July 14, 2025 • 19 mins
What happens when a simple Facebook group transforms into the digital heartbeat of an entire community? Meet Danielle Wynkoop, the creator of Vero Beach Neighborhood® (VBN) - a 74,000-member strong online community that's become an essential part of life in this Florida coastal town.
From her sun-drenched VBN Beach Shop and Gifts store, Danielle shares how what began as a "dumping ground" for miscellaneous questions eight years ago has evolved into a powerful force for connection, inside jokes, and community support. With disarming honesty, she reveals the unexpected journey from casual group admin to full-time community leader: "VBN doesn't sleep, so I don't really sleep."
The magic of VBN lives in its unique cultural touchstones, from the completely fictional "Corn Snake Festival" (supposedly held on the non-existent June 31st) to the infamous "Joyce's Dock" incident that rallied the community. These shared experiences transform online interactions into genuine community bonds, especially for newcomers seeking to understand their new hometown.
Perhaps most remarkable is VBN's real-world impact, including annual Christmas giveaways totaling $20,000 from local businesses. Through it all, Danielle remains focused on her mission to "keep Vero Vero" while welcoming newcomers, preserving community character while embracing growth.
Whether you're fascinated by the power of digital communities or simply curious about what makes Vero Beach special, this conversation offers a heartwarming glimpse into how online connections can strengthen real-world community bonds. Subscribe now for part two, where we'll explore the day-to-day operations behind this remarkable digital phenomenon.
Presented by Killer Bee Marketing
Helping local businesses in Vero Beach connect with their neighbors.
Support The Show
Keep It Local. Keep It Going
Be sure to connect with us on Instagram at @myverobeachdotcom
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
I'm Brian and I'm Shawna, andtoday we're talking to Danielle
from Vero Beach Neighborhood andthat's a Facebook group and
we're at your gift shop location.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
VBN Beach Shop and Gifts is where we're sitting.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
It's relaxing colors and beautiful decorations and
smells delightful.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
What does it smell like?
What would you?
How would you describe that?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I would say it's like a slightly floral, but it's
just kind of a beachy smell.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, yeah, does it have a name?
No, it's just calming andpeaceful, and I think it's
mostly from the candles that wecarry from Wild Ascent.
So it's just a, it's a nicemarriage of all of those, those
scents.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's like not overwhelming and a natural smell
, so I love that.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Is everything in here local?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It is.
I do source from 30 localbusinesses, although it's my
wholesale gift shop.
If I can get something locally,I really do try to do that.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, and I love the colors inhere too.
We always try to kind of paintthe picture People haven't been
in here.
What is this color, shauna?
Because you know I would callit probably light blue.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I would call that robin's egg blue.
What do you call it?
Oh, I call it sea glass like asea glass green.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That's so much better .
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Okay, I like all that and I have to say I love your
backdrop wall here right behind.
Is that where your register isat?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It is yes, a little photo op Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Awesome, I love it.
I love it.
You're really thinking aheadhere, sure.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, it's important.
All the details are what makesthe whole pie right.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, danielle, for those that might be listening
that don't know who you are andprobably a lot of people do-
because you have this verypopular Facebook group which
we're going to get into.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Maybe take about 30 seconds to tell us a little bit
about yourself.
Okay, so I'm Danielle.
I am the VBN lady, I guess, asit's called now.
It's really important to me tobe able to invest into the
community in a bunch ofdifferent ways, and so Vero
Beach Neighborhood, which I'vecreated, has really done that,
and so I'm very proud of thatwhole work, and so my family
moved here about 10 years agofull time.
My family's been here about 40,45 years, so I've kind of
(01:54):
watched the genesis of VeroBeach happen, and it's really
been very interesting.
And so that's why VBN is soimportant to me, because it
helps me keep Vero Vero, whilealso welcoming all the new
people, because that's superimportant as well.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh, that's cool.
I love that.
Yeah, and we're new so that's,very welcome.
Now, we've been coming to Verosince 2014.
So we're we're new residents.
Okay, but you know the area, weknow the area but we've gotten
to know it even more with doingthe podcast.
So we're excited to be able tosit down across from you and get
to know more about your storyand how everything got started.
I'm thrilled to be here so Well, okay.
(02:30):
So I know you have the VeroBeach Neighborhood Facebook
group.
How did that get started?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
There was another page a long time ago that was
really specifically for crimerelated incidents.
But people kept asking allkinds of stuff and the person
who ran that page was anacquaintance of mine.
I said I'll just start a page.
It can be like a dumping ground, essentially.
You just tell people if youwant to ask about nails or hair,
you go over here.
And so they were like, yeah,that would be a great idea.
Well, within the first week wehad so many people I said I bet
(02:59):
we can do something reallyspecial with this and that it's
just really taken off.
So it's been gosh eight, eightyears now, which is sounds
insane to say, but and we're upto 74,000 people at this point,
so it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, wow, it's a wealth of information, you know,
especially being new to thearea, and when you're wondering
about certain places or whatever.
Yeah, it's really.
