"Having my children seeing me as a fully functioning human being with needs and desires and things that are important to me to pursue is also a form for showing up for my children."

Margaret Ackah-Yensu, Founder of Tulii Skincare (a natural, holistically formulated skincare made from the highest quality ingredient sourced in Tanzania) joins me to talk about becoming an entrepreneur later in life and starting your own brand and what it means to be a professional, a mom and someone who moved across the ocean to make America the new home.

Originally from Ghana, Margaret has been a New Yorker for many years. Margaret brings more than 18 years of skincare expertise; she’s helped skincare brands launch & scale in medical and traditional spas and is a certified Esthetician. She believes in a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.

She always had a passion for skincare. It might have taken her years to develop her own brand, but she took her time while modeling, going to schools and getting training in skincare, raising two children in New York and diving in into the world of holistic, all natural, organic, ethical, fair trade skincare industry to learn every step of the production - from sourcing in East Africa to marketing the end product. 

We talk about being an entrepreneur, starting your own brand, being a parent and what parenting means in America, the education system, and just how to navigate life as a professional and a parent when all she learned in her country is not necessary applicable in the American society.

In this episode:

- Starting a brand with origins in Tanzania – from sourcing to marketing to production and packaging and why sustainability is not just a label but the brand's "blood" all the way.

- A passion for skin care and how it all started.

- The importance of having a brand name (Tulii) that matters and refers to the brand's core values and what it means.

- Why starting now and how Margaret manages her passions and desires while being a mom to two teenagers.

- Her approach to business thinking and how it translates at being a parent.

- Why it's easier to find all the time to think about your passions in your twenties vs. later in life and the pros and cons of starting a brand now and not 20 years ago.

- Finding the tools to enhance what we find in the beauty/skincare industry, engaging in your own beauty for yourself and understanding what's needed to de-compress and find space for yourself in the busy life of an entrepreneur and a parent.

- And tips on how she finds peace and quiet and time for herself (and why baths don't relax her...)

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Instagram account for the podcast: www.instagram.com/anamericanbutnotreally/

Welcome to the second episode of the third season of An American, but not really podcast. In this episode I'm chatting with a founding principal of one of the largest New York public schools that is now home to over 700 students - from Pre-K to 8th graders. 

Twenty years ago, right after September 11, Terri Ruyter was tasked with establishing a school in lower Manhattan. Terri worked in schools for close to 40 years as an elementary school classroom teacher, a professor of education, and as a district literacy specialist. With her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, she studied inclusive classroom practices for her dissertation. 

Terri believes that the best schools keep children at the center of decision making. That means that all adults involved in the school need to be informed about child development, be careful and close “kid watchers,” and acknowledge the social, emotional and academic skills and ideas that young people bring to the school community. Using an asset-based lens, we can design and facilitate learning experiences that challenge and engage all students and create an environment that provides the space children need to grow and excel. 

In our conversation we cover everything from the current state of public school education in NY and U.S., migrant situation, and how parents can help their kids to develop and enjoy the school experience to the recent trends of parents wanting to compete over elite and private schools at all costs and how it affects kids. We talk about technology use at schools, we're addressing the shortage of teachers, parents' anxiety over kids' academics and college choices and the new norms of shooter drills at school. You might agree or disagree with Terri, but as a parent myself, I found her views and opinions very refreshing, helpful and, most of all, hopefull.

Please review, comment and share your favorite episodes. Your opinion matters and it gives this podcast a boost to reach people who might be interested in learning from these guests - on a professional and/or personal level. Thank you for your support! Follow us on IG @anamericanbutnotreally. Terri Ruyter's IG is here.

Today our guest is not an American, but someone who lives very close to America. As a matter of fact, so close that a lot of people out there consider this place to be part of America. Yet, it is not. 

Manpreet Kaur is a contemporary realist artist. She is also a graffiti artist and you can see her works around the city of Toronto, Canada. We, in New York, are very aware of our graffiti artists and we have our own favorite graffiti and mural spots and artists. We've been lucky to be a city where you can see the works of Banksy, Kobra and other prominent worldwide known graffiti artists.

