From homeless to success, the power of paying it forward

HONOLULU(KHON2) — A successful business owner shares her rags to riches story and why she continues to pay it forward.

Tiana Feekin is a successful shop owner and entrepreneur in Honolulu. But as a child growing up on Maui, her life was much, much different.

“There were some nights that I didn’t know where we were going to sleep,” Feekin said. “I remember my mom taking a part time, night cleaning position where she cleaned banks and that’s where we slept that night. Still I was grateful that we had a shelter, but looking back, we were homeless, we didn’t have a home.”

They’d sleep on couches, at friends’ homes, anywhere anyone would allow them to stay.

“It was really scary and I think I saw other people and I just wanted to be like them. Have a mom and a dad. And I think my saving grace was sports,” Feekin explained.

“That gave me some opportunities too, and I think, without my teachers, counselors, other parents, I wouldn’t be here today.”

She played tennis in high school, winning the tennis doubles state championship in 1993 for Baldwin High School. She credits her coaches for helping her get to the next level and a full ride scholarship to Chaminade.

“I knew in order to break that cycle I had to do better for myself,” Feekin said.

And she did.

After college she got married. She and her husband bought a home in Kahala and then hustled to pay for it. She said she worked buying and selling cars, boats, you name it, until she had an idea to open a resale store.

She opened Keiki 2 Keiki around 2012 predominantly reselling baby clothes and toys. But when COVID hit in 2020, everything changed.

She started selling anything and everything in her shop and didn’t stop there.

“What we started to do was reach out to small businesses to see how we could help them,” Feekin explained. “We had such a large following on Facebook I thought if I could work with businesses we could all get to the other side.”

Enter Heather Lukela, a chef furloughed during the pandemic who had been selling her homemade ice cream pies and cakes on social media.

“It was perfect timing cause she just, out-of-the-blue messaged me, asked me if I wanted to sell my stuff at her shop. At the time, it was a huge step and I was scared but I did it,” Lukela said.

She said Feekin’s been an inspiration for her and that filling orders for Keiki 2 Keiki laid the groundwork for her own business.

“(Feekin) doesn’t ask for any percentage of sales or any kind of nothing at all,” Lukela said choking back tears. “She’s definitely one of the people along the way in my career that I owe everything to.”

Lukela opened her shop three years ago and has been at her location on Kapahulu Ave. almost a year.

She knows she’s not the only person Feekin has helped.

“We could totally put together a huge ballroom party of all the businesses all the people she’s helped along the way,” she said.

“If it wasn’t for her and just her strength behind everything that she does and everything that she had to say to me, it’s just, I don’t know what would have happened. I would have gone through the rest of my life working for other people going through the daily grind and being unhappy,” Lukela said. “I would just love to do anything to repay her for what she’s done.”

For Feekin, giving back and seeing others succeed is the ultimate reward.

Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news

“As a child I depended on food banks, churches, friends family, I knew that I had to give back,” she said. “It always just felt good. People ask me all the time, ‘Why do you do this?’ And I’m like, because it just feels good. And as long as I can, I’m going to keep doing it.”