On this episode of Behind Her Empire, "I am a voter" Creator and Co-founder Mandana Dayani shares how she reinvented herself through multiple career pivots and how her childhood experiences have influenced her desire to make an impact.
Dayani was born in Iran during the Iraq-Iran War. At a young age, she and her family moved to the United States seeking freedom and eventually settled in Los Angeles. The sacrifices of her parents were not lost on Dayani and she later learned to appreciate the feeling of safety she felt while with her parents.
Years later, it was that same feeling that inspired the launch of I am a voter, after witnessing the horrors of the child separation policies at the border.
“I think so many years later, what pushed me to start I’m a voter was that parallel,” Dayani said. “My second daughter was born and I was on parental leave and I was in bed with her and I watched for the first time that footage of when the child separation happens, and it just brought so viscerally back the memory of like holding my mom’s hand and being like we’re going to be ok because my mom’s here.”
I am a voter is a national, nonpartisan voting organization that aims to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement based in Los Angeles.
In 2018, Dayani gathered 20 women she worked with throughout the course of her career who were also passionate about increasing voter turnout, to help her start the organization.
Dayani admitted that she had doubts about whether or not her colleagues would be receptive to the idea, but each person she reached out to immediately jumped onboard and believed in her vision. Little did she know that her passion project turned out to be so much bigger.
As a child of an immigrant family, Dayani said she was raised to choose a career between a doctor or a lawyer. She decided to go to law school and eventually started her career as a corporate attorney at Paul Hastings. But she soon realized law wasn’t for her.
“I didn't look at anyone and wanted their jobs,” she said. “I didn't feel like anyone understood me. You know, when you kind of can just tell when this is not where you're supposed to be.”
Despite the expectations set upon her by her parents, Dayani knew she wanted to do something that was fulfilling.
While many might think a career change is intimidating, she said that anything is possible just so long as you are willing to work really hard and “there’s no reason why you can’t move into another career.”
During her exploratory phase, Dayani spent a month and half sitting down with people who she thought had unique and interesting jobs so she could learn more about career possibilities in different industries.
“I wasn't even asking them for a job,” she said. “Which made them want to sit with me even more.”
Eventually, she found herself working as a talent agent for a fashion agency before joining Rachel Zhou Inc, where Dayani had led the company's consumer products, media and strategic investment businesses. Six years later she switched her career again, as chief brand officer for Everything But The House, where she helped raise 84 million in venture capital.
Three years later, Dayani took all of her experience, skills and network and launched I am a voter.
“Our organization's completely nonpartisan,” Dayani said. “We work with hundreds of brands and influencers and communities around the country and it's just meant to be a very inclusive, inviting space. We've tried to create all these tools for people to use so that people can post their own registration drives within their companies and so kind of taking something that wasn't always accessible to everybody and trying to figure out how to bring them more into mainstream consciousness.”
With a wide array of job titles under her belt, Dayani believes that sometimes being an “outsider” in an industry is actually a gift.
“I always felt that I dove into jobs that I really had no experience or expertise in,” Dayani said. “But I knew that I would do whatever it took to figure it out and I like learning. I liked the immersion. And honestly, looking back on my career, I feel like the fact that I was always a bit of an outsider helped me. I feel like I was able to enter these industries with a very outside perspective.”
dot.LA Reporter Decerry Donato contributed to this post.
This podcast is produced by Behind Her Empire. The views and opinions expressed in the show are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of dot.LA or its newsroom.
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