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  • Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

  • and life you love. An idea that I hold close to my heart is the fact that talent is universal,

  • but opportunity is not. And weve recently begun working with Sama Group, an organization

  • whose mission is to fight global poverty through technology. If youve ever wondered what

  • part you might play in helping make the world a more equitable place, my guest today will

  • show you how.

  • Leila Janah is the founder and CEO of Sama Group, and an award winning social entrepreneur.

  • Prior to founding the Sama Group, Leila was a visiting scholar with the Stanford program

  • on global justice and Australian University National Center for Applied Philosophy and

  • Public Ethics. The concept of Sama, the root word for equality or fairness in many languages,

  • is the guiding principle behind the family of impact enterprises Janah founded and runs.

  • The first of these is SamaSource, an award winning nonprofit business that connects women

  • and youth living in poverty to microwork: computer based tasks that build skills and

  • generate life changing income, now part of the broader field of impact sourcing. SamaSource

  • has moved 20 thousand people over the poverty line and spun out a domestic program: SamaUSA.

  • In 2011 Leila cofounded SamaHope, a crowdfunding site for medical treatments in developing

  • countries. Janah’s work with Sama Group Enterprises has been featured widely in the

  • press, with features in publications including The New York Times, CNN, Forbes, and Fast

  • Company. She received a BA from Harvard and lives in San Francisco.

  • Leila, thank you so much for coming out to MarieTV. I really appreciate it.

  • It’s my great pleasure. I’m so happy to be here.

  • So we love you guys, we love working with the Sama Group, and I was wondering if you

  • can take us back to when you started or back to when you were in Mumbai and you started

  • to recognize that outsourcing was providing millions of jobs, yet it wasn’t reaching

  • the poorest populations. How did that experience inspire you and did that lead to the creation

  • of the Sama Group?

  • Sure. Well, at the time I was living in New York, actually, in the financial district.

  • I had just finished college and I had my first corporate job and I was working 24/7 and pulling

  • all nighters. And my manager, knowing that I had some foreign experience, said, “Why

  • don't we send you on this project to India?” So I was… I was basically thrown in head

  • first into a project working directly with the CEO of a big outsourcing company. And

  • this was the year that Thomas Friedman had written The World is Flat and the national

  • discourse on outsourcing was very negative and coming from a place of concern that Americans

  • were losing jobs overseas, that we were becoming less competitive. And so I, you know, being

  • someone interested in social justice was very reluctant to take on this project and even

  • though I’m of Indian origin I didn't really think it was a good thing that we were, you

  • know, partnering with these companies to lower our costs and shift jobs. So I came in with

  • that mindset. And one day in the call center that I was working in I met a young man who

  • came from Dharavi, which is south Asia’s largest slum where Slumdog Millionaire was

  • filmed and the kind of place where there are cholera outbreaks and children playing in

  • open sewers and just really horrible living conditions. They look almost post-apocalyptic.

  • It doesn't seem like anyone in twenty… 2005 or now 2015 could be living that way. And

  • so when it dawned on me that someone from that environment was capable of picking up

  • a phone and answering customer service questions for a woman in the UK, you know, about her

  • plane ticket, I realized that our understanding of poverty is very shallow, that there’s

  • a very large number of people around the world, people who we would consider to be living

  • in extreme poverty, making less than 2 dollars a day, unable to meet their basic human needs

  • for food, water, shelter, and education, who are capable of working in the new economy,

  • working in the digital economy. And that lightbulb is what inspired Sama, the idea that this

  • business model of outsourcing, which has created now billions of dollars and several billionaires,

  • that we could take some of those billions of dollars andand shift the model so that

  • they went directly into the pockets of people we would otherwise consider charity cases,

  • like this young man. And that was the origin of the idea.

  • And so when you had that idea, take me from idea to then the first whether it was project

  • or you actually leaving your job and then making Sama real.

  • It took about 2 years. I mentioned the idea to my boss and as a tribute to that firm,

  • you know, he really believed in personal development and he knew that this was my passion. So he

  • said, “I think we should fund you to do more research on this idea and maybe itll

  • benefit the firm in some way.” So our company actually gave me, like, a thousand dollar

  • travel stipend to go and do some more research on this in Africa. And my idea was to take

  • the outsourcing model and figure out how we could turn it into a social enterprise, much

  • like if people are familiar with microfinance, much like Muhammad Yunus did with the banking

  • industry. He thought, “Here’s this great industry that’s provided access to capital

  • for billions of people globally but has left out the poor,” and he adapted the model

  • to fit the needs of the poor. So I thought maybe we could do something similar with outsourcing.

