Ejieme Eromosele, General Manager EMEA @ Quiq

Welcome to Breaking the Tech Ceiling. I'm your host, Michelle Kim. In this podcast, I interview VP&C level women who are disrupting preconceptions about what tech executives look and sound like. I'm excited for you to meet my guest today. Let's get started. Welcome everyone to Breaking the Tech Scene Today. Our guest is Ajame Eramasele. Ejame is not only a leader in the customer experience space, she is the founder of the first community supporting and elevating black customer success professionals called Success in Black Asia. Mae gained deep expertise in customer experience strategy and execution at Accenture and PwC before becoming the Managing Director of Customer Experience at the New York Times, which I just finished my world this morning. She then became VP of Customer Success at Snaps, which is acquired by Quick, a conversational messaging company. So Ejume led both customer success and account management at Quic before moving from New York to London in January 2023 to become the General Manager of the EMEA business. So welcome to Breaking the Tech Ceiling hma.

Thank you, Michelle. So great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Yes, of course. Thank you so much for joining. I know you're so busy. So just for your knowledge, the podcast is broken up into four segments. First, we'll go through some rapid fire questions, light and easy questions that will help our listeners and myself get to know you better. Then we'll go through a personal brand reading. Next, we'll just dive into your story of how you became a tech executive. And lastly, I usually end with a question that I ask every single guest. So how does that sound to you?

That sounds great. Excited to dig in.

Great. Me too. So first question. You completed international studies at Guanghua School of International of Management in China. So if that's correct, which it sounds like it is, what's one thing you were surprised by when you lived there?

So yeah, that experience was during business school. So I went to NYU Stern shout out to my Sternies out there. Quite an international business school program. And it was a program that was part of their Doing Business in series. And so you would spend anywhere from three to four weeks learning how to do business in a particular area of the world. So I've always been fascinated by China and its emergence as a global world player. So I chose to do mine in Shanghai. And so I think the thing that I that was the most surprising that I learned was just how, just how interesting the personal relationships were there and the ability to do business based on trust and that you pretty much couldn't do business Unless someone trusted you. And there's a concept called guanxi that's just basically that, you know, that we won't do business unless we sort of break breads together, get to know each other a little bit more personally, and then we can talk about business. That really resonated with me, you know, you know, being Nigerian myself, it's a similar mindset in terms of before you start to talk about anything serious, you sort of, you know, get to know how the person's doing, get to know their family and their background a little bit more before you enter a more professional and a more serious relationship. So that was the most interesting thing about learning how to do business in China.

Yeah, I was just talking to a friend. She's Chinese American, I'm Korean American. And there is a lot of. We both grew up in the United States in California, but there's still a lot of East Asian influence that dictate how we operate really on a daily basis. And I think trust in the context of business relationships is kind of like a no brainer in some ways, but it's just more maybe overt or explicit in some different countries rather than over the U.S. would you, would you agree?

I would agree. You know, and I think that, you know, like you mentioned, trust is important in any relationship, even a business relationship. But I do think that maybe Western culture takes it for granted a bit more and it's just assumed. Right. But I think that certain cultures really kind of take a moment to acknowledge that, you know, before we form even a business relationship, we want to make sure that the trust is established and that kind of personal foundation is there.

Yeah. And it's important just in our everyday operations too. But yeah, I agree, people, we take it kind of for granted. Okay, so next question. What was your first job that you remember?

My first job was being a camp counselor at a sleepaway camp, which by the way, I never did camping when I was little because my Nigerian parents were like, what is that? You want to sleep in the woods? Like, why would you do that when you have a home and comfort? So it wasn't something I personally did, but I, at the age of 16, did sleepaway camp with much younger campers in South New Jersey. And it was such an interesting experience for me, again, because I hadn't done it, so many of the counselors obviously had. So I was coming from a very fresh perspective. And you know, I'm the eldest of three younger brothers, so being sort of a big sister was something, was a job that I already had. Let me say, so it was great, you know, being a camp counselor, also learning to live in the woods for, I think it was eight or nine weeks, so the entire summer. But, yeah, it was a great foundational experience for me.

