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Show Notes
In today’s episode with Alicia Butler Pierre, we cover everything from business operations to having one of the most emotional and raw conversations that we’ve had on this show. We talk about some real-life things, how real-life challenges can affect us, and what we can do to help keep our minds and bodies healthy through said challenges in life and business. There is great information here and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Transitioning from organizing things to organizing processes.
- Scaling your business.
- Mental health for entrepreneurs.
- The evolving challenges as you scale your business.
- Expressing your needs and taking care of your mental and physical health.
- Looking at your processes before you invest in new technology.
- The importance of stepping away and taking a tech diet.
Alicia Butler Pierre is a visionary entrepreneur who’s making waves in the business world. With her vast experience in speaking, coaching, writing, lecturing, and podcasting, she has helped numerous small businesses achieve their goals. As the Founder & CEO of Equilibria, Inc., and the bestselling author of Behind the Façade, she’s a true authority on business infrastructure. With her weekly Business Infrastructure podcast ranking in the world’s top 2%, she’s sharing her expertise with listeners around the world. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, she’s also an adjunct instructor of Lean Principles at Purdue University and Operations Management at Nichols College. With a background in chemical engineering and a track record of advising, designing, and optimizing processes for some of the world’s biggest companies including Coca-Cola, Shell Oil, The Library of Congress, and The Home Depot.
Connect with Alicia Butler Pierre:
Website: https://www.eqbsystems.com/
Website: https://aliciabutlerpierre.com/
Book: https://aliciabutlerpierre.com/author/
Podcast: https://www.eqbsystems.com/podcast/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciabutlerpierre/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equilibriainc/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/EquilibriaInc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alicia_B_Pierre
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EQBSYSTEMS
Learn how to effectively transform your crazy-growing-pains business into a scalable, smooth operation with Alicia’s Courses here: https://www.eqbsystems.com/courses/
Connect with R Blank and Stephanie Warner:
For more Healthier Tech Podcast episodes, and to download our Healthier Tech Quick Start Guide, visit https://www.healthiertech.co and follow https://instagram.com/healthiertech
Additional Links:
- Shield Your Body website: https://ShieldYourBody.com
- Shield Your Body Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/shieldyourbody
- Host R Blank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rblank9/
- Shield Your Body on Instagram:https://instagram.com/shieldyourbody
Transcript
Alicia Butler Pierre 0:00
So imagine studying the flow of chemicals or oils through a pipeline, and transferring that information that same thought process and logic that goes into understanding how to make things flow better how to make liquids, in this case flow better through a pipeline, and translate that into how can we make information and work flow better within businesses? So to me, it’s always been about process and whether or not something is actually flowing. And if it isn’t, what’s impeding that that flow? What are the bottlenecks? And how can we figure out how to address those bottlenecks so that it flows even faster, and more seamlessly.
Announcer 0:50
Welcome to the healthier tech podcast, the show about building a healthier relationship with modern technology. Now, here are your hosts R blank and Stephanie Warner.
R Blank 1:02
So today’s conversation with Alesia Butler Pierre, it’s funny to me that a discussion that’s ostensibly supposed to be about business operations turns into what I think is probably your most emotional episode, yet.
Stephanie Warner 1:17
Yeah, but we definitely went into some some really interesting places. And I, there’s a huge value in this episode for everybody. And it does, we do talk about some pretty some real things. We talked about some real life things, and how some real real life challenges can affect us and what we can do and it’s, it was really special. This is a really special episode with a really special, remarkable person, so I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.
R Blank 1:47
Let’s get into it. Alright, let’s do it. Today, we welcome Alesia Butler Pierre, a visionary entrepreneur who’s making waves in the business world. With her vast experience in speaking coaching, writing, lecturing, and podcasting. She has helped numerous small businesses achieve their goals. As the founder and CEO of equilibria. Incorporated, and the best selling author of behind the facade. She is a true authority on business infrastructure. With her weekly business infrastructure podcast ranking in the world’s top 2%. She’s sharing her expertise with listeners around the world, in addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits. She’s also an adjunct instructor of Lean principles at Purdue University, and Operations Management at Nichols College. With a background in chemical engineering and a track record of advising designing and optimising processes for some of the world’s biggest companies, including Coca Cola Shell Oil, the Library of Congress and the Home Depot. Welcome Alicia to the healthier tech podcast.
