Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Godfrey.
Hi Kelly, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
How It All Got Started
The Story Behind Texas Women’s Outdoors
By Kelly Godfrey, Founder
In 2015, I crossed the graduation stage at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, with a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Management and a minor in Biology. Life moved fast after that. I got married in April 2017, welcomed our first child in January 2018, and our daughter in October 2019.
What I didn’t know was that just a few months later, the world would shut down. When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, I was suddenly home alone with two little ones, no help nearby, and a husband who worked out of town for long stretches. He was gone more than he was home, and I was struggling.
I had lost myself in the everyday demands of motherhood and survival. I wasn’t taking care of myself, and I was craving connection, balance, and something more than diapers and dishes.
By January 2021, I knew I needed something that was just for me. Not brunch. Not shopping. Not a girls’ night in. I wanted real adventure — meaningful time outdoors, new memories, and genuine connection — and it had to fit a one-income family budget. So I took a leap and posted on Facebook:
“Would anyone want to go camping with me?”
I had no idea how many other women were craving the very same thing.
In April 2021, we took our first camping trip, and it was an absolute blast. Word spread fast, and soon I was overwhelmed — in the best way — with women wanting more: more camping, more fishing, more hunting, more time outdoors with other women who simply got it.
To stay organized, I started a Facebook group: Texas Women’s Outdoors, or TWO. Within months, more than 300 women had joined, and our small crew had become a growing community.
That little group quickly turned into something real. In August 2021, TWO became an LLC. We launched a website, added insurance, and kept building. But with growth came a realization: I couldn’t do this alone.
By 2024, Texas Women’s Outdoors had become something truly special. Our private, ladies-only Facebook group passed 2,600 members, with thousands more following along on Facebook and Instagram.
We launched the Outpost, a membership offering early access to events, members-only content, and exclusive discounts with outdoor brands we love. And in April 2024, we hosted our very first annual retreat in Concan, Texas — a major milestone, and a beautiful reminder of just how far we’d come.
For four years, I watched the same thing happen again and again. A woman would find us, get excited, ask every question and then go quiet. It was almost never about interest. It was about money, or gear she didn’t own, or not knowing a single person who could show her how.
That was the barrier I couldn’t solve. So in January 2025, we launched the Texas Women’s Outdoors Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit built for exactly that gap.
Our flagship program is Send A Sister Outdoors, which provides scholarships, gear, mentorship, and guided experiences to women who want to be out there but don’t have the financial means or the support network to get there on their own. To date, we’ve awarded six Send A Sister Outdoors scholarships — and every one of them represents a woman who otherwise would have stayed home.
Partners have stepped up alongside us. Beretta’s loaner firearm program means a woman can arrive at her first hunt without owning a firearm, removing one of the biggest and most expensive hurdles in the sport.
We’ve also built a partnership with Women in the Field, a network of women already doing the work — running outdoor businesses, guiding, and instructing. That partnership does two things at once: it lets us put more events on the calendar, taught by women who know their craft cold, and it brings our community’s bookings to women building something of their own in an industry that hasn’t always made room for them. Women supporting women in the field, in every sense.
On August 4, 2026, Texas Women’s Outdoors turned five.
Since that first camping trip, we’ve served more than 1,240 women, and our combined social and community reach has grown past 11,000. Our calendar now runs year-round: mentored doe hunts, saltwater and paddle fishing, dove hunts, field-to-table butchering classes, mom-and-me campouts, our annual retreat, and beyond.
Behind the scenes, I have an incredible team of women who make all of this happen — across social media, ambassadorship, coordination, logistics, and business development. Each of them plays a vital role, and together we’re creating something lasting and life-giving.
And here’s the part I never saw coming back in 2021: this work creates opportunity for women far beyond the trip itself. Our events bring paid business to women who guide, instruct, and run outdoor companies of their own. The women who help run TWO — our coordinators, ambassadors, and the crew behind the scenes — are compensated for what they do. Women aren’t only attending our events anymore. They’re leading them. Ours is a team of women helping women: supporting, encouraging, and empowering one another through outdoor adventure.
