Earlier this year I heard Poonam Dhuffer speak about YSM8 and how the brand moved from supper clubs to meditation, always focusing on community. She instantly stood out to me for how true to herself the brand was and her ability to pivot in a pandemic.

Since then, YSM8 has continued to grow with more workshops, talks and courses online, as well as moving into consultancy for companies and mental health charities.

Speaking to Poonam was such an inspiring experience. It was emotional as she reflected on achievements during the past year. This is an amazing journey lead by passion, warmth and bringing people together – something we all need right now.

What is YSM8 and how would you describe what you do?

Poonam: YSM8 is a community platform because we believe at YSM8 that it’s not just about self-care. In order for us to be well, we have to take care of other people and in order for us to be able to take of our communities we need to be well.

At YSM8 it’s about an ecosystem that is around community care and in the centre of community care sits self-care.

At YSM8 we host different workshops, talks, we do content creation and also consultancy – strategy and cultural insights for big brands, charities and schools. Everything we do, is to help people reframe their mindset from a negative mindset to a YSM8 mindset.

We show up with different facets or we all carry this baggage that we are not enough. What we say at YSM8 is that you are enough, but you just haven’t stepped into your power.

“I was like I’m just going to call it Yes Mate. It’s just so aligned to who I am.” – Poonam, Dhuffer, YSM8

And one thing that stood out to me was the story behind the name YSM8, can you tell us a bit about where that came from?

Poonam: I’m from South East London and I think that saying Yes Mate, it’s quite local to London. Especially when I was growing up at school it always be like “yes yes” or like “yes mate.” It’s that kind of warmth that comes with yes.

‘Yes’ is a universal word. It’s uplifting, it’s positive. For me, a lot of my friends that know me, when I message them on whatsapp or I talk to them, I’ll say hey but most of the time I say “yes mate.”

I remember at the beginning of setting up the super club and I had a few names. I was like I’m just going to call it Yes Mate. It’s just so aligned to who I am.

When we think about the word ‘Mate’ it means friendship. It means a relationship and the supper club started with me and my family. My best mates are my parents. It’s my mates at home, but with the supper club – they’re also my mates.

The number 8 has a deep spiritual significance. If we look at the number 8, it’s two equal circles. It’s the infinity sign. There’s no beginning there’s no end. And within Sikhism, we believe in this oneness. There’s no birth. There’s no end, where always surrounded by this higher divine force that actually interconnects us.

For me, what we do at YSM8 is creating those levels of friendship, of warmth, of family and essentially this sense of belonging. You’re coming home to that feeling.

It’s an uplifting affirmation and when I was going through panic attacks and I was going through quite a negative dark phase of my life the thing that I would always come back to was “Yes mate, you can do this.”

There’s a lot of deep significance to it. But essentially, it’s me as a brand.

As you said, you started with super clubs and now it’s a community platform with meditation and journaling workshops. How did that transition happen?

Poonam: We started with the supper clubs. The beginning of YSM8 was how do we nourish people through their bellies, through their physical selves.

At YSM8 we don’t use square edges. We’re quite fluid. Me sharing that facet of my family and my upbringing with other people who may not have encountered this Punjabi food or music. It was very much about nourishing the whole self and the physical self with the food and sounds.

Just before the pandemic hit, we were doing our ‘good stuff’ workshops, which were focused on building emotional intelligence and self-awareness. The supper clubs were a lot bigger: 60,70,100 people but the workshops were smaller.

Then, when the pandemic hit, we asked how do we transition from a supper club into a digital space. I think, if I had just kept the brand as just a supper club, I think it would have fallen flat on its face cause how would we translate that through a screen.

We started taking those workshops and those frameworks and using zoom to facilitate different talks, different workshops and a space for more self-reflection. Then I started bringing in more the meditation and then running meditation stuff on insta.

Things picked up quickly and there was a lot of engagement. Everything that we do, we asked, what does the community need and how can we support the community?

Now that we’re doing them online, we’ve had people join from Portland, Berlin, different parts of Sri Lanka and India, so it’s now opened up a wider community that engage with YSM8 through more of a holistic space.

Community has come up as so important through these interviews, as a community care brand, what is the importance of community to you right now?

Poonam: What this time has shown us is the importance of community and how important social interaction is for our wellbeing. When we feel isolated, we disconnect from ourselves so that connection that we have with other people is vital for us as human beings.

I think community has always been important. I think over the past, I don’t know how many years, we’ve actually forgotten the importance of that.

In Western Culture we’ve been taught about self-care and it’s very individualistic, especially within the wellness industry. I could be slightly generalising, but from a South Asian perspective and I’m sure a lot of marginalised communities, we’re taught about community care first.

For us, this isn’t anything new. But what has been interesting to see is that kind of dynamic shift for the wider community. This time has helped people access what is really important in their lives and how important people and that connection with people is.

“You’re not going to go from zero to hero and sit 60 minutes a day.” – Poonam Dhuffer, YSM8

And how do you think meditating, journaling and your wellness events are helping people in lockdown?

Poonam: I think it’s helping them massively. Even with meditation like there’s a lot of fluff. It can be quite intimidating for people, especially for people who haven’t really meditated or aren’t really aware of the benefits of meditation. I think there’s a lot of noise.

For us, it’s really about demystifying what those practices are. You’re not going to go from zero to hero and sit 60 minutes a day. Let’s be realistic, what’s the small things that we can implement every single day. That’s what we do in the workshops.

It’s giving people that space to pause and to recognise, actually me spending the first hour of my day scrolling on Instagram is actually not the best way to start my day. What could I try doing?

