About Wayde & Amanda

WAYDE “The Poor Man” FISHMAN grew up on a small working farm in the suburbs of Boston, Ma where his Sicilian grandparents taught him about living off the land. Moving to Oahu, Hawai’i twenty eight years ago, he’s been living a sustainable lifestyle on the islands ever since. He went on to study Graphic Design and Illustration at the Montserrat School of Design and studied Photography, Advertising, Music and Film production at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Since moving to Hawaii in 1998 Wayde’s gone on to start several design businesses in application development, social media, business branding, web design, as well as video and music production under his full-service design and production firm, FISHMAN STUDIOS.

Wayde also runs “From Mauka to Makai” OFF GRID Consulting and is the author of the well received eBook: OFF GRID IN HAWAII, “Living a sustainable lifestyle”. Today Wayde continues to write eBooks and Blogs on Living Off Grid in Hawaii and helping families find Tiny Home builders around the state and design Tiny Homes for clients from his Living Off Grid in Hawaii Website. He loves to write so when he’s not writing self help or off grid books he’s writing film scripts and treatments in hopes to get several of his scripts or series pilots purchased by some of the larger streaming services.

Today, Wayde is the Co-Founder and President of the largest 501(c)(3) volunteer based environmental nonprofit in Hawaii, 808 CLEANUPS. The nonprofit’s mission is restoring Hawaii’s natural beauty by empowering volunteers to conduct decentralized cleanups from mauka to makai through the Adopt A Site Campaign, responding to littering and vandalism of Hawaiʻi’s natural spaces, tagging and graffiti removal, saving Hawaiʻi’s indigenous ecosystem through education and action, and building sustainable solutions with local communities partners. To date the organization has removed over ONE MILLION POUNDS OF TRASH from Hawaii’s natural spaces. More recently Wayde and 808 CLEANUPS was honored with the Koa Award for Excellence in Conservation from the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi in recognition of its ongoing commitment to protecting and restoring Hawaiʻi’s environment through community-driven stewardship and volunteer service.

Wayde led the charity fundraiser “HIKES FOR HOMES” This charity found permanent homes for rescued animals. The Hiking events with shelter dogs raised both funding and public awareness for the Oahu SPCA shelters. Participants would gather to hike together, build community, and donate directly to the animal shelter’s operations as well as adopt the animals on the hikes into placement of their FOREVER HOME.

Since 2007, Wayde has been a symbolic adopter of Igihozo, a mountain silverback gorilla in Rwanda through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Today, Igihozo is a 21-year-old leader of a thriving family of 17 gorillas, and Wayde’s continued support helps protect his family and their habitat while reflecting his deep connection to wildlife, nature, and conservation.

Wayde is the founder and owner of the Social Media Travel Giant, Wayde’s World Hawaii LLC which is attached to his YouTube Channel on Hawaii, he’s founder and owner of Hawaii Jeep & Specialty Tours, Hawaii Brew Bus Tours and Feather & Cloak LLC. He also co-hosted the most popular Hawaii podcast “Lucky We Live Hawaii” between 2013-2018. Today Wayde is Podcasting Pono in the 808 as the new co-host of the current #1 Podcast in Hawaii called “Living The Aloha Life”. The current podcast talks about politics, Hawaii’s history, small business, the local community, volunteering, as well as living, vacationing and moving to Hawaii. Wayde does all the art work, blogging, production and editing of the show with Audacity OpenVINO. Wayde is very passionate about the Hawaiian islands, the Kanaka Maoli people and their unique culture. He has a love for Hawaii’s flora and fauna, as well as the islands diverse environment. Wayde is hopeful Hawai’i will one day be able to create a sustainable future for generations to come, so that they can live, survive, and thrive in this ever changing diverse, yet complicated political and environmental structure.

Wayde is a former martial arts practitioner and Brown Belt in Tae Kwon Do with additional training in (MMA), Muay Thai, and Hawaiian Kempo. He is a master guide and advanced hiker with 25 years of experience trekking across the islands. Wayde is also a musician who has performed as a drummer, bassist, and vocalist in several high school and college bands over the years. With recent advancements in AI technology and modern music production tools such as FL Studio, Ace Studio, Suno Studio and ElevenLabs, Wayde has begun exploring new creative possibilities in songwriting, music production, and vocal development alongside fellow musicians and collaborators within the music industry. These emerging technologies have provided an opportunity to revisit a lifelong passion and experiment with musical ideas that may not have otherwise been possible. As these technologies and music production tools continue to evolve, Wayde hopes to free up some time to further develop his skills and eventually produce and release original music as an independent artist through his own creative ventures. For him, music remains a passion project and creative outlet rooted in a lifelong love of storytelling and self-expression.

Wayde also has a deep love for cooking, taught by two of the best chefs he knew, his Great Nana and Little Nana, with these Sicilian skills he was able to pay his way through college being a chef. He is a die hard Boston Sports fan and loves to work on old Muscle Cars, Harley’s, Jeeps & Vintage VW Buses. He is also an avid collector with interests in firearms, knives, traditional Hawaiian and Native American weapons, and vintage toys. Wayde is a huge animal lover and has had 12 dogs in his life, along with cats, fish, lizards, turtles and today has several Parrot friends including his buddies for life, ESCOBAR the Severe (chestnut-fronted) Macaw and LI’I the Sun Conure . Wayde is a Buddhist and a Pescatarian. Politically he is a Libertarian and Constitutionalist and does not affiliate with either of the main two party system. He is registered as an Independent. In the end he believes we should all “LIVE FREE or DIE”…an official motto of one of the States in NE where Wayde once lived.

