300 angry texts...and 1,000 thank yous

Toyin Crandell · 2026-10-23T23:18:26.150Z

Last year I sent a text to my list that went really.. really… badly. I sent an email with the subject line - "my dad - the secret I’ve never shared" to about 50,000 people Then I sent a text message to the same list of people saying something like - "did you see my email about the secret I’ve never shared about my dad?" (ALL I was trying to do was get them to check their inbox for this email about PRAYER). And boy did things go real bad, real fast. What I didn’t factor in was that I hadn’t texted my business contact list in over 6 months at that point Not everyone on my list knew me OR my father (and the fact that we have an incredibly amazing relationship) There are a lot of people with broken father stories “the secret I’ve never shared about my dad” sounds REALLY vague and people were filling in the blank with all sorts of trauma responses. Within hours I had over 300 replies. “STOP.” “I don’t want to know any dirty family secrets.” “Who is this??” “STAAAPPPP” They came in back to back to back. And what made it even worse, was that text got sent out right before we were scheduled to leave the house to celebrate my 3 year old’s birthday. I was trying to be present with my super excited daughter while my phone buzzed every few seconds with people pretty much cussing me out because I texted them the words - “the secret I’ve never shared about my dad”. Then a voice in my head riled up- “Toyin, you’re a marketer. You should’ve known better than to send a cryptic text message to people you haven’t been messaging for half of a year.” “You should have remembered that not everyone has a good relationship with their father AND that the world is pretty sick so saying your “the secret I’ve never shared about my dad” can mean obscene things in people’s minds”. “Most people aren’t thinking of prayer like you are. They're thinking of whatever is on their own minds.” On and on my mind was spinning. And DING DING DING DING the texts would not stop. I spent 10 minutes figuring out how to turn off notifications on my laptop. Then on my phone. Then I sat down and took a deep breath. I decided that one mistake could not steal my daughter’s joy. She was turning 3. She knew nothing about funnels, or text messages or angry people or 300 texts. All she knew was that it was her birthday and we were going out to have an absolute blast and paint the town PINK! (her faaavourite colour) So I decided at that moment, that my error did not have permission to steal her joy, my joy or that of my family. I decided to process how I felt in the moment - I cried in my office - not because of the texts but because I don’t like making silly mistakes and I just made a big one in front of 50k people. I allowed myself to feel the emotion of being attacked. Then I gave it to the Lord, chose my attitude (JOY), moved on and we had a fantastic weekend. A few days later (and I am not making this up), one of my posts went viral (this was the very beginning of what has been a full year of virality on my account taking us from 20,000 followers to 100,000 followers on IG. This one post took us from 1,000 Tiktok followers to over 10,000 in a week. We received over 1,000 messages from this one post (again not exaggerating). These were long, genuine, heartfelt messages. Long letters of people sharing how my post was helping them process pain in a godly way. There were so many stories I could barely keep up. One person told me she and her best friend of 35 years had fallen out. Both Christians. 35 years of friendship, gone over a disagreement. She said the post helped her sit down with Jesus and forgive and release the bitterness she had been holding. Talk about whiplash. I went from 300 complaints in a few hours. To over 1,000 thank you messages. Here’s what I learned that week - If you are looking for people’s approval in order to do what God has called you to do, you will be waiting a long time and your emotions will be pulled in every direction. Because WE are fickle. Humans are fickle. You can be the greatest thing since sliced bread one day and crucified the very next. That’s why John 2:23-25 said - Now when He [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. Too many believers hold back from stepping on the platforms God has given them because they are afraid of the haters. But here’s the truth - Haters are going to hate on you if you do your thing, and they will also hate on you if you don’t - so you might as well do what God called you to do. And say what God has placed in your mouth to say. Let them talk while you obey your Father. That’s the heart behind Radical Obedience: 30-Day Post to Profit Challenge. For 30 days I’ll show you how to post boldly and consis

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