We recently connected with Dr.Elena Walker and have shared our conversation below.

Dr.Elena , appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The name of my company is my nickname. Sunshine has been my nickname for about 10 years. The story behind Sunshine is being a Black woman in the workplace my clothing attire was mostly dark colors including black, grey and brown. Then I decided I wanted to change my clothing to bright colors and create my own shine. Part of the reason for the darker clothing was thinking I had to dress in certain colors to appear professional as an educated Black woman. During my clothing style changes, I already completed my Masters degree and was in the final stages to earn my PhD degree. The change of clothing style and dress was my way of highlighting my skin in a positive way. I loved the way the bright colors would look on my skin and then came my nickname Sunshine. The additional words “Travels 4 Life” were added to my business name because I love to adventure and experience various things by traveling. I plan to continue exploring the world thru travel for the rest of my life.

Dr.Elena , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised as child in Dallas,TX. I started traveling 15 years ago in 2008, when I moved to Auburn, Alabama to pursue my PhD degree. Prior to 2008 I had only left Texas about 5 times and that was mostly with family. I own a travel agency “Sunshine Travels 4 Life” and empowerment speaking “Empowered Walker” which are both purpose driven businesses for me. My journey of traveling started with road trips around Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Then I started booking flights to various locations within the United States. After experiencing both road trips and flights, I was hooked on traveling as a way to adventure and experience various things around the world. I earned my PhD degree in 2014 and decided it was time to experience more of the world. As of now, the year 2022 was the most memorable year of travel experiences for me. Last year I solo traveled to the countries Panama, Portugal, Indonesia and United Arab Emeritus. My passion is traveling and my purpose is to inspire, encourage and educate others to various experience wonderful destinations around the world.

My public speaking focuses on empowerment to help motivate and encourage both men and women to reach their life goals. To remove self limitations and excuses that hinder them from having the life they want. In addition personal development, self care and life balance other topics other topics I speak on by sharing my real life experiences. I am most proud of myself for the challenges and taking risks to pursue my PhD degree. I am the first generation in my family to complete Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees. When I started to pursue my educational goals, I did not have a footprint of college life. No one in my family had earned these degrees so I had to navigate the entire process without a footprint of previous family with the same education. So there was a lot of emotional moments, stress, fear and doubt while pursing my degrees.

The main things about both my businesses is that I have lived “feet on the ground” experiences that I can share with others. I come from a place of real, authentic, transparent feedback and suggestions from my own life experiences.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for me is using social media on a regular basis. People like seeing visuals such as videos and pictures with real life experiences. I currently have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for my travel agency. I use TikTok a lot for my travel business since I am able to add music to my pictures and videos for others to view them. For public speaking I am an extrovert and very comfortable talking with others. So networking and live videos on social media are the most effective strategies.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I know my lived experiences with traveling and accomplishing life goals help build my reputation. I use social media and my travel website to showcase my “feet on the ground” lived experiences. I show videos and pictures of actually visiting both domestic and international destinations. This helps because not all education can be gained from a book or training materials. The best education is knowledge gained by experiencing a travel destination. In regards to empowerment speaking, there are words of encouragement that continuously give me strength to moving forward with my life goals. Moving from the state of Texas to live in Alabama while completing my PhD degree helped me determined to succeed in whatever I want to pursue in life. Knowing that coming from a low socioeconomic class of Dallas, TX and still having the opportunity to leave that environment and earn my PhD degree is a lived experience I can share with others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunshinetravels4life.com
• Instagram: Sunshine Travels 4 Life
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089408297043
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sunshinetravels4life
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sunshine-travels-4-life-dallas?osq=sunshine+travels+4+life
• Other: Public Speaking: https://www.facebook.com/empoweredwalker/

Image Credits
The are my pictures taken while traveling and I have all rights to them.