Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise Podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipina American, mom of two, and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the US Air Force. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. We'll be talking with successful CEOs and C suite women leaders of color and learning about their leadership journeys. If you're a woman or woman of color who wants a seat at the table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I am so excited to be talking with Aimee Eubanks Davis, the founder and CEO of Braven, which is a nonprofit and their whole goal is how to help underrepresented college students get the skills, confidence, experience and network so they get a great job right after graduation. She's actually spent a lot of her career at Teach for America. She's had a ton of different senior leadership roles in diversity, human capital, and before that she actually was at Breakthrough in her earlier career. She was a teacher; she taught middle school. She's a 2019 Obama Foundation fellow, Pahara Aspen fellow, Braddock scholar, Draper Richards foundation entrepreneur and a Camelback venture fellow, graduate of Mount Holyoke College, and she now lives in Chicago with her husband and three kiddos. Welcome Aimee. I'm so grateful to have you here. So much to ask you about.

Aimee: Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

Analiza: Your story is very inspirational. I'd love for the audience to hear about your upbringing, just your background, your race, gender, how did that get you catapulted into this CEO trajectory?

Aimee: Yeah, well, first of all, it was completely unplanned. It's not how I thought my life would play out, career wise, when I was really little, I was convinced that I was going to be an attorney. And so that's what I said all that basically, because my parents really felt like raising children on the Chicago south side, and I'm predominantly black neighborhoods that the dream that they should give us was to be a doctor or a lawyer, the neighborhoods that we grew up in, especially my older sister, myself, we're super hard working people, but also low income black neighborhoods. And so my biological father died. Actually, when I was two and a half years old, pretty suddenly of leukemia that he got to this point in time, he would be completely treatable. And so my mom went back to school to try to figure out how she was going to support these two daughters of hers as a single mom. And so she went back to a school that really helped adults think about advancing their education. And she took a business class pretty randomly, but she felt like maybe she should go into some kind of business. And she met my dad now. And they decided to start a real estate business on the south side of Chicago, that four blocks away their largest piece of property from a notorious gang headquarters, when they bought that building, it was also to third fire damage, nobody would lend them money because of redlining. It now sits seven blocks away from the Obama home. So as a result, my older sister, myself really got to experience what it meant year over year to be economically mobile. And so I think that absolutely my background and upbringing influenced me because when I got to high school, my parents then had four children, they were trying to figure out how to maneuver us through Chicago Public Schools. And they’'re worried maybe about me, in particular, not getting into one of the very few public high school magnets. And so they just felt like they needed to go to a school system where we all could go, and they didn't have the money to go to like Catholic schools or private schools with us. And so we moved out to a southern suburb at the time that was predominantly white, as black kids from the city. And that was such a shell shock of an experience for me because pretty much my existence up until that point had mainly been on the South Side in my family community and my friendship community. And all of a sudden, I was thrust into this new community where often I do think my oldest sister and I were a bit like looking outside in the windows into a house that we weren't completely welcomed into, which was pretty challenging and painful as a high school student. And yet I do think it's through those experiences that I went to Teach for America, I wanted to pay it forward into the black community. And then I started doing Summer Bridge because I was like, Oh, I just want to make sure that more young people who look like me can experience the power of education to bring about economic mobility. Then I ended up at Teach For America overseeing all of our diversity, equity inclusion work as well as human capital work for about eight of the 13 years I did a bunch of other senior level work but it really was through that final experience of watching my students who are sixth graders when I met them and Summer Bridge break through students who were always fifth or sixth graders when I met them and watching hundreds of young people come through that program and also from my own teaching experience, watching them get through college and then to actually really struggle to get jobs. In the data I was seeing at Teach For America after being in that human capital role for eight years it was very crystal clear that there was something not right, that this group of young people was not coming out with their bachelor's degree earning an entire dollar, they were falling short of that. Now, there's Brookings Institute data that says they earn about 66 cents on the dollar of your first generation on free or reduced lunch, when you go into college on the Pell Grant, you don't have the same shot that a high income student has simply because of your background of earning at your level of earning potential.

Analiza: The sequence of your career is, while you said not planned, it feels like it's so perfectly set up to even the move from this part of Chicago to a white neighborhood and then experiencing that kind of racism and discrimination and moving on step by step as a teacher or Breakthrough, etc. I mean, looking back, how do you codify that? Like, what lessons could you draw out of that to say, hey, mini Aimee, or mini Analiza? Here are just some lessons in terms of what worked so that we can look forward?

