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Detroit Series: Building Social Impact That Actually Moves People with Kiara Williams · Serious Lady Business

• Leslie Youngblood (00:01) Detroit has always been a city of builders, builders of businesses, builders of culture, builders of futures. This is Serious Lady Business, the Detroit Founders Series, where we spotlight the women who are creating, leading, and reimagining what's possible right here in this city that knows how to rise. These are the stories behind the hustle, the risks, the resilience, the pivots, and the purpose. Let's get into it. Leslie Youngblood (00:32) Welcome to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist, and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. Today, we are joined by Kiara Williams. Kiara is the founder of Digital Movement Media and Truze Cinema and co-founder of Warriors in the Garden. At 20, she led thousands through the streets of New York City during the 2020 movement. Now based in Detroit, she's building businesses, studying environmental science, and proving you don't need a traditional path to create impact. Her work has also been featured in Vogue UK, NPR, The New York Times, and Vice News. Welcome, Kiara. Kiara Williams (01:09) Hi Leslie, thank you so much for having me today. Leslie Youngblood (01:12) Well, I am so excited to talk with you. You have done so much good work. You are so young and you have done so much good work. And I would love to start with the nonprofits or advocacy groups. You know, they come to you asking for more visibility. What's the first strategic question they should be asking instead, Kiara? Kiara Williams (01:33) Well, the first thing that I tell clients and prospective clients that I meet who are in the social impact space is what is your goal for the year? Because I don't believe that a lot of nonprofits and social impact organizations understand that whatever your yearly goal is, you can use social media and leverage big tech platforms to reach them. And so that's the first thing I ask them because that gives me insight on where an organization is. and also kind of what are their intentions with social media, right? are you trying to fundraise or are you trying to grow a bigger audience so you can have people coming out to an annual conference or what is the action that you're trying to get from interacting with people digitally? Leslie Youngblood (02:20) Yeah, I think that's so smart. What separates digital content that gets attention from digital strategy that actually drives community action, which is something you are so well known for and have done so well for organizations, Kiara? Kiara Williams (02:34) I love this question because it's my framework. so I've done both. I've had both sides of the coin. I've had content like get thousands of views, millions of impressions and a really large reach. And that there's still impact in that. However, being able to get, let's say 10,000 people out to a city hall rally from a post that you posted is much more impactful because we are on the ground. like we're in the face of our constituents, we're telling them what we need, we're telling them what we want, and we're demonstrating people power. And so while both are still impactful, having people, mobilizing people from online to offline really cements, you know, people power and where we wanna go. I'm pretty sure we've seen, like for example, the NoKings protests, like they mobilized digitally, know, pushing out their graphics and their campaigns, and then they get thousands thousands of people out all over the country. And while that's really good, I do think we can take it step further and think about more action after we mobilize, right? And so that's where social media comes in. After big demonstrations, it's like we can keep mobilizing people and encourage them to organize in their communities. Leslie Youngblood (03:48) think that's so smart. And we often see with nonprofits, with community organizations, limited budgets. What is a tactic that consistently delivers that impact without overwhelming teams and the budgets that they have to stick to? Kiara Williams (04:03) Yeah, This is real because I mean social media is time consuming, right? And I think the biggest thing that I'm learning that wasn't around when I built my framework in 2020 is a lot of automation. And so I followed this digital strategist, name is Gabriella Zotrow, I hope I didn't butcher her last name, she ran a lot of the digital strategy on Zoram and Dani's campaign. And when I saw the success, online of the campaign and how it translated to offline, which is obviously them winning, but also like record breaking numbers with like hundreds of thousands of volunteers and reaching donation limits. I looked at, I really hung in and studied what they were doing on the back end digitally. And Gabriella's framework is an automation framework and she uses many chat to relieve the pressure and stress and the time. the time restraint on interacting with people digitally. So if you can get people into your inbox, then you further build that connection on your own time. But first, getting into the inbox is like the first thing. And so if you have a post go viral, if you have an automation set up where as soon as someone likes or comments that post, you're in your inbox, you further, it alleviates that pressure for teams to have to do that labor themselves and they can focus. on pushing out more content or they can focus on building more partnerships like they can focus on so much more with automation. So that would be a tactic that I would tell newer clients that have you know that time constraint and that funding concern. Leslie Youngblood (05:39) Yeah, talk about a campaign with impact and a perfect example of when you do something right and it's innovative and in modern and fresh and not only does all the digital things well down to incredible graphics and visuals, but then to truly actually mobilize and got people to show up and to take mom Donnie to victory. I think that's just a fantastic case study. And I love what you said about getting in the people's inboxes as soon as they comment because why are people commenting? Why are they engaging with you on social in the first place? Because they want to feel a part of something. Whether it's you as an individual, your posts of your brunch, but when you know with these social, you know, campaigns and political campaigns, they want to feel part of it. They want to feel recognized. They want to see themselves. And so to even just Kiara Williams (06:15) Yeah. