Walt Adams:

Star Radio Sunday Jazz Brunch time once again for the Power of Potential with AIM Services, supporting people with disabilities and traumatic brain injury. Each week, we get a chance to talk with Chris Lyons, the Executive Director. Good morning, Chris.

Chris Lyons:

Good morning, Walt. Happy Sunday. Another wonderful Jazz Brunch. Another opportunity to talk about AIM Services and the Power of Potential, and another chance to catch up with you. I hope you’re doing well.

Walt Adams:

Doing good in the broadcast bunker.

Chris Lyons:

Great feedback on our employment initiative, Walt. Thank you. New year, new career. We’ve gotten quite a bit of interest. We had a virtual job fair last Friday and Saturday, and Dr. Benita Zahn from NewsChannel 13 was good enough to do an intro, and we’ve got a lot of support from the community as we do this outreach. And we’re getting a great return on those communications, a lot of applications and a lot of people showing interest. So, thanks for your help with that.

Walt Adams:

Oh, you bet. I understand things are moving forward with the pandemic too.

Chris Lyons:

Yes, yes. We’ve actually been approved as a point of distribution for the vaccine, and we’ll be expected to receive some vaccine next week for finishing up to make sure that all the people we support are vaccinated and all those that support them here at AIM are also vaccinated. And we hope in the weeks and months to come to, potentially, be a point of distribution for the general public under the state guidelines. So, it’s encouraging.

Walt Adams:

And that’s the light at the end of the tunnel we’re all looking for as the quarantine fatigue has us all reeling. But in our focus on new year, new career, you have a big announcement that Bo Goliber will be joining the AIM team.

Chris Lyons:

Isn’t it exciting? I know you’re equally excited to start to work with her as well. We’re hiring Bo Goliber as our Chief Development and Communications Officer. You and I have worked tirelessly to get the word out about AIM so that we can better support people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury. We’ve made great strides in that, Walt, and I think Bo will take us to a whole different magnitude of community engagement and partnership with both the businesses and other community entities in our area. And I’m just so excited to have her come on. She brings a broad skillset of emotional intelligence and professionalism that is really going to take us the next level. And she’s also an incredible human being. You and I both know her personally. She is engaging, brilliant, very gregarious, and I just can’t wait to start working with her.

Walt Adams:

And not only is she well-known, but well-respected in the Saratoga business community.

Chris Lyons:

There isn’t a person who isn’t engaged in our community here that doesn’t know Bo Goliber, and it’s always positive. She’s been philanthropically-inclined for years. She was the Director of Development, and Communications, and Fundraising at Franklin Community Center. She’s worked with Admits and at Fingerpaint. Everybody knows the difference that Ed and Lisa have made through Fingerpaint in our community, and Bo’s been a big part of that at Fingerpaint. And she’s bringing all of that to AIM Services, and we just can’t wait.

Walt Adams:

We have her on the other line. We’re looking forward to hearing her story. And she said that she’s totally prepared for handling any dad jokes you might fire at her.

Chris Lyons:

Well, I figured you would give her a few tips about how to tolerate my bad jokes, my friend, because you’ve been doing it for a long time with grace and an awful lot of patience, which is one of the many reasons I love you.

Walt Adams:

Well, a sense of humor in a leadership role is a great attribute, Chris!

Chris Lyons:

You just mentioned, Walt, just this morning to me that we are passionate about what we do, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously, except in the supporting of people with developmental disabilities. It’s a joyful place to work, and you and I are a big part of it. So grateful.

Walt Adams:

Bo’s on the other line. Have a great Valentine’s day,

Chris Lyons:

Exciting times, Walt. As always, thank you so much. Please take care and be well, my friend.

Walt Adams:

You too. I am so happy to introduce Bo Goliber. Good morning, Bo.

Bo Goliber
Bo Goliber, Chief Development and Communications Officer at AIM Services.

Bo Goliber:

Good morning, Walt. Thanks so much for having me.