Alicia Butler Pierre 2:51
Oh my god, like is that me?
R Blank 2:56
I’m just surprised you have time. Yeah.
Alicia Butler Pierre 3:00
So much are and Stephanie. How are you guys
Stephanie Warner 3:04
doing great doing great. Thank you so much for coming on today. And that is a very impressive list of things like good a great intro.
Alicia Butler Pierre 3:14
Can I have a copy of that?
R Blank 3:20
So what is your you obviously have a focus and a mission. And we’re going to cover a lot of topics today. But obviously a lot of your focus and your background and the work that you do is about helping optimise small businesses. So how did you come to that focus? And what’s your kind of approach to that process?
Alicia Butler Pierre 3:43
The way it happened was quite by accident because my company started, believe it or not as a professional organising company. So you know, like the Marie Kondo is of the world that kind of go into these cluttered spaces, whether they be closets or garages, basements, and they turn it they transform it into something beautiful and organised and, and calm and peaceful. Well, that was actually how my company started. So it was a professional organising company, our and Stephanie. And I noticed that most of the clients that I tended to attract were home based entrepreneurs. So it wasn’t that they were chronically disorganised people. They certainly weren’t hoarders, they just needed processes and systems in place so that they could keep things going on with their business separate from everything else going on in the house. And eventually, over time, it morphed and evolved from professional organising to business infrastructure. So I kind of got out of the Organising game, so to speak, that out of being inside of people’s homes and into people’s actual businesses. Yeah, so
R Blank 5:02
you were you went from organising things to organising processes,
Alicia Butler Pierre 5:07
correct. That’s a great way of putting it. And and it’s it’s been quite the journey. It’s it’s coming up on 18 years, which is wow. Scary because I literally remember it starting like it were yesterday.
R Blank 5:24
So So I see two two sideways here, but the one I want to ask right now, right, because you’re, I understand how you got from organising things to organising processes, but how did you get from chemical engineering, organising?
Stephanie Warner 5:40
And then and then after that, I want to know how you got from organising? This is
Alicia Butler Pierre 5:49
take a trip down memory lane, why don’t we? Okay, so I Yes, I worked as a chemical engineer making poison baits. And I say that because I worked at Monsanto. And I always, you know, I always say, you know, preface that usually by saying, don’t judge me, but I did, I did work at Monsanto. And I literally was making roundup and process chemical engineers, when you are working in a chemical plant or an oil refinery, you’re usually working as what’s called a process engineer. And what that means is, I literally was responsible for figuring out anytime, let’s say there was a batch of Roundup that was produced. And it for whatever reason, didn’t meet the specifications that it was supposed to have. As a process engineer, I literally had to figure out what went wrong in the process of producing that particular batch that caused it to not meet the specification. So So imagine studying the flow of chemicals or oils through a pipeline, and transferring that information, that same thought process and logic that goes into understanding how to make things flow better how to make liquids, in this case, flow better through a pipeline, and translate that into how can we make information and work flow better within businesses? So to me, it’s always been about process and whether or not something is actually flowing? And if it isn’t, what’s impeding that that flow? What are the bottlenecks? And how can we figure out how to address those bottlenecks so that it flows even faster? And more seamlessly? And hey, can we even automate? Yeah,
R Blank 7:48
you sound to me, like, very much to me, like a very, like a high level thinker. Right? If you’re seeing well, I’m making round up. So that obviously has parallels to decluttering homes, and then, um, decluttering homes. And obviously, that has to do with business optimization, right? Like you’re, you’re, you’re thinking at a very high level. I don’t know if that is that a couple of minutes? I think, Oh, okay. Wow, no, no, no, I’m gonna doubt myself that it wasn’t obvious. So you have a best selling book behind the facade? What’s what’s that about?
