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Where can the people learn more about your passion project and the dope work you are putting out into the world. 

Website: www.coragedolls.com

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter: CorageDolls

What do you do for Full-time work?

So for full time work, I work at Target at their headquarters based in Minneapolis, and I specifically am a senior brand marketing manager, marketing manager, and leaving our black American marketing strategy. So really thinking about how are we ultimately, I developed the strategy for how are we growing? and building a relationship with our black consumers? But most importantly, how are we as well performing from a sales standpoint and guests engagement standpoint? And how are we showing up in the community? So really thinking about the strategic lens for how does target look at our growth audiences? especially looking at the black consumer? And how are we really attracting them with passion points, with the values that align and having culturally relevant products and showing up with great experiences throughout the year?

What is your passion project and how long has it been in existence?

Yes, so, you know, my, my, I think my, you know, my, my, my passion or my purpose, I think of its core, is really rooted in, you know, this notion of elevating and supporting and empowering girls of color. So that's why I created a multicultural doll and book company called Corage dolls. And it's really focused on you know, kind of the words I was just now saying, elevating, educating and encouraging girls of color to be unstoppable.

What is your project’s origin story: Why did you start this project; what was the passion behind the project.

I actually started the company, when I was also a student at Babson, that's 1000, I was there with you when I was getting my MBA. So it's been, you know, a little over four years that I've had the company and it truly was very much focused on being able to see greater representation on toy shells, knowing that so much when I was growing up, you know, seeing the toy shells and knowing that there wasn't much dolls that existed that look like girls who look like me, or let alone girls of color today, it was something that always stuck with me. And it was just an area where I felt that, okay, I can wait, you know, all this time for the big larger corporations to finally truly make some change in this space. And there was very minor ones. Typically, I either saw, you know, a lack of options, either dolls on shelves, that there were barely a good my own research where I would visit numerous toy stores and retailers. And I will see the list of 40% of the dolls on the shelf, even dolls of color. And if you think about the fact that children of color today under the age, I believe have 18. More than 50% are children of color. And so you're not and you're not, that's not even accounting for generation alpha, which is a very younger generation after Gen Z. And so with the options that I was not seeing on the shells, and then in addition to that the homogenous options, I was basically always seeing dolls, but you know, they were black, it was often a white doll that was painted black. And then it had you know, basic features, it didn't have three features that were truly authentic, or hair texture that was authentic. And then the sense of what that leaves a child, especially a child of color in self doubt, and a lack of building their self esteem. And so instead of me really waiting on that to change and waiting for these big corporations do something about it, I said I want to do something about it. So when I ended up going to grad school, that was something that was really the big catalyst moment for me to begin working. Truly I'm bringing my passion and my purpose more to life.

So I can I will tell you the moment that made me think about truly this, this being something I want to turn into something into life or just think about it. So when I was in high school, I was sitting in health class and I was watching the this short documentary called a girl like me. And it was studying the impact of colorism on young black girls. During the course of this documentary, The female she conducted this study called the doll test. It was a test that was done initially in the 1940s by two black psychologists to study the effects of segregation to young black children. It was a test that was done where it took a group of children, black children, white children, and they were given a black doll and a white doll. And they were asked various questions such as which doll is prettier was doll smarter, so on and so forth. And what I was that test was done in the 1940s. And I was watching it being done in the 2000s. In this clap my health class, and the students, the children, should I say, the black children chose the white dog when the kids anything positive. And they chose the black doll when it came to anything negative. And then when the question was x, which doll Do you associate with more objects in the black children, they said, The Black Dog, and it was so disheartening to see kids who were four years old or five years old, already having ultimately a sense of internalized racism. And it was what Mike that kind of was just going through my mind. So when sitting in health class, I'm a junior in health class. And I didn't know honestly what I wanted to do with that emotion. I didn't know I just that was just for me, the spark that just stood with me. And I was just like, you know, what, like, toys are something that really helped build a child's imagination is one of the first items a kid gets when they're growing up to help to spark their creativity build their imagination, and especially for young girls, and how they see themselves and having products, especially for young black girls to see themselves represented. And the notion that these young kids were not feeling a sense of that they were good enough or that they matter that they were beautiful if he were all these things, because of either what negative images they were seeing around them, or a lack of positive images that they were seeing around or products. And so for me, I I just, I just honestly had that thought. It just stood with me a moment.