Our Mission
Texas Women’s Outdoors exists to inspire, equip, and empower women to embrace the outdoors with confidence, purpose, and community.
Through immersive experiences, hands-on education, and shared traditions, we connect women to the land, the wildlife, and one another — fostering a lifelong love of the outdoors and the skills to thrive in it. We are building a movement that celebrates heritage, strengthens conservation, and opens doors for women and families to experience the wild places that shape us.
Looking Ahead: Our Ask
As we grow, we’re committed to keeping our events accessible to as many women as possible. That means we’re actively seeking grants, sponsorships, and partnerships to help offset costs and remove the financial barriers that keep women out of the outdoors. We’re also looking for landowners willing to share access to their property, so we can host our own events and bring more women onto the land.
If your company or organization is passionate about empowering women, mental wellness, or outdoor recreation — or if you have land you’d be open to sharing — we’d love to hear from you. Let’s work together to continue building something extraordinary.
Interested in sponsoring or partnering? Contact Kelly Godfrey at kelly@texaswomensoutdoors.com.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One thing I’ve learned is that there just isn’t the same support out there for women as there is for other outdoor organizations. That’s part of why I do this. I want TWO to always be a safe space, where women feel supported no matter what their journey looks like. I’m hoping to change that.
There’s been financial strain, real time away from my family, and the hard reality of working closely with people. Honestly, people have been my biggest hurdle. One of the toughest lessons I’ve learned is that not everyone wants to see you succeed, and not everyone who’s kind to your face is being real with you.
I’ve also noticed that strong women can be intimidating to some people, and that’s something I don’t know that I’ll ever fully understand. I love being around strong women. I love learning and growing right alongside them. But for some people, that kind of confidence is hard to be near, and I’ve come to believe that says more about where they are than anything about the work we’re doing.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Texas Women’s Outdoors, LLC?
At our heart, Texas Women’s Outdoors is a community a sisterhood of women who want to experience the outdoors with confidence, and to do it alongside other women who just get it. We’re a women-only, judgment-free space where you can show up exactly where you are, whether you’ve never held a fishing rod or you’ve been hunting your whole life.
What we do is put on real, hands-on outdoor experiences year-round: mentored doe hunts, saltwater and paddle fishing, dove hunts, field-to-table butchering classes, mom-and-me campouts, bushcraft and skills courses, and our annual retreat. But what we specialize in what I think we’re truly known for is mentorship. Every event is capped small on purpose. Nobody gets lost in the back. Everybody gets hands-on time and someone in their corner walking them through it.
What sets us apart is that we don’t stop at putting on a good event. We built the Texas Women’s Outdoors Foundation, a 501(c)(3), specifically to remove the barriers that keep women out of the outdoors money, gear, and not knowing a single person who can show them how. Through our Send A Sister Outdoors program, we provide scholarships, gear, mentorship, and guided experiences to women who want to be out there but can’t get there on their own. Very few outdoor organizations are doing that, and it’s the part of our work I believe in most.
Brand-wise, the thing I’m proudest of is that women aren’t only attending our events anymore they’re leading them. Our events bring paid business to women who guide, instruct, and run outdoor companies of their own, and the women who help run TWO are compensated for what they do. It’s women helping women, in every direction. We’ve served more than 1,240 women and grown to a community of over 11,000, and every single number represents a real woman who found confidence, connection, or a version of herself she’d been missing.
If there’s one thing I want your readers to know, it’s this: you don’t need to be experienced, you don’t need to own a thing, and you don’t need to know anyone. You just need to want it. We’ll handle the rest.
How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happy is sharing what I know and getting to support women as they grow. We all come from different walks of life, but we’re united by this shared love of the outdoors. Some women come for the community. Some are stepping outside for the very first time. And that’s the beauty of it everyone starts somewhere, and there’s a place here for all of them. Getting to be part of that first step, or that next one, and watching a woman realize she’s capable of more than she thought, that’s what fills me up.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.texaswomensoutdoors.com/
- Instagram: @two2021outdoors
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texaswomensoutdoors
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TexasWomenOutdoors
- Other: TWO Foundation Info-https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586148266634 Inst: @twofoundation2025
