Honoring your roots and funding your future can feel like a choice between two competing instructions. In week three of the 90-day black tax series, Simone makes the case that they were never actually in competition, even though it can feel that way when the phone rings and the math does not add up.

Simone traces the belief back to something nobody taught her directly, a feeling absorbed in the space between what was said and what was implied, in the quiet math of every dollar that left before she asked whether it should. She widens the lens beyond her own culture, naming how this shows up across Afro-Caribbean, African, and Asian communities, as the brown tax in Latin American culture, and pointing listeners back to week one's naming of the Filipino term. She shares a sobering pattern she has observed, immigrants who worked and gave for decades, sent money home to build houses that were never finished, and returned to find the sacrifice went unmatched, a caution against giving without a plan rather than a reason to stop giving. The heart of the episode is a real, usable script for an honest number: I have a hundred dollars, home needs eighty, I only have twenty left, I am sorry, I love you, this is what I have to give right now, offered as an alternative to going into debt out of fear of setting a boundary. She reframes the whole conversation as stewardship instead of survival, building something sustainable enough to still be standing in twenty years, rather than giving until it hurts because the hurting feels like proof of love. She is candid that this comes from her own history with burnout, not from theory.

This episode is for the immigrant professional who has felt the pull between honoring family and building a future and assumed one had to lose. It continues directly from weeks one and two, naming the black tax and the pushback that comes with setting any limit around it, and lands on the case that giving on purpose, with a number attached, is not a smaller kind of love than giving without limits.

Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, speaker and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, available on Amazon and online worldwide, and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries.

#BlackTax #ImmigrantFinance #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #Stewardship #FirstGenWealth

New to the U.S.? Start here → thebridgeconcepts.org/newcomer

Already established, and the financial piece resonated? Get The Black Tax Boundary Kit, a free starting number and three scripts for the conversations that get hard. → thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html

Ready for the fuller plan, built around your specific number? Apply for a Chemistry Call. → [https://form.jotform.com/261967575607068]

Want the conversation to continue weekly? Subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief. → thriveabroad.substack.com

The Immigrant Experience in America

Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music

Support the show on Patreon Visit: thebridgeconcepts.org

Follow along: LinkedIn | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook

Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story

This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For guidance specific to your immigration status, consult a licensed immigration attorney. For guidance specific to your financial situation, consult a licensed financial professional.

Has anyone ever called you that? In week two of the 90-day black tax series, Simone unpacks what happens the moment you try to change a pattern you have already named, and the specific word that tends to show up right when you do.

Simone traces the accusation back to a clash she names directly, the collision between a collectivist, communal cultural dynamic and the individualistic boundaries needed to function and stay whole while living abroad. She is careful to separate the pattern from the people in it, naming that most of what gets asked of us is asked out of real need, and most of what we give, we give out of love, while also naming a harder truth, that some of what circulates are stories built to extract money while the person abroad quietly absorbs the cost in their own health and peace. The core of the episode is a piece of timing she wants listeners to actually notice: nobody calls you selfish for the first nine years of saying yes, the word tends to surface exactly once, in the exact moment you say something different than expected, and that timing is not a coincidence, it is information. She is honest that she has not fully resolved the harder question underneath it, telling the difference between a boundary that protects something real and one that is avoidance wearing healthier language, and names that changing will make people around you uncomfortable, so finding real community, coaching, or therapy to support the work matters as much as naming the pattern itself.

This episode is for anyone who has been met with silence, a look, or a missed phone call the moment they tried to do something different than what was expected of them, and needed to hear that the accusation is not proof of wrongdoing, sometimes it is only proof that something is changing.

About Simone W. Johnson-Smith Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, available on Amazon, and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries.

#BlackTax #Whitewashed #ImmigrantFinance #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #FirstGenWealth

New to the U.S.? Start here → thebridgeconcepts.org/newcomer

Already established, and the financial piece resonated? Get The Black Tax Boundary Kit, a free starting number and three scripts for the conversations that get hard. → thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html

Ready for the fuller plan, built around your specific number? Apply for a Chemistry Call. → https://form.jotform.com/261967575607068

Want the conversation to continue weekly? Subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief. → thriveabroad.substack.com

The Immigrant Experience in America

Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music

Support the show on Patreon Visit: thebridgeconcepts.org

Follow along: LinkedIn | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook

Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story

This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For guidance specific to your immigration status, consult a licensed immigration attorney. For guidance specific to your financial situation, consult a licensed financial professional.