And I diversity and inclusion has always been something so important to me, like I come from a first generation American, my mother is from Grenada. My father is from Nigeria, I have one brother, they all live right now in New Jersey. And I grew up in a household where, you know, seeing appreciation for my history and culture was celebrated. And then I had dolls as well of different ethnicities, but not many black dolls, I could find, you know, there was Abby, the American Girl doll that was the one of the first or probably one of the main black dolls. But not until I got older did I realize that Abby was a runaway slave. And I was like, man, really American Girl runaway slave. But that was all you had, I think was the one you only had. And ultimately, as years went on, and like I said, watching this documentary, and then really just that was, you know, the moment that's served as a spark. And as I mentioned earlier, this notion of like, I perused toy shells, I actually spent some time joining a doll club years later, because I didn't know how to get into the dollar industry, I didn't know really what that was about, or how to enter it. And I kind of went through various avenues. But until I got to ultimately grad school, is when I was like, you know, I really, this is just something that stood with me and just stuck with me since high school, if I'm, if this can't go away, and this is something I know I care about. And I'm still not seeing changes on toy shells, like, let me go figure out how I can go create the solution.

I think is to add on to that, like, because I love that statement, that liberation moment and like this learning because for me, I I think learning You know, I think I'm a private person that soaks up like a sponge. It's like I never stop learning. Like I'm reading things daily, even in my job like I read things all the time just this long because things are always changing culture moves so fast. And when I was in college, it was the first time then that I actually I did an internship I interned at a toy company. So one of the things I guess I'd mentioned before, but like, I also decided to intern I interned that jack specific, which is like a big toy company where I was like, You know what, like, once again, as I mentioned, I didn't know anyone in the toy industry. I didn't know the space, but I was like, how do I just get my feet wet. And so I interned at a toy company, and had an opportunity to moreso learn about electronics toys, and like how to understand that that wasn't dolls, but it was getting exposure in that space. And then when I graduated, when I joined this dog club, I was the youngest person in that group. But it was a great learning about the history, and the collection of dolls, especially black dolls, because I joined a black doll club. And it was amazing. And just seeing the appreciation that the women I got a chance to work with, and just meet. Tell me about the history of dolls. And then not until I went to Babson. Did I also interned at Hasbro. So I also then took another opportunity to also learn so for me, it was always still like, how can I take advantage of the opportunity to learn? How can I try to be in spaces to learn while I was still trying to develop? What did I want to do with this business? Or did I want to bring this to life? or How can I just surround myself in spaces to just soak up as much information as I can?

So one day, when I was in my eta class back at Babson, we were given the business document I'm sure you remember that whole business Canvas? Yep. With stable document. And I was writing down. I forgot what the question was. But I was writing down what are the things that I want my brand to stand for? What do I want people kids to take? Young girl should I say to take away from it and I said, I want girls to be bold. I want them to be fierce. I want them to be unstoppable. I want them to be kick ass. And then the word courage just I want them to have courage that kept popping up. And so what I did is I went to dictionary.com And I looked up the origin of courage and it was courage without the you and it worked the same in Latin, and Spanish and French. And I just honestly did a little flair to it and called it garage. And that was that was awesome.

Is there a point where you hesitated to start it?  What got you over that hump?