Would you say that there's something you learned in that job that you carry with you even to this day?

Wow. Good question. You know, I joke that my first job was being a big sister, but I do think the ability to help and sort of guide and nurture. So it was a girls and boys camp. It was a separate camp. So, you know, I had little girls, I think their age, where they were like 10 or 11. You know, just being able to be that sort of, like, older sibling and that mentor is something that I still take with me today as a leader and having, you know, people on my team that I can mentor, even, you know, people outside of my team. So, you know, it's something that maybe was a starting moment in terms of me seeing so much value and so much benefit out of being able to help other people.

I mean, it must have also been quite different to be kind of that older role model, I guess, for young women versus your brothers, too. It's quite different.

Yeah. Well, it made me realize that, you know, I wish I had sisters. I love being an older sister to young men now. They all are. But, yeah, I kind of did miss having a sister.

Okay, so last question. Have you ever been mistaken for someone famous or has anyone ever told you you have a doppelganger?

I get sometimes that I remind. Not that I'm like, exactly looking like a famous person, but more recently, actually, a few people have said that I remind them of Michaela Cole. She's a black British actress. She did the series Bubblegum. She won. There's another series she did with HBO that now is escaping me.

Yes, I know what you're talking about. I can. High cheekbones.

They said that, you know, my facial structure reminds me them. And I mean, she's gorgeous. I'll take that compliment any day.

So there's some articles that one of my. That same friend I was mentioning earlier forwarded me a few years ago of the case of the mistaken Asian, because unfortunately, like, it happens a lot to Asian people, especially with, like, non American, non Westernized names. And so I just sometimes, you know, just acknowledging that you are a black person and I am an Asian person. And sometimes this stuff happens. And it's kind of mortifying for the people who realize, like, sorry, wrong person.

The name of the show is I may destroy you or something. Like that. It just came to me. But no, I mean, I think what you're also hinting at is in a professional setting, I have been unfortunately mistaken for the other black woman in the department. You know, and it's so interesting, and I think, I don't want to say funny, it's interesting because there's only so few of us to begin with that I think it is actually easy to get mistaken for the only other person. So that has happened.

Yeah, I mean, you would think it's like the opposite. There's only two. Like, if there are only two black women, wouldn't you take the night, you know, the time to like, get to know them? Like the whole, like, what was it? What was the Chinese word for it?

Getting to know Quan Chi.

Okay, great. So that was our rapid fire segment of our interview. And so the next part of our segment is for me to share a personal brand reading your friend and colleague, Lola. You have to help me with her last name. Lola Bakare Bakery. Bakery Sounds like she's a CMO advisor and inclusive marketing strategist. So this is what she had to say about you at age of A. And she's also. It's like your. Her self definition relation to you is B, school bestie and forever friend. So this is what she had to say. And I'd love to hear whether this aligns with what you've been wanting to put out there in the world and if it's aligned to who you are as an exec. Ajamie is known for her rare blend of towering strengths. She is highly ambitious, but low ego. On the quieter side, but extremely charismatic. Endlessly caring, but never cloying. Deeply intellectual somehow still down to earth and deftly diplomatic, yet refreshingly direct. If I had to sum up her personal brand in two words, I'd go with magnetically motivational. My moments with Asia may never fail to leave me with a boost of energy, a calming clarity, and a stronger sense of self belief than I had before. And I know everyone lucky enough to have the pleasure also experiences the same.

Wow, I'm absolutely speechless. You know, I chose Lola to do this because she has a way with words, as I'm sure you just read and now have realized. In terms of the words that she had to say about me, like, who is that person? Like, that's the person I aspire to be. And I'm glad that she sees that and hope that others see that as well. Thank you, Lola.

Yeah, thanks so much, Lola. B school bestie and forever friend.

That's me. And she also likes alliteration, as you can see.

Yes, the B school bestie and forever friend. So thanks Lola. And yeah, this is great. Magnetically motivational already you seem that seems to fit who you are, Jimmy.

So thank you. Yeah.

