We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shaque’l Wilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shaque’l, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The story of 6 Figure Chick™ Consulting is truly one that only a millennial can say, it all happened because of a #BlackGirlLuxury TikTok trend. I stitched a video where someone was asking Black women how they were living such luxurious lives. Now I felt like I was a little boujie enough to qualify so I decided to add my video and mention how I worked in tech making over $150,000. That video got about 3,000 views and I was like “OH! I’ve made it. Somebody call Fenty and tell them to send over the brand deals” 😂 the following day, I decided, THIS is what I’ll create content around: how to break into tech in a non technical role. I made an almost 3 minute long video telling my story (assuming no one would listen) and THAT video got 300,000 views. I soon realized, this is what real virality looked like. Each day, I put out videos that were relatable, in a vernacular that didn’t speak above the room, and simply gave people what they asked for. If they commented saying they didn’t know where to find jobs, I figured out where and shared it. If they commented saying they didn’t know what job titles to transition to, I helped them identify a few options. It wasn’t until I grew to 10,000 in less than 2 weeks and had more than 500 LinkedIn message that I realized, people NEED this. And they desire to learn it from ME. So I put together a $15-$50 resume review service. And in the first 10 days I made $10,000 worth of sales. I won’t ask you to do math, but that is well over 300 orders. So I KNEW this was worth investing more of my time and energy into! I think the success of the offer and our continued success over the years is that while there are other “career coach, resume writing, TikTok gurus” there isn’t one that brings the authenticity that I do. Our clients know that they can be their best authentic selves with me and my team. The realness is refreshing in comparison. And honestly, they see themselves in me. If a Black girl with a mohawk, facial piercings, and a sleeve tattoo that curses a bit too much and laughs a bit too loud can get a 6 figure role – SO. CAN. THEY.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Well, if you’re new here, What’s good? What’s Happenin? My name is Shaque’l and I’m better known as your favorite 6 Figure Chick™. I help people transition careers, scale the corporate ladder, and land 6 figure paying jobs. I’m from a small-ish town in Texas called Waco, please don’t google or Netflix it 😜 I spent years there being told how smart. hardworking, and valuable I was but couldn’t get a job for more than $11/hr. So I left. I came to Austin, TX and landed my first tech role in FinTech. I didn’t love it so I left and wound up at a startup for logistics tech. I grew & scaled my way up that ladder for 2 and a 1/2 years. I got 4 promotions, even launched my own department…but left over $5k. Even with all the work I’d done and how valuable they told me I was, $5,000 was apparently too much to ask for. But, then came Google. A recruiter reached out to me for a training opportunity with them and I jumped on it. I was there for about 6 months and then a recruiter from TikTok reached out to me for another training opportunity. And that my friends is the really short version of how I went from $68k to more than $150,000 in less than 8 months.
My time in Austin really allowed me to identify what I’d been doing right and wrong in the career game all this time. Hard work DOES NOT = more money, higher positions, etc. Knowing who to talk to, how to leverage your expertise, and ensuring you’re never “stuck” can get you that and MORE. Which is how I identified what services to offer to my community. We started on TikTok so the amazing news is that while I knew what I thought people would need, people would just tell me via comments. I identified common questions, comments, and DMs I would get and built those services with my first hand knowledge in mind.
I solve the problem of simply not knowing. When I went viral on TikTok, people were so surprised at how much money I made and that my title didn’t include CEO or executive. People simply didn’t know that there were opportunities to make double, or even triple, what they were making, with a similar job title, just *in tech*. I teach them what others profit off of them not knowing. Them thinking that $20/hr to work at a front desk is good enough when they could make $85k being an Operations Specialist because often the roles are similar enough. Or the teachers thinking they should get mistreated for $50k/yr when you can become an instructional designer for $120,000.
