Business Infrastructure and Ghost Stories with Alicia Butler Pierre

Alicia Butler Pierre is the CEO-@EquilibriaInc. #Speaker, 2-time Amazon best-selling Author of Beyond the Facade - How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success, #Podcaster (𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦: 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 podcast - which is part of the Hubspot Podcast Network) & #LeanSixSigma Consultant. Alicia offers #operations resources to scale #fastgrowth #smallbusiness with less chaos.

Transcript

Business Infrastructure and Ghost Stories with Alicia Butler Pierre

[00:00:00] Alicia Butler Pierre: Believe in yourself. And I know that's so cliche. That is so cliche. I know it. You have to, that's why I love the name of this podcast so much. You have to starve the doubts. You have to just keep pushing 

[00:00:13] Ms. Christine: forward.

[00:00:21] welcome to starve 

[00:00:22] Jared Easley: the doubts. I'm one of your hosts. I'm Jared. And then of course, joining me is my Combs, Ms. Christine and Ms. Christine. It's so great to have you here. Here being 

[00:00:31] Ms. Christine: so,

[00:00:35] um, 

[00:00:35] Jared Easley: great. And, uh, of course joining us today is Butler soon as the CEO of equilibria and speakers is a two time Amazon bestselling author of the book beyond the facade, how to structure company operations for sustainable success. I am a proud owner of a copy of that. She's a podcaster and not in a steady podcast or her podcasts, or just got our podcasts [00:01:00] has got picked up by HubSpot podcast network this year.

[00:01:03] So that's pretty amazing. And her show is called business infrastructure curing back office. I see the lean six Sigma consultant see offers, operation resources to scale fast growth and small business with less chaos, according to Twitter. So Alicia, welcome to the show. 

[00:01:24] Alicia Butler Pierre: Jared and Ms. Christine, I'm so glad to be.

[00:01:29] Jared Easley: Well, we are proud that you are with us and humbled. So that said, we like the concert question. So you're, you're not immune. So what's the best concert that you have been to. Oh, you've seen the purple 

[00:01:45] Alicia Butler Pierre: and yes I have. Oh my goodness. It was like a 30 minute rendition of purple rain. It was pretty unforgettable.

[00:01:55] Yeah. 

[00:01:56] Jared Easley: Good for you. Okay, well, I guess we [00:02:00] just stop there, right?

[00:02:08] so it's nice to have somebody who actually saw, wow. Okay. 

[00:02:14] Ms. Christine: All right. We're gonna finish this segue

[00:02:23] then volunteer judge at a middle school research program 

[00:02:27] Alicia Butler Pierre: is. Be well rested because those kids has so much energy and wow. Be well rested. 

[00:02:38] Jared Easley: Like the, uh, the Russian judge where you're like super harsh and critical. Do these kids or were you pretty gracious? 

[00:02:44] Alicia Butler Pierre: Oh, that's not my personality. What's your name, sweetie.

[00:02:48] And I'm like, oh, my name is solace. Oh, that's such a beautiful name, but you know, Doc points accordingly, but no, no, no. You want to encourage them. 

[00:02:59] Jared Easley: So [00:03:00] you weren't, you weren't feeling guilty when you were talking points? 

[00:03:03] Alicia Butler Pierre: Not at all. No. No. It was being completely objective. Good for you. 

[00:03:08] Jared Easley: Okay. We have another wonderful finish the sentence.

[00:03:10] So come on, bring it 

[00:03:15] Ms. Christine: by a ghost in a hotel.

[00:03:20] Alicia Butler Pierre: I hate you, Jared. Yes. This Christine. Yes, I'm listening. 

[00:03:25] Ms. Christine: You gotta finish. So I

[00:03:30] finished the sentence. Try again. If you're ever hunted by ghost in a 

[00:03:35] Alicia Butler Pierre: hotel, make sure you have your rosary with you. Did you not have a rosary? I, I may have, because I usually do travel with one. If I'm traveling. 

[00:03:48] Jared Easley: All right. So, so we're not going to stop there.

