Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. Today’s guest is Alicia Butler, the founder and CEO of Equilibria, Inc. Alicia’s career in operations began over 25 years ago while working in various chemical plants and oil refineries. She invented the Kasennu framework for business infrastructure. 

And she was altered behind the facade. How to structure company operations for sustainable success. She produces the weekly top 2% business infrastructure podcasts with a global audience of 70+ countries. 

Alicia is also an adjunct instructor of lean principles at Purdue and the university and serves as the USA Chair of the G1. Hundreds of micro, small, and medium enterprises recognized her as a top 50 thought leader in operational excellence as a chemical engineer. 

As an entrepreneur, she’s designed and optimized processes for small businesses, large enterprises, nonprofits, and government organizations. Alicia has been seen and heard on business radio (CBS 46). Minitab, the Bronxnet podcast movement, the coaching show, and the founders of Colour Alicia are what I’d call extraordinary Americans, and I’m glad and honored to have her. Have her on. This show, Alicia, are you there?

I am here, Cosmos. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. I appreciate it.

Alicia, thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast for me. I appreciate it, too. Can you tell me and the audience more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Oh, gosh, let’s let me go through a very short version of that. As you mentioned, I have a business, and I’ve been in business now for 19 years, which is hard to believe because I remember day one—the way I came to start my business. I was working as an engineer. You also have an engineering background, so you can probably relate to some of my words.

Say, but it didn’t take me very long. Cosmos. I was working in different chemical plants and oil refineries. It didn’t take me long to realize that I did not want to spend the rest of my career in that environment. 

Second, I realized I didn’t understand business. I did not understand the business decisions, the marketplace, and how things took place. We dictated our production schedules on a day-to-day basis. For example, I knew the technical aspect; I knew the engineering work I was doing, but I had no appreciation for the business behind the company I was working for. And so, I decided to return to business school and pursue an MBA. 

So, I was working full time during the day as an engineer, going to school late at night, and once I completed my studies, Again, I knew I didn’t want to do engineering for the rest of my life, but I thought I could maybe have a job where I could transition out of engineering. I still did something very analytical and somewhat technical but blended in with some new business skills I had just acquired. 

So, I relocated from New Orleans, LA, to Atlanta, GA. 

And Cosmos, I knew one of these companies headquartered here would pick me up. You know, Delta Airlines; we have Coca-Cola, UPS; we have Chick-fil-A. All those companies are headquartered here, and nobody wanted me. 

And so, I decided, after about two months of what seemed to be soulless job searching, you know what? Go ahead and create an opportunity for yourself, and it just so happened. I love that you have a spiritual aspect to your show. It just so happened that everything I was reading and every documentary I watched around the time seemed to have one thing in common. And that thing was the fact that we are. We are all blessed with natural skills, talents, and abilities through our “educational system.”

All we’re being taught is how to be very good employees working for someone else. We’re not taught to take those natural skills, talents, and abilities and turn them into opportunities to sustain ourselves, our families, and our local communities. 

So, I decided. You know what? I’m going to start a business around a skill that I have. I’m. I’m very good at organizing things. So here I was, this chemical engineer who said she was starting a professional organizing business. People thought I was insane. 

But over the years, the Cosmos has shifted or evolved. From professional organizing to business infrastructure, not just going into companies and tidying up, right? Making things look nice and organized, but literally. We roll up our sleeves, figuring out what processes need to be documented and how to work more efficiently. How can we help you figure out how to do more with the same resources you already have? 

What job descriptions do you need to have in place so that you can scale as your company grows? You can start to attract the right people to your team, so that’s what we do now. I love it. It is a lot of work to be an entrepreneur. 

Still, to me, the American dream is really about being able to take those natural skills, talents, and abilities. We are blessed and fortunate enough to be in a country where we can shape and mold our natural skills, talents, and abilities into a business that we can do—not just make money off of it but be profitable.

