39-year-old quit nursing to become a mechanic—now her business brings in $440,000 a year

Six years ago, Desiree Hill spent her days diagnosing patients. Now, she diagnoses cars.

As an oncology nurse at Northside Hospital Duluth, in Duluth, Georgia, Hill made around $40,000 per year. “I wasn’t happy in my career at that time. I wasn’t happy in my personal life,” says Hill, 39. “It was three hours of commuting in Atlanta traffic every day. And [as a single mom at the time] I never saw my children. So it really was taking a toll.”

Today, Hill is the owner of Crown’s Corner Mechanic — an auto repair shop in Conyers, Georgia, just a 15-minute drive from her home in Covington. Her company brought in nearly $440,000 in net revenue last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

This year, Crown’s Corner Mechanic has brought in about $70,000 in monthly revenue — roughly double last year’s monthly average — and is profitable, says Hill.

Hill started fixing cars in 2019 with no prior mechanic or entrepreneurship experience, teaching herself through YouTube videos and involving her family. Her 10-year-old daughter recently built a motor, and her son is a mechanic in the U.S. Army.

“We learned together,” says Hill, adding, “I not only have a family at home, I have a family here [with my employees] and I have a family with my customers.”

‘Everybody needs transportation’

Hill got a Registered Medical Assistant diploma from Florida Metropolitan University, a now-defunct for-profit school, in 2011, she says. (By the time she graduated, the school was known as Everest University.)

Over roughly a decade of nursing, she worked her way up to a high-demand, high-stress oncology unit at Northside Hospital Duluth. But she was unhappy, she says: long hours and commutes for a unit where patients often succumbed to their illnesses.

In 2019, Hill sought to increase her income by starting a side hustle. She began buying and renovating run-down vehicles to sell for profit, despite not knowing how to change her own car’s oil, she says.

“Everybody needs transportation. That’s never going to stop no matter what. And I knew it was something that I could spend a very small amount on and maybe potentially make a lot of profit,” says Hill. “It was the fastest way to make money.”

Hill watched tutorials on YouTube about how to fix or change certain car parts, or diagnose various vehicle problems. Her first purchase was a truck, for about $1,200. After spending $60 and putting in only an hour of work to fix it, she sold the truck for around $4,000 two days later.

“I bought three more cars the next day,” says Hill. “It was almost like a high. I swear, it was beautiful.”

‘I just knew I was going somewhere’

Hill stayed up until 3 a.m. nightly fixing cars, waking up at 6 a.m. to get back to the hospital. After 15 months of minimal sleep and time with her kids, she quit nursing around January 2020. Over the next year, she bought, fixed and sold 38 cars, which made her around $100,000 she says.

In June 2021, Hill decided to additionally work on other people’s vehicles as a mobile mechanic, traveling to customers to fix their vehicles. She spent a “couple thousand dollars” on her business license, auto tools, website, advertising and billing software, she says.

Hill brought in about $13,000 as a mechanic in six months, she says. She documented her repair jobs on TikTok, which brought a wave of new clients her way. In Spring 2022, she stopped flipping cars and rented a garage at a local repair shop to keep up with demand, and quickly outgrew that space, too.

A four-month RV repair job led to a stroke of luck: The RV owner saw her struggle, and offered her a $10,000 loan — without interest — to pay for her own auto body shop. Hill insisted on paying 10% interest, she says, and the pair drew up a three-year contract.

In September 2023, Hill began renting Crown’s Corner Mechanic’s 9,000-square-foot space, initially receiving two months prorated before paying $6,375 monthly. She brought on a mechanic, a welder and a towing professional, each renting space in her shop, covering about half of the now $6,566 monthly rent. “It was the smartest thing I could have ever done.”

Hill paid back the RV owner’s loan in 18 months, documents show.

I constantly ‘have to prove myself’

Many of Hill’s customers find her through her TikTok account, where she has over 120,000 followers. Others walk into the shop, see a 4-foot-11-inch woman, and do a double take, she says.

