Reframing Failure: How Ashley Rouse Went from Burnout to Breakthrough
In the world of entrepreneurship, we often celebrate success by metrics—funding rounds, press coverage, and product launches. But what happens when success looks different than expected? What happens when walking away is actually the most powerful move you can make?
Ashley Rouse, the founder of Trade Street Jam Co., knows this journey intimately. After nearly a decade of building her beloved small-batch jam brand—gaining national attention, landing major partnerships, and pushing through personal and professional highs and lows—Ashley made the difficult but healing decision to close the business.
In this deeply honest conversation, she reflects on how Trade Street began, the weight of being a Black woman founder at the center of a cultural spotlight, and how she reclaimed her joy and purpose through burnout, surrender, and reinvention.
Can you take us back to the beginning of Trade Street Jam Co.? What inspired you to start the business?
Whew, this honestly feels like decades ago – entrepreneurship ages you, doesn’t it? I started back in 2016. I’ve been a chef for 18+ years now, and that’s where my love of food began. I had a food blog called I Speak Kitchenese back then, and I loved cooking and exploring the world of food through that platform. Canning and preserving really stuck out to me, and I thought, “why not try my hand at selling jams?”
Living in Brooklyn really encouraged me to start, because residing in New York is like being in a fishbowl with hardworking, successful, focused and dedicated people, all the time. Combine that with a little bit of natural hustle and get-shit-done mentality, and you really can do anything there. I saw a place for me in the maker culture, so I signed up for craft fairs and farmer’s markets and started selling my product. The rest is literally history.
In 2020, the surge in support for Black-owned businesses brought rapid growth to Trade Street Jam Co. How did you navigate that shift?
God, honestly. He navigated it for me! Because that shit was a doozy. It was the growth I had prayed and planned for, so I really did have all of my ducks in a row, and the foundation of the business was strong.
What I wasn’t prepared for is how much I had learned to put my head down and keep working, no matter the toll on my physical or mental health or on your family. I gave birth to my first child right in the thick of it (June 2020), and I remember being in labor with a laptop propped up on my belly, emailing packaging labels to my mom back at my apartment so that she could continue shipping out jam while I had a baby.
I remember standing up, taping boxes together hours after my daughter was born, her still stuck in the NICU in Manhattan and me in Brooklyn with swollen ankles – still filled with fluid – the size of softballs. I pressed on, though. I think that’s where that term “successful” comes from. I never felt comfortable adopting that term, no matter how many years it was thrown at me. But looking back, I was more than a success.
Were there any key partnerships or investments that helped keep the business afloat?
All of the partnerships that I did with Black-owned businesses were pivotal, because they kept the community strong, something we never realize we need until we need it.
A few other things that helped: our first feature in Bon Appétit Magazine (and subsequent features in many other magazines!), a New York Times article, our debut on Viceland’s The Hustle, features on The Today Show and CBS Mornings.
Also, our first $300k investment from an angel investor who genuinely believed in not only our product and our mission, but me as a founder.
At what point did you realize that closing Trade Street Jam Co. might be the best option?
I knew that closing the business was the best option when my mental health suffered a hit that it hadn’t before. I was so tired.
I had fought the good fight, and I had done a damn good job at it. But the constant struggle for funding to keep my business growing and to get to the exit that I desired, combined with the daily stressors of being a CEO, well, I was no match for that.
In early 2023, I started suffering from severe burnout and anxiety, starting with not being able to answer emails or even stand the sight of my computer, to not being capable of taking calls, to fully having a meltdown that left me on the couch for hours a day, every day. And that lasted for a year.
It was honestly miserable, and when I was finally able to answer the question of, “Would you keep going if you got $1M of funding today?” with “No, I’m honestly just too. Damn. Tired.”—Then I knew it was time.
What emotions did you go through during that decision-making process?
Grief, anxiety, feelings of failure and disappointment, sadness, and low self-esteem.
How has this experience shaped your outlook on entrepreneurship?
I’d like to say it has made me weary about entrepreneurship, but that’s the only path for me. I will say that it’s opened my eyes to other versions of entrepreneurship and different ways to carry out that purpose.
But overall, I knew this path would be hard, and then get harder. So I’ve always been prepared for pivoting. And that’s exactly what I did.
What’s next for you? Do you see yourself starting another business in the future?
I told you I’ve got that get-shit-done mentality. I started my current consulting company, rouse like house creative house, in early 2024 – before I had even officially shut down Trade Street.
I knew I had to do something, for income mainly, but also for happiness. I considered getting a physical job or going back to corporate America, but that isn’t my path nor my purpose. I prayed incessantly for clarity.
I remember having a conversation with a fellow entrepreneur who told me about her business consulting clients. I thought to myself, “yeah, like I can make that happen.” Now I know, that’s exactly what I was supposed to make happen, but I wasn’t in the space to receive that at the time.
A few months later, God literally spoke to me, telling me to start a business consulting and design company. He gave me a name and led me to build a logo and entire website in one evening. And then, He sent me clients. People that had watched me walk in my purpose with Trade Street for the past decade, with awe and aspiration.
In my first year I made $55k, an amount that felt unimaginable considering:
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Trade Street hadn’t paid me a salary in years, and
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The work was fulfilling and brought me immense joy—something else Trade Street hadn’t paid out in years.
Now, I spend my days designing websites, marketing graphics, and Instagram templates, and coaching and consulting small businesses and personal brands. I also offer interior design services under my creative agency as well. And finally, I’m happy again.
If you could go back and give yourself advice at the beginning of your Trade Street Jam Co. journey, what would you say?
You don’t have to be perfect. Just do your best – it’s more than enough.
You can follow Ashley’s journey at @rouselikehouseinc on Instagram or book a consultation at www.rouselikehouse.com.
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