Episode Summary

This week I sit down with Yusra Mohamud live and in person! Yusra shares her story growing up in Minneapolis, how she got her start in community outreach, and what led her to start her own consultancy business, Yuspire Consulting, to help small businesses succeed. Yusra is also a member of the Lake Street Council in Minneapolis and was an integral part of helping with the rebuilding of the community after the events of June 2020.

Yusra's commitment to our community is also shown through her podcast and YouTube channel, Eat & Talk MN. She and her co-founder, Gilbert, wanted to create a space to share local stories from "unsung heroes".

When she isn't helping grow and build her local community, Yusra also loves to travel and spend time with her son. She shares with us her recent experience traveling to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and why traveling and experiencing the world for yourself is so important.

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:52 Ready to finally take that idea and turn it into a business? Let me help you for FREE!

1:43 Yusra's background and story growing up in South Minneapolis

5:28 Becoming a boy mom and how that impacted her career path

6:00 While working at a bank Yusra gets the opportunity to help with community outreach and join the Lake Street Council as an advisor in 2018

7:52 Pursuing her passion for helping people and her community while leveraging the tools and resources the large bank she worked for had to grow her own skills

9:30 Why Lake Street is a vital cultural corridor to the Twin City community and how it feels like home to Yusra

13:16 Yusra describes her first-hand experience on the ground following the murder of George Floyd in June 2020

15:22 Leaving the corporate world behind to work full time for Lake Street Council following the events of June 2020, where she was able to help the community raise $12 million dollars to rebuild

18:21 Yusra shares her experiences since June of 2020 and how we as a community, nation, and even world have made improvements but also what work still needs to be done

21:43 The importance of putting yourself in different spaces than you normally occupy and why it is GOOD to feel uncomfortable

28:26 Yusra shares her recent experience traveling to Turkey and Saudi Arabia

32:14 Yusra shares what surprised her most about women in Saudi Arabia and why it reinforced the importance of travel and experiencing the world for yourself

37:00 What it was like experiencing Mecca and the thriving community surrounding it

40:33 Eat & Talk podcast and Youtube channel was born in 2020 to highlight the community's "unsung heroes" with the goal of "good conversation feeds starvation"

43:05 The surprising international singer who got her start on Eat & Talk years ago

45:29 Yuspire Consulting and the importance of helping small business owners know their strengths

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Connect with my guest:

• Yuspire Consulting
• Eat & Talk Youtube Channel