Aimee: Yeah, I have to say it does feel like but we're looking in the rearview mirror a bit, right. Hindsight is 2020. It looks so perfectly planned. And yet it definitely never felt that way. Going back to again, like I thought I was going to be an attorney, then my older sister, thankfully became an attorney. And I went to visit her at her Law Firm, where she was a very successful early stage partner at a big Chicago mergers and acquisition law firm. And it was when I was like, in my teaching experience, and doing Breakthrough in Summer Bridge during the summer as a mentor, teacher, and I go up to visit her and I'm like, Oh, my God, you have this beautiful view of Lake Michigan and all the big buildings downtown. And there are no kids on your wall. There are no kids on your wall like and I think I just realized, like, oh, I actually really like being in education. I like being around young people. And one of the things I will say, as a young person growing up, I had friends who were very good at whether that was the academic side of school, or they were like singers or they played the violin or whatever, I always like I don't really have a talent. What I realized over time, was that I really was a human capital nerd. Like people I in particular, like middle school and above students and people and I really liked high school and college age teachers is what I learned through Summer Bridge and learning how to lead and manage them on their leadership journey. Like I actually realized over time that my talent was actually in helping to grow and develop people into their better selves and best selves, leadership wise and education.

Analiza: Path to discovering yourself. When we look back, or like a lot was discovering myself, I realized, I love that. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm also a talent nerd. So I'm very proud to be a talent nerd. Let's think back because I'm thinking about how you had dreams of being a lawyer, then talk to your sister, you then saw that there were no pictures on the walls? And then you decide to course correct. Let me do something else, maybe relate to kids, because I wanted to see pictures of kids. And I'm curious as you went through this journey of it sounds like you explore a lot of things like how did you test it out? And then of course, correct. How did you then realize, Oh, I'm a people, talent person, like, what were the specific moves, even if it's specific to your career, but what specific moves, you know, can you see as a pattern, your pattern recognizer, that you continue to practice and honing it down?

Aimee: Yeah. So after my first year of teaching to, you know, going back to my parents that worked so hard to get to a point of making it possible for us to be economically mobile, that being an attorney was literally like, you're either a doctor or your attorney. Like that was like the choice set. So after my first year of teaching, I applied to law school because I thought after I finished my two year commitment with Teach for America, I would go to law school. And actually, I got into really great law schools. And then I started putting seat deposits down on the law schools as I was, you know, again, watching my older sister's career as an attorney. So that's one of the ways that I started to maneuver whereas like, well, I did what I was kind of expected to do. Like, I've gotten myself into some really great law schools, but I'm not ready to go yet. I don't feel like my work is done here in New Orleans. So I'm going to hedge my bets by putting seat deposit down, which I don't think was quite right. I was just like, whatever, let me just pay my seat deposits at like five different law schools, and I can even make up my mind like where I would really want to go and defer. And I did that for like two or three years. It was crazy. And so I think I couldn't bring myself to like actually leave the work that I was doing, which was not significantly well paid. But as long as I got a big role at a big law firm as an attorney, I was going to be okay financially, but I basically just realized that it just didn't speak to my heart. I couldn't get myself fully motivated to do it. And that's one of the patterns I have absolutely realizes how important it is to really kind of just get in tune with who you are and what motivates you what brings you joy, what brings you energy, because if you can figure that out, then you start to realize that you're probably in comparison to some other folks really good at it. So one of the things I realized being in school buildings a lot, and being around exceptional teachers, I was not an exceptional teacher, I love my students, I was super into them. But what I started to realize was, I was really good at adult leadership, management and development, I was actually really good at that. And other people were like, I don't want to deal with the adults in the building. They're like, cranky, and I don't want to deal with them. And I was like, running towards anything that was like adult leadership. And so that was a pattern that I really just started to see in myself is that I really liked this adult leadership, especially the young adult moment. So high school students and college students and people who are just sort of beginning to embark on their career like that was just like the area of people that I really liked. And honestly, I think because of my parents, starting their own businesses, a small business and not knowing people out there in the world, what I now know is that I had a knack for actually managing people, setting vision, setting direction, setting goals, bringing a team together. So that's what I would say I've seen over time, and myself is like, do I have energy for it? Does it excite me? Do I feel like I've finished what I started enough to like, leave and do the next thing. And I do think it's part of the reason I've been somewhat of a stair is I'm pretty good at knowing like, you know what, if I stay at something long enough, actually get pretty good at it, I have the pattern recognition to then see a little bit around the corner. And then it's time for me to turn that corner.

