Advertise on podcast: Claima Stories with Bimma

With infinite pride and hunger, Raven or RavieB comes from the Bronx and she always comes to represent herself and the individuals she captures with her lens of choice. Though Raven dabbled in many different fields, when she picked up a camera, she felt at home and instantly knew photography was the career she wanted to pursue. Now, Raven, who has taken your favorite photo of Jay Z, Adele, Big Sean, Lebron, Damson Idris and countless others - didn’t take the easy route to arrive where she is today. Raven had to truly learn the power of no and the myriad of doors that would open for the livelihood of herself and her now deceased mother. Raven has already made history capturing iconic cultural moments that will live on forever. It sounds cliche but if you ask her, that’s only the half of it. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams

Born in Toronto to Indo-Guyanese parents, Hema was taught the value of good work ethic. Regardless of what she’s into, she’s always going to do it at 110%. Hema found herself constantly chasing fulfillment throughout her many professions, whether that was being a successful lawyer, morphing into an A-list stylist for the likes of Madonna to Andy Samberg, or interior design, Hema was going to figure it out. The biggest lesson in her journey would come from a book that empowered her to be still, wait, and let the answers reveal themselves. And though that approach may sound unorthodox to some, Hema would argue it was life-changing. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams

We've made it to our 100th episode!! A definite milestone for the Claima Stories Family! And we're doing it with none other than whom GQ Magazine has crowned them Streetwear’s First Family. Chris Gibbs, owner of Union LA and his partner Beth Birkett Gibbs, owner of Bephie’s Beauty Supply, film director, and creative collaborator with Chris amongst many other forms of storytelling. Yes, this is streetwear’s first family and they are so much more. As we discussed the evolution of streetwear, what it’s like seeing the world through the eyes of their two boys, the pros and cons of LA and NYC, the algorithms of social media, and the value of community; growth at every level for this couple comes with grace and they’re navigating it as only a first family would. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams

Being a glass half-full type of creative and entrepreneur has allowed today's guest, Humberto Leon, to build a vibrant career. In the 70’s Humberto and his family Immigrated to LA where he would fall in love with fashion and often find himself in the aisles of thrift stores mining for just the right pieces. Fast forward to a storied career in the industry, Humberto and his friend Carol Lim decided to step out on their own launching Opening Ceremony. A place where they would bring all their intersections of culture into one space. In our conversation ahead, we chat about Humberto's time at Opening Ceremony and his newer ventures into the food industry with his family. One thing remains true whether he's serving food or fashion, that feeling of being welcomed is at the forefront of anything Humberto touches. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams

Not many creatives have the opportunity to come out with two films in one year but with remakes of cult classics like White Men Can’t Jump and House Party but today's guest, Calmatic, did just that. Calmatic proudly grew up as your quintessential Black nerd, creating flyers, making beats, designing album covers and capturing memorable moments for LA’s finest. As he continues to create, he’s ready to tell his own stories and trust me, he could care less about the rotten tomato reviews. We're ready to dive into this Grammy award winning director's career journey and his approach to language, references and representation. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses.  From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more.  Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams

They say your twenties are meant for self-discovery and today's guest, Manila Mixtape, can attest to that. After a career in fashion bouncing from celebrity styling to merchandising to retail, Manila decided to walk away from it all. Knowing he needed a real break from that world, he moved back to NYC to become a truck driver. Serendipitously, his first assignment was to a fabrication studio. He’d work at the studio doing build outs for Vogue, Louis Vuitton and more. It was at the fabrication studio, Manila made his first mirror. In our chat ahead, we talk about his creative journey, taking the negatives with the positives to rebuild and launch his art as @ManilaMixtape. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.

If you asked today's guest, Shequeita Frazier, if she would be a Co-Founder of an outdoors brand, she probably would've laughed. Though she grew up playing outside all the time, Shequeita distinctly remembers avoiding the woods. It wasn't until meeting her husband who would go on regular camping trips and moving to Portland did she fully understand the impact of the outdoors. Between the pandemic, protests and needing to find solace...a trip to Montana is what ultimately led the duo to creating Camp Yoshi. Founded in 2020, Camp Yoshi is an experience brand that has democratized the outdoors curating unique adventures that make it easy for you to get outside and leave the fear of the unknown behind. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.

