Living in Pismo Beach, where we connect you with some of our favorite people who live and work on the Central Coast. Those community and business leaders who make living on the Coast such a unique and diverse experience.
Episode #16
Michelle Berrera, the Owner of Enjoyslo.com
Michelle Berrera, the Owner of Enjoyslo.com, joins Ashlea Foster Boyer, Shannon Bowdey & Jordan Hamm on Living In Pismo Beach.
Ashlea Boyer:
I’m looking forward to being a homeroom teacher starting next week.
Jordan Hamm:
Yeah. So fun. Talk about wearing many hats.
Shannon Bowdey:
I’m glad I don’t have that problem anymore.
Jordan Hamm:
Oh, goodness.
Ashlea Boyer:
What’d you say, Shannon?
Shannon Bowdey:
What?
Ashlea Boyer:
What’d you say?
Shannon Bowdey:
I said, “I’m glad I don’t have that problem anymore.”
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Bowdey:
They’re all grown.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, what’s nice at our school… I don’t know. They probably didn’t do this with your littles, Jordan, but they’re letting us come Monday and Tuesday in specific time slots because the teachers are equally as starved to see their students, so we can spend 15 minutes in the classroom. They actually have set up their classrooms as though they would be having the students come and they want to show the students their classroom and talk to them in person, and so that’ll be kind of fun to do that. The only problem is, is that I didn’t buy him the right size shorts, so he only has the uniform top so homeroom teacher is really scoring a million points right now. Anyway…
Jordan Hamm:
We don’t have the uniform thing, but I’m sure there’s a dress code. I don’t know. I don’t think showing up in PJ’s on the first day of Zoom sounds great, but we’ll see.
Ashlea Boyer:
Well, hopefully the weather will give us a break because going from monsoon like thunderstorms to 90 degree heat doesn’t really make for a good classroom time, so hopefully that’ll let up.
Jordan Hamm:
Yeah, that weather was crazy. Oh my goodness.
Shannon Bowdey:
Totally.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah. Yeah. I was out in Nipomo and-
Shannon Bowdey:
I’m so excited about our new guest that we have on today.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yes.
Jordan Hamm:
Yes.
Shannon Bowdey:
We’re so excited about today’s guest. We have Michelle from EnjoySLO and Michelle Berrera graduated with a nursing degree in 2008. Working in retail while attending nursing school, she began to work on growing those businesses My Space following, her first foray in social media. In her twenties, she spent time traveling throughout the United States, Europe, India, Cuba, and Mexico, attending events and eating at a wide variety of restaurants. In 2010, Michelle met her husband, Raymond Stone. He owned his own business and organize raves in Los Angeles.
Ashlea Boyer:
Ray and Michelle eventually moved to the Brewery Artist Lofts, the largest art colony in the United States. Inspired by him and the other artists surrounding her, Michelle started her own retail popup shop importing handmade goods from other countries. At the same time, she helped throw raves with her husband and took over her social media. She was able to grow his Pinterest and Instagram account organically to over 10,000 followers in less than 10 months and increase his online sales. Through this process, she became very familiar with event promotion and social media marketing. And after a particularly excruciating experience caught in LA traffic, they decided it was time to make a move and found themselves in SLO County with no friends or family.
Jordan Hamm:
Like many of their travels, they dove right into the culture of the community. Michelle created EnjoySLO to help their neighbors and friends find fun things to do. As people discovered her skillsets and she began to take on a variety of projects, the edible SLO summer house, San Luis Obispo, hashtag #SLOready inspires [inaudible 00:00:03:46], chef showdown and more. Ray ended up falling into the wine industry. He took on a job at Taste in the Alley and started his first harvest last year with Nelle Cordant Winery. This year, he is preparing for his first harvest with La Aventura in Pasa Robles, and he will be releasing his first wine. Let’s welcome Michelle.
Ashlea Boyer:
Let’s welcome Michelle.
Michelle Berrera:
Thank you.
Shannon Bowdey:
How did you and your husband decide to move to San Luis Obispo?
Michelle Berrera:
So my husband and I, we randomly moved here and it was actually very spontaneous. We would come to the central coast once a year for our anniversary and we’d only make it up to Pismo beach. We didn’t know anything more than that. We didn’t know there was a difference between SLO County and SLO city. We didn’t even know what Paso Robles was. And it was so funny, we went wine tasting here like a long time ago. And Ray, my husband, had mentioned, “Hey, do you want to live here?” I’m like, “No way. No way I would ever live here.”
And it just kind of stuck in our mind as a special spot to have an anniversary. So what we ended up doing is one day, we’re trying to go to Panda Express. It was about six miles away or less, and the whole trip took two hours and we were in traffic. We were so frustrated. And when we got home, my husband and I looked at each other and we’re like, “Hey, do you want to leave LA?” And at that time I was live, breathe, die LA so it was kind of like a foreign thought, but I was so fed up with the traffic I said, “Yes.” So we moved to San Luis Obispo. We’re in Atascadero and we had no friends or family here. We literally moved very abruptly and I quit my job and I didn’t even have a job here waiting for me. And everyone was like, “You are crazy.” And here I am.
