Vulnerability as a Skillset with Ejieme Eromosele

A mentor who I had at the time a mentor. He was a CEO at the time. Mark Thompson, you know, gave me some really sage advice that, you know, he thought for at least some time it would be better if I could be a big fish in a smaller pond. And so I started to look at tech as an option and start to look at startups as an option. And that was the final pivot into customer success.

Welcome to the warriors at Work show. This is Jeannie Coomber, your guide and host. This is a show for men and women in the workplace who want to move from the predictable to the potent. This is your weekly dose of inspiration with an edge. I talk with CEOs and shamans, sports marketing executives and therapists. All of us are like minded thinkers and doers who tell stories, share wisdom, and challenge each other to have the best, best life possible inside and outside the office. Welcome to your Warrior conversation.

Hey everybody, it's Jeanne. Thank you so much for joining me here at warriors at Work.

Today's guest, Aja May Arimasale, believes in the power of customer relationships, not just as a business lever, but as a force for transformational growth.

With.

With a career spanning leadership roles at Accenture, PwC and the new York Times, and a track record of scaling startups, building high performing customer teams, she has literally mastered the art of turning potential into results. We're talking 120% net revenue retention, loyal customer advocates, and teams that absolutely crush revenue goals. But beyond the numbers, what really sets Aja Mae apart is knowing her purpose and using vulnerability as a skill set. Whether it's mentoring black professionals through her organization, Success in Black, or helping founders find their edge, Aja May is driven by a mission to empower, connect and create value that lasts. She's currently the VP of Customer Growth at quic, which is an organization that helps brands bring their AI strategies to life with unrivaled expertise and relentless focus on customer experience. So join me as we dive into the world of Asia May.

Asia Mae is here with me at warriors at Work. I am so excited to have you here.

Thank you so much, Jeannie. I'm so excited to be here. We've known each other for, gosh, I don't know how many years, since 2019. Yeah. Really proud and honored to finally make it on your show.

I know, and we've been talking about this for the last couple of months, so I'm so thrilled to get into this with you. You have so many unique perspectives and ideas that I just can't wait to bring out in this conversation and where I want to start is, you know, you're known in the business world for your deep expertise in customer success. Anybody who follows you on LinkedIn can see all of the power and influence that you have in that space and. But I want to talk about the person behind the label of this customer success expert. I want you to describe for me. Asia May inside the office, but also outside the office. Who are you?

I love that question. It's so deep. It takes me to the core. I think starting with inside the office. I'm someone who really thrives on strategy, but then seeing that through execution. You know, I love solving problems. You know, maybe this was in my growing up in management consulting and being a professional problem solver, but now I get to do that for some really amazing customers and, and well known brands across the world. I love designing engagement models with those customers that really deliver value and drive revenue. And I think I'm also equal parts analytical but very human and people oriented. I have and believe in high standards, but also in creating safer places for people to grow. And I really love empowering people and working collaboratively to meet our shared goals outside of the office. I think in general, I'm just a deeply curious person. I love to learn. Maybe it's because my dad was an elementary school teacher. Maybe he, yes, he worked at the Newark public school system for 30 years. So maybe I get that from him. Hi dad. Yeah, I love to learn, you know, and that can come in a multitude of ways. You know, I still read a ton of books, but I also love to learn by experience. So I love to travel then to almost 50 countries. Love meeting people from all walks of life and hearing their conversations. More recently, I'm all about prioritizing, well being whether it's working out. I have a meditation practice, just being more intentional about gratitude as well. The last thing I say, I think, you know, I'm just really community driven. Maybe also again based on how I grew up. You know, both of my mom, both of my parents have seven siblings on each side, so there's eight of them. So it was always. And my mom is the oldest woman in her family in her sibling group and my dad is just the oldest. So our house is always full of people all the time. And so while I'm an introvert, I get so much and source so much energy from being with family and community. So yeah, at my core, you know, I just want to be someone who makes things better. It's sort of inherent in my name. So Asia May means a good place. Place. And that's what I'm trying to do in the world. I didn't know that either. Yes.

Means a good place.

That's right.

That's. That's my word for the year, by the way. Goodness. Goodness.

