#HerAgendaLive: Tina Wells Shares Her Entrepreneurial Journey From Teen Founder To Retail Success

Tina Wells, who began her entrepreneurial journey at 16, has spent more than two decades working with companies like Apple, Dell, and Proctor & Gamble. Now, at 44, she has authored 21 books, launched product lines at Target, and contributed to Oprah’s Super Soul 100 project. Tina recently shared insights from her career and discussed her latest ventures with founder and CEO of Her Agenda, Rhonesha Byng. In their chat, they discuss how her career journey and how her experiences shaped her present-day plans to build community and support up-and-coming entrepreneurs. 

Tina developed the “Elevation Approach,” a methodology aimed at helping entrepreneurs avoid burnout and achieve work-life harmony. It consists of four phases: preparation, inspiration, recreation, and transformation.

“I kept ending up in burnout. I was stuck in this loop of preparation and inspiration. What was missing for me was recreation, which probably sounds strange, right? I needed to inject some fun. Once I started to do that, take a little break, then it always seemed like things would start to come to fruition, so that became my secret sauce.” she said.

(Watch the full video to hear Tina’s journey in her own words.)

Tina shared that as a founder, setting the temperature for yourself and your team is essential as “thermostats of the company.” She further defined key experiences in her life that have become non-negotiable.

“For me, creating rituals is a really big one. Decluttering your space. I find that visual clutter really starts to cause a lot of anxiety for me. I could come home and have a crazy work week ahead and I’m starting to feel overwhelmed. If I simply clean off my island in my kitchen, my temperature starts to lower a little bit. So I think you really have to understand what your non-negotiables are.”

Tina’s move from marketing to retail resulted in two product lines at Target. Despite this success, she maintains a sense of gratitude.

“Anyone who spent $1 on Elevation by Tina Wells or Wander Lane, I was always so grateful because you literally have thousands of choices of product to buy and you chose to buy mine,” she said.

Tina credits her success to understanding her strengths and weaknesses, and building complementary teams.

“I am not a COO type of person,” she said. “I’m always the starter. I’m always the vision person. I can see things other people can’t see, and I can put things together in a way, and I get it to a point and then I have to be off to the next thing.”

Despite her early success, Tina didn’t find her entrepreneurial community until her early 30s when she joined the Young Entrepreneurs Council.

“It was the first time ever in my professional career, I felt like, oh, this is where people like me are,” she said.

Tina’s work on Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 project taught her about intentional leadership.

“Every meeting we had, it was, ‘What’s the intention of this meeting?’ The intentionality was through everything. I think it was really awesome for me as a founder to watch as someone really lead with their values and lead with such clarity. I’ve been in a lot of big boardrooms and I’ve been around a lot of big companies where I would hear one thing from one team and then I get invited to another meeting and hear another thing.It was really unique to be in that environment and in every meeting, everywhere I was, everybody was on the same page.” she recalled.

Among Tina’s plans for the future she is launching a new website, new podcast, and a program called Founders Circle for mentoring entrepreneurs.

“I’m also launching something called Founders Circle. I really wanna find a way to work with founders and find a way to really mentor and consult and do it in a way that works for founders. I was a mentor and coach for TikTok Shop’s first female accelerator and it was great. I got to be in the hot seat and answer questions from founders about how they grow their business, current challenges, so that’s what I’m gonna do in Founders Circle.”

In 2011, when Rhonesha spoke to Tina, her motto was “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Closing out the conversation, she asked if anything changed, and Tina shared how her motto has evolved. 

“As I’ve gotten older, I realized that plans can change and that’s OK. But it is so grounding to know you have a plan,” she said.

This story from teenage entrepreneur to retail success illustrates the potential of vision and adaptability in business. Her story is a blueprint for aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly women and people of color, working to figure it all out. 

Get more of the blueprint with Tina Wells through her website where you can find her books, courses and podcast.

Watch the full video so hear Tina’s journey in her own words.