Erin Braxton (00:00)

To be a consultant is not the quick money grab that you think. We can only sometimes see success in one way. A lot of people already have a thing, but they don't realize they have a thing. Some skills and some talent and some genius that you're sitting on right now that you never even thought to try and monetize.

Have you ever had somebody in your life that you feel like is trying to do everything they can think of to do other than what it is they should be doing to make money? Somebody who is profoundly talented has a skill that God bless them with that

is just amazing in that thing that it is they do, but they just won't do it.

I have a sister like this. She's an amazing pianist. I told you guys this last week. When I say she can play, she can play. She has always been able to play. Our parents put us in piano lessons, because that's what p parents did with Gen X. Everybody I know took piano lessons or s some sort of instrument back in the day. My mom's thing was piano. Erica was really good at piano. And she could just play, you know.

I don't know, Flight of the Bumblebee from a young age, big pieces, covered in black, you know, notes. Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, ⁓ Mozart. She played. She played. And she was always the star of the piano recital. And, you know, I played because they had me in there, but I was just like every good boy does fine. F A C E. I couldn't just like lay my hands down and just like start playing.

And you know, when I talk to my sister about it now, she'll be like, You can play, you can play. And I'm like, no, no, no. I I've like blocked it out. They eventually kicked me out of piano lessons. Erica went as far as she could go with our teacher, who was amazing. It it it literally got to the point where the teacher was like, Yeah, I've done as much as I can. There's there's nothing more I can teach her, right? I'm I'm done, right? And she never pursued it, she never wanted to pursue it. I have my theories, but she didn't. And for me

Somebody who was trying to find my talent. I'm like, okay, I can't sing, I can't draw, ⁓ not gonna be a dancer. I don't play sports. ⁓ never really tried to really play sports. Like I didn't have those traditional, you know, gifts like that. I was like, God, you know, if I could play the piano, if I could have played the piano, I probably would have been one, you know, go to Juilliard or one of these people that would have been trying

To be in somebody's, you know, band or something. I would have been trying to do that. But no, not my sister. When you see people like that and they don't utilize their talent, which right now, right now, she could be monetizing. It's like very frustrating to those of us who have to work a little bit harder to ⁓ find our our thing. And these days,

We've got a lot of people on the internet trying to find their thing. And a lot of us wish we had a thing that came so easily that we could monetize because we don't like our job. We wanna leave that job. We wanna make more money. There's gotta be something else we can do.

We would love a thing because that would mean freedom from the thing that we don't love.

A lot of people already have a thing, but they don't realize they have a thing. And that's the thing I want to talk about today is figuring out what it is that you have right now that you can do that isn't consulting that can help you get yourself further down the road, that can start

getting you into a better place. Not necessarily jumping ship so fast and leaving work. I think that's a misconception. And if I've added to that confusion, forgive me, I'm going to clear it up today. Developing another business, doing something different takes time. And a lot of what we see other people doing where they make it look so easy. Like look at me, I'm just out here

you know, doing this thing and I charge all this money for it. That sounds good. It looks good, but it's not necessarily reality. And it's not necessarily for me. Before we get into it, welcome to the Coffee No Cream podcast. My name is Erin Braxton and I am the host of Coffee No Cream. Here on Coffee No Cream, we are unapologetically dedicated to black women. And we share what I like to call Coffee No Cream moments, those things that happen to us black women in business and in life just because we are black women.

Before we get into the podcast, I just want to ask you guys to please like, please share. If you like this content, hit the bell, hit the subscribe button, share it with someone you feel like needs it. We've got a Facebook group. We're also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts if you want to listen. And yeah, let's just get into this episode. So I'm Gen X. My parents moved us out to the suburbs in the late 70s, and they

wanted us to have the best education possible. I was going to go to college. It was no question. It wasn't even a thought that I wasn't. I went to college, I got my degree, I went and worked a job that I had the degree for. I did that for eleven years. The goal was go to college, get a good job where you had a retirement, you had health insurance, you had benefits, all of the things you were paid well

And then you can pay your bills, get married, have kids, retire, and and you were set. That was always the goal because that wasn't a possibility for the generation that came before me. So when we get to the point where the nonsense that we've put up with on these jobs is no longer working for us, the anxiety is overwhelming, the depression is just too heavy, and we wanna move into something else.

