Speaker 1: You want to you want to open? I know I
Speaker 1: usually opened, you wanna.
Speaker 2: It was really weird last week when I said, hey, hey.
Speaker 1: Hey, all right, I'll do it. Hey, hey, guys, did
Speaker 1: you miss me?
Speaker 3: I know I wasn't feeling so great last week, but
Speaker 3: you guys had an awesome show because honestly, you had
Speaker 3: one of my faves. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, She's amazing. So
Speaker 3: but I did miss you, guys. I'm so glad that
Speaker 3: Brown Ambitioned. It's back and we are black and brown.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited for today's show. Are you excited for
Speaker 3: Toda's show?
Speaker 1: Mandy?
Speaker 2: I've been waiting for this because you've been talking about
Speaker 2: her NonStop. I feel like since we launched Brown Ambition.
Speaker 2: I can't believe it's taken us two years to have
Speaker 2: her on.
Speaker 3: I know we have a special guest that you'll hear
Speaker 3: a little bit more about later by this time. By
Speaker 3: the time they hear from us next, Mandy, I'll be
Speaker 3: a missus A miss yeah, a missus like.
Speaker 2: You married woman. Yeah to the dog side.
Speaker 1: I'm joining the double ring club.
Speaker 3: Wait, Mandy, so wait with the ring, which one goes,
Speaker 3: which one goes to the bottom your your your engagement
Speaker 3: ring or your wedding ring.
Speaker 2: There's no rules. No, don't believe in any rules. I mean,
Speaker 2: I put my wedding band below it. There's also an
Speaker 2: unspoken rule of like when do you stop wearing your
Speaker 2: engagement ring? Because you know what I mean, Like there's
Speaker 2: a lot of anyway. I don't know, just whenever you
Speaker 2: just get tired of it poking you in the face
Speaker 2: when you sleep. I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah no. But I'm excited though, so I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see you there.
Speaker 2: I can, we can, we can talk about it right again. Okay, awesome, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm so excited. I'm sorry I had to miss your
Speaker 2: surprise bridal shower yesterday. I'm getting my teeth ripped out
Speaker 2: of my face.
Speaker 3: No, it's fine, because I almost missed it. I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't feel like going. Girols, like you only should.
Speaker 2: Go, so like we were having a surprise party.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't know.
Speaker 3: My friend Linda told me that she was doing a
Speaker 3: speaking engagement, her very first one. And I was like Linda,
Speaker 3: because Linda's kind of on the shy side, and I'm
Speaker 3: like what, And.
Speaker 1: She's like, can you please come with me?
Speaker 3: I know you're used to it, but I was like
Speaker 3: exhausted and tired, and I wasn't in the greatest mood.
Speaker 3: And Jerrelle was like, well, Superman, I mean, look at me.
Speaker 3: I sound like you now, Man, he's just putting people's
Speaker 3: names off. Superman was like, you should really go. I
Speaker 3: was like, I don't any line I got.
Speaker 1: He's like, you really need to get out of the house.
Speaker 3: And I didn't really realize why. And I was like,
Speaker 3: why is everybody pushing me to get out of the house.
Speaker 3: So I was slightly suspicious, but I didn't know that's
Speaker 3: what it was. I was just like, what's happening? And
Speaker 3: it turned out to be awesome. Honestly, it was so me.
Speaker 3: It was just a lunch with like I don't know,
Speaker 3: it must have been like fifteen twenty people if that,
Speaker 3: just like my closest family and his family and friends,
Speaker 3: and we just had lunch and hung out. It was
Speaker 3: honestly a precursor to like what our poets vow exchange
Speaker 3: lunch is gonna look like the fanciest thing of like
Speaker 3: our whole I hate to even say the word wedding
Speaker 3: because it's really like we're exchanging vows we're having lunch
Speaker 3: with family and friends, like literally under thirty people, like
Speaker 3: twenty five people, twenty eight. I don't know is that
Speaker 3: the fanciest thing is my dress. My dress is like
Speaker 3: super fancy in comparison to the fact that everything else
Speaker 3: is like so like you know, like laid back and chill.
Speaker 1: But I was like, no, I want this fancy dress.
Speaker 2: I have our priorities. Don't tell me anything. I want
Speaker 2: to be surprised. I want to be stunned. I think
Speaker 2: it's Supergirl going to be throwing pedals.
Speaker 3: No, Supergirl is like, you know, she's not. I don't
Speaker 3: think so anyway, because we're honestly, because it's just we're
Speaker 3: going to the justice of the piece and then we're
Speaker 3: going to have lunch with our family and friends.
Speaker 2: I know it's going to be all very cute, very humble,
Speaker 2: but come on at the wedding.
Speaker 3: I know, right, we're definitely gonna do like a whole
Speaker 3: And it's crazy because I so we're because I live
Speaker 3: right next to really beautiful park and so it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: So we're going to take like hours worth of pictures
Speaker 3: beforehand of like just pictures, and my friend, well, my
Speaker 3: video guy have you ever seen any of my budgetist
Speaker 3: videos on social media or online. He's amazing. Well, he's
Speaker 3: a director really, and he's young, like in his twenties.
Speaker 3: So he's actually here because he's coming with me to
Speaker 3: Essence Fest. And so I was like, well, while you're
Speaker 3: here because he lives in Jersey. Well he's from Jersey.
Speaker 3: He lives all over the world now. But and so
Speaker 3: I was like, while you're here, do you think you
Speaker 3: could do a little cute wedding video? He said, yeah,
Speaker 3: So I'm excited about that too, So expect to be
Speaker 3: nauseated by pictures and video.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 3: It's weird, I know, like, was it weird the transition,
Speaker 3: like when you guys like came back to the apartment
Speaker 3: where you guys were like, hey husband.
Speaker 2: I mean I was a little bit. No, not weird.
Speaker 2: It did sort of feel I don't know, we'll see
Speaker 2: how Superman does, but I did feel like Enrique for
Speaker 2: the first time, like a little bit of that Latin
Speaker 2: machismo came out where he's like, yes, I am a
Speaker 2: husband and you are my wife.
Speaker 3: Somebody else, the young woman Andrea who's making my dress
Speaker 3: she's got this amazing if you ever get a chance
Speaker 3: to go to Pantora Bridal like her, uh Pantra p
Speaker 3: A n t O r A.
Speaker 1: She's on Instagram and like and she has her own webite.
Speaker 1: She's like twenty eight Mandy. She's literally a.
Speaker 3: She's an artist. Her stuff is amazing. I'm like, wait,
Speaker 3: how old are you again?
Speaker 2: And are in the lines and I'm almost thirty.
Speaker 1: Her stuff is I mean, I just can't even describe
Speaker 1: how amazing. So she made my dress and she just
Speaker 1: got married herself just last year, and she said the
Speaker 1: same thing. She was like, cause it's just like us.
Speaker 1: She lived with her husband.
Speaker 3: Beforehand, and it was like, I was like, it didn't
Speaker 3: really change when you guys got married. She's like, no,
Speaker 3: but he definitely was more protective, Like that's my wife,
Speaker 3: you know. And she said that, you know, you might
Speaker 3: see that a little bit. But other than that, she's like,
Speaker 3: it's the same awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean if it was her, there's what I'll say.
Speaker 2: If it was good before, it'll be good after. It
Speaker 2: was bad before, it'll be bad after that. Is that
Speaker 2: a downer now?
Speaker 1: Because not for me, because I don't think it's good now,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: I just it's good things worse. There's what I'll say. Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I make good things better and actually bad things worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm just glad.
