I often think back to the hard work it took to build Unapologetic®, especially through social media. It requires an incredible amount of consistency. Rebuilding the brand from the ground up isn’t easy, but I leaned on a few things I thought would give me a slight advantage. However, the landscape had shifted dramatically. What I thought would take months felt like years, and I soon realized that in business, three years can feel like two decades.

Take my text message list, for example. I had 10,000 contacts an asset I was sure would help me regain some traction. But when I began the process of reactivating it, I discovered it had dwindled to fewer than 1,000 people. Not only that, but the company I was testing to send messages couldn’t provide me with the list of those who had clicked through. No starting point. No safety net. I had to take that on the chin and accept it.

Then I looked at my email list. Over 10,000 people. Surely, this was a lifeline. I decided to create a nine-email sequence to re-engage those subscribers and gauge where we stood. The reality hit me hard: maybe only 1,000 people were still actively engaging. Another blow to the chin.

My Facebook page, once thriving with nearly 30,000 followers, had been flagged in 2020—and it remains flagged to this day. Running ads? Not an option. My Instagram account with over 31,000 followers hasn’t been much better. Though it still sees some activity, the platform won’t allow me to run ads either. I put off the inevitable for as long as I could, but I finally realized what I had to do: start fresh with new Facebook and Instagram pages. That realization hit me like a Mike Tyson punch to the gut.

And if that wasn’t enough, X (formerly Twitter) locked me out of my account, which had over 20,000 followers. Another fresh start, another blow. It took time to process all of this—time to accept that these losses were part of the journey.

Over time, I’ve come to realize that adversity isn’t just a part of entrepreneurship—it shapes it. Every setback, every unexpected blow, is an opportunity to learn, grow, and rebuild with even more resilience.

God Bless The Entrepreneur