The last fiscal quarter was pretty funky for Venita Cooper, owner of the store Silhouette Sneakers & Art in the historic Black Wall Street district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sales were down almost 50% from the year before.

“I kind of sensed it,” Cooper said. “We had some really slow days where we might only have a couple of customers come in. And then I just knew that my attention was being pulled elsewhere because I’ve been so focused on preparing for our annual Sneaker Soiree, which happened on Oct. 6, and then the launch of an app that I’m working on called Arbit.”

“To me, it’s not like, oh, things are harder now. It’s no more fun,” Cooper said. “It’s like, these are some different challenges. And I’m an entrepreneur, so I’m gonna lean into the things that got me here to figure out how to crack the code on these challenges.”

To hear Cooper’s full rundown of the sneaker business these days, click the media player above.