The Celebration

“I don’t see color.” “We all bleed red.” “We’re all just human.” Oh God. No. #FacePalm If you’ve ever engaged in a dialogue on race or attempted to invite someone in on their racism, I would bet my favorite pen that you’ve heard some variation of these. Hey. I’ll up the bet. I’d wager my favorite pair of headphones that more likely than not it was one of us white folks who uttered said phrases too...

Sales. Salesperson. Closer. Most people have visceral reactions to these words and phrases, and almost all of us hold stereotypes or preconceived notions of what they mean. First off, we usually think of a man. Probably a white guy. Headset on, maybe. Yelling, probably. Definitely intense, right? Maybe you envision the Wolf of Wall Street, or buying a car? Here’s the thing. If you have a life-chan...

Picture this: 35 of the world’s leading digital marketers step into a room together. Each person in that room had successfully run a million dollar launch, and is a legend in the marketing, social media, and media buying arena. A challenge is presented to this motley crew of marketers: Over the next 48 hours, each person is tasked with coming up with a new mind-blowing marketing strategy. At the e...

A few months ago, my nephew and I came up with an epic idea for a T-shirt company. It began when I asked when he planned to come out and visit Adaora and I again. He said he needed to get the funds first; so I proposed we sell t-shirts to get the money that he needed. We decided that he’d design them, and I’ll sell them through Facebook and IG ads. And boom. Just like that we had an e-commerce com...

Imagine coming home from work only to find that your partner of 7 years has completely moved out of the home you shared together. No warning. No note. No discernible reason. Just the empty space where that person’s furniture, clothes, dishes, and presence once were. Ok. Now let’s jump back one year. Let’s say you were to study your ass off for years. You go through the rigorous and grueling proces...

Let’s say you were to ask Samar Owais to be your copywriter, and to sprinkle her magic on your email sequences. You’d need to be prepared to cut a check with a lot of zeros. In other words, Samar is a seriously sought after copywriter who crafts emails that convert lurkers into customers – then into repeat customers, and finally into raving fans. If you are an entrepreneur – from any industry – yo...

Featuring: Shelby Birch, Moses Weir, Walter Wally B. Jennings, and Jessica Estevez Wow! Can you believe it?! This is the final episode of the ‘Gifts for My Child’ series. For those of you just tuning in – I highly recommend you start with episode 1 of this series. I am so grateful to all of my friends who shared their time, their love, and their wisdom with Jayanma by participating in this project...

Featuring Alex Sullivan, Dermot Givens, Irmina and Ace Vedo Episode 6 of ‘Gifts for My Child’ has arrived. This will be the second to last episode. If you haven’t yet, be sure to start with episodes 1 & 2 so you can learn the context behind this series. There have been moments where I am holding Jayanma and listening to these interviews and I just get tears in my eyes. The advice, words of wisdom,...

Featuring: Sadiya Sassine, Cet Mohamed-Moore, Shaan Dasani, and Travis Ray Here it is! Episode 5 of the ‘Gifts for My Child’ series. In case you’re just jumping in, be sure to listen to episodes 1 & 2 of this series to get the backstory. And, of course, you can always check out episodes 3-4 too. Honestly, these interviews really gave me an opportunity to connect with people I care about and have s...

Featuring: Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Sam(ira) Obeid, Timothy Mays, Aretha Scruggs This week’s episode brings you ‘Gifts for My Child’, episode 4. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the first three episodes so you can get the back story on this series. I have been listening to these episodes myself as I play with Jayanma. It warms my heart to have a community of such amazing people here for he...

Featuring: Jasmine Star, Mitch del Monico, Intisar Seraaj, Vivi Devereaux I am grateful that I get to share with you the third installment of my Gifts for My Child series. As I’ve mentioned, if you haven’t listened to episode 1 already, I highly recommend you start there. It was really a beautiful process meeting with those I care about and asking them to offer advice to my yet to be born child. I...

Featuring Ramy El-Etreby, Ashlee Tezino, Dr. Jeannine Gailey, and London Jones This week we continue with the Gifts for My Child series. If you haven't listened to the first episode of this series, I highly recommend you jump back to do so before diving into this episode. I’m really excited to share this episode with you. In it, you get to meet the first 4 of the 20 people that I interviewed. I al...

