Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#287: Aimon Ali (Founder of Fashion Talks) (pt. 2 of 2)
This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with fashion entrepreneur Aimon Ali. Her rich background includes being a fashion runway show producer, stylist and creative director. After moving from Toronto, where she worked in the Canadian fashion industry, she moved to Cleveland where she launched Fashion Talks, a boutique fashion services and events agency with a footprint in Cleveland, NYC and Toronto. https://fashiontalkss.com/
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. I'm Andy Heise and I'm Nick Petrella.
Nick Petrella:We're really excited to have Aimon Ali with us today. She has a rich background as a fashion entrepreneur, fashion runway show producer, stylist and creative director. After moving from Toronto, where she worked in the Canadian fashion industry, she moved to Cleveland where she launched Fashion Talks, a boutique fashion services and events agency with a footprint in Cleveland, new York City and Toronto. We'll link to Fashion Talks in the show notes so you can see the variety of services and activities the company coordinates. Thanks for being with us, Aimon!
Aimon Ali:Of course. Thank you for having me.
Andy Heise:You were talking about how you know. I think in my mind, what I hear you saying is like all the different pieces of the you know, whatever the fashion ecosystem that are necessary in order for that to flourish. So I'm imagining yeah, maybe you have some designers, maybe you have some boutiques, but what you're missing is maybe the stuff in between which is like okay, I have these designs, now we need to make some samples.
Aimon Ali:What's the business behind it? Can I do it? Where do I find the help? All of that? I know everybody when they think fashion. They're like, oh, that's amazing. People like you design and I'm like there's so much more that goes into that than just designing and people and you know production and all of that. So I think those parts not only are they maybe missing, but it's like the education to even know that process. That's missing for a lot of people.
Andy Heise:Sure.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, eamon, on your site I see that you offer coaching, so since we have a lot of young professionals and students, I'm wondering if you would consider telling us your most recommended strategies for improving mindset and one's visual identity like behind the scenes, business oriented.
Aimon Ali:But we talk about mindset a lot, because without the right mindset you're not going to go far, in my opinion. And that's because when you have your own business, at the end of the day you are responsible for the decisions you make. And I know a lot of people have a lot of ideas and they ask their mom and their dad and their friends and their family. And you go from A to Z. All of a sudden, right, and you're like someone's like well, why aren't you also doing this? And then you're like, oh my God, should I be doing that? Like you know, there's just so much. But if you are confident in yourself and if you know what you want and what kind of impact you want to make, which takes work, obviously you're not just going to overnight be like oh, I just great mindset. Now, like you know, you have to do some inner work. Think about what you yourself, as your as a person, um, certain roadblocks and how they would come. But at the end of the day, it's not until you do the thing the way you want to and the things start coming towards you and then how you overcome. So I always tell people like, yes, you need to know yourself and you need to have confidence that if someone, if something were to come your way, you would be able to deal with it, or how you would deal with it. Like, always have a backup plan, but know that I can say no to things or I can say yes to things, and that, even if someone gives me a thousand ideas, I will take it as a suggestion and maybe improve, maybe not. It's a lot more about like me and how I feel in my body, in my mind, about myself and my business, because at the end of the day, I'm going to go to sleep with my decisions, right, so you can't blame someone else and sometimes that happens in business, where things happen and we need to find someone to blame, but really we have to just kind of accept it and move on.
Aimon Ali:I think I always say don't take things personal. If that person didn't reply to your email, they probably didn't see it. It's not a you problem, it's a them problem. Just follow up, right, send them a message on LinkedIn. And I think these things are hard to explain until you actually start going through the processes of like being an entrepreneur and owning a business and getting that first person who's going to say something negative to you.
Aimon Ali:But obviously, like you know, if there are books there's I love reading certain like mindset, entrepreneurship books. There's great books to read. It's great to keep learning and have more of an open mind, because just because your business started one way doesn't mean it's going to end that way, and I think that's really important. People need to learn to let go a little bit. So I think there's a lot of like inner works, but I would start with really maybe sitting down with yourself and figuring out what you really love and you don't love in your life and in your business and then kind of going from there and honestly doing the thing. The more you delay, the harder it's gonna get. So, um, that's definitely one of the main things I always say. And then, in terms of like um you said visual image or um visual identity.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, that's visual identity from your site.
