IAM759- Founder Promotes Sustainable Development in Communities

Mercy Muigai is the founder of Impact Communities in Kenya. Impact Communities is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in early 2018. Through the organization, Mercy seeks to promote the idea of sustainable development in communities with a long-term view of transforming peace-disrupting cultures through means that achieve lasting solutions. The organization is mainly comprised of youthful members and works across Nairobi County and the neighboring environments. She is also a proud member of the CBNation team where she serves the blogging community of entrepreneurs and business owners.

• CEO Hack: Canva
• CEO Nugget: Have the confidence to start, what matters is the energy you put in from the start
• CEO Defined: Someone in charge of the organization, organizer, one who keeps things moving and the constant factor

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Impact-Communities-149963015846734/

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:29.80] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a special guest on the show today. I have Mercy Muigai of Impact Communities in Kenya. Mercy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:41.89] – Mercy Muigai

Great to meet you. Thank you.

[00:00:44.60] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Mercy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Mercy is the founder of Impact Communities in Kenya. Impact Communities is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization founded in early twenty eighteen. Through the organization, Mercy Sixty promotes the idea of sustainable development in communities with a long-term view of transforming peace and disrupting cultures through means that achieve lasting solutions.

The organization is mainly comprised of youthful members and works across Nairobi County and the neighboring environments. She is also a proud member of the CB Nation team where she serves the blogging community of entrepreneurs and business owners. And might I say, Mercy, is one of the backbones to everything that we do here? So Mercy, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:34.00] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Sure. Great to be here and, to be a guest now, not, on the part of the host.

[00:01:41.29] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. Doing all the behind-the-scenes things. So I'm glad we got to get you, in front of the microphone. So, I wanted to start everything off with what I call your CEO story to hear a little bit more about what led you to get started with your organization and all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:01:55.90] – Mercy Muigai

Sure. So after I left college, I volunteered at an NGO, just in Kenya as an intern. By the time I left this NGO, our country was facing various crises, mainly terror attacks, on major cities in the country. And, since I didn't have anything to do with myself at the time I left, I decided to start up something that I could do to help the situation, which was always getting chaotic every day. And this way, I asked myself what I could do, to address some of the societal issues that, endanger our well-being, our livelihoods, and our income-generating activities.

This is what promoted me to, start this NGO so that I work with communities to come up with lasting solutions, on how we could move on either with this crisis or without it to resolve it, and achieve, something better for the community. So that's basically how we start as a small group of young people, most of them being less than thirty-five years old.

[00:03:12.09] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely appreciate that. I often say the phrase entrepreneurship equals hope and it's just because like you said so many times there's there's issues, and there are things that are going on in the world. And I believe, like, being able to start and to be part of the solution to build and create something is definitely a great way to make sure that those solutions actually happen and those solutions occur. So I could definitely commend you for being able to do that and being a leader in that aspect.

[00:03:38.50] – Mercy Muigai

Thank you.

[00:03:39.40] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Absolutely. So I know I touched on a little bit and you did as well. Could you take us through exactly what Impact Communities in Kenya does and all the awesome things you're working on?

[00:03:49.50] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Sure. So, we're mainly based in Nairobi, Kenya, where we carry out projects on peacebuilding, and capacity building for the community. And also, we have, things to do with interreligious dialogue. We've had great partners both locally and internationally who support our activities, in trying to make this society a better place. And what we mainly do is to respond to current happenings of peace disrupting, issues in the society. So we are dynamic in that we keep, responding to what is happening. We don't just, stick to one thing, but our agenda is mainly peacebuilding and capacity building. So that's what we've been doing. And, with a special focus or a special heart for the young people, mainly in Nairobi County and its environment.

[00:04:51.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. No. I love that. And I think Gandhi says it'll be the change you wish to see in the world. And I think, you know, peace is one of my absolute favorites. It's actually my passion word. I did this exercise where I figured out what word, most resonated with myself, and it was peace. And I think because of how impactful it is, and I love that you have, you know, different ways, and different issues that you you focus on. But at the same time, it kinda sounds like that core is that piece aspect, which you're trying to bring to everything that you're doing and the people that you're impacting as well.

[00:05:23.80] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Sure.

[00:05:26.30] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or your organization, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:05:36.89] – Mercy Muigai

So for our organization, what we immediately do is, like I said, to focus on the young people. And what makes us unique is that we're comprised of the young people, and we focus on activities, affecting the young people. And this makes, sure that we are addressing things that, affect us either directly or indirectly. And, it's things that it's not out of books or theoretical. It's things that are happening also in our societies, not outside, and this helps us to address them effectively and on time. So I would say that's what makes us unique in that, the same people who are affected, by the current societal issues are the same people who are responding to them. Yeah.

[00:06:34.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And to me, like, what was coming up for me was the word kind of empowerment because I think so many times, you know, with young people and youth, sometimes we don't realize the impact that we can have on the world. But I love everything the organization stands for because not only, obviously, is it making real change in very, you know, select areas, but I think on an even deeper level, it's reminding us of the change that we can impact the change that we can have by being impactful, by being diligent, by being consistent no matter what age and what experience we may or may not have, it allows that opportunity for us to really, push the needle forward and make the world a better place.

[00:07:12.89] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Exactly. I think, we all have a role to play in making our societies a better place, be it volunteering, whether it's something that is a business or whatever the case is. We all have a capacity and, a space space for everyone to do something to change society.