Walt Adams:

Last time we spoke, we talked about the challenges that were ahead of us as we were just starting out with the pandemic, a new year and a new career encouraging people to join us. And here it is kind of your story now too because now, you’ve joined AIM Services as Chief Development and Communications Officer. And so first off, welcome to AIM Services.

Bo Goliber:

Thank you so much. I’m so, so honored and grateful to be here. And I think we talked about it a little bit last time. We talked about the importance of staying grounded in gratitude and purpose. And COVID gave me some time to really think about that. And AIM has been an organization that’s been close to my heart for many years, and I’ve always appreciated and valued the philosophy here at this organization, and started to think about getting back into my roots in the nonprofit world, really getting back into helping one organization directly. I’ve been so fortunate that I’ve worked with so many amazing organizations that I was really missing that direct purpose every single day, and COVID gave me the opportunity to reevaluate that. And I started thinking about the organizations that I really could see myself being happy at and working for.

Bo Goliber:

And AIM was at the top of the list, so we started that conversation, and here we are, and I am just so excited. Some of the things that make me most excited are that we have, obviously, an amazing team in place here already. And I’m here to just bring my experience to the table. A lot of people don’t know that prior to my last job, I was on the nonprofit side for a long time. So, I bring a unique blend of skills from understanding what it’s like to be on the nonprofit side and to also be on the for-profit side in the funding position. So, hopefully, just elevate AIM’s story in our community.

Walt Adams:

You’re listening to Star Radio Sunday Jazz Brunch. I’m Walt Adams. Our special guest on the Power of Potential, Bo Goliber. Bo, lot of people have been calling up and wishing you well in your new endeavors at AIM Services.

Bo Goliber:

Honestly, it’s incredibly humbling and amazing to me that I’m in this position. I mean it when I say how fortunate I feel. I always tell the story about my mom always taught me build bridges, don’t burn them. And so, I’ve always gone out of my way to treat relationships as something that is the most important part of your daily interactions. And it’s been really wonderful having jobs my whole life that have allowed me to build those really meaningful relationships. And the fact that I’m now here and the support I’m receiving, people are listening and have shown their support. I’m just so grateful and so thankful. It has been unbelievable to see how excited people are.

Bo Goliber:

I think people, in the same sense, are equally as in love with AIM as an organization. And so, I think if they feel like together, we can build something even more amazing, it’s just a match made in heaven. I’m excited to bring the skills and the strategy that I’ve learned over the past couple of years from being more on the marketing side. And I’m so grateful for all of that experience and now being able to take it here for really something so purpose and people-driven. I’m just so grateful.

Walt Adams:

So, Bo, you obviously could have gone to any non-for-profit agency. Why AIM Services?

Bo Goliber:

I think, for me, their model is so person-focused, it’s person-centric. I’m just so moved by that because as we just talked, about relationships are so important to me. And at the core of how AIM works with the individuals we serve is starting by building that relationship and listening, and really figuring out exactly what those individuals need and want, and providing them the services that are needed to help them foster their independence. And I’m just so blown away by getting to hear some of those personal stories, and how families have been directly benefited, and individuals have been directly benefited by the way we listen. There’s a whole, we don’t say no, we say how. It aligns so much with what is important to me in my heart. And so, it just feels very natural.

Walt Adams:

Well, the AIM leadership, I know, is very excited to be working with you, and might’ve heard at the beginning of this segment, Chris Lyons has asked me to prepare you for his bad jokes.

Bo Goliber:

I think even on my second day, I’m already getting a feel of it. So, yes, I’m preparing myself. I’m trying to come up with some witty comebacks [crosstalk 00:08:12].

Walt Adams:

That’s great. He loves it. We, again, thank you for your time here today on the Power of Potential, and really look forward to collaborating on ideas and thoughts on how we can make the agency better. Great to have you on the Power of Potential today.

Bo Goliber:

Thank you all. And I’m so excited to be working with you as well and hear from your passion for the agency. So, I really appreciate it, and I can’t wait to see what we can do together.

Walt Adams:

Bo Goliber, Chief Development and Communications Officer at AIM Services. For more information on the services provided or to join the AIM team, go to aimservicesinc.org for the Power of Potential.

Listen to the radio interview below.