As Told By Nomads

Joining me on this week’s episode is Solo Ceesay, a first-generation immigrant born to Senegalese and Gambian parents, whose entrepreneurial journey to date includes becoming an Ivy League football champion, graduating top of his class at the Wharton School of Business, joining Citigroup on Wall Street as a securitization investment banker, and presenting his own creator economy video podcast. Solo’s now the pulse of the creative economy, spearheading over thirty-three million in funds raised since 2021 to build open social marketplace Calaxy with his co-founder, NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie. And he’s also, as we discuss today, at the forefront of making sure we learn how to stabilize traditional and stagnant methods of monetization for creators.Solo opens the episode by sharing the details of his journey, including how his parents instilled in him a determination to always give his best and never give up, helping him to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. He then discusses his pivot into the world of cryptocur

On today’s episode, Tayo welcomes sought-after speaker, podcaster, author, and entrepreneur Grant Baldwin. Grant is founder and CEO of The Speaker Lab, through which he’s helped thousands of people build successful and sustainable speaking businesses, including students in all fifty US states and forty-five countries worldwide. He is committed to using his expertise and insights to equip others to share their meaningful messages with the masses, and he’s here today to discuss dealing with public speaking nerves, how comedians refine their material, and what it takes to be a good husband.First up, Grant shares how he got started in the speaking industry, from working as a youth pastor to doing up to seventy paid speaking gigs a year and launching The Speaker Lab. He also discusses one of the most common questions he gets asked—how much to charge as a speaker—and the Speaking Fee Calculator, a free resource he created to help people determine their rates. Grant then tackles the widespread fear of public speakin

My guest on this episode of As Told by Nomads is actor, producer, and host of From Scratch, David Moscow. Having made his film debut at age thirteen as the young Tom Hanks in Big, David has appeared in dozens of films, TV shows, and theater productions over a thirty-five-year career. He’s also explored food culture all over the world, and he joins me today to discuss how food is a connected force culturally, socially, and environmentally.We begin the episode by discussing how David, a city kid from New York, decided to tour the world and explore food cultures. During his childhood, David used to get glimpses of where his food came from, on fishing trips with his grandfather or apple picking upstate, but he had lost that connection as an adult. So he decided he wanted to figure out if a city person could get back to an understanding of food by learning to do things like harvesting wheat or making tequila, an idea that ultimately developed into From Scratch. Next, David talks through some of the lessons he’s le

This week, Tayo welcomes Cynthia Covey Haller, an author, teacher, speaker, and active participant in her community. Cynthia has written and contributed to several notable books, one of them being Live Life in Crescendo which she co-wrote with her late father, the legendary leadership expert Stephen R. Covey.In this episode, Tayo and Cynthia unpack the concept of living life in crescendo. As Cynthia explains, the crescendo mentality is all about changing your view of life and seeing it through a different lens. Just like music builds on the previous notes, you can also build on your past and previous experiences. Your best work is yet to come, and that’s exactly what living life in crescendo is all about. Cynthia talks about the importance of defining what success means for you, how to take control of your life, and why life doesn’t have to end after retirement. If you want to live your life to the fullest, listen in to Cynthia’s wise words here today, and choose to live it with the crescendo mindset.The Fine

On the second episode of three on building wealth, Tayo Rockson chats with Jason Yarusi, a real estate syndicator and investor, who co-founded and manages Yarusi Holdings, a multifamily investment firm that has acquired over 1900 units since its inception five brief years ago.  Yarusi also works with 7 Figure Multifamily, a group of experienced investors seeking to  provide  a roadmap to other multifamily real estate investors in search of success.  Jason and his wife owe much of their prosperity to this idea of writing your own narrative and the 100 Mile Mindset. In fact, it was only after working as a bartender and in the construction industry, that Jason finally bought his first 94-unit apartment building.And today Jason wants to talk about how he got there.  Yarusi and Rockson discuss everything and anything from layering income streams and asset management to what it’s like to work with a spouse and how to analyze market trends.   Now $180 million later, Jason is all about c

