Transcript
CHANTELLE KINCY: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Go Far Girl. I'm so glad that you're here with us today. We have a really special guest. Her name is Whitney. She's the founder of Global Sprouts, which is a super cool cultural education subscription box.
CHANTELLE KINCY: that turns playtime into a passport for your kids. She was born and raised on Guam, and Whitney Reeves her Tomorrow and Dutch heritage into her mission to raise globally curious, kind-hearted children.
Whitney: Thank
CHANTELLE KINCY: Whitney's a mom, a storyteller, a resilience advocate, and she helps family connect deeply with the world, one craft and one story at a time. So in this episode, we get to explore Whitney's powerful life story. She grew up on Guam. She has a deep rooted cultural ah approach to travel.
CHANTELLE KINCY: She's survived a car crash. She's lost her home to a hurricane. And she's still here smiling, finding purpose again. So today we'll discuss how those experiences led her to redefine what travel means.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And most importantly to me, she believes that the world needs more curious, compassionate travelers, not just tourists. And I just love that so very much. Whitney, thanks for hanging out with me.
Whitney: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today and share my story and hopefully inspire one other person to join us on this mission.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yes. i think It just takes one person, right, at a time. And then all of a sudden it's this whole movement. And I just love your your resilience and your attitude about things and approaching life through that lens of like love and kindness and family.
Whitney: Who are we without loving kindness and family?
CHANTELLE KINCY: oh
CHANTELLE KINCY: I don't know, but some people need a reminder, I think.
CHANTELLE KINCY: yeah And also I love the fact that you're kind of like targeting is not the right word, but it's kind of just what's in my head right now. But the little kids, right? Because if we teach this this global approach from the beginning, it's just the way their life is and they don't have to redo everything.
CHANTELLE KINCY: these weird boundaries that we set up as adults. They'll just always have this mindset. And so I love, love, love that you're involving children in your ways.
Whitney: And like our generation didn't necessarily have cultural resources. So one thing that's really cool about Global Sprouts is we include a parent's guide. And so that the parents, it's like five QR links. We've put together little cute videos. So the parents learn the culture.
Whitney: And really our box encompasses our and the entire family ecosystem. So it's the parents doing the crafts with kids because they're two through six. They still need hands-on help and support.
Whitney: It's the parents helping cook these dishes and tasting other foods. So it's not just children being siloed and you here's a kit, go learn about something else, but also parents are being able to be immersed, which is beautiful in and of itself.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: There's so many pockets around the States of kids that will never see another child that doesn't look like them until they join a school system.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: So if we're able to teach them about that from two, when they're starting to explore others and explore themselves and understanding. And the best people I've ever met have been culturally curious and empathetic and kind human beings. So it's up to us to raise the next generation to be empathetic. And that's how we raise the next leaders.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Oh my gosh, I love this so much. And I was just thinking when you were saying that too, I remember when my boys were little and they would have a project they that I needed to help them with. They ask a million questions, right? And as a parent, you want to kind of answer those for them in the best way you can.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And so it pushes kind of those parents to also maybe research a little bit more or to dig a little deeper to get those answers. And then maybe they're also excited about it They're like, oh, I didn't know that. That's really cool. And then you kind of have started this whole thing within the family.
CHANTELLE KINCY: To where they know more just off a little prompt in the box. The parents are then taking it the next step, which I think is incredible. Plus, kids talk about things they're interested in. So then they're going to tell their grandma and they're going to tell, i don't know, whoever else, you know, and it just keeps going. I just love it so much.
Whitney: It's really fun. it's and It comes back to project-based learning. So kids now have the most amount of knowledge ever at their fingertips.
Whitney: It is up to parents and parental figures to teach them how to do better and be better with that knowledge. And that comes from project-based learning, which you the four-step process, you research you have questions on something, you research it, you create it, and then you reflect on it.
Whitney: And that's when you reflect, and for an example, when I do a bunch of speaker engagements or workshops, we'd make ajulejos, which are Spanish tiles.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Thank
Whitney: I don't bring scissors. And one of my or prompts is, okay, you now cut your tiles out, which creates critical thinking and problem solving. i don't have scissors. Uh-oh, how am I going to cut this out if I don't have scissors?
Whitney: What other resources can I use? So utilizing those prompts with our future children Who cares if Chachi Biti is telling you that the world is round, right?
Whitney: Like we have access to so much knowledge, but we we still have to teach them how to have critical thinking and problem solving skills. That doesn't just poof into the air.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: still have to be humans and think to some capacity. So it's up to us to teach them how to do that effectively.
CHANTELLE KINCY: So how did you start with this idea? i want to get back into your actual life history at some point, but right now I'm fascinated by this. So how did this idea come? Was it after you had your own kids or?
CHANTELLE KINCY: Okay,
Whitney: So I'm going to start with my life story because it all comes through.
CHANTELLE KINCY: go for it.
Whitney: Okay. So I grew up on the Island of Guam. We moved to the States in 2013 and it it was a huge shock. I grew up on a small Island, eight miles long by three miles wide.
Whitney: We didn't have TJ Maxx. We definitely didn't have Lululemon. We didn't have a Walmart. um We do have the largest Kmart in the world that still exists, I believe.