Alicia, that is amazing. I wanted to add that I did graduate as an engineer. I originally came from a country in the Middle East with all the oil refineries, and the main industry was the oil industry. 

So, to a certain extent, I can relate. While doing my engineering degree, I knew I did not want to do this for the rest of my life, like I thought. Why are we doing this? And then, I realized that many people’s destinies are linked to the need to make money. And because they have an employee mindset, 

If they knew what their skills were, as you mentioned, and they knew how to monetize them, then they could go wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They would have time and financial freedom. 

But let’s discuss the problem and why I started this. Podcasts cause many people to not know how to monetize their skills and natural talents, how to organize them into a process, systematize it, and have a business infrastructure. 

So, for the audience’s sake, can you elaborate more about what revelations you had about monetizing, like the skills they would have if a person had to do it?

First of all, it all started with a Google search. Believe it or not, Cosmos, because I’ll never forget this. I remember, as you know, going through that period of introspection. I remember being on my computer late one night. I go to Google and type in professional organizing company or something similar. And I was shocked to discover that there was an actual professional membership. 

I joined Napo, the National Association of Professional Organizers, and immediately signed up for a membership. And. That is how it started for me. Understanding that particular business, I had no idea that it even existed. My curiosity led me to type a few keywords into a search engine. And I mean the past. You know, I was just. Those search results blew me away. Yielded. 

So, I would say to anyone who is watching us right now or anyone who is just listening to us. It all starts with curiosity. Be curious. Go to some search engine, whether you like Google, DuckDuckGo, or Firefox. Whatever it is that you like to use, Type in those words. 

And you, too, might be amazed at what you find. When it came to actually starting a business, I did have one advantage that maybe others wouldn’t have. I had just finished my MBA cosmos, so my MBA studies included a concentration in entrepreneurship. I knew what it took to start a business, so I should give that disclaimer. 

But for those who don’t know, a great resource is sba.gov, the Small Business Administration, where you can search for anything. You can search for. How do I start a business? And then, once you’re clear on the type of business that you want to have, you have to determine, well, what the best legal structure is. For my company will it be a sole proprietorship? Will it be an LLC and an S Corp. or AC Corp.? All those kinds of things? The business infrastructure piece of it. I would encourage people who are again listening and watching, listening to or watching us. Give your business a try for a while. 

Sometimes, it can take 2-3 years to figure out what you’re offering, whether tangible goods or services or a combination of the two. The people we work with and for whom we found that business infrastructure works best are those who’ve been added, and they’ve been added for at least two to three years. 

They understand who their customers are and what they have; they don’t have a problem with that. Their problem is not attracting customers. Their problem is that they usually have. There are too many customers, which is a different type of problem, and that’s when they recognize it. Oh, my gosh, we have to grow our team. I can’t do it. I literally cannot do everything by myself anymore. It’s just not going to work. Either that or the business will implode.

That’s when we usually come in and say, OK. Let’s build some infrastructure around the things you’ve already done that you know are successful. Let’s build that stable foundation so that you can grow and scale to the next level.

So, Alicia, I wanted to ask you this question since it was on my mind while pursuing my college degree. 

So, I was in engineering, and I had these ideas. I’m asking this because many people in our audience are Gen Y and Gen Z, and they are going to college. They probably have ideas, but they also want to finish their degrees. 

But if, let’s say, you’re doing something like an engineering degree or something else like that, and you have all these ideas and want to start a business around it, now you have to think, how do I go about this? How do I manage my time? Or how do I get my financing to back it up? Or what step-by-step process could I go through from where I am right now to making this an actual reality? How would you advise somebody to go about doing that?

So, if you are still in college and have this idea, you must figure out: Can you do it while in school? That’s the first thing you have to be realistic about. So, you have this idea, but can you start a business around it? Would you be able actually to service your customers? This is why we know famous dropouts like Bill Gates and Zuckerberg. People like that, right? They started with these ideas and then realized, Oh my God.

Yes.