Alicia Butler Pierre 8:28
behind the facade? So, as I started working with different people inside of these small businesses, I started to develop a framework for creating what I call business infrastructure. And to be honest with both of you, Stephanie and our I reached a point where I was like, wait a minute, I’m, I’m doing all of this work to help these other small businesses, couldn’t place an infrastructure so that they can have a solid foundation upon which they can not just grow, but scale their companies. And, um, Excuse me, ma’am, but I need to take a dose of my own medicine. I haven’t even scaled my own company. So writing the book was truly a step in that direction. How can I truly start to get serious about scaling my own business? So it was about me getting information out of my head, and onto paper, in the form of this book. So it literally is a how to book but it’s not a traditional boring, how to book it is told in story format. So it actually features six different stories about different entrepreneurs, and these fast growth challenges that they each experience, and there’s a consultant that comes in and introduces different elements of my business infrastructure framework, to help them figure out how to not just navigate but actually completely win that battle against that, that those fast growth challenges so that they can truly scale to the next level.
Stephanie Warner 10:07
Nice. And I know you have a podcast. So what makes your Yeah, what makes your business infrastructure podcast unique? And why do you believe it ranks in the world’s top 2%?
Alicia Butler Pierre 10:20
Okay, great question. And I think we have a similar mentor that we can help thank for that. Sandler and strictly honour that we have here. But seriously, I did not know the first thing about podcasting when I first got started. And I believe I met Doug, maybe six or seven months into it. He always liked telling this story about Doug, he had to tweet literally tell me like, at least hear your microphone is backwards. You might want to turn that around a little bit. But that’s just to give you an idea of when I say I was clueless, I really was clueless. But I started attending different industry events, conferences, networking with other podcasters staying plugged into that podcasting community. And I’m, I think, number one is the fact that I am an avid listener of other podcasts. And one of the things one of the podcasts that I absolutely love is called Business wars. And it’s by wondery. And they’re just telling these stories of these well known companies that we were all familiar with, and how they’re, they’re just going at it with each other. But it’s it’s a heavily edited, heavily scripted, narrated storytelling type format. And I just started experimenting with the storytelling, and the narration format of the podcast. And truthfully, I don’t believe it’s because my podcast is, is just that great. I would love it if people thought that maybe it maybe some people do. But I think it’s, I think it’s longevity, I think it’s consistency, I think that those are the kinds of factors that have attributed to it being in that top 2%. And that’s according to listen notes.com. So those are some of the factors, I think that attribute to the success of the show. And also the fact that we change things up quite a bit. Every seat, we have seasons, every season has a different theme. So we we always try to breed some kind of new life into the format, whether it be the theme itself, we have a music editor now. So there’s someone on the team who literally is creating music from scratch, and kind of layering that into each episode. So it’s a lot more work, it takes a lot longer to produce an episode now. But it is so worth the effort. When you hear that finished product.
R Blank 13:05
That’s cool. You’ve given us you’ve given us some aspirational goals. Before the we communicated over email before the this recording, with, with with potential topics and so forth, and one that stood out to me that I really want to talk about. And it’s a theme that comes up in a lot of our episodes, which is, which is a focus on mental health, because I mean, they’re by any number of different statistics you could point to we are in a mental health crisis, it is my belief that technology plays a large role in that, which is why we focus on it so much on this podcast, but you view it as an essential consideration for entrepreneurs. Is that correct? Absolutely. No. Why? Yeah. Why is mental health in particular, important for entrepreneurs, especially as they begin engaging in the types of scaling activities that you help define and optimise?
Alicia Butler Pierre 14:11
Being an entrepreneur can be very lonely. It can be very lonely, because think about it. Most of your friends more than likely, are not entrepreneurs. And they can always relate to you. You know, they might want to decompress and tell you, you know things about their boss or their co workers, but you’re trying to tell them about things that they simply can’t relate to. And I think one of the things that has been so important from my own personal mental health is just having that trusted tribe of other fellow entrepreneurs who get it who understand the struggle who understand that sometimes you have these days where you just don’t want to get out of bed sometimes But you have to do it right? Because if you don’t get up if you don’t fish you don’t eat. And so I think for for our friends and our family, who are well intentioned, they just don’t understand that they don’t understand that, okay, you get to take a day off and still get paid potentially. But I don’t have that luxury. If I take a day off, it is a day off. You know,
R Blank 15:26
I remember that. Yeah, sure. So I remember how liberating it was to get to the point where I realised I could take a day off and less would get done, but stuff was still getting done, because there were other people there to do it and huge amount of pressure off.