So we can. We can proceed the Next Part of Our Podcast so the next part of our podcast is just going into your journey as an executive. As you know, the focus of this podcast is how to empower and help women go from mid to late career up into VP and C level roles. So just the fundamental question that I pretty much every yes answers for me, can you share a moment or a story of how you made the transition from Managing Director of Customer Experience at the New York Times, which in itself is quite a feat. I mean directors probably managing directors probably pretty high up there up to VP of Customer Success at Snaps.

Yeah. Thank you. I was reflecting on this and I think the pivotal moment where I realized that I wanted to make the move from the Times. You know, by the way, still love the brand and the mission and you know, even just the business value that the Times brings to the world. But I realized that my time was up. So I was running the Black erg, which is an employee resource group. Me and another co founding member kind of reimagined what that meant for the Times. And part of that reimagining was that we asked our CEO at the time, Mark Thompson, to be our executive sponsor. So each ERG at the time has an executive sponsor. So we asked Mark to be ours. And that meant every month, I guess I spent some one on one time with him talking about the Black experience at the Times and of course course getting him to advocate for more resources that we can make not only black employees experience, but all employees experience better. And one of the things we started talking about, of course is my own personal journey being a black employee and a black executive. And he said something that stuck with me still to this day and really helped lead that transition to the next thing for me, which was he said that he saw me as someone that needed to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. And what that meant was that the Times, obviously big organization takes a bit to get stuff done sometimes to have impact. So he said be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, which to me meant being able to be a bit more ambitious, gsd, get shit done, make decisions and have an impact. And so that's really when I started to excel, explore even within the Times. Were there other teams that I could replicate that experience. But then Also outside of the times, were there other organizations that perhaps were smaller in size? I could have a senior role and yeah, get shit done. And so I started to do some explorations of what that meant. I was really interested in tech because, you know, it wasn't something that I actually had on my radar when I graduated business school, but it was something that I was interested in and so started talking to a few mentors, you know, they all had mentioned, well, if you're interested in tech and based on your background, customer success might be of interest. Then I started to consume all the content and all the topics around customer success and I said, this is totally what I used to do in management consulting, except now you have a technology to anchor value again. So I was like, easy. So yeah, I started to interview and yeah, landed the opportunity as vp. It's not. Hmm.

So did you apply for these jobs? Was it referral based? I'm always curious.

A bit of both, so, or a bit of, let me say multiple sources of trying to get the right fit. So I did have a few mentors. They were already in large technology organizations so they obviously put some referrals through. I had interviews at places like Google, you know, but then I also started to investigate the different types of technology solutions that would be more of interest to me. And my career really was started in the customer service. Customer experience realm is something I'm, you know, I was very passionate about, still very passionate about. So I started to look at platforms that did that and so, you know, snaps at the time was a conversational AI company, so trying to reimagine customer experiences using AI. And so it seemed like a really great fit for obviously my customers to success lens and experience through management consulting. And then also the functional experience that I had in management consulting, which was all customer experience.

Yeah, that makes sense that it would be a good fit. Even though you take, you took a step away from the management consulting, those skills you still continue to use sort of like what you were saying, the mentorship piece. I mean, obviously mentorship has been a theme in your career as well. I really believe in the power of mentorship and how it's not just beneficial for the mentee, but also the mentor. So you know, you mentioned you had these mentors who were already in some of these more established companies. And I'm sure people are very curious to know, like how do you find those mentors? Are they, you know, from your business school days, are they from your undergrad days, different year like other communities?

Great question. I'm Actually in search of maybe one now, which we're going to get to at the end of the session. So at the time, because I was in really, I think, innovative role at the New York Times, which was customer experience, I got asked to go speak and to just be present at many different conferences. So at that time, for me, I was networking by way of going to conferences and meeting people that I got to admire. I think the name brand of the New York Times helped me get into these rooms, to be quite honest, so that was helpful. But, you know, sharing my story, having these conversations, sharing the work that I'm doing, you know, I think really drew people to me. And, you know, informally, I mean, I should be clear, these were informal mentors. Right. And informally, you know, we grew our mentorship relationship. One of them is still my informal mentor today. His name is Dita Satadip. He was at Google, Google Cloud at the time running a portion of their customer success team. And, yeah, I got to actually see him in person in May, which we hadn't seen each other in quite a long time. He's based on the West Coast. So, yeah, it was really informal relationships and meant through networking, through conferences.