Analiza: I'd love to go there next. Because there's often this idea that if women stay too long, because women in general have been very stereotyped here, they want to be loyal, right? We're like, let's take care of you, I'll take care of you know, we'll all be one team organization loyal. And so you see long careers in one place. And with the gender pay gap already existing. That's just exacerbated because we don't tend to negotiate. We don't tend to ask for the promotion, the white man comes in and he's gunning for it. He then works for us, which earns more and so this idea of seeing long ideas that you then hamper your career and at the same time on me you're advising, consider growth. So I'd love for you to kind of walk us through this paradox. How do we negotiate that as women as women of color?

Aimee: That is a really hard one. Because to your point, I do think many people, especially if they happen to identify as white and male, they're like, oh, yeah, I can do that job. Oh, I can't. And I do think women and women of color and people of color often like second guests, like can I do that? Or can I not. And that is one thing that I do realize in my own career is I accidentally started running the Summer Bridge program in New Orleans, at all of like, 23 years old, I was so young, I had no business running a full scale summer school program that had a whole school year component to it. And what happened was, there was somebody who was supposed to come in and run it, who couldn't at the last minute. And so I was like completely the default option because I was on my way back to like, continue to teach. And what's so interesting is I did realize that it was from an intellectual standpoint, like, well, this is kind of cool. I get to like running my own mini school during the summer. And I get to have all these people who I get to develop their careers. And so I do think there's something about understanding where there is a moment of gray, and having the confidence to step into that gray area, and then develop yourself even more through that. That is actually about growth. Because really, I do think that stepping in because I could have easily been like, well, I should you know, I'm not ready. I'm not whatever. It was so interesting. There was no other option though, like that program just wasn't going to see another summer if I hadn't stepped in. And I thought that was so tragic for students. Well, you could just say that about your own career. Like if an area of gray I say this to people at Breakthrough, because we're like a growing organization. I'm like, if you can find the area of gray at Breakthrough that needs to be filled in and figured out, you likely are going to make yourself not only more valuable, but maybe even create a whole set of a stream of work for yourself. Because really, I think it was after going into the world of leading the Summer Bridge Breakthrough program in New Orleans. And I then did stay because I wanted it to get really good. I wanted to produce outcomes. I wanted them to be undeniable. I wanted to leave it better than I found it is when I actually do think people started to take notice of me and if you think about that I was still pretty early on in my career, but it was like I didn't just go and start running that program for just a couple years. I then ran that program and a total of five years and seven summers and by the time I was on my way out, it was one of the highest performing and that's what I was trying to get it to Summer Bridge Breakthrough sites in the country and that just didn't set me up for you know windy cop to be like I don't understand why have you never come to work at Teach for America. And that's how I actually ended up going to work for Teach for America and working for Wendy directly if she had been hearing about the work that I was doing in New Orleans, from the folks at Teach for America, who were leading the New Orleans Teach for America. And she just came to New Orleans a couple times and met me and then knew that I moved back home, I went to an alumni thing, and then I'm at the table. And she asked a question about the vision of Teach For America for the future. And this two year commitment, and what do people think about it? And my response was, this is a commitment of a lifetime. Like, sure, it might start out as you teaching for a couple years. But this is a commitment that I've now made for a lifetime. And she like, comes around the table. And it's like, you know, can we actually have a real conversation, but that conviction came from having spent, you know, seven summers and five years at Summer Bridge break there and teaching for two years and just realizing like, oh, there is a way to push this group of students further faster, get them to a higher level of outcomes. And that's how she ended up saying, you just give me your resume, which I hadn't even worked on in years, she was like, give me whatever it is. And let's just get on the phone and talk. It was not lost on me at that point, that given her incredible career, that I would have a really unique insight into a highly functioning and well run nonprofit. I think having that curiosity also just served me well and didn't allow my career to stagnate.

