She paid off $40K debt, now earns $180K

paid off – Lindsay Stockall says her salary didn’t just rise—it was rebuilt. After carrying about $40,000 in consumer debt in her 20s, she paid it off starting in 2020, then replaced a steady paycheck after her role was eliminated during COVID. Today, she says she’s the

She’s learned to measure money differently now. Not by what she could afford to look like, but by what she could actually pay—on time.

Lindsay Stockall. a 38-year-old who splits her time between Newport Beach. California and Halifax. Nova Scotia. says she used to keep her finances quiet even as her career moved forward. In her 20s. she accumulated about $40. 000 in consumer debt during her university days. spending to “keep up with the Joneses” while shopping. going out. and paying for a new outfit for every occasion. She never missed a payment. so her credit score stayed fairly good—but she still couldn’t make meaningful progress paying the debt down. and she carried shame along with it.

Since 2020. Stockall says she paid off the $40. 000 in debt. replaced her salary. and built Stockall & Company into a seven-figure performance marketing agency. She says her business crossed $1,000,000 in revenue in 2025 and has managed over $1,000,000 in total client ad spend since launching in 2021.

Stockall’s account is one of a measured escape: the moment she stopped treating her financial situation as something to hide, and started treating it as a problem to solve.

Her early pay started in the low $30,000s. At 22. she began her career in fashion retail in Halifax. Nova Scotia. working as a buyer and marketing coordinator at a boutique carrying high-end designer collections. making about $30. 000 a year. The job was commission-based and competitive, with a low income ceiling, but she lived at home with her parents. She attended international market shows, managed inventory, and ran all marketing across digital and print.

She later moved into a brand promotion manager role at a Canadian department store, where she made about $35,000 a year. In March 2014, she shifted to a commercial real estate firm as a marketing director with a $40,000 salary. She kept her day job while launching a small fashion e-commerce business the same year. Stockall says that year her gross business income was $22. 786 and she netted about $5. 600—her first entrepreneurial move. built without a team or a safety net.

That pattern—building on the side before the security disappears—stuck. She says it would define her whole career.

In 2015. after a recruiter contacted her. she joined a beauty company in Dartmouth. Nova Scotia as director of marketing. overseeing five brands. Stockall says she stayed for six years and that her salary began at $45,000 in 2015. In 2018, she was promoted to $60,000 a year, with potential for an annual bonus. At the time, she says her major expenses were rent and a car payment.

But she was also still carrying roughly $40,000 in personal debt from spending in her 20s—dinners and parties, daily Starbucks drinks that cost $5 to $7, nights out with friends, and shopping for outfits she felt she needed for each occasion.

To change that. she says she engaged a financial advisor introduced to her by her uncle and began using a personal budgeting app. The advisor and she met quarterly, had uncomfortable conversations about the debt, and created a realistic plan. She set up a recurring payment to send $210 each month toward debt repayment.

Once she started budgeting, she says she changed her spending habits completely—if she couldn’t pay for it in cash, she wouldn’t buy it. She also added freelancing side gigs, primarily paid media strategy and Facebook advertising.

In 2019, Stockall says her net income from freelancing and her full-time salary reached $71,000. She started freelancing after listening to a Gary Vee podcast. which she describes as offering her a stark choice if she was in debt: reduce expenses or make more money. She says she couldn’t live on less. and she didn’t want to return to retail or restaurant work after working Monday to Friday. 9 to 5. She chose freelancing.

Her first client came after she applied to an Instagram job posting for a remote social media manager. She later applied for a marketing communications role for a solopreneur, who became her second client. Another client followed through word of mouth, and she says the work “snowballed.”

Then COVID hit. Stockall says her position was eliminated, which made her freelance work her only income overnight. She adds that she kept moving rather than “sitting on [her] hands. ” and that she also taught Pilates three times a week during that period. She says that combination helped her hit six figures for the first time.

For 2020, Stockall says her net income was $106,000. Within that year, she says she paid off her $40,000 in debt entirely.

A second layoff came during the shutdowns. Stockall says the company that laid her off brought her back briefly in 2020, but she was laid off for a second time during the shutdowns. By then, she says she decided it was “now or never” to go all in on herself.

She officially launched Stockall & Company in May 2021.

From solopreneur to a team, she says the agency is now supported by 12 specialists across North America. She says the business uses AI to enhance processes rather than replace human brains, with the goal of increasing productivity so the team can focus on what it does best.

Stockall says the first year was reinvestment-heavy—building systems, onboarding clients, and establishing positioning. She says her net income that year was around $65,000 because she put capital back into the business and cut corners. She notes she didn’t have a roommate or a boyfriend and that her car was paid off at that point. making rent her major expense. She also says she bought a laptop that year. stopped shopping for clothes. and avoided trips and going out to dinner because she was working a lot.

From 2022 to 2025, she says the agency scaled consistently, mostly through word of mouth and referrals. She says an article was published about her in a local publication in Halifax, which helped build brand awareness, and that she also posted on social media that she was accepting new clients.

During those four years, she says her personal income ranged from $103,000 to $180,000 annually, while agency revenue grew to seven figures.

The shift, she says, wasn’t only financial—it changed how she felt. After getting out of debt, she described it as “a weight” lifted off her chest. She says she felt empowered and confident. and that she also changed physically by investing more in health and wellness. eating better. going to the gym. and practicing more self-care.

Her current compensation, she says, reflects both the value she believes she delivers and the risk she took. She characterizes leaving a position with a consistent paycheck as a real gamble—particularly because clients can cancel, and freelance and agency work can be inconsistent.

She said her ideal salary number is $250. 000. which she adds “isn’t far off.” Her message to younger women and others who might be carrying debt is direct: financial literacy shouldn’t be a privilege or secret. it should be a conversation. She says she loves “empowering younger generations” around not living outside your means and points to the possibility of changing a life over 10 years in someone’s 20s by being smart with finances.

Her stated goal going forward is to keep building Stockall & Company with integrity—scaling, but not to the point that compromises quality or the way she does business. She says she wants to keep honing creative and ad craft so the agency can deliver at a high level across what it does.

If you’re interested in sharing your salary journey, she says people can fill out a Google Form.

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