We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tinsley Merrill Paul. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tinsley below.

Tinsley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

HerStory is on a mission to empower women to uplift one another and transform their lives and communities through storytelling. We launched HerStory in 2020 to create platform to promote and uplift women-led small businesses around the globe. What started as a subscription box to help customers discover women-led brands has evolved into a marketplace with a network of 200+ brands and 300K artisans who design and manufacture one of a kind luxury goods. From Dallas, TX (our backyard!) to rural 3rd world communities, women are given dignified employment and living wages through our brand partners. The HerStory vision is to create a female empowered workforce that will be a strong contributor to economic development in communities around the world.

For example, In Uganda, the average person earns less than a $1.90 per day. As part of her employment with one of our manufacturing partners, women receive living wages that enable her and her family to live above the poverty line. Job creation and amplifying messaging isn’t enough. HerStory also provides a holistic approach to partnership and growth. Training brands in leadership, marketing, design, dropship, distribution, branding and financial literacy, HerStory wants small businesses to have the the skills to not only create wearable works of art, but also empower their entire business to have long-term self-reliance.

We strive to build communities and connect like-minded women in order to empower the next generation of women leaders. We believe that growth is created through sustainable impact & fair pay. HerStory does this by offering luxury products that sells and transforms Her Story.

Tinsley, 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?

It’s been over two years since the pandemic changed our lives and the future of retail. Small business owners have had a particularly rough go of things, from having to close their storefronts to curb the spread of the virus to ongoing supply-chain issues that have lingered even after vaccines and booster shots became available.

In the spring of 2020 my sister, Brittany Merrill Underwood founder of Akola, and friend Whitney Rowell, founder of Miracle Milkookies, approached me on the struggle women in retail were facing and an opportunity to help founders cross-promote and uplift each other.

We came together to figure out how to change the retail landscape for women-led brands and create a path for growth, sustainability and collaboration. While many brands were trying to survive competing with other brands in their vertical through unsustainable marketing spend, HerStory changed the narrative and built a movement centered around women uplifting one another and empowering the future generation of leaders.

My background has always been in marketing with a double major in Communications and PR from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. My first internship was with Bumble prior to their launch in 2014 as a sophomore in college which sparked my interest in start-ups and the new wave of marketing. I had always been an avid traveler, spending summers in Uganda, Africa volunteering with my sister’s non-profit, The Akola Project. Traveling gave me the opportunity to explore cultures and meet people from around the world to shared so much light , wisdom and love with me at such a young age. As the youngest of five children, I have always found joy in adventure and meeting new faces. After graduating, I received an offer from rewardStyle (now known as “LTK”) which was the first influencer marketing platform to help creators monetize through their content via blog , social media and beyond. The company was also started by another SMU alumni , Amber Venz Box. Women have always been role models throughout my career and experiencing first hand the difference they were able to make in different markets, verticals and communities inspired me to dive into the entrepreneurial journey with Pairr.

Pairr was an experiential marketing platform that I had the ability to grow from the ground up. The goal to bring brands, influencers and customers together through mutual interests “psychographics”. Once the pandemic hit events were on pause and despite our best efforts to pivot to virtual experiences the fire in my belly to continue to build the company started to fizzle. It was during that time that HerStory was created as a social business to bring other women who were struggling together to promote and uplift each other.

All of the experiences I have had in my life brought me to my mission and passion for HerStory.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pandemic changed a lot of things for a lot of people. For me, it was my career.

I was the CRO and Co-founder of a company called Pairr. Our goal was to pair brands and influencers with their target market through customized experiences. When the pandemic hit events were not only cancelled , but illegal so our business had to change. We attempted to pivot to virtual events with some success , but the overall vision I had for the company began to change and it no longer aligned with my cofounders.

It was during that time that I was working on HerStory as a passion project to bring together women-founders and brands to uplift one another during a difficult time in retail. Brands that did not have a DTC (direct-to-consumer) business suffered through brick and mortar closures and wholesale cuts from large retailers they relied on. It was then that I dedicated my time to building HerStory to create a way for brands to cross-promote on another and create a platform for customers to discover luxury products that support women around the globe.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We built our audience on social media through storytelling. It has always been so important to me as a consumer to know what I am wearing and how it was made. HerStory focuses on sharing the story behind the brand’s product, founder and mission. Our social media has grown through our customers desire to discover new women-led brands and stories around the world. We believe in wearable stories and providing the margin to the brand which is what we showcase on our social media channels in a meaningful way.

I always suggest transparency for any new business. The more you can share with your customer the more they connect with the product/service , but also with your mission.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.supportherstory.com
• Instagram: @supportherstory
• Facebook: @supportherstory
• Linkedin: @supportherstory