- 5 hours ago
Traditional paths to income aren’t as stable as they once were and Black women are adapting in real time. This conversation explores how entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creators are building flexible, self-directed income streams across the gig economy. From leveraging digital platforms and creativity to leaning into community and skill-based services, this panel highlights how Black women are creating financial stability in unconventional ways.
Attendees will walk away with practical insight on diversifying income, navigating instability, and building earning power that doesn’t rely on a single source—especially in an economy that continues to shift.
Speakers:
Tiffany Lauren Jones, The Satori Agency
Amanda Estiverne-Colas, AGE Advisors
Casey Dike', Blaze Group
Ensa Huger, NVF Capital
Attendees will walk away with practical insight on diversifying income, navigating instability, and building earning power that doesn’t rely on a single source—especially in an economy that continues to shift.
Speakers:
Tiffany Lauren Jones, The Satori Agency
Amanda Estiverne-Colas, AGE Advisors
Casey Dike', Blaze Group
Ensa Huger, NVF Capital
Category
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FunTranscript
00:02all right essence fast i am super excited about this next conversation but more importantly
00:08how many of you are excited about being at day number two of essence fast 2026 all right i love
00:15it well you look absolutely amazing and if you are here it is probably because you are a black
00:20woman who is interested in learning how you can build your income on your own terms beyond your
00:27nine to five and here's what i've learned that if you want to grow you want wealth it's not going
00:32to
00:32come just from having a job you have to have your own business and that's exactly what this
00:37conversation is about now if you are walking past and you want to join in come on we got some
00:42seating
00:42still available for you but this conversation is titled beyond the nine to five how black women are
00:49building income on their own terms and i'm excited about this one because we have a powerhouse panel
00:55and we have a master moderator who's going to take the stage in just a couple of seconds now here's
01:01what you should understand traditional paths to income are not as stable as they once were for black
01:07women and they are adapting in real time this conversation that you're about to experience
01:13explores how entrepreneurs freelancers and creators are building flexible self-directed income streams
01:20across the gig economy from leveraging digital platforms and creative and leaning into community
01:26and skill-based services this panel highlights how black women are creating financial stability
01:32and unconventional ways now you in the audience are going to walk away with a couple things first and
01:39foremost you are going to walk away with practical insight on how you can diversify your income you can
01:46navigate instability and you can build earning power that does not rely on one single source this is
01:53called multiple streams especially in an economy that continues to shift now are y'all ready for this
01:59conversation y'all got to give me some energy and excitement we got some women about to join us
02:04so here to moderate this amazing panel is enza huger of the new voices foundation capital can we give her
02:11some love as she makes her way to the stage now here to join the amazing enza we have the
02:18one the only
02:18tiffany lauren jones of the satori agency come on tiffany and let's give that orange dress some love
02:25don't she look fabulous y'all yes yes yes all right next we have the amazing the uh amazing amazing
02:34amazing
02:34amanda estervine of the age advisories come on amanda yes yes yes and last but certainly not least we
02:42have casey dk of the blaze group come on let's go ahead and casey a round of applause all right
02:48miss
02:48enza the stage is yours well good morning good morning good morning my name is enza huger and i am
02:56the cfo and chief compliance officer of the new voices fund i also am uh impacted by this conversation
03:02personally as someone who quit her corporate job in 2018 and had no idea what this was going to be
03:08until i met these wonderful people at new voices in 2019 so this conversation is near and dear to my
03:14heart we're gonna jump right into it y'all know i'm not a big fan of bios we're gonna weave
03:18that in
03:19so in 20 seconds in one sentence tell me the moment you realized traditional income was no longer the path
03:27i'll start down here um it was when i realized i needed more flexibility to have my mental health
03:35be a better priority i was tired of cycles of healing and building healing and building
03:40oh my goodness this is a really tough question i know but you know i was at a point in
03:45my corporate
03:46career where i just decided that i wanted to lead with more impact and more purpose and so i decided
03:52to
03:52leave a very high level executive role and said you know what i'm gonna bet on myself that's what
03:56happened and the win and win and win okay yeah so for me i didn't recognize myself anymore i was
04:04waking up and i felt like i did all this really hard work to build this amazing life on paper
04:09and
