Create Your Community When It Doesn’t Exist | Michaela Corning | True Snacks

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Roger: What do you do when the community you're looking for doesn't exist? Well, if you're Michaela Corning, you create it.

Michaela: But how? If it's going to focus on serving the community, then it needs to reflect the community that it's in and what they need. Right? Like, that's a duh. But I think there's a component of you doing it for yourself.

You find your community. And we can complain about it on existing, but like, what are you doing to build it?

Roger: Michael had worked in corporate America for 20 years while growing her modest fashion brand. But she left the world of selling professional services for the opportunity to create a community that caters to the unique needs of Muslim women.

While she saw business opportunity, she also saw the opportunity to coach and amplify other Muslim women entrepreneurs and to collectively create a community that could inspire her. Future generations of Muslim women to think bigger.

Michaela: That is the, that is especially the group of girls that I feel that Bodega Beauty serves the absolute most because That's that space that did not exist for their mothers if they grew up here

Roger: Hi, I’m Roger Kastner and I'm the host of the What Do You Know To Be True? podcast.

This is a true snacks episode I created the true snacks to be a collection of clips from the full length conversations With the purpose to provide some bite sized learning if you're ready You Let's dive in.

Michaela: So my name is Michaela Corning. I was born and raised in Washington. I became Muslim in 1999.

You know, I've had my Modest Fashion brand for over 20 years. I started that just right after I became Muslim. I created that brand to serve in the niche of Muslim women who are American, who, um, you know, want a modest fashion choice that culturally represents them. And I just didn't find at the time. I really found a lot of fun in like connecting with other women and, you know, women that are obviously like me, I always liked fashion.

So it was kind of a natural progression of, of, you know, my new faith plus the fact that I love fashion. And, you know, that kind of carried on until 2020. And then the brand really took off when COVID hit. So I thought, okay, if I open a space and I can share it with other women, it allows them a platform.

It allows me the space that I want. Um, and you know, for many years, I've had women in the community asking me to coach them to help them to mentor them. So I thought, wow, maybe I could just kind of do a little bit of that ad hoc business coaching in one common space. From an entrepreneurial perspective, I did open Barakah Beauty really to help Muslim women grow their platform, grow their business.

Um, Knowing that maybe I have a lot of answers to things that other people don't, but they also have answers to things that I don't necessarily have. But at the end of the day, everybody in the collective has something to offer each other.

Roger: Yeah. My understanding is that a similar community didn't exactly exist.

That there wasn't a template for how you go about creating this community.

Michaela: You know, you don't really understand a community unless you're a part of it. Right. I think that some of the challenges that Muslim women have. In America or in general, you, you're not going to get it unless you're a part of it.

Right. Which is the case with, with most communities, unless you're a part of it, you don't really get it. Most people just kind of go into a salon, you know, and then that's it. But for those of us who wear hijabs, like we don't want to take our hijab off unless we are for sure that a man's not going to walk in.

First of all, going to a conventional hair salon, going in and saying, Hey, do you have a private room? Is in many ways very demoralizing, frankly, dehumanizing it. A lot of times people look at you very suspiciously and then if they do make that accommodation for you, usually you're relegated to some back room or the janitorial closet or the training room.

And then. You know, so you don't get the full salon experience. Um, and then even then, like, people have told me that a guy walked in, you know, like, so you just don't feel secure. And then you don't, it's not like you get some discount for being relegated to the training, training room or the janitorial closet.

So it just doesn't make you feel good. Right. And it makes you feel like less than or subhuman. When I saw the space here in Northgate and wanted to create Bodega Beauty, I thought, God, imagine if I brought in complimentary businesses and women could come in, all women, but really focusing on most women.

It's like a women only space. We're very intentional about that. So those are things that, you know, you walk in and you feel, okay, if people get you, it doesn't require a conversation. It doesn't require, is there a man who's going to come in here or like, you know, you show a picture. And that person's not going to be like, Oh, that's a lot of makeup.

It's like, well, not for my cultural group. Like, you know, so those are the kinds of conversations that people who come in about a community just really don't have to have. The fact that we also do events. So I'm like, we also have these different spiritual events. We have these different networking events or just fun parties.

And again, it's a women only environment. So like if we are dancing or we're dressing up, we don't have the hijab. We don't have to worry about someone coming in. These are things that, again, like, unless you're part of the community, You wouldn't really think about. Um, it's just a nice, safe space. And I've had so many women that are not Muslim who love our space because we are very diverse in the people we serve in the practitioners that that have businesses there and because we don't allow men inside, women will say, like, again, who are not Muslim who don't necessarily you.

Absolutely. Um, that, um, sort of separation, if you will, um, that they just feel safe because they don't have to worry about the male gaze. And I have literally had, like, middle aged white women who are not Muslim, like, break down in tears and tell me how amazing it is to come there and feel so cared for and listened to, um, which is a part of our faith, frankly.