On this episode of As Told by Nomads, Tayo is joined by serial entrepreneur Elliot Wise, who started his first business at the age of thirteen and, at thirty-one, is now the founder of ten businesses and a rapidly growing business empire. He also works with budding entrepreneurs in small companies to arm them with the skills they need to succeed, including how to develop a winning mindset and stay composed under pressure. In today’s conversation, they talk about many things, from Elliot’s background to his philosophy of never letting himself down and his opinions on mentorship, as he provides us with an insight into the mindset of entrepreneurship.Elliot begins the episode by discussing his upbringing with parents who didn’t put pressure on him to succeed, which he credits with giving him the space to build his own belief systems and find a niche he loves in business. He contrasts this with the social and cultural pressure placed on many young people to succeed, suggesting it can enforce limiting beliefs that

Dr. Corey Yeager, psychotherapist for the Detroit Pistons and licensed marriage and family therapist, joins Tayo for today’s episode. Dr. Yeager works to give athletes open environments to express and explore their challenges, finding that frank dialogue helps not only individual athletes but entire teams. His new book How Am I Doing? is an extension of his mission to enhance individual self-wellness through self-work that starts with getting to know the person behind the mirror.Dr. Yeager begins the episode by explaining that concept of the person in the mirror and why it’s so important to engage and understand them instead of avoiding their secrets, as many of us are prone to. He says that most of us become what other people tell us we should be and get stuck in outdated coping mechanisms, and only by understanding ourselves can we make progress. He illustrates this by sharing his own journey away from the assumption that his physical prowess was the only thing he had to give to finding his spark and purpos

On today’s episode, Tayo chats with James Lam about what they believe is missing in today’s business world, why authenticity is pertinent to entrepreneurship, and how we can build our companies around our own personal genius.  After two of the three businesses that Lam created failed, he decided to take an introspective look at his entrepreneurship style.  And what he found was that, while yes, strategy and courage are important in creating a company, so is authenticity.  So he started to infuse his personality into his latest venture, Look Ahead Marketing, and that has made all the difference.  In an age where most marketing takes place on social media platforms, it can be easy to want to copy everyone else who is successful, especially when you’re just starting out.  However, TikTok and Instagram algorithms are notorious for being unpredictable, and forming your platform in someone else’s likeness does you no good.  So listen to today’s podcast, and learn how you, too, can

Author, marketplace expert, and public speaker, Jenn Lim, joins Tayo on the podcast today. Together, they engage in a deep conversation about Jenn’s journey to find happiness, why such happiness is missing in today’s workplace, and how we can start to incorporate it into both our professional and personal lives. Opening up the episode with a brief note on embracing pain and trusting in the process, Jenn notes that when we reckon with pain and discomfort, we make friends with the enemies that they once were.  And according to her, that’s just the beginning of a long path toward happiness.  Jenn goes on to talk about the significance of trust, progress, connectedness, and, most importantly, purpose.  When we engage in activities that reinforce our values, we are more likely to decrease the amount of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in our daily lives.  And that goes for the workplace as well.  Through her work, Jenn has witnessed so many beautiful stories of peopl

This week, Tayo welcomes Liam Martin to talk about managing in remote workplaces, why remote work is the new norm, and how you can work remotely too.  As the author of Running Remote, Liam has spent years studying the ins and outs of remote work, process design hiring, and inclusivity, and today Liam and Tayo talk about just that. Prior to March 2020, there were a mere 5 million digital nomads.  Now that number reaches just over 50 million.  People like Martin are starting to realize that remote work and asynchronicity improves openness and reflects the world’s ever changing value systems.  Ideas reign supreme now that your race, sex, and gender no longer play a role in whether your hired or not.  We need to stop judging others based on their exterior, and remote work is one of the wonderful ways that we can make that happen. That’s not to say that remote work doesn't have its downsides.  In adults over the age of 25, most socialization takes place in office.  And

