This is Post 2 of 4 by  M. Brielle Harbin, Ph.D.

Join Dr. Harbin for her interactive workshop, Finding Direction… When Academia Feels Like It’s Falling Apart, May 22 at 3 PM Eastern. Find it here.

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When I first tried to name what I had to offer beyond academia, I expected the process to feel…empowering.

It didn’t.

I thought I could sit down, list my skills, and begin mapping out what kind of consulting or coaching work I might want to do. But when I actually faced the blank page, I felt foggy, disoriented, and terrified.

My next step may sound a little silly but it’s true: I called my mom. She’s known me my entire life so I asked for her help.

I asked: What am I good at? What do you come to me for? What do I do well that I might be overlooking?

I also called several friends and asked the same questions.

These conversations were humbling and extremely clarifying. Through them, I not only rediscovered valuable skills I’d been overlooking, but I also realized something deeper: I had internalized ideas about myself, my capabilities, and my worthiness that made it hard to see my value in the first place.

The process of identifying your most valuable skills can be difficult for anyone. But for women, and especially for Black women and people of color, it’s often tangled up in deeper, unspoken messages we’ve absorbed about who we’re allowed to be:

• Be creative but not too bold.
• Use your voice, but not too loudly.
• Be helpful but don’t demand compensation so you aren’t perceived as self-serving.

We are celebrated for being selfless and penalized for creating boundaries on our time and energy.

And the academy is one of the places where that contradiction shows up most clearly.

If you show up fully for your students, serve on all the committees, and say yes because you care deeply about education, your commitment may be being exploited by administrators who prefer you stay quiet as they unabashedly extract your labor.

So, when we attempt to define our value outside of the institution that shaped us, we may discover that the first step isn’t rebranding.

It’s unlearning.

This is where I want to present an instructive parallel I’ve been reflecting on lately.

If you’ve been following recent coverage of the Trump administration’s trade war, you’ve likely noticed a fascinating shift.

Countries that have long been treated as sources of raw materials, cheap labor, and hidden manufacturing are beginning to forcefully articulate their worth and indispensable value in the global economy.

For example, several videos from Chinese manufacturers claim that luxury brands—like Louis Vuitton and Chanel—are making their products in China, not in Italy. In their now-viral videos, these manufacturers boldly assert that American buyers can skip $30,000 marked-up price tags and buy from them directly at a fraction of the cost.

It may seem like a stretch, but I think there’s something powerful here for academics—especially for those of us who’ve poured our labor into institutions that don’t always see or reward what we do best.

What if the things you’ve been praised for behind closed doors—your ability to mediate conflict, build community, facilitate dialogue, teach with compassion—are actually your raw materials?

We produce the content, design the learning experiences, and facilitate the hard conversations. Yet, our institutions apply their label to our knowledge and brilliance and charge students and their parents a premium price.

But what if we reimagined our relationship with our labor?

What if we stopped asking how to become more visible within the academy, and started asking where else our skills are needed?

For me, that shift changed everything.

I stopped waiting for a promotion or a new title to name my value.

I started thinking:

What could I create? 

What could I teach outside this system that I already teach every day inside it?

And the answer was more than I expected.

If you’re here trying to name your skills but feel stuck, start by asking:

• What have I been praised for that I now take for granted?
• What do people thank me for again and again?
• What parts of myself have I been taught to downplay in the name of being “professional”?
• Who might I call right now to reflect back my gifts?

This process isn’t just strategic. It’s about recovering your voice and your right to use it for your own good, not just for others.

About the Author

Brielle Harbin, PhD, is a tenured faculty member, an award-winning educator, and the founder of Your Cooperative Colleague LLC, a consulting practice that supports purpose-driven educators through inclusive pedagogy, sustainable scholarship, and values-aligned career paths. She also leads Faculty Writing Rituals Unlocked, a transformative course for academics who seek to write with greater clarity, care, and community. To read more of her reflections on teaching, writing, and reimagining the academic path, subscribe to her Substack, Notes from a Work Friend.