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (06:30) to just immediately reach out to them automatically, you're acknowledging them and it just gets them into that community just a little bit more. And it doesn't mean it's going to be like a robot talking to them, right? That automation. I think a lot of us have AI fatigue or people don't want to be a robot or whatever, but it can be that efficiency step to get people into the community that you can then pick up with on a human level. Kiara Williams (06:42) See you yeah. Leslie Youngblood (06:55) as they get further down that funnel and that process. So I love that you hear that. Kiara Williams (06:58) Yeah. That's actually really funny that you say that because before I came across Gabriella's work, I was doing a semi-automatic interaction with the audiences. had worked for Stevie Sovereignty as their social media manager for a while. And I was seeing automation in the beginning. I was seeing community partners say like comment, poster, and receive this in your DM. And I was like, how are we doing this? I need to learn. And so actually before I invested my time into automation tools, I was using Instagram's Save Reply feature where you can draft save messages and let's say you, how I was doing it is I was interacting with a lot of people who were signing up for a Makers Mart in LA that we had organized for Palestinians. And so what we did was I said comment watermelon. And so whoever commented watermelon, I would go to their profile. and message them and I would use the save reply as the emoji watermelon. So I just have to click the watermelon emoji and my whole message would load and I'd send it to them and I would keep interacting. And so honestly, it saves so much time using automation tools to do that first. I don't have to go into the profile and send the watermelon and have the message sent, the message is sent and then I'll go in after and I'll build community there because people do care. People did comment because they wanted to show up, because they wanted to work on a make to trees or people did care about showing up. And so, yeah, I think it's really important that social impact organizations and leaders recognize that. Leslie Youngblood (08:31) Yeah, definitely. You've seen movements succeed and fail. Kiara, what's the earliest sign that a digital campaign won't translate into real world change or showing up action? Kiara Williams (08:44) a lack of call to action. If there is no call to action on any piece of content that you're putting out, whether it be something as simple as sign up for our mailing list, there's no way to build that community outside of the platforms you're using. Right. And so my big, my big goal is for us to find the spaces and the platforms that are created for social impact. ⁓ Right now we're leveraging, you know, Instagram and meta and Tiktok and And all of these platforms were not designed with social impact in mind. So a lot of what we're doing is loophole work, we're being honest. that when I created this framework in 2020, I realized the loophole work that we were doing as a collective. And so I'm sorry, I think I babbled a little bit. Oh, the fail, the fail, fail again. Yeah, so when there's no call to action, there's really Leslie Youngblood (09:19) you ⁓ the loopholes. Yeah, it failed. Kiara Williams (09:38) no way to track what's going on offline, who you engage with. So for example, when I worked at CB sovereignty, the program coordinators were having like a free start your garden virtual workshop. My goal was to get people to sign up for the virtual workshop through their platforms. And they have a pretty big platform, but I engage with their platform. And we got 1500 signups on a zoom. Leslie Youngblood (09:42) I'm going to home now. Kiara Williams (10:05) are. So ideally, know, to track that it's like people came up from all over the world by the way to learn how to start a garden and hopefully they are in their communities starting a garden. And you know that was successful because there was something tangible people wanted to learn. Leslie Youngblood (10:06) Amazing. Kiara Williams (10:21) If there's nothing tangible and you're just throwing noise out there, it's just not the best use of your time and people's attention. So always have a call to action or else your campaign is going to fail. Leslie Youngblood (10:35) Yeah, that's great advice. think because a lot of times, whether you are a social media manager or you are a solopreneur or a small growing community or organization, you just want to put stuff out there. You may think, oh, I don't want to bother. I don't want to tell them what to do or they'll figure it out, right? They'll know what to do, but that's not always the case. And so I love that you shared. Be blatantly obvious. Give them an action. Give them something to do. And it's not obnoxious. It's not intrusive. And you know, it gives Kiara Williams (10:57) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (11:04) them an in to actually do with you by actually asking for the action. It's novel but sometimes it's that simple that some you know it can get overlooked and so I think that is really important and a really great takeaway. Now Kiara you're a native New Yorker but Detroit is now your home. What about this city made it feel aligned with the work that you wanted to do next? Kiara Williams (11:10) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, when I moved to Detroit in 2024, I was going through a lot of stuff. I was going through grief and I was going through like