Speaker 3: I'm really fortunate in that I found the perfectly imperfect
Speaker 3: partner because I can be a hot mess and I'm
Speaker 3: always like, yeah, my bad about everything that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: But here it is. And the fact that he's like,
Speaker 1: oh my crazy baby, I'm like thanks.
Speaker 2: My mom was very excited when I told her you're
Speaker 2: getting married.
Speaker 1: Oh she was.
Speaker 2: She sends her best.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you, mama, Tifa. That's so cute. I love
Speaker 3: your mom and your sister.
Speaker 1: They're so cute.
Speaker 3: So anything new happening that I missed out in your life?
Speaker 3: I feel like we haven't spoken in so long.
Speaker 2: I got a tooth taken out on Sunday, which was
Speaker 2: the worst thing I've ever done. And Magnify money got acquired.
Speaker 3: I heard. I was like, wait, I mean that's like
Speaker 3: every CEOs, well most people who build a business. That's like,
Speaker 3: you know, like the golden fleee isn't the right terminology.
Speaker 3: I don't know if the golden flee like the golden goose,
Speaker 3: like the golden parachute, like you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: basically the end goal.
Speaker 4: At a second, I'm turning it to my dad because
Speaker 4: he always mixes up like his his like you know,
Speaker 4: he'll be like, hey, I don't know, like right, dad
Speaker 4: always mixes up his terminology, like that's not the word
Speaker 4: you think I think you meant to use, but you
Speaker 4: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it was. It's all sort of been obviously
Speaker 2: really really really really really been sitting on this for
Speaker 2: a little while, not as long as the founders of
Speaker 2: the company, but for too long. I hate keeping secrets.
Speaker 2: Super exciting Magnify Money. We were bought by lending Tree,
Speaker 2: which is a huge, a huge player in like the
Speaker 2: mortgage business. They've been around since the nineties, and you
Speaker 2: know they they bought us, and basically what that means
Speaker 2: when companies get acquired is that essentially, you know, we're
Speaker 2: now It's sort of like the way I've described it,
Speaker 2: it's like Hurst magazine or Conde Nass. They have a
Speaker 2: bunch of different brands, different magazines underneath your umbrella, and
Speaker 2: so we're going to be a brand underneath the lending
Speaker 2: Tree umbrella. Okay, but luckily, you know, I came from
Speaker 2: a world where when you got acquired and then everyone
Speaker 2: gets fired.
Speaker 1: I was thinking that it was like, you seem pretty
Speaker 1: excited considerably.
Speaker 2: I've always I'm like, yes, it's okay. It's the kind
Speaker 2: of acquisition where people don't lose their jobs, and in fact,
Speaker 2: my job will get a lot bigger and scarier soon.
Speaker 1: So like, isn't it so crazy? How you know?
Speaker 3: You're like, oh, I'm going to leave this huge conglomerate
Speaker 3: Yahoo to do this, you know, you know, a little smaller,
Speaker 3: a little humbler job, and all of a sudden, you're like, psych,
Speaker 3: I was kicking ass.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I wonder where I got the balls. I'm like, gow,
Speaker 2: how did I do that? I could? I don't even. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think that being so far away from having left
Speaker 2: like a big corporation or leaving y'allhoo, a big brand,
Speaker 2: like a recognizable media brand, being so far I'm like,
Speaker 2: I realized now the huge risk I took, now that
Speaker 2: it's sort of paid off, as that makes sense, Like
Speaker 2: I guess I was just like putting my hand down
Speaker 2: and doing the work and not really thinking about everything
Speaker 2: that was sort of on the line. But yeah, things
Speaker 2: are working out and I'm excited, and everyone, the whole
Speaker 2: team is sort of staying on. All the faiths, all
Speaker 2: your faiths are going to stay on. And it's yes,
Speaker 2: we're just sort of like moving forward. But what it
Speaker 2: means is we get more resources. I can hire more people,
Speaker 2: which is awesome. And we're all down in Charlotte, this
Speaker 2: is where lending Tree is based. We're down here this
Speaker 2: week to meet our new to meet our new colleagues
Speaker 2: and eat some barbecue. I guess yeah, so much change.
Speaker 1: Are we ready for our guests?
Speaker 2: I'm ready?
Speaker 1: Are you ready be a listeners?
Speaker 3: I hope you are, because I think you're going to
Speaker 3: really enjoy her, because I know I do. She's not
Speaker 3: just you know, like a business owner. She's not just
Speaker 3: the innovator, not just to influencer. She's also my friend.
Speaker 1: Come on down. I'm so loopy, I'm exhausted. Might gonna lie.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna save this one. We have the delightful Avita
Speaker 2: Robinson on the show today of No Madness Without further Ado.
Speaker 1: Here's our chat with Avida two snaps.
Speaker 5: Yay, hey, hey, hey, be a listener.
Speaker 1: So I'm super excited.
Speaker 3: You know, we don't usually have a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: guests on Brown Ambition because you know Mandy stink Now,
Speaker 3: I'm just joking. No, I'm always the one that's like,
Speaker 3: aw but no, we don't have a whole lot of
Speaker 3: a whole lot of guests. But this guest I'm super
Speaker 3: duper excited about because she is the founder of a
Speaker 3: movement that I'm a part of. She's one of the
Speaker 3: reasons why I travel so dang all much. We have
Speaker 3: a Vita Turquoise Robins, and she is the founder of
Speaker 3: No Madness.
Speaker 1: Welcome a Vida. Thank you, ladies, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for coming on, Avita. I'm so excited
Speaker 2: because I feel like Tiffany has been talking about you
Speaker 2: since the founding of Brown Ambition.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's my sweetheart, So Avida, like, I think, well
Speaker 6: not everyone's familiar with No Madness, So let's start with that.
Speaker 1: Like what is no Madness? Yea? And like how did
Speaker 1: you start it? Why did you start it? So?
Speaker 6: No Madness is an international travel group. We are approaching
Speaker 6: seventeen thousand members right now worldwide, and we are made
Speaker 6: up primarily of Brown women, African American women eighty percent,
Speaker 6: although we have all ethnicities and all gender affiliations as
Speaker 6: a part of No Madness travel Tribe, but we definitely
Speaker 6: are skewed more towards African American women travelers that are
Speaker 6: located all over the world. We have a large population
Speaker 6: scattered around the US, but we are definitely full of
Speaker 6: location independence entrepreneurs, creatives who have decided that they were
Speaker 6: to curate their life and that does not include being
Speaker 6: in the United States of America at this point.
Speaker 1: Of their kind of their juncture.
Speaker 6: So it's yeah, yeah, but it's an online resource where literally,
Speaker 6: if you were going to travel anywhere literally tomorrow, you
Speaker 6: could just say, I want to roll out to Italy tomorrow,
Speaker 6: Where's the best place.
Speaker 1: To stay, who's in town?
Speaker 6: Is there a couch I can crash on, where's the
Speaker 6: restaurant and the club to hit up? And it's a
Speaker 6: twenty four to seven communication cycle of people really just
Speaker 6: supporting one another, and that kind of bleeds into offline
Speaker 6: relationships which are done by over one hundred meetups that
Speaker 6: we have around the world throughout the year. We have
Speaker 6: approaching fifty ambassadors for No Madness right now regionally in
Speaker 6: different parts of the planet, which is really awesome. So
Speaker 6: they're the liaison locally to also my team and the
Speaker 6: Greater No Madness Travel Tribe community, and we're talking about meetups.
Speaker 1: To different sites and landmarks, to you know, a.
Speaker 6: Group of people getting together just to have dinner and
Speaker 6: vibe out in some crazy locale, all the way to
Speaker 6: huge events that we throw, like the one that's coming
Speaker 6: up soon actually is our annual barbecue, which has morphed
Speaker 6: from an event that's usually around two hundred to two
Speaker 6: hundred and fifty members and now we have over six
Speaker 6: hundred coming.