Our automatic thought is I have an allegiance to this degree that I I've worked my butt off for, you know, 20, 30 years ago. And this this career that I've I've built brick by brick that I've hustled my ass off for. This I have an allegiance to that. This makes sense to me because this is what I've worked for. When we're so close to this career that we work so hard on.

We can't see a different way. There are a lot of people out here who are consultants. And like I told you about my sister, people have talents, skills, they have brilliance in areas that don't have anything to do with their degree. They don't have anything to do with what they've been doing for the last twenty-five years, twenty years, fifteen years.

Things that they can capitalize on, things that they can monetize that will get them a little bit closer to leaving corporate behind. To be a consultant is not the quick money grab that you think. I've been working in my business for 13 years, and yes, the reason I can talk about value thinking and and making sure that you can you can

articulate your value is because I did not for a very long time. I did the things that I did. I could build a site, I could do this, this, this, this, and I could just like check them off, right? That was Erin when she first started the Rebel Geek back in 2013. Erin in 2026 is like, okay, what is the system that you need? What are you looking to build? Okay. What are your requirements?

All right, this is what I charge you to go figure out what it is you need to do. And then if you want to hire me, this is what I charge for you to do it. It took a long time to get to that point, not just because I couldn't have done it back then, I couldn't have because I wasn't ready, but to develop myself in a way where consulting was an option that became natural for me.

A lot of people talk about all the money they're making, they make millions of dollars and da da da and you think you can go out here and charge thousands of dollars to consult. And maybe you can, but that is something that has to be developed. What I want to talk to you about today are ways to monetization that perhaps you didn't think about, that you know, don't bind you.

To your degree, to your education, to the years of working that you've you've put in. And and it's not anything that you should feel bad about. We feel that way because it feels like, what did I do all that for? I've gonna have to do something and use my degree, or I have all this experience doing this or that. Is that what you wanna do? There are other ways to get after things than necessarily doing

what it is that you went to school for or what it is you've been working toward. Black women are some very enterprising people. We are creative. We are talented. We have skills and talents that are coveted by all. When I drive around St. Louis with my father and we're we're in the city and we're we're driving by

Businesses that no longer exist, buildings that have been abandoned. He tells me about how it used to be back in the day. Now, before my generation, my generation, as I said, we moved out to the suburbs. I'm Gen X. My parents' generation, that was not the case. They were in the inner city, they were on the black part of town, and they can only go so far west.

Black people weren't caught west of a certain street. In St. Louis it was grand. Big, ⁓ long, major street that runs north all the way north south in St. Louis.

There was a time before we indoctrinated ourselves into corporate America, before going to college was so regular, before this corporate career was so common for black women that we did do other things. I'm not saying anything's wrong with corporate. I'm not saying that. I'm saying we we've gone, we've experienced, we've gotten the lessons, we've gotten

the anxiety and the depression and the stress from it. But before that time, before, there was a time where we did have our own businesses. And and when I drive around with my father in St. Louis and he points things out and he's talking to me about what used to be here and what used to be there and the businesses and the restaurants and the things like that that existed that I can't even imagine because they are just no longer there. We had

Black people migrating out to the suburbs and no longer in these communities, I can only imagine. I wish I could see the way it was. I say all this to say that we have amazing gifts, amazing qualities, amazing talents. And we can only sometimes see success in one way. We have set our eyes on

what success looks like for us because that's the way we've been conditioned and modeled to exist in the education that we've received, in the jobs that we obtain, in the organizations that we work for, all of those things. But there are other ways. And our history is very rich with businesses and black women that have had those businesses. I say all this to say

There is more than one way to do things in more than one way to be successful. And I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of that. We are seeing so much more all sorts of businesses popping up, all sorts of black women doing things. But there are a lot of areas of business that we can be a part of again that.

you might be overlooking, trying to do what you see somebody else doing over there, to think about everything that we've had, the hustle that we've had to develop over the years that maybe we didn't even realize that we had, because we have to hustle from the very beginning, from grade school to middle school to high school to college and on in that corporate job. We have to hustle. So it's there. It's in you. You have it.

