This Brand Strategist Talks Shifting Careers & Building A $10K A Month Revenue Stream
Erin Winters is a master class in owning your talent and starting where you are. The Detroit native launched her digital marketing and video production company Erin On Demand in June 2018, premiering her YouTube channel under the same name six months later. Less than a year in, the Creator on the Rise surpassed her goal of 50,000 subscribers, opening her Internet home to a flood of entrepreneurs and content creators seeking to fortify their brands and impact.
Erin didn't see this chapter of her life coming. While in college, the broadcast journalism major spent her summers interning full-time at Fox 2 Detroit with the intention of gracing screens as an anchor, but her final year sparked a change of plans. "I didn't like the stories they were sifting through and overlooking, but I still loved being on camera and telling stories," Erin tells xoNecole.
Courtesy of Erin Winters
One week after crossing the stage at Howard University, she took on a position as a spokesperson for a credit union in Michigan. "Everyone was expecting me to be the girl they saw on TV," she reflects. Deep-diving into speaking engagements and social media management, however, was exactly what Erin needed. "It really introduced me to a more creative side of storytelling and digital marketing that a lot of companies need," she muses. "They let me be super creative, and I hit the ground running."
Once her yearlong contract drew to a close, Erin would later stumble across National Geographic's nationwide call for its first-ever digital correspondent. Between her infectious personality and razor-sharp skill set, she not only soared to the top three but beat out a professional videographer and news anchor in the process. "I fell somewhere in the middle," she says of her mega win.
As grand as the opportunity was, like her first job after college, her gig was ultimately temporary, leaving Erin to face one question on her way back to Detroit 10 months later: Now what?
In this xoChat, the brand strategist talks building her business in the thick of unemployment, growing her YouTube channel with authenticity, and maximizing what you have now to create the future you want.
*This interview was lightly edited for clarity.
After your contract with National Geographic ended, how did you navigate the silence when you were applying for jobs and nothing was sticking?
Courtesy of Erin Winters
It was really hard. I had one big lead that I thought I would get, so when I didn't, it was even more crushing. It was a dark time for me in a way, but I'm glad I didn't get a job because it really gave me time to think about launching my business. I was working on my website. It gave me time to value my health. I was working out twice a day. I was eating good.
Even though it was hard emotionally in terms of what I was going to do next, it was also like, 'I'm here, I saved money, I can handle these interim months. Maybe this is the time to pivot, and you need this moment to be still and figure out what direction you want to go in instead of trying to beat God's timing.' It's crazy to look back on those months because if I did get a job, I wouldn't have any of this.
What I appreciate about your channel is that you’re very transparent about moving back in with your parents and living at home while building your business. When you first made that move, was it humbling for you in any way or were you just thankful to have that support in your corner?
It wasn't one or the other. It was both. I felt so grateful that I could actually come back home, and they let me convert one of their rooms into my office space where I can be focused and build. My parents are super supportive, and my mom is my business manager, so it's actually convenient for us to be in the same household because we literally talk about my business nonstop. It's good, but when you've come from living on your own and being able to go and do as you please, you do have to revert.
I need to respect their household, check in, and fix dinner for all of us, not just me. It's different things that I did have to readjust to, and it was a humbling experience, but at the end of the day, when you're building something, you have to sacrifice. There's no way you're going to be able to build something sustainable without that.
Why did you decide to create a YouTube channel after launching Erin On Demand?
Courtesy of Erin Winters
Two reasons. People were asking me the same questions over and over again (laughs), and I really did miss being on camera. That is probably my top passion. There was about six months in between launching the business and starting the channel. It was very important to me to get in the game in terms of entrepreneurship. I was still an infant, but I was still six months further than a lot of people who hadn't taken the full leap. I could still tell them things like how I prepared for the journey, how much I saved, what my target audience is, and what my goals are. I wasn't giving hardcore marketing advice at that point, but I still realized there were people at ground zero and I could help them get to level one. That was the mindset, and [my business] has completely blossomed since then.
"It just goes to show that you can't discredit your passion. If you are talented in some area, you're going to make money in that area if you put your energy into it."
I love that mindset of not waiting until you’ve “arrived” and sharing the process.