Aimon Ali:Yeah, yeah, um, visual identity nowadays is really important in terms when I'm talking about it with social media, like who you are and how people perceive you, and now more people would rather follow a founder behind the brand than the actual brand's page. So I think it is very important for someone to have some sort of visual representation of themselves, whether it's like Instagram or LinkedIn, and even if you don't like I know a lot of people don't like social media that much just to have something to represent. Hey, this is who I am and this is what kind of I do. And here's some like you know, like.
Aimon Ali:If you go on my page, for example, you'll see that, oh, she travels, she posts a lot about you, you know behind the scenes of her life and stories and she loves tea. Like there's like parts that people want to learn, so then they can be like okay, so this is the brand that this person is making. And sometimes it's as easy as having your a nice photo, some professional content and a great bio, and you don't even need to post every day or be consistent as long as across like, let's say, you pick two platforms like linkedin and instagram same bio, same photo people are able to find you. They can clearly see what you do. That's a strong visual identity, like there are certain things that I'll post and people will be like oh, that's so you and I'll be like, thank you. Like i's so you and I'll be like, thank you. Like, I've built this kind of like visual identity where people associate me with certain things and hence associate my brands with certain things.
Andy Heise:Yeah, gotcha, the way you've explained that is, I think, just amazing. You know, I get a lot of students come to me and say, well, I want to, I want to create my own brand. It's like cool, that's awesome. But like, what is what do you? What are you doing with that? Like, what's, what's the point behind developing your own brand? What, what is it you're? You know, to use a strictly business term, what is it you're selling? Why are you creating this identity in this brand like is it?
Aimon Ali:sustainable? Is it gonna work, like sure you know. So I know that you know you want to think about all of that, but you also don't want to think too much. It's always better to just do the thing and then learn. But really you have to know also why and what. Because what if someone comes up to you and goes I don't like your brand, how are you gonna? How are you gonna defend it?
Aimon Ali:Like I always tell my my like sometimes I go into like classes and I talk to students about like entrepreneurship and business and I always tell them I'm like everybody's really nice to you right now. It doesn't mean they're going to be nice to you when you leave. Like just in all honesty, I'm like people are not always nice, right? Like what are you going to do when they're not nice to you? Like, just do when they're not nice to you. Like just because you're a nice person doesn't mean they have to be nice to you. So you have to be strong enough to especially in entrepreneurship and fashion like you have to be strong enough to deal with people's very strong opinions and they might not like you for absolutely no reason. How are you going to? Are you going to personally take that on you.
Nick Petrella:No, yeah in any arts field. If you're producing something, you are going to be critiqued 100%. If you're in business, if you're selling, you will hear the word no. Your job is to mitigate that, but the other thing is just accept it and move on. It's not at this time, or you want to take it and say well, what can I learn from it? But that's an excellent point.
Aimon Ali:Or I always say, if they say no, no, at least they know who you are now, maybe they'll say yes in the future. Because, um, one of the things I make my interns do is like outreach. And um, I remember I was like, guys, we need at least 100 plus people on this list for at least 10 to reply to us, and then three to actually reply and one to come on board. And they didn't believe me. And then they started doing and they're like there's no way these people are not replying to our emails. And I'm like, literally that's how it works. You have to continuously just do outreach and it you get to a point where no's don't even matter because you're like, okay, someone's about to say yes, I just have to keep sending the emails.
Aimon Ali:Um, and I think that's what a lot of like younger business owners, entrepreneurs, just people in general, don't realize is that so many times it's just about the follow-up. Do you know? There's definitely at least five emails I think about every day that I haven't answered for the last six months probably. They just don't have the time, and then, when I do have the time, I end up doing something else. I didn't reply to that email and it's not that also affects your brand, though I didn't reply to that email, and it's not because that also affects your brand, though.
Aimon Ali:I know, but also some of them I can get away with. But yes, so you know it happens, it's fine, especially people who are in organizations and are working a 9-to-5 and I'm reaching out to them. I know that they're on more of a strict schedule than me. Who's emailing them at like 10 am or 10 pm, you know? Um, so some I think the concept of it's not a me problem, it's a them problem will go a long way for a lot of the younger people yeah, yes, as you're talking.
Nick Petrella:It's funny because one of the things I used to do was a lot of customer service and customer service, really, when you think about it, you're talking about getting replies from emails and such. When's the last time you called a company and said boy, you're doing a great job? You're not the only time you call a company. Really, anybody is to scream at someone.
