Meet Tracy Stephens of Dreams To Kings and Queens

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Stephens.

Tracy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The start of my organization took place in 2015. When I started out I was making my own customized t-shirts with logos I designed. I originally named the company Dreams To Kings. A lot of people liked my designs but were wondering why I didn’t have apparel for women. That gave me the idea to add Queens to my organization’s name, which resulted in Dreams To Kings and Queens.

Once I started to sell shirts that were designed for men and women my sales started to rise. In the heat of the moment most people would’ve just taken the money and spent on themselves, but I wanted to give it back to my community. I come from Athens, Georgia. When most people hear the name Athens they instantly think of UGA and how perfect they think the city is because of the college being there. I believe that it is important for people to know that there are a lot of families in Athens that needs help.

Almost 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Over the last decade, poverty has risen from 17.5 percent to almost 40 percent. Just knowing that about the city that I come from made me want to do whatever I could to help as many children as I could get the resources they needed. I did this by starting community service type projects like a backpack giveaway, scholarship & laptop giveaway and a holiday blessings program that helps families in need fulfill their children’s Christmas wish list.

This journey hasn’t been easy, but doing all these great activities over the last couple of years has given me the opportunity to expand my organization out more so that I can help kids in the Metro Atlanta area. All the work that I have put in has brought me a long way. I thank God that he put me in the position to serve these different communities and make a difference in so many people’s lives.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely has not been an easy road for me running this organization. Like any business owner, I have had my ups, but there have been a lot of down moments as well.

My biggest struggle was the fact that I was working part-time while running my organization. Although my shirts were selling, it was still tough to make moves the way I wanted to. I was managing everything with a small budget out of my own pocket for the most part.

I couldn’t spend money like I wanted to on certain projects that I had going on at the time. I can’t lie, that was a very hurting feeling. I felt like I was letting the people down I wanted to help because I couldn’t provide more to them. I’m the kind of person that wants everyone to eat, not just certain groups of people. Everyone deserves to experience what it is like to live a good life.

After one year of doing all these projects, luckily things started to look up for me. More people were buying into what I was doing and wanted to donate whether it was monetary or actual supplies. That helped, but there were still expenses that had to be taken care of. I prayed and prayed about that situation and my life changed for the better this year when I received a full-time job.

By receiving that job it gave me more financial freedom with my organization that would allow me to do more. Being able to say I overcame that struggle is a blessing. It took a lot of hard work, faith and patience.

Please tell us about Dreams To Kings and Queens.
I am the CEO & Founder of Dreams To Kings and Queens. My sole focus is to work day in and day out to inspire people to work hard, get their education, go after every dream they have and most of all never give up. I do this through the community service projects, motivational speaking, and the self-help books I have written. I used to handle all business operations, but over the past couple of months I have brought two new people on to be a part of my staff; Creative Director, Terron Latimore and Community Engagement Director, Khiaiya Jaggie. Both of them are outstanding individuals that want to bring positive change to the world. The ideas they have in mind will be great for the people we want to help.

What I’m most proud of with Dreams To Kings and Queens is the continuous growth that has taken place each year. Our numbers are continuing to grow into the hundreds when it comes to the amount of people we help. The goal is to reach thousands. I feel like that’s what sets this organization apart from others. Some are organizations are cool with hitting the same goal every year. It’s not a problem, but I know that Dreams To Kings and Queens wants to always top the previous year’s goal. My company is a small organization compared to others, but that doesn’t stop us from striving towards greatness every day.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start things over I would have created a better business plan that consisted of more thought out marketing strategies. I was so late with getting a social media page started for the organization that I feel like it hurt our growth and messed up our chances of reaching more people. I was naive thinking that word of mouth and posting flyers everywhere would get the job done, but having a social media presence makes a huge difference, and it has shown over the past couple of years.

Luckily, I have been able to learn from that mistake and make up for the connections I missed out on. Often times we get so caught in what we didn’t do and miss out on the fact we can bounce back. Every mistake is a life lesson meant to make us better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dreamstokingsandqueens.com
• Phone: 706-247-5180
• Email: tstephens@dreamstokingsandqueens.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamstokingsandqueens/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamstokingsandqueens/?ref=bookmarks
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmIAPi0z75Dl3Z_HeM5uDQ

Image Credit:
Terry Dotson

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