First of the 90-Day Black Tax Series

There is a number most of us have never written down. Not because we cannot do the math, but because writing it down makes it real. In this solo episode, Simone opens the first installment of a ninety-day series with a topic she has carried personally: the black tax, the ongoing financial responsibility so many of us hold for family and community back home, or family who followed us here and never quite landed the way we did.

Simone walks through what the black tax actually is, the phone call, the tuition, the medical bill, the funeral, the moment saying yes overrides our own goals without us ever deciding it should. She names the same pattern as it shows up under different words in different cultures: the brown tax in Latino households, utang na loob in Filipino families, a debt of gratitude that never quite finishes being repaid. Different words, the same weight. She is direct about what this is not: not a discipline problem, not a character flaw, not something unique to people who are bad with money. It is leftover survival math, arithmetic that made sense once, in a different country, under different pressure, and never got updated for where we are standing now. She also draws a distinction worth sitting with, between giving that is freely chosen and giving that has quietly become extraction, and is honest that untangling the two is bigger than one episode.

This episode is for the immigrant professional who has never once written down the actual number, the ones with two degrees and a title on the door who could not tell you what they have saved for their own future, because the number has never been asked out loud. It is the opening of a ninety-day arc that will stay on this exact topic across the show, the newsletter, and the coaching, not identity in general, not culture in general, this specific weight and what it takes to build wealth without losing yourself or the people you love.

About Simone W. Johnson-Smith Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, available on Amazon and everywhere online globally, and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries.

#BlackTax #ImmigrantFinance #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #ImmigrantExperience #FirstGenWealth

Already carrying the weight of this conversation? Get The Black Tax Boundary Kit, a free starting number and three scripts for the conversations that get hard. → thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html

Want to go deeper, on your own terms, at your own pace? Subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief for weekly insight on this exact topic across the next ninety days. → thriveabroad.substack.com

The Immigrant Experience in America

Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music

Support the show on Patreon Visit: thebridgeconcepts.org

Follow along: LinkedIn | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook

Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story

This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For guidance specific to your immigration status, consult a licensed immigration attorney. For guidance specific to your financial situation, consult a licensed financial professional.

I recently sat down with Sharon Thompson and Dr. Sharon Reid on the Speak Harmony Podcast to talk about something most of us carry quietly — the self we translate away just to feel acceptable in a new place.

We got into what "lost in translation" actually means. It is not the word that gets lost. It is the self. The version of you that was shaped by a particular soil, a particular faith, a particular way of understanding respect, time, and belonging — and what happens when you land somewhere that runs on entirely different, unspoken rules.

From there, the conversation moved through third culture kids and the tension they carry between two households that live in two different cultures at once, the unwritten American workplace rule that humility will not get you promoted the way self-advocacy will, and the quiet financial anxiety so many of us hold — sending money home while still trying to build something here. We also talked about setting healthy boundaries with family and cultural expectation, and why that is one of the hardest, least discussed emotional challenges immigrants face.

This episode is for anyone who has felt the edit happening in real time — the softening, the shrinking, the code-switching before you walk into a room. It is for first-gen professionals, third culture people, and anyone building a life across two worlds who has ever wondered which version of themselves is allowed to show up.

My book, Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, goes deeper into everything we touched on here — reading the cultural environment, bridging divides, and reclaiming identity without losing what makes you, you. It's available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-America-Coming-Home-Yourself/dp/B0DMWQ1GLR/

#DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #LostInTranslation #ImmigrantExperience #ThirdCultureKids #CulturalIdentity

New to the U.S.? Start here: Newcomer

Already established, and the financial piece resonated? Start with the free Black Tax Boundary Kit [https://thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html], then apply for a Chemistry Call: Apply for a Chemistry Call [https://form.jotform.com/261967575607068]

And for the ongoing conversation every week, subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief on Substack: https://thriveabroad.substack.com

The Immigrant Experience in America

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Support the show: Patreon Website: https://thebridgeconcepts.org

Follow: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonewjohnson/

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Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story

The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

In this episode of The Immigrant Experience in America, Simone W. Johnson-Smith joins Rosa Bel and the Cafecito Cultural community of educators for a conversation on what actually gets lost when we cross a border: "Are You Lost in Translation? How Culture Shock Shapes the Core of Our Identities."