  • And from that moment inin late 2005, I started working on a business plan on my nights

  • and weekends to start a company that would only hire people like that young man I met

  • at the call center. So the threshold for new workers would be, of course, you have to want

  • to work hard and be capable and have basic skills like reading and writing English. So

  • high school graduates. But you also have to come from a very poor background, and we would

  • actually screen out people who came from wealthier backgrounds who might otherwise get a job.

  • So I worked on the business plan for about a year and a half and I submitted it to a

  • competition online in the Netherlands for this new category of social venture. And lo

  • and behold they sent me an email several months later saying, “Congratulations. Youve

  • made it to the semifinals. Come to Amsterdam.” And I had kind of forgotten at that point

  • that I’d even sent this out. It was really a pipedream. Andand I went to Amsterdam

  • and they gave me I think it was the first runner up prize, so I had, like, 25 thousand

  • dollars that they gave me. And that was enough to convince me that I could quit my job and

  • survive for long enough to do this. And it wasn’t easy. My parents don't make much

  • money, I’ve loaned money to my parents in the past, I don't come from a wealthy family,

  • I still am paying off my undergraduate student loans at the age of 32. So it was a pretty

  • big decision for me to do that, but it just gave me thatthat push. And I had a lot

  • of friends who were willing to, you know, let me sleep on their couches and such for

  • a while.

  • And what did you do with that first 25 thousand? Like, how did you figure out what you wanted

  • to spend that on? I know you had your business plan, but it was like do I need to hire someone

  • first? How did youwhat did you do with that money?

  • So I realized that it wasn’t going to be very much money to hire anyone, even back

  • in 2008, the year that I ended up launching the business. So my first step was to go to

  • Kenya where I knew I wanted to launch based on demographics. Kenya is a former British

  • colony, much like India, that has a large youth population that is both somewhat educated

  • and dramatically unemployed. So you will find young people living in the slums who can read

  • and write English, whove gone to a rural school, and, you know, paid their school fees

  • their whole life and really wanna work hard but arejust happen to have drawn the

  • the wrong ticket in life’s birth lottery and happened to be living in a slum. So looking

  • at the demographic trends across sub-saharan Africa, the world’s poorest continent where

  • we thought we could make the biggest difference, I identified Kenya and I used part of the

  • money to go there initially, stay in the cheapest hotel I could find, and interview local entrepreneurs

  • who could partner with me. And my idea was I saw all of these internet cafes around the

  • world in low income areas and I thought, “What if I could convince the internet cafe owners

  • to make part of their business an outsourcing business? What if I could convince them to

  • hire local youth, use their computers, and complete small projects?” And initially

  • my first instinct was data entry. Something very simple. I had a lot of friends who were

  • entrepreneurs or involved in startups in Silicon Valley that needed basic data processing like,

  • you know, weve collected all these receipts and we need them scanned and entered into

  • a spreadsheet, that sort of thing.

  • Yeah.

  • And so it’s straightforward enough that I could actually be the person to secure the

  • work and do the quality assurance. So the first money I spent going to Kenya, identifying

  • that partner. I came back to the US, I rented a tiny office space, I paid myself 400 dollars

  • a month for the first 9 months or so of the operation until I literally could not do that

  • anymore andand then I got to work. So I spent the money also on software. I found

  • a software platform that would let me load these projects and manage them myself, and

  • then I went around to every entrepreneur I knew who might need these types of services,

  • I made a brochure on my Mac, printed it out at Kinko’s…

  • Yes!

  • ...and I got our first contract in September of 2008, which is the month we started officially

  • the business. A friend of mine who is running a large nonprofit in the Bay Area said, “We

  • have this project for blind readers.” He operates the largest online library for blind

  • readers called BookShare.org and it’s an audio library. And so he had a need for people

  • to review transcripts of books to make them really perfect before he put them into his

  • audio software. And so we loved the idea of working with a social venture and having our

  • first project be, you know, be beneficial forfor disabled people around the world.

