"Positive change happens in small moments"

👋🏾Hi, Benjy here. Sound familiar? Meet our Senior Consultant!

Get to know the faces behind Hustle Crew! Our incredible group of experienced consultants are dedicated to making your workplace, and your world more inclusive.

Meet Benjy Kusi Assoc CIPD, Hustle Crew consultant, Content Creator and soon-to-be published author. Benjy is known as @benjy_lookbook on TikTok with over 200,000 followers!

Tell us about yourself, where did you start?

I’m an inclusion and well-being consultant and content creator from South London.

My mission is to equip and empower people to make a positive difference in their lives and the lives of others. I previously worked in advertising, as a media planner at a leading global media agency for several years. I am now blessed to be working as a consultant with Hustle Crew, to help our amazing clients and subscriber base achieve their DEI goals.

I also create helpful educational content on TikTok (@benjy_lookbook) that shows people how to be more inclusive and practice self-care in their day-to-day. As a content creator, I have worked with global organisations such as Google, Greenpeace, LinkedIn, and more, on purpose-led campaigns. I was also named by DAZED as an “icon in the making” this year and as a “2021 voice for change” by TikTok.

Why did you get into diversity and inclusion work in the first place?

While working in media, I started an intersectional employee resource group at my agency, with some other colleagues who were also from underrepresented groups. We felt that we didn’t have a voice and that our experiences were being overlooked and deprioritised. The group became a haven and a powerful tool that we used to drive awareness and achieve tangible positive changes in our organisation.

I loved being able to have such a direct positive impact. I also quickly became aware while doing this work, that many of the challenges members of the group and I were facing was not unique, but unfortunately very common. So I decided to enrol in an HR course, hoping to one day have the power and ability to make other organisations safer and more inclusive places to work for people like me - the rest is history.

What has been most rewarding? What’s been the most challenging?

The most rewarding thing for me is when I hear that someone has been able to take something from a conversation we had, or advice that I shared, and apply it in their day-to-day. I am a strong believer that positive change happens in small moments. As we say at Hustle Crew, every decision we make can either help or hinder equality. So being able to help someone make a decision in favour of equality, equity, and ultimately justice is so rewarding.

The most challenging thing about this work is the mental wear. There is so much power and value that can be found in the sharing of lived experiences and the centring of voices that exist at the margins. However, the labour involved in unpacking such experiences of marginalisation can be heavy and painful for those who have them. This is why I’m such a strong believer that self-care is a necessary act of self-preservation for marginalised folk, rather than a nice-to-have. We need and deserve care, and this is a truth I try to practice for myself as much as I preach it to others.

What’s one quote you live by?

“What is for you won’t pass you by”.

This is a helpful reminder that everything in the world that is meant for my life, is already mine. I just have to have patience while I wait. Not only is this helpful when things don’t go my way, but it also makes practising gratitude a lot easier. Because everything that I have now is meant for me, and in many cases, the things I have now are things that I once longed and dreamed for.

This can be easy to forget. We tend to miss out on our blessings when we spend time coveting the blessings of others or dwelling on what we don’t have. So I try to ground myself in my present as much as possible, and remembering this quote is one of the ways that I do so.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a leader or manager trying to make a change in their workplace?

Remember to listen. Actively seek out people who have the capacity to share experiences and beliefs that are different from your own. Especially if they are people who you may not normally meet. We are all the Beyoncé of our own lives, at least I know I am! Which makes it easy to centre our experiences and beliefs as being the correct and only ones that exist and matter. The people we usually surround ourselves with also have the potential to simply reflect what we know and believe to be true.

If you are looking to make a positive change in your team and/or organisation, you need to be able to see past how things are, consider how things could be and make this a reality. You also need to be aware of the various needs that aren’t being addressed. This is easier to do if you have access to a wealth of different viewpoints and perspectives. As the saying goes, knowledge is power.

What are you reading, watching or listening to right now?

I’m currently proofing my debut book “Hope This Helps - how to be kinder to yourself and others”. It’s a helpful manual that unpacks how I believe we can best approach some of the issues that we encounter in our every day. Such as dealing with hate, having to apologise, and challenging prejudice. It’s out on February 2nd, 2023 and you can preorder it here.

I’ve also just finished watching season one of the new psychological thriller Severance. It explores the notion of work-life balance and features an evil company who have discovered a way to split people’s memories so their work self is completely separate from their out-of-work self. It’s sold as an attractive opportunity for balance but actually results in the creation of an imprisoned workforce that can be used at will from 9-5. Aside from being gripping television, it speaks to the dangers of putting the onus of care on individuals. The people in the show wouldn’t have been pushed to have such an invasive procedure just to achieve balance in their lives if they felt sufficiently cared for. It’s so important that we all do our bit to help build, nurture, and advocate for support structures that protect the most vulnerable among us.

Want to learn more about Benjy or working with Hustle Crew?

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