The Myth of the Solopreneur, with Alicia Butler Pierre, Equilibria, Inc.
John Ray: [00:00:00] I’ve got a problem with the term “solopreneur.”
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:00:05] Okay.
John Ray: [00:00:05] And you’re actually a shining example of that. I may have to write this up because there is-
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:00:13] I’ll be your case.
John Ray: [00:00:14] Yeah, you’ll be my case study because there is no such thing as a solopreneur and you’re-
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:00:19] And I agree with you.
John Ray: [00:00:20] Yeah. You’re an example of this because you pull in all these different folks who have experience at different aspects of what it is you’re trying to do and leverage their expertise, right?
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:00:33] Correct.
John Ray: [00:00:33] And that’s a business infrastructure thing.
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:00:36] It is.
John Ray: [00:00:37] Right. So, talk about that and talk about some of the details of what I’m getting to there.
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:00:41] So, the technical textbook term for that is a matrix organization. And that basically means that you pull together resources, you assemble resources as you need them. And that’s exactly what I do because that enables me to keep overhead as low as possible. So, I outsource, for example, a significant portion of social media. I outsource a lot of my marketing and sales activities. So, when it comes to website things, creating lead pages, creating certain ad campaigns online, there’s someone else who’s doing all of that for me. Web design, I don’t do that. I’m not interested, to be honest with you, in learning how to develop and design a website. So, there are other people who do that for me.
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:01:32] And even when it comes to actual client projects, I don’t get involved in every single aspect of the project anymore either. I’ve been able to figure out at what point I can get involved in a project, but what are the other activities that I actually can outsource to other people? And that frees up my time because I can focus on really growing the company, expanding it and focusing on true business development instead of, again, getting bogged down into all of those details, administrative type details.
John Ray: [00:02:09] And how many times do you have someone say to you, “I don’t know how you do all the things you do”?
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:02:15] All the time.
John Ray: [00:02:16] All the time, right?
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:02:17] All the time. And I tell them, “I’m not doing this by myself and I have processes.”
John Ray: [00:02:22] Right.
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:02:23] I just had a conversation with someone yesterday and he said, “My God! How do you do all of this?” And I said, “I have processes.” So, a lot of it may seem as though it’s taking a lot of time, effort and energy – and it would if I was constantly doing things from scratch every single time -but I also have people who help me.
John Ray: [00:02:48] I’m curious, how many different outsourced folks do you have that work with you? And what-
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:02:55] Oh, gosh. The list is easily, at least, 20. At least 20 different people-
John Ray: [00:03:02] Wow!
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:03:02] … That I can call on because they have different skill sets. And that’s the other thing I had to come to appreciate. Just because someone may be a great writer who may be able to contribute post to your blog, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean that that person is going to be good at social media. Then, within social media, you can have some people who are very good at posting on Twitter, but they may not be that great at Facebook and LinkedIn.
Alicia Butler Pierre: [00:03:28] So, I have worked with a number of people over the years, and I figured out what they’re really good at and that’s what I outsource to them because it’s very rare that you’re going to find that super hero who will be able to do everything. So, you find what certain people are really good at, where their strengths are, and then just keep leveraging and capitalizing on that.
Alicia Butler Pierre, Equilibria, Inc.
Alicia Butler Pierre’s career in operations began over 20 years ago as a chemical engineer in several chemical plants and oil refineries in her native Louisiana. Her passion is in designing processes that help people, places and things flow more efficiently. Alicia is the founder and CEO of Equilibria, Inc., a 15-year-old operations management firm specializing in business infrastructure for fast-growing companies. Equilibria is currently the world’s largest and most comprehensive repository on business infrastructure for small businesses.
It is at Equilibria where she invented the Kasennu™ framework for business infrastructure and software by the same name. She has since successfully applied this framework in over 30 different industries and counting. Alicia has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Tulane University.
Her ability to blend scientific, business, and mathematical methodologies to solve complex operational problems enables her to bring a unique, tactical, and realistic perspective to her clients, who have also included larger enterprises like The Coca-Cola Company, Lowe’s, and Shell Oil Company.
Alicia is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has produced over 350 articles, podcast episodes, case studies, videos, and white papers in the areas of business infrastructure, process improvement, and operational excellence. Combined, her content has over three quarters of a million views across various online platforms.
Alicia hosts the weekly Business Infrastructure: Curing Back Office Blues podcast which recently celebrated its 100th episode. She’s also the author of the 2x Amazon bestseller, Behind the Façade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success. Committed to doing the right things the right way, Alicia’s mantra is “to leave it better than you found it.”
Connect with Alicia by visiting her website.
Listen to the complete Decision Vision interview with Alicia here.
The “One Minute Interview” series is produced by John Ray and in the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link.
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