For me, it’s about breaking down and making it accessible for people to understand that this isn’t beyond your reach. You can do this, every single day. When people say I’ve read this book or I’ve saved these things on Instagram, brilliant then what? For me, intention is not good enough. If you’re still in that repetitive circle it doesn’t matter.

As you said about scrolling through Instagram. As YSM8 has a content creation arm, how do you balance your content?

Poonam: I’m very mindful about what am I putting out. Sometimes it’s there to inspire people, sometimes it’s there to educate people, and sometimes it is to cut the bullshit and for people to ask these questions for themselves.

Instagram isn’t therapy and I’m not a therapist– but for me, it’s how is our content serving our community. Everything that I share is a lived experience. It’s something that I’ve experienced before and I always write from the heart.

For me to maintain that balance of using social media I create my content and I schedule it. Before, when I started, I did get quite obsessed with it has to look this way. Now, because I’m juggling so much I literally I don’t have the capacity. It drains me so much, I schedule it, I put it in, and I come back to it.

In all honesty, it’s just a tool. It’s a very powerful tool but it’s important that you don’t become a slave to that tool. In order for me to do my real work like workshops and the talks– I have to be at full capacity and I have to be well rested.

It’s about maintaining that balance. I’ve been doing of a daily basis for the past five years or so I don’t look at social media before 10am. I don’t do it. That morning is for me to pause.

My morning routine sets my day. That morning routine is for me to do what I need to do. It’s really important and how I end my day is really important as well.

“But I’m clear that time is for Poonam, it’s not YSM8 time.” – Poonam Dhuffer, YSM8

And how do you balance juggling work and your own self care?

Poonam: I’ll be honest with you it has been difficult. Cause I’ve also recognised that my down time I would spend my time reading or listening to podcasts that go back to wellbeing. I’m fascinated by it and I’m always kind of immersed in it.

I’ve got back into knitting. I’ve missed doing things with my hands and that level of tactility. I’ve got back into scrap booking. I have so many photos on my phone and on my laptop which I’m printing off and I’m making scrap book albums and actually just switching off to anything to do with screens.

For me, it’s really important to not have any screen time in my downtime and just immerse in using my hands.

I’m on a book ban at the moment because I bought so many books, I do love reading. But I’m clear that time is for Poonam, it’s not YSM8 time. Just being very aware why I’m reading this.

Before this, I was very consumed in I have to do this. The balance wasn’t right and sometimes it’s still off.

I think that’s really important. You can get super consumed. There’s always a to do list. There’s always things to do but there are only so many hours in the day and there is only so much capacity I have, just like everyone else.

For someone ready this wanting to implement rest time, what little steps can they take?

Poonam: For me, definitely how do you start your morning? That’s the thing, people don’t want to put in that level of discipline that you have to have for yourself. That’s a level of self-care. For me to have the time I need, I wake up slightly earlier but that’s going to be more beneficial for me in the long run

It might be that you wake up 15 minutes earlier this week and then next week it’s half an hour, then the week after it’s an hour. Make it digestible.

Take a full lunch break. It’s something I need to get better at doing. I take half an hour and then go I need to do this. Even if it is half an hour, get off your screen, take your ear pods out and make something nice to eat. If you’re juggling several things is there a way that you can do a bit of meal prep before.

It’s also balancing. What is high priority, what is medium priority and what is low priority right now? If you see everything as high priority you will get burnt out. Sometimes you do need to take ten steps back to take that next step forward.

Work is just one facet of our life. It’s not the be all and end all.

“I think I’m just celebrating myself for putting my story out there and celebrating everything.” – Poonam Dhuffer, YSM8

What have you been proudest of achieving with YSM8 over the past year?

Poonam: What a question, can I say everything [laughs]. I don’t know if there’s one stand-alone thing for me.

Launching the website, last year, I built the whole thing and that was huge for me. I don’t think I’m that techy but I managed to smash out a website. That was a great celebration.

Launching the wellness zine, that was a mix between an insight report and zine. If that was in an agency, you’d have a team to design it, a team to check the copy, a team to do the research, but it was like literally just little old me. So really proud of that.

I think generally how we’ve adapted to the situation and how I’ve pivoted the business. I don’t really think of myself as an entrepreneur, but I guess I am.

This started as a supper club. I would never have thought when we started the supper club that I would be consulting for Nike or doing a workshop for Stylist or for Mind mental health charity.

I guess how we’re impacting people. That’s huge for me and how we’re impacting the community. How we’re continuing to grow and have that fluid approach.

I don’t honestly think there’s one thing. I think I’m just celebrating myself for putting my story out there and celebrating everything.

And what are you looking forward to when lockdown is over?

Poonam: Oh god, so many things. I’ve really missed, like so many people, is seeing people in real life. Seeing my mates, seeing my family. A lot of my family live quite close by so we’ve been doing like food drop offs and stuff but just hanging out and having a meal, enjoying people’s company.

Also just having that freedom to be out and about and visit art galleries and museums. I’ve loved being at home. I’m a real home body anyway. I’m saying it from a place of luxury cause I’m with my parents and with my brothers, but I’m looking forward to having some solo time.

I miss exploring. Whether it’s an art gallery; I love charity shops and going to boot fairs with my dad and I miss that level of rummage. That exploring and seeing what you’re going to find and be inspired.

I think for me my mates, my family and eating and cooking. I have a massive family, so cooking with my family.

For me what’s sad, is all my friends and relationship they’re always sealed with a meal. When we come out of lockdown, I’ve made so many wonderful connections with people and I want to cook for them. I might even do a mini supper club but let’s see.

Poonam has recently launched a 2-week Emotional Intelligence course with YSM8 and will have more community care events coming soon which will be announced via Instagram @_YSM8

Written By Lauren Waugh

@_LifeofLKW

Not thinking in boxes – An Interview with Poonam Dhuffer