We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Saamiya Seraj, PhD a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Saamiya, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
After finishing my PhD in Civil Engineering, I worked in the construction industry for five years. During that time, I noticed that many of my peers, especially young professionals, were unhappy at their job. They were overworked and their ideas were ignored. I turned to leadership courses and books to find an answer for this mismanagement of young talent. However, I soon realized that a lot of these leadership training focused on short term feel-good messages instead of effective, long-term change. These trainings also did not take issues of equity into account, which made the solutions impractical for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and other historically marginalized groups. So, I started hosting my own workshops and conversations around this topic, which eventually led to the creation of A Better Force. As an immigrant in the US who is also a woman of color, I wanted to bring my unique voice into the leadership world with A Better Force and offer my clients with practical, sustainable and data-backed solutions.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think what really sets us apart is that our leadership training caters to the unique challenges faced by BIPOC, immigrants and other historically marginalized communities. As an example, boundary setting can look very different in an Asian than in a white family. We take a lot of care in providing customized and culturally relevant solutions. We’re also intersectional in our approach and talk about how having more than one marginalized identity can compound the barriers one faces, such as the challenges faced by Black Muslims, or Queer Muslims.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I launched my company in the middle of the pandemic, while I was heavily pregnant. I remember doing my first workshop feeling my baby’s kicks in my belly. What I didn’t know then was that I had developed cancer during my pregnancy as well. I felt like something was wrong, but doctors assured me that it was just hormones. Imagine starting up a business while being a new mom in the middle of the pandemic where support systems were non-existent. Not only that, I kept getting sicker without understanding what was happening to me. I went to 6 different specialists for 15 months begging them to take me seriously, but most of them implied that the symptoms were all in my head.
In 2022, almost a year and half after my cancer symptoms first appeared, I officially got diagnosed with cancer. I went through a brutal chemotherapy regimen with a toddler in tow and a growing business. There were days when I was bedridden and in so much pain that I almost wanted to give up on my business. But I didn’t – because I knew how important it was to teach marginalized folks how to advocate for themselves. It could be the difference between life and death. It was for me.
I’m now a year and half out of cancer treatment – and I’m so glad I made it through. People praise me for being resilient, but honestly I don’t think it’s an individual quality, but a communal one. I was able to hold on, not simply because of my own resilience, but also because I had a loving and supportive family, an amazing palliative care doctor, and an insurance that covered most of my medical costs. Honestly, after my experience with cancer, my perspective on resilience has changed and I wish our systems and society were better so that we as individuals didn’t have to be quite so resilient.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
When I first moved to the US, a few years after 9/11, I was told to keep my head down and not makes waves as a Muslim, immigrant of color. “Blend in” was the advice that most relatives gave me. For the first few years in the US, that’s exactly what I did. But that didn’t stop the racial microaggressions and structural barriers. So for the next few years, I started speaking up, but did so in a very vague, roundabout way to ensure that no feathers were being ruffled. That didn’t stop the racism either. So now, I’ve learnt to be my authentic self and speak my truth unapologetically. While I still get the microaggressions, I have the mental peace of not having to hide my true self and being able to advocate for marginalized communities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.abetterforce.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abetterforce/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saamiyaseraj/
Image Credits
N/A – all photos taken by friends and family on personal camera.