Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Kenny Buckey, co-founder of The Pivot Place.
Courtesy of Kenny Buckey
Kenny Buckey, a millennial professional, earned a six-figure salary in 2024 and attributed her high salary to two key strategies: building an audience on social media and learning high-paying skills.
Despite being under 30, Bucky juggles multiple jobs and earned just over £100,000 (approximately $130,000) in 2024.
However, it was not always like that. When she graduated from university in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in forensic science, she felt her prospects were looking bleak.
“After graduating from university, I was very worried about money, looking at the salaries, they were not that great,” she told CNBC Make It.
But she knew that she wanted a high salary, so she set about it.
“I’ve been very intentional about what career paths I take and how I trade my time for money,” she explained. “Money was always an issue… (and) I realized it was important to have a high-end career so I could mitigate that,” she explained.
That attitude led Bucky to move into the financial services sector, where she saw money to be made.
She trained as a compliance specialist and worked for companies such as KPMG and Visa. Now, despite taking a break from her 9-to-5 last year, she’s making six figures as a full-time content creator, as well as her work as a digital youth engagement specialist, career coach and public speaker.
Bucky chose to withhold her legal name and age for privacy reasons, and CNBC verified her earnings through invoice statements.
“I felt I could share a lot of value”
Buki said building a personal brand on social media is the key to generating a high income.
She has nearly 130,000 followers on TikTok and over 35,000 followers on Instagram and creates content focused on career and wealth building advice for her demographic, primarily young, ambitious women of color.
“I just wanted to share my career and personal finance knowledge because I felt like those were things that I picked up at a fairly young age and I’m really good at,” she said.
“I felt like I could share a lot of value, and that indirectly led to a personal brand.”
As a result of growing her audience, she was able to partner with brands like LinkedIn, Deutsche Bank, MicrosoftACCA, Bing and HSBC in social networks.
After becoming a social media personality, Bucky led to the founding of The Pivot Place in 2023, a company that helps people develop the skills to transition into non-coding technical roles.
“Skills Pay the Bills”
Bucky said she is able to charge higher rates for the services she offers because she has invested in training.
“I strongly believe that if you invest in yourself, skills and knowledge, it can give you a super high ROI (return on investment) in terms of how much you can earn as a person, sometimes more than the stock market will ever pay you “, Buki explained.
When she was 23, Bucky was working as a recruitment analyst at RBS on a salary of £28,000. She then moved up to a management role which paid £40,000.
“I was very intentional about knowing that I wanted a big jump. I didn’t want to just be here and get a 3% raise every couple of years,” she explained. “What it involved was that I wanted to get a role that was a lot older than what I was doing and learn how to confidently sell myself in roles that were quite a bit older.”
Although she was struggling with imposter syndrome at the time, Bucky wanted to challenge her idea of what she was capable of. To prepare for the role, she did a lot of self-study using free online resources.
She advised young people trying to reach six-figure salaries to look for ways to develop “high-income skills” that add value to their time. Bucky recommended taking courses, joining communities or boot camps, or even starting a side hustle to do just that.
“Skills pay the bills. You need to build high-income skills. You don’t need to stay stagnant in what your time is worth,” she added.