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Spread goodness. Absolutely.

The other thing that I'd add about you that I really admire is you are an extraordinary listener. You have the capacity to really put pause around what somebody is saying and go to the next level. And I'm not surprised that you're having the success that you're having with customer engagement and just customers, full stop. Your capacity to do that is really one of the best I've ever seen. So I also want to reflect that back to you.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I try to actually listen when people are talking, which sometimes makes it hard to actually come up with a response because I'm so focused on what you're saying instead of already in my mind, which sometimes I still do, or I'm already kind of thinking of the thing to respond back to. But I think deep listening is so important, especially in the work that I do. But also, like I mentioned, in, you know, being a people centered, you know, having a people centered value system, I think it's. It's core to that. Yeah.

Well, I want to go back to the early days of your career. Just out of college, you're beginning your journey. Who was Asia May then? Tell me a little bit about, like, the arc of where she was then and who she is now.

Yeah. So right out of college, I was very ambitious, but not confident. So I went into college, I went to NYU thinking that I was going to be a doctor, you know, a child of immigrants. Well, an immigrant myself. A child of Nigerians. And they're like, you're either a doctor, a lawyer, engineer. Right. The classic.

Is that right?

I didn't know that.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Most immigrants across the spectrum, that's the thing. It's like, I bring you to this country, this America. You're either a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or I don't know what you're doing with your life. So I went in Pre MEd at NYU, and after year three, I decided that it wasn't for me. By the time I graduated, I was really lucky that I had landed a consulting job at Accenture. I had no idea what consulting even was at that point. And so I didn't know many people back then that had careers in business. My dad was a teacher. My mom was a nurse's assistant. And so I didn't have these role models of like being a business professional, but yeah, luckily got into some programs at NYU. You know, we did like a summer at McKinsey and I was like, oh, this consulting thing looks interesting. Landed a job at Accenture. And so, you know, I knew that I wanted to have an impact and I thought that this was gonna be a great way to do that and didn't realize just how true that was. So still early on I valued learning and adaptability, so I was open to different industries and roles and opportunities. I mean, a good example of that is while I was at Accenture, I ended up taking a four month sabbatical to run a one year old social enterprise that a friend had started in Ghana. You know, it was totally unplanned, but when the opportunity presented itself, I really, I just couldn't say no. And at that point I again knew I wanted to have an impact. And I thought maybe that impact was going to be somewhere back in the continent of Africa, maybe Ghana, and maybe back home in Nigeria. I just didn't know. But you know, looking back at the early days of my career, I was just so hungry and ambitious and was just open to trying new things.

How did your parents and your family react to you switching gears?

Massive disappointment. Yeah, I think they were disappointed that I wasn't going to pursue the path of medicine, but I think that they trusted that I would still land in a place where I could, you know, develop a life for myself and obviously feed myself. But yeah, there was definitely disappointment there that I had to do deal with.

And so fast forward to today. Here you are, this customer success expert. Why did you choose that path? So how did you switch into this or how did this all manifest?

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't intentional. It wasn't an intentional choice at first for sure. Looking back though, it makes perfect sense. I've always been drawn to roles that blended strategy, problem solving, relationship building, and customer success has all of those components. My first job at Accenture just so happened that the very first project I was on was New York City311. So for folks that aren't familiar, it's just basically a way for local and state and city governments to connect with their people through elevated customer experience. So it was a call center that Accenture had created for the New York City government, and that was my first foray into working in customer experience and customer service. And that was just by luck of the draw. And so since then, I've just been really passionate about having customer great customer experiences. Drive business growth. And so yeah, it just happened to be that I landed into that very early in my career. And the pivot into customer success, specifically for SaaS and B2B tech companies was off of the back of my tenure at the New York Times. I wanted to do something different and a mentor who I had at the time a mentor. He was a CEO at the time. Mark Thompson gave me some really sage advice that he thought for at least some time it would be better if I could be a big fish in a smaller pond. And so I started to look at tech as an option and start to look at startups as an option. And that was the final pivot into customer success. Success.

I'm kind of curious, what is it that you think differentiates you as an influencer and just like key thought contributor in this space?

