Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenessa Norton.
Hi Jenessa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Although I’m not originally from Erie, I’ve lived here for the majority of my life, and this community truly helped shape who I am. After graduating high school in 2012, while I was in college, I became a mother in 2014, and that completely changed the trajectory of my life. I had to quickly learn how to balance being a full-time student, full-time server, full-time mom, and eventually a homeowner after purchasing my first property at 19 years old, as I obviously could no longer stay in a dormitory and craved a warm home for my family. Those years taught me resilience, discipline, and how to operate under pressure, skills that still guide me every day.
I graduated from Mercyhurst in 2018 and initially went into the corporate world, but I quickly realized I was working in an environment with a culture that didn’t align with my values. Then Covid hit, and like many people, I took a hard look at both my career and my community. During that time, I saw firsthand how unprepared many cities were when it came to communication, infrastructure, financial literacy, support for small businesses, and access to resources. I realized there was a huge gap between communities and the support systems people actually needed to succeed.
That realization pushed me to take a leap and start consulting, which eventually became Green Nest Consultants. What started as simply wanting to help people navigate difficult circumstances grew into a career centered around economic and business development. Over the past several years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in housing initiatives, workforce development, community planning, financial education, and especially business development-which now makes up about 80% of my work.
In 2025 alone, I secured four major contracts, directly assisted 187 for-profit businesses and 21 nonprofit organizations, helped clients secure over $387,000 in funding and grants, served on the mayoral transition team, sat on three boards, taught financial literacy in local schools, and was honored with Erie’s 40 Under 40 award. But honestly, the numbers are only part of the story.
The most meaningful part of my work is seeing the direct impact on people and communities. Through the partnerships and contracts I’ve built, I’m able to offer most of my services completely free to entrepreneurs across Erie, Pittsburgh, and beyond. I strongly believe small businesses are the fabric of a thriving community. They create culture, jobs, opportunity, and identity. There’s nothing more fulfilling than walking into a local coffee shop, restaurant, gym, retail store, or event space and knowing you played a small role in helping that dream become reality-not just for the business owner, but for the entire community that now gets to experience and benefit from it.
I genuinely believe I have the best job in the world. It can be exhausting and sometimes thankless work, but being able to help people build something meaningful, sustainable, and impactful makes every challenge worth it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nothing about my journey has been smooth. From childhood into adulthood, there have been more obstacles than I can count, but two stand out the most: becoming a young mother and navigating life as a young Black woman in a predominantly white male industry.
Becoming a mother while in college completely changed my life. I was balancing school, work, daycare drop-offs, late-night studying, and trying to still be present for my daughter through it all. I remember working a double shift on Mother’s Day just so I could finally afford a textbook I desperately needed. My mom brought my daughter to visit me at work with flowers and a card, and I cried in the bathroom because I truly felt like I was failing her. I didn’t have to do the “hard thing”, which for me was going back to school in finishing my degree, but may look completely different for anyone reading this and I want to acknowledge that. At the time, the “hard thing” was really hard and I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I knew if I just kept moving forward, eventually I’d reach it, and if I halted and reversed I may never see it. Looking back now, that same little girl has watched me graduate college, get married build a business, travel the world, advocate for underserved communities, bring new life into the world, and live a life that has no limitations. That experience taught me resilience and showed me that sometimes the “hard thing” is also the thing that changes your life. Don’t ever stop thriving for better.
The second major challenge was navigating systemic racism and credibility barriers as a young Black woman in finance, business consulting, and economic development. No one is eager to hand over their retirement account, business projections, or community strategy to a 25-year-old Black woman they’ve never heard of, especially in spaces historically dominated by older white men with established networks and access. I wasn’t part of the country club circles, political roundtables, or insider relationships that often open doors in this country. On top of that, I was trying to build this business during the Black Lives Matter movement, which I was very publicly apart of locally, and I refused to water down my values to be more digestible for anyone, which absolutely came with consequences. I have zero regrets but quickly realized I had to build credibility differently- through expertise, results, persistence, and relationships rooted in authenticity instead of proximity to power. Joining Erie’s Black Wall Street became a turning point for me. That community taught me how to navigate systems that were never truly built for us while still standing firm in who we are. Even today, racism and bias still exist, but I no longer face those challenges alone, and that has made all the difference. Building a team of trusted like-minded individuals who you believe in, and that believe in you, is more powerful than golfing with any State Representative on Saturday’s. Trust me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I really specialize in financial and strategic planning, which can look like many things; the business owner who generates $1 million in revenue but wants to grow his profitability, the organization that is trying to increase homeownership rates but is unsure how, the mom that really wants to set up a 529 Plan for her kids college funds but isn’t sure where in her budget it would fit, a city’s DCED that needs restructured, a non-profit who needs a new housing strategy, the developer who needs to acquire a $50 million capital stack for a mixed-use project. I can help with that.
From the outside looking in, this may look like a lot of different things, however, it’s actually just the same thing across many different sectors. In simple terms, people source me when something is holding them back from growing from point A to point B. I am very good at analyzing a problem, finding opportunity gaps, providing solution options, and executing plans. I am as Type-A as a person can honestly be, I’m extremely organized and detail oriented. This allows me to take on different kinds of contracts without feeling overextended.
However, what set’s me apart from others in my field is I am authentic. That authenticity allows me to connect with such a wide range of people. I can sit in a boardroom discussing economic development strategy one hour and then help a struggling mom rebuild her credit score in the next meeting. A lot of that comes from lived experience. I’ve experienced struggle, uncertainty, and rebuilding firsthand, so when I help others navigate those moments, it comes from a place of empathy and understanding, not just theory. People don’t just want experts or factual information, they want someone they can connect with and trust. I think my authenticity is what makes people feel comfortable enough to believe in themselves, and that’s something I never take lightly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.greennestconsultants.com
