Meet Zakiyyah Smith | A Certified Reiki Master & Operations Consultant

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

Hi Zakiyyah, what is the most important factor behind your success?
What is the most important factor behind your success / the success of your brand?

The most important factor behind the success of Kismet Honey is the community.

We believe that self care and community care are tools for social justice that helps us to move from surviving to thriving within systems and spaces that overwork, mistreat, and penalize us for showing up as our natural selves.

When we launched in April of 2020 our goal was to hold space for our community to better manage stress, release tension from their bodies, and have a better understanding and control of their energy.

We have built our community by sharing our mental health journeys, modeling self care and connecting people to resources.

Through partnerships and community we were able to:

Offer free and low cost reiki sessions
Hosted two long weekend retreats
Regularly vend at the Blackoutlet
And expanded our offerings to include sound meditations, facilitations, and events.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I work as an operations consultant supporting small business owners with social media strategy, filming/content creation, and organizational structure. I worked as an Operations manager for several years and have created a live stream series, facilitated trainings and created content for nonprofits. I have worked with social justice and race focused organizations to lead dialogues to bridge communities and create common ground.

What sets me apart is that I bring a creative and social equity lense to my operations work. As a virgo I am naturally a logistical thinker, but I kind of fell into operations as a career. I was interviewing at a company for a Program Manager role and was brought onto the HR & Operations team instead.

At first operations seemed like it was boring and I found ways to incorporate creativity while doing it. Along the way I found my niche and learned to be intentional about who I work with. Right now I am focusing on using discovery calls and working with a client for a set period of time and then assessing if we are a good fit for each other.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would go for a morning hike at Los Liones Canyon Trail lead by @followthrough_fitness Afterwards we would stop by Hot and Cool Cafe for a Golden Milk Latte and a vegan pastry.

We would walk around Leimert park looking at the art and shops and pick up a few health and beauty items from Nappily Naturals & Apothecary

For lunch I would take them to A Family Affair Southern Cuisine @afamilyaffair5575. If they are vegan I would take them to Crystals Soul Cafe @crystals_soul_cafe

Next time they are in town we would rent bikes in Marina Del Rey and ride along the beach on the Marvin Braude bike path.

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?
My shoutout goes to my business partner and friend turned family Ebony Robinson. Ebony is a certified personal trainer/fitness nutrition specialist, a life coach, and is completing her M.A in Psychology at Pepperdine. Without Ebony there would be no Kismet Honey. Ebony turned our thoughts and ideas into action.

We met at a workshop led by Camari Carter-Hawkins called “Write Back to You”. The workshop included a guided journal created to help folks write themselves back into their lives through self-discovery, self-awareness, and mindfulness.

During the session I shared two things. One wanting to leave my job of 5 years to do consulting, and two throwing a self care/community care themed birthday to expose my friends and family to wellness practices. Ebony shared that she wanted to plan wellness themed events, but she hadn’t had enough support.

Ebony and I started working together immediately. I provided operations support for her personal training business and she helped facilitate my 30th birthday party. I left my unfulfilling job and we walked together once a week for several months.

We discovered that we were both interested in reiki as a self care tool for ourselves in the midst of the stress and uncertainty at the start of the pandemic

We trained together to become Reiki practitioners and launched Kismet Honey to bring healing to our community.

Website: https://kismethoney.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakiyyahsmith/

Image Credits
Midas Touch