Upskill and Earn: The Proven Path to $150/hr From Home

Here’s a proven path to $150 an hour, right from home. Maybe you’ve got a good job you like. But when you look ahead, the salary ceiling feels capped, the red tape runs deep, and the chances to move up are slim.

At some point it hits you: this path won’t get me where I want to go, and nothing changes unless I change it.

For Hermela Felten, she carved out a new path with better pay and far more time freedom, and she’s here to walk you through it.

Hermela runs easeintoearnings.com and Feltech Digital Solutions. A few years ago, she was a college advisor in the DC metro area, spending 2.5 to 3 hours a day just commuting.

When COVID sent her remote, she suddenly had about 2.5 hours of her day back, and that small taste of freedom set everything in motion.

Tune into Episode 749 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

how to upskill into a high-paying, in-demand skill for free
how networking can help you skip the job-application line
how to turn that new skill into your own part-time freelance business

(Curious if a Salesforce pivot could work for you? Here’s a free 5-day challenge: sidehustlenation.com/salesforce)

Table of Contents show

Why She Made the Pivot

Hermela loved her job, but her college salary was capped at about $53,000. Raises followed the department budget, and moving up often meant waiting for someone to retire.

She’d been listening to financial independence shows like ChooseFI, which preach a simple idea: mind the gap between what you earn and what you spend, then invest the difference.

Hermela was already great at keeping her expenses low. The problem was the income side.

Then she heard Bradley Rice’s story. He had pivoted into a Salesforce career and reached financial freedom much faster. She realized she could make the same move and stop letting an income ceiling hold her back.

How She Got Her Initial Traction

Hermela’s move into Salesforce wasn’t a huge leap. She was already Salesforce-adjacent at the university, and being an academic advisor turned out to be a lot like being a consultant.

Upskilling for Free

Salesforce offers two paths:

work inside one organization
consult for many

Consulting fit her skills best. She learned the technical side for free on Trailhead, Salesforce’s training platform, and did a 12-week boot camp to prep for the administrator certification.

Her guiding rule throughout: “focus on what you have.” Nearly every skill you already own is transferable.

Networking Past the Line

The bigger unlock was networking. Instead of applying blindly, Hermela got loud about her pivot on LinkedIn.

She’d message people at organizations she admired with a genuine note, mention something specific about them, and end with an ask for a short chat.

She focused on hiring managers, directors, and a few peer-level connections, the people who could actually open doors.

Three Offers Before She Was Even Certified

That outreach worked. Hermela landed three job offers before she finished her certification, each one contingent on getting it, and all through networking rather than blind applications.

She turned down a project manager role at a consulting firm, holding out for something more technical, and accepted a Salesforce admin job serving nonprofits.

It paid $73,000 fully remote, up from her $53,000 college salary. Staying in-demand mattered too, so she kept sharpening skills like pairing Salesforce with AI.

The Six-Figure Offer, and a Bold Ask

About six months in, a past networking contact came back with a new offer: $105,000, nearly double her old salary.

But Hermela cared about time as much as money, so she asked a bold question: would they be open to 24 hours a week instead of 40?

They said yes and prorated her pay to around $63,000.

With low costs and no commute, that was still a win, and it handed her back two full working days to build something of her own.

Building Her Own Freelance Business

Those two extra days became a freelance consulting business.

Her first client only needed 5 to 10 hours of Salesforce help, more than enough to start.

To learn the business side, contracts, invoicing, and finding clients, she took Bradley Rice’s freelance training through Talent Stacker.

More clients came the same way her jobs had: through networking with other independent consultants.

She positions herself as a Salesforce consultant for mission-driven organizations, piggybacking on the popularity of the software itself.

And she’s clear about her limit: she wants to work just 20 to 24 hours a week, so she built the business to fit her life, not the other way around.

How She Prices Her Work

Hermela’s work comes in two flavors.

Project-based, like helping a client adopt a new marketing tool, where consultants bid on a defined scope.
Managed services (which she leans toward): ongoing, recurring support billed as a monthly retainer, which smooths out the feast-or-famine of one-off projects.

She thinks of each client as a “bucket of hours,” anywhere from 5 to 40-plus hours a month, scoped so they only pay for work they actually have.

She keeps it to about four clients at a time.

Rates range widely, from $50 to $75 an hour on the low end up to $250 for specialists, with a sweet spot around $125 to $150. Her own retainers land closer to $150 to $200 an hour.

Designing Life Around Coast FI

None of this is about maxing out her income right now. Hermela’s goal is to cover her living expenses, keep investing toward her targets, and protect her time while her daughter is young.

Because she kept her lifestyle lean through every raise, she’s already reached Coast FI, meaning her nest egg can keep growing on its own without new contributions.

She sees it as a short-term sacrifice for a long-term payoff: front-load the work now, enjoy the freedom later.

It’s an idea I have explored on the show with Andy Hill of Marriage, Kids and Money.

A Day in the Life

On a typical day, Hermela makes client calls and keeps an eye on project and maintenance requests, all within her part-time hours.

She notes that the work has grown more complex over the years, with companies expecting more, so staying sharp matters.

There’s also room to grow without chasing clients directly. She can subcontract with other agencies that need extra help, taking a lower rate in exchange for them handling the client-finding.

As she stresses, this isn’t overnight money, but zoom out and stay patient, and the payoff compounds.

Mistakes or Surprises?

Hermela’s biggest surprise was how much genuine relationships shaped her whole journey. Almost every opportunity, from her first job offers to her freelance clients, traced back to a real connection she’d made.

Her takeaway is one Side Hustle Nation hears often: “your network is your net worth.” Being willing to reach out, stay genuine, and keep in touch turned out to be the most valuable skill of all.

What’s Next for Hermela?

Now Hermela is chasing more time-leveraged income, the kind that doesn’t trade every dollar for an hour.

She recently launched Ease into Earnings, a YouTube channel and Etsy shop where she’s exploring digital products like budget templates and money-management tools.

Hermela’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Think of a side hustle as a way to buy back your time.”

Episode Links

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