Speaker 1: Welcome to Made by Women, a new podcast by the
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. At a
Speaker 1: moment when businesses face some of the biggest challenges in
Speaker 1: recent history, we bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and
Speaker 1: shared learnings to help you successfully navigate in today's environment.
Speaker 1: Every Thursday, Made by Women will showcase the experiences of
Speaker 1: legendary women, entrepreneurs, fierce up and comers, and everyday women
Speaker 1: who found success their own way. Consider this your real
Speaker 1: world MBA designed for the new Now. I'm Kim Azzarelli
Speaker 1: and thanks so much for joining us Today. Smart investing
Speaker 1: is a path to empowerment, and lu Lay Demissa is
Speaker 1: on a mission to see that everyone from every background
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to succeed financially. Lu Lay is president
Speaker 1: of ally Invest, part of ally Bank, the all digital bank.
Speaker 1: She wants to help get more people on the path
Speaker 1: with secure financial future now. Lu Lay's background gives her
Speaker 1: a unique perspective on financial services. Not only is she
Speaker 1: a woman of color and a member of the LGBTQ community,
Speaker 1: she also took an unusual and fascinating route to her
Speaker 1: current role. In today's conversation, lu Lay is going to
Speaker 1: reveal why money is more than dollars and cents, why
Speaker 1: we need a new definition of investing, and why we
Speaker 1: can all benefit from listening to the many voices around us.
Speaker 1: Enjoy my conversation with lu Lay Damasse from ally Bank. Lula,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to be here. So you are the president
Speaker 1: of ally invest which is part of Ally Bank. What
Speaker 1: does your role involve? So? I run the product and
Speaker 1: business that really governs the investing arm for retail investors
Speaker 1: for Ally. So that means individuals who want to trade
Speaker 1: securities for their own accounts, or who would like to
Speaker 1: have their money managed because they may want to have
Speaker 1: an expert sort of hand on it. All those things
Speaker 1: come to my businesses doorstep in terms of how people
Speaker 1: interact with market. List obviously a very important and incredibly
Speaker 1: timely role. And Ally Bank is such an interesting bank.
Speaker 1: I'd love to talk more about that. But before we
Speaker 1: get into that, I'd love to hear a little bit
Speaker 1: about your background, maybe both your your personal background and
Speaker 1: also your professional background. Yeah. I often refer to myself
Speaker 1: as a vagabond. I am technically speaking an immigrant. I
Speaker 1: was born in Ethiopia. I'm originally from Ethiopia. I was
Speaker 1: there until I was about eight years old. My parents
Speaker 1: stories much like many others. They immigrated both for opportunity
Speaker 1: but also for political freedom. At that time, we had
Speaker 1: a very rigid communist regime that was governing Ethiopia. Most
Speaker 1: of my family fled from that, and then my father,
Speaker 1: who thankfully was very well educate hated, was able to
Speaker 1: find jobs in different parts of Europe. So I was
Speaker 1: raised in different parts of Europe, from Greece to England,
Speaker 1: and then came back to East Africa. And then I
Speaker 1: ended up in the US for a few years in
Speaker 1: my high school years as well as college. And really
Speaker 1: when I came to New York is when I said
Speaker 1: to myself, Wow, I'm home New York City for a
Speaker 1: vagabond like me as a home for vagabonds, and so
Speaker 1: that's a New Yorker. I'm happy to hear that. Um
Speaker 1: so really that that's that's sort of like the footprint
Speaker 1: of my geographic experience in my life. So you early
Speaker 1: on found your way towards finance. Did you have an
Speaker 1: early childhood inclination towards this or was this something that
Speaker 1: came to in college, How did you get into finance? So,
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. I was always a curious child. Um,
Speaker 1: So regardless of finance, I was. I was always, you know,
Speaker 1: I loved to see how things worked, how what made
Speaker 1: things take. So I've been a student of human behavior
Speaker 1: and just everything that really just makes things tick. I've
Speaker 1: always been curious, and when I came across finance, it
Speaker 1: struck me that, in indeed, it's one of the most
Speaker 1: superpowers to understand behavior and how things tick. And so
Speaker 1: for that reason, it felt really interesting to me. So
Speaker 1: I pursued first as an undergrad and economics major. I
Speaker 1: was at a liberal arts, cool school, which I really enjoyed,
Speaker 1: and then after my undergrad years, decided that I wanted
Speaker 1: to pursue a career in financial services because I felt
Speaker 1: again it was a place that could both empower my
Speaker 1: career but also really sort of satisfy this curiosity I
Speaker 1: had about how things really ticked. I think you're at
Speaker 1: Smith College, Is that right? I was. I was an undergrad.
