We were lucky to catch up with Tiera Henderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tiera, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

I have donated hundreds of journals to the women’s shelters in my community. Watered Flowers represents women who have faced extreme obstacles and our journals gives them the tools, resources and encouragement to overcome any and everything they’ve gone through. I chose to donate some of our journals because I want every women to have the answer to her plight. I want them to know they are not stuck where they are, but that they can still grow, still pursue their dreams in spite of what they have and could be facing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a mother of three who loves to inspire others. I started Watered Flowers in my living room on the floor. I created and still create everything by hand. I used to write poetry as a young girl, it was the best way to express myself. I would write when I would get overwhelmed, I would write when my feelings were hurt, I would write when I didn’t understand something, I would write when I did understand something and the release it gave me helped me to overcome many hardships I had faced. I faced a lot of things alone and so my pen and paper became my friend. I was able to express myself without restraint and that is what helped me. In 2018, I had the idea to combine all of my poems into a journal and I decided that “if this could help me, it could help someone else” so I put them together and added encouraging quotes and scriptures to inspire every woman and young girl that came across that journal. My journals are not ordinary journals with blank spaces to just write, even though it does encompass that, my journals gives daily exercises, real-life experiences, and poetry stories to let the readers know they are not alone when facing trials, that there is someone out there that has gone through that same situation and has came out of it. The thing I am most proud of are my women’s gatherings. I have hosted vision board parties and dinner parties and the theme of the events were centered around Watered Flowers. I would pick a topic for that event and we would share our thoughts on it. The rooms would be filled with laughter, joy, tears, hugs and more and each lady left with not only gifts to help her to keep going, but also with empowerment to face any and everything that came her way.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn pain and learn healing. I became so familiar with pain that I would automatically expect it. Not matter what the situation was, I would prepare myself to be let down and in that, fear came along with it. So I was the only one holding myself back from my dreams and aspirations because I learned how to thrive wherever pain was but that wasn’t the purpose for my life. God had a plan for me, and He gave me writing and I used that to thrive.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I started with what I had, which was a few dollars and I would go to stores like Joanns Fabrics and I would price out what I needed and one day I took everything I had which was about sixty dollars and started buying things I needed. I started putting my journals together by hand and spreading the word about them and the sales I got went towards the equipment I needed and it’s been that way ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: Wateredflowers.com
• Instagram: Wateredflowers
• Facebook: Wateredflowers