In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Coco and Marissa, the founders of The Cocoa Chronicles, a travel‑entertainment company. The conversation begins with a personal story about missing a connecting flight that almost derailed their cruise‑ship training, illustrating the importance of staying calm, reassessing, and finding alternative solutions. The guests then discuss their core belief that travel is attainable for millennials and people of color, emphasizing hard work and strategic saving rather than wealth. They share business advice, highlighting the necessity of self‑promotion and confidence in one’s goals. When asked what advice they would give their younger selves, Coco urges embracing individuality, while Marissa stresses trusting one’s instincts. Their views on happiness differ: Coco cites travel as a transformative, enriching experience, whereas Marissa points to self‑contentment. The duo also reveals favorite books—Coco mentions “Where the Wild Things Are” for its reminder of imagination, and Marissa cites the “Edge Chronicles” for the message that every small action matters—along with the key lessons drawn from them. Favorite quotes are shared: Coco loves Rafiki’s line from The Lion King about learning from pain, and Marissa favors Dumbledore’s statement from Harry Potter that one’s birth does not dictate destiny. The episode concludes with a promotion of their website, thecocochronicles.weebly.com, which aggregates their social media and content. Throughout, the tone remains conversational and enthusiastic, offering practical advice and personal reflections aimed at aspiring travelers and entrepreneurs.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola!
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. This is a special episode. We actually have two guests. They are the Coco Chronicles, and that is a travel entertainment company. So welcome to the show, both of you.
Hi, thank you.
Thanks for having us.
Of course, pumped to have you both on. This is gonna be a fun episode. We'll dive into the first question for you both, and that is, what is the best story from your lives that has an underlying valuable message?
So definitely the one that we have to go to is when we both got the chance to work on a cruise ship. When we were getting off of the flight to go to our connecting flight, we actually missed it. And this is Coco speaking, by the way. I have pretty bad anxiety. So I panicked immediately. And I kind of looked at Marissa, I was like, well, you know what, this there's a chance that we missed out on, I guess it's time to just go back home. But Marista definitely—
I couldn't afford to go back home. Yeah. Didn't have a job and I was out of money. So if I had decided to just not go do this cruise, I would have— well, I would have been up a creek without a paddle.
We'll put it that way.
So what I did was, you know, with that knowledge in mind, I said, well, we can't go back home. And I made some phone calls and got us on the next flight. And we still made it to our training.
Oh, nice.
I think we go to this story a lot because it You know, it was one of those moments that could have changed everything. You know, things weren't going to plan and we could have just given up, but it was a really important lesson and you got it. You still got to do it. Yeah. So it didn't go the way you wanted. Take a deep breath, reevaluate the situation and find another way to get it done.
Exactly.
And the next one I have for you both is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your your expertise or industry?
Definitely that traveling is attainable. We want to encourage the millennials out there, our generation, our peer, and especially peers of color, that traveling isn't something that you have to be a trust fund baby to do. Like, me and Marissa came from humble beginnings, and we, you know, saved all the money and worked hard for the money that we used to travel with. Right.
And it's not going to be, you know, taking 10 trips a year or anything like that. But it is attainable with what we've done, the way we've saved and the way we've worked. You know, we've been able to take trips out of the country, all over the country. So it is attainable. It's hard work, but you can do it. Yes.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific, right?
Self-promotion. If you're afraid to promote yourself and your business and what you're trying to do, you know, why would other people promote you? Why would they want to work with you if you're unsure of yourself? So be certain of what you want and what your goals are. Have a defined plan and promote yourself. You have to be your biggest supporter. I know a lot of people say that, but it's true. It's gonna be really hard in the beginning, but work through it, right?
It'll pay off in the end. Yeah. Promote yourself and promote often is biggest advice.
And I'm excited for this one. So for both of you, if you could give your younger selves one piece of advice, what would that be?
Hmm. For me, which is Coco, I would definitely say don't be afraid to be different. I've always known that I was different from everyone else and that I was unique. And, you know, when you're growing up and puberty and all that stuff, and I hung out with the kids who wanted to be popular. And unfortunately, I feel like that kept me from making a lot of other really great supportive friends. I chose the popular kids over the kids who just didn't care to be different and did their own thing. So I definitely feel like that's my biggest advice, is to not be afraid to be different and be one of a kind instead of a part of the crowd.
Yes. And this is Marista. My answer would be follow your instincts. You know what's best for you at your core. And when you have a gut feeling about whether or not you should or shouldn't do something, you should really take it to heart. There have been a lot of situations where I didn't follow my gut and I just cursed myself later for it. And other times where I did follow my gut and it paid off big time. So definitely, You know what's going on, you know what's best, maybe not on a conscious level, but on a subconscious level. So definitely follow your instincts.