Yeah, that's a good way to do it. I think there's always a hesitancy to go and actually meet people at these types of events. It's really hard to put yourself out there. And I don't know what his ethnic and racial background is, but, you know, I think it's really. I've been fortunate myself to have several women mentors who are of the same kind of East Asian background in this. In similar functions. But I think it's so important. What I. What I unlocked later in my career was how important it is to find mentors and have a personal board of directors that's different than you because you're going to get that different perspective.

Absolutely. Yeah. I would echo that. Duta is a Southeast Asian male. And I do think that it's important, like you said, to get a cross section of mentors who can give you varying perspectives. I, like you, probably find a bit of comfort and solace in talking to, let's say, other women of color, because I know that very quickly they can likely understand my perspective in certain things and likely be more empathetic to that. But I do think that the ability to source different perspectives from male colleagues or white colleagues is also quite beneficial.

Yeah. And it's not. Doesn't go limit to race. Right. Like, there's all sorts of differences that we don't See, so I think it's great to have those varied perspectives to help question, you know, your yourself and your kind of mind and your own, you know, top tracks.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So let's kind of transition to the next question of how did you go from VP to GM at qwik?

Yeah, so I think it was a combination of being focused and acquiring a certain set of skills over a few years and then luck. To be quite honest, on the first side, when I joined Snaps to run customer Success, I wasn't a revenue owner. Let's say the customer success team, including myself, was not responsible for renewal or expansions. But very quickly I started to see that I wanted to be a quota carrier. Let me say the customer success team were closer to our customers and we really needed our sales team to focus on net new business. I personally took on the renewal, so my CSMs still were focused on delivering value. They were not commercially aligned, but I chose to learn how to sell enterprise SaaS technology, so started to take all the same sales trainings as our sellers did so I could take on owning renewals. After I did that and was fairly successful, I positioned myself to now take on some of our expansion. So not only just dealing with existing customers and making sure they continue paying, but looking at those same existing customers and seeing if they wanted to spend more. And so I successfully did that as well. And I do think that the skills in terms of learning how to do enterprise and strategic selling is what I mean by the skills portion of what made me ready to move from VP to gm. And then I say luck because, you know, to be quite honest, it was right place and right time I was going through. I don't know if you or your listeners have heard of this concept called a work quake, but I just actually learned about it a few weeks ago off of a podcast which I love. It's called the 10% happier podcast. Another podcast, shout Out. But the gentleman, Bruce Filer, I believe was his name, was talking about how in his new book called how to Find Meaningful Work in a Rapidly Changing World. The concept of a work quake is an event or just some life happening where you're either forced to or you choose to make a change in your work life. And so this was something that happened to me late last year. So I was going through a divorce force and I was really in, I think, a bad place personally and spiritually. It was starting to affect me professionally. And, you know, this opportunity came about in that sort of chaos which things tend to do right when you think that Maybe you're really struggling through a hard time. Opportunities can present themselves. So, you know, the skills, obviously, that I've been developing for several years, learning how to do enterprise selling, obviously running the customer success and account management teams, but then also just the right time being that Quick was looking to expand globally, and I sort of had the experience of wearing multiple hats and so got asked to lead our efforts there.

So you were where you. You were sponsored. Someone or someone's said, Asia. Me.

Yeah.

Taking on responsibility. She was a VP of CS and decided to take all these sales trainings. So obviously you caught the eye of. Of people who are in the positions of power to kind of make that happen for you.

Yeah, I mean, to be clear, I am fortunate that our CEO and my head of Go to Market, who was my former CEO at Snaps, yeah, both really believed that, you know, I could do the job or at least figure it out. So, you know, sponsorship is a great word because, you know, I was given the opportunity, you know, not done this before, obviously, but given the opportunity and the support to at least have a go at it. And so, you know, that sponsorship from, you know, my two bosses was. Was instrumental.

