My own clothing brand did $20,000. It also showed me I didn't love making clothes. I loved the system that makes the money grow.
So I started scaling other people's brands. No connections, just outreach. That guy in your DMs saying he can scale your brand? That was me. One brand gave me a chance, I ran it for free, and they hit their first $2,000 month. Then it kept going, because I actually delivered. All of it, by myself.
Most agencies care more about the upfront payment than your brand. I can't run 7 brands without the quality dropping, so I only run a few, and I put the rest of what I know in the free community.
The game should be open. What separates people isn't the information. It's who executes and keeps going through the bad months.