Alicia Butler Pierre 15:44
And, and so are to go back to your original question. So that’s when you’re first starting right? You You definitely have to surround yourself with other entrepreneurs who get the struggle who understand the challenges and the the day to day things that you’re dealing with. But then as you’re starting to scale, it, the challenges don’t go away, the problems don’t go away, if anything they get that gets that grows in magnitude as well, because now more than likely, you have a bigger team. You have more complex processes. You have these different technologies, why isn’t this technology talking to that technology? As you grow? And as your company grows, so does usually the scale and the magnitude of the issues, challenges, obstacles and hurdles that you’re dealing with? And sometimes it’s it can just be too much. And we need, we need to talk to others. I hope you don’t mind me sharing this. I know this isn’t something that Strick or Doug know. But last year, I had a 10 pound tumour removed. And I am convinced it was because of stress it was because I was things that happened during COVID things that would normally have been outlets for me I couldn’t do anymore. Because they were closed, something as simple as going to sit inside of a Starbucks, I couldn’t do it anymore, just to have that change of scenery. And it was it was taking a toll on me because I was getting stressed out. I’m growing my team, the challenges and the complexities of all of that were mounting. And I really think my body just gave out to be honest with you, I was in severe pain. And through a series of tests, they discovered I had this tumour. And I had major surgery last April. So that was my wake up call. And I’m sharing this story with you and your listeners in the hopes that whoever is listening to this right now that you will understand the importance of talking it out. Finding people to talk to because I tried to talk to some of those, even some of those close entrepreneur friends and I’m like, Oh, well, I’m an extrovert. So I always find that. I’m like, really because I’m struggling. And I actually had a friend who committed suicide during COVID. So So these things were very real, not having these outlets, not being able to, to see your friends to hang out at a restaurant or a bar or wherever, whatever you would do, just to have this social, human touch that social interaction that face to face connection. Again, it took a toll on me. And I think one of my big lessons learned is, if I have something to say, I’m going to say it and I need to express when I’m not okay, because I wasn’t doing that before. I was just kind of taking it all on. I was super woman. You go girl, you know, that kind of thing. I’m a boss, lady, all that kind of stuff that I was telling myself and it was killing me. It was literally killing me. And so I am a huge advocate for therapy. There is nothing shameful about it, talking to a life coach, business coach, talk to someone who can be that, that sounding board for you that who can be that advisor for you. That voice of reason. So I just thought I’d no
R Blank 19:30
no, I really appreciate you opening up like that and sharing your heart learned insights on that. And, you know, obviously, of you when you realise you’re carrying around a 10 pound tumour that’s going to be a pretty big wake up call for the other people listening who hopefully fortunately don’t have that obvious of a wake up call in their face. Right. How do you recommend that These people, especially the entrepreneurs, but really anybody take stock of their mental health, and let me just throw a little more context on that question, because we just interviewed Dr. Wuhan. And he was talking about, you know, he, he tends to see oncology patients. And he was saying, you know, a lot of the times the warning signs are there, that people have these symptoms, and they just sort of brushed them off. And they don’t think it’s that important. They kind of put it out of mind. And we’ve had similar discussions and other episodes around issues of anxiety, where people don’t even realise they have anxiety, right. So as I say, you had a serious wake up call. And hopefully, you know, for most of us, it wouldn’t take that serious a wake up call to wake up, right. So how do you advocate that people listening? take active steps to take stock of their mental health.