It's a good question. So that's it made me nervous being at bat. So for those on this call, who don't know like Mike and myself, we went to Babson for the MBA program, but like Babson College is legitimately like I swear Shark Tank had to have gotten its whole method and model like, you know, business model friend, that's an idea of you're pitching all the time, you're always have to be ready to kind of get put your business up, put a business idea out there and be vulnerable. And I remember when I started at Babson, and we had to take that entrepreneur, entrepreneurial thought and action course that's kind of the, you know, the mantra of Babson and what we stand for eta. And I remember taking that course, that's one of the first courses, you take the etn a course. And the professor told us that like, Hey, you need to you know, actually share your business with people this is this is going to be an opportunity to get three minutes, three slides to do this rocket coach. And I was so nervous because I'm I come from my background. For those who may not know my backgrounds in advertising prior to starting my business and working on target. Like I came from the advertising space, I worked on account management. So I worked at multicultural mic advertising. And like direct response advertising. And so coming from a creative background, there were times where I kind of felt this imposter syndrome, because I'm like, I'm in a business school, where a lot of my classmates are coming from spaces of family businesses, or consulting or business management, development tech, and I'm coming from a creative agency space. So that wasn't really something I doubted myself. And then I doubted myself on the fact that like, having a toy idea is this something that's going to resonate and having a toy idea that was focused on girls of color, I was the only black female in my class, there was only one black male in my class. And so all those things, were going through my head at the moment that I was like, oh, my goodness, I got a pitch, I got it like this, this class is not going to understand what I'm talking about, like they're not going to resonate, they're going to come back with it. And I remember just truly being so nervous and scared, because that was going to be Mike The first time I was ever going to pitch. I never pitched garage dolls ever until that moment. And it was in a space that I was like, I don't know, these students, I don't know if I can trust them. And

I pitched it, I practice like crazy pitch the idea I didn't really have yet I have a product because I just had an image. And my classmates like, loved it, I gave this story that I tried to build empathy. I try to imagine that like okay, if my classmates may not understand maybe what it means to have a doll that looks like them because maybe you know, I guess their experience and my class was predominantly male. And so I tried to paint a picture of imagine going into a toy store. And you were looking around for this is awesome either that you want and then you see nothing that actually reflects you. Nothing you see in this space on the shelves or anything you want to buy actually looks like you don't feel a connection, anything because nothing feels like it includes you and that feeling of not being included. Not being seen. Not being valued. And that was what got my classmates to really be on board with, like, Oh my goodness, they were like, I don't know what it's like to necessarily experience like having a doll that looks like me. But I know that feeling of not of not feeling a sense of belonging. And it was that that, you know, after the pitch, I actually was one of the winners, because we did, we did a whole judging thing with a classmates had to actually vote on the top pitches. And I was one of the winners. And it was, it was in that moment, like I said, my first pitch, but it also became a scary pitch that also showed that like, oh, my goodness, I'm in a space, where there's people who don't look like me, who I'm assuming don't have a similar experience to me. But I was able to connect with them in a deeper way to be able to build this empathy. And they understood why this was so important. And they understood also the the economic impact of having this too. And so I just, I go back to that moment, there was many other times where, you know, just being an entrepreneur and being an entrepreneur of color, navigating that and in terms of like, Okay, I'm not getting funding or marketing support, should I give up? But I think for the sake of your question, that moment was like, both the moment of like, oh, my goodness, I shouldn't should I be here, I shouldn't be doing this. And then when I did see how it paid off, I realized I was, it was more so me being more nervous, and having more of that fear myself versus that putting that on me, it was on me, that was me being being fearful, versus like, let me go do this, and maybe not ever is gonna connect. But I got to speak my truth. And I know why this is important. I know, I'm the right person.

One of the biggest challenges people face when it comes to starting passion projects is finding time in their already busy lives to do it.  How did you find or make time for your project?