  • Andand he was willing to give us a… a 30 thousand dollar contract to start. And

  • and so I personally guaranteed him in the meeting that I would… I would take personal

  • responsibility for the quality of the work, which meant many, many late nights, you know,

  • poring through transcripts of audio books for middle school aged kids. Andand that’s

  • kind of what got us on our way. And the next year we ended up doing about 200 thousand

  • dollars in sales revenue from those types of projects all initially secured by me and

  • then I found someone on Craigslist to help me with sales who remains a friend.

  • How incredible is that? Youre just such an inspiration. I love this story and I haven’t…

  • I’ve done so much research and I love what you do and I haven’t heard that, so genius.

  • Talk to us about impact sourcing. What it means and why it’s important.

  • I’m so glad that you brought that up, Marie. Impact sourcing is a new term that refers

  • to making sourcing decisions in your business, or at least part of them, based around social

  • impact in addition to quality. So the idea is, you know, we have all of these problems

  • around the world, global poverty and domestic poverty being one of them. One way to solve

  • those problems is to deliberately work with enterprises that have a social or environmental

  • mission. And thus you can use thethe budget that you have allocated in your business to

  • address these social problems rather than trying to maximize your profit and then donating

  • it at the end to a charity. And this is a way of thinking that actually has a long history

  • here in the United States. One of my favorite examples is Goodwill Industries. Most people

  • think of Goodwill as a nice charity and they donate their clothes. Goodwill actually earns

  • 3 billion dollars globally in store revenue from all of their stores globally. And all

  • of that store revenue comes from employing marginalized people in the store in addition

  • to recycling donated clothing. And Goodwill also offers services for offices that want

  • tothat want to move and have a large number of items they need picked up and recycled,

  • or I think they also offer setup services for corporate events. So if you are the procurement

  • manager in a company or youre running an event, you have a choice as to what vendors

  • you choose. And the idea of impact sourcing is that youyou deliberately choose vendors,

  • and maybe not for everything that you, you know, need to source, but maybe for some percentage

  • of your sourcing needs, that have an overt social mission. And the other idea of impact

  • sourcing is that you needn’t compromise on quality to have that social impact. So

  • I was just on a panel yesterday with the CEO of Glass Door, which is a technology company

  • that lets employees rate their employers and provide more transparency in the workplace.

  • They now have about 600 employees. And I met him just before the panel, 30 minutes before,

  • and he said, “I had no idea that SamaSource was a nonprofit.” I was telling him about

  • some of the fundraising challenges I had. And he was kind of blown away and he said,

  • Weve been working with you…” they now have about 85 workers who are SamaSource

  • workers globally. He said, “Weve been working with you for over a year and nobody

  • on my team ever said, ‘These guys are a nonprofit.’ I just thought you were the

  • best quality service we could find.” And soso that’s a wonderful story and I

  • do wanna tell people were a nonprofit because I think it helps them understand that if we

  • do ever make a profit on this kind of work it will all be reinvested in our work and

  • none of us are doing this for personal gain. We can’t, by law. And I think the model

  • of impact sourcing that’s so interesting is that by hiring SamaSource, Glass Door is

  • directly contributing to the same kind of poverty alleviation that we would normally

  • be paying for with aid or charitable dollars. So, you know, in the prior model, Americans

  • work hard, we get taxed, some percentage of our income through that tax goes to USAID,

  • our agency for international development, and then that organization hires people to

  • administer programs overseas that theoretically help the people that were helping on this

  • project.

  • Theoretically.

  • Theoretically. Right? Exactly.

  • And, you know, and I think these agencies do a lot of good but I think it’s really

  • interesting to imagine other ways of addressing that same population and if we can marshall

  • the capital that’s available to us in the private sector, we have so much more resource

  • to tackle these problems.

  • The thing I love about impact sourcing, you know, I hadn’t heard that turn of phrase

  • before, but through my lens it’s bringing consciousness and a sense of intention to

  • every aspect of your business and looking at how every piece of what you do can touch

  • another human soul in a positive way beyond the traditional ways that were thinking

  • of it. And that’s why I’m so not only inspired by what you guys do, but I love that

  • were working together now and I can’t wait to do more with you because it is, it’s

  • using the power of entrepreneurship and thinking about how do we tackle these global issues

  • in a really smart, effective way not just in the developing world but here in the United

  • States as well. One of the things that I love is the strong focus you have on outcomes.

  • What are some of the most important metrics you guys track through your work? And I know

  • that’s not an easy thing to do. And how do you do it?