[00:04:01] [00:04:00] Alicia Butler Pierre: well, Jared easily and his, his co founder of podcast movement decided to choose a haunted hotel as the location for the 2020 podcast movement evolutions conference. And let's just say, Christine, I ended up having a visitation and that visitation sucked the life force or attempted to drain the life force out of me.

[00:04:32] And by the time I left the hotel and went back to lax to fly back to Atlanta, I was completely fine because some people thought I may have had COVID because this was right before the COVID luck. But it wasn't COVID because it just, as quickly as it happened, it quickly went away. The further I got away from the hotel.

[00:04:55] Jared Easley: Yeah. And you had some avocado toast. And when I remember. 

[00:05:01] [00:05:00] Alicia Butler Pierre: Oh, I can't stand you, Jared. This is why, this is why you have to be careful about what you share with certain people. You know what I mean, Christine? Because they can use that against you.

[00:05:16] Ms. Christine: Exactly.

[00:05:24] Alicia Butler Pierre: Yes, I have. Haunting stories. Um, if you all ever want to do a show just about that real life, personal hauntings or phenomena that people may have experienced, that they absolutely cannot explain with logic then. Yeah. I'd be happy to go into the details, but yes, suffice it to say seriously, I'll jokes aside.

[00:05:46] I had watched a program. I think it's called celebrity ghost stories. And I remember an actress, speaking of an encounter, she had at an old hotel in downtown Los Angeles. And so the minute I went into the Biltmore, [00:06:00] I, I immediately recognized the hotel from that particular episode, but I didn't think anything of it, honestly, until there was someone else who spoke at the, at that particular conference was a celebrity psychic, as it turns out.

[00:06:15] And she warned me like, be careful. This place is haunted. Wow. So, uh, yeah, later that night, Christine Irish, there was a faint knock at the door, you know, I don't, I don't know how much you want me to get into the details, but again, Jared found that very amusing for some reason. Yeah. I'm like, I'm scared to death.

[00:06:36] Right. But here's the thing, Kristen. Once I left the conference, I started talking to, you know, reaching out to people that I met while I was there. And just asking him, did anything strange happen to you while you were there? And quite a few people said, yeah, you know, Well, yeah, so it wasn't just me, 

[00:06:57] Jared Easley: let the record reflect that I did not have any,

[00:07:02] [00:07:00] I don't know if I was prayed over properly or

[00:07:10] Alicia Butler Pierre: no, but you know what, so all jokes aside. One of the things I have learned is that when it comes to things like. Even though you may be scared to death. They aren't, they usually aren't trying to scare you. They're trying to get your attention. And they, you know, if they know that you are receptive to this type of thing or that you, the way someone described it to me years ago was imagined there's all of these ships out at sea and there's a light house and there are some people out there that serve as light houses to the other side.

[00:07:47] And so if they know that you have experienced things before that you are clairvoyant, clairaudient, whatever, that's, who they gravitate toward. Usually 

[00:07:57] Jared Easley: my mom, I don't want to get up Saturday, but my mom [00:08:00] told me a story one time where she was like, I saw an angel and I was like, yeah, you saw an angel. And then she told me the story and I was like, okay, that is unusual.

[00:08:10] And so to this day, she's he's like, no, that was an angel. And, um, maybe I don't know, I wasn't there, but yeah, I mean, and my mom, I mean, she can be crazy, but don't think she's crazy.

[00:08:31] She's listening. Hi mom. I love you.

[00:08:36] Sorry. Let's see. It's easier to get forgiveness than permission. I think

[00:08:44] we'll keep going with the fish, man. I want to talk about ghosts. Now, if you ever visited the original Starbucks in Seattle, 

[00:08:54] Alicia Butler Pierre: be prepared to wait in a very long line. 

[00:08:57] Jared Easley: This is true when I was [00:09:00] there. I remember a line down the street.

[00:09:05] Alicia Butler Pierre: So you haven't been digging through my social media. I don't think we went, I went to 

[00:09:09] Ms. Christine: Seattle recently. I went, it was like around Memorial weekend for my birthday and I had such a good time. I was like, wait, did we go to

[00:09:22] Suddenly you're haunted by something else.