But maybe we're trying to force it on an end goal that's not necessarily designed for us. Today I want to talk about three ways that you can look at opportunities to make money that aren't necessarily consulting. Because let me tell you something. Consulting, the people that you see who are consulting, that takes time to to to to nurture the networks that you have to build.

The way you have to promote and put yourself out there, not all consultants have to do that. I'm just saying the ones that we're so used to seeing, and you look at it and you think, I can do that, it's not as easy as you think. And it's not necessarily something that you want to do. There are other ways, quicker ways to get to some money that perhaps you didn't think about. Some skills and some talent and some genius that you're sitting on right now.

That you never even thought to try and monetize. So let's talk about the first way. The first way I want you to think about something that you could be sitting on is I want you to ask yourself: is there something that annoys you so much that you're willing to solve the problem in order to fix? And

I've told you guys a story about me. I've told you guys how I started the Rebel Geek business when I, you know, came up with this idea to build this website. I need a black hairstylist.com. I'll put the link up to the full story right up here. And this is, you know, was gonna be like my yelp for black women to find a hairstylist, which, you know, all these years later is still a problem, right?

And it bothered me. I I wanted to create this website and it annoyed me so much. I'm like, my God, this would be so great. This would be so great. And while I didn't make money from that particular business, what I did do was I developed a skill because I was so annoyed with what we would go through, the unprofessionalism, the sitting in the salon all day, you know, the booking issues, you know.

The weights, like all of the things. And I knew this was a problem for many black women, right? It still is a problem. I wanted to fix it. So I came up with the website that I actually built. The next thing you know, people were asking me to build and help them with their websites. And it was something that I like to do. So

You might have something similar that you're so annoyed with that you're willing to solve the problem for someone. This is a way to make money. Everybody doesn't have to have a beauty brand. Everybody doesn't have to consult. Everyone doesn't have to create a product, right? You might be sitting on something right now that you do or want to do are willing to do is a problem that you could solve. It doesn't have to be

What everybody else is doing. Consulting is a great word. It's what people say they do, but what does that really mean? So I was trying to solve a problem which led me into a business, a roundabout kind of way. It wasn't an exact straight line into it, but you see how that unfolded for me. And 13 years later, I'm still in this business. I solved a problem.

But then I solved a problem for myself because I was looking for something to do for work and it turned out to be that. So the next thing. My web stuff led me into what do people keep coming to you for to fix? That's a question that you can ask yourself. Do people always come to you to fix stuff? I have a friend, she does makeup. She she did my makeup for my photo shoot a couple of years ago.

You go on Coffee No Cream website, coffeenocream.com you will see pictures of me. Well, one main picture, but I have other pictures you've seen on some of my thumbnails, especially for my lives. This girl did my makeup. She does beautiful makeup. People come to her for makeup all the time. And it's kind of like her hobby, but people actually come to her and pay her now. So

People around town knows that Lisa does makeup. They go to Lisa. Lisa does their makeup. They go to different events. There's a Gala happening. There's a this happening, a that happening prom homecoming for the for the teens. She's there. She's doing the makeup. She makes money off of it. That's her her mad cash, you know? Is she gonna create a makeup empire out of this? Probably not. I keep wanting to urge her to do that.

But that is something that people always come to her for. If you're one of those people that likes to bake, that likes to cook, people are always coming to you to cook a cake, bake a cake, make something, why couldn't that be a business? You know, you you you don't have to be so tied to, my gosh, I need to make money this way because I spend a lot of time in that career or I spend a lot of time on that degree.

