 Hey guys, I just finished a great conversation for my podcast channel with a new friend of mine called Glow Atanimo Glow is a online educator She is an author and she is a travel blogger a seal entrepreneur And she has a very distinct clear important voice into the whole question of racism right now That we are battling with all over the world. She has that articles featured in Oprah's magazine Forbes magazine Condé Nast, Buzzfeed and others. She is a fantastic human being you're going to love this interview Don't forget to comment and subscribe to my podcast channel. Thank you Before you get started on today's podcast with Paul Scanlon We just wanted to let you know that he now has a free course available to you If you head over to paulscanlon.com Forward slash free course you'll be able to sign up to his video series called the five behaviors of successful people We hope that this course adds value to your life now. Enjoy the podcast. Well, listen, it's great to have you on the show I wanted to ask you a bit about I Supposed your background and journey. I want people to know Your origins and the little bit of the journey to to the glow that you are now By the way, when when did someone first shot and you named to glow in childhood? It's such a good question Funny story g-money was my first nickname. So I Was an entrepreneur through and through I was selling Yeah, pop rocks and kindergarten and airheads and mixed CDs in middle school. So I think g-money was like, oh, she's getting her money But glow came about I think in high school It was just like there was glow stick and then eventually it was glow. So I Parolithic name shortener. So you would have been glow to me from day one or even G might be even better I call my assistant Hannah H. I'm always short Glow works. That's great. So tell me a bit about your background where you were born raised a little bit about your evolution from childhood Yeah, so born and raised in the Bay Area. It's just outside of San Francisco. It's Both my parents are born and raised in Nigeria. I'm one of six kids So they had my oldest sister in Nigeria and then the rest of the five kids in California Grew up never really fitting in I think when you're a middle child anyway, and you're in Aries You want to rebel you want to be independent you want to find your space and I think for most of my childhood I was just kind of like I don't belong and I was so angry because I knew I didn't belong and I didn't Understand what my role in this world would be and I would see kids because you know, we didn't grow up with much So I would see kids, you know, that there's a haves and the have nots immediately as you know a child You're you you're in public school and you can see the division of the haves and the have nots and belonging in the have Nots was it did a lot to me it motivated me and it had me have like this chip on my shoulder like Ah, you know, they have all of this stuff, but they're really rude people and they're mean and they're bullies And I'm like, why do they deserve this life? And I would just always ask myself these hard questions of like, how can I get there? but still maintain like my integrity and still have character and I Found myself staying after class and just hanging with my teachers and I remember I think that's why I kind of have like an old soul as my friends would say is just My closest friends were teachers like I couldn't relate to my peers and it was when I was 11 years old Mr. Miranda it was career day. He made a bunch of flashcards and it had all the typical careers Firefighter police officer teacher librarian, you know, and he's like, okay Everyone come to the front of the desk pick your flashcard of your career, you know And let's just you know talk about it. So everyone rushes and like immediately like oh lawyer doctor everyone was so like Mind you at 11 years old everyone was so solid about what they were gonna do, right? I get to the desk and I'm like Okay, waiting for my heart to skip a beat waiting for that moment where I would just know by looking at the word And I'm like on my fourth round of like looking at all the cards and I'm like this is Pathetic are these really all the options? And Again being a little bit of a rebel. I just didn't pick a card. I've never been one to settle So I went back to my desk without a card because I didn't figure there would be a consequence Little did I know, you know, my like my last name starts with an A I would be the first to be called to read out what my career would be and what I picked on the card and You know, I tell Mr. I didn't pick card. I didn't pick hard. Why not? I'm like, I don't like any of the options and I can I can remember as if it were yesterday all of my classmates because I always sat in the back All of my classmates were like, ooh You know that snicker as if like oh glows and trouble again But he told me stay after class and so I was like whatever, you know And I say after class and Mr. Miranda tells me go home and look up the word entrepreneur I think that's what you're gonna be 11 years old and I think teachers have such immense power The ability to pour in people at such a young age and not you know He could have easily, you know criticized or condemned me for not choosing what you know the options So I really, you know appreciate that he said, okay, I can recognize