DETROIT – For Women’s History Month, meet a woman who like many of us had no idea how difficult 2020 would be.
She’s here to show that she’s still standing through unimaginable grief.
“This morning I prayed,” said Tatiana Grant. “I said, ‘Thank you for the responsibility that I have.’”
It’s safe to say Grant is winning. The self-described serial entrepreneur is the owner of a number of Metro Detroit based businesses including one she’s most proud of, 2050 Partners Inc.
“2050 Partners Incorporated is an integrated marketing agency. We’re Detroit based, women owned and we have a strong emphasis on community engagement. So it’s the full marketing suite of PR, events, social, kind of the whole nine,” said Grant.
The year 2020 was especially hard for her. She had just started her company before the pandemic, and then the unimaginable happened.
“My cofounder and partner, his name was Marlow Stoudamire, he tested positive for COVID-19 and unfortunately passed on March the 24th of last year,” Grant said. “Very quick, very devastating, very unexpected.”
At just 36 years old, Grant, a single mom, was left to navigate as a business owner with employees, starting a company during a pandemic and grieve a tragic loss at the same time.
“At first I was overwhelmed,” she said. “I literally took an entire day of meditation.”
But she never gave up. She kept all her employees on payroll, never furloughed and continued to live out the vision and dream she and Marlowe initially had.
“I know that Marlowe is literally proud of the work that we’re doing,” Grant added.
This Women’s History Month is important to Grant because she shares her story of triumph through tragedy in hopes that it inspires other women. She wants that to be her legacy and make her two-year-old daughter proud.
“I believe that there are many women, I have been one of them, who you just work, you just grind and you just do it to happen day after day. You don’t necessary get the accolades,” Grant said. “I want my place in women’s history to be a serial entrepreneur and mother who seized opportunities and created and built opportunities for other people.”
Grant calls herself not just a serial entrepreneur, but an overall “master of making it happen.”