[00:09:27] Alicia Butler Pierre: The other type of spirits, 

[00:09:29] Ms. Christine: some other

[00:09:34] Alicia Butler Pierre: type 

[00:09:37] Jared Easley: of smoke, some kind of, yeah, sorry. 

[00:09:41] Alicia Butler Pierre: Yeah. The line 

[00:09:42] Ms. Christine: is the largest one and I get dig into one of the largest one in Chicago. That one did have a long line 

[00:09:48] Alicia Butler Pierre: and heard about that one. They didn't even have everything now. 

[00:09:51] Ms. Christine: The normal ones have, they're like, no, we don't have that. We don't have that. I'm just like, what is this?

[00:09:56] And you waited all the time for that. 

[00:09:58] Alicia Butler Pierre: Is that the two story when [00:10:00] like one downtown Chicago or? 

[00:10:05] Ms. Christine: Wow.

[00:10:13] okay. So we got, wait one more. One way to excite people using stick figures is 

[00:10:21] Alicia Butler Pierre: to you, right? So I use stick figures to help people quickly figure out who should be doing what work. So basically it's an exercise that I do to help people match roles to activities. It's a really fun exercise. And it, I know it's probably sounds very childlike, but you would be so amazed at how.

[00:10:44] Even the most macho of men or the, you know, the most serious of, of any adult really gets into this exercise whenever we do it together. So it's, it's a lot of fun and it helps them quickly figure out how to delegate different roles and [00:11:00] responsibilities. 

[00:11:00] Jared Easley: So let, let let's, let's, uh, start to transition into getting more of that.

[00:11:04] But at first you're originally from new Orleans and now you live in Atlanta. So I want to know what brought you to hotline. 

[00:11:12] Alicia Butler Pierre: Ooh, another ghost story 

[00:11:16] Ms. Christine: real seriously. 

[00:11:19] Alicia Butler Pierre: So in 2004, it was, it was like late August, early September, 2004. I was living in, I lived alone. I was, I was still single at that time. You know, new Orleans is basically a big bowl.

[00:11:33] It's just a normal rain and the city can flood. And so this one particular tropical storm that was passing through, I remember being at work that morning and I asked my boss if I could continue working from home that day, because I was starting to get really concerned that, you know, I might be flooded out and wouldn't be able to leave work and get home.

[00:11:53] And she was like, oh, Elisia, go ahead. But I think you're just. You know, you're [00:12:00] exaggerating. It's not that big of a deal. Come on. You're used to rain was the problem, but she said, you know, go, go home. If that's what you want to do, go home. So I get home and I'll never forget this. It was about 1130 in the morning, about 30 minutes later, right?

[00:12:14] At noon. One of my neighbors came banging on my door until he was basically banging on the door to let me know that water was about to get into my car. So I lived in. A very old, you know, that's mostly new Orleans. Right. But I lived in a very old historic district. And so just to give you an idea of what I mean, when I say, oh, my house was built in 1850, so there, there weren't any driveways.

[00:12:39] There weren't any garages. It, you, you had, it was on street parking only. And so Christine, I'm sure you can relate to that. You know, having grown up in Philly. You know, I just, I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking actually, I just remember putting on a raincoat, grabbing my umbrella, going outside, getting them into my car.

[00:12:58] And I always remember when, when you [00:13:00] grow up in places like that, you're always told that the closer you get to the levee, the higher the ground. So at that time I was, my neighborhood was in a neighborhood called Algiers point, which is directly across the Mississippi river from the French quarter. For those of you who might be familiar with Newark, And I lived about two blocks away from the levee of the Mississippi river.

[00:13:23] And I remember getting into my car, driving to what I thought was higher ground. So I drove in, parked my car. By the time I walked back to my house, the water was above my knees. That's how fast water rises. And it's very scary. If you've ever been on a flooded street, you can't tell the street from the sidewalk.