I think still to this day is something something that I worked on, because I still work on for US dollars. While I'm still working at Target. I've been at Target now for three and a half years, I've had my business for more than four years. And target knew when I started at Target, I told them that I have a business I'm developing. I was like, I just let that be known. Not everyone would do that. I wasn't at the time, like so big and I really loved the target brand. But at the time, I was so focused on what I need to get my business off the ground, like I'm not gonna go to a corporation, I need to stay here that it but target actually embraced it, I think, by me being forthcoming. And I made sure of course that my my job. You know, my business wasn't affected my job, but like, all these elements there, but to the to your question is it is something that I have I practice quite often one of the things that I started doing this year, more so than previous years is that this year, I realized that I have to I have to write down like daily goals. So one thing I realized this year, I took some time last year, and I was just like, you know what, I want to revamp my business strategy now that I've had my business around for a little bit. I've been able to really talk to customers, potential customers get surveys out there, understand, like, what's the persona of the person who I'm trying to attract and go after? What do they believe in? What's their values? What media do they consume, what influences you like, what is it about their your family that they care about? Why do they want something like this, what's the connection to the children and once I started To get tighter on that and learn things from events that I would do in person, I was like, you know what I need to revamp my business strategy, think about the bigger long term of what I'm trying to do. And then let me break things out by quarter. And then let me try to see what daily goals I can try to just hit hit upon. And so this year, like I do a list, where I actually make a goal, make goals daily, where I put my personal goals for the day. And then I put my business goals for the day. And so my personal goals, I always start with, like prayer and scripture, let me try to work out, let me make sure that I'm, you know, I like to eat some food, you never know, remote learning, you know, sometimes you just forget to eat. And all these, you know, and then I put some for work, and then like Target goals where I need to get done to make sure I try them. And then my business goals, which is like, hey, my social media partner, she sent me, you know, a list of editorial content in the Trello board. So I need to review, provide feedback on it, I need to make sure I pay this invoice, hey, I need to meet with the supplier and check in on that, oh, hey, I'm gonna be talking with Mike, let me make sure that I keep going on my calendar. So that is something I started since January 1, that I said this year is going to be the year I really try to make sure I'm doing that. And I you know, predominantly done that almost every day, some days have been a little off, but predominantly more than I've ever done. That has been a helpful way. And for things that I just don't get to in that day. I you know, push it to the next day. And so sometimes it builds upon it, but it reminds me like floor, hey, maybe you're having too many goals listed for the day that serves as like this, like remind me or my mind. And then I'm like, Okay, I need to make sure I get this done today so that I can, you know, put time for tomorrow. And tomorrow, I'm going to devote my time to like mailings and packages I need to go for my business. And so I it's something that I realized that over the years that when I told myself, I can just do this and manage that. Yeah, I realized for me, I have to practice writing it down. And then ultimately being comfortable with some things that may not happen, what I gotta prioritize. And some things. I'm like, you know what this will get done the next day, and I will just put that down the list to be like, I need to get this done by exactly this date.

Another big challenge faced is fatigue.  You work 9-to-5, it takes up 95% of your energy.  And we are not even talking about family and their needs yet.  What can you share with the listeners about getting energy after all the demands of life?

Yeah, I, one thing I definitely do is really random. But like I tried to watch like an episode of The Office. I have to one thing I tried to do. Like I try to make sure that when I close my work laptop, I give myself a bit of a grace to transition back into business. Because my mindset is kind of really wonky. And and there's some there's some days at work, where I'm just like, oh my goodness, I don't, I just can't, I just can't even think about anything else. But what I do sometimes is like, you know what, let me actually like, you know, eat something now or let me be able to like I for the office just relaxes me during COVID. Like I've watched the office probably four times over all the episodes. It's not like it used to be on Netflix, but now that it came down, it's on NBC peacock. So I just did a promo.

And so that has been something that just like eases my mind and gives me joy. Like I gotta you gotta put those pockets of joy. And then I happened to business and then I was like, you know, put on my headphones. And then like, okay, like, like I said, I will go to my notebook and see what do I need to still sign up for print off on with my business like, Oh, wait, I like and a lot of times what I've been doing now is that there's like, I have business meetings during the week, like I have a core business video of my social media manager once a week, and then we're checking out what content are we doing for the week? Like, what's kind of our marketing approach? Like, how are we maybe looking for opportunities to be featured or just like, you know, just more mainly more so looking at the site, and social media content and trends, and then on the weekends is like, ultimately where I tried to put more of my effort, like, I'm probably spending probably a lot, a lot more my hours, on the weekends versus on the nights and the nights, I try to get some of the things I just need to respond back to emails on. And then on the weekends, I put more hours into, like, if it's things that regarding strategy, if there's things that regard like doing some, like competitive reading or something, or for those things were like, Hey, I'm trying to, you know, have an opportunity to connect with a partner. And let me look up something here. And let me see, can we do a partnership? Or do you connect my supplier? So my weekends I feel is a word I try, because then I have more of a clear head. But if it's during the week, I'm typically watching the office first.

