Leila Janah is a human dynamo and one of the most exciting voices in the world of social entrepreneurship. After starting her career in management consulting, she quit to pursue her passions full time and has founded TWO companies. The first is Samasource, a non-profit that lifts people out of poverty via hiring them to do data work – and their clients now include the likes of Walmart, eBay, Google. And more recently she started LXMI a luxury skincare brand that sources rare ingredients from poor countries and thereby helps lift women out of poverty. Oh – and in case she didn’t have enough on her plate she’s also the author of the forthcoming book Give Work, the thesis of which is that giving work is the most powerful solution for ending global poverty.
I know many of you – like myself – are passionate about social impact, and I really love Leila’s perspective on this. “Social entrepreneurship” is a bit of a buzzword these days, but she is 1000% the real deal – and as you’ll find out from this conversation, the way she’s thinking about this stuff is just light years beyond the standard first-order logic. These problems aren’t simple, and that means the solutions aren’t going to be simple either – they’ll only be solved by brilliant people like her applying some really rigorous thinking to them. Her core ideas of “giving work” and “beyond charity” are – while super simple on their face – very nuanced and sophisticated. Super inspiring stuff, but beyond that – full of sharp insights and tactical advice that you’ll want to apply to your own business whether it’s about social impact or not.
Today on the podcast,
- She tells the story of how Samasource came to be, which I love because she was so goddamn scrappy and just did literally whatever it took to get this idea off the ground – like sending Reid Hoffman a message on LinkedIn (which he replied to)
- We talk about why it’s super limiting and ultimately a non-solution to operate from the idea that handouts are the answer to poverty – why “giving work” is the real answer
- The power of surrounding yourself with the right people – people who have achieved the things you want to achieve and can be not just inspiration but templates
Enjoy!
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Some Questions I Ask:
- How do you describe Samasource? [3:00]
- Where is “dodge”? [4:05]
- Your parents are first generation? [7:45]
- Did you know going into your first corporate job that you were only going to work there until you had enough money saved to quit? [9:15]
- Was the handout charity model a two sided problem? [9:35]
- How did you start with your radically different approach to helping end poverty? [11:13]
- In the beginning of Samasource, were you going to Kenya to personally train people how to perform tasks? [16:50]
- Talk about the trend of social entrepreneurship and how would someone get into the space? [19:30]
- Where do you see Samasource going from here? [23:30]
- How did you figure out how to start? [26:35]
- Do people ask you about what actions to take when getting started? [29:00]
- Tell me a little about your program in the US. [31:35]
- How do people get involved in what you’re doing? [35:13]
- So you’ve been doing this for 9 years, but tell us the story about how you’re just getting started. [38:00]
- Do you feel like grit is important in building a business? [40:00]
- Tell us about your new business. [40:55]
- What was the moment that sparked your idea for LXMI? [45:00]
- What was it like being on QVC? [48:06]
- What’s the arc of the story from the NY Times article and tell us about why even though it’s hard, it’s worth it to work on things that you care about. [50:35]
- How do you manage stress when the going gets tough? What are your medicines? [53:48]
- Talk to me about your meditation practice. [57:00]
- Do you have any habits that you’d recommend to help with maximum performance? [59:08]
- Give us the preview of your upcoming book, Give Work. [1:02:38]
- Where can people find you online? [1:03:20]
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- How Samasource and Samaschool are attacking global and domestic poverty. [3:15]
- Sama=equal in Sanskrit. [3:30]
- How Leila used big tobacco’s money to have an adventure that led her to teaching blind children in West Africa how to speak English. [3:45]
- The notion of a meritocracy is a myth. [5:30]
- Why the traditional charity model is broken and how it trains people in need to think the only way to get resources is to beg. [7:18]
- What social entrepreneurship is and how you approach it to set up a win-win. [12:00]
- The basics of microloans and how it’s bringing millions of people out of poverty. [12:45]
- Earning $10 per day in India considers you middle class. [13:50]
- Leila’s “aha” moment of how to impact more people with the use of the digital marketplace. [14:43]
- How Leila used her nights and weekends, worked three jobs, and spent two years of studying social entrepreneurship before making headway with a business plan competition. [15:20]
- How Samasource got on it’s feet through a string of partnerships, long plane rides, and personal guarantees. [16:30]
- 9 out of 10 millennials are willing to switch brands to one that’s associated with a good cause. [20:20]
- How you as a taxpayer could benefit from hiring people coming out of prisons. [24:10]
- Why you need to surround yourself with examples of what you want to do. [27:11]
- Take action. Reach out to the people who you can model yourself after. [29:30]
- How what started as an angry email spawned the idea for bringing Samasource and jobs to America. [32:00]
- How to succeed as an entrepreneur: don’t quit. [40:10]
- Why Leila saw the luxury goods market as a perfect place to bake social good into their financial plan and started LXMI. [41:00]
- How Leila appealed to multiple senses to get LXMI on QVC. [48:30]
- How to use your purpose to keep driving you forward even when the going get’s tough. [51:50]
- The two things that pulled Leila out of crushing depression: therapy and meditation. [55:04]
- Why it’s important to have contemplative time to remember that we’re all part of a bigger scheme of life. [57:35]
- Why you want to have a gratitude practice, especially when you need to pull yourself out of a funk. [59:20]
- Check out Tonglen meditation. It’s like a drug. And free. [1:00:15]
- How Leila uses physical expression to get rid of a funk. [1:01:24]
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