This project has been a long time in the making. As our daughter’s due date was approaching, I decided that I wanted to host a series of interviews where I asked people to share their advice with my yet to be born child. That quest led me to interview almost 20 people. The conversations I had were absolutely beautiful and have brought tears to my eyes many times. Over the next several weeks, I wil...

This week’s episode brings you a powerful conversation with Amoja MoMan Sumler. If you’ve been a part of THE Celebration since for a while, you’ll recognize MoMan from past episodes. For the new folks: MoMan is a nationally celebrated poet, essayist, and one of the preeminent emerging voices of leftist intersectional social advocacy. This interview takes a dive deep into how we can have action bac...

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Matt Sedillo about how to launch and/or grow your business online. Especially with everything in the world happening right now, more and more people are looking for ways to generate income through their art, side hustle, or business. In addition to sharing some really actionable advice, Matt also asked me some great questions on my origin story and how I came...

I have been reflecting upon fatherhood ever since… you know… becoming a father. So I knew this would have to be one of the replays I dusted off and brought back to life. In May of 2017, I had the opportunity to sit down with my dad for an interview. It’s an episode I treasure and hold dear. As a result, it is my honor to share it with you this week. Here’s the original writeup: I'm so excited that...

This week's episode holds a special place in my heart. When I first launched my year of expression in 2016, I didn’t have a clear vision of the path I was going down. For many, many weeks, I would put out a new episode and not really know if anyone had listened to it. Then I put out this episode, and a whole bunch of strangers emailed me and shared how much it mattered to them. While I don’t creat...

Welcome to Part 2 of the Courage Talks. If you haven’t yet listened to part 1, be sure to do so! I hope you are safe and healthy! I have tried to explore the definition of courage beyond just heroic and dangerous acts of valor. While this is certainly courage, I also wanted to highlight what courage looks like in our everyday lives. In this second part of the Courage talks, you’ll hear people from...

I’ve been reflecting upon courage lately. The latin origin of the word – cor – means heart. Rather than being verbose and ego driven, to me, courage begins and ends with the heart. 2018 was my year of courage. It allowed me 12 months to reflect upon my own definition of courage and to listen to other people’s definitions as well. It was a wonderful journey of seeing the beautiful differences and s...

My birthday is in 3 days, and each year I like to celebrate with a special birthday episode. This year I wanted to share the episode I shared on my 30th birthday. I know a lot of us right now are going through a few challenges and obstacles and adversity, and my 30th birthday episode was one of the most vulnerable episodes I put out because it really shares the journey I’ve been on. And that is wh...

I want to thank you all so much for going all the way through our “Manifesting Your Adventure” series. If you are just catching this episode now, I want to encourage you to go all the way back and listen to this all the way through. We began the series on March 9th and I hope you’ll get a lot of value from journeying with us through each of the first 6 parts of the journey before today’s focus on...

Thank you for joining me for another week of our “Manifesting Your Adventure” series. I hope that you and your family are staying safe, healthy and sane in this unprecedented time of introspection and uncertainty. I’d love you to get the most value out of this episode, and before you tune into this episode, if you haven’t already heard the previous 5 weeks’ episodes, it will give you a better cont...

Peace to you all. I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy in heart, mind and body. Here we are again for another week of our “Manifesting Your Adventure” series. Before you go on, for you to get the most value out of this episode, check out the previous 4 weeks’ episodes. We began the series on March 9th and I hope you’ll get a lot of peace from journeying with us through each of the fir...

Peace to you all. I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy in heart, mind and body. Thank you for joining me for another week of our “Manifesting Your Adventure” series. Did you get to check out the previous 3 weeks’ episodes? If not, please go back to the first installment in this series, which came out on March 9th and listen to the first 3 before joining us on this week’s adventure. Th...

Have you been following along on our “Manifesting Your Adventure” series? Most of you know that 2020 is my “Year of Adventure” and in honor of my upcoming adventure, I’d like to give you some tools to allow you to have this year be your most wonderful year yet. I invite you to cast aside any preconceptions you might have about what an adventure is or has to look like. I’ve brought together 3 amazi...