle school, she started her first business where she made plushies using her mom’s sewing machine and sold them for a profit at school and online.
At age 12, she began posting videos of her plushies onto YouTube to market and sell them online. She also ran other e-commerce businesses where she would buy stuff off of AliExpress and resell them on YouTube. She estimates that she made about $15,000 from all of her business operations as a kid.
“I’ve always been very entrepreneurial … it was second nature to me,” she said.
Staying organized
Today, Zhang has carried this work ethic into adulthood.
In the past year, she has balanced a full-time job, running her social media pages and writing her first book “The New Money Rules: The Gen Z Guide to Personal Finance,” which is set to publish in November.
When asked about work-life balance, she said: “I don’t really think it exists, to be honest.”
To manage everything, she suggests batching tasks to save time. For example, instead of cooking every day, she likes to meal-prep multiple meals at one time. In addition, she will allocate similar tasks to one part of her day — such as responding to emails and life administration.
Staying organized and batching your tasks can “really help with making more energy and room for your life,” she said.
“You should have a greater goal or a vision of what you’re working towards … because there are going to be a lot of days when you’re doing something and you’re not going to see the immediate results of your actions [and] it might feel pointless in the moment,” she said.
“I think you need to know why you’re doing it, and on the days when it’s difficult or hard, you can remind yourself of … what you’re working towards to begin with,” said Zhang. “[Results] will show up when you least expect it, and it’s because of all those consistent efforts you’ve been putting in way before that.”
Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work. Learn from three expert instructors how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off the regular course price of $67 (plus tax). Offer valid July 22, 2025, through September 2, 2025.
Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.
