From Teacher to Social Media Marketing Star: One Man’s Journey to Financial Freedom

Article presented by Nick Kasmik

YouTubers and social media influencers might be among the most popular professions for kids, but there’s no reason to panic — kids still want to be doctors and teachers, too. A recent Ellie Sparkles survey of a thousand American 5 to 8-year-olds showed that healthcare and education are still kids’ top two industries of choice. Vlogging came in fourth, and being a social media influencer came in eleventh.

It’s hard to tell what teachers would say to that. But given that they suffer from the highest burnout rates — according to a Gallup poll — teachers might warn the kids to explore their choices a bit more before committing.

Mik Zenon, a former teacher, could tell them what it’s like to be a full-time content creator on social media. With more than three million followers on his TikTok page and nearing his first million on Instagram, Mik Zenon is one of the biggest names in the product review content sphere.

“I taught math and physical education for about ten years,” says Mik Zenon. “The job provided a stable income and a good pension. But it couldn’t provide financial freedom, and I badly wanted to stop trading my time for money.”

Mik Zenon’s adventure started in 2019 when he quit his job and decided to try his luck in a completely different industry. It was years before the Great Reshuffle, but just in time to get caught in the wave of desire for financial freedom. The name of the game was building passive income streams, and finding a way to develop it took Mik Zenon some experimenting.

“I tried different things. I did stock trading for a little bit to get the gist of that. I tried crypto trading, I tried selling on Amazon,” he recalls. “Then, finally, I found this Amazon affiliate space, and once I did, it just spoke to me. Within the first week, I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was immediate.”

Mik Zenon’s realization that he found a space where he’d want to develop his new career was immediate, but success wasn’t. Mik Zenon didn’t have social media profiles — an integral part of modern affiliate marketing. He was a ghost on social media, with no Facebook or Instagram.

Hearing Garry Vee talk about how important it is to post on TikTok inspired Mik Zenon to try it. He started by experimenting and trying different things out.

“I posted different kinds of content on TikTok. I started with mental health-related content to help people deal with issues. It was textual content mostly,” he recalls. “But then I saw that bringing together Amazon affiliates and TikTok content works for other people, so I decided to try it.”

When he hit on the correct formula, it didn’t take too long for things to get rolling. Within a year, his product review videos got him over a million followers on TikTok. Since then, he went on to have over a billion views across all his platforms — an impressive feat for a self-described social media ghost.

“I’m a low-key person, and I don’t usually put myself out there in any way,” he says. “I tried getting my wife to start a YouTube career because she’d been great at it. However, she had just given birth, so we decided I would start, and she’d take over at some point. But here we are, millions of followers later.”

Regarding content creation strategy, Mik Zenon quickly found that doing regular product reviews isn’t challenging or fun in the long run. So, he started adding humorous bits to them, including mispronounced words or some out-of-place items. The audience’s response has been positive, and it’s helped Mik Zenon stay engaged in content creation.

Besides doing product reviews, Mik Zenon branched into the deals and coupons space. He has a website, mikzenon.com, where he shares deals in the product categories people use daily. Usually, it’s discount codes or an occasional price drop alert. This type of work has been rewarding in more ways than one for him.

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“I get emails pretty frequently where people tell me how I helped them save money,” said Mik Zenon. “It’s the holiday season when I get the most emails from people who’ve saved money using my website.”

With some evergreen content in his portfolio and a solid understanding of how social media content creation works, it’s safe to say that Mik Zenon met the goals he set out to achieve when he quit his teaching job. He’s not stopping here, though — he plans to get even more prominent in the space, with eyes on becoming a rival to companies such as Japanese-based Rakuten.

“In my space, I believe there’s only one content creator who has better numbers than me, and there’s a lot of people that do this,” he says. “I credit my success to obsessing over every detail – in the short video format, every millisecond matters. So, any success comes down to work ethic.”