Speaker 1: I went to a women's school. I was a harmony
Speaker 1: in my generation, and so I felt like if I
Speaker 1: went to a normal women's school, I wouldn't feel so
Speaker 1: awkward raising my hand and and partaking that curiosity often
Speaker 1: turned me into the one who would raise her hands
Speaker 1: a lot. Well that's that's a good thing, as we
Speaker 1: all know that that's how success is built. And from there,
Speaker 1: your first job was at JP Morgan. So I was
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to be at a school where opportunity was
Speaker 1: was made available and if you were smart enough to
Speaker 1: take advantage of it, which I was, just because you know,
Speaker 1: as an immigrant you can't look back often enough, and
Speaker 1: so I applied for an internship program at JP Morgan.
Speaker 1: It opened up a lot of opportunities and really taught
Speaker 1: me how capital markets worked, how the understanding and the
Speaker 1: intelligence around money was so important, and very early I
Speaker 1: understood money it's not just about what it buys you,
Speaker 1: but what systems and powers and so that was really
Speaker 1: a fascinating place for me to start. Well, as you know,
Speaker 1: I was awesome in that JP Morgan program by chance,
Speaker 1: and I'm you're probably the only person I know or
Speaker 1: that i've met recently that was in that same program,
Speaker 1: so I know how powerful it was. So from there
Speaker 1: you decided to pursue finance as a career. And how
Speaker 1: did you make your way to ally Bank, so a
Speaker 1: long way path. I've been at this now for about
Speaker 1: twenty five plus years. I started after JP Morgan. A
Speaker 1: team of financial advisors recruited me at Meryl who were
Speaker 1: working at JP Morgan to be part of their team,
Speaker 1: and so I learned how to be a financial advisor,
Speaker 1: which is a really interesting profession. As well. It taught
Speaker 1: me an appreciation for the customer, the end customers understanding
Speaker 1: around money. Uh. It gave me a deep appreciation how
Speaker 1: money is more emotional than it is logical for most
Speaker 1: people and how that emotion was triggered. It taught me
Speaker 1: about what is it you have to listen to and
Speaker 1: consumer behavior, and so I always tell people that you
Speaker 1: know where I got my first inkling on wanting to
Speaker 1: be in front of the customer and financial services was
Speaker 1: becoming advisor. And then after about two plus years of
Speaker 1: doing that, I decided, as an immigrant, I really needed
Speaker 1: to load up on my credentials because ultimately I should.
Speaker 1: I should also mention I'm a member of the lgbt
Speaker 1: Q CAN Unity and I felt like, for many reasons,
Speaker 1: this was going to be my America was going to
Speaker 1: be my home. I just embraced everything about the way.
Speaker 1: It was more accepting from where I came from. And
Speaker 1: so I went to grad school. I pursued my business
Speaker 1: school degree there at Columbia Business School. And so you
Speaker 1: you get your business school degree, you have a pretty
Speaker 1: impeccable background from there, and you ultimately end up at
Speaker 1: TD Bank before going to Ally and building a very
Speaker 1: significant business. So you're sort of a builder as well.
Speaker 1: I am. I am actually started out Morgan Stanley. Morgan
Speaker 1: Stanley gave me an offer after business school, and that's
Speaker 1: where I got the bug. Really. I was in strategy
Speaker 1: and product development. I'm Morgan Stanley, and I realized I'm
Speaker 1: a builder. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate running a business.
Speaker 1: I love running a business, but I run a business
Speaker 1: as though it is continuously evolving, and that's not always
Speaker 1: the case in every company you're at. But what I
Speaker 1: realized is I needed to work at companies that understood
Speaker 1: and embraced the idea of continuous evolution, regardless of whether
Speaker 1: the business was established or not. And so that's when
Speaker 1: TV A merrit Trade came knocking on on the door.
