Meet Karen Aroh

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karen Aroh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Karen, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

At Maya, we try our best to keep our focus on our mission, which is serving and empowering the refugee and international women in our local community and staying true to our brand. While we do focus heavily on our designs and branding, the why behind what we do remains central. We can and do learn a lot from other brands, but it always has to come back to our why, because if we’re constantly looking to the left and right at how everyone else is running their race, it can distract us from running in our lane and serving those we feel called to serve through our non-profit.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Sixteen years ago, a refugee invited me to her apartment for tea. It was there that I learned about her life as a refugee where she lived in a camp in Nepal for 20 years. Her and her family had to survive with limited food and resources and still had these struggles once they were in Louisville. I met her friends and their families and learned so many refugee families have these same struggles and needed a source of income to help their families. This inspired me to do something to make a difference in their lives.

MAYA Collection was birthed out of that need to equip refugee women for long-term success. The women learn how to sew and create one-of-a-kind products including a variety of sewing items, jewelry and leather goods that are sold locally. We not only employ, equip and empower them, we also walk alongside of them and help with various things that might be difficult because of language barriers or just hard being that they are in a different country. Many of our women have had their first job at MAYA Collection!

MAYA has went from a living room to operating in a church basement to our very own stand-alone studio and shop that is opening this fall! As a non-profit ministry, we have gotten to see God grow and bless us as we simply show up to love our neighbor. We have a passion for our local refugee and international women and are excited for this next season in our new space with all new products!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Number one is to use what you have right where you are. We underestimate how much we can do with what we already have, even if that something is small. It might be slower than you want or take longer, but slow growth isn’t a bad thing. I used the resources available to me, my skills, and those around me who were willing to help and believed in our vision and built from there.

Secondly, we hear this a lot so it can lose its luster, but keep the main thing the main thing, whatever your main thing is. You have to have a why behind whatever your doing. Our why, our focus, our main thing drives everything else we do. If you don’t have a reason why you’re doing something, you get easily distracted by everyone around you doing what they are doing.

Lastly, and this kind of goes with number one, everyone has a skill or talent, something they have been given, or has been developed through their own unique experience in life. Start there. And everyone can learn something if they want to. Use both your unique gifts and talents and in the areas you need more growth or knowledge, go learn that. But we are all good at something, even if that something isn’t as flashy as we might like. Use that!

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

At Maya, our biggest area of growth over this year has been trusting the process. We have grown in the last two years in almost every area. That can be a hard adjustment at times, hiring more employees, more artisans, and adding more shops to our wholesale list. All of it has been a huge blessing while also stretching me and us as a team and a brand as we take on more orders and a whole new studio and shop!

Through the challenges, we have trusted the right doors to open and the wrong ones to close and that has led us to the right place for our future where we will be better able to serve the women in our community that we are called to serve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mayacollection.org
• Instagram: @mayalouisville
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayalouisville

Image Credits

Jill Nissen, Dayra Esparrza