Speaker 1: So that's what I've been working on.
Speaker 3: I remember, like when I first joined No Madness, I
Speaker 3: think like I had just missed out on like this
Speaker 3: trip you guys were going to India, and I was
Speaker 3: so jealous because I remember I had seen pictures of
Speaker 3: the Holy Festival where they throw like that powder, and
Speaker 3: I put it literally on my vision board and I said,
Speaker 3: this time, I didn't even know if you were ever
Speaker 3: going to go back, but I said, I'm going to
Speaker 3: go to Holy with No Madness, and I put it
Speaker 3: on my vision board. And I remember I was on
Speaker 3: a date and not with my super Superman, not with
Speaker 3: my dude now, but I was on this date before him.
Speaker 1: And I remember you having a buy in.
Speaker 3: So Mandy, they have like when a Vida used to
Speaker 3: do trips, they would have buyings that would sell out
Speaker 3: literally in five minutes. Yeah, and so they had a
Speaker 3: buyo and I told my date, I was like, so
Speaker 3: in about five minutes, this trip that I want to
Speaker 3: go on is having a buy in. So I'm whiving
Speaker 3: up my computer and I'm I'm handling my business. So
Speaker 3: we were at a restaurant, I took my computer and
Speaker 3: I got on and it was amazing. Honestly, hands down
Speaker 3: one of the best vacations, the best experiences that I'm
Speaker 3: still friends with so many of the women that were
Speaker 3: on that trip.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. So what made you like think and
Speaker 1: I don't want to take up all your questions many
Speaker 1: but what made you wait?
Speaker 2: Wait, wait, I trying to keep up.
Speaker 1: Maybe like hould up now?
Speaker 2: I have so many questions. That's why I'm going to
Speaker 2: be like pull the brakes. Okay. So first, because I've
Speaker 2: heard about these trips, these amazing trips that you guys planned,
Speaker 2: So are you part Like because I've been on these
Speaker 2: organized trips that I booked through a travel like a
Speaker 2: travel agency, and it's all sort of like planned out
Speaker 2: for us and you just pay a fee. Do you
Speaker 2: guys offer that as well, like more than kind of
Speaker 2: just a community but actual trips.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, so we're approaching six years old, right, and
Speaker 6: so for the first five years that was primarily what
Speaker 6: we've done. And five years i'm my team as well
Speaker 6: as myself. I've curated over thirty trips internationally with No
Speaker 6: Madness Travel Tribe, and it has varied to all these
Speaker 6: different countries and amazing destinations around the world, ranging somewhere
Speaker 6: between usually ten two on the high end when I'm crazy,
Speaker 6: around thirty five people on one trip, and tip the
Speaker 6: one that you were on, Tiffany was pretty sizable too,
Speaker 6: because India was like a rush like everybody people were
Speaker 6: not even avid travelers don't like to go.
Speaker 1: To India alone.
Speaker 6: So they were like, look like I'm jumping in on
Speaker 6: somebody who's she's been doing this for a couple of years.
Speaker 6: She's been going to India even before she started No
Speaker 6: Madness on her own.
Speaker 1: So you know, I had the legwork and the dues
Speaker 1: paid as far as India was concerned.
Speaker 6: But yeah, what we would do is drop the buy
Speaker 6: in and we don't get involved with flights. We never
Speaker 6: have and that makes sense just because my members live
Speaker 6: all around the world. Nobody's ever leaving from the same
Speaker 6: place at the same time, let alone a group of
Speaker 6: you know, somewhere between fifteen.
Speaker 1: To twenty people.
Speaker 6: So we would take care of the itinerary points as
Speaker 6: well as the lodging and like round trip transportation to
Speaker 6: and from the airports, as well as of the itinerary
Speaker 6: points that we created. So that's essentially what people would
Speaker 6: be buying into when it was a no madness package.
Speaker 2: Oh that sounds amazing. I mean, as someone I accidentally
Speaker 2: went to India alone last year. Not accidentally. I went
Speaker 2: for work and I was like, well, I'm all the
Speaker 2: way in India. I need to actually go to Mumbai
Speaker 2: and like see what this is like. And I've always
Speaker 2: been like a confident, independent traveler, but one of the
Speaker 2: first things I did was arranged like a get part
Speaker 2: of join like a walking tour, and there were three
Speaker 2: other single women on the tour and we just sort
Speaker 2: of just like all glombed together. And it was so
Speaker 2: and you're like, yes, because you want to like play tough,
Speaker 2: but it is so you just feel so much more
Speaker 2: relaxed when you're it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, India specifically is a very polarizing place, and I've
Speaker 6: heard it and I've seen it.
Speaker 1: You know, India for the most part, when.
Speaker 6: People go with us, they you know, they want to
Speaker 6: go back.
Speaker 1: Or they really took something from it.
Speaker 6: It has the ability to be a real life changing
Speaker 6: trip because it will humble you upon arrival. Yes, and
Speaker 6: and that's one of the biggest things. That's why I've
Speaker 6: gone to India every year for the last seven years
Speaker 6: in a row, even before i started No Madness, And
Speaker 6: so that's how I've built these organic connections with people.
Speaker 6: A lot of the first places that I traveled to
Speaker 6: and brought the group to were places that I had
Speaker 6: been as a backpacker, you know, before I started this,
Speaker 6: Because it's so ironic, I was kind of this road
Speaker 6: warrior that would get a backpack and just go off
Speaker 6: and be a solo traveler before I started doing group trips.
Speaker 6: It's No Madness that brought me into group trips. I
Speaker 6: actually didn't even know if I wanted to travel with
Speaker 6: people when I first started No Madness and then just
Speaker 6: kind of saying yes to the community as.
Speaker 1: It was growing out in its earlier days.
Speaker 6: I mean, within six months of us starting the group,
Speaker 6: we were on a trip to bocus El Toro, Patama,
Speaker 6: so and that was not something that I had foresight
Speaker 6: on or you know, saw when I created the community,
Speaker 6: I had no idea that it was going to turn
Speaker 6: into a business. I remember entrepreneur dot com did an
Speaker 6: interview on me, and I can't remember if it was
Speaker 6: in the title, but it's.
Speaker 1: Definitely in the interview where she.
Speaker 6: Told me, she's like, you know, you're kind of like
Speaker 6: an accidental entrepreneur. And I was like, actually, yeah, you're
Speaker 6: kind of right because I was looking for community. You know,
Speaker 6: I was a three time expat. Right after I graduated college.
Speaker 6: I had moved to Paris and was doing filmmaking with
Speaker 6: the New York Film Academy, and Parish just kind of
Speaker 6: like sucked me in.
Speaker 1: And you know, you're very raw right after college.
Speaker 6: You're very raw. You're emotional, you're sensitive. I'm an mpath
Speaker 6: by nature too, so it's like everybody's coming at you.
Speaker 1: With a what are you gonna do? What are you
Speaker 1: going to do?
Speaker 6: And it's like, actually, I need everybody to have a
Speaker 6: seat because I'm nervous and you're making me anxious, like
Speaker 6: while I figure out this thing called life and for me,
Speaker 6: while everybody.
Speaker 1: Else was trying to hustle so hard to get, you know,
Speaker 1: a job, I actually.