  • I’m so glad that you asked that because I think one of the challenges that the nonprofit

  • sector faces is the perception that were not efficient. And coming from the private

  • sector myself I also had that bias when I came in. I saw lots of aid organizations on

  • the ground in Africa and Asia and I was always the person to eyeroll and think, “Wow, if

  • this were done by the private sector it would be so much more efficient.” I think part

  • of the challenge is that in the private sector we have this unifying measure of success,

  • which is profit measured in dollars. And everybody agrees that that’s a measure of success

  • and we can, you know, we have accounting standards for reporting it and we can look at a company’s

  • PNL and we can look at their, you know, their filed statements and understand how successful

  • that company is. In the social sector we lack, unfortunately, such a unifying metric. You

  • know, if youre working in animal care or animal services, youre measuring, you know,

  • the cost ofof saving an animal’s life. Right? The cost of spaying and neutering animals

  • so more don't get created that we then have to euthanize later. Right? I mean, so that’s

  • one set of metrics. If youre working in the environmental arena you might be looking

  • at the long run impact of your program on something like climate change or, you know,

  • forestry. So there are so many different metrics that it’s very difficult for a donor to

  • determine impact. It’s always like comparing apples to oranges to pineapples. Andand

  • this is a very deep problem. That said, we have relied for too long on what we call in

  • the nonprofit sector, the tyranny of overhead as a measure of nonprofit effectiveness. So

  • we shouldn’t use the challenge of measuring impact across these different sectors as an

  • excuse to look at the easiest thing, which is what percentage of my gift goes to fundraising

  • and marketing versus program related expense, which is typically how impact is seen. And

  • that measure really starves nonprofits of the agency and capital they need to produce

  • good outcomes. So I’m a huge fan of this new movement, Peter Singer calls it effective

  • altruism, many people just call it, you know, strategic giving or venture philanthropy.

  • This new movement around thinking about impact in terms of outcomes for dollars spent. Just

  • like we would in, say, clinical drug trials. We would think, “Ok, if youve got a new

  • drug that’s, you know, being tested for fighting diabetes. We wanna look at, you know,

  • how much it costs to purchase the drug versus what kind of outcome you have on people who

  • have diabetes. And, of course, the outcomes are gonna be different depending on what the

  • drug intervention is, but you don't really care how the drug company is spending their

  • money to produce the intended effect. You care about dollars in versus total impact

  • out. So with that lens, we in our field being focused on poverty alleviation decided to

  • form an organization that would measure how many people we moved over the poverty line

  • and by how much and at what rough cost to donors, you know, per person impacted. And

  • so now 7 years in we can say that internationally weve moved 7 thousand peopleactually,

  • right now it’s like 6,974. Something like that. But roughly 7 thousand people from a

  • baseline income of less than 2 dollars a day to 3 years after starting our program a baseline

  • income of 4 times that.

  • Wow.

  • And we can then track the investments that those people are making with that additional

  • income in households expenditures like education, like health care for their children, we see

  • a lot of improved, you know, consumption in terms of food. Our workers literally start

  • buying more protein for the first time and fresh vegetables. So you can then track that

  • 4x income increase across all of these other indicators in terms of quality of life. But

  • were really focused on reporting outcomes. And we tell people, “You can look at how

  • much we spend on fundraising or travel or any number of things, but that’s not gonna

  • give you a good sense of whether were effective at what we do, which is moving people out

  • of poverty.” And I will mention to your viewers that there’s a great website called

  • GiveWell.org that helps people understand where their gifts could be most effective.

  • They don't have the capacity to evaluate every organization, but that lens, that way of thinking,

  • for, you know, any smart person who’s looking at making a charitable donation, that lens

  • that they use could be applied to their giving. And a few questions asked of the non profit

  • that they might wanna give to could probably yield answers as to how those nonprofits view

  • outcome tracking.

  • Speaking of outcomes, one of the things that made myself and everyone on our team cry was

  • a beautiful video that you guys have of a young woman named Martha. And numbers are

  • awesome and as businesspeople and entrepreneurs and creatives, it’s… it’s something

  • we need to pay attention to. But for us and for me, you know, I love the stories and I

  • think we all do and loving the ability to see even one individual’s life completely

  • transformed by the dignity of work and the possibility of independence in creating a

  • better life for himself or herself. Are there any stories, I know Martha is a favorite,

  • well put a link to that below, whether you wanna tell Martha’s story or any other

  • story. Youve done so much work in the field and seen so many lives change. Anyone come

  • to mind?