[00:13:45] You don't know where the manhole covers are. Those manhole covers can pop open. It's a scary thing. So my heart is like almost beating out of my chest. I remember getting inside of my house now. Thankfully, most houses, most of those old homes are [00:14:00] raised several feet off the ground. So I remember getting, getting back into my house and I started to look out of the kitchen window and I remember thinking.

[00:14:09] Okay, God, I thought we agreed that I would die by heart attack, not death by drowning. What's up, you know, I'm about to like a seriously thought I was going to drown and I was alone. You know, it's, it's scary. And as I'm looking out the window of my kitchen, if you can just imagine a record spinning on a record player, and if you just.

[00:14:33] If you just put your index finger on that record for just a few seconds, just to stop it momentarily. That's what happened to me next. All of a sudden, everything seemed to stop. And I heard a voice that said you won't be here this time next year. And no sooner than I heard that voice, you know, everything kind of went back into motion again.

[00:14:53] So I thought I was hallucinating, but once, once the rain stopped and the waters receded, they turned on the water pump. [00:15:00] From that moment forward. I had getting out on my mind. I abruptly quit my job. So I was working as an engineering consultant at the time. I briefly quit my job. I finished up school. I was going to school at night.

[00:15:15] I was in an MBA program at Tulane university. I finished up my MBA that December by the following January, I put my house up for sale. It's sold within the first week and I relocated to a city. Where I knew one person, I didn't have a job lined up. I just knew that I had to get out. I couldn't explain it.

[00:15:37] People thought I was nuts. I had a very, very, very comfortable life in new Orleans. I had my own house. In fact, I own two homes. At that point, I was about 28, 29 years old, fully self-sufficient independent, financially savvy. You know, all this, I had all this stuff going for me. But I, I felt like a caged bird.

[00:15:58] I felt like I [00:16:00] had to get out. And thankfully I did because six months after I relocated to Atlanta, hurricane Katrina happened so that my friends is how I ended up in Atlanta. 

[00:16:13] Jared Easley: Yeah, you left just in time. That's uh, they did, did that house get destroyed or damaged 

[00:16:20] Alicia Butler Pierre: from what I understand it, it did not, but there were several homes in that area that, that were damaged.

[00:16:27] So of course the further away you were from the river, you know, those were the homes. Sustained the most damage. 

[00:16:36] Ms. Christine: Okay. So as you said, you left, engineered to become an organizer. What can be 

[00:16:44] Alicia Butler Pierre: engineered to yeah. Organizer? I know it must really be right. 

[00:16:49] Ms. Christine: Well 

[00:16:50] Jared Easley: with the ghost stories. We went to Atlanta without 

[00:16:57] Alicia Butler Pierre: Christina, I had to starve the [00:17:00] doubts I had.

[00:17:02] So I, when I relocated here, you have to understand new Orleans compared to Atlanta. New Orleans, you know? Yes. It's a great place to go have fun. Right. And have a great time. But 

[00:17:16] Jared Easley: Christine knows about that.

[00:17:20] Alicia Butler Pierre: Sounds like there's some stories for you.

[00:17:27] So when I came to Atlanta, I saw all of them. No, these fortune 500 companies that if they weren't headquartered here had some type of presence here. You know, Coca-Cola Delta airlines, home Depot Chick-fil-A ups, the rubber made the, the list goes on and on. And I thought, wow, I'm this chemical engineer. I'm a newly minted MBA.

[00:17:51] These companies are going to beat down my door and hire me right. Bad did not happen because this is a much bigger [00:18:00] city with a lot more educated people. And so the competition was fierce. And after about 60 days of what seemed to be endless job searching, I started noticing every book article.

[00:18:14] Documentary that I, I read or watched all talked about the fact that we're all blessed with these natural skills, talents, and abilities, but through a period of indoctrination, AKA our educational system right here in the U S we are literally taught and trained to be good workers so that you can go work a job, making someone else.

[00:18:36] Fat and happy, you know, financially. And so I thought about it through a process of introspection. I said, okay, well, what is it that I've, I'm naturally really good at? And I thought about it and it's organizing. So no matter what job I had, whether I was a 16 year old flipping burgers at a burger joint, or working as an engineer in an oil refinery, the one thing that always helped me Excel was [00:19:00] not the fact that I was the smartest person in the room, but it was the fact that I was so organized.