there's something different about this one Let me go ahead and feed her spirit with what that actual actual career path could look like So I just became obsessed with the word entrepreneur I was like, whoa, like just even in the spelling of the word. I'm like, oh, this is Different spell like this is just such a complex spelling. I love it Since then I kind of like have just been an entrepreneur So how do you not heard the word till then? No, no, I never even knew it was a possibility I always Because you don't see it like my Everything that you see on TV that the media your direct influences everyone has a very cookie cutter path So you don't even know the entrepreneurial world exists because you're not shown it in any way So when you first heard that word entrepreneur and understood what it meant. Did you instantly feel it described you? Yeah, I just I liked I thought the sense of freedom I was like, whoa, it was like the sense of freedom and a sense of relief Knowing that entrepreneurs can create their own business and create their own path I I've always been a creator like through and through so just seeing the word create and seeing the world the word freedom and just Learning and studying what you know because back then I don't even think we had computers I had to look it up in like an encyclopedia It was just like whoa and so I'm just like diving deep into like what does entrepreneurship mean and you know Who's a good example of an entrepreneur? So it was it was a really cool Thing to be exposed to at 11 years old. How did it affect you from 11 onwards then? I'm thinking you know most kids as you say they get some kind of end goal in mind in terms of a role on a job Then kind of think I've got to get these qualifications. These exams go to this college. So your entrepreneurial Thinking would free you to a degree from that. So did it change the way you did school and life? After you that occurred you that was you Definitely, I think at the end of the day, especially as a kid we all just want a sense of belonging and community and Defining our human existence like what is my part in this world? So having that entrepreneur label to fall back on kind of gave me a sense of comfort because I knew I was different and my different me being different isolated me in a lot of ways and you know, I Became so angry for being so different But once I had that entrepreneur title to look forward to you I was like, okay, I'm different because I'm an entrepreneur because I'm an entrepreneur I do this because I'm an entrepreneur. Did you tell your parents? How did they respond to that word? I barely told my mom I changed my degree 10 days before I graduated Still went through to be a pre-med major in college because when you have you know, when you're a first-generation Immigrant or first-generation American you have that just the weight and the pressure of the world on you from your parents to say I brought you all the way to America like I've given you everything that you can do is give me a Doctorate degree a lawyer degree, you know and they they have a really I'll say impressive way of Emotional manipulation and I say this with a lot of love because I can see the context of Why they want you to do so well and work so hard for those two labels? Because in their generation during their time growing up there was no other way to make it outside of being a doctor lawyer You know, otherwise you're a disappointment So when when that pressure just built up and I would see my mom struggle and you know My dad got deported when I was 11 and here she was working two jobs as a nurse to raise six kids You you take that pressure in I'm an empath as well So I'm like, oh whatever I can do to alleviate her pain and to make life easier for her so I just kind of like my entrepreneurial I guess paths and And Journey was kind of like always like a secret like I would burn mixtapes During the lime wire frost wire era. I don't know if you remember those websites. I would like illegally pirate music I don't know if the government can still come for me. It's been so many years But things on my mind right now. Yeah Um But I just found I would always I was really good at supply and demand so again I mentioned as a kindergartner I sold cough drops in kindergarten like I was sick one day I brought cough drops to school because I was sick and I saw people, you know when we're kindergartners You see like a little red, you know Being it looks like candy. So everyone is like, oh, I want one glow I want one. Well, they weren't calling me glow But I want one I want one and so I'm like, ooh if I bring the whole pack of cough drops the next day and sell it for a Quarter, I could probably turn over 10 bucks. So I did that and of course I got caught like there were like parents that wrote reports on me They're alive Sorry, are you parents still alive? Yeah, my mom's alive. My dad passed when I was 23 in a diabetic coma Oh, wow, because I saw you posting about flying your family to Maldives at some time in the future. Yeah Whatever happens, they'll be glad that you decided to be an entrepreneur. Oh, definitely, you know, and and they're so supportive now I think it's really hard to understand someone's entrepreneurial journey when all you do is their struggle Like, you know, I was very open about like not eating and just like I was missing