Analiza: Love the story Aimee. And I wanted to build on it because we're trying to take your inspiring story and figure out sort of what could be, there's no playbook but some practices that are very helpful. And what I'm hearing for you is the saying there's a passion piece, follow your energy, then there's a piece of, when you know yourself really commit to what's your legacy there, however long that can be. And then third, that there are opportunities when things are messy when maybe your boss leaves or if the organization is growing, even Braven is growing, where you might not yet have that skill set, but it's being handed to you. And that's a wonderful opportunity to amplify your career. Hansel Kang did that. And she's so young and yet had huge jobs very early. And then the fourth part is when you have someone like Wendy Kopp, or someone of that influence, it is a great opportunity to work with a boss that is going to develop you even faster. So all those things put into place helps amplify a career pretty early. And so where were you as a mama here?

Aimee: I would argue in a healthy way obsessed with what I was doing to the degree that I was watching everyone else around me like to make the pretty natural step of getting married. And I was like, I don't think this is gonna happen for me, I'm now approaching my late 20s. And there was not at the time, like real prospects going on. And so one of my good friends who actually taught in Summer Bridge Breakthrough in New Orleans, because again, I'm like, 23, she's like, 20 or 21 if she was a college student, and we end up becoming friends. And she was like, Oh my gosh, you gotta get your personal life together. You've got to put up, do you want to get married? Do you want to have kids? You gotta put that on your list of things to accomplish because I know if it's on your list of things to accomplish. So one of the things you are hearing me say is I do like to accomplish things I do like to win. So she says, you know, let's put this on the list and let's make a determination that we're gonna go out because she is also African Americans Black to big black events like the Spelman Morehouse homecoming, like Black Enterprises and in New Orleans Black Expo in Indiana, like we're just going to make this run through all these events so that maybe you can like meet guys like so you meet people. And I was like, okay, and you know, it sounds okay, because I was a little bit like, Okay, I really would like to have a family when Wendy also really influenced me at this moment, too, because as we were getting to know each other, and I started to work for her. And she actually I think did shine a spotlight on it too. She basically said to me, my biggest piece of advice to you is to try to decide that you want to be in a relationship partnership marriage with someone to make sure it's with someone where that side is likely to be easier that there's not going to be high drama because you can't do high drama on both sides. And that was very influential into when I'm with this friend of mine. And we're starting out on this tour of black events. In the first time out the gate. She’s supposed to meet me in Atlanta to go to the Spelman Morehouse homecoming. It was my final Breakthrough conference. My friend then gets stuck in New Orleans because of hurricanes threatening New Orleans and she's like, oh, we'll just meet my brother, you know him out at a nightclub. Some of our other friends are going to be there and basically, her brother and her cousin meet me there and her cousin is best friends with my husband and my husband to this day tells a story about the first time I saw her. She's outside of the club in her club attire on her cell phone, pacing up and down on the cell phone on a work call. And then I hadn't been like eight or nine o'clock at night. It hadn't been like a Friday or Saturday night. So that's how much I was into my work. That was his first like memory of me and then he's like, Who is she? She's not even inside, then we get inside. And you know, to make a long story short, we just really hit it off accidentally. And that's how I met my husband. But I will say, and Wendy Kopp. And then there was also at least in Elisa Villanueva Beard, who's the CEO of Teach for America. Now, there was a group of women at Teach For America at the same time as that organization was growing, and we're all having children around the same time. And I do think that then created a very positive cohort experience of like, can we keep these big jobs and be moms, and if so what is going to have to be true and being really honest about like, it takes a village, it's either free or paid for, or some mixture, in order to be, I would argue a person in general, but especially a mom, if you're in a relationship, I love men, but usually women carry a little bit more if you're in a different gendered relationship. Like I just think I've been very honest, that it has required us and my husband to have tough conversations about the childcare that we would need for it to be true, because I mean, my travel at TFA. And so with Braven, until the pandemic, I was on the road every week at Summer Bridge, like when I hit the national organization, their Breakthrough, like I was traveling, like I would hit three or four cities in a week, I was going to have to understand that it was going to take a village approach that in our case has been paid for we have an amazing nanny, who's been with us since our oldest, our son was six weeks old. And I always shine a bright spotlight on the role that she's played in helping us raise our kids and influence them in positive ways.

Analiza: That's great, because it illustrates many things. First Aimee, you're goal oriented, both in work and in life. I love that first shot out, you're like, there we go. Done. Check!

Aimee: Luck, the luck of the game.