Speaker 1: After I had about seven plus years of experience at
Speaker 1: Morgan Stanley, which was a fantastic place to work, and
Speaker 1: TD merrit Trade asked me to build out their long
Speaker 1: term investing capabilities. And I remember when I joined there
Speaker 1: were about five people and we let when I left
Speaker 1: it was you know, a multibillion dollar hundred plus people
Speaker 1: or organization. And so it was just really satisfying seeing
Speaker 1: something from creation from seed to a full capability. Um
Speaker 1: And as that happened, Ally knocked on the door and
Speaker 1: offered me. It seemed to happen to you a lot.
Speaker 1: By the way, No, I mean, you know, I am
Speaker 1: lucky for sure. You know, luck, as I said, is
Speaker 1: an essential part of things. And so when they knocked
Speaker 1: on the door, it was another opportunity to be a
Speaker 1: builder again in a different frame and a different lane.
Speaker 1: And it's so tell us a little bit about Ally,
Speaker 1: because it allows you to express other types of values.
Speaker 1: I believe, given the sort of the nature of the
Speaker 1: consumer and what you're looking to build there. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: back to the point of like the empathy towards the
Speaker 1: consumer and money. Being sort of a lover of a
Speaker 1: study or of human behavior, what I realized was in
Speaker 1: order to express some of the next things that all
Speaker 1: this experience had afforded me to be able to express them.
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to a shop that actually catered
Speaker 1: to a changing demographic, and that is exactly where Allies
Speaker 1: at right. So Ally is an online bank, it's about
Speaker 1: ten years old, and the investment shop they purchased a
Speaker 1: few years ago. But the demographic sort of makeup of
Speaker 1: our client base, first of all, is fully embracing of
Speaker 1: digital because we don't have any footprint, right, we don't
Speaker 1: have any storefront in the in the classic sense of it.
Speaker 1: So by definition already like a digitally inclined customer comes
Speaker 1: to us, which also means not necessarily that it only
Speaker 1: excuse young, but it does skew young. And so the
Speaker 1: demographic of people coming to ALLY was very different from
Speaker 1: the demographics that I was experiencing at tv Imrrige Trade,
Speaker 1: which then really does shape and open up the possibilities
Speaker 1: when it comes to product development and services that you develop.
Speaker 1: So when you think about building for this next changing demographic,
Speaker 1: how do you what's your design model? What do you
Speaker 1: focus on? Yeah, so a few things. So one design
Speaker 1: model is really like you know, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the things that I embrace are really universal
Speaker 1: in the sense that I don't think there's anythings revolutionary
Speaker 1: about the things that I embrace. What I think I
Speaker 1: do is I bring a different area of focus, and
Speaker 1: so I really believe in the concept of simplification. Right
Speaker 1: typically in our industry, more is better, more products, more tools,
Speaker 1: more portfolios. I really espouse to the model of less
Speaker 1: is more, and so in the way that we design
Speaker 1: products and services, my whole thing is, if you violate
Speaker 1: the less is more model, you've just put work on
Speaker 1: the customer's plate, and that is a sin. You cannot
Speaker 1: put work on the customer's plate. And so one of
Speaker 1: the premises when I walk into any business problem is
Speaker 1: how do I find it's simple, elegant truth, rather than
Speaker 1: pasting on top of it a ton of product solutions
Speaker 1: and product features and complexity that might not be necessary.
Speaker 1: I feel like we need you across all industries. It's
Speaker 1: hard to live up to, but you know, I find
Speaker 1: that if you make it an ethos, you hold yourself
Speaker 1: accountable throughout the creation process. By definition, creation can be
Speaker 1: an additive thing. So you end up like at the
Speaker 1: end of the rainbow and you've created this monster, and
Speaker 1: you're like, how come I had the intention of keeping
Speaker 1: it simple, but then I ended up with this complexity.