Alicia Butler Pierre 20:56
One big thing for me was, stop when you feel tired, stop. When you experience any kind of physical pain, stop and address it. But what I was doing, I was pushing through anyway, I was powering through anyway, to my detriment. I can I can I remember, one day in particular, I was literally doubled over in pain, screaming. And I’ve did not go to the doctor. I was like, You know what, I’m just going to sleep this off. We’re going to sleep it off. And I’ll be okay. And I was out. You know, I at least I thought I was okay, because I was able to function after a few more hours of sleep. I’m thinking, Oh, maybe this is just my body’s way of telling me I’m fatigue, lay down for it for the poor few hours and everything will be okay when you wake up. But it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay. I eat. I’m glad you mentioned the part about anxiety because I did not realise how much stress home brought from me. Until I went to visit my parents. I actually developed a really severe case of eczema during COVID. And I had not had eczema since I was a kid. And I’m like, What is this? And a friend recommended, you know that I you know, gets goalbound lotion. And sure enough it cleared it up. So I remember going home to visit my parents. I think this was like toward the end of 2020. And they live in Louisiana. And I was there for a couple of weeks. And as I started to drive back home to Atlanta, Georgia as soon as I crossed the state line or and Stephanie I just I could feel the tension mounting the anxiety starting to increase because I’m thinking oh my god, what’s going to face me when I open the door at home home is no longer my safe place. I am on edge when I come home. I’m anxious. I’m nervous. I I feel like I have to be on all the time. When I’m at home.
R Blank 23:12
Never do you have a home office?
Alicia Butler Pierre 23:14
I do. I’m in my home office now. Now here’s what’s interesting. That’s a great point too. Because I got out of my home office, I now have a commercial space. Yeah. Which was a huge step in the right direction. Because again, I had always worked from home. Yeah, but I always had an outlet because I was always networking, going to different events, business lunches, dinners, going to sit in Starbucks. But when COVID happened, there was no escaping it. It all just kind of meshed into one and it stressed me out and I didn’t make that connection until as I was driving home. And again I crossed that state line and all of those feelings just started to surface. And I remember coming home and I started itching, started itching again the eczema was coming back and I was like oh my god, okay, I have to do something.
Stephanie Warner 24:12
So what what did you do because I you know, it’s it’s, I’m listening to you and I’m actually like feeling it too because and especially when you say eczema because and home because that that was a trigger for me. I really when I was younger I would get just I would sometimes get a little eczema. And I realised a little when I was a little older, that it was stress it was it was stress and it was like just all the things I was taking on. And and I also realised too that I was buying into this like and I hear you saying this, but maybe you’re not saying it this way. But I was buying into this this whole role of you’re the entrepreneur you’re a woman, you have to keep going, go go go you have to be the boss you have to be the you have to keep going show no weakness. It’s like survive. Little fitness mentality a little bit. And I wonder what what did you do what were once you realise like this is this is you’re you’re displaying physical ailments due to stress and all the things you’re taking on. What did what did you do?
Alicia Butler Pierre 25:14
Number one, I had the surgery. Number two, I got an office in actual office commercial office. Number three, ready for this one? Huh? I filed for divorce. That’s my other big yes. Is that
R Blank 25:31
my first guess was home office?
Alicia Butler Pierre 25:37
Yeah, I am literally going through a divorce right now, because I just started to really take stock of it’s exactly what you just said, Stephanie. I’m, here I am burning the candle from both ends. And constant hustle mode. I’m killing myself. And I don’t have the support that I need. I’m holding everything down. I am the glue. Like, I need a break. And you literally see me deteriorating right before your eyes. And you’re not helping me. Something’s gotta give, I can’t do this anymore. And so believe me, that was a very difficult decision. And it did not come lightly because I’ve been married almost 16 years. So I gave it the good old college try. I did. I gave it the good old college try. But but it just, I could not continue in that way. And again, as I started to really take stock of how did I get to this place? How what led to this would lead me here. And I just started really thinking and that was a major stressor. For me. Yeah, at least the past eight years.
