[elmerfud]

To a lot of people money is the end all be all and to me that doesn't make sense. Obviously more money is usually better than less money but money isn't everything. Often times people will conflate money with additional happiness and you only need to look at lottery winners to see that is not the case.

Money will never make anyone more happy but it does have the power to buy you freedom to do things. So you have to ask yourself what additional freedoms would additional money get you that you don't have now. Because if the focus is only to earn money that is a vain goal.

My impression of reading your post is that your version of happiness and freedom is achieved through bettering yourself. It is completely possible that you could leverage your knowledge and skills and abilities to maximize your income but what is your goal to use that income for.

Some people like to amass wealth to pass on to their children as a form of legacy. Some people want to amass wealth because they plan on using it later in life. Some people want to get rich simply for the attention that it brings them and the ego they can associate with the wealth. It's up to you to decide your goals and if wealth can help you achieve those goals both short and long-term. That will determine ultimately if you should focus more on increasing your earning power and potential or if you should continue your current path.

One thing to consider is that there are people who chase after maximizing wealth and never achieve it. So ultimately that was a failure for them because they lost opportunities for enjoyment for chasing something they could never achieve. There are also those who chase it and do achieve it but when they have it if they don't already know what they would have done when they didn't have it they've not improved their life at all. If your goal is primarily making yourself better and more satisfied as a person the best way to get wealth is just to do what you're currently doing. Explore the podcast idea or other ideas without the primary focus of maximizing income through it. Do it because you want to do it and you love to do it. If you're good at it and others think you're good at it wealth will come from it and I believe it will be infinitely more satisfying for you that way. Because now you will have achieved wealth doing what you love and that wealth will allow you to explore things you couldn't otherwise do but you also won't be afraid of losing the wealth. Because ultimately your goal is to do what you love as opposed to amassing wealth that you either have to spend before you die or leave to other people.