I love this idea so much that I’m just going to. I’m going just to assume all risks. I’m going to give up school altogether, and I’m going to pursue this idea full-time. That is a personal choice, I will say. But if you are, I think the most important thing is when you are passionate about something—one of those ideas, or maybe all of your ideas. And you know for sure that there is a market for it. Go for it. OK, I highly encourage anyone starting a business in the United States. There is an organization called the SPDC, which stands for Small Business Development Center. The SBA funds them. There are over, I think, 2000 of them across America. 

So whatever state you’re in, if for listeners in the continental US, just go to. SBDC. You can search for your specific state and see these different offices. These are the different locations within your state. Here’s the beauty of the SPDC cosmos. They will assign you a business consultant. That will help you for free. This is where part of our tax dollars is funding the SBA, and then the SBA, in turn, funds these different SBDCs. It is to their benefit to help you be successful, right? 

Because the more successful you are as their clients, so to speak, the more funding they can then, in turn, get from the SBA. So that’s how that works, right? They are the consultants you work with and are paid by the SBDC. Visa V is the SBA. But we have the benefit of being, you know, American citizens. Their services are free. They are great at helping you develop a business plan around your idea. They’re very good at helping you vet that idea, you know. Could you make money off of this? Is there a market? 

So, even if you don’t have a strong business background or even a strong business education, I highly recommend that as a first step to understanding. How do I put together a business plan? What do financial statements look like? You know, there’s the cash flow statement. There’s your balance sheet and your profit and loss statement. I learned those different things about running a successful business. 

Still, I also got into the habit of working with consultants and having someone who is not emotionally tied or vested in your idea. Give you that object, that third-party objective view of your idea, because you know when it’s our idea. It’s like our babies, and we don’t want anyone to tell us our baby is ugly. But then our baby won’t work, right?

In business, you have to be emotionally detached if you want to make things work.

That’s right. They’re great at pointing you out, even if they cannot answer some of your specific questions or if they run into a snag while helping you. They have such a large and expansive network that they can pair you up with someone who can help you in a particular area.

That is amazing. Alicia

A lot of people don’t know that there are so many resources like this out there. Usually, the path of business and entrepreneurship can feel isolating because most people around the person trying a business don’t have it; they’re offered the employee mindset; you know, they don’t understand that to monetize something like that, but Alicia, one of my questions was one of the greatest lessons you’ve had during these 19 years. 

You felt like you were in the business world. What is your greatest lesson or revelation regarding business and people doing business in general?

One of the greatest lessons is the importance of listening. And I know that sounds so specialistic and simple, but listening to what your customers tell you they want.

I’m listening. I’m listening, Alicia.

When we go into business, we often think we know what customers want. Or we might say, Well, they need this, so and so needs this, and the Cosmos needs this for his podcast. Cosmos needs this for whatever. But is that what Cosmos wants? See, when what a customer wants and what you think they need are aligned, that’s beautiful. But often, I always like to.

Are you familiar with Kleenex’s story? Like, you know, if it’s it, it’s it. I have a book, and it’s actually called Made in America. And it’s a profile—a very colorful book about all. 

American products. But what’s so interesting when you read them? I would say 25 to 35% of the products in this book are teachers. As intended, their original intent or purpose is not how they are used today. For example, like the Q-tip or Kleenex—excuse me, this is a better example. 

So, a Kleenex is supposed to be a disposable handkerchief. But they started realizing people were using it to remove makeup. Or, you know, it’s all of these things. So again, often, we go into something thinking or intending. For it to be used one way. 

But our clients or customers say, Yeah, we know that’s what you’re saying, but this is how we want to use it. Businesses often fail because they aren’t paying attention to what their market is telling them they want. Think about my company. We started by providing professional organizing services. We were missing out on an entire market: small business owners who were not home-based. And they were saying, Well, hey, what about us? 