  • Sure. Well, I can give a refresh on the Martha story.

  • Sure.

  • We produced that video back in 2012 for a gala that we ran, 2012 or 2013. And Martha

  • came to us, she was a young woman living in an orphanage in Nairobi run by an amazing

  • Catholic charity in the slums. And she had been orphaned at age 10 and then moved to

  • this orphanage and at age 18 as is common both in the developing world and even here

  • in the US if we look at the foster care program, kids at age 18 age out of the system. And

  • yet if you have no job training, no family members to support you, no, you know, emotional

  • infrastructure of any kind, and, in addition to that, many of these youth have trauma,

  • as Martha did, from just any number of things that can happen to you in that vulnerable

  • situation, how could you possibly be expected to make a living for yourself? And Martha

  • was reported to us, her orphanage actually had a partnership with one of our recruiting

  • centers. And so we heard from the recruiting center that the sisters at her orphanage said

  • that Martha was routinely the top student, she was extremely bright, she was very humble,

  • and she was the kind of person in the background helping all of the other young girls in her

  • orphanage succeed. And so they took a real shining to her at our recruiting center and

  • even though I think she lacked some of our criteria, she had her… I think she had some

  • difficulties with high school, she ended up getting recruited to join a SamaSource center.

  • And then after she got her first job she was able over time to move out of the slum that

  • she was living in, to escape the reality for many women in urban African environments that

  • don't have a lot of money, which is getting involved in prostitution out of absolute necessity

  • because it’s the only way that they might make an income and sustain themselves. So

  • sheshe told us that that was really her only other choice was to go on the streets.

  • She got this job, shewhen we first met her would only wear baggy clothes and look

  • at her feet and she had, I think, internalized thisthis message that a lot of people

  • from very poor backgrounds feel which is that I don't… I don't really belong, I don't

  • have any value to add in the world, I’m a nobody. Now I just saw her 2 and a half

  • weeks ago in Nairobi. She stopped working for SamaSource about a year ago and she got

  • a job working as a customer service rep for a local travel company in Kenya. And she was

  • just beaming with pride because they love her so much that she started getting involved

  • in social media, she’s a very beautiful young woman and she’s finally able… I

  • think she feels so much pride in being able to buy clothing that fits her and do her hair

  • and she was wearing makeup when I met her and she was extremely poised and she told

  • me that she really wants to get more involved in media and marketing for that industry,

  • for the travel industry. And the idea that a young girl from a slum, you know, who would

  • be continuing to toil away in that slum, you know, doing some kind of informal labor at

  • best, the idea that she is now this poised, mature woman living outside of the slum who

  • really has come into her own, I mean, that’s what were all about. And Martha now serves

  • as an inspiration to our other workers, we have about 700 active workers in east Africa

  • and Asia alone. And many of them have heard her story because we play the video for our

  • workers as well to show them that they might also have an outcome like Martha, and it's

  • just incredible. So I think there’s a… a psychological ripple effect that comes with

  • the dignity of work and with other people observing that in her community and seeing

  • what’s possible, that those girls don't have to go into prostitution, that there are

  • other paths. Andand I think so much of what we offer is just hope, hope that there’s

  • a better future.

  • And a lot of that hope needs to come right here in the US. And that was another reason

  • why we were so thrilled to find you guys. On our team it’s always been an internal

  • discussion. You know, where do we want to start to channel things and our resources

  • of how we can make a bigger impact? And I was so thrilled to know that you guys also

  • do work here in the US. You want to tell us about that?

  • Sure. And I think for us the story is coming at a good time because with the presidential

  • debates happening, I think there’s a lot of concern about threats from afar, from outside

  • of the US, whether theyre foreign workers or whether theyre immigrants, illegal or

  • legal immigrants, and I think the important thing to consider is that at the end of the

  • day were all human beings, whether we live in Timbuktu or Tennessee, and for us we

  • we think we have as much of a moral duty to people here as we do to people overseas. And

  • we also think it’s not an either or. It’s not like because were helping someone in

  • Kenya we can’t also help someone here.

  • Yes.