a lot of meals for my first two Three years of building my brand, but I was honestly willing to struggle in another country to create content and build up Yeah, build up that education and the travel The travel savvy that I knew would help me get to the next level rather than, you know, give my mom the satisfaction of Knowing that I couldn't make this work and for me, that's what I love about Entrepreneurs is that it were so stubborn and it's like what we're equally motivated by Our doubters as much as our supporters Yeah, what was the teacher's name again? Mr. Miranda Mr. Miranda, well, we need to give him a shout out. Do you still have contact with him? You know, what's crazy is on facebook. I tried to reach out to him like 10 years ago. He's not on facebook I don't remember his first name. I contacted the elementary school. There's no record. I'm just like and maybe it's one of those Yeah, maybe maybe I can like get like an actual investigator to track him down But now that feels a little creepy, but you know, I've shouted him out in my book You know, I've definitely been preaching his name and I hope one day he hears about how much he's affected my life Yeah, because I wonder how many kids he said similar things to That walked something up in them or maybe didn't but he was trying it out anyway by saying something to them It clearly woke up something in you. So when you graduated from school, did you graduate? um in the way that your parents expected you to or not So it took me five years to graduate. I studied abroad for Five months in the uk east midlands lincoln church. Yeah So that was um, I was a double collegiate athlete as well. So I played basketball and tennis And that's how I was able to fund my college degree. So I went to a school that cost Upwards of 40k a year Yeah, it was it was private liberal arts college called baker university in kansas an amazing school amazing staff And yeah, I was pre-med for two years and then I had a breakdown I got another like f on my chemistry test biochem And I just I asked to be excused to go to the restroom I'm like, oh, I really have to go to the restroom and I go to the restroom I just break down crying and I sit up like half an hour. I'm like, I don't want to go back to class I don't want to do this. I'm just I'm miserable I like I'm literally taking on all this weight to please my mother and it's the hardest thing for a lot of first generation kids to Come to terms with like you can live your life And still honor your parents and you can love your parents But still live your life in a way that pleases you because you know knock on wood when my mom one day passes And I've done everything to make her happy when she's no longer here. I'm stuck with a life that doesn't make me happy then You know, I had to come to terms with the fact that like if it comes down to it pleasing my mother or myself I have to choose myself However many years ahead of me like I've really got to give myself this shot Yeah, completely. Well a shout out to teachers because I you know One of my beefs has been for a long time that the western education system is so broken. It's so one size fits all I now have eight grandchildren. I watch them suffering different ones of them With the compliance requirement of the education system here That has no interest in the individual forms of intelligence. So You know shout out to teachers listening to us today. We want to say to you teachers It only takes one word from you to a possible glow or whoever's in your class that may wake something up in them That changes the trajectory of their lives as it did for you. So out of school. What did you do first work wise? Oh A quick note to that. I think it's super important to mention that kids are so impressionable Like the direct line of influence is their parents their friends and then their teachers Shout out to teachers because you really have an important job of like making a big impact in kids lives So after school Um, so I mentioned I told my mom that I was no longer pre-med 10 days before graduation So she was living in arizona. I went to college in kansas. So here I was at graduation like I can't go back home because now My mom is like so upset that I waited this long and I'm longer going to be a doctor So I I literally escaped so I booked a home way ticket to london Um, I had 500 dollars in my bank account Luckily, I landed a six month internship at the same university that I studied abroad at so I was there for another six months and I adore that university, but oh my goodness. They paid me pennies to the hour and When you're so desperate and you're so willing to prove yourself because it was an internship So I I was like if I just work my butt off I'm literally gonna my office had a couch. I would sleep in my office like just to like pull extra shifts Other people saw how talented I was like, oh glow does video glow does graphic design Glow does this and they just gave me all of their work. So like they you know, I was always happy to help as well So people other departments were passing off their work to me So I was like not only doing my work, but other people's work And I was so overworked and so tired, but I was broad. I was out of the country. So I was willing to just Man just overwork and run myself to the ground because I'm like if I work so hard Like they're