Megan Walsh jolted awake at 2 a.m. and anxiously paced around her bedroom in Manahawkin, New Jersey.

It was March 2021, and she was completely overwhelmed. Walsh, normally a part-time endoscopy nurse, was working full-time to help with the influx of patients at her hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her father, a gardener, had died six months prior, she says.

In nursing school, she made crafts and sold them on online marketplace Etsy as a stress outlet. Seeking the same relief, Walsh sat at her computer and researched ways to be artsy with plants as an homage to her dad.

Aromatherapy calmed her at home, so she ordered a pound of fragrant eucalyptus online for $40, and used it to create some wall decor in her living room. That product — and other pieces of wall decor, featuring various dried flowers — brought in more than $121,400 in sales on Etsy last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Walsh’s shop, called MegansMenagerie, is on track for a similar performance this year: roughly $9,800 in monthly sales, through September.

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to earning passive income online

A couple months into selling wall decor, Walsh scaled back her nursing schedule. She now works 24 to 32 hours per week at her hospital, and spends 12 to 24 hours per week on her Etsy side hustle, she says. She’s personally profited about $60,000 from the Etsy shop so far this year, nearly as much as she’ll make as a nurse, she estimates.

“I don’t have to have a full-time job because of Etsy,” says Walsh, 41. “It’s been my way to save, buy things for the family, host birthday parties. When my daughter started driving, I was able to buy her a car.”

Here’s how Walsh built her Etsy store, and how she found side hustle success after more than a decade on the platform.

Walsh first started MegansMenagerie in 2009, at suggestion of a family friend, while pursuing an associate’s degree in nursing at Ocean County College. Her first sale: a $40 crocheted Cowell-neck scarf, she says.

She casually crocheted outside of class, putting her sales toward her bills and oldest daughter’s birthday parties, she says. Three years in, Walsh noticed that chevron — a zigzag “Charlie Brown” printed pattern — was growing popular among retail and Etsy sellers. She bought bulk orders from knit fabric vendors and made chevron scarves on her mother’s old Singer sewing machine.

The scarves were a hit. Walsh sewed early in the morning and late into the night to keep up with the demand while continuing school, she says.

“I lived in an apartment at the time, and I’m glad that the neighbors below were OK with me waking up super early to sew. We’re talking like 5 a.m.,” Walsh says. “I had to put rugs down because the machine was just so loud, like a metal thumping noise for hours.”

Each scarf took 30 minutes to make, far less than the four hours it took Walsh to crochet one Cowell. That year, she says, she used her increased Etsy earnings to buy a then-new 2013 Dodge Journey, which had a starting MSRP of $19,990, according to Kelly Blue Book.

Demand remained high for about two years, and the shop brought in between $40,000 and $50,000 per year, Walsh says. Its momentum faded in late 2014, around the time she finished her bachelor’s degree at Thomas Edison University and had her second child.

Walsh continued crafting as a hobby — adding macrame wall decor and jewelry to her portfolio — and kept her Etsy store open as she began her nursing career. Her need to create heightened during the pandemic, she says.

She opened her first shipment of eucalyptus in March 2021, soaked the plants in glycerin to preserve their scent and color, and strung the pieces together, letting them dangle from a wooden pole meant to be hung with a nail on a wall.

That year, her Etsy shop’s annual revenue jumped to $78,400. In 2022, the shop brought in $108,300.

Over the years, MegansMenagerie has paid for another car, family vacations, student loan payments and her and her husband’s 20-year vow renewal ceremony last year, which cost about $20,000, Walsh says. Her husband, a former restaurant manager, can now be a stay-at-home dad to their three children and assist Walsh with her business’ shipping logistics, she adds.

Walsh adjusts her hours at both of her jobs around her kids’ schedules, she says. Whenever she starts feeling overworked, she cuts something back. On top of her endoscopy role at her hospital, for example, she worked as a sexual assault nurse examiner for a couple of years — but stopped when her Etsy shop regained popularity.

During the last two months of 2023, at the height of the holiday season, Walsh took MegansMenagerie offline to mentally recoup, she says.

“I didn’t want to deal with the struggle of shipping deadlines and customers needed something they ordered [immediately],” says Walsh. “I’m not Amazon. You are legit getting a handmade product I made in my living room.”

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

I didn’t think about leaving the U.S. to live somewhere else until very recently. 

My father is from Jamaica, so I have always felt a connection to the island, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally visited for the first time. 

