From Chemistry to Entrepreneurship with Norberto Orellana

00:00:00

welcome to Winds of Change. I am your host, Emmy diGrappa. Winds of Change is brought to you by Wyoming Humanities Council where we explore the stories of the people, places and history of Wyoming. And currently we are focused on the innovators, entrepreneurs and creatives in our state. And today my special guest is Norberto Orellana.

 

00:00:30

Noberto is the founder and CEO of Norberto Orellana Enterprises and an expert in personal and organizational resiliency. He is a three-time TEDx speaker who has been recognized by the U. S House of Representatives for his achievements. And for the past decade he has built success for himself and others after defying the odds, starting out homeless, abused, and navigating his own lifelong disability. Welcome, Noberto.

 

00:01:07

Thank you for having me. Absolutely. And so it’s good to just start from the beginning on your journey and where you grew up and how you ended up in Wyoming. Yeah, so I was born in New York. I spent the first half of my childhood in New York City, specifically the Bronx, and from there moved to Denver for about two years.

 

00:01:35

It was probably the most stable and happy part of my childhood. I remembered it very well. Ended up in Miami for the second half of growing up and that’s where things really started to go wrong in my life. We ended up chronically homeless down there and really experienced the depths of poverty. You know, growing up in that kind of environment really left a feeling in me of longing to be back in Denver, in Colorado.

 

00:02:07

And so when I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to go back and I ended up going to Colorado College to do my undergraduate. After I finished that, I knew I wanted to stay out in the mountain west. Just really love the region and have a lot of great memories there. So started looking into PhD programs because at the time I was a chemist, and I ended up in Laramie. My wife came from a small town in Colorado.

 

00:02:36

We wanted to try out smaller towns. Ended up in Laramie. And after departing that program and really figuring out who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, I landed in Gillette. And you know, the joke is at this point that I just keep moving further and further to the west and to the north. Well, how did you leave?

 

00:02:58

So you started out in chemistry and then what was your PhD in? So it was in organic chemistry. I was doing medicinal chemistry, biological chemistry, a little bit of drug discovery, bioconjugation. Really interesting, but it just wasn’t for me. So how did you leave the world of chemistry to become an entrepreneur and do the work you’re doing?

 

00:03:27

Right now. So I think like a lot of people who grow up in poverty, like I did, what we’re often told by family, by the education system, is you need to get a terminal degree, you need to get a PhD, MD or JD, otherwise you’re not going to be successful. And so that I kind of fell into that mindset at one point. I also thought I would potential go into medicine to become a physician, but ended up going into the PhD program because I knew I liked chemistry. And I also thought I knew at the time that I had to get some form of terminal doctoral degree.

 

00:04:06

So while I was in that program and you know, starting a family, growing my family, I started to really think about where I wanted to go in life, who I wanted to be and all the things that I wanted to do. And the more research I did, the more I learned, the more I realized you don’t necessarily need a doctoral degree to be successful. There are plenty of people with bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, or who have gone to trade schools. And so that really got me thinking about what do I want to do. One thing led to another and I ended up in Gillette and pursuing a Master’s in healthcare administration.

 

00:04:43

So while I’m still in the process of really starting my business and my entrepreneurial pursuits, I’m also a healthcare leader. I and am the business development leader for Powder River Surgery center in Gillette. You know, got my Master’s in healthcare administration. Really focused on healthcare leadership, healthcare resiliency, and the strategy that goes behind really delivering excellent care in a sustainable way. And so all of that kind of led into my departure from chemistry, realized I could do something that I’m passionate, really, really passionate about, which was one, health care and two, entrepreneurship.

 

00:05:23

And so I’ve kind of married these ideas and haven’t looked back since. Well, it sounds like to me that you are a lifelong learner. I definitely am. Right. You love exploring new topics and you’re discovering that along the way.

 

00:05:41

How did you become a TEDx speaker? It’s a funny story because when I was going through my homelessness, slowly but surely more people started to learn about the situation. And I remember I was starting out 12th grade and you know, it. My story became really well known at this point because of what I had done the previous summer. So I was in a special high school, one of the best in the nation.

 

00:06:13

It just so happened that I lived close to that high school and we dual enrolled, so we take college classes and high school classes. And I remember as the summer Was coming up. I really wanted to take general chemistry. The problem was is that that summer class that I was looking for was only available in downtown Miami. It was probably roughly a two-hour bus and train ride away from where I lived.