a relationship ending that I thought I was gonna be in forever for the rest of my life. And so I grieved many different ways and I was really lost for a bit. And it wasn't until, wait, I'm sorry. I moved to Detroit in 2023. Wait, no, I'm sorry. Leslie Youngblood (11:51) It's just felt like home for so long. Kiara Williams (11:53) My timelines are like... my timelines are like, oh, because we're in 2026. That's why it feels so boring. Okay. I'm like, that's so crazy. I moved to Detroit in 2024 of April. And then in January, 2025, I had did a mutual aid effort with a couple of people at the Wayne State Black Student Union that I was a part of. And we collaborated with an organization called Make Food Not Waste, which Leslie Youngblood (11:59) I know, it's so weird, we're in 2026. I know. Kiara Williams (12:23) on food insecurity and they save a lot of food waste before it hits the landfill. So they make a lot of nutritionist meals and we got some more meals and we packaged them up and we went to the Rosa Park Transit Center and gave the houseless people that were there more meals, distributed more meals to them because they needed it. And when I did that work, I recognized that that was the work that I had done previously and that was how I could find myself, like back to myself. And so before I decided to, you know, LLC form digital movement media, was looking for work in the in my career. was looking for other organizations to work for like I did before as an employee. And then I recognize a pattern when I would go on to Detroit's nonprofits digital pages. And the pattern was there seemed to lack strategy, there seemed to lack organization and not even but just then I would be confused as to what they were doing and the storytelling aspects were missing, I recognize. And so when I recognized the gap, I looked in within my experience and I said, okay, I can do something really beautiful here and I want to do something really beautiful here because I see the work is getting done in Detroit. But I think the storytelling around the work definitely could be improved. I decided I'd love to bring all of my experience for the past five years to the nonprofit social impact scene here in Detroit. And so I decided to stay and I love this city. Not only does it make me feel like old home back like 2010s New York City before the gentrification, but everyone has been so welcoming and nice. And I have had such great success connecting with other founders and nonprofit leaders and people who work in foundations. it's really been a ecosystem to be a part of so far. yeah, shout out to Detroit being my new home. Leslie Youngblood (14:19) I mean, I love that. I think that will surprise a lot of people that a New Yorker would choose to come to Detroit and make Detroit home and see all the things that we see or that a lot of people don't see and that Detroit doesn't get as much love for and as much recognition. And I think that the grassroots, you know, area of Detroit, the organizing influence, we have this great history of movements here. And I think that that makes so much sense for you, you know, to have, you know, Connected with that here and I think that's really cool. You know, how does that the history of the grassroots organizing in Detroit? approached the way that you do digital advocacy and nonprofit strategy so far Kiara? Kiara Williams (15:00) Yeah, well, when I learned about Detroit's history, I'm actually learning still a lot more about Detroit. Yeah, there's so much and I'm grateful to the Detroiters that are educating me because this is not something that we are taught and you can only know this by people who have either lived it or has had a direct connection to it. Leslie Youngblood (15:06) I'm still learning and I was born and raised. Kiara Williams (15:23) when I learned about the riots and I learned about a lot of what was going on in court town before they moved everyone out and I just, there's a really underlying theme of lot of displacement of minority communities here in Detroit for development, right? And so looking at that and seeing that that's still the current fight to this day, I've recognized that this is very close to home because it happened in New York City before we could blink. Leslie Youngblood (15:49) Mmm. Kiara Williams (15:49) And a lot of New Yorkers are being pushed out further and further and further away out of the cities and out of the boroughs. so, yeah, that comparison and recognizing how early it still is here, that there can still be grassroots efforts done to really build community power around owning, around owning homes, around owning buildings, around protecting a city that is rooted in the communities that are being pushed out. So, yeah. Leslie Youngblood (16:15) Definitely. What have you shared with Detroiters knowing your experience that you know coming from New York? Is there any... anything in particular that comes up over and over again for you and what to hold on to or make sure we're doing this and you know and stay empowered in that to ensure that that you know that bad bad gentrification that has happened or that change that's going on in New York doesn't happen here yet it's the city's still progressive and evolves forward in the right way. Kiara Williams (16:45) Yeah, I think that, well, actually, I haven't, that hasn't come up really in my conversations with Detroiters. And only because I think that the history here and the organizing here has been done and is still being done. so unless I'm directly asked, like, what did you do in New York differently that we can apply here? I will not like I never it's never come up. So I've never been like, here's what we've done. I don't want I don't want people to think I'm just coming in and, you know, trying to dictate what to do. But I guess to answer that question, if it were to come up, I would say that in New York City in the organizing space, we had a really hard time fighting the paranoia and remaining unified. And to not let Leslie Youngblood (17:09) Yeah. ⁓ Hmm. Kiara Williams (17:34) to not let certain things get in