Hello and welcome back to redirected my name is Andrew East and this is a show where we sit down with celebrities at least entrepreneurs really anybody who has experienced a pivot or change in life.

At some point or another we all go through them and so I wanted to sit down with people who have made it through these changes well to Gleen Wisdom for myself and share that wisdom with you.

We hope to do so in an entertaining educational and maybe a little bit inspirational style and today we sit down with as part of our Forbes 30 for 30 series Umama Kibria and Umama has a really cool story.

She is the founder of sweat pack which is a platform that connects people to group workouts and sports leagues and she talks about the importance of accountability in a group setting and how that can help us achieve fitness goals or whatever other goals we're pursuing.

Umama has a pretty impressive story where she talks about how her parents were not the biggest fans of what she has been building and she talks about how she's been able to solve so many problems whether that's being a non technical co founder of a software app and the unique challenges to come with that or dealing with her parents resistance.

She has some good things to share I'm honored that she joined us and this is a part of the Forbes 30 for 30 series where we sit down with these young passionate um visionary people so before we jump into it if you haven't given the show a rating or subscribe to it please do so on whatever platform we're listening to let's go ahead and jump into this one with Umama Kibria Umama thank you so much for joining it's a pleasure to have you on the show.

Thank you so much for having me Andrew so excited.

First of all I got to say the energy that I have seen you portray and all of your interviews today has been so much fun so I'm just really excited that you were able to bring that on our show and I love to start off just by if you could lay the foundation for where you came from essentially the potted version of of how you got to where you are right now.

Absolutely well guys I think it all starts with my name it's a little peculiar to start with umama the root of it actually means community so it's like it was like my god give the purpose to be this community leader that brings people together and I've always done that in clubs and organizations but it wasn't until I found fitness after college that was truly able to figure out.

Okay, this is my way to give back to the world by connecting people getting them active because I know as you guys know as athletes when people learn how to commit to a routine they become game changing leaders that disrupt the world and I know my platform sweat pack and my personal brand small and strong are always to help people get to that mission.

I would love for you this shows all about pivotal moments in people's lives and I understand that you experienced one shortly after college kind of a hard time if you could walk us through that and how that changed your direction.

Of course you know after college they kind of throw you out into the real world and don't really give you much directions as far as trying to figure out who you are, who your friends are and what type of work is really fulfilling your purpose.

So I found myself Friday night 10 p.m. here crying in the shower thinking okay my life sucks my boyfriend sucks my friend suck and I suck and I have this moment of thinking okay well this is the reality but what are you going to do about it.

And so I had this workout guide called BBG and I was like all right you know what screw everything else I'm going to figure out this fitness thing because it is the one thing I have total control over and then after I figured that out I'll figure everything else out.

So I started doing burpees in my room 10 p.m. on a Friday night and I haven't stopped working out since then but really it's that athlete mindset I learned that if you learn how to take control of something that is totally in your realm then you will gain psychological momentum to showcase that I work in your personal relationships and then just your future goals.

So I've definitely gone through a lot of pivots from you know being kicked out of my family losing my job having to go to therapy and all this but all those moments of learning how to trust myself and follow through have always shown up for me.

What is your athletic background?

I actually played sorority flag football I'm a mean defensive end so definitely don't underestimate ball and strong 17 sacks in one season and I just learned that you know an athlete is just really anyone that's active and learns how to commit to working with other people.

So I definitely didn't have that upbringing but it wasn't until after college I joined sports leagues and that's really where I started gaining my athleticism in the gym and on the field.

So you just mentioned a pretty substantial list of difficult things that you would experience in life I think that the the scariness of walking into a new phase especially after college or high school or whatever you begin your career is absolutely terrifying for a lot of people I experienced it and I'm curious what do you attribute your ability to

not have let's call it a victim mindset of oh my gosh these this is so difficult and I got kicked out of my family and this happened bad to me and like the wallowing in the pity how did you overcome that because that's a huge skill in a tremendous quality.

Yeah well thank you and it took a lot of down points to recognize this but my biggest three big things number one is self awareness that is one of the key drivers if you are aware of your actions and can take ownership for them then honestly we can get through anything that just comes with resilience and going out and seeking the resources but that's really the second thing I may bang all you must some American first generation.

...