Analiza: It's amazing, And then the second thing is that you were surrounded with just incredibly fortunate people who were modeling for you that it's possible to have impact and have a life that's really rare. And then the third part is that you had a partner you could have difficult conversations with including a plan for how to get help, because this is not a I do all the things at work and I do all the things at home which includes three children that was not a there's a setup for burnout and perhaps even marriage troubles. So you knew what was ahead. So I want to go deeper here. Because the model that you said you found the right partner, which right out the gate you did. If I were to assess if I would say Aimee I'm dating someone, I'm not sure if this is me, I want to have a big career. What would you say to me are, I would look for these things. I would ask these questions, what would those things be?

Aimee: One of the benefits I do think was that we really knew who we were and what we're looking for I think is so important before you even get to the point of saying is this the kind of person I want to settle down with you really do need to know yourself, but I just think for me, I've watched people being successful partnerships, whether that's full fledge, married unions, or a partnership that includes kids are being committed to each other in different ways. Folks who were more like me where it happened later stage I do think being intentional. That's one thing that I've realized over time, and I say this a lot about the work at Brave and like when you get under the hood, because of the career that I had. When I spotted the opportunity area for Braven. It wasn't unintentional. It was very intentional. I had the data, I saw what was happening, I understood the problem. And then I think in work and in life, I really do believe in trying to the best of your abilities and life is gonna throw curveballs. But to be intentional.

Analiza: That word intentional is I think so powerful, because often we're in gogo mode that we don't even realize that there's unconscious habits that are perhaps even hurting us. So I love that it's intentional, even with the pivots, how can I be intentional and then be willing to shift based on what's happening? So flexibility? You had said something earlier that I just wanted to make sure I say because as a leader, as a mother, there's a lot of myths that we're talking about, right myths of here's the specific jobs that are going to be good for you lawyer or doctor. And then there's the myth that you can't don't stay at the job that long because you want to keep rising. There isn't this you can't have it all right. You can't. Yeah, marriage that works. Be a mom and also be in this big job. Are there any other myths, Aimee, where you think when I was young actually it's not true? Or even the CEO spot where here's what you had initially thought, but actually, in reality, here's what you're experiencing. So just in general, kind of debunking old thoughts and think about new beliefs.

Aimee: I think one of my new beliefs is that I really do think that people often don't understand the power of curiosity. A lot of times when I think about my own advancement and filling into the gray, it was that I was curious, like, Why isn't this working? Or in the world of Summer Bridge? Breakthrough, like, why when I entered that site, it was not that there weren't good leaders, but something had happened where the program would go up and down, like in terms of quality, and why is that? Like, these are great students. These are great young teachers, like, why is that? And really, it's what led me to do a small stint in the world of the breakthrough national office, because I just wanted to then I was seeing it, because I was curious, I would go out with my own little professional development dollars to go see all the different Summer Bridge Breakthrough sites to see what I could learn from them to implement in New Orleans, or what I shouldn't, etc. Then when I went to Summer Bridge National for a bit, and then ran around and got to see a lot of the sites, it was the curiosity of like, gosh, this is such a powerful model. And yet something is not making it may be as powerful in the collective as it could be. And knowing that TFA is an organization where as a core member, I was not like cheerleader number one for TFA. My core member experience with my students was great when it came to other folks at TFA. Because Teach For America was far earlier in its journey around diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. As a black core member, and an early alum, I was like, there's a lot that I think needs to change. And what's so interesting is when I met Wendy, in addition to being curious about how Teach For America was operating and running, one of the things I said to her when she asked me, “Why have you never come to work at Teach for America?” I was like I actually think Teach For America as a diversity problem. What she said to me was, that's a good point. I've seen that too. I think you should come here and help fix that. I think this curiosity and then this belief that you actually can make something better. So really holding both hope and truth. The truth of the matter is, you know, this isn't working like I would hope for it to work or whatever. But the hope is, is like I think somehow we can get better at this whether that was in the Summer Bridge Breakthrough world.

Analiza: You spot talent when they definitely spotted talent. I'm curious because it leads me to this question Aimee about women who are wanting to win, women who are unapologetically wanting to be CEO, being the C suite, because it often has a bad connotation. Oh Aimee, you are so ambitious, right? Do you think you are? Why don't you focus on your job, be grateful. So I'm curious for those women who really do want to have impact and also have these big titles? What advice would you give them in their career?