[00:19:06] And so I decided I was going to redirect the same time, effort, and energy that I was spending in looking for another job, working for support someone else and redirect that energy into creating an opportunity for myself. So that's how my company started. It was a professional organizing company. And what happened?

[00:19:27] Most of the people that I worked with were entrepreneurial. Who were operating these home-based businesses. So they weren't, these weren't people that you would see on a show like hoarders, for example, they weren't chronically disorganized people who had maybe some type of mental illness associated with it.

[00:19:45] That wasn't the issue. They were operating businesses out of their homes and they needed systems and processes and a business infrastructure to make sure that they kept things separate from the rest of the house. And what started to happen, [00:20:00] Christine and Jared is over, over, I would say about the first two years of being in business.

[00:20:06] It shifted from offering professional organizing services to what I call. Business infrastructure. So that's, that's how that transition from engineered to, to organizer came 

[00:20:19] Ms. Christine: about

[00:20:28] Jared Easley: okay. So this is the perfect segue. I am not clear. So you can help me here. What is the difference between organizing and business 

[00:20:36] Alicia Butler Pierre: infrastructure? Okay, so organize. And when, when most of us hear the word organizing, we're thinking of. Physical organ or physical organization, making things either look pretty aesthetically or, you know, making sure that things are in a position where people can easily access them information is can easily be found.

[00:20:54] That kind of thing. That's what most people mean when they say organizing, when I say business [00:21:00] infrastructure. This is like organizing on steroids.

[00:21:18] so business infrastructure. So here's, here's what was happening. Most people when they worked with an organizer for their home. That organizer would come in and again, it was all about the aesthetic look and feel, oh, we're going to, you know, maybe you just need a better Falcon. Well, maybe you need a better file cabinet filing system, or maybe you need the new furniture, maybe less paint a wall.

[00:21:44] So in other words, it's more about the aesthetics, but what I started noticing was that a week or two later, things might be chaotic all over again. And it's because they didn't have a process. They didn't have a system in place to make sure that. [00:22:00] States of chaos creep in, again, that they have something that they could revert back to.

[00:22:04] That was the missing link. So that's when I started to really tap into my engineering skills because when I worked as an engineer, I worked as a process engineer. And what that means. Whenever a certain product. So let's say for example, gasoline, if we're refining oil, crude oil into gasoline, that gasoline has to meet certain specifications for every barrel that's produced.

[00:22:29] And if it doesn't as the process engineer, I had to figure out, well, what went wrong in the process of refining that oil to cause this particular batch of gasoline to not meet the specifications. So Christina and Jared, I literally just took those same core process engineering concepts and start applying that to businesses.

[00:22:51] So if your business reaches a state of chaos, okay. What is your process for fulfilling a customer order? What is your process for actually [00:23:00] delivering or providing a service? Once we figure that out, then we can start to analyze where things go. And from there, we can start to work on that and make in a way, yes, you're organizing it, but as so much more than just organizing it, because we're also having a conversation about.

[00:23:18] What is the work, what work activities need to be performed and who ideally should be performing that, those different tasks and activities. We talk a lot about processes. We talk a lot about the physical layout of your workspace. We also talk about operations manuals and developing those so that everybody knows not only what to do, but how to do the work.

[00:23:40] So that's why I kind of referenced it as organizing one steroid. Now you 

[00:23:45] Ms. Christine: recently put on the adjunct instructor, hat and 

[00:23:49] Alicia Butler Pierre: operations. Yes. Yes, yes. Oh my gosh. I feel like my career is, is really starting to come full circle because I told myself once I [00:24:00] turned 45, I wanted to start doing less consulting and more teaching.

[00:24:07] Training coaching, like really doing things where I could impact several people at one time, consulting is great. Don't get me wrong, but it's very one on, you know, it's a one-on-one type transaction. Whereas when I'm in a classroom at Nichols college, for example, I'm talking to several people at one time and training them and teaching them not only based on the course materials, the texts.