It's got some interesting stuff.
I've really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, thank you.
And there's a lot of differentpersonalities on the page that
make it really very special.
There's a lot of differentdynamics that make it as
cohesive, you know, as it is.
And so I love that feedback,that especially people who are
new, because I think we've allbeen new either to a new team, a
new school, a new state,something, and you're like, gosh
, how do I make friends, how doI meet people?
What are the jokes?
(03:43):
What do people do?
Where do I go?
Where do I not go?
And so to have VBN be thatwater cooler space is really
amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That's cool and I like how you said that.
It's a water cooler space.
It's a place people cometogether and just chat and I
know Shauna's write Like.
There's some really goodwriters, I bet you can guess who
I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Is it a man?
Yeah, is it Mike Peruta?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, it is.
I love the posts that he putson there and you know, obviously
like the stories that he tellsabout his son and stuff like
that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Now were you surprised that it took off so
fast.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I definitely was, because really, like I said, it
just was supposed to be thiskind of catch all nonsense page,
but because we had so manypeople, I was like let's do
something really special, and itwas just about Christmas time.
So we started the Christmasgiveaway, which is now, and also
in its eighth year.
Um, we give away about $20,000every year and maybe a hundred
thousand dollars total over allthe years that I've done it, and
so businesses just choose tosponsor that.
(04:42):
The minimum is 100.
They can always go higher thanthat, and everything that's
given to me is given to a randomwinner on the post that I put
up for that business.
So the very first year that wedid it, I went and used my own
money and just bought some giftcards to some local businesses.
I remember my husband beinglike this is the best thing who
sponsored this, and I was likeyou did.
So he hates that story, but Ilove that story.
(05:05):
And so from then, otherbusinesses were like this is
cool, we want to be involved,and so that's really what makes
Vero so special is, everyonereally wants to see.
Most people want to see otherpeople do really well, and so it
doesn't matter.
You know the people at the top,whether it's air conditioning
or painting or podcasting,they're all supporting each
other.
You know they're not.
There's a healthy competition,as opposed to tearing each
(05:25):
other's faces off, which wedon't like to get into.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, We've noticed that and heard a lot of people
talk about how generous peoplein this area are so many of them
and so, yeah, I'm glad you saidthat too, because it's it's
neat to be new here and to belearning so much about
businesses, people, everything.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Is there any particular post or anything that
you use like?
That has always just kind ofstuck with you.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Not any one in particular, necessarily, but
anything that becomes VBN legend.
So whether it's Corn Snakes orPizza Joyce's Dock, Battle of
the Berm, the Corn SnakeFestival, like all these
different things, and what Ireally love about them is that
there are people who don'tnecessarily get out very often,
aren't sure where to makefriends, but they can all be in
on this gigantic community joke,which is really I think it's a
(06:11):
really fantastic way to be.
So there's some people like Idon't like that.
It's like, well, keep scrolling,but for everybody else like
there are literally tens ofthousands of people that
understand what's happening, andwe're happy to explain it.
If people are like, hey, what'sthis?
We what's happening, and we'rehappy to explain it.
If people are like, hey, what's?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
this.
We love to introduce new peopleto that, and so thank you for
that offer.
I was just going to say I'vebeen seeing the Corn Snake
Festival posts and I was tryingto work out whether it's a real
thing or not.
And I was pretty sure it wasn't.
But yes, please explain.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It is a completely virtual Vero Beach Neighborhood
Festival and it's held on June31st, which we understand is not
an actual date.
That is the purpose of thefestival.
And what's very cool is adults,we should be adulting, but this
is what we're doing.
On the Internet, they come upwith these hysterical titles of
(07:01):
like they'll have like movies orevents or all of these
different things, and everyonekind of jumps in and you know,
it's almost like a giant brainchild, right?
So you have people who startcertain posts and then you have
other people who jump in andyou're like, oh my gosh, that's
genius, yeah.
And so it becomes.
Every year it gets a littlebigger and a little bigger.
And so this year, with the giftshop, we actually have
merchandise, we have Corn SnakeFestival t-shirts.
(07:24):
So yeah it's just whatever, butit's fun and it's clean and it's
happy and it makes people smileand I like that.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Did that start?
Because people constantly postlike is this a venomous snake
that I found?
And it's always a corn snake it.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Did People do post that?
And Mike Pruda was actually theone who said who started with
Black Racer, very friendly, andthat turned into Corn Snake,
very friendly, and from thatit's become like it's now a
legend.
And now we have this festivaland, like all this nonsense that
you know, I love that.
You know, we're in our 40s and50s and this is what we're doing
and it's fantastic.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I can relate to that.
There was snake out in thecourtyard today.
I'm like a snake, she's like itwas a black snake.
I'm like, yeah, it was a snake.
She's like they're harmless.
Black snakes are good.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
They're friendly.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They're going to keep the rats you hate away.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, like I think it was our son.
I don't know how old he was,probably like when it right
around.
Yeah, I was like around eightor 10.
Came in with a little snake andit looked like it was like the
size of a worm.
