Never Give Up

If there is one thing that 2025 has taught us is to never give up. Never give up has been a motto for us over the past couple of years. We have had everything thrown our way. We have had health issues, tornadoes, rough patches, staffing issues, and even as of late hackers. With all of that going on, most anyone would just step back and just give up. Cameron, my right hand man and the one who has been my partner in this since the start in 2014, wears a shirt quite often. It has the AWW logo on the front, and on the back the phrase Never Give Up. This phrase has become a huge motto to us over the past year.

In January of 2024 and again the following march, each of us had issues regarding our health. It made us step back and realize we need to focus on ourselves while continuing to build this into what it is today. While doing that we both had near death scares. I had a stroke, he ended up in ICU. That alone would have been enough to just GIVE UP. But we battled through and kept trucking. Keep in mind just a year before that, we nearly had a tornado go through our home office. That could have also been sign, but it made us stronger. As we navigated through these things, it made both our bond stronger and our leadership stronger. After all, we do run one of the most successful names in the natural state and have a lot of people counting on us both staff and viewers. Through all of this we kept going. Never give up.

In the summer and the fall, after a rough patch with staff, we embarked on a rebuild. One that lead us to starting the first ever 24/7 network in Arkansas on Roku, FireTv and Youtube with Apple TV still in development. At the same time, we gained some awesome sponsors and opened up new doors for us heading into 2025. We also started working on app development, scheduled for completion before spring. That being said, many issues arose during that timeframe, fights were had, headaches came and the thought to give up just came. But we never gave up.

This past week we were met with the ultimate challenge. 10 years of building one of the most successful pages in Arkansas was lost in just a few minutes thanks to those that have nothing better to do than to destroy. This had us ready to stop. Ready to quit. Ready to just walk away right? WRONG. NEVER GIVE UP. Those words rang through our new studio that we have worked so hard on throughout the winter time to get ready to better serve Arkansas. We decided that while this was a setback it was not the end. A new beginning was made for Arkansas Weather Watchers, and we learned that through this we are better together as a team, as a brand and for our wonderful viewers.

One thing we have learned through all of this is most definitely to never give up. That no matter what, we will continue to do what we do best, serve our wonderful state. Through any type of storm thrown our way, through any challenge that may arise we will find a way to be better than we were before. After all we started this in 2014 why stop now? Cameron's phrase has been a lesson through time and a motto we will continue to go by NEVER GIVE UP! We met it starting with the Little Rock tornado in 2023, we saw it in earnest to start 2025. What does the rest of the year hold? We do not know. One thing we do know is the best is yet to come and no matter what Arkansas, we will never give up on you!

Be it on Facebook/ any social media, or on the AWW 24/7 Network on Youtube, Fire Tv AND Roku, you WILL have a way to keep up with us and stay safe!

~President of Arkansas Weather Watchers Derek Smith