I was struck by the joy I felt surrounded by the culture, the food, and so many family members and new friends. This spring, I made the leap and moved with my two youngest kids to Negril, Jamaica.

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to negotiating a higher salary

Back in the States, I was often ill and had very high blood pressure. Over the last several months, to my surprise and delight, following the example of the vibrant older folks in my community, my stress has lifted and I am so much healthier. 

Overall, I feel like I have a better chance of longevity here. 

Here are the biggest lessons I have learned from the senior citizens in my community:

One of my neighbors, in his mid-to-late 60s, can do a backflip and often climbs trees to pick fruit. He is just one example of the vibrant senior citizens in my area. 

Many people wash their clothes by hand, as I have started to, and hang them on the line. People devote a lot of time to tending their gardens.  

I spend almost all day outside working. I’ve tried doing that in the States, but as soon as the season changes, I go back in and may or may not come out again.

But thanks to the temperate year-round weather here, my veranda “office” is always open.

In hindsight, I feel like the dependence on cars in the U.S. made it harder for me to enjoy nature and the company of other people. 

In North Carolina, so many things are drive-thru, from pharmacies to fast food. By virtue of how my town was designed, everyone was reliant on a vehicle. In the U.S., I drove everywhere, including to take my daughter to daycare, even though it was just up the street.

In my community in Negril, most people walk and use public transportation, especially seniors, to get around and do their errands.

I walk much more since I got here, and I’ll stroll to the store most days. Jamaica is also very hilly and mountainous, so you regularly have to go up inclines. It’s been so positive for my health.

The food here is fantastic, especially the produce. Fruit trees are everywhere, and there is such a variety of fresh vegetables. 

To me, the food in Jamaica tastes different from the food in the U.S. It is not super processed, or overly salty or sweet. I don’t eat traditional fast food here, although there are restaurants that serve it. I prefer to go to a skilled local vendor and try some of their wares. 

You don’t have to go far to find someone selling delicious, healthy and inexpensive food, whether it is freshly caught fish, porridge, lovely cold coconuts, or some of my favorite dishes like jerk chicken, brown stew, bully beef and beef patties.

You will frequently see people, especially older folks, talking, playing dominoes or Ludi, and laughing together. When people aren’t feeling well, neighbors will share their favorite herbal remedies. 

We are often invited to neighborhood gatherings, even as newcomers. On a Sunday, for example, people might go to church, relax, go to the river, do some “bush cooking” — preparing and serving delicious meals outside. It’s a very laid-back atmosphere, and I felt welcome right away. 

I rarely saw anyone in my neighborhood in the States. I knew only about four of my neighbors on the street and I lived in that house for seven years. I would see people in passing and wave, but then we would just go back to our lives. 

It’s odd not to know or talk to your neighbors here. Every time I see a neighbor in Jamaica, we sit and chat. 

I didn’t realize how high-stress and individualistic the culture could be in the United States until we left. I was on autopilot all day, every day.

The pace of island life forced me to slow down, start paying attention to how I felt, and challenged my beliefs of what life should be. Moving shook up my routine, removed me from daily stressors, and allowed me to create a new reality. 

Small changes definitely add up, and getting out of my comfort zone helped me make these new habits stick, for the better.

Tiffany Grant is a financial educator, writer, podcaster and coach. Before she was an entrepreneur, Tiffany was an HR professional. She is the founder and host of ″Money Talk with Tiff,” an Accredited Financial Counselor and holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Sign up today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through Nov. 26, 2024.

If you want to earn six figures while working from home, consider a career in social media marketing.

Social media marketing is among the fastest-growing careers in the U.S., according to LinkedIn, spurred by the rapid adoption of e-commerce and shifts in consumer behavior post-pandemic. 

TikTok, Instagram and other platforms have become essential tools for businesses to engage with customers and promote their products or brands — and companies are eager to hire people who can help them use these platforms effectively.

Job boards FlexJobs and Freelancer.com are seeing a boom in the number of remote, hybrid and freelance social media marketing roles.

This demand shows no signs of abating: The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the digital marketing landscape — including social media marketing — is expected to grow by 8% annually, with nearly 200,000 new jobs expected to be created by 2030.

While some marketing jobs prefer candidates to have a bachelor’s degree, it’s not a prerequisite for a successful career in social media marketing.

What’s far more important, says Toni Frana, FlexJobs’ lead career expert, are the technical skills you bring to the table: Most social media marketing roles require a strong understanding of SEO, data analysis and social media advertising. 