Drawing from her own journey as a Jamaican immigrant and 15 years in U.S. federal service, Simone unpacks why culture shock is not a single event but a slow identity negotiation, one that can quietly reshape a person over a decade or more if it goes unnamed. This conversation explores the three stages of that reshaping (Performance, Eraser, Crisis), the invisible code-switching tax carried by high-achieving immigrants, and why the financial scripts we inherit from home can quietly work against the future we're trying to build here.

Simone and Rosa also dig into third culture kids and heritage speakers specifically, why bilingual, bicultural students so often see their own identity as something to minimize rather than a source of power, and what educators can do to reflect that value back to them.

This episode is for immigrants, first-generation families, third culture people, educators, and anyone building a life between two cultures.

"Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience" by Simone W. Johnson-Smith is an International Impact Book Award winner, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DMWQ1GLR

#immigrantexperience #culturalidentity #cultureshock #immigrantmentalhealth #thirdculturekid #heritagelanguage #blacktax #decodingamerica #thriveabroad The Immigrant Experience in America

New to the U.S.? Start with the free guide to your first ninety days. → The One Who Made It Out Guide

Already established, and the financial piece of this conversation hit home? Start with the free Black Tax Boundary Kit: naming the pattern, finding your real giving number, and three scripts for the moment it gets hard. → Black Tax Boundary Kit

Ready to build the full plan, not just the number? Apply for a free Chemistry Call. → Chemistry Call

Want a weekly note on immigration, identity, and money, in under five minutes? The Thrive Abroad Brief. → Thrive Abroad Brief Snack Bites

The Immigrant Experience in America

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Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of any employer.

Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

Before she ever stepped onto the world stage with Pink Floyd, Sting, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, George Benson, Michael Jackson and more, Machan Taylor was a little girl relocated from Japan to suburban America, carrying the lifelong ache of not fully belonging anywhere.

That experience of being wrenched from the life and culture that was familiar to her, growing up in a deeply dysfunctional family, with an American born father who cheated on her native Japanese mother and came home from work each night drunk deeply scarred Machan for decades. She struggled to find her identity, struggled with looking different than everyone around her, wrestled with lasting psychological pain and grieved the loss of a loving childhood she could never reclaim.

Even as she sang on some of the world's biggest stages securing fame and fortune she struggled to find the things that eluded her, happiness, connection, love. Her trauma led to years of self-destructive behaviors and choices, including marriage to a physically and mentally abusive husband. At the peak of her fame so often her life felt hopeless. Like she would always be that little girl who never fit in.

That journey became Naked Out Loud, a memoir with extraordinary music stories at its core, and something much rarer. It is a deeply human conversation about what it means to be Asian American, to navigate life between visibility and invisibility, and to finally tell the truth about the life behind the applause, that trauma affects even people who win personal acclaim.

Machan is a singer, songwriter, educator, and author whose career took her to the highest levels of the music industry. She has lived inside the kind of music history most people only know from album covers and arena lights. But what makes her an exceptional guest is not just the world she moved through. It is the emotional intelligence, honesty, and perspective she brings to everything those experiences meant. Ultimately her story is about finding healing through meditation, practicing Buddhism, guided psychedelics and gaining awareness, finding love and ultimately finding herself and reinventing herself at the age of 60. For your listeners it is a story of hope.

In Naked Out Loud, Machan traces a path from postwar Japan to New Jersey suburbia, to finding her voice on some of the world's biggest stages, all while wrestling with identity, race, trauma, silence, reinvention, and healing. She speaks with unusual grace about the tension between outer success and inner struggle, and about the long process of claiming your own voice after years of hiding behind the mask of performance.

The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe to our

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen to more episodes on: 💼 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3OK7xCN

💼 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKXsiE

💼 Amazon: https://amzn.to/43VG4Cn

📱Support our Patreon: https://bit.ly/3KwUiTz

📱Connect with Simone!

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💼 TikTok: / theimmigrantexperience 📱 Share your story with us: 💼 [email protected]

Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe to our

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen to more episodes on: 💼 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3OK7xCN

💼 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKXsiE

💼 Amazon: https://amzn.to/43VG4Cn

📱Support our Patreon: https://bit.ly/3KwUiTz

📱Connect with Simone!