“There’s people that walk in here that don’t know [I’m the owner] … and they’re just baffled. Just because of how I look,” says Hill. “And then, when they tell me what the issue is, I take them 20 steps further and break it down for them before they can even get to the next question. I have to wow them with my knowledge. Every time, I have to prove myself. Every time I open my mouth.”

Hill projects that Crown’s Corner Mechanic will bring in $1 million in revenue this year — roughly double last year’s figure, though still less than the national average, according to a 2023 report from auto parts supplier PartsTech. Hill’s shop has eight bays, and the average gross revenue per bay for auto shops in the U.S. is $203,000, the report says.

She hopes to soon switch from renting to owning a space, she says, but she’d need about $4 million to buy her current building — which has her exploring mortgage loan options. Owning would help her put more money back into both the business and her five workers’ pockets, she adds.

In the meantime, she plans to keep growing her clientele through social media — if TikTok disappeared overnight, it’d be “devastating to my business,” she says — and one day get a mechanical engineering degree, preferably through a flexible, online program.

“We don’t stop,” says Hill, adding: “If you don’t know about us yet, you’re going to know about us real soon.”

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The No. 1 skill to teach your kid ‘as early as possible,’ says psychology expert—even Steve Jobs agreed

As a leadership consultant who studies workplace psychology, I’ve spent 30 years working with high performers across all industries. Again and again, one truth keeps proving itself: Being artistic in some way can transform you.

Even Steve Jobs agreed when he was interviewed for the PBS documentary “Triumph of the Nerds” in 1995: “I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians, who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”

Of all the artistic fields, I’ve found that mastering a musical instrument is the most powerful for rewiring the brain for greatness. Playing an instrument — whether it’s the piano, trumpet or guitar — activates nearly every part of your brain: motor control, pattern recognition, emotional regulation, creativity and stamina.

That’s why I believe parents should encourage their kids to learn an instrument as early as possible. Studies have consistently found that children who learn music are more likely to have increased IQ scores and better language development.

Plus, it encourages their brain to operate at full capacity, building the neural foundation for mastery in pretty much everything. Here’s why:

1. You make visualizing success second nature

Musicians don’t just practice, they fantasize. They see the stage, hear the notes and feel the outcome long before it happens. Hence, musicians build skill while just visualizing playing. That ability to rehearse and mentally simulate outcomes is a superpower: You learn not just react to reality, but to create it.

2. You develop a sacred relationship with time

When you practice an instrument, time stops being abstract. You feel in real-time the cost of distraction and the miracle of being fully focused.

Over time, you become fiercely time-conscious — not in a stressed way, but in a sacred one. You don’t want to rush, you want to make it count. This discipline shapes everything, from how you run meetings to how you build relationships.

3. You stop running from discomfort

Every musician has to face the parts of the music they hate and struggle with. There’s no shortcut. You can’t outsource it, nor avoid it. You have to lean in until the failure becomes fluency.

While most people avoid uncomfortable moments in life, playing an instrument teaches you to seek those moments. You no longer panic at pain; you see it as a sign of growth.

4. You learn that emotions are designable

Music isn’t just output. It’s a way of regulating your inner world by changing your emotional state with sound, breath, rhythm and in how you prepare.

It becomes an invaluable skill you carry into everything, like before a stressful conversation or during a conflict. You don’t just express emotions anymore — you direct them.

5. You realize boredom is just feedback

Musicians don’t just play scales mindlessly. They know what they’re aiming to improve: precision, control, phrasing. Without that goal, their attention drifts, and practice becomes boring.

We often think stuff we do is boring, but boredom is feedback. It’s your brain telling you: “Show me what this is building toward.” The insight that boredom is the absence of a goal changes everything. Instead of labeling tasks as boring or dull, you ask, “What’s my goal here?”

This makes you sharper, more engaged and harder to distract in any setting.