Who says you've got to make money that way? There is money that you could be tapping into right now. What are people coming for you asking you for all the time? Is there something there for you to capitalize on? Think about it. And finally, ask yourself, and and and this is one that people pretty commonly say to check into what

Are you already doing for people for free? You hear stories about this all the time. And because of our serving nature, because black women always want to give, we want to serve, we want to make sure that everybody's all right. A lot of times we don't even think to charge people for the time that we're spending doing things. You know, like I just mentioned, if you bake, are you baking for people for free? You need to charge. Before I got hip to it.

I remember people would call me and they would sit and try to pick my brain for an hour or more trying to figure out what it is they should do with their website or digitally or how they should market something. And I wouldn't charge. I would just sit there like a dummy and and and and just give them information. I don't do that anymore.

I'm actually bidding on a proposal or bidding on a project right now and the guy wanted me to build something very custom. I charged him to tell him what he should do. If if somebody needs information from you and they are looking to you for ideas, strategies, how to's

You know, energy time, mental bandwidth.

Why are you giving that away? If they expect you to always bring the food, if they expect you to give of your time, you should be charging for that. And I don't know what that looks like for you in your life, but it's easy to miss those opportunities. And those are opportunities where you can make

Some extra money. Maybe it's not like life-changing money, but it's money. And the sooner that you become comfortable with charging for things that people are trying to get from you for free, the sooner you'll be able to elevate your income because you'll just be able to peep game and you won't do it anymore, right? You'll you'll be able to establish within your own head what your worth is.

You'll be able to establish that. I used to throw in extras all the time when I would work for people on projects because say you do end up consulting or you do have a certain business and there's something extra you can throw in or you can do just because you know how to do it. And because the deal had already been made and somebody's gonna creep along, it's called scope creep. So the scope of the project kind of just

expands and they you just try to creep on in with some additional asks. I used to be like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I could do that because I wanted to be so helpful. I wanted to show them that you've made the right decision. When you hired me, you made the right decision and I would do that shit. Mm-mm. Right? So there are always ways where you could charge for things that you're

not charging for and and make the money. And it's not always just about getting maybe it's an extra couple hundred dollars or it could be as little as fift fifty dollars, a hundred dollars, which is still money, right? But when people start to realize that you are charging for

what it is they're asking you to do, and you start to realize your time is more valuable than to give somebody something for free, you'll become more confident and you'll just continue to step up your game in that way. You will no longer give of your time freely. You'll respect your time, which is more important than other people respecting your time. Right? So if people are already coming to you for free shit,

Nip it. You know, when I was in the Goldman Sachs program that I told you guys about the the types of businesses that were in my cohort were were fascinating to me. So, you know, I'm in internet world, you know, I'm in consultant land. And we had an auto detailing company. I think he has two locations already. He's working on the third. Major, major, major business.

Detailing. Started off doing cars. Now the guy's doing marine boats and he's doing the aerospace industry as well, airplanes. Detailing. HVAC company. We had a jewelry designer. We had an events guy who did events. There's a girl, black woman in there who does events, but she's running the whole thing with AI. We had a yogurt and candl candy apple store. We had

one girl who had a construction company, another girl who did she did concrete. I mean, we had a pharmacist. Like, I'm telling you, every business doesn't have to be wrapped around this whole internet world of consulting. Business doesn't have to look the same for everybody. And I think things can become very trendy, but who cares? There's something that you can do, something that I can't do, something that God gave you to do that

Nobody else can do just like you can do it. So do that, right? Do the things that make you happy. Do the things that come easy for you. Do the things that can get you propelled forward and and don't worry about all the noise and whatever else people are selling online or doing online, right? So that's it. That's all I got. Do you there's money. Go start making some.

So with that, go forth. And that's all I got. So thank you guys so much for joining me. Again, like, share, subscribe, send this to someone who might need to hear it. And I will see you in the next video.