CHANTELLE KINCY: That's interesting.
Whitney: Yeah, and you can park on the roof of it. Super cool. And so like my sports growing up were surfing and paddling. So it's like kind of like a canoe kayak that you'll see in the States. But wooden canoe and wooden paddle, and that was my sport.
Whitney: And my sister was two when I moved off island. She's 14 now. And seeing the world through a 14-year-old pretty much grown like her – poor years have been raised in the States. So she wants the Lululemon, she wants the Target, she wants the Starbucks.
Whitney: I didn't have any of that. I had small cafes that are like delicious and I don't, i loved my childhood. It was very easy going. It was not materialistic.
Whitney: My favorite thing was to go to Ross to shop at, but in the States, my favorite thing now is like at TJ Maxx, actually really do love thrift stores. So like different types of lifestyles.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Mm-hmm.
Whitney: We moved to the States. I became wet from Guam within 30 days of touching down in the mainland. No one knew where Guam was as a U.S. territory. Definitely no one knew what a who or like what a Chamorro was.
Whitney: So I spent a good amount of my it was my senior year in high school explaining to everyone where Guam is who Chamorros are and what my culture was. now i have american friends that every time i go back to north carolina to visit them they're like can you please make me fun denny which is soy sauce with uh like some vinegar or some onions and some dooney like boonie pepper donate boonie pepper um and so like that brings me joy like they've incorporated some of my culture into their day-to-day lives but i didn't quite have global sprouts as ah thought at that point i knew i wanted to do something to bring
Whitney: ah like mainstream media to understand that Guam is a huge military base for Americans. It's wild that not more people know about the island.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Mm-hmm.
Whitney: We're in the middle Pacific Ocean. We, a good amount of our island up north and to the southwest is Navy and Air Force. So completely crazy that people don't ah know more about Guam. But that's also because i'm from there. so I'm like, this is crazy. Like, and it's like a tiny island.
Whitney: And so i wanted to bring more attention to the island. But then I was driving to the University of Oklahoma from North Carolina. I hit 50 feet of guardrail, hit an overpass, flipped my car.
Whitney: They took me to a small hospital outside of Jasper, Alabama. And it was four days after my 18th birthday. And they said, here's a male police officer. You're going to a hotel with him until your parents can come pick you up.
Whitney: At this point, I'd given them the wrong birthday, the wrong social. I clearly had a brain injury. ah don't really remember anything. It's been almost 10 years now and I'm slowly starting to remember things. But for a long time, I struggled with why can't I remember what happened? I don't know, did a semi truck run me off the road? Did I fall asleep?
Whitney: Did another vehicle run? Like i I still don't know the answer. And now I know that I should never know the answer. I'm totally okay with that. What I don't understand is why a hospital would say, okay, we're out of room.
Whitney: Here's a male police officer. You're a young lady, go to a hotel until your parents can get
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah, that's terrifying.
Whitney: And six hours, like there's like six hours away at least, maybe even 10.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Terrifying.
Whitney: I came to my consensus, I came to my census, I came to my census,
CHANTELLE KINCY: Mm-hmm.
Whitney: And I looked at the police officer and said, my friend's little brother was intubated incorrectly, died from a practitioner error. I can't die from this.
Whitney: And at that moment, the male police officer said, you need a second opinion, got me to University of Alabama, Birmingham. And as soon as I got there, they said, you're dying from internal bleeding if we don't operate on you immediately.
Whitney: So can you imagine being my parents and getting a call saying, hey by the way, your a freshly 18 year old daughter is going to a hotel with this male police officer, then getting another call and saying, actually, she's dying from internal bleeding. And now we're at this hospital, by the way, we're going operate on her.
Whitney: The only thing i remember, which is, this is crazy, I'm laying on the bed in University of Alabama, Birmingham. I give so much credit to them. Amazing hospital. And I looked up and there was this baseball player that I used to have like this huge crush on. And he looked just like him. And I was like completely nude. And I was laying there and I was like,
Whitney: And I was like, I'm like, this is, that's like, and I was like, I love how my brain did this fabulous thing where they were like, just so you know, you saw the hottie baseball player right before you ended the service.
CHANTELLE KINCY: yeah
Whitney: Thank you for that. They operated on me. I woke out woke up from being in a medically induced coma and went back to college. I took probably, ah ah it was in early November. So I went back in January and i found a fitness studio that had infrared heat.
Whitney: And it helped heal my body so much.
Whitney: was diagnosed with lupus in the same time. i don't, I'm not really convinced I actually had lupus. None of the medicine really helped any of my symptoms that they had given me. But I think fueling my body with healthy food, incorporating infrared bar and yoga and Pilates,
Whitney: And a combination of just giving my time and my brain time to heal, right?
CHANTELLE KINCY: Mm-hmm.
Whitney: If you have a TBI, it never really leaves. I struggle with memory problems to this day, but combining Those three different aspects, your health, your fitness, your mental state was really, really helpful.
Whitney: So I graduated from college, moved to Europe for six months. I wanted to understand my Dutch side, lived in Italy and in the Netherlands, had some great memories there, moved back to the States, moved to Virginia, worked my first full-time job for all of a whopping six months and said, you know,
Whitney: I think I'm going to open up a studio. If you know anything about me or if you don't, I'm a cliff jumper. I jump off the cliff. I scale my way back up. I tried. I tried to make a plan. I never follow the plan if I try to make a plan.