6. You turn being stuck into invention

Sometimes you can’t play it right. Your hand won’t stretch. Your fingers trip. So, you try it a different way. You improvise, rearrange, compose. Suddenly, the failure becomes fuel. This teaches you a profound lesson: When you can’t follow the map, draw a new one. Innovation isn’t a gift; it’s a response to friction.

7. Your standards rise and stay high

Once you’ve heard the difference between “okay” and “exceptional,” you can’t unhear it. Once you’ve experienced how moments of excellence feels, mediocrity becomes unbearable. Music teaches you to expect more from yourself and others, not out of perfectionism but out of respect for what’s possible.

8. You learn to create for others, not just yourself

When you’re playing an instrument, you can’t help imagining an audience, maybe to impress but mostly to move someone, to say something without words. That habit reshapes how you approach everything.

Your work becomes an expression of your standards, your values, your imagination. It forces you to ask: Is this good enough to matter to someone else? Will this make them think, feel, grow?

How to start expanding your brain with a musical instrument

Your brain’s plasticity and ability to learn allows you to pick up a new instrument at almost any age, so it’s never too late if you didn’t learn to play music as a kid.

1. Pick the one that sparks emotion. You don’t need logic here. What’s an instrument that moves you? That makes you feel something? Piano, guitar, trumpet — follow the spark.

2. Practice for at least 20 minutes a day. Studies show that 20 to 30 minutes of focused practice can induce measurable brain changes, particularly in areas tied to motor skills and attention.

3. Celebrate improvement, not performance. Don’t worry about being good. Track what you can do today that you couldn’t do yesterday. Mastery is just small progress, compounded with love.

Stefan Falk is an internationally-recognized executive coach, workplace psychology expert, and author of “Intrinsic Motivation: Learn to Love Your Work and Succeed as Never Before.” A McKinsey & Company alumnus, he has trained over 4,000 leaders across more than 60 organizations and helped drive transformations valued in excess of $2 billion. Follow him on LinkedIn.

I’ve worked with over 1,000 kids—if you want your child to trust and talk to you, do 6 things

Parents want their kids to trust them. They want to be the first person their child turns to with the big stuff, the hard stuff, and the exciting stuff. They want their kids to feel safe enough to ask questions and share emotions.

But none of that happens automatically, and trust doesn’t come from simply saying, “You can talk to me.”

Instead, you go first. Be open and honest. Show them how to navigate uncomfortable emotions and difficult situations. Model it.

This sounds simple, but parents don’t always know how to put it into practice. Here are six things you can do every day to build trust with your child:

1. Normalize talking about feelings

As a dual-certified child life specialist and therapist, I support families through some of the most difficult conversations imaginable — including illness, hospitalization, trauma, and loss. I’ve learned that these moments are easier when kids are exposed to open communication every day, not just when life gets hard.

When kids see adults naming and sharing their own feelings, they learn it’s okay to do the same. It gives them quiet, unwritten permission to open up, too.

This might sound like: “I’m feeling a little worried that we’re going to be late for school and work. Let’s work together.”

It’s about modeling. When we name emotions out loud — both the good and the uncomfortable — we teach our kids that feelings aren’t something to hide.

2. Don’t avoid the hard stuff

When kids watch their adults avoid certain topics, they quickly learn what’s “off limits,” and might worry about them even more.

This could look like skipping over the fact that a bug has died or dodging a question about someone who uses a wheelchair. But these are missed opportunities. When we avoid the uncomfortable or the unfamiliar, we teach kids that those conversations don’t belong in our home.

Instead, aim to create a space where all questions are welcome, curiosity is met with calm, and honesty is part of everyday life.

Try using these phrases to navigate difficult talks with your child.

3. Be honest about your own challenges

For many parents, emotional openness doesn’t come naturally. Maybe you didn’t grow up in a home where people showed or shared their feelings freely. That’s okay.

You can still give your child something different. You can even start by sharing what’s hard about opening up: “I didn’t grow up talking about my feelings, but I want to do that with you — because I know it’s important and helpful.”

