Content Director earning $100,000/year (plus up to $80k in profit sharing)

Welcome to another post in the $100k Club series. You can see the full series here. This is "My Morning Routine" for content marketing folks making six figures. The goal is to shed light on the skills and habits that enable people to achieve lucrative jobs and help get more people in this club.

These will be anonymous and updated regularly. If you make more than $100k/year and want to contribute, email me.

For more info on content marketing salaries, check out our salary report.

If you'd like to see more info on salary by job title, check out these resources: Content Marketing Manager Salary, Content Strategist Salary, Head of Content Salary, and Content Director Salary.

What was your first full-time job in content? What was the salary?

Social Media & Content Writer (growth-hacking w/ a startup), which paid $20 CAD per hour. I'd been freelancing part-time in content for years before that, though.

List out your income by year for as long as you've been working in content marketing

• 2014 - $500 USD - took on odd content writing jobs for travel money while teaching in Spain
• 2015 - $1,000 USD - took on more odd content writing jobs while teaching in Budapest
• 2016 - $10,000 CAD - moved to Canada without a work permit, so started hustling under the table for any content or creative job I could get (editing, ghostwriting, blog SEO writing, song lyric translation). I also had a short stint at a startup working full-time as a social media and content writer, but the startup didn't get their next round of funding, so that was short-lived.
• 2017 - $8,000 CAD - I got really into this handmade jewelry shop I was running, so I didn't do as many freelance content-marketing projects as before. I made money from my online shop, from markets, and from working a little bit at an art collective store behind the counter. My yearly income with everything combined was probably $25,000 CAD
• 2018 - $25,000 CAD - halfway through this year, I got a job as a content writer at $40,000.
• 2019 - $50,000 CAD - I stayed with the company, was promoted as an editor, and got a raise.
• 2020 - $70,000 CAD - I stayed with the company, hired a few editors to replace me, and started being the content director. I got a raise. My total income was actually higher because of a 10K bonus and some profit sharing as well.
• 2021 - $100,000 CAD - I stayed with the company and got a raise, still working as our content director. My total income is more like 150K to 180K CAD right now because we have quarterly profit sharing and it's often a pretty fat cheque.

How much do you earn today? What's your job title?

$100,000 CAD plus bonuses and quarterly profit sharing (so it works out to somewhere between 150K and 180K). I'm called a Content Director.

What's the single biggest salary jump you've made? (either from job-hopping or a promotion/raise)

When we started profit sharing, suddenly I started having an extra $20,000 cheque landing on my lap every quarter. Those are subject to the ebb and flow of profitability, though. Times might not always be this good, but for now it's an awesome bump.

What is your most valuable skill?

Decision-making. I am comfortable taking risks, and I am good at paying attention—listening fully, asking questions, understanding the concepts behind what someone is saying. I can zoom into the technical stuff and zoom out to see the bigger picture. These traits make me very good at making decisions that are productive, timely, and have good outcomes.

What's the best book you've ever read on writing, marketing, sales, business or productivity? (Feel free to suggest more than one!)

The Artist's Way
Never Split The Difference

Have you had a career mentor/coach? If so, how did you find them and what have you learned from them?

Not really, but I've learned a ton from the people I work with, and from my boss!

What skills or habits help you thrive at work?

Time management -- prioritizing, understanding the time suck of repeated manual tasks, deciding not to do unimportant things.

I also sleep well, get exercise, and have hobbies I enjoy. This makes me a waaaay better, more grounded person to work with.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to join the $100k club?

Try to minimize the censor in your brain telling you you're not worth it, or not going to make it. If you have trouble with this or feel blocked, pick up The Artist's Way, an awesome book for anyone who wants to learn skills and habits to be kinder to yourself, happier, and more creatively free.

Also, don't just strive for money. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow—focus more on the quality of your time spent, so that even if you don't earn a rockstar income, you'll at least have invested your most valuable resource (your time!) into things that made the moments of your life mostly great.

Every time I find myself focusing on doing my best work and sharing my natural gifts, that's when the money seems to come. It's so freaking frustrating until you figure out how to do that more of the time, but whenever you can, try to spend time doing things that you love doing. The money will follow.

Where do you live? What is your gender and ethnicity?

White female living in Vancouver, BC, Canada

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