💼 Website: https://www.thebridgeconcepts.org

📱 Follow us on Social Media:

💼 LinkedIn: / simonewjohnson 💼 Instagram: / theimmigrantexperiencepodcast

💼 TikTok: / theimmigrantexperience 📱 Share your story with us: 💼 [email protected]

Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe to our

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen to more episodes on: 💼 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3OK7xCN

💼 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKXsiE

💼 Amazon: https://amzn.to/43VG4Cn

📱Support our Patreon: https://bit.ly/3KwUiTz

📱Connect with Simone!

💼 Website: https://www.thebridgeconcepts.org

📱 Follow us on Social Media:

💼 LinkedIn: / simonewjohnson 💼 Instagram: / theimmigrantexperiencepodcast

💼 TikTok: / theimmigrantexperience 📱 Share your story with us: 💼 [email protected]

Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

In this powerful episode of The Immigrant Experience in America, Simone speaks with Ukrainian immigrant Dima Negojuk about his family's extraordinary journey from war-torn Ukraine to rebuilding their lives in New York.

Just days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Dima's young son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. When war broke out and hospitals shut down, the family faced two battles at once: a devastating war and a life-threatening medical crisis. Forced to leave everything behind—including their business, home, and financial security—they arrived in the United States with only two suitcases and hope.

Dima shares how charitable organizations, generous strangers, and the immigrant spirit helped his family survive and eventually thrive. He also discusses how learning artificial intelligence became his pathway from survival to entrepreneurship, enabling him to build a consulting business from scratch despite having no technical background.

This episode is a moving testament to resilience, community, gratitude, and the power of reinvention.

Key Topics Discussed 1. Escaping War While Fighting a Medical Crisis

• Son diagnosed with a brain tumor two days before the Russian invasion.
• Ukrainian hospitals became inaccessible after the outbreak of war.
• Family traveled across Ukraine seeking treatment before ultimately coming to the United States.
• Emotional challenges of navigating war while trying to save a child's life.

2. Arriving in America with Nothing

• Entering the U.S. with only two suitcases.
• Receiving support from charitable organizations and local communities.
• Life-changing assistance from the Ronald McDonald House in New York.
• Experiencing extraordinary generosity from strangers.

3. The Power of Human Kindness

• Housing assistance from community organizations.
• Educational scholarships for their young child.
• Neighbors and nonprofit groups stepping in during critical moments.
• Paying kindness forward and helping others whenever possible.

4. Living with Ongoing Uncertainty

• Family members remaining in Ukraine.
• Daily realities of missile attacks and destruction.
• Emotional strain of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) uncertainty.
• Building a future while not knowing what comes next.

5. Discovering AI as a Survival Tool

• Learning AI out of necessity rather than curiosity.
• Using AI to replace functions traditionally performed by employees.
• Automating business processes despite having no coding background.
• Leveraging AI to create opportunities as a newcomer entrepreneur.

6. Building an AI Consulting Business

• Transitioning from entrepreneur to AI consultant.
• Helping small businesses implement AI effectively.
• Becoming a Fractional AI Officer for growing companies.
• Being featured in Forbes and gaining recognition in the AI space.

Key Takeaways

• Resilience often emerges in life's most difficult moments.
• Community support can transform a family's future.
• Technology can become a powerful equalizer for immigrants and entrepreneurs.
• Reinvention is possible at any stage of life.
• AI offers unprecedented opportunities for individuals without technical backgrounds.
• Gratitude and generosity create lasting impact across communities.
• Starting over does not mean starting from zero—you bring your experience, determination, and perspective with you.

Subscribe to:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience

Listen to more episodes on: 💼 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3OK7xCN

💼 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKXsiE

💼 Amazon: https://amzn.to/43VG4Cn

📱Support our Patreon: https://bit.ly/3KwUiTz

📱Connect with Simone!

💼 Website: https://www.thebridgeconcepts.org

📱 Follow us on Social Media:

💼 LinkedIn: / simonewjohnson 💼 Instagram: / theimmigrantexperiencepodcast

💼 TikTok: / theimmigrantexperience 📱 Share your story with us: 💼 [email protected]

Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.