Speaker 6: Went and I started traveling right after, literally six weeks
Speaker 6: after I got my diploma, and I was the commencement
Speaker 6: speaker of my graduating class. Like from the time I
Speaker 6: got off that stage at Madison Square Garden. It was
Speaker 6: about a six week countdown from when I got on
Speaker 6: a plane and I left. So while everybody else was
Speaker 6: looking for jobs, I was looking for me.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I feeling finding a kindred spirit. That was exactly what
Speaker 2: I did in twenty twenty. My little brother's famous quote
Speaker 2: was he was seventeen. He's like, you're gonna regret this.
Speaker 2: You should have a job, my seventeen year old brother.
Speaker 3: Oh no, what So, how did the so walk us
Speaker 3: through a little bit of the transition from making this
Speaker 3: community into a business.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so again, kind of like accidentally, I remember one
Speaker 6: of the most pivotal points.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget this day and I don't.
Speaker 6: Remember the actual day, but we were only three months
Speaker 6: into creating No Madness, so it had only been maybe
Speaker 6: like a couple hundred people that were in the group,
Speaker 6: and at that time we had one member, Alex Hardy,
Speaker 6: who was living in Patama, and it was like.
Speaker 1: The one that's my boom.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was the one place where nobody else had
Speaker 6: been yet. So he was like this really sarcastic. If
Speaker 6: you know Alex, you know he's super sarcastic, intelligent as hell,
Speaker 6: but really funny and.
Speaker 1: Kind of a smart ass.
Speaker 6: And so he was a character that stood out really
Speaker 6: early on in the days of No Madness, and.
Speaker 1: So we were like, look, you're dope.
Speaker 6: You have nobody else around you in Paanama, Like, let's
Speaker 6: bring the new No Madness experience to you. And that's
Speaker 6: how I picked the destination for the first trip. And
Speaker 6: I remember it being like a Tuesday or Wednesday, some
Speaker 6: like work night, school night. At around midnight, I said,
Speaker 6: you know what, Okay, I'm going to open up. These
Speaker 6: people are talking about how they want to travel together.
Speaker 6: This is not what I signed up for, but I'm
Speaker 6: going to say yes to this part of the programming
Speaker 6: and see what happens. And so within like thirty minutes
Speaker 6: late one night, we had picked a place and Alix
Speaker 6: was like, look, if you come to Patama, there's these
Speaker 6: islands we should go to Bocas del Toro.
Speaker 1: So I'm like researching places.
Speaker 6: I find this villa that fits sixteen people in it,
Speaker 6: and so I dropped the information in the group, just
Speaker 6: thinking that I can go to sleep and then I'll
Speaker 6: be able to finish this conversation when I get up
Speaker 6: in the morning. And it was one of the most
Speaker 6: amazing things. Because I dropped it, it.
Speaker 1: Had to be approach at one o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 6: I didn't go to sleep until about three because within
Speaker 6: an hour we knew who the people that were going
Speaker 6: to be. We were setting up a way to give deposits.
Speaker 6: I had already reached out and people started screenshotting how
Speaker 6: much flights were from where they lived to be able
Speaker 6: to get to the villa and Bocus del Toro. And
Speaker 6: I had never seen something move so fast in my life,
Speaker 6: and that was the moment that I realized that I
Speaker 6: was really onto something here, that there was a community built.
Speaker 6: And even in that moment, I didn't know it was
Speaker 6: going to be a business, but I knew that there
Speaker 6: was something here. And then like a week or two
Speaker 6: into of people were like, yeah, we need to have
Speaker 6: no Madness shirts for the trip. So I was like, Okay,
Speaker 6: I guess I'm in like merchandise too, all right, So
Speaker 6: I'm like the guy that I had create Freshdot Daily,
Speaker 6: the graphic designer that I had create our membership cards
Speaker 6: that we handed out at the first meet up three
Speaker 6: weeks into creating the group. You know, we often screwed
Speaker 6: the image and put it together, and that was the
Speaker 6: first No Madness shirt.
Speaker 1: So as soon as like money started being exchanged.
Speaker 6: That's when I realized that I needed to have some
Speaker 6: type of entity to protect it, but also to kind
Speaker 6: of like have on standby because I had no idea
Speaker 6: what was being built here.
Speaker 1: I just needed community.
Speaker 6: So bad with people that had travel as a priority,
Speaker 6: you know, not somebody who just hung up on going
Speaker 6: when they can for their vacation days, like people who
Speaker 6: were really making moves in their lives to have a
Speaker 6: either location independent lifestyle or it was a priority, like
Speaker 6: they were getting rid of TV bills and stuff like
Speaker 6: that to put it towards a travel fund, like people
Speaker 6: who weren't playing around with this. And so that's really
Speaker 6: when it started to shift into a business.
Speaker 1: It was never a part of my plan.
Speaker 6: It was a part of the evolution of me seeing
Speaker 6: what the community wanted and where they were going and
Speaker 6: saying yes to that, even though I was terrified.
Speaker 2: What were you doing around this time? Were you working?
Speaker 2: Were you sort of paint the picture for me where
Speaker 2: you were in your life and your career when you
Speaker 2: decided to make, like make a go of this.
Speaker 6: I was twenty seven years old and I was a
Speaker 6: freelance television producer, so I was working in television, which
Speaker 6: is what my background is in. I went to Iona
Speaker 6: College and my degree was in mas colm with a
Speaker 6: focus in TV and video production, and then my minor
Speaker 6: was in fine arts. So I'm also a creative that
Speaker 6: entered the business realm. I have absolutely no business background,
Speaker 6: and a lot of it is trial and error, you know,
Speaker 6: just kind of experimenting with things. But I love the
Speaker 6: fact that I'm a creative coming into a business space
Speaker 6: because that visionary never leaves and that is such an
Speaker 6: integral part to innovation.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: I've seen some business people they kind of get so
Speaker 6: wrapped up in like the numbers and the business ye
Speaker 6: part of stuff, that they lose that creative edge and
Speaker 6: you know, the vision to really like go forth and innovate.
Speaker 1: That's something that I actually have in masks.
Speaker 6: It's like the day to day stuff that I need,
Speaker 6: you know, that I pull the help in on, so
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, So I.
Speaker 6: Was actually working in television production and it was funny
Speaker 6: because the show that I was working on, I mean,
Speaker 6: it's normal in freelance, especially in a city like New
Speaker 6: York City. You know, shows will just end and people
Speaker 6: will just get.
Speaker 1: Fired, you know.
Speaker 6: And so what ended up happening when I started No
Speaker 6: Madness was that I the show that I was on
Speaker 6: ended up getting canceled and I qualified for unemployment. And
Speaker 6: it was the first time because I had been unemployed
Speaker 6: before that dealing with freelancing in New York City, but
Speaker 6: it was the first time that I ever made a
Speaker 6: decision like, Okay, I can either try to jump right
Speaker 6: back into this rat race and see what the next
Speaker 6: show is that I can pick up for a couple
Speaker 6: of months to get some doing, or I could give
Speaker 6: this some breathing room for a couple months and experiment,
Speaker 6: get on unemployment and see what the hell this thing
Speaker 6: is that I've created. And I made that move approaching
Speaker 6: six years ago, and I've never worked for any.
Speaker 1: Somebody else ever since. Wow, that's awesome. Thank you. It's
Speaker 1: been a pode. No, you know, I know it's been
Speaker 1: a crazy ride, but I did. I had to make
Speaker 1: the diligent decision.
Speaker 6: I remember writing in my journal I actually have this,
Speaker 6: and at our anniversary I usually dig this journal up
Speaker 6: and kind of take a picture of it and put.
Speaker 1: It on social media. Where I got to a.
Speaker 6: Point in an age at I got to an age
Speaker 6: at one point where.
Speaker 1: I stopped asking, Like I wasn't asking people for money.
