We were lucky to catch up with Sabrina Merage Naim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sabrina , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

I am a first generation American, born to immigrant parents who came from a highly patriarchal Middle Eastern country. At the time of my great grandmother, Sarah’s, upbringing, it was common for girls to be married off as child brides to much older men. Sarah was no exception, being torn away from her family at the age of 9 and finding herself scared and alone in the home of a man she did not know, in a part of town she had never been. Against many odds, Sarah learned quickly to become resilient and self-sufficient. She grew to become a caring, loving woman who was often sought out by other younger women in the community for guidance, care, and safety. She became a self-taught business woman, taking control of the family business at a time when women-led businesses were rare and often unwelcome. It was thanks to her commitment and hard work that her family became financially stable. One day, a young woman in the community came to Sarah for help. Her husband was being abusive and the young woman felt trapped and frightened. Sarah gave the young woman care, love, and reassured her that everything would be ok. She promptly confronted the husband, threatening him if he ever harmed his wife again. This type of gumption was frankly unheard of for a woman at the time and in this region. It wasn’t uncommon for women to be in abusive marriages and the social contract was that no one talked about it. Sarah took on a big risk to confront this man, and in doing so, may have saved the young woman’s life.
Sarah was courageous, yet soft, loving and a force. It is because of her and the powerful women who came after her, that I have dedicated much of my philanthropic life to supporting women. I never want another girl to be torn away from her home too young to be wed off as a child. I never want another woman to fear for her safety in her own home or in her community. I do this for Sarah. I choose to support women’s voices, their stories, their rights, and their safety. Her legacy lives on through my efforts and in her honor, always.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been running my foundation, Sabrina Merage Foundation, since 2008, to bridge divides and try and create a more inclusive and empathetic society. I have worked with organizations all over the world to open hearts and minds to the idea that we are all different (race, religion, ethnicity, politics) but we are all human and need to hold more space for each other. In 2020, I founded Evoke Media as a subsidiary to my foundation in order to invest in and create media which pushes the conversation even further around our shared humanity. We invest in and Executive Produce documentaries, film, podcasts, and more, which share intimate stories of people struggling with poignant issues that shine a light on the complexities of the human experience and how we are all much more alike than we are different. Among many other projects, this year, Evoke Media partnered with Lemonada Productions to put out a powerful podcast, Blind Plea, which hit number one on Apple Podcasts. Blind Plea is the true story of Deven Grey, a young mother, who shot and killed her abusive partner in a remote trailer in rural Shelby County, Alabama. She claimed self-defense and filed a Stand Your Ground claim. Instead of freedom, she was handed a “blind plea” – an option to take an unknown sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. As a Black woman who shot and killed a white man in Alabama, she did the only thing she could: She took the plea. Deven’s sentence became the final link in a chain of deceit, haunted land, generational trauma, false identity, coercive control, and a broken justice system.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

That success is defined by money earned. Successful outcomes can come in many forms and making money is just one. Living in the capitalist society that we do and keeping in mind the financial needs that we all have, this is a hard concept to accept. What I have experienced through my many years in the for profit and non-profit worlds, most of us see everything we do through this lens. It’s hard to shake. But in my experience, when you jump into a business or initiative with only profit on your mind, the chances of success suddenly dwindle. Ask most traditionally successful people why they initially started their business, organization, or initiative and few if any will say “to make a lot of money”. Most of them saw a problem they felt they could solve for, had a passion for a certain issue that they needed to pursue, wanted to make the world a slightly better place, and on and on. Success is also defined by people served, impact made, awareness raised, industries bettered, efficiencies created. How we define ourselves and our work in our success should be broadened to reflect the many positive outcomes that success can and should encompass.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

For years, my philanthropy was my side hustle. I would (and sometimes still do) say that in my “real life”, I’m a venture capitalist. I started investing in early stage consumer product companies in 2010 and kept my focus there for many years. It felt good to be a woman in finance and to be able to keep up with the big wigs in that male-centric space. And while I relish in the time that I have spent expanding my mind and experiencing the world of finance, consumer goods, and venture capital, I always felt this pull toward the non-profit initiatives that I kept tucked off to the side. It felt like I needed to do something more traditional in my day job. Something that was more “financially successful” as I state above. Today, I have fully embraced that my calling is to make a social impact. To partner with storytellers, activists, and change-makers to move the needle towards a more inclusive and empathetic world. It’s not a money-making endeavor. On the contrary, I put my money where my mouth is. But my definition of success and where I should be putting my time and resources has altered and I feel more fulfilled with the work I do today than I have before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://weareevokemedia.com/
• Instagram: @breakingglasspod