Empowerment Issue January 2018 | Page 50

MADEINC apryl The Beauty of Business: jones MADE BY ASHLEY WHITE [that person] anymore, they’re not willing to help you build yourself up after you just sacrificed everything to be with them. Prior to that I was in the relationship feeling like, “Ok, Apryl, you let yourself go. You’re really not happy.” It really didn’t take until the breakup for me to say said you know what, now I really have to get back to myself. I’m really not happy and now it’s time for me to decide what are you going to do about it. There’s something special about a woman who is handed lem- ons in life and has the ability to lemonade. In the case of Apryl Jones, she made wine. After a public break up, Apryl was determined to be happy and make a living for herself and her two children. The Chicago native created her own wine line, Apryl Wines, and she sat down with MADE to talk her journey as a mompreneur and why she’s selling much more than wine… MADE: We were first introduced to you on Love & Hip Hollywood and saw you go go through a very public break up. How would you describe the process of getting back to yourself and what makes you happy? AJ: It comes to people at different times. When you’re in a relationship, someone usually sacrifices and it’s usually the woman. I didn’t have a problem doing that, but the part that sucks is that when you’re not in a relationship with made-magazine.com | I decided that I was going to transform my life and then I did that. I started journaling, starting the process of my book, putting the thoughts down and that’s really when I started to shift my energy. I also started getting in the gym and training. I had to put my energy into other things and places and not just continuously feeling bad for myself. We’ll do that—we’ll sit back and say, “I’m so miserable and I’m not happy” and it’s like how long are you going to 50