Meet Toyin Omisore

We recently connected with Toyin Omisore and have shared our conversation below.

Toyin , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

My work ethic and drive are deeply intertwined with my ability to envision a big life – one filled with opportunities and experiences. This vision has always kept me consistent and pushing forward.

As a child, I was a dreamer. In high school, those dreams were big but shapeless – I knew what I wanted but hadn’t yet figured out how to make it happen. Then came college, where everything started taking form.

During my freshman year, my sister and I hatched what seemed like an audacious plan: starting our own vending machine company. No one around us was doing anything like it, but we were determined to make a difference our way. We dreamed of placing healthy snack options in schools throughout our hometown. Reality hit when we discovered big corporations had already locked down the school contracts, but we didn’t let that stop us. We adapted, looked beyond city limits, and explored other venues. Eventually, we secured spots in two schools and a recreation center. Though mechanical issues cut our venture short, we proved something crucial: we could turn an idea into reality.

That first venture opened the floodgates. Whether I was in my college dorm, my bedroom at my parents’ houses, or my apartment, I was always working – laptop open, wrapped in a warm robe, vision clear in my head. Pulling all-nighters became part of my process. I was high off the possibilities, imagining what each idea could become. I spent countless hours surfing the web, filling notebooks, laser-focused on mastering whatever skills I needed to move forward.

Frustration became my catalyst for growth. When designers couldn’t execute my vision, I taught myself web development. When I couldn’t afford regular graphic design work, I dove into typography, color theory, and Photoshop. When language barriers stood in my way, I used Google Translate to communicate with global contacts. I even found myself driving from Providence to New York just to drop off comp cards at a clothing brand headquarters.

Nothing came easy, but I expected that. My parents had always told me I’d need to work twice as hard, and that lesson stuck with me. Six years ago, I might have seen all those business ideas, filled notebooks, and long hours as amounting to anything. For a moment, I questioned if entrepreneurship was truly my lane like I had “just known” it was.

But destiny has its timeline. Every skill I developed – building websites, marketing, understanding social media platforms – was preparing me for the birth of Roam Loud. In 2019, the building and testing phase began, and in 2020, I announced Roam Loud to the “world” (or at least my social platforms).

Where does my work ethic come from? It comes from my consistency and my ability to rise after defeat and believe again. All of it, along with the visions that live in my heart and head, is God-given.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My name is Toyin Omisore, and I lead the charge as Wanderer in Chief of Roam Loud, a premium activewear and athleisure apparel brand.

As a Liberian-Nigerian American born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, my vision for this brand emerged from two powerful sources of inspiration. First, while health, wellness, and exercise are core values in my life, I’ve always believed that feeling good in what you’re wearing is an essential part of taking care of yourself.

When Roam Loud was just taking shape in my mind, I knew I wanted to create more than just clothing – I wanted to build a lifestyle brand that unapologetically places brown skin at the forefront, never as an afterthought. I’m constantly surrounded by women who look like me, women who deeply value health, wellness, and fitness. It was crucial to center their experiences and needs in everything we do – from product ideation to development to marketing.

My second source of inspiration comes from my maternal grandmother, Cynthia (Grey) Horton. Her personality and legacy perfectly embodied what it truly means to roam loud in this world. Through her example, she showed me what it means to move through life with boldness and purpose.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1 – Consistency has been my backbone. For the past decade, I’ve always been working on something. When I have an idea that isn’t working, my approach is to execute it fully, then pivot or scrap it if necessary. When I hit walls, and I hit plenty, I let myself sit in that uncomfortable feeling. I cry if I need to, but I always get back up and keep moving forward. Last year, I faced a creative block that lasted nearly six months. Since this wasn’t my first rodeo with creative blocks, I didn’t let frustration take over. Instead, I allowed the block to exist and leaned into what my creative brain needed. I spent hours coloring when I “should” have been working. Staying consistent with simple activities like coloring and walking helped break through that creative barrier. My advice? Pause when you need to, pivot when your ideas require it, but never give up.

2 – Being a perpetual student has been crucial. Whatever idea I’ve pursued, I’ve always dove into the educational aspect like a kid doing a cannonball in a pool. Tutorials, podcasts, books, I consumed it all. Learning as much as I could about each venture gave me the foundation to start with confidence and purpose.

3 – Strategy has been my compass. Understanding how to tell my brand’s story, crafting the look and feel of my website, navigating crucial conversations, and knowing which opportunities to pass on – these strategic decisions have been instrumental in shaping Roam Loud’s direction. Not every opportunity that glitters is gold, and learning to be selective has helped maintain the brand’s integrity and vision.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When overwhelm hits, my go-to solutions are beautifully simple: I either take a nap (yes, I’m a firm believer in a good nap) or go for a walk – the choice really depends on just how overwhelmed I’m feeling at the moment. Either way, music is my constant companion through this process. Once I’ve given myself time to regroup and clear my head, I circle back to whatever was overwhelming me in the first place. Then it’s decision time: can I tackle this head-on, or is this something I can delegate or get help with? Sometimes, the best solution is simply realizing you don’t have to do everything alone.

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Image Credits

Alex Joachim

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