Social Media Stars Making a Social Impact: Why & How Murad Nofal & Mustafa Mabruk of Wear The Peace Are Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
Mustafa Mabruk: Recently we visited a refugee camp in Jordan and we met two amazing young boys. Both of them had hearing impairments since birth and had trouble hearing which led to further development issues. We were able to work with a charity to help raise funds for hearing aids for many of the families in the camp. The two boys, Muhammad and Fakher, got new hearing aids and were able to hear much clearer than before which will help them advance in their education and life. It is truly a blessing to be able to see the difference that we can make through our business.
As a part of my series about leaders who are using their social media platform to make a significant social impact, I had the pleasure of interviewing Murad Nofal and Mustafa Mabruk.
Wear The Peace was founded by Murad Nofal and Mustafa Mabruk. The Company’s mission is to contribute to creating a world that does not face the humanitarian issues that it does today, a future where days of lacking access to food and clean drinking water and living through warzones are things of the past. Each purchase of clothing from Wear The Peace results in a donation of a piece of clothing to someone in need. The Company also donates 100% of profits from all accessories for sale on their site to charities that assist in aiding various humanitarian causes around the world.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
In 2014, I visited one of the largest refugee camps in the world, the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. I saw the horrendous situation of the overpopulated camp that was slowly showing signs of becoming a permanent residency for many of these people. My great grandparents still live in a refugee camp in Jordan that, through the years, sprung into a town filled with little supermarkets, barbershops, grocery stores, etc. Being exposed to these types of realities had me asking myself, why some people have to live like this?
Why is it that the place someone is born determines their quality of life? I was a 17-year-old kid at the time but I pondered these questions for many years to come. In 2016, Wear The Peace was started after Mustafa and I sat down and began to brainstorm ideas of being able to give back and spread awareness through the clothing industry. In January of 2022, we both were able to visit refugee camps in Jordan and document living conditions for ourselves. It was a very eye-opening experience and brought me back to 2014 when I first visited a refugee camp. It’s much different researching and spreading awareness about the conditions and the lifestyle in a refugee camp and actually being there, witnessing, communicating, and getting a taste of how refugees actually live day to day. (Murad Nofal)
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
I think one of the most interesting things that happened that really shocked us was three years in, we had an Instagram post that went viral, and this brought us a lot of attention all at once. One of my favorite soccer players, Mario Gotze, ended up following us because of the campaign along with big-time celebrities around the world and it felt awesome to be recognized. It’s crazy to think that I’ve put in hundreds of hours into making posts and spreading awareness to those whose voices are ignored and that it only took one of those posts for us to be recognized. (Murad Nofal)
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the funniest mistakes that we had early on in the business happened the first time we got a huge influx of orders. We launched our LOVE bracelets and were featured on a popular Snapchat account. We had over 100 orders for that 1 bracelet and we wanted to maximize shipping costs since we were selling the products on sale. We decided to send the bracelets in regular envelopes with postage stamps instead of sending them in bubble mailers, which we normally do. The result of this was horrendous, so many people either did not receive the package or the bracelet was damaged because it was not in a bubble mailer. We had to resend those packages to the people whose packages were affected and dealt with so many angry customers because of this mishap.
We learned to never cut corners when it comes to our customers. We obviously try to save costs because at the end of the day that helps us donate more to people in need, but if we can’t make our customers happy, we end up spending more money trying to resolve the issue. We now look back at this and laugh, but at the time we were stressed with how many emails we had to get back to and how many packages we had to resend. (Mustafa Mabruk)
You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
My number one piece of advice for anyone trying to pursue their dream is to look at failures as lessons. No one is perfect and everyone fails, what sets aside success and failure is the way you look at it. You can learn a lesson from every experience in your life, if you look at obstacles with a positive perspective you will get through them much easier and have less emotional/mental fatigue from failures. (Mustafa Mabruk)
I agree with Mustafa, It’s all about perspective. You can either see an “L” as a loss or a lesson. I would say our “L’s” have been what has made us grow the most. (Murad Nofal)
Ok super. Let’s now jump to the core focus of our interview. Can you describe to our readers how you are using your platform to make a significant social impact?
We use our platform in three ways. We use our social media to spread awareness about issues around the world such as the refugee crisis, the water crisis, famine, etc, and advise people on what charities are actually helping and where their money should be going.
Our second way of creating a social impact is with our initiatives. We donate a brand new article of clothing for every piece sold as well as specific initiatives per item such as the Water Drop necklace which 100% of profits are donated to provide 1,500 gallons of clean water to a family in need for every necklace purchased.
Our third way is through the clothing we design. We make clothing that reminds people of love, of equality, and the importance of taking a stand when something is not right. We like to call it walking activism. We believe it is vital for companies like ours to take the initiative of being on the front lines of humanitarian work and educating the public. (Murad Nofal)
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted by this cause?
Recently we visited a refugee camp in Jordan and we met two amazing young boys. Both of them had hearing impairments since birth and had trouble hearing which led to further development issues. We were able to work with a charity to help raise funds for hearing aids for many of the families in the camp. The two boys, Muhammad and Fakher, got new hearing aids and were able to hear much clearer than before which will help them advance in their education and life. It is truly a blessing to be able to see the difference that we can make through our business. (Mustafa Mabruk)
Was there a tipping point that made you decide to focus on this particular area? Can you share a story about that?