It was tiny.
He showed Shauna at first andshe said you need to go talk to
your dad.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He wanted to keep it.
He wanted to keep it.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And he showed it to me.
I was like absolutely not, he'slike dad, it's so small.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I was like nope nope, nope, for now it's small.
Yeah, I don't want a snake inthe house.
I think most people come fromFlorida and they see snakes.
They're like, ah, you know,murder it.
But really a lot of them arevery gentle and they're very
nice.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And the black racers are one, the corn snakes are
another, and so Sadly, that isnot Brian's excuse because in
Ohio we had lots and lots offriendly snakes and garter
snakes everywhere, but he's justdoesn't like them.
So I'm the authority I mean notin real life authority, but
just in our home authority onsnakes Like, don't worry, it's
fine, I've done my research, Iknow what to worry about.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So what are some of the other events that you listed
?
Because, like you're listingall things, I'm like I've never
heard of any of these.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I think it was all fake stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's all fake.
Some of it's stuff that hasactually happened right.
So we did do a pizza crawl oneyear and we will eventually
bring that back again.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Explain that Cause like okay, snakes, you had me
ready to run for the door.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Pizza Okay, I'm ready and I'm really crawling for it.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I will crawl for pizza.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So, uh, basically we rent um a large like bus,
limousine, whatever, and peoplepay to go on this and we line up
pizza shops and we go fromliterally from pizza shop to
pizza shop, we eat pizza forlike eight hours and then each
place I have a little votingcard and then I have a little
trophy at the end.
So we did that.
We did that pre-COVID and justbecause the world's been kind of
(09:52):
crazy and accelerated, wehaven't done it again, but we
will definitely bring back theVPN pizza crawl at some point.
Joyce's dock is another one.
That is a real situation.
That happened.
A guy was fishing with his son.
The lady said I own the water.
He goes.
You absolutely do not own thewater, you own the dock.
She sprayed him with a hose.
She was arrested.
It went completely viral andthen everyone in town with boats
(10:13):
, floats, jet skis, thesheriff's office all went out
there and they had a fishJoyce's dock day.
And so she's still in jail.
She, you know, she, I don't knowif she was there or not there,
but she doesn't leave.
I don't know if she was thereor not there, she doesn't leave.
I don't even think she lives inVero anymore.
But again, it's one of thesethings that just starts it like
has this weird genesis on VBNand it becomes this incredible,
you know thing that everyonekind of knows about and can
participate in.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I absolutely love that the pizza crawl is a real
thing.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
It is a real thing, it is coming back so yes, and
can we buy advance tickets?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You will be my first call.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
All right, all right, all right, you'll hear.
Eventually, probably.
We have a little ad spot in thepodcast and the whole point of
it is that Brian is spending somuch money on pizza that we need
some support.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Just give $3 a month to the podcast and you'll be
good.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Even you can sponsor an adult child who loves pizza.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, so, danielle, what's what would you say has
been like the most surprisingpart about building this local
online community?
I've seen with with Facebookgroups, where people will start
them but then they'll try tocontrol every element of it and
the community can never have avoice there.
But you're you're doingsomething right here.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Thank you.
Um, it's a very delicatebalance in terms of everyone has
their, their leanings, wherethey hail from what they think.
So every day I have to takemyself out of what I think and
believe and say, okay, I'm inVBN.
This is the set of very basicrules we've set.
As long as they're followingthose rules, they can post and
comment and do whatever.
(11:39):
So if it's any one of thoseviolations or a shade of that
violation, we just remove it.
If someone's in danger, wedon't want people to dox people.
But the most important part isthat you're on it all the time.
It is my full-time job to be onVBN and so there's a lot of
people who start groups and dowhatever, and I don't know that
there's.
If they want it to be VBN-esquewithout stealing my business
(12:01):
name, right, you have to be onit and you have to be on it all
the time.
I mean, there are no vacations.
I have not had a vacation sinceI started this and even if
we're going away or I have aconference, the phone or the
computer are right there.
It's constant work because VBNdoesn't sleep, so I don't really
sleep and so that's what makesit.
You have to be on it all thetime and you have to not be
(12:23):
afraid to curate it in the waythat you think is the most
beneficial for the community.
And so there's people like, oh,that's terrible, she's a
dictator.
So they just got me a sign frommy desk that says VBN, dictator
.
I'm like this is great.
Like you have to be willing tocurate that.
Like I think, going back to thefact that we are all supposed
to be adults, right, you have tounderstand the room that you're
in, and VBN allows most but notall.
(12:45):
And so if you want to talkabout national politics or use
the F word or, you know, bedisgusting, like this is just
not going to be the room for youand that's okay.
And so I think the number ofpeople that we've removed from
the page is like less than 1%,0.1%.
There's not even a fullpercentage point of the entirety
of the thing.
So our numbers are good.
(13:06):
The page is healthy.
Yeah, I think you always.
I always put blinders on Right,so I get blinders on.
You got to do the work, likeI'm not looking for fame or
fortune or any of these things.
It's the good work that.
