Ep 135. Why you don't have to have it all figured out before getting started with Alicia Butler Pierre

Alicia Butler Pierre is the founder and CEO of Equilibria, Inc., a 17-year-old operations management firm. She designs scale-ready business infrastructure for fast-growing small businesses. A chemical engineer turned entrepreneur, she’s advised, designed, and optimized processes enterprises including Shell Oil, Coca-Cola, and The Home Depot.

As an international speaker, Alicia hosts the weekly Business Infrastructure: Curing Back Office Blues podcast which ranks in the top 2% in the world with listeners in 60 countries. She’s also an adjunct instructor of Lean Principles at Purdue University and the author of the two-time Amazon bestseller, Behind the Façade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success. Combined, her online content has over a million views and downloads across various platforms. Committed to doing the right things the right way, Alicia's mantra is "to leave it better than you found it."

In this episode we talk about:

[2:45] How Alicia went from being a Chemical Engineer to an Entrepreneur

[6:15] Giving up everything in the pursuit of the unknown and why it led to her business

[7:50] Why Alicia moved to Atlanta

[13:30] How Alicia came up with her first business idea

[16:40] You don’t have to have it all figured out to get started

[17:00] Your customers will always tell you what they want

[19:00] Alicia’s experience writing a book and how it lead to her launching her podcast

[19:40] How Toastmasters contributed to her professional career

[23:10] Sometimes people see things in you that you don’t see in yourself

[26:50] Push through quitter’s valley

[32:00] Advice for starting something new