And in my ignorance, I came from an engineering background where everything was very organized. Things were organized. All eyes were dotted. All T’s were crossed. That’s what engineers do. But I didn’t have an appreciation for that, Cosmos. Oh, you mean businesses can be disorganized? I mean, that’s how naive I was, right? Because I didn’t come from a disorganized workplace, this work environment. 

So, I truly didn’t know that. Oh, man. You know, there are a lot of people who work in very chaotic conditions.

Yeah.

So, I would just stick to my original plan, like nope. We’re providing professional organizing services. We will continue to go into people’s basements, garages, closets, and home-based offices and organize things physically. That’s it. That’s all we’re doing. I would have missed out completely. 

It was a different market, much larger and way more lucrative than the professional organizing market that I was playing in a very small sandbox, not realizing there was a much bigger portion of the pie that we could be nibbling.

This is important for the audience because, as you mentioned, many people can look at their business, feel like it’s their baby, and are very attached to it. But often, you must adapt to what your market truly wants, and, as you’re right, many businesses fail. They failed to adapt because they were too emotionally attached to their original idea because that’s what they think the audience is like. The market wants, but the market is all right, and the customer is all right. 

And as people who are aspiring to start new businesses, if you want to attain financial freedom, you have to know what your customers want. So that’s something that I wanted to elaborate upon, you know.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And Alicia, what do you think, in your opinion, is the greatest challenge other than this factor that new aspiring entrepreneurs have while starting their business? And how could they go about overcoming it from your perspective?

Well, if we’re talking about starting a business, Well. That is always a challenge, and I don’t care what industry you’re starting in; you need money. And if you’re just starting, it can be not easy to get that money because you don’t have it—a track record. 

And if you are not in technology, it is all the rage. If you are not in the digital technology space, it’s even more difficult to get. Let’s say you have an idea for a landscaping business. Will you have much luck getting money from that? More than likely, you might be seeking traditional sources of financing compared to someone who has a revolutionary new app to help you with landscaping. Which do you think is going to get funded? Right? So, so that’s the challenge. When you first start, you face a significant challenge. 

But even as you grow your business, the need for capital arises. Then your existing money could often be tied up in other things. You have to grow your team. But in order to grow your team, you need access to more money. You might have the track record that’s needed at that time. At that point, you might have proof of concept because you’ve been in business for several years, but getting your hands on the money you need can still be difficult. 

I’m so grateful that many of these fintech companies exist. We are on the scene now because they are making capital even more accessible to people who otherwise would have never been able to forget starting their business. It’s one thing to start, but you must continue growing your business. And hopefully, one day, you can even scale it to exit your business.

Yeah.

So, yeah, capital, and I think at every stage of a business, capital almost always rears its ugly head.

So, Alicia, whenever people think of entertaining capital, they think of shark tanks. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. 

So, for somebody new to business and entrepreneurship, how would you advise them to get capital? Should they just pitch their vision or devise a meticulous business plan? In addition to that, when they’re dealing with an angel investor or if they wanted to, Will we see, in your opinion, how they should go about doing it if, let’s say, they’ve never done this before?

Educate yourself on the different types of funding and financing available. Leverage these free online platforms with all kinds of courses you can take—I was going to say LinkedIn learning, but LinkedIn learning is not free. There’s you to me; there’s thinking. There are all of these online portals. Educational portals, where the courses aren’t free, are relatively inexpensive, meaning you can probably take a course for maybe under fifty U.S. dollars where you can educate yourself about the different types of funding and financing, and if you don’t want to take an online course, get a book. 

Several books out there discuss it. One is a book I did many diagrams for, and his name is Charles H. Green. Read any book by him. This is a person I know who owned his bank at one time, but he worked with the SBA for many, many, many, many years. His specialty is small business financing. 

So, he talks about things like crowdsourcing, such as funding venture capital for Angel Investments. You know what all those things mean. What’s the difference between them all? What’s the difference between all of them? What are the similarities? What are the pros and cons of each? There’s traditional bank financing. There’s a loan from friends and family. You can apply for grants from government grants that, often, people aren’t aware of. 