 

00:06:41

I decided to do that. And I spent every day, Monday through Friday that summer, making that trip back and forth, you know, two hours each way. Some days I get back in the middle of the night because of evening labs. But I started to realize the potential of my story from a single moment. And this is probably the most important moment my life.

 

00:07:02

So I was on the bus one of these evenings, and, you know, my anxiety was starting to build because we had just become homeless again. This was the second time we had become homeless. And, you know, I was wondering to myself, where would home be that night? Would it be a motel? Would it be a family member’s house?

 

00:07:21

Would it be nowhere? But then the other aspects of it, Would my mom be drunk or would my dad be high? And, you know, the closer I got to my stop, the more and more my anxiety began to build. But this man on the bus, he looked at me and he asked me, you know, he was like, what in the world is someone like you doing on the bus this late at night? And the reason he asked me that is because I was wearing a lab coat, dress shirt, tie, and it’s a habit that I’ve maintained since then.

 

00:07:49

You. You won’t find me out of a suit and tie. But he thought I was a doctor. And he was wondering, what in the world is a doctor doing on the bus this late at night? Surely you’ve got your own car.

 

00:07:59

And I started to explain my story to him. And, you know, you could see the expression on his face go from very joking to very serious because of what I was telling him. And, you know, the bus started to quiet down, People were starting to look and listen in. And I explained to him what I was going through, but more importantly, who I wanted to become, why I dressed, the way I did, what I was trying to do and become. And I remember, you know, towards the end of that story, everyone on the bus was listening, and he started clapping.

 

00:08:29

Other people on the bus started clapping. It basically got a standing ovation on that. That bus. And that was the moment I knew that that wasn’t the life that I was meant to live, that I was more than my circumstances, that I was more than my homelessness and my upbringing. And, you know, I was able to recount that story with some of the folks at my school, and they had known what I was doing that summer, despite my circumstances.

 

00:08:55

So I ended up in a magazine, just a little local magazine. From there, got picked up by Univision, and I ended up on a primetime news spot. And from there, the of TEDx youth at Miami saw that in the news, reached out to me, and they asked me if I would be on their stage. Now, as someone who used to be an introvert, and I still like to say I am today, even though despite my occupation, which says otherwise, you know, I agreed to do that, to be on that stage to share my story in front of what ended up being more than a thousand people at the Adrian Arch Performing Arts center in downtown Miami. Miami.

 

00:09:39

And you know, that it was just such an amazing experience, a very vivid memory also, because there was a juxtaposition in that moment of, I’m at this performing arts center, I’ve got my dressing room, there are hors d’oeuvres, and all this fancy stuff. But then, as almost on the other side, the flip side of my life, I was going back home to be homeless. It was two different worlds. And that was another one of those moments where I realized, there’s something here. I can be something more, and I can contribute to people in ways that I didn’t even imagine, because so many people were inspired by that story that I shared.

 

00:10:20

So many people wanted to know more, and I knew at that point that I wanted to share my story more and to have more of an impact. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That. Congratulations.

 

00:10:33

That’s incredible. Congratulations that you stepped out and told your story. And sometimes that takes a lot of guts. You know what’s interesting about that, though? The way I grew up, just my mindset, even navigating disability, because I have cerebral palsy.

 

00:10:55

So I’ve had a number of surgeries, and depending on how good my leg is feeling, I might have a little bit of a limp sometimes. Despite all of that, the cerebral palsy, the homelessness, I for a long time viewed my upbringing as normal Because I didn’t know any better. That became normal to me. And so when I was asked to share my story, I was just like, okay, I’ll go share my story. I don’t know what’s so special about it.

 

00:11:19

And so that was the easy part in a lot of ways, that vulnerability because it was my normal and I was just sharing my normal. I think the harder part was really evolving my mindset to realize I had a story worth sharing. Because I thought to my, well, is this really going to impact people? Is this something People want to hear, and that’s really the biggest barrier. And I think the first time you tell your story, because I believe everyone has a story worth sharing, the first time you do it, you realize the impact it can have.

 

00:11:54

And it’s kind of like a domino effect from there, because you just have to do it more. Where are your parents now? How are they doing? So they’re still in Miami. I haven’t really had much in touch with them.

 

00:12:08

I know they’re still down there, but, yeah, that’s. That’s what I know at the moment. So you haven’t really kept in touch with them. Do you come from a very big family? Was it.