gonna see that like, oh, I'm such an asset Like they're gonna have to keep me and make a full-time position out of this um, but unfortunately First and foremost life never works that way I don't know if this is like an Aries tendency, but we tend to be a little naive or idealistic About the way people work, especially business um, but they were going to have new administration come in and the current president at the time loved me adored me was vouching for me to get a Full-time position new administration was like, how can we save more money? Who can we cut? Oh, yeah Not trying to hear it like we had a meeting and Principles like like glow is amazing. Here's everything. She's done. Here's what she's produced Like you really got to keep her and he was like, oh, yeah, we'll consider it But so glow, what's your plans after this? Is there anything you'd like to do, you know, where are you going? I was like, I literally have a hundred bucks in my bank account. I've got no plan I was banking on staying here, you know But once I learned that I had to have my moment obviously to process And then move on so I booked a 25 dollar ticket to Barcelona built a website overnight called the glow academy Which is global learning objectives because I'm like, okay if I'm gonna be in spain I know that I'm a native english speaker. I'm gonna use that to my advantage. So how old how old are you at this time? I was 23 22 23 Yeah, so you headed to Barcelona. Yeah. Yep. And then I basically just hustle I remember walking into hostels and I'm just like, hey, here's my instagram Let me run yours like who works reception. I don't want any money I would literally tell them up front because Here's the thing if you get someone to work for you for free like there's no losses, you know What is like I wanted to make it so easy for them to say yes Like oh my god, like I wanted to be such an obvious answer Yeah, I would walk into hostels and tell them let me work your reception for free all I need is a bed Because when you're traveling you have you basically have two, you know needs shelter and food You know, so I was like all I need is a bed and so like oh, yeah And I'm like, I'll run your instagram too. And I'm like wait glow. Don't throw in too much. They already said yes well well, so I was like living out of hostels. I was like Going to neighborhoods rich Spanish neighborhoods knocking door knocking door to door and I had this script memorized Hola, soy gloria enseñar y enseñar to use English, you know, I I'm native English speaker I can teach your kids English And I remember like the first time someone just like looks at me and shut the door in my face And I think that's why I'm so relentless in my hustle now I'm like, oh, I've been rejected in every type of way. I've been rejected in Spanish Like I'll be okay being rejected in English Did you see all of that when you were 23? Did you see all of that hustling? And that um being quick on your feet And offering to work for free Because there's no downside to them. Did you see all that as entrepreneurialism? You know And here's the thing and I hope this comes across the right way when you know You're gonna make it in a special way in life. Nothing really gets you down Because I knew that I was going to be successful. I just had no idea in what or how I didn't know what my path was going to look like success is never linear So I was like, look whatever it takes To help me get to the next level because no matter what I'm developing interpersonal skills I'm developing communication skills. I'm developing content and graphic design skills I would walk into restaurants that I couldn't even afford to eat at just so I can tell them Oh, let me redesign your menu. Oh, this is a bad translation in Spanish. Like let me go ahead Let me run to my hostel. I can whip this up for you 50 euros Redesign your menu and like I would literally like find ways to make business on the spot that type of savvy You can't teach that it comes from experience and it comes from desperation as well And I was willing to like I'm not going to reach out and be like, hey guys Struggling in Paris. I'm struggling in Barcelona. Like I put myself in this situation. Let me struggle. Let me work. Let me sweat for this lifestyle because the life that I live now Like like I know that I like work so hard to attain it So I think a lot of people in this new age The level of entitlement now like, okay, I put in my two months of of hustling like I deserve, you know The dream life of like, oh my god Hope you got to put in the work. You can't short cut that part So you felt, you know, it's interesting when you said I always knew I'd be successful Your definition of successful or the awareness of that was more An internal awareness you had that you were developing A skill set and a character An internal strengths that you knew would ultimately Turn into money My arsenal of Because there are again, there are certain things that only come from experience and putting yourself out there and being willing to fail And I'm like the amount of Experience I'm getting and putting myself out there developing like businesses on the fly Pitching myself to hot like I was pitching before I realized I was pitching What? So and literally pulling up my instagram I've got 5 000 followers and here's my here's my gallery. I can do the same for