Speaker 1: And I think that's because you just have to be
Speaker 1: really like maniacle that simplicity throughout, to look at every
Speaker 1: step of the creation process and say what editing should
Speaker 1: I do? I do? What simplification should I do, so
Speaker 1: that by the time you've reached the end again, if
Speaker 1: you've done it right, you've distilled it to the simplest
Speaker 1: and truest form. That's such an interesting technique. How do
Speaker 1: you not get invested to invested in your own work
Speaker 1: product that you're able to then throw it out and
Speaker 1: simplify it. A few things I mean I borrow, you know,
Speaker 1: As I said, I'm a I mean I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit of a geek when it comes to things that
Speaker 1: help with process. So I'm a student of lean, I'm
Speaker 1: a student of agile, and there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that I've borrowed over the years here and there. But
Speaker 1: a few ways. One is I have learned over the
Speaker 1: years that if you show your work along the way,
Speaker 1: it gets you out of your head because other people
Speaker 1: are not their navel gazing with you, right, they can
Speaker 1: look at it objectively right and be like it doesn't
Speaker 1: work in this way or it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: And so I am a huge proponent of a culture
Speaker 1: that promotes the showing of the work as things are happening. Again,
Speaker 1: it has this edifying quality to it. Right. Another thing
Speaker 1: I really believe in is sort of transparency across the board,
Speaker 1: like it, you know. I feel like creation in this
Speaker 1: era requires a tremendous amount of courage and because to
Speaker 1: be transparent, you have to be courageous, right, And so
Speaker 1: if you try to drive a culture of transparency, both
Speaker 1: in terms of how the work is done, how the
Speaker 1: thought process was testing with customers on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: I think it allows you again to make sure that
Speaker 1: you are creating something that doesn't have an element of
Speaker 1: like everybody else thinks your baby's ugly except you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not where you want to end up. We'll be
Speaker 1: back with Seneca's Made by Women after this short break.
Speaker 1: So you've been building at ally a pretty interesting model,
Speaker 1: and you've been looking at this changing landscape of the consumer.
Speaker 1: How can we be intentional about making sure that women
Speaker 1: and people of color are part of this new reality?
Speaker 1: A few ways. I think one is making sure that
Speaker 1: we bring different voices into the conversation of what financial
Speaker 1: services is about. I think a lot of times we
Speaker 1: talk around the circumference of like the outer edges of
Speaker 1: what diversity looks like, meaning what the intentions around diversity is,
Speaker 1: rather than the work that it takes to happen, right,
Speaker 1: And so there's a few ways. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that we've started to really lean into it ally
Speaker 1: is not just the empowering of the consumer through education.
Speaker 1: I think education is an important antidote to lots of things.
Speaker 1: But it's not just education. It's education, financial education, and
Speaker 1: insight that brings different voices to it. So how does
Speaker 1: a new immigrant who is working their way through and
Speaker 1: is doing well invest versus a third generation, a third
Speaker 1: generation per sin who's you know whose forefathers went to
Speaker 1: college and grad school and went to you know, versus
Speaker 1: a new immigrant who has this pull and tug between
Speaker 1: the money they're saving and the people they need to help,
Speaker 1: either within this country or at home. And what does
Speaker 1: that do to their financial picture? How does how do
Speaker 1: you give them tricks of the trade so that they
Speaker 1: don't reach sixty years of age and had the same
Speaker 1: career as somebody who's a third generation, but is that
Speaker 1: much poorer, right, because of the fact that they were
Speaker 1: not given these adaptive skills that recognize their situation. So
Speaker 1: I do believe that one of the ways we make
Speaker 1: it inclusive is bringing in those stories, those financial stories,
Speaker 1: and giving in those financial tricks of the trade, if
Speaker 1: you will, and best practices for a wider net of
Speaker 1: people and a wider net of stories around it. I
Speaker 1: think what you're saying is so important because again, and
Speaker 1: it kind of comes to your customer first mentality, right,
Speaker 1: which is what's the experience that you're trying to solve for.
Speaker 1: And I think that's maybe very different because I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people right now are focused on how
Speaker 1: do we include women, women of color, people of color,
Speaker 1: But maybe people aren't really thinking through what's the real issue.