04:09materially i had all the things but something was missing and i just felt like something's not right
04:15like the life that i had built didn't fit me anymore and it was this feeling that i just couldn't
04:19get
04:20rid of so i knew i had to pivot that's powerful i was reading this book i can't remember the
04:23name
04:24of the author but the book is called homecoming and it's about coming home to yourself and there's
04:29so many different ways that she talks about coming home to yourself but that's one of them what you
04:33all shared is being able to look at yourself see yourself understand yourself and support yourself
04:38so let's get into it a little bit casey what do you think black women and people in general
04:44are doing well right now to monetize non-traditional income streams and what could we be doing
04:50yeah love this question um black women it's no surprise that we are the highest percentage of
04:57folks getting phds having graduate degrees uh and really being best in class at what we do and so i
05:03often see black women turning those into businesses right especially when you have huge cycles of layoffs
05:08et cetera uh what i don't see enough of is though us monetizing our assets things we don't have to
05:14trade our time for right so that is if you have an extra guest room why not put it on
05:19airbnb and earn
05:20an easy extra 800 a month right if you have a car that you're not driving at night why not
05:24put it
05:25on turo and let somebody that's driving uber rent your car for the night and you make money while
05:29you sleep right we have assets we don't monetize those enough i love that amanda now once we start
05:35monetizing those assets a lot of people want to have these multiple streams of income but they're
05:40still living with a paycheck to paycheck mindset so what are some of the biggest financial mistakes
05:45you see people making when trying to make or navigate this shift yeah you know transitioning
05:51from the paycheck mindset which is the predictable income to now an income that is variable and may
05:59come across in multiple streams and multiple seasons that's a really tough transition and it
06:05requires you having a strategic mindset to plan ahead right to now budget your income that's
06:11coming in it requires you just changing even your level of confidence and taking risks on certain
06:18negotiating even your deals it requires a different mindset and honestly i live that world i'm i'm right
06:24now i'm currently uh having multiple streams of income through brand partnerships client engagements
06:30and it just requires me to manage my finances from personal to business differently so it is a mindset
06:36it's a huge amount of discipline right i think one of the things that someone told me years ago that
06:41it
06:41didn't resonate originally but it sits differently now as someone who employs myself when we go to buy a car
06:47or a house lenders oftentimes want to see our w-2s right because they want evidence that someone else is
06:54willing
06:54to continue to continue to pay you but i find that intriguing because who's more likely to fire me
06:59me or someone else so what should be more stable should be what we pay ourselves but the reason they
07:06trust
07:06them more is they have the discipline that we are now learning to have for ourselves tiffany question
07:13for you so as we are realigning and redefining our identities i think we are oftentimes trying to recover
07:20from burnout and a lot of us myself included will go out and recreate the same burnout in the new
07:27role
07:28that we built for ourselves how do we avoid that how do we do better so i did that i
07:33recreated the same
07:34burnout in my business that i experienced in corporate multiple times so through trial and error i learned
07:40that you have to make an identity shift part of that is the mindset shift that amanda spoke to
07:45do you really have to recognize the conditioning and some of the patterning that you experience in
07:51corporate what was draining you and recognize you can't carry that into your next chapter into your
07:56business um and really make that identity shift from employee to entrepreneur yeah it's a totally
08:03different mindset it's a totally different identity that requires a much deeper level of self-trust with
08:09yourself that's i think a lot different from the nine to five experience i think it's really fundamental
08:15right things that we don't necessarily think about that are part of the shift basic things so for me when
08:20i transitioned it was what time do you go to work that's a very different question when it's my office
08:26right it's me but it can't be 10 or 11 or 2 every day right it can be sometimes but
08:34in the stage where
08:34you're building i have to figure out what time is the most advantageous for the build if i have a
08:40team
08:40i have to figure out what's most advantageous for the team i think the other way it shows up especially
08:44for black women two really key things our hair and our clothes if you get up every day and are
08:50still
08:51wearing your hair and your clothes the same way you were when you were going to work not that that
08:55was problematic but have you asked yourself is that how you wanted to show up or how you were told
09:00to