So lately, okay, the song I played because I looked it up on Spotify, because when they do the review rap, of what songs he played the most, the song that I played the most last year was for REL and Jay Z.

I loved it so much like I would go to the park and workout and just listen to it. It just energized me, it just energized me. And it was like the lyrics of the song, you gotta let go, I'm gonna fly. If you want to fly, I can sing it for when I say it, if you want to fly, you know, like black ambition. Like he's like your black ambition and all that. I love it. I love the music video for it. I love the celebration of blacks, just like black excellence, and seeing community and seeing collaborative success and building generational wealth. And I saw how they showcase that the most pivotal scene in that film. I'm sorry, this video was one of the last things with a Broadway dancer, the Broadway scene. And that moment where, you know, he was able to buy his ancestors who were enslaved, like, the house that they were enslaved in. He was able to buy that like if that is not, you know, I am my ancestors wildest dreams and that is so important. We all want to feel a connection with our ancestors, we want to emulate what they have done to fight for us to be here. In recent years people have become ingrained with this feeling of finding missing pieces of their family history by doing an obituary search or checking local newspapers, and I can see why. Our futures can connect with our pasts, it can drive us forward.

Yeah, it's basically that or Beyonce is black parade. Right now it's for black parade. Beyonce, Entrepreneur, with Pharell and  Jay-Z and then Miguel. Love anything, Miguel.

I have heard about passion projects providing renewed confidence and new skills when it comes to people’s day jobs.  How has your passion project impacted the way you show up at your day job?

I will say that I even know work is always up and down. But I am blessed to be in a role where I get to honor They sell every black 365. That's my role. And that's what I do with my business. So it's like, it's pretty amazing. So as I mentioned earlier, like I lead our black American marketing strategy. And so I spend my time at Target really working on looking at like, how are we truly, you know, showing up and you know, building our relationship, and of course, ourselves like sales with the black consumer, but doing it in the most meaningful way? What action are we taking that's meaningful? And how are we showing up? And so? And how are we also doing it in a way that is building and closing? It's our closing gaps, whether it be financial gaps, whether it be sales gaps, whether it be just brand perception gaps? And how are we actually making marked improvements on Black Lives beyond just being a retailer. And so one of the things that has been really pivotal for us at Target has been how are we investing in black content by black creators and entrepreneurs, that has been something that has been, you know, a key element of what the brand has been doing in this growing and so I lead a platform at Target called Black beyond measure, which is a always on platform that our team launched last January of last year, during black when we were starting our Black History Month campaign. And it was really rooted in this idea of like, you know, lessons, black people have limitless potential, even despite the obstacles that we navigate through this idea of hope and resiliency of optimism, that something greater and something good is still on, it's on its way. And that we there's no there's no limit to what we can achieve as black people, whether through our ancestors, whether it be the next generation, whether it be the present. And so Blackmagic became a decorative statement in that. And knowing that there was a lot of work that we were doing that was focused around celebrating and supporting and investing in black entrepreneurs. For me as a black entrepreneur, like, it was always very pivotal for me to when I would talk to colleagues and partners about like, okay, we're, you know, like, I always would go out of my way to make sure that if we're bringing in new brand brands to target and they were like, hey, how do we figure out how to do our marketing? Like I would, I always had conversations regularly with a lot of these businesses, because I'm just like, hey, like, I don't you know, I work in retail, I understand that being a small black owned company, when you don't have all the resources, how do you navigate a behemoth of a corporation. And so for me, thinking about, I want to see these black businesses, not just survive, but thrive. And similarly, my own company, I want to be able to see, you know, that support. And so having, having an idea of access to resources, and information or mentorship is important for me to have having that. And then investment is me as a black entrepreneur. And because I have that lens, and I think more entrepreneurially, when I interact as well, with some of the amazing black founders and owners that we sell at Target or those who are interested in getting into target, I just come at it with a more empathetic lens, knowing what they are navigating through as a small business, because sometimes we as a brand, we're just like, Hey, can you you know, send 1000 samples and send it out. And I'm, in my mind, I'm like, if we don't pay for those samples, like that's taking a lot of of their of their inventory that they could have been selling. And now we're giving it away to guests, you know, for them to get engaged. But like, we need to make sure we're paying any of our if we're asking him for samples for events, we better be paying them for that because I know that they have a small base, I know that all these elements here. And so I just say all that to say that. I think having the lens of being a small entrepreneur and being a black owned entrepreneur, and then being someone who works in retail, who engages with entrepreneurs. I do come in and look at it as like, what, what barriers are, what ways are we removing barriers to make sure that our entrepreneurs are small entrepreneurs are being able to thrive to succeed, and that also helps me learn about how to do my business better? And what are the barriers that maybe I see exist and what I would want to see even from any partners or corporation.