Ashlea Boyer:
That’s awesome.
Shannon Bowdey:
That’s quite the adventure.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hamm:
All because of orange chicken.
Michelle Berrera:
Yeah. Thank you Panda Express. Sponsor me.
Ashlea Boyer:
I have lived the LA traffic. I’m from here, but I totally get it. It is no joke. It can change your feelings about Los Angeles in a very quick second.
Michelle Berrera:
Yeah, absolutely.
Ashlea Boyer:
So, your bio mentioned that one of your husband Ray’s businesses when you were in LA, but also kind of became your business was organizing raves, so that’s something you don’t hear of every day so tell us more about that.
Michelle Berrera:
Yeah, it was a very interesting time of my life and I work as a registered nurse, so people definitely didn’t understand that side of me. When I met my husband, one of my bucket list goals was to go to a rave and he kind of laughed at me on our first date. And it turned out, he would throw big parties at Shrine Auditorium and it became a huge part of my lifestyle in the future. So we ended up flying DJs internationally, so that’s how I ended up getting very caught up in event promotion and how I learned about it, how to make flyers. It’s so funny because on EnjoySLO, people will be like, “Oh, you’re an influencer.” And I’m like, “Oh, that’s interesting because I was known as the flyer girl who would hand you a flyer at the end of the night at the club.” So yeah, that’s how I kind of fell in the rave scene, and it’s a very interesting time.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah, very.
Jordan Hamm:
So your blog and social media presence, EnjoySLO, is only two years old, yet you’ve covered so many experiences and businesses around the County. Do you have any favorites that you want to share with us?
Michelle Berrera:
Well, there are so many, but my top favorites if I have to think back, definitely I love Cambria Christmas. They’re so underrated and people will be like… They don’t know what it is when they’re from out of town, so when we bring them, they’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is so cool.”
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah.
Michelle Berrera:
So, I love that. I think I’m also another event that kind of led me here was the Atascadero Wine Festival. That is actually also super underrated. There’s so many wineries that go and it takes up two parks of the Atascadero Lake Park. And that’s how we kind of ended up moving here. I was like, “No way, I’m not going to move to Atascadero. What is that?”
But, the people here are so warm. They’re so friendly and we fell in love and we moved here and I think they have one of the best wine events here all the time. And there’s also one called The Brewery, the art walk here in Atascadero.
Ashlea Boyer:
Oh, they just opened that, right?
Michelle Berrera:
No, they actually have it every quarter. There’s like a Valentine’s day walk.
Ashlea Boyer:
Oh, cool.
Michelle Berrera:
It’s an art and wine tour, so they shut down the main street. Then what happens is you can shop, and in each shop is a winery and it’s $20. And because of Atascadero’s open container policy, everyone is just partying in the streets. And I’m like, “20 bucks, this is the best deal ever.”
Ashlea Boyer:
That’s awesome.
Jordan Hamm:
I’m so excited. I just moved to Atascadero.
Shannon Bowdey:
Yeah, that’s what happens in Atascadero.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah, I didn’t even know about the Atascadero Wine Festival and I have been here my whole life, so it’s kind of fun. I think what’s fun about your blog is that all of us… The experience you had where you couldn’t find very many people who knew what was going on, I think we get kind of lost in the forest for the trees. We’re here, working every day. We grew up here and maybe we have a couple of things that we really like to do, but we don’t try anything new very often. So, it’s kind of fun to go, “I didn’t know that was there.”
Michelle Berrera:
And I love that part of it because when I moved here… We’re surrounded by neighbors and I would ask them, “Hey, what do I do? I’m new.” And they would not know, and they didn’t know what events to recommend. And I was a big event person, obviously in LA, so I made this for them because they didn’t know what was going on, so yeah. That’s kind of what happened.
Ashlea Boyer:
That’s awesome.
Shannon Bowdey:
That’s amazing. Wow. Great. So I remember seeing at the beginning of COVID that you thought about heading back to LA to help with Veterans Affairs because they were in desperate need of nurses. So my heart sort of sunk because I was thinking, “Oh no, I need my EnjoySLO.” I was wondering, did you ever end up going back there to assist maybe for a short period or anything?
Michelle Berrera:
This is a common question. I even get it asked till this day. I did not end up going to LA. In a way, I’m very thankful and grateful for that because my friends who do work there, they have told me how stressful it was, especially in the beginning of the pandemic, but I’m thankful because the community really supported me. It was a mentally traumatic time for me because COVID was just starting and people didn’t know what was going on. And it was very abruptly told to me that I would go to LA and they’re like, “Okay, in four days you have to go.” And I’m like, “What is going on? Like am I leaving my life here?” So yeah, I did not end up going, but the experience and the community support was so amazing.
