Quiet quitting is out; quitting in its most literal sense is in.

In 2021, a record 47.8 million employees in the U.S. voluntarily left their jobs. However, that record was promptly broken as 50.5 million more people handed in their resignation letters in 2022. Just like that, the 'Year of the Great Resignation' was just the cusp of an entire Resignation era. Interestingly, though, the lion's share of those who exited their jobs in the last two years didn't leave the workforce altogether. They simply switched jobs to chase higher wages and opportunities to work remotely.

Social media star Mik Zenon, who became popular for his practical #LifeHacks content, fully understands the driving force behind this mass employee exodus. After all, he made the same move one year before the Great Resignation began. He was ahead of the curve.

Mik Zenon
Mik Zenon Mik Zenon

"I was a math and phys-ed teacher for about ten years," says Mik. "I got to the point where I just wanted out of that 9 to 5 grind, be my own boss, and achieve financial freedom for my family and for myself. Teaching sure provided me with a stable income and a pension to look forward to, but I was done trading my time for money."

Determined to surpass what he used to earn from teaching while having better control of his time, Mik tried several ways to make passive income. He tried stock trading, crypto trading, and influencer marketing. The last one proved to be the most challenging yet rewarding for Mik Zenon.

"Before I started posting content on TikTok, I was completely non-existent on social media," says Mik. "I never had Facebook; I never had Instagram, I had nothing. But then I decided to put up a website to share discount codes and other life hacks that help save people money, repurposed some of that content for Instagram, Youtube, and other social networking sites, and it snowballed pretty quickly. Within a year, I went from zero to a million followers."

Having built a solid following and online presence with his socials and Mik Zenon's Daily Deals page, Zenon found himself in the best position to launch his most lucrative venture — Amazon affiliate marketing. Now, most of his content features product reviews, but still with the comedic flair that gained him millions of followers in the first place.

"I always try to put humor into everything that I do, and that has helped quite a bit in terms of growing my social media presence," says Mik. "I'd do things like mispronounce words a certain way or put certain objects in the background of my videos to get a laugh out of people and get them to engage with my content. I tried doing regular 'clean' reviews but found myself bored rather quickly. I needed to add a personal touch and doing so has improved both video engagement and people seeing my affiliate links."

This strategy has worked incredibly well for Mik, who now earns six figures from affiliate marketing alone. As he prepares to scale his operations by hiring a content production team, he likewise encourages those who are looking to change careers or boost their income also to consider affiliate marketing as their next venture.

"As the Great Resignation era stretches on, I'm sure many more people are going to be looking for opportunities to earn good money from home," says Mik. "And if someone like me who used to be a ghost on social media could make a fortune out of affiliate marketing, there's no reason others can't, regardless of their background or technical know-how. Just find a way to make your content compelling, and this could be a very bankable career for you."