When I think about the people I collaborated with through Airbnb.org, a few stand out for their brilliance. A few stand out for their heart. Yasmin was both.

She joined the team through the Obama Foundation’s Voyager Scholarship — a program built to shape the next generation of public service leaders — and she arrived at Airbnb.org during one of the most devastating moments in recent memory: the Maui wildfires. She stepped into the work with clarity, humility, and a steadiness that didn’t match her age.

Before Fulbright, before Sussex, before international development sharpened itself around her, Yasmin was already a storyteller. Someone who believed in the power of narrative to shift understanding, raise awareness, and move people toward change. What struck me most then, and still does now, is how she carried that belief quietly — without performance, without urgency, without needing to be seen to be effective. She came in wanting to learn, but she also came in with something to offer: a way of listening, a way of observing, a way of grounding a room simply by being in it.

Since then, she has completed her master’s at the University of Sussex as a Fulbright Scholar and has worked in communications for the Federal Reserve, Airbnb.org, and the City of Rochester. She brings together migration, education, development, and narrative with a groundedness that feels rare.

This episode takes us back to the beginning — how she found her way to Airbnb.org, what it meant to step into crisis-response storytelling, and how she’s redefining leadership, voice, and impact on her own terms. Yasmin shares what she learned about partnership work, the patience required to navigate complex organizations, and the leaders who taught her that authority doesn’t have to be loud to be transformational.

She speaks candidly about the quiet fear many introverted professionals carry — the worry that people won’t remember you, that your contributions may not have landed. And she reminds us that the presence you bring to a room can matter more than the volume of your voice.

We end, as always, with a little joy — translating corporate phrases like “offer extended,” “regret to inform,” and “we’ll keep you on file” into real life, and laughing our way through the cultural truths hiding underneath. And then, in classic Yasmin fashion, she closes with sincerity and gratitude — a soft reminder that connection is its own kind of power.

Referred is about presence, legacy, and the quiet ways we shape each other without even realizing it. Yasmin Nayrouz moves through the world with intention — and she does it with a quiet strength that lingers long after the work is done.

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