Speaker 6: You know, some people get in a buying and they
Speaker 6: want to ask people for money. What I started to
Speaker 6: do at this point was I started to ask people
Speaker 6: to tell me that it's all going to work out.
Speaker 6: And I was like, I just need to hear this
Speaker 6: from somebody outside of myself, you know, huge practitioner of
Speaker 6: law of attraction. But when it gets like crazy, I
Speaker 6: saw people and I'm like, I just Tiffany, you know this.
Speaker 6: I'm like, I just need to hear that it is
Speaker 6: all going to work out. I'll take the reins from there.
Speaker 6: The universe will guide me from there. But sometimes you
Speaker 6: just beat to hear those words from people that you know, really.
Speaker 1: Believe in you. And people who have really been through those.
Speaker 6: Tough times too and come out on the other side,
Speaker 6: like you just need to hear that. And so I
Speaker 6: remember when it got nuts and my unemployment was only
Speaker 6: two hundred and twenty dollars a week living in New
Speaker 6: York City, and I remember getting that information, like when
Speaker 6: I got the breakdown of how much.
Speaker 1: They give you a month, like a month.
Speaker 6: And a week, and I remember that was the day
Speaker 6: that I called I called Jason up. But also I
Speaker 6: wrote in my journal in huge sharpie, I was like,
Speaker 6: it's all going to work out, and that's really all
Speaker 6: I had to keep going until things started to pop
Speaker 6: off with no madness. So it's very interesting looking back
Speaker 6: in retrospect.
Speaker 2: I mean I always looked at because I was laid
Speaker 2: off to in New York City. See, I feel like
Speaker 2: it's like I know and that there was no better
Speaker 2: There was like no better drive and like push than
Speaker 2: being laid off in New York City and getting that
Speaker 2: puny little like unemployment check then to push you forward
Speaker 2: and like keep you going. I feel like it's like
Speaker 2: a really good, I don't know, momentum starter, like kicking
Speaker 2: the ass kind of yeah, you have to.
Speaker 6: I feel like sometimes the universe like edges you into things.
Speaker 1: But I'm also on air, so.
Speaker 6: Like life is really really like rough with me because
Speaker 6: I think that it knows that I can handle it.
Speaker 6: Sometimes it'll just kick you off the cliffs, you know,
Speaker 6: and you got a free fall for a little bit
Speaker 6: before you realize how to fly on your own. And
Speaker 6: and it's and it's crazy. It really is crazy. And
Speaker 6: it's not for everybody. That's the other thing. So you know,
Speaker 6: I'm definitely not one of these people anymore who is
Speaker 6: along the lines of like entrepreneurship is for everybody, it's not.
Speaker 1: But this not everything.
Speaker 3: It's so funny when you first I think, I feel
Speaker 3: like when people first jump into entrepreneurship, it's like it's
Speaker 3: like when you first like get into a relationship and
Speaker 3: you're like, yes, girl, everybody need to get them a man, yes,
Speaker 3: And then once you start really doing the work, you're like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, you might be good.
Speaker 6: Single, right, it's right, but I mean I.
Speaker 1: Have to keep it one hundred for sent with you.
Speaker 1: I have friends that are entrepreneurs.
Speaker 6: That I don't think are cut out for entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: And that's real.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And it's just and you just you see it,
Speaker 6: you know, you see it in different ways. But then
Speaker 6: I have friends that are, you know, phenomenal entrepreneurs, you
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying, and the people that I can
Speaker 6: turn to when you know, we have those safe spaces
Speaker 6: and candid conversations and we build each other up and
Speaker 6: you keep going. But yeah, it's definitely not for everybody,
Speaker 6: Absolutely not. I know, I am very very aware that
Speaker 6: I'm thatshit crazy.
Speaker 1: So it's like I take that and I run with it.
Speaker 2: Well, you must be good at I mean, you must
Speaker 2: have been good at it in some way because it's
Speaker 2: doing so well. But I want to ask, I want
Speaker 2: to ask the question of at what point, Well, first,
Speaker 2: how does no Madness make money? How do you make money?
Speaker 2: How do you live? And at what point did you
Speaker 2: get to a place where you felt like, Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: actually sustaining myself with this business and it's viable and
Speaker 2: you know it's all going to be okay.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 6: I feel like the light at the end of the
Speaker 6: teruminal came about four years in and we're about to
Speaker 6: hit six years in.
Speaker 1: So it was very turbulent.
Speaker 6: And let me not say that as if right now,
Speaker 6: like I'm sitting pretty and everything is like colorful. Like
Speaker 6: entrepreneurship is real, and there are ups and downs and
Speaker 6: you try different things, you come out with different products.
Speaker 6: You know, you try to bring value to people's lives
Speaker 6: while also offering something that you can make money off of.
Speaker 1: You know, that's kind of the name of the game
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 6: But the different there's a trillion avenues and one of
Speaker 6: the things that's been really awesome over the last two years.
Speaker 6: But I made a promise to myself this year to
Speaker 6: really focus on it because it's been growing in tandem
Speaker 6: with No Madness is also my personal brand, and so
Speaker 6: as No Madness has grown and you know, has been
Speaker 6: the blueprint really of what is now the black travel
Speaker 6: movement on social media, myself as an influencer, my value
Speaker 6: has gone up and my following has gone up, and
Speaker 6: I've been able to capitalize on that and kind.
Speaker 1: Of throw it in the mix.
Speaker 6: So the trips were one way that No Madness was
Speaker 6: making money. Our pivot from there has now gone into events,
Speaker 6: both international and domestic, which are a big part of it.
Speaker 6: So you're talking our anniversary parties, our trips abroad, our
Speaker 6: events abroad. We just did spearheaded two in Johannes's work
Speaker 6: South Africa and in Jiport, India all the way to
Speaker 6: our conference, our annual conference that we have. Then you
Speaker 6: have the merchandise aspect. I am also a co executive
Speaker 6: producer along with Ether Ray of HBO's Insecure, and we
Speaker 6: have a web series that's on her YouTube page, the
Speaker 6: No Madness Project, in which there's also ad revenue that
Speaker 6: comes in from there.
Speaker 2: Wait a second, why did you bury the lead that
Speaker 2: you're part of my favorite show ever? I understand how
Speaker 2: they don't know that friends with.
Speaker 6: I'm friends and co creator with Issa. I am not
Speaker 6: a part of Insecure.
Speaker 1: Let wait, right, right right, you're tapping on it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, don't let me hit Your hands were
Speaker 2: somewhere on it at some point.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, No, Issa's dope.
Speaker 2: I may Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: No. I love Issa.
Speaker 6: Issa really came on board early on too, actually with
Speaker 6: No Madness, Like we've been in cahoots for a couple
Speaker 6: of years now and actually built a friendship. I was
Speaker 6: just on the set of Insecure maybe like a month
Speaker 6: and a half ago and was like.
Speaker 1: Catching up with her.
Speaker 6: I happened to be in La for some production stuff
Speaker 6: that I was doing, and she's just like, look, anytime
Speaker 6: you're around, come down. So I did a cameo thing.
Speaker 6: We'll see if it makes the cut. But Issa and
Speaker 6: Molina are really really dope, So I literally hung out
Speaker 6: with them all day and was doing some shooting with them.
Speaker 6: So we gonna see, We're gonna see. I'll have my
Speaker 6: eye on this season. But but yeah, there's ads, there's
Speaker 6: ad revenues in there, and there's sponsorship and partnerships, which
Speaker 6: is a big thing right now too. Like one of
Speaker 6: our main partners is Airbnb, you know, but we've also
Speaker 6: had hotels dot Com and like Emirates, Eraline like different
Speaker 6: you know, ETI, hot airlines, excuse me, and you know,
Speaker 6: so there's a million ways. I'm a hustler, right, I'm
Speaker 6: a freelancer, So I'm not.
