Faces of Small Business

This week in the studio we had fun learning more about the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce with Brian Griffin (president) and Ben Vetter (Director of Membership)! Established in 1889, the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce has long been committed to the economic vitality of Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Weston, Westport, and Wilton. The Greater Norwalk Chamber continually works to grow and enhance local business, providing beneficial programs, services and opportunities to its members, so that they in turn can enhance and grow their business.

This week we had a great chat with Mike Moreno, co-founder of Much More Media. In Mike's words: "I’m a creator and strategist with a love for great stories, technology, and content marketing. My wife can attest that I am part of the 15% that watch video content with the sound on, thank you very much. I’ve been a storyteller since I was a tiny human when I first started work as an actor, and I even did stand up comedy at some of the best LA comedy clubs *as a preteen. Now, you can find me here helping business owners tell their stories through great content, guided by the right strategy for them. My first foray in the online space was building The Actor CEO Podcast, where I teach actors how to treat their acting careers like a business – often using content marketing – where I’ve got 40K+ downloads."

This week I had the honor of interviewing Russ from Onsite Shredding. We created the Faces of Small Business Podcast as a platform to interview the CEOs and entrepreneurs who really matter - small business owners. The US economy runs on the backs of small privately held businesses, we should be talking more about that.

This week we had the pleasure of chatting with Indigo, one of the founders of Oops I Ate My CBD. We talked about what it's like to be in the CBD space: “It’s been hard to navigate what you are allowed to do / what you are supposed to do as an owner as a company because regulations aren’t really regulations, they’re what you’re supposed to do." “Even though someone says it’s within the legal limit [THC content in CBD / Hemp products], it could be above it because they’re not providing the information. I think transparency is key in this industry and it’s lacking.” And also what it's like to be a young entrepreneur: “It’s ok to fail because it’s gonna happen, and it happens to everyone even if you aren’t an entrepreneur. Its how you recover from your failures. If you just wallow you will get nowhere. Failing is ok, and it’s a part of getting better, and a part of being successful.” "The biggest challenge is everyone, especially millennial's, are all for doing their own thing, and they one everyone to fit into their box of what they want to do. So it’s kind of hard when everyone is trying to do the same thing or do something completely separate and there’s not a lot of support behind it. You have to find a good support system and just go at it."

This week we're talking to Will and Nate Kelly from Kelly's Four Plus Granola here in Norwalk, CT about small business and what its like to be a leader in a privately held business!