And it's a great opportunity for people that are not part of our community to experience our community in that way. It gives folks a way bigger insight into the Muslim community that I think a lot of people just do not have, right? For a variety of reasons. It's, I mean, Islam is about justice. So this is where I'm coming from with Barakah Beauty, right?

Like, there's a choices I make that maybe might not be in the best interest of the business, but they're in the best interest of that person. Or they're in the best interest of the community. And I think a lot of people look at things I do and but a community and they think, why the hell would you do that?

It makes no business sense. But it actually does make business sense. If you're thinking long term about stuff and not transactionally, but I'm also not always coming from a place of making money. It's community. It's collaboration above profits. Recently, we do this monthly social called Halal, which Halal is like kosher for Muslims, Halal taco.

Halal taco social and the amount of Latin or Hispanic or Spanish speaking Muslims like that is the largest. That's the fastest growing segment of Muslim community in America right now are Spanish speaking or Hispanic, you know, Latino, Latinx. What do you want to say? Muslims. And so there were a lot of women, um, who are in that category who came to the halal taco social and they're like, it's going to be like my food, my music, whatever.

And the woman who, um, was doing the cooking Claudia, she has, um, a business called halal tacos. And so it was an opportunity for her to. showcase her food and market her business. I collected money, and so majority of it went to her. A portion of it goes to about a beauty. And then it's also a social event where people can have fun.

But this is the whole point of sort of that social enterprise and ecosystem. Like, here's one event, but it has all these different pieces. There's a business aspect. There's a marketing aspect. There's a communal aspect. There's like a just to let your hair down literally and figuratively aspect. We had non muslim women who came and they were like, Oh my God, Muslim women have so much fun and we don't even drink alcohol.

I had to really think about what are we doing here? That is making this space so welcome and inviting instead of like creating the poster of our how we show up and then trying to live to it. I was more like, how are we showing up? Let me sort of let me let me write that down. And so we have what we call the guiding principles.

Of the women about a commute, and whenever we have events, whether they're fun events, spiritual events, whatever it is like that is I go through that as a grounding exercise so that people understand, like, that's why this space works so well. It's it's kind of heartwarming. I guess when other women.

Whether they're entrepreneurs there or people running the book club, whatever, that they do their rendition of the guiding principles. I'm just like, this feels like so amazing that they believe in that. And it's really coming from a place of our faith. It's not Michaela. It's like, this is why this space works is because of it being grounded in our faith and in reality.

Roger: So grounded, grounded in faith and coming from the heart. Like we are making that connection heart to heart.

Michaela: Yeah, and in our faith, it's really about putting us first and what is right for each individual person and also the collective. Like, it's not just about individuality, which I think is where the West goes really off.

Like, it's all about me. It's all about my needs. But What is a community need? And so, you know, recently, just literally like a week ago, we opened what we call the Baraka Community Closet, and it's a free community closet of like mostly modest fashions, and so that someone who is a new Muslim, or someone who maybe is struggling, you know, Financially, um, can come and take things from the closet for free.

People might think like, you're gonna give away free stuff and you sell hijabs. Like, I think to someone with like, some, some business would be like, why the hell are you doing that? I'm like, well, because it serves people. Like, you know, And again, this goes back to the faith base of what we're doing and that we believe that provision is from God, so we don't, like, we have already been allotted what we're going to get, so I don't have to, like, if someone's going to come in and take a free hijab and they're not going to buy a hijab, that was written for me, so why am I, I'm going to do what's right by that person, you know, if the, if it's going to focus on serving the community, then it needs to reflect the community that it's in and what they need.

Right. Like that's a duh, but you know, I mean,

Roger: it might not be obvious to everyone, but obvious to you,

Michaela: maybe not. And I would say that there almost isn't a day that I'm in Bodega beauty that I don't have tears in my eyes. That's how impactful what we're doing is to people's actual lives. And then for those young girls to come in and see.

You know, it makes me actually emotional. They see Muslim women reflecting. That's a reflection of themselves. Like I can be that person. I can be that business owner. I can, I can be friendly. I can, you know, I don't have to go work at Microsoft or just be a stay at home mom. I can do be whatever the hell I want to be.

And I could be that person. I could be Nora doing hair or Asia, who's a nurse practitioner. That is a very powerful message for girls that are like eight, nine, 10. 11 years old. And so that is the that is especially the group of girls that I feel. That Vodka Beauty serves the absolute most because that's that space that did not exist for their mothers.

If they grew up here so much of what I do is driven by my faith. And yes, I would say that right now, my purpose is in part building community. But that's not where it started. So again, like going back to like, what is the driving force for why I'm doing what I'm doing? It is that belief in God and God created us to worship him.

That is our purpose. And so, you know, my purpose is worshiping God and how I worship him. One way is in the building of community and serving people, um, and serving them as serving him. So that is the crux of what I'm doing. Absolutely. A hundred percent.

Roger: Who in your life builds community for you?

Michaela: I don't know if I can answer that. I really don't because I think there's a component of it. You doing it for yourself. If that makes any sense, like, you find your community and we can complain about it on existing, but like, what are you doing to build it? So not relying on others, but being a part of the solution.