So then you talked about this. Right, so from Snaps to qwik. So how did the acquisition contribute to your career growth? Obviously, like, there you're expanding into emea, but how else did it help contribute to your growth?

Yeah, so the acquisition happened about, I guess, two years before the transition to me moving to London and heading up our EMEA practice. To be quite honest, it was something that was totally new to me. You know, I'd never been part of an acquisition. I was part of the senior leadership team at Snaps at the time. So I really had to, you know, evaluate for myself whether or not I wanted to move forward with the new organization. You know, I went to business school and read case studies about how acquisitions can go horribly and the acquiring company just, you know, takes the technology and everyone else gets screwed. And so I was like, could this be happening? So there are a lot of unknowns, and to be honest, it was quite scary, but I think I'm really happy that I went through it. 1. You know, quick was a great set of people, a great organization. Those horror stories, you know, did not happen to us. And I guess I was part of the team that made sure it didn't happen, but they were a good set of people either way. But it was a really great career milestone for me, and I. And I learned a ton. Right. So, you know, very few people, I think, can Say that they've been part of this type of business transaction that, that I have not been part of. And I think it really helped me in a few areas. I think the biggest one is around communication and kind of bringing two businesses together involves, I think 100% change management. Right. If you think about from a culture perspective, two separate ways of working. If you think about also operationally, two different ways to run internal operations. And then, you know, obviously I'm really focused on customer success and how you deal with customers externally as well. But I think my biggest learning and takeaway was how do you do communication in high change environment. So you know, everything from talking to my team about what's happening. Right. Even as myself not understanding and even knowing I hadn't done this before, but trying to talk to them about, here's what I know and being as transparent as I can about how this would affect them. I think the same thing goes with, you know, our customers which to me are, you know, just as valuable as obviously our internal employees. And so being again as transparent with them in terms of what this means for their pricing, what this means for the platforms they're going to be using and ongoing support. We really had to take a page out of effective and proactive communication. And so that is one of the, I think biggest takeaways and learnings about that process us.

So I've been on the receiving end and the other end of acquisitions throughout my career when I was in various levels. You know, obviously in, in my career, it, it's really tough and it takes time too. It takes a lot of time for that, all of that to work itself out. But yeah, this is something that I think is kind of, I never thought to do really. But is it normal to negotiate for new comp or equity?

Yes, absolutely. So I will say that I think I was in a fortunate position where I was identified as one of the key people that they wanted to help in the transition. So knowing that having that source of knowledge, knowledge is power, I use that to negotiate. Right. So one of the things that I was now inheriting was a larger book of business. Right. You know, at Snaps, we had X amount of customers. At Quick, there were a lot more. So I said, okay, great. I'm really excited about growing my impact as a leader. That should also reflect in my impact and my compensation. So I did use that as an opportunity to yeah, negotiate new comp, new equity as well.

That's really good that you did that.

Well, I guess, you know, not everyone. And that's why I Say, like, I was in a special position. Not everyone is, but I would say, you know, at these moments of transactions that are happening as best as you can and, you know, again, I was fortunate that the two organizations I was with were very transparent with, you know, what's coming in and out of this transaction and how it's going to affect you financially. I would say that, you know, try to understand that again as best you can and try to see and be reasonable about it. Right. Like, if you are getting an increased scope, if you are getting more responsibility, you should for sure have the conversation around how that's going to affect your compensation.

Yeah. I think especially as women, it's hard to even, like, for myself, I've been identified as a top performer or like a key player. And even then when I know it's hard for me to say, hey, like, this has changed between my old job and my new job. And like, going through that, I. I think I've had some help from mentors, but also coaches that I've paid for, you know, that have experience going through this themselves or, you know, coaching people through that sort of situation. And it's just really not easy. You have to have some courage and be strategic.

Absolutely. And I, I will admit, on the equity side, there's different types of equity that I eventually learned. And I learned that by actually hiring external counsel. So I hired a lawyer to help me understand the equity I was being offered and to help me think about ways to negotiate it to be more favorable to me. So I agree that, you know, if you're in these positions, personally, I think it's worth it to make sure that you can come into those negotiations as educated as in, as informed as you can.

