Working Towards Our Purpose

Welcome to working towards our purpose, a podcast that

offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone

out there that's heard that voice in the back of their head asking for something

more, it's time to listen to it. I'm your host gino

and join me as I interview people who have decided to work in their

own purpose. Together we will learn, become inspired,

and hopefully find our own path towards working in our purpose.

Joining me today is Vanessa moreno, who was born and raised in

bogota, Colombia and moved to the United States when she was 14. She is

now a business owner, a mom, and an active member of the local

entrepreneur community in new haven. She owns your CBD store

in north haven. She is an entrepreneur graduate, an active networker,

and last year she was awarded the emerging leader for the quinnipiac chamber of

commerce. Vanessa, thank you for being here. Thank you, Jana,

for this great opportunity. I'm excited. So can you first

tell me in your own words and tell us in your own words who you

are and what you do. Yeah, sure. So. I'm Vanessa Moreno.

I opened your CBD store north haven over

three and a half years ago. This journey started as a

consumer, I was working at a company

in west haven that resells and recycle

used tires. I was a sales administrator at the time.

I worked there for a few years and at the time I was dealing with

a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety.

And the worst part of it all was that I began to

experience panic attacks. So I started freaking out even

more. And I have good friend of mine

who started getting into the CBD

industry and I was telling him my experiences and what I was

going through and he said you should come and check out my store, I should

probably have something for you. And I went.

That's how I started my CBD journey. I started

taking the products, they worked so well on me and very shortly

my friend offered him and his wife offered

me to start my journey. They were like, if you want to open your own

store, you can do the same thing because your CBD store

is the largest CBD retailer and franchise in the

country. And here I am today.

I always felt the desire of having my own business

but not quite figured out what I wanted to do. And when

this amazing opportunity came, I said, I think this is

definitely my call. And I just jumped in, figured out whatever

I had to do and I put it together. That's awesome. I

like the idea of you first being like a consumer first and then

being able to get into it. I think that's a very, I don't know,

natural way of getting into it. So I am curious

about your perspective on entrepreneur and

as somebody who didn't grow up in this country and didn't have

a standard mindset, maybe, or at least an American mindset of

what you're supposed to do as your path. Did you always want to be an

entrepreneur, or did that spark somewhere later? Or did you want to

go to school for a business, or what was your thoughts of what you wanted

to do for a career when you were graduating? Yeah, no, my plans

originally have been so different. I went to school,

I got my associates, and I got my bachelor's.

And at the time where I went to southern and I was trying to

accomplish my bachelor's, I

noticed I thought that I had in my heart that I

wanted to become a lawyer. And I had a lot of

interest in public health. I always been very

interested in health, the holistic side of health,

and one of my majors was in public

health. But when I got so involved in the

law community and at southern, it's like, oh, I think this is the

path that I want to go to. And when you want to go to law

school, you just need to get your bachelor's. It doesn't matter what you

just need to get it. So I just decided to get my bachelor's,

and it was kind of like bachelor's of science,

and I had minors, and I'm like, I'm going to go to law school.

But then once I graduated with my bachelor's,

I became a homeowner. I got a full

time job, and life really got so busy for

me. My mom was a single

mom, so I always had to work really hard for everything that

I have in my life. And I know that going

to law school is not easy. I'm

sure it's worth it, but it's not easy. I

actually didn't know at that point in my life how I was going to

juggle going to school while working a full time job,

because I was told that the first two years are very hard of when you

go to law school. So I actually just put it on hold, and I just

concentrated on this full time job that I had,

which I really liked at the time that I landed it.

And then, like I said, just because of the opportunity that my friend came,

I want to say because also my daughter's

father, he is also an entrepreneur. I had

that. I could see it, and I was like, I want this, because

eventually I knew I was going to create a family. I was going to have

a family of my own. And I wanted to have the flexibility

where if my mother was not able to be

very present as far as activities, school activities with me.

And I knew that if I was going to bring someone

into earth, I wanted to make sure that I could be present,

take time off. And I figure, well, I should really

pursue having my own business but like I said earlier, I just couldn't figure

it out. I did have kind of like a side business.

I have always had a hobby of making

jewelry, and I always make bracelets, and

I sold my bracelets on ebay or with

friends in person, I had that, but of course it

wasn't as big. And once this opportunity

came, I was like, I'm going to jump.

