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.
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Less & Less Of Us Have Close Friends These Days. Why Is That?
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” At close to two decades of working with married couples, I agree with this man 1000 percent. It’s actually the main motivation for why I once penned, “Are You Sure You're Actually FRIENDS With Your Spouse?” because, the reality is, if you’re not friends with the person who you vowed to share every aspect of your life with, for the rest of your life, it’s going to be very difficult (if not damn near impossible) to honor that level of commitment. Without question, I will now and forever die on the hill that if you like your partner, you can make it through the not-so-in-love-right-now moments. Vice versa? Eh…not so much.
A basis for why I feel this way? Another quote immediately comes to mind. Famed author Jane Austen once wrote: “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” You know, back when I also wrote “10 Things You Should Absolutely Expect From Your Friendships” for the platform, I shared that some of the traits of a friend — a real friend — include loyalty, honesty and compassion. And if you can’t say that your spouse is this way (as they say the same thing about you), chile…what is y’all doin’ over there?
So, why am I talking about marriage when this article is supposed to be about friendship? It’s because, something that life has taught me, kinda sorta the hard way, is we should vet potential friends — especially close friends — almost like we would a spouse.
And if you keep reading, I think you’ll get why I framed the intro in the way that I did.
Why Friendships Are Still Hella Essential
GiphyOkay, so before I get into why it seems that people have fewer friends than they ever had before, let me just say that, even as an ambivert who enjoys my own company and has absolutely no problem with being alone a good amount of the time, every personality type needs friends. That’s not just my opinion;science makes it a fact. Not only do studies support thathealthy friendships help us to feel more satisfied with our lives, but they can also reduce our chances of experiencing depression, stress, and anxiety and they increase longevity overall.
This is why — without going too deep because it’s kind of another topic for another time — it’s important to not allow past hurts and disappointments from former friends (or folks you thought were your friends) to cause you to build up walls as you declare that you don’t need anyone. When you do that, all you’re really doing is working against your own health and well-being. The saying that “no man (or woman) is an island”? It is absolutely true.
That said, even if it’s just a couple of people, make sure that you’ve got individuals in your life who you can call a friend and, in turn, they can say the very same thing about you, okay?
Are All of Those People Your Actual Friends? Or Do You Just Happen to Know a Lot of Folks?
GiphyAight but what if you happen to be someone who swings on the other side of few? Meaning, if someone were to ask you how many friends you had, you’d quickly declare that you’ve got too many to count. Listen, not to patronize or anything yet, but whenever I hear folks (especially if they are over 35) say something along those lines, it takes me back to high school — a time when so many of us thought that so long as we knew a ton of folks and/or we were popular, clearly, we had many friends.
Wisdom and pure ole’ dealing with humans on a consistent basis will teach you that an article that I wrote a few years back for the platform has a title that is spot-on: “According To Experts, We Only Have A Few Friends — Here's Why.” According to it, the average American (based on a survey that was conducted) has somewhere around 16 friends. Oh, but wait. Last fall, I wrote another article for the platform entitled, “What's The 'Five Friendship Theory' All About?” According to it, if you’re someone who takes the word “friend” and the responsibility that comes along with it very seriously and quite literally, as an adult, you can probably only maintain about five close friendships.
Why? Well, that brings in another article that I once wrote: “Life Taught Me That True Friendships Are 'Inconvenient.'” Chile, I don’t know about y’all but my friends know that if I call you that, you can call me in the middle of the night, and you can have money towards your rent (I’m not your mama but we all have hard times sometimes) and I’m gonna have your back in a way where you’ll wonder where you stop and I start — and no, I don’t have a lot of bandwidth for a ton of those people.
Okay, but what if you’re someone who is like, “I know that I have more than 16 and definitely more than five friends, no question”? The next thing that I would encourage you to explore is a theory by Aristotle (check out “According To Aristotle, We Need ‘Utility’, ‘Pleasure’ & ‘Good’ Friends”). Without even realizing it, many of us have people who we use the word “friend” for when…it’s kind of like how social media apps say “friend”: we’re familiar with one another and enjoy some of the same things, we might even have some of the same goals; at the same time, though, we’re not “all-encompassing friends.” We just get along really well at work (utility friends) or like to go to brunch at the same spots sometimes (pleasure friends).
Taking all of this into account, are you sure that you have a ton of actual friends? Or do you just happen to know a lot of people and you use that word for the lack of having another?
And that brings me to my next point.