Speaker 1: What are the structural barriers? What are the situational barriers
Speaker 1: that are holding women back, for example, from investing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's really interesting, it is, and I think
Speaker 1: that part of it is barriers. But you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a person. You know, there's an old Swedish saying that
Speaker 1: I say all the time, which is that those who
Speaker 1: wish to sing always find a song, And you know,
Speaker 1: as a person who grew up where my parents left
Speaker 1: their country with no money in their pocket and they
Speaker 1: had some wealth when they were in Ethiopia, no money
Speaker 1: in their pocket because of what situation we have to
Speaker 1: start it all over again. As a person who's understood
Speaker 1: what starting all over is, I'm always going to find
Speaker 1: a song. Right. So part of it is, yes, how
Speaker 1: to think about the structural barriers, but part of it,
Speaker 1: the other part of it is what's their song? Why
Speaker 1: don't you give some mics to their song? Because they're
Speaker 1: singing a song there. You know, these folks are not
Speaker 1: just on the outer edge suffering. They have stuff they're
Speaker 1: doing to help their financial picture. Bring that in, make
Speaker 1: that part of the playbook to advise others to give
Speaker 1: them a song as well. So, yes, structural barriers, but
Speaker 1: also the flip side of it is see people, what
Speaker 1: are they doing? How do we learn from them as
Speaker 1: much about how what their tricks of the trade are
Speaker 1: in understanding their financial situation. It's super interesting. I remember
Speaker 1: Professor Prahlad, who you probably remember, who wrote the Fortune
Speaker 1: at the Bottom of the Pyramid. I thought, I remember
Speaker 1: in two thousand five I heard him speak and it
Speaker 1: really changed my perspective because it was it was an
Speaker 1: interesting day when he was speaking. Jeff Emilt, who was
Speaker 1: in CEO G was speaking, and my former boss Andrew
Speaker 1: Young of Avon was speaking, and he was talking about
Speaker 1: why are we viewing the emerging markets as poor people
Speaker 1: and as you know, people who need to be reached
Speaker 1: out to with charitable um ideas. We should be looking
Speaker 1: at sort of the emerging markets as partners in growth.
Speaker 1: And when you look at people that way, it's a
Speaker 1: completely different strategy, same widgets and so like you'll see.
Speaker 1: So we we've seated what we call a point of
Speaker 1: view strategy and invest which is trying to have organic
Speaker 1: perspectives on the markets and investing. So we we hardly
Speaker 1: use like third We don't just put a step rubber
Speaker 1: stamp on third party reviews. We have a team of
Speaker 1: experts that are sort of formulating how to help you
Speaker 1: navigate the markets. But then we also bring in people
Speaker 1: to interview them to say how do you handle the markets?
Speaker 1: How do you handle investing? Again, because it's not just
Speaker 1: us that holds the collective wisdom, right, people hold the wisdom,
Speaker 1: and so if you bring their wisdom into the into
Speaker 1: the conversation. Not only does it make our services better,
Speaker 1: but then people see themselves. And there's no other motivator
Speaker 1: than to bring people under the tent of opportunity than
Speaker 1: for letting people see themselves. Yeah, and that's really what
Speaker 1: we're dedicated to here this whole you know, being able
Speaker 1: to see yourself and see others and your people and
Speaker 1: hear them where they're at. One of the questions that
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about has to do with
Speaker 1: how we invest and obviously over the last several years
Speaker 1: there's been a big emphasis in investing in ourselves and
Speaker 1: self care. How does this relate to the grand scheme
Speaker 1: of things? How should we be thinking about investing in
Speaker 1: our communities not just investing in ourselves. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think there's a several ways to think about it. You know.
Speaker 1: One thing is to to remember that investing is not
Speaker 1: only just money. Right, So, you know, what community activities
Speaker 1: do you take part in? Especially this virtual world has
Speaker 1: taught us how like the world is flat now, right,
Speaker 1: it's truly flat. You know. I have you know, an
Speaker 1: exercise group that now used to be just local but
Speaker 1: now has people from like Qualampore joining, right, because it's
Speaker 1: gone virtual. The world is flat. So I think part
Speaker 1: of it is just you know, making sure that we
Speaker 1: expand our definition of investing. Our time is a form
Speaker 1: of investment. Our talent is a form of investment. Like
Speaker 1: do we share our talent with other people? Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I probably do at least two to three mentorship programs
Speaker 1: something somebody not only at ally but anywhere a week.