And if other things come fromthat, then that's just because
the page is healthy and that'swhere it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
That kind of leads into my question Do you have
anyone to help you?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
admin wise, I do.
I have a team of a fewmoderators.
I have a couple of what theycall group experts on Facebook,
so they don't have insight intothe back office work of VBN, but
they have a different vantagepoint than we do and so they
monitor from the front.
And then I also have MikePeruta, who I absolutely chased
around the internet until peoplelike you chased us around the
(13:46):
internet.
The only person I've everchased around the internet is
Mike Peruta, because I saw himcommenting on other pages and I
watched him literally getremoved from multiple group
pages.
I was like these people do notunderstand that.
He's well-written, well thoughtout and he's not making fun of
anyone's person.
It's situational.
I was like this guy is smartand he's quick and he's funny.
So I was like hey, want to be amoderator, hey, want to be a
(14:07):
moderator.
And so I just chased until hewas like fine, I'll be a
moderator.
And I give a lot of credit tohis wife, shannon.
She's lovely.
We love her Because the hoursthat are put into VBN are just
innumerable.
Same thing for them they go onvacation but and he can jump off
his phone, but it's.
It takes a lot of patience.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I give a lot of credit to his wife for hanging
tough for us Well that's awesomeand that's pretty amazing with
that many people people in thegroup over you know, over 74,000
people that you've removed lessthan 1%.
Yes, that's had to be, you know, blocked.
So if you're in that less than1%, you could be sore about it
or you could say, hey, I'm inthat less than 1%.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
You're unique, you're an elite group, you're just not
allowed in the group.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
But hey, that happens Like you know what I mean.
That is part of it, thatmoderation, because that's what
keeps a group healthy.
We moved here in January andstarted getting settled in and
we're trying to figure out, like, how do we connect with the
community?
We want to get to know peoplemore and more business owners.
That's when we're like, hey,let's do the podcast.
We've been like this podcast isnew, but we've been doing
podcasts for over three years,so it's not new to us, it's just
(15:10):
a new podcast.
A lot of people are asking,really, like we're not creating
Facebook groups?
We saw your group and we'relike we don't want to like you
guys are doing awesome.
We don't need this Like you got.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
the community already has that, and why reinvent?
Yeah, we don't need to inventsomething.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So we are on Instagram but I'm like but we'll
just focus on Instagram, we'renot doing anything like that
because you guys have a greatfollowing.
What would you say you havelearned about yourself since
launching this Facebook group?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I have incredible patience.
I really, growing up, thoughtthat I was more of a hothead and
didn't have.
You know, I was like I want itnow, like I didn't have a lot of
patience, but I've reallylearned.
I have, like incredible, youhave to have incredible patience
.
But that always really shocksme.
It shocks my mom too.
So shout out to my mom, like itwas like how are you doing this
(15:58):
?
I go, I don't know, I don'teven know.
But yeah, I think that's reallyimportant.
I think it's important tounderstand where people are
coming from.
Not everyone gets on theinternet every day because
they've woken up in sunshine andflowers and that people have a
lot of stuff going on in theirlives, whether it be work
related, home related, whateverit may be.
And I think a lot of peoplecomment and sometimes if you see
an ugly comment, a not sofriendly comment, we try to just
(16:20):
meet them where they're at.
So if deleting the comment, wejust delete the comment, like we
don't need to punish themforever.
you know for that in this space,but sometimes even just talking
to them like so I'm a Biblethumping Christian, which is not
a secret, but it's, as a kindword turns away, wrath Right.
And I think that that I makesure that that plays in my head
frequently, because sometimespeople are like raw and I'm like
, oh okay, understanding that Ihad the ability to eviscerate
(16:42):
someone in writing or verballyis not always the position that
I think God wants me to take inthe position that he's placed me
in, and so it's very importantthat I replay that verse in my
head and I go okay, something isclearly happening with this
person, because this is not thenormal human reaction to like
where do I get dinner tonight?
You know like, and so it'sreally important, and I think
that also helps in my ownpersonal ministry to people,
(17:05):
because if you're going to tellpeople you're a Christian, you
got to be a Christian, and sothat's really important to me as
well.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Sometimes I think we forget that there's real people
on the other side of those feedsand I've always kind of looked
at that like, no matter whattool we're using, it's like a
digital touchpoint intosomebody's life so we can help
decide, can we help make it alittle bit better, but then also
realize that we don't reallyunderstand what they're going
through at this time.
So I love to hear that you'reapproaching a group like that as
well.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, I think it's really important.
I mean, there is a time and aplace like I'm like oh, I hate
that and you're do need to bejust like verbally nuked and
removed.
And some things I think just inAmericana are like listen, it
doesn't really matter whatyou're going through.
This is crazy, what you justsaid, that's so disgusting, and
so we mitigate those or wehandle those.
(17:49):
But I would say on the whole,99% of the time, like I think
it's really important to.
What better way to tell peoplethat you care?
By letting them express whothey are within a set of rules,
but also being kind.