I've met Manpreet very randomly. I was in Toronto on a short trip and I was  walking around the city sightseeing. I was especially interested in seeing the part of the city called Kensington Market - it's a vibrant, boho, soho, artistic neighborhood full of bars, vintage stores, cafes, restaurants, interesting mom and pop stores and GRAFFITI. It draws hipsters and students and it's populates with Victorian houses along tree-lined streets. I was walking the alleys looking at the graffitis when I spotted Manpreet at work.

I never saw a graffiti artist at work. I also pretty timid to approach one while the artist is at work. But I took pictures and videos and as I was about to turn away, I thought - when would I ever get another chance to see a graffiti artist at work, not to mention - to talk to one. So, I approached Manpreet and here we are talking about art and graffiti, Toronto, South-Asian families and traditions, and how she, originally from Punjab, India, not only ended up in Toronto, but also broke all the South-Asian stereotypes by doing so. 
Manpreet Kaur received her formal training in drawing and painting in India. She taught at various well established educational institutes as an art instructor and art teacher. In 2019, Manpreet Kaur moved to Canada where she started her new journey as an artist and founder of Mankaurarts.

Please review, comment and share your favorite episodes. Your opinion matters and it gives this podcast a boost to reach people who might be interested in learning from these guests - on a professional and/or personal level. Thank you for your support!

Let's start this year with hope, love and patience. I have a great lineage of guests this year and I'm excited to be continuing this podcast thanks to the support of my listeners. Your feedback. Your responses. Your sharing. Your reviews. Matter. They matter for me and they matter to get this podcast to the people who might find it helpful or entertaining. One of the reasons we all love comedians or comedy films/shows - they make us feel good. And this is one of the purposes of this podcast - to make you feel good and learn something from these individuals that you might find useful - be it a career advice, or family advice, or parenting advice, or - moving across the world advice. So, please, comment, review, share this podcast. Happy New Year and let's get it on!

I'm thrilled to welcome today's very special guest, whose best selling and wildly popular books Oh, Crap, Potty Training and Oh, Crap, I Have A Toddler and couching changed thousands of families in the last 15 years. I know she changed mine. Just as I almost accepted the fact that my oldest son might go to college in diapers, I came upon her book (after reading hundreds of other books) and my kid was out of diapers in one day. Not only I speak for myself, but I also gave her books as gifts to all my struggle with poop parents and they said the same - it worked! So, for me, talking to Jamie in person was like meeting a rock star!

She has been unapologetically herself all through her career, no sugar coding how hard it is not only to potty train kids, but also about the toddler years. She is both funny and brutally honest about raising kids. She knows what she is talking about.

Jamie Glowacki is an internationally recognized potty training and parenting expert. Her former careers of circus performer and social worker make her uniquely qualified to deal with toddlers and poop.  "Oh Crap! Potty Training" has sold over a half a million copies and has been translated into 16 languages. In fact, it is so popular that Simon & Schuster recently asked her to revise it for re-release in Spring 2024 as a 10th Anniversary edition. Jamie also hosts two popular podcasts: "Oh Crap Potty Training" and "Oh Crap Parenting", available wherever you get your podcasts. You can more information including online courses and other resources at jamieglowacki.com. You can buy her books here: "Oh Crap! Potty Training" and "Oh Crap! I Have a Toddler".

In the last episode I spoke with Amy Scherber, the founder of Amy's Bread, author and winner of numerous awards in culinary and business fields, about the food waste in USA. And in this episode I'm honored to have a guest, whose whole organization's mission is to end hunger and food waste in our lifetime by connecting surplus to food banks across the country. Julia DeSantis is the Director of Sustainability for The Farmlink Project, a student-led movement that has provided over 130 million pounds of nutritious food to communities facing hunger in the United States.

Farmlink started out of college dorm rooms at Brown and Stanford University during the pandemic as a small group of students rented Uhaul trucks to connect farmers with surplus to their local food bank. The project became an overnight sensation, going nationwide with an entirely volunteer movement of thousands of students delivering millions of meals to the families that needed them most. Julia’s role focuses on the quantification, verification, and communication of the climate impact of food waste and food recovery in the United States. Given that food waste accounts for nearly 1/10th of global emissions, a project like Farmlink with sustainability focused leaders like Julia has the opportunity to effectively mitigate planetary warming, and reshape our trajectory toward a more accessible and sustainable food future.
No one should have to go to bed hungry while perfectly viable produce goes to waste. This produce shouldn’t have to be “rescued” from rotting in fields or being sent to the landfill, either; why were we ever letting this produce go to waste in the first place? These are systemic issues that our society needs to address. In a perfect world, The Farmlink Project wouldn’t need to exist—systems would be in place to streamline the supply chain so that zero percent, rather than 30 to 40 percent, of food grown in the United States went to waste. For now, The Farmlink Project is acting as the “link” connecting the broken supply chains in the agricultural and food access industries. Their long-term goal is to set up infrastructure which will render our work obsolete. If there were no food waste, if there were no hungry people lining up outside understocked and underfunded food banks, there would be no need for The Farmlink Project.