This is the perfect opportunity for me. I had the

whole motivation to do it. But

of course, you come from where I come from, it's always like,

you need to work hard for what you have. And

I feel that as an entrepreneur, also being a minority

entrepreneur, you have

the desire, but sometimes you may not have the

resources. If you don't connect with the right

people, you may not have enough resources, and you may not even

know what you're supposed to do. As an

entrepreneur, I think you got to be very organized, and there's a lot

of aspects that you have to know so your business can

become more solid and successful. Yeah, and

I definitely see that's how we met, through networking and that sort of thing.

And I do want to ask about that later, but first, how did

you get to the decision of wanting to leave the full time job that you

had to pursue this new opportunity? What was it that I guess

helped make that decision for you? I just was not

happy. I reached a point that I was not happy where I

was working. I noticed that it was affecting my

relationships, even with the people that I was working with,

it was a very stressful environment. I had to take on a lot

of work from a lot of individuals, and I had

to spend a lot of hours like work

overtime, and it just was not fulfilling

me. I was just more in a bad mood than in a

happy mood. And I was like, I just couldn't. I knew that

either I was going to have to either figure out how I was going to

open my own business or I definitely was going to have to look for another

job because I was just not happy. I've

always been a person who I just cannot

do the same thing over and over again. I

want more and more. And

where I work was an industry. As I mentioned earlier,

the company sells and recycles used tires, so let

alone it's already a men industry. I

wanted to potentially I had all the intentions to

become a salesperson, but I felt like they didn't take me serious because

I was a woman. And I said, well, okay, if I'm

not going to be a salesperson, then at least can I just move to

the accounting department? Because also, math

has always been one of my strengths. So I was like, well, I can just

do that. And no, there was no opportunity. There was no room

for me to grow. And so I just kind of hit a wall there. I'm

just like, this is not the place where I'm meant to be because I

want more. I want to show that I can do more.

And that just was it. I did everything

behind doors and put everything together for my

business, but I also left the company in good terms.

I know that if, God forbid, if I'll have to go

back, I'm sure they'll take me because I make sure that they had

someone to cover my position. I didn't open my

business when I was one. I really wanted to because essentially I

wanted them to have someone to replace me.

That was it. I was not happy. Yeah,

well that's awesome of you to be able to recognize that you wanted

more and then see the limitations that you had and people

not allowing you to grow the way that you wanted to and then leaving. I

think that's very admirable and a lot of people get stuck

in positions like that. I could say for me personally, I was

stuck in position kind of similar where you wanted to do more and

maybe the opportunities weren't there but then stayed there for too long

and before I realized it I was like, oh wow, six years had already

gone by and then making the decision. So I think it's admirable to

be able to recognize it and then move on to something else. And I think

this opportunity was something that lined up perfectly for you. And I did want to

ask a little bit more about franchises too, because I'm not really

familiar with them or how they work or can you tell me a little bit

about what the process is to open a location

and what sorts of resources they provide you and that sort of

thing? Sure. I'm very happy with the company that I

belong to. This franchise, it started as very

small. It's been around for five years now, ever since

CBD became legal in 2018. The founders never

even thought this was going to become a franchise. And it was just like

her and her husband, the couple opening their store and the

next thing you know, the sister and then the friend and then now

there's over like 500 stores in the whole country

and they do give a lot of support. When I joined,

I joined very early in the franchise.

So I want to say, in a way I got lucky because

there was no franchise fee. It was just

like you do, of

course buy the products. As a wholesaler,

I want to say it's nothing like when you get into other

franchises, the fee is

also a great thing. It's minimal because I know sometimes

Subway franchises have like, I want to say, 12% to

15% of

whatever you purchase your CBD store says on there

too. So it's very reasonable. And then you do have

to pay a franchise fee at the beginning.

But as time has gone by,

they are growing more as a company, and they'll give you

whatever resource they have. Their headquarters

in Florida, and if they have training that

they will give you as part of the process.

And you can travel there, travel to the headquarters at any

time. They will help you with whatever you need to just

put your store together and make sure that your store is

successful. That's awesome. And I didn't know this, honestly, I

didn't know this until I joined the

nonpreneurs program because you always

said, I'm sure if you're not going in the right path, if you don't

know what you're really doing as an entrepreneur,

things can easily get everywhere. You may feel like, oh my

God, what am I doing here? And

for the longest, I felt even kind of like afraid

to ask for help, to reach out to the franchise. I

felt embarrassed or ashamed of,

oh my God, what are they going to think? I'm not

honestly, I don't know why, but I don't

think about it like that anymore. Because reaching out to

them was actually very positive for my

business because I got to find out that I was

not alone, that they are more than willing to help.