Whitney: So I'm like laying in my house. I was in a dark room for three days trying to figure out if it was a mini stroke or or a migraine like we had chatted about earlier. Could not figure it out. And I said, you know what? I haven't been in infrared for six months now.
Whitney: actually a year at that point. There's no Group X around here. There's no type of boutique community for women to support other women at. but you know, I'm going to buy the name and I'm going to establish an LLC and we're going to do this all in a pitch black dark room because I can't see any lights, but I'm like turning down my computer screen so it's not light.
Whitney: And I bought the name and then I found a brick and mortar parcel, signed a lease. And then I said, well, I have no money, so I got to figure out how to get money. I've always worked for this job for six months. So...
Whitney: I bootstrapped it, got a little bit of money, saved up some money, worked another six months in that full-time job. i was very grateful my dad helped me out a little bit and started Bar by the Bay, my fitness studio, built a beautiful community of women from all walks of life.
Whitney: They came to my studio. We opened in 2019. It was beautifully done. we had childcare, so you got to see families come in and enjoy working out. We had the infrared lighting.
Whitney: And COVID hit. We got to love COVID. So COVID hit. And that was in 2020. We sold um all of our fitness equipment to make 400% profit. So we got out of the red.
Whitney: ah Everyone wanted fitness equipment. No gyms were open at that time.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: So in the like deep trenches of it. So I made the smart move. I was like, do I sell it? We came down to Florida for January 1st and I remember being in Clearwater Beach and it was January 1st, 73 degrees and the water was crystal clear blue.
Whitney: And I was like, this is what I was imagining when my parents said, we're moving to the coast of North Carolina. It's looking at the beach. It's going to be great. And I walked out and north korea I was like, this water's brown.
Whitney: Like, I grew up in crystal clear water and you're sending me here.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah, this is not what we're doing.
Whitney: Obviously, I love loving North Carolina and they do have pretty water, but
CHANTELLE KINCY: Oh, my
Whitney: Clearwater that day, I was like, you know, the owning a business has been stressful. COVID's even more stressful. People want fitness equipment. Let's just sell the equipment and move on with our life to the next business venture and what that looks like. So ah did that.
Whitney: And I will say and really cool to reflect on my childhood with my friends in the States and describe what a childhood on Guam is like. I'll never forget. I must have been like eight years old.
Whitney: And every time I saw a for lease sign on a building from eight until I opened up my own studio, I was like, mom, I need you to buy that or I need you to lease that. We're going to open up a coffee shop.
Whitney: We're going to open up a consignment store. We're going to do this. We're going to that. And I've always had that mindset. So working for someone full time is always a challenge for me.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Sure. Mm-hmm.
CHANTELLE KINCY: sure
Whitney: especially after owning a business. Owning a business and going back and working full time is a, it's an interesting mental state as well because you're like, at first you're like, okay, I failed. And then you have to remind yourself you didn't fail. You did something beautiful and you're moving on to the next thing.
Whitney: And like, that's perfectly fine too. It takes a few times. Now that I'm on my second business venture, I know a lot more than I did the first time as well. And so the more you think about it, the more you're like, okay, this is really, really cool. Like I'm doing big things. This is going to be fun. And yeah. Okay. So I kind of rat tailed off on that one, yeah.
Whitney: So after the studio, i went back to doing marketing. I was in digital marketing for a few years. Um, freelance contract had like a little small agency firm that I was doing for eight or so clients.
Whitney: And then, hurricane Helene hit, gotta love a good old trauma dump for.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Oh.
Whitney: So hurricane Helene hit September of last year. And that was, I've been through a lot with the car accident, but losing everything in your home and my husband's six foot tall, six two to be exact, and all his stuff is up high, right? Cause six foot two and I'm like five seven.
Whitney: And so his stuff is up high, our daughter's too. And we we flooded before. It's pretty normal on the beach to flood at least a few inches.
Whitney: Not normalizing that by any means, but it's just our norm for us. And so we're on family vacation in South Carolina with some of our good friends.
Whitney: And you kind of get impulsive during hurricane season. You're like tracking the radar every day. You're like, OK, is this really going to formalize? We got lucky in a few years ago.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: It's coming straight for Tampa. but We had already evacuated and it turned to hit south.
CHANTELLE KINCY: right
Whitney: And if it's hitting below you, you're typically fine. If it hits north of you, that's when you're worried about the storm surge. So the year ah the year before we had flooded by like two inches in our master, that sits five inches lower than the rest of our home.
Whitney: So for Helene, we said, well, let's just get five inch blocks. We'll raise everything on five inch blocks. So we're like impulsively checking Dennis Phillips, our weatherman here. We're like, OK, oh, whoa, like our neighbors stayed because they were like, last time we had seven feet of storm surge, we only got two inches. And if we're there, we can just sweep the water out. It'll be fine.
Whitney: Well, then the group chat of the neighborhood starts going off and they're like, OK, water's entered the back door. OK, water's in the kitchen. And this is from our friends that like never flood ever. They're like, just like maybe a foot higher elevation than we are.