That level of honesty builds connection. It shows your child that emotional openness isn’t about being perfect — it’s about being present and willing.

4. Model, don’t interrogate

We’ve all asked, “How was your day?” and gotten a shrug or a one-word answer.

Try flipping it. Instead of asking your child to open up first, share something from your own day: “Today was kind of a rollercoaster. I was excited about something in the morning, but then something didn’t go how I expected, and I felt frustrated. I took a walk and felt better by the end of the day. And now, I’m excited to see you and hear about your day.”

This models reflection and emotional awareness, and teaches kids how to do the same.

5. Make real talk part of your routine

One simple but powerful way to keep communication flowing is to build it into family routines.

In my home, we do “high-low-high“ at dinner. Each person shares a highlight from their day, something that was hard, and another positive moment.

Even my youngest — just two years old — asks for it nightly. It’s become a rhythm that creates space for both joy and struggle, woven into the everyday.

6. Teach coping strategies, too

When you talk about feelings, you also open the door to talk about coping skills that can help you handle them.

For example, after naming your frustration out loud, you might follow it with: “When I feel that way, I try to take deep breaths to help my body calm down.”

You can even practice a few calming breaths together before bed. It’s a simple, powerful way to show that regulating emotions is normal and doable.

Trust is built in the small moments

Kids are always watching. They don’t just hear what you say — they notice how you say it, when you say it, and what you avoid.

If you want your child to trust you with the big stuff, show them they can trust you with the small stuff. Validate their feelings and show them that what’s on their mind matters. Model honesty. Normalize emotions. And create space for real conversations — even when they’re messy or hard.

When you go first, your child can see how it’s done and follow your lead.

Kelsey Mora is Certified Child Life Specialist and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor who provides custom support, guidance, and resources to parents, families, and communities impacted by medical conditions, trauma, grief, and everyday life stress. She is a private practice owner, mom of two, the creator and author of The Method Workbooks, and the Chief Clinical Officer of the nonprofit organization Pickles Group.

I’m a neurologist—to keep my ‘brain healthy and memory sharp,’ I avoid 4 things people do all the time

Don’t smoke. Don’t drink alcohol. Don’t do drugs. Exercise frequently. Eat a healthy diet. Get good sleep.

You’ve probably heard all of this before. It’s the standard advice given by doctors and health advocates. And for good reason: This guidance is solid and forms the foundation for long-term health and quality of life.

But there are a few other things many people do all the time that, as a neurologist, I try to avoid to keep my brain healthy and memory sharp.

1. Always relying on GPS for navigation

GPS has made our lives much more convenient. Before its invention, people had to rely on foldout paper maps, spatial reasoning, and environmental cues to navigate. These days, that’s become a lost art.

Over time, relying too much on GPS can weaken your spatial memory. One study showed that the hippocampi — the memory centers of the brain — are larger in taxi drivers because they need to memorize complex street layouts.

Another recent study found that taxi and ambulance drivers were less likely to die from Alzheimer’s disease than people in other professions. One possible explanation is that these jobs require frequent, real-time use of spatial and navigational skills, which may help maintain or even improve hippocampal health.

This isn’t to say people shouldn’t use GPS for traffic updates, but there are ways to actively engage your spatial memory without it. For example, try planning a route to a new café or exploring a different way home from work.

2. Drinking too many energy drinks

Many of us work long days and feel like we never have enough energy to get through them. But relying on energy drinks isn’t the solution. These beverages often contain high levels of caffeine, taurine, and B vitamins. Consuming large amounts can lead to cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure, palpitations, and even arrhythmias.

Neurologically, excessive energy drink consumption can cause insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, and, in more severe cases, seizures.

A lesser-known risk is long-term buildup of B vitamins in the body. Normally, excess B vitamins are flushed out naturally since they’re water-soluble. However, a notable exception is vitamin B6, often consumed in sports and energy drinks. Excess B6 can accumulate over time, leading to toxicity and potentially causing peripheral neuropathy.

