We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Veronica Castillo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Veronica below.

Hi Veronica, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2018 I quit my job, sold and/or packed my things, jumped into my car, and headed toward the west coast. This was the journey to becoming the Traveling Cannabis Writer. I gave up comfort and stability to pursue my dreams of being a writer that traveled the country living out of a suitcase.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

My name is Vee, and I am the Traveling Cannabis Writer from Miami. Since 2018, I have traveled the country in the name of cannabis- visiting, touring, and getting to know people who have been healing us through cannabis since before legalization. I live on the road doing this and contributing my stories to many publications- both digital and print. Many of these are top industry magazines/blogs/publications.

I’ve received many blessings while on that journey: with multiple columns; I’m a columnist for a major canna industry news source, I’m an equity partner to a major industry publisher, I am Bud and Breakfast Travel Partner & Writer/Reviewer (Bud and Breakfast is the largest cannabis lodging and experience travel network), and in all of this I like to focus much of my work on black/ brown/ and woman owned businesses.

I am the first cannabis industry writer to have traveled to and covered every region, corner, and coast of the U.S cannabis industry.

If you’re not familiar with my work- here is a nice start to where you can find my work: https://www.google.com/search?q=veronica+castillo+traveling+cannabis+writer&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS852US852&oq=vero&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j46i433i512j69i59j69i60l3.2194j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

I provide a variety of writing and content creation serivces for businesses/publications and always have cool sponsorship opportunities for businesses/brands that need to be seen by the cannabis community and industry.

My pen is known to operate intentionally and passionately for the BIPOC plant community. I specialize in making sure that BIPOC owned in cannabis is consistently seen in headlines.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I am very vocal and very proud to use my pen to serve black/brown/ and woman owned in cannabis. When I travel around the country, I never hide that I am traveling to cover a black/brown/and/or woman owned business. My headlines always promote black/brown/bipoc/woman owned, my social media posts always promote black/brown/bipoc/woman owned, my pitches to publications always promote, black/brown/bipoc/woman owned, working with me means supporting my mission to always promote black/brown/bipoc/woman owned.

When I talk about my work, I talk about black/brown/bipoc/woman owned… everything I do is for cannabis and black/brown/bipoc/woman owned.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

My writing career did, sort of. Before cannabis, I was a resume writer, before doing that I was a Human Resources Representative that wrote resume’s on the side, before that I was a claims adjuster that had to write reports, and a before that a customer service representative that had to document conversations.

In all of that, my strengths according to management, QA scores, various assesments, and multiple tests- was writing/documentation. I think had it not been for my writing, I would’ve been gone from all of those positions (LOL). In all of those roles, my favorite thing to do was write.

When I left my role in Human Resources, I turned to resume writing full time. Cannabis became the side hustle but, I was so passionate about it that I gave up resume writing to focus everything on becoming a published traveling writer in cannabis. I started writing what I learned on Medium and a publication called the Bad Influence picked me up.

From there Cannassuer Magazine, then my first print magazine opportunity: Oklahoma Chronic Magazine, about 2 years after that, Leafly picked me up, and now 4 years later my work can be found in almost many industry magaizines and blogs. I launched my website, became equity partner at Skunk Magazine, and have covered celebrities and their cannabis brands.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.veetravelingvegcannawriter.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/vee_travelingvegcannawriter
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/v2travelingvegcannawriter
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/vee-traveling-veg-canna-writer

Image Credits
Ranchera Mami of Ranchera Familia
Dr. C’s POV