the way of progress, right? The fact that New York City came together and elected Zoran Mamdani, even though I have friends on all of the sides politically where they're like, my God, we don't want an electoral system or ⁓ my God, the two party system or my God, go out and vote or my God, everything will change when you vote. I have so many friends across all of the spectrums and beliefs. But the fact that the city came together to secure a win like that and to get Eric Adams out and to make sure that the city can have a better future, that's what we should be looking at. And the same can be said here now that Mayor Sheffield has been voted in. It's a very new beginning for Detroit and a very new beginning for the country, to be honest. So just remembering to stay unified and to not let the things that seem so big in retrospect to progress and impact. Leslie Youngblood (18:13) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kiara Williams (18:29) progressive impact and positive impact are so much smaller. yeah, I guess that's best advice I could give. Leslie Youngblood (18:37) That's really insightful because you're right. With anything, the way, gosh, how do I say it? Or what am I trying to think? It's... The power of the people, it's a tactic to break up the power of the people is that paranoia, is that division, that, know, is kind of like make those notches and those cracks in the foundation. And it's true. You've seen that happen a lot. And it's easier. It can be easier now because we have social media and we have these bots and we have fake news and real fake, real, real, not like we have real gaslighting, terrifying gaslighting in non-truth. Kiara Williams (19:00) Ciao. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (19:13) and ignoring facts and things we see with our own eyes happening. And so even more important than ever to remember that we are stronger together and we all are fighting and working for the same things, regardless of, the organization and the community and the movement that we're spearheading. And so I think that that's just something really poignant. And obviously Detroit is not as big as New York. And I know it can be very hard in a large city, whether you're Detroit size or New York size, to keep every Kiara Williams (19:15) Yeah. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (19:41) everybody together and focus and not allow those cracks to really become chasms. And so I think that's a really, really smart ⁓ insight there. tell us, Chiara, you work closely with nonprofits and advocacy organizations. What's a digital strategy mistake you see them make over and over outside of maybe that paranoia? Kiara Williams (20:04) Yeah. Let's see, I'm thinking of my past experiences. I think it's the follow through the continuation of activation. And what I mean by that is, for example, I worked for a Florida based organization called Social Equity and Education Alliance. This is the alliance and we organized the Walk Out to Learn, which we orchestrated 300 Florida high schools and colleges to walk out on one day against Rondesantis anti-LGBTQ. and anti-black legislation and used Instagram and Slack to do so. And so that was a successful campaign. That was a successful action. We mobilized youths from being across the country. was in Ann Arbor talking to students in Florida, like in DMs, like, you know, mobilizing them to stick up and use their voice. And so when we did the action and it was successful, the organization had to sunset the program. And so the programming after, the follow through after that was promised, IE like African American studies course, I was actively reaching out to professors at Spelman, at HBCUs at Howard University, at Hampton University to help build this curriculum for the students who wanted to learn because it was being banned in their state, actual African American history, is being banned. And so that kind of digital mobilization and having something that's supposed to happen after not happening is so harmful because you have, one, put a target on kids' backs. know, like they mobilize with the thinking that they would have the support of the organization that mobilized them and then also left them kind of stranded to figure out what to do next. And I think that's really harmful when you're using digital media to mobilize. Because it feels like we're all in community at the same time, but when the action passes and the program gets sunsetted, it's like now all of those kids are there and we're here and there's no way to direct them to support or resources outside of the organization. so that's really harmful, that's all I was going to say. Leslie Youngblood (22:16) I that can be... I'm sorry. No, I think that can be why people... get disenfranchised with activism, right? Where you do this work, you take this charge, you do this action and nothing happens or something that was promised doesn't happen. And that has to be really frustrating because there are a lot of factors that go into the follow-up, right? But again, you can understand that if you can't follow up with it, you should be more open about that from the get-go. People fully and truly understand or, you know, letting them in on the process that's happening so they do understand why or Kiara Williams (22:44) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (22:51) why not, this is really going to be able to happen. Kiara, how can organizations tell their story honestly without exploiting trauma or even burning out the people that are doing the work? I know it's a very fine line, and then to go out and tell those stories and to do it in the right way. I would love to know your perspective on that. Kiara Williams (23:11) Yeah, that's such a great question. I am guilty of using, unintentionally using black trauma in response to the things I was seeing, right? And so like when it was 2020 and you know, we all saw the video of George Floyd, but after George Floyd, were there was Jacob Blake, was was Kawhon Charles in Louisiana, there were a lot of other black people that were murdered at