I get to work with some amazing people at Target across like our supplier diversity team, our multicultural merchandising team, our target accelerators team, like our corporate sponsibility team partners, who are also similarly very much invested and seeing these businesses and entrepreneurs thrive. And I think we I think it's great to see other teams who also understand what we're like, hey, like, one thing we try to make sure we're not doing too much of is like, hey, are we trying to ask one entrepreneur to do all these speaking engagements, but like, I will have my celebrators partners like, are we paying? Are we making sure we're in paying these entrepreneurs to do all the speaking engagements? like are they getting paid like they it's probably them and another person that worked with them on their team, or they have a small team, or they're contracting some people as their business, while they're still trying to ensure they have the proper inventory to stay on shelf. And so having those type of lens in mind, so because I know what that is, like for me as well. And so I think it's awesome, being able to have an, I guess, having an entrepreneurial mind so that you can apply in a company in an intrapreneur, intrapreneurial way, because you can leverage those those transferable skills that, you know, I think, and I believe so I know that, you know, I partners at Target really appreciate and I appreciate that as well. Because I'm able to take that when I go back to my own business and think about how do I think of if I want to go into a space of retail, if I want to think about broadening my distribution one day, what are key things I need to keep in mind, one of the things I would want to know, and then if I'm talking to my peers at Target, who are working with entrepreneurs, it's like, Hey, how are we making sure we're keeping in mind these nuances? Or how are we designing our policies that really keep in mind especially like black entrepreneurs have what they navigate through. So then we're not putting roadblocks we're actually bringing down those barriers and allowing them to have just as much of an opportunity to grow.

There is someone out there listening to this recording who has something they are passionate about but they are on-the-fence when it comes to starting.  What bit of guidance would you provide to them?

