 Good morning to you. It is Wednesday and it is a holiday. It is Jamhurri Day. Make sure you let us know how you are celebrating Jamhurri Day. Our handles on social media are at Y254 channel on Twitter. The hashtag is YKLisha hashtag Y in the morning. On Facebook we are at Y254. On Instagram we are at Y254 underscore channel. And on YouTube. Just in case you missed any of the valuable insight here, we are at Y254 channel. And it's about the time we delve into strength of a woman. And I will be standing in for Bairim Muses. My name is Hilda Wadidi. And we will be discussing, or rather, we will be talking to a lady who is not only a founder of one, two, but a founder of quite a couple of companies. We have Miss Clean Domestic and Office Solutions Limited, Financial Freedom 254. She is a motivational speaker and entrepreneur. And I just want her to say good morning to you. And tell us her name. Thank you so much once again for here, for myself today, this morning. And a happy 50-50 birthday Kenyans together with us. My one thing about today is that independence is a mindset. And I believe that's what we're going to discuss here today. My name is Caroline Gina. We run a cleaning company called Miss Clean Domestic and Office Solutions Limited, which is 10 years old. And this is a business that was started with no capital. I believe we shall discuss that about that later. And especially that's no capital. And Financial Freedom 254, which is a school of money that I'm very interested about because I love money. And I love looking for money and getting it the right way. And I'm also a mentor because, of course, having come from a very humble background and having gone through so many challenges in life and having made it through, then I thought it is very important for me to inspire other many youths. And I must say I'm born again and I'm a church leader as well. This is my 7th year serving in church and serving in business forum where we have so many young people that continuously been mentoring. And I'm currently writing a book about our best version of you and that is living the best space and best things that you can do in your life and not limiting the version of you. It appears they have a lot cut out for me today because I wonder what she has it all figured out. I don't even know what I'm going to ask you anymore. However, she did share with me something I found very interesting. So before we talk about independence and financial freedom and getting money the right way, I'd just like to understand. She told me that she has not owned a TV for six years. And I'm just wondering, okay, why haven't you owned a TV? We are on TV and she's been on TV so many times over the years and you don't own a TV. Why? Well, I believe as much as we want to enjoy life and live like every other person and I believe a TV is like a standard procedure for almost every home. For me, I wanted something different. I wanted to excel. I wanted to become different. I wanted to succeed. And I had to look up my life and look at the things that I felt were dragging me behind and wasting my time. I do not have very much of influence, especially into my journey of success and I knew TV was one of them. That is not to mean that TV is bad. TV is very good, but sometimes you have no control over the time that you spend on TV. Especially when you get home in the evening, you switch on the button even before you make your meal and you realize it is 9pm before you've done anything at home. And I needed to increase reading books. I needed to increase writing. I needed to increase on thinking about my business, especially writing in the evening when it's a bit cool and quiet because I'm a night person. And I knew TV was not one of those things that I needed to skip at home. So what I do, I catch up online. Of course you have almost everything running online. Yes, you don't even need to watch TV so much anymore. Every Kenyan watches TV while updating online. This person has said this, this person has said that and we can get all that information at my right time and ensuring that I spend the right time checking all the things that I need to check. So I'm always updated, not like I'm behind anything just because I'm on TV. Okay, all right. Now that you are digitally tapias, you're also digital. Okay, very good. So we'd like to understand, when you founded this company of yours, when you discovered you really like money so much, I'd like to know what you started, what's the story behind it, how old were you when you founded this and how come you never used any capital? Well, I started talking about money just the other day when it showed up in my life. I didn't start because of money. I have a very humble background. I was born by a teenager. She was 15 years old and she had to come back to Kenya. Well, I was born in Uganda so she had to come back to Kenya to study. So it meant I met my own mother six years later and I remember I thought she was my sister. For real? Okay, well, I guess she hadn't quite aged that much. Of course, I was 15 and I was born when she was 15. So she was definitely still in school when I was meeting her because she had just joined her, she was still in college. Yes. So that meant I had to grow with my grandmother and from that humble background and humble beginning, life was not very easy and we had to relocate of course back to Kenya and from Makueni, locally of course in Kenya. Makueni? Yes. So fast forward, my mom had to struggle a bit to bring me up and when I grew up and I was of age, I was just clearing high school. I remember growing up in high school I had seen my grandparents doing business in Uganda, being Kenyans and doing business in Uganda. So I was growing up thinking like an entrepreneur. So there was no space of thinking that I would be employed in anyway from the time I was from scratch. And actually precisely when I was growing up I was reeling chicken as a child and I had