Speaker 1: Gonna make money one way.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna make money like ten ways, so that if
Speaker 6: I ever have to lean on something more than others,
Speaker 6: you know, even speaking with you know, Tiffany. We have
Speaker 6: our online course that we fearheaded last year n MDN
Speaker 6: black Box, you know, really introducing travel and breaking down
Speaker 6: these fears and you know, stereotypes and misconceptions that you
Speaker 6: have to be of a certain economic bracket to be
Speaker 6: able to travel, you know, and and really taking the
Speaker 6: mission of No Madness and putting it into a course
Speaker 6: that was something that was really different from us. And
Speaker 6: you know, Tiffany was like an awesome mentor in that way.
Speaker 6: But but yeah, I gotta I got a.
Speaker 1: Bunch of ways that I may though it's all about
Speaker 1: the first time income.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think that is so important, just like you said,
Speaker 2: to have different income streams. But you mentioned Airbnb, and
Speaker 2: I was gonna bring that up earlier, just like how
Speaker 2: important it is to have groups like No Madness, and
Speaker 2: especially at a time where people may be wondering like, well,
Speaker 2: why do we need groups like this? I mean, ask
Speaker 2: any person who's of color who wants to travel. And
Speaker 2: it's clear to me why there's been such a massive
Speaker 2: response and emotional response to to No Madness. And now
Speaker 2: you're partnering with Airbnb. Did that come before or after
Speaker 2: all the Twitter hoopla about because for those who don't
Speaker 2: know Airbnb algorithm or not the algorithm, but basically, it
Speaker 2: was found that people were less likely to approve guests
Speaker 2: of color than those who were not of color basically right.
Speaker 6: It came before actually, and it's funny because even we
Speaker 6: did our first conference, what three Yeah, they were approaching
Speaker 6: the third one. So we did our first conference three
Speaker 6: years ago, so No Madness was three years old.
Speaker 1: And it was.
Speaker 6: Funny because from the time that we had very first started,
Speaker 6: I was like, yo, we got to partner with Airbnb
Speaker 6: because as a mission, I really really love what this
Speaker 6: company stands for and I like their story, and it
Speaker 6: was something that I was like, listen, this is what
Speaker 6: we do. And the other thing that makes No Madness
Speaker 6: unique is because we weren't staying at hotels.
Speaker 1: When we were doing our group trips.
Speaker 6: We would find tricked out houses or flats that would
Speaker 6: fit like ten people in them, or mansions and we
Speaker 6: would actually book those out. So everything goes back to
Speaker 6: the mission of us having a very intimate and familial
Speaker 6: type of feel with us, so we weren't really staying
Speaker 6: like India is one of the few places we stay
Speaker 6: in hotels because I don't trust the water and sanitation,
Speaker 6: so I make sure that we're in a place that's
Speaker 6: safe and you know, taken care of. But in most
Speaker 6: of the other places, like eighty percent of the time
Speaker 6: when we would travel in group trips, we'd be staying
Speaker 6: at Airbnb's. So it was an immediate and that was
Speaker 6: something before they even spoke to us. When you know,
Speaker 6: I could, I would send out blind emails and not
Speaker 6: hear anything from anybody.
Speaker 1: So they're also a part of the No Madness makeup.
Speaker 6: From the get go, and so I had wanted to
Speaker 6: work in partner with.
Speaker 1: Them for years.
Speaker 6: And then our first conference, which launched maybe like I
Speaker 6: want to say six to nine months before the hashtag
Speaker 6: Airbnb while Black came out. They actually were one of
Speaker 6: the smaller sponsors that we had as kind of like
Speaker 6: a litmus test to see what it was. So they
Speaker 6: had come on board not just as a partner, but
Speaker 6: even as a small monetary sponsorship for our first conference.
Speaker 6: And then it was like maybe six or seven months
Speaker 6: after that was when stuff started to hit the fan
Speaker 6: with Airbnb while Black. We had already been in a
Speaker 6: relationship with them, so it kind of just like took
Speaker 6: off from there. I've actually spoken on panels with some
Speaker 6: of the people that they have in their head of diversity.
Speaker 1: I spoke on a panel with we did.
Speaker 6: A fireside chat with their head of I think community
Speaker 6: belonging is the name of it. At Blavity's acrotech in
Speaker 6: Silicon Valley at the end of last year.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be going back.
Speaker 6: They're actually bringing me to Essence Fest, so I'm going
Speaker 6: to be speaking at Essence. Hey, I'll see you in
Speaker 6: sen Yeah, so I'll see you there too. So yeah,
Speaker 6: we've bridged. I was their community in New York. We
Speaker 6: forged like a really really cool partnership.
Speaker 1: And just kind of growing.
Speaker 6: And I'm a huge fan of their chief marketing officer, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: I spoke at Harvard Business School.
Speaker 6: On a panel ironically with Jonathan from Blavity, which is funny,
Speaker 6: but not that long ago, maybe about two months ago,
Speaker 6: and their keynote was Airbnb's chief marketing officer Jonathan, who
Speaker 6: also had worked for Coca Cola and some other huge
Speaker 6: name brands. And just the man's heart and head and
Speaker 6: artistry is just in the right place.
Speaker 1: And so I really love the way that they've gone
Speaker 1: about addressing it.
Speaker 6: And I've even spoken directly to their CEO, Brian Cheske
Speaker 6: about it.
Speaker 1: I've been invited to some private dinners where.
Speaker 6: You know, there's maybe one of like twenty five people
Speaker 6: in the room along with Brian Cheskey to really be
Speaker 6: able to hash some of this stuff out and hear
Speaker 6: them out, but also voice the other side, you know,
Speaker 6: and and let them make sure that they really get what.
Speaker 1: This means to our community. So I'm actually really proud.
Speaker 6: Of the work that we're we're doing with Airbnb and
Speaker 6: our partnership.
Speaker 2: I'm heartened by that because I love me some Airbnb. Yes,
Speaker 2: if I weren't allowed to, like, no, there's.
Speaker 6: Anything tricky, And it's a tricky you know spot honestly,
Speaker 6: because like you know, on one hand, on one hand,
Speaker 6: there's also like, okay, I'm the face of this, you know,
Speaker 6: not just no Madness, but also the black travel movement.
Speaker 6: So I caught some some shit on the back end,
Speaker 6: you know, when people saw me like doing this stuff,
Speaker 6: and it's like you don't understand the historical context of
Speaker 6: how we've been working with them, and you know, people
Speaker 6: especially online, it's like the drama. They just want to
Speaker 6: come in for the fireworks and then leave. They don't
Speaker 6: even want to hear the story, you know. So there's
Speaker 6: this historical context between our two companies that was already
Speaker 6: built before this stuff hit the fan. In addition, you
Speaker 6: know other like you know, a competitor came up and
Speaker 6: that idea for their business was actually spearheaded by a
Speaker 6: thread inside of No Madness where they, as I remember,
Speaker 6: would be interested. And I actually told the co founder,
Speaker 6: I said, listen, this is such a good idea. You
Speaker 6: need to get this out of No Madness because you
Speaker 6: don't know what resources and capital people have sitting they'll
Speaker 6: snatch your idea from right.
Speaker 1: Like, I love this community, but we got everybody in here.
Speaker 6: You got to part about this, like get an attorney
Speaker 6: and get this thing going. And they ended up running
Speaker 6: into their own issues at the onset of it. But
Speaker 6: these things really started from No Madness and.
Speaker 1: That's something you know to take note.
Speaker 6: But it shows the power of our community, like I
Speaker 6: really want to say, and I.