Yeah, that's a huge lesson I've learned myself too,

especially since going full time with my business is getting

help from other people and not feeling like you have to know everything. I was

just having a conversation with somebody about this, about how at first I

thought I had to know everything and even with my clients acting like I

knew everything and then that making it so much more stressful for

me and actually doing what I'm trying to do. Whereas if you're just upfront

and honest and say when you don't know something and like, oh, well, I'll

look into that, but I don't know the answer, it makes things so much easier,

it seems. And then I guess that leads us perfectly into

the question of networking and when did you start networking and

why is networking so important to you?

Yeah, so I like this question. Of course. I listened

to your podcast and I noticed something interesting, how you

mentioned that 2021 was not a good year for you. And I

have to say the same thing for me, 2021 was not a good year for

me. It was very dark. I opened my business in 2000 and

November 2019, but then COVID came.

I also got pregnant. My daughter was in 20. Well, she was

born in 2020. I became a single

mom. So I had to still trying to grow

a business and being a mom, then

turned into a single mom. And all these challenges that I

had that I was facing business and personal wise,

I remember that

towards the end of 2021

and actually beginnings of

2022, during

2021, I did get introduced to networking

by a few members here in town, in North Haven. And

honestly, in 2021, I didn't even feel capable of being able to do the

networking. I was, like, in a bubble. I was like, I don't know if I

can do this. Like, having to talk to people

throughout my transition and everything, I kind of lost the sense of

who I was, and there was just a lot going

on. But I still did it,

little bit of it. And in 2022 is when

I found out about Known. And

then also I joined the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, and

I got very serious, and I started making

more serious commitment to attend. I

remember attending Known just via Zoom, because at

the time, they had virtual networking. And since

I couldn't leave my business because I was working at full

time, one of my therapists actually was the one that

guided me to Known. And she you know, Vanessa, they have

virtual networking, so start there, and then they also

have in person networking. And when you get a one,

maybe one day you close the store and then you go there and see what

happens. And I am telling you, between Known and the

Chamber of Commerce, it was a game changer for

me, the boost of confidence. I got out of the bubble,

and I'm like, I never saw myself capable of doing this. But

now I truly enjoy making connections.

It is part of myself, my

personality. And it's so important when it comes

to you're, not by yourself, you have to make the

connection, so that way you can start opening different

doors. And also you get to connect with the community,

which is one of my really number one

goals for this year, is to try to see how much more

difference I can make into the community. I try to make the difference in

the community with my business as far as educating the

community about CBD, because there's a big stigma

between CBD and THC. A lot of people think that

CBD gets them high. So what I do is I go into the community

and I educate the community. It's impactful.

It's very rewarding to be able that you can make those connections and

also connect with the community. To me, it's very

rewarding. And what would you say to somebody

who maybe wants to get out there or maybe like an older version of

yourself who's maybe afraid to put themselves out there and to go to a

networking event where they don't know anybody? What piece of advice would you give

to them? Well, they can reach out to me.

They can reach out to me. Perhaps find a friend that does

it. I mean, I have a friend that did it for me, and it's Elizabeth.

She was very fearful, didn't know what to

do. And she said, oh, she noticed that I was attending. She's like, do you

mind if I go with you? There was not something that

she saw herself capable of doing. So I would recommend

to find someone that

you know that is doing it, that is friend of yours.

And then as far as I know, it sounds

very hard because I have to deal

with it. But you have to put yourself

definitely on uncomfortable situations to get comfortable. You got

to get uncomfortable to get comfortable. So just search

online. If you don't have a friend, maybe just search or find your

local chamber of commerce and talk to them.

Allow them to tell you what is all the whole chamber of

commerce all about. Attend one of their business after hours

and then just go there. And then when you get exposed to a

networking, just try to at least make one connection.

Talk about work or talk about

personal interest and it takes one person. Then you

add two and then three. And then next thing you will

slowly become comfortable because you will see the

results and how helpful it is

for your personal life and your business life.

Yeah, I definitely agree with getting uncomfortable to get comfortable and

to just kind of start somewhere.

