Today we’d like to introduce you to Hassahn Phenomenon.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and that city has shaped almost everything about me. It taught me resilience, creativity, community, and how to find possibility in places where others only saw obstacles. My journey has never been about choosing one lane. It’s been about building bridges between them.
I’ve spent my career leading people, solving complex problems, and helping organizations create meaningful experiences, but my purpose has always extended far beyond the workplace. I’m a writer, filmmaker, songwriter, speaker, and the cofounder of Be The Miracle, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering young people and strengthening communities through mentorship, education, and opportunity.
That same purpose led me to co-found 9TEA3, a premium loose leaf tea company inspired by culture, conversation, and wellness. We like to say it’s “from the block to the boardroom” because we believe healing, excellence, and intentional living belong in every space.
While Chicago will always be home, I’ve spent a great deal of time in Tennessee through family roots, creative projects, and growing relationships. Nashville has become a place that reminds me a lot of the best parts of Chicago: rich culture, incredible storytellers, entrepreneurs chasing purpose, and people willing to pour into one another.
Whether I’m mentoring a young person, creating a documentary, writing music, speaking on a stage, or sharing a cup of tea, my mission is always the same: inspire people to recognize their own greatness and remind them that they don’t have to wait on a miracle. They can be the miracle.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not. The road has been meaningful, but it has rarely been smooth.
One of the defining chapters of my life came after I was laid off from my job while living in Los Angeles. Instead of immediately chasing another paycheck, I made a decision that most people would consider irrational. I bet on myself.
I gave up my apartment, moved my belongings into a storage unit, kept a gym membership so I could work out and shower, and for a year and a half, I lived out of my car. I call it being *strategically homeless* because it wasn’t about giving up. It was about giving everything I had to the life I believed I was meant to build. During that season, I poured myself into writing, creating music, and producing and writing the documentary film *DEMOS*.
Ironically, one of the hardest parts wasn’t sleeping in my car. It was carrying the secret. My family didn’t know because I knew they would have dropped everything to rescue me. Even my closest friends in Los Angeles had no idea. I didn’t want people to save me from a choice I had made with intention.
What made that season even more meaningful was that, despite having so little, I still found ways to help the people I loved back home. There was someone in need, and I was able to send money when it mattered most. That reminded me that generosity isn’t determined by what you have. It’s determined by who you are.
It was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. When you strip away comfort, titles, and certainty, you meet yourself. You discover what you’re made of, what truly matters, and what dreams are worth sacrificing for.
I wouldn’t wish that journey on everyone, but I also wouldn’t erase it from my story. It taught me resilience without bitterness, faith without guarantees, and purpose without applause. Looking back, I realize I wasn’t just surviving. I was becoming the person I needed to be so I could one day help others become who they’re meant to be.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve never been interested in being known for just one thing. I’ve always been more interested in building things that make people think, heal, connect, or believe in themselves a little more.
My work spans leadership, entrepreneurship, nonprofit service, writing, filmmaking, music, and public speaking, but at the heart of it all is storytelling. Whether I’m mentoring young people through Be The Miracle, co-founding 9TEA3 to create conversations around wellness and culture, producing documentaries, writing songs, or speaking to audiences, I’m trying to answer the same question: *How do we leave people better than we found them?*
What I’m most proud of isn’t any single award, title, or accomplishment. It’s the lives I’ve had the privilege to impact. It’s watching a young person discover confidence they didn’t know they had. It’s seeing someone choose hope over hopelessness. It’s hearing that something I wrote, said, or created changed the way someone saw themselves. Those moments don’t always make headlines, but they matter most to me.
What sets me apart is that I don’t see separate careers. I see one purpose expressed through different platforms. Leadership taught me empathy. Documentary filmmaking taught me curiosity. Music taught me vulnerability. Entrepreneurship taught me courage. Community work taught me responsibility. Together, they’ve given me a unique lens that allows me to connect with people from the boardroom to the block.
If there’s one thing I hope people know me for, it’s this: I don’t just believe in potential. I invest in it. Whether through a conversation, a business, a film, a speech, or a cup of tea, I want people to walk away believing they’re more capable than they were five minutes before we met. To me, that’s the greatest legacy anyone can leave.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was an inquisitive kid. I wanted to know how things worked, why people thought the way they did, and what made the world move. Learning wasn’t something I had to do. It was something I loved to do. I was the kid who embraced being a nerd, and that curiosity eventually led me to major in Mathematical Sciences at DePaul University.
Personality wise, I wasn’t always the person people see today. I was actually very shy. Around people I trusted, though, my humor and creativity came alive. I’ve always been observant. Long before I found my voice, I was studying people, paying attention to what they said, what they didn’t say, and the spaces in between.
I was fortunate to be raised by a true village. My mom, dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends…they all helped shape me. Like many families, ours wasn’t perfect. There was the good, the bad, and the ugly. My parents had me when they were young and were still trying to figure life out themselves, but watching them grow into the people they became taught me one of my greatest lessons: your beginning doesn’t have to determine your destination. They remain two of my greatest inspirations.
That village stretched beyond Chicago. My father was born in Tennessee, and my grandmother was born in Mississippi, so I spent a lot of my childhood traveling between all three places. Summers often meant helping on my aunt’s farm in Mississippi, where I learned the value of hard work, patience, and seeing the direct connection between what you plant and what you eventually harvest. Those trips weren’t just family visits. They were lessons in identity. They reminded me that my roots run deep and that community isn’t confined by city or state lines.
As a child, I also carried insecurities. I’m short in stature, and I have a lazy eye. For a long time, I believed those things made me less than. I worried people wouldn’t take me seriously or see my worth. Ironically, the moment I stopped defining myself by those things, the world seemed to stop defining me by them too. Confidence didn’t come from changing my appearance. It came from changing my perspective.
My grandmother is one of the greatest influences in my life. Looking back, I realize I’ve unintentionally followed her example. She refused to be confined to one identity. She grew her own food, worked as a registered nurse, respiratory therapist, adjunct college professor, owned a beauty salon, and somehow still found ways to serve others. She showed me that a meaningful life doesn’t have to fit inside a single job title. It can be a collection of passions lived with purpose.
Growing up gave me a unique perspective because I was exposed to both scholars and the realities of Chicago city life. While I naturally gravitated toward the scholars, I’m grateful for all of it. Those experiences taught me how to move comfortably between different worlds, to speak different languages without changing who I am. It’s why I often say I know both the block and the boardroom.
When I look back, I don’t think I was becoming someone different. I think I was becoming more of who I already was: a curious kid who believed there was always more to learn, more people to understand, and more ways to make a difference. That village raised me, and in many ways, everything I’ve built has been my way of saying thank you by pouring back into the next generation.
Pricing:
- Nuthin’ but a Tea Thing – $18.93
- Just One of Those Days – $22.93
- Thinking of a Master Plan – $18.93
- Let’s Chill & Chamomile – $15.93
- I Used to Love HERbal – $16.93
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.9tea3.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassahn/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassahn-liggins/
- Other: https://bethe-miracle.org/