Whitney: They're like, okay, water is now climbing up the staircases and to the light switches.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Oh my gosh.
Whitney: And you're like, okay. So in your head, you're like, okay, ifve I've lost everything. You've lost at least from your upper cabinets down.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: No,
CHANTELLE KINCY: There's literally nothing you can do. I mean, yeah.
Whitney: not even the flood barriers. The flood barriers are three feet high, which those work great if you only get under three feet and you don't have access anywhere else.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: So you're like, okay, we're like out of town. We're safe, finding the good in it. It's when you go home to your house and you see the wreckage and you see your entire community. I think that hurts the most for myself, at least of people have lived here for 50, 70 years. They don't have, they're retired. They're not having any income come in necessarily.
Whitney: They've lost their home. They've lost their cars. They've lost their bikes. They've lost their community.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: That is very, very tough. Walking into your home and thank goodness there's a cloud nowadays, but like my husband and I's baby pictures, those were gone
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: Slater's coming home outfit, like a bunch of things that you don't realize are very important to you.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: You realize quickly how important things are that you save for you, your future generations, your day-to-day life. And that's tough. And then the aftermath,
Whitney: Do you tear down your house? Is insurance going to pay? Do you lift your house? there's It's not just a one and done option, right?
Whitney: It's not apples to apples, but if you think of a house fire, like everything is gone. Like you don't you can't necessarily rebuild if you're burnt to the ground.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: When you flood, there's options depending on how much has been damaged and the city kind of controls that. So then you have to take a step back and you're like looking at your devastated house that's now moldy and disgusting and there's been five feet of water sitting in it.
Whitney: and You have like five or six options. So talk about being in fight or flight mode. And on top of that, having five or six options to deal with, plus city permitting. And if anyone's done city permitting, you know the hassle of how hard it is. is So then there's all these options and you're not only thinking about, OK, my family, what about my family? Where am I going to live?
Whitney: Can I afford an apartment and a mortgage? Where can I go? And mortgage companies are a hit or miss whether they'll let you skip paying your payments while you rebuild or not.
Whitney: Then you also have, and ironically, we get an apartment in St. Pete in downtown because I actually wanted to live in downtown to experience downtown life again. By my choice is what I was expecting, not by her choice.
CHANTELLE KINCY: hu
Whitney: Move into apartment five days after Helene, Hurricane Milton rolls through and floods the base level of our apartment. And you're like, dear Lord, i don't know if I'm fit for these hurricane seasons.
Whitney: Like, this is challenge.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right. It's exhausting. You're just like, oh my gosh.
Whitney: Yeah. And now you're and you're still in fight or flight, but i I was very grateful we moved into the apartment because a lot of our community and neighbors jumped from Airbnb to hotel to Airbnbs at least five or six, maybe even 10 plus times.
CHANTELLE KINCY: wow
Whitney: So we were able to have a roof over our daughter's head and provide some sort of stability and comfort for her.
Whitney: Challenge number one and challenge number two. And then you're just in fight or flight and you don't realize it. I i can look back at my car accident be like, okay, i was in fight or flight for at least a year until like my brain somewhat returned to normal.
Whitney: Didn't have the mental capacity that I do now or like understanding at that time of the car crash to understand fight or flight. After the hurricane Everyone was okay, fight or flight, fight or flight. Like, how are you regulating? How are you being in tune with your body and understanding that this is just a stage of your life right now and there will be something beautiful to come out of it.
Whitney: And I was fight or flight probably from last September until this past April. But the beauty of it all is in November, we went to ah we went on a small family vacation to Virginia.
Whitney: And my daughter's bilingual. That was one of our family values that was very important to us. I had a few friends tell me, why would you teach your child Spanish? They don't need to know Spanish. They're not going to know anything or remember until they're two anyways.
Whitney: i was like, well, that's exactly why I'm teaching my child Spanish because Chamorro Austronesian language.
CHANTELLE KINCY: For sure.
Whitney: And I can understand a little bit of Tagalog and Japanese and Spanish because I have those words in our language. It's not going to help Slater. i would love to teach her tomorrow. I don't know a bunch of it. I can understand it more than I can speak it.
Whitney: Not very helpful if we're living in the States, her knowing tomorrow. There's always going to be that one person that it might be helpful to know with. But Spanish is our second most spoken language in our country.
Whitney: And I want her to support Spanish speakers. I want them to feel included. I want her to understand them. And so... i She's bilingual. She can understand everything in Spanish that she does in English. And it was really cute because when she was 16 months old, we traveled to Costa Rica and she understood everything that the kids were saying to her.
CHANTELLE KINCY: That's so great.
Whitney: and was like, this is why we're teaching her Spanish.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: After the second and third person that was like, why are why would you ever do that? and was like, you know what? I'm going to find more Spanish resources and she's going to be a pro at Spanish just because of what you're saying.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Whitney: And then I was like, there's not many resources out there. There really isn't. And then I found Hola Amiga, which is a fabulous subscription box to teach your kids to be bilingual. Now we do that with Slater.
Whitney: I wanted to have a bilingual box, but clearly there's one already out there. And I took a step back and I said, wow, I've been to over 46 countries. How can I share this with my daughter? How can I immerse her in other cultures like I have been?
