Bring Aimee to your organization (or zoom!)
Aimee brings her expertise to organizations via workshops, breakout sessions and keynotes. She works with a variety of groups - from business leaders to nonprofit founders to neighborhood planners - and once even taught business planning to second-graders!
Always accessible and engaging, Aimee ensures that participants leave with a bit of inspiration and a lot of actionable ideas and tactics to implement quickly in their work and lives.
Below are a few favorite topics.
"On the behalf of my team I would like to personally thank you for all your help and support. Your storytelling advice helped us come up with a really strong pitch.”
- Vikas Nahar,
founder STEM Hub
“You were quickly able to identify ways I can strengthen my strategy for landing new business.”
-Katie Sullivan,
media entrepreneur
“Your presentation was really brilliant. I do not exaggerate when I say that I have never seen that level of reaction and engagement in response to any other speaker. Bravo!”
- Janet Wildrick
Youth Exploring Science
Is Earned Revenue Right for You?
Ask these 3 questions.
Nonprofit organizations are exploring new opportunities for funding, especially as economic conditions change. Many are well positioned to earn additional income by charging a fee for products and services that they already provide (often called “earned revenue” or “fee for service”). While the right earned income strategy can result in increased sustainability and income in excess of programs costs, the wrong one can distract from your mission and drain your resources.
Participants will learn the three questions that can guide them in their earned revenue decision-making. We’ll discuss the steps to building an effective strategy, including how to accurately assess your costs and resources. We’ll be honest about the prevalent obstacles to implementing a strategy effectively, and address the most common concerns organizations have about adding an earned revenue program to their already full plates. By learning from the example of nonprofits who have implemented this strategy with great success, participants will be able to decide if it’s right for them.
Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Confident.
As leaders, we face plenty of external obstacles every day, but our biggest challenges can come from within. Women and people of color often suffer from "impostor syndrome", feeling as if we don't have the experience or qualifications to be an expert. We even tell on ourselves when we dodge a compliment or say we "don't know what we're doing". Leaders have to take risks and face failure, but this is tough when our self-confidence is low.
Participants will learn what can get in the way of confidence, and how our ways of thinking can have a negative effect on our self-view. Through group discussion and individual exercises, you'll learn how to embrace your story, be proud of your skills, and own what you're good at. You'll leave with tools you can use daily to identify what's getting in the way of your own self-confidence and how to give yourself a short-term and ongoing confidence boost!
Brace Your Core:
What weightlifting can teach us about work and life.
As Aimee faced 40, a pending divorce and unexpected career change, she started lifting weights as much-needed exercise when yoga just wasn’t cutting it. After four years of learning the basics, she realized that the skills she had developed in the gym were unexpectedly guiding her through transitions in her career and personal life. Contrary to our conditioning, just pushing harder doesn’t bring better results. Rather, going back to your foundation and identifying incremental improvement is key to moving forward.
Participants will start to think differently about how what strengthens us physically can also strengthen our capacity to face challenges and take small steps to success. Most important? Don’t forget to breathe.
The Pitch Is Dead:
Long live the pitch.
From Shark Tank to pitch competitions, we’re all sick to death of hearing about the importance of the elevator pitch. But whether you’re a small business owner courting clients, a nonprofit organizer recruiting volunteers, or a corporate leader making sure your employees understand the values of your company, the pitch still matters. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be boring, isn’t hard to put together, and can still sound like YOU.
Participants will be able to better identify, prioritize and communicate the most important details of what they do and how they do it. They’ll learn how to make their pitch modular, so that it can be easily adjusted for different audiences, and how to create an “ask” for every opportunity. And through a few simple exercises, they’ll leave with a pitch ready to go and the confidence to tell their story and connect to the resources they need.
The Power of Peers:
Beyond one-on-one mentoring for group success.
We’ve been taught to seek mentoring and advice from those above us, but have lost sight of the opportunity to learn from the experience of those alongside us! While managing a one-on-one mentoring program is time-consuming and monthly “lunch and learns” go stale quickly, peer advisory groups offer a new way of connecting people to each other and to your organization. Learning from our peers allows us to uncover obstacles, overcome challenges and find innovative solutions that traditional hierarchical learning does not offer.
Participants will learn about the peer advisory group model, how it is different from traditional mentoring programs, and how it can be successfully implemented within a variety of organizations, from universities to employee resource groups to nonprofit member associations. We’ll discuss best practices to follow and pitfalls to watch out for, so that you’ll be ready to harness the power of your peers.
Networking 101:
It's not as hard as you think.
What is networking? Many of us hear the term and cringe as we envision the glad-handing and back-slapping that happens during the cocktail hour at a conference. But networking is a crucial skill, whether you’re looking for a new career, building support for your business or recruiting supporters for your nonprofit. Effective networkers know where to be, can tell their story well and aren’t afraid to ask for what they need. It all doesn’t have to be hard (or as cringe-worthy!) as you may think. You just need a plan!
Participants will build a networking plan that includes a review of their most compelling skills and accomplishments, an evaluation of their current network and a strategy for reaching out within their target industry. They’ll leave with a few practices pitches, a prioritized list of who to contact and an agenda for networking meetings and powerful follow-up.
Brass Tacks:
Building your operational foundation.
You work hard to perfect the skill, develop the product and find the customer. But what about the processes that ensure you deliver what you’ve promised? It is tempting to skip the “operations part” because it seems time-consuming, over-complicated or simply not as much fun! But then something goes wrong, and you realize you need the processes you’ve been putting off building. Creating an effective operational foundation isn’t as difficult as it seems.
Participants will learn how to identify gaps and prioritize steps needed to reach their desired outcome and how just a few internal policies, processes and templates can help them serve customers better. We’ll talk about how to connect operational practices with the people responsible for implementing them, and how simple metrics can ensure continuous improvement (and even excitement about what will be possible next!)
Keynotes & Workshops
Strengthen Your Capacity to Face Challenges and Take Small Steps to Success, Aspire Resolve Global Conference
The Pitch is Dead. Long Live the Pitch., Enterprise University
Brass Tacks: Building Your Operations Foundation, Innovation Women Summit
Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Self-Confident., Vision Innovation & Inclusion Symposium
Perfecting Your Pitch, New Leaders Council
The Market of Ideas, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
What Do We Do Now?, Washington University Women’s Weekend
Spotlight on Women in Medicine & Science, St Louis University
Board Boot Camp, Jewish Federation St Louis
Securing the Supporters You Need, The Brown School
Big Ideas on Small Business, St Vincent Greenway Community Project
Knowing Your Customers. Telling Your Story., CORTEX Square One Program
Networking Now!, John Burroughs High School Career Day
Panels & Roundtables
Networking for Your Career, HER Summit
Technology & Design Round Table, Washington University Navigating the Net Impact Career
Peer Groups for Women Entrepreneurs, FinFoundHer Conference
Maximizing the Intern Experience (moderator), CORTEX
Courageous Leadership (facilitator), Run Vote Lead National Conference
Women in the Workplace - No Apologies, Washington University Women's Weekend
Creating Coders Through Community Education (moderator), University College