Aimon Ali:Not a lot of people leave good reviews, right, they leave bad reviews unless they're incentivized to leave the good review.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, so just the passionate people, the engaged people and how you engage it, and I think I mean we don't want to get too far afield, but I think that would be something worth you know discussing. How do you engage people?
Andy Heise:were talking about in my conversations with arts entrepreneurs particularly, it's the people that their businesses are obvious, direct reflections of who they are as people. Those are the most. I don't know if successful is the right word, but those are the ones that you can just tell the authenticity with which they're doing everything in their lives. It's like that that is aspirational. It's not just I want to just start a business that makes money. Like you know, there's lots of ways to make money, but I don't know. Yeah, it's.
Aimon Ali:It's interesting Cause recently I was just talking about that with someone and I she was trying to figure out like her brand and her and all that. And I'm like you know what. Sometimes we have to realize like we are the brand, like you, like I'm Eamon and Eamon is a brand, and then there's Eamon, the content creator, and then there's Eamon from fashion talks and they're all parts of me in their own little bubbles. But at the end of the day, all of them are connected to me.
Andy Heise:Yeah, absolutely yeah, and you mentioned, uh, you, there are some mind entrepreneurship, mindset books that you like which is is there one? Is there one that you would? Just that you always kind of?
Aimon Ali:refer people to. There are some I'm looking at. So one is called do less um by uh, by Kate Northup I think that's how you pronounce her name. I think that was a huge help in my mindset shift. It's a concept of literally doing less but being able to accomplish more, especially for women in business. And I read it and I was like, oh my God, I just like the light bulb on my head went off and I was like this makes so much sense because I kind of the way she talks about um, just like a super short, like snippet, basically like she talks about how, like men run on 24 hour cycles but women run on monthly cycles, obviously, and how our energy fluctuates, whereas men's energy you guys are kind of like same energy every 24 hours but ours is not. And so she talks about how you can manage that with work and owning a business. And I was like this is so interesting because it's very true for how I work. I have like these power hours, like I'm a night owl 8pm give me an hour, I'll get a week's worth of work done. 10amm put me there. I'm there for three hours. I can't do an email. So I think, realizing sometimes what the norm of like, wake up at 5 am and go for a run and sometimes it won't work. It just won't work and you are struggling against something to make it harder. So to understand again your body and your mindset and put that into your work will help.
Aimon Ali:Another book that I think is a really good one. This one is more accounting, bookkeeping-ish, like money, business mindset. It's called Profit First. I'm actually also not done it, but it's a good one to understand the financial aspect. Financial aspect Um, I also run an accounting and bookkeeping company with my husband on the side, so that helps a lot. I talk a lot about like money mindset and, um, financials, because honestly, that's one of the main reasons most businesses don't last is they just? They just don't have the finances in order. Um, so that's a good one. And um, there's one called building a story brand by Donald Miller. I think those three are pretty good and quite different.
Nick Petrella:Yeah.
Andy Heise:We'll link to those in the show notes. Sorts of things are um, how do you balance, you know, the creative aspects of your business with the administrative? You know, uh, bookkeeping, all those types of tasks? How do you balance those things?
Aimon Ali:gosh, I wish I knew um no um, you have a husband that does bookkeeping there I help with it too um but, no, I think it helps to kind of have some sort of understanding on you're never going to have a proper balance, like you just have to kind of accept that. But you have to have your own balance. So I try to have like seasons of what I'm doing or days. So, for example, april, may, june is very fashion talks oriented, because our runway is at the end of June and I kind of have to accept that I won't be able to do much. For example, my bookkeeping clients or anything else like my influencer life. Absolutely nothing is happening and I just have to accept that. Okay, this season is for fashion talks and I'm working hard on it. And then I'm going to move on to post runway, where I get to focus more on other stuff, and to to be able to kind of just figure out like when things work for you.
Aimon Ali:I think that's the best balance for me to really have a um. Like I have a digital calendar but then I also have like a physical one where I write things down. Um, I prefer to physically write things down, so that helps me a lot by like putting it on a weekly calendar, on a monthly calendar and kind of figuring out. I was at one point I did literally I did this thing where I was like, okay, monday I'm only working on business, one Tuesday I'm doing only this, wednesday I'm doing only this, and it kind of worked for a while, but then I got distracted so I stopped working. But I think if you can find the right balance and schedule for yourself, you can somehow create the right balance. But also you have to make sure that you take breaks and time for yourself and if you just even sometimes I just I'm not even lying, I have to just sit in my room and stare at the wall and do absolutely nothing, just to you know, come back and just focus and, um, whether it's like reading or taking a walk or going out with your friends, I think you need to make sure that you also do that, um, of course.
