Hermela shares how she transitioned into a Salesforce consulting career in under a year, growing her income from $54K to a six-figure offer while eliminating a 2+ hour daily commute. She then deliberately negotiated fewer hours to prioritize time with her family and build a freelance business, ultimately becoming a fully independent solopreneur working 15 to 20 hours per week making more than her previous 50+ hour role.
Who benefits from this article? Anyone who feels stuck in a career with limited earning potential or no flexibility, especially those curious about whether a Salesforce career can realistically deliver financial freedom, remote work, and time on their own terms.
What can you expect as an outcome? A clear, real-world roadmap showing how an intentional, step-by-step approach to a Salesforce career can unlock more income, more time, and more autonomy without starting from scratch.
Key Topics from Episode 62
1. Life Before Salesforce: The Commute, the Cap, and the Breaking Point [00:02:54 – 00:07:02]
Hermela worked as a college advisor in the DC metro area, commuting over an hour each way in heavy traffic. While she genuinely loved guiding students, three frustrations built up over time:
- Earning potential was capped, requiring additional degrees or waiting for someone to vacate a role above her
- Salary increases were departmental decisions, outside her control
- There was no path to remote work in her field
The turning point came when she started listening to the Choose FI podcast during her commute and heard stories of everyday people who were building skills, earning more, and pursuing financial independence. Hearing Bradley’s story about leveraging Salesforce for part-time freelance work made the possibility feel real and achievable.
2. Landing the First Role: A 3 to 4 Month Preparation Playbook [00:08:01 – 00:13:03]
Hermela did not wait for the perfect moment. She began preparing while still in her advisor role, stacking advantages wherever she could:
- Completed modules on Trailhead, Salesforce’s free hands-on learning platform
- Joined an 8-week bootcamp-style program to prepare for certification
- Participated in a Salesforce implementation happening within her own department
- Served on the Salesforce customer council for higher education clients
- Studied Salesforce consultant job descriptions and mapped her advising experience to those requirements
- Followed Bradley’s LinkedIn tips on networking and positioning
She made a deliberate choice to pursue consulting rather than admin roles, recognizing that her background in discovery conversations, requirements gathering, and stakeholder communication was a direct match for consulting work.
3. Strategic Job Searching Through LinkedIn Networking [00:14:48 – 00:19:31]
Rather than submitting blind applications, Hermela went directly to people. She researched small to medium consulting firms, reached out to employees whether or not a job was posted, and started genuine conversations. This approach led to two offers and a third pending — giving her the power to choose. Bradley calls this the “SWAT team approach“: while everyone else lines up at the front door, you find another way in by building real connections with people inside the company.
4. Salary Progression: From $54K to Six Figures in Under a Year [00:13:23 – 00:36:37]
The financial trajectory was significant: College advisor salary: approximately $54,000; First Salesforce consultant role: $73,500 (a $20K jump, fully remote); Second role offer through networking: $105,000.
Two back-to-back moves each produced 30 to 50% salary increases. From the original advisor salary to the six-figure offer, the full jump happened in less than twelve months.
5. The Bold Negotiation: Trading Salary for Time [00:38:27 – 00:45:28]
When the $105K offer came in, Hermela did the math differently. Her cost of living had not risen, and she had avoided lifestyle creep. So instead of accepting the full-time role, she went back to the employer and asked a simple question: would they be open to her working 24 hours instead of 40? They said yes, reducing her salary to 60% of the offer, approximately $63,000. That still exceeded her original college advisor salary, came with no commute, and freed up significant time to begin freelancing.
6. Going Fully Independent: Building a Freelance Business [00:46:44 – 00:53:35]
With 24-hour weeks and a flexible schedule, Hermela enrolled in Bradley’s instructor-led 6 month freelance program and began looking for nonprofit clients. Her first year of freelancing brought in under $10,000, but the income grew steadily year over year. Eventually, it replaced the need for an employer entirely. Today she runs her own consulting practice, subcontracts with a firm for additional income, and works 15 to 20 hours per week on her own schedule, from anywhere in the world.
7. What Life Looks Like Now [00:48:23 – 00:53:35]
Hermela’s current week reflects the lifestyle she set out to design:
She recently launched a YouTube channel called Ease Into Earnings, focused on money management and career pivots, adding a new income stream she is actively building out
She takes her daughter to part-time preschool and picks her up in the afternoons
Her earning potential is no longer capped — she can take on more clients whenever she wants
Notable Insights
Transferable skills are more powerful than most people realize. Hermela’s college advising work translated directly to consulting. Running advising sessions was essentially discovery work. Gathering student needs was requirements gathering. She became fluent at drawing those parallels herself, because she knew an employer would not automatically make the connection for her.
Networking is just meaningful conversation. Hermela reframed networking entirely. Rather than feeling like cold outreach, she approached it as genuinely learning about someone’s experience and sharing her own goals clearly. That shift in mindset made it far less intimidating and far more effective.
Staying employed gives you negotiating power. Both of Hermela’s major career jumps came while she already had a job. Networking from a position of stability, without desperation, meant she could be selective and negotiate confidently.
Avoiding lifestyle creep creates options. Because Hermela did not increase her spending when her income increased, she had the financial flexibility to accept a reduced salary in exchange for fewer hours. That discipline is what made the part-time arrangement possible.
Time is the real asset. Bradley calculated that eliminating a 2.5-hour daily commute returns 38 full waking days per year. Hermela used that recovered time to upskill, exercise, start slow mornings, and eventually build her freelance business. The time came first; everything else followed.
How You Can Take Action
Become the expert on your own transferable skills. Do not wait for an employer to figure out why your background is relevant. Study job descriptions for the Salesforce roles you want, compare them to your own experience, and write out the parallels clearly. Use ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner if needed — give it your background and the job you are targeting, and ask it to help you identify the connections. Then practice saying it out loud until it feels natural.
Build your LinkedIn presence before you need it. Treat your LinkedIn profile as a landing page, not a resume. Pack it with relevant keywords so recruiters can find you. Add Trailhead coursework as experience. Write an About section that clearly states who you are, what you offer, and what you are looking for. Then use it actively — comment on posts, reach out to people at companies you admire, and make sure the right people know both your name and your goals.
Take it one goalpost at a time. Hermela did not try to freelance immediately. She focused first on landing a role, then on earning more, then on negotiating time freedom, then on building her own business. Each step created the conditions for the next. Pick the most important next milestone, put your energy there, and trust that the path continues to open up as you move forward.
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