The BrownStyle Blueprint explores what it takes to build impactful platforms, brands, and careers (without losing peace of mind). From creative visionaries to corporate powerhouses, Dawine Dacosta sits down with women to map out their unique paths to the top.
One of my earliest introductions to Kena Peay was in 2023. As I scrolled through Instagram, a video of her preparing a meal against a serene outdoor landscape popped up on my FYP. After a quick scroll through her feed, I realized her content checked almost all of the boxes in my curated social media ecosystem: positivity, food, travel, light humor, and Black woman joy.
Eager to learn more about her journey, I recently sat down with the full-time travel and food content creator via Zoom. As Peay leaned into her laptop camera, her medium knotless braids—worn in her signature reddish‑brown hue— framed her face. Sitting in front of a vintage brown China cabinet filled with keepsake memories, she laughed with a bright, infectious sound reminiscent of the Mowry twins.
As we settled into our transparent conversation, I was quickly reminded of why the creative content creator is among the incredible lineup of women included in this column with BrownStyle Magazine. Even with over 600,000 followers, Peay remained humble as we discussed her journey to become the outdoor chef and internet personality that we know and love.
She was real, raw, and transparent as she shared her story of success and the lessons she learned along the way. Ahead, get to know Peay’s Blueprint for building the life she always wanted. Hopefully, this column inspires you to build the life you want to!
✨ Phase 1: The Vision
Before the mountaintop meals and the “Skycuterie™” kits, Peay’s early career was spent in New York City, where she worked as a designer for various brands. She explained that this season cultivated her eye for aesthetics and detail long before she ever picked up a camera.
Following a two-year layoff, Peay pivoted into the tech industry in search of financial stability. What followed was a lucrative tech decade, including a job at Meta (formerly Facebook) and a subsequent tenure at Google. While she remains deeply grateful for the opportunities and the monetary shift that decade provided, it was also a period of immense stress that left her searching for true fulfillment.
✨ Phase 2: The Plan
Part of that unfulfillment was due to a period of personal mourning that many women, unfortunately, are no strangers to. At 40-years-old, Peay found herself grieving the things she hadn’t yet achieved but wanted the most: marriage and children.
“I felt like if I could just connect with something else, then maybe I could take my mind off the things I wasn’t happy about,” she shared. It was this search for connection that led her back to her love for hiking and to the trails of Mt. Shasta during the global COVID-19 pandemic. There, she cooked her first trail meal of garlic noodles and shared it on social media at the urging of her best friend and younger sister.
What started as a natural, unplanned moment of self-healing soon went viral on social media, resulting in a new platform that changed how the world perceives Black women in the outdoors. “We’re always doing dope things,” she says with a smile, “but it was cool to be given that platform to help people see the industry differently.”
✨ Phase 3: The Obstacles
Although Peay started to see success from her online content, she knew it wasn’t the time yet to fully leave her job, which provided a stable source of income.
“The pressure of this not being my only income definitely helped me to take my time,” she explains, noting her steady paycheck from work ensured she had time to learn the ins and outs of being a professional content creator. “I didn’t have to rush it. My craft was important to me. I believed that as I got better at making videos and continued to put the energy in, it would eventually lean my way and benefit me.”
After two years of side-hustling while maintaining her corporate income, Peay officially left the tech industry to become her own boss.
Despite her massive following, Peay is open and honest about the stagnation that often haunts the non-linear journey to success. While she has had an accomplished career and her audience sees a phenomenal success story, Peay describes her own moments of disappointment when things haven’t panned out the way she thought they would.
“I am surprised with how long it’s taking,” she admits, reflecting on TV deals that fell through. “You look at roadblocks as something you just push through, but you really don’t know when they will end. A lot of people have it in their mind that they’ll only have to suffer for six months, and it turns out to be six years.”
She continues, “Last year, I was ready to give up. Brand deals weren’t coming, and I felt like my career should have been much further along.”
It’s a sentiment many women in the ebbs and flows of their lives will recognize: the gap between the dreams you have for your life and the reality of your current season doesn’t always line up. Yet, she stays the course, reminding herself that the road to success isn’t a straight line. It’s a long, winding road that requires planning and a refusal to give up and abandon the dream.
✨ Phase 4: The Strategy
Even as she navigates the stagnant spots, Peay’s blueprint for the future is expansive as she architects the next phase of her legacy.
For Peay, the goal isn’t to stop at being a creator; it’s to be a storyteller on a global scale. “I want to be Anthony Bourdain-esque in the way he told stories and highlighted businesses. I want to do that for U.S.-based businesses and get more eyes on localized people who deserve to be seen,” she explains.
Beyond the screen, the content creator is preparing to disrupt the travel industry with the launch of Skycuterie™— a curated in-flight dining kit born from her own rituals as a nervous flyer. On a personal level, her journey continues. Peay has her sights set on Antarctica and Australia to check off all seven continents by the time she hits 50.
Kena Peay’s Advice For Women Building On Their Own
Peay’s made one thing clear: her success isn’t about talent, but about a refusal to count herself out. She shares the following words of advice for anyone currently building their own blueprint:
- Don’t Count Yourself Out: “Women in particular count themselves out if they see someone else doing it. Men never do that. If you have the idea, you can do it. There’s a need for you to do it. Talent is not one-dimensional. The person currently on top won’t always be on top, and your unique value is what creates something special.”
- Build Your Ecosystem: “Get a team behind you. Whether it’s a friend or a mentor. It’s hard to do it alone. Get an ecosystem to bounce ideas off of—it may not even be financial, just words of encouragement.”
- Do It Scared: “Fear is always going to be present because you don’t know the outcome. Just do it scared. Fear cannot stop you from moving forward.”
- Honor The Timeline: “Dreams are not an accident. They’re intentionally put there. No matter if you became a mother first—revisit the dream and make it happen.”
This is the BrownStyle Blueprint: the real, good, and sometimes exhausting work required to build a life that looks like peace. If you are interested in being featured in the series, reach out to us.
Editor’s Note: This story has been edited and condensed for clarity.