09:00show up right so i want to shift just a little bit and go into a group question about i
09:07think social
09:07media does this thing where we glamorize entrepreneurship it's amazing right you get
09:13up when you want to get up it's awesome but there's a real side to this so i want to
09:18understand beyond
09:19the glamour beyond the social media beyond the posts beyond the websites and the speaking engagements
09:25what is something that people underestimate in entrepreneurship as a whole or in that shift
09:30that we're making don't laugh casey don't laugh this is deep we in the living room y'all don't know
09:36we get in the living room we want to really talk about it so what is it casey it is
09:41that your shadows
09:42will meet you there whatever is unhealed whatever you're insecure about whatever you tend to project
09:48on other people because you really think they think that about you it will meet you in entrepreneurship
09:53and the way that you negotiate and how tense and angry you are thinking somebody's trying to
09:57undercut you and maybe it's just a starting point right uh and the way that you hire and thinking if
10:01i if i just paid them more money they'll do what they said they'll do when somebody's just using you
10:06again you're a mule again in your business the way you are in corporate right your shadows will meet
10:10you there and i think we underestimate that and so because you walk away doesn't mean you don't
10:14still need therapy yeah right it doesn't it doesn't mean you don't need a village right um yeah i'll stop
10:20there
10:20yeah i think to expound people hire small because they're scared that they're going to hire somebody
10:26that knows more or will do it better than them and it's my business so how dare you but i
10:31learned
10:31the opposite is the best hire a bunch of big people and let them go do it because that's what
10:36they're
10:36here for right that's what corporations are doing we were out here doing the work yeah you know i i
10:43the
10:43way i see it especially as someone who's left corporate america and now is ventured on my own
10:48you know there's still microgressions honestly ladies for black women i'm sorry in terms of
10:54uh navigating uh obtaining clients and negotiating deals they will still try to play in our faces
11:01yeah and to me it's very important to build a community of experts and folks that could share
11:06best practices on how you can overcome that so yes the entrepreneur life is glamorous but there are
11:13roads around it that we have to still continue to navigate i think people really underestimate and
11:19i did too the emotional toll of entrepreneurship there's a grieving process that you go through
11:25especially if you are a high performer high achiever you're someone who's used to doing it right
11:30getting all the things done and receiving accolades for that one of the things i hear people say
11:36all the time when entrepreneurship is i don't want to fail and you are going to fail over and over
11:42and over
11:42again and that is really a big blow to your ego if you've been used to winning especially in corporate
11:47and if you've attached your identity to that performance and you no longer have that external
11:51validation that is a really rough ride to go on that there's no one really there to support you and
11:57guide you through you have to go within connect with god your higher power source and that's really
12:02all you can depend on and it's a totally different journey i mean the training wheels are off right
12:08our parents aren't here our bosses aren't here you're oftentimes in your room by yourself at one
12:14or two in the morning trying to figure it out and that is deep and it is emotional and it
12:18can feel
12:18amazing when you figure it out like when you look back and say remember when i was in the living
12:23room
12:23at 2 a.m trying to figure it out and now here i am there's beauty in that too um
12:27the other thing i
12:28would share is oftentimes when you're an entrepreneur starting a business i think it's less than
12:3319 percent of businesses employ people so one of the hurdles we've got to get over is to start to
12:38employ people and that is scary for us because someone's family is now depending on me you know
12:44i i love what you just mentioned because delegation is a very hard thing for black women to do we
12:50want
12:51to own the whole project yeah but we forget that partnerships and collaborating with each other and
12:57capitalizing on each other's expertise will really push us further that's what the big companies are doing
13:02let's pay attention to that and it's also about somebody's gonna do it wrong your your teammate
13:09your partner their collaborator they're gonna do it wrong it requires communication sometimes they
13:14just didn't understand what it was that you needed and if you try again they'll get it right but also
13:20don't try too long because we don't have a lot of time right okay we're gonna pivot just a little
13:27bit
13:27casey i want to go a little bit deeper into your background i know they don't quite know but if
13:31y'all
13:31want to come meet any of us you can meet us right after this and learn more about us next
13:34door
13:34in the village or the hub at new voices i want to talk a little bit about tech and ai