Here are just a few alarming statistics we have about the food waste: 1. $161 billion worth of food is wasted annually, 2. The money lost from 2 years of food waste in the U.S. could eradicate global hunger and malnutrition for an entire year, 3. The average distance food moves from farm to distribution center is 1500 miles in the U.S., 4. In the United States, agricultural land covers 140 million acres, equal to 106 million football fields, 5. The energy lost from food waste in the United States is capable of powering more than 50 million U.S. homes. That's nearly 36% of all homes. From the farmers, packers, and distributors... to the truck drivers, fork lifters, and shippers... to the food banks, community organizers, and volunteers... It takes a whole village to bring food to our tables, 6. 5.9 trillion gallons of water is wasted every year from food loss and waste alone. That's the same amount of water 50 million of homes use every year.
Julia DeSantis, an activator with an unwavering passion for climate action is here to talk to me how they are planning to do so. Julia's academic journey was driven by her realization that her generation urgently needs to embrace Climate Consciousness to combat climate change effectively.

Please rate, review, share and subscribe to the podcast to continue bringing individuals' professsional and personal stories to life.

I'm thrilled to welcome today's guest, a fellow New Yorker, founder of Amy's Bread, a New York institution, an author and a winner of numerous awards in the culinary and business fields - Amy Scherber.Her New York artisan bread empire is the focus of our conversation as she takes the listeners through her journey of starting with a corner bread shop 30 years ago with just 5 employees to being recognized now as one of the best bread bakeries in the U.S. She survived the pandemics with the help of the community she so carefully built over the years with her high quality products and, most of all, her devotion to the city she calls home now and with her continues support for the environment and local producers. They choose to use only “green” cleaning products, buy local and organic ingredients, when possible, using natural and compostable packaging, recycling all paper, metal and plastic and composting all of our food waste.

Amy grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from St. Olaf College with degrees in Economics and Psychology. After college she moved to NYC and spent three years in a marketing firm, until she realized her heart was in cooking and baking. She attended the New York Restaurant School, then worked as a cook and pastry cook at Bouley restaurant where she became passionate about bread. She continued her training in France in three bakeries before returning to New York to pursue bread baking. She baked bread and pastries at Mondrian restaurant before starting her own business. She launched Amy’s Bread in 1992 in Hell’s Kitchen with 5 employees. The bakery was an immediate hit. Building its loyal customer base over the years, Amy’s Bread has become a New York institution. Today the staff has grown to 100 (hand-shaping dough requires a large staff!) and the bakery delivers to over 200 wholesale customers daily. Amy’s husband Troy Rohne joined the company full time in 2002, and now runs the business with Amy. Amy’s Bread continues to be recognized as one of the best bread bakeries in the U.S. The bakery has been featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Time Out New York, Gourmet, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit. The bakery celebrated its 30th anniversary in the summer of 2022!

Scherber has co-authored The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread and her bread cookbook, Amy's Bread, with Toy Dupree, one of five original Amy's Bread bakers and our executive pastry chef until 2012. Amy is an active member of The Bread Bakers Guild of America.

Please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast to continue bringing the stories of people of various backgrounds and professions to life to get inspired and aspired.

In this episode my guest is Jasminne Mendez, a best-selling Dominican-American poet, educator, translator, playwright and award winning author of several books for children and adults. She has had poetry and essays published in numerous journals and anthologies and she is the author of two multi-genre collections including Island of Dreams (Floricanto Press, 2013) which won an International Latino Book Award. Her debut poetry collection City Without Altar won the 2022 Texas Institute of Letters best book of poetry award and her debut middle grade novel in verse Aniana del Mar Jumps In (Dial) was released in March 2023 to rave reviews. Her debut picture book Josefina’s Habichuelas (Arte Publico Press, 2021) was the Writer’s League of Texas Children’s Book Discovery Prize Winner and her second YA memoir Islands Apart: Becoming Dominican American was released this past fall. 

