We were lucky to catch up with Denesha Cuneo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Denesha, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Well back in 2018-19, I was working as a registered dialysis nurse. I was tirelessly getting up at 3-4 o-clock in the morning to be at work by 5 am. More times than not we were short staffed and each day was usually 10-14 hour work day.

Early on during this job I had a work event in Denver, Colorado for training and ironically I was randomly paired up as roommates with my now business partner. She explained the business but I brushed her off, thinking “I’m well enough off as a nurse, I don’t need another source of income.” Boy, was I wrong!

Fast forward to 2021 I’m still working as a dialysis nurse and I am pregnant with my first daughter, M’Kaylee. My plan was to work till the very last minute of my pregnancy. However, God had other plans. This pregnancy was really rough on my body. I suffered with preterm labor, gestational hypertension, a torn pelvic ligament and depression all while handling the normal day to day sickness and pains that come with pregnancy. I lacked any type of support from my employer. In May of 2021 I had been medically pulled from work before my due date in August. If I had continued to push myself to appease my boss, they would have happily worked me into a miscarriage or worse. I was overworked, unappreciated and burned out. However, I was bringing life into the world soon. My husband and I were both in the medical field. Even still, we looked at our finances and saw something had to give. Even with two “Good” paying jobs there wasn’t enough to take care of the bills and pay for day care so that we could continue to work to make more money. We needed more security and a lot more flexibility with now becoming parents. It was an extremely stressful time. Jobs preach work/life balance but when it came down to it in my situation, I was just a warm body. Especially during this pandemic time.

I have always told myself I didn’t want to work for someone else long term but I didn’t have a definitive plan on how or what type of business I was going to start. Being six months pregnant, I didn’t have the luxury of waiting several years before I ever saw a profit in my business. I needed the financial freedom, time freedom and a complete mental break.

So I reached out to my now business partner. I was living pay check to pay check so I saved up the money I needed to cover the start up of my business. I submitted my notice and started my business right after I gave birth. Even though I’ve had my previous employers reach out and offer more money and status since I gave my notice, I never looked back. My freedom and mental health is too expensive, and Corporate America can’t afford me.

I was operating off pure faith but I knew in my heart there was better. I wanted a life of comfort not chaos. There was nothing more liberating than turning in my notice. Choosing my physical and emotional health set me on my now path to show others how you can make a living, be a business owner and have peace in life. I show people you don’t have to come from a family of millionaires and entrepreneurs to be one yourself. Nor will it cost you thousands of dollars to start and maintain. It’s the best of both worlds!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I go by Dee for short. I am a 27 year old registered nurse and travel business owner. I got into the travel industry by way of a co worker at the time. I wasn’t in a great spot. I was experiencing my first pregnancy, depression, exhaustion and financially struggling to make ends meet. Becoming a business owner solved a lot of my problems. My problems of time, money and mental peace. I get to help people plan and experience their most important moments while making memories. I am trained to handle any kind of travel (cruises, resorts, birthdays, anniversaries, hotels etc). But my niches would be large groups, cruises, lupus travelers and LGBTQIA travel. I have taken the time to earn my certifications and specialize in the areas I love. The other side of the business coin is I get to help create other entrepreneurs and help them achieve the goal of being an amazing business owner too.

I believe what sets me apart as a business owner is the same thing that set me apart as a nurse, my heart. I put my everything into anything I do. No detail is too small.

I am most proud of my resilience and faith. It can be scary to start a business and go against the grain. However, the most amazing things align outside of your comfort zone. That’s what I want people to see and know about me. That my heart was full of love, fearlessness and passion. I want to reframe the worlds traditional stereotypes on business ownership and teach people to reclaim their life!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my social media presence through consistency and transparency. I post the things important to me. Mental motivation that someone may need to hear that day, family pictures, my daughters milestones, date nights, my own personal travel, etc. I let the internet get to know me, my strengths and struggles. People want real and relatable. Genuine and authentic. So continue to consistently show the real, unapologetic version of you. A person in the infant stages of building a social media presence may feel like their product or service isn’t viral material but keep posting! Your vibe attracts your tribe.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My first pregnancy holds a special weight in my heart. My husband and I had already been trying to conceive for over two years with no luck. We were going to make an appointment to see a fertility doctor but four days before Christmas i found out I was pregnant. I was having sharp pains in my pelvic region which spawned the thought maybe I should take a test because what if it was an ectopic pregnancy with the pain I was feeling. Something felt off. I went to the hospital during covid time so my husband had to stay in the car because he couldn’t come in with me. So I just found out I was pregnant, feeling pain and a nervous wreck in the hospital alone. It was unnerving. The pain I was feeling were cysts, which later ended up being Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS. Throughout my pregnancy several symptoms were ignored because it was my first pregnancy. Late in my second trimester I switched providers because was worried. I dealt with gestational hypertension, pre term labor, torn pelvic ligament, and depression. I was in labor for 40+ hours. I experienced my first medical racial injustice postpartum. The maltreatment from my postpartum nurse could have cost me my life but I continued to fight. I caught covid while in the hospital recovering and that slowed down my healing process tremendously. I went home from the hospital with a week old baby, weak, exhausted, fever ridden, low blood pressure, a covid positive spouse and scared. Several months went by and I never fully felt like I recovered from having a baby. I know postpartum can be hard in itself getting adjusted to all the newness but this level of exhaustion felt worse than normal. So I went to be evaluated closer. I was then diagnosed with Lupus. It was a worrisome diagnosis because with the nature of lupus, this was going to be a life long challenge. I process the last year of my life and I continued to get up everyday to show up for myself. I followed the serenity prayer and I handled the things I could control. Every day is a new discovery like learning about eating better food, exercising, getting enough sleep, flare up triggers, bodily limits etc. Throughout all of this, i made sure that when it came to Nexus Jet Setter LLC, it was business as usual. While this was a time in my life that required me to be most resilient, I don’t resent it because it showed me I am made of the strongest and malleable materials God had in his toolbox. I pray, work and wait. I let God handle the rest.

Contact Info:

• Website: Nexusjetsetter.com
• Instagram: Shae_regality
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denesha.cuneo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dee-cuneo-113705176

Image Credits
Calvin Cole