[00:24:35] But also drawing from my personal experiences as well. So it's such a gratifying experience. I I'm really enjoying it. And 

[00:24:45] Jared Easley: you also get to judge middle schoolers,

[00:24:51] harshly judged.

[00:24:55] I want to talk about your podcast. Because your podcast is how we [00:25:00] first connected. Of course. And then congratulations, of course your podcast was added to the HubSpot podcasts network. So not a small deal at all. And then you've worked on your podcast for several years and to now have it rewarded. A way of being acknowledged and then being a part of this network is just such a testimony to your hard work and such a really cool success story.

[00:25:23] So tell us about how that came to be. 

[00:25:26] Alicia Butler Pierre: Oh gosh, completely unexpected. I. Received this very cryptic email. It was late on a late Friday night and I may as well. And Ben, because, but you know, here's, what's funny. Something just told me. So again, intuition and instinct, right? Something told me open this email.

[00:25:48] It didn't have a subject. So it was just, oh, this is from James, you know, such and such, but there was no title or subject of the email. [00:26:00] So normally, especially as a result of COVID, because I'm sure, you know, both of you have also experienced your inboxes have just flooded with all kinds of junk mail. And so now whenever I see something and it's that subject is missing, I just automatically, I just deleted, but something told me open the scene.

[00:26:20] So read this email and it says your podcast has come to our attention. And we would like to discuss this with you because we are creating a new podcast network. Does this sound of interest to you? And I'm thinking, why is this for real, you know, because you there's so many scammers out there. Right? So the first thing that I did was I looked this person up on LinkedIn.

[00:26:46] And I saw everything seemed to check out and then did a search for him within HubSpot's actual website that checked out. I said, huh. Okay. Well, if it is a scam, I'll find out, I'll know within the first [00:27:00] five minutes of the conversation that, okay. Sure. You know, I clicked on the link to his calendar. I booked the date and time to, to have a conversation with him.

[00:27:08] And he said, you know, we are starting a new podcast network. And we would love for your show to be a part of that. And this relationship is not a typical network show type relationship because HubSpot actually doesn't own our respective podcasts. So they initially selected six podcasts from around the world that they consider to be best in class.

[00:27:35] Indifferent topics as it relates to business. So there's for example, entrepreneurs on fire, which everyone, every serious podcast asked, knows that podcast. Right? So that is an example of one of the shows. That's a part of the network. There's also my show. They were attracted to my show because it talks very specifically about operations.

[00:27:55] There's another show that talks very specifically about marketing. There's another one that [00:28:00] talks specifically about sales. And so they're looking to build up this network of different shows, but they started out with this initial six, that negotiation happens so fast. It wasn't even funny because you'd normally you're thinking, okay, this is a bigger company.

[00:28:17] There's going to be all of these people to deal with all of these different layers and levels of approval. There was none of that. I would say literally from the moment they first, I had that very first conversation with James to the moment that we signed on the dotted line. If it was three weeks, it happened really fast, but I had to keep quiet about it because they didn't want to officially announce it until may.

[00:28:40] So this all went down like back in March. 

[00:28:45] Jared Easley: Yeah. I remember when this was announced and I saw that I was like, how in the world did you not kind of hint to me that this was

[00:28:59] I [00:29:00] know I'm proud of you. I really am happy for you. Is that massive, massive, big deal. Congratulations. 

[00:29:08] Ms. Christine: Now, what are some, uh, business infrastructure lessons that you've learned from hosting and producing a successful 

[00:29:14] Alicia Butler Pierre: podcast? You have to research your guests, do your homework. Just like I can tell you all have been digging through my stuff online.

[00:29:27] No, but it makes me feel good. It makes me feel appreciated. And I makes me feel as though you truly do have a vested interest in me and what I do, but, you know, I guessed on a lot of, as Jared knows, I guessed on a lot of other people's podcasts and they so many of the, the. Show up cold. You can tell they're just starting to look, look at your bio.