People appreciate that. I think that has contributed tremendously to the growth of my channel. One of the most frequent comments I get is, "I just love watching your journey." It's just crazy when you just start, and you don't care about the house you're in or the backdrop. It's really about capturing your journey as you go. I didn't see that on YouTube. I saw people in the entrepreneurial and productivity space who were already "there" or who had "built it". They weren't showing themselves grow. I just slid in there, and here we are.
Do you think that’s why your Day in the Life videos resonate with your audience so much?
Yes, because they can see me doing the work instead of just hearing me talk about it. When I started those, my channel really took off because people like to see you "do". It also goes to show that you can't be scared to try new things. The way that started, I didn't have a video planned, so I brought my camera along with me to a meeting. Girl, they loved that video. The thing in marketing is if it works, keep doing it. That really helped with the growth. It gives people more to connect with, and those connecting points build trust. So many people get caught up in the information, but it's also just [as] important that people like who you are.
Courtesy of Erin Winters
At some point in your Day in the Life videos, you always share your Top 3 list. How did you arrive at this method?
I've always been a to-do list type of girl, but my lists were too long. It would be a week's worth of stuff that I would try to put on myself for one day, which wasn't healthy. My first degree into the Top 3 was writing my to-do lists on sticky notes. If it can't fit on a sticky note, it is too much to do. Maybe I lost a sticky note or something, but I stopped doing that (laughs). Then, I bought a planner that had a section for priorities, and I decided to start listing my Top 3.
So much of productivity is feeling like you've actually got things done, and I felt so much better, so I started sharing it. I get tagged on Instagram, and people send me emails and DMs about how this really works. It was just about simplifying it. You'll get so much more done. Baby steps are still steps, and Top 3 is literally turning into this big thing that I did not expect.
You recently posted a video about how you make over $10,000 a month through seven streams of income. Why was it important for you to share this information with your subscribers?
It was important to share so people can know the possibilities that they can create for themselves with whatever it is they want to do in life. I just wanted to open people's understanding that there are so many ways to make money and once you understand that making money doesn't have to be hard, then the opportunities come. At the beginning of this year, my income streams looked nothing like this. Even six months ago, they didn't. It was very spotty and sporadic. I would always say, "At the end of this year, I don't care how much it is, I just need consistency."
"Once I really started to pour into how I could make things more consistent and didn't worry about the actual figure that I'm making, the opportunities kept coming and the streams of income kept growing. You can't get discouraged when you're in that seed-planting phase. You can't stop watering the seed. At some point, it has to harvest."
You’ve mentioned that things are changing over at Erin On Demand. Where are you right now when it comes to the evolution of your brand?
Courtesy of Erin Winters
The bulk of my time is YouTube. I always call it the heartbeat of my business. Aside from that, it's my eBrand Club. Once YouTube took off, I was never getting questions about video. It was always, "How do I build my brand?" and "How do I grow my social media?" I didn't have anything in place, so I had to create something that was affordable. I am firmly against absurdly charging people when they're trying to get their businesses off the ground, which is why the membership club is only $30 a month. I do weekly live lessons, Instagram audits, YouTube audits––I really get in there and help them figure out the best way to brand and monetize their businesses.
We bring in experts every month as well to talk about different things like Facebook ads, media kits, and pitching yourself. That's what I spend a ton of time doing because it's growing so fast. Then I'm doing one-on-one strategy calls, helping people get clarity on their businesses and helping them package it in a way that attracts their target audience.
People decide to become entrepreneurs every day. What’s in your Top 3 for thriving as one?
Faith. I have a very strong sense of faith. Without faith, I wouldn't have even taken a chance on myself. Faith is just so interwoven into everything in business. After you take the first leap, there's going to be a thousand more you need to take.
Support. I can't stress it enough. It's very hard to thrive as an entrepreneur, especially as a full-time entrepreneur, when you don't have support. That was another reason why I created the [eBrand] Club because people were coming to me about not having friends or parents who supported them, so I wanted to build a community of like-minded people.