Aimee: My biggest piece of advice is again, sort of understanding like how do you build your own skill set in which you are producing results, those results will get noticed. And it doesn't have to take forever, like it wasn't ever planning to be a CEO. So I have to say I'm a little bit different. I never was like, oh, I want to be CEO, that wasn't my thing. I accidentally became CEO of Braven and founded Braven, simply because I had all this pattern recognition. And I've known people who really do have that as an ambition. And I think it's awesome, especially if they're women, if they're people of color, etc. And I say this to people on my team as well, you should let people know that that's what you're really hoping for one day and that you really want the constructive feedback because that's the other thing is going to work for Wendy or falling down a ton of Summer Bridge Breakthroughs, I was getting a lot of feedback, including when I wasn't doing things well, which actually built me into a better leader and a better person in terms of leading and managing teams and learning how to like set a vision direction goals and lead people there was actually through Of course, you know, sometimes feel like people are over dialing in the world of failure. But it was like being able to, like get knocked down, get back up, say okay, here's how I'm going to do it differently the next time. But I will say watching some very inspiring leaders in the field become CEO of organizations, it were women and women of color, I think it is because they actually started to articulate that this is what I want for myself. And I want the feedback coming in to me to be, of course, positive. We all need positive encouragement, but also constructive so that I am ready to build my skill set in that way. Because then what happens in my world is when I know that and I actually do believe that someone has the not perfect capabilities, but has learned enough to like then rise to the next level. Then I'm often like, you know, I get calls like you do all the time from headhunting firms, I'm always like, I'm not going anywhere. I'll retire from breathing. But here's a list of other people who you should look at. So then people just start to go on a list honestly, of people who people should really look at. And I just think there's a way of doing it where people don't think that you're just trying to get to that role without having some you don't need them all but some of the foundational experiences that you need to then lead an organization in a really high caliber way.

Analiza: I love it, you can declare it, you can share this intention and the feedback to say Aimee this is what I hope to do in the future. Can you please give me feedback to help me with that?

Let's get to lightning round questions. Ready?

Aimee: Yeah.

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Aimee: Vanilla

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Aimee: Take out

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Aimee: Jump from a plane.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Aimee: Absolutely.

Analiza: How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to 10, 10 being Mariah Carey?

Aimee: Like zero I'm like one. But I'm really probably like a negative one. I'm not good at karaoke.

Analiza: What’s a recent book you read.

Aimee: I actually read Michael Dell's Play Nicely. I actually like business, he writes books like that a lot.

Analiza: What's your favorite way to practice self care?

Aimee: I love massages and vacations.

Analiza: What's a good professional development you've done?

Aimee: Recently, I've been going through a professional development exercise with my team led by an amazing woman, woman of color black woman, Susan Asiyanbi Olori. And her husband Kevin called leading through relationships, and really thinking through how you structure a team agenda, and getting the outcomes while moving fast towards ambitious goals, that actually still making sure you're like checking in on people along the way to make sure that they're feeling complete and resolved about the direction. And it's been just amazing to go through this experience with my alignment team and also with them as incredible consultants and facilitators.

Analiza: What's your definition of a Boss Mama?

Aimee: It's a mama who knows who she is, knows where her energy comes from, knows that she wants to be a bit ambitious on the personal side and the professional side, and also knows that it is impossible to do that alone. There has to be a village, paid, for free, something in between. It's you’re only as good as your team.

Analiza: Where can we find you? Where can we connect with you like LinkedIn or

Aimee: LinkedIn? Okay, so now I'm going to toot my own horn today, I just got influencer status on LinkedIn, which was, I was amazed and humbled by it, so that's a great place to find me and Twitter at Eubanks Davis. Unfortunately, I'm awful on Facebook, I've tried to get somewhat better on Instagram, I'm not. And so I just learned that and by and large, I'm just a one trick pony. So you can catch me on LinkedIn, you can catch me on Twitter, maybe I'll get my act together on Instagram at some point in time.

Analiza: And you have a final ask recommendation or any parting thoughts to share?

Aimee: My final part, parting thought is I really hope that people, especially women and women of color, especially earlier in their careers, don't get so uptight that they can't see the exact path. Because it's what we said in the beginning. It's like looking back it looks so perfect and it's like it just wasn't that, but to really do things that they love and get good at it and really, really seeing those moments and re emerge and jumping into those with no fear.

Analiza: Love that Aimee. Thank you so much for your time and your story's so fun and so inspiring.

Aimee: Thanks so much for having me on, Analiza.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time today to hear today's podcast. Three things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, please share with someone else you can share the link and posts on Facebook and say check it out. Lastly, I want to thank you for being a listener and you can go to get a free self care bonus called juice your joy at analizawolf.com/freebonus. Thank you so much.