Becoming the Brand: How Faith Tinker-Phelps Built a People-First Business

Building something of your own should center you, not consume you. Yet, for many entrepreneurs, starting a business begins with navigating administrative paperwork, imposter syndrome, and uncertainty about whether their story and experience are “enough” before stepping out on their own. 

For Faith Tinker-Phelps, this tension was deeply familiar. Starting her career at just 15, Faith worked her way up from a frontline worker at Taco Bell to a store manager position shortly after graduating high school. As she progressed into management, she learned the value of camaraderie in the workplace. But she also saw the disconnect between frontline workers and corporate leadership. That realization ultimately shaped the work she does today.

After years of building her career behind recognizable brands, Faith stepped out on her own to launch Faith TP and Co., a People Services business supporting both individuals and organizations. Guided by the belief that people deserve confidence in navigating their careers and organizations deserve clarity in supporting their teams, Faith has built her business around bridging the gap between people and the places they work. 

But becoming a business owner required her to confront fear, imposter syndrome, and the operational realities of entrepreneurship head-on. With ZenBusiness helping bring calm to the chaos, Faith found more room to focus on the work that actually matters: growing her business, serving her clients, and stepping fully into her role as an entrepreneur without losing herself in the process.

The Fast Food Foundation: Lessons from the Front Lines

Faith started her first job for a reason many teenagers can relate to: she wanted to save for her first car. But along the way, she found other reasons to stay and grow. Working on the front lines taught her about customers, camaraderie, and teamwork, while her work ethic led to steady career progression. That experience also sparked her curiosity about what it meant to build and lead a business herself: “At that point, I was just fully ingrained in the business, and I had become more curious about running my own business, staffing the fundamentals of customers, doing all the things.”

Her career also gave her a unique perspective that would eventually become foundational to Faith TP & Co.: she understood what it was like to be both the person doing the work and the person responsible for leading others. Over time, she began to recognize a critical disconnect between the employees doing the actual work and upper-level corporate management. “There’s a gap between employees and the business, and it has to be a partnership; everyone has to be on board,” Faith explains. 

That observation led to bigger questions. How could she help people feel more secure and confident in the decisions they make about their careers? How could she help organizations better understand and support the people behind their performance? 

Those questions eventually led Faith toward a career in People Services and, ultimately, to entrepreneurship.

From Behind the Logo to Front and Center

For years, Faith built her career behind recognizable brands. Those environments gave her experience, structure, and a foundation for growth, but eventually, it was time for her to become the brand herself and build something that reflected her own perspective. 

That transition came with fear and self-doubt, including uncertainty about whether others would understand her story or see the value in the experience she had built. “I was nervous that I wouldn’t be perceived the way I wanted to be perceived, that I wouldn’t be successful, and that my story wouldn’t make sense to some people.” 

Unlike working within an established corporate environment, stepping out on her own wouldn’t come with a script – she’d have to write it herself.  

Fortunately, servant leadership came naturally to her. Throughout her professional journey, advocating for people had been a consistent thread, as Faith spoke up for herself and others whose voices often went unheard. “Throughout my career, I’ve realized that everyone doesn’t have that voice. Everyone doesn’t have the tools.”

Faith had seen firsthand how difficult workplace situations could hold people back when they didn’t feel equipped to navigate them. She noticed how some struggled to advocate for themselves, start important conversations, understand the professional channels available to them, or figure out what resources could help them move forward. Faith supports people not only by helping open doors for them, but ensuring people also have the confidence and tools to navigate what comes next.

Entrepreneurship gave her an opportunity to turn that instinct for advocacy into something bigger – creating a business that could extend her impact to both people and organizations. 

That mission is at the heart of Faith TP and Co. 

Confidence for People. Clarity for Teams.

Faith TP & Co. is a People Services business built around a simple but impactful belief: people do their best work when they feel seen, respected, and supported. That people-first philosophy shapes how Faith works on both sides of the employee-organization relationship.

 For individuals, that means helping people approach workplace conversations, professional channels, career decisions, and available resources with greater confidence. For organizations, it means providing the clarity, practical tools, and people-focused support needed to build stronger relationships with their teams and more consistent, intentional workplace practices. 

At the center of both is a commitment to dignity, clarity, accountability, and care. Those values reflect a philosophy Faith began developing long before she became an entrepreneur: the relationship between a workplace and its people should be a partnership. Through Faith TP & Co., she works to bridge that gap so both sides are better equipped to move forward, bringing “confidence for people and clarity for teams.”

How ZenBusiness Brought Clarity to the Backend

Building a business around that mission also meant taking responsibility for everything happening behind it. 

As Faith TP and Co. grew, Faith quickly faced the operational realities of independent ownership. Like many entrepreneurs, she realized that trying to juggle business filings and administrative maintenance while operating in “fight or flight mode” was holding her back.

After seeing a commercial for ZenBusiness, Faith decided to do her research. She was looking for a credible partner that could take some of the administrative weight off her shoulders so she could devote more attention to running and growing her business.

“I was realizing maybe I can lighten my load to where I can really just focus on running my business and let ZenBusiness handle the backend work,” Faith explains. “I didn’t solidify a lot of things…I needed a credible business to lean into. If I could give some of these responsibilities to another business, maybe I’ll be able to show up differently, focus on my customers, and be more strategic. That’s why I chose ZenBusiness. It makes it easy for me to just be a business owner and serve other people.”

Faith chose the ZenBusiness Pro Package and uses ZenBusiness as her registered agent, helping her manage compliance and consolidate back-end tasks like banking and email. As Faith puts it, entrepreneurship comes with a new set of responsibilities: “Business is very black and white, and there’s not really much room for error….when you become a business owner, it’s like becoming an adult for the first time. You have a different set of non-negotiable responsibilities.” 

With ZenBusiness supporting those responsibilities, Faith could spend more of her energy operating in her strengths and thinking strategically about growth.

Growing as an Entrepreneur Without Losing the Mission

Today, Faith’s entrepreneurial ambitions extend beyond a single venture. She has expanded into multiple entrepreneurial pursuits while continuing to grow Faith TP & Co. and her work as a People Services professional. 

But growth hasn’t changed the purpose behind her work. If anything, entrepreneurship has expanded Faith’s ability to positively influence and support the people around her, not only through her professional work, but through the example she sets. “You never know what the next person is thinking or what their goals are. You never know how you can impact them.” 

Beyond personal success, that ripple effect is another measure of what entrepreneurship can make possible. When you create opportunities for yourself, you’re able to show others what may be possible for them, too.

Becoming the Brand

Faith’s story is a powerful testament to what can happen when you give yourself permission to create something distinctly your own. After years of building her career within established brands, Faith took that leap, stepping fully into her role as an entrepreneur and People Services professional.

Becoming a business owner wasn’t about leaving her previous experience behind. Faith carried forward what it taught her – about leadership, belonging, advocacy, business, and the relationship between employees and organizations – and built something of her own around it.

Through Faith TP & Co., those lessons now shape a business that carries her own name, perspective, and vision, grounded in a clear purpose: bridging the gap between people and workplaces. 

Becoming “the brand” yourself is a bold move, but building and running a business shouldn’t mean losing yourself in the process. With ZenBusiness helping clear the administrative noise, you can reclaim the mental space to focus on what truly matters. For Faith, that means staying focused on the people and organizations she set out to serve while continuing to build on her own terms. 

Ready to bring calm to your business setup? Business is complicated, but starting doesn’t have to be. Let ZenBusiness handle your LLC formation, registered agent services, and back-end compliance so you can focus on building a business on your own terms.