money in high school. I didn't need to ask for pocket money. I had money money. I needed to make a decision that I need to sell this chicken and this one and this one and have some enough money for myself. Interesting. Yes. So this maybe to parents at home you need to know what you're teaching your children. True that. And you'll be surprised when they grow up it should just automatically just grow in them. Because I even my first capital rather the first man that I came to Nairobi was 2002 after I cleared high school. It was money from proceeds from my chicken reeling business. Again why I started cleaning business I didn't think about money as such because we didn't really have like plenty as such but we had enough to just be comfortable. But I knew as I was growing up I was mentored as well by my grandmother as a leader because she pushed me to leadership even in Sunday school I was a Sunday school teacher. Every time I was in school I either prefect or monitor or something. Are you still a Sunday school teacher by Richard? I'm not a Sunday school teacher. As I said I'm serving in church currently and I'm leading a department because business for them. So I'm actually serving in church the same way. So bring a child the way you do on them to be when they grow up and they'll follow the same routes actually. I have actually done the same. They taught me how to do business I'm doing business. They taught me how to be a church leader I'm still a church leader right now. They taught me how to be independent and create solutions for others. That's what I'm doing at Misklin. So why Misklin was started with no capital because I started at an early age I think I was 23. You were 23? I was going to ask about the name Misklin. I was 23 and I was just completing college so I must say I never did I did my research work halfway the rest of it I was doing business business plan for Misklin. You could not be contained. You just had to go. You could not be contained. I knew what I wanted to do and why I was successful for cleaning it's because also I grew up with a clean freak grandmother I don't know anyone if anyone has a clean freak parents. Oh I do. Yes. Where we breathe clean less and everything is dirty like I'm just sitting here and I can't tell a few things I need to be done to taken care of and we had white linen all over like everyone had to spend on I mean our beddings were white linens and we had to clean even in up country. You know the way the syufurias have white black suits these ones used to carry imagine to go to clean them in the river every Saturday I know that kind of lifestyle so it was just in me that I loved cleaning and I started doing research towards cleaning and where I got Misklin name is because I used to do Google a lot for young people right now growing up you're so privileged then when I was starting Misklin there was no single cleaning company that had a website in Kenya I see so they had not all gone digital like that one way one way perfect none of them had gone digital so had to rely on companies in the UK so I supported several companies that I kept on reading about them and that's how I saw a Misklin and I thought I can do a Misklin which just stands out and over the years let me tell you it's become a brand and it's like the best decision best name I ever chose for my cleaning company because anytime you hear about Misklin you can tell that it's a cleaning company okay so I'm saying you have a passion for cleanliness and finance so I'd like to understand not only have you formed a company Financial Freedom 254 for Kenyans but you also do a lot of chai tiwak I can see yes can you please tell us about that orphan children, vulnerable children why the interest in helping the needy okay I was I can say I grew up as an average Kenyan I wasn't really like in a rich home neither were we that poor but my grandmother taught me stuff to do how to how to just be careful with how I spend things and how I use things and then she was a giver I say as we're talking about the strength of a woman I must say most of the things that I do today I learned them from my own grandmother she was illiterates but the things she did was beyond even having gone to school she was running a business in a foreign country meaning she had to speak another language and she was also able to manage finances and business without any education at all so every time you looked at her you were like this is super woman super super woman and then she used to help the poor and the needy in our village this is what she used to do should buy fabrics in the market and sit down and sew cut the fabric and sew it into clothes dress it short and then on Saturdays she would invite most children from poor families to our home would work with them and that's one thing she told me that you don't earn from nothing you have to work so you would work with these kids from our family at our family on a Saturday so it wasn't really just giving them they had to make sure that they don't take it for granted and in the evening they would be told of course to take a shower because some of them are not very clean but then in return they will be giving now clean clothes in the name of giving back to them but she didn't give a see if she is helping them she would give a see if she is just making sure that they go home with clean clothes because they are already clean and she likes cleanliness and then our family I was used to many times would have women come home to ask for food because they are children they didn't have something to eat for the previous night and my grandmother was a very hardworking farmer so we had food all through and most of it she never used to sell she would only give to other families so to me giving was instilled in me when I was growing up and I didn't start giving back when I was already having money I started giving back even when I did not have any my first person that I gave back