Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Padron.
Hi Diana, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
It all started after I had a major break-up with my Children’s father. I was living in Atlanta with no family, and I was broken, broken and tired. I had been working in Real Estate as a broker for the last 20 years and I did not like what I was doing. I felt like the real estate field was something I did for money not because it was my passion. So, one day, I was looking at Facebook and I came across an advertisement that talked about branding products from China and selling them in the US. Well, I watched the whole advertisement and I started to take the steps to brand my own products.
One day, I’m sitting with my friend smoking a joint asking myself if there was a product I wanted to represent and manufacture. As I was meditating on how I was going to take over the world and I got an idea. Vaping is cool so I’m going to come out with a Branded Vape product which I called Umi. The Umi Vape pen was a 3 in 1 vape pen with three different attachments. I ordered like 2500 of these pens in 5 different colors. I got the boxes, and I must have gone to a gas station in Lithonia to try to sell them and I got rejected. So, I told myself that like wholesaling is not for me. I looked at all of my products and I told myself that day I need to open a store to sell all of these vape pens.
So, my friend Asha sent me a flyer of a vape convention going on in Miami Beach, Florida and I drop everything and go to the convention. From the moment that I get to the convention, the vibe was so cool and welcoming. I met a lot of cool sales reps that explained to me the business. So when I got back home I took my savings and got a few loans and worked on finding a retail store to rent. Well, I searched for months and nobody would rent me a space or give me a chance. I spent six months looking for a space and one real estate guy told me if I made a business plan maybe this landlord would be interested in working with me. Once I made the business plan the landlord was willing to work with me and in December 2017 I procured a space in Avondale Estates that had been empty for five years. I was so shocked I did not go visit the space for two weeks.
I did not know how to begin, so I started painting. I had no money so I did a lot of the prepping the store myself. I would go on Tinder dates and meet my dates at my store to help me paint. I got help from my cousin, that came down for 2 weeks to help me prepare the store. I made myself sick working like a dog in a cold environment that had no heat because when I rented the space the heat did not work properly and I had to buy five heaters to heat the store. I finally opened the store on April 1st, 2018. I was so scared to take the brown bag off the windows. I was afraid to open the doors and be ready for business but I did. I was so shocked again when I got my first customer then I got a second and a third and I could not believe that I made the money to pay the rent the first month open I was shocked (again).
Things were going good with the store. I had a few mishaps with the store like no heat or ac for the first year and a half. But I hung in there. Everything was going good. Then came the “Vape Ocalypse” which was the time when the government was demonizing the vape industry and Trump told the country not to vape. I lost 50% of my business in one day. I was so scared of losing my business. I decided to make the executive decision to turn into a Hemp CBD Dispensary Called Hemp Haven.
Everything was great for some time again. I had been in the space for three years and when it was time to renew and then the Landlord did not want to renew to me because he wanted to rent to another person for no reason. Then the landlord doubled my rent and I had to fight for the store again. The landlord left me in limbo for six months because I felt like he didn’t like me because I was a single black woman with children having my own business. He would come with these men into my business and threaten to rent my business to another person because they had more money but nothing ever came out of it. I won my landlords over and I was allowed to renew my lease for three more years. Oh by the way, he doubled my rent that year.
So, I thought I was good for three more years then Covid 19 came and the world shut down… And I had just finished saying that the US would never shut down. I was so shocked again because I felt like all I did was fight for the shop and now the world was closing. The police came to personally shut me down and I was in shock because I could not afford to close my business. I was a single mom with three children at home and I did not have a backup plan. So I prayed to God and I told myself that I would just go to work and open the door and sit in the dark. And that’s what I did. I just went to work in a dark store and the door opened one customer at a time. I stayed open throughout the covid 19 shutdown because I had to help my community to get thru this, So many people were having trouble sleeping, people were worried and feeling sick. People wanted an alternative to drinking. The liquor stores were considered an essential business but CBD Stores were expected to close but I did not. Like the little engine that could I stayed open and worked on my store upgrading where I could and concentrating myself on bringing the best products to my store. I started to manufacture my own products and add them to my inventory. I started off with CBD tinctures Kona CBD in various strengths and flavours and now I have gummies too, Delta 8 and Delta 9 Gummies Called Mind Fuck. I have a CBD Mushroom line called MycoHealth. I have Libido CBD tincture line called Hard Night. Everything was good again.
Once Covid 19 died down in 2022, I added the Kratom and Kava bar to the store because I was very interested in adding an additional element to the store that would be modern and unique. Euphoric teas are made at the bar which can sometimes include psychoactive cannabinoids derived from the hemp plant. Nowadays we have a great bath and body cbd section that is poppin and we are like a one-stop shop for all things hemp related. We carry more than 12 different psychoactive cannabinoids and tons of beautiful flowers that we sell in the store or online on our website www.hemphavenatl.com.
After Covid the store was featured on Creative Loafing Magazine and we have been doing really well until we got burglarized in 2022 and 2023. In 2022 we got the store was robbed at gunpoint by black children and in May 2023, the store got robbed again by some black children but this time, they smashed the window and stole eight pounds of flowers. So I have had to recover from that. But I opened my second location in Chamblee, Ga and I am really proud of myself for that feet. When I open my third store, I will have a chain of stores. I can’t wait. But my goal is eight stores. I don’t know why but that is my number. But most importantly I am happy that I can have a positive change on the health and wellness of people in my community. That is the most special part about being in this business. I love this store. It brings so much healing to the community and myself included. The vibe is so cool and it makes me feel happy to go to work and serve my community. I feel very good about being able to have the ability to hire like-minded individuals that look like me to jump into this hemp industry and represent black excellence. We are educating people on hemp cannabis and the positive benefits that it could have on our health. Life is good, still hard but good.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it has not been a smooth road. Being a black woman in the Hemp Cannabis Industry when I started was very intimidating. Sometimes I was the only black woman in the room and I swear people looked at me like I was the hired help. But, I had to tell myself that if I’m in the room I am meant to be here so, “hold your head up girl cuz you are here to spend money.”
My landlords of the building really worked against me by being slum lords in the beginning. Really felt marginalized but I got thru it. He doubled my rent after three years and it took six months to get my lease renewed
The “VApocalypse “almost killed my business completely when Trump told America not to Vape.
Covid 19 The police made me close my store but I kept it open in secret for about six months till they told me it was okay to turn on my light.
I have been robbed by gunpoint I’ve been robbed like three times in the store
White people have come to my store and called me a “Nigga” to my face or talked about “Niggas” in my face
I had a white person put a gun to my face and laugh at me after just to see my reaction
I have been kicked out of Distros because people did not want to do business with a Black woman
But I stand strong because this is my calling and I belong here with everybody else.
We get alot of scammers calling the store, trying to confuse the employees and calling them “N……..ger”
Customers that cuss us out when we don’t have their products because they feel entitled but we still like to serve everyone with a happy smile.
We are the experts that understand your pain.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Hemp Haven ATL?
Ok so I own a CBD Dispensary in Avondale Estates and Chamblee, GA called Hemp Haven. We started in 2017 in Avondale Estates. What we specialize in is giving the information that the public needs to make their own decisions as to whether they would like to try Hemp Cannabis Use and what are results they are looking for in obtaining these products. It is a misconception that people just want to get high. What I have been finding in the community is that people want relief from having to take heavy forms of medication that treat the symptoms of their health problems but not the actual problem. We are a society that is shrouded in stress, anxiety and pain. Our job at the CBD Dispensary is to educate, inquire and recommend products that could be beneficial to our customer’s ailments.
What the world needs to know is that CBD is medicinal and not recreational. We have an endocannabinoid system in our bodies that contain receptors for CBD. CBD is a natural relaxant that is produced by the Hemp Cannabis Plant. We educate our customers on how to use these relaxants for the benefit of relieving anxiety. CBD is also a natural anti-inflammatory so therefore it can help relieve pain in the body because pain is the body’s response to inflammation.
What sets our CBD Dispensary apart from all the surrounding CBD Stores is that we are obsessed with giving information. We are here to assist our customers in having a more informed decision on the products that they are buying. Quality is also very important to our brand. I travel all over the country looking for the best Hemp and CBD products in the market so that I can have my Georgia customers experience as much as they can of this legal market. If you go to most smoke shops, they all have the same products because they all shop at the same places. It is sad to say but there is not a lot of variety out there for the consumer because the owners of these shops are not taking the time to understand their customers like we try to do.
Being in Business for six years I have had a chance to get to know my customers their families and what is going on in their life. People come to the store when they are experiencing a crisis, high emotion and lots of pain. So our customers come to share with us. They tell us about their families, we form conversations about life and love. The store is a really healing place for both the customers and the employees. The Vibe is Right All the Time.
We offer Everything CBD and we also try to carry all the current psychoactive cannabinoids currently found in the Hemp Plant… We carry everything new and cool that we can find for example: CBD coffee & tea, gummies galore, soap, lotions, muscle joint creams, shampoo, soap, cartridges, disposable pens, vape Hardware, e-juice, pipes and waterpipes…
We carry all the psychoactive cannabinoids that come from the Hemp Plant. Delta 8,9,10,11 THCV HHC HHCO PHC THCX, THCB,THCM.THCJD.THCH AND THCP, WHICH IS 33 X STRONGER THAN REGULAR Illegal MARIJUANA
We also have a full-service Kratom and Kava Bar where we will specialize in making drinks and premade drinks for our customers and we also give out free tea, and coffee samples while the customers are shopping.
What makes us different from all the other stores in our area is that we genuinely care about our customer’s needs. It’s not always about the sale when it comes to people living with pain and anxiety.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
First and foremost I am a Master herbalist and have been using natural healing modalities since the early 2000s. I am an Afro -Cuban Black Latina born in Miami raised in &NJ West Palm Beach Florida and in my family we like to heal with herbs first and the doctor is only for emergencies or surgeries.
As a child I was always reading about Herbal medicine and Spirituality, those were my go-to. My Godmother Auntie was a Big Santeria Priestess in Miami and she had her own alternative healing center where she would make crystal projection machines to heal her people. My father was a Mason and my mom was an Easter Star, so yeah. Anyways, I grew up around that higher power spirituality, so of course I was going to grow up seeking enlightenment into nature and natural healing
After college, I traveled the country being a Black Hippy Chic that followed the Grateful Dead, Rainbow and Reggae Festivals. I was a road warrior or a houseless free spirit until I moved to Hawaii. In Hawaii, I kept the same free spirit type of lifestyle living in beautiful houses with no electricity on solar. Had some kids four to be exact got off the road and moved back home to Florida to be an entrepreneur and go back to the country.
Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, I became a real estate broker boring…… Ten years later I moved to Atlanta, became a single mom for the third time and said Fuck it, I’m busted broke and alone. I’m gonna do my own thing and smoking is the one thing I like to do the most, so let’s go or die trying. Im the type of person that does not want to die with regret. Plus, when I become an old lady, I wanna be able to look back at my memories and remember that I was a beautiful Baddass Goddes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hemphavenatl.com
- Instagram: hemphavenatl.avondaleestates hemephavenatl.chamblee
- Facebook: hemphavenatl
- Linkedin: hemphavenatl
- Twitter: hemphavenatl
- Youtube: hemp haven atl
- Yelp: hemp haven atl
Image Credits
All pictures belong to Hemp Haven Photos by Diana Padron www.Hemphavenatl.com
