A Day in the Life of Chillanthropist Geraldine Mae Cueva

Geraldine Mae Cueva is a merchant turned marketer in the cannabis industry. She’s also the Founder of Art & Times of Chill, a consulting platform that builds communities, connects brands, and drives conscious commerce.

 

Before moving out West to pursue cannabis, Geraldine cut her teeth in the retail-tech world where she worked with flash-sale site, ideeli, and direct-to-consumer menswear brand, Bonobos. Her engagement and community building skills were honed  when the dance music artist, Kaskade, asked her and her best friend to manage his fan community. Together with other superfans coast to coast, their team aligned themselves as an extension of the artist, supporting his music and his message while simultaneously growing his fanbase.

My daily goal is to amplify my chill, aka maintain a positive mental attitude and well-being

Geraldine Mae Cueva

As a cannabis consumer, Geraldine saw the parallel between dance/rave culture and cannabis, misunderstood by the mainstream yet thriving in the underground. By 2015, she began to utilize Instagram as the platform to connect with cannabis enthusiasts and ultimately, build her community. Following her merchant instincts, she connected with brands and discovered great products that aligned with her vision of a modern-day cannabis consumer. As a born connector, she works with brands to forge new partnerships, diversify the consumer base, and build loyal relationships within the community, especially when it comes to marginalized groups. 

Art & Times of Chill emerged as Geraldine’s platform to share her journey in the business of plants. She offers consulting services, shares authentic stories, and amplifies her community. Her mission is to be accountable, promote clean products, and build purposeful collaborations. 

Adjusting Post-Covid

“Every day can feel like Monday or Friday for me. At this time, I’m hunkered down at my parents’ home in the suburbs of New Jersey. With the last few months turned upside down for all of us, I’ve learned being close to them keeps me grounded and feeling safe. I’ve only slowly integrated myself into NYC on the weekends as I ride in a bike protest every Saturday afternoon with the massive Streetriders NYC group. It helps that the city is a short commute away because I’m able to check-in with old friends, too. There’s truly no place like home, especially when there’s no ordinary day.

In the first couple of months during the pandemic, like everyone else, I mourned my old life. I grappled with the lack of travel, and missed gathering with my friends and engaging in random stranger energy. The only ritual I kept pre-COVID was a full calendar, stacked with meetings, events, and back-to-back travel. I moved between the east and west coasts and led my life focusing on where I needed to be with my work. As long as opportunity presented itself, I didn’t mind moving for the cause. But by March 2020, my calendar went from full to completely wiped out. A stable contract I had was terminated early, and I was left to begin again.

The “figuring it out” part frankly didn’t scare me as much as it did to stay put, so I found new ways to keep myself busy again, but this time from home. I joined a group coaching program focused on 1st and 2nd Asian-American immigrants called Living Bravely, led by a life coach named Nicole Cruz.

I also decided it was a good time to be accountable with my  finances, and I opted into a 12-week pilot program with an emerging financial coach named Jennifer Lu. I didn’t realize that these commitments would force me to look so uncomfortably and deeply inward as they did. I learned quickly that a lack of presentness was holding me back in more ways than one. And as painful as it was to unlearn and learn things about myself, the support pushed me to be honest and accountable. I can confidently say I experienced growth over the last few months and triumphantly reached a few conclusions:

1. My old lifestyle was not sustainable. Flying every other week and sometimes across the country no longer made sense.

2. I was disciplined to work from home, but recognized I could also expend less energy on calls and in-person meetings. My communication proved to still be the root of all my relationships, no matter where I was.

3.  I needed to create a new routine for myself. Sitting in the same sweats and a robe all day didn’t make me more chill or productive. I needed to actively choose to get ready for the day.

I can’t remember the last time I was home this long, but I’ve learned  how to make it work. My daily goal is to amplify my chill, aka maintain a positive mental attitude and well-being. Every day is anything but the same, but I have a trustworthy routine and rituals now.