So that's important.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I love that too, that you pointed out that what you
learn most about yourself duringthis time is that you've
learned that you have morepatience.
So I went to a lot ofconferences and you know a lot
of people are seeking like Iwant to get a bigger following,
I want you know 100,000.
I want a million followers.
I want to get a biggerfollowing.
I want you know 100,000.
I want a million followers.
If you get there, you have tomake sure that you're ready for
that, because not only do youget that many followers, when
your followers grow that much,you can get a lot more negative
(18:28):
comments and stuff.
So you have to prepare yourselfto be patient, and maybe you
haven't grown because you're notready for that yet.
No, it's a huge, huge component, because you know, with the
good also comes the bad.
All right, well, that wraps upthis episode, and next episode
we're going to dive into whatthe day-to-day looks like at the
Vero Beach neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Catch you next time, neighbor.
Well, hey, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
I'm Brian and I'm Shawna, andtoday we're talking to Danielle
from Vero Beach Neighborhood andthat's a Facebook group and
we're at your gift shop location.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
VBN Beach Shop and Gifts is where we're sitting.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
It's relaxing colors and beautiful decorations and
smells delightful.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
What does it smell like?
What would you?
How would you describe that?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I would say it's like a slightly floral, but it's
just kind of a beachy smell.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, yeah, does it have a name?
No, it's just calming andpeaceful, and I think it's
mostly from the candles that wecarry from Wild Ascent.
So it's just a, it's a nicemarriage of all of those, those
scents.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's like not overwhelming and a natural smell
, so I love that.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Is everything in here local?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It is.
I do source from 30 localbusinesses, although it's my
wholesale gift shop.
If I can get something locally,I really do try to do that.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, and I love the colors inhere too.
We always try to kind of paintthe picture People haven't been
in here.
What is this color, shauna?
Because you know I would callit probably light blue.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I would call that robin's egg blue.
What do you call it?
Oh, I call it sea glass like asea glass green.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That's so much better .
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Okay, I like all that and I have to say I love your
backdrop wall here right behind.
Is that where your register isat?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It is yes, a little photo op Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Awesome, I love it.
I love it.
You're really thinking aheadhere, sure.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, it's important.
All the details are what makesthe whole pie right.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, danielle, for those that might be listening
that don't know who you are andprobably a lot of people do-
because you have this verypopular Facebook group which
we're going to get into.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Maybe take about 30 seconds to tell us a little bit
about yourself.
Okay, so I'm Danielle.
I am the VBN lady, I guess, asit's called now.
It's really important to me tobe able to invest into the
community in a bunch ofdifferent ways, and so Vero
Beach Neighborhood, which I'vecreated, has really done that,
and so I'm very proud of thatwhole work, and so my family
moved here about 10 years agofull time.
My family's been here about 40,45 years, so I've kind of
(01:54):
watched the genesis of VeroBeach happen, and it's really
been very interesting.
And so that's why VBN is soimportant to me, because it
helps me keep Vero Vero, whilealso welcoming all the new
people, because that's superimportant as well.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh, that's cool.
I love that.
Yeah, and we're new so that's,very welcome.
Now, we've been coming to Verosince 2014.
So we're we're new residents.
Okay, but you know the area, weknow the area but we've gotten
to know it even more with doingthe podcast.
So we're excited to be able tosit down across from you and get
to know more about your storyand how everything got started.
I'm thrilled to be here so Well, okay.
(02:30):
So I know you have the VeroBeach Neighborhood Facebook
group.
How did that get started?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
There was another page a long time ago that was
really specifically for crimerelated incidents.
But people kept asking allkinds of stuff and the person
who ran that page was anacquaintance of mine.
I said I'll just start a page.
It can be like a dumping ground, essentially.
You just tell people if youwant to ask about nails or hair,
you go over here.
And so they were like, yeah,that would be a great idea.
Well, within the first week wehad so many people I said I bet
(02:59):
we can do something reallyspecial with this and that it's
just really taken off.
So it's been gosh eight, eightyears now, which is sounds
insane to say, but and we're upto 74,000 people at this point,
so it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, wow, it's a wealth of information, you know,
especially being new to thearea, and when you're wondering
about certain places or whatever.
Yeah, it's really.
It's got some interesting stuff.
I've really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, thank you.
And there's a lot of differentpersonalities on the page that
make it really very special.
There's a lot of differentdynamics that make it as
cohesive, you know, as it is.
And so I love that feedback,that especially people who are
new, because I think we've allbeen new either to a new team, a
new school, a new state,something, and you're like, gosh
, how do I make friends, how doI meet people?
What are the jokes?
(03:43):
What do people do?
Where do I go?
Where do I not go?
And so to have VBN be thatwater cooler space is really
amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That's cool and I like how you said that.
It's a water cooler space.
It's a place people cometogether and just chat and I
know Shauna's write Like.
There's some really goodwriters, I bet you can guess who
I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Is it a man?
Yeah, is it Mike Peruta?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, it is.