3. Overusing over-the-counter medications

Just because something is available over the counter (OTC) doesn’t mean it’s harmless. Always follow your doctor’s instructions and the medication label, and don’t exceed the recommended dosage.

For instance, common side effects of overusing aspirin, ibuprofen, and other NSAIDs (or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) include peptic ulcers, GI bleeding, acute kidney injury, and even chronic kidney disease. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is often seen as safer for the stomach and kidneys, but acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S.

Some lesser-known OTC products can cause surprising side effects. I’ve seen bismuth toxicity from excessive Pepto-Bismol use lead to dementia-like symptoms. I’ve also seen patients who, after following advice from online wellness influencers, consumed too much zinc, resulting in spinal cord injuries.

4. Enjoying nature without protecting yourself

I love hiking and spending time outdoors. But when I venture into nature, I always:

Know my environment and surroundings
Use bug spray and wear long sleeves when appropriate
Check for ticks afterward

Each year, especially during the summer, I see previously healthy people come into the hospital with fever, confusion, and sometimes seizures or coma, due to mosquito-borne or tick-borne illnesses. Some of these infections, like Lyme disease, are treatable if caught early. Others can leave lasting damage to the brain and nervous system.

Taking small preventive steps to avoid bug bites can potentially save you from life-altering infections.

Baibing Chen is a double-boarded certified neurologist and epileptologist practicing at the University of Michigan. Find him on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Couple bought a homestead for $390,000, spent $13,000 renovating: Their No. 1 takeaway

In 2023, Sophie Hilaire Goldie, 37, and Rocky Goldie, 50, had just finished converting a friend’s Home Depot shed into a tiny home and were ready to start looking for their own place together.

“If it wasn’t for meeting her, I probably would have ended up in a little shack,” Rocky tells CNBC Make It. “I took a long way to get here but I wanted to be some type of homesteader when we met. She had the same vision and it’s not common to meet somebody who does.”

“He also wanted to be living off the land and homesteading,” Sophie adds. “But he didn’t have this big grand vision of all these buildings. He just wanted something simple.”

The couple started their search on Zillow with a specific list of requirements that included “at least 10 acres of land” and located “deep in rural Kentucky.”

“We love old things and antiques, so we wanted a place with some history. We were actually looking for a fixer-upper that had some history, and we weren’t really finding great stuff on Zillow,” Sophie says.

A local photographer connected the couple to a realtor who found them a 37.5-acre homestead for around $390,000. The property had two log cabins from the 1840s that had been combined to make one 2,200 square foot house — with four bedrooms and one bathroom — and one 200 square foot cabin and two barns.

“I think I had been waiting my whole life to finally come home. There were elements of the shed that felt like that but this place, more than anything, felt right. I knew it would be the last time I was moving and where I’ll spend the rest of my life,” Sophie says. “I knew I wanted to put so much energy into these surrounding acres and this view. Finding home in Rocky and this home felt like I could finally let go of the burden I was carrying on trying to find a place.”

When the couple first visited the property, it was in pretty bad shape. There was poison ivy in the front yard, the sidewalk had cracks, and there was garbage everywhere.

But Sophie felt optimistic. “I knew we were going to buy this house before we even stepped foot into it,” she says. “I saw all of the promise. With me and my husband working on this place full time, in a few years we could transform this place.”

“I knew it looked terrible but I could see underneath all of it,” she adds.

Rocky was less sure but says he was swayed by his wife’s enthusiasm.

“I thought it was going to be a lot of work and that it was beautiful,” he says. “Sophie was always talking about the pros and I was talking the cons, but she convinced me.”

“I think we balance each other out that way. I’m toxically optimistic and Rocky is pessimistic, but I knew there was no way we weren’t going to live here,” Sophie adds, laughing.

