Nomad Spotlight: El Mono
I never thought I would travel a lot and I do not think anyone really does. My father was a military man and very quickly I learned that traveling was going to be a part of my life.
When I was young, even before beginning any formal schooling I had already been to Europe where my brother was born. From there we came back to the United States and after a few years went back to Europe. Always a history buff, Italy’s Roman coliseum, Florence, Pisa and more still tug at my heart. Italians on the Mediterranean coast, in some places, serve a pizza with these tiny shrimps on it. To this day, I am 27 as I write this, I have never had a better slice of pie. France is a beautiful country. Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person as an American is something I recommend to everyone looking for a reason to get a passport. Did you know? The Disney castle was modeled after Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. When I watch television or Netflix series now I fondly recall running around castles and Roman ruins in my childhood. It may not be in the cards for you now, but my goal with Mono as a brand has always been sharing the experiences I have had. Within that framework I hope to empower others to live out their lives to the fullest, all over the world.
Later on in life my father retired in Colorado where I naively thought to myself I was done traveling. I remember thinking I had seen it all and it was time to settle down. Hah! What a noob. I was not even in high school yet. I finished my undergrad I took a corporate gig.
My first two years with the company I used every bit of PTO to go to conferences focused on blockchain technology. One of the only things that excited me more than Star Wars at the time.
In 2022 I was stranded in Bolivia due to a COVID-19 infection I could not travel with. It was then that I began to realize the pressure of needing to be somewhere. Corporate was more and more not I wanted in life. Within four months of returning from that trip I had left corporate America and started my own business. I had no idea what I was going to sell or do, but I knew that I really liked to travel and blockchain technology piqued my interest.
Every person I connected with at various blockchain conferences since Spring of 2021 and my first NFT.NYC seemed to be onto something. Somehow they were able to pick up and go to these events around the world, take care of themselves, and create some really cool thing. That thing in the case of many was art, for others it was new companies and new ways to leverage blockchain tech.
I owe a lot of my passion for travel to my father, but much of my call to adventure came from wanting to spend as much time with my brother as I could. WhisBe has since had global exhibitions everywhere from Hong Kong to Miami Beach and remains among the coolest people I have met. There is a lot more to the story and many more people I would need another ten pages to write about, but to hear more check out my interview on the Tequila Time Podcast here. Over the past year I have been as far as West as Seoul in South Korea and as far South as Bolivia with trips to Cancun, Tulum, Miami and New York spread out in between. My home base has become wherever I lay my head at night. I am blessed to say I can choose what I spend my days doing. What I will leave you with is this. When I first put my hands on the samples for the upcoming pieces of Mono, the world’s first lifestyle brand for modern nomads, I knew I wanted to share that feeling. Make sure you subscribe for future posts here from Mono’s World and at DressMono.com to get notified of the first drop, The BBT, coming soon.