I love the posts that he putson there and you know, obviously
like the stories that he tellsabout his son and stuff like
that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Now were you surprised that it took off so
fast.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I definitely was, because really, like I said, it
just was supposed to be thiskind of catch all nonsense page,
but because we had so manypeople, I was like let's do
something really special, and itwas just about Christmas time.
So we started the Christmasgiveaway, which is now, and also
in its eighth year.
Um, we give away about $20,000every year and maybe a hundred
thousand dollars total over allthe years that I've done it, and
so businesses just choose tosponsor that.
(04:42):
The minimum is 100.
They can always go higher thanthat, and everything that's
given to me is given to a randomwinner on the post that I put
up for that business.
So the very first year that wedid it, I went and used my own
money and just bought some giftcards to some local businesses.
I remember my husband beinglike this is the best thing who
sponsored this, and I was likeyou did.
So he hates that story, but Ilove that story.
(05:05):
And so from then, otherbusinesses were like this is
cool, we want to be involved,and so that's really what makes
Vero so special is, everyonereally wants to see.
Most people want to see otherpeople do really well, and so it
doesn't matter.
You know the people at the top,whether it's air conditioning
or painting or podcasting,they're all supporting each
other.
You know they're not.
There's a healthy competition,as opposed to tearing each
(05:25):
other's faces off, which wedon't like to get into.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, We've noticed that and heard a lot of people
talk about how generous peoplein this area are so many of them
and so, yeah, I'm glad you saidthat too, because it's it's
neat to be new here and to belearning so much about
businesses, people, everything.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Is there any particular post or anything that
you use like?
That has always just kind ofstuck with you.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Not any one in particular, necessarily, but
anything that becomes VBN legend.
So whether it's Corn Snakes orPizza Joyce's Dock, Battle of
the Berm, the Corn SnakeFestival, like all these
different things, and what Ireally love about them is that
there are people who don'tnecessarily get out very often,
aren't sure where to makefriends, but they can all be in
on this gigantic community joke,which is really I think it's a
(06:11):
really fantastic way to be.
So there's some people like Idon't like that.
It's like, well, keep scrolling,but for everybody else like
there are literally tens ofthousands of people that
understand what's happening, andwe're happy to explain it.
If people are like, hey, what'sthis?
We what's happening, and we'rehappy to explain it.
If people are like, hey, what's?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
this.
We love to introduce new peopleto that, and so thank you for
that offer.
I was just going to say I'vebeen seeing the Corn Snake
Festival posts and I was tryingto work out whether it's a real
thing or not.
And I was pretty sure it wasn't.
But yes, please explain.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It is a completely virtual Vero Beach Neighborhood
Festival and it's held on June31st, which we understand is not
an actual date.
That is the purpose of thefestival.
And what's very cool is adults,we should be adulting, but this
is what we're doing.
On the Internet, they come upwith these hysterical titles of
(07:01):
like they'll have like movies orevents or all of these
different things, and everyonekind of jumps in and you know,
it's almost like a giant brainchild, right?
So you have people who startcertain posts and then you have
other people who jump in andyou're like, oh my gosh, that's
genius, yeah.
And so it becomes.
Every year it gets a littlebigger and a little bigger.
And so this year, with the giftshop, we actually have
merchandise, we have Corn SnakeFestival t-shirts.
(07:24):
So yeah it's just whatever, butit's fun and it's clean and it's
happy and it makes people smileand I like that.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Did that start?
Because people constantly postlike is this a venomous snake
that I found?
And it's always a corn snake it.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Did People do post that?
And Mike Pruda was actually theone who said who started with
Black Racer, very friendly, andthat turned into Corn Snake,
very friendly, and from thatit's become like it's now a
legend.
And now we have this festivaland, like all this nonsense that
you know, I love that.
You know, we're in our 40s and50s and this is what we're doing
and it's fantastic.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I can relate to that.
There was snake out in thecourtyard today.
I'm like a snake, she's like itwas a black snake.
I'm like, yeah, it was a snake.
She's like they're harmless.
Black snakes are good.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
They're friendly.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They're going to keep the rats you hate away.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, like I think it was our son.
I don't know how old he was,probably like when it right
around.
Yeah, I was like around eightor 10.
Came in with a little snake andit looked like it was like the
size of a worm.
It was tiny.
He showed Shauna at first andshe said you need to go talk to
your dad.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He wanted to keep it.
He wanted to keep it.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And he showed it to me.
I was like absolutely not, he'slike dad, it's so small.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I was like nope nope, nope, for now it's small.
Yeah, I don't want a snake inthe house.
I think most people come fromFlorida and they see snakes.
They're like, ah, you know,murder it.
But really a lot of them arevery gentle and they're very
nice.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And the black racers are one, the corn snakes are
another, and so Sadly, that isnot Brian's excuse because in
Ohio we had lots and lots offriendly snakes and garter
snakes everywhere, but he's justdoesn't like them.
So I'm the authority I mean notin real life authority, but
just in our home authority onsnakes Like, don't worry, it's
fine, I've done my research, Iknow what to worry about.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So what are some of the other events that you listed
?
