We love grabbing drinks with our entrepreneur friends because they always have the craziest stories. Sometimes it’s a big, unexpected win. Other times it’s a problem that came out of nowhere and couldn’t possibly have been foreseen. There is so much to learn from these stories and so we asked some of the brightest entrepreneurs and creatives in the community to share some of those stories below.

Maria Williams

Its always great to challenge yourself, but scary, especially building and designing one of the biggest pieces of furniture you’ve ever built. Not to mention the end reveal, praying that your client loves it. Though in this case our client didn’t even get to see it. After days and hours of building the biggest piece of our career at the time, the day of delivery our client pulled out of wanting the piece anymore. With no explanation, we had a custom built 10ft high by 10ft wide entry way nook with cabinets, slow close drawers with an over head bridge for extract storage stuck in our patio. Read more>>

Ismael Wayne

This actually happened a couple of months ago. So I had to travel to Dallas for my job so I could attend a week long course to obtain a certification. Prior to me leaving, I provided my customers with enough product to last them for a time while I was gone. I was essentially treating this business trip like an unofficial vacation from my business. When I arrived in Dallas and got to my hotel, there was a bar/restaurant that’s a couple of floors below my room. It looked intriguing and wanted to visit it . Read more>>

Ashley Vanley

One of the craziest places I’ve ever photographed a wedding was in a new area of town I didn’t know well. The address to the venue showed up as a storage unit company. I thought there must be some mistake, it’s probably just next door. I showed up and there was a storage tin box connected to the main office that was decorated with fake flowers, twinkling lights and tool everywhere. It was tiny and maybe only 8 chairs could fit for guests to sit and watch the ceremony. Read more>>

Andrew Gottlieb

“I have no desire to be a leader.” These were the thoughts that circulated in my head during the winter of 2019 as I reflected upon going on 7+ years of running an organization. As I looked upon the team that I had built, I faced the tough reality that if I had to rebuild the company, I wouldn’t hire back 50% of the people on the current roster. Through my own mismanagement, I had built a culture that lacked accountability, spread gossip amongst one another and couldn’t handle feedback from one another and clients. Read more>>

Kara Gutierrez

Business doubled especially after some “double tattoos” walked in my door. For 11 years I have been a tattoo specialist in a rare niche. I literally put and take away ink for a living. In this case 2019, Jamie Ledbetter came to my office for removal of two sets of eyebrows (google “woman with 4 brows” or any botched microblading and you wont miss the Fox 4 news article and video on the matter. After going viral business for every tattoo and tattoo removal blew up I went from 3 months booked up to now 14 months getting booked. Read more>>

Shannel Gray

My most favorite story that I like to share is how I got started. Many of us will always talk about how business is going or maybe a few months back but rarely do we ever hear or share so much of how the dream and vision became life for us. My story goes a little bit like this… It all started one day when I was reviewing the newspaper for a small second job. I saw an opening for an assistant at a photography studio with a prestigious photographer in the Russellville, AR area where I lived. Read more>>

Nikki Madden

I love talking about this short, but sweet moment because it is so funny to me when I think back on it now. I was sent a message on Instagram one day a little over a year ago from a client requesting a Glass Portrait Piece to be done for a client of theirs (they were the assistant). Of course, I gave them information about the pricing and sizing and then waited for them to send the picture. When she sent the picture of this basketball player, I responded, “Oh wow, they must be a Dwight Howard fan?!”. Read more>>

JP Engineerin

Well one of the craziest things I’ve experienced in this industry was when me and my business partner had two studios in a building called “The Artist Factory”. There were at the time 10 different studio suites in the building. Love & Hip-Hop shot some of their first episodes in one of the rooms as well. We just expanded to our 2nd studio space after a year and invested in new equipment. We were very excited for the expansion, but unaware of what was to come in the near future. Read more>>