  • And I think that’s a traditional dichotomy. “Oh, there are international poverty groups

  • and international charities and then there are domestic groups.” And I think so often

  • the strategies that we employ to fight poverty overseas have equal application here. So we

  • kind of think of ourselves asas sort of transnational in that way. And our work here

  • started a couple of years ago. It was actually inspired by negative feedback we’d received

  • from a guy in Ohio who saw an ad that we’d run on Hulu, the web TV service, and the ad

  • featured a refugee, who were still in touch with, who was doing work for us from a refugee

  • camp. And this is one of the most destitute camps I’ve ever seen. It’s the Dadaab

  • refugee camp on the border of Somalia, about 800 thousand people. So we really thought

  • that this would be non controversial, that nobody would think these refugees are stealing

  • our jobs and we should be really concerned about it, especially because the nature of

  • the work that he was doing. It was very basic. But this guy from Ohio wrote in and told me

  • that I was ruining America and that I should be ashamed of myself for calling myself a

  • nonprofitcalling our organization a nonprofit. And it came at a time that was a very tough

  • time for me. I was really in debt from Sama. Started it as a nonprofit so I have no equity

  • in it, I’m never gonna get rich out of this, and it really demoralized me. And I initially,

  • you know, wrote this email that wasthat shut him down. And then I didn't send the

  • email and the next morning I woke up and I read it again and I just Googled unemployment

  • in Ohio. And it turned out that this guy was from a community that had just had a huge

  • set of factory closures and unemployment was soaring and people there had no hope. And

  • so he was coming from a place of hopelessness and desperation and I think that’s where

  • so many of these fears are bubbling up. I mean, people aren’t being mean or angry

  • because they wanna be. Theyretheyre scared. Theyre deeply scared and we have

  • to address that. Especially if were gonna be working overseas, we have to address that

  • at home. And so instead I wrote back and I asked him if he had ideas and that kernel

  • led us to start our US program 2 years later, which is called SamaSchool. And we started

  • with a model of adapting what we had overseas, which is we know how to train low income people

  • to be successful in the digital economy in fields like data entry, social media, and

  • a number of different things that you can do online without being co-located with the

  • business

  • Yes.

  • ...that’s giving the work. So we realized that there was a unique opportunity in the

  • US because we now have all of these new platforms where you can exchange your services online.

  • There’s a website called UpWork.

  • Yes.

  • It used to be oDesk and eLance.

  • Yes.

  • And UpWork has paid out billions of dollars toactually, just over a billion dollars,

  • to contractors in the last 7 or 8 years and it is a fast growing marketplace. Whether

  • you look at UpWork or you look at even offline market places or market places for offline

  • work that are mediated online like TaskRabbit or Care.com if youre looking for a babysitter

  • or an elder care specialist. I mean, therethe number of these sites has just exploded.

  • And the digital economy is not something that our job training infrastructure in the US

  • is prepared to handle. I was even listening to the Republican debate last night and there

  • was a lot of concern about jobs but nobody was talking about the threat to jobs from

  • automation and technology and the way we can mitigate that by training people to succeed

  • in the new economy. And not just training people to write code, but training people

  • to think first about applying online for a job or putting up a profile and how to navigate

  • that to get the most bang for their buck.

  • And how to market and sell themselves online in an effective way. I mean, itit’s

  • something that we talk about a lot in our company because were a virtual company

  • and often times the folks that we hire weve never met before and you have to be able to

  • represent yourself and interact and put your best foot forward online in a way that makes

  • sense now.

  • Absolutely. And you guys would probably be a great case study and the kind of company

  • that would hire a SamaSchool graduate in the USA.

  • Absolutely.

  • We have a woman, I’ll just tell you one story about one of our sites. So wewe

  • started in California and then we got funding to expand to different pilot sites around

  • the country and we just got funded to expand into New York City with the Robin Hood Foundation.

  • Congratulations!

  • This quarter. So well bewell be your neighbors soon.

  • That’s awesome.

  • And one of the sites that we piloted, which is one of the hardest places I’ve ever seen

  • in the US to work is Dumas, Arkansas. It’s a little town in the Mississippi River Delta

  • Region of Arkansas and it is an extremely challenging place to do anti-poverty work.