The tipping point to starting this business was wanting to do something that meant something to us. When the idea was beginning to blossom, we both were working and going to school full-time. I was selling suits and organizing belts and shirts throughout my day and Mustafa was selling phones and signing people up for Internet plans. Our jobs did not bring us joy or meaning. We knew we could create a venture with a mission that could bring about change. I work way more than I did back then, but at the end of the day, with all the people this journey has blessed me to meet and all of the impact that I remind myself we have made, I sleep happier. (Murad Nofal)
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
I think communities, society, and politicians have a huge impact when it comes to social causes. The first thing they can begin/continue doing is educating people. When we spread awareness about different causes like the refugee crisis, people are more receptive to helping those people in need or are more likely to donate when they understand the problems that refugees face. Moreso, I think politicians can start to advocate for bigger humanitarian budgets, as the biggest issue many people face is a lack of financial stability which leads to poor living conditions.
Lastly, I think leaders and societies should lead more philanthropy work within their communities; volunteering at food shelters, helping build homes for the homeless, and assisting with raising funds for the less fortunate; to name off a few. (Mustafa Mabruk)
What specific strategies have you been using to promote and advance this cause? Can you recommend any good tips for people who want to follow your lead and use their social platform for a social good?
We utilize social media to spread awareness of major crises around the world. Most of our social media is actually not product-oriented, we utilize the platform to highlight stories of people affected by a crisis. We want to educate people on what is happening all around the world, it is very easy to be confined in your own life/community that you miss what is going on in other places around the world, and that is what we are here for, to spread awareness. (Mustafa Mabruk)
I think some specific strategies are to always stay up to date with what’s going on around the world. It’s a privilege to not have to be up to date on global events but it’s something we believe that everyone has a responsibility to be educated about. Be on top of the global events that are happening and do your research before bringing this information out to the public. We try to stay out of politics as much as we can and just focus on the people affected by conflicts and how we can help them.
Another strategy is to capture people’s emotions because it’s proven that people respond when you tug at their heartstrings, and this is needed to make people care about situations and help them empathize and understand the circumstances others are in.
One last strategy I’ll leave you with is to promote individual stories of people facing crises, make the reader feel like they know this person. Storytelling is important because it brings back the human element to these crises that we sometimes forget is there. (Murad Nofal)
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Things I wish someone told me before I start a business are:
- Everything you do requires some type of research. Unfortunately, there is no ultimate guide to starting a business. Everything whether small or big requires some type of research. We learned a lot just by utilizing the search engines on the Internet for things like website design, taxes, marketing, and so much more.
- Not everything you do will be successful. It is easy to think that every project you choose to take on will come out perfect, but that is not the case. For every success, there are at least 5 failures. It takes time to find something that works, the key is to stay consistent.
- You need to plan everything that you do. We utilize calendars and organizational apps to plan our days/weeks/months. We found that if you write things down and set deadlines it is more likely to get done, and you minimize the risk of something going wrong.
- Keep records of everything. When you analyze data or find significant research it is important to record it and have it easily available for future use. By doing this you are saving time locating valuable information and reducing the risk of repeating tasks.
- Be organized! Having organized and labeled folders in your computer will save you tons of time. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent trying to locate a file on my computer before I started to organize everything. It may take time to set this type of system up, but it will eventually save time in the long run. (Mustafa Mabruk)
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
If we could inspire a huge movement to bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, we would start an “Online Do-Good Campaign”. The campaign would be to do something that helps another person, whether it is volunteering or just simply helping a neighbor. Then they would share it on their social media accounts to motivate others and ask their friends to do the same.
We have seen similar campaigns in the past, like our favorite YouTube channel “Yes Theory”, where they asked their followers to do an act of good and they choose 5 people to accompany them on a trip. They really sparked a movement that got a ton of people involved. If we can bring this many people together to do something good, it can ultimately normalize doing good for someone else in people’s daily lives and that can make a huge impact. (Mustafa & Murad)
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite life lesson quote is simple: “Every day may not be good. But there’s good in every day”. Every day is different and there will always be challenging days, but we are blessed to be living every day. There are many people in the world living in worse conditions than us and we have to be thankful that we have the ability to live comfortable lives. One of the most rewarding things in my life is being able to give back to people in need. If I know I was able to affect someone even on a bad day for me, it means that I was able to find the good in that day. (Mustafa Mabruk)
A life lesson I try to live by is to understand that life comes in waves that we cannot control. So much good and bad has happened in my personal and work life in the past 6 years that were not in my control. I’ve lost loved ones, I’ve met amazing people, I’ve made decisions that almost made us lose our business and I’ve made decisions that have helped it to flourish. Learning from the past instead of regretting what has passed is my best mindset and understanding and accepting that the future is not in my control brings peace to my mind. I understand if something that I want does not happen, then it was never written for me, and I also understand that if something that I don’t want enters my life, then there is something to cultivate from it. (Murad Nofal)
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I’ve been a football (real football) fan my entire life, so if there is someone, I’d love to have breakfast with, it’s Cristiano Ronaldo. I’ve been watching him since I was a child and have seen his successes and his failures. I’ve seen his mentality through it all. I’ve seen how much he values his family and at the same time pursues what he loves the most. I’ve listened to his interviews and interviews of his teammates of how hungry he is to be the best at what he does. That consistency of his mentality is something I strive for. Meeting him and being able to speak to him would be amazing, (make it happen, Medium 😂!).
How can our readers further follow your work online ?
We can be found on every social media via @wearthepeace . Our business site is www.wearthepeace.com .
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
