AJ Thomas
“When you're so vulnerable and you show up in such an authentic way, you give others permission to do it. That's what inspires me.” —AJ Thomas
“There's a community and then there's a communi-team. And, I often like to be on communi-teams where people are playing for the team and just not on the team. Playing for a team means you're aware of all of the team members that are there, that are contributing. You see them, you tap into their strengths, you help coach, you have the hard conversations.” —AJ Thomas
AJ Thomas (@itsajthomas) is the founder of Infuse Program Foundation (@infuseprogram) and the founder and chief explorer at BrainCandy Labs , powered by Women In Technology International (@witi). She also works at X, the moonshot factory, leading the human experience design team.
These roles have allowed AJ to be a key contributor to developing talent for the future. A lot of what fuels AJ's interests and passions intersect at bridging the gaps in talent, culture and career. The result of what she does moves people and organizations forward to create a future of infinite possibilities. AJ is a mother to two amazing kids, Ava and Jett, and resides in Silicon Valley with her family.
Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with AJ Thomas (@itsajthomas) and Founded By Women host, Margie Chuang (@margiechuang)!
Subscribe to the show & listen to Episode #003 on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can find the transcript for Episode #003 here. Transcripts for all episodes can be found here.
Show Notes
AJ’s nonlinear career path [1:42]
Career foraging and diving into curiosity [7:22]
Communi-team, part 1 [9:06]
Building AJ’s nonprofit organization, Infuse Program Foundation [13:49]
Launching Infuse’s Symposium of Ideas while experiencing postpartum [22:07]
Women’s conferences inspire girls to be curious, build, and create their futures [25:20]
The origin story of BrainCandy Labs [26:10]
AJ’s conversation with her 9-year old daughter, Ava, about racism and Ava’s hope for the future [30:51]
Embracing the power of the, “I don’t know” [35:34]
Growing up as a first generation immigrant in America [39:31]
The symbolic “black box” and AJ’s story about getting naturalized as a US citizen [40:15]
AJ’s take on optimism [46:20]
Communi-team, part 2 [48:51]
Reset: reconnecting in nature and away from technology [55:48]
Working out the brain muscle [57:50]
Activating questions: what to ask yourself [59:35]
Rapid Fire Questions [1:00:35]
How have other women encouraged or inspired you? [1:02:48]
Parting thoughts and encouraging words [1:03:17]
Note: Full audio for AJ’s conversation with her daughter, Ava, will be posted soon!
What was your favorite takeaway or quote from this episode? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
Selected Links from the Episode
Connect with AJ Thomas:
Infuse Program Foundation:
Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
BrainCandy Labs:
Women In Technology International:
Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
Dare to Lead | by Brené Brown
Emily Chang
Jordan Harriss
Lester Holt | Nightly News
Barack Obama | 44th President of the United States
Subscribe to the show & listen to Episode #003 on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Notable Quotes— with AJ Thomas
“When you’re so vulnerable and you show up in such an authentic way, you give others permission to do it.”
“I think optimism is the outcome of being able to sit through some hard things and say, ‘I still have a choice.’ ”
“Being a forager in your career is also being curious: saying yes to opportunities you sometimes don’t even research, learning a lot, failing a lot, running into a ton of walls.
It doesn’t always have to be, ‘get curious around what’s the exact answer’, but it’s really about getting curious around, ‘ok, that’s not possible, but then what is?’ And how do we build on top of that?”
“There’s a community and then there’s a communi-team. And, I often like to be on communi-teams where people are playing for the team and just not on the team.
Playing for a team means you’re aware of all of the team members that are there, that are contributing. You see them, you tap into their strengths, you help coach, you have the hard conversations.”
“This quote always comes to me, ‘if you want to work on the future, you really have to work with the future.’ ”
“How many times in my life have I been certain and not relish in the power of the, ‘I don’t know’ that I’ve killed my own wonder?”
“Women in the workplace— we’re always challenged to build things, ship things, deliver things. And if we were more ok to say, ‘you know, what, I don’t know’, and let it go there, something beautiful actually happens.”
“Success is most often always built on a combination, a collective, of other people’s sacrifices that they’ve made.”
“Activating questions are like: What do I want out of this, as far as the outcome? How am I going to be adding value? What is the actual goal? Not only is it important what I want out of it, am I aligned with what everyone else wants out of it as well? And then I’ll always ask, is there something that I believe so strongly that I wouldn’t be able to argue the other side of it?”
“Discover, explore, and don’t go through it so fast as you’re building that you forget to soak in all the moments in between. They’re very rich in hindsight . . . there’s just power in going, ‘wow, this is really happening!’ Journal it, write it down, revisit it, have somewhere where you’re writing down, even your stream of consciousness of that moment. Celebrate the little things: whether you’re getting funding, or you just secured that domain, or you just got approved on that business loan, or you shipped your first product . . . write down all of those moments.”