I would say one thing like for someone starting off or just someone unsure whether or not they want to pursue what they want to pursue or not, um, you know, I like I totally think will be something I did not know that. And I would like to add one thing I think that comes to mind is the idea of I think the idea of me holding back, I felt like I was holding back, please say more. I think I was holding, like, when I am granted, not every company is going to be cool with it. I cannot I cannot say what company or like how people lie. But I my first even I told target that I had a business I was developing like I very much cutting silent on the size of that it was done until someone followed me on social media, my co worker, and they're like, wait, you have a business? Or you're doing something or you're like, there's no I don't have a Corrado it's fully fully like out there yet. But I, I, when I when I plant it was I felt like I was holding a part of myself back. Because it was something that was so core to my purpose, that I felt that granted, I made sure that it doesn't compete with target or anything, of course, make sure you're if you're working on a company that competes with the company you're working at, like, Okay, keep that silent. But in other situations, I kind of wish I was a little bit more forthcoming in terms of what I just was passionate about and cared about. And like it exuded through like today, like, I was just talking to someone at Target who I was introducing myself to. And I told her that like, Yes, I work at Target to do this. And another thing about me is that I also have a toy company. And it felt like I was unlocking another part of my identity that maybe I'd held back because I was so worried about like, goodness, I'm gonna get fired, I will get this to that. But it actually helped enhance what I was doing in my job. Because I was actually being more aware of what I was doing at work because I knew I had limited hours to focus on my business in the background and work on it separately. So then I really made sure it was being very sharp in my job. So they can question the fact that like, Oh, I can do my job. And you know what, I'm killing my job. And I'm working on it, you know, working my business on the side, like, you know, I and I think it was just, it was just a key part of me, like I said, like, garage sales was something that has always just stood with me since I was in high school, even when I didn't know what the name was. And I felt like every time I tried to suppress it, it always kept coming back. Something was reminding me like, Man, you got to pursue this, like you got to pursue this. And I just kept holding it. And every time like, I felt like I was holding the back of part of my identity. And granted, don't tell anybody your business. You're not telling me don't trust the person. If you're not cool with them at work, like you don't need to know. But I think it was something that as I was starting to just work on further on Corage dolls. And just to explore more about who was the audience are trying to like, how do I think about the product and development of it. I had some really awesome, great friends, who were my co workers who were actually some of the biggest supporters, you'll be I don't know if people be surprised by this. But a number of people who've actually brought and brought my dolls in the past like couple months have actually also been my co workers who've been honestly the most supportive and I think now during COVID It seems even like more likely that more people are going to have businesses or passion projects on the side. Like I know I have I have co workers who are telling me now that they started things on the side that they started like creating earrings, or they started you know doing a baked goods type of business or they are doing a nonprofit or they're doing I've had so many more co workers in the past couple months, Mike in light of COVID and a light of being home who been going deeper into their passion pods because they've had time to think about it. And they're like you know what, like and granted if you have that opportunity to be at home because no matter what work remote, but I've seen even a greater opportunity now in light of being on lockdown and everything where I'm seeing more passion product starts to come to life and people either talking about on social but more people just embracing it. I don't see how companies anymore can have the existence of their employees. without them being able to also have part of themselves, it's also pursuing another project because it also like, it helps just like build those transferable skills. And so

I think just under that was a long statement, but I think now is probably even more of a better time that it wasn't before years ago, people to pursue creating a business on the side or doing a passion project, just because we live in a landscape where I think it even allows to enable that even more so and make it more

Lastly, are there any particular books that you have found helpful along the passion project journey?  Please share 1 to 3 of them if any come to mind.

Yeah, one book that I'm reading right now that I'm still working through is like hacking growth. Um, it's a book that, you know, it's about, you know, growth hacking, if you're an especially in this, but if you're in the space of marketing or marketing strategy, like, it's just, I think, from what I've heard the like a staple book, to really understand how to grow your business and in a way that like, can accelerate in opportunities that pertain to who your audiences are key benefits or competitive advantages that your company could be really eyeing for, whether it be content or whether it be new tools or products, like, I really think it's a great book. And some of it was, to my knowledge, one of the first kind of books I started talking about, like hacking growth hacker before I think the phrase became so popularized now.

Another book that I am reading, just for the sake of this reading is hood feminism. Her feminism is such an amazing book that speaks to the intersectionality of feminism, because at times feminism is not spoken, at least in the mainstream, should I say it's typically through the lens of wealthy white woman. And it this book does a really awesome job of dissecting feminism and where, where it's the good points of it and where the bad points of it and the bad points in terms of like ignoring the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, ableism gender identity and gender and sexual gender expression, sexual orientation, is social economics, like, I think the ignoring of poor black women who are also just as much a part of the concept of feminism as a rich black woman is something to not be ignored. So I really think this book is awesome for men, women, no non binary people, like I think of feminism is great.

And then what's another book that I read one book I'm reading now, just for the sake of joy, is his book called Black. It's my nothing book. It's our collection called Black futures. And it came out last year, and it's by Kimberly drew and Jenna wertham. And it is literally a collection of it's like the black Encyclopedia of black art of the modern day means and everything. And it's 500 plus pages of just inspiration of black culture and the black experience today. And I look at it it's a coffee book type table book. But it is it brings me so much joy and it just it's just amazing to see black people just in our just in our being black. Whether it be your hood, rat black, ratchet black, your boozy black, you're stuck up black, your scholarly, black, your artistic black, your abstract black. And so it came out last year. And I think it's phenomenal and just relax.