Shannon Bowdey:
Oh wonderful, because I was thinking… I was like, “Okay. So why would they EnjoySLO lady be going to… Why do they need nurses?” And I’m like, “Doesn’t she work for the chamber or something?” Then I read your bio, and I’m like, “Oh, she’s a nurse.”
Michelle Berrera:
I wear many hats.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah. That’s awesome.
Jordan Hamm:
So, I love to find new promotion you have going with Share Slow and hashtag #SLOready. Would you share some of the details, including the fabulous prize?
Michelle Berrera:
So I love working with the city and SLOready is such an important campaign because it’s encouraging people to go out there, support our small businesses safely. So as a nurse, that’s really important to me. We have a lot of elderly in our population here in Atascadero, especially. So, it encourages the public to go out, wear your mask, wash your hands, be really respectful of where you’re going, maintain social distancing and still go out there and have fun and enjoy, so that’s kind of why I was so on board. I love this campaign and the prize is awesome.
Basically, all you have to do is when you’re out there showing safe practices or supporting a local business, you snap a photo of yourself and you use the hashtag #SLOready and you’ll be entered to win a grand prize of a stay over at Hotel Cerro and you’ll get dinner at Brasserie SLO Down Below. You also get to go to Luna Red. They have a meal they’re ready for you, and you’ll have cocktails and appetizers over at Granada. And on top of all that, you get outdoor yoga with SLO yoga, so lots of people contribute.
Jordan Hamm:
Wow. Good.
Ashlea Boyer:
Awesome.
Shannon Bowdey:
Amazing. Is it just SLO or is it anywhere in the County?
Michelle Berrera:
So they want it to be in San Luis Obispo mostly, but they’re fine with photos in the County.
Jordan Hamm:
Is there an end date that we have to get the photos in by?
Michelle Berrera:
Yes, by the end of the month.
Jordan Hamm:
Okay.
Shannon Bowdey:
Okay, great.
Ashlea Boyer:
Perfect. It’s for my birthday.
Michelle Berrera:
Yeah.
Ashlea Boyer:
Oh, that’s awesome.
Michelle Berrera:
[crosstalk 00:13:53].Ashlea Boyer:
So, you work as a nurse for your real job or your regular job, so where do you work as a nurse?
Michelle Berrera:
I work at the Veterans Affairs clinic here in San Luis Obispo.
Ashlea Boyer:
Oh, that’s awesome.
Shannon Bowdey:
Yeah.
Ashlea Boyer:
We love our veterans.
Shannon Bowdey:
I used to take my dad’s to that clinic.
Michelle Berrera:
Oh yeah, it’s very tiny. People don’t know it exists there.
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah, it is. It is tiny. It’s great that we have a presence though, because I remember years back when there wasn’t a need, and I had to always drive all the way to LA or whatever. So that’s nice that there’s a little bit of a presence here.
Shannon Bowdey:
Exactly, yeah.
Ashlea Boyer:
We’re so excited to have had you on and get to pick your brain, and I think the only thing we didn’t really put up a question about, you’re obviously a guru in terms of building social media presence. And so we are doing pretty good on our Living in Pismos Beach Facebook, but what’s the top tips for growing your presence out there on social media?
Jordan Hamm:
Becoming an influencer.
Michelle Berrera:
I think the number one thing is the content you put out. When it comes to social media, content is king. Be really thoughtful, and I think once your message resonates, that’s how your audience grows. And I tell people that all the time. I hear people like, “Should I buy followers? Should I buy likes?” And I’m like, “No, because it’s fake, and in the end when you need a call to action, you’re talking to yourself and it’s embarrassing.”
Ashlea Boyer:
Yeah. Yeah. Yourself and the followers you bought in Singapore.
Shannon Bowdey:
You’re a rockstar as far as there’s still media. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, you’re so amazing.”
Michelle Berrera:
Thank you.
Ashlea Boyer:
Thank you so much for your time, Michelle. I really appreciate it. We really appreciate it.
Michelle Berrera:
Thank you ladies for having me. It’s so cool to see you all in virtual life.
Jordan Hamm:
In virtual life.
Ashlea Boyer:
We look forward to seeing you in real life. Maybe we’ll all have to meet up at the Atascadero Wine Festival.
Shannon Bowdey:
I’m so into it.
Ashlea Boyer:
Sounds great. You have a good afternoon.
Shannon Bowdey:
Thank you/.
Michelle Berrera:
All right, you ladies too.
Shannon Bowdey:
Bye, Michelle.
Ashlea Boyer:
Bye.
Jordan Hamm:
Bye.
Ashlea Boyer:
This is Ashlea Boyer…
Jordan Hamm:
Jordan Hamm…
Shannon Bowdey:
And Shannon Bowdey with the Pismo Beach Homes Team.