So, why the POOR MAN?

When Wayde first moved to Hawaii almost 30 years ago he didn’t realize the cost of living differences and culture shock. Back then there was no Google, no Facebook and no Youtube. Everything Wayde learned was from past visits to Hawaii and reading. Once he adjusted to Hawaii he awoke to the major issues and concerns that he would face if he intended to stay in Hawaii and survive . Wayde needed to change his habits that he had back on the mainland…He had no choice, but to live with less. He needed to live, shop, eat and enjoy Hawaii like a local and so the journey to live with less began. This journey wasn’t easy…trial and error followed Wayde everywhere he went, but he never gave up on his dream. Wayde has said… “If you have ever felt the mana of Hawai’i Nei, the Spirit of Aloha and lived the Aloha life then you would understand and know its power, its mana that covers the aina. It’s felt on every corner of the islands, atop every mountain, along every reef and under every volcanic rock” . For Wayde Hawaii was the only place he ever felt whole, the only place he ever truly belonged and the only place he would never leave behind.

In a day and age where Wayde felt the American Dream was dead during the US economic collapse the only way he was going to fight for his dreams and make them come true was with his heart, mind and spirit. No one had money, no one was visiting Hawaii…it was a crisis and tipping point for many on the islands. Wayde knew he had a passion and a great idea and vision of what he wanted to do…Being laid off from his design firm and collecting unemployment, Wayde finally had the time to work on a vision and dream he had for years…creating the first Jeep Tour business on the islands. In 2008/2009 he began that journey and focused on his Youtube Channel for advertising and building the Jeep Tours concept to let people know that the dream could still be alive for those who wanted to visit Hawaii even in such hard economic times. That’s when he created the Wayde’s World “POOR MAN’S GUIDE TO HAWAII” business model to show visitors all the amazing things you could do in Hawaii for free and on a Poor Man’s budget in Safari Jeeps. The idea was perfect for the financial times Hawaii was in. The Concept exploded and in 2011 “Wayde’s World Hawaii LLC” was formed and the Hawaii Jeep Tour business began. From that point on Wayde became known as the POOR MAN…and now you all know!

Amanda “Dr. Aloha” Michele was born and raised in NJ, where she spent most her childhood outside school as a competitive gymnast. After finishing her gymnastics career her senior year in high school, she turned to coaching gymnastics for 11 years, throughout her years in college and graduate school. Amanda earned her B.A. in Psychology from The College of New Jersey, graduating together with her father, who had taken part-time classes on and off for 20 years to finish his degree. Amanda and her father were featured in local newspapers as they walked the stage side-by-side to get their diplomas.

Amanda moved to a suburb outside of Philadelphia, PA after college, while earning her Ed.S. in School Psychology from Rider University (in NJ). She then earned her NJ, PA, and National Certifications in School Psychology. She worked as a School Psychologist for three years in NJ before transitioning to a school district in PA. While working full time as a School Psychologist, Amanda also continued on to earn her doctorate in School Psychology from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Her program had an emphasis on School Neuropsychology, and she completed her pre-doctoral internship hours part time after work at The Center for Neuropsychology and Counseling in PA. After successfully defending her dissertation and graduating from her doctoral program, she began teaching School Psychology graduate courses in Behavioral Statistics and Tests and Measurement at local universities in the evenings, while also completing her post-doctoral hours in a school district. She also spent four years serving on the executive board for the Association of School Psychologists of PA (ASPP).

Amanda had never traveled to HI as a child, but it had always been her number one bucket list vacation destination, and she never lost her determination to make the vacation happen. Living in Hawaii had never occurred to her until one day she was at happy hour with one of her closest friends (who is a teacher). Her friend started talking about how she had seen an article about HI recruiting educators because there was such a severe shortage, and from that day on, it was something that Amanda could never get out of her head. Moving to HI became her new goal. Two years later, feeling incredibly burned out from work and incapable of surviving another frigid winter, Amanda took a leap of faith and made the move to Oahu.

Amanda is now living her dream in HI, residing deep in the jungle, where there is the kind of serenity that makes all her problems disappear after a hard day at work. She feels so blessed to be living the aloha life. On weekends, Amanda can be found out in nature…it’s what makes her feel alive. Her favorite activity is hiking, but she can also be found soaking up some sunshine on a beach, strolling through a botanical garden, or catching a sunset.

Amanda is currently in her 12th year working as a School Psychologist, having worked in NJ, PA, and now HI. Since arriving in HI, she has also served on the executive board and is currently the President Elect for the Hawaii Association of School Psychologists (HASP), a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization aimed at supporting keiki and their families, as well as doing advocacy work and providing professional development for School Psychologists in HI. Amanda is also on the Executive Board of the largest 501(c)(3) volunteer based environmental nonprofit in Hawaii, 808 CLEANUPS.

Amanda is a vegetarian and lives with her three cats she rescued a few years ago. She is a huge Philadelphia fan, and she especially loves her Eagles!

So, why the DR. ALOHA?

Well…I think it’s pretty obvious! lol

Contact Wayde & Amanda:
livingthealohalife@gmail.co