Whitney: without having to travel. i can't fit 46 countries in her lifetime. She's going to have to choose some of those on her own.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: can bring her on my international trips, which I 1000% have and will continue to do. But how do i teach her about others before starting school from a young age? I don't want her to go into school and be like,
Whitney: whoa, there's so many different types of kids here. Like, i don't know, like what's going on. And I want her to be culturally curious and be empowered to ask them questions and understand their culture and their background and understand why A little kid from Guam might be, might choose something different than a kid that's grown up in the States or a kid from Vietnam or and understand that we all come from different walks of life and we're all doing life in our way, but our way is just a way.
Whitney: It's everyone has their own way. And so we sat down and our friends after the storm, we're going to move to Spain. And I was like, perfect. She knows Spanish.
Whitney: What are some toys we can get her so that she can understand Spanish culture? What are some recipes that we can start cooking now so that her palate understands why foods might taste differently over there?
Whitney: What are way like stories we can read? What are dances, the flamenco dances in our Spain box? And we packaged it all up to teach her about Spain before traveling to Spain with her. Well, they ended up not moving to Spain and I ended up making local sprouts, so it kind of worked out.
Whitney: And my daughter will come into my room and go, hola, mama, and like throw her wrist up and do the flamenco dance. And I'm like, this is it. This is how we raise culturally curious, empathetic, and well-connected children to become future leaders of America.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: That's what we need to do. And from there, um I started making boxes for a bunch of cultures. And i really find my pride in talking about the larger known countries and cultures and also the smaller known countries and cultures.
Whitney: So Guam doesn't get, no competition has a Guam box, I can guarantee that. Lesotho, small kingdom in the middle of South Africa. it It's a challenge for even us to find culturally authentic toys, recipes to put in these boxes because there's no resources for that.
Whitney: So we're trying to become, or we are, me rephrase that. We are on the route to become the resource for teaching the next generation about other cultures, no matter how big or how small, and in a fun way that engages children.
Whitney: That's
CHANTELLE KINCY: That's incredible, Whitney. That is just, it is amazing.
Whitney: the story.
CHANTELLE KINCY: That is so amazing. I'm thinking like, um I want a box. I'm like, wait.
CHANTELLE KINCY: No, that this is incredible. And I think that... Just the approach is coming from a place of love and not just like, oh, I want to start a business. What can I do? Let's throw this in here.
CHANTELLE KINCY: and I feel like that permeates every action that you've taken is just that place of just really wanting to reach somebody and change things. And I just, it's really moving.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Well, I'm just, that's, that's great.
Whitney: Yeah.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Um, I'm still terrified of the fact that the hospital sent you within a male, um,
Whitney: Isn't that white?
CHANTELLE KINCY: Officer, like, I just, as soon as you said that, I was like trying to control my face. i was like, wait, what's happening? I hate this story. I hate this. But wow.
CHANTELLE KINCY: I mean, and just all the things you've been through. um That's incredible. Wow.
Whitney: It really, and a cliff diver and I jump off the cliff and I figure out a way to make it work. And every time that's something that anyone else would think of as a negative, I think of it as a beautiful, impactful scenario that I so happen to be going through at the time and turning that into something beautiful that helps me with my community.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: I love being a community maker and putting women together and also just Yeah, it sucked at the time. it really freaking did. Like there's no doubt about that.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Well, of course, yeah.
Whitney: But moving forward, I don't have to sit down and think all the time about it. It's
CHANTELLE KINCY: You don't have to be a victim of it. You can turn it into something Like you said, beautiful. Yeah. You don't have to be that label.
Whitney: impossible.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And yeah.
Whitney: and It's up to us, right, to raise the next generation, to be culturally curious, empathetic, and understanding of others. And I think what we fail to do right now as our generation is...
Whitney: uplift one another, understand one another, allow people to make different choices and understand that my way is not your way. And it's not the only way. There's a bunch of um becoming a mom. I realized that moms are very judgmental and harsh on one another.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: and how can we change that from a younger age, from both girls and boys perspectives? Like, let's support one another and come together. and Understanding our way is not the only way I think is so impactful.
Whitney: and honestly, a good ah good reminder of that is learning other cultures. So we partner with a cultural ambassador from every country so that we make sure we're talking about cultural appreciation versus appropriation and understanding.
Whitney: we were doing the Philippines box the other day. And our cultural ambassador, Ryle, was like, Jackstacks, Jacksticks. um She was like, that's an American game that somehow landed in the Philippines, but it's not authentic to our culture. So let's change that game out with this game.
Whitney: So we make sure we have those meaningful and impactful ah relationships with people in that culture. we pay them We pay them fair living wages. there we We pay them fair wages.
Whitney: think that's right.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah, sounds right.
Whitney: and
Whitney: And we partner with them because it's important to me to understand other cultures and give them the right light and shine upon others. And every morning we ask one question of how they live their day-to-day lives. And when I tell you, I get goosebumps and I get so happy seeing ah like the Filipino kids, what their playground looks like in Venezuela and Mexico and Just like the different types of playgrounds in Costa Rica. It's just so freaking cool to live and see the world through someone else's eyes.
