Meet Trailblazer Tana Hughes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tana Hughes.

Tana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My immediate thought when thinking how I ended up where I am in this exact moment; “I don’t know, it just happened.”

The more I reflect upon my story, the more I realize how unpredictable it actually has been. There have been times when I expected more for myself and times when I thought I’ve accomplished all I can, this is it. I started college as a Journalism major, and knew from the beginning Journalism was something I was passionate about. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it, just expected to figure it out along the way. I love to write and I love to tell people’s stories. I was hopeful that through my college journey I would discover how I could make a career out it.

During my sophomore year of college, I declared Broadcast Journalism as my area of focus. I still didn’t know exactly what that meant for me, but I slowly started to learn I loved being in front of a camera. Now a senior in college, I took a class where I would be on a live news broadcast during the weekdays. This opened a new door of opportunities for me and to say my ego was at an all-time high was an understatement. My professors had high expectations for me and I was ready to meet them… that was until reality hit.

I had the constant state of mind that nothing I did was ever good enough. I never left that class feeling satisfied with my work because I was never praised for it. To my professors there was ‘always room for improvement’ as there should be, this was college, and you were supposed to be growing and learning. As my talents progressed in Broadcast, I started to experience critiques. If I ever wanted to make it, I had to put on more makeup, lose weight, and one of my professors even had the audacity to tell me I had to cut 10 inches off of my hair. I didn’t agree and refused to act on those critiques, and with rebellion, my grades began to suffer. I stopped getting the attention I thought I deserved and when I expressed my interest in Sports Broadcast, I was shoved in front of a green screen as the ‘weather girl.’ You know, because to society the weather girl is pretty, probably doesn’t know a whole lot and just reads off of a teleprompter. An entire semester I spent studying weather forecasts, taking courses to expand my knowledge and trying to grow as a Broadcaster. Journalism is tedious, being a Weather Reporter was tedious and ultimately it hurt my ego. After that semester I didn’t return to the class, and to complete my credits I took a photography class.

I left college and aside from my internships, I never had the opportunity to try anything in sports.

After college, I kept pursuing photography. I loved the idea that I could capture a moment that could be re-lived forever. I built my own brand, my own photography business. This was a personal growing time in my life because while I was suffering to pay rent every month, I was doing something I loved. If you have never experienced giving up the paycheck to pursue a dream, I’m truly sorry. The feeling was nothing like anything I’ve ever felt before, it was a high I couldn’t come down from.

I was born and raised in Phoenix. This is my comfort city, it’s home. I committed to college out of state, changed my mind two months prior to school starting and decided to stay in Arizona. After college, nothing was going right for me. I felt as if the world was against me and wanted me to fail. Depression kicked in and I knew I needed to do something about it… so, I left. I traveled the country in a 10-passenger van with some of my closest friends who are in the music industry and I photographed a music tour for three months (a story for another time.) I came back from the tour in search of a job that would fill my soul the way that trip did. I then found my job with the Phoenix Suns.

My dream of working in the sports industry finally began, but in a different way than I imagined. My job as a journalist is telling the story of an iconic sports franchise and a developing team through social media platforms.

I get paid to be on social media… Pretty ideal when you say it out loud.

My story has really only begun. I’m young and have much more I want to accomplish in this life. As a young professional, I want to continue learning, continue growing. My focus and key to success have been being myself, being genuine and humble. I treat others the way I want them to treat me, and I give without expecting anything in return. I learn from my mistakes and try to learn something new from every human I interact with.

I accept it all, the good and the bad.

My story: Life called and I followed.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If anything, my journey has been the opposite of smooth. It’s been a long road with a lot of bumps, twists, and turns. How boring is it though to travel the same path and see the same thing every day.

My biggest struggle: I wish I would’ve found myself and my confidence earlier in life. I held myself back from a lot of opportunities solely because of the ‘what if.’ At the end of the day, the only person holding you back is yourself.

My best advice to young women pursuing their dream, especially in the sports industry, is to take some time for yourself and find your muse. What makes you wake up in the morning, what makes you want to wake up and do it again. Find yourself and love her.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Phoenix Suns – what should we know?
I’m currently a Social Media Specialist for the Phoenix Suns. I work on a team of three and we are the ones who run the voice across the organization’s social media platforms. My day-to-day work schedule is never the same and I work about 120 hours every two weeks. Aside from working games and covering team events, I am in the office Mon-Thurs helping other departments develop ideas for social execution.

When it comes to the teams voice on social media, we’re pretty sarcastic and witty. We keep up on a lot of worldwide trends and try to incorporate those into our brand as well to relate to an audience who may not necessarily be basketball or Suns fans.

We’re a fairly new social team. Since we’ve started, we have been able to grow our audience and our brand significantly and that has been the biggest win for us. We just want to tell a story of a young basketball team on the rise, and with that, we are continuously finding new ways to execute content, capture behind the scenes footage and interact with our fans.

My favorite highlight from the 2018-19 season: Since Kelly Oubre Jr. has joined the team, he started the new phenomenon #ValleyBoyz. It has been a lot of fun to play off of that new ‘team branding.’

What’s the most important piece of advice you could give to a young woman just starting her career?
Figure out what you love to do, and then figure out how to get someone to pay you to do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: tanalaurenhughes.com
• Email: tanalaurenhughes@gmail.com
• Instagram: @tanahughes
• Facebook: @tanahughes
• Twitter: @tanahughes

Image Credit:
Photo of me: Gueric Nkunzimana

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.