Black History Month Featuring Tina Wells

We are so excited to kick off Black History Month with Tina Wells. Tina is an Entrepreneur, Author and award-winning Marketer. Tina also has a new book coming out this March and is launching a collection at Target!

ALLY Shoes: Tell us about yourself

Tina: I’m an entrepreneur, author, and brand builder. I started my first company (a youth marketing agency) when I was 16. Most recently, I’ve taken on some of my most fun and creative projects, building brands from scratch for retailers including Target.

ALLY Shoes: What inspired you to become a published author?

Tina: Reading! I loved reading when I was a tween. Whether it was anything Judy Bloom, Fear Street or Sweet Valley Twins, I read a lot, as often as I could.

ALLY Shoes: You wear a lot of different hats when it comes to your day-to-day, how do you set your day up for success?

Tina: The Elevation Approach. I created this method to help me achieve work-life harmony since the idea of balance felt antiquated. We’re never equal halves work and personal, so I needed to create a method that would allow me to live my best life.

I set up my days moving through the four phases of the Elevation Approach: preparation, inspiration, recreation, and transformation. You’ll find all of the details about this in my upcoming book, The Elevation Approach: Harness the Power of Work-Life Harmony to Unlock Your Creativity, Create Joy, and Reach Your Biggest Goal. I’ve also partnered with Target on an exclusive home-office and stationery collection called Elevation by Tina Wells, which includes many products to help you achieve your version of work-life harmony. I love my planner and the weekly planner/ daily jotter in the collection.

ALLY Shoes: It's Black History Month, what does that mean to you and what steps do you take to amplify black voices?

Tina: My word for the year is Celebration. It seemed fitting given the way the four phases of the Elevation Approach have really come together for me over the last year. After transformation, I thought, “what’s next?” Celebration seemed to be the best way to celebrate achieving such a big professional milestone.

So to answer your question, Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and legacy of so many people I admire. I have five younger siblings, and when we were young, my dad would make us black history coloring books. He’d print out stories of people I’d never heard of, and they were so inspiring!

We’d give my dad a hard time about the coloring book every year, but it was such an important tool my parents used to teach us our history and to talk to us about who we had the power to become.

While we know things aren’t equitable or fair even today, we can pause and celebrate those who have come before us and all of the great work being done by so many to create opportunities for people like me.

ALLY Shoes: Who is your ally?

Tina: I have 5: my siblings Adrianne, Erica, Marcus, Lisa, and William. No matter where we are in the world, we are always there for each other.

ALLY Shoes: You recently launched a collaboration with Target. That's incredible! Tell us more about that.

Tina: Thank you! I’m so proud to participate in Target’s REACH program, which was created to give black business owners access to opportunities to grow our businesses with the retailer. My first collection is focused on home office products that I hope bring you work-life harmony.