  • There are a number of organizations that have worked in the Delta for years and have tried

  • to reduce the endemic poverty in the region, but because of a number of things from the

  • decline in our agricultural production as a country to the legacy of slavery and racial

  • injustice that continues in that region, there’s a pocket of poverty there that has been really

  • hard to tackle. And we started there working with people who were in many ways more similar

  • to our African workforce than anything I’ve seen in the US in terms of their skill level

  • and workforce readiness. They had very few skills and very little access to technology.

  • Many of them had never used a computer outside of our one recruiting partner. Most of them

  • had had jobs working at places like gas stations or the local McDonalds. There were no, you

  • know, white collar jobs available. So my favorite story is of a woman named Stacy, who’s a

  • single mom, who was a gas station attendant part time for 3 years before she found Sama.

  • And we got her into our training, it’s a 10 week boot camp. It’s designed for people

  • who have existing care commitments at home or existing jobs. So it’s nightit’s

  • a night and weekend program. And it’s designed to be fast and to get you making money as

  • soon as possible. So she stuck with it, she finished the program, and now she’s making

  • several thousand dollars a month as a customer service rep and she found the jobor, I

  • should say. Not customer service. Social media marketing. Sheshe found the job through

  • UpWork after going through our training. And so she is managing social media accounts for

  • different companies, small businesses around the country. She loves the work. She’s very

  • outgoing and well spoken due to her, you know, gas station training. She had talked to a

  • lot of people and she’s personable. And so you think about that and you think, “Wow,

  • how many people around the country are sitting at home hopeless because they haven’t had

  • success in the traditional job market who might well be able to earn a living through

  • this kind of an approach. And Stacy is a perfect example of that and I think… I think there

  • are millions of Americans who could benefit from this kind of program.

  • I agree 100%. One question I have for you, it’s something that will keep me up at night.

  • I’ll read articles online, I’ll watch videos, I’ll read books and my heart breaks

  • and I live here in New York City, I spend time in Los Angeles, and I feel so blessed

  • to be able to be exposed to things that I never dreamed were possible. I grew up in

  • New Jersey and did not come from a lot of money either, and so I find myself sometimes

  • going like, “Woah, what have I created? This is amazing, I’m so grateful for it.

  • But there’s so many millions, billions, of people that have so little.” How do you

  • manage the emotional part of what you do as a leader, seeing the extremes of humanity?

  • Oh, God. It is so overwhelming and I think one of the refreshing things about what you

  • just said is that it still bothers you.

  • All the time.

  • Because I think it’s so easy to develop a callous layer over our hearts to be able

  • to deal with that more easily. And there’s this great quote by an amazing writer name

  • Arundhati Roy about how the trick of remaining human as you progress through life is to always

  • get upset when you see injustice and for it to always affect you and for you to be, you

  • know, emotionallyin a bit of emotional turmoil when you see it. And that just confirms

  • that youre still human.

  • Yes.

  • Andand it’s so important for us to continue that because as we progress and, you know,

  • in the case of Sama, I had no idea that we would even be around as a… I thought it

  • was just gonna be me with Steve Muthei, my guy, my internet cafe guy in Kenya, the guy

  • I hired off of Craigslist, Jess McCarter, to do our initial sales, and I just had never

  • imagined that we would get to the scale that we are now. And so for me the trick is to

  • continue to be upset because thatthat fuels so much of our programming and I think

  • without empathy, without a feeling of solidarity with the people were trying to help, we,

  • you know, we lose the most important thing in guiding our decisions, which iswhich

  • is human empathy. It’s been a huge struggle for me, that said. I mean, I… I have been

  • engaged before, I’ve had a lot of personal turmoil as a result I think of committing

  • myself so fully to this work, and it’s very difficult for a partner toand I have so

  • much respect for people whove been my partners. It’s so hard to support someone who’s

  • constantly, like, up and going to rural Uganda and without a clear return date.

  • Yeah.

  • Or having to cancel things at the last minute to go and fundraise. But I think there too,

  • that empathy really helps. And I feel very lucky, I think the only thing that can sustain,

  • you know, people who are in this kind of field is having a really strong network of supportive

  • friends and family around them whowho get it and who can listen to the stories and

  • who can, you know, sit there when I'm crying on the phone about having checked in with

  • Martha and I’m so depressed that I can’t do more for her.

  • Yeah.

