The conversation delves into Torrance Evans' journey into tech, highlighting his resilience, sacrifices, and self-study. It explores the challenges of being black in tech and the importance of giving back and mentorship. The discussion also covers coping strategies, consistency, childhood experiences, and advice on present-mindedness.

Takeaways

• Resilience
• Self-talk

Chapters

• 00:00 Advice and Present-Mindedness

In today’s episode of Tech Me As I Am, I sit down with Damion Wright, Head of Talent & Acquisition at Intuit, for a powerful conversation about identity, leadership, and the courage it takes to evolve beyond who the world first drafts you to be.

Damion’s journey from athlete to executive isn’t just about changing careers — it’s about rewriting internal narratives, learning how to lead with authenticity, and choosing self-love in environments that often reward performance over wholeness.

Together, we unpack what it means to bring your full self into corporate spaces, how leadership evolves when you understand who you are at your core, and why authenticity is not a destination — it’s a lifelong practice.

This conversation explores how positive affirmation, self-reflection, and emotional awareness shape not only better leaders, but healthier humans. From navigating different personalities to finding inspiration through music, this episode reminds us that the same discipline that fuels athletes can also anchor executives — when purpose leads the way.

• Authenticity as an ongoing journey, not a fixed state
• Leading others starts with understanding yourself
• The role of self-love and affirmation in personal and professional growth
• Translating athletic discipline into emotionally intelligent leadership
• Using reflection and music as tools for grounding and inspiration

00:00 Introduction to Tech Me As I Am
05:05 Courage and Self-Reflection
11:25 Understanding and Leading Different Personalities
17:08 Seeking Positive Affirmation and Growth
23:27 Music for Inspiration

In today’s episode of Tech Me As I Am, I sit down with Tone Levels — an artist whose healing began in the quietest place possible: a journal he never intended anyone to read. What eventually became his breakout track, “Therapy Session,” was originally a private moment of honesty, written to hold emotions he didn’t know how to speak out loud.

Tone wasn’t always a fan of his own art. Music wasn’t a dream — it was an escape. A release valve. A way to survive the weight he was carrying. His pen became the first safe space where he could tell the truth without judgment, and those early journal entries slowly transformed into the rap that would one day resonate far beyond him.

What Tone didn’t know was that his escape would become mine. During a season when I felt emotionally overwhelmed, disconnected, and burnt out, “Therapy Session” was one of the songs that helped me breathe again. His self-talk became the echo I needed. His healing became a place for me to rest.

This conversation opens up the reality of creative escapism — how the outlets artists build for themselves become the emotional oxygen the rest of us consume. When we speak to ourselves with truth, we end up speaking to others with resonance.

Together, we explore the art we run to, the pain behind it, and the beautiful ecosystem that forms when one person’s coping mechanism becomes another person’s survival tool.

• How journaling became his earliest form of therapy
• Why “Therapy Session” was never meant to be shared — and how it still found its way to people who needed it
• The self-doubt that kept him from trusting his own creativity
• How pain transforms into art, and art transforms into collective healing
• Why escapism isn’t always avoidance — sometimes it’s survival
• The emotional “echo” that happens when an artist’s private release becomes public resonance
• The unexpected impact of creating something you never believed would matter

• How creative outlets become emotional lifelines
• Why the art you make for yourself may heal someone you’ve never met
• How to recognize the places you escape to — and what they reveal
• Why self-expression is a form of emotional honesty
• How unprocessed emotions can surface through creativity
• The power of giving your feelings a place to go
• Why your story matters even if you think no one is listening

We often try to escape our lives through music, scrolling, silence, or art — not realizing that someone else escaped into the creation of the very thing that’s helping us cope.

Tone Levels wrote a message to himself.
Somehow, it became a message the rest of us needed too.

This conversation is an invitation to reflect on the art that saves us, the truth we run from, and the healing that happens when we finally listen inward.

Always stay courageous ✌🏾
Brittani

00:00 — The Escape in His Pen
00:12 — The Story Behind “Therapy Session”
00:45 — Journaling, Self-Doubt & Becoming an Artist
01:07 — How His Art Became My Escape
01:54 — The Emotional Ecosystem Between Artist & Audience

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