I am most proud of the impact that we’ve been able to make. There is nothing better than a single mom reaching out to let us know that she has gotten a $50,000 increase but most importantly, she’s got unlimited PTO to spend more time with her kids. Or a middle-aged Black woman who has spent 15yrs in a job that has left her feeling unheard, tolerated, and ignored and is now making $115,000 within a company that prioritizes Black leadership AND she feels seen by seeing other middle-aged, natural haired, Black folks succeeding within this organization. The impact is truly what we do it for. Everyday we get to bask in how fucking dope our community and clients are and how much they truly CAN DO when supported correctly!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
My worth is NOT tied to the amount of revenue this business generates. As a new business owner, who truly took tf off, it felt AMAZING when business was booming and I got to say things like “I got my first 4-figure client” and “We had our first $30k, $50k, $100k month”. But the opposite side of that felt like I was trash ready to be thrown away. So a little back story:
In 2023, my 2nd year in business, I raised my prices from $200 for a resume to $797 for *just* a resume and then $1,500 if you wanted a 1:1 with me. I was nervous, nervous af. But people PAID IT! No problem. I made so much money doing this that I quit my full-time, $160k+ job working for the most popular entertainment app of like the last 4 years. There wasn’t a product or a price that I could drop that people would stop paying me, it appeared. And it felt GOO!
But then, I had this drawing, this calling to host an in-person Mastermind. It cost $2500 to attend. I did a bit of marketing, not much but just a bit, like I always do. I opened up applications. I hand selected my 10 attendees. And *crickets*. No one purchased. Even after doing applications that confirmed the price and they could invest it. 🗣️ NO ONE BOUGHT A DAMN TICKET. Even worse, this was after I had a moment of “this is what I’m made to do, I’m helping people, they need this”. Cried to my therapist and everything about how aligned this seemed. And then, nothing.
I couldn’t help but feel like a failure. I’d put out all this content, made all these plans, and no one purchased? More than a failure, I felt unworthy. They didn’t buy because they didn’t believe that *I* was worth spending the money. Now we realize none of this is true. $2,500 is a lot for the community that I serve. And in such little time (the event was in 6ish weeks). On top of that, I didn’t market this $2,500 offer like a $2,500 offer. I just thought, I’m Shaque’l. They love me. They buy from me all the time and sell out my available time slots in hours or days. And even better, I reached out to the clients and said “hey, I saw you say yes, your app was chosen, why haven’t you signed up”. And each of them said, “I didn’t even think you’d pick me. I just don’t have the money at this time”.
As business owners, we know that often price is the easy objection but isn’t always the actual objection. But, that answer supported me in starting the conversation with my therapist and my business coach around the fact that it wasn’t “me”. It wasn’t that these folks in my community didn’t value “me”. It could have been for 15 other reasons, but most importantly, it was NEVER that I wasn’t worth the money. And in return I started to learn the lesson of, my revenue does not determine my worth.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Oh, this is my SHIT! In 2 years of business we have a TikTok following of more than 452k and we’ve leveraged that following to generate more than $900,000 worth of revenue in 2023 with NO ad spend. And even a step better, I worked at TikTok as a Learning & Enablement Partner for ads and TikTok content for 2 and 1/2 years! So believe me when I say – I got you!
I was able to build my TikTok community through authenticity, consistency, and providing relevant/ informative content to our audience. I posted on TikTok 1-2 times/ day 5-7 times per week when I first started. Today we post more like 3-4 times/ day 5-6 times per week. Content is a mix of them getting to know me a bit (my “hero” story), me providing my expertise on current events happening in the industry, and replies to their comments. But the key here, is authenticity. That is it. They love knowing exactly who they’re going to get every time they view our content. They can relate to me because of the authenticity that I offer. And by seeing themselves in me, they see themselves with the possibility of similar success like my hero story.
The biggest advice I’d have for any entrepreneur, get on TikTok and be authentic. Make TikToks, not ads. That’s literally TikTok’s sales slogan to clients. If it feels like a “commercial”, too scripted, or like you’re trying to sell – it won’t perform well. Always give them a way to purchase from you, but keep the direct selling in the emails or phone calls. It doesn’t work on this platform. You either need to provide insightful information or entertainment. THAT is what works on TikTok. Build the community before you start pushing product after product down their throats. They have to trust you and learn that you ARE in fact an expert!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.6figurechickconsulting.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/6figurechickconsulting/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/6-figure-chick-consulting
- Other: TikTok: @6figurechickconsulting
Image Credits
Marrica Evans (orange outfit only)