This is a funny story. I remember going to a networking event one

time and then driving to it and getting to the parking lot and seeing that

it was packed and there wasn't any place to park. And I was like, I

don't really want to go anyways. And then I drove by, and I was going

to go home, and I was like, what are you like, you drove? Like, just

turn around, go back so that I turned around, found a spot to park, and

then I went in, and then I was glad that I went, and I was

like, that's so it why did I do that?

Listen, I am a very bubble person now. I feel like I'm a

butterfly. A lot of people say that, but I still have

my moments where I'm like, okay, Vanessa, I think you're like an

introvert and an extrovert at the same time because

sometimes it happens as much as

I know have much more connections now. When I go to a place

and I get into a certain place but there's a lot of people,

all of a sudden I start freaking out. I'm like, maybe this

is too much for me today, but

at least if I make one connection even if you just make one

connection but there's other times. Sometimes

if there's more people that I know, then I find it like I feel more

comfortable where I'm okay with this group of people and

I'm going to approach another group of people. It's just sometimes

depending, I don't know if it's because it's a girly thing, hormonal

thing. Some days I'm like, let's take the world

and I'm going to take over. And then some days I'm like,

okay, I got to take it easy and let's see what

happens. I did want to ask you about

CBD specifically and give you the time to

educate people on here in a short little version of

why CBD could be helpful to your mental health and that sort of thing.

Okay, no problem. So CBD stands out for

cannabidiol, and it's a compound that comes from the hemp

plant, which is a cannabis plant different from the marijuana.

It's just more of a baby stages. And CBD

is a non psychoactive compound, so it doesn't get you

high, but it is very beneficial for your

health. It has a lot of benefits, us humans and

pets. We are born with a system that is called the

endocannabinoid system. And I usually use the ECS

just to make it shorter and easier. And our

ECS system is made out of receptors, so our body is actually made out of

receptors. We have receptors everywhere in our body. And

our body naturally creates endocannabinoids, which are

signals that are sent through these receptors. And this is how our

receptors communicate. But what happens is as we start

aging or if we hit certain circumstances

in life, our body goes into like a shock

mode and it's unable to produce the right amount of

endocannabinoids. So it causes an internal

imbalance. When you introduce CBD,

whether you are doing it topically or you are ingesting it, which is

the best way what the CBD is going to

do as a compound, it's going to bind with these receptors

and it's going to encourage your body to produce the

right amount of endocannabinoids. I always tell everyone it's like that

gasoline that your car needs to keep running. That's what CBD

is. And it's just going to encourage your body to produce

what's not producing or and to function the way it's

supposed to. Since 2018, there's been a lot of

research done in regards to how CBD interacts with your

ECS system. And it has been found that our ECS

system is the main system responsible to regulate

inflammation, sleep, anxiety,

blood sugar levels, hormone levels, you name it.

So when the consumers come in here and they want to try

CBD, I always like to remind everyone, when you take

CBD, it's going to target all those areas and more.

So the benefits are numerous. And again, it

doesn't get you high. Yeah, I think that's the biggest

misconception that people have. I also do

want to ask you, you mentioned that you go to therapy and I'm a big

proponent of therapy. I also go to therapy. And what sort of role

do you think mental health has in the role of your business and being

able to make decisions for your business? Yeah, I

think I can also say I'm also more mindful of

my thoughts. I still am working on them, on my

thoughts, because it's not easy when things are not going

how you expect them to be. It's easy to just

go to that route of you take thinking

negatively also being more gentle with

myself. And believe it or not,

therapy has been also very good at setting boundaries

because even with customers, you have to set boundaries. I am a

woman and sometimes I am very

nice. I really enjoy making the connections with

my customers. But sometimes not for nothing, sometimes some

males will come here and then I'm nice, and then they

think that it's just something else. So

I've been trying to work on

setting those boundaries because I do have a hard

time just setting certain boundaries.

And as our friend Barbara say, even

in work, even in business, you have to set

boundaries. You have to know how to set boundaries. So I've been focusing on that.

But it's also very nice to go to therapy and have someone to

talk to because I

sometimes don't have the time to talk to certain things.

Like my mom is she's my biggest supportive, but

at the same time, I cannot talk to her about

anything because it's like what they call that? It's a

sore.

Sword. Yeah, it's a double edged sword.

It's nice to have my therapist where if there's anything that is stressing

me out or that I'm going through, I can talk to her. And

then definitely she allows me to see things in a different

perspective and get into the right path and not go into

that negative thinking.

