We were lucky to catch up with Simone Ispahani recently and have shared our conversation below.
Simone, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.
An estimated 50 million people are trafficked globally (according to International Justice Missions website). When I first heard of the statistics surrounding this issue I was in shock. I couldn’t fathom that number so in my senior year of college I decided to co-lead a trip to India and get up close to the issue. My team and I volunteered with an organization called Rahab’s Rope specifically understanding their holistic approach to aftercare. This trip changed my life as I started to put faces and stories to those statistics. This is why with Social Brew I want to have a bold approach with our mission which is to donate 50% of our profits to fighting human trafficking. I partner with two non-profit partners (Ho’olanapua and Beautiful Feet Wellness) for this. As soon as I decided I wanted to make the leap and start Social Brew I remember thinking about the percentage I would want to donate. I spent some time thinking and praying about it when I arrived on 50%. I can’t fully explain all of the reasons why I’ve been confident in this number. There have been people who have advised against this but I have stayed true to it because I wanted to be bold with my mission and inspire others to do the same. I wanted to show that I believe in the work my non-profit partners are doing by hopefully not making it all about me and what I’m doing but rather about the people they are serving.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Being biracial and growing up around a diverse array of cultures, I was gifted with a unique understanding of the world and a deep seeded desire to help humanity. In college I first learned about the issue of human trafficking when an expert speaker on modern day slavery challenged me to join the fight and ended her talk saying “Once you hear you can’t un-hear.” Something about this captured my heart so I started to learn as much as I could about the issue. I read articles, watched documentaries, interned and spoke to both non-profits and Federal agents about their work on the front lines. My senior year I had the opportunity to put this knowledge into action by co-leading a trip to India to learn from and work with survivors. After this my passion to do something about this was deeply cemented.
As I continued one little thing became a constant comfort, as well as another passion: coffee. My first vision for Social Brew was a brick-and-mortar store created to turn out a great product and create sustainable job opportunities for human trafficking survivors but we had to adapt that since I decided to start my own business during covid. One day I hope my coffee shop dreams will be fully realized but my greatest hope for Social Brew is to cultivate a community that creates a place where survivors are seen, known, loved, and given practical tools that help them take back their lives. I hope to inspire others that they can make a difference in their personal spheres of influence. Sometimes we think we have to aim high from the start but really my journey has been progressive and I hope I can encourage others to take the first step.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Resilience is a hard word for me when I think about my own story. I feel like I’m always searching for movies or books that speak to this quality as it’s something I want to cultivate. I would say a point of impact in my story was about 2 or so months after graduating college. I was in this headspace where I was excited about the possibilities of what could be next yet terrified that I was stuck in this place of limbo. I feel like having the structure of school my whole life and then transitioning to no structure was definitely a shock to my system. I had always been a “yes” type of person and filled up all of my time not leaving much time for rest. I think once I finally slowed down after graduation my body had the space to feel everything I had never given it the time to before. This led to a 7 year long journey and a snowball effect of multiple diagnoses, a myriad of doctors, and too many tests and medications to count. I wish I could say this part of my story is completely over and I have overcome or healed from all of these things but my reality is one of living in the tension of already and not yet. The main thing that has kept me is my faith in Jesus which has been a grounding force in helping me navigate the everyday. My health is something I rarely talk about when it comes to business but I’m learning to integrate it more into every part of my life allowing it to take up the space it needs without fear or shame. Though I would never want to go back and re-live all of the hard parts they have truly made me who I am and have played an important part in how I see the world and want to treat others. We never truly know what anyone is facing personally and we often judge others based on what they present to us. I hope sharing this part of my story with show others that even when you have physical or mental limitations that you still have a purpose and can live a limitless life.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
For me I have really tried to keep bringing the story and vision back to center stage. I now work with some larger hotel clients and it is so easy to get lost as they have so many vendors they work with. I always try to be kind but also intentional and have check ins every so often where I ask for feedback and advice on how they think the product is selling or how we could tweak our approach and make it better. I think it is best to always be curious and realize that even if it is not your area of speciality that you can always learn something. The third thing is consistency and follow up in terms of orders. Things have gone and will go wrong with orders, I’ve just learned to accept that but it is how you handle it from there. How can you correct the situation and what can you learn from it so it doesn’t happen next time?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.socialbrew.us
- Instagram: @sipsocialbrew
- Facebook: @sipsocialbrew
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheConsciousCupPodcast
Image Credits
Kelton Mattingly
Melody Minagar