13:39what do we
13:41currently need or how can technology or ai help us now to really grow or pivot as we're moving into
13:47this new phase of our lives yeah that's a great question and before i answer because obviously there
13:52are so many conversations around ai right like environmental racism but also increased productivity
13:58and if you miss this wave you're going to be even farther behind right um i want to share a
14:02quote
14:03from the 70s that amiri baraka said he said the new technology must be spiritually oriented we we must
14:08ask ourselves what purpose does black do black folk have on the moon right like we can leverage any
14:13technology for our good a black woman created gps right um and so i think it's important for us to
14:20really assess our own gaps understand your your strengths because your weakness will never become your
14:26greatest strength right we're naturally gifted in different things assess those gaps so you can
14:30figure out how you leverage ai to fill that in right if you don't have the money to buy an
14:35entire
14:36human for 40 hours per week right how can you create a bot for instance where you tell it have
14:40this expertise speak as if you are from the east coast of xyz right um those are some some i
14:47think low
14:47hanging fruit ways that everybody is familiar with right but there's also agentic modeling today
14:52where from end to end ai will do the entire process for you even to purchasing things you need every
14:59single month right look into that right think about how you can take things off of your plate so you
15:04can
15:05sleep longer so you can spend time with your family more right because those are the things
15:09that keep you sustained along the journey so i want to pick up two really good words here
15:17financial instability versus financial irresponsibility what does financial stability look like for
15:25someone in a non-traditional income yeah yeah it's you know like i said it's earlier it's a tough
15:32transition from moving from a predictable predictable income that every two weeks to now uh
15:40income that's coming in seasonal right like you know one time you get a big deal and it could be
15:45for
15:45the first three months and then sometimes you're getting seasons where it's quiet and maybe you
15:50need to now reinvest in your business and start going out and getting leads one of the things that
15:57i've been doing um with my organization now is i'm really strong on this concept of income invest and then
16:05debt management right so now what i'm doing is i've put together a foreign k i've put my own uh
16:11foreign k with a fintech called betterment and i'm leveraging that not only for tax purposes so
16:17that there is some money returning back but to me that's saving a nest for the future and that's
16:24really important yeah i think one of the things people don't think about as a especially as a
16:28solopreneur you need insurance yeah um there are lots of insurances out there i'm not going to go into
16:34all of them but you need insurance you need coverage for the times that you're not available if you
16:38are the primary producer of income for your business or your household you need to cover
16:43yourself because no one's covering you anymore no one else is stepping in to save you or do your job
16:48so there are lots of different coverages that you can get to kind of help you with that and the
16:52other
16:52thing that i started doing especially in the first year first of all i had to be very frugal right
16:57look
16:57for ways to not spend money in the first year or two look for ways to not spend money get
17:01the free
17:01version but start putting 30 40 of the money that you get into an account of every dollar
17:09it doesn't matter if you think you you know won't need it later i don't care i transferred 30 to
17:1440
17:14and i'm saying 30 to 40 because i bridged it over time so 30 up to 40 and then back
17:19down but essentially
17:20i did that until i developed a nest egg that covered one year of my expenses then i stopped doing
17:27that then
17:27i can invest a little more in the business a little more into some staff i don't want to hire
17:31somebody
17:31i don't have a full six months to a year of their income in my bank account because again they're
17:35depending on me i'm depending on me so one month of being thrown off and now i gotta fire you
17:40isn't
17:41good for me or the business mentally physically or emotionally as a black woman yeah i love that and
17:46i'd love to add just leveraging tax product tax financial products that benefit you in the long run
17:53leverage credit card programs where of course these are bills reoccurring bills that you will have to
17:58spend but you'll get cash back purposes to that leverage especially we were just talking behind
18:05um behind the room uh earlier about uh airlines there are certain airline programs they consistent
18:12with the same airline programs and leverage the miles i'm telling you yeah there's ways you have to be
18:17frugal yeah so tiffany this question is for you because i know that we are or you are not me
18:24helping to have high achieving women kind of navigate these shifts and changes in their identity
18:29how do we know and this is i should have asked you beforehand too late now how do we know
18:35when
