From Big Tech to burnout to building a million-dollar creator business, Zach Wilson has seen it all. After stints at Netflix, Meta, and Airbnb (earning $600K+ a year), Zach left it behind to go all-in on content, education, and his own platform.

We dive deep into what it really takes to transition from employee to full-time creator, and the business models that actually work.

Inside:
💻 How Zach went from Airbnb staff engineer to 150K+ LinkedIn followers in 1 year
🔥 The burnout that landed him in the psych ward, and the lessons he learned
💸 Building Data Expert Academy — cohorts, subscriptions, and a $400K month
🛠️ Why creators fail with too many income streams and how to focus on what scales
🤖 Using AI avatars + platforms to fight burnout and expand globally

Timestamps:
00:00 – From Big Tech engineer to creator: Zach’s backstory
05:00 – Burnout, breakdown, and lessons from saying “yes” to everything
10:00 – Growing on LinkedIn and becoming the #1 data engineering voice
20:00 – How the LinkedIn algorithm changed and what still works today
28:00 – Quitting Airbnb → first $0.19 TikTok paycheck → $50K cohort beta
34:00 – Building multiple income streams: cohorts, subscriptions, newsletter
41:00 – Platforms that convert (LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram) vs. ones that don’t
53:00 – AI avatars, teaching at scale, and the rise of one-person billion-dollar companies

🎙️ Hosted by Grace Ling & Justin Nguyen
📍 How Creators Make Money — the podcast where we unpack the real strategies behind today’s smartest creators.