to was a young lady called Juliana Mogure she is from Meru I picked her from Majungwa Slam but then she was just like a young girl and I took her back to primary school she went to class 7 and class 8 because she dropped a long time ago she didn't have parents and she was also sleeping in a very bad house a mud house that was rainy and she didn't have food stuff How did you come across Juliana? I was volunteering at an organization called St. John's Community Center after high school I just went straight to volunteer in that organization I just want to end this so that you don't kill the holiday for people at home now because I was going I see okay I went to volunteer so while I was volunteering this girl was one of the actually she was in the streets program so I kind of loved her and I saw strength and potential in her and I thought I could work with her I was still a child then who could call me the same because at 1920 I was still just a young person so I was I started staying on my own at 21 a very small place that you can live together so that I moved into my place and I took her to school and I remember Can you describe your first house let's talk about that space with your cleanliness and all your specifications Was it a bed-sitter How did you organize yourselves the two of you? I started by living in a slum You started in the slum? Yes I moved in I was staying in a slum and it's because I just wanted to start my life afresh we were having challenges in maon mother then and having not lived with her for so long and this is actually something that maybe parents need to not if you don't build a relationship with your child when they are young when they are teenagers or even when they are growing old they will never have a relationship with you it would just be a struggle or through so I actually struggled to build a relationship in maon mother because we only started staying with her when I cleared high school and at that point as a teenager I was just feeling like she's too much on me and I felt like she had already failed and I can actually do it on my own and that's why I wanted to start on my own so where I want to live I want to live with someone in a slum That is a big risk you know many girls especially like me we are so scared of taking such kind of risk I know I'm actually most people who are not in with men or either found doing drugs or looking for a bag because you can't imagine going to the slum my God and actually I should say that's the time I started doing cleaning you know mama fuwa where you just got to clean someone's home one or two homes in a day or two that's where I started actually that's where Miss Clean was born Miss Clean was not born glamorously it was wrong from that place because I desired to make money of my own and apart from the days that I was volunteering at St. John's because we didn't have money there I had two days that I would go to clean people's homes and I would earn one or I would earn a thousand bob the other home I would earn 350 shillings so with that man that's how I started now being able to pay my rent with my friend that I was staying with it was 1500 so I would share 750 each one but I was tired I didn't want to live there so I moved now to my first house in Isili section 3 and my first house was 2500 shillings I moved into only a mattress and a stove and I think one suforia you know those basic things and I was just sleeping on the floor oh god you know I'm so challenged right now because I'm like god no but okay okay that's very interesting I would like us to have a second opportunity to have this conversation because it's about time we conclude this segment and I'm so moved by your story and I'd like to understand where can people find you if they would like to read more about you well I'm on Facebook and I write a lot of things Facebook I'm Karola Ingina we also have a Facebook page as a company Miss Clean Domestic and Office Solutions Limited which I continuously keep on giving my story and especially the story of how we started the company it's very important because many young people will have a lot of excuses now I also feel like I have been really giving myself yes and I'm on Instagram as well as Karongina that's how you can find me and of course on Twitter Karongina as well I really wanted to ask you how you got your debut into the media coming from such a background how did you land on TV let me just ask you that one last time before we go you know when you start doing good things and you're busy excelling and supporting others and giving back people look for you I never looked for any TV person people just asking to cover my story so I have done quite a lot of them the entrepreneurial show by Kobikihara Beta Living I've done of course KBC I've done several TV shows and up to today I don't go looking I'm recommended of course when I do one I'm recommended to another you know you have reminded me of a scripture that we usually take for granted a lot it's called the hand that gives never luck indeed I've seen that story from you and thank you so much for joining us Caroline Gina yes yes yes you have been watching Strength of a Woman with Caroline yes yes please don't go anywhere Valentine is coming up next with woman crush Vanessa which is girl's talk so don't go anywhere Joy Muchache will also be there she's made her debut today for joining the Y in the morning team for the first time so make sure you do catch up with Joy Muchache at Valentine or at Kalami Val on social media platforms and my name is Hilda Wadili I have to make sure that you come back so that you tell us properly I've already touched myself it's been a minute since I got touched by somebody's story but thank you so much for coming today have a blessed Jamhuride and you guys don't go anywhere it's Jamhuride tell us what you are doing slide into our social media handles as I had mentioned earlier and let us know how your day is going Aya