In 2015, Sharla of the YouTube channel Sharla In Japan found herself juggling two careers. Since 2011, the Canadian-born creator had been making videos about her life here to a quickly growing audience. But actually making them was tough, as she also had a day job.
"I hated it," says Sharla, who's asked us not to publish her last name for privacy reasons. "It was a startup tech company, I liked having the chance to help build the company up. But the hours were insane, it was your typical work-to-death hours, not getting paid for overtime."
Increasingly stressed out, she soon realized her YouTube channel was actually pulling in about the same amount of money as her tech work.