From Burnout to 7 Figures: Rewiring Your Career & Building Wealth with Dr. Annie Cole ✨

Ever feel like you did everything “right” but still ended up burned out and underpaid? Dr. Annie Cole did too—until she gave herself permission to pivot. In this empowering episode, Annie shares how she went from making $26K as a social worker to building a million-dollar net worth by 35, using intentional career moves, financial education, and bold self-advocacy.

We dive into the realities of burnout, the power of taking "bridge jobs," and how Annie went on to earn her doctorate, land a six-figure leadership role, and create Money Essentials, a platform teaching women how to turn income into long-term wealth. Whether you’re stuck in a job you’ve outgrown or looking for your next financial breakthrough, this conversation offers both inspiration and action steps to help you move forward.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why your first career doesn’t have to be your forever path
✅ How to pivot from burnout into alignment (without starting over)
✅ How Annie built a 7-figure net worth—starting from a $26K salary
✅ Why salary negotiation is a skill every woman needs
✅ How to confidently ask for a raise or title change (even if it’s uncomfortable)
✅ The 5-Step Wealth Framework Annie uses with her clients
✅ How to start investing, even if it’s just $100/month
✅ Side hustle ideas that align with your lifestyle and goals
✅ The mindset shift that makes saving and investing feel empowering—not restrictive

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Resources & Links:

📚 Grab Annie’s Book: 101 Ways to Build Wealth → moneyessentials.com
🎓 Attend a Free Financial Workshop → moneyessentials.com/events
📲 Follow Annie on Instagram & TikTok → @moneyessentials
🌐 Explore Free Guides & Blog Posts → moneyessentials.com

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Connect With Me:

🌟 Join the Manifestation Playground → www.manifestationplayground.ca
🎙 Follow the Podcast on Instagram → @manifestationandmoneypodcast
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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
I learned that life is. It's hard to get far on that salary. And also the work was burning me out. So it was kind of this, I went to school, I did all the things. I got the degree. Now I'm an adult, but I don't know that I want this path. So it was a journey from there to where I am today to figure out what does it mean to change career paths?

Dr Annie (00:02):
The first pivot, I love sharing this with folks because I didn't know what I wanted, and I think that's where a lot of people end up, whether that's young twenties right after your degree or if it's midlife. I took what I like to call a bridge job, where I went and took, , an office job working as a leasing agent at an apartment complex, and I gave myself a break from that work that was burning me out, and I did a ton of exploration, .