18:35it makes sense to kind of reinvent yourself in the current thing you're in like push through or
18:41reinvent yourself somewhere else reimagine who you should be how what how do we know the difference
18:45this is such a good question because again i learned the hard way through a lot of trial and
18:50error a lot of um mental health i would say issues arising from not knowing when to pivot because
18:58you can spend a lot of resources as you mentioned time energy and you're not bearing any fruit i think
19:04that's a sign that you need to pivot there are seasons where things are difficult and there are
19:08obstacles that's part of entrepreneurship it's like a new problem to solve every day but if you're not
19:15bearing any fruit from the investment that you're putting in that's a sign that something's off and
19:21it's time to take a different direction yeah and i i take that down to something really tactical i'm a
19:26virgo so i have a to-do list every single day right as a virgo i need to feel like
19:31i'm completing
19:32something every day the problem i was having was i would list get new clients as the checkbox when the
19:39checkbox was define my sales funnel email a client sign a client onboard a client that one bullet was
19:47really compounded into 11 things and if you don't break that down you don't ever feel a sense of
19:53completion and so you feel defeated so you got to take those projects and break them down into the
19:58minimum viable product of that project what's the first step and if you did that first step as an
20:03entrepreneur i know we can all say if you did that one step today that's enough you're doing good
20:08because a lot of times all you can do is one step today while trying to put out fires while
20:14trying
20:14to solve the world and boil the ocean and hurt the cats if i just check one bullet today i
20:19did it
20:20and i want to double click on that answer because one of my mentors in entrepreneurship told me
20:24when i was having trouble with a larger team she said casey you can't give them the whole thing
20:29because it'll break them like yes you see the vision they can't handle that you have to break your
20:33problems down in the project because when they check that off their list they're motivated they believe
20:36you know um and so i agree the same is true for your team you can't tell them oh we're
20:41going to be
20:41number one in our city like that is so vague it's demoralizing right versus we'll have 10 newly one
20:47thing yeah exactly and it's also just everybody is not meant to carry your vision right god gave each
20:53of us a vision and every one of us is carrying out our part in this grander vision only you
20:59can carry
21:00the weight of your vision it's not mine so give me my piece and that's it all right we're coming
21:05to
21:05the end unfortunately so i want to give you guys a quick wrap-up question to leave everybody with
21:10something tactical actionable that we can do in 30 days right so casey what's one thing skill asset
21:17that somebody could monetize better you mentioned one let's mention a couple um you can do writing uh so
21:25a lot of people need content today in the algorithmic world that we live in and so your
21:29specialty you can offer to write ghost blogs uh offer to write published articles for folks that's
21:34one thing i do on the side i won't mention what i mentioned before you can uh definitely use your
21:39your sky miles any perks you might get from any of your credit cards or loyalty programs as real cash
21:45you
21:45can convert in um the last one i'll say is so many out there um the last one i'll say
21:50is productize
21:52whatever you do uh one-on-one for folk right whether it's templates or download guides etc let
21:58people buy it without you spending any time doing it amanda one financial habit that creates long-term
22:04freedom yeah i i want you guys all to think like a company right i want you to think build
22:10your you
22:10know two-year plan right uh put together a p&l leverage tax benefits and services for yourself
22:17because it's coming they're going to ask for their taxes in a year uh and really try to leverage
22:23each other as partners to move faster and move better within your own companies and tiffany one
22:30mindset shift that let or thing we need to let go of to build differently something that you need to
22:36let go of to build differently is feeling like you have to be strong and you have to do it
22:40all like
22:41please take the cape off and think about your knowledge your wisdom your gifts your unique
22:47experience as intellectual property have it registered build an ecosystem so let go of the
22:52mindset of just selling a product or service how can you build an ecosystem around who you are and what
22:58it is that you like to do and get get that uh legally protected yeah i love that thank you
23:03so much
23:03casey amanda tiffany join us for the rest of the day on this stage i'm gonna give it back to
23:08our wonderful
23:08stage host quinn thank y'all all right no hold on that was a full-fledged master class y'all
23:17go back
23:17over here take your pictures get your flowers listen that was absolutely amazing can we give these
23:24wonderful women one more round of applause
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