  • You know, who can sit there and console me. Andand at some level I think faith also

  • helps. I’ve been really impressed with Pope Francis and I’m not a lapsed Catholic because

  • I never was a Catholic, but my father grew up Jesuit and went to Catholic school and

  • raised us with those kinds of values andand I really think that faith in those times

  • of turmoil can be an anchor for us and it’s so inspiring to have a moral leader like Pope

  • Francis who’s willing to be bold and talk about poverty and the importance of caring

  • for our fellow human being as the highest calling.

  • Yeah, I… my heart always breaks open any time I watch the news and I start to see,

  • from faith based communities, the opening up and the inclusion of everyone, and I’m

  • just… I sit there and I do my Jersey fist pump and I get so excited. Speaking of family,

  • you know, there was a bit that you said about the best advice that you’d ever received

  • when your parents fresh from India were signing their first mortgage here in the US and they

  • were nervous. And your grandmother, a Belgian who hitchhiked around the world before meeting

  • your grandfather in Calcutta, she told them, “Don't worry so much. Trust the world. It’s

  • a vast, beautiful, wondrous place.” How does this notion serve you today? How does

  • it impact who you are and how you show up?

  • My grandmother, Crissann, was just the most amazing character even just in terms of her

  • style with these grand caftans she would wear. And I think what impressed me most about her

  • was that as a young woman coming out of World War II, they had tothey had to flee Belgium

  • when the Nazis came, that she could still retain her sense of openness and possibility

  • andand a positive lens on humanity. And I think it is so easy to be cynical. The temptation

  • is always there to see the worst in the people around us and to assume that their intentions

  • are the worst, and I fall into that trap all the time. And I think her lesson is really

  • that, you know, we have a choice to either trust the world or to hole ourselves in and

  • to assume that everyone else is out to get us. And those decisions that are fear based,

  • that are based on that idea that everyone is out to get us and we need to hunker down

  • and protect ourselves against this horrible world, I… I think that never leads us to

  • a good outcome. And I feel like the most incredible movements in history and the smallest acts

  • of kindness every day that make us feel better about ourselves and that build a better world

  • are grounded in that sense of positivity and optimism about human nature. Andand I

  • really do think that’s choice. I don't think there are facts that prove one way or the

  • other that humans are inherently bad or humans are inherently good or humans are inherently

  • untrustworthy or trustworthy. We are all of those things. Right?

  • Yes, absolutely.

  • And we have to wrestle with it. And I think… I think if we choose every morning when we

  • wake up to see the positive, to trust the world, even if traumatic things happen, even

  • if we witness, you know, tragedy in front of us, as so many people do, that optimism

  • is ultimately what’s gonna guide us through life. You know? And I think it’s the only

  • way to leave a better world than the one that we were born into.

  • If anyone wants to get involved with Sama, tell us where we should go and whatbecause

  • our audience is full of enthusiastic action takers, which I love. So where would you direct

  • people and what can they do to get involved with you?

  • Great. Well, first of all, were spreading the word about SamaSchool. Our goal is to

  • enroll 10 thousand students by the end of the year. It’s a free online work program.

  • So if anyone that you know is looking for work, struggling with unemployment, looking

  • just to boost their skills and figure out how to make the most of the online economy,

  • SamaSchool.org is a great place to start. And then I will mention 2 other things. We

  • have a crowdfunding site for medical treatments that raises money for people who can’t afford

  • basic medical treatments, both domestically and abroad. And so if youre passionate

  • about providing healthcare you can make a direct donation and 100% of the gift goes

  • to one of our doctors to perform lifesaving medical treatment. And then as a donor you

  • get a report back on exactly where your money went. And, lastly, if youre more interested

  • in larger strategic philanthropy, we are raising a new investment in Sama to expand our work

  • domestically and overseas on the job creation front. And were doing it through a loan

  • called a program related investment that donors can be part of. And so if theyre interested

  • inin participating in that you can go to our website at SamaGroup.co and leave us

  • a message or email us at Info@SamaGroup.co.

  • Leila, thank you so much. This was such a beautiful conversation. You are an incredible

  • human being. I’m so thrilled that were connected and I can’t wait to work with

  • you for years and years and years to come. Thank you.

  • Likewise, thank you so much.

  • Now Leila and I would love to hear from you. From everything we discussed today, what was

  • the most significant thing that youre taking away and why? As always, the best discussions

  • happen after the episode, so go on over to MarieForleo.com and leave a comment now.

  • Did you like this video? If so, subscribe to our channel and I would be so grateful

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Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

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