Dr. Auburn Ellis

I launched Studio 54oo in Chicago at Bridgeport Art Center in 2014. The Bridgeport Art Center is a huge building housing 1000+ artists working in every medium from metal to fibers. I had a space for painting and ceramics and hosted gallery exhibitions and open studios. When I decided to move to Kansas City in 2017, the decision was made to open my own storefront in the Midtown Area. I knew it would be hard starting fresh in a new city-even though it was my hometown. I was worried about how I would market myself to a new audience and find success for a new business. Big challenges are met with big opportunities! Read more>>

Will Morris

It was fall early October when I left my house heading to Nashville for a round of meetings and to attend a Nashville nonprofit gala I had been invited to. This was nothing new as I typically spend a couple of days a week in Nashville to network, meet investors, and explore new opportunities. The next morning I sat in my hotel room reviewing my scheduled meetings for the day and down a couple of cups of coffee before getting ready. The first meeting was over breakfast with a real estate developer looking for capital to fund their next project. Read more>>

Ariel Thomas

In 2018 I started my community organization, Ariel Cares. I was acquainted with a local group home for girls in foster care. At this group home I would mentor the girls, bring gently used clothes and shoes and create care packages. The girls became familiar with me because I would go very often. One day on a Saturday in 2019, I was getting my the day started and received a phone call from a DCF case worker in regards to a young lady I had develop rapport with at the group home. Read more>>

Sarah Lisle

The craziest thing about my otherwise pretty normal photography business is that I have had to completely relocate and rebuild my business six times since I first began my business in 2013. Being a military spouse, I knew there were going to be professional sacrifices and compromises to be made for our family. However, that didn’t make the frustration and exhaustion with each move any easier for my business. Read more>>

Jermaine & RJ Johns

This is a story about knowing your strengths. Many times, we want to do it all – attend every meeting, take every phone call, but God has put partners and help in place for us to complete tasks and move forward in excellence. Take the help. My husband Jermaine and I own and operate a design agency in Atlanta. We specialize in brand design, custom websites, consulting, and photography. I started the company in 2016 after leaving my $85k 9-5 and stepping out on faith. Read more>>

Brett Farmer

Okay, so this is a fresh story actually. I was covering a celebrity golf charity event that I was hired in as a co-shooter with a good friend. The key celebrity was Mark Wahlberg, and when he arrived he was never given the opportunity to get to the driving range to hit a few balls. Lucky for him there was a small rain delay before the shotgun start, I ran inside the clubhouse to try to get a couple shots edited for the client. The rain had stopped and he saw an opportunity to sneak to the driving range. In doing so he actually ended up taking my golf cart with my Canon R3 and Canon 300mm lens on it. Read more>>

Anna Leckie

Working as a commissioned artist has allowed me to see a breadth of humanity. Some of the craziest things I have experienced as a service-based commissioned artist are the bizarre requests I receive for commissioned work. During my most active work season, I typically get sexually harassed about once a month by someone asking for a raunchy painting or sending unsolicited nude photographs for me to create art with. As a female artist with a public profile, I have had to seek protection from these unwanted interactions. Read more>>

Greg Lanterman

During a long period of our company history, we were very heavily involved in brand aesthetics via art, sculpture, lighting and signage for a well known pizza chain. We essentially were building themed, immersive environments. It was an exciting time to stretch our artistic minds through creativity in a public space. We would design the individual franchised spaces, trying not to duplicate anything from project to project, leaving the individual franchisees with a feeling of ownership and identity all while promoting the overall brand. Read more>>

Stefaine & Rachael Hansen

One crazy thing that has happened at our studio (multiple times) is that people will walk into our building and ask for things completely unrelated to what we do. We’ve had everything from customers coming in and ordering coffee, donuts, and even had a few calls asking if we sold huge stuffed teddy bears. One man came in, walked up to our counter, and began ordering a family’s worth of Chinese food! He got through the entire order before our staff was able to tell him that we sell pottery. Read more>>

Shamek’o Barren

I’ve had a few crazy things happen to me in business. I would say the craziest positive thing that has happened to me in business has been sponsorship and donations. I have a HUGE support system for my business near and far. The craziest thing is that they are from all over the United States and some I don’t know. I remember a gentlemen reached out to me and said he values the work I do with youth girls. He stated he would love to contribute. That day he sent $500 to help sponsor girls. Read more>>