 

00:12:18

Or was it a small family? I don’t think it was particularly very big. There were a lot of family members, but it wasn’t very. We weren’t very connected with each other. You know, whereas my wife.

 

00:12:32

I forget exactly how many siblings she has, but she has a lot of siblings, very big family. They stay in touch. She comes from a very large family, whereas I, at the very least, felt that I did. And. And in many ways, her family has become my family since I don’t really stay in touch with my side.

 

00:12:51

Does that make you sad? It’s interesting. I’ve done some thinking about this, because I think the sad moments arise when I accomplish something, when I make a really big move, because I think anyone’s first instinct is to go to either their parents or, you know, family members and say, look at what I’ve accomplished. Look what I’m doing. You know, are you proud of me?

 

00:13:17

That kind of thing. And I’ve never really gotten to be able to do that. Now, that being said, you know, my wife’s family really stepped in and kind of adopted me in that way. But, you know, it is. There is a.

 

00:13:31

A sad element to it because, you know, sometimes my wife or someone else will ask me, well, how’s your dad doing? How’s your mom doing? And my answer honestly is, I don’t really know. I think at some level that must be hard, or maybe not. I mean, sometimes it’s not the family you left behind, it’s the family you’re building now.

 

00:13:56

That’s your. So you. You can look at it different ways, and especially if it’s not a healthy place for you to be, it’s not a healthy relationship that you have to come to grips with that. So what have you learned about yourself in your journey in becoming an entrepreneur? You know, the biggest lesson that I learned is that I cannot be stopped.

 

00:14:25

No Matter what happens, no matter what life throws my way, that I will survive, Survive, you know, even the very worst of circumstances, I’ll pick up the pieces and I’ll come back and it’s. It’s very empowering. You know, I ended up. Part of the healthcare work that I’ve done is crisis Wyoming Humanities Council, because I’m so good at walking into crisis, because that’s kind of what I did during high school for four years, is lived in a perpetual state of crisis. You had to be able to move on and not dwell.

 

00:14:55

And the most important part of all of that, and what I learned is that it’s not something unique to me. It’s a power that everyone has. And from my very first TED Talk, I shared that message and was really fortunate to have this experience a couple years ago where I was talking to someone who. Really successful, you know, someone I’d looked up to, and they described my rise as meteoric and that they were inspired. And that word stuck with me.

 

00:15:32

You know, the whole idea of a meteoric rise, what does that mean? How can others do it? And that became the basis of the business that I started, which provides keynotes, which provides consulting, one on one, coaching all of that, on this idea of how can people become meteoric? You know, there. I believe that inside of every single person, especially.

 

00:16:00

Especially when they’re in their darkest times, there’s a little voice in their head that says, I want to be more, I want to do more, I want to say more, and I want to live more. My objective, my goal is to help people and to help organizations tap into that voice, because I believe that that is the source of their meteoric power. It’s just often dormant within us. We are cap. Capable of so much more than we think, and we just have to tap into that power.

 

00:16:30

So that became the basis of the business I started. And I’ve got so many plans for how I want to grow and expand it. You know, the. The big takeaway, the big lesson is, you know, I always like to say when it comes to my goals, it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. And we really need to think more in those sorts of terms because I believe anything is possible.

 

00:16:53

I believe our human potential is uncapped, but we have to stop limiting ourselves by asking if we’ll be successful, if we’ll overcome our circumstances, but start asking ourselves when we’ll do that. Okay, that makes sense, and that’s encouraging for people. What, what is the name of the. You said you worked for a Crisis center. So I was doing crisis Wyoming Humanities Council for a hospital.

 

00:17:21

Okay, and what exactly does that mean? So, you know, my, my full role was public relations. And so, you know, a lot of shaking hands and glad handing, talking to legislators, community leaders and the media. But when I stepped into the role, it was more of a crisis Wyoming Humanities Council situation because of what that system was going through at the time. And so what that looked like is, you know, something unfavorable would get said or there would be a, a bad article in the media, something that we didn’t like, that hurt public perception.

 

00:18:01

And I kind of stepped in to smooth the waters, you know, to talk to the right people and to share a truthful narrative, but to show the positive behind it, the progress that we were making despite the circumstances we found ourselves in. And so that’s. I refer to it as crisis Wyoming Humanities Council because that’s when I was in my element, you know, whereas a lot of people, you know, get very high strung and stressed out during a crisis. I’m in my element at that point because I experienced so much of that. So when things went wrong, you know, I’d.

