ENGLISH - QUESTIONS TO: KHALIA ISMAIN Social Entrepreneur x Founder of Jamii

KHALIA ISMAIN IS A BRITISH SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR USING HER PLATFORM TO ENCOURAGE CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM.

WE DISCUSSED WITH THE JAMII FOUNDER ABOUT HER UPBRINGING, HER CRUSH FOR POLITICS, AS WELL AS THE REASON WHY SHE FOUNDED JAMII AFTER A THREE MONTHS GOVERNMENTAL PROGRAM IN KENYA.

THE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR WAS RECENTLY QUALIFIED BY FORBES AS “AN ENTREPRENEUR BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH DISCOUNT CARDS” .

HERE’S A QUICK GLIMPSE OF THE CONVERSATION LESHYPERCONSCIENTS HAD WITH KHALIA

“Hyper-conscious to me also represents self confidence, it’s knowing who you are, your strenghs but also your weaknesses and ultimately working to become the best version of yourself.”

— KHALIA ISMAIN

How do you manage to stay productive during lockdown in the UK ?

The main way I've managed to stay productive is structure. I do a home workout as well from 12 till one, and then I frame my day around that. And so that's helped a lot because first of all, it means that I'm taking time out for myself during the day. So that's like the main way that I've been able to stay productive by not seeing a day as just hours but separating my work time, my me time. I'll close my computer between like six and half, seven and thenjust take the time to go for a walk or go to the supermarket or something. So yeah, that's pretty much how.

If you were to compare your productivity level from before the lockdown to right now is it at the same level ?

I think it's pretty much at the same level. I wasn't at the best in terms of structure. So I would start working at random times in the day and then I would finish, and I would often work on the weekends. And this is the first time in my life I think I've actually been able to sit and work hours and then I that you do it now and then when the time is over I'll shut my laptop. Like I think the first time in a long time where I haven't worked on weekend. So it's given me a better work life balance than I ever had, even though I'm always at home.

Do you think you'll be able to maintain this balance afterwards even though we don't have any perspective on when the normal is going to come back ?

It's a really good question. I have actually been thinking about it, I think I definitely will retain some of it. It's a lot easier to get all your work done when you don't have to go from meeting to meeting. You're not traveling to the office and doing those things. I'll wake up at eight and I'll start working at half past. I'm both getting a good night's sleep, waking up and still getting started before nine.

Could you tell us a little bit more about you?

My name is Khalia, I come from London, Northwest London, which is quite a diverse area, so there's a decent amount of black people, but not that many black owned businesses. So when it came to things like getting hair products and getting food, I always had to travel out. Jamii was me just trying to find those businesses, and trying to buy from them online.

In terms of academics. I went to the university of Manchester in the North of England and studied politics, philosophy and economics. Originally because I was really into politics. I kind of had this idea of wanting to go into politics, but the more I studied it, the more I realized it wasn't for me. It just felt like you were more at the mercy of people rather than being able to make real change as an individual. And that's where I got introduced to this concept of social entrepreneurship and using business to affect social change. When I graduated, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.

I went to Kenya for three months thanks to a program the Government was sponsoring. I was in a town called Kercho, which is where all the tea grows. I was working with entrepreneurial owners, kind of more in the informal sector and my job was to help them think about their businesses and move into the formal sector basically.
That was when I was really inspired to do something. I was really inspired by black lives matter movement and had the concept of Jamii, but I was asking to myself "Should I be the one to do this? I don't know anything about starting a business." Kenya helped me realize that you just have to start. You just have to take everything at one time. Like what's the first step ? Once you made that first step, then what's the next step you have? And then just take it from there, rather than being like, "How do I build a business". In Kenya there was this one entrepreneur in particular that we worked with. Everything she touched turned to gold. She was amazing, but what really inspired me about her was that she was so open to trying new things. So originally she sold lunch, so she'd literally make a certain amount of lunches and go around the area and sell them to people in the offices. And we would just make different suggestions about things that she could work on.We wouldd suggest something on one day and the next day she'd have done it. She was just so willing to experiment and to try. It just made me realize that that's all it is when it comes to starting something, just being willing and open to new experiences, trying new things and utilize the feedback to better your product.

As of today, you are the founder of Jamii (@Ukjamii on social media) can you tell us a little bit more about it?

Jamii is a discount card and discovery platform for black British businesses. So if you have the card then, for an entire year you can save up to 40% at all the businesses that we're partnered with, a lot of them are online and offline as well. The discovery platform is a marketplace so you can go on and you can find all the businesses and find their products. You can just go and basically find what you're looking for and pay for it directly on our online platform www.lovejamii.com
The reason why I created it like that was because, I was looking for a directory where I could find these businesses and stuff and couldn't find anything. When I was finding things, they were outdated, the websites didn't work and it just wasn't really that reliable. I wanted Jamii to be something that could really easily fit into people's everyday lives. That it would be sustainable.

Let's take it back to your love for politics and social activism. Where did it come from?