[00:29:52] They really don't ask any meaningful questions and it just makes for, it makes for bad experience for me as a [00:30:00] guest, but it also results in a, a poorly crafted. And so I think so that's a major lesson that I've learned is do your homework, do your due diligence on your guests and they will reward you my guests.

[00:30:16] Oh my gosh. I've been invited to all kinds of places. I've been given opportunities to speak. Just that's how my honesty. Well, I was a guest on someone else's podcast back in March. This also happened in March of this year of 2021. I was a guest on this man named Lin San Barofsky. His podcast called the manager memo.

[00:30:36] Immediately. After that interview, he hired me on the spot for Nichols, that adjunct professor position at Nichols college. He was like, I don't know you, but I've looked you up now that I've interviewed you for at least an hour. This is a crazy idea. What do you think about teaching? Uh, you know, teaching a few classes here at Nichols college up in Massachusetts and here's, what's so funny.

[00:31:00] [00:30:59] HubSpot is headquartered in Massachusetts and Nichols. College is in the messages at some, like, is this a sign that, uh, maybe I need to relocate. Um, but it's, it's just wonderful. And another important lesson that I would say that I've learned Christine, as a result of, of doing the podcast. Is the importance of networking.

[00:31:21] So I'm going to plug the podcast movement conference because you have to educate yourself about the industry, this industry, it changes it's constantly evolving. Nothing about it is static at all. And so going to the conference meeting so many incredible people, it's one of the friendliest warmest environments from a conference perspective that I've personally ever been to because you know, some conferences can be very competitive, especially if you're going to a conference that's in your particular industry.

[00:31:54] But that's not the case at podcast movement. Everybody, it's people from all walks of life, people from [00:32:00] every type of John rhe that you can imagine. And we all congregate together under one roof and exchange ideas and share best practices. And I highly recommend anyone who is in any form of media, even if you don't have a podcast go to that conference because.

[00:32:18] You'll be amazed at the connections that you'll make, but also the information that you will learn that you can apply to you specifically to the type of media that you may work. And 

[00:32:29] Jared Easley: you might get haunted

[00:32:42] the next evolution is hotel is not at the millennium billboard. Is that a different one?

[00:32:52] Lana won't come. 

[00:32:53] Alicia Butler Pierre: Yeah. Heavier vile of holy water and a rosary mic fell off of the calf.

[00:33:06] [00:33:00] Jared Easley: if you feel like the record's spinning and you. Sure.

[00:33:20] I'm a father, as you know, and I have a daughter and I was curious, what business advice do you have for young girls? Women ladies. 

[00:33:27] Alicia Butler Pierre: Oh my gosh. There's so much that can be said, believe in yourself. And I know that's so cliche. That is so cliche. I know it. You have to, that's why I love the name of this podcast so much.

[00:33:39] You have to starve the doubts. You have to just keep pushing forward. Anyway, listen, I have always been in a male dominated industry when I was in. College as an undergrad, as an engineering student, I was not only maybe one of two females, but I was also like the only black person in my classes. I've been [00:34:00] cursed out by professors.

[00:34:01] I've had classmates not want to work with me. You have to keep going. You almost have to, in some ways become insane because if you listen to what the rest of the world is telling you about who you are and what you are capable of doing, you'll never get there. But you have to have that inner drive and you have to just like, that's why I say you almost kind of have to go insane when you go against the grain and you just, you keep pushing forward.

[00:34:28] Anyway. Even with the HubSpot podcast network, Jared, I didn't share this part of the story with you before, but I actually went through the trouble. I spent most of December, 2020 putting together. Information a packet to help monetize my podcast because I was thinking, okay, it's coming up on three years that I've been podcasting at that point.

[00:34:50] I need to figure out a way to monetize this. And so I came up with what I called a strategic Alliance program, and I sent that out to everybody who had ever been a guest on the [00:35:00] show. And there were a couple of people who called me personally called. And said some very insulting things to me, what are you doing?

[00:35:09] This is not how you do it. At least this is crazy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now here's, what's so funny and I hope your daughter listens to this Jared fast forward a couple of months later, March, 2021. I get this cryptic email again from HubSpot, but every single, I mean, almost verbatim. What I had envisioned with this strategic Alliance program with my podcast is exactly.