Hiring managers also seek out people who can shoot and edit videos, manage online communities, coordinate partnerships with influencers and develop corresponding marketing campaigns to drive profit, says Sebastián Siseles, vice president of international at Freelancer.com.

Some of the most in-demand roles in this field include influencer marketing managers, social media marketing specialists and content strategists, per FlexJobs and LinkedIn.

Salaries range depending on experience, with entry-level roles starting at around $50,000 per year and seasoned strategists or managers earning upwards of $120,000.

To get started in social media marketing, you can watch tutorials on YouTube or take online courses to earn a certification in specific skills — LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, HubSpot and Google all offer certificates in digital marketing and e-commerce. 

Frana also recommends creating an online portfolio that showcases any relevant social media marketing projects or work you’ve done, including client testimonials.

This hands-on experience can be as valuable as a college degree, Frana adds, as it can demonstrate a deep understanding of engagement strategies, content curation and community management.

According to Fiverr, a freelancing marketplace, most freelance social media marketing jobs are remote, too, so social media marketing professionals can work from anywhere and set their own hours, as long as they meet their project deadlines.

Fiverr has seen steady demand for social media marketing services over the past six months: Between May and October, searches for “social media content manager” rose 493% on its platform. Searches for social media account setup, management and content editing also shot up. 

The more experienced you are, the higher you can set your rate: Social media marketing specialists on Freelancer.com charge as much as $125 per hour. 

Jennifer Shealey, a freelance digital and social media marketing specialist in Vero Beach, Florida, charges anywhere from $85 to $245 on Fiverr for her services. 

Digital marketing started as a side hustle for Shealey, who became a full-time freelancer a few years ago after losing her job as a project administrator at a tile company. 

The 46-year-old says building a roster of recurring clients and diversifying her offerings — she designs websites, creates content for Instagram and writes SEO copy for YouTube — has helped her build a successful freelance career. 

She has made over $600,000 in sales since joining Fiverr in 2014. In 2023, Shealey earned over $100,000 from freelancing on Fiverr.

Beyond the lucrative earning potential, Shealey says one of the best parts of working in social media marketing is the flexibility — both in scheduling and creative freedom. 

“It’s the kind of job you can do from home, from a van or on the road while traveling,” she says. “If you’re into creativity, analytical work and constantly learning new things, it’s a great field to get into. We certainly need more people in digital marketing, even I can’t keep up with the demand.”

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Register now and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through Nov. 26, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

Back in 2007, I dropped out of college, despite owing about $50,000 in student loans. Believe it or not, it was the smart choice for me at the time. 

None of my friends who’d graduated were landing jobs. I knew I’d need to go even further into debt to finish my degree. And I’d already landed a great position as a public policy assistant. 

Still, starting out on such shaky financial ground was far from ideal.

Feeling uneasy about quitting school, I thought all I could do was grind it out at my job. But I’d found a passion that got me excited outside of work: video creation, which included capturing moments and telling stories. I was thrilled when I discovered this site called YouTube where I could upload my videos for free and share the links with friends.

At the same time, social media platforms like Facebook and then Twitter were becoming popular — and I realized I was pretty good at figuring out how to use them. 

I had no idea how much of a game-changer these discoveries would be. Fifteen years later, my fun hobby has become my career: It allows me to make about $18,000 a month in passive income, according to my calculations from a recent month’s deposits, and work only four hours a day.

A couple years after I dropped out of college, a friend pointed out that I had a knack for understanding video content and social media platforms. She suggested I could do it professionally. 

It was the aha moment that changed everything. My side projects weren’t just fun. They were teaching me valuable skills that were increasingly in demand. 

This led me to take the strategies I was learning about content and social media and start a side hustle. I was basically a one-woman show posting on Facebook and Twitter for small businesses to help bring them brand awareness.

I worked evenings and weekends for over a year before I quit my full-time job in 2010 to go all in on my agency.

To market my new business, I leveraged my video editing skills to share tips and tricks around social media marketing, including tutorials, resource recommendations, and content strategies. 

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to earning passive income online

During a particularly tough month with almost no revenue for the agency, I decided to try something new: selling a course teaching businesses how to create their own videos. I pitched the course to my modest email list of a couple hundred people, offering a special pre-launch price for early sign-ups. 

That was my first taste of passive income — as I recall it, I made about $1,000 in revenue in a single day from one email. 

The early validation and surge to my bank account was all the momentum I needed to create the content, which I delivered via live hour-long webinars once a week for six weeks. 

