Meet Elijah Clancy | Co-Owner, Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elijah Clancy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elijah, how do you think about risk?
Balancing risk across team members is always a tricky effort. Our shared business journey has been full of risky moves – like moving JOHI from a small town in upcountry Maui to the California central coast. Leasing a commercial workshop of more than double the size was a huge undertaking for us. Just as it was to equip the new workshop with machinery that could handle our manufacturing growth for the next few years. Running and scaling a business is full of risk. It can be scary. But formulating a plan, or at least an outline of one, helps us test ideas and grow in sometimes unexpected ways.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
JOHI was born in 2019 in Maui, Hawaiʻi, where there is strong community support for locally made goods – for home, personal fashion, cuisine, and more. Raja was a tech-oriented product designer by day, and during his free time could be found making hardwood furniture commissions in the garage. Holly was growing as a strategic project manager for nonprofits and businesses in the islands. They established JOHI to celebrate home as an increasingly multicultural space and often multigenerational experience.

I managed furniture production at a company in Chicago and I also had a small homeware brand prior to joining JOHI. I joined the team in 2023 as a partner, at a time when the business was niching down its product offerings. The process of working together to evolve JOHI’s vision for the future has been exciting. We all get to stay involved in every aspect of the business — design, manufacturing, marketing — which brings a uniqueness to every day. Our greatest strength lies in the diverse ethnic and educational backgrounds of our team. We are a Hawaiian-American-Arab owned business with expertise from mechanical engineering to product and interior design.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Being based in the Santa Cruz area, it would be great to show friends around South County! Watsonville doesn’t get as much attention from visitors to the coast, but there are so many hidden gems. An ideal day would start off with a coffee from Honeylux Coffee, just a few minutes from our workshop. We’d also have to snag a few of the pastries they sell (from Companion Bakery – so good). Once fueled up, we’d make our way over Elkhorn Slough Reserve . For lunch, we could head over to the Corralitos Market for sausage or tri-tip sandwiches.. Finally, it’d be time to wrap up the day with a beer at The Slough Brewing Collective (just one building over from us!). They often have amazing local food trucks stationed out front.

Some honorable mentions –

Outdoor activities: Pajaro Dunes, Mt. Madonna County Park, Byrne-Milliron Forest

Eat & Drink: Gizdich Ranch for their famous pies and fresh fruit (you can pick your own), Taqueria Los Pericos for burritos, Slice Project for pizza. Fruition Brewery (oysters and micheladas), Friday’s Farmer Market in Downtown Watsonville. Nicholson Vineyard in Corralitos or Windy Oaks Winery (stellar view of Monterey Bay from the Santa Cruz mountains above Corralitos).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Elijah: My wife! She has supported me through the best of times and the worst of times. Building a business takes a lot of dedication, and her encouragement and belief in our mission has been invaluable.

Holly: Sae Design Group – this amazing boutique branding team mentored me through so much before I left to establish JOHI. They nurtured my interest in growing purposeful businesses and programs. They taught me that small teams from small places can truly make big things happen.

Raja: There are lots of family members who deserve a shoutout. We really would not be here without the family support we’ve had – moral support, lending a helping hand in the shop, or even running a pop-up with us when needing a bit of extra elbow grease. In the early days, some of our top customers were family members who believed in our products. Thanks, moms, dads, siblings, cousins, and all!

Website: https://hellojohi.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellojohi

Image Credits
Daniel Gorostieta