Well, first of all, I still have to giggle to hearing that word as influencer, but I'm going to own it. I think for sure I have influenced people. The immediate example that comes to mind is the community I created, Success in Black, which is a platform to advocate for more inclusion in customer success and in tech. But this actually has paved the way for many more offshoots of other communities like the South Asian Success Community, Latinas and Success, and a just newly formed Asia Pacific success community. So I'm really proud that, you know, me taking that courageous step to create something like Success in Black can now influence and inspire others to do the same. And I think what differentiates me is my ability to think outside of my own world. You know, this was something that growing up for, let's say good or bad, was always something I had to deal with. You know, I was often kind of off daydreaming about other things. And while it can be bad to sort of have to put yourself outside of your own world, and I do still struggle to kind of tap into my own emotions. I think what that meant is that it's quite easy for me to take someone else's perspective. And so for business, it's been easy for me to like look across silos and see what my peers are doing and try to see how that could help in what I'm trying to achieve. And so as a thought leader, you know, I hope that I'm bringing new and interesting concepts and perspectives to old ways of doing things or old ways of thinking. I just actually in LinkedIn talked about this concept that I'm, I'm piloting called assumptive advocacy. So it's all about how as customer success and you Know customer relationship managers, how we can take a page from our sales leaders. There's this concept called the assumptive sale, which really kind of puts a positive spin and kind of positive mindset that this buyer is already going to buy. It assumes that they've already bought. So taking that to my world, I thought, what if we could apply that to how we ask customers, customers to advocate on our behalf. So now I've taken something that sales has done and now I'm trying to reimagine it for my world. So I think that that's really what differentiates me is I'm quite easily able to take a different point of view and see how it can apply to what I'm doing and how it can help.

You know, building on that, you talked about the different ways, the different kinds of discussions that you're choosing to have. There's one that I loved and you said this term to me and I'd love for you to expand upon it, and that is vulnerability as a skill set. So say more.

Yeah, so vulnerability is something that I've been tapping more into just in my personal growth journey and actually just finished Dare to Lead by Brene Brown a few months ago. And she talks a lot about this in terms of like courage, vulnerability and empathy. But I think vulnerability, especially for me, who, you know, I often in the past and still I think to an extent now come off as quite poised, quite self assured, quite confident. And vulnerability is a skill set for me, is because it takes intentionality and it takes practice. It's not something that you're just born with. It can be something that you can actually develop over time. And I think as a leader, me being vulnerable and me sharing other parts of my life, other parts of who I am, really helps me foster trust, helps me drive and build meaningful relationships and connections in ways that I just wasn't able to before. And I think as leaders, like, that's core to actually realizing a vision. You can have the best strategy, the best ideas, the best vision in the world, but if you can't have that connected level with people, it's going to fall short. So that's one thing that I really am trying to do now. Another example is on my LinkedIn presence and in my thought leadership is putting my personal perspective and my personal spin as being, you know, a black woman, you know, in leadership, like, what does that mean for me? Like, feel risky because some of the things I'm saying are challenging the powers that be in my industry. But I think, you know, being vocal about my own experience has really deepened my connections with strangers on the Internet, strangers that are friends, and really created opportunities for me that, you know, I wouldn't have come to achieve otherwise.

I love that you bring, you brought it up and that you brought it up that way because one of the things that I was thinking about is going back to this, this word into intentionality, which we were talking about before we started this recording today. And I think it all starts there. It's like, what is it you're trying to bring forward and why does it matter? And so you, you took that idea, you obviously put it into practice from a professional success standpoint. But when, when you think about the word success, Asia May, and how you talk about it, you're really, really redefining it. You're adding different ingredients to what success could look like. And, and you're also reminding all of us in your LinkedIn posts on, on what the journey looks like, feels like, how multidimensional the journey is. And for anybody listening or watching to follow you on LinkedIn, subscribe to your newsletter because your, your insights create pause and reflection and potentially a different choice or a different decision as a result of, of taking in some of those things. Like I want you to talk about, you did one of this post around when you were leaving London, you finished a business assignment and it was so good. And maybe it's because my husband's English and I lived in England for two years, but you, you talked about so many cool things in there. So, so walk me through what was going on. So using this intentionality piece, what was going on for you?