Whitney: And that's ultimately how we raise the next generation to do that.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And by working with with your cultural partners that way, it's empowering them as well to share their culture and to take pride in their things too. Because sometimes when you're living day to day, you don't realize what you have or those things. So when you're asked to share that, you're like, actually, this is pretty amazing. Like, I'm so proud to be Filipina or I'm so happy to be from Venezuela. You know, I think that that's...
CHANTELLE KINCY: changes on their aspect as well. And then they want to share more and they want to, you know, learn more as well. They're like, Oh wait, there are people, you know, what did you learn from them?
Whitney: Oh! Oh!
CHANTELLE KINCY: think that's just, it kind of creates this whole movement. And I was sitting here thinking, i have three sons, so I have three daughter-in-laws and You just said they're from the Philippines, Venezuela, and Mexico are my daughter-in-laws. And those are the three countries you said.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And so I was like, oh my gosh, my grandchildren someday will be part of these cultures and And I want, even though they all live here in America, I want them to have those roots too and to touch those.
Whitney: Thank you.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And I know the girls do too. And I know the girls are great about already preserving, you know, their culture and they've taught us so much, but I cannot wait to see that through the baby's eyes as well and, and see how that incorporates and see how, you know, um having a mom from Venezuela, whose family is still only speaking Spanish in the house to to my son being raised by me, how the baby's life will be different than like Carmella's life and and Nate's life and these things, just the way they come together. I'm i'm just so excited by it.
CHANTELLE KINCY: So...
Whitney: it And I think it's important too to to know that if you think about the different generations. So my dad was raised in the mainland until he had the kids and then we were all on Guam.
Whitney: My dad doesn't know Chamorro. So you can see it where when my grandpa moved to the States, he no longer taught his son Chamorro.
Whitney: And you can see that generation that the parents were like, we're immigrating to America, learning only English.
CHANTELLE KINCY: We're all in. Yeah. Yeah.
Whitney: Yeah. And then they forgot their heritage. But the beautiful part is now that next generation is like, no, I want my kids to know my language. So they make it a priority for next generation to understand that culture and indulge in it.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yes.
Whitney: So it's beautiful. saying we came to the states for a better life now i want my kids since they have that better life that i was searching for to understand where they're coming from where their culture lies and that is so important and so awesome to see i love incorporation of a bunch of different people coming together and understanding that and being able to
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: dig a little bit deeper. The best way for kids to really understand is for you to prompt a question to talk about it, then to immerse themselves in the actual culture or it just in toys, recipes, a global sprouts box, and then reflecting on it.
Whitney: And that is how kids learn by playing. And that's how kids learn by incorporating this in a day-to-day life and just be like, oh, remember when we talked about Laddie Stones on Guam?
Whitney: Kids are like, yeah, they're the big rocks that used to hold up the ancient Chamorro huts. Like that's fun to think about if you put it in a fun way.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: so less about the let's read all of these facts and more about let's get our hands involved and let's immerse ourselves. What do laddie stones look like? How can we make one? What is fun about them?
Whitney: And then it sticks with them. And but now they know one thing about another culture that they might not have known about before.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And they don't even know they know it, right? They just, it's just part of them and it's just there. And then someday something's going to trigger that and they'll be like, oh wait, I know this. Like, and I know why, I know why we did this.
CHANTELLE KINCY: It's, or I know why they feel this way. It's because this happened. And yeah, good job.
Whitney: I will tell you, when I was six, we went to the Philippines and there was a gentleman in Manila with no legs on a skateboard. And i didn't think anything of it. i was like, well, that's interesting. He has no legs, but okay.
Whitney: And then the next day we went to the suburbs, like 30 miles outside of Manila. Same guy, same clothes, same skateboard. No, definitely same person. And every morning since that day, I've woken up and been like,
Whitney: minus when I was in da coma, obviously, but it's like, oh, I love my legs. I'm so grateful to have two working legs today. And that small moment of witnessing someone that no longer had something that I was so grateful to have and still living a fabulous day to day life.
Whitney: Let me change that. And still living their day to day life and finding happiness around them in the world. is what made it so impactful for me to wake up and have gratitude towards certain things that I've witnessed, that I've seen, that is different, that you might not necessarily be grateful for every day. But once you have a moment of clarity and seeing something in person to that level, it really changes the way you think. And you really do become more empathetic of everything you have access to and what that looks like in the future.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah. I love that. I used to tell one of my sons has a neurological issue to where his small motor skills are not that he's like, he couldn't tie his shoes for a long time. He couldn't wear jeans because he couldn't button his pants. And so writing in school was very difficult for him.
CHANTELLE KINCY: um And so he would, you know, come home and just be so upset. And he's like, I can't do it. And I was like, well, you can do it. it's not easy and it's not going to be like as fast as, as your brothers do it, but you can do it.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And, you know, I said, you know, there, there are, there's people without feet that have run a marathon, you know, so you can do it.
Whitney: Okay.
CHANTELLE KINCY: It's just not the same way that someone else can do it. And, You know, and then i said, you know, your brothers, he's like, oh, they're just so much smarter and so easier for them. They have their own things. Everyone has their own, their own things. And you might not always see those things.
