Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jen Moreno. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jen, thanks for joining us today. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style.

It was the beginning of 2009 and my year sure got off to a rocky start. I was in my second year at a community college, working 2-3 jobs, going to school full-time, and heavily involved at church at the time. Even though I was young and could keep up with everything that was going on, I was one straw away from completely demolishing the camel’s back. I knew something had to give, but I just couldn’t step away from anything at the time. As the universe would have it, my grandfather passed suddenly and the facade I had built up around me came crumbling down.

It wasn’t even my grandfather’s death that did it. My phone was stolen while I was at his funeral. I had stepped away to the bathroom and when I came back, it was gone. My phone was my connection to everything, I was constantly on the go and my phone allowed me to keep everything in check no matter where I was. I was suddenly left without a connection to my world and I was forced to stand still. The disruption of the following few days while I reported my phone and waited for a new one caused a ripple that ended up taking years to recover from.

It was all suddenly too much for me to manage. I stepped back from church and gave up one of my jobs. Out of everything I had going on, school was the most important thing for me at the time and so I wanted to refocus. Or so I thought.

With all my newfound time I decided to try to add more classes to my already packed schedule. The problem? It was already a few weeks into the semester, way past the enrollment deadline, the class I was trying to sign up for was for internship credit and I didn’t even have an internship lined up. No matter I thought. I marched on and set out to convince the professor to let me add the class.

As luck would have it, a personal contact of hers was looking for an intern, and it just so happened to be in my field of study: Journalism.

The internship was for the San Diego Union-Tribune. I was ecstatic! Here I was studying journalism and now I was going to be interning at the U-T! I couldn’t believe it! My few weeks of what seemed like endless bad luck and hard decisions were finally turning around, or so I thought.

The first few weeks of my internship were pretty standard. I met everyone I would be working with on the Community & Public Relations team, all four of them lol. It was the main director, two staff, and one other intern. This department dealt with all community events and partnerships/sponsorships. It was a lot of trading ad space for event perks and such. I wasn’t going to be writing but I would get to check out local events so I still thought it was a win.

In addition to this, there was a weekly radio show that was produced and I would be helping on that as well. I basically made sure the mics were working, everyone could be heard, and then pressed record and then stop. Not incredibly exciting but you couldn’t tell me any different, I was at the U-T! A few weeks in I was even told that instead of doing tech, I could actually produce one of the shows. Man oh man was I excited.

I began to settle into my routine, two days working out of the South Bay location and Fridays at the main location. I had been on committees for Cinco de Mayo events, attending meetings with successful business women, and was going to be working at the Del Mar Fair, I was living the intern life floating around on my little cloud of make-believe.

In reality, I was ignoring school assignments, and skipping most of my classes, including the internship class that only met once a week. I think I ended up failing every class that semester EXCEPT the internship class.

Somewhere along the line, a few months into my internship, the U-T had massive layoffs. The project manager I had been working alongside for months, was one of them. I felt horrible for her and the countless others who had been given their pink slips. But if I’m being honest, I also immediately thought about my internship. what did this mean for me, would I be allowed to continue on without the woman I had been working with, what would happen to all the contracts that were in progress, or what about the events that had not yet happened?

We continued on as if nothing would change. I would keep working with Yvonne until she left and I was welcome to stay on after if I wanted. I was enjoying the internship for the most part, so why not? The second intern was an exchange student and would be leaving soon so it would just be the North County Project Director and myself continuing on for the South Bay.

I don’t remember how long the laid-off employees had between the notification they would be laid off and then it actually happening, but I don’t think it was immediate. Who knows, I could be misremembering.

At some point, the director ended up asking me if I would be willing to take on most of Yvonne’s role. I was familiar with it, had already met most of the community members she had been working with and could ensure the transition was smooth.

I was over the moon.

Since it was still an internship that I was doing for credit, I contacted the professor. Partly for advice but mostly so I could ensure I could still continue on in the internship even if I did not sign up for the class again.

She had heard about the layoffs directly from Yvonne and assumed like I initially did, that the internship would come to an end once she was gone or the semester was over, whichever came first. I told her about what I had been offered and the first thing she asked is if they were going to pay me. As in money. Like what?! I had been getting all these perks along the way and hey, there was still the radio show I was promised I could produce, why would I even care about money? This is an internship after all! I’m doing it for experience, right?!

She said that unless they were going to pay me for taking over Yvonne’s responsibilities, I had to decline.

WHAT! Was she crazy? How was I going to decline this awesome opportunity? Yeah, sure I wouldn’t get paid, but I would have the experience to gloat over. Who else in my position could say they had that? Free tickets to the Del Mar Fair, and tamales at one of the local events!!!! Did this woman know what she was telling me to say no to!

I didn’t agree at all. I felt like she was robbing me of this extraordinary experience that would take me far in my career. I hadn’t even transferred schools yet and already had this amazing internship, I could only go up from here. Why was she being so greedy and inconsiderate? She taught an internship class after all, how was she going to tell me to end my internship?

Deep down, I knew she was right.

I held off on making a decision for as long as I could. But if I was being realistic, the weekly drives to Mission Valley and Del Mar from Chula Vista were already weighing heavily on my wallet.

Had that professor not advised me, I would have extended the internship without even so much as a second thought. I most likely would have never been offered an actual position. She advocated for me without me even realizing it, as she had probably done for other countless students who came before me.