the hands of the state. And it started to become so frequent that we were seeing it and reposting it and sharing it because we were in that feeling of, my God, everybody needs to this. Everybody needs to this. It's happening again. It's happening. It's still happening. It's still happening. And it got to the point where I realized I was part of the problem and I had to stop sharing the experience of black people in that way. Leslie Youngblood (23:58) Mmm. Kiara Williams (24:05) because it was desensitizing me, but also everyone who was following the organization I was leading at the time. And so I think that what I learned to do is I learned to shift the narrative. I learned that there was power in shifting that narrative and also that there were eyes on me during that time that... what I was doing, people were replicating because they believed it to be right. And so when I recognized that I recognized my responsibility, I decided to, you know, make a statement like regular video. I'm no longer sharing black trauma in this way. And the only time that you're going to see like blackness on this page, on Warriors in the Garden page is through a very different light, right? Like we don't need to see people dying to know that they're dying and we shouldn't. And that's part of the problem too, because we recognize that if people weren't seeing black people get murdered, people were less likely to show up outside. And that had a really stark, that was a stark realization for me and my efforts because I realized that that was part of the problem. And so I would say just being more intentional with how you're sharing the stories of the people, of the communities that you're representing because there's blight. Your organization exists because there's blight. Your organization exists because there's oppression. Your organization exists because there's food insecurity. We don't need to show starting babies or children, you know, we don't need to do that to get our messages across and to get care and empathy and support. And I think that we have a responsibility as we champion these digital spaces to uphold that. Leslie Youngblood (25:36) Definitely. It's a fine line where you don't want to promote that trauma and keep sharing that trauma. But then you also have people on the other side of the spectrum, almost performative storytelling. And so walk us through the balance of the opposite spectrum too, where... in those social impact spaces, how do you protect your message from becoming performative and how do you keep it authentic? Kiara Williams (26:02) Yeah, I just, I just talk like a human being. I talk like myself. I recognize that I'm not an expert in anything and I own up to that even if I'm talking about something that I'm just learning about, right? I think that there's a way that people who are running social impact pages think that everything has to be polished. Everything has to run through three or four edits. A caption needs to be re-edited until it's like perfect grammar. No, I'm a human being running a platform. Like you're gonna get a human being running a platform and you're going to get everything that comes with that. And so I try to maintain... my humanity and my voice and or the organization's voice that I'm representing. And that really resonates with people. People can pick up on it. we people can pick up on when your caption has been AI generated. Like people can pick up on, you know, the fact that you are telling a story in a way that is problematic and not all the facts are there. And, you know, I've I've seen that in my own communities that I've organized in the own spaces that I've organized with people that I've organized with. And, you know, I've gently called them out to them. like in private, but then I also recognized that that was a tactic that they were using for their goals, whatever it may be, but I knew it wasn't for the betterment of society. So I would block those people, honestly, because like at a certain point in time, it just starts to get a little bit. You know when you just chip away at something and it just breaks down? That's what it starts to feel like when you see performative content. And I think that, again, we have a responsibility to make sure we're doing our best to keep people engaged authentically and honestly. And so I take that very serious and I would urge anyone in the social impact space to take that very seriously. Leslie Youngblood (27:47) Quick pause, because if you're listening to serious lady business, chances are you're building something of your own. And if your business feels solid, but your marketing feels scattered, reactive, or stuck, that's where Youngblood MMC comes in. We're a boutique marketing, media, and content consultancy right here in Metro Detroit, helping founders and growing brands get clear on their message, focused on what actually moves the needle, and confident showing up consistently. No fluff. No trends just for trend sake, just smart strategy, strong storytelling, and execution that makes sense for your stage of business. If you're ready for marketing that finally feels aligned, head to youngbloodmmc.com slash Detroit to book your free 30 minute consultation now. That's www.youngbloodmmc.com slash Detroit. Now let's get back to the conversation. Leslie Youngblood (28:48) Yeah, you've navigated so much in your life, embezzlement, abuse, activism, entrepreneurship. And I'm sure that makes you who you are and makes you more conscious of those things. But can you tell us specifically how your background has strengthened your approach to impact work, Kiara? Kiara Williams (29:05) Yeah, yeah, when I started impact work in 2020. It wasn't planned, it wasn't something that I had thought I was even going to ever do in my life. If you were going to tell me in December 2019 I would become an activist leader, organizer, the next year I would say, what are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about. You don't know me. I was always activated in seeing what was going on with my community online, Twitter, formally, and the news. Leslie