CHANTELLE KINCY: But I think when you see someone, like you said, skateboarding with no legs, not only does it make you grateful for yours, but it also helps you realize that you can do hard things and that you can look for another way to do something you love.
Whitney: Not define me.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Obviously that person loved to skateboard. He loved to get around in that way. And it made him feel some kind of joy to where he was like, I'm still going to find a way to make this a part of me.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And I think that's, that's it. That's it with the hurricane. That's it with the car accident. Like this happened, but we have to find a way to make it exactly.
Whitney: not define me
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah. I love it so much. um tell me a little bit about Guam while we're, or i about this, because i do know where Guam is and I do know it's large military, but I don't know a lot about the culture.
Whitney: Thank you.
CHANTELLE KINCY: I can tell that i most Pacific islands, those small islands are very community and family oriented. um and I think that just comes from being kind of in this small isolated area. um When I visited like Samoa,
CHANTELLE KINCY: Oh my gosh. I just, it's one of my favorite places, just the warmth of the people and the way they build each other up and are so true to themselves, like regardless. And that culture just permeates.
CHANTELLE KINCY: So tell me about Guam a little bit. Like,
CHANTELLE KINCY: is it someplace you would want to raise your daughter? What did you get there that you're not getting here?
Whitney: Yes.
CHANTELLE KINCY: What do people do when we, when we visit, how you know, kind of just give me a little Guam summary.
Whitney: who
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: Jen, I haven't been asked this one, so thank you first and foremost for um asking the important questions. what it's like to be on the island. And this is a fun fact, or maybe it's, it's wild. It's widely set around the island.
Whitney: When I you it's eight, I'm pretty sure it's eight. It might be 12 miles long. And we lived in the Southern part. That's where my family's from. And every, every time someone's like, let's go up to Jigo, which is up North.
Whitney: It's everyone's like, no, that's too far. I'm not going to. And living in the States now, since we're in St. Pete and our house is in Madeira Beach, I'm like, like 30 minutes.
Whitney: That would going, that's actually farther than going from Anadlajan all the way up north. like facing It's like you're used to it, right? Like everything's so close because you're on this like really small island.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: So fun.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: um Very quickly, I learned that a party in the States is not like a party on Guam. So when everyone says, oh, we're having a party, it's like 300 people at least.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Amazing.
Whitney: A party in the States is like 20 people, right?
CHANTELLE KINCY: Maybe. Yeah.
Whitney: right Parties are always fiestas. Yeah. We give amens to our elders, so a kiss on the cheek, or you'll put the palm to your forehead for gentlemen.
Whitney: And that's just a way to shine or to show respect. um We have tatamona trees, which are, forget the word in English. It's like the very big viney trees.
Whitney: I'm not recalling the English.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Is it like a banyan? Okay.
Whitney: Yeah, it's a banyan tree. Well, Tatamona trees and Tatamonas are our elders that have passed on And every time you walk into the woods, you have to ask permission to enter.
Whitney: So when we lived in our Chalan Pagu house on a hill, there's a little path down to the beach and you have to ask permission every time you walk through the little paths. If you don't, the Tatamonas will get you.
Whitney: And I mean, it's really, it's a really big cultural thing. And if you don't ask for permission, you can like leave with bruises. It's a wild thing.
Whitney: It does happen. I'm not really big on believing ghosts or whatever, but you bet your bottom dollar every time I walked in, I'm asking for permission. oh For sure.
Whitney: And I bruise easily, but I mean, it would be like fingerprint looking bruises, but like, you don't feel it. You just leave and then you like do it. and then you leave with fingerprint bruises and you're like, oh, did I not ask for permission correctly?
CHANTELLE KINCY: Oh my gosh.
Whitney: So that's fun. Every village, so they're not called cities or towns, they're villages, has their own fiesta and it's, village is comparable to city or town. It's not like we're like all living in huts, which is I feel like one of my main questions I get asked.
Whitney: um My family had ah owned one of the tallest mountains there and we call them mountains, but they're really just hills. They're just a big hill.
Whitney: And every Christmas they hike up the ah the cross, which is really cool. and then Mount Lam Lam is the tallest mountain, I think. I think ours is the second.
Whitney: And Mount Lam they also do the cross. i don't know, there's carabao, water buffalo, duk duks, which is Chamorro for hermit crab.
Whitney: I lived a very peaceful life and It's one of those things that you're not grateful for until you don't have it anymore. And I love the
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: If i I actually after the hurricane, this is a funny thing. My girlfriend and I were sitting in South Carolina together and she was like, well, Whitney, you want it to be a minimalist. so I guess you're a minimalist now.
Whitney: And it really brings me back to living on Guam. I just needed a five bathing suits. Not even five, really.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: I just needed a bathing suit, some cover-ups, some shorts, some t-shirts, and we call it flip-flop Zoris. And my Zoris. And that's all I needed. Like, I was good with that. And so it is important for us.
Whitney: We will move back to Guam for three years. My husband's in maritime, so it'll be easy for him to work for the port there because we're an island, everything gets imported.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
Whitney: you don't have a hard time finding a job.