Adaptability. There are just so many things in business that change. At this point, video projects are not the first thing I'm taking on [anymore], and it's only a year and a half later. If you are so stuck in where your business is when you first think of the idea, and that's not what your audience wants and that's not what's bringing in revenue, you have to adapt. I think I have really mastered adapting to my business and how it's shaped and just being a student to how all of this works.
I tell people all the time, "I don't know everything, but I'm very good at figuring it out."
For more Erin, follow her on Instagram @erinondemand and check out her videos at Youtube.com/ErinOnDemand!
Featured image courtesy of Erin Winters.
Shanice Davis is a writer from New York, dedicated to illuminating women of color and Caribbean culture with her pen. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @alwayshanice.
This Black Woman-Owned Creative Agency Shows Us The Art Of Rebranding
Rebranding is an intricate process and very important to the success of businesses that want to change. However, before a business owner makes this decision, they should determine whether it's a rebrand or an evolution.
That's where people like Lola Adewuya come in. Lola is the founder and CEO of The Brand Doula, a brand development studio with a multidisciplinary approach to branding, social media, marketing, and design.
While an evolution is a natural progression that happens as businesses grow, a rebrand is a total change. Lola tells xoNecole, "A total rebrand is necessary when a business’s current reputation/what it’s known for is at odds with the business’s vision or direction.
"For example, if you’ve fundamentally changed what your product is and does, it’s likely that your brand is out of alignment with the business. Or, if you find your company is developing a reputation that doesn’t serve it, it might be time to pump the brakes and figure out what needs to change.
She continues, "Sometimes you’ll see companies (especially startups) announce a name change that comes with updated messaging, visuals, etc. That usually means their vision has changed or expanded, and their previous branding was too narrow/couldn’t encompass everything they planned to do."
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The Brand Doula was born in 2019, and its focus is on putting "the experiences, goals, and needs of women of color founders first," as well as brands with "culture-shifting missions."
According to Lola, culture-shifting is "the act of influencing dominant behavior, beliefs, or experiences in a community or group (ideally, for the better)."
"At The Brand Doula, we work with companies and leaders that set out to challenge the status quo in their industries and communities. They’re here to make an impact that sends ripples across the market," she says.
"We help the problem solvers of the world — the ones who aren't satisfied with 'this is how it's always been' and instead ask 'how could this be better?' Our clients build for impact, reimagining tools, systems, and ways of living to move cultures forward."
The Brand Doula has worked with many brands, including Too Collective, to assist with their collaboration with Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Balanced Black Girl for a "refresh," aka rebrand. For businesses looking to rebrand, Lola shares four essential steps.
1. Do an audit of your current brand experience — what’s still relevant and what needs to change? Reflect on why you’re doing the rebrand in the first place and what success would look like after relaunching.
2. Tackle the overall strategy first — before you start redesigning logos and websites, align on a new vision for your brand. How do you want your company to be positioned moving forward? Has your audience changed at all? Will your company have a fresh personality and voice?
3. Bring your audience along the journey — there’s no need to move in secret. Inviting your current audience into the journey can actually help them feel more connected to and invested in your story, enough to stick around as changes are being made.
4. Keep business moving — one of my biggest pet peeves is when companies take down their websites as soon as they have the idea to rebrand, then have a Coming Soon page up for months! You lose a lot of momentum and interest by doing that. If you’re still in business and generating income, continue to operate while you work on your rebrand behind the scenes. You don’t want to cut existing customers off out of the blue, and you also don’t want so much downtime that folks forget your business exists or start looking for other solutions.
While determining whether the rebrand was successful may take a few months, Lola says a clear sign that it is unsuccessful is negative feedback from your target audience. "Customers are typically more vocal about what they don’t like more than what they do like," she says.
But some good signs to look out for are improvements in engagement with your marketing, positive reviews, press and increase in retention, and overall feeling aligned with the new branding.
For more information about Lola and The Brand Doula, visit her website, thebranddoula.com.
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Kelly Rowland Reveals Her Recipe For A Good Time Through Food, Family, And Giving Back
Kelly Rowland has been a beacon of light for little Black and brown girls since she first arrived on the scene through Destiny’s Child in the 1990s, yet, despite her success and accolades, her road to self-discovery is still underway.
The Fantasy Football actress says this era of her life is rooted in constant discovery and the realization that the possibilities in life are endless.
