We recently connected with Danielle Blanton and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

I frequently find myself wishing that I would have began my entrepreneurial journey earlier. I was thirty the year our brick and mortar opened in 2017, and at the time it felt perfectly timed, and perhaps it was. Prior to taking the leap I had spent ten years in the bartending/service industry and had finally made the move to financial services to get out of nightime work. I felt like this would be the resolution to a lot of my problems but quikcly realized that it was not for me, and I was absolutely miserable. I hated the rigidty of that portion of the corporate world, and mainly working for someone else while feeling like I had no flexibility with my time or control over my career growth, so getting out was high priority for me. As our business took flight and eventually began to grow, several other business opportunities began to spring up as a result. This is when I definitely began to wonder what it would have been like had we had the resources and guts to do it before then. I stay 50/50 on if it would have actually been beneficial or not, if we would have been mature enough, appreciated it enough, etc. Having more time in the game prior to the Covid shutdowns could have potentially given us a better position leading up, but it also could have not. That one is absolutely a huge what if! It’s easy to sit on this side of the fence and wish we could have taken the leap sooner so we could be farther in our careers now, however some lessons are best learned when the universe presents them to us!

Danielle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Sometimes I feel like I need a flow chart to best describe what I do! At present, I co-own two coffee shops (Local Roots Coffee in Kernersville, and Core Coffee Shop in High Point), a handmade low tox candle business (Ahimsa Candle Co), and a small business consulting firm (The Business Builders NC). I also currently hold the position of Director of Operations for Carolina Core Wellness, a wellness & adjacent services facility located in High Point. I am an RYT-500 and previously owned and operated my own yoga studio in Kernersville. I have a million spider webbing passions that roll off all of the aforementioned businesses such as mental health advocation, whole person wellness, web and digital design, content creation and marketing services, helping other business owners get started and succeed, and many more. How did I get started? I finally got tired of punching a clock for other people and performing tasks that didn’t align with my true purposes and left me unfufilled! My close friend and I both shared this place in life and decided it was time to make a change: when Local Roots Coffee was born. I had began the candle business the year prior, mainly as a side hustle to supplement additional income I needed after making low wages working for a bank, and saw the possibilities as an entrepreneur there first. When my partner and I decided to go for it, I knew I could grow that business while beginning the new one, and went for it. From there it’s been history. Every couple of years I get stable enough in what I’ve been doing, to add something else into the mix as I gain new skills or interests. I feel like each business I begin serves people differently in the details, but the overview is wholey the same: make people feel seen, supported, comforted, and serve others in whatever way they need when I meet them where they are. That has always been my ultimate goal in any venture I take on. How and where can I help? The coffee shops are special to me as I have always felt like coffee shops are bars with the alcohol removed, they are places where people go on good days and bad days alike, knowing they will be received with whatever they need. We’ve gotten to share some of the best times and worst times with our regulars, from their side and ours. There’s nothing that can beat the bond that a community shares with their local coffee shop. The candle business I began to provide a better quality and lower tox solution to all the popular Bath and Body Works, Target, & Yankee Candle options out there full of allergens and hormone disruptors. When I found out the guidelines on what it takes to call some of these lines “clean” by modern standards, I knew I could provide something people could feel better about breathing in their homes. I got YTT certified as a personal hobby, and once I completed it I realized it was something I wanted to share with the world. After teaching for a while, I felt like it was time to open my own studio where I could invite in like minded instructors and create a “come as you are” atmosphere that was definitely lacking in our area. Many studios had become incredibly snooty, and places where many didn’t feel welcome or included, and that was my primary passion in changing what that landscape looked like in our area. When I was approached to become the Director of Operations for CCW, I had spent a couple of years reflecting on what I wanted my next steps in business to look like. Some of my businesses were growing, one had closed, and I realized that my skill set had evolved beyond starting and maintaining businesses, but I had no idea what that could look like in the future. This position gave me the space and grace to realize that my passion for people and business had led me to be really sucessful and skilled at identifying problems and sourcing solutions to these problems, and everything that comes with that. I feel like what sets me apart in anything I do is the same principle I begin everything with:what can I do to help people?

Have you ever had to pivot?

Last year I had to shutdown my yoga studio after a myriad of issues. This was the first time since I became an entrepreneur that something hadn’t worked, despite my best efforts, and I felt like a failure. The location I had chosen was undergoing construction, and the unit next to mine was the primary area undergoing renovations which caused me signifcant disruptions in business due to constant noise, pollutants and harsh fumes funneling into my space, lack of parking because of all the construction vehicles and many more issues. I had reached out to our building owner, my landlord, the contractors and anyone who would listen and received no help. In the process, my sister passed away and the little bit of fight I had in me to keep going and try to identify a solution was gone, and I had to accept defeat and contact an attorney to help mitigate my losses and help me out of an unfair situation. The whole time I felt like if I just suffered long enough, or worked harder, or sacrificed more it would work, and it just didn’t. It took me a long time to realize that I had done the best I could, and that sometimes things just don’t work despite us doing everything we can. Closing it down was so significantly sad, however, closing it down ended up being a blessing in disguise as shortly thereafter it allowed me to have the time to accept the new role of DOO down the road, something I never would have had time for had it not happened.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We’ve always been deeply engrained in our community from day one. We worked our shop for three years before hiring any full time employees so it was us nearly every day. Our kids were in school in the community, we were involved with local government, we did several fundraisers a year for local organizations and individuals. People were able to really get to know us and see who we were and what we were about, and that continued with every business after it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carolinacorewellness.com. www.ordercorecoffee.com, www.yourcorestore.com, www.stillspasuites.com, www.ahimsa-candle-co.square.site
• Instagram: localrootscoffee_, your_core_store, ahimsacandle_co, carolinacorewellness, corecoffeeshop_nc
• Linkedin: Danielle Blanton

Image Credits
Sarah Coppley Photography