Here’s a number that should make you stop scrolling: $18,000.
That’s what Brittney Roberts made in an entire year as a freelance marketer. Working all the time. Wearing every single hat. Building websites, designing graphics, writing emails, doing a little bit of everything for one or two clients she loved but who were quietly running her into the ground.
After she paid for childcare, she made basically nothing. Some months, she was in the negative.
Fast forward to the end of 2025, and Brittney made just over six figures as a freelance ad manager. Working under 25 hours a week. While moving her family across the country, homeschooling three boys, and living in temporary housing.
If you have ever wondered whether you can build a six-figure freelance business without working 40 hours a week or burning your life down, this story is for you.
Brittney is one of our Strategist Society members, and y’all, her story is the kind that shows you exactly what is possible when you stop doing everything for everyone and go all in on the right thing. Let’s break down how a freelance ad manager went from $18K a year to six figures, and the exact moves that got her there.
From $18,000 a Year to Six Figures: The Before Picture
Brittney has been in freelance marketing since 2010. So we are not talking about someone who was new to the game. We are talking about someone who had been grinding for over a decade and still felt stuck.
For years, she was strictly hourly. She had the same clients for ages, and she hated raising her prices. She was working all night for very little pay, wearing so many hats for one or two people, feeling like part of the team because she genuinely was.
Here’s how she described it: she was a jack of all trades, building websites, doing email marketing, graphic design, social media, landing pages, a little bit of everything. And because she was doing so many things, she felt like she had no real expertise she could charge premium prices for.
She was always putting out fires. Always reacting. Never able to be proactive, learn a real skill, and actually scale.
Real talk, friend: being invested in your clients is not the same thing as being profitable. You can love your clients and still be building a business that quietly takes more than it gives.
So ask yourself this. When you subtract childcare, software, and every hour you actually work, what are you really making per hour right now? Because for Brittney, the honest math said she was earning almost nothing. And that math is the thing most service providers never sit down and do.
The Pivot: Going All In on Meta Ads (Without Quitting Cold Turkey)
The turning point started with a favor. Brittney was helping a family friend who had taken over the family business in the car product space (they sell car polish), and they decided to test Facebook and Instagram ads.
And something clicked. She liked it. She was good at it. But she also knew she had hit the ceiling of what she could teach herself from YouTube videos and free ebooks.
She had reached the spot so many of you are in right now: “I like this, I want to go all in, but I need real training, not another free PDF.”
That’s when she found the Serve Scale Soar podcast. And here’s the full circle moment that I love. Within about 30 days of her finding the podcast, we were launching Conversions for Clients. Brittney slid into my DMs asking if she could sign up early. I had to tell her to pump the brakes because doors did not open for a couple of weeks. She was one of the very first people in when they did.
Now, here’s the honest part, because I always give you the hard truth with the solution. Brittney did not pivot perfectly. She tried to keep all her hourly clients AND build the ads business at the same time, and she will be the first to tell you she should have taken my advice sooner. She gets invested. She wanted to do both.
The shift happened when she finally went back to her past clients and said, “Hey, I’ve pivoted my business. These are the services I offer now.” A couple of them hired her for ads. Others came back later for project work. And the Strategist Society directory and referrals started filling the rest.
The lesson here is simple: you do not have to burn your existing business to the ground overnight, but you do have to draw the line eventually. Trying to be everything to everyone is the exact thing keeping you at $18K instead of $100K.
If you are at the very beginning of this journey, with no ad clients yet, this is exactly where Brittney started. You can head to conversionsforclients.com to learn how to start your business as a freelance ad manager and actually run ads for clients with a real system behind you.
The Strategist Trifecta: How to Grow Revenue Without More Retainer Clients
Here’s where Brittney’s business really got smart. Inside Strategist Society, we teach something called the strategist trifecta, and Brittney has been using it without even calling it by name. So let me break it down for you.
The strategist trifecta is three different types of packages that let you increase your revenue without piling on a bunch of new retainer clients. You do not have to offer all three. But if you can implement even one or two, you can grow your revenue much faster without adding more hours.
The three packages are:
- Retainers. This is your floor. This is how you build stability and predictable income in your business.
- VIP days and done-with-you offers. These are project-based. They can be a few hours or a few weeks, and they fill the gaps when retainer space is limited.
- Consulting packages. Higher-level strategy and guidance for clients who do not need you to do the work for them.
Brittney runs the retainer plus that middle VIP day offer, and it has been a perfect fit for her life.
How Brittney Runs Her VIP Days
Most clients want the bigger four-hour package, which Brittney does not blame them for, because it means more time together. But the structure clients have been loving lately is splitting that into two sessions.
Here’s exactly how it works:
- Session one (two hours): They get into the client’s ad account, audit what is running, see what is working and what is not, and plan out the next round of ads.
- A week or two later, session two (two hours): They build the ads together, put everything into the ads manager, and launch the campaigns before they finish the call.
Why does this matter so much? Because not every prospect is ready to hand their ads off for ongoing management. We have all gotten on calls with people whose campaigns are simple enough that they do not really need to pay us monthly yet.
