Breadwinner Conversations

Her sister told her to stop doing taxes for crumbs. In 2018, Dr. Evvie Smith listened and launched 3D Notary & Taxes, a Houston-based mobile notary and tax preparation company that now serves more than 200 clients.

In this episode of Breadwinner Conversations, Evvie shares how she learned the craft on paper at nineteen, why underpricing nearly held her business back, and how COVID expanded her reach beyond Houston. She also talks about building Keep Moving Ministries and The Disciple Center International, going back to college at 49, carrying purpose through the loss of her son, and why she measures success across three generations.

If you’ve been discounting your expertise, this conversation is your sign to set your price and stand behind it.

Connect with Dr. Evvie Smith🌐 3dnotarytaxes.com📧 [email protected]📍 4201 Cypress Creek Pkwy, Ste 169, Houston, TX 77068

About Me

I’m Claire L. Howard — a marketing and communications strategist with 15+ years of experience helping brands and organizations grow. I’m also a solo mom building multiple ventures at once, including CLH Cosmo ⁠ (my consulting practice) and Breadwinner Collective, which was born out of my own need for better tools to manage money, home, and ambition — all while doing it on my own.

Wear What You’ve Earned

She started her company in a pandemic, with a young family at home and no one in her circle who had ever built a business. Days before her due date, she hung commercial wallpaper herself, and that one job launched her commercial design career.Tiffany Brown is the founder of Brown Builders Design, a Charlotte-based interior design firm “Building Homes and Redesigning Lives.” In this episode of Breadwinner Conversations, she shares how her grandparents’ house shaped her design philosophy, how years in real estate development prepared her to lead, and why her goal in every room is to expand it.In this episode:

• The house that inspired her entire approach to design
• Launching a business in December 2020 with no roadmap
• The wallpaper job that opened the door to commercial work
• Why the most expensive projects aren’t always the biggest ones
• Advocating for diversity in design and construction
• The readiness behind her “Make It Mine” TV moment
• Building a team and a business that can outlast her

Connect with Tiffany:

Instagram: @brownbuildersdesign

Website: www.brownbuildersdesign.com

This episode is brought to you by The Breadwinner Planner, from Breadwinner Collective: ⁠https://breadwinnercollective.com/pro... .................

About Me:

I’m Claire L. Howard — a marketing and communications strategist with 15+ years of experience helping brands and organizations grow. I’m also a solo mom building multiple ventures at once, including ⁠CLH Cosmo⁠ (my consulting practice) and ⁠Breadwinner Collective⁠, which was born out of my own need for better tools to manage money, home, and ambition — all while doing it on my own.Wear What You’ve Earned.

#BreadwinnerConversations #WomenInBusiness #InteriorDesign #BlackWomenInBusiness #Entrepreneurship

Monika Monk is a UX designer by day and the founder of Monika with a K, a wellness brand built on cycle syncing and human design. After a thirteen-day period went unquestioned by every doctor she saw, she turned her computer science background toward researching her own body, and what she learned reshaped her health, her business, and how she manages her time.

In this episode of Breadwinner Sessions, Monika breaks down how to use the four phases of your menstrual cycle as a business strategy: when to analyze, plan, connect, and execute. We also talk about the gaps in what women, especially Black women, are told about birth control and fibroids, and how a former AI skeptic made ChatGPT part of her team to avoid burnout.

Follow Monika on TikTok and Instagram @MonikaMonk or visit MonikaMonk.com.

This episode is brought to you by The Breadwinner Planner, from Breadwinner Collective: https://breadwinnercollective.com/products/the-breadwinner-planner?variant=53839025078579

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About Me

I’m Claire L. Howard — a marketing and communications strategist with 15+ years of experience helping brands and organizations grow. I’m also a solo mom building multiple ventures at once, including CLH Cosmo (my consulting practice) and Breadwinner Collective, which was born out of my own need for better tools to manage money, home, and ambition — all while doing it on my own.

Breadwinner Conversations: Zakiya Ellick, Founder of The Cookie Dip Company

She built a luxury dessert brand out of a family cookie dough recipe — and a nonprofit out of the doors that stayed locked when she was starting out.

In this episode of Breadwinner Sessions, I sit down with Zakiya Ellick, founder of The Cookie Dip Company and Dipping Into Change, to talk about what it really takes to build a business as a solo mom with no partition between "work" and "home." Zakiya opens up about homeschooling her neurodivergent son while scaling a self-funded company, why she doesn't believe in balance ("I think priorities exist"), the health scare that finally forced her to stop glorifying hustle, and how a career in accounting, HR, and retail quietly built the founder she'd eventually become.

We get into:

• How one vending booth at the Playboy Jazz Festival turned into a company
• Why "luxury" is about how something feels, not just what it costs
• Building a business and a nonprofit that run on opposite instincts
• Exclusivity vs. access
• Learning to ask for help after years of "I'll just do it myself"
• Why she measures success in numbers, not feelings
• Her advice for the woman starting with no capital, no partner, and one good idea

This is for every woman carrying more than one full-time job at once — the breadwinner, the mother, the founder, all in the same body, same day, same breath.

For more information on The Cookie Dip:

Website: thecookiedipcompany.com

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @_thecookiedipcompany

This episode is brought to you by The Breadwinner Planner, from Breadwinner Collective: https://breadwinnercollective.com/products/the-breadwinner-planner?variant=53839025078579

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About Me

I’m Claire L. Howard — a marketing and communications strategist with 15+ years of experience helping brands and organizations grow. I’m also a solo mom building multiple ventures at once, including CLH Cosmo (my consulting practice) and Breadwinner Collective, which was born out of my own need for better tools to manage money, home, and ambition — all while doing it on my own.