CHANTELLE KINCY: right
Whitney: It's just very expensive. So you're importing everything. So when you hear about like California gas prices and California bread and California milk, like, It's pretty comparable to Guam. I think like milk and a bread ah loaf of bread is like outrageously expensive. $10 maybe, very high. And so when my daughter is, I don't know, five, six, I'd love to move there for three years so she can understand the culture, really eat live, and breathe it. like
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: For a month you get it, but you don't really get it until you really immerse yourself. So and think I'm done with one kid, which will make it a lot easier and move back home for a few years. i don't want to live there full time and have a business right now, at least.
Whitney: Logistically, it's tough. We're called co America's day begins. So it's, let's say it's noon here. It's like midnight over there or like 2 a.m.
Whitney: over there. So like total opposite times of day. So just being entrepreneur, I can't really manage and talk to people.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Right.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Exactly. Yeah. That's difficult. Yeah.
Whitney: The cool thing is, is that my people are all around the world. So it might not be that difficult.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah.
Whitney: But I do want to be cautious of that. So once Global Sprouts, once we hit our thousand subscriber benchmark, that's when it becomes more reasonable and achievable. So I have those goals in place.
Whitney: And my daughter is two now, so I have three years to figure out what that looks like and bring her home to understand where she's from and enjoy it and just have a very peaceful, serene
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah. Yeah.
Whitney: couple of years before being thrown into school, homeschool, world school, whatever we end up doing with her, which is a very big unknown right now because she's so young.
CHANTELLE KINCY: yeah
Whitney: But just understanding there's different opportunities out there. And if you're listening to this and you want the opportunity to travel the world or immerse your kid, there's so many world schooling hubs I had no idea about until I started getting involved in that community that If you prioritize budgeting or saving up to go somewhere else and then you end up immersing your kid there, they learn so much more from that than reading about it in a textbook.
Whitney: It's really the immersive and getting their hands on it.
CHANTELLE KINCY: hundred percent
Whitney: And figuring out a way, if that's your goal, then talk to people that can help you get there. i have a really good friend that sponsors kids to go um to Cambodia or the Philippines or different countries in Asia to understand, and they're all from underserved and underprivileged communities.
Whitney: So it's really important the work that All the World's Kids is doing to help those kids that want to explore the world. And there's so many different resources out there. that once you start diving into it, it just kind of like rapid fires. You're like, whoa, this is too much information now. How can I consolidate it all and make it into something that is worthwhile? and i think that's pretty important as well.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Very cool. I love all of this. So tell people how they can find you, um how they can sign up for your box. And do you have socials where we could follow along?
CHANTELLE KINCY: And yeah tell us tell us all the things.
Whitney: So you can get your own very special Global Sprouts box at globalsprouts.com. We're on all social media under Global Sprouts, except Instagram. That's globalsproutsbox.com.
Whitney: And then my personal socials, I'm Whit from Guam on everything. You can't miss me. There's no other Whit from Guam. I can guarantee that. um so if you want to connect or if you need homeschooling resources or traveling the world with kids under two, which also sometimes can be a challenge, I'm more than happy to connect you with people in my environment.
CHANTELLE KINCY: I love that. I'll put all the links in the show description so that you guys can follow along with that. Global Sprouts. So is that a box once a month? Is it once a quarter? How often does your subscription work?
Whitney: So our subscription is once a month.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Okay.
Whitney: And then if you are, and that is, you can't choose the country that you're receiving. we Internally, we kind of have a schedule of how those are being released. But let's say you're going to Guam next month and you want to learn about Guam, but the the box of the month isn't Guam, then you can purchase that one off so that you can still immerse your kid before, during, or after, or say one country's Very important and then you're learning about it right now. So you want to buy the box and you can definitely buy a one-off box.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And can one box be for more than one kid? I know there's like k crafts in there, right? So would you need a box for every, every child in the home or can you?
Whitney: You do not. So the way that our crafts work is you have two craft kits, but in our educational booklet, it's the same craft, but with household materials.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Okay.
Whitney: So if you have little kids, they can do it
CHANTELLE KINCY: Love it.
Whitney: The issue would be it comes with two toys or cultural artifact. So managing your kids' patience is a challenge.
CHANTELLE KINCY: Yeah. Perfect.
Whitney: Okay, child A is going to throw the boomerang, child B is going to play with our kangaroo puppet, and then we'll switch and take turns.
CHANTELLE KINCY: yeah
Whitney: um But that's like the only issue we've kind of encountered so far. The crafts are easy in the sense of you should typically have those materials in your home already with young children, nine times out of 10.
Whitney: And the subscription box comes with the materials, so you'll have plenty of paint for both crafts. You'll have the paintbrushes, stickers, and things like that.
CHANTELLE KINCY: perfect Love it, love it, love it. Well, thank you for taking the time to share with us today. i feel like I've learned a lot from you. And I just, I know I've said it three or four times, but just the way your attitude is and the way you've embraced these hardships and turned them into something positive just is so heartwarming. And I'm just, I'm really glad I got to talk to you. So thanks for hanging out with us today, Whitney.
Whitney: Thank you so much.
CHANTELLE KINCY: And can't wait to follow along and see what comes next in your wild entrepreneur your journeys.
Whitney: Yeah.
CHANTELLE KINCY: um right. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you.
Whitney: yeah