Speaker 1: Think I'm pretty much on point with this.
Speaker 6: Every single like noted black travel group that is out
Speaker 6: right now that you can name, I believe all of
Speaker 6: their CEO started as No Madness, all of them.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: How do you protect yourself when you have so much
Speaker 2: competition right at the gate? I mean it's one for
Speaker 2: one thing, it's a compliment Uber lift, you know that
Speaker 2: sort of thing happens. But yeah, talk about that you
Speaker 2: have to.
Speaker 6: Innovate, you know what I'm saying, Like, there's only but
Speaker 6: so far that you can you know, it's like somebody
Speaker 6: else coming up with a you know, a finance group.
Speaker 1: You can't stop people from popping up with these things.
Speaker 1: It just is what it is.
Speaker 6: But I think getting to the core, refining and making
Speaker 6: sure that you are said fast with your mission. In
Speaker 6: addition to like I don't I'm one of these types
Speaker 6: of people. I'm extremely competitive, I'm an aries and I'm
Speaker 6: also an artist, so like I'm sensitive about my shit
Speaker 6: and all that being said, it's like I don't need
Speaker 6: to be in these other groups.
Speaker 1: I have spies.
Speaker 6: Like anytime I need to see something that's going on
Speaker 6: or get some feedback, I will. I create very much
Speaker 6: in a bubble, and I've learned that as being a
Speaker 6: creative because I never want the next person saying whether
Speaker 6: it was organic to them or not to start influencing
Speaker 6: why and how I do what I do. That's I can't,
Speaker 6: like I just even just as an artist and as
Speaker 6: a person like I don't rock like that, you know.
Speaker 6: So with that being said, I let people do what
Speaker 6: they're going to do. I mean it's never gotten to
Speaker 6: the point of like legal boundaries, but there's definitely been
Speaker 6: some copycatting.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, and moral boundaries crossed over.
Speaker 6: Its exactly exactly. But as long as I can look
Speaker 6: myself in the face and I.
Speaker 1: Will go to bat for what I have, I'm extremely.
Speaker 6: Protective of what I've had and I've been called every
Speaker 6: name in the book because of it, because I will
Speaker 6: definitely rise to the occasion with class.
Speaker 1: But I'll let you know, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: It's been like that over years. But I think the
Speaker 6: more that you are self assured in what you bring
Speaker 6: to the table, and again that level of innovation, nobody
Speaker 6: is touching us. And that's just not just no Madness,
Speaker 6: but even me personally, you know, like in taking the culture,
Speaker 6: because for me.
Speaker 1: It's not just about for example, I just gave.
Speaker 6: A TED talk that is about to shut this entire
Speaker 6: system down.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 6: So and that's after being in a TED residency for
Speaker 6: three and a half months in which I'm building out
Speaker 6: the next phases of No Madness that now have not
Speaker 6: just to do with us traveling abroad, but now our
Speaker 6: acquiring property abroad.
Speaker 1: So again, it's about.
Speaker 6: Innovating and thinking outside of the box and going to
Speaker 6: the next levels and staying true as hell to who
Speaker 6: you are, regardless of what other people are doing in
Speaker 6: your space. Yeah, it's not easy, and so it's sensive
Speaker 6: at times, like yeah, to be off with their heads.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, you have every right to feel
Speaker 1: that way, you really do.
Speaker 6: Especially and I've said this to Tiffany too, Like, it's different.
Speaker 6: Nobody knows what it's like to be first in a realm.
Speaker 6: Even if you're second in an industry, you do not
Speaker 6: go through the same things that the first person goes through,
Speaker 6: and there's some real humbling and ego checking and you know,
Speaker 6: swallowing of pride that happens in that first position because
Speaker 6: everybody is going to pull something from you, something because
Speaker 6: you were the first in that space and so your groundbreaking.
Speaker 6: I think it was Dave Chappelle, he said it inside
Speaker 6: the Actress Studio.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite one, the only one I bought.
Speaker 6: But it was a quote that had something to do
Speaker 6: with Richard Pryor, where they say the mark of the
Speaker 6: mark of genius is when everything before you is obsolete
Speaker 6: and everything after you bears your mark.
Speaker 1: And That's how I feel about No Madness?
Speaker 2: So what was Can you give us a taste of
Speaker 2: what the Ted talk is about?
Speaker 6: Oh, the Ted Talk is about the evolution of black
Speaker 6: travel from Jim Crow until what is now a worldwide
Speaker 6: movement that No Madness started.
Speaker 1: That's the taste test I can give you. How does
Speaker 1: it feel like?
Speaker 3: I always wonder, you know, like, you know, as a
Speaker 3: business owner, because you know, sometimes you like you said,
Speaker 3: you live and you create in the bubble?
Speaker 1: Are you? I mean it seems like you are. I'm
Speaker 1: like today I was getting like a.
Speaker 3: Burger and somebody was like but and I was like, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, and I how do you wrap your mind
Speaker 3: around that you've created? Like an actual shift? Not just like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, some more people are traveling.
Speaker 1: No, like a real shift.
Speaker 3: There's a concrete I can look at the data, more
Speaker 3: brown people are traveling, and we could like, how like
Speaker 3: are you able.
Speaker 1: To wrap your mind around that? Are you able to
Speaker 1: conceptualize what that actually means? You know, like, how does that?
Speaker 1: You know? How does that feel? So there's a couple
Speaker 1: things to that. One. I am a workaholic, and so
Speaker 1: having self care and having a moment.
Speaker 6: To reflect, I have to work just as hard as
Speaker 6: that at that as I.
Speaker 1: Have to do on my actual work. Right. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: I disappeared this weekend.
Speaker 6: Literally I just got back this afternoon after getting an airbnb,
Speaker 6: and like, I was up in Kingston, New York by
Speaker 6: myself for two three days and I'm post anything on
Speaker 6: social media.
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to get out of here.
Speaker 6: And and it's because a lot of feelings were conjured
Speaker 6: up after you know, the Ted residency was done. A
Speaker 6: lot of stuff as happening, huge things that have made
Speaker 6: me question a lot of stuff and look at things
Speaker 6: and figure out what I want my wife and my
Speaker 6: business to look like and how they intersect together in harmony.
Speaker 6: So there's been a lot of flushing out that happens,
Speaker 6: and I try to do that every couple months to
Speaker 6: make sure that I'm on the right track, not just
Speaker 6: for no madness before a Vita Turquoise Robinson.
Speaker 1: And so I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 6: I don't stop and let that feeling sink in a lot,
Speaker 6: because as beautiful as it is, it is terrifying. It's
Speaker 6: really crazy because you think about that or you know,
Speaker 6: I can run even like you know, walking in downtown
Speaker 6: Newark now, especially when I first moved here, it's like
Speaker 6: I felt like I was running into a tribe member
Speaker 6: every day, you know, and I'm out like painting my
Speaker 6: new apartment. So I'm out and like painted up, you know, sweatpants.
Speaker 1: And looking crazy, and but it was it was beautiful.
Speaker 6: And it's usually when I'm on the trips or when
Speaker 6: I'm abroad where I allow myself the time to really
Speaker 6: sit with it, and I normally end up crying.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a crier. It's how I deal with
Speaker 1: stress and all types of stuff. I just I gotta
Speaker 1: let it out. But it's those.
Speaker 6: Moments where I let it sink in and it's so powerful,
Speaker 6: but I always just keep going. I am really one
Speaker 6: of those people that kind of focuses on what's next
Speaker 6: and that innovation piece.
Speaker 1: That's really important for me.