Yeah, so I wanted to tell my own story in my own way. Right. So, you know, the reason why I moved to London in the first place, a lot of people, you know, don't know, don't know the, the backstory, but it was because my marriage was ending and I was going through a divorce and I was thinking that I needed to take a pause for my career because it was so life shattering, this, you know, really horrible decision that I had to make. And instead of allowing me to quit, my CEO asked me to move to London and open our international office. So off of the back of something really painful, this opportunity grew. So a lot of people know that story. A lot of people still don't know that story. But so as I was now moving back to the States and leaving that chapter, I wanted to be more open about what I had accomplished and the fact that I wasn't now returning to the States because something had failed or because it was just like, oh, the assignment was over. It was like, look how much more I gained from this experience. And you know, the things that I gained that I had no idea when I first moved to London that, that I would have. And it's beyond just the, you know, business metrics and outcomes, which, by the way, I was quite successful in. It was more about the personal growth and the taking a significant risk at this point, point in my career and in my life, moving to a country, into a city where I knew no one, having to stand up a new business with no help and, you know, very little support. And so I really wanted to take a breath, tell that story in my own terms and really celebrate that accomplishment.

Like the cultural dexterity. Yes, that's what I think you coined a phrase there. That was really good.

Yes. It's so important to me. Right. Because, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, wow, like, what was it like living in London and you know, kind of taking on this new role? And I was like, you know, I was always prepared for this. You know, being an immigrant to this country, having to always kind of live in a duality, you know, maybe even more than duality in multiple perspectives really made me well suited to achieve this. You know, I been to almost 50 countries traveling, just personally, you know, I'd studied in China, I'd worked in Ghana. You know, I already had professional relationships internationally. You know, just the ability to be able to bring those to bear and to now become an international tech and international go to market leader was just part of the journey and part of the skill set that I'd already been developing.

So beautiful. Thank you for sharing your heart and your personal story around that. I think it's so refreshing to hear that level of honesty and openness.

Yeah.

And then, and then how you've personally and professionally grown from choosing to lean in like that, I think is such a great example for all of us. So anyway, where are you in your career right now? Like, when you think about your trajectory, you know, do you feel like you're in this building phase, expanding phase, teaching phase, mentoring phase? Like, where are you in your career journey?

I'm going to cheat and say all of the above, but if I would have to pick which were primary right now, I would have to say that I'm still building new things while learning and also teaching. I think that those two for me go hand in hand. Lifelong learner, but I've learned a lot, I've accomplished a lot, and hopefully fortunate and privileged enough to Be able to share that with others. I really think that I'm still expanding into my leadership and into my community development. You know, I've built this expertise in customer success and hopefully now I can apply that in broader ways through speaking, through writing. I've also been doing more advisory work. I'm also still investing more in mentorship now for others and helping others, you know, navigate their own professional journey. But all that to say, you know, I'm still growing and expanding my own set of skills, learning AI so that I can make myself more efficient in the work that I'm doing and free up some of my time. So, yeah, it's just exciting to think about being all of those things that the same time, you know, having a platform to share and teach while also still learning from others as well.

Love that. So let's talk about who and what has had the biggest impact on you in your career.

Yeah, so what? I mean, I think there are certain milestones that, you know, have really propelled me to where I am. I think the first one was, you know, the first time I took a new role outside of my comfort zone. So leaving consulting, you know, I'd been a management consultant for 10 years. I didn't know what I could do beyond that. And then, you know, this amazing role at the New York Times showed up. So again, sometimes when you kind of like question or doubt yourself or you feel a little bit apprehensive about what's next, you know, the world can really deliver. I also had amazing mentors, you know, right as I was now transitioning from the New York Times, you know, that really taught me that I didn't have to have all the answers, but was I asking the right questions? So, you know, when it's time for me to leave the New York Times, you know, there really became a question of like, why? What did I want to do next? What did I want to learn next? What do I want to hopefully achieve? So they really taught me about asking those right questions. And then now I think where I am in hopefully my next pivot is starting to realize that I don't have to fit any pre existing model and that I can create my own path and define success on my own terms, which again, feeling a little bit scary. But I'm going back to what I learned from my transition from the New York Times and asking myself the questions of, you know, what do I want to accomplish? What impact do I want to have in the world? What legacy do I want to leave behind one day? And that's helped Me kind of craft, let's say my next set of careers. Because I don't think we always have to have just one or kind of like one career. But yeah, what I'm excited about to do, what I'm excited about doing next is crafting that. There's a term now that I love, just like a portfolio of careers or having a portfolio career. So that's what I'm really looking forward to next.