She has translated the work of New York Times Best Selling authors Amanda Gorman, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Calribel Ortega. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. She is the Program Director for the literary arts non-profit Tintero Projects and she lives and works in Houston, TX.

The first time I came across Jasminne was in the article of Wall Street Journal, which talked about professionals in their 30s-50s who decided to change careers during pandemics. I was inspired by this piece because I changed my career in my 30s as well and it was a very hard transition, because in a lot of ways you feel lost and question your choices, but in so many ways you feel liberated and happier about doing something that you, perhaps, were meant to do in the first place. In this instance, Jasminne was meant to be a writer and a poet, because she started using poetry as a way to tell her story - the story of growing up Dominican in America, deep in the south, often misunderstood and/or misrepresented. As I dived in her books, I learned that each of her books addresses a very important matter - be it immigration, medical care for Afro Latino community, growing up different, being torn apart between two cultures, coping with growing differently, managing life changing medical conditions that haven't been widely addressed in public, and more. I grew more fascinated with Jasminne's work and impact on one cultural part of the American society.

I was especially excited and honored to have Jasminne on my podcast because the idea behind my podcast is how to navigate life in America as an immigrant and as an American. In this case, I found many similarities between my assimilation with the local culture and her growing up as a Dominican American. We talk about her path to poetry and writing. We talk about the many aspects of the American society that are still not being addressed and how generalization of all Latinos is as incorrect as generalizing any other race or nationality. We talk about women and infertility. We talk about the Dominican community and history. This episode is about someone who has overcome some and is still overcoming many adversities that come with being a child of immigrants and a member of a minority group that is often overlooked and misunderstood. There's still a lot that Jasminne wants to do and convey through her future works which she hopes would bring more awareness to other important issues in the society. Learn more about Jasminne Mendez here: https://www.jasminnemendez.com.

If you liked this episode, please leave a comment, subscribe, rate and review. Your support is greatly appreciated! Follow this podcast on Instagram here.

In today's episode my guest is Amanda Gloria Valdes. Amanda arrives in space with the mission to utilize the practice of Yoga, Meditation, and the Arts as a catalyst for social change and social equity. Community building has been a passion for Amanda for as long as she can remember. She strives to support her community as a Yoga and Meditation guide, teacher training program manager/curator, and mentor. She takes pride in creating non-traditional spaces to practice yoga, meditation, and arts enrichment by building programs centering BIPOC, LGTBQ+, and birthing folx. In 2012 she was certified as a Vinyasa Yoga teacher and began teaching in New York City. In the following years she became a 500+ hr E- RYT and YACEP member. To house all of her offerings she founded her company AV STUDIOS which include training, workshops, doula services, and digital content creation.  Her offerings are informed by History & Philosophy, Bhakti Yoga (studied in Rishikesh, India), Energy, Subtle Body, Ayurveda, Inversions, Meditation, Katonah Yoga and more. She is passionate about supporting birthing folx as a full spectrum doula via Sumi’s Touch, Prenatal/ Postnatal Yoga, Womb Wellness Education, and training. Currently she leads teacher trainings, workshops, in-person classes, and on demand content. In person classes available at Y7 Studio, Brooklyn Flow, Heal Haus, New York University. On Demand Yoga and Natal Classes are available via Melissa Wood Health. 

In this episode she clarifies her mission and teachings and gives an insight into the history and philosophy and what goes into yoga, meditation and doula services. Her artistic and theatrical background played role in many of her enrichment programs. Her calm and knowledgable nature makes this episode almost meditative. You are bound to leave not only well informed and educated, but also happier and more relaxed.

I've met Amanda in 2016 when she was on her path to become everything above and more and I was on the path to become a mother. It was during her prenatal yoga class that I learned the importance of mediation and musical instruments that she often uses during her sessions in preparing your body and mind for a healthier birthing.

Find her on IG: @amandagloriayoga and website: bio.site/amandagloriavaldes.com. If you liked this episode, please subscribe, rate and review my podcast. Your support is what inspires me to seek out these exceptional guests.