R Blank 26:59
I’m a little bit lost. Like I didn’t have I didn’t have a second life plan for tumour and divorce. But no, I appreciate you really sorry for turning it into a joke. But I appreciate the important
Alicia Butler Pierre 27:16
thing, too, is to be able to laugh, you know, right? Laugh it out. You know? Yeah. Now it’s so important. I
R Blank 27:24
mean, you know, we’ve all been through serious life changing events. I mean, if we’re lucky enough to still be around, then we’ve survived some serious life changing events to get to where we are. And, you know, unfortunately, sometimes it does take getting to like a really serious, seriously bad place in life, before realising you need to make drastic changes. That’s not that right. So that’s when when a company seeks you out for work? Do they feel like they are in crisis? Or do they like that? Is that or do they feel more like they’re stuck? Or like, what is your like, what drives a company to become a client of yours, like drawing the parallels from what we were just a
Alicia Butler Pierre 28:18
short, sadly, they are in crisis mode, sadly, I wish more companies would proactively come to me, but usually when they come to me are it’s because the the, the, they’re already, you know, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, they already have a problem of not being able to meet the growing demand for their goods and services. Everything is chaotic help. We need to add more people to our team, we probably need bigger, bigger space in which to operate that, you know, things are on fire. And if they don’t do something soon, everything they’ve worked so hard for, they now risk losing not because they don’t have enough business, but because they have too much. And that is a real tragedy, too.
R Blank 29:13
I can imagine if if there’s not a fire, your service might seem like a luxury, because they’re not valuing. They’re not firing. They’re not valuing fire prevention.
Alicia Butler Pierre 29:25
That’s great. I love that. Yeah, definitely. That’s excellent.
R Blank 29:36
So on this podcast, we often most usually focus on the impact of technology on people. But I know that tech and I know that you have thoughts on this, that tech not only has impacted people, but it’s impacted businesses and organisations, you know, just as much. And so what are your thoughts on how businesses should approach their work?
Alicia Butler Pierre 30:00
lationship with technology. Oh, how do I answer that question? So I’ll tell you how technology usually comes into the conversation with the work that we do is usually around their processes. And they’re trying to figure out how to automate and or streamline, or I should say, streamline and automate what they’re currently doing. Here’s where the stress can start to come into play. Because a lot of times people suffer from what I refer to as the shiny object syndrome. There’s this new technology out, Oh, and look at what it can do. It can talk to you, and it can seem and do all these other things, and, and you’re so enamoured by it, and you invest in it. And then you realise, oh, my gosh, instead of this, this technology, making things easier and simpler and quicker, it’s actually taking a lot longer because it doesn’t integrate with the other technologies that we’re using. And technology is great when it works. But when it doesn’t, oh my gosh, it can it can really, it can really debilitate your day to day operations, your ability to be able to function. Yeah. So I I often advocate also for a tech diet, you know, sometimes you just need to, to be offline. Sometimes, you know, I think it’s I think this is also very good for our mental health is making sure that we, it’s very easy. I know I’m guilty of this, I could easily spend hours nonstop sitting if I’m if I’m in, you know, my friends call me beast mode whenever I get into. And I’m just working. And I mean, I’m just I’m just so focused and zoned in that before I know it three hours have passed, and I haven’t I haven’t moved. So a friend taught me the Pomodoro Technique, where you work, what 2020 25 minutes, and then you intentionally get up for another five to 10, maybe even 15 minutes and do something else. Walk around, I don’t know, do something other than sit and do what you were doing. So something that’s worked for me, I go on to YouTube a lot of times and I look for these playlists that are intentionally anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes, like different music. I listen to Billy Eilish a lot. I listened to shut day, I listened to Starbucks coffee Jazz Playlist. Wow. So as soon as that playlist is I know, okay, it’s time to get up.
R Blank 32:52
We talked about Pomodoro on a recent episode with a digital wellness guru, ritual Aurora. And one of the things he recommended was installing a Pomodoro app. But you seem to have replaced that with music playlists. So I like that. Yeah,
Alicia Butler Pierre 33:05
yeah. Yeah. So that’s that’s usually how we approach tech. It’s it’s almost always from a process, you know, how can how can tech? How can these digital technologies enhance what you’re already doing, and make what you’re doing that much easier, simpler, faster. And if you can automate it, that’s even better. But always make sure you have a manual backup as well, just in case, something goes wrong one day with that technology.