your business like No idea what I was doing. Wow If I can if I can do it for myself, I can I can replicate, you know, the same system and process in another business So not before there was even language for what I was doing. I was doing it Well, so did you get work in the area of building websites and social media customers? Oh, I mean, I was doing anything and everything. I was building websites. I was doing social media management I was doing graphic design. I remember there was even a couple on instagram They hired me to do their engagement photos in barcelona like I literally was like I called it jack keisha of all trades A play on words But I would do it all and I think now Having the flexibility and the luxury to kind of niche down and say, okay, I no longer have to do it all I want to do xyz, but I never have to and that's such a luxury And what was your next phase after that? So you're in barcelona. You're in your mid 20s. Are you there for a while? I actually it took me a month and a half before I get signed to play semi pro basketball Wow Now I have a residency permit now I have a salary and I'm like, whoa Like I made it I got it like life is good because technically shanging zone. You can't overstay nine days So getting the residency permit allowed me to be legal And being on the basketball team allowed me to have a bit of a salary. It wasn't much, but it was something steady and Oh I don't know if this is like It's funny to think back on this So season lasts about six to seven months We're practicing three to four times a week traveling every weekend for games All of a sudden that freedom element is taken out and I'm like, okay The salary I have the the legal paperwork I no longer have the freedom to dictate how I want to live my life Where I get to travel what I get to do how I get to build content And I was like, man, I realized freedom The hierarchy of needs for me freedom is at the very top and I was like you can give me a salary I will switch it for freedom. I want the freedom to make money the way On my terms, you know Basketball is such a passion. I love basketball. It grew up playing it in my very first sport Um, so blessed to have it have been an escape in my life But I realized it's not something I want to do professionally and you know Yeah, getting to that point having that really hard conversation with my coach Like I appreciate everything you did for me to see they literally took money out of other player salary to accommodate nine And I felt so bad. I was like, like I didn't know what it took to get me there And when they're sharing that story, I'm like, oh ultimate guilt trip, you know, because here I am about to tell them that I don't want to renew my contract And I might have told a white lie and said that I was, you know, needing to go back to the us But I ended up booking a one-way ticket to paris and I was like, all right more content Like let's I kind of just left Barcelona from there And I was like, okay, I need to create content Like the way as a travel blogger the way to stand out is to build up a portfolio Of content in multiple countries and I'm like, I can't only talk about Barcelona Like let me explore more of Europe. Let me go further east because when you're hitting the bulgarias the romanias Albanias, that's where it's like, whoa, what's a black girl doing in albania? Like At what point did you realize that you felt you were um You kind of hitting a sweet spot in terms of the the alignment of your entrepreneurial ability And it becoming a real income stream now. Was that in the travel area? Definitely so the very first time a brand offered because I was still Super ignorant to how it worked because it being an influencer. There wasn't language for that yet. So back in 2014 2015 it was still kind of like, you know Brands work with bloggers, but it as an influencer that Wasn't really a thing So I was okay with free flights because again for me I was like if I if they can fly me to different countries. I can create my own content And I mean out of 81 countries, I would say Probably 47 were on the dime of sponsors. So that was really helpful for me in building up that portfolio And it was really great. And I think when it got to like the 12th or 15th country, I was like these free flights are great, but Not paying my phone bill. They're not, you know, getting me food at restaurants I I've got to find a way to Figure out how to put it into my pitch or ask for it and not feel like I'm being demanding because again When we think about entitlement these days, it's so hard to to draw the line between. Okay. This is my worth. This is what I feel Um makes sense and then here's also gratitude for everything you're offering because you Flying me on a $3,000 round trip flight to vietnam I mean, I wouldn't be able to afford that. So I had to be like, okay I'm so grateful this opportunity to travel to all these beautiful places that I never would be able to afford But I can't just travel there for free. I've got if I'm creating content for your your company And I'm writing for your company. I I need money, you know And those conversations are as awkward as they sound because again, you will be gaslighted the very first time a brand Came back at me. It was like, oh wow like a blogger would never ask for that We would never pay a blogger that we don't have a budget