As students or those without experience, we are told that it’s important to get your foot in the door and after a while, we will be rewarded for our hard work. And as someone who doesn’t know any better, you believe it. Yes, experience is important, but so is your time. Value it.

All these years later, I still appreciate what the professor did for me and what it taught me. It’s important to have someone in your corner who is going to advocate for you. It may not seem like the right decision for you at that time, but other things will come along. And if you don’t have someone in your corner, do it for yourself. Advocate for yourself, as a person, as a business owner, employee, in every single aspect of your life.

I always thought the U-T was doing me the favor by having me on the inside, I skipped all these steps and got my foot in the door without any experience. But, in the end, it was the other way around. They needed me a bit more than I needed them. And to think, they would have gotten a replacement for absolutely next to nothing.

So even now, all these years later, I have to remember to advocate for myself. I can say no even if I don’t want to, not everything is going to be for me and that is a-ok.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jen and I design websites.

Or at least, that’s what I tell everyone. In reality, what I do is so much more than that.

I work with local businesses in any technical area they made need help with in getting their business and/or brand out there. Every business is different and as a result, every single one of its needs is going to differ. There is no one-size-fits-all for successful businesses. While a heavy social media presence may work for one business, it may not work for another.

My clients have ranged from dance instructors to hospitality companies, to surgeons, to tutors, to drop shippers. Each of those clients’ needs varied wildly from the other. If they needed help setting up a professional email address, I can help. If they needed infographics, business cards, or newsletters designed, I can help with that. If they need an e-commerce that only ships to California on weekends every third blue month of a new century, I can help with that too.

So while I do design websites, I also do so much more.

One of the things I pride myself on is knowledge. Every client I take on, I try to teach them about what I’m doing, why it’s needed, and how it is supposed to help. Not everyone is tech-savvy, if they were, they wouldn’t need me.

But I want these clients to be able to take what I’ve done for them and not be tied down to me simply so I can capitalize on any future needs they may have. I have seen so many people come to me and not have a single clue as to what they paid someone for, where their site is hosted, if they even own their domain, or what their passwords even are.

As someone who is very technical, it would be so much easier to simply do everything for someone and tell them not to worry about it. But that doesn’t help the client in any sort of way. If I purchased a domain for someone under my account to save some time, but then that business blows up ten-fold, what is the client going to do when they realize they don’t even own the domain, but their tech person does? I could decide not to renew it and there goes all that traffic. I could redirect it so any traffic that does come in, goes anywhere I want it to. Or I could decide to sell it to the highest bidder.

Which side note, some people actually do this and I think it’s absolutely uncalled for.

As a small business owner, I understand the struggle of getting going and all I want is for my clients to be able to walk away from me with all the knowledge, ownership, and tools in their hands to be able to pick up 10 years down the line with a completely new webmaster without so much as a hiccup.

Knowledge is power, and I’m not going to keep everything to myself just so I can make a few extra bucks. Every call I have, I tell the business owner everything they need to know, even if they don’t end up hiring me. At least this way, they can go in to their next meeting knowing they cant be steered in the wrong direction.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

To put their needs before my profits.

In the six years, I have been in business, I have paid for advertising one time only. I think it was only a couple of dollars and it was a Square campaign that I ran on Instagram, more so to see what it would look like than for actual prospects.

Almost every single client I have worked with has been through word-of-mouth. I’m not going to sit here and say my work is spectacular or truly out-of-this-world, or that I’m the best at what I do. Because the truth is, the market is oversaturated and there are people out there who may be better, may be worse, or may be just about the same as I am.

But I do try my best to ensure that my clients’ needs are met, even the ones they haven’t fully anticipated.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In the six years since I have been in business, I have moved five times.

As each place got more expensive, I would hear over and over again about how I should “get a real job” or maybe even something stable in the meantime, or part-time.

Close friends would send me job listings or tell me about someone whom they knew that was hiring.

Family would ask if I could run their errands during the day since I was “working from home.”

Acquaintances would ask how business was when in reality they were just asking if I had given up yet.

Starting and growing a business is not for the faint of heart. Doubt will come from all sides, including internally.

I know everyone meant well, but it still stung to think that they didn’t think I could make it.

I kept at it because I had to. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I’d love to say that everyone’s doubt fueled me even more, but it didn’t lol. It had me laying on the couch, frozen in doubt, doing mental gymnastics wondering where I could adjust my budget to ensure I could make rent.

My best friend once told me something along the lines of me taking the leap without even knowing if or where I’ll land. Each time, I’ve bumped into a lot of branches on the way down, but I’ve always managed to land on my feet. Hell, I’ve done it so many times now that I’ve often wondered what in the world is wrong with me, why do I have so much faith that everything will eventually work out?! At what point will I stop blindly jumping? Lol

But it’s probably best that I couldn’t see where I’d land with my business venture. If I had known I would be ok, I probably wouldn’t have tried so hard to succeed. If I had known that I was going to flop, I probably wouldn’t have made it past the first year.

I’m happy to report that I haven’t jumped in a while, and in fact, if I were to at this point in time, I could finally say that at least I’m prepared with a parachute and can enjoy my way down instead of crashing into everything along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://onlineconcoctions.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jendmoreno/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/online-concoctions-la-mesa

Image Credits
Tony Amat