Morning Rituals

I’m a morning person, so getting up early is important to me because I like to start slow. I’ll wake up early but lay for at least an hour. Once I’m actually up, I get right into workout clothes because I do that now (shout out Sydney Miller for my daily full-body Housework workouts and Danielle Olivarez of High Lites BK for my yoga sessions). I always aim to sweat before breakfast (or before I eat anything, really).

To start my day, I have my go-to products to lean on depending on my mood or the task at hand. For a full day behind the computer or engaging in calls, I’ll start with a dose of Treaty’s Focus. When I’m looking to be more introspective, plan to write, or hash out some new ideas like today, my go-to is always Barbari’s herbal blend called Muse. For the purpose of writing, I like to take more of the meditative approach by rolling my own spliffs. I need more practice, but it helps to start rolling with my Nebula Tray by House of Puff. Now and then, I’ll make it easy on myself and grab one of Barbari’s herbal spliffs. I love having an assortment of blends readily available to me that are perfectly pre-rolled.

Since I’m not in my own space, I also keep my House of Puff, La Poche in Delaunay Lapis, a pocket-size ashtray close to me at my desk. Easy to store and take with me outside, it comes in the clutch since I’m at my parents’ house, after all. I love the design because it doesn’t take up too much space, so it’s officially my go-to travel accessory.

Self-Soothing Skills

As my day evolves, I always make sure to have music playing in the background. Every now and then, I’ll also catch myself in a daydream. Lately, I’ve been daydreaming about spending a summer in Berlin again. You can listen to the soundtrack of my daydreams featured over at Barbari’s August Fine Tunes.

I accepted that the mind is never idle, and between daydreams and good music, I’ve found new ways to wonder during these stressful times. A deep manifestation of a daydream rejuvenates my spirit. It feels good invigorating my mind with dreams and possibilities and it’s a big reason why I incorporate the herbal blend into my day. On occasion, while I’m mindscaping at my desk, I’ll burn some sage, palo santo, or my Hide Tide candle. During my breaks, I aim to read a chapter out of my latest book, give myself a hand massage with skin rub or treat myself to a luxurious bite of ghost pepper caramel chocolate. Other times, I go back to that visualization of in our secret garden.

Maintaining a Sense of Community

Into the early evenings on Tuesday and Thursdays, you can find me at Sesh-Ins–the virtual smoke break I host on zoom with Limone Creative. Sesh-Ins is our answer to maintaining a sense of community within the cannabis industry. We hold space for people to feel safe to share how they’re feeling, make connections, and lean into learning. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, we’ve also shifted to hosting necessary open conversations surrounding topics such as accountable allyship and white saviorism that are more relevant today than ever before. By hosting these conversations, we commit to doing the work, holding ourselves accountable to amplify marginalized voices to create positive change together. I leave often feeling full, sometimes heavy, but nevertheless, looking forward.

How to Destress Before Bed

To wind down from these engaging conversations, I’ll sit on our front steps and roll a spliff with Barbari’s Airplane Mode blend. The aroma of this herbal blend alone gets me ready for a full transition to pajama time. After a few puffs, I’ll shift over to drinking the blend as a tea, which every so often, my mom will join me in before bed.

While some days may be fuller than others, I know surrendering to it all helps me move forward each day. Even though the world has shifted my plans, I have more time and clarity on the goals I actually want to work towards. My next big project is to finally release the first season of my podcast, Amplify Your Chill. A project that I started nearly a half year ago explores all the ways we #makechill—where I take a deeper dive into how my featured guests define and maintain their positive well-being. At the moment, it seems like there’s no better time to push forward on this message. Exploring how I self-soothe and experiment with my favorite high quality, plant-based products on any given day feels like the only way I’ll be getting this done! So until then, thanks for reading a day in the life of the Chillanthropist.”

Be sure to follow Geraldine @ohhmygeeg!