On this episode of the As Told by Nomads podcast, Tayo is joined by Julissa Arrington, a fashion designer born in Oakland, California, and raised in Houston, Texas. She has a fine arts degree from San Francisco Art Institute, and her designs are inspired by architecture, structural lines, unconventional materials, and fabrics. Julia is not only a dynamic designer but is also Afro-Colombian and an Afro-Latina in tech.Julissa discusses the possibility of working a 9 to 5 job while pursuing your dreams. She starts by explaining why she considers herself Afro-Latina, what attracted her to the fashion and technology industries, and how her career has developed. She also discusses the importance of inclusion, equity, and diversity in the tech sector. According to Julissa, if you put your all into what you have and truly take pleasure in it, it will take you to places you never would have thought possible. If you have ever experienced work-related dissatisfaction, you will be inspired by Julissa's wisdom.The Finer D

This week, Tayo welcomes author and entrepreneur, Jason Scott, to the podcast for a discussion about getting things done, building relationships in the office, and how to turn those relationships into a booming business culture.  When he joined the Navy as a fresh 17 year old, Scott felt he lacked motivation and goals of any kind.  It wasn’t until he started to fulfill leadership roles in the Navy and work with others that he learned the value of working in a team and why that experience motivates him.Creating a considerate and productive staff is no small feat though.  Luckily, today Jason lets us in on a few inside tips. From communicating daily accomplishments and practicing gratitude to allowing yourself to be vulnerable, the leader’s goal must always be to strengthen the group.  And Scott is very familiar with doing just that. As you will hear today, whether he’s consulting or serving in the Navy, it’s always been all about the people for Jason- a key factor in his immense success.The

On today’s episode of the As Told By Nomads podcast, Tayo is joined by Akua Nyame-Mensah, a certified executive and leadership coach who helps leaders best focus their time and energy. From Ghana to the United States, Akua grew up on 4 continents and developed quite the distinctive world view as a result. Coming into her own identity and studying the diverse range of blackness, she not only began to value introspection, but also to reckon with her deep love for varying perspectives and their great importance.  Nyame-Mensah made use of her multicultural background and this desire and ability to empathize through her work as a leadership coach, and today she talks about just that. Coach Akua acknowledges that people learn differently and focuses intensely on how she can best communicate her expertise, find new definitions for success, and embrace diversity. Most importantly though, Akua has used her difference as a coach to make a difference, and she continues to encourage others t

Joining Tayo Rockson on the As Told By Nomads podcast is Ritu Bhasin, author of The Authenticity Principle, public speaker, and former lawyer.  Growing up as a Punjabi minority with immigrant parents in Canada, Bhasin rarely felt comfortable in the classroom.  Her white classmates berated her for her skin tone and culture as a child, and it stuck with her.  It wasn’t until she quit her job as a lawyer and embarked on a yoga retreat that she discovered how much the discrimination impacted her.  She’s had over 20 years of therapy at this point, and she’s found that such injustices as discrimination and  cultural appropriation have led her down a path to internalize whiteness, feel ashamed of her culture, and experience extreme unhappiness.  Now, as a public speaker and author, Bhasin is committing to authenticity.  She wishes she could tell her younger self to stop trying to fit in and that fitting in is not a substitution for belonging, but since she can’t, Ritu has star

Today, Tayo is joined by Melissa Skye Morgan, a full time Psychiatric NP student and mom.  The pair chat about facing discrimination as children, navigating trauma, and creating boundaries.  As the adopted child of two white parents, Morgan missed out on that personal education on the Black experience.  After all, it wasn’t until she was an adult that she started to reckon with the trauma she suffered as a young girl.  Having confronted some rather hard truths since then, however, Morgan has come to understand the power of perspective and the importance of creating boundaries.  As a student embarking on her own psychiatric journey, Melissa seeks to destigmatize mental health.  It’s about time that we start having open conversations about it, and today, Melissa and Tayo do exactly that.The Finer Details of This Episode:Growing up in a white familyFacing discrimination as a childPerspectiveCreating boundariesUnpacking traumaMental health stigmaLinks:  Connect with Me