Jenni (00:03):
Definitely, and that's an important thing you touched on there. Keep those pieces that are working for you, those pieces and those elements that you do like or even love.
, career exploration, how we can help students who are maybe off track or potentially going to withdraw from school. I got to study that and then as I got hired into my doctorate, I really fell in love with the research side of things. That was, you know, the number crunching, how do we use data to make informed decisions?
And then once I was able to move out of the college and get into my job as a research analyst, I was able to make quite a bit more, but. A big part of my story and what I like to share with people is that it didn't happen without intention. There were, oftentimes, I was in positions where I would go and ask during my annual review for a title change or for a raise, and sometimes I was told no, and I decided it might be time to change to a different organization or push back on a decision.
Yeah, that's a really good point, because if a current employer says no. You're not really in any different position, but if anything, you might have planted the seed in your employer's mind of, oh, this person is looking to either switch into a different role or looking for a bigger pay raise. Is there different tasks we can assign them to
Definitely. And if we could just like segue here for a second, because if you are a girl who does do that, what is a tip you have for somebody who's listening to this and is like, oh, I couldn't even fathom going out and having that uncomfortable conversation.
Over the long run, I'd really love to increase my responsibility and just grow in my career, potentially into a higher level position, more responsibility, et cetera. What are some ways I might be able to do that in the next three to six months? And start with that conversation, because that might allow your boss to sense that you want to level up.
Just know that it's not just your boss, it's also HR policies and internal regulations. So if that's the case, then it's a question of do I wanna stay at this company or do I wanna move elsewhere? So there's just a lot of pieces that go into the decision on whether or not you can make more money.
Meeting with advisors, my husband and I , we bought our first home. I did a lot of stock market investing. We bought some real estate properties, so there was just lots of different pieces that were starting to happen. And then before I knew it, when I reached 35, I had a net worth of a million dollars and realized.
He doesn't really know what he wants to do post-secondary. He's got a job, so he is making money and my sister's trying to convince him. You're living at home rent free right now. Have a teeny portion that you're allowing yourself to have for like fun money. Yeah. And learn what to do with the bulk of your money.
I think we all were probably told at one point in school, investing is so great and we saw that chart. , if you invest young, it's gonna grow really fast and you know, compound interest. And so we all saw that, but that doesn't mean on a daily basis we're gonna act on it because that takes deferred gratification to put away $20 instead of going and spending $20 on Uber Eats.
But beyond that, understand the difference between the basic accounts. So you have retirement and a Roth account. You also have different amounts you can put aside every month. So use an online calculator to just see, hey, if I put aside a hundred dollars a month, I'd get to this by retirement. 150 and get to this, , do some of those calculations yourself and it will start to become more real.
If you put $10 in, if you have an investing app and you put $10 in, you may not make any money tomorrow. You may not make any money this year. You might actually lose money. Investing is all about long-term gains, so I think a lot of people, if you're not educated on that process, you also won't see any gains in certain weeks, months, years, and that's even more.
So a lot of the things I've already talked about, overcoming your, any limiting beliefs you have and creating a really strong vision and that why for your life. And then number two is crunching the numbers. So basically taking your vision. Turning it into a budget and saying, well, that dream life of mine would actually take this budgeting style, this income, these investments.
So your intention of what your end goal is, is that thing that's propelling you through all the day-to-day decisions. It's allowing you to say yes to the things that align with that big vision and no to the things that are pulling you away from it. Let's talk about side hustles for a little bit here, because I think side hustles in this economy, especially where the people might be in the nine to five, they're working towards getting those raises or it doesn't quite feel fulfilling. I think there's a big side gig economy out there to be able to start up a side hustle that oftentimes people overthink.

Dr Annie (00:17):
That's a great question. I'm actually running a workshop this week on this very topic about side hustles because , I think just to give some framing around this, if you're thinking about starting a side hustle, the first thing you should do is not jump into anything, just like we talked about with the next job.
And then you can start going out and trying to put it in the action. Because it's very different to say, I wanna have a side hustle where I take on some extra work. Like part, a part-time job or another sort of freelance role that's already open versus I'm going to create my own business. I'm going to try to start something from scratch that has , a bigger learning curve in the beginning,

Jenni (00:19):
That's exciting that you do workshops based around that because Yeah, so many people like just to be able to attend a free workshop like that, to have that spark ignited in them and be like, I didn't think about it this way. And to do that prelim homework is a very valid point.
We have the side hustle one coming up. So yeah, we always have events. They're always free. They're virtual, they're an hour long, they're during the week, and it's just ways for women to learn different tips about how to make money.
The budgeting section is all about how to crunch those numbers, tips on savings, interest rates, loan, high yield savings accounts, and then creating income. There's so many suggestions in there about side hustles. We have the salary negotiation, everything about having an actual career and career growth, investing all about real estate investing, stock market investing, retirement taxes.

Dr Annie (00:22):
I think the biggest thing is don't stop believing in yourself because you just have no idea what you're capable of. And I think that's what's so fun about this podcast and manifestation. It starts with. The tiniest of beliefs. It doesn't have to be a full, I know what I'm gonna do yet. It could just be this curiosity even of, I'm curious to see what's possible.
Yeah. It's very different and that, you know, we all have those through lines. I think that's what's so fun is as you get older. , your resume might not be perfect, but you know the through line. So we get to say, we get to tell our story in whatever way we want.