 

00:18:35

I’d come in and let’s focus on the solutions. Let’s figure it out. Okay. Okay. So for some reason, I was thinking it was a health crisis center where you were dealing with maybe suicide intervention or things like that.

 

00:18:54

Have you ever. I’ll give you an example. So when I started my role, the first crisis that I kind of stepped into was just a month prior. There was an article that had said our hospital system would be insolvent by 2025 if immediate measures weren’t taken. And so, you know, the community just absolutely freaked out for good reason, because you don’t want to hear that your hospital is potentially going to go bankrupt.

 

00:19:20

We were confident that we were going to, you know, make the right decisions, make the right moves to prevent that, and we did. Of course, at the time, all the community was seeing was, oh, they’re about to go bankrupt. What are we going to do here? What in the world’s going on? And so that’s kind of where my role came in to really help with that story, that narrative.

 

00:19:40

It’s really storytelling. Well, that’s true. It’s really storytelling. Did you go through some. Some kind of intense training to move into that kind of a role?

 

00:19:54

Because you’re, you know, communicating. Communicating with a lot of. On a lot of different levels. So, you know, it’s one of my traits is I like to call it positive audacity. I just put myself out there, even if it’s, you know, I don’t think anything will come of it, or if I’m not qualified.

 

00:20:15

So I was, my background was still chemistry at the time. Saw the public relations role, didn’t really know the full situation of what was going on at the hospital at the time, but I threw in my application anyways because I was like, well, the worst that’s going to happen is I’m going to get a rejection email in a couple months. I didn’t think much of it. Got a call and found myself sitting in front of the chief operating officer of the system. And I remember he said his first thought was, what in the world is a chemist doing applying to be a public relations leader, especially when the role required five plus years of crisis Wyoming Humanities Council experience.

 

00:20:56

And he said, the reason you’re sitting here though, is because I saw your TED talks and he saw, you know, how I was able to take my own situation, my own crisis and communicate that in a really constructive way. And, you know, the rest of the story goes, I, there was some back and forth here and there, but ultimately, I got the job. And it was funny because I remember my first day, you know, starting to read about what I had gotten myself into. I didn’t even really fully understand what a press release was at the time, which is PR101. But I learned really quickly that’s, you know, one of those things that I learned about myself is that I can, you know, rise to the occasion, learn super-fast, you know, lifelong learner, and so became really good at the job.

 

00:21:46

And it kind of sent me down the path of healthcare leadership, healthcare administration.

 

00:21:52

Well, that is, yeah, that, that is truly a new path because probably so many new skills that you’re going to acquire and at the same time be an entrepreneur. So how do you, how do you manage your time around those two things? Well, you know, I recently had a job change this past December, actually. So I do business development now for an ambulatory surgery center. So I do the Wyoming Humanities Council and stuff still as well.

 

00:22:25

But a lot more than that. There’s strategy and more of the marketing and more of relationship building, which has been a very good and also very intense change. I found myself working on that met quite a lot. I, one of my mantras, I’ve got a bunch of them floating around in my head. One of them is, you know, I don’t, I don’t find the time.

 

00:22:44

I make the time, so I find I, I find a way to make it work no matter what. And so you know, what it looks like is pretty standard 8 to 5 working in my business development role. And of course it’s, there’s a lot of time that I spend outside of that as well working on that stuff. But in the evenings I work on my business and on the weekends I work my business. You know, what I’ve found is I love to constantly be working because I’m passionate about what I do.

 

00:23:17

There isn’t really a concern for me about work, life balance and burnout because I’m so passionate about my business development role, about my entrepreneurship, that I just love it all. And so it’s very easy for me to find myself constantly working. You know, my idea of relaxing is sitting down with a good book and just learning, learning more. So it’s been, it’s, it’s been challenging in the sense that I’ve also got a family and you know, making sure that I spend time with everyone while I’m doing all of my work. But I’ve really found good ways to work around all of that and just be really productive because that’s what I love doing.

 

00:24:02

Good for you. What, what is your advice probably to other young entrepreneurs out there who are, you know, trying to balance work, family and life in general and, and, and, but want to have an entrepreneurial dream. Do you have anything specific that you could say that would help somebody on their journey? Yeah. So, you know, I think one of the first things that we have to do is kind of divorce ourselves from the mindset of traditional work life balance because the way it’s been set up and the way we often think about it is you have to have one or the other.