This week on As Told By Nomads, Tayo connects with Isabelle Peyrichoux to talk about clarifying your purpose, finding what success means to you, and creating a home inside yourself.  Peyrichoux is a career reinvention coach who helps thousands of frustrated individuals leave their jobs to find their dream careers.  Working with clients of all ages from all over the world, she believes that everyone deserves the right to a meaningful career.  Following her own professional reinvention and the journey to become a career coach, she found that a lot of people feel like they lack meaningful purpose, and therefore meaningful work.  Peyrichoux doesn’t believe that to be true, but she’s familiar with the hardships and doubts that arise in searching for that special something.  It’s all about following the right blueprint for yourself - by leaving all biases, cultural conditioning, and notions of success at the door, you allow yourself to forge your own path in this life.  Peyrichoux

Centering Racial Equity and Inclusion with Tony NaborsTayo welcomes Tony Nabors to this week's episode of the As Told by Nomads podcast. Tony has had over 18 years of experience in anti-racism training and consulting, strategy development, public speaking, team leadership, and program management. He was the first to become a Director of DE&I for a public housing authority in the US, and has demonstrated a consistent ability to turn his observation skills about our world into educational opportunities. Today, he joins Tayo for an enlightening discussion regarding the importance of centering anti-racism.Tony begins by sharing what it's like growing up in the City of Tacoma, Washington State's center of diversity, and being in the city's schools. He also talks about how he leverages social media for his cause, and differentiates between allyship and partnership with marginalized communities - advocating for the latter. As you listen in today to his remarkable story, you will gain invaluable insights on matte

On this episode of the As Told by Nomads podcast, Alex Lakas and Simpson Brady join Tayo. Simpson is the CEO and Alex the Chief Creative Officer and Lead Design of Peanut, which recently got sold to Insured Nomads. They built their company as a side hustle while working in other corporations and doing so remotely without barely seeing each other. They're here to share how they built the company, what the company is, how you can do something similar, and what the future could look like.Brady starts the conversation by sharing the pain he experienced during COVID that led him to start Peanuts - a company that began providing COVID-related information to travelers about their travel destinations and grew as other factors affecting travel other than COVID arose. Simpson and Alex then walk through their recruiting decisions and how Peanut was able to grow remotely, with the two working part-time. The guests provide more insight into their challenges, their decision to sell the company, and how this was done fairly

On this episode of the As Told by Nomads podcast, Tayo is joined by Arnaud Saint-Paul to talk about his mission to really get people to tap into their level of consciousness to understand the power of heart, and how that can lead to a better world. They open up the episode by discussing Arnaud's Heartful Method, which, as a conscious technologist and harmony specialist, he created in the likeness of a visual map that depicts how consciousness works and how we can start to live our lives through our heart. Arnaud believes that when we are totally conscious of ourselves, we can make more informed decisions and be better leaders. He even incorporates this notion into his business practices - Conscious Capitalism, for example, is not just about profit, it’s about coming to decisions for the betterment of the environment, the people, not just the wealthiest shareholders.Arnaud and Tayo go on to talk about the resistance Arnaud experiences along his quest for inner peace and connection. He notes that, of late, he’s

This week, Tayo welcomes TikToker, public speaker, and poet, Nav Singh, to the podcast to talk about his career, the world of poetry, and Sikhism. Nav opens up the episode by recalling his first time performing his poetry and just how life changing this moment was, as he fell in love with poetry and began to perform his own more often. While this experience helped teach him to have a 'thick skin', it wasn’t until he joined TikTok, that he learned how to deal with online hate and opinions. Nav doesn’t let this get to him though. He’s doing what he loves, and he’s grateful for that opportunity in the first place.He and Tayo go on to talk about the importance of following your flame - after all, Nav would find it more difficult to bear the brunt of online hatred if he wasn’t so passionate about what he has to say on TikTok. Now, he’s learned to handle online hate with grace. That’s not to say, however, that Nav doesn’t receive positive feedback; he does and overwhelmingly so. In fact, he closes out today’s episo