[00:07:36.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, you know, even, you know, know, here in the in, right outside of DC where I am, you know, we're kind of reminded that we all can be leaders in so many different ways. As you said, whether it be volunteering or starting an organization, starting a business, whatever we can do, process, whatever that might do that might be from so many different aspects, it allows that opportunity for you to be a leader and to be a leader coming from your voice and what exactly you stand for. And I think that when that happens, especially when it happens amongst young people, it's definitely, a phenomenal thing.

[00:08:10.19] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Sure. Exactly.

[00:08:12.30] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:25.89] – Mercy Muigai

I would say this has to be Canva. It's super easy to use, even for those who are newly, new to graphic designing and all that. So it comes in handy when we are doing our posters, manners, and, social media stuff. So I would say it's a great tool. It has been of help to us, whether you're using it as a paid option or as a free option. It has, it has a lot of features that can help you up your game in, graphic designing or just some light design of whatever you want to do.

[00:09:08.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Canva has been a lifesaver for us. And, you know, as you said, it definitely can up your game and, you know, you can look like a graphic designer, a lot of times just because you can use this, and it's very intuitive how it's it's set up and it's built. And it allows that opportunity for you to really create things, whether it be, you know, flyers or images for your site or, as you said, social media platforms nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you were to happen to be a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

[00:09:51.60] – Mercy Muigai

A motto would say is that it's always very scary to start something. And sometimes you ever think, you know, and when you'll be the next Amazon, when you'll be the next big thing. And when you just started, it seems so scary and you even have the confidence in yourself. But, it's always best to start it and to have confidence. And no matter how small you're starting, it doesn't matter. What matters is how far you go from there. So, have the confidence to start whatever you want to start. And, what matters is the energy you put in to go from there, from that point.

[00:10:36.79] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. No. I love that. And so much, the phrase that was coming to my head is, you know, feel the fear the fear and do it anyways. And I think sometimes Mhmm. You have that fear. You feel that fear. And so many times, people never take action. They never do those things. But as you said, you know, so well, I think so many times that we take that action, we can see some phenomenal results.

[00:10:58.29] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Sure. And once from there, it's twice begun to unfold themselves. Sometimes we might spend a lot of time thinking about how it will be, and where the finances we've come from. But once you start from there, you start to see the whole staircase and every step begins to unfold itself.

[00:11:20.70] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that I can't remember the quote. I think Martin Luther King had a quote where sometimes, you know, you have to take the steps without seeing the entire staircase. And so many times, we wanna see the entire staircase before we take a step. When in reality, you have to face that fear. You have to take that step and the next step. And then step by step, more and more gets to kind of become clear to you. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Mercy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:11:55.29] – Mercy Muigai

So I really don't find it when I say I was CEO. I think a CEO is, someone who is in charge of all the organization, of everything, in the business, how the business looks. So at times, you might have team members coming, and others going out, but you remain to be the one thing that does not change in that organization for you to keep its mission and know where it's going. So you have to get things organized and, you keep them moving altogether, but the wheels are moving in the right direction. So I would say it's it's an organizer and at the same time, someone who keeps things moving and does not change as other things change, whether there are no finances, that you're that some way, the person is supposed to be constant all through.

[00:12:56.79] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Awesome. Nah. I absolutely love that definition. As you said, you know, being organized and keeping things moving, keeping the trains going, so to speak, and making sure they're going in the right direction is definitely huge because a lot of times you can go, but it may not be exactly in the direction that it needs to go. So it's on the CEO, entrepreneur, organization, or whatever this title might be to be able to make sure that everything's running, the way that it should be towards the the mission and the goal and and what we're trying to accomplish.

[00:13:24.20] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. Sure.

[00:13:26.20] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Mercy, truly appreciate that. Appreciate your time even more and definitely appreciate all the awesome things you're doing with us at CB Nation. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:13:43.60] – Mercy Muigai

Yeah. I think I'll mention two things based on the impact and the sea of illumination. So for the impact communities, based on what we're doing and what maybe we see from the outside perspective, I would say that we all have a role to play in making society better. And sometimes, the power is in our hands. We saw, like, the case of the Black Lives Matter. We had the keyboard warriors take on their part, and you really don't have to have that, big thing to do something. You can just do it right from your social media platforms, and be the voice, for those who are the minorities in the group. You speak out to mind. You help someone with their needs so that you can. Is it online or offline community a better place? Also, as part of the estimation community, we have different opportunities for everyone, both marketers and podcasters. So we are a big community, and we are calm people to partner with us and be part of our journey in building and making businesses better.

[00:14:58.89] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I definitely appreciate that, Mercy. I appreciate all the awesome things you said. And I love that you said that, you know, a lot of times we sometimes can look outward. We can look, you know, elsewhere to kinda see, where exactly we we can make an impact. But a lot of times, the power is within our hands, and we can do those things to really move things forward. So I love that. For people that wanna get a hold of you, and find out more about the organization, what's the best way for them to do that?

[00:15:26.70] – Mercy Muigai

We, I mainly on Facebook. For now, we've had a cause flow because of the COVID nineteen, which does not allow people to gather. But we are, reenergizing ourselves for bigger things. You'll find, activities mostly updated there. And you can also get in touch with the Facebook page. Yeah, mainly through the Facebook page where we interact, we share our activities and everything that you'd like to know about us there.

[00:16:00.00] – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Mercy. We will have the links and information in the show notes. But again, I appreciate all the things that you do that we see, things that we don't see, and making, you know, entrepreneurs and business owners more successful, but also reminding us and those youth that are in Nairobi and all the things that they can do as well too. So truly appreciate that again, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:22.60] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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