I love that you remind me, I'm a big fan of like doing something different every year or sometimes a few times every year. My poor husband. I'll come down the stairs and I'll be like, I have this idea. Here's how this is going to go. And he's always like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm always trying to shift something and redefine something.

So. So who.

Who are you. Who are you inspired by right now? Like, who are you following? Who are you looking to.

For.

For to feel full.

Oh, gosh. So my B school bestie, business school bestie, Lola Bakare, she's amazing. She just published her first book, Responsible Marketing. Really shaking the table and challenging marketers to really set culture and have a responsibility when it comes to the organizations they represent. But society as a whole, really, really groundbreaking work that she's doing. And she's a dear and personal friend. So I'm just privilege. And I guess you just like text her and call her and be like, hey, Lola, I'm thinking about this. And she's like, have you thought about it this way? Like, she's just an amazing, amazing person. And again, really privileged that I get to call her my dear friend. Other people that I'm not as close with, but I am following and learning from Lovey Ajayi. She's also another Nigerian American. I think her first book was called Professional Troublemaker. Was just love that. Like, that resonated with me so much. But she's like a constructive agitator, I would say. So think about and challenge, like, why are we doing things the way that we're doing? And how do we hold ourselves and each other to higher standards? Love her work. And then the last person I would say, actually Dan Harris. So he was a former ABC News anchor and pivoted to podcasts host and writer. And I have been subscribed and following his work on the 10% Happier podcast for years now, actually by recommendation of my former therapist. But I just love even the concept of just even 10% happier. Right. Like, everyone was like, I want to be happy, but like, that's such a lofty goal and we all should be happy, but what if we could just be a little bit happier? And so, yeah, just love his, his framing and the guests that he has and the way that he talks about these concepts. So that's another person that I'm really following and still learning from.

So where I want to end our conversation is we talked about so many different things. What do you want to leave us with? What do you want to make sure that anybody's listening and watching this, knows about you, knows about your journey or feels something? What's most important for you?

Yeah, right now I'm really, now that I'm back in New York, what I'm still interrogating is how to redefine success for myself. And it's not the end goal, but the journey. And really for me now, like who I'm bringing along with me. Right. So reconnecting with friends and family, building new relationships and connecting with new people. So really for me, it's like how do I think about how I'm showing up along that journey? So, yeah, I don't know that I have like a real compelling end because I'm still trying to figure it out for myself. But really there's no destination. Right. It's.

I think that's, that's, that's what you're leaving us with is a reminder of the, the power and the beauty in the journey. And I think we're all so success minded, which often associates with a promotion or some particular goal, a goal achievement. And I think what you've highlighted for us is there's so much here around the power of the revealing who we are, why we do what we do and then what the learnings are around that. I feel so grateful to have reconnected with you when you were in England and so grateful for you Sharing your story and your heart here with us really means a ton to me to have you here at hpa. So thank you.

Thank you for having me, Jeanne. I really appreciate the time and the platform to share my story.

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the warriors at Work Show. If you are interested in learning more about what we do at the warriors at Work show show and platform, be sure to go over to my website, Jeanne Coomber, and subscribe to my monthly Warrior Playbook newsletter. I share everything that I'm up to month by month, as well as some lessons and insights that I've learned. I'm also interested in hearing any feedback you have about this conversation or future topics. So reach out to me directly on jcieanniekumbert.com or on LinkedIn. Be sure to tell your friends and your colleagues about this warriors at Work conversation. Subscribe, review and rate us. It's the best way to get this message out into the world. Be well.