About

Welcome to journey black home

We're Jess + Steve!

In July 2021, our lives changed forever when we sold nearly 90% of our belongings to travel Black America.

We left our hometown of Columbia, SC, excited to learn how this journey would change us, but we couldn’t have guessed how transformative the experience would really be.

From being present for the birth of Steve’s niece in Austin to meeting Jess’s biological brother for the first time ever in DC, Journey Back Home has expanded us individually and together in so many ways.

Ultimately, we’re vetting these cities to see if they’re where we’ll eventually plant roots. In the meantime, you get to come along to discover what makes them so special, too.

Our mission is to inspire our community to travel more domestically, explore more locally, and reimagine what’s possible in their daily lives. Here’s your invitation to break outta the box with us, fam!

Follow along at Journey Black Home on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, and Facebook!

our love story

In 2005, after spending four years at the same high school and never knowingly crossing paths, we found ourselves sitting side-by-side in AP Stats in a class of three other seniors. We formed a quick friendship that endured as we went separate ways to attend Clemson University and Spelman College.

By 2013, for various reasons, we’d both moved back home to Columbia, SC. We fell in love, got boo’d up, and have been side-by-side again ever since.

our love for community

We spent the next seven years together committed to advancing Black business and community engagement in Columbia and beyond.

In 2014, Jess launched her career in brand strategy and design to help Black-owned businesses and Black-centered social initiatives face the world with brand confidence. She also helped birth community initiatives such as a natural hair beauty pageant featured by Teen Vogue, a coworking pop-up for women entrepreneurs, and even . The Columbia Museum of Art awarded her the inaugural Emerging Spirit Award in 2019 for her commitment to the community.

At the same time, Steve was turning his personal money transformation story into a national platform for financial wellness. In 2014, he launched a non-profit to help Black college students develop positive money mindsets and behaviors. For five years, he also hosted a weekly television news money segment for our local CBS affiliate. These days, Steve works full-time as a financial therapist and Money Reiki practitioner, helping Black professionals and entrepreneurs get to the roots of their financial issues and heal their relationship with money for the long haul.