We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Hankins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

I know that everything I do with my business is different from the industry standard because I am not the industry standard. Due to who I am as a person that automatically makes me different, therefore, I see the world differently and I have experienced the world differently. I appreciate capitalism and how you can create something out of nothing, however, I don’t believe you have to sacrifice your character or make detrimental life changing decisions to keep your pockets fat. From my experience, you put good into the world, and good will be returned to you. As a business owner, the goal is to make money and the more money you make, the more you are able to not only change your life but the lives of others. However, in our free-market world when is too much too much, and how is it that large corporations are generating billions in revenue but are constantly laying off employees. I have had only one goal when I created my business and that was to take the money I make and use it for the greater good of the world. I believe that money will be made if people trust you, your product or service, and they are able to see that their investment in you is doing something positive in the world. Times are changing and corporate greed is no longer seen as the beacon of success we were raised to believe. I have no interest in having more money that I could spend in a lifetime. However, if I am able to provide scholarships, build schools, invest in healthcare research, and effectively have an impact in communities around the world, I would feel that I have served my purpose and so has my business.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the owner/founder of Pryde Fitpire and our mission is to provide equal access to health, wellness, and leisure services to the LGBT community and its allies. Through my business I have also created, Pryde Athletics, the 1st Federally trademarked LGBT athleisure and sportswear brand in the country. I embarked on the journey for several reasons, and never would I have imagined that I would be the 1st person to create an idea such as mine. My business was created from a place of my own personal experiences and from the experience of many others within my community. I don’t think that anyone should have to create a product or service because there are a group of people who just want to be seen as human. I identify as a non-binary, African American woman and for those reasons alone I knew that I was going to face an uphill battle from others and society as a whole. I wanted to create a safe and inclusive space where young children who are being raised by an LGBT parent or identify as LGBT could have the opportunity to play on a sports team or enjoy their favorite leisure activity with others just like them. Many people will never experience having to hide who you are due to the fear of experiencing violence, ostracization, or mistreatment from others just because you are different. The murders of the many trans women and LGBT community members lit a fire in me to stop watching from the sideline and do something about it. I am a person who was fortunate enough to be gifted with many skills and talents, and I felt that I was selling myself short waiting on others to see the value in who we are as individuals.

I created Pryde Athletics for two main reasons: The 1st reason was because I was frustrated in supporting brands that didn’t align with who I am as a person, nor does their apparel fit every body shape or type. I wanted to be able to wear apparel that allows me to do what I love to do and yet be able to look and feel good about myself. The 2nd reason was to use the sales of my brand to reinvest into the business without needing to use investors or get a loan that could kill the business before it even began. I never knew how far this journey would take me and I couldn’t have imagined the positive response I would receive from others. This creation has forced me to tap into a part of me I never knew existed and for that reason alone I am grateful.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The term resilience will forever be etched into the fabric who I am as a person. There were many times throughout this journey that forced me to question if I was doing the right thing. When I decided to start a business my wife and I just bought our new home and Covid struck the world. We were forced to sit at home and that provided me with an opportunity to slow down put my life into perspective. I was upset at how I was constantly being looked over for promotions and I felt hopeless. I was no longer able to cope with the idea that someone else has the power to control and influence my growth. Also, during this time, we were in the middle of a toxic custody battle with a child whom we had been raising for 3 years. The mental, physical, emotional, and financial strain I experienced during that time would make any reasonable person want to give up. We were being accused of kidnapping and taking a baby away a child whom was given to us by a stranger. It was a dark and scary time in my life where everything was spinning out of control and I had to devote more time to understanding custody law and prepare for our day in court with the child’s mother. Needless to say, the judge granted full custody back to her mom and we never heard from her again. Imagine raising a child who suffered from severe neglect be returned to the parent who gave her child to two complete strangers. It was a heartbreaking, life altering moment in which I was forced to maintain resilience and push forward with starting a business.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

As an e-commerce brand I chose to use Shopify as our platform to run our business. Initially, my 1st website was created using Wix and that was only because I didn’t know how to build a website. I had a close acquittance who had recommended to use Wix as a platform and that they would help me build and create my 1st website. As time went on, I noticed that Wix didn’t offer many features that were functional to the vision I had for my website. After I made the shift to use Shopify instead of Wix my entire world had opened up. I discovered pretty quickly that Wix wasn’t the website platform I needed to build an ecommerce brand, and I am thankful that I eventually discovered Shopify. Shopify is the best website platform to sell any product or service to your customers. The only con that I have with using Shopify is that their templates are expensive, and they are privately owned and managed by other companies who use Shopify to sell their templates. If you purchase a template through Shopify there is a possibility that you could lose the template due to upgrades/updates, or the creators discard the template as a whole. This will cause your website to lose its functionality, and you will lose more money as you have paid hundreds of dollars for a template that you no longer can use.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.prydefitpire.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prydefitpire/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prydefitpire
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-hankins-4a510828b
• Twitter: Unsubscribed From X
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@prydefitpire

Image Credits

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