So, educate yourself about all the different financing sources out there. Some are easier and quicker to get to than others. But certainly, depending on the type of industry that you’re in, for example, with grants, I know there’s, if you were somehow in the education space, for example, all types of grants for small businesses that are out there; there are even competitions that you can, you know, submit your business for. And if your company wins, you might win a $10,000 grant or something like that. Money that you don’t have to pay back is always there. A good thing?

No, totally. This is important because people must know how to get capital. Risk management is one of the greatest issues when starting a new business, especially regarding money and raising capital for the initial few months.

And I just thought of another extremely helpful tool for vetting your idea. So, before you ask for money and invest more time in developing a carefully crafted business plan, I’d like to say that I’m not a fan of large business plans.

But there’s a tool called the Lean Canvas.

It’s a one-page document, and I highly recommend it as a tool for vetting your ideas. I went through that exercise with my good friend, Martina Goss. She’s in Ireland, and she specializes in this. She will help you vet your idea. 

If it passes the test, you secure the funding, write the business plan, get started, and all those things. But it is such a rigorous exercise to test the validity of your idea in the first place.

Thank you so much. Let’s hear for mentioning all these resources, and I wanted to ask a question when it came to, you know, the American dream, right? I know that entrepreneurship and business are important for attaining the American dream and the American identity of freedom. 

But from your perspective, what is your perspective? What is the path of entrepreneurship and business when it comes to achieving the goals of freedom and the dream?

There is no greater feeling than being your boss. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and many economies worldwide. Yet we always hear about the big guys: Yahoo, Google, Apple, Uber, and, you know, all the big banks. 

However, the truth is that the SBA usually defines small businesses as such. These are companies that usually have less than 500 employees. There are now different classifications for small businesses, but for the most part, that is what classifies a small business here in the US. And we make up over 90% of the American population.

Wow.

Think about that. It’s not the big guys you hear about on the news constantly. It’s not us; it’s the entrepreneurs. 

So, we have a stake in what goes on in our country because policy shapes how we function as small businesses. It does. In my opinion, it is part of the American Dream because you are actually in a position as an entrepreneur. To take your ideas. Build a business, whether you are purchasing a franchise or know you have invested in a business-in-a-box kind of thing. Or you are truly starting something from scratch. 

The beauty is that you have the liberty and freedom to do that. There are places in this world where you cannot do that. You can have so many great ideas, but for whatever reason, whether you’re in a communist country or whatever, you can’t do it – If you do it, the government will take 90%. I remember being in Cuba, I think, and I spoke to many entrepreneurs there. They were like, yeah, they take 80 to 90% of what we make. Can you imagine? 

But here we’re in a country. We are fortunate enough to be able, through our grit and determination, to say, you know what? I’m going to put my stake in the ground. I believe in myself, even if no one else believes in me. I believe in me. I was given this idea for a reason. 

Because it won’t go away, it keeps me up at night. I can’t seem to turn Off. I’m going to go for it, and I might. I might not make it. I might fail, but at least I tried, right? And if it doesn’t work, I have a million other ideas I can look into, right? And you just keep going. I can’t think of a better definition of freedom than to say I will do this. It’s legal. Make sure that what you’re doing is legal. No dark web kind of stuff here, right? 

But seriously, we have the space and the place to make decisions like that. Don’t take that for granted. I’ve been to many, many, many countries, and whenever I’m here, listen, America is not perfect by any stretch of the word. I looked at your website, which is beautiful, by the way.

Thank you.

And so, it is. It is not perfect, however. When you start traveling around the world in different countries, it becomes really clear. What we have here isn’t in these other countries, right? So, this idea of freedom, freedom of speech, and the liberty to start a business. 

And as long as we abide by the rules of the IRS and others, we can run and operate our businesses how we see fit. Of course, there are legal parameters and regulatory agencies that we have to adhere to. The bottom line is that we have. If we want to make that decision, we can, even with education. 