It took me about 30 hours in total to make and teach the course. But once the course was created, it became an easy source of passive income as I made it available for purchase on my website and social media channels from that point forward. 

Over a decade later, my passive income portfolio has evolved significantly.

I’ve created more than 1,000 videos about productivity and brand-building for my YouTube channel, AmyTV. Each one takes me about an hour to prepare and another hour to film, and can continue earning money indefinitely through advertising revenue and more. 

For example, a video I posted in December 2020 called “Plan Your Best Year Ever! My 7 Step Goal Setting Process” keeps growing in views every month and directing people to purchase my planner.

My community began asking time and again for something that laid out my philosophy on video content strategy. I realized that my audience was telling me they’d buy books, so I started writing them. 

I began with, “Vlog Like a Boss: How To Kill It Online With Video Blogging.” Then “Good Morning, Good Life: 5 Simple Habits to Master Your Mornings and Upgrade Your Life.” Most recently, I published “365 Days of Good Morning, Good Life: Daily Reflections to Help You Go After the Life You Want.”

I self-published through Amazon’s print-on-demand and audiobook creation platforms. Each book took an average of three weeks to write, followed by a couple months of design to get it ready for print and e-book formats. Since 2017, the three books have sold about 40,000 copies.

“Good Morning, Good Life” inspired my first non-book product: a paper planner helping people streamline their morning routines and be more productive. This has brought in over $140,000 in sales.

On average, my personal brand brings in about $18,000 monthly in passive income between YouTube ads, affiliate revenue, brand deals, and books and other products sold. 

I’ve learned that when you show up in service of others, amazing things can happen — including making more money for a better life.

Amy Landino is a personal brand coach and the award-winning creator of AmyTV on YouTube. She is an instructor in CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online. Follow her on Instagram.

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

To feel good in your body, it’s important to engage in regular physical activity and to stretch often.

Darcie Pervier, a physical therapist and women’s health coach, stretches and exercises every day, and CNBC Make It asked her to share the movements that she does to feel her best.

“My end goal for all stretches is to take an assessment of where there might be some imbalances in my body and where movement might be missing,” Pervier says.

“For me, given my line of work, bending over people all day, sitting at a desk, documenting, it’s really important to keep an eye on my spinal mobility.”

Here are four movements that Pervier makes sure to keep in her daily fitness routine.

1. Cat-cow stretches

“I do cat-cows daily,” Pervier says. The stretch involves placing your hands and knees on the ground, and curving your spine inward, then rounding your spine upward.

“The reason that I do those are because it allows me to feel each segment of my spine, so I can really work on keeping mobility.”

You can do this stretch variation at your own pace and for as long as you’d like, but Pervier finds that moving slowly allows you to get a full range of motion.

“I love spinal flexibility because we need it for so many things. We need it to maintain balance. We need it to maintain core strength and to have great breath [control],” she says.

2. Child’s pose

Pervier’s daily routine also includes child’s pose with side reaches to get “deep hip flexion.” To do child’s pose, you start by kneeling then reaching forward as you bring your head to the ground.

“It allows [you], when you reach to the side, to really focus your breath into the rib cage to get full rib expansion, which is really important for organ motility, getting things moving inside your body, which is important for long-term health,” she says.

3. Lower trunk rotations

Doing lower trunk rotations each day allows Pervier to “get that side body stretch in, [and] to feel if there are any differences in my mobility.”

Lower trunk rotations involve laying on the ground with your knees bent and rotating your lower body from side to side.

“Everybody can probably use a little bit of back extension in their life, unless they have a back condition,” Pervier says.

“But we are all bent over, whether it’s over a computer or over patients or construction workers being bent over all day, so we’re in a flex position, and we could all use a little bit of experience in the opposite direction.”

4. Squats

When it comes to Pervier’s workout routine, she switches up the exercises that she does depending on the day. Yet, one movement finds its way into all of her workouts.

“The thing that I don’t ever omit are squats,” she says. “I think the one exercise everybody should be including is squats.”

When squatting, it’s important to have your feet shoulder-width apart and lower your body as if you’re sitting in a seat. Make sure you’re engaging your core, keeping your feet planted and your chest up.

“A lot of times people think they’re doing their squat most effectively, but they’re using just their quads, and maybe that’s their intention,” Pervier says. “But we also want to make sure we’re getting the back muscles, the glutes and the hamstrings.”

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Start today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through November 26, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.