There’s A LOT of Space Between “Friend” and “Enemy”
GiphyIf you read a lot of my friendship content, something that you will notice me saying quite a bit is that there is quite a bit of space between friend and enemy. It needs to be mentioned, as often as possible, because there are some people who get offended if you don’t consider them to be a friend — and that is unfortunate. I say that because the conclusion shouldn’t automatically be that they are your enemy just because “friend” isn’t what immediately comes to your mind.
They can be an acquaintance. They can be “cool people.” There is someone in my life who, while we’re not friends in the traditional sense, we are each other’s confidant; years ago, we agreed that we would be the place to tell each other whatever and it would stay between us — that is the main purpose that we serve in each other’s lives. Some people, you may consider to be spiritual family in the sense that you care for them and have some deeply profound things in common and still, they are not exactly a friend (I mean, a lot of blood relatives aren’t “friends” with each other).
All I’m trying to say here is we’re all too old now to only put folks in two boxes when it comes to this particular relational dynamic: friend or enemy. So, take some time out to seriously reflect on what you consider the various people in your life to be. I can promise you from personal experience that the sooner you know and the clearer you are, the easier it will be on everybody — because needs and expectations will be clear to you (and them once you articulate them) too.
What Got Folks to Having Less Friends? The Pandemic Plays a Significant Part.
GiphySo finally on to what inspired this piece to begin with. A part of it was an article that was published last year by Big Think entitled, “Americans more than ever have no friends. Here are 5 steps to make more friends.” Another was something that The New Yorker published back in 2021; it’s entitled “What COVID did to friendship.” Y’all don’t have enough time and I don’t have enough space to get into the fact that, just because the media may be talking about it less, that doesn’t mean that we’re not still in a pandemic.
In fact,one article stated my thoughts on it quite well when it said, “The real question, then, is not whether COVID is still a pandemic, but how much COVID illness and death are we willing to accept?” SMDH. And one of the things that has come with experiencing COVID is an interesting type of PTSD: detachment. There are plenty of articles out here to support the fact that my saying that is not merely my opinion.
Even according to the American Psychological Association, loneliness damn near skyrocketed, especially during lockdown and, unfortunately, a lot of people have not recovered from it. That’s why it did not surprise me at all when I read that more than ever, many people do not consider anyone to be a best friend; fewer people are relying on friends for any type of real support, and there is a semi-steady decline in people having friends, especially quality friendships, overall.
In fact, as far as close friends go, currently, close to 50 percent of Americans say that they only have three or fewer, and a relevant contributor to that was what the pandemic revealed as far as people’s proactive participation in other individuals’ lives (I actually read that young women were the ones who lost touch with friends during the peak of the pandemic the most). I also thought it was interesting that some studies cite that 12 percent of Americans say that they don’t have any friends at all.
Is the pandemic the only cause? No. So are things like people working more hours and spending more time online than they probably should (which also increased due to the pandemic, though). To that, Teen Vogue once published, “Social Media Is Impacting IRL Friendships” and Healthline once published, “Social Media Is Killing Your Friendships.” Then we also have to factor in having families of our own which can also take up a lot of time, and that sometimes can cause us to forget to nurture our friendships; so, before you know it, they fade to black. Not due to a fallout or anything, just…life.
And all of this? Some people are saying that it has led to what is known as a “friendship recession.” A huge flag about that is there are reports that a drop in close friends can cultivate a type of loneliness that is just as health hazardous as smoking a whopping 15 cigarettes a day. Not good, y’all. Not. Good.
Quality over Quantity Is Key. Just Make Sure That You Have a Friend or Two.
GiphyOkay, so what is my overall point? That’s a fair question. Just like sometimes “life life-ing” can make us forget to tend to our friendships, if you don’t stumble across content like this, you might not even realize that you’re feeling mentally stressed, emotionally strained, or super isolated and it’s all because you need to prioritize your friendships — because your mind, body, and spirit need them. Again, science has proved it.
At the same time, if, like a client of mine, you find yourself getting a little bit paranoid because you have noticed that over the past several years, your close friend count has been far less than what it used to be, this article proves that you are absolutely not (pardon the pun) alone. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with having a very small circle of friends because quality is gonna beat out quantity every time; you just need to assess when it happened and why so that you can be sure that you are choosing it to play out that way and it’s not due to some underlying cause that you hadn’t taken into consideration — until now.
An Italian priest by the name of Thomas Aquinas once said, “The happy man in this life needs friends.” Even if it’s just one or two people, please make sure that you have folks who aren’t just your friend but your very close friend. You need them. They need you.
Everyone else, figure out where they fall and nurture accordingly. Life is a lot. We all get by with the help of our friends. Real talk, y’all. Thank goodness for them.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image by jose carlos cerdeno martinez/Getty Images