Sophie and Rocky closed on the property in early 2024. The couple secured a 30-year mortgage with a minimum monthly payment of $1,790.18 and plan to pay it off in under five years.

Since moving in a year ago, Sophie and Rocky have focused on doing renovations around the house and the property themselves. The couple estimates they’ve spent about $13,000 so far: $9,000 on tools and $4,000 on the interior of the house.

That doesn’t include the hundreds of hours the couple has spent doing things like clearing out old trees and bushes, getting rid of all the poison ivy on the property and getting rid of an infestation of brown recluse spiders — one of two spiders in North America with dangerous venom, the other being the Black Widow.

The work and their mindset

Sophie says that when she looks back on the first year of living on the homestead, she splits it into two categories: the work and their mindset.

“The first part of the year was a lot of clearing. This place was covered in trash and so it was a lot of trips to the dump. It was a lot of sorting through that stuff before we even took it to the dump. It was also the chaos of having way too many animals and that is completely my fault and I knew it, but I also couldn’t stop myself,” she says.

“I think that first year was really hard and it’s hard to even go back to that place but it was also so amazing and exciting. There was an endless amount of things to do, but it was all fun and exciting.”

Sophie and Rocky have also added new things to the grounds like a garden, many fruit and nut trees and over 30 animals, including chickens, a goat, guinea fowls and cats.

On top of the additions to the grounds, the couple has also started renovations on the house, including redoing the kitchen, the bathroom and organizing the rooms throughout the house.

The two are trying to set themselves up to be as self-sustainable as possible, too. They eat the eggs from the chickens in the barn and use the milk from the goat to make cheese, creamer, and to bake. The hope is to also use the material they get from the clearing to make their own hay.

“We’ve got our own eggs. We’ve got fruit. This will be the first year that we will be canning, which I learned from one of our neighbors,” Sophie says. “One of the rooms we’re redoing to make it into a canning room, which is going to have who knows how many months worth of food ready to go.”

Now that the couple has been living on the property for a little over a year, Sophie says the most significant lesson she’s learned is the impact a person can have on a piece of the planet.

“We came here and now you can see how, as long as there are two people here working on this most of the time, you could take a place that was so neglected and change it,” she says. “Now we see the rapid abundance of all the work we put into it. It makes you think so much more about the impact that we have on the planet, especially in stewarding this one piece of land. It’s a big responsibility because you have a lot of power to do good or bad.”

For Rocky, the biggest lesson he’s learned is who he is outside of his career. He served in the Marines for several years before transitioning to a career in maintenance, which spanned over 20 years.

“He was so tied to that identity and when I told him to quit his job and homestead full-time, I saw the sirens going off in his head,” Sophie says. “Since he quit, I ask every few months or so how he feels and every time his answer is the same, he forgot to even think about the fact that he quit his job.”

“It’s ingrained into you in this culture that people identify themselves with their jobs. The job becomes your identity and even if you’ve got somewhat of a plan of how you want to live like we did, it was still scary to let go of that lifeline,” Rocky says. “When I left, I thought I would probably sit back and think about what I would be doing at work today but it never happened. The only thought that I have now is why I didn’t do it sooner.”

Sophie and Rocky have no plans of ever selling their property, and are excited to continue working on the homestead, growing Sophie’s skincare company, Seoul + Soil, and sharing their journey on YouTube.

“I look forward to the day when it’s not all these huge projects and all the major stuff is one and then we’re just sitting around dilly-dallying and doing our hobbies,” Sophie says. “I always want to keep learning and eventually spend half of my day just sitting here doing a hobby.”

Similar to Sophie, Rocky looks forward to the time when he can simply enjoy his hobbies.

“I love to read and learn something, so I would say my goal would be to get to the point where I could do day on, day off of reading, learn something and then go practically apply it the next day,” Rocky says. “I sit and think about what my goal is but it’s more of a feeling and I kind of already have that feeling where I can sit back and just feel at peace and there’s nowhere else in the world I would rather be. I think I’m already at the destination.”