Youngblood (29:23) you Kiara Williams (29:36) and seeing black people get unjustly murdered or unjustly falsely arrested or I was always activated in seeing that but I was never activated enough to realize I could do something about it. And so when I... It's funny because you mentioned my background, but all of those things, most of those things that I mentioned, like embezzlement, abuse, non-profit organizing and all that stuff, that happened in my journey. So starting from 2020, when we co-founded Warriors in the Garden, I was one of the youngest. It was probably like two. girls who were younger than I in the organization and it was an organization full of 20 people. So most of them were older black men and it was hard to navigate that as a young black woman who had all this power that could not be ignored, right? And so that's how the embezzlement happened because they ended up stealing the money because they didn't like that I had power. And so I was just like, whoa. this is ridiculous, I don't even know how to navigate something like this because at this time I'm 22 and I'm like, I don't know, I don't know how to navigate something like this. And it felt like a burden. felt like I, all of the hard work that I had done was just like flushed the drain and it felt so horrible. much so like that was probably one of the most triggering times of my life. Aside from my best friend passing away because I had devoted Leslie Youngblood (30:36) to her. Kiara Williams (31:00) hours and days and weeks into Warriors in the Garden, only for... people that I was organizing with to not like that I had some kind of power as a black woman. And so that really shifted my perspective with who I organized with and how I showed up in spaces around social impact because I recognized, I learned in the most painful way that me being who I am and all of my power and my identity is a threat in just existing. In all spaces, right? Because this happened in a space I wouldn't have been. to have happened it. So that definitely didn't put my guard up, but I became more intentional in the spaces I entered and what I contributed to those spaces. And when I went through abuse, I was also still leading wars in the garden. it was just really, it was one of those things where you realize you're in it. Leslie Youngblood (31:33) Mm-hmm. Kiara Williams (31:51) but you don't realize you can get out of it. And so when I got out of it, I promised myself that I would never be in it again. I mean, I've always been a reproductive justice, women's rights advocate. I'm an advocate of every single social issue that you can think of. There's nothing that I will not stand behind when it comes to just like liberation for all. And so I recognize that I was... a hypocrite that I would be going out and saying, listen to black women, protect black women. And on the other hand, being not treated well and subjecting myself and accepting that. so honestly, I got out of it and I realized it wasn't just for me that I did that for, it was for a lot of the women that were rallying behind me anytime I needed them, anytime I called on them. And so yeah, those experiences really... helped me grow. And I hate that that's the trope, To go, you go through bad things and it helps you grow. If I had to choose to not go through them, I would grow. I obviously choose to not go through those things. I'm still growing. But they have taught me things that I needed to know. Leslie Youngblood (32:52) Right. Right. sure. Yes, it made you more resilient and you chose to make changes, right? Like there can be people that go through that and can't get themselves out of it or don't recognize. That is the lesson to learn and evolve from. And that takes a strong person. That is not easy. I can't even imagine. then you chose to come to Detroit and rebuild a life here in Detroit. Talk to us about how Detroit has shaped that resilience further for you, Kiara. Kiara Williams (33:27) being an entrepreneur is the second hardest thing that I decided to do. I am someone, I am a doer. If you've been listening and you didn't get that so far, I'm going to say it explicitly. I get things done and whatever I want to do, I make sure I do it. no matter what it takes and I know how to pivot. But ⁓ my gosh, being an entrepreneur in Detroit has been, you know, I'm a brand new face. I'm a brand new person. I have to build. have to introduce. I have to be vulnerable enough with people to introduce myself enough to tell them my goals and my visions for contributing to the city. And so that has been really scary to do. because it's a new place and perception is real. I am really scared of being wrongfully perceived. I've always been that way and it's taken me some time to realize no matter what I do, no matter what I say, if someone wants to perceive me in a bad light, they will make anything up to believe it. And so, yeah, Detroit has really given me a run for my pivot. I... Leslie Youngblood (34:24) crew. Kiara Williams (34:30) I am, I'm actively in the ecosystem networking, connecting, and I'm working really hard this year to secure ⁓ some projects that I really believe in. And so, you know, I wake up every day and I connect with more people and new people in different spaces like you, Leslie, and people like Will and people like Clarinda and people like Kelly, and I go to Boss Blue and I take a lot of my time connecting because I know that that's where I'm at. I'm in the groundwork of building. ⁓ my business base. so shout out to Detroit for making me a little bit stronger to do that because I can guarantee you I did not have this vision in New York. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (35:08) Wow, that's amazing. I think that is so special though, in that way. one, like you said, being an entrepreneur. It's like, if you can do something else, do it because it is so hard. I always say, people say it's so hard and you think, and I was like, I'm tough. I can do it. Whatever I'm talking. No, it is so, it's just so indescribably hard. And especially, look at somebody exactly like you, you are so tough. You've gone through so much and it still is hard. it's not going to be easy, but it is worth it. And the impact in the work that you are doing is so important and and so needed here Detroit. Kiara Williams (35:24) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (35:42) so wonderful to know that are making that impact here and you have nothing to be shy or scared about, we are lucky to have you everybody should know it, but I think that is, really interesting. It's not easy no matter what, even though you know it's worth it and you know it's the right path, it's not easy. And so I would love to hear, and I'm sure when you're new, when you're building, you have a lot of things, that can feel overwhelming. Kiara Williams (36:00) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (36:07) boundaries I'm sure are really important for you. How do you place those boundaries in Chiara? Kiara Williams (36:16) ⁓ my gosh. Yeah, I don't, this is special because it's a podcast interview, but I do not have meetings on Fridays. I stick to that. If I have a meeting on Friday, yeah. Honestly, I choose. Leslie Youngblood (36:28) feel very lucky. We got her on Friday for you all listeners. Kiara Williams (36:34) We are on a Friday, yeah. But I try to not have any meetings on Fridays because I want to enter the weekend as relaxed as I possibly can without too much on my mind. And I also make sure I don't do a lot of work things after a certain time because when I was 23, when I was 24, I would be on my computer at like 3 a.m. looking at the news, pulling news articles, creating content and posting it. Like it was to the point where I literally wasn't a functioning human being. I was just like robotic creating content for social impact. And I don't want to be like that anymore or ever again because it's not worth the exhaustion that comes out of that. And so I don't do any real hard work after 5, 6 p.m. which I'm happy that I could also make my own schedule. Like that's such a big plus at being an entrepreneur. I have a say on where my time goes, where my energy goes and how much I give. And what other boundary do I have? I don't know. really like, I like, that's like something I've been working on forever. Like healthy boundaries. So those two are probably like my favorite things I could say right now that I'm actively putting into work. Leslie Youngblood (37:36) Shorter. Kiara Williams (37:44) Yeah, in terms of work, personal boundaries. I value clear direct communication because I have crippling anxiety. Shout out to my Lexapro. And so if I don't have clear direct communication, my brain goes like everywhere all around the world multiple times a day. And I just can't have that for myself. So ⁓ I let that be known. And if a connection is not a understanding of that or making space for that, that's not a connection I can have in my life. So I guess that would be another boundary that I impose to protect myself and the social impact work that I do. Leslie Youngblood (38:22) Yeah, I always say when you are passionate about what you do, and I think a lot of times that means entrepreneurs because we decided to dedicate our lives to what is interesting to us or to bring these ideas or products, services, et cetera to life. It is such a gift to have that. Not everybody experiences that nor wants to do that. But then there's also. the negative to that because you will give all of yourself over to that passion and to that love where you become a shriveled up shell of yourself. And the only person you have to blame for that is yourself. Kiara Williams (38:53) It's a self. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (38:54) is yourself. And so you have to learn to make those boundaries for your own well-being for the other special loved ones in your life and friends. they don't want to see you as a shell of yourself. They want to see you thrive, but they also want to see you succeed. But there is a fine balance between those two. And so it is something I think we all continue to learn and modify through, our journeys is recognizing it's so easy. And because it's so fun. I love it. and I could work. Kiara Williams (39:21) Yep. Leslie Youngblood (39:21) until four in the morning or like three in the Kiara Williams (39:21) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (39:24) morning, but I can't do that because I have three kids and they're going to be up and then I got school and I got to do this and I guess and you have to sleep and you have to do that. And so, it's it's a blessing and a curse. But, to be able to keep in mind that you need a duty to protect yourself and set those boundaries for yourself, for the loved ones in your life and for your clients to they don't want you to be out there for them. Kiara Williams (39:27) I need to sleep. yeah, that's another, that's a new thing. A new thing that I'm embarking on this year is taking on multiple clients at a time. And I've, I have set it up in a way where I'm able to do so. But no matter what, I know that it can quickly get overwhelmed. I worked for a business woman in St. Louis who runs on EOS. But she also is an EOS worldwide like implementer. And I've seen her like, overbook. I've seen what it could do with the stress it takes, toll it takes when you have no real me time. And she's so successful. She makes a ton of money and is doing really good work with the organization she works with. But herself, she's been, you know, I've seen her go through it a little bit and I'm like, okay, I'm learning from you. Thank you, mentor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Leslie Youngblood (40:32) The good and the bad. Kiara Williams (40:33) Yeah, the good and the bad. I saw the good and the bad and I still chose this path. So I don't know what that says about me, but I also like to skateboard sometimes. So that's also another thing. It's like, yeah, I mean, there's something definitely I've realized. I think that's probably why I stopped skateboarding. Cause I had the realization where I was like, there's something, there has to be something wrong where I'm