Instead of losing that person, the VIP day gives them a place to plug in with you. And it builds a bridge. Some of these people have been burned before, or they think they can do it themselves. But once you do it with them, you build trust. And when they are ready to hire someone full-time, of course they come to you, because the relationship is already there.
That is the power of the trifecta. You are not white-knuckling a business built on retainer clients alone. You have offers that fill the gaps and warm up future champagne clients at the same time.
How to Make Six Figures Working Under 25 Hours a Week
Let’s get to the part everyone wants to know. How is she pulling six figures in 25 hours or less, with three kids she homeschools and a husband who is a basketball coach traveling all season?
It comes down to a few decisions she made on purpose.
First, she niched down. Instead of bending and adjusting her services to fit every client who came along, she got clear on the few services she offers. Her line now is basically, “This is what I offer, and if you’re willing to pay, great. If not, maybe you’ll come back another time.” And guess what? A few clients have circled back when they were finally ready.
Second, she shortened her to-do list. This is something I teach inside Strategist Society, and Brittney took it and ran. Every single day, she picks two or three things that will actually move the needle in her business. Everything else is a bonus. If it gets done, great. If not, it rolls to tomorrow.
My own top-three list never has more than three things on it. If those three don’t get done, that’s the signal I need to reflect on why. But everything underneath? I don’t stress about it.
Third, she stopped apologizing for working at night. Brittney is a night owl. That is her prime time. She does calls during the day when the kids are doing independent work, and she wraps up the rest after they go to bed.
Now here’s where I want to remove a stigma for you, friend. There is this idea floating around that working nights and weekends means you are doing it wrong. But that stigma only applies when you are working all the time. There is a difference.
If you are working a few hours at night because it fits your life, and you are still only working 25 hours a week total, that is not hustle culture. That is freedom. I run my own business and homeschool my daughter. Some weeks her schooling happens on a Saturday because Thursday is my call day. We have learned that is okay.
Here is the belief I want you to steal: there is no reason you have to work 40 hours a week to hit six figures. I do not even work 40 hours a week to hit a million. When you have a solid foundation, real systems, and you protect your time, you can make six figures in under 25 hours a week, no matter what your life looks like.
The Real Secret Most People Miss: Community and One-on-One Support
When I asked Brittney what made the biggest impact in her business, she did not say a course module or a template. She said two things: the community and the one-on-one support.
Let’s talk about community first, because a lot of you, especially the introverts, are thinking, “I don’t need community to be successful.” I used to think the exact same thing. Then I joined coaching programs and realized the community was the magic the whole time.
Brittney called it the biggest catalyst in her business. Period.
Here’s why. As moms and freelancers, we live in our own heads. We are constantly wondering what we should be doing differently. Being around like-minded women who are doing six figures, running businesses, raising kids, and running households changes the entire conversation. It is not the toxic, catty energy you find in a lot of mom groups online. It is uplifting. Everybody is rising you up with them.
Then there is the one-on-one access, which inside Strategist Society happens over Voxer. If you are not familiar, Voxer is basically a walkie-talkie app. And a lot of people get in their heads thinking that because it is not an hour-long Zoom call, it cannot possibly get results.
Brittney’s take? It is 10 times better than a monthly Zoom call. Because when you are saving up questions for a scheduled call, that list builds and builds, and some of those decisions you needed an answer on two weeks ago. With Voxer, she can send me a message the second something is on her mind, get a response, and keep moving. It is perfect for mom time. Thirty seconds here, a break, then thirty seconds there.
And here’s the stat that blew me away when we tracked it. The members who vox me once a week all doubled their business last year or more. Every single one. Why? Because they make decisions faster. As women, we have a tendency to sit and stew on things. When you have someone in your ear saying, “Just do it, go do it, then come back and tell me you did,” you move.
If you are ready to be in the room with women like Brittney, scaling past $10K months with real support and real community behind you, head to thestrategistsociety.com and apply for a spot. We’ll jump on a call and see if it’s a good fit.
You Can Do This Too
Let me leave you with this. Brittney had every reason to say “not right now.” A cross-country move. A new job for her husband. Three boys to homeschool. Living in temporary housing. And she still went from $18,000 a year to over six figures, working under 25 hours a week.
She did not do it by grinding 40 hours and sacrificing her family. She did it by going all in on the right skill, getting strategic with the little time she had, and surrounding herself with the right people.
So whether you are just getting started or you have been doing this for years, I want you to see what is actually possible for you. Pick the needle-movers. Protect your time. And do the dang thing.
If this lit a fire under you, come tell me. DM me the word SCALE on Instagram @brandimowles and let’s talk about your next move.
This post was inspired by a student spotlight episode of the Serve Scale Soar podcast. Until next week, y’all, go out, serve your clients, scale your business, and soar into the success you deserve.
** This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you use one of the links to purchase. This helps keep the podcast going and I only share products I have used, tested, and love.”
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Meet Brandi
Brandi Mowles is the host of the Serve Scale Soar® podcast which is a podcast dedicated to helping service-based entrepreneurs scale their online business to five-figure months so they can soar into six-figure years. Brandi is a wife, mom and in less than one year, created a six-figure business. Now she is spilling all her secrets so you can too.