Aimon Ali:I mean, I'm not going to lie I absolutely have spent multiple, multiple days where I just have worked on my business and work late into the night and, honestly, it's brought me joy. So for me it wasn't I didn't burn out or anything, it was wow, I'm really enjoying this and if I can go, why not just keep going? And then there are certain times when I'm like, oh, I cannot do this and I will not do it because it is my business and I'll just take a break. So I think it's really understanding again yourself and your rhythm and how if you are feeling like you're getting burned out, then stop. Just stop doing it, just take a break, right, or just just try to do only one thing at a time. Also, it's good to experiment with like different types of methods.
Aimon Ali:I recently found this website where you can put all your tasks in, put like a time to it and then it'll have a timer on the top of my screen that is always there, no matter what tab I'm on, and for me, every minute it like dings and like ding, like it'll do like a little sound, and to me it makes me get a lot more work done because I'm not getting distracted on my phone. Um, it's called like forget dot work super simple. I tried a few things. I'm like I just need something to keep me accountable, because I'm working at home sometimes and you can get so distracted. Let me do the laundry, right. Um, so I think maybe finding something or someone to help going to a co-working space, things like that.
Andy Heise:Yeah.
Nick Petrella:Eamon, you mentioned that you have interns and I see a lot listed on your site. What do they do and how can someone secure one of those positions?
Aimon Ali:Yes, this was our largest cohort this year. Actually, I am currently actually interviewing right now. So, if they want to, if anyone wants to join, it's on our website or on our Instagram. You can message us. There's an application you can apply.
Aimon Ali:Um, but what our interns do is, um, a lot of things. So they get to kind of pick and choose behind for behind the scenes of fashion talks and the foundation now of what kind of projects they want to work on. So we have things like obviously, our runway is, uh, takes a full year, so we've already started for next year's runway. Um, you can help with designer outreach, vendor outreach, event logistics, um, we have a magazine that we produce for the runway. Um, we have a event planning overall. There's emails. There's so many different parts to this production that they can kind of get behind the scenes work done in. And also we do have individual events and clients that we work with.
Aimon Ali:I go to New York Fashion Week twice a year. I get invited as an influencer. So actually last February my interns got the opportunity. I went home to Toronto to visit family and I sent them to New York Fashion Week and they had to kind of navigate that world and a lot of them had never been to New York. So, ok, how are we getting there? Where are we staying? What does our schedule look like? What events do we have to go to? Who's going to go to what events? And what do I do if I miss an event and the door's closed because I was late on the subway or I got lost, right, like all of these things? Like I really want them to have an actual experience where they're learning something, and I always tell them, like, if you see me talk about an event or a task and you're like oh, I want experience in that, just let me know, because we're flexible. Same thing with like a lot of people are like well, how many hours a week am I required to do? And I'm like, you're not required to do hours a week, you're required to finish the task and I want you to do it well. So, for example, if I say, hey, this is a task, it's due in two weeks, whether you take one day to do that or you take the two weeks to do that, I don't care. It just has to be at the level that I want it to be. And I want you to ask me if you're stuck Right, like a lot of the girls that were doing outreach were like is, am I like doing horrible because no one's replying?
Aimon Ali:And I'm like, no, that's just how it is. And now one of them is like interning in. She goes to Kent, actually, and she's in New York for her semester. And she's like Eamon, my group was doing a project and they were like out of these five people, who should we reach out to? And I was like no, guys, we have to reach out to even more. And I was like good, she's like yeah, I learned that.
Aimon Ali:I was like I told them I did this in my internship and no one's going to reply to us and we have to find more ways. And I was like proud of her because she's like so I'm like, yeah, I'm glad that you're able to, you know, use it, because I don't want you to just, oh, I have to do 20 hours a week, because what if I don't need you to do 20 hours a week? I also don't like during their exam time. I'm like I'm not going to bother you, but when I need you, I need you. Right, so it's flexible. I think it's a very different internship than what they're used to or what they're prepared for. So a lot of them get caught off guard. But once they get into it, I think it works really well.
Andy Heise:Yeah, that's great. So you were recently recognized as one of the 25 most inspirational female leaders by the Burns Communication Group in New York City. Congratulations, thank you so much, and I saw on your Instagram account that one of the ways you were recognized is you had your there's a giant photo and your name up in Times Square, and I was just curious what did that feel like?