 

00:24:49

They’re constantly fighting each other. The idea that one precludes the other and that’s just not true. I think the important part is to find what you’re passionate about and to dive into to that because all of a sudden, you know, the work becomes play. That’s, that’s honestly how it feels. You know, it seldom feels like I’m actually working and more like I’m just having a good time with what I’m doing and what I’m trying to build.

 

00:25:16

There are ways that, you know, you can, you can put two and two together to really strike a unity between work and life. So an example is I could be having say, a meeting business related and bring my wife with me and you know, it’s, we get to spend time with each other, she gets to work with me on the business and we get to enjoy a meal together while engaging in the business that we’re trying to build. And so it’s kind of like a best of both worlds. You have to look at it that way. But what I would also say, and you know the most common question I get asked is how, how do I just keep going, going, going without feeling tired?

 

00:26:06

And one of the things I do, actually I’ll give you two of them. One of them, which is really motivating and it has to do with ambition, is to imagine yourself 10 years from now. Imagine who that person is, where do they live, what have they accomplished, who are their friends. But part is to identify what that person believes, how they act, what their thoughts are and to start being that person today. Because you don’t, you, you don’t have all the say the material goods or maybe the connections or the career, but you have yourself and you can start being that person.

 

00:26:46

And what you’re going to find is one, that’s extremely motivating to keep pushing forward and two, you’re going to become that person eventually. The other one that I wanted to add is something called neuro linguistic programming and I still retain my nerdy science ness. To me I love biology and chemistry and how we can sort of hack that. So neuro linguistic programming, essentially what you do is you anchor yourself to memories, key memories. Say you just started your business, you filed your llc.

 

00:27:22

That’s a pretty positive key memory, memory right there. And if you can anchor yourself to that. So when you’re heading into another situation or if you’re feeling down, think back to that memory. Think about how you felt in vivid memory, what you know, what the environment smelled like, what the environment looked like, that level of detail. You can anchor yourself to memories and instantly encourage yourself, instantly give a boost to your mood.

 

00:27:50

And it’s all based in our neurology, our biology and that of stuff is really impactful. So I do that myself. When I’m heading into an important day, important meeting, I will think back to my anchor points just to motivate me, just to give me that extra pep to keep moving forward. Oh gosh. Well, that’s excellent advice and it’s been great talking to you.

 

00:28:17

Tell the audience how they can find out more about you. What is your website? Facebook, Instagram, how can people find out more about, about you? So they can go to my website, which is nibertoorellana.com. it’s N O r B e R T O o R E L L a N a dot com.

 

00:28:39

It’s really long, but my name is really long. So I kind of got stuck with that. But my email address, anyone can reach out via email. It’s just Norberto at Norberto or alana.com. if you just search for me on Google, you’ll find my Facebook, Instagram, all the social media handles.

 

00:28:58

Those are ways to get in touch with me as well. And yeah, just looking forward to chatting with folks. Anyone who’s interested in chatting and welcome, welcoming them along on this journey. Oh, excellent. Well, I think that’s very inspiring for people.

 

00:29:16

People love hearing stories about overcomers. Wherever you start, it doesn’t matter. You can still get to where you want to go. Exactly. And I’ll just add one more thing to that.

 

00:29:30

You know, my story shouldn’t be exceptional. It should be the norm. That’s part of my mission. You know, I, in five years, I accomplished what normally takes five generations. It takes five generations in the US to break the cycle of poverty.

 

00:29:46

On average, I did it in five years. I want that to be a normal story. I don’t want it to be headline worthy. I want other people to do it too. You know, by the time I was 23, I was a homeowner, father, husband, first gen college graduate.

 

00:30:02

And you know, today, just three years after that, at 26, doing all these things, starting a business, politically involved in my community. And you wouldn’t think that I came from where I did if I didn’t tell you, right? Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Nurberto, for talking to me today. And I’ll make sure I put all the ways that people can find you when we post your podcast, all right?

 

00:30:33

Absolutely. Thank you. All right, have a good afternoon. You too.

 

00:30:43

Thank you for listening. I’m executive producer Emmy Digrappa. Winds of Change is brought to you by Wyoming Humanities Council, our co hosts and all the people who generously share their stories and their time. For more information, go to thinkwy.org subscribe and never miss a show.