Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tierra Lynn Hester. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tierra Lynn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

She has taken many risks her entire life. She was a “kitchen beautician” and underage in a state where braiders had to have cosmetology licenses. She spent many years, throughout middle and high school, braiding hair to be able to purchase necessities like: school clothes, shoes, food, pay her phone bill, feminine products, and more. She has always been self-sufficient, she just needed structure.

Without a role model to pull from at the time, she decided to just take a leap of faith and go after her dreams. Though, for many years, she felt overlooked, underappreciated, ridiculed, and forced to hustle. Tierra stated, “Braiding hair afforded me the ability to survive and provide for myself but it felt like a burden at times. I took the risk of being unhappy, to be able to take care of myself. I grew an appreciation towards my gifts and talents in recent years, once I was able to be in control of my decision to do it, or not.” Though she has stumbled along the way, she continues to learn from her mistakes and strive to reach goals.

Nonetheless, Tierra has always been a dancer at heart. She started in her bedroom at the age of 9, making up dances and imagining what it would be like to perform. Being a self-taught dancer, she risked being judged, ridiculed, counted out, and borderline bullied to fuel her dire need to move her body to a beat. Her tough upbringing provided her with metal covered skin that molded her for those inevitable moments. She has always been in her own shell looking for a space where she could be free. Dance provided her that place. Tierra stated, ” You know that satisfying feeling you get when you’re cruising in the car with the windows down, you’re looking and feeling good, and your favorite song is playing in the middle of a Summer day sunset? That’s how I feel when I dance.”

She danced throughout high school and college without any formal training. She has auditioned for many dance teams, artists, and commercials/TV roles. Being granted most but also rejected. “Those rejections taught me new things about myself. I appreciate rejection just as much as I appreciate acceptance”, she said. Needless to say, she is still following her dream to dance her heart out.

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?

A Dancer’s Touch was founded by Tierra Lynn Hester, who goes by Tierra Lynn. The Oklahoma raised dancer got to a point where she was tired of the constant need to be perfect in the realms of other organizations. She found herself not completely fitting in wherever she went and so, she decided that it was time to start her own, officially. She had the idea to merge two of her passions together, dancing and styling hair, and has been accomplishing self set goals since.

In a recent private conversation, Tierra stated, ” I have always been an entrepreneur at heart but what you don’t know, you can’t implement. Once I came to the realization that I had a unique vision, I started to research how to make it a reality. I absorbed what I felt was necessary from fellow entrepreneurs and left the rest. I took small bits of advice and constructive criticism. I remained humble, stayed true to myself and never saw my peers as my competition. I worked server jobs in the midst of building my business because I knew I couldn’t choose a career that was more conventional and long-suffering. I did all of this with very minimal support. From a young age, I had been working for myself and I was completely satisfied with that lifestyle more than working for someone else.”

Fast forward, she has serviced hundreds of clients since the age of 11. Most of them now being successful business owners, fellow dancers, Music Artists and overall career driven individuals. Her heels dance classes, now known as ‘Girls Night Out’, has become another growing entity within ADT since being added in 2019. She is constantly finding new ways to reinvent herself and the ADT brand. A student from her class shared, ” She is so sweet.” A group of dancers exited her latest class choreographed to Chloe Bailey’s new song ‘Surprise’ shouting, ” I love it here !”. Also, local owner of Fluent House Productions and radio host typed, ” Btw Tierra is quiet in person [ insert crying laughing emoji ] super classy and poised.”

Tierra enjoys her time changing the lives of others through her business and hopes that those witnessing her hardships, constant evolution, and innovations will remain inspired and use a piece of her story as a blueprint to continue striving no matter what.

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

Throughout the years, life had it’s way with Tierra Lynn. She had to use her intuition as a way to move through life. Her father was in and out and her Mom lost custody of her at a young age. No matter what happened around her, her vision remained in tact. She didn’t allow her life’s circumstances to dictate whether or not she kept going. Her resilience to rise above the dysfunction around her while simultaneously dealing with personal issues, shows how resilient she actually is.

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

A few lessons Tierra had to unlearn was realizing that she isn’t at fault, everything doesn’t have to be perfect, and you can’t make everyone happy because you lose yourself in the process. She believes that if people aren’t whole within, the relationships around them suffer thus making it difficult to properly and effectively operate within their business.

Contact Info:

• Website: adancerstouch.as.me/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/adancerstouch
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/adancerstouch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TierraLynn

Image Credits
Graphic Design: A Dancer’s Touch @adancerstouch