Aimon Ali:Honestly, it was crazy because I'm not going to lie at first I thought it was a scam when they emailed me, because you don't get a lot of emails, and I didn't reply. And then the person who nominated me, she called me and she's like did you get an email? And I was like yes. She's like can you reply? I'm like, absolutely, I'm so sorry. I thought it was just someone else.
Aimon Ali:I got a lot of emails and I got a lot of emails and even, like, on my way there, like we drove to New York and I still I was like, is this actually happening? Like what if I show up and I'm like not on a billboard? Like what if this is just you know what, if I misunderstood the whole thing? But like getting there and being part of, like the group of meeting of the other women and they had like a small, like panel talk with Stacey Abrams and a few other people and like being in that room and then seeing myself on that billboard, it was just so crazy.
Aimon Ali:I was like wow, like I didn't know how to feel in that moment because I had worked so hard and I'm like in my mind, I'm like I'm still working so hard, I still feel like I need I have somewhere to go.
Aimon Ali:But it was kind of just a really nice like I was like I'm still working so hard, I still feel like I need I have somewhere to go, but, um, it was kind of just a really nice. Um, like I was like kind of like a sigh of relief of like wow, like I'm, I'm doing the thing and people are recognizing that I'm doing the thing, because it can be really hard. Um, especially in Cleveland, when you're doing something very different, a lot of people don't understand and you have to explain a lot, and it's a lot more hard work than if I had like a well, keeping an accounting business. Everybody knows what I do. It's quite easy when you do fashion and when you look a certain way, it's there's just so much more that goes into it, and so sometimes you get so tired of constantly pushing and pushing and so in that moment I was just kind of like oh, that's me and I'm up there and I'm doing the thing and I'm going to continue to do the thing.
Andy Heise:And yeah, that's awesome.
Nick Petrella:Let's pivot to talk a little bit about event services. So that's something that Fashion Talks offers. How did you get into that aspect of the industry and what are some things that organizers should keep in mind when they have an idea to create an event?
Aimon Ali:So I got into it because of my volunteering in Toronto. I was helping behind the scenes at a lot of large scale events so like fashion shows, panel talks, conferences, private media events. We also have the Toronto International Film Festival, so a lot happens during that time. We have a lot of like just celebrities in general and like larger industry in in Canada. So kind of working behind the scenes on all those teams and then eventually becoming a runway show producer I think gave me a lot of insight on events because I mean I was a psychology major, I didn't study fashion, um.
Aimon Ali:So it's all this like real life, lived experience like, if I think about it, I have over 10 years of experience now because I started when I was in my first year of university. So I think one thing I always say to event organizers is just to be mindful of like sometimes a lot of people before they get into it don't realize how many details and how much work actually goes into an event, especially when it's like a fashion arts, creative event. So our services are kind of like you know, if someone wants to do some sort of fashion related event doesn't have to be just a fashion show they can kind of bring us on to either do the strategizing part to help, or the actual like hey, we'll bring the volunteers, we'll bring the people, we'll talk to the vendors, kind of, but usually it's with a focus on fashion or diversity and inclusivity or women. So really, I think, give yourself more time than you think you need and be open to talking to a lot of different people.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, good. So before we get to the final three, I have one more quick question for you here, Eamon. You seem to have a wide variety of experience across the fashion industry. And to those young professionals listening, in which sector do you see the most growth over the next 10 years and why?
Aimon Ali:Interesting, okay. So I think there's definitely going to be growth overall. But the thing with the fashion industry is sometimes there's new growth that you just didn't know was coming. When I first started, instagram had just launched. Did I know that it was going to become so huge? No, I just started an Instagram account because I didn't want people to have my phone number and then I ended up becoming a content creator and influencer because people liked what I was posting.
Aimon Ali:So I think I would say what's more important is to test or volunteer or intern in many different aspects, because I really was like, oh, I want to go into like, even though I was a psychology major, I was like I'd love to be a fashion buyer. And then, when I kind of did more research and like went and talked to buyers, they're like, oh, it's a lot of math. And I was like, oh, not me, I just can't Right. So I realized, oh, that's not going to work. But a lot of people want to just work in, like, the most popular areas and they don't realize there's so much more.