I don't know if I've ever heard. Maybe I just don't talk to. I've talked to a lot of executives, like a hundred by now, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they've hired a lawyer. So I, I think it's really great that you.

So she had. Yeah, she's a woman. Actually. I can. If you don't mind, I'll plug her. She was amazing. If you Google Stock Options Council, I think that's literally her website, which is brilliant marketing and branding. And this is entirely. Her role is to help senior leaders negotiate their equity compensation.

Okay, what's her. And we'll give. Maybe we'll just give the Asia May sort of referral fee. What's her name?

I actually don't remember her name. I remember the name of her business.

That's all that matters. That's all that matters.

There you go. That's why. That's why it's good to have memorable names.

It's tough, but yeah, that's great. She has that SEO. SEO unlock. Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna pivot a little bit because there's so much that you've done in your career. Ajamie, I'm really curious. How did you get involved in First Round Capital? And you know, how would I go about the process of getting involved as an angel investor or. And. Or advisor?

Yeah, this is another right place, right time, I guess. Although also, let me say, through my business school community. So I went to NYU Stern, plugging Stern again, and I hired a gal by the name of Tara Hankinson twice, actually, when I was at PwC as an intern. And then we hired her full time. And then when I went to the Times, I hired her again. We ended up parting ways. When I left the Times, she also left the Times, but then she founded a beer company called Talia Beer. And when they were raising a friends and family around, I got an email from Tara asking if I would be an angel. I had never done angel investing in my life before. I was like, interesting. And to be honest, I was so excited about what she was doing. It's basically making beer more accessible for everyone, not just just the bros that we see on TV drinking beers. I was just so excited about what she was doing and believed in her so much that I said, I do want to help you and I do have some funds lying around that I wouldn't mind using to help you. And if there's upside one day, great. And so that was how I got into angel investing, just by happenance. I would also say from another B school colleague, I learned about First Round Capital. He was, I believe, part of their first angel track round. And I saw his post on LinkedIn and I said, you know what? I've written my first check. It was kind of fun and interesting and I got to learn more about, you know, startup finances and pre seed rounds and seed rounds and all of that. I like to maybe get a little bit more formal education to actually know what it is that I'm doing and not just throwing checks into the wind. And so, you know, I applied for First Round. I got in, which I was really grateful for. I was looking at met, you know, my other colleagues in that round and I was like, why am I even here? A little bit of an imposter syndrome there. But yeah, it was a great kind of education in angel investing. You know, how to source deals, how to evaluate deals, how to actually be a thoughtful and a useful angel investor. Right. So, you know, when you're investing, you know, money at this early stage, oftentimes my single check is not going to make a big difference. But where I can make a big difference is in perhaps advising and giving access to my network. Right. I learned a ton from that. And I would say the advice I would give to someone who is looking to perhaps be an angel investor or advisors. Let your community know. I think now there are actually quite a few organizations and programs that are targeting this group in particular. Some that I'm aware of are Golden Seeds. They invest, I think in primarily women, women found and funded businesses. Black Venture Institute, also by Black vc. I think they're out in San Francisco. And then level, I'm not part of any of these organizations, but I've heard great things about all of them. In particular level, which is a community of multiracial women supporting other women. And so yeah, I would say look into these programs. They're a great foundation, especially if you're starting out and wanting to think about angel investing.

This is something that I think people don't really ask or know. Like you hear the term angel investor is there. I've talked to someone who invests quite heavily recently about it in, you know, startups and she, I asked her like, hey, what is your definition of angel investing? Is there a certain amount? And she kind of threw these, these large sums and I was like, wow, I don't know if I can commit to that. But like, you know, what's your, what do you see as like kind of the norm, normal or standard kind of contribution from as an angel investor or does it vary it?