hitting the ground so hard on this trick to get this trick and I can't get it, but I'm going to get up. Leslie Youngblood (40:43) risk taker. Kiara Williams (41:00) I'm going to do it again and I'm going to get this trick and I'm never going to do the trick again. I'm going to move on to a new trick." And I was like, there's something, there's something there. There's something there. So yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Leslie. you have any more questions? Leslie Youngblood (41:06) I mean, me as well. tenacity, Kiara, I love it. I think that's what makes you a great leader and a great entrepreneur and a great activist. And you know, it's all those things sometimes that are like, how do we take, how, what is it? Not like the bad, like the, the negative parts of ourselves. Cause I don't think that's a negative, right? But how do we take it? Or maybe use it for the positive, right? And not our, for our best self, our highest self instead of the, I'm going to hurt myself by doing this. So let's not do that. Kiara Williams (41:27) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely, it goes definitely to the higher self. Shout out to the higher, shout out to like crafting our higher selves. I think that's, I look for that in everything that I do. I just wanna keep being the best version of myself because of the contributions I've given to society and also I know that like my impact is not done and I wanna be the best version of myself while I'm doing it, so yeah. Leslie Youngblood (41:40) Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I love that you said you're not done because my next question was going to be what's next? What are you excited about? What's coming up? Kiara Williams (42:03) You I am really excited about getting more into speaking. I'm also really excited for some projects that I possibly am loading up this year. But so far I'm working on a really cool one with POGO. I'm really excited to see how I can activate this web app for voting and learning more about your politicians because honestly, not growing up with a political background, it would have been really beneficial to have something like that growing up and when I first was able to vote on the ballot. Leslie Youngblood (42:33) For our listeners that don't know Pogo, explain a little bit more. So it's a voting app, it's surprise voting, but tell us specifically, Kiara. Kiara Williams (42:39) of course. Yeah, it is co-founded by Arabia Simeon and she basically has created a web app version of like, let's say Tinder for politics and you can view your local state and federal politicians all across all parties and all spectrums and you get their information, you get their bio, you get all of the links to their campaigns and you get what they're running on their platforms and you can swipe left or right or right if you like them and if you hate them and now they're on your ballot and I think it's a really great way to activate voter encouragement. Leslie Youngblood (43:20) And I think it's so brilliant. One is using Tinder for good, right? Because everybody's like Tinder, ugh. But the concept of quick learning and understanding, and I think that's something that everybody struggles with. Who should I vote for? What do they stand for? I don't know. Especially in your local elections, which are more important than the large federal elections. And so to be able to engage and educate, whether you are 18 and voting for the first time Kiara Williams (43:24) kidding. you. Leslie Youngblood (43:48) whether you're 78 and voting for the X number of time, right? Like how do we make it simple? How do we get people more engaged and educated and informed? Because that's really what it's all about is to make an informed voting decision and get as many informed voters out there as possible. Exactly. Done. Kiara Williams (44:03) It's possible. We are here together. Leslie Youngblood (44:06) We're there, we gotcha, we gotcha. Well, that's really exciting. think what an incredible platform and to be able to contribute to them growing to Kiara. They obviously have the right person in their corner working with them. So that's just fantastic. And so as we wrap up, Kiara, I would love for you to share where our listeners can connect with you outside of this podcast. Kiara Williams (44:27) Yeah, ⁓ you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I am on LinkedIn almost every day. My LinkedIn is Kiara Williams, just how it's spelled. And you can connect with me on Instagram too, but I'm not as professional on there. I'm very much more me. So if you want to connect with me ⁓ as me and not just like professional me, my Instagram is ITSkiara Williams. So it's Kiara Williams. And yeah, I'm always online. because it's not only is it my job, but I also am a consumer of technology and I enjoy it. Yeah. Thank you. Leslie Youngblood (45:00) Perfect. Of course, and we will also drop those links in our show notes. Kiara, thank you so much for joining us today for Serious Lady Business. You are so inspiring. I think it is so cool that you have come to Detroit and decided to stay here and bring your impact and your specialness to Detroit. And we just appreciate you spending time with us today on Serious Lady Business. Kiara Williams (45:21) Thanks for having me so much. It was a joy. Great start to my Friday. Leslie Youngblood (45:26) I'm so glad that it was a bright spot on your Friday and it was worth it for you to put your schedule on the Friday. I love it. Thanks so much. We'll talk soon. Kiara Williams (45:30) Okay. Leslie Youngblood (45:35) Detroit doesn't just make things, it makes leaders. And today's conversation is proof that when women build here, they build with grit, vision, and heart. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who believes in supporting women founders, especially right here in Detroit. And make sure to follow Serious Lady Business for more conversations with the women shaping our city and redefining success on their own terms. Until next time. Keep building, keep leading, and keep doing serious lady business.