Because, like you're listingall things, I'm like I've never
heard of any of these.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I think it was all fake stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's all fake.
Some of it's stuff that hasactually happened right.
So we did do a pizza crawl oneyear and we will eventually
bring that back again.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Explain that Cause like okay, snakes, you had me
ready to run for the door.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Pizza Okay, I'm ready and I'm really crawling for it.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I will crawl for pizza.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So, uh, basically we rent um a large like bus,
limousine, whatever, and peoplepay to go on this and we line up
pizza shops and we go fromliterally from pizza shop to
pizza shop, we eat pizza forlike eight hours and then each
place I have a little votingcard and then I have a little
trophy at the end.
So we did that.
We did that pre-COVID and justbecause the world's been kind of
(09:52):
crazy and accelerated, wehaven't done it again, but we
will definitely bring back theVPN pizza crawl at some point.
Joyce's dock is another one.
That is a real situation.
That happened.
A guy was fishing with his son.
The lady said I own the water.
He goes.
You absolutely do not own thewater, you own the dock.
She sprayed him with a hose.
She was arrested.
It went completely viral andthen everyone in town with boats
(10:13):
, floats, jet skis, thesheriff's office all went out
there and they had a fishJoyce's dock day.
And so she's still in jail.
She, you know, she, I don't knowif she was there or not there,
but she doesn't leave.
I don't know if she was thereor not there, she doesn't leave.
I don't even think she lives inVero anymore.
But again, it's one of thesethings that just starts it like
has this weird genesis on VBNand it becomes this incredible,
you know thing that everyonekind of knows about and can
participate in.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I absolutely love that the pizza crawl is a real
thing.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
It is a real thing, it is coming back so yes, and
can we buy advance tickets?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You will be my first call.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
All right, all right, all right, you'll hear.
Eventually, probably.
We have a little ad spot in thepodcast and the whole point of
it is that Brian is spending somuch money on pizza that we need
some support.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Just give $3 a month to the podcast and you'll be
good.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Even you can sponsor an adult child who loves pizza.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, so, danielle, what's what would you say has
been like the most surprisingpart about building this local
online community?
I've seen with with Facebookgroups, where people will start
them but then they'll try tocontrol every element of it and
the community can never have avoice there.
But you're you're doingsomething right here.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Thank you.
Um, it's a very delicatebalance in terms of everyone has
their, their leanings, wherethey hail from what they think.
So every day I have to takemyself out of what I think and
believe and say, okay, I'm inVBN.
This is the set of very basicrules we've set.
As long as they're followingthose rules, they can post and
comment and do whatever.
(11:39):
So if it's any one of thoseviolations or a shade of that
violation, we just remove it.
If someone's in danger, wedon't want people to dox people.
But the most important part isthat you're on it all the time.
It is my full-time job to be onVBN and so there's a lot of
people who start groups and dowhatever, and I don't know that
there's.
If they want it to be VBN-esquewithout stealing my business
(12:01):
name, right, you have to be onit and you have to be on it all
the time.
I mean, there are no vacations.
I have not had a vacation sinceI started this and even if
we're going away or I have aconference, the phone or the
computer are right there.
It's constant work because VBNdoesn't sleep, so I don't really
sleep and so that's what makesit.
You have to be on it all thetime and you have to not be
(12:23):
afraid to curate it in the waythat you think is the most
beneficial for the community.
And so there's people like, oh,that's terrible, she's a
dictator.
So they just got me a sign frommy desk that says VBN, dictator
.
I'm like this is great.
Like you have to be willing tocurate that.
Like I think, going back to thefact that we are all supposed
to be adults, right, you have tounderstand the room that you're
in, and VBN allows most but notall.
(12:45):
And so if you want to talkabout national politics or use
the F word or, you know, bedisgusting, like this is just
not going to be the room for youand that's okay.
And so I think the number ofpeople that we've removed from
the page is like less than 1%,0.1%.
There's not even a fullpercentage point of the entirety
of the thing.
So our numbers are good.
(13:06):
The page is healthy.
Yeah, I think you always.
I always put blinders on Right,so I get blinders on.
You got to do the work, likeI'm not looking for fame or
fortune or any of these things.
It's the good work that.
And if other things come fromthat, then that's just because
the page is healthy and that'swhere it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
That kind of leads into my question Do you have
anyone to help you?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
admin wise, I do.
I have a team of a fewmoderators.
I have a couple of what theycall group experts on Facebook,
so they don't have insight intothe back office work of VBN, but
they have a different vantagepoint than we do and so they
monitor from the front.
And then I also have MikePeruta, who I absolutely chased
around the internet until peoplelike you chased us around the
(13:46):
internet.
The only person I've everchased around the internet is
Mike Peruta, because I saw himcommenting on other pages and I
watched him literally getremoved from multiple group
pages.
I was like these people do notunderstand that.
He's well-written, well thoughtout and he's not making fun of
anyone's person.
It's situational.
I was like this guy is smartand he's quick and he's funny.