Short answer is it varies. You know, to angel invest in the US you do have to be an accredited investor. And I believe, you know, it's having an annual income of, of 200,000 for the past two years or at least a net worth of a million dollars. And so that's sort of like the threshold in terms of what is allowable by the US sec. Right. But in terms of how you actually activate extra funds laying around, that's pretty open. And it really is dependent on the stage at which you're investing. Right. So you know, there's different stages of investment precede so that someone has an idea, maybe they have some workings of a product. But it's still quite early. I'd even say even before pre seed, some people have a Friends and family round where they're literally asking their friends and family for money to get things up and running. So at those much earlier rounds, I mean, you know, the check size can be 10 to 50k. Right. But then as you start to get into larger rounds where you start bumping up against actual venture capital firms, as you can imagine, they have a lot more money in terms of their limited partner funds to actually go around. So that's where you probably see check sizes upwards of 50k, probably even 50k, probably will laugh you out the door. Probably 100 to 250k. Right. But I think just understanding where you want to play and understanding the different levels of funding would be helpful. The other thing that I think has been helping angel investing democratize angel investing, which I think is actually a good way to diversify venture capital as a whole, are what's known as syndicates. So they're kind of a group of investors that pull money together, meaning that you can actually start at a much lower per investor amount, but pull together, you can get upwards of the 100 to 250k to get you in, let's say, some of those bigger rounds. So I would look into syndicates as well.

This is so helpful. Thank you.

Absolutely.

I just don't think a lot of people know about these things or like we hear it.

Yeah.

Onto kind of. It sounds like, you know, you've mentioned, we've talked about this and you've mentioned this, how you're very passionate about, you know, you've been an ERG leader for, you know, Black in New York. I can't remember the official name, but Black at nyt.

Black at nyt.

So I'm going to go back to what I mentioned in your intro, which is that you founded Success in black in May 2021 during the thick of the pandemic. So how is Success in Black helping black professionals level up in the customer success space? At the executive level.

Yeah. So at the executive level in particular, you know, our goal is to, I would say, do three things in particular. And I love alliteration, so I try to be alliterative. That's a good way. Exactly. The first is access to resources. So even at the most senior levels, as we've discussed, you still need mentorship, you still need help, you still need guidance. The things that you're seeking help on can look differently and can look different than someone that's a bit more junior, but you still need a support network. So, you know, we are looking to provide that access to additional resources and Support. We're looking to build an audience that's the other A. And so building an audience for more senior leaders is giving them a platform to share their thought leadership and to elevate and to boost their content and their thinking. And so this is something that we're doing with our social media and we're actively working on a speaker's bureau to highlight diverse voices and customer success so we can see more people in panels and on the stages that look like us. And then lastly, the last A is action. We do really want to help change the face of customer success and to provide more resources and more opportunity. So we're collaborating with many of the customer success platforms like Gainsight and Churn zero to activate getting the right people in these rooms. I'm proud to say that with all of the work that we've done, several conferences that we've helped to sponsor meant that more black faces, more black leaders can be in speaking positions and can be in the places where some of these decisions are being made in terms of who the next CS thought leader is. So really proud of the work the team is doing and you know, looking really to have more impact and changing the face of customer success.

Yeah, I mean so admirable and like amazing that you started this. So to recap, access to resources, an audience, you need to have one to help, you know, got to support each other. Right. Especially in the social media space, making a change and like, you know, making an impact and actually seeing change unfold before your eyes. So snaps to you.

Thank you.

Great. So I guess I'll ask you, you know, just on the. We've talked a little bit about all the different things you've done in your career at the moment. Do you have any specific career aspirations or professional goals and how could I and our listeners help or support you?

Yeah, So I already had an answer for this, but in talking to you right now, I have a third kind of I need help and maybe I'll start with that one first. And so I am looking for a mentor, informal, formal, but a go to market leader who has, you know, has to wear a few different hats across marketing, demand gen, new business, sales and existing business as well. I'm doing that in my current role. And while, you know, the people that I have on my team have been very supportive, I actually have a board member who has been very supportive. I am looking for an outside perspective because I think oftentimes when your mentors are within the same business, you can get a little bit. I don't want to say siloed, but it may not be as expansive as it can be. And so, yeah, I'm looking for a go to market leader who wouldn't mind chatting with me a few times a year and giving me some, giving me some perspective on the work that I'm doing. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Oh, I was just gonna add like I. Another kind of turning point in my career was I was matched with a mentor who was different than me. She was Indian, first generation Indian American. And she was in a much more technical role like HR business systems. But having someone outside of my company listen to how I was explaining things and asking questions that I would not have asked, that is very powerful and it can help you look at your business and how you do your job more effectively.