Yeah, it's nice. I like to do it. Yeah. Boundaries

is definitely something I've also been trying to learn with the help of Barb

as well. I interviewed her and we had a whole conversation about

boundaries, and she is so shout out to

Barb. Yeah. I did want to ask you, as

we're kind of winding down here, what are some things that you do to keep

learning or to keep educating yourself about business

and anything else that you're interested in? I

like to read a lot of the articles online

and also one of my goals

for this year is to try to read

more. Reading is not something that is my strength.

I have to just omit it. But

I do need to get more into it. I was recommending some

books for business, for Growth, Business and

then Personal, and those seems to be the ones that I like

the most. I couldn't say, like, I'm like fiction, science fiction.

Like, I'm just not wrong to none of that. Anything

that it allows me to grow as a person or for. I

can expand my business. I'm

trying to read more. And also another

good thing is that the franchise gives me enough tools.

Every time there's a new product or there's a new

invention, they always give us enough tools for us to

educate ourselves. So that's what I do. That's what I do

currently. That's great. Yeah. I'm also not

the fastest reader, I would say. I have like a stack of books that I'm

trying to read. I read the titles or somebody recommends them to

me and I buy them. But I'm a slow reader but

working on getting a little bit faster. I was talking to a friend yesterday

and she said, just do the audiobooks. And I think I'm just going to have

to give it a shot because sometimes it's

so hard for me to get the time of where I'm just

holding the book while I have all the things to do. But

I think listening to it, I'm hoping that that will

allow me to speed up the process.

Yeah, it has for me a little bit in some ways. I've noticed there's some

books that I could do that and then some books doesn't work as well.

But I definitely recommend trying it for sure because it's definitely a lot

faster. So

can you define success for me in your own terms? Because I think

sometimes success can mean so many different things and I think it's important

to figure out what it means to you. So how would you define it?

I want to say that success

takes a lot of discipline. There have to be a lot of disciplines.

I also success has behind success, there's

goals and at the end of the day,

to me, success is doing what you love

to do, doing something that you're passionate about it

and connecting, having the right team with

you, the right people, and just keeping that

motivation going. I don't think I'm going to elaborate so, so much

on my success. I think I'm going to keep it at that

just more simple. Yeah. I

think if you do what you love and

you push yourself to do what you love,

then there will be success behind it.

Yeah. And then something also that you said earlier too, is that you didn't really

like doing the same thing every day. I've noticed that for me, that's part

of my success is being able to do new things all the time and learning

and keeping my brain active. Because in previous

jobs I definitely noticed getting into a

routine and then shutting my brain off and not having to think about things and

not liking that. Because for me, that's when time just

went by and I didn't even notice, oh, two years just went by. It's

like, what happened? I feel like I didn't do anything.

Yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense. I can totally relate to that.

Totally. Even here in my business, I'm still always like, I'm already

thinking about I'm continuing

my jewelry business. I am going to also bring that,

expand that as much as I can. And my mind keeps

racing. Like, what else can I do? And I think that's when you become

an entrepreneur and if you really enjoy it and you're serious

about it, going back to nine to five

is not an option. I agree.

So, yeah, as we're coming to a close here, I wanted

to give you a chance to let people. Connect with you if they want to

and where can they reach you. Also, what are your store hours

and can they find your jewelry in your store too as well?

Give us all the details about how to find you. Absolutely.

So we are on Instagram. We're on

Facebook on Instagram. We are at your CBD

store, North Haven, CT. We are

open six days a week. We are located at

75 Washington Avenue, North Haven,

Connecticut, next to subway. I always like to make sure

so that people don't have a hard time finding us. If you just see the

subway, we're right next to it. And yes,

my jewelry, I'm having it here in my store at the moment. And I

am also working to start reaching out to my connections

to my other business owners and see how I can maybe,

perhaps bring it to their spaces and see

where that goes against. More benefits from

networking and it's having those people to reach out to.

Yes, absolutely. And it's so rewarding to

be able to help each other out. I'm not

the only one who struggles as a business

owner. All of us do in this

journey. Well said. Well said. Well, thank you so much

for your time and for telling us your story. And

I wish you the best in the future with your CBD store, your jewelry

company, and everything else that you do.

Likewise. Cheeto, I know I don't know if you're going to add this, but

thank you so much. This has been a lovely opportunity and I am

so excited for you. I'm glad that you know

that I can see some episodes and I wish you the best and then

I'll see you soon. Thank you so much. We'll see you soon.

Thanks for tuning in and listening to Working towards our purpose.

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