This week I'm excited to welcome best selling author, podcast host & Equilibria CEO, Alicia Butler Pierre, to the show.
Alicia's expertise resides in her ability to help businesses scale & build infrastructure in sustainable fashion.
Tune in for this energetic conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by clicking here.
Jeremiah introduces the question of the week, “what’s the most common problem preventing entrepreneurs from scaling?”, as well as introducing this week’s guest Alicia Butler Pierre, bestselling author, podcast host, and the CEO of Equilibria. Alicia goes into her background of engineering, and her transition into the business and entrepreneurship world. Alicia explains that she went back to school after her first job out of college, and after getting a new job in a smaller company she gained her appreciation for entrepreneurship and business operations. She retells the story of how and why she started her own business over a decade ago, so she could create her own job opportunity that fit her credentials as well as what she wanted to do in a job. The two discuss what Equilibria started as, as well as what it has evolved to in the present day.
Jeremiah and Alicia continue to discuss Equilibria, and what aspects of organization that Alicia focuses on when she is working with clients. Alicia also explains how she was able to grow and scale her business after starting it. She also goes into an anecdote about how she worked with a local District Attorney, and how that made her realize that all kinds of businesses on all levels need help in organizing at times. The two discuss the differences between entrepreneurship and just running a business, and Jeremiah brings up the point of how many entrepreneurs love solving problems. He explains that solving problems and finding solutions and creating order out of chaos is what many entrepreneurs have built into their DNA, and Alicia agrees saying that her entire business is helping people and empowering them through the organization. The two also discuss media exposure, specifically through television, and the power that that kind of media exposure holds.
Alicia explains why organizational infrastructure is important for businesses, and how it helps businesses to continue to grow and expand. The two discuss entrepreneurship education, and how while people don’t tend to get a formal education in entrepreneurship, people often learn on the job on how to best grow their business properly. Alicia continues to explain the importance of an organization structure, and how that can make or break one’s business, as one of the most important aspects of growing one’s business is to properly be able to supply the demand a new audience brings. Alicia as an example says if someone is featured on Good Morning America for two minutes, which brings a lot of traffic to their website, is good exposure, but if their website crashes because they were not prepared for that kind of traffic the entire experience was all for naught.
The two discuss what a lean six sigma blackbelt is, which is process improvement quality framework certification leveling system. Alicia goes in depth on what lean six sigma is, and what each of the certification levels mean. Jeremiah compares the certification leveling to the leveling of his formal martial arts training, as well as the lessons that he’s learned from his entrepreneur mentors, saying all three are interconnected in messages. Jeremiah and Alicia discuss what factors are the most prevalent in preventing entrepreneurs from scaling.
