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.

Le’kisha Graham

So back in 2018, a lady found me on Facebook, asking me if I could do her daughter‘s sweet 16 birthday shirt and the birthday crew shirts to match. She was needing like six or more shirts one for the birthday girl, the mom, dad, etc. So I got all the materials and we were conversation back-and-forth for about a few days. I had to buy all these white shirts and I had to special order the baby blue iron-on vinyl. It took me some hours to find the font that she liked. I even had to go back to the store because I bought the wrong sizes of the shirt. So on like day five of communicating through messenger, I let her know I have all this material, and she’s saying stuff like, “great”, “that’s awesome”, and “can’t wait to see it”. Read more>>

Randall Flores

Having worked in Asia’s supply chain for twenty years, I’ve amassed quite a collection of unbelievable stories. During one instance, I cooperated with a factory in northern China that produced 125,000 pairs of shoes with defects. Despite attempts by my staff, they refused to stop and pressured my inspectors to release the goods. I had to fly there to reject them. The factory leadership tried to convince me to reverse my decision over dinner with multiple toasts using “baijiu,” Chinese grain alcohol. They even hired two professional drinkers to accomplish the task. One after another requested to finish a glass. After each, someone would remark, “You can accept the shoes, right?” or “They’re not that bad, yes?” It felt like they were Jedi mind tricking me, and I wondered how they knew how. In addition, I kept a bag of rejected production under my seat and took them with me to the toilet to prevent someone from switching them. They objected to my taking them and actively sought an opportunity. Read more>>

Keylonda Lewis

I was doing a content shoot for a friend and she immediately loved the content. She talked about it with everyone in her building to the fact that the owner wanted to meet me. When I walked in the room, she hired me on the spot before we even had any formal introductions. I was in shock but happy so I had to play it cool. We went in the back room to chat and she said she just got a good vibe when I walked in and knew I was the right fit. Turns out, she had hired over 7 different marketing agencies and none of them brought results… I was so confused on how was that even possible. I did a deep dive into her digital presence, Instagram, TikTok, Google, Facebook… pretty much anywhere she should have a digital footprint. Read more>>

Veronica Stone

One of the wildest experiences I had was during a campaign with Johnnie Walker at a major music festival. Everything was going smoothly until one of the artists we worked with posted a video on Instagram where he took a swig directly from the bottle—something that was totally prohibited by the company. Within hours, the video went viral, and while I initially felt panic, I decided to act quickly. I organized a meeting with the team to tackle the situation, and instead of hiding from it, we proposed an authentic response. We launched a campaign that celebrated the connection between music and the brand, highlighting the moment while emphasizing responsible consumption. What started as a setback turned into an opportunity to reinforce our image. I learned that sometimes unexpected situations can create a positive impact when handled with creativity and transparency. Read more>>

Lyn Christian

The craziest thing I ever experienced while coaching individuals was a client who started yelling at me and making comments about my profession as an executive coach. With the support of and HR staff member and a good therapist, I was able to refer this client over to professionals who could assit him with his anger. While the comments thrown in my direction were cutting and disrespectful, I could see that this individual was dumping on me. And his real concerns were not about me specifically.  As it turns out, he was dealing with unresolved trauma and anger that were directed at his recently divorced ex-wife. For some reason, I seemed to remind him of her.  It was a weird experience to hear words coming my way that I clearly didn’t deserve and in a professional setting. I’m forever grateful for the experience and intuition that helped me see that this person needed support. And to not take his comments personally.  Read more>>

Kelcie Clinkenbeard

When I first started my business I was a yoga therapist. I had been drawn to holistic healing, and followed all of the stepping stones to get to where I was. I was certified, I had a college degree, and was working with clients. Then the craziest things began to unfold for me, which were my spiritual gifts. I had experienced some aspects of these gifts for my entire life, but pushed them away out of fear. While evolving in my holistic healing work, over the course of about a year, they began to play a larger role in my life again. I discovered the entirety of what I could do for people I read for, and dove into it fully. I immediately began giving mediumship readings, akashic records/psychic readings and started attending classes to work to develop these gifts further. Read more>>

Audrina Blackburn

Let me take you on a wild journey—one that completely flipped my life upside down in the best (and craziest) way possible. Picture this: selling nearly everything we owned, packing up four dogs, two kids (part-time), and hitting the road in a 22-foot travel trailer, all while running a business. I promise, it’s as chaotic as it sounds, but let me rewind and give you the full backstory so you can really understand how I got here. I’m Audrina Blackburn. I’m 34 (okay, almost 35), and I’m the Cofounder of Summit Chasers Network, and the host of Voices of Impact by Audrina podcast. Life, until about three years ago, was comfortable. Too comfortable. I was VP of Business Operations at a marketing company in Las Vegas, raking in six figures, traveling regularly, married, and living what most would call a dream life. I had been at the company for nine years, and things were smooth. Maybe too smooth. Read more>>