I mean, you know this there; there are many countries where students don’t pass. Or make a certain percentage on a test, and you don’t get to attend high school. Or the equivalent of high school, or you, your college, college, and university is definitely out of the question, but it’s not like that here in the US. Yes, even if you are, let’s say, a CD student in high school, you might still be able to go to a community college. You may not. You won’t get into Yale, Harvard, or Stanford, but you still have the option to pursue higher education, whereas in other countries, that’s it. There is no possibility. 

Again, it’s not perfect, but there are some. We have many things at our disposal that we often take for granted. I would encourage anyone listening—are you watching right now?—to get their passport. Most Americans do not have a passport.

I found that out, yes.

Stay with me here. I think it’s, like, only 20%. It’s a very low percentage. It’s embarrassingly low. Most Americans don’t have a passport. Get a passport and start going to other places because you will start to appreciate them when you start going to other places. What do you have? OK, because I have been in people’s homes, I told a friend the other day that one of the most hospitable experiences I ever had was in Luxor, Egypt. During Ramadan, a family took us off the street where we were wandering. We were looking for food, and this family took us in. It was a group of, like, eight US strangers. They took us. 

Then, I prepared this meal from scratch, which was out of this world. But their house didn’t even have a roof. It was just exposed to the elements. 

So, this is what I mean by. Yes, we think we know about poverty right here in the US. It’s not like poverty in some other countries, right? So again, America is not perfect, but I think when you start to get out and about, there are some beautiful and great things in other countries that we don’t have here in America. But I think it just helps put a lot more things into context. And it helps you appreciate what you have.

No, let’s. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Like, I’m an immigrant myself. And I came from two other cultures. And I’ve also visited Egypt, by the way. It’s a very beautiful place. And I know what you’re talking about. And I am amazed by the opportunities put over here despite their flaws. It’s still one of the best places in the world. You start to attain whatever dream you want, provided you work hard and smartly. And I currently agree more.

So, I do suggest that people—the Americans—travel across the world and see what they have. And so, what are you saying is spot on? Because yeah, I have. I’ve been there as an immigrant. I came from outside, which makes me appreciate this place.

Yes, exactly.

So, Alicia, can you tell the audience more about this, the premise of how you found Equilibria, Inc., and a little more about what it is?

About sure. So, it started as a professional organizing company again in 2005. We’re in 2024 now again. It’s hard to believe because time has passed quickly, but now we offer business infrastructure for fast-growing small businesses. However, we also work with larger companies and many government agencies. As well, what is business infrastructure? Cosmos is simply a system linking the people, processes, tools, and technologies needed to make your business operate daily. How do you link all of those things together to form one cohesive foundation for you to continue growing? 

Scale also provides a better level of organization and structure that may not exist in your company today. Some of the outputs of the framework we use for creating business infrastructure are just to give you all a sense of, well, what it is. You know it; it sounds very abstract. 

We have just simple tools. I know AI right now is all the rage, and so are so many other technologies, but we use many analog tools, things like stick figures and index cards, and just from those two simple. With our tools, we can help people figure out the different tasks and activities they have to perform in their businesses. How are those activities grouped or organized into departments? 

And then, beyond that, who are the ideal people who should perform those different activities? Just from that exercise alone, which we love, doing it in person can be done remotely, but there’s nothing like doing it in person. But from that activity I described, we helped them figure out the job descriptions of the people they needed to hire to add to their team. 

We also help them figure out their company’s organizational chart. In other words, who reports to whom, how many, and what? What roles will you outsource to independent contractors? Based on your budget, you might want to have an intern here, or you may have a part-time employee versus a full-time employee. We also help you figure out your records management system. 

So, how are you organizing your digital information? Whether you’re using Google Drive, monday.com, or Dropbox, how are you organizing the information your team needs access to? A big part of it is the process piece. When you hire other people, they need to know what to do and how to do that work. We’re not communicating telepathically, right? 

