Her Story
About Tracey
Tracey Smith retired from the federal government in 2024 after more than 32 years of service, during which she held leadership positions including GS-14 Deputy Director in the Office of Human Resources and decision writer in the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity. She led staff responsible for processing disability claims across six global regions including Rome, Manila, London, Frankfurt, Mexico City, and San Jose. In 2016 she launched her business Tracy Smith Inspiration and began writing inspirational books and delivering speaking engagements. Her published works include Heaven's Playground on navigating grief, Be Cute For You on personal growth and self-worth, and The Inspirational Hustle on executing dreams and avoiding procrastination. She is currently working on her fourth book. Tracey moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia from Maryland two years ago following her retirement and now focuses on expanding her business through networking and speaking opportunities. She attributes her resilience and success to personal hardships including the loss of her daughter to leukemia in 1996 and a difficult divorce, which propelled her to turn pain into purpose and assist others facing similar challenges.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tracey
01What do you attribute your success to?
What I attribute my success to pretty much, unfortunately, was just going through many hardships in life. Like dealing with the loss of my daughter, that has pretty much put me on a trajectory of just pursuing people and purpose that have gone through different difficulties in life, and along with the losing of my daughter, I went through a terrible divorce, and I had to go through being a single parent of two children for quite some time, that also gave me inner strength and resilience to now that I had built myself back up and became very successful.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice that I ever received was just to do it. Just to stop sitting on whatever it is that you want to do and just to go after and just to start, that's the biggest piece of advice that I've ever received, just to start working towards that goal in your business.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice that I would give other women that's trying to break into my field, or just the field of their own, whatever they think their purpose may be is to tap into what's authentic to them. What wakes them up? What do they get excited about in the morning when they wake up? What do they want to pursue? And also, what's the thing that they're intimidated by? That inner voice that's speaking to them to say, this is what you are created for. Like, if that's intimidating to you, that's the thing you should go after.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In my industry the biggest challenge in my personal industry, as far as like speaking inspirational messages is giving that stage and that platform. Getting those opportunities, and people that's looking for speaking opportunities and book events, as myself, it always comes with like a price tag. The biggest opportunity that I know out there and that exists is that there is an audience for me. And that audience is out there because of all the different challenges that we face on a day-to-day basis, and especially for the topics that I speak upon.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that are important to me, are definitely being authentic and whatever you do, and whatever you pursue, having integrity. That's a big thing, doing the right things for the right reasons, and never falling back, and to always appreciate the small beginnings. Whatever that small beginning may be.
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