“I’m in constant discovery and learning about myself, about life, about love, about communicating, and I just say discovery is my current era, and to me, the possibilities are endless of what my capacities are,” the “Motivation” singer told xoNecole during an exclusive interview.
A part of that discovery is acknowledging all of the different looks she’s trademarked over the years, whether it’s her classic short red cut or the blonde she’s been known to lean toward recently. She attests a lot of her iconic looks to her bonus mother, Tina Knowles.
“I’m really grateful to Mama T for that because since she owned and worked in a hair salon, she would say, ‘Well, let’s try this. Let’s cut it off. Let’s grow it back. Oh, it’s just hair,’ you know what I mean?” the 43-year-old recalled.
“I’m definitely in that spirit when it comes to hair and glam and just seeing what pops and what doesn’t. I think that there are no rules.”
“For a long time, brown girls were told you can’t do this, you can’t do this, and you shouldn’t do this. It won’t look good on your complexion. That’s not our story. That does not belong to us at all.
"Our possibilities are endless. If anything, we make the trends and we make it look good. We make gem tones look wonderful because of the brown skin that pops off of the gem tone. We make it look wonderful.”
As the mother of two boys, Noah and Titan, Rowland still aims to create tradition through a good meal. She notes how she manages to balance maintaining quality time with her family as a woman who wears many hats.
“One thing that we’re trying to stay on top of right now is one-on-one quality time,” she shared. “I like to do that with my boys. They both get their own afternoon or day with me, so we have these little dates. Noah and I were sitting at this ice cream spot in LA the last time, and we just sat there and talked. It also made me sad because I was like Oh my God, this three-year-old is growing up so fast. I can’t believe he’s even three, and we’re sitting up here and having this whole conversation.”
“One thing that we’re trying to stay on top of right now is one-on-one quality time. I like to do that with my boys. They both get their own afternoon or day with me, so we have these little dates.”
Rowland added, “Then, with Titan, he likes a sushi spot that we go to for hand rolls, and so, we definitely bond over food and over certain outings that we might have. I just like for them to be one-on-one so that we can create our memories together, and they feel seen by me, their mother, and we just enjoy each other’s time. We laugh, and that means a lot to me.”
She is also very intentional in stressing the importance of giving back, something that was instilled in her at a young age by her mother that Rowland is ensuring her sons get a taste of.
“For Christmas, we like to be home, but we also like to give back,” said Rowland.
“Around Christmastime, I want my kids to understand how important it is to give back. So this year, I think we will pile it on because both of them will understand now even more.
"The three-year-old might miss it, but the nine-year-old is definitely starting to catch on. My mom poured that into me about the spirit of giving, and I want my kids to have that same tradition that my mom gave me.”
Today, she continues to give back by pouring into a locally owned eatery that made her, even having a meal named in her honor in a new partnership centered around spreading the love when it comes to patronizing local restaurants nationwide.
This Is It! is one of her childhood favorite Black-owned restaurants in her home city of Houston. During the earlier DC days, she recalled bonding with her bandmates-turned-family members over a delicious plate of soul food at This Is It!, a fourth-generation, family-owned establishment known for its comfort dishes.
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“I love the idea that a huge corporation like Pepsi wants to make sure that in their budget, they’re giving back to communities that have supported them for many years,” she said.
Rowland added, "This Is It! is a place that grew me up and helped me to keep my feet on the ground. This always brings back such fond memories for me.”
In honor of Rowland’s favorite This Is It! meal being named after her, which includes pepper steak with rice and gravy, green beans, peach cobbler, and an ice-cold Pepsi, the “Like This” crooner discussed her recipe for a good time.
“I would say good food,” she laughed. “Not that I need it, but a good Espresso Martini or a French white wine. Sometimes, I might lack energy, so I need a Pepsi to pick me right back up.”
“What else? Good energy. You need good energy. Like, good people with good energy who know how to have a good time. Who aren’t going to look around and see what the other person is doing," Rowland added.
"Because just when people are so good in their body and self-aware and self-assured, they are the funnest people to hang out with because they don’t give a crap about what’s happening around them. They just want to have a good time. I like those people.”
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