And so, what happens with so many small businesses? I shouldn’t just say that it’s small businesses only because this happens with companies of any size. Guys. We can get into the nasty habit of hiring people and expecting them to hit the ground running, which does not work that way. There has to be some level of training. 

There has to be some documentation. The more documentation, obviously, the better because of that documentation. It’s really like your insurance policy. It’s saying cosmos. I’ve documented here this beautiful standard operating procedure or this process flow chart of some sort. This is how you will collect money from our clients. And that gives me a way of assessing your performance. 

So, if I find that, oh my goodness, we have 15 clients that are late paying us, what happened, Cosmos? And if you say, Alicia, you didn’t tell me what to do or show me. You don’t have anything documented. Then I can’t. I could get mad at you, but I would be so wrong to be mad at you. Right? Because I didn’t do my job to train you and make sure that things were documented so that when I’m not around, you can go back and refer to that documentation and not have to wait on me to give you an answer or to guide you. 

The final element of the business infrastructure is figuring out how to do it. And this is kind of an ode to the days of professional organizing. But how do you do it? Structure and organize your physical workspace. How do you make sure that things aren’t a mess? Things mustn’t be chaotic because it transfers to how your clients experience working with you. 

That’s really what equilibrium is. That is what we do. We help people figure out their business infrastructure. We take what they already have in place and find a way to bring it all together into a cohesive whole, a cohesive foundation that they can again build upon and not just grow but actually scale.

I recommend that anyone listening to this check out this company and what it does because it applies to business. You know, Alicia, I know you also wrote a book called Behind the Facade. Can you tell the audience a little bit more about that?

Sure, I wrote my book back in 2018. And it’s called behind the facade because there’s usually this. It’s kind of a battle, if you will, between marketing and operations. So many people spend time promoting their businesses, and they’re on social media. They’re doing branding, publicity, and writing articles, which matters. 

Don’t get me wrong, because people must know about your business. Exist, but what happens, Cosmos, when you’ve done such a great job on the marketing and sales side of things that now you have all of these customers, and they’re like, Cosmos, hello? I’ve been waiting on my order. You said I would have it, like, in two weeks. It’s been two months. What’s going on? Right,

So that’s what it’s making the argument for. Don’t just make your business look good on the outside. Make sure it can operate just as well on the inside, where the operations occur. Operations and business infrastructure are the things that your customers don’t see. But they experienced it, right? Your customers don’t know the hot mess that’s going on that’s preventing you from getting their orders to them on time. They just know they’ve experienced frustration and, possibly, anger because they didn’t get their order on time. So that’s what the book is about. It spells out a framework for creating your business infrastructure. It truly is a how-to book, but it’s told in the form of stories. 

There are different characters for each chap. The actor includes the story of a different character undergoing a fast-growth problem, so there’s a little something in there, I believe, for everyone, no matter the stage of business you’re in. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I’m thankful to you. We’re bringing it up. Hopefully, folks will go and check it out now.

 I recommend that they read this book. Because it is relevant, you must consider the ins and outs. And Alicia, how can our audience connect with you and learn more about you, your work, and everything you do?

The best way to connect with me is, I would say, on LinkedIn so you can find me. Alicia Butler, Pierre.com   You can also go to my company’s website, which is EQB Systems. That’s with sfn.com. 

So, many people have trouble spelling equilibria, so that’s why it’s qbsystems.com. That’s the best way to find out what we need. It’s going on.

Alicia, that is amazing. I am so happy you took the time to do this podcast for me and share your knowledge about business with the audience. This is a relevant resource they can use to start or help jumpstart their business, especially their understanding of ASBA. 

All these resources are out there to help them with all of this. And I do hope that you take the time to return to this podcast later, you know.

I would love to. That would be great.

Thank you, Alicia, and I want to end this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, look, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us, and we must awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.