Aimon Ali:So I would say, really, volunteer, intern, talk to someone, research all the areas and then have an open mind, because I mean, 10 years ago we didn't even have AI and now we have AI and we have Canva and we have all of these other things in fashion that people are able to work in. So I would say, don't be opposed to change and physically try to volunteer and intern. Most of the interns that come and apply are majority for social media and marketing and the amount of them that start and then they're like oh, I don't like this and I'm like, yeah, I had a feeling you were gonna like it, but hey, do you want to try event logistics or community outreach or something else? You might really like model relations. So I think it's not just what we see, there's a lot more and it's going to grow overall. So, gotcha, make sure you like it yeah.
Andy Heise:I remember I did a job shadowing. I had a job when I was in college and it was at a recording studio and it was amazing, there's this recording session going on. It was a lot of fun. And then everybody gets up to take a break and then the intern comes in and the engineer says okay, to clean up these drum tracks, and so the. The intern's job was to to delete the. This is you can all do again. Ai, you can do all of this like automated now, but back then you couldn't. Uh to delete all of the silence, all the, all the places in the waveforms that weren't actual drum hits. Uh, and that's that's what they did for the next like hour and a half that's so interesting and so just just the same thing.
Andy Heise:Like you know, it's like I like I like I like rock bands and I like recording. I'm gonna go be a recording engineer and that experience actually, um, maybe that's not exactly what you want to do. Yeah, it's clean up drum tracks for the next, you know. 40 years.
Aimon Ali:It's kind of like people who want to do PR right and then they get into it and then they realize, ooh, do I want to clean up people's mistakes or not?
Andy Heise:Right? Well, Eamon, we've reached the point of the interview where we ask all of our interviewees the same three questions, and the first question is what advice would you give to others wanting to become an art entrepreneur?
Aimon Ali:I would say know yourself really well and get really confident in who you are and have a strong mindset, because becoming an art entrepreneur is not for the weak and, as you said, there is a lot of criticism. So I would say, really work on yourself and then try different art forms to really see what is bringing you joy. Don't just do it because you're going to think it's going to make you a lot of money, because if you hate it you're not going to enjoy the money.
Nick Petrella:What can we do to ensure the arts are more accessible and reaching the widest possible audience?
Aimon Ali:I think definitely not only reaching out to different people, but maybe having a sounding board or just people that you can talk to that are from different backgrounds or even industries, and just getting their opinion about. Like you know, I have people that will reach out to me. What do you think about this? We're doing this diversity initiative, or how do we reach more organizations or more young people of color, right, like, how do we integrate that? So, I think, being open to hearing what those people say too, even if it's something that you might it might not be the best feedback, but you can always take it and do improvement. So, just being open to all the advice, because if you want to ask about accessibility and diversity, then you're going to get feedback that you may or may not like, depending on the organization, and as long as you're open to it and open to change, I think that is what matters.
Nick Petrella:Right.
Andy Heise:Lastly, what's the best artistic or entrepreneurial advice you've ever been given?
Aimon Ali:I think the best advice is I don't I don't know if I've had any best advice, I just know that there's some advice that I've I know works, and and it's really understanding what you're doing and why you're doing it in relation to yourself. Because if I didn't have the confidence that I do in myself and in my business and what I do, I don't think I would have gotten this far. I think becoming stronger would have gotten this far. I think having us like becoming stronger. Obviously it takes time, but at the end of the day, I know that if everything else crashes and burns, I can do everything myself. I will do it myself to accomplish what I need to do.
Aimon Ali:So I think being dependent on yourself is so important, because sometimes we want to be dependent on others, but if they don't, we. I think we see a lot more potential in people than they see in themselves, and if they don't reach that level of your potential that you see them in, what are you going to do? So I think reducing how the expectations are on our end and being strong on my end brings me a lot more confidence and authenticity, because people are like, oh, she's really confident in what she does and she knows what she's doing and it's like yes, because I'm confident that if it was just me, like the beginning, I could do it. And I think that's important because a lot of people might, like you know, be like, oh my god, I can't do this alone, or I need all this, and like you don't just figure yourself out. And I think that's the best advice.
Nick Petrella:That's great. Well, thanks so much for coming on. The show is. It was great hearing your passion for social impact and you know, quite frankly, it's refreshing hearing your confidence and self-reliance.
Aimon Ali:Thank you. Thank you for having me. I hope that the listeners learn a lot and take some good things out of this, but I really enjoyed this. I love your questions as well.
Andy Heise:Thank you, great Thanks, eamon.
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