We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aimara Rodriguez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aimara below.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a first-generation Honduran-American business strategist and content creator based in Denver, Colorado. I have a diverse background working at the intersection of startups, tech, and products. My expertise lies in operations management, partnership development, and product strategy. I’m also actively involved with Latinas In Tech and am a chapter lead for their Denver area. Most recently, I built Platform Partnerships at Adobe, where I focused on cultivating and unifying the Creative Cloud Platform through the development of various partnerships as well as driving the adoption of the plugins and app integrations that partners build. I also helped manage the Adobe Fund for Design, a $10 million fund aimed at supporting teams building products that will help shape the future of creativity and design. I’m also the co-founder of Function f(x) Wellness, a wellness brand that was started by me alongside my brother Carlos, a fitness advocate and personal trainer with over a decade of experience. As brown people who enjoy climbing mountains and training for functionality, we were motivated by a shared mission of creating more access to the outdoors for communities of color and decreasing the knowledge gap about health and wellness in these communities. Our digital store is now open and a portion of all proceeds from gear purchased will go to the non-profit arm of Function f(x) to support our efforts in helping local youth from under-served communities in Denver get access to recreational activities such as weightlifting, mountaineering, and biking.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
There have been countless lessons and failures throughout my career. Those have become the most treasured and defining moments for me. However, one in particular that has stayed with me for several years is the lesson of my burning out.
I burnt out in my early 20s. Textbook definition. I landed in the hospital from exhaustion and I was a shell of the person I once recognized. I’ve had the large privilege but equally as large responsibility of working at a high capacity since I was 18 years old. As a first-generation kid, I feel that there’s an unspoken weight we all carry when we are the first to do something in our family. We’re essentially paving the way… and that can be exhausting, scary, and full of uncertainty.
Whether I realized it at that time or not, I had convinced myself that I would know when to “turn down the dial” before I got to the point of burnout. Or worse, that those around me at that time (my colleagues and manager) would care enough about me to call it out. Both were not true and rightfully so. I spent about a year working to recover physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The beautiful lesson in this painful experience was realizing that 1) in order for me to best version of myself that I can be, I needed to prioritize my mental and physical health in the same way I prioritized my professional development 2) This can all go away tomorrow. Your job, your salary, your accolades, etc. But, health is wealth. And for me, I certainly know it is. Especially after watching my mom go through a 15-year journey with cancer. 3) At the end of the day, if I’m going to put so much of myself into something, I’d rather it be something I am building and believe in wholeheartedly versus a company where (ultimately) I’m helping someone else with their wealth creation or preservation versus focusing on building my own generational wealth.
Looking ahead, I still have an enormous amount of growth, failures, and lessons to look forward to. However, this is a particular lesson that I don’t need to and am constantly ensuring that I won’t need to relearn.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’d say that “pivoting” or embracing change has been a constant throughout my career. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to trust myself more, to listen to myself more, and ultimately, to believe in my mission and value (even if others do not). Whether that’s pivoting into or out of a role, pivoting from early-stage startups to larger corporate settings, pivoting from full-time work to entrepreneurship, or pivoting into a new season of your life, personally or professionally.
Most, recently, I left my tech role at Adobe after three incredible years, The amount of growth, joy, failure, success, and knowledge that I was able to experience and build there is like none other. As a first-generation Latina, Adobe was a company I never thought I’d have the opportunity to work for until I was in my 30s. To have had the chance to work there and be surrounded by some incredibly talented and intelligent individuals in the process is something I’ll always be grateful for.
However, I’m a big believer that as important as it is to celebrate our wins and good outcomes, it’s equally as important, to be honest about the realities of being a woman of color working in tech. Being the first in your family to do something is one of the most beautiful but challenging experiences that someone can go through. This is why it’s important to trust your instinct and embrace your value when you’re in an environment that doesn’t always recognize the value that you can bring. Diversity in tech is so much more than just entering the workforce, it’s empowering our communities to be the decision-makers and ultimately, realizing when you have to be the ones to design your own opportunity instead of waiting for someone else to give that to you. I have a strong conviction for remaining authentic to one’s self and sometimes that means leaving a role that no longer serves you, no matter how difficult it may be.
Just because what’s next is unknown territory does not mean that you should fear what’s next. In my case, I was (unfortunately, but not surprisingly) working with a new set of leaders that were not a great value alignment for me. I fundamentally believe that employment is a two-way street and accountability is required on both sides, not just the employees. Because of my dedication, passion, and conviction for authentically supporting and creating safe spaces for other professionals of color, I was faced with a decision: a) stay in that environment and try to (maybe, hopefully) change the perception that was created about me and remain vocal about the clear cultural misalignment and performative DEI or b) leave that environment and take a bet on myself because ultimately, to create change requires self-awareness and it’s not on me (or any employee of color for that matter) to fill gaps where a leader clearly lacks that necessary self-awareness to create a safe space for their employees of color. I chose option b and am better for it in every way. I feel free. I feel peace. I feel motivated. I feel seen. And personally, that’s worth more than anything. I think back to my parent’s sacrifice of coming to this country, as well as my own of building a path for myself that no one in my family had ever ventured down before. It’s because of that that I have to push myself to embrace change and design my own opportunities because we’ve clearly all seen that (most times) it may be the only way to get to where you want to go instead of waiting for someone to give you that opportunity.
So, to anyone who can identify with my situation or my story, always remember how resilient, valuable, and special you are. If your current organization, team, or manager does not see that, I guarantee you that there are places and people who will. Life is too short to water yourself down to appease anyone. If you have the ability and privilege to do so, wherever you can, however you can, with whatever you currently have access to… design the life you want to live.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aimararodriguez.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimararodriguez/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimararodriguez/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTbvwFmKg11k1pkvP8YyJrA
Image Credits
Ray Spears