I agree, your body definitely talks to you, you just got to become aware of it. So then next one is, in your opinions, what is the key to happiness?
Traveling. That's the key. At least for me, this is Coco again. I grew up in a really small town and nobody really ever talked about traveling, especially not abroad. So when I got the chance to do it, it definitely changed my life. It made me a lot more of a well-rounded person, open-minded person. I'm the first person in my family to have gotten a passport and traveled out of the country. So it's a learning experience. And then I can also share it with my family and my peers, and hopefully that'll inspire and encourage them to, you know, get off the U.S. soil and see what the world has to offer. So for me, it's going to be traveling.
Um, for me, uh, uh, jeez.
Wow. What's going on?
I don't know. I don't know what that is. Sorry, my phone is acting up.
No, no, it's okay.
Amazing. Great. Sorry. For me, it's probably going to be self-contentment.
This is Marissa.
You have to be content with yourself and who you are if you're going to be happy. A lot of people try and find happiness outside of themselves, whether it's like buying things or constantly seeking the love of people. But self-contentment, you have to be happy with yourself, or how else could you possibly fully be happy with, you know, anything else that you're interacting with? At the end of the day, it's just you.
So you got to be happy with yourself.
And you both can answer this one too. So then what is the best book or books that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from them?
This is Coco speaking. For me, it would be— the best book that I've read would have to be Where the Wild Things Are. I loved this book when I was a kid, but I didn't know the true importance and the moral behind the story until later on as an adult. And I just feel like imagination is necessary. That's one of the things that it teaches you in the book. I feel like as I've gotten older, I've kind of lost my youthfulness and my sense of imagination and creativity. So when me and Marissa randomly decided to watch that video one, or the movie, the "Where the Wild Things Are" movie, it just kind of brought back the importance of that, yes, it's, there's a time and a place to be serious, but it's still a good thing to have that you know, playfulness and silliness about you and not being afraid to be imaginative. You know, you can be imaginative as an adult. It's not just a thing as a child. So yeah, for me, it's "Where the Wild Things Are." Yes, that's awesome.
And what is your favorite quotes and why?
Oh, I'm sorry. Is it okay if I do a book too?
Oh yeah, no, no, please do. I thought you were just kind of agreeing with Coco. So yeah, no, I would love for you if you did.
Please go ahead. Sorry. I read a lot, and so a book— it's a book series that has really been dear to me that I don't think people know enough about. It's called The Edge Chronicles. I loved this book series growing up because the main thing I got from it is that no matter how small or insignificant you may feel, you're important. Your life and what you're doing, your actions, they all have a meaning. And even if you don't know what it is, it's important. You know, sometimes we feel like, how are we making a difference? So much big stuff is going on and here I am not doing anything worthwhile. But really, everything you're doing is important or it can be important. So definitely don't Don't doubt yourself and don't count yourself out.
And then the next one is, what are your favorite quotes and why?
So for me, Coco, my favorite quote is going to be from The Lion King. As you can clearly tell, I love childish things. It would be the quote that Rafiki said to Young Simba, when he— when Simba got hit on the head with Rafiki's little staff, he was like, "Ow, why'd you hit me? That hurt." And Rafiki was like, "Oh, well, yes, the past can hurt, but you can either run from that hurt or you can learn from that hurt." So yeah, that's my favorite quote.
And mine is from another book series. I was one of those kids that grew up reading Harry Potter. And it kind of became my life, so much so that I went on a special trip to London because of it. So one of my favorite quotes is from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It's something Dumbledore said. "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." Just because you're born in a certain life situation or you do or don't have certain things That doesn't control who you are and what you go into. It doesn't matter how you started or where you came from. It just matters what you do with it and what kind of person you turn out to be. So even if you're born in a really bad situation, you're in control of your future and you can decide whether or not you're going to be a good person or a bad person.
I love it. Thank you both so much for coming on. And as I said at the beginning, I knew this would be a fun one.
Yeah.
The last question I have for you both is where is the best place for people to find you guys online?
That's gonna be our website. It's thecocochronicles.weebly.com. Weebly is spelled W-E-E-B-L-Y, and it's coco with an A. So thecocochronicles.weebly.com. It has all of our social media, links to our YouTube, About Us page, that sort of thing. So it's the best place to get all of the information you need.
Perfect. Thank you both for coming on. It was a joy, and we'll talk with both of you soon.
Thanks, you too.
Bye.
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