Okay, if you don't want it, you know, we we can't offer anything about this and they would really They would make you feel like how dare you ask for more, you know, and again, I'm aware Of the times that, you know, I was in where it just wasn't as normal And what a lot of travel bloggers don't actually share is that many of them When they started building their travel blog, like their their partners their spouses were helping support their their journey So it was a life here for them to be traveling to these exotic places And so my audience knew I was single my audience knew ain't no sugar daddy over here like gloves rind in, you know, so It was such a humbling period But I would definitely say eventually I got to a point where my work spoke for itself You know, I was getting reposted and republished and syndicated in different online publications to the point where People like knew that if they were pitching me it had to come with a Christ So the the the travel journalism or the travel blogging as you call it was the first main Um business that you created, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm what did you do because you have several businesses now What did you evolve into beyond that? Yeah, well, so just taking a small step back. So glow photography was my first I guess official business in My instagram handle is called glow graphics because glow graphic designs was my second business So the blog abroad was actually my third. I guess entrepreneurial business um, but having graphic design and photography just In my arsenal Great because I know what it takes to create content to to be relevant to storytelling digital storytelling um, so after travel blogging um, I would say Being a travel host like there were different brands that would pay me to do like a camera. Um, Whether it's like it's I don't want to call it like commercial work, but it was like Yeah, I guess it was commercial work. Like I would shoot like Small ads for the country for the tourism board there I was being hired at one point for my snapchat account snapchat was really big in 2016 And a tourism board they paid me like $3,000 just to snapchat while I was in a city for a week So it was really interesting. I was like, whoa, and once you start getting those pitches of like, oh I'm worth this you start raising your your value. You're like, okay This brand is paying me this for that. I can probably pitch this for that, you know And you start kind of understanding um context and and what you're pretty much for it so, um You know we we came into each of those worlds quite recently, but I understand then that quite recent for you You did a post that went viral What was that post? um So are we talking about the Is it rude to call this black post? Is that what is that the one that you know Gains you all those followers in a short time Well, it was interesting because The first week of post I mean all of them are getting like half a million impressions The very first one that got four million impressions was is it rude to call us black? So that one got four million impressions. The rest of them got half a million impressions So they all kind of like took off in the first week But you've been posting stuff around that subject for a while, right? Yeah, so I definitely like the first time I want to say was five or six years ago The first time I talked about being spit at, you know, while I was just walking. This is in Prague Czech Republic Um, the the amount of times I get mistaken for a prostitute Um, yeah, just kind of like the layers of my identity as a black single woman It's like I'm first seen as an african immigrant Sorry an african prostitute then a local prostitute then an immigrant Then a tourist it's like the layers once I open my mouth and they hear my my american accent Oh, oh, oh, she's got money. Then they see wow no longer see the black skin. They see the green money It's yeah, it's like you don't you don't even want to eat there anymore, you know Why did that? Why did that post have that response? Do you know why did it go viral? Yeah, you know, I think again when so many people I want to say ignore I mean it could be ignore Eraser the black experience. It's never talked about it's not mainstream It's like suck it up. You're no longer slaves. Like why are you still complaining or talking about it? So I would share these stories on my blog and I would still get those comments of like, oh my gosh get over it It's been so many years None of my parents own slaves and I'm like it's so nuanced the conversation It's like it's not just about slavery. Like being black is not just about slavery Like this is the black experience Like it's so complex and here are some of the conversations that we have in our community About what we have to deal with what we have to stomach You know and what we have to yeah put up with you know And you have to almost choose your battles because if they be micro aggressions You'll drive yourself crazy like fighting every single one Thank you for taking the time to listen to Paul Scanlon's podcast channel We just wanted to remind you about the free course that's available to you on the five behaviors of successful people So go and head over to paulscanlon.com forward slash free course to sign up for that today And please do subscribe share and review this podcast channel Thank you