Speaker 6: Because I always want to stay ahead of the curb
Speaker 6: and and so I have these many celebrations that happen
Speaker 6: with all the goals along the way, and then some
Speaker 6: goals that are obtained just shut me down, Like keV
Speaker 6: shut me down. It was like I have had give
Speaker 6: a Ted talk on my vision board. It's funny because
Speaker 6: we just pulled out the old the first High Council meeting.
Speaker 6: High Council is the nickname for my team. The first
Speaker 6: High Council meeting that we had back in January twenty twelve,
Speaker 6: I had this huge photo paper on the ground and
Speaker 6: everybody had crayon mars and we were just like, yo,
Speaker 6: let's just brainstorm what we think this will look like
Speaker 6: in about five years. And for the first time since
Speaker 6: I started No Madness, I rolled that out with two
Speaker 6: members of my team like two months ago, and it
Speaker 6: was so crazy because we didn't name the sections, but
Speaker 6: you can kind of tell by what we wrote who
Speaker 6: wrote what, and lo and behold in my section was
Speaker 6: Ted Talk and I had completely forgotten that I had
Speaker 6: written that down, And it was so interesting that I
Speaker 6: had correlated it with No Madness because a Ted Talk
Speaker 6: as a person, but the fact that that was on
Speaker 6: like the No Madness blueprint from six years ago and
Speaker 6: I had put that steadfast, and now knowing what my
Speaker 6: Ted Talk is about and seeing how No Madness helped
Speaker 6: get me into this residency, like it's it's just there's
Speaker 6: power with putting it out in the universe, you guys,
Speaker 6: like for real, for real and writing it down.
Speaker 1: It'll take some time, but it's coming, you know.
Speaker 6: And so it's those moments that really stopped me, like, whoa,
Speaker 6: You're really doing it and you're really changing people's lives,
Speaker 6: you know. Like I said, I didn't start. I didn't
Speaker 6: go into this thinking that I was starting a business.
Speaker 6: But there's also some side effects to No Madness that
Speaker 6: I didn't understand. For example, everybody in No Madness has grown,
Speaker 6: Like we're a.
Speaker 1: Millennial, you know, travel group. For the most part.
Speaker 6: We have members that are upwards of sixty who have
Speaker 6: come on our trips and they will.
Speaker 1: Drink and party you under the table.
Speaker 6: But you know, our guts are really between like twenty
Speaker 6: five and forty five years old.
Speaker 1: And so everybody's grown.
Speaker 6: And I've met these people's parents, and I've had parents
Speaker 6: come up to me and say, Avida, you know, I
Speaker 6: just want to.
Speaker 1: Say thank you for creating this community. Because I'm not a.
Speaker 6: World traveler, and as a parent, I don't care how
Speaker 6: old your child is. You're always nervous about what would
Speaker 6: I do if something happen, And they're like, now.
Speaker 1: We know that there's a community where it should hit
Speaker 1: the fan.
Speaker 6: There are people that would take care of them, you know,
Speaker 6: and unfortunately a couple of years ago they had to
Speaker 6: tap into the community for them. And I rose to
Speaker 6: the occasion as a leader. You know, I say, as
Speaker 6: a leader, you got to be there when it's pretty
Speaker 6: and when it's shitty.
Speaker 1: If not, don't sign up for it. Don't sign up
Speaker 1: for it, because it's going to happen.
Speaker 6: And you know, that's really it's those moments where we
Speaker 6: come together and celebration. It's the moments when I hear,
Speaker 6: you know, two tribe members hooked up and now they're
Speaker 6: having a baby together, you know, and they met at
Speaker 6: a meetup or on a trip. It's the businesses of
Speaker 6: which there are many that have been created from no madness, solopreneurs,
Speaker 6: location independent entrepreneurs, even people that met at meetups or
Speaker 6: on trips and now they've created businesses together.
Speaker 1: Like we are a community that is so much bigger
Speaker 1: than travel and so much more personal than social media.
Speaker 1: And so when you.
Speaker 6: See it in that context, it is it's beautiful. It
Speaker 6: really is beautiful. And it's amazing. I say I've done.
Speaker 6: I've been able to pinpoint my three things that I've
Speaker 6: done in my life thus far and I put after
Speaker 6: giving my Ted Talk, I put on social media. I said,
Speaker 6: you know, there's the second biggest thing that I've done
Speaker 6: in my life. And one of the organizers of the
Speaker 6: residency was like, damn, well, what do we have to
Speaker 6: do to be number one?
Speaker 1: I said, creating No Madness is number one? Okay, and I.
Speaker 6: Don't know if anything is going to beat that until
Speaker 6: I've become a mother.
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean that's a good segue to kind of
Speaker 3: our our kind of wrapping up, like, so what's next, Like,
Speaker 3: what's any major thing that's coming up?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have.
Speaker 6: We have, like we're releasing the app this summer, which
Speaker 6: I'm really excited about. It's going to be coming out
Speaker 6: on iOS first, just because we were trying to get
Speaker 6: this Android together. Android's too glitchy. This is like the
Speaker 6: thing that you learn about when you're coming out with
Speaker 6: an app. So the No Madness Connect app is definitely
Speaker 6: going to be dropping this summer, which is going to
Speaker 6: be amazing.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. And we're you know, we're.
Speaker 6: Getting our ducks in a row to really push forward
Speaker 6: for this Ted Talk going viral when it comes out,
Speaker 6: which is probably going to be early and really producing
Speaker 6: the residency program, which I'm starting to speak more openly about, which,
Speaker 6: like I said, I think the first six years of
Speaker 6: No Madness was really about breaking the stereotype of an
Speaker 6: international traveler and getting us out there and letting us
Speaker 6: know that we could do it at various price points.
Speaker 6: And I really think the next phase of No Madness
Speaker 6: is going to be more so focused on.
Speaker 1: What we do while we're out there.
Speaker 6: And one of the first transitions that we're going into,
Speaker 6: you know, we started the events, launched those this year,
Speaker 6: but something that's going to be hitting before the end
Speaker 6: of twenty eighteen is real twenty seventeen, excuse me, is
Speaker 6: really this property acquisition.
Speaker 1: And I'm really excited.
Speaker 6: I have a development company that's already on board with
Speaker 6: the project that I was working with through Ted, and yeah,
Speaker 6: I can't wait to get that going. And you know,
Speaker 6: start with No Madness as the funnel system, so we
Speaker 6: can really start rooting abroad and making change, you know.
Speaker 6: And I just I don't trust our president at this juncture.
Speaker 1: So I'm getting my apartment first.
Speaker 3: So where can where can people find like more about
Speaker 3: nomadic because I know a ton of people are going
Speaker 3: to be like I want to be part of the tribe.
Speaker 3: How do how do they join the tribe? Where they
Speaker 3: can where can they find you?
Speaker 6: They can go directly to the website No Madness tv
Speaker 6: dot com and you will see a join the Tribe
Speaker 6: tab and you can go right in there and funnel
Speaker 6: through and we'll get you in the group. But yeah,
Speaker 6: no Madness TV dot com. At social media, we're at
Speaker 6: no Madness Tribe on every platform across the board.
Speaker 3: I'm so proud of you, a Vida, honestly, because I mean,
Speaker 3: I know you know how hard you work. I know
Speaker 3: how hard you work, so not just how hard, but
Speaker 3: how hard you know, I know how soul you work.
Speaker 1: And so just to see all that you put in
Speaker 1: and to see you.
Speaker 3: Reap the benefits and also not just reap the benefits
Speaker 3: but change the world around you. So thank you so
Speaker 3: much for coming on.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate you, ladies.
Speaker 2: Thank you Avita. It was so much fun talking to you.
Speaker 1: Yes, likewise,