Agreed. Yeah. And someone too that's been in a larger organization because ours is still, you know, scaling. Right. And in terms of where I see my career aspirations, maybe to pivot to the second part of the question is to actually grow our EMEA business. You know, we're X million in revenue today. I'd love to see how we could 2x3x that. Right. So, you know, my role today encompasses everything again from marketing, demand generation, supporting my sales director and new business sales operational elements of, you know, standing up our business here in the UK to, you know, some of the, the areas that I'm more familiar with like customer success and account management. So, you know, that is really looking at my next year to 18 months, you know, growing the business quarter over quarter. I also want to be able to sort of flex my creativity as well, which, you know, we don't think oftentimes of the work that we're doing is creative. But you know, even coming up with new sales strategies and tactics totally is something that I'm having to think about, especially doing business in another part of the world. So that is kind of my quick day job in terms of success in black. Yeah, you know, I really found it success in black as a way to also help scale myself. You know, speaking of mentorship, I had so many people reach out and say, you know, as a black woman in the senior position, you know, can you mentor me? Can you chat with me? And I was always open to, and I still am always open to those conversations. But I thought that there was a way to scale myself and to also group and consolidate resources that were beyond what I as an individual could provide. Now I really want the opportunity to scale the impact that this organization has on it has been self funded by me alone in terms of all of the things that you see, I would love to get more organizations supporting our mission, but I also don't just want to be having my hand out asking for money. I also want to also think about creating revenue streams. I personally and I know a few of the other senior leaders get asked to coach, we get asked for recruiting support, we get asked to for speaking opportunities. And it's not something that I've monetized yet, but I think it could be a way to have that revenue again, support the business and scale the type of impact and the type of programming that we can have. So that's the other aspiration and goal that I would like in the next year.

Yeah, so three things you need a mentor from a kind of large organization. Go to market leader across, you know, the different kind of go to market functions. A lot of the people that I'm interviewing here maybe could be helpful for you. So if you see anyone on the list you're interested in, I'm happy to make the intro. You're looking also for support in, you know, getting more funding for success in black. And obviously you want to grow your EMEA business. So those, those are the three things it sounds like. So, last question, Aja May. I can't believe the time flew by. The last outro question I ask every guest is in one word. What advice do you have for your mid career self or any other woman who aspires to be more like you?

Yeah, the word that comes to mind is expand. So when I was earlier in my career I think it was heads down, do the work and hope that people see the great work that I'm doing. It wasn't until, let's say I was mid career and seeing that it's okay to lift your head and to look at other areas, to consider other types of work that I really kind of got into my stride. So I would say expand. Expand your thinking of what you can do. Expand your definition of success as well. You know, I think I was always keen to continue to rack up up, you know, have a bigger team, have a larger paycheck. But success also can mean maybe taking a lateral move and learning a new set of skills. So expand really speaks to me in the multiple ways you can think of expansive behavior and expansive mentality, maybe growth mindset too. But I like expand because it's one word.

I like expand too. Well, I really appreciate all of your really helpful information and the time you took to share a bit about your career and your journey and yeah, I will. Hopefully we can get some people to help you in those things you ask for.

Thank you. No, I appreciate the platform and the opportunity to talk about my journey and talk about some of the things that I'm doing. And I will say the offer right back. You know, if I can help and support any of your listeners or anyone that is in your network, I'm open to that as well.

Thank you so much. Ajime.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of Breaking the Tech Ceiling. If you have questions or comments, please email me at Michelle at Breaking the Tech Ceiling. You can find information mentioned in this episode in the podcast show notes or at www.breakingthetextiling.com. if you would like to continue hearing from female go to Market Tech Executives, please follow and Download episodes the first Tuesday of every month on Apple Spotify or at www.breakingthetechsealing.com. remember, if you be courageous in your career.