I think my love for politics stems from the 2010 general election and it was pretty clear that the labour party, which is the slightly more left wing party in the UK, had been in government for a long time, and was not going to win. There were TV debates and I just remember watching them and I was just like, this is so poor. I was thinking to myself that I could do much better can do much better than this. My mum suggested I study politics and so I did. I love learning about things that happened before. and understanding how decisions get made. There's a lot of misconceptions about how the decisions get made. However, the more I learned about it, the more I was like, this is all really arbitrary. I could eventually try and become an MP, but there's so much in the way between what you want to do and, how much you would be able to achieve, which is so dependent on like whether or not people like you and quickly came to the realization that it wasn't what I wanted for myself.

Do you think social entrepreneurship is the future of entrepreneurship. Do businesses in order to sustain themselves in time, especially during the post-lockdown world?

I wouldn't say it's the only way, but I'd say it's very important now. I think our generation and the generations after are much more in tune to certain social issues and that they really want to get behind brands. We want to be sure that when we buy something from a business we are not just getting the products, but also buying into a cause. I think the alignment between these two elements that can benefit the world is just becoming a lot more important to consumers.

What's your secret to remain relentless and overcome the obstacles you have to face on a daily basis?

I'm just incredibly passionate about what it is I'm doing. When things get hard, I believe so much in what it is that I'm trying to do and that's what keeps me going. That's what gets me up in the morning. I think when I look at what we've achieved already, that's what motivates me to do so much more. I often think about my 10 year plan and the only way I'm going to get there is if I do the work today.

So basically you owe it to your stubbornness. (laughs)

Yes, definitely (laughs)

What was actually like the most difficult challenge you had to face?

That's a good question. I think the most difficult obstacle I've had to face is kind of like really working out where our value is, it might sound silly, but what I mean by that, is I've got this big idea, um, and I want to do, but there's only so much that we can do and do well. So I had to identify where we were creating the most value and double down on what brings less value.
I think it has actually been the hardest.

When you started Jamii initially, was it a passion project or were you very intentional from the beginning on wanting to make it your main activity?

It was a bit of both actually. I treated it like a passion project. I always knew that there would be scope for it to become bigger than that, but I always kind of treated it like something that had to exist first and then and wanted to take it as far as it could go. I didn't take a very strategic approach to it. In retrospection, when I was launching it, my secret was to gradually focus on the next step, one step at a time. It was towards the end of 2018 where I was like, okay, I actually genuinely want to take it from passion project to full time thing. So now how am I going to make that happen? How did you manage to remain financially stable during all that time? So I had a part time job ,I worked two days a week doing that job and that kind of kept my money going so it. I did that for pretty much a year and it was good as well cause it also helped with things like not feeling so lonely because entrepreneurship can be a lonely experience, having people to talk to on some days and kind of giving my mind a break from everything that was going on with Jamii. It's important to know whento take a break.

At what point did you consider yourself to be in a position to entirely focus on Jamii. How did the arbitrage come about?

So it was when I realized that there was too much work for me to carry on how I was carrying on. I was starting to become quite stressed out. That's when I was like, the switch has to happen now. I tried to kind of carry on for as long as I could. I went full time in November 2018, and realized around July 2018 that I needed to find a way to make it work.

Let's talk about maybe the importance of your support system around you since 2015. Obviously Courtney your sister is in charge of the marketing operations, and maybe other key individuals. What can you say about the importance of having a solid support system around as an entrepreneur?

It's major. I've been very fortunate that, my sister, my mom, my dad,my boyfriend and my friends have been supporting me from the start. They recognized what I was doing and have just been really amazing. I call my mum every day actually, and just give her a feedback of my day and she'll just listen to me and give me the best advice. Obviously Courtney from the day I started, she was just like, how can I help you? She, she's been managing the website. She's been really generous with her time. And my boyfriend has been amazing. He's great on strategic sides of things. He was the one who came up with the concept of the Jamii card for instance. He'll always come to the solution.
I've been very fortunate. They've been willing to listen to me when I needed to be listened to. They've been willing to show up at events when I needed help, setting up. There's no way I would have been able to get where I am without them.

Are you proud of what you’ve managed to accomplish to date?

Of course very proud actually ! I think a part of me is definitely numb to it. I'm very much in the day to day and also thinking of the future and what I want to achieve rather than what I have, but I should reflect on what we've already accomplished more often that's for sure.

Could you give some basic advice to boys and girls who aspire to take action and create something ?

My advice would be that everything can be Googled. If there's anything that you don't know, just break it down as small as you can and just Google it. There's articles on everything. Especially nowadays, especially if you're trying to start a business, there's so much content out there. Everything can be Googled. So don't be afraid to Google things. What's YouTube videos with the articles? There's so much information out for free. Just do it. Just consider what's the worst that can happen? That's been my mantra.

What’s your definition of a hyperconscious individual?

So for me, someone who's hyperconscious is someone who's very self aware, not just about themselves, but most importantly about others. It's all about being able to understand where other people are coming from, even if they don't understand where they're coming from themselves.
Hyperconscious to me also represents self confidence, it’s knowing who you are, your strenghs but also your weaknesses and ultimately working to become the best version of yourself.
Most importantly, it's having a high level of empathy for other people, whether they have a different race, culture, gender or political orientation.

More about Jamii:
www.lovejamii.com
Instagram: @ukjamii
Twitter: @ukjamii