"Don’t lose your people-first mindset, you’ll suffer for it later."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Wamite Muthara, the visionary founder behind Career Safari. In this captivating discussion, Wamite shares her mission to challenge the traditional notions of success and uplift the stories of individuals from diverse backgrounds in their career journeys.
Starting as a blog on Medium, Career Safari has blossomed into a thriving podcast and a vibrant community, offering resources and perspectives for women navigating their professional paths. With a background in international development and technology, Wamite has spent nearly two decades dedicated to transforming communities and companies to better serve people.
In this interview, Wamite Muthara uncovers the power of sharing culturally uplifting career stories and the importance of providing fresh perspectives. She addresses the pressing issue of employee satisfaction and explores the factors that contribute to a fulfilling workplace experience.
Join us as we delve into Wamite Muthara’s inspiring journey and discover how Career Safari is reshaping the way we view success and champion diversity in the professional world.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Wamite Muthara: A few years ago I started Career Safari to uplift globally diverse career stories and to challenge what it means to be a successful career woman.
At that time it was a blog on Medium – it has since grown into a podcast and a community that provides perspective and resources for women in their career journeys.
My background is in international development and tech – I’ve spent close to 20 years focused on transforming communities and companies so that they’re serving people more effectively.
Through my work, I’m lucky enough to have traveled and been exposed to so many women who’ve done amazing things in their career life – I wanted to continue to share their stories in different ways.
People want fresh perspectives and are hungry for it.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Wamite Muthara: This is a fun question! I continue to be excited about the podcast’s growth. I decided to move it to YouTube and make the interviews full length.
This has made the conversations richer and increased exposure of Career Safari and the stories. It has also opened the door to spinoffs of the central podcast; new opportunities to uniquely share culturally uplifting career stories are coming.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Wamite Muthara: I don’t really believe in quiet quitting; I believe people are putting in place healthier work boundaries – and this is a good thing.
Our lives are much more than our careers; the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to think about our time differently. I don’t see that changing as Gen Z enters the workforce. I’m in favor of people finding meaning outside of work. We need stronger and more involved community members.
However, the conditions that are forcing people to quietly quit are what’s unsettling. The statistic you pointed out says it all – too many people are not happy in the workplace. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood – that number is representative of entry level employees to leaders – what are we doing to one another??
At our core, people are the same. We want to be meaningfully acknowledged, valued and well-compensated, but that looks different to everyone. You may think that paying someone a lot of money is important, but what they really care about is having premium access to healthcare.
You need to understand what those things mean to your team(s) then do the work. Oftentimes companies start that transformation process but resistance and external forces prevent it from coming to life.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Wamite Muthara: “Tiny Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strand. I had a difficult year and wanted to be as far away from home as possible to collect my thoughts. My sister-in-law suggested this book and it was what I needed.
I would read one or two stories every morning and just talk about life while sipping coffee and eating fried rice (I was in the Philippines). That book taught me to embrace yucky moments as part of a larger, beautiful life journey. It was also on that trip where I finally decided to launch Career Safari.
I love gifting early career professionals with “Expect to Win” by Carla Harris. It is the book I wish I had read before I started working. She really does share inside game on how to win at work in a way that enables you to be the boss of your career.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Wamite Muthara: For as much as we talk about leadership, there is still an absence in good leadership. Most people can count on one hand how many amazing managers they’ve had.
That shouldn’t be the case. One of the women we featured in Career Safari, Emily Tsitrian, said it best, “if you hire the wrong person as a manager it is nearly impossible to rewind that (damage).”
At the same time, Lean In cites that “men hold 62% of manager-level positions” and fewer women are being promoted to managerial roles.
We’ve already discussed the amount of people that are impacted by bad management and work cultures. As Emily and I discussed in the same interview, selecting and developing a diverse bench of leaders is critical.
2020, 2021, and 2022 threw a lot of curve balls into businesses on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past years, how can businesses thrive in 2023? What lessons have you learned and what advice would you share?
Wamite Muthara: 2023 has not been an easy year for business. There are so many austerity decisions happening and companies are scared to spend money.
For people working in those companies, the environment is tense and uninspiring. This is when we see initiatives to improve corporate culture fall apart – diversity budgets are eliminated, rushed hiring, botched layoffs, etc.
These are defining moments in your company’s history. Don’t lose your people-first mindset, you’ll suffer for it later.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Wamite Muthara: I define success at a personal level first – I want to be healthier and live a full life. This year I’ve been paying a lot more attention to my health and making sure I’m taking care of my body.
Professionally, I’m working on exploring different ways to share diverse career stories. I am really excited to see how it all turns out. Stay tuned!
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Wamite Muthara for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Wamite Muthara or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
