BY TRISTA HAVNER | PHOTOS BY COURTNEY SEARCY

Featured in Vol 8, Issue 1: Jackson Grown

As a lifetime resident of Jackson, I have logged countless trips to the old train depot on South Royal Street. I have visited as a little girl barely tall enough to see all of the old train memorabilia, as a teenager looking for something dangerous to do while walking the train tracks, as a newly engaged woman taking engagement photos on the old box cars, and as a young mom desperately trying to entertain little ones on hot summer days — and the history of the depot is not lost on me. I know that, for nearly two centuries, the station served as a connection point. The trains took men to war, goods to market, small town people to bigger cities and new opportunities. As I parked in the lot in front of the depot last week and stood in front of the big green doors I have seen so many times before, this place felt different. The outside looks much the same, but the way it made me feel was unfamiliar. Something is happening inside those walls that drew me in and the whole place feels very much alive. There is a purpose, really a person, behind that energy. A woman has put feet to a dream, and our whole community has a front row seat to watch her dream unfold.

I officially met Trunetta Atwater a few months ago at a birthday gathering. I say “officially” because I already knew a lot about her. I have been following her work and so many of my trusted friends that know her well had nothing but glowing things to say about her. We sat across from each other, a bonfire between us, and I immediately noticed her presence. She was calm and even, but when she spoke every woman hung on her words. She has quiet depth, the kind that comes from experience and wisdom. She drew me into her story, and I instantly felt safe sharing mine, and that’s no accident. As I sat down to interview her, Trunetta told me about her childhood and her family, and it was pretty clear why I felt so comfortable with her. She is intentional about being and creating a safe space wherever she is because she had that in her family as a child. Her parents and her large extended family, full of aunts and uncles and cousins, made sure that she had the confidence to be fully herself. They let her explore her interests, from letting her paint the walls of her room to introducing her to entrepreneurship and college — she was always free to take risks and encouraged to think bigger about what her life could be. Trunetta felt supported and loved unconditionally, and that framework emboldened her to go do that for her community.

Trunetta took that confidence from Lexington, Tennessee to the University of Memphis, where she studied finance and began working towards a career in banking. She envisioned starting in the world of finance as a teller and working her way to the top and owning a bank one day, so she took an internship at Union Planters as a college student and began climbing that ladder. She did receive a Bachelor’s Degree of Finance, but circumstances led her to pursue a different approach to having a job in finance. She was also engaged to her now husband, Quinton, and decided to move back home to Lexington in 2004. She and Quinton got married, and she was accepted into a very prestigious management training program through Regions Bank, where she worked for 4 years before becoming the Area Manager at CashMaster. While these jobs were utilizing her finance knowledge and expertise, nothing could dampen the desire to run her own business. So, after the birth of her son in 2009 and paying a small fortune for photographs of him, she revisited a hobby that she had dabbled in for many years: photography. After a photography class in 2010, she started taking pictures of her young son, Jaxon, and posting them to social media, and people noticed. She started being asked to take maternity photos and family portraits and, after seeking out the advice and counsel of mentors in the photography world, she decided that this could be a real, viable full-time business. Trunetta had a young son and was working on her MBA (which she earned in 2012) when she decided to quit her job at Cashmaster and pursue photography full time.

It did not take long for people to notice Trunetta’s work. Referrals poured in, and her business grew organically. While she enjoyed capturing babies and families, she really grew to love boudoir sessions. She continued to find that these sessions where women were bearing and embracing their physical insecurities led them to break through emotional insecurities. She wasn’t just capturing these women and their beautiful vulnerability, she was giving them tools for empowerment. Freedom, even. Fancy, Trunetta’s luxury boudoir photography business, was born from these experiences. This business traveled with her from Lexington to Louisville, Kentucky to Columbia, South Carolina and right back to Jackson, Tennessee in 2020 as the Atwaters returned home to be near Trunetta’s father, who was battling cancer. She knew this would be her family’s last big move, and she began dreaming about what impact she wanted to have here. It did not take long for Trunetta to realize her vision: to capture people as they are and empower them to tell their unique stories. She wanted to specifically tell the positive stories of the Black community in Jackson, and in doing so, provide a network of support to help promote personal and professional success, aptly named the Soul Collective. As I sat across from Trunetta, I could feel her energy shift as she began to unpack her plans for Soul Collective. That passion, while controlled and deep, was palpable.

Originally, the idea behind the Soul Collective was to provide a weekend for women to gather and be empowered personally, but as she began reaching out to community members, Trunetta realized that the greatest need was an empowerment of the Black business community. There was not a safe space for Black business owners to ask questions of more experienced business owners and, while there is amazing talent and drive and passion, many potential entrepreneurs simply did not know how to capitalize on their passions. That is what the Soul Collective will do — provide a safe space to incubate Black businesses through education and connection to resources and avenues of commerce. The Soul Collective has partnered with theCO to provide access to CO.STARTERS, a program that provides aspiring entrepreneurs with the tools necessary to take their passions and dreams and turn them into a reality. That is really all that anyone needs, isn’t it? Resources and tools. Trunetta, along with her partnership with theCO and the Soul Collective program, is bridging the gap between passion and action.

As I was feverishly attempting to record every word Trunetta was saying (because, if you’ve met her, when she speaks, you listen), I had a very profound moment of realization of our context. We were sitting at a table in the middle of the nearly empty train depot that has functioned as a tool of connection for its entire existence. The floors have been lovingly refinished by Trunetta’s husband, the walls have been painted, many pieces of the depot have been restored. In that moment, I was hit with the gravity of what this space will soon be. The depot will house a high-end selfie bar, Trunetta’s photography studio, a juice bar, health and wellness operations and diverse retail vendors. All Black-owned, all run with passion and professionalism. Trunetta’s dream only starts with the doors opening. Her vision is a space filled with a diverse clientele and a community who has mutual love and respect for each other, and for the Black business community to grow and thrive in this space. The train depot will once again be a space where connection happens.

I really could have stayed and listened to Trunetta all afternoon. Her vision is clear and she has the skills and experience to realize it, and there is something incredibly powerful and magnetizing about a woman who is not afraid to go boldly in the direction of growth. I had asked all of my prepared questions, but I really wanted to know what the Jackson community could do to support the Soul Collective. Without hesitation, her answer: “show up.” Pay attention to the growth, talk about the work the Soul Collective is doing with the right connotation, expect it to provide the tools necessary to grow the Black business community and then come and support these businesses. Spend your money with entrepreneurs who have poured themselves into the details of their businesses. Try something you have never experienced before and expect to be impressed. Volunteer for events at the Soul Collective, get to know the business owners and share about products and services that you love. If the community wants the Soul Collective to be a success, then it will be. And what a gift this space will be for everyone who chooses to participate, as this place will undoubtedly foster a culture of collaboration and education. I know it will, because the leadership of a program like this matters. Tremendously. And Trunetta Atwater is one of the most dynamic and thoughtful leaders I know. She has walked a path towards personal and professional success and she has chosen to stop, look behind her and beckon her community to walk alongside her. That is the perfect equation for yielding growth, and I am convinced the Soul Collective, and whatever else Trunetta decides to do, will yield growth.

Learn more at soulcollectivetn.com.

Trista Havner is a born and raised Jackson girl, a mom, wife, and small business owner. She and her husband, Charlie, have a charming local family business and are passionate about the history there. Trista can be found putting together frames in her family’s shop or lettering anything that will hold still. Her love for home grows daily, and she is passionate about being an agent of growth and positive change in her beloved Hub City.

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