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It's all about who you know.

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Once you get into the network, people understand what you do, and the calls just come in.

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You don't just be on the Internet looking for a contractor.

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You wanna know someone who knows someone.

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Welcome to the Designer's Plants and Coffee podcast where we discuss how to succeed as a designer

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while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process, and making money doing what we love.

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Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast.

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We have a guest, Jawaria Abdul Kareem.

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Today, we're talking about the transition from corporate to entrepreneurship.

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What made you decide to go into entrepreneurship?

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I think my best friend's mother passed, and I was working on this project.

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And it was just some weird stuff going on, and I was just like, I'm just too short for this.

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Why am I coming to work and with anxiety.

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I was getting married at the time, and my husband worked for himself.

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And he was like, you don't need these people.

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Come work come work with me.

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I'll I'll introduce you to my network. And, that was it.

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I put in my notice. I quit.

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Warrior did do, like, store layout and stuff like that for the fashion industry.

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You can speak about that and then the transition from that into what you do now.

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Well, I mean, architecture and fashion are very similar. Right?

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Because, one, the garment needs to stay on, and the building needs to stay up.

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How can we do those things and make it pretty?

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You can have a garment that stays up for a very short period of time and is really cheap, or

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you can have a garment with the finest materials and all the structure and it lasts you for ages. Same concept.

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And all the money goes into things you don't see, but it stands up. The functions is comfortable.

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But with that, I'm working on large projects.

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You just become someone who does one thing.

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So you just become the bathroom designer, or you just become the the the one who designs the

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curtain wall or the the skin of the building.

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And I didn't wanna get pigeonholed into just doing one thing.

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I wanted to understand more about the industry in general.

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So I started from these big firms and kinda work my way down, and then I ended some way in, retail.

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So I worked for Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie.

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We did the revamp for McDonald's, which is now McCafe.

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It's very, very fast paced.

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And it's like you finish with 1 storm and you're on to the next. There was no breather.

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It's just, you know, they kinda drain you of ideas and all your energy.

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But it was it was a lot of fun. Right?

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Because you get to see your creations happen real time and fast.

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Like, a store has done in 3 months.

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Gotcha. And just by the way, Juwari did design my kitchen.

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So that's just an that's a side plug.

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So you started in architecture. You made the transition. You did retail.

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You did a lot of that type of thing, and that's when you decided to move on and start your own business with your husband. And what was that?

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I I interned my way through college.

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And so when it was time for me to graduate, I got a job right away.

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I was going back and forth between be between being a corporate hire and being a consultant.

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When you're a corporate hire, you work salary.

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You don't get paid over time.

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They work you till you're done, and then you gotta come back the next day.

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And as a consultant, no, man.

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You pay me for hours, so you need to organize how you want to spend my time because after a

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certain time, it's double time.

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And I can say no.

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I can leave when I want. You know?

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You have a lot more autonomy, and people respect respect your time a whole lot more.

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Like, you can't just have me doing something and change your mind. You know? It's 9 o'clock. I have a home.

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And so when I left corporate through that, I worked with Kate Jackspade, and they were trying

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to come up with a new brand for the outlet stores.

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It's all about who you know.

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Once you get into the network, people understand what you do, and the calls just come in.

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Even though it's a digital age, in construction, it's still a word-of-mouth industry.

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You don't just be on the Internet looking for contractors.

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You wanna know someone who knows someone and still don't have a big online presence because

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I get most of my clients to work.

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My building up that network through my husband's network was is what kinda established me and

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also consulting on the side, taking gigs here and there.

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So how did you transition from architecture to the wellness?

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Having kids. So living my life by myself, I can I can stay at work till 9 o'clock and then wake

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up and, you know, be back at 9 o'clock in the morning? I can do that.

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But once kids hit, it's like, this this ain't gonna work.

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And if you know the New York City hustle with, you know, day care, and then you gotta pay for

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early care, and then you gotta pay for after care.

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I'm working to have someone else raise my children.

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You know, the world is backwards. I'm not crazy. The world is backwards.

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Everyone says that children are the best thing, the most important thing.

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So I'm not spending time with them.

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What exactly is your company now?

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I am transitioning from purely architecture to more wellness in general.

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You know, the wellness of my mind, my soul, my environment.

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How do you like to run your life?

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And then we can design your house around that, making you feel better.

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I mean, like, if you're a person that hates the sun, let's not put your bedroom where the sun

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rises early in the morning.

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You know what I mean?

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If you're not a horny person.

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Through my children, I've gotten more conscious about the food I eat and just the things I put on my skin.

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My son has really severe eczema, so I started making my own body products.

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So what is the name of your company, and what do you sell?

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So the name of the company is Mojo Design Wellness Collection.

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So it's several different things.

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So instead of producing drawings for people, I'm moving more into architectural consulting.

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So if you have never worked on a construction project before and you're just a homeowner, you

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might benefit from my service in terms of, you know, what to expect when dealing with a contractor.

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You know, you're doing this big renovation.

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Is that something you're gonna need to do?

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Do you need to invest that money in this house, or do you need to move?

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You know, things like that that can help people live a better life within their spaces.

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And then I also make body products that I sell. What was

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your, fear making the transition from corporate to, entrepreneurship?

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Health care. Oh my god.

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I don't wanna get sick.

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What do I wanna do?

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I'm in a car accident. Oh my god. I can't afford it.

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Like, you have to understand. I I've consulted before.

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So if anything, I can always pick up a consultant job.

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So but it's like, hey.

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I gotta pay if anything happens, I gotta pay this this health care bill.

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As long as I don't get into some major accident accident, I'll I'll be okay.

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So if anyone wanted to basically get into

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their own business, like, what advice would you give them?

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Don't be afraid to try new things and, try to get into a network.

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My my first internship came from Sahin. That started it all.

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So how would you define, like, happiness now?

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Happiness is waking up and doing whatever I feel like doing.

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Would you say that that you've had any setbacks, and how did you overcome that?

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My biggest obstacle is thinking that I need to work 10 times harder to get half as far. That's not my story.

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That's my parents' generation, their story, and it served them, but that's not my story.

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Is there anything that you wanna add that we haven't spoken about?

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Don't be afraid to experiment.

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I mean, this is what life is about. Have fun doing it.

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Where can people find you if they want to reach out for you for your services?

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Well, I have a website, moldju.design, where pretty soon you can purchase whatever products

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that I come up with and also book consultation services for architectural design.

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These 2 communities that you'll probably see me in is the My Reflection Matters Village and, Deep Lounge Place.

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It's on Teachable, and it's also on SubStack.

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So these are all other mothers and parents, caregivers that understand the importance of children

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and the liberation of children.

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Like, if we can't keep using tools of oppression and think of that, we're gonna raise liberated kids.

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And that takes a completely rewiring of how we do things, how we think about education.

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So these communities really help me.

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How do you approach tough decisions in business?

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Honesty. And that and that took a lot of growth.

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Because in the beginning, it was like, oh my god. I'm a professional.

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I don't wanna make a mistake.

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So I have to now start thinking for people.

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And that's always got me in more trouble than just saying, hey. Look.

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I'm inviting you into this situation. Yes.

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I'm a professional, but, no one knows everything, and I'm still growing.

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And I don't know everything about architecture. And, hey. Look.

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This is a little beyond my realm of understanding.

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We might need to hire someone. Alright.

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I'm LaTisha Winston of Keeping You in Stitches along with Zahiyya Abdul-Karim of Cover Me Chic and Regent Design Lab, Naima Dozier of Fearless Threads, and our guest, Juwariya of Mojo.Design.