A Chicago native, Autumn Merritt, has been a boss since she was a teenager, from managing a coffee shop to running a streetwear store...getting the job done with quality and intention was always her priority. In 2007, Autumn opened up a boutique with her husband originally named Solemates (now Sir & Madame). And that's just the start of her journey, in our episode ahead we chat about being a business partner with your spouse, collaborations, moving cities, her new role as the Head of membership for Soho House, Cities Without Houses North America all while being a mom of 3 and never forgetting who Autumn the person is. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.

Today’s guest, Telsha Anderson-Boone, knew pretty early on in her career that she wanted to be her own boss and that fashion would play a major factor. While figuring out what that business would be, Telsha worked just about everywhere from Hypebeast to Food and Wine, and even stopping at Atlantic Records for a stint. While she was tapped into the world culturally, all that would go into creating T.A. In 2020, Telsha had plans to open the T.A. brick-and-mortar shop, but like most plans in 2020, covid changed everything. But let's hear her tell it.  Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses.  From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more.  Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.

With parents that battled addiction, today’s guest Kiauna “Kee” Nelson, was always an independent kid. Her life took multiple turns from spending time in a gang to a short jail stint. Ultimately, Kee knew she wanted more than that life. At 31, Kee enrolled with college with ambitions of opening a food cart. With the help of little herbal refreshment, the #Loaded menus were born. A hustler by nature, she was selling plates out of her apartment before she got the truck. Tune in to hear a more about Kee and her journey to opening Kee's #Loaded Kitchen all while being unapologetically herself. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams Shop Claim A Seat product collaboration with MiiR at www.claimastories.com. $5 of every product sold will benefit our non-profit partner, All Hands Raised.  And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.

A lifelong lover of museums, Kimberly Drew's entry into the working world of art started with creating a Tumblr page dedicated to Black art and culture called Black Contemporary Art. The page immediately took off and helped her land a social media manager gig at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Entering the space through her digital experience helped Kimberly fulfill her goal of bringing art to a wider audience, reinvigorating and diversifying the MET's digital presence. After leaving her post at the MET, she decided to focus on the intersection of art and commerce eventually releasing her own book, This is What I Know About Art and co-authoring Black Futures. Today, Kimberly continues her work as an author while also being the curator at world reknown Pace Gallery. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.

Growing up in a traditional Ethiopian household while living in California, Meymuna Hussein-Cattan often found herself balancing many identities. From coaching friends on what to expect when they came over to her home to compartmentalizing her worlds and finding solace through writing poetry. She eventually took all those identities and found her purpose running the Tiyya Foundation, a non-profit she founded with her mom now providing economic and educational opportunities for families of refugees, immigrants, and indigenous communities. As her work with Tiyya grew, she was inspired to create connection to that work through a culinary lens. Today, Meymuna owns Flavors from Afar, a restaurant concept that pairs a different refugee/asylum seeker each month with their head chef to create an authentic, restaurant quality menu focused on bringing traditional cultural dishes to the public. Flavors from Afar received a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2022 and has been named LA Times' 101 Best Restaurants in LA for the last two years. Co-Founder of Claima and Former Nike Marketer, Bimma Williams interviews leading and emerging creatives and entrepreneurs of color about how they were able to build their own tables by turning their hobbies, side hustles, and ideas into thriving small businesses. From these stories, listeners will learn how to claim their dream careers by stepping into the world of entrepreneurship. Featuring Melody Ehsani, Dapper Dan, Jeff Staple, Karleen Roy and more. Follow Claima Stories and Bimma Williams on Instagram: @claimastories and @bimmawilliams And watch us Youtube powered by Vista. Vista is proud to be your go-to design and marketing partner for small business owners across the world. Use code CLAIMASTORIES at check-out on www.vistaprint.com to receive 20% off your next order of $75 or more plus free standard shipping.