So I was like hey, want to be amoderator, hey, want to be a
(14:07):
moderator.
And so I just chased until hewas like fine, I'll be a
moderator.
And I give a lot of credit tohis wife, shannon.
She's lovely.
We love her Because the hoursthat are put into VBN are just
innumerable.
Same thing for them they go onvacation but and he can jump off
his phone, but it's.
It takes a lot of patience.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I give a lot of credit to his wife for hanging
tough for us Well that's awesomeand that's pretty amazing with
that many people people in thegroup over you know, over 74,000
people that you've removed lessthan 1%.
Yes, that's had to be, you know, blocked.
So if you're in that less than1%, you could be sore about it
or you could say, hey, I'm inthat less than 1%.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
You're unique, you're an elite group, you're just not
allowed in the group.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
But hey, that happens Like you know what I mean.
That is part of it, thatmoderation, because that's what
keeps a group healthy.
We moved here in January andstarted getting settled in and
we're trying to figure out, like, how do we connect with the
community?
We want to get to know peoplemore and more business owners.
That's when we're like, hey,let's do the podcast.
We've been like this podcast isnew, but we've been doing
podcasts for over three years,so it's not new to us, it's just
(15:10):
a new podcast.
A lot of people are asking,really, like we're not creating
Facebook groups?
We saw your group and we'relike we don't want to like you
guys are doing awesome.
We don't need this Like you got.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
the community already has that, and why reinvent?
Yeah, we don't need to inventsomething.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So we are on Instagram but I'm like but we'll
just focus on Instagram, we'renot doing anything like that
because you guys have a greatfollowing.
What would you say you havelearned about yourself since
launching this Facebook group?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I have incredible patience.
I really, growing up, thoughtthat I was more of a hothead and
didn't have.
You know, I was like I want itnow, like I didn't have a lot of
patience, but I've reallylearned.
I have, like incredible, youhave to have incredible patience
.
But that always really shocksme.
It shocks my mom too.
So shout out to my mom, like itwas like how are you doing this
(15:58):
?
I go, I don't know, I don'teven know.
But yeah, I think that's reallyimportant.
I think it's important tounderstand where people are
coming from.
Not everyone gets on theinternet every day because
they've woken up in sunshine andflowers and that people have a
lot of stuff going on in theirlives, whether it be work
related, home related, whateverit may be.
And I think a lot of peoplecomment and sometimes if you see
an ugly comment, a not sofriendly comment, we try to just
(16:20):
meet them where they're at.
So if deleting the comment, wejust delete the comment, like we
don't need to punish themforever.
you know for that in this space,but sometimes even just talking
to them like so I'm a Biblethumping Christian, which is not
a secret, but it's, as a kindword turns away, wrath Right.
And I think that that I makesure that that plays in my head
frequently, because sometimespeople are like raw and I'm like
, oh okay, understanding that Ihad the ability to eviscerate
(16:42):
someone in writing or verballyis not always the position that
I think God wants me to take inthe position that he's placed me
in, and so it's very importantthat I replay that verse in my
head and I go okay, something isclearly happening with this
person, because this is not thenormal human reaction to like
where do I get dinner tonight?
You know like, and so it'sreally important, and I think
that also helps in my ownpersonal ministry to people,
(17:05):
because if you're going to tellpeople you're a Christian, you
got to be a Christian, and sothat's really important to me as
well.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Sometimes I think we forget that there's real people
on the other side of those feedsand I've always kind of looked
at that like, no matter whattool we're using, it's like a
digital touchpoint intosomebody's life so we can help
decide, can we help make it alittle bit better, but then also
realize that we don't reallyunderstand what they're going
through at this time.
So I love to hear that you'reapproaching a group like that as
well.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, I think it's really important.
I mean, there is a time and aplace like I'm like oh, I hate
that and you're do need to bejust like verbally nuked and
removed.
And some things I think just inAmericana are like listen, it
doesn't really matter whatyou're going through.
This is crazy, what you justsaid, that's so disgusting, and
so we mitigate those or wehandle those.
(17:49):
But I would say on the whole,99% of the time, like I think
it's really important to.
What better way to tell peoplethat you care?
By letting them express whothey are within a set of rules,
but also being kind.
So that's important.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I love that too, that you pointed out that what you
learn most about yourself duringthis time is that you've
learned that you have morepatience.
So I went to a lot ofconferences and you know a lot
of people are seeking like Iwant to get a bigger following,
I want you know 100,000.
I want a million followers.
I want to get a biggerfollowing.
I want you know 100,000.
I want a million followers.
If you get there, you have tomake sure that you're ready for
that, because not only do youget that many followers, when
your followers grow that much,you can get a lot more negative
(18:28):
comments and stuff.
So you have to prepare yourselfto be patient, and maybe you
haven't grown because you're notready for that yet.
No, it's a huge, huge component, because you know, with the
good also comes the bad.
All right, well, that wraps upthis episode, and next episode
we're going to dive into whatthe day-to-day looks like at the
Vero Beach neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Catch you next time, neighbor.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.