Choose Your Fellow: Alise Grant

Meet Alise Grant, 2022 VFC and RBC Fellow. She is currently working as a Customer Success Specialist at Relay, a no-fee, online business banking and money management platform to understand precisely what your business is earning, spending and saving.

What does being an innovator?

I think it’s all about trying to find creative solutions to problems that you face. It’s also about taking risks when trying to find those solutions or create new ideas and projects. 

I’m starting this new role as a customer success specialist, and on this journey of constantly trying to figure out how I can design strategies and processes to be able to connect with the customer experience, that benefit and enhances our products or services.

I deal with a lot of uncertainty about how things are gonna turn out, and look out for the best resources. It’s all about having a self-starter mentality and encouraging others to have the same vision.

As an innovator, what are things that you engage with to keep you inspired and motivated?

Podcasts continue to help me stay inspired. I love to listen to them while I’m working on something, or taking a walk outside. I’m also a very active person who enjoys all aspects of health and wellness. Being active, and intentional with the food I eat or activities I take part in, is what keeps me motivated. 

What’s one piece of advice you’d leave for someone who’s trying to become an innovator?

The best thing you can do is embrace that no matter how much planning you do, you’re never going to know exactly what’s going to happen.

So my advice would be to learn how to live within uncertainty. Take in every opportunity that comes your way. Most things that have come to fruition for me, have come from just saying yes to whatever I can. 

Always go in with the mindset that opportunities and life decisions are a chance to learn and innovate for yourself and those around you.

How do you innovators thrive in entrepreneurship?

Innovators thrive in entrepreneurship, because they don’t fear failure, and they’re comfortable with trying new things out. They enjoy being stuck because they’re confident enough to understand that there’s always a solution to a problem. They know how to dive head first, and that’s a very important trait in being an entrepreneur. It’s all about how you can think of new ideas and try new things.