ABOUT · BUILT ANYWAY
Erika
Hernandez
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MOTHER
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BRAND STRATEGIST
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STORYTELLER
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BUILDER
WHO SHE IS
WHAT THIS IS
WHY IT MATTERS
I have rebuilt myself more than once. Not because I wanted to, because I had to. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I realized I was not alone. So I started building in public.
WHERE IT STARTS
My son,
Jovan.
On September 2nd, 2023, I lost my son Jovan to gun violence. He was 18 years old. Vibrant. Creative. Funny. Kind. The kind of person who lit up every room he walked into without trying.
Losing him shattered me in ways I am still learning to name. But it also cracked something open, a need to speak, to share, to find the people who understood what it meant to keep breathing when breathing felt like the hardest thing.
I started documenting my grief online. Not for attention, but as a way to survive. What I found was a community of people who showed up with open hearts and reminded me I was not alone in my loss, or in my decision to keep living anyway.
"Losing him didn't end my story. It changed the person telling it."
Jovan's friends became my bonus kids. They are not a content strategy, they are part of my heart. They remind me every day that joy still exists. That laughter still echoes. That grief and love are not opposites.
BEFORE THE GRIEF, AND AFTER IT
Twenty years
of building.
What most people who found me on TikTok don't know is that I have spent over two decades as a brand strategist. I have built brand identities, developed business architectures, and helped established companies find structural clarity, long before anyone knew my name.
That expertise did not disappear when I lost Jovan. It sharpened. Grief has a way of clarifying what matters, in life and in business. Everything I know about storytelling, identity, and the power of an authentic voice became more real to me in loss than it ever was in a boardroom.
On January 9th, 2026, I also lost my job. I share that plainly because it is part of the story, and because I refused to let it be the end of one. Loss, in all its forms, has been my greatest teacher. And every time, I have rebuilt anyway.
THE MOMENT EVERYTHING SHIFTED
Nine million
people showed up.
On March 23rd, 2025, I posted a video on TikTok asking for help to honor Jovan's 20th birthday, a trip to Universal Studios for his best friends, the boys who had become my family. Nine million views. Donations from strangers. Support from brands like Instacart, Spirit Airlines, and Airbnb. Features in People Magazine and NBC Nightly News.
The trip happened. Jovan's memory was celebrated. And something shifted in me, not because of the numbers, but because of what the numbers represented. People want real. They are hungry for stories that don't have a perfect ending but keep going anyway.
That moment did not make me an influencer. It confirmed what I had always known as a strategist: authentic storytelling is the most powerful brand strategy that exists. I just happen to be living it in public.
"I am not a grief account. I am a person, and grief is one chapter of a much longer book."
RIGHT NOW · THE BUILD
Where I am
right now.
THE MOTHER
01
A son.
And the bonus kids.
My eldest son is 25 and building his own life, which is exactly what I raised him to do. Mothering my bonus kids looks different now: being the call they make when something goes wrong, the voice that holds them accountable, and the person who shows up anyway. That hasn't changed.
02
THE STRATEGIST
Start over
on purpose.
When I lost my job, I could have looked for another one. Instead I decided to build my own, from scratch, on my terms, using everything I know. Twenty years of brand strategy, and I'm finally pointing it at myself. This is not a pivot. This is the plan.
THE STORYTELLER
03
Building
in public.
The blog, the podcast, the platform, all of it is the real-time documentation of rebuilding. I share it because I know what it means to need someone who has been through it to show you it's possible.