R Blank 33:36
So no, I liked the way that so the way because I come from originally, now it’s a previous life background in software engineering. And I feel like you’re, you’re talking about a very similar sort of thing, because I also while I was a software engineer, I also have an MBA. So I, I was always taking kind of a business mind a business operations approach to the design of software and the design of solutions for for people, companies. And I feel like there’s, there’s often I think it’s probably gotten better, as the industry has gotten more sophisticated. But there’s often a disconnect between how software is designed and how people are actually going to use it. And I feel like you’re saying that you’re talking about the other side of that disconnect, where businesses are evaluating software, and they look at a list of features. And they say, Yeah, I need that. Yeah, I need that, oh, I really want that. And they’re not actually thinking, How is this actually going to be used? Who is going to use? And as you pointed out, what other tools will it integrate with? Do we have those other tools? Do we need middleware in between these? And so it’s actually thinking about the tech, it’s making a mindful decision about the sort of holistic impact that technology will have. And then I also like you immediately because we did have that question planned next, but you you cut us off at the past. Their immediate segue to how Are those same principles apply to your personal tech use, which is, you know, the mid, going back to to something a biohacker said on a previous episode about something totally different. But it’s about the he talked about the minimally effective dose of something, and you want to, you know, if doing 10 Pull Ups a day starts making a big difference in your, you know, your health, do that don’t stress doing 100? If, if, if turning off Wi Fi at night is, is helping you sleep better, you know, do that, but don’t worry about rewiring your whole house for Ethernet and, you know, all getting rid of Wi Fi entirely. And so the minimally effective dose I hear that’s what you’re talking about in terms of what’s the what’s the minimum amount of technology that I need to actually achieve?
Stephanie Warner 35:50
My goals? Yeah, I heard that too. And I don’t know if you know this, but in our company shields your body, I actually do I run operations. And I’m always saying like, no sprawl, we’re having applications. So applications, sometimes, like you can click up sounds amazing. It does so many things, but maybe a Google doc is all we actually need. But you
R Blank 36:15
complain about Google doc sprats.
Stephanie Warner 36:19
Also can get too big.
Alicia Butler Pierre 36:24
A click up, it’s amazing.
Stephanie Warner 36:29
Okay, so I’ve been boiled.
R Blank 36:35
See, the guests can open up stuff, but if
Stephanie Warner 36:43
my next My next task next week, you should explore clickup
R Blank 36:49
uninstaller group, Google Docs.
Stephanie Warner 36:54
Okay, fair.
R Blank 36:57
So at least you know, we covered a lot here. This has been a fantastic discussion, an emotional discussion, definitely more emotional than, than. And we covered a lot about your work because you do so much as we we definitely previewed in the intro, you’ve do so much. And we’re gonna have links to all of it in the show notes. But where would you most like to direct listeners from listening to this either to connect with you or your content or your media?
Alicia Butler Pierre 37:26
Well, if they want to connect with me, I would suggest going to my personal website, which is Alesia Butler pierre.com. And that’s kind of a hub for everything that I do. So there people can be directed to my company’s website. They can find out more information about my podcasts, my book, they can also find out how we can connect on social media as well.
R Blank 37:51
Excellent. Well, again, Alicia, thank you so much. This has been just a really enjoyable experience for me. And I’m very, just very flattered that you took the time to come join us on the healthier tech podcast.
Alicia Butler Pierre 38:03
Oh, thank you. Thank you both so much. This was fun. And I hope in all seriousness, that that someone out there was able to get something meaningful out of what I shared today. So thank you for sharing your platform with me.
Stephanie Warner 38:18
We really appreciate it when guests feel comfortable and safe enough to be vulnerable. And I think that the message that you shared is truly important for everyone to hear it whether you’re running your own business or you’re running your household. It’s you know, that’s it’s, it was a it was really nice to have that part of the conversation and we appreciate it very much.
Announcer 38:39
Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the healthier tech podcast. Remember to check the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in the show. Please like and subscribe to the healthier tech podcast on Apple, Spotify or your podcast platform of choice. Get your free quickstart guide to building a healthy relationship with technology and our latest information at healthier tech.co
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