[00:35:33] What HubSpot's terms and conditions are for being a part of their network. I mean, it was, it gave me chills. Wow. As I read it, I was like, oh my gosh. And people, there were some people who told me that I was one person literally told me, this is crazy, Alicia, this is crazy. But see, anytime you dare to do something that's different or unprecedented, or you may not look [00:36:00] like other people who've ever done it before.

[00:36:02] That just lets you know, you need to keep going. So that's my advice. Yes. All right. Can you tell 

[00:36:09] Ms. Christine: us, besides the ghost, who is something that interests you?

[00:36:17] Alicia Butler Pierre: Oh my gosh. There's so many people that I find fascinating, but I'll say the most recent person is

[00:36:26] I'm a Madonna fan. Well, so here's the thing she's in her sixties now. Can you believe it, man? Time is flying. I know. I know. And I feel so old. So there's another podcast that I absolutely love called is my guilty pleasure. It's called even the rich and they recently profiled Madonna. And I was so now just been on this whole, you know, I have my immaculate conception, you know, her greatest hits CD.

[00:36:50] So I've just been listening to that all along, but I've always been. I've always admired her business savvy, forget the music, forget the talent, all that kind of stuff. [00:37:00] She is a very, very savvy business woman. And I'll tell you the first time I ever, I ever realized that I remember being on a tour bus through Beverly Hills.

[00:37:12] This was years ago. And one of the stops along the way, or one of the attractions along the way, or sorry. I don't know if it was even, I don't think it was a studio because this was a huge building and it had Maverick written at the very top and they were like, oh yeah, that's Madonna's coming. But Nina was like, why she has a company.

[00:37:32] So, so I just think she's amazing. And to still be at it and having just as much energy as when she first came out onto the scene as an artist, I think is just absolutely amazing. 

[00:37:45] Jared Easley: You just keep on pushing this podcast over the borderline, 

[00:37:51] Alicia Butler Pierre: you must be my lucky star. 

[00:37:55] Jared Easley: That's very, very, very Vogue response.

[00:37:58] Alicia Butler Pierre: And so your daughter will [00:38:00] be saying, please don't please. 

[00:38:03] Jared Easley: She's always saying that. Not, 

[00:38:04] Ms. Christine: not exactly.

[00:38:10] Jared Easley: Man. That was fun. Okay. So where can listeners subscribe to your podcast, purchase your book, which I should connect with you online? 

[00:38:20] Alicia Butler Pierre: So the podcast is available wherever you enjoy podcasts. So of course, apple podcasts, Spotify it's called the business infrastructure podcasts. You can also go directly to the website, which is business infrastructure dot T.

[00:38:34] To find out about the book. I would say honestly, the best place to start. If you want to know anything else about me is my personal website, which is Alyssia Butler, pierre.com. And when you get there, you'll see links to all of my social media profiles. You'll also see more information about the book, the podcast, as well as my consulting company.

[00:38:53] Ms. Christine: Awesome. Having you here today, do you have any final thoughts 

[00:38:57] Alicia Butler Pierre: for our listeners? Operate as [00:39:00] good on the inside as you look on the outside. So, and that's why I called my book behind the facade. So you can look like a shiny, beautiful golden apple on the inside, but when they slice your business open, is it rotten to the core?

[00:39:16] So make sure you work so hard to bring attention and publicity to your business. But make sure once you start to attract those customers, that you can actually keep your promise, fulfill those orders on time, provide that service on time. Podcast movement looks great on the outside and on the inside. And it's no accident.

[00:39:40] That is the world's largest community of podcasters. That's not an accident. So that's my final parting advice. 

[00:39:49] Jared Easley: Alicia. I really appreciate, I know we've laughed and joked a lot, but this is some really good insights. And I appreciate you being willing to share that with us and just your generosity overall.

[00:39:58] So thank you. 

[00:40:00] [00:39:59] Alicia Butler Pierre: Thank you both. This is so much fun. .