Today we’d like to introduce you to Andi Moore
Hi Andi, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In college I stumbled upon Powell while working on a project. I decided to go and visit on one of my trips to Columbus and immediately fell in love. I loved the walkability, the shop owners, and the way you just feel like you are in a Hallmark movie when you walk around. I said “one day, I want to own a business here!” and wrote it off as kind of a wild dream. Flash forward a few years and I found myself looking for commercial space to house my consignment based Ohio made products (but not necessarily Ohio themed products) store. After looking in a few different areas I finally gave into my curiosity and just went to Powell to “just see”. Maybe, just maybe they would have a space that was within the budget. That afternoon I found my ideal space and signed the lease a week later. My first day, I did two things: I went and introduced myself to all of the other business owners and I joined the Powell Chamber of Commerce. I wanted to not only come in and run a business I wanted to join a community and they welcomed me with open arms. They helped me through the red tape, gave suggestions on who to get a sign from, and gave so many great tips and tricks. I bought most of my displays from local shops, found ways to partner for our grand opening, and signed up to help revive the Street Market with the Chamber. While running my store, I fell even more in love with the community, my customers, the other businesses, and the vendors in my store and at the market. I eventually closed my store, due to a shift in my personal life, but stayed deeply involved in the community.
At the end of 2020 I left my corporate job to start a non profit called Events and Tourism Community Partnership, but due to Covid and the uncertainty of what events and tourism would look like moving forward my idea fell flat with both the City of Powell and Liberty Township. I kept moving forward with my other passion of helping small businesses and events under my own LLC, but always had this dream in my heart of helping promote Powell, bring more events to the residents, and increasing economic development through more foot traffic in our Downtown. In 2023 I felt the tug to start clearing space in my life to reboot the nonprofit. After applying for our 501c3 status it became clear that this was the time to start the process of advocating for funding. I had spent almost 9 years as a volunteer and or very cheap contractor in multiple roles where I was able to prove what I was capable of doing and building trust and relationships with others in the community. In 2024 Sean Hughes, Economic Development Director for Powell Development Corporation, advocated for us to receive a grant. With this grant we were able to brand and start advertising Powell businesses, introduce a few fun new events for residents in Downtown Powell, and use one dedicated person to carry out all of these initiatives (me).
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has had a lot of ups and downs but looking back the journey makes sense. Initially, the struggle was finding ways to create the time to volunteer between being a mom, business owner, and community member. After I overcame that hurdle the challenge became trying to convince people that my time that I had been volunteering was actually worth money, which then rolled into trying to convince people that I should be paid the industry standard for my services.
Our current obstacle is just finding ways to generate sponsorships and donations so that we can continue to operate at the level that we all know we can.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a multipassionate person but all of my passions work together and make sense when you look at it from the lens of my love of small businesses and helping people. I love people and want nothing more than for everyone to feel valued and supported. I own The Homies Collective/Homies Suite, a female based coworking space and community. I wanted a space where women can have the comforts of home without the distractions of home while working, at a very affordable price. We are membership based for the use of the suite, but all are welcome to attend our events!
I also own a small business operations consulting business, working with a set number of clients to create a better experience for clients, better communication internally and externally, and create/refine operations processes to become more efficient and effective.
Last, but not least, I run Visit Powell, a nonprofit with the mission of fostering a sense of community and increase economic development through events and tourism. We build meaningful connection between the community and Powell but engaging city leadership and business owners to curate experiences that foster community engagement and stimulate economic growth. We do this by honoring Powell’s charming history, celebrating all the city has to offer today, and generating excitement for its future evolution.
I personally feel like my biggest strengths are my heart and drive. I value genuine collaboration, connections, and love to learn about people and their passions, supporting them however I can. I love connecting people and am proud of the way that I show up in the world day to day. I would like to think that I’m an optimistic person and love to find ways to collaborate. I think the thing that sets me apart from others is my resilience.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My biggest piece of advice is to never quit on a bad day and just trust the process. My journey didn’t make sense to me until years later. Things that I felt like were failures were actually the perfect stepping stones to the bigger picture. Don’t get caught up in the how, really focus in on what you are doing day to day to reach your goals.
In business and in life we all have those days where it just feels like you should probably quit. Don’t quit on those days. If you have that feeling on a great day where things are going exactly how you want, then you know it’s time to shift. Don’t let the emotions and the pressure of the things that aren’t going your way make you give up on yourself. You are stronger than that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.visitpowelloh.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visit_powell
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/heartofpowell