Speaker 1: And it's religious for me in terms of being able
Speaker 1: to do that. And then of course money is another
Speaker 1: form of it. So I think I think it's just
Speaker 1: being intentional with all of the goods and services that
Speaker 1: we carry in our own skin, not just in our
Speaker 1: bank account. I think is a means of making sure
Speaker 1: that we get connected to our communities. But I think
Speaker 1: another thing is, as I said earlier, is sort of
Speaker 1: like knowledge is power, and so how do we share
Speaker 1: with communities knowledge? In my space, it's investing knowledge right
Speaker 1: get the business I'm in. And so that's one of
Speaker 1: the things we try to do is like how do
Speaker 1: we share How do we flatten the word by making
Speaker 1: knowledge available? So we have conference as we hold for instance,
Speaker 1: we have a one coming up in this quarter in
Speaker 1: a few days where we are sharing knowledge both in
Speaker 1: terms of how to invest, but also just things you
Speaker 1: should know about what's happening in the markets and how
Speaker 1: they could be shaped differently. So I think there's several
Speaker 1: ways we commit to our communities, But in the end,
Speaker 1: I think it's like we account by it by the
Speaker 1: time we've spent, not just the money we've spent. So
Speaker 1: I know there'll be many many people listening to this
Speaker 1: podcast wishing they could get advice from you, especially career advice,
Speaker 1: certainly investing advice, but also career advice. Is there a
Speaker 1: piece of advice that you generally share with people who
Speaker 1: are trying to break into finance or breakthrough in this
Speaker 1: pretty difficult environment right now? I mean there's several things,
Speaker 1: you know, I have I called I tell people all
Speaker 1: the time, I have a lot of scar tissue, right
Speaker 1: So one of the things I tell people is like,
Speaker 1: don't avoid scar tissue. You can't do anything in life
Speaker 1: unless you make mistakes. And so the advice I give
Speaker 1: people a lot is leaning, you know, really take advantage
Speaker 1: of opportunities. I've never felt there was an opportunity that
Speaker 1: was too low for me or too high. Um, yes,
Speaker 1: there were parts of my life where I had an
Speaker 1: impostor syndrome. Um, And I tell this to people knowing
Speaker 1: and I that's something I should disclose is I'm dyslexic. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I left my country at eight and I had
Speaker 1: to learn a new language at eight. And so I
Speaker 1: often tell people, like, you know, just lean in, make
Speaker 1: a mistake, make a fool out of yourself, because it's
Speaker 1: the only way to find glory on the other side.
Speaker 1: And so that's one thing I said, and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying be silly in the sense that be imprudent or
Speaker 1: you know, don't think, don't be intentional. We should definitely
Speaker 1: be intentional, but fail because you were intentional. Don't fail
Speaker 1: because you forfeited, right, And so that's one thing I
Speaker 1: tell people. The other thing I tell them in their
Speaker 1: career is you know, none of us, none of us
Speaker 1: get here alone. So be gracious about what you take,
Speaker 1: and be okay about what you give as well. You know,
Speaker 1: and so make sure that you are giving as much
Speaker 1: you're taking. And there's nothing wrong with taking. I think
Speaker 1: taking is you know that none of us will get
Speaker 1: somewhere without taking, But be gracious of also giving and
Speaker 1: giving back of your time and your wisdom, to other people.
Speaker 1: But we are so grateful to have you on the
Speaker 1: show and we would love to have you back. Thank
Speaker 1: you for everything you're doing and to make fintech and
Speaker 1: financial services what we hope will be a new era
Speaker 1: of fintech and financial services. So thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: It was wonderful speaking to you. What an eye opening conversation.
Speaker 1: Blue Lay Demissa offers such a fresh perspective and empowering
Speaker 1: and hopeful way to look at the world. Here are
Speaker 1: some lessons I took away from the conversation. First, understanding
Speaker 1: what type of luder you are is crucial. Lu Lay
Speaker 1: learned that she's a builder and the rest is history. Second,
Speaker 1: simplification is a superpower. As Lulay says, less is truly more.
Speaker 1: When she approaches a business problem, she looks for what
Speaker 1: she calls the simple elegant truth, rather than adding products, features,
Speaker 1: or complexity that might not be necessary. Finally, take the
Speaker 1: time to listen. When we've bring more voices and more
Speaker 1: stories into the business discussion, we get better services and
Speaker 1: outcomes for all. To learn more about investing in ourselves
Speaker 1: and our communities with Lulay Demass, head over to ally
Speaker 1: dot com Slash made by Women. That's a l l
Speaker 1: y dot com slash. Made by Women. Made by Women
Speaker 1: is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner PNG