Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Stephens.
Hi Tracy, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My entrepreneurial journey began when I graduated from college in 2014. I had no idea that my path would go like this, but here we are. Like any graduate, I had this vision of how I pictured my life would go without realizing God may have had another plan for me. Finding a job was one of the hardest challenges I endured at that time. I felt like I received the message, “Thank you for your interest, but we have decided to pursue other candidates who meet our needs.” over 100 times. I am sure you can imagine what that does to someone mentally. I started to question my self-worth and whether my best was good enough. These were not feelings that were just going to go away and suddenly I felt like myself again. I dealt with that feeling for four years. It was honestly one of the darkest times in my life.
To combat those feelings of depression and anxiety I knew that I needed to come up with some kind of side hustle to make some extra cash on top of the twelve dollars I was making per hour at my part-time job. I remember sitting at my best friend’s house plotting this big idea I had. The word ‘dreams’ kept coming across my mind, so I did what I could to feed off of that. I kept saying dreams to this or dreams to that, but the only one that stood out was Dreams To Kings. I knew as soon as I said it that it was one I needed to run with. I went home and started working on my own designs and suddenly I had these dope sweatshirts I created. I made a pretty penny off of them and thought to myself, “Maybe the apparel industry is what I need to be in.” As time went on I would create more apparel, but something was missing. One of my close friends at the time asked, “Where are the designs for the women?” I did not think much about it until I realized that was a target audience I was missing out on. From that moment I changed the name of my organization to Dreams To Kings and Queens. Something special was born!
As I continued to gain success with my Dreams To Kings and Queens apparel I felt like something else was missing from this vision. I was making all this money to buy materialistic things that were not serving me. I knew that I needed to invest back into the city I call home, Athens, Georgia. In 2016, developed a scholarship that could be beneficial to high school seniors that had aspirations to attend college. That was such a success that when school was about to start back I wanted to provide students K-12 with backpacks and school supplies to ensure they had what they needed to be successful in the classroom. Then when the holiday season came around I knew I needed to make an impact in the lives of families that may have never experienced a great Christmas. I purchased gifts for everyone a part of those families to ensure they all had something to open up on Christmas morning. Doing all these things felt right. For the first time in my life I felt like I was living my purpose. It was then that I promised myself I would continue these events every year. From 2016 – 2018, I funded most of these events with the money I made at my part-time job, money made off my apparel, and my income tax refund. I was so dedicated that I put my own needs to the side because I wanted to see the youth in my city be happy and know that someone cares about them. Once I received my full-time job as you can imagine the impact I could make would become greater. I expanded outside of my hometown to the entire state of Georgia. Because of my hard work and dedication today I can say I have given away $12,000 in scholarship money, handed out over 1000 backpacks, and fulfilled 20 kids’ Christmas wish lists.
Although Dreams To Kings and Queens has been successful, the entrepreneur in me knew that there was another area in my life that required me to try to make a difference in. That was the outdoor space. I began hiking in 2018 and always noticed that I was the only black person I would see on the trails sometimes. I would try to introduce my friends to the activity, but would always be told, “Black people don’t hike.” I heard this over and over again. Although it was frustrating I had to take a step back and think about the trauma our ancestors endured whenever they went into the woods. At that moment I could have stuck to just hiking by myself and given up on trying to convince others to join me, but that inspired me more than anything. I decided I was going to start my own hiking group for black men and women called BLK Hiking Club.
As you can imagine starting a group like that can be iffy. You do not know if anyone is going to support, but I was willing to take the risk. In 2021, I felt like that was the perfect time to start. The pandemic introduced a lot of black people to the outdoor space. To get this idea going I knew that I would need some help, so I told my plan to my friend and hiking partner Kiana. She loved it right away. I developed a website and Instagram page immediately. Everything was taking off. As we went through the first hiking season we did not know what to expect, but little did we know there were many black people that were looking for a black outdoor group to be a part of. For our first hiking season, we went to 16 different trails throughout Georgia. We had a total of 142 hikers attend at least one or more hikes. It felt so good because the difference I wanted to make in the outdoor space was becoming a reality.
We are currently underway with our 2022 hiking season and participation within our group continues to rise. We are six hikes into our season and have had 128 hikers attend at least one or more hikes. BLK Hiking Club is here to stay! It is only up from here. As we continue to grow we want to expand our reach beyond Georgia so we can introduce more black men and women to the activity of hiking.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wish I could say it has been, but I would be lying if I told you that. Although some people hate the struggle that comes with attaining a dream, I am thankful for it. It molded me into the man that I am today. Oftentimes I think about some of the things my parents would tell me to be wary of. Being young & naive I let some of those lessons they tried to teach me go in one ear and out the other. Acting like a know-it-all when I had not been down that road we call life was the dumbest thing I could have done. Obviously, once I got going on that journey I was humbled quickly. As I mentioned earlier, going through that process of trying to find a job was hard. It exposed me to a lot of my weaknesses. I had to learn to overcome being impatient, having a selfish attitude, suicidal thoughts, binge eating to feel better, putting forth the bare minimum effort, or feeling sad for myself. As much as family and friends can offer advice or pray for me, that does not mean much if I am not putting in the work. I had to teach myself how to not react emotionally all the time. Once I got to the point that I was tired of attending my pity party I made a change and finally outgrew the excuses.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My sole focus as an entrepreneur is to work day in and day out to inspire people to work hard, get out of their comfort zone, go after everything they want in life and most of all never give up. I am blessed to be able to do this with BLK Hiking Club and Dreams To Kings and Queens. I used to do all of this by myself, but lately I have taken less of a hands on approach and allowed my team of hiking leaders and community leaders to bring forth new ideas and spearhead the change needed throughout our communities. We see the changes that need to take place and that is what we will continue to focus on. If a hike or community service project can make that difference you can expect me and my team to be on the front line leading the way.
What does success mean to you?
I define success based on the impact I make in other people’s lives. Yes, accomplishing goals is a phenomenal thing, but that is what I am expected to do. Success in my life is about the legacy I leave behind. Some of us do not look up to people because of how much money they made or what they did for their company, it is because of the impact they had on our lives. Two men that come to mind for me that are the epitome of that are Sean Taylor and Nipsey Hussle. Both of them were unfortunately taken away from this world too early, but their impact will last a lifetime. They were at the top of their game and made people like me feel like I could accomplish whatever I put my mind to. Whether it was me feeling like Sean as a football player or Nipsey as an entrepreneur I knew I would succeed one way or another. Although they are no longer here, their legacies speak for them. They gave their